“‘You could use some work’?” Crow echoed with an incredulous roll of his eyes. “I’m the one pinning you down, and that’s all you can say to me?” He took no notice of Penelope’s subtle motions in his distraction, so he wasn’t prepared for her to fight back so suddenly. As she drove her knee into his stomach, he felt his breath leave him and he lost his grip on her wrists. He fell off of her, forced away from his weapon by her other leg, which had hooked behind his own.

Now on his back, it took him a moment to realize that their positions had reversed. Penelope was on top of him with her dagger aimed at his throat, and he was pinned down. He recoiled instinctively from the edge of the blade, his chest heaving as he fought to catch his breath. “Alright, alright,” he panted. “I get the message. No more dropping my weapon—even if it was to get up close and personal with a beautiful knight.” His eyes shifted away from her face as he glanced down at her lithe body on top of his, and he grinned. “You know, I know you won the fight, but I don’t feel like I completely lost.”

Reaching up with one hand, he brushed her weapon away from his throat and pulled her down to kiss him again. He wrapped his other arm around her back and, copying her trick from a moment before, hooked his leg behind hers to roll her over so he was on top of her again, though he did so much more gently than she had with him. He traced one hand from her jawline to her collarbone then all the way down her arm to intertwine their fingers. Doing the same with their other hands, he pulled her arms over her head again, trailing kisses down the side of her neck as he held her to the ground once again.

After a bit, he pulled back to meet her gaze again. However, when he did, there was a mischievous glint in is eye. In the next instant, he adjusted his hold on her wrists so he held both in his left hand while he reached for his dagger with his right—he had rolled both of them back over to his discarded weapon during the time he had been kissing her.

He held the blade up to her throat with a wink, “Never trust a thief, love.”