What are you looking to hit here on the flop before you'll bet? AQQ? AQx? You hit your freaking ace, put some money in there. Knock people off of their draws. Make AQ wonder if YOU have AK. IF he plays hard back at you then you're going to have to go on your instincts there...And THAT is when reads become important. You didn't do anything here to "get a read" in the first place. You sat back and said, "OMG HE BET IT I'M BEAT," and walked away from the hand. Ever heard of anything called a continuation bet?

You played this hand scared from the get-go. If you're going to play scared then you deserve to lose money. These guys could have had ANYTHING, and you're sitting there going, "OMG WHAT IF HE HAS AK OR AJ?"

FOLD to the raise preflop if you're going to play it like this postflop.