Tied to You (Wild Side Book 2)

by Riley Hart

  “I can walk, ya know?” Quinn said into his neck.

  “But I don’t want you to,” Miles admitted.

  “I don’t want to either.”

  He carried Quinn to his bedroom, where he noticed the bedside lamp was on. When he set Quinn on the edge of the bed, Miles told him, “Arms in the air,” and Quinn immediately did it.

  Miles tugged Quinn’s white tee over his head. His hair was drying. Had he taken a shower recently to help him sleep or to keep himself awake?

  “Lie down,” he told Quinn next. When Quinn did it, he hooked his fingers on the edges of Quinn’s white pajama pants and tugged them down. “No underwear, huh? Were you expecting me?”

  “I was hoping.” Quinn winked, but his voice was almost hollow. Raspy and tired and damned if it didn’t break Miles’s heart. “What are you doing here?” Quinn asked.

  “Taking care of my guy.”

  “I hurt you.”

  “We’ll deal with that later.”

  Miles unbuttoned his shirt and let it drop to the floor. He removed his pants, but kept his boxer briefs on before climbing into bed behind Quinn. They were both on their sides. Quinn’s ass against his pelvis. Miles wrapped an arm around him. Smelled his hair. Savored the feel of his skin. Jesus, he’d fucking missed this. Missed this man he loved so much.

  “I was wrong,” Quinn whispered softly. His voice sounded as though it continued to get farther away when he added, “I was trying to help, but it wasn’t my place.”

  No, it hadn’t been his place, but Miles also knew Quinn’s heart had been in the right place. His heart was always in the right place. “Shh.” Miles ran his fingers through Quinn’s hair, kissed his temple. “Go to sleep, baby boy. We’ll talk about it later.”

  “Thank you,” Quinn replied, and then Miles was welcomed to the sound of nothing but Quinn’s even breathing as he slept.

  *

  Quinn was surrounded by nothing but warmth. Miles’s breath against his skin. His firm body wrapped around Quinn’s. He wanted to keep his eyes closed. To pretend he was still asleep or to let himself slip inside again so he could pretend everything was the way it had been before. Pretend a serious discussion wasn’t about to happen.

  That wasn’t the way Quinn rolled, though. He didn’t run from anything, so he opened his eyes, tilted his head up and saw Miles leaning on his elbow looking down at him. “You been watching me sleep this whole time?” he teased. “That’s a little creepy.”

  “Fucker,” Miles replied and then, “No. I slept a little bit too.”

  “How long have I been out?” Quinn asked.

  “A little over four hours. You needed it. You need more.”

  “I’m good.”

  “You’re a liar,” Miles replied.

  “I fucked up.” There was no reason to hold back. No reason to stall. This conversation had to happen, and then they’d figure out where they went from there. “I know I screwed up. It wasn’t my place. It wasn’t my business. I took something away from you, Miles. I took your choice and I get that and I’m so goddamned sorry. If I could go back and change it, I would. We both know that can’t happen, so all I can do is apologize and tell you I love you and I was trying to help.”

  Miles sighed and sat up. “Balls to the wall, huh?”

  “Is there any other way to do this?”

  He shook his head and a small smile teased his lips. “No, there’s not.” He rubbed a hand over his head. Quinn sat up too, and they looked at each other. He couldn’t read Miles’s eyes, and he normally could.

  “I’ll never be able to explain to you what it felt like to walk into your apartment and see my mother’s face for the first time in my life. It was like being hit by a truck I didn’t see coming.”

  “I know.” Quinn could hear the need in his own voice. The sorrow. “I fucking know. God, I can’t believe this happened. What was I thinking?” How had he thought this had been a good idea? Why hadn’t he talked to Miles about it more? Let Miles go at his own pace? “I wanted to give something to you… I think…I think there was a part of me that maybe felt like I didn’t deserve you.”

