Page 22 of Kiss Me Honey Honey (To Love a Psycho #2)

chapter twenty-on e

Don’t Tell

Kenny had a mountain of work to catch up on.

It seemed he always did these days. His responsibilities as Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Ryston were demanding on their own, but he’d been neglecting them lately, distracted by events far more personal. Not to mention dangerous. Bordering on career suicide.

His job had always been a careful juggling act. Academic leadership, research, and teaching all vying for his attention. On paper, his tasks sounded structured. Delivering lectures and seminars on topics such as criminal psychology and behavioural analysis, mentoring students, and supervising PhD candidates like Vinnie, whose work often intertwined with Kenny’s expertise in trauma and deviant behaviour. But the reality of his role was far messier.

Administrative responsibilities consumed him. Faculty meetings, curriculum planning, and spearheading departmental initiatives to keep the program innovative and competitive. He was also a senior staff member, which meant mentoring junior lecturers and conducting appraisals, ensuring the department functioned smoothly. Endless emails filled his inbox, research symposia demanded his presence, and reviewing grant proposals for his studies left little room for anything else. And then there was his consultative work, which added yet another layer to his already relentless schedule.

As such, Wednesday had been a blur. Meeting after meeting, lecture after lecture, email after email. By four p.m., he hadn’t had time to blink, let alone think. Which might have been a good thing, considering all his thoughts seemed to lead back to Aaron. He’d left Aaron in bed that morning, giving strict instructions to keep his head down until his shift at the campus shop. Kenny and Jack were to meet him there for the surveillance operation they’d planned, hoping to glimpse the man they believed to be behind Carly Reynolds’ murder, if not all the others.

Kenny hurried across campus, cutting corners over damp grass, his polished dress shoes slipping as they picked up mud. The University of Ryston’s sprawling campus, with its winding paths snaking through immaculately trimmed lawns dotted with benches, was a normal site of a Wednesday afternoon, where classes disbanded for the sporting fixtures. Meaning students bustled across the grounds, chatter mingling with the crisp rustle of leaves skittering along the paths. Normally, Kenny found the environment grounding, even inspiring, but today it only reminded him how far he’d fallen behind. And how much was at stake for him.

He barely noticed the cold bite of the late November air or the deepening shadows of dusk when the glow of the Campus Shop windows came into view. His pulse quickened. Not from the exertion of running, but from the sight of Aaron already at the till, scanning items and handing change to the customers, a sensation he tried to attribute to the cold rather than what he really felt.

“Take everything you need from me, lover…”

He forced himself to slow when he saw Jack waiting by the shop entrance. Dressed in plain clothes—a jumper, jeans, and a puffer coat—he looked like any other bystander trying to shake off the chill.

“Kenny.” Jack greeted him with a curt nod.

“Jack.” Kenny tried to keep his eyes from drifting to Aaron through the window, but it was futile. Jack’s sharp eye followed his line of sight, and the corner of his mouth twitched as if to say, caught you.

“He got in just before four,” Jack said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Had a quick word with him around the corner. He’ll rake a hand through that platinum quiff if our man shows. He is not to rouse suspicion, say anything to him, or react in any way that might alert him to us, or indicate that he might know something. If he can get something with his fingerprints on, bonus.”

“Right.” Kenny nodded. “Where do you want us?”

Jack gestured to a bench on the lawn opposite the shop. “Like it was made for a surveillance op.”

Kenny snorted, though the humour barely reached him. He followed Jack to the bench, setting his bag down by his feet and buttoning his trench coat tighter to stave off the biting wind. He hadn’t thought to bring gloves or a scarf, and the cold gnawed at his fingers as he shoved them into his coat pockets.

“Did you find out anything about Peter?” Kenny asked after a moment.

Jack sighed, leaning back on the bench. “Looked him up. Changed his name after the Howell case. Hits a dead end. He disappeared as soon as he was placed in the system. If this is him, he’s kept his nose clean until now.”

Kenny shook his head. “He hasn’t. He’s just made sure it hasn’t been tracked to him.”

