Her breath hitched when his knees hit the side of the mattress, and he stared down at her like a backlit god about to wreak havoc on the world. On her world. Her teeth sank into her lower lip with a moan, and his eyes dilated. “My word, you’re exquisite.”

With reverent fingers, he unrolled each of her stockings, warm lips caressing her skin all the way down. She wanted him all the way up…right to where it ached the most, but he took his time at her ankles, at the sensitive skin behind her knees, the delicate muscles along her thighs, and by the time he removed her drawers, she was a writhing, disconsolate mess.

He stared, eyes memorizing every curve. Reality intruded, and Bronwyn felt a flicker of uncertainly. No man had ever stared at her naked body or her exposed sex with such blazing intensity. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, you’re fucking perfection.”

Need contorted his face, making those golden eyes half-wild as he bent and Bronwyn braced. Lick me, she wanted to scream. As he’d done on the ship. But all she felt was the barest kiss of his breath on her overheated flesh and his moan of pleasure as he inhaled.

“Turn over,” he commanded in a hoarse voice.

The horrid, heartless beast.

“I want to see you without a stitch on this perfect body, my lovely Kestrel,” he said. Bronwyn almost squirmed in pleasure. When had her handle become such a wickedly sinful moniker instead of a curse on his lips? “I want to touch every inch of you so that you never forget.”

Bronwyn obeyed, the friction of her wet thighs moving together almost impossible to bear, and then his hands were working the laces of her dress and corset. Every press of the fabric against her flesh made her skin prickle. She was so aroused that each second felt like she was about to shatter. The mattress shifted with his weight as Valentine eased the garments off her body. Air kissed her bare skin and then…nothing. With her face buried in the bedclothes as she was, she couldn’t see him, but she could feel him staring at her. It made her chest squeeze that she could bring him thus, to such a speechless state.

Bronwyn turned and propped herself on her elbow, glancing at him where he knelt on the bed, jaw slack and eyes so burningly bright they almost outshone the fire behind him. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Bronwyn. I admit I did you a gross injustice by not worshipping this body in the manner it deserved. Twice.” A fingertip chased down her spine, causing her to arch wantonly. It traced over the place on her arse where he’d bitten before dipping into the crease between her legs and making her gasp.