Page 17 of Tender
He cupped Cosimo’s cheek, then ran his thumb over his bottom lip. “A ring, if you need help not coming.”
Cosimo had perfected being able to hold off until he was given permission to come, and tonight wouldn’t be difficult. He was barely hard. The need in him wasn’t as sexual as it normally was. Too much was going on.
“I think I can hold it.”
“We’ll see. You’re always such a filthy slut the moment you get my clothes off,” Emmett said. “I have a feeling I’ll be watching you beg in a minute.” The words were strong, powerful. Humiliating the way he liked. The way he needed. “Get those pants down or I’m going to jerk myself off while you watch.”
Cosimo swallowed back his groan and nodded frantically as his fingers fumbled to do what he asked. It took him several tries.
Emmett scoffed. “Fucking pathetic.”
Cosimo’s entire body went white hot. Hewaspathetic. He was a goddamn pathetic useless waste of space. A terrible husband and a terrible father and…
“Yellow,” he gasped. “Yellow. Red!”
He hadn’t realized how far down the wrong rabbit hole he’d gone until his knees hit the ground and a sob escaped his chest. He hadn’t safeworded in years. And never because of his own fucked up thoughts.
Emmett had him in seconds, arms wrapped tightly around him, pulling him up off the ground and getting his pants back around his waist. Between one heaving breath and the next, Cosimo was on Emmett’s lap, in a loose grip just the way he liked.
The way he needed.
He hadn’t felt like this in years. Not since their daughter was small and she was screaming and there had been no way to soothe her through the pain of her surgery he was starting to regret. He felt like a scum of the earth dad then—and a terrible husband to Emmett who was barely hanging on.
And he felt like that now.
“Would you like to talk to me?” Emmett asked, his voice not a whisper, but not much louder than one either.
Swallowing thickly, Cosimo took a few breaths, then said, “I fucked up.”
“How? And when?” There was an edge of tension in Emmett’s voice, like he was preparing for the worst.
“As a dad. As a partner to you, as—as a person who could have prevented what that man has gone through because of our daughter.”
“Ah.” That single sound of understanding allowed the tension Cosimo was holding to release. Not entirely, but enough to breathe. “Yeah. I’ve been feeling the same way tonight.”
“I don’t think I’m ready for this. Um. Not until we know what’s going on with her and Miles.” For whatever reason, Cosimo found it hard to say his daughter’s name. “I just…fuck, I don’t know how it went this wrong. If she was a spoiled shit who threw tantrums about money, that’s something she could unlearn. But Em…” His voice felt like it was going to crack so he paused a beat. “She’s abusing him.”
Emmett went tense all over, then bowed his head and rested his forehead against the back of Cosimo’s shoulder. “I know,” he whispered.
“Did we…do you think she saw what we do somehow? Do you think she picked up on it and?—”
“This is not abuse,” Emmett said fiercely. He eased back turned Cosimo’s face by the chin. “This is not abuse. And wekept it far away from her. We never, ever let her see it because that is between us. And I don’t—fuck, I hope I don’t treat you like that. Even when you need to prostrate completely, please tell me I haven’t—” Emmett’s voice broke, and Cosimo realized what he was implying.
“Amore. No. Shit, that’s not at all what I was trying to say, I…” He growled in frustration as he twisted his body as best he could on Emmett’s lap and met his gaze firmly. “I have never in my life felt unloved or small. You make me feel whole. You’ve given me everything I have ever needed.”And I haven’t done the same for you, he added to himself,which is why I feel like this.
“I know that sometimes kids just…go wrong. I don’t know how to get her to see that all of this is not okay.”
“We cut her off,” Cosimo said. They’d floated the idea before, but neither of them had felt brave enough to mean it. “We stop enabling her. It’s not too late.”
They’d spoiled her to the point of absolute dependence on their cashflow, and he always felt responsible…and also a little terrified of how she’d survive if he stopped.
But after seeing what she did to Miles, he couldn’t let it keep going on.
“Call her,” he finally said. “See what happened after they got home.”
Emmett nodded and picked up his phone, pulling up FaceTime since he wasn’t sure if she was wearing her processors or not. It rang so long he thought she was going to ignore them, and then her face appeared on the screen.
“If you’re calling to bitch at me more,” she started, “don’t fucking bother. I have a headache.”
