Page 86 of Specter Bred

Her hair was a mess. Her breathing was still uneven. Her cheeks were flushed.

She had never looked more beautiful.

And somehow, despite the fact that I’d just made her come hard enough to nearly suffocate me, that smug little smirk was already returning.

“You came.”

I blinked up at her. “After you.”

“Barely.”

“But after.” I held up a finger, because this distinction seemed extremely important. “I followed orders.”

Her eyes narrowed playfully. “You touched yourself without permission.”

Well.

Shit.

“Okay, in my defense, I was experiencing an oxygen shortage at the time.”

Maeve snorted.

“And,” I continued, finding my confidence now that she was laughing, “your original directive was very specific. You said I better not come before you. I did not. Mission accomplished.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“An idiot who followed orders.”

She laughed harder, and warmth spread through my chest.

Then I remembered something.

“Wait.”

Maeve’s brow rose questionly.

“What was the ‘or else’?”

Her smile turned downright predatory.

“You really want to know?”

I nodded vigorously.

“Then I guess you’ll just have to be a bad Boy Scout sometime and find out.”

Well, fuck. Truthfully, I hadn’t been sure I’d mind being punished by a woman like Maeve Archer before.

Now?

I was already considering which order to disobey first.

She finally rolled away from me and flopped onto the mattress at my side.

For a long moment, neither of us spoke.

We just lay there shoulder to shoulder, staring at the ceiling while our breathing slowly returned to normal. The room felt strangely quiet after everything that had just happened, filled only with the hum of the vent and the occasional creak of the mattress whenever one of us shifted.