Page 163 of Specter Bred

Maeve gave me a flat look. “Since when do Specters ice bruises, sir?”

“Touché.” My thumb hovered near the discoloration without quite touching it. “Still, it looks like shit.”

“So does half your face.”

I stared at her as her mouth twitched.

“Careful, Teacup.”

“There he is,” she murmured, sinking a little deeper into the blankets. “Was worried you’d gone soft on me.”

“This is your one day off,” I told her. “Tomorrow, we’re back to normal. I’ll ride you and Hayes harder than everyone else, same as always. But today, you earned the rest, so take it.”

“What if I don’t want to rest?”

“Most recruits would kill for a day off,” I said, raising a brow.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to enjoy it. I just don’t want to spend the whole day lying here like a corpse.”

Her expression shifted, some of the sarcasm draining out of it. “When it gets quiet…” She hesitated, then looked away. “Well. You know, sir.”

I did.

I gave her a small nod because there wasn’t anything else to say. The quiet was always the worst. Long nights in empty rooms became moments when there was nothing left to focus on except the memories and all the ways things could have gone differently. That was when the what-ifs came crawling back in.

Maeve looked at me again, sharpness returning to her eyes.

“What I really need,” she said, “is a distraction.”

As she said it, she threw the covers back, revealing what she’d been hiding beneath them. She wore nothing but one of Hayes’s oversized T-shirts, the hem riding high against her bare, toned thighs.

My gaze betrayed me immediately, traveling the length of her legs before snapping back to her face. The little smirk waiting there told me she’d noticed.

“What did I tell you about wearing another man’s shirt when you’re with me, Archer?”

Her smirk widened.

“I can’t remember, sir.” Maeve caught the hem between her fingers. “Maybe you should remind me.”

Little fucking liar.

She remembered every word.

Maeve began drawing the shirt upward, deliberately slow, revealing another inch of bare thigh while holding my gaze. There was nothing hesitant about her now. Every movement was calculated, a challenge written into the slight curve of her mouth.

So much for fucking resting.

“What do you say, sir?” she asked, biting down on her bottom lip. That familiar spark of defiance burned in her eyes, telling me she knew exactly what she was doing to my control and wanted to see how long I could resist. “Will you stay with me and be my distraction?”

I stared at her for a long moment.

“If I get in that bed with you, Maeve, I’m knotting you.”

The challenge in her expression faltered.

“I tried keeping my distance. Told myself it was better for you, that I was protecting what you’d earned.” I shook my head. “Then last night I thought I’d fucking lost you.”

I moved closer to the bed.