Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
MILES
Miles was finally sleeping well.
Both men on either side of him were like an oven, so he knocked out almost instantly and woke with a single arm slung around his waist.He loved his morning silence, and the only regret he had in that moment was not being able to hear his partner’s steady breathing.
But he could feel it—the rise and fall of a single chest pressed against his arm.
He opened his eyes slowly, then turned his head to see Cosimo staring at him.His expression was unreadable, but the way he was holding Miles tightly spoke volumes.
“Hi,” Miles managed, hoping his voice wasn’t too loud, and his morning breath not too rank.
Cosimo’s lips twitched.“Morning.”From the way his chest rumbled, Miles could tell he was speaking aloud.“You can read my lips okay, right?”
“Yeah.”Miles shifted back just slightly, and he felt a sting of disappointment when Cosimo let him go.He was too hot, but he missed the warmth anyway.
The last few days had been dreamy. It had been everything Miles had ever wanted. Cosimo was working a lot, so he rarely got to see him before dinner, but Emmett had been around and so attentive. He’d gotten Miles’s processor fixed, had gotten new ones ordered.
He gave him space to work on his research when he needed it, and as though he had a sense for him, Emmett always appeared when Miles was feeling lonely or unsure. Little by little, he was making a home here.
He hadn’t slept in the guest bed in two weeks, and he was starting to wonder if he should go back at all. Neither man brought up the relationship again—how this was all meant to be a test—and he was too afraid to do it himself.
What if one of them decided this wasn’t what they wanted?
He was the only one who would lose, really. He knew they wouldn’t force him out onto the streets, but being relegated back into the guest room? Or the pool house?
It would kill him.
So he was walking around all nerves and fear, wondering when the other shoe was going to drop. And he had a feeling it might be this morning with the way Cosimo was staring at him. It was clear the man had something to say.
Cosimo stretched his arms above his head before rolling onto his side and propping up on his elbow.He reached for Miles again, touching the side of his neck, then dragged his fingers down to his chest.He hissed when the man made contact with his aching nipples.
“Emmett doesn’t go easy on them,” Miles was able to read off his lips. Last night had been fun. It had been a lot, but he’d come his brains out and had gone right into a post-sex coma.
Miles fought back a hysterical laugh.“How, um…how are you?”
He was also learning that while Cosimo didn’t want to be degraded and humiliated all the time, he also didn’t like sex when it was soft. He liked it rough and difficult. He liked being edged over and over until he was begging to come.
It was the stuff fantasies were made of, and Miles’s dick was threatening to get hard just by thinking about it.
Cosimo’s brow furrowed, then he started to speak as he swung his legs over the bed and stood.Miles missed all of it.When he looked back, he had a sheepish expression.“Sorry.I forgot.”
“Hang on,” Miles said. He turned over and found his processors, snatching them up off the nightstand before he realized there were two freshly charged batteries beside them.He missed the days when they were newer—when they didn’t run through power like it was their job.
But that wasn’t going to be forever. Just a few more weeks and he’d have brand new ones because these men…well, maybe they didn’t love him. Maybe they weren’t falling for him as hard as he wasfalling for them. But they liked him, and that mattered.
He saw Cosimo walk toward the bathroom as he got them connected, and by the time he could hear sound, Cosimo had come out with a freshly washed face and a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt on.
“Morning,” Cosimo said again.
Miles felt the rumble of his greeting like a touch under his skin.He smiled as he stood up, then realized he was still naked.“Oops.”
Cosimo stalked closer and wrapped him in his arms and tilted his chin up to look into his eyes. “I like you that way.”
Miles flushed. “Oh. Um. Thank you. I like when you’re naked too.”
Cosimo laughed softly, then tipped his head down, knocking their foreheads together. “Can we talk?”
Oh fuck. Oh, he fucking knew it. His stomach felt like it was full of snakes. “Sure.”
Cosimo pulled back and shook his head. “Don’t make that face.
