Page 32 of Tender
Ears now as red as his face, Miles looked up at him. “Not that smart.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit. Now, let’s head out. There’s a gigantic iced coffee calling my name.”
They were at the university lab and Emmett was a little annoyed that Miles didn’t look very impressed. But then he realized it was familiar to the other man. He was a student there, and it was clear he’d spent time in the physics building.
“You have nerdy friends?” Emmett asked as he unlocked his office door. “You seem to know this place pretty well.”
Miles laughed as he followed him inside. The office had once been a lab that the university had remodeled into three offices. They were very well insulated, so it was quiet apart from their voices.
“All my friends are nerdy, yes. But also, they ran out of space at Carter, so they stuck me and a few other TAs upstairs with the advisors. A couple of the researchers would pop in every few days to make us watch their experiments.”
It wasn’t a surprise Emmett had never seen him. He’d only just started working at the university the semester before, and he definitely preferred a private lab, so he didn’t socialize much. But the school had money. And equipment. And bored students looking to add to their resume, so there was always a lab assistant available for him when he needed one.
It would be odd next year if they ran into each other more.
And potentially tricky if something happened between them. He wasn’t going to bring that up now, though. The day was starting out perfect and he wasn’t going to ruin it by talking about the future.
“I can’t believe you weren’t swayed by the power of science nerds and didn’t change your program to STEM,” he said with a wink as he dropped down to his chair and began to download the files Magnus sent him onto his phone.
Miles grinned and shrugged. “I mean, maybe I’ll get a second doctorate when I have money. If I get hired on full time so I can take cheap as fuck classes…” He trailed off, then said, “Except I also suck at math, and I’m pretty sure you need a good foundation of the Devil’s alphabet to make that work.”
Emmett blinked. “The Devil’s…oh mygod.” He burst into a fit of laughter. He’d heard the phrase before but the way Miles said it with an almost sad disdain was just…it was adorable, goddamn it. In a way that made him want to pull Miles onto his lap and kiss him until he was writhing and begging for more.
Christ, he needed to stop that now.
“Sorry. I’m not trying to be insulting,” Miles said the moment Emmett’s smile fell.
Pushing up from the desk, Emmett grabbed his phone and shoved it into his pocket before approaching Miles carefully. He took a beat, then set a hand on his waist. Once again, Miles leaned in, not away. God, this was either going to tease him to death, or it was going to be easy.
He could tell Miles was unsure—which of course he was. There was every chance in the world Miles didn’t think this was flirting. After all, Emmett and Cosimo were married, and they hadn’t told him anything about their dynamic.
So yeah. They were going to need to talk.
“Miles, can you do something for me?”
“Mm. Anything.”
Anything? God help him. He took a breath. “I’d like you to stop apologizing for being yourself. You’re not a burden. You’re not annoying. You don’t say insulting things when you don’t spend ten minutes agonizing the words about to come out of your mouth and just blurt out whatever’s on your mind. You’re a good person.”
“I…um.”
“You’re gorgeous,” he said, lowering his tone. Miles swallowed heavily. “You’re so fucking clever. You’re deserving. I really enjoy spending time with you, okay? Like, more than I should say.”
Miles’s eyes went wide. Yeah, he caught that. And he got it. “Well. Um.”
Emmett let the moment hang there, then clapped his hands together. “Come on. I’m starving. Let’s get some lunch. Call it a re-do for that shit-show the other day?”
“You don’t need to do that,” Miles said softly.
Emmett reached up and brushed hair off Miles’s forehead. “I’d like to. Spoiling you makes me feel good.”
Miles sucked in a breath, then let it out and nodded. “Okay. I…yeah. Let’s go.”
This time, Emmett offered his arm, and after only a short hesitation, Miles threaded his through it and hung on. The weight was nice, like a promise of what could come…
If the universe was kind enough to let him keep this.
CHAPTER NINE
