Page 33 of Tender
EMMETT
“I’m startingto have buyer’s remorse,” Miles said in the car as they approached the house.
“Can you have that if you didn’t actually buy anything?” Emmett winked at him as he pulled alongside Cosimo’s car and put his in park. He twisted his body so Miles could see his lips easier. “I saw your face when we were shopping. When was the last time someone’s done this for you?”
Miles shrugged. “Look, not to sound like a kicked stray puppy, but the answer is never. But I don’t need people to buy me things in order for me to like them.”
Emmett felt that almost like a punch to the gut, only because he had to acknowledge that one of the ways he’d tried to keep Selene’s love was to buy it. It had created a sort of expectation in him because he behaved that way with a lot of people.
He understood his love language. He showed his affection and appreciation by doing things for people. It was why he so fucking desperately wanted to be a Daddy to someone. To assume that role of care and comfort giver full time. To be able to spoil and praise the absolute fuck out of a lover.
Because he received love best when people let him do those things without putting up a fight. When they allowedthemselves to be soft and vulnerable with him. When they showed their tender underbelly and trusted him to take care of all their weak spots.
But he’d been going about it all wrong for way too long which was why no one had ever lasted. And why Cosimo, in spite of his love for Emmett, was starting to resent him just a little.
“Sorry, did I say something wrong?” Miles asked. Before Emmett could answer, he suddenly winced and his head dipped low as he pressed frantic fingers against his temple. “Shit, shit.”
“What’s wrong? Miles? Can you hear me?” Emmett tapped him gently.
Looking up, Miles sighed. “Sorry. Sometimes I get this horrific nerve pain. My surgery as a kid was kind of botched. Half my face was paralyzed for almost a year before I regained movement and sensation.”
Emmett felt something dark and angry in his gut. “Did they attempt to fix it?”
Miles snorted bitterly, then reached up and pulled his left processor off. “The state barely covered these. I got one upgrade when they came out with slightly better technology, but they didn’t try to, you know, fix anything.”
With a frown, Emmett stared at him, then reached up and brushed a hand over his hair. He could feel the tiny magnet beneath his skin. Miles shuddered, but it wasn’t from pain. “I want to hire you a tutor.”
Miles paled. “What?”
“For ASL,” Emmett said. “I know you have a lot going on, and I don’t mean to over-step, but you need hearing breaks, honey.”
Biting his lip, Miles’s gaze cut to the left for a moment. “I take them.”
“But you need to feel safe and comfortable communicating when you do,” Emmett pressed. He took a breath, then madesure that his words were even and clear for Miles to understand. “If it won’t distract you from your work or your research, then please say yes. If only to help with the basics, okay?”
Miles huffed. “I’ll still feel way behind. You and Cosimo are fluent, and I’m…I mean, my skills are a joke.”
“For now. But look at you, Miles. You have fucking conquered everything you set your mind to. You speak what, seven languages? Eight? A dozen?”
Miles laughed, covering his smile with the tips of his fingers. “Not a dozen.”
Emmett grinned at him and gently tugged his hand away from his face before stroking a touch over his jaw. “Why not add this one in too? You deserve to have access to the language you should have been given at birth.”
He took a beat, then moved his gaze from Emmett’s lips to his eyes. “Can I think about it?”
“Yes. But only if you promise to let me teach you a few signs to use in the house so you can take your breaks when you need to.”
“I don’t go in the house much. Are you sure it’s necessary?” Miles pushed back.
Emmett cocked his head to the side. “Yes. Because that’s also something you should do more often. You don’t need to be confined to a shack in the yard.”
“Yeah, the shack in the yard that’s got a fully stocked minibar, WI-FI, the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in, and a pool right outside the front door,” Miles snarked back.
Fuck, Emmett loved when Miles was comfortable enough to be bratty. He wanted to kiss him for it. He thought about what Miles’s lips might feel like on his. How they’d move where Emmett directed them to move. How obedient he would be. The comfort he might take in Emmett’s body.
His breath shuddered in his chest, but he didn’t let it out until he was calmer. “Fair enough. But I want to see you more. I like spending time with you.”
Miles dipped his head and tried to hide a small, shy grin. But he failed. “I like it too.”
