Page 112 of Specter Bred

I swallowed. His gaze dropped to my mouth. Then came back to my eyes.

Neither of us said anything for a moment, and suddenly I was painfully aware of everything: the heat of his body above mine, the weight of his hand around my waist, the lingering bite of smoke and steel in his scent, and the fact that Nolan Graves had stopped checking me for injuries several seconds ago...

Even if his hands were still moving across my body.

“Instead,” he said, his voice dropping lower and rougher. “You grew on me.”

My heart slammed against my ribs.

Graves’s fingers tightened around my waist.

“And that,” he added quietly, staring down at me like he was only just realizing how badly things had gotten out of his control, “became a whole different fucking problem.”

A loud, suspiciously deliberate cough came from somewhere near the floor.

Graves froze. So did I. We both looked down.

Hayes was still lying exactly where Graves had dumped him during the chaos, one arm folded beneath his head as he stared up at us.

“Sorry,” he said hoarsely. “Just wanted to remind everyone there are, in fact, three people in this room.”

"And Hayes… he's an idiot," Graves said, his eyes flicked briefly toward the bleeding beta still sitting on the floor. "But, he grew on me too."

Sammy blinked. "Wow. I feel honored, sir."

Graves ignored him.

"At first I wanted you both gone. Now..." His hand tightened slightly on my waist. "I can’t quite seem to let either of you go."

His hand kept moving.

Up my side...

Over the bare skin beneath my shirt...

Testing...

Learning...

Exploring.

"As for you and Hayes..." he murmured. "Dynamics like yours can strengthen a unit."

His thumb traced just under my ribs.

"That’s why Command assigns omegas to the strongest soldiers. Bonds make units harder to break."

Something ugly twisted in my chest at the mention of an omega, the polar opposite of me. Jealousy flooded me.

"So that’s what you want for your unit?" I snapped. "An omega?"

He barked out a laugh.

"No."

He glanced at Sammy whose lip had finally stopped bleeding.

"Like Farm Boy here, meek women have never been my type."