Spycraft Academy by B. Miles (little readers .txt) 📕

were pressed against his. Sam didn't move, half of him wanting to push her away and half of him wanting to pull her on his lap.

Rosin made the decision for him. She slid between his legs and pressed her mouth tighter against his, brushing her tongue along his bottom lip and holding his face between her hands. He shouldn't, he knew, but all his body needed was the tiny spark of desire and it latched on, plowing through every wall of resistance he possessed.

He opened his mouth the tiniest bit, his stomach flooding with equal amounts of hot guilt and want. Rosin was beautiful. He tried not to notice, but it was a bit difficult. She was slim like Mattie and short like Drina. Delicate, sweet, and he'd be lying if he said he hadn't wondered how she might look bucking on his lap, her silver hair loose and plastered to her face.

Rosin's little tongue darted out to flick shyly against his, and his resolve completely vanished as if it were never there to begin with. He kissed her deeply, holding her tight to him and swallowing the little sounds she made when he played with her hair.

It didn't last long. As soon as her lips left his, he wanted them back, but his mind roped in any stupid animal urges he had and forced him to think past the quickly growing haze. Oh fuck. What did he just do?

Rosin kneeled in front of him and pressed her fingers to her lips, smiling softly. When she noticed his expression, her smile dropped, and she rushed to clasp his larger hands in her own.

"I'm sorry, Sam! I just...I got so nervous, I didn't tell you, and I know I should have from the start, but Mattie said that I should just do it when I feel nervous, so I did, and now..."

Sam swallowed and she fluttered her hands at him, making a frustrated little sound. "I'm sorry, let me start over! Mattie and Drina told me that I should kiss you."

What?

"Are you..." Why on earth would they do that? Sure, Drina seemed the type to not care as long as she could participate, but Mattie? Drina had been a special case, but now Mattie was going and telling other girls to kiss him? Not that he was complaining, but by the spirits, what was he supposed to think about this? She wouldn't set him up and test him, he was pretty sure. She did that to other people, but never to him. He would be so hurt if she did that, almost as embarrassed that he failed the test.

"No, really." She squeezed his hands, "Mattie asked me if I liked you and I'm such a terrible liar, so she found out. And I was afraid she was going to be upset but she told me it was okay. That you were hard not to like, and that I should just...tell you how I feel. And, and, well, I've only kissed a couple of boys before, and I wasn't sure I would do it right, so Mattie and Drina showed me how to do it and...and..."

He liked to think he knew the woman he loved well enough to say, with confidence, that she would never play a cruel trick on him like testing his loyalty. Maybe she really was okay with it, but he couldn't figure out why or how. If he thought of Mattie being with another man, his stomach turned and he had to forcefully banish the thought before his blood started to boil.

"Rosin." Sam smiled and chose his next words carefully. The last thing he wanted to do was upset her. "How about we talk about this more tomorrow, yeah? I'm about five minutes away from curling up underneath this tree. I promise I'll be better company in the morning."

Rosin's shoulders sagged, but she held her answering smile well. "Of course," she said. It didn't sound sincere. Sam wasn't doing well with this situation. He really didn't want to scare off his new crewmember, nor did he want to make any move without figuring out what, exactly, Mattie was trying to do here.

There was a tense, awkward moment and Sam almost offered to walk her back to her room, almost left his post just to banish the tense silence between them, but something caught his peripherals and his head snapped to the side.

A dark figure was casually strolling behind the buildings. Frustration and dread made Sam's face flush because it was bloody Apelles, walking as if he didn’t have a care in the world, to his house. Which meant that he left his house and despite Sam sitting in his spot for hours, he didn't catch the bastard.

Simply watching his house was clearly not going to work.

17

"My, you slept late." Drina smirked and shoved her fork in her mouth as Sam sat down at their usual breakfast table. She was right; Sam was usually up with the dawn like the rest of them, but last night he'd been so exhausted and frustrated that when he passed out, there was no way he was going to be waking up with less than six hours of rest.

"Sorry." Sam flattened his hair. He barely had time to make himself look presentable this morning, so he did what he could before dashing out of his room; the prospect of missing breakfast was much more worrisome than looking like he'd just rolled out of bed.

"Don't be." Drina put her silverware down and clasped her hands, resting her chin on her knuckles. Sam narrowed his eyes at her but didn't stop shoving food in his face as fast as he could.

"So, how late did the two of you stay up?" She asked, her eyes wandering to Rosin.

Sam stopped chewing, his eyes darting from Drina's smirk to Rosin's downcast eyes to Mattie's quirked and knowing half-smile. To hells with it. He swallowed his food and wiped his mouth before clearing his throat and looking dead