They sat in silence, watching Aaron through the glass, waiting for something—or someone—to make their move.

“Hey, Dr Lyons! ”

Kenny peered up as Mel halted her steps into the shop.

“Melanie.” Kenny nodded in greeting and watched her go inside.

“Never done surveillance before, have you, Kenny?”

Kenny turned to Jack, brow furrowed.

“We’re meant to be in the shadows. Unnoticeable.”

“You’re on my campus. I’m bound to bump into my students. I’m often here. It won’t be a surprise or a deterrent to see me sitting on a bench. Actually.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “There you go.” He waggled it. “Now I look like any other person hanging around.”

Jack snorted as Kenny went into his phone, using the time to read through a few emails, but his gaze kept lifting to the shop window, where Mel was now at the counter, and Aaron clambered across to give her a hug. They exchanged words, as well as a vape flavouring, which she paid for, then they chatted during a lull where Aaron threw his head back in laughter. God, he was stunning. Absolutely soul destroyingly stunning .

“You’ve been on that email a while,” Jack said, tucking his hands in his pockets. “Must be hard to read when your eyes are elsewhere.”

“Fuck off,” Kenny mumbled under his breath, then went back to reading his email.

A few seconds later, a shadow approached. “Dr Lyons?”

Kenny peered up at Melanie. “Hmm?”

Mel handed him a Cadbury’s Crème Egg, then hitched a thumb over her shoulder. “Aaron said he saw you out here and that’s your usual go to. Said he found it in a box out the back.”

Kenny accepted the chocolate, then peered around Mel to the window. Aaron winked, then went straight back to serving the next customer. Kenny’s heart leapt. Ridiculously.

“Thanks, Mel.”

Mel smiled and skipped off, strawberry flavoured vapour spreading around her.

“Didn’t it used to be apples?” Jack said from the other end of the bench.

“Did what?”

“What you gave a teacher to be their pet?” Jack nodded toward the shop. “Now it’s Crème Eggs and blowjobs.”

“Knows what I like, then.” Kenny unwrapped the foil of the egg and bit through the chocolate to lick out the sweet, creamy centre.

Jack scoffed and looked away, then after a moment, turned back. “Do you really think it’ll last?”

Kenny swallowed the gooey centre. “No.”

Jack blinked, as if not expecting that. “Then what are you doing?”

Kenny took his time finishing the egg, then tossed the foil wrapper into the bin beside him. “Doing what I do with those things every year. Having it while I can.”

Jack shook his head. “What, like some midlife crisis thing? You want to know if you, at forty-one, can still bang a hot twink of twenty?”

“No.” Kenny gazed at Aaron through the shop window. “I mean, sure, if you want to strip it down to its absolute simplicity. If that makes it easier for you to digest.”

“None of what you are doing is easy to digest.”

“Luckily, I’m not feeding it to you. Nor anyone else. You are the one asking.”

“I just can’t understand it. What is it? Between you and him?”

“Something I have no control over.”

“Don’t bullshit me with that.”

Kenny sighed. “When you first met Fraser, was it fireworks and belly flutters?”

“Yes. ”

“And when you met me?”

“There should have been alarm bells.”

“Granted. But how did you feel ?”

“Helpless.”

Kenny gestured with his hand, as if that would explain everything he couldn’t.

Jack turned away, his deep exhale escaping in wisps of pale condensation hanging in the cold air before dissolving into nothing. “But why him ?” Jack glanced back through the window.

“Human attraction is complex.” Kenny lingered on Aaron. The way he leaned back on the counter partition, scrolling through his phone, completely oblivious to the storm he caused inside Kenny. “It isn’t clever. Cautious. Or rational. It’s a chemical surge, a cascade of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin—”

“Very romantic.” Jack tutted.

“And it’s designed, specifically, to make us lose our damn minds. To chase it. Overthink it. Glorify it. And when we finally have it, we spend all our energy trying to control it.”

Jack’s silence made Kenny delve deeper inside himself.

