Page 70 of Killing Me Softly

Kenny guided Aaron back to the living room, closing the curtains and switching on the dim lamp. “Lie down.”

Aaron did, stretching out on the couch and closing his eyes. “Never in ten years of therapy did I ever lie down.”

“You should have.” Kenny pulled the coffee table closer, settling in beside him. “Helps access memory banks.”

Aaron peeped open one eye at Kenny. “Fuck, you talk so much bullshit.”

Kenny breathed out a smile, taking Aaron’s hand and rubbing slow circles over the inside of his wrist. “Humour me.”

Aaron exhaled, shifting, and flicked a glance at Jack stationing himself by the window, arms folded, but when Aaron nodded at him, he gave the smallest of smiles. A silent reassurance.

Kenny wasn’t sure he liked the quiet understanding between them, but he didn’t dwell on it. Right now, all that mattered was Aaron.

“Relax for me,” Kenny said, his voice taking on a deeper, smoother cadence, like what he’d use if they were alone. In bed. “I need you to focus on my words. Just my words.”

Aaron swallowed, his fingers twitching in Kenny’s grasp.

“You’re safe.” Kenny gripped his hand. “Nothing can hurt you here. You’re in control, always. But I’m going to help you find what’s been buried. You won’t force it. It’ll come naturally. Drifting forward like a wave. All you have to do is let it.”

Aaron’s breathing slowed.

“Close your eyes. Focus on the sound of my voice. Let the rest fade away.”

Aaron didn’t close his eyes. Instead, he turned them on Kenny, and for a moment, it was all-consuming.

“Before you get in here…” Aaron tapped his temple. “I should probably tell you something.”

Kenny drew in a breath, bracing himself. What now? What other revelation could Aaron drop into the quiet space between them? He wasn’t sure he could take anything else. Not tonight. Not when his nerves were already frayed and exhaustion pressed against the edges of his restraint.

But he forced himself to say it anyway. “Okay.” This time, whatever it was, he’d handle it better. No anger. No shutting down. Just…listen.

A pause stretched between them, thick and trembling, as if Aaron was winding himself up to say something that might crack the walls between them. Could shatter everything in the room. Then, with a quiet inhale, he shifted. And when he spoke, his voice carried something Kenny had never heard from him before.

Conviction.

“I’m in love with you.”

Kenny froze, caught in the force of those words he’d been longing for. They weren’t said recklessly, weren’t flung out in the heat of passion or whispered between gasps in the dark. Kenny hadn’t forced them. They were deliberate.Firm. A truth Aaron had wrestled with, measured, and finally,finallylet free.

Kenny’s heart stammered. His breath hitched.

Love.

That single word wrapped around him, clung to his skin, seeped into his bones, and filled every hollow space he hadn’t realised was empty.

It felt like drowning.

Felt likeair.

He opened his mouth, but no sound came, and he scrambled for something to say, some way to catch up to the moment, but all he could do was sit there, the wordsI’m in love with youwashing over him like a shower of falling petals. Or maybe burning embers, setting fire to everything he thought he knew.

And Aaron…Aaron just looked at him, waiting. Open. Raw. His heart laid bare.

“Just in case you ask when I’m under the influence.” Aaron swallowed, clearly unnerved by his admission and Kenny’s resulting silence. “Been in love with you for a while. Think you already knew it. But there you go. I love you. Quite a lot. And it turns out you can’t control that shit. So, you’re sorta stuck with my mess.”

Kenny leaned in closer, a whisper away as if memorising the feel of his skin. “Good thing, because it turns out I love your mess.”

“Yeah?”

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