Page 7 of Killing Me Softly

Wrapping his arms around Aaron, Kenny splayed his hands over his arse and thrust him forward with all the possessiveness of a man who thought he might one day be treated like all the others. Discarded. Thrown to the wolves. Not yet, though. He had time. And he was going to bask in Aaron’s tight grip of his hair, keeping him in place, as if he couldn’t stand for even a breath to get between them for as long as Aaron allowed. Because he made his knees weak, and he ground his hardness to Aaron’s, clutching his backside as if clinging to the edge of salvation.

Or maybe damnation.

Time fractured, each second stretched and spun in the molten heat of the kiss. Kenny could taste the salt on Aaron’s skin, the sweetness electric and undefinable. Purehim. And Aaron deepened the kiss, as he always did, brushing his tongueto Kenny’s until his lungs burned, but he didn’t care. He could die like this and call it a life well-lived. He’d touched Aaron everywhere for the past nine months and hadn’t died yet.

But he knew.

It was just a matter of time.

Chapter two

Misty

“We’re leaving.” Kenny’s voice was rough around the edges and Aaron doubted it was just from a day of giving keynote speeches on the twisted architecture of the human mind to a bunch of academics.

It was way more visceral than that.

Aaron blinked away from the kiss, then smirked as he ruffled Kenny’s tousled hair away from his neck and nuzzled into him. The scent of him—familiar, addictive—was enough to make his pulse quicken and the remnants of a day’s work locked inside stuffy academia, with his collar buttoned and tie fixed, had created the delicious sheen of salty sweat Aaron craved.

“You only just got here.” Aaron grazed his mouth along the sensitive curve of Kenny’s neck, the coarse hairs from his beardrasping his lips, then licked a line up to his earlobe. “You said you wanted to dance with me.”

“I do.” Kenny tightened his arms around him, their bodies swaying in time with the upbeat, pulsing rhythm. “We have.”

“Barely longer than any other man in here has.”

Kenny gave him that devastating stare. The one that usually had Aaron stripping for him. Couldn’t exactly do that here. Now. Which was probably Kenny’s issue, to be honest. But Aaron wasn’t ready to leave. Not yet.

So he pulled back enough to catch the hunger in Kenny’s eyes. And he could already feel the semi he had growing in his suit trousers, and yeah, that was a turn on. But Aaron had spent the past couple of days holed up in the hotel room with Kenny coming back from the conference late, fucking him, then falling asleep. They only had one day left, and Aaron wantedmore.

“Hot Gym Queen over there has been trying for my arse all night.” He kissed down Kenny’s neck, back up to his ear. “Don’t let him think I come that easy.”

“But for me, you do.”

“Yeah, but that’ll damage his ego. Imagine what that would do to his state of mind.”

“I could refer him to an excellent therapist who would help him process his misplaced entitlement and guide him toward understanding how constant comparisons only reinforce unhealthy attachment patterns.”

“God, you’re cruel.” Aaron suckled on Kenny’s earlobe. “It turns me right fucking on.”

Kenny squeezed him closer. “Then let’s go. I can be crueller.”

Aaron leaned in for a hushed whisper. “And I can be really defiant.”

“I know.”

Aaron captured Kenny’s lips in a fierce, desperate kiss to prove his point. To claim. Promise. Anddare. But Kenny didn’tmeet his wildness with the same force. He didn’t push or take control. He simply…let it be.Kissing Aaron back with languid indulgence, as though he was savouring the moment. Savouringhim.As if not just kissing Aaron for the heat or the hunger, but for the simple pleasure of being able to.

Here.

Out in the open, beneath the flashing lights, with envious eyes all around.

Eventually, Aaron pulled away, gave a crooked smirk, then twisted in Kenny’s arms, pressing his back to Kenny’s chest and meeting the Gym Queen’s wide-eyed stare with a wicked grin. He wasn’t ready for this to end. Not yet.

When Kenny had asked him to come with him to Barcelona, Aaron had imagined moments like this. Not stolen. Not secret. Just them. No classroom walls between them. No stolen hours in the dead of night. Just Kenny’s hand in his, out in the open.

Yeah, okay, he was also up for the rampant sex in the plush hotel room. Making use of the complimentary sauna and steam room in the accompanying gym. Maybe even sunbathing naked at the Mar Bella Beach where Kenny would lather him up with cream in places the sun didn’t even reach. But he also craved a little more than that.

Because that’s what their quasi-relationship had been so far.Fucking. Lots and lots of fucking. And while they burned like fire together, sometimes Aaron craved their quieter moments. The times when the flame didn’t roar but softened, sparkling gently between them. And this trip had planted a seed of hope he couldn’t shake. He wanted to give Kenny something different. Somethingnormal.

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