She didn't care about him. No matter how many times he appeared to her in their unbreakable bond, materializing as she sat dining on Resistance rations or repairing her lightsaber. She refused to, regardless of how often she woke to feel the ghost of his body curled around her, hot and pulsing with life where his groin pressed against her ass. She refused to care anymore, Rey swore every time she felt the rush of blood in her veins and the tingle in the back of her brain signaling his imminent arrival through the Force. I don't care.
Then why did she feel so sick to her stomach when she saw the woman striding down the hallway beside Kylo Ren, their steps in sync and conversation flowing easily? The redhead was striking, her kohl-lined blue eyes glittering like ice; while the other First Order representatives wore their stiff uniforms, this woman was sheathed in a clinging black dress that ended just below her knees and elbows. With her hair pulled back in a long scarlet braid, nothing hid her ripe curves and toned muscles. As the Supreme Leader entered the conference room to greet the Resistance delegation, the woman remained just a half-step behind Kylo, her eyes following his every move.
"Dameron." Kylo sneered in Poe's direction, the commander seated at the oval table beside Rey. For this meeting, as important as it was, they didn't dare bring Leia. After Ren had killed his father, the Resistance doubted he'd hesitate to take out the general too, though Rey privately wondered. The First Order would have to settle for negotiating a possible peace with the notorious pilot and the last student of Luke Skywalker.
The Supreme Leader's deep brown eyes fell to Rey. She swallowed and sat up straighter, wishing suddenly that he'd never given up his mask.
His voice was lower than she remembered. "Jedi."
"Kylo Ren," she replied pointedly.
She felt waves of irritation flowing from Kylo as he took the seat across from her. The redhead sat beside him, her bright eyes scanning the room and assessing the rebels across the table.
Rey frowned. What does he want from me? Why are we even here, this can't work. But the Resistance members needed a chance at life, and the meeting on Coruscant seemed like the best choice at this point. And who the kriff is she?!
The woman's eyes met Rey's, and for a heartbeat, a cold smile flashed across her face. Without breaking their eye contact, she scooted her chair closer to her leader.
Rey's hands curled into fists in her lap.
Poe watched the interplay nervously, his gaze jumping between the women and the man across from him, the one who had tortured him only the year before.
"Well this is off to a swimming start," Poe said drily. "Let the talks begin. So we can all get the hell out of here."
She kept touching him.
Rey stumbled in her explanation of the need for peace, for the prosperity of the galaxy. "I, um- as I was saying, in order for progress, the violence in the Mid-Rim in particular needs to cease. The financial effects have already…"
The redhead leaned in to whisper something in Kylo's ear, her fingers grazing his arm as she shifted in her seat. He nodded thoughtfully and looked up. "You were saying?"
Rey drew a blank. The words flew from her mind; the data had been replaced by the redhead's damn hand groping Kylo's arm. He was flaunting his paramour in front of her. Her disgust for the pair of them was written on her face, she knew. Good, she thought. Let him see.
Studying her face, Kylo's eyebrows rose, and a faint smile slid into onto his lips.
"Yes, the financial aspects," Poe jumped in, saving her with a graceful explanation of their assessment of the current war's effect on both the Order and the resisting planets.
And on it went for the next two hours.
By the end, Rey was steaming, her cheeks flushed. Her fingernails left deep crescents in her palms. She managed to keep from spitting out her ire, but she had failed to help at all in the negotiations. Poe surprised her with the depth of his diplomacy; she felt slightly ashamed to have underestimated him. Leia knew what she was doing when she groomed the pilot for leadership, Rey should've trusted that. Poe sparred back and forth with Ren; though they made few agreements, the two parties hadn't attacked one another yet. It was a small miracle.
"There's a more important matter to attend to," Kylo said, interrupting Poe's quibbles over a beleaguered mining system.
Poe sat back. "And what is that?"