“Been studying this shit for years, Jack. I know better than most how the initial spark—those fireworks and belly flutters—aren’t sustainable. It’s fleeting by design. A biological trick to push us into connection. What follows, though? That’s the real choice. The challenge. Do you stay when the fire dims? When you realise they’re as flawed as you are?”

“And will you ? This time?” Jack jutted his chin toward the window, where Aaron served another customer. “ Just him? No clubs ?”

“He won’t give me the chance.” Kenny drew in a breath at Aaron’s bright smile as he handed over a receipt. “It’ll be him who grows bored with me first. He’ll carve out these insides, take everything he needs from me to survive, then leave me for dead.”

“And you’re just going to lie down and let that happen? ”

Kenny looked at him. “Yeah. Looks like I am.”

He and Jack stayed like that for a while. It felt like a reckoning. As if the fragile, frayed threads still connecting them slowly untangled, piece by piece, dissolving into nothing. Neither spoke, but the quiet was loud, a shared acknowledgment of what they’d once been, what they could no longer be. That they were now absolved of all the pain and hurt and regret they both carried. As if their binding had finally snapped, setting them adrift. Away from each other, and into their own lives.

Jack to Fraser.

Kenny to Aaron.

A sharp knock on the window shattered the stillness. Kenny jolted, snapping up to see Aaron pounding his fist on the glass, face twisted in frustration and raking his hand through his platinum hair, movements frantic, almost manic, as though he’d been trying to get their attention forever. His eyes darted toward the pathway, and he jabbed a finger, urgently pointing at a man limping away from the shop, hood pulled low over his face.

“Shit!” Jack was already on his feet, moving toward the shadows.

Kenny froze for a moment, mind racing. Jack couldn’t confront the man outright—not without more evidence. But if they let him walk away, they might lose their best lead. The scenarios played out in Kenny’s head like a film reel, none of them ending well. His pulse rocketed as he shoved his phone into his pocket and grabbed his bag from the ground.

“Here.” Aaron appeared at his side, slipping a lip balm into Kenny’s hand. “Kept one back. Go say he dropped it.” Then, without waiting for Kenny to react, Aaron pushed him forward.

Kenny rushed after the man, his shoes crunching in the frosted grass as he passed Jack lingering in the shadows, coiled like a spring. Jack threw him a sharp warning, but Kenny ignored it. This needed finesse, not brute force.

“Hey, excuse me?” Kenny called .

The man stopped, shoulders stiffening. Slowly, he turned his head, face partially obscured by the hood’s shadow. Kenny glimpsed the scars peeking out from beneath the dim light of the streetlamp and recognition hit him like a punch to the gut.

Kenny held out his hand. “You dropped this back there.”

The man’s eyes darted to the lip balm, then to Kenny. For a moment, the tension crackled, palpable and suffocating. Then Peter snatched the tube from Kenny’s hand, dropping it into the plastic bag he carried without a word before turning to walk away. He wore gloves. Bollocks .

“Peter, right?” Kenny called again.

Peter stopped, body rigid. Slowly, he turned back, eyes narrowing as they met Kenny’s.

“We met when I came to see Dr Manon a few days ago?” Kenny smiled, extending his hand in a gesture of familiarity. “Dr Lyons. Vijay says you’re quite brilliant.”

Peter hesitated, gloved hand twitching before he took Kenny’s in a brief, firm shake. He did not want to be here. Doing this.

“Lot of lip balms.” Kenny gestured to the bag, keeping his tone casual, conversational, but his eyes stayed sharp, reading every hint in Peter’s expression.

“We use it in the labs.”

“I see. What for?”

“Experiments.” Peter’s tone was flat, devoid of elaboration.

“Of course.” Kenny chuckled, nodding as though it all made perfect sense.

Peter began walking again, his limp more pronounced now, as if he were trying to put distance between them.

