Page 39 of Tender
Everything in the room just…froze.It took a second for Miles to feel his breath again, to feel his heart beating.Words tasted like ash on his tongue, but he knew he needed to say something. “How long have you two been?—?”
“Most of our relationship,” Emmett said quickly.
Miles closed his eyes. “So, you’re his…Dom?”
In the dark, he could still see the way Emmett’s mouth curved into a little smile.“I am. And I’m also his husband. I know after what you went through, that must have seemed…fuck. I don’t even know. I swear we wouldn’t have done anything like that if we knew you were coming into the house, but you seemed so adamant about staying out here. I’m so sorry. Please tell me some of this makes sense.”
Miles didn’t answer right away.His entire world was shifting again, and he wasn’t sure he could take it.His hands began to tremble, then his knees went weak.He hit the floor before either of them could react, and when Emmett dropped in front of him, he flinched.
Emmett pulled back, but this close, Miles could see the hurt in his eyes.“I won’t ever hurt you.”
Logically, Miles understood that.So long as Emmett was telling the truth and this wasn’t some fucked up lie he made up to cover the secrets in their home.But something in his gut told him that Emmett was an honest man.
And a good one.
“I’d like you to come back to the house,” Emmett said after a long beat.“Cosimo and I want to explain this together, okay?”
Miles swallowed thickly, suddenly overcome with shame. He was the one who had intruded. He should have seen the invite for what it was: a superficial offer to make everyone feel better.“No.It’s okay. I should have assumed when you told me to come inside if I got scared, you didn’t mean that literally.”
“Ididmean it. Fuck,” Emmett whispered. He dropped down to the ground, his legs crisscrossed, and he bowed his head. “Things went sideways this week. All of our plans…” He trailed off and shook his head. “I was going to tell you some of it tomorrow so you’d understand what was happening if things seemed a little weird between us. We didn’t mean for you to find out this way. I’m so sorry.”
Miles shook his head. “No, it was my fault, and you don’t need to explain anything. I know this sort of thing is private and neither of you expected me to hear any of it.I mean,” he added with a harsh laugh, “I’m deaf with a pretty busted CI on one side, so the fact that I heard it at all is a miracle. Besides…”
“Hey,” Emmett said quietly, cutting him off.“What we doisprivate, but we invited you into our space, and we made a decision—an obviously poor one—to break our rules, and we got you involved without meaning to.That’s on us.Cosimo wants to explain.He’s devastated that you think I’d hurt him.”
Miles licked his lips and looked up at Emmett. All the fear in his body was gone, and he felt a sudden urge to drop into the man’s arms for comfort. But that would have been a mistake right then. He wasn’t ready for that. And he still wasn’t surewhat all of this meant, especially the afternoon he’d had with Emmett.
“What would you do if you were me?” Miles asked, his voice a little stronger now.
Emmett shrugged, looking a little ridiculous in his crouch.“I think I’d react the same way you did.And the fact that you tried to help him makes me like you a whole lot more than I already do.I’d like you to come hear us out.” He climbed to his feet and offered his hand to help Miles up. “Before you make any decisions about anything, let’s talk.”
After a short forever, he finally took Emmett’s offered hand and climbed to his feet.He still felt shaky, but he was steadier than before.
“There’s an umbrella in the closet,” Emmett said.“Grab something to sleep in.The pool house isn’t the best place to be in a storm, and I think we’ll feel a lot better if you’re inside with us after all this.”
And hell, what was Miles supposed to say or do except obey that quiet command. He saw a look in Emmett’s eyes when he started to grab his things, but he decided that, for now, it was best to ignore it and just do as he was told.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MILES
The sceneinside was almost one out of a comedy.Miles sat on a chair, a mug of hot tea between his hands because Emmett had shoved it at him like he was an old English granny, and both Emmett and Cosimo sat across from him on the sofa, a cushion apart from each other.He wondered if they were afraid to touch in front of him now.
The silence carried on long enough, he contemplated excusing himself before Emmett finally cleared his throat.
“So…”
“I’m not being abused,” Cosimo blurted, as though he had been waiting for someone else to break the silence.
Emmett gave him a look and Cosimo flushed.“What he means to say is?—”
“I’m not being abused,” Cosimo repeated, “but I get what it looks like.Emmett and I have an…arrangement.”
Miles leaned forward and set the mug on the table, almost feeling the physical weight of both men’s gazes.
Emmett ran his finger around his mouth in thought.Miles had been doing his best not to think about what their dynamic was, but he wasn’t a stranger to the concept.Apart from the Daddy porn he liked to watch, he also enjoyed watching otherpeople get tied up. Sensory deprivation did it for him too. Some of the stuff he preferred observing rather than imagining it being done to him, and now that he knew this was all consensual, he couldn’t help but picture Cosimo and Emmett.
Cosimo obviously liked humiliation, and while the thought of being called names made Miles want to throw up, the idea of watching Emmett humiliate someone else, well…
