Cara was stirred from slumber by the gentle way someone was carding their fingers through her hair. She was fully awoken by the thought 'who the kriff is touching me?'
She jerked up to a seated position and immediately had to pull the sheets up to cover her chest. She wasn't always one for modesty but she felt very vulnerable at the moment, not knowing where she was, where her gun or armor was, or who the vaguely familiar man with jet black eyes staring at her was.
"We did not mean to wake you," he said softly.
His voice was deep and slightly melodic, and that more than his use of "we", pulled up her hazy memories of the night before. A crowded cantina, a tall stranger with dark eyes she thought she could drown in, and an accented voice waxing poetically that her electric aura tasted of starberries and rain. She even remembered his name, Vector, which she counted as a personal victory based on the hangover headache pounding in her temple.
She realized was staring at him, and he was watching her gape at him like an idiot. She shook her head to loosen the cobwebs.
"It's alright I'm just used to waking up alone," she said, glancing around the unfamiliar room. "Where did we end up?"
"You do not remember checking into a hotel with us?"
She wasn't sure, since his tone barely changed, but she thought he sounded amused.
"Not really, I remember desperately needing to get you into a bed and then being in one." And the feel of him moving above her, whispering strange praises into her ear about her song, her aura, that made her feel like a giddy virgin.
"We did notice that you were distracted on the way," Vector said with a smile, standing up off the bed and walking around it toward the side where Cara was sitting. She turned to watch him, appreciating the view. Her newfound sense of modesty was obviously not shared as he showed no reservations about walking around the room stark naked.
And she wasn't about to complain about the view. In fact she wanted to protest when she realized he was collecting his clothing. The floor between the door and the bed was littered with pieces of cloth, armor and various weapons. Some were her's, but he had obviously been more armed than she had realized.
"We are two streets north of the cantina where we met," he said as he started to get dressed. "We do apologize but we must be going soon."
She watched him dress, one piece by complicated piece as Alderaanian clothing tended to be. She had pegged him as being from Alderaan, or his clothing was at least, when she first saw him in the bar. It was part of what drew her to him. She had been looking to blow off some steam and, if she was honest as she normally was, needed a good fuck. Alderaanian nobles weren't exactly known for their skill as lovers, but promiscuity was almost as common there as royal intrigue.
As it turned out, he wasn't an Alderaanian noble, was Imperial born if the bit of crisp accent that occasionally poked through his normally melodic tone was any indication, but that hadn't dissuaded her. She was one of the best Bounty Hunters in the galaxy and she didn't get that way by giving up on a mark before the chase had even begun. In the end it wasn't much of a challenge to get close to him, and after sharing a few rounds and discrete touches in the crowded bar they had left in search of a more private venue.
Now that she thought about it, it was so easy that he must have been looking for the same thing she was. Company, a warm bed and a roll in the sack. There were certainly worse ways to spend a night. It hadn't been the rough, hard fuck she had been looking for, the kind she usually found in dumps like that. The fact he took her to a hotel instead of an alley was almost a novelty.
Despite the change in plans, the softer and more tender nature of the night, she felt satisfied in a way she rarely did. The stress and barely constrained anger she wanted to work off when she ditched her crew felt light years away. She was, in a word, content and she knew it had more to do with him than just the sex.
If she had been prone to girlish notions of love at first sight, or love at all, she might think that was the difference here; the difference between fucking and making love.
And now he was preparing to leave, walk out of her life forever.
As he was working on retrieving the rest of his gear from where it was scattered amidst her own Cara pushed herself off the bed, carefully wrapping the sheet around herself like a makeshift wrap dress.
"Vector?"
He stilled at the sound of her voice and looked up from where he had been fitting a dagger into his boot.
"Yes Caradoc?" His voice even softened the normally harsh sounding cadence of her full name.
"Thank you," she said softly, looking up to meet his uniquely black eyes, "for last night. I needed that more than I thought… I'm guessing this was a one time thing? A starships passing in the night kind of thing?"
He stepped forward, closing the small space that had existed between them, and reached up to run his finger along the curve of her jaw.
"Would you like it to be or do you wish to see us again?" His voice was lower than he usually spoke and made her feel a little weak in the knees.
She refused to physically swoon in front of him, she had a reputation even if she was naked and clutching a sheet to her beast, but she did let out a shaky breath.
He smiled and leaned down, kissing her softly before pulling minutely away. "We would like to see you again too and we do believe we will." The words were spoken against her mouth, his lips brushing against her's with every syllable. He shifted his head and pressed a kiss against her temple before stepping away.
"Be well, Caradoc."
And then he was out the door and gone.
She stared at the door for a long moment, trying to process what had just happened, before realizing that she didn't know how to get a hold of him. Or even where he was going.
"Fine," she muttered, dropping the sheet and starting the process of getting herself dressed. "He will just have to find me." Or she could have Mako track him down, but making him find her did have a certain appeal to it.
Once she was dressed she left the room and realized she didn't know if they had paid for it. She debated for a moment just ducking out a window and leaving it be, she wasn't above ditching on a bill from time to time, but business had been good and so had the night. She was in a good mood, and if that meant footing the bill for their hotel room so be it.
Cara made her way down to the lobby, which was surprisingly nice compared to the state of the cantina nearby. It was nice to know she hadn't stayed in a dump for once since "nice" accommodations were so rarely available on her business trips. She had to wait in line behind a rather nasally voiced woman and her equally annoying husband, speaking far too loudly of their plans to see the city later as if anyone nearby cared, but even that didn't damper her spirits much.
Whatever he did to her, she kinda wished she could bottle it and sell it to the highest bidder. Or keep it for herself. She had never been one to deny her selfish tendencies.
When it was finally her turn to speak to the receptionist she passed over the room key she had grabbed on the way out and requested to check out.
The receptionist, a young twi'lek woman, took the key card and scanned it. "Oh it looks like your bill has been settled ma'am."
"It has?" Cara asked, surprised before smiling. Apparently he didn't leave her with the bill after all. So Vector was a gentleman and a generous lover. That's it, she thought, Mako is hunting him down for me.
"Yes, it was paid in full this morning and a message was left for you." The receptionist handed her a slim data chip with her name and room number on the removable label.
"Thanks," Cara said, distracted, as she stepped away from the desk. She couldn't help but feel suspicious, it was a side effect of her line of work. Vector had just seen her, why would he leave a message at the desk for her? But who else could know she was here.
She left the lobby and ducked into a quiet alley behind the building. After checking that no one was around she plugged the data chip into her datapad. There was only one file on the chip and when she opened it there was only three words and a holofrequencey number in it but it made her smile.
"For next time."