Page 14 of Tender
Miles looked over at Selene who rolled her eyes and said, “Might as well tell them since you can’t keep your fucking mouth shut.”She leaned on her elbow and rested her chin on her hand,smiling sharply.Meanly.“I forced him to sell his shitty-ass car and use mine since I hate driving.”
Cosimo rubbed a hand down his face, and Emmett sighed.The silence continued.
Then Miles cracked. “I feel like the damn court jester here, except I'm not in on the joke.”
“Miles, I’m so sorry,” Emmett started. "Selene apparently hasn't been very truthful with us, and I think Cosimo and I have some very serious thinking to do about, well, everything.”
Selene slammed her hand on the table.“That’s enough.Miles, let’s go.”
“I don’t think—” he started. He was suddenly afraid to leave. Afraid to step away from the warm comfort of the two men who actually seemed to be on his side. Once they left that bubble, there would only be chaos.
Either he accepted life as it was now, or he cut things off. He already knew what he had to do, but he had no contingency plans. No back up. No savings.
No nothing.
And the only person who could afford to bail him out right then was on his honeymoon. Oliver would move heaven and earth to make sure Miles was safe, but Miles had already damn-near ruined his wedding. He wasn’t going to fuck up his honeymoon too.
He took a deep breath. “We don’t need to rush home.”
Selene glared at him. “Eitherweleave, orIleave, and you can find your own ride home.”She was up and walking away before he had time to react.
A part of him wanted to stay where he was.He had a feeling if he asked, her dads would tell him every ounce of truth he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear.But that was doing what he always did. That was avoiding the actual problem.
It was time to be an adult about this. It was time to take charge of the independence he claimed to want so badly. If he ended up in a shelter for a few weeks, so be it. He’d been in worse. He could do this. He had to.
“I’m sorry.I should go,” he said. “I need to…” He paused for a beat. “I need to figure this out.”
Emmett caught his wrist as he stood and held him fast.“Let me see your phone.I’d like to give you our numbers.”
Miles hesitated. The longer he took, the angrier Selene was going to be, and he wasn’t sure he could take more of her insults today. All of this had been more than enough.
“It’ll only take me a second. I just want you to have someone to call if it all gets…” Emmett glanced at Cosimo as he hesitated, then said, “out of hand.”
Miles hated that Emmett was right. He had a feeling if anyone could control her and stop her from flying off the handle, it was them.
Digging his phone out of his pocket, he unlocked it and handed it over.Emmett only took a second before handing it back, but he didn’t let Miles go.He squeezed his wrist tighter.
“Promise me that you’ll call us if anything happens, okay? Or if you need us. For anything.”
“That’s nice of you, but?—”
Cosimo cleared his throat and leaned forward.“Miles, she’s our problem too.I don’t like getting involved with her personal life, but it’s the least we can do after everything she put you through.If you need anything,” he added, like he was afraid Miles would call in the middle of the night to chit-chat about the latest update of Bridgerton, “we’re here.”
Unable to form words, Miles just nodded at them, then slipped his phone into his pocket and made it out just in time to see Selene turning back toward the doors.Her glare was impressive, but it didn’t scare Miles the way it might havebefore. He was resigned to what was about to happen, which meant she no longer had power over him.
“Get the fucking car,” she snapped.
He obeyed this time, but he had a feeling it would be the last time he ever did what she said again.
CHAPTER FOUR
COSIMO
He grunted,feeling a mixture of pleasure and frustration which normally would have been a delicious start to his evening. He loved nothing more than when his husband edged him into oblivion. He’d be on his knees, deprived of all his senses except touch and taste. He’d have a sound in his dick and a plug in his ass, hands tied together in prayer, forced to make his way around the house unable to see, unable to move apart from tiny motions of his knees.
Nothing made him come harder when Emmett finally allowed him to.
Nothing kept him grounded and made his life more bearable than a long week off work being able to submit for days on end.
