Page 95 of Medium
Rory exhaled.Can you hear me?
I grinned.Yes!
Good, because I wanted to say, I thought I was bossy in bed, but damn, Shane! That was so fucking hot!
I laughed and tucked my face into his neck. I didn’t know if I’d be able to conjure up that confidence again, but it had been fun.
Someone pounded on the front door. Before the three of us could do more than sit up, it opened, and Manny shouted, “I hope you’re awake and dressed!”
Our horrified gazes went to the open bedroom door. I bolted off the bed, covering my junk with one hand in case Pia was in sight. Manny must’ve held her back, because I slammed it shut without seeing anyone.
I leaned against the door in relief as Manny laughed. “We’ll be making brunch when you’re ready!”
Ellis ran his hand over his face. “Fuck. I forgot Ms. Jackson can open locks.”
I stood up, then stooped to gather the bedding on the floor. “I guess it’s time to get cleaned up.” Ellis sucked in a breath, and I felt surprise through the bond. “What is it?”
He pointed to the door. “That’s twice as far as you and I could get from each other the first time we bonded.”
Holy shit. I’d gotten at least ten feet from him and Rory without feeling a twinge. “Hang on. I’m going to go into the closet—no stupid jokes—and one of you go into the bathroom. That’ll be about twenty-five feet.”
We determined we had a range of about fifteen feet. And it was to both of the others, so we couldn’t spread out too far. It wasn’t ideal, but it was a damn sight better than the five feet Ellis and I had been restricted to.
We rotated through the shower as quickly as possible. Ellis went first so he could style his hair while Rory and I took our turns. I wished there was room to expand the shower stall so the three of us could all fit at once.
As I had that thought, I caught a brief glimmer of a thought Rory had in response, but he hid it away almost instantly.
I paused my toweling off. “How did you do that? Hide your thought, I mean.” He grimaced, and I held my hand up. “I don’t need to know what the thought was, you’re entitled to think what you think. But I tried to hide my thoughts from Ellis the first time we were bonded. Uh, when I was jealous of his attraction to you. But I don’t know how effective it was. How did you figure it out?”
He shrugged. “I just did it. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings, and I kind of... tucked the thought behind a barrier?”
“Oh.” I looking sadly around at the dated tile and ancient faucets. I could guess Rory’s opinion about this house.
“Hey.” He wrapped his arms around me. “It’s home. It’s where you are.”
I leaned my head on his shoulder. “But the neighborhood isn’t great, and there’s Pia to think about.”
Ellis walked in, hair on point and fully dressed, including shoes. Today’s ensemble was maroon shorts with a yellow polka-dotted button-up. “Hey, no one invited me to the group hug!” He threw his arms around me and Rory. “Here’s my two cents on the house. We like it, it’s comfortable, and we have bigger things to focus on for the near term. Like convincing our first-ever client that we’re a real company, and how we’re going to rescue the Wonders at the auction tomorrow night.”
I nodded, enjoying that both Rory and Ellis had used the same shampoo and body wash as I had, so we all smelled like we belonged together. “We’re swamped.”
Rory chuckled. “Exactly.”
I kissed both of them. Ellis let go first, but Rory gasped. “Ellis! Your neck! Look!” He dragged Ellis over to the mirror. The scars were almost invisible.
I pulled Ellis’ collar back, then I kissed his cheek. “We’ve been bonded for like, half an hour? This is some powerful magic.”
Ellis rubbed his neck, unable to take his eyes off his reflection. “I thought I’d wear those scars for the rest of my life.”
Well, shit. Rory leaned his forehead against Ellis’. “It wouldn’t have mattered to us.”
He gave us both a teary smile. “I know. It was just a nasty reminder.” He turned around and headed into the bedroom. “Get dressed so I can rescue Arch from Manny.”
Rory and I hurriedly put on our clothes while Ellis poked around in the duffel bag he’d put on the chest of drawers last night.
“What’s in there? Sex toys?” I experimented with sending the feeling of a dirty leer through the bond.
Ellis cackled, so he must’ve felt it. “Well, some of it is.” He pulled out a bottle of lube, a butt plug, and a large green dildo and dumped them on the bed.