  This was true, wasn’t it? It was crazy how you could do things sometimes, and not understand why until later. “You have all these people in your life who love you, Miles, and then I come along and yeah, things changed for you, but what did I do to deserve it? What did I give you? I think I wanted to be the one to protect you in ways I couldn’t protect Kane, but all I did was hurt you. All I did was—”

  “How can you think that?” Miles cut him off. “How can you think you don’t deserve me? I’m not Kane, and you didn’t fail him either. You’ve changed my whole goddamned world, Quinn. You showed my heart it was okay to fall. It was okay to let someone in.”

  “I did that?” he tried to joke, but Miles just shook his head. Quinn ruffled his hair with his hand. “Maybe I’m not as together as I thought I was.”

  “None of us are as together as we think we are. Every person in this world is a work in progress.”

  “Even you?” Quinn teased.

  “Especially me. I ran away from you, baby boy. I knew what you did was wrong but I knew it was out of love. I ran because it was easier. Because there’s a part of me that was still afraid of you. A part of me that still needed you to be two, but you’re not and you never will be and I don’t want you to be either.”

  Quinn’s pulse sped up. His chest got so tight it was hard to breathe. Christ, he fucking loved this man. “The anti-two strikes again?”

  “My anti-two,” Miles replied.

  “I will never, ever betray your trust again, Miles. I will never go behind your back. I will support your decisions, even if I don’t always agree with them.”

  “Can you make me one more promise?” Miles asked.

  “Anything.” He would do anything to get Miles back.

  “Can you promise you’ll still call me on my shit, though? I need that. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I can be a bit stubborn.”

  His cheeks hurt he smiled so big. “No? You? I never would have thought. I will always call you on your shit.”

  “One more thing.”

  Quinn playfully rolled his eyes. “You’re getting awfully needy there, Counselor.”

  Miles reached out and cupped his cheek. He rubbed his thumb beneath Quinn’s eyes. “I think you should talk to someone. Find a way to work through your guilt over Kane. As much as I love that even when you’re struggling, you can sleep when you’re with me, I might not always be able to be there…Christian, either.”

  Quinn knew it took a lot for Miles to mention Christian. Not because he didn’t like him. He didn’t know the guy, but Miles was protective over those he loved and so knowing Quinn had a friend who could give him something that Miles could too, wouldn’t be easy for him. “Christian is my friend. I’m so fucking in love with you, I can’t breathe without you. And yes, I’ll talk to someone. What about you?”

  Miles shifted uncomfortably but as important as this was for Quinn, it was equally as important for Miles. Maybe more.

  “Yes,” he replied, his voice rough. “I didn’t have the courage to research her. I just stared at her name. I don’t even know what you know.”

  “It’s not a lot but I’ll share it if you want. When you want.”

  Miles nodded. “Not now. Come here, baby boy. Straddle me and let me have that mouth of yours.”

  Quinn did as he was told. He sat on Miles’s lap, wrapped his legs around his waist, and his arms around Miles’s neck and then he kissed him. It had hardly been a week since he’d last had his tongue in Miles’s mouth, but it had been too fucking long. It felt like an eternity.

  Miles nibbled at his lip then swept his tongue over Quinn’s.

  Quinn groaned in his mouth, and Miles squeezed him tighter.

  His cock got hard and Miles felt so fucking good against him.

  “I missed this ass.” Miles’s hands roamed down his back and then squeezed his cheeks.
“You gonna let me in it? I need you.”

  “Yes.” Quinn dropped his head back. Miles kissed down his throat, and Quinn’s eyes rolled back in his head. “I need you too.”

  Miles flipped them. Once he had Quinn on his stomach, he pulled away from him and took his underwear off. Once he was naked, he riffled around in the drawer for a condom and lube.

  Quinn heard the package open, as Miles suited up. He moaned and wiggled his ass when Miles’s lube-wet finger probed his hole.

  “So goddamned hot and tight.” His fingers were gone then and his thick cock was pressing inside. Quinn clutched the pillow, bit into it as Miles filled him from behind.

  Miles lay on top of him, his mouth close to Quinn’s ear as he pulled out, then thrust forward again. “This is my ass. Never gonna be separated from it again. Say it, Quinn. Tell me.”