“Did you have any more thoughts on why I came to Vijay at all?” Kenny called after him, shoving his hands into his pockets, tone edged with casual curiosity. “We’re all baffled, you see. Could use a brilliant mind like yours on the case. ”

Peter paused but didn’t turn. “No,” he said shortly, his voice clipped. Then he started walking again, faster this time.

Kenny felt the ice beneath his feet cracking, the conversation and the chance slipping away. Jack hovered in his periphery, ready to step in, so Kenny dropped into a softer, more personal tone.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Kenny rushed to get in front of him, “but Vijay mentioned you’ve had some difficulties?”

Peter stopped again. Looking him directly in the eye that time.

“Sorry to be so forward, but I’m a chartered psychologist by trade. Maybe I can help?” Kenny fished out his wallet, slipping a business card from within the folds and handed it to Peter. “If ever you want to talk about anything…anything at all. I’ve worked with lots of…people like yourself. Traumatic upbringings, etcetera. I’m happy to work through anything with you.”

Peter hesitated mid-step, tension thickening, and Kenny thought he might say something. As if this was some movie and he’d spill all his secrets and cry and Kenny would nurse him through it, get him the help he deserved and save the day. But then Peter squared his shoulders, and he continued walking, disappearing into the shadows.

Jack appeared at Kenny’s side. “He’s spooked.”

Kenny nodded. “Yeah. But I know who he is. So we have more than we did before. Now you can put a team on him.”

“To get a team on him, I need more than your gut feeling. I’m gonna have to really think about this.”

“I’ll head back to my office. Get his name from the staff list. See what I can find out internally. I’ll send you what I have, then you must have enough to go question him, at least. Say you’re going door to door?”

“I just don’t want him spooked enough that he runs. Or worse.” Jack nodded over at Aaron by the shop door, arms folded and watching them. “When are you going to tell him?”

“Never.”

Jack tutted. “Relationship built on trust and honesty again, I see.”

“If I can get through this without him knowing, then there won’t be any need for him to. Ever.” Kenny glanced back to Aaron. “Can you get him protection?”

“I can look into it. I’ll get an officer on him at least until I can speak to the Chief.” Jack squeezed his arm. “Tell him not to go anywhere. Do anything stupid.”

Kenny nodded, then walked back to Aaron by the shop door.

“Well?”

“Jack’ll look into him.”

Aaron dropped his arms to his side. “That’s it?”

“What did you expect would happen?”

“He’d arrest him!”

“It doesn’t work like that. He needs proof. A reason to arrest him. Collect evidence against him. Buying lip balm in bulk isn’t a crime. There are rules and procedures he has to follow. But we are now one step ahead, knowing he works here in the chemistry labs as a technician.”

“And in the meantime,” Aaron gritted his teeth, “anyone around here whose blonde, female or related to a Howell is a sitting duck?”

Kenny crooked a finger under Aaron’s chin, stroking his thumb along his bottom lip. Very foolish and completely dangerous considering where they were, yet Kenny couldn’t seem to prevent himself from wanting to touch him. Reassure him. And he lowered his voice to an excruciatingly intimate level.

“Just don’t go around kissing anyone who isn’t me and you’ll be fine.” It was almost a warning. A threat .

“Using a psychopathic murderer to assert your possessiveness over me now, huh?”

“If it works. ”

Aaron snorted and Kenny removed his hand, realising he was in danger of asserting it over him in other ways. “Jack is sending an officer to you. I need to get to my desk.” Kenny stepped aside to let a bunch of students walk into the shop. “Lie low. Call me if you need me.”

“How long will it take?”

“Will what take?”

“To arrest him?”

“How long’s a piece of string?” Kenny turned and walked away.

“Fuck sake.” Aaron stamped his foot, then called after him. “How long did it take after you pointed the finger at you know who?”

Kenny twisted. Stayed silent until a bunch more students scurried past. “Eighteen months. From initial profile to discovery to arrest.”

Aaron widened his eyes.

“Without a confession or catching him in the act, murder investigations are lengthy and meticulous.” Kenny softened. “Keep your head down and you’ll be fine.”