It’s nothing bad. I’ve just…I promised I would do some thinking about what I want to be to you.
And I think I know.” He took a breath. “I don’t want to be your Daddy.
That’s never been my thing.I’d be a spectacular failure at it. But I’d like to be your…something.”
Miles felt those words like a second beating heart in his chest.“Even though you still barely know me?” That was his insecurity talking, of course. Cosimo did know him. He was gone a lot, but when he was here, he was attentive. And Miles was already halfway in love with him.
“I have a suspicion that getting to know the rest of you will only make this feeling get worse.” A smile touched his lips.“I don’t like to play games, and I trust my gut. I’m also willing to be as patient as you need me to be while you figure out what you need from me.”
Miles let out a trembling laugh. “Oh, I already know that.”
Cosimo lifted a single brow. “Do you?”
“Just this.” Miles touched his waist carefully, digging his fingers in. “I want you outside of you and Emmett. I don’t need a name for it, you know? Like…I don’t need it to be defined by a role. I liked our date together, and I’d like to do that again.”
Cosimo snorted, then leaned in before stopping himself.“Me too. I’d also like to kiss you right now.”
“My breath is probably disgusting.”
“Is that the only thing stopping you?” he pressed.
Miles shrugged, and Cosimo took that as the permission it was and carefully put his tongue in Miles’s mouth.It was lovely, minty, and warm.Miles lost himself in how different Cosimo’s kisses were to Emmett’s—how the way each man kissed almost defined who they were.
It was demanding and sharp, but tender in subtle, quiet ways.He wanted to have this again, and again, and again.
Cosimo broke off the kiss after a while and heaved a sigh.“Let me cook you breakfast.That’s something I will always be good at.”
Miles wasn’t about to argue with that. He was still pretty shit at cooking, and he loved being spoiled by these men. “I’ll get ready and meet you in the kitchen.”
Cosimo cupped his cheek once more and laid his lips to the corner of Miles’s mouth. “I’ll be waiting.” And then he let go.
Miles was left alone to shower and change, and when he emerged fully dressed and feeling a lot more centered than he had been since he’d been brought to this place, he found Cosimo in the kitchen setting pastries, coffee, and an entire frittata in a pan on the table.
“Seriously, how much do y’all think I eat?” Miles couldn’t help but ask.
Cosimo barked a laugh.“A fraction of what I do, probably.But I’m going to hit the gym after this, so I need my protein.”
Miles sat and pragmatically didn’t make a protein joke about what they’d done the night before.It felt like a dream anyway, sort of foggy and rich, like he’d been walking through storm clouds too close to the earth.
He wondered if it would always be like that, but he knew the answer.It wouldn’t.Sometimes it would be this.Just the two of them, sometimes the three of them.Sometimes on his own.But they’d always be wanted.
Wouldn’t they?
“You have something on your mind,” Cosimo said after sipping his coffee.
Miles sighed.He pushed a piece of the frittata around on his plate.“Are you doing this for him?”
“Because Emmett needs you?”
Miles nodded.“I totally understand if that’s the case—and I get that you do want me.I mean,” he blushed, “you made it obvious.But is this for him?”
“Everything for him is for us.Just like everything for me is for us.I don’t expect you to get that right away, but you will in time.”
In time.
“If you decide to keep me,” Miles said.
“Oh.We’re keeping you.”Emmett’s voice sounded from somewhere behind Miles, and then warm hands fell on his shoulders, and there was a kiss pressed to the shell of his ear.“If you want us.”
Miles didn’t know what to say.The easy answer was that he did.The complicated answer was that he was afraid to take them at their word because he had a long history of being discarded after a while.
Emmett sat and stole Cosimo’s coffee, grimacing after he took a sip.“Tar pit sludge.”
“Just the way I like it.”They grinned, then kissed, and Miles’s stomach swooped at how easy they fell into each other’s orbit.How much he wanted that, and how much he was afraid he’d never get there.