  “It’s yours,” Quinn rushed out, loving the stretch of Miles’s dick deep inside him. “Never gonna be separated from it again.”

  Quinn knew there wasn’t a chance he would last long. He shoved his hand beneath him and started working his own cock. Miles thrust over and over, the sound of their bodies slapping together filled the room.

  Just as Quinn’s balls let loose and a hot stream of come shot over his fingers, he heard Miles call out, felt his body tremble and then go rigid as he lost himself to his orgasm.

  It was a few minutes later, as they lay there sweaty and breathing heavy, Quinn’s head on Miles’s chest and Miles’s hand in his hair, when Miles said, “I want to talk to my parents first. Then…maybe you can tell me what you found. Maybe we can do a little more research together.”

  Quinn’s heart punched against his chest. “Yeah…yeah, whatever you want. Whatever you need but only if it’s what you want.”

  “It’s important. The closure. I need to get past it so I can focus on my future with you.”

  Quinn wanted that future more than anything in the world. “I love you, Miles. So fucking much.”

  “I know, baby boy.” Miles kissed his temple. “I love you too.”

  EPILOGUE

  “Oh my God, he gets a lot of attention when he dances,” Quinn told Miles as they sat at their table at Wild Side. Matt and Oliver sat beside them. It was one of the few Friday nights where Chance picked up a shift dancing there. He never did on Friday nights at any of the other bars or clubs, but Wild Side was a different story since they would all be here anyway.

  Nothing came in the way of their night.

  “Yeah, I know. He fucking loves it too.” Miles put his arm around Quinn as they watched Chance move. “He’s beautiful and he knows it.” He wore a pair of purple Speedos. His eyeliner matched and his chest sparkled slightly, a mixture of sweat and glitter.

  “Is he now?” Quinn asked playfully, cocking a brow at Miles.

  “He’s got nothing on you.” Miles leaned forward and kissed the tip of Quinn’s nose.

  “Well obviously.”

  “Cocky.”

  “Realistically confident,” Quinn replied making Miles laugh. He remembered the first time Quinn said that to him months before. He had very good reason to be confident and Miles loved the fuck out of him for it. He loved everything about his guy.

  “We’d have some real competition if Chance heard that,” Matt joked. “The two of you are always going at it.”

  Chance and Quinn had become quite close in the past couple months. Quinn was close to all of them in different ways—Oliver because of their work with the LGBT center, Matt because he’d composed a song for one of Quinn’s games, and Chance because they just clicked the way Miles had known they would.

  Quinn fit in with all of them as though he’d always been there. Miles didn’t know what he’d do without him. Luckily, he knew he wouldn’t ever have to know what that felt like—not unless one of them didn’t have a choice. Like Oliver, Matt, and Chance, Quinn would never walk away from him. They loved each other too damn much.

  “I like giving him shit,” Quinn replied to Matt, just as Chance fell down into a seat with them. Miles hadn’t even noticed he’d stepped down from his platform for a break.

  “You like to give who shit? Me? That’s because I’m more fun than your boyfriend,” Chance joked, and Miles rolled his eyes.

  “You are not more fun than me.”

  “Only because I don’t have sex with him.” He waved his hand. “Enough about you guys, there’s a really sexy guy over there who’s been eye-fucking me all night.”

  “Well, there you go. You can show him how much fun you can be,” Oliver told Chance.

  “That sounded slightly sarcastic, Ollie. Do I sense sarcasm coming from you? Are you guys really doubting my fun-factor?” Chance picked up Miles’s drink and finished it.

  “Goddamn it, Chance.” He was always doing that shit.

  “You love me.” Chance winked. “By the way, when are you guys going to Sacramento, again? There’s this dance show I want to check out.”

  “Next week,” Quinn replied for him.

  Miles and Quinn had already been to Sacramento once and Miles had too many phone calls to remember…phone calls with his grandmother, Thea Jane Clements. His mother had fallen in with the wrong crowd when she was fifteen. She’d been introduced to drugs not long after. The pregnancy had followed quickly after.

