Page 54 of Tender
“No.No more apologizing for yourself.Apologize for your mistakes if you need to, but existing isn’t one of them.”
An argument touched his tongue, but he was smart enough to swallow back those words.
“Good boy,” Emmett rumbled.
Miles squeezed his eyes shut tighter.“Daddy?”
Emmet was quiet long enough that Miles thought maybe he’d fucked up.Then he let out a jagged, harsh breath and kissed his neck again.“Thank you.”He kissed his pulse.“What do you need?”
“What happens after this?”
Emmett stroked fingers through Miles’s hair.He plucked off the left processor, and Miles’s world was sideways, but he didn’t topple over.When Emmett spoke, it was next to his right one.“After, you’re going to keep these off.You’re going to go back to sleep because I have a feeling you didn’t get much last night.I’ll wake you before lunch. After I’m done with Cosimo.”
Miles heard the words Emmett wasn’t saying.He wanted privacy to do what Cosimo needed without having to worryabout what Miles might think or feel.“Okay.But please know I won’t panic again.I get it now.”
“I know.But we’re going to introduce this to you carefully,” Emmett said.“Not because we think you’re incapable, but because we’d like to know you a little better before you dive in.”
It was fair.And he held his breath a moment to see if that all felt like rejection, but it wasn’t.At all.It was a kindness to all three of them.
Turning his head, Miles reached up and plucked the right processor off.All the sounds in the room were gone, like a switch.There was ringing in his head for a moment, the pressure of the silence enough to make his eyes shake.And then it settled.
Emmett lifted his hand and pressed the one he was holding against his palm, and when he had Miles’s attention, he tipped his fingers from his chin.‘Thank you.’
Miles nodded, then lifted his own hand for one of the few signs that were more intuitive.‘Kiss?’
Emmett smiled.He turned Miles gently on his lap, then cradled his face with both hands.Their lips touched, slow at first, then deeper.Emmett tasted like coffee and salt, his tongue warm and pressing as it pushed against Miles’s own.He lost himself in the feeling of Emmett, of the way he was soft with him, but dominating, like he would brook no room for argument.
Like the kiss had been his own idea.
He broke off with a series of small pecks, then he turned Miles back around.Spreading his legs forced Miles’s thighs into a wide V, and he felt himself moan.Emmett’s chest rumbled against his back with wordless noise that Miles could feel like sparks shooting up his spine.
He closed his eyes again, losing himself in the darkness and the silence as fingers roamed.They touched his chest—over his shirt, playing with his nipples until they were sensitive and peaked.Then under the fabric, pinching them until they burned, making him want more.
His dick was hard, his balls tight, so close to shooting off.His breath caught in his throat when Emmett shoved his hand into his pants, searching until he found what he was looking for.Miles’s moan was almost sharp in his mouth as Emmett first cupped his balls, stroking the thin, wrinkled, warm skin with the side of his thumb.
Then, as Miles’s breath began to pick up, he let them go and circled his cock.Miles’s mouth opened in a cry as Emmett stroked him once from root to tip.His entire body shuddered.He was hanging on by a thread.
Lips touched his jaw, his neck—sucking kisses drawing blood to the surface of his skin.The sensations were so much—everything and nothing like he’d imagined.
He wanted to open his eyes, but he knew it would all be over the moment he did.So he basked in the dark, floating in a void of noiselessness, filled with the ecstasy of being truly, and honestly, and completely, wanted.
He was not a compromise in that moment.He was not a consolation prize.He wasn’t around for the convenience of his presence.He wasn’t wanted in spite of anything.
Emmett kissed him again, and Miles regretted not being able to hear him, but he took comfort in the small grunts he could feel as Emmett stroked him—harder, faster, like he was trying to wrench his orgasm from his body.
And it only took a moment.Even with his eyes closed, Miles saw sparks.He felt the rolling thunder of his climax before it really hit him, and then he was crashing.His hips stuttered upward, his back arched, held in place by a firm arm as Emmett stroked him through the shock of it.
He knew he was making noise—raw and feral—and he couldn’t stop.A tiny voice amidst all the chaos told him maybe this was the moment Emmett would realize he was too much, or not enough.
Too inexperienced, or too needy.
He felt hot ropes spilling, and Emmett slowing his pace.Then more kisses were laid across his jawline, teeth against his earlobe, lips over his shoulders.Emmett gentled his hand until he was doing nothing more than cupping Miles’s softening cock.He rubbed it until Miles let out a noise of protest.He was sensitive and on the edge of pain.
Emmett immediately let him go.
Miles was too afraid to look, too afraid of what he might see on Emmett’s face.But fingers brushed against the side of his eye, and finally he let his eyelids flutter.Then open.
‘Hi,’ Emmett mouthed.
