Men could be so [i]spectacularly[/i] easy to entice. And yet he was not like many of the others she had encountered; he was so… careful with her. There was still an underlying apprehension that no amount of tenderness could allay.

“Tricks? I [i]imagine[/i] so, given what I’ve seen you do with your hands,” she murmured. Well, what she had [i]not[/i] seen him do, as it was- a pickpocket who was seen was a poor thief indeed, and Amal was not that.

Once upon a time she might have felt slighted, but today, being called ‘honest’ only made her let out a laugh. And then she felt his hand in her hair, on her neck, and his lips on hers and she leaned into him even further, her tongue pressing back against his. She swung a leg over to straddle his lap, delighting in the taste of his mouth for a few breaths, her hands searching for the scars on his chest, before abruptly pushing herself away, her fingernails digging into his chest.

“We shall continue this another time, I expect?” she said as she pulled away, somehow already missing the feel of his hand in her hair.