As the two ate their food, Crow lapsed into silence, focused more on filling his empty stomach than holding a conversation at the moment. Just like the last dinner, the food was incredibly flavorful with a variety of spices he’d never tasted before to enhance each dish. He mostly filled his plate with venison, since it was his favorite type of meat, but he also made sure to try the other platters, since almost all of it was new to him. While there wasn’t much about noble life that was appealing to the thief, the meals were something he knew he would never grow tired of.

Once he felt pleasantly full, he leaned back in his chair with a satisfied sigh. It wasn’t often that he had the chance to eat to his heart’s content and still have food leftover. Living in the outer villages, it was rare that he could even completely fill his stomach and remain full throughout the day. Most of the time, he and his companions would split what they could while trying to ration their food to last long enough that they wouldn’t have to frequently go on raids to replenish their supply. They still ate enough to sate their appetites, but he often found himself growing hungry again mere hours after finishing a meal.

However, that didn’t happen with the rich dishes of the castle staff. After his supper the previous night, he hadn’t felt famished in the morning like he usually did after eating the lighter foods that he and the other thieves could scavenge. It was nice to finally be able to truly satisfy his ravenous appetite with red meat and other heavy foods.

Crow glanced at Penelope when she stood up from the table, following her with his eyes as she looked over the library and leaned against the bed. “I know what you mean,” he murmured when she brought up how much was changing, letting his gaze wander over the ambassador’s room—[i]his[/i] room. It was still strange to think that he was going to own anything. Aside from the house in Myrefall, he’d never had any possessions like this to his name before. Even though it was technically part of the castle that his father was the ruler of, it was still a private space that would belong to him when he took the job. He wasn’t sure how to feel about it yet.

As Penelope went on to talk about how she hadn’t been expecting him to take the king’s offer, Crow stood up from the table to walk over to where she was standing. His green eyes swept over her, and a smirk tugged at his lip. “A lot of things will be different,” he said in a low voice, moving to stand in front of her with his hands resting on either side of her waist. “But not everything has changed.” His eyes flicked back up to her face. “I may be taking a new title, but I’m still me.”

Leaning in, he touched a few soft kisses to her jawline, letting his lips brush against her skin as he added in a sultry whisper, “And I still find you [i]unbelievably[/i] attractive.” In the next moment, he moved in to kiss her more passionately, leaning his weight forward to push them both back onto the bed so that he was lying on top of her. Guessing that no one else would be stopping by now that it was so late, he let himself sink into her touch without worrying about the door.

“Want to help me make this room feel more like my own, love?” he grinned at her breathily when he pulled back from the kiss, trailing one hand down her side to toy with the hem of her pants.