Kylo's eyes slid back to Rey. "I need to parley with the last of the Jedi. Alone. Matters of the Force are beyond you, Dameron."
Poe stood. "No way. You're not separating us, and you're not taking her anywhere."
"I can speak for myself." Rey hissed. "But he's right."
"I guarantee your safety," Kylo said. "I suppose we could discuss these issues here with Dameron, but I doubt you'd prefer that…" His eyes met hers, and Rey felt the press of the Force against her walls, and knew. He was referring to their bond, of course- and if she didn't meet with him alone, he'd bring it up in front of Poe, who would tell the Resistance and they'd never trust her again.
"No lightsabers, no weapons at all." Rey crossed her arms. "You attack me, we walk. Agreed?"
Unclipping the lightsaber from his side, Kylo set it down in front of the redheaded woman. "Agreed."
"Rey…" Poe started.
"It's done." Rey handed her saber to Poe. "I'll be fine. Trust me. And give us the room, please."
"Supreme Leader, this is inadvisable-" The redhead's voice was a purr, but beneath it, Rey sensed steel.
"Enough," the Supreme Leader barked. "Leave, all of you."
They obeyed, and in a moment, Rey was alone for the first time in a year with a flesh-and-blood Kylo Ren.
"I needed a breather. Force-users have never been much for politics. The Jedi should have known that," Kylo said wryly. He stripped off his gloves and tossed them onto the table.
"We're not going to have a nice moment together," Rey said. "We can't do that anymore. You and I."
He stood, and came around to the other side of the table. "Why not?"
Rey stood, and poked a finger at his chest. She'd thought the Force bond version of him felt real, but the body before her was massive and immovable. "Because you made a choice, and it was the wrong one. Kylo."
"The Resistance would've shot me on sight." Kylo smiled down at her hand, and raised his hand to cover her fingers. The press of bare skin against her own made Rey catch her breath. "I was angry about it too for a long time. I wanted to destroy you. You made me remember things, feel them…It was a lot."
The heat flowed between their interlocked hands; Rey could almost hear the roar of blood speeding through her veins. A flickering array of images from the visions she'd seen the first time they touched skipped through her mind. The potency of them made her throat tighten; why did the visions of their future together still feel so real?
She grabbed desperately at the first thing to come to mind that wasn't how strong and handsome he looked, gazing down at her.
"Go share your future with her," Rey spit. "She looks beautiful in black, perfect for you."
"Who?" Kylo's thumb stroked her palm. Somehow he'd pulled her closer to him, with their bodies only an inch apart. When Rey looked up to respond, the closeness of his mouth to hers was dizzying.
"You know damn well who. Your girlfriend there."
Kylo smiled then, the first true broad smile in all the time she'd known him. "Oh her? Yes she is lovely. She's very capable."
"So you admit it!" Rey twisted her hand from his grasp, but she was still trapped between his body and the table behind her. She settled for stabbing at his chest again with her fingers. "Sneaking into my bed at night for…whatever this is, when you have her. That's dishonest, it's disgusting, it…"
"It hurts you," Kylo murmured.
She wanted to say no. She wanted to throw him back with the Force, and then march right out the door. But the gaping wound Ben Solo had made when he abandoned her left Rey without words.
A sob tore from her throat. She nodded, and clapped a hand over mouth to smother the ragged sounds.
Kylo reached up to cup her cheeks. "Rey. She's my backup."
"Your what?" Rey asked, looking up at Kylo, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
"Trudith is one of my knights of Ren," he explained, his eyes dancing. "We don't have a personal relationship, not in that way. She's acting as a bodyguard and advisor today."
"Your bodyguard?" Rey's mind jumped back to the beginning: Trudith staying close to her leader at all times, Trudith assessing the room and the players with her cold gaze, Trudith protesting at Kylo being left alone with the enemy…
"But she touched you?"
