Nimble fingers reached for the fastenings, and with a few quick snaps, he sprang free. Blue eyes widened at the sight of him, lips parting on a gasp of air. It would be her first look at him as well. Glancing down, he winced at the sight of his engorged cock, fluid glistening over the crown, veins lining a shaft that was angry and pulsing and excruciatingly hard.

He let out a grunt when her palm slid over him, thumb spreading the moisture over his skin. “Sorry, I’ve changed my mind. The sharks can’t have this. It’s mine.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.”

A dark laugh left him, one that was quickly throttled to a groan as she pumped her hand down and then back up. At this rate, he wasn’t going to last. She drew him back to her, lining the tip of him up with her body, and when her calves pulled tight against his buttocks, he had no choice but to slide into her warm, willing heat.

“Oh, fuck me,” he groaned as the exquisite pressure enveloped him.

She felt like goddamned paradise.

“Are you well,” he whispered when he was fully seated, her walls clenching around him in erotic, needy pulses. He definitely wasn’t going to last.

“Harder,” she said. “Like in the woods, but keep your eyes on me. I want you to do this as if it isn’t a mistake. Like you know exactly who I am and whose body is bringing you to pleasure.”

He froze, his confused gaze meeting hers, trying to read her expression and failing. His cock didn’t soften, but cold logic was present in his mind, ever lurking. She was right. This was different. This would change everything, and yet, he couldn’t stop. He didn’t want to leave the haven of her body, logic and sensibleness be damned.

“Who am I, Valentine?” she asked softly, rocking her hips up and making him lodge deeper into her.

She was a liar. A spy. A cheat. The bloody Kestrel.

She was a woman. A siren. A warrior.

His lover.

“Bronwyn.” Valentine pulled back from the clench of her body and thrust back in, the slick glide making them both gasp. “Bronwyn,” he said again before his mouth took hers in a drugging kiss, their bodies grappling below in a race to completion. One hand wound into her hair, cupping the back of her head and tugging just enough for her to gasp into his mouth at his handhold. His other hand went to her hip, securing her to him down there.

He felt as though he could never let her go.

Would never let her go.