Spycraft Academy B. Miles (new ebook reader txt) 📖

had an hour past, but he still saw blood behind his eyelids when he tried to sleep. If he didn't force himself into oblivion soon, he'd get no rest for the day tomorrow, and his fear of losing the next battle would become a self-fulfilled prophecy.

Fletch muttered something and grunted in his sleep, flopping onto his stomach. He smacked his lips and his jaw hinged wide open, ungentlemanly snores grinding in and out of his throat.

Great.

Sam folded the pillow beneath him to block the noise from his ears. He’d never been good at concentrating with noise. He'll need to get over that sooner or later.

There was a sudden knock at the door and Sam gave up completely on both sleeping and calming his ridiculous psyche. He let out a long, defeated sigh and tossed his blanket off.

He wrenched the door open and leaned on the frame, his eyebrows shooting up and his rolling brain stilling when he realized who he was looking at. It didn't occur to him that it would be Mattie until he opened the door, mostly because he'd been thinking that somebody better be dying considering the hour.

"Everything okay?" He rubbed his eyes until they adjusted to the dim candlelit hallway.

Mattie looked wide awake, and she wasn't even in her sleeping gown. Was she out doing something?

Sam glanced at her outfit. He'd never seen those trousers before, fine and deep green. Her shirt was uncharacteristically tight and thin compared to the billowing tops she preferred. She couldn't have been out hunting in such flimsy clothes. A strong wind could rip that shirt right off.

When the thought occurred to him, his eyes snapped to her chest briefly before he had time to feel like a lecherous asshole and sure enough, he could see the detailed outline of two pert breasts.

His eyes snap to hers. How long had he been staring at her chest like an idiot?

Mattie smirked at him, then she folded her arms behind her back and cocked her head.

Sam swallowed the excess saliva gathered in his mouth.

"Nothing's wrong. I just couldn't sleep and I figured you couldn't either. Wanna come keep me company?"

Yes. Yes, he did.

"Uh, yeah, let me just—"

"Don't bother, I've seen you in less." Mattie waved dismissively at his bare chest and without waiting, turned and sauntered away. She didn't look back over her shoulder.

This was the Mattie he expected after their little tryst. He didn't wonder why she was suddenly coming out now, he was too busy following her. Maybe that made him look too eager. Women found that unattractive.

Sam was halfway down the hall when he slowed his walk. He shouldn't let her think that he was some drooling mutt, so he shouldn't act like one . . . but he was already halfway to the end of the hall and he didn't want her to think he was so uninterested in keeping her company that he took his sweet time.

Damn the spirits, why did this have to be so complicated?

Sam collected himself, pushed his messy hair from his face, and kept walking. Mattie made it to the end of the hall, where a small alcove was situated underneath a bay window. The moon wasn't full tonight, but it was bright enough to bathe her in blue-white light. When she turned to look at him, her shoulder dipped ever so slightly, and his mouth went dry because he could see right through her flimsy shirt.

She sat down, an inviting smile on her lips.

His eyes moved when she pulled her braid over her shoulder and twisted the end with her finger. He'd been staring and she'd been watching him. By every element in the world, he probably looked as young and clumsy as he felt. He'd been at least slightly less of a dog when he had his first woman, and he'd been fourteen.

Sam swallowed again and closed the distance, his eyes on the window, staring at the black outline forest and the churning sea beyond. Quite obviously a strategic placement. An attack at sea would be far more detrimental than a land attack, so they set the least valuable people in the school closest to it. He bet Mode and the other instructors were cozied in the heart of the main building like kings in a castle.

Mattie scooted over and he sat beside her. She curled on the cushion seating, her back pressed to the wall. Both of his feet were on the ground, his hands on his knees, and his eyes frozen forward. He stared so hard at the other end of the hall that his vision tricked the shadows to move like there was somebody afoot.

"You've barely spoken all day," Mattie said.

"I hadn't noticed, sorry."

Her legs suddenly slipped into his lap and he stiffened for a moment before relaxing. She rested her feet on him all the time, everything was normal, he needed to calm down.

But even though he wasn't looking at her, he could see her smirking at him in his mind's eye. No woman would ever wear something so scandalous outside of her own bedchamber and yet she was, bold as could be. What did that mean? Did she know that she was tantalizing, or was she unaware of how she looked to him at any given moment, never mind nearly naked?

Stupid. Of course she knew, Mattie wasn't an idiot.

"Distracted?"

"Hm. Yeah."

"You seem distracted now."

Her words weren't what made his attention snap to her, it was her tone. It sounded like something . . . hidden. Like smoke. Like shadow. Like sex.

What was she doing? Did Drina put her up to this?

Sam kept his eyes on Mattie's and angled his body to face her, his hands gripping her delicate calves on instinct. He should say something about . . . them. Ask her about it. She was obviously playing some game with him at this point, he just wasn't sure how to respond to it. Mattie surely wasn't joking around like Drina, that would be wildly unlike her. She