Page 49 of Tender
Miles stiffened, and Emmet looked immediately apologetic, but he didn’t take it back.
“But he and I are okay with what happened the night before.With moments when he needs to be brought to a quiet space,” Emmett said. “We’re okay with you being here for it—so long as you are.”
“Yeah,” Miles said slowly.“I told you I was fine with?—”
“Let him finish,” Cosimo cut in.“Please.”
Emmett bit his lower lip.“We also think that you’d…that it might be…”He fumbled with his words and swallowed heavily.“That if I offered to be your Daddy, you might say yes.”
Miles blinked, then the room began to spin, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MILES
It had been years—morethan ten—since Miles had been knocked over by vertigo.Stress used to do it to him, and other extreme emotions.He felt foolish lying on the floor with Cosimo checking his pulse, and he tried to bat the man away, but he was unmoved.
“I don’t think so,” Cosimo growled.
Miles groaned and tried to push himself up.“It happens.It’s been a while, but it’s not a heart thing.It’s an equilibrium thing.”
Cosimo didn’t look convinced, but whatever he was feeling in the beat of Miles’s heart must have been enough because he hooked his arm under his shoulders and helped him up.
“I went into shock,” Miles said.“Not the scary kind,” he added before either man could panic.“Just…I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Yeah,” Emmett said from his place a few feet away.He was chewing on his thumbnail.“I probably could have handled that more delicately.”
“I doubt it,” Miles said.He climbed to his feet, and the world still felt a little off kilter, but not as bad as it was.“I don’t know how you can ease someone intothatconversation.”
Cosimo snorted as he helped Miles to his seat.“Is it something we should just put in the no column and move on?”
Miles licked his lips, then glanced at Emmett who seemed almost afraid to come to the table.It was tempting because he wasn’t sure he could handle what they were offering him. He felt a little overwhelmed with being invited into their home, learning they had a very intriguing and frankly sexy as fuck BDSM dynamic,thenlearning they were in an open marriage and Emmett was into him.
Now they were offering him his literal ultimate fantasy. The one he’d never even said aloud to himself. This had to be a fever dream. Or a hallucination. Hell, maybe he was dead.
He pinched himself and winced. Nope, also not a coma. He looked at both men who seemed a little unsure but definitely more at ease than he felt. His gut told him he wasn’t going to say no, but his gut also told him that he had a bad habit of rushing into things without taking his time.
He wanted this to be different.
To be better.
To feel right.
Miles cleared his throat. “Can I ask some questions?”
“Yes.”Emmett sounded almost desperate.“Anything.Everything.”
“Do you want this because I’m convenient? Because of what I said about my fantasy the other night?”
Emmett looked shocked.“No. God, no. I wantyou.”
“Yeah, but is the Daddy thing because I want it, or because you do?” Miles pressed. Emmett most definitely was not Cosimo’s Daddy so…where did that fit in?
Cosimo met his gaze steadily.“The truth is, Emmett has needed more than me for a long, long time.”
Miles blinked.“He needs more than you?”
“I’m saying that wrong,” Cosimo added when Emmett looked devastated.“He’s a caregiver.He’s not built to be sadistic.Not all the time.He needs more balance than I can give him.I love him from the very depth of my being, but I don’t need to be cared for the way he’s always craved to take care of someone.We’ve had an open marriage for years, but we’ve never found anyone who fits.No one who needs the things we do.And then you came along.”
