Page 51 of Tender
Standing up, Cosimo walked out of the room, and then silence settled between Miles and Emmett.It was thick withtension, and a small part of Miles wanted to run away because he hated that feeling.Then Emmett relaxed back into his chair.
“Would you let me touch you?”
Miles blinked at him.“How? Like before? On the date?”
Emmett took a moment to answer.“I’d like to sit you on my lap.”
Miles only just managed to hold back a groan.His fingers began to tremble with need.He knew he should say no, that he should keep some distance between them, but he couldn’t.“Okay.”
Reaching over, Emmett carefully curled his fingers around Miles’s wrist, and he drew him close.He didn’t sit him down immediately.Instead, he dragged a touch up and down both of Miles’s arms with soft fingertips.
Miles’s palms relaxed, and Emmett grazed over them, down to the tips of his blunt nails.He felt so good, so warm, so wanted, which was entirely new for him.Emmett’s face fell a little, and he tightened his grip, then carefully pulled Miles forward.
“You haven’t been touched like this a lot, have you?”
“No.Maybe when I was really little.But no one was ever really…soft with me.”
Emmett made a quiet noise, then inch by inch, eased Miles down until he was seated on his lap.The position felt a little awkward.Miles was a waif of a man—leggy and thin—but he wasn’t small by any means.
And yet, somehow, he fit.
Emmett wrapped both arms around his waist, holding him close but giving him space to breathe which Miles hadn’t realized he’d needed until then.His breathing finally slowed down, and he let himself relax against Emmett’s tight hold.
“Okay?”
Miles nodded.He really was. In fact, he was more than okay.This felt like something he’d been missing his entire life.
Emmett nodded, then reached up to tip Miles’s chin up when he bowed his head.Their gazes connected, and Emmett kept him pinned.“What are you most afraid of?”
“With this, or in general?”
Emmett chuckled. “In general.”
That was an easy answer. “Being alone for the rest of my life.”
Emmett’s eyes went soft and sad.“Oh, precious.That’s not going to happen.Even if you say no to us, someone will see your worth.”
Miles couldn’t help a soft snort.“Trust me, they have.I’m messed up and that’s not being self-deprecating.It just is.I didn’t get real therapy until a couple years ago, and by then…”He trailed off.
He hated saying he was broken, because he didn’t feel broken.He just felt sort of twisted, like he was wrenched into unnatural shapes and left to cure that way until there was no putting him back the way he should have been.
Emmett stared at him, then reached up and rested his palm against Miles’s cheek.The comfort was profound and almost overwhelming.“Is there anything about me that scares you?”
Miles didn’t want to answer that question.It was too personal, and too soon.But Emmett was asking for his honesty.“Having you…then losing you.Having days or weeks or months of bliss—of everything I’d ever dreamed about—and then having the both of you realize it’s not for you.”
“Are you not considering thatyoumight realize this isn’t for you?” Emmett pressed.
Miles shrugged.“I am, I guess.But you two would have each other. I can’t imagine it would take long to get over me.”
Emmett chuckled, bowing his head, resting his forehead against Miles’s sternum.“Oh, darling. You have no fucking idea.”He pulled back.“I’m madly in love with my husband, and I always will be.But that doesn’t mean falling for you and losing you wouldn’t wreck us both.”
Miles scoffed.
“What?” Emmett pressed.
Glancing away, Miles shrugged.“You, maybe.But I really don’t think Cosimo likes me.”
“He does.”The certainty in his tone was enough to have Miles looking back at him.“That scares him.He’s only felt this way about someone one other time.”
