Page 91 of Medium

I forgot to set the alarm.

In my defense, Ellis was almost completely out of it, and Shane and I had our hands full wrestling his shoes, shorts, and shirt off. We didn’t bother making him brush his teeth.

By the time we had him stretched out under the covers, all Shane and I wanted to do was to join him in slumber.

“Guys?”

I blinked at the sunlight coming in the window. Oh, fuck.

Ellis had realized the same thing. “It’s late, and we don’t have much time if we’re going to bond.”

Shit. I whipped the sheet off and sat up. Ellis, also sitting, held up his phone. 8:47am. Fuck. On Ellis’ other side, Shane cursed.

“Dammit, I’m sorry.” I ran my hand over my face. “I was supposed to set an alarm.”

“It’s okay.” Ellis patted my leg. “We can bond without sex. Cal and Greg did it, so we know how.”

I... had questions, but they weren’t important. “Fuck that. Give me five minutes and we’re doing this.” I didn’t wait for an answer, just slid out of bed and rushed into the bathroom.

When I came out, Ellis was waiting for his turn. “Shane went to use the guest bathroom.”

One day we might be comfortable enough with each other to share, but not today. I did delay him for ten seconds so I could steal a kiss. His neck looked better, the scars not as noticeable under my hand.

It was 8:58am when we all got back in bed, Ellis and I flanking Shane. We didn’t bother with the top sheet.

“Uh, maybe we should be naked.” Shane went red as he plucked at the waistband of his boxers.

“Shit, yes.” I hurriedly peeled off my briefs and tossed them aside. My dick was mostly hard. Maybe it had started as morning wood, but my brain was beginning to understand what was about to happen. It wouldn’t take much to get me there.

Ellis did the same with his boxer briefs. I took a second to mutter an admiring, “Nice,” before turning to Shane. “You need help with those?”

He glanced at the nightstand, where our phones were laying, then he seemed to steel himself and tucked his thumbs under his waistband. I could feel the stress coming through our connection.

“Wait.” I put my hand up. “No. Uh uh. What’s the matter?”

He turned even redder. “It’s nothing.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. Ellis scooted closer and ran a hand down Shane’s back. “It’s something. Tell us.”

He looked down at his hands. “I’m sorry. The time.... I’m just tense. I’m not... ready.” He waved a hand in the direction of his crotch.

“You’re not hard?” I slid my hand along his shoulders until I was giving him a half-hug.

He shook his head. “I just... It’s too much pressure.”

I squeezed his shoulders, but he wouldn’t look up. Should I kiss him? I tried to keep my expression cheerful in case he saw it, but I was at a loss.

Ellis nudged my arm, then he said, “Well, whether or not we do anything right now, we do want to bond at some point. And to do that, Rory needs to be able to visualize his magic.”

Where was he going with this?

Shane lifted his head. “Okay?”

Ellis beamed. “I was thinking it’d be fun if we had a hands-on lesson.”

Oh. He was making me the focus to take the pressure off Shane. Smart. Very smart. And my dick was very interested. I held my breath until Shane agreed. “Okay.”

“Great!” Ellis grinned like he’d won a carnival prize. “Rory, you stretch out on your back here in the middle, and Shane, you get on his other side.”