Page 34 of Don't Shoot Me Santa

“God, you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” Kenny turned on the handheld shower, angled it over him, and watched transfixed as the water coursed through strands of pale gold, streaming down Aaron’s face in perfect, glistening rivulets. “Utterly stunning.”

“Flattery gets you everywhere.”

Kenny chuckled. “I know.”

He then switched off the water, breath tight in his chest, and returned to Aaron’s body. Avoiding the heat pulsing between Aaron’s legs with an almost cruel reverence. His skin was flushed and gleaming, slick with heat and need. Still, Kenny didn’t give him relief.

Not yet.

Then Aaron grabbed Kenny’s jaw, lathered fingers slipping through his beard.“Kiss me.”

Kenny did. No hesitation. No teasing.

He kissed him with everything he had.

Their mouths moved together with a languid, devastating hunger. Tongues slid, lips pressed. Aaron trembled in his lap, cock pulsating between them, the ache so thick it lived in the air.

But Kenny refused to touch him there.

Aaron broke the kiss first, panting, pupils blown wide. He reached behind Kenny, grabbed the soap, and tossed it to the side with a sharp splash. “Your turn.”

He worked the lather between his palms, then ran his hands slowly across Kenny’s chest. He lingered over the scar. That pale, unforgiving line curving from collarbone to sternum where the hair hadn’t been able to grow back. The mark his family had left. A wound. A legacy. A theft Kenny had only begun to reclaim.

Aaron stilled. As he always did when the reminder hit him hard and fast.

So Kenny said, “Look at me.”

Aaron lifted his eyes. Met his gaze. Bare and burning.

Kenny placed his hands over Aaron’s, anchoring them there at his pounding heart. “I love you.”

Silence. Aaron’s throat worked as if he might speak, but no words came. He was too far gone. Too vulnerable in that moment to climb back up.

So Kenny did what he always did. Held him in it.

And only when he knew Aaron had eased out of the past did he help him from the water, reaching for the towels and patting Aaron dry in distracting, teasing patches.

Aaron gave him a sleepy swat. “You missed half my back, you prick.”

Kenny slapped his arse playfully. “Be good.”

They were both still hard. Achingly so. Doing nothing about it was its own kind of exquisite torment. Kenny let Aaron’s hand wander anyway, allowing him to palm the weight of his cock, feel the rigid heat filling his grip. He even held his gaze while Aaron drew back his foreskin, sliding in massaging strokes leaving Kenny breathless.

It was permission, but not freedom.

A taste, not a feast.

Before Aaron could push him past the point of no return, Kenny closed his hand around Aaron’s wrist. Firm. Final. “That’s enough.”

Then he reached for Aaron’s toothbrush. Tilted Aaron’s chin up. Brushed his damn teeth for him. On the surface, mundane. Domestic. But the intimacy of it unravelled Kenny in ways a hand never could. Aaron, who flinched from vulnerability and wore sarcasm and sex like armour, stoodthere with his lips parted, letting Kenny do this. No fight. No mask. Just surrender.

Kenny’s chest ached. Because this was the real edge play between them. Not orgasm denial. Not bruising kisses or whispered commands. It wasthis. The quiet places where Aaron let him in. Where Kenny was allowed to tend to him in the simplest, most human ways, brushing away not just the taste of wine and toothpaste, but the residue of all the years Aaron had survived by himself.

When he finished, he wiped Aaron’s mouth with the towel, then said, “Come to bed.”

Aaron followed him across the wooden floor, holding his hand, barefoot and loose-limbed in that post-bath sprawl. Kenny didn’t turn on the overheads, instead choosing the bedside lamp, casting the room in a low golden hush. He then folded back the duvet, reached for Aaron, and tugged him beneath it with him. Under the sheets, he skimmed his hand down Aaron’s thigh. A quiet claim. A reassurance. Then nudged him gently, and Aaron rolled without resistance, fitting into the curve of Kenny’s body.

“Sleep,” Kenny whispered into his neck.