Sleeping lightly as he usually did, Crow woke up to the sound of footsteps as Gavin stepped over to rouse Penelope for her guard shift. He cracked one eye open to glance at the knight, who had leaned over to whisper her name. At first, there was no response as she laid curled up against the thief’s side, her chest rising and falling slowly as she slept. Crow held his breath, fearing for a moment that he had given her too much of the valerian root after all. If she couldn’t be awoken, Gavin might just skip her shift and move on to get Olivia up instead, which would be bad news for him.

However, after a short time, his worries were laid to rest when he felt Penelope stir against his side, and he let out his breath in a silent sigh of relief. The knights began to speak to each other in hushed voices, and he laid still, pretending to be asleep until Gavin eventually walked off to get some rest. In the next moment, he felt Penelope kiss his cheek, and he lifted his head, blinking tiredly as if he had just woken up. “Okay,” he murmured, stretching his limbs once she had stood up.

Crow waited for a little while longer, just to be sure that Gavin was asleep, before he rose to his feet and headed over to join Penelope at her guard post. His heart fluttered in his chest as he gazed at her in the darkness. Even though he was meeting with her in the middle of the night for the sake of his plan, it didn’t change the fact that he was genuinely excited to be with her again.

He smiled softly when he reached her, sliding his hands around her hips and leaning in to press a passionate kiss to her lips. After a bit, he shifted away from her mouth to trail gentle kisses along her jaw and neck. “Let’s go now,” he whispered into her ear, reaching to take her by the hand as he led her into the surrounding woods.

Fortunately, there was another clearing not too far from the one where their camp had been set up. When they reached it, Crow turned on Penelope with a devilish smirk and closed the distance between them with another deep kiss. As their lips met, he took hold of the hem of her shirt, lifting it slowly and tracing his fingers along the length of her sides as he removed the clothing. Usually, he preferred to take things slower and enjoy all of his time when he was with her, but knowing she was probably half-asleep because of the valerian, he didn’t want to wait too long and risk her changing her mind. It was better to sacrifice a little of the buildup for the sake of making sure everything went exactly the way he wanted it to.

He dropped her shirt on the ground off to the side and pressed into her again with zealous passion, running his hands over her soft skin as he gave her a moment to pull off his tunic if she wished.