As I started slicing cucumber and tomatoes, I heard the shower running upstairs.
I hoped he didn’t mind showering cold because it took a while for the water to heat up out here.
“We have any olives left?” River asked.
“Sure.” I tossed the turkey and vegetables on the bread slices, then fetched his olives in the fridge.
The finishing touch was cream cheese, and by the time the sandwiches were done, the door to the bathroom opened upstairs.
I had a feeling Shay wouldn’t eat his sandwich, but I’d make him try it. A cup of fucking noodles… It wasn’t dinner! Not even when you ate two!
“This single bed up here,” I heard Shay say. “It’s for your playthings, isn’t it?”
After leaving River with his plate and a beer, I walked over to the stairs and peered up at Shay. “We prefer to call them humans outside of degradation scenes, but yeah. Why?”
He looked all rumpled and sweet. His hair was damp and pointed in every direction, and the T-shirt I’d lent him was a size or two too large. As were the boxer shorts.
“Well, I’m not your play-anything,” he responded and disappeared from my view. “I’ll just park my ass in your sweet California king.”
I raised my brows and glanced over at River, who was smirking with his mouth full of food.
“So, I guess I’ll use the rectal thermometer to check your temperature, then?” I hollered up the stairs.
Shay laughed. “I fucking dare you.”
He dared me.
“He dared me, Riv,” I said.
“I heard.” He took another bite of his sandwich. “I’ll bring it when I’m done here. You go up and make sure he eats. Maybe let the painkillers kick in.”
Four
Shay Acton
Oh God, yes. I shivered incessantly as I crawled under the thick duvet and got settled right in the middle of River and Reese’s bed. My stomach felt better, but my headache had become much worse. The water had refused to warm up, so I’d showered quickly and was now paying the price. Every time I tensed up from the cold, and every time my teeth chattered, the pain in my head exploded.
I couldn’t even begin to process how I’d ended up here tonight. The pain was that severe.
Sweet Jesus. This bed was the best part of the Tenley twins. I sank into the mattress, and the heavy duvet weighed down on me perfectly, almost cocooning me. Even the pillow I’d stolen was fantastic. Downy and dense, like the best hotel pillow.
If I asked, would they agree to turn off the AC?
I couldn’t for the life of me think there would be any repercussions to asking someone from Virginia to turn off the AC in August.
At the sound of someone coming up the stairs, I braced myself to defend my position. They couldn’t make me sleep in the bed without the perfect pillows and thick duvet. I wanted to stay right here. I was even ready to ask them to act as human radiators and sleep close to me.
It was Reese. He got something from the bathroom before he walked over here and set a tray on the nightstand.
“How’s our little fighter?”
“He’s fighting below-zero temperatures,” I groused. “My head hurts.”
“That’s not good.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and opened a bottle of painkillers.
Despite the pounding in my skull, I forced myself up on my elbow so I could take the pills and some water.
“You were joking about the rectal thermometer, right?” I asked, throwing back the two pills.
Reese smiled and touched my forehead. “Not at all.”
Goddammit. “What if I use my safeword?”
“You’d be spared, obviously.”
Oh.
I should call red, then. Because I definitely didn’t want this weird Sadist to stick a thermometer up my ass. I didn’t.
“You should eat something, Shay,” he murmured.
“Later. Please.” I couldn’t right now. I carefully rested my head on the pillow again. “I feel like my head is going to split into pieces.”
“Okay. We’ll save it for later.” He nodded and rose from the bed, only to remove his belt, undo his jeans, and step out of them. “Get some rest while I take a shower.”
“Enjoy the freezing cold,” I mumbled and closed my eyes.
“No,” I whimpered pathetically, clinging to the thin film of sleep for all I was worth. “Leave me alone, please.”
“You don’t have to move an inch, sweetheart.” Reese’s warm voice came from behind me, and he slipped a hand into the boxers I’d borrowed from him. “You’re burning up. Can I take your temperature?”
I didn’t care. “Do what you want. Let me sleep. Hurts to talk.”
“Leave everything to me, then,” he murmured.
My headache had faded somewhat, but now I hurt everywhere else. My skin felt raw and supersensitive, I was so cold, and each movement caused tremors of pain to radiate through me.
Heat washed over my front, and I vaguely noticed a body shifting closer. It had to be River. I exhaled shakily and burrowed into his embrace, so far past giving any fucks about who they were, or that I’d barely exchanged any words with him. He was warm; that was enough.
I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth as Reese slowly slid the thermometer up my ass. At the same time, he kissed my shoulder and told me he wanted to ask some questions, but I didn’t have to talk. One tap on River’s chest meant yes, two taps for no. I could use my finger.
“Any nausea?” he asked first.
I tapped my index finger twice on River’s chest, and I felt him shake his head.
I genuinely didn’t care about the thermometer Reese had opted for, but even when I was sick as a dog, it was impossible not to register what it did to my mental state. It wasn’t as humiliating as I’d expected it to be, but it stripped me of my adulthood in a bizarre way. I felt small and pitiful, and it wasn’t necessarily bad. As long as they didn’t leave me to fend for myself.
“Upset stomach or stabbing pains?” he wondered next.
I hesitated, then tapped once. “Not as much as before,” I croaked in a whisper. “I don’t need to go to the bathroom.”
“I understand. You’re being such a good boy.”
I shivered and pressed my face against River’s chest. God. Why were my eyes welling up? And why had he called me a good boy? Fuck all of that. I was a grown man, dammit. I was not a good boy. I sniffled and cleared my throat.
Reese withdrew the thermometer and righted my underwear. “103. You’re staying in bed all day tomorrow and letting us take care of you.”
“Ugh,” I whimpered.
“Get some sleep, pup.” River’s voice was as warm as his brother’s, but it held a lower note and reverberated through me.
“Okay.” I sniffled again and waited until Reese’s body heat covered my back. “Don’t leave.”
“We won’t.” Reese kissed the top of my head. “You should take another painkiller, though. Riv, can you reach them behind you?”
“Yup.” River’s warmth disappeared from me, and I started shivering instantly.