"I've known her since Luke's temple. It's easier to use the Force when we're close together. She's not as strong as you," Kylo added, leaning in to press his forehead against hers. His hands slid down to wrap around Rey and draw her snugly to his chest. "Trudith was always more of a fighter. The mystical aspects of the Force bore her."
"Wasn't she unarmed?" Rey sniffed, relaxing into his body. Force, he was so warm, and smelled so good. It was the scent of him she hungered for every night when he wasn't in her bed, nuzzling at her throat, while they pretended nothing was happening.
"Her saber is kept on her back. Sloppy security work on your people's part. If Trudith had chosen to attack, they'd have never seen it coming," Kylo said, teasingly. "You're lucky I would never allow it. Not when you're here. Do you know how long it took me to arrange this?"
Guilt flooded Rey; she may loathe the people of the First Order, but she made a terrible assumption about a woman simply for being near Kylo. For innocently touching a man she…
"A man you what?" Kylo asked. His huge hands smoothed up and down her back, massaging the tension from her.
"It doesn't matter. I don't, I don't care," she whispered, even as she pulled him down to lay her lips on his, and claim him once and for all.
The opposing delegations hovered outside the door anxiously for a half hour before dispersing into another conference room for the evening meal, the finest the Coruscanti had to offer. Poe kept an ear cocked toward the hallway, waiting to hear sounds of distress from Rey, but eventually settled in with a glass of wine. She had defeated Ren time and time again; he had to trust in her, as Rey had requested. Perhaps the two Force users were reaching a middle ground diplomacy hadn't been able to. Poe preferred action to patience, but he'd been raised on Yavin with an understanding that he couldn't control everything- ultimately he had to have faith in the Force and whatever had brought them together, at this point.
"Please, oh Force please."
The last time they'd been together in the flesh, Kylo Ren had begged. This time, it was Rey who pleaded for him, with her naked legs spread on the polished table. Arching against the cool surface, she was thankful to have something countering the blazing heat rolling through her body.
She didn't know how she'd be able to hide this when the time came, but finally, truly, she didn't care.
Kylo's silky head lifted from where it was pressed between her thighs. His face shined with her wetness, and his pupils had dilated until they were swimming in darkness. "Admit it. Say it," he growled. His tongue dipped in to flick over her clit, the tender nub swelled and aching from his touches. "Say it, Rey."
"I can't," she moaned, dragging her hands through his hair.
"You can. You do," Kylo said.
"Yes…I do," she cried out, shaking against his tongue.
His head rose again. "Stop thinking about the future." His fingers slid into her cunt, working her inside even as his mouth drove her wild. "Let me love you- please."
"I love you, oh Force I do, I can't but I love you," Rey groaned, reaching her peak with his lips wrapped around her clit. She shook as he licked through her orgasm, drawing shivers from her until she couldn't take it anymore.
"I know you do." Kylo hauled her to the edge of the table, and wrapped Rey's legs around his waist. Sinking his cock into her soaking heat, he moaned and looked up to find Rey's eyes wide open and meeting him without shame.
"I want the future," Rey said softly, as he slid in and out of her. The table shook with the force of his thrusts. She spread her thighs wider, and dug her fingernails into his shoulders. "I want all of it, all of you."
"I'll give you what I have," Kylo gasped. "Everything I have. There's never been anyone but you."
Rey sunk back onto her elbows, and accepted it. Whatever happened after this day, she couldn't shut him out ever again.
Coming inside her with a hot spurt, Kylo fell onto her, kissing Rey desperately until they were gasping into each other's mouths.
"Do you think we can end this war? Is it even possible?" Rey asked.
"Maybe not. The First Order is beyond me now. But I wouldn't have arranged the parley if I didn't want to try," Kylo said, laying a gentle kiss on her lips.
"We can try. That's all I want." Rey returned his kiss with passion, joy overflowing in their bond. "All I ever wanted."
Notes: This fic is inspired by an anon prompt for "infidelity/guilt/begging." Thank you for reading- your favorites and reviews are much appreciated!