  Thea had done everything she could to help her daughter, to get her clean, but drugs were powerful and so was the man who pumped them into her. She’d run away from home not long before Miles was born—apparently to Los Angeles. They don’t know what happened from there. Had she thrown Miles out? The man who had traveled down such a dark path with her? Did they leave him behind somewhere else and someone else had gotten rid of him? Had they traded him for money for drugs?

  They would never have the answer to that question.

  His birth mother had come back home. Had been too fucked up to tell Thea where he was…and she’d overdosed not long afterward.

  His grandmother had looked for him but had never found him.

  She’d always wanted him, though.

  And she loved him.

  The same way his mom and dad, the people who’d raised Miles, loved him.

  He looked around the table at his friends as they laughed and teased and drank.

  The same way all of them loved him as well.

  “You’re looking awfully serious there, Counselor,” Quinn whispered in his ear. “What’s going on in that sexy head of yours?”

  He’d spent most of his life afraid to lose the things he had right in front of him. Afraid to get too close and let people in because he was so damn afraid of getting hurt, when it was actually the fear that had slowly been killing him.

  This gave him life.

  He had a grandmother. His family. The people at this table.

  And Quinn. Jesus, he loved the man sitting beside him.

  Miles looked down at him. “Thinking about what I’m going to do to that sexy ass of yours tonight.”

  “Liar.”

  “Thinking about how much I love you?” Miles added.

  “Another lie. What’s going on with you, Mr. Brutal Honesty?”

  What was Quinn going for here? “Thinking about how lucky I am?” Miles tried again. All were true. Each and every one of them… “All of the above.”

  “That’s the answer I was looking for.”

  He always kept Miles on his toes. “Dance with me, baby boy,” Miles told him and then stood, pulling Quinn with him. Quinn went easily, and Miles pulled him into his arms.

  “What should I do to that sexy ass of yours tonight?” he asked in Quinn’s ear.

  “Whatever you want. I’m yours just like you’re mine.”

  “Yeah,” Miles replied. “Been tied to you from the start.”

  He’d be tied to Quinn always.

  THE END

  Note to Reader

  Thank you for taking the time to read TIED TO YOU. I hope you enjoyed Miles and Quinn’s story. I have to admit, I fell hard for thes
e two men. I can’t tell you how many times I found myself smiling or my heart racing while writing their happily ever after. Outside of the romance, one of my favorite things about this series (as well as some of my others) is writing strong friendships. The Wild Side crew would do anything for each other. Now, that doesn’t mean they don’t fight, but what friends don’t? I’m really having fun exploring their friendships through these books. If you haven’t read DARE YOU TO or GONE FOR YOU, I hope you’ll consider heading back to Wild Side in the previous two stories. And soon, we’ll get Chance. I’m excited to jump into his book.

  Thank you so much for reading. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to live my dream every day and I couldn’t do it without you.

  If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, you can do so HERE.

  You can also visit my website HERE.

  If you’re looking for a sweet and sexy romance check out One Call Away from Felice Stevens

  When a brutal attack from a jealous competitor leaves Noah Strauss, darling of the modeling world, physically scarred and emotionally damaged, he quits the runway to become a psychologist. Using his contacts from his time in the spotlight, he creates One Call Away, a radio show dedicated to gay men looking for love, advice or someone to talk to. But with secrets of his own and a mother who refuses to understand the career path he’s chosen, the one person Noah can’t seem to help is himself.

  On a drunken dare from the senior partner’s grandson, Oren Leavitt calls Noah’s radio show, pretending to be gay. Only Oren isn’t certain if he’s pretending. He’s left his strict Orthodox Jewish upbringing behind, but the guilt remains. Guilt that his actions have prevented his sister from finding a husband and guilt that he’s failed his parents. Talking to “Dr. Noah” helps, and as he finds himself calling the man again and again, he knows he must be honest. But Oren is unsure if he’s lying to Noah or himself.