They had decades after all, of knowing each other before they knew he existed.
Emmett sighed, grabbing a pastry, and he took a delicate bite before leaning back in his chair.“Precious, it’s obvious you have questions.But we have answers. Why don’t we just put it all on the table now.”
Miles wanted that.And he didn’t.Part of him wanted to draw this out and bask in the weeks they’d had together because reality was too much for him to handle. But he also knew they were right. He couldn’t keep existing in this limbo. He needed something solid.
“Are you going to go back to how it had been with Selene?” He hated bringing her up, but he needed to know.
She would always be around—she was their daughter.
But he also didn’t want to be part of a system that continued to enable her.
He would break his own heart if it meant getting away from that.
Emmett sighed and then glanced at Cosimo before saying, “When we were leaving the audiologist, that was her calling.”
Miles froze. “I— oh . Why didn’t you tell me?”
“The day had been so good, I didn’t want to ruin it,” Emmett admitted. “And I’m sorry for keeping that from you.”
Miles swallowed heavily. “What did she want?”
“To ask if you were living here,” Cosimo answered for him. “She called me too. She’s furious that we’re not only sticking to our guns about her finances, but that you moved in. She told me if we didn’t ask you to leave, she was never going to speak to us again.”
Miles bit his lip and looked over at Emmett. He was clearly hurting. “You’re losing your daughter.”
“Not entirely, but yeah. We might be in some ways,” Cosimo said softly.
Miles bowed his head.“Because of me. Because you saw her hurt me, and you wanted to make that better.”
Emmett’s shoulders sagged.“No, precious thing.You were the last straw, maybe.But Mo and I would have been absolutely and utterly enamored of you no matter where we’d met you.
Wanting you is separate from Selene, and cutting her off is too.
She made this bed, and she has to lie in it.
We will always love her and hope that someday she’s able to look at herself and realize she needs to change.
But we can’t force that, and we are not giving in to her emotional blackmail because she wants everyone to be miserable when she’s not getting her way. ”
Miles looked between Emmett and Cosimo. “Would it have happened this way if it wasn’t for me?”
“I don’t know if it would have happened exactly this way,” Emmett admitted. “It might have taken us longer to see how badly we were enabling her. But we would have seen it. We eventually would have made this choice.”
Something settled in Miles’s chest.He hadn’t realized how badly he’d needed to hear that.And how badly he’d needed to hear it spoken honestly. He took a breath. “I don’t want her to suffer, though. Like…she’s not going to be out on the streets, is she?”
“She has a trust.She’s not going to be destitute, but she is going to have to move out of that apartment,” Cosimo said gruffly.
“And,” Emmett said, a little more kindly than his husband spoke, “she’s going to have to get a job at some point.But it’s not something we want you to concern yourself with. Let us handle her.”
Miles picked at his cuticle until Emmett reached over and took his hand.He soothed the sting with a kiss.
“No more of this,” Emmett chastised quietly.
“Yes, Daddy.”The words felt more natural now, but Miles knew it would take a while for them to get used to it.
He didn’t mind the way it made Emmett perk up and flush, though.
“I’m never going to ask you not to be her parents.
But I might ask that while I’m around, I don’t have to hear about her much, and?—”
“Sweetheart,” Emmett interrupted, squeezing Miles’s hand, “you won’t have to see her again.I have a feeling her contact with us is going to dry up once she realizes we’re not giving in.”
“And once she realizes that Miles living here is more than just us helping him out,” Cosimo said in a low voice.
Emmett rubbed at his face.“We can deal with that when it comes. This between us all isn’t about her. This is about falling for you, Miles. And we have.”He let Miles go, but he turned his body to face him better.
Miles wanted to say it—wanted to tell them he was in love with them both. But the words wouldn’t come. Still, they wanted him. They wanted to keep him. “So we’re okay then, right? All of us?”
“Together,” Cosimo told him.
It wasn’t everything he wanted to hear, but for the moment, it was enough.