Luke woke feeling warm and comfortable, leaning back against something with his head and upper back pillowed nicely. Aside from a blanket, their was something resting against his body - something soft, warm and breathing. Looking down, Luke saw a mess of golden-red curls, a pair of bare shoulders and the thin, blue straps of a tank top. Everything came back time him then. He chuckled, realizing that he had fallen asleep and not gone back to his dorm after the party. Lifting one of his hands from Mara's back, he gently stroked her silky hair. Luke had a thing for Mara's hair. It was such a beautiful, vibrant color and it was so silky. Suddenly, Mara gave a tiny moan and shifted. She looked up at him, her eyes only half open but still enough for Luke to see her vivid green eyes. His breath caught slightly. He had a thing for her eyes too. In fact, Luke had a thing for just about everything about Mara. Sleepily, she murmured, "That felt nice. Keep going;" as she laid her head back down on his chest.
Luke oblidged, gently stroking the silky hair. He leaned down and kissed her head, still able to smell the slight wiff of perfume from the night before. Mara made a quiet purring noise of pleasure. After another few minutes, she lifted her head again, her eyes more opened and alert. "Morning, you;" she said. Luke smiled and replied with the few lines of a song. "'Good morning, Beautiful. How was your night? Mine was wonderful with you by my side. I open my eyes and see your sweet face, it's a good morning, beautiful day.'"
Mara giggled and sat up a little, brushing his still greasy hair. "You are such a sap."
Luke's eyes flickered down and then back to her face with a slight blush. "Um... you may want to fix your tank. It's riding pretty low."
Mara's smile grew mischievous. "Oh? Does that bother you?"
Luke's blush grew deeper as he struggled to maintain eye contact. "Only because I want desperately to look but that would be disrespectful."
Mara giggled and said, "What if I want you to look?"
Luke cleared his throat but Mara sat up and adjusted her tank top. "Sometimes it's just so much fun torturing you, Luke. Burr, it's cold in here."
Luke rubbed her bare arms gently but vigorously as he looked around. One of his sweatshirts was hanging over a chair. He quickly got up and retrieved it for her. She put it on and then kissed him a thank you. When she had released him, she asked, "What's for breakfast? I don't have much here."
Luke pursed his lips and was about to respond when she kissed him again. It was a lingering kiss that promised to grow more intense if it continued. Luke broke away and smiled and Mara frowned. "Why did you stop?"
Luke chuckled and that blush returned. "This soon after waking up, I am afraid my pants would get a little tight if I kept going."
Mara grinned and leaned in. "Maybe you should take them off then."
Luke groaned. "Why do you insist on torturing me?"
Mara giggled and hugged him. "I'm sorry. I know it's terrible of me. Let me get changed and we can go get some breakfast at that little diner. I feel like pancakes, eggs and bacon."
Luke chuckled and said, "Alright but I'm gonna need to get changed before we do. I must really stink."
He turned around to give Mara some semblance of privacy. Mara started to giggle uncontrollably. "Hey Luke, what color bra should I wear?"
Luke gulped and asked, "What?"
"What color bra should I wear?"
"uh..."
Mara giggled more. "Should I go with a light blue or maybe a rich red? What about black and lacy?"
"Mara;" groaned Luke, putting his head in his hands as his over active imagination summoned mental images of Mara in each of those colors. It was playing hell with his imagination. Another chorus of giggles and then. "You know what, I think I'll do pink. I have matching panties for that one."
It was all Luke could do from whipping around and looking at her - the thought that she was in nothing but matching pink undergarments was absolutely torturous. Suddenly, he heard, "uh-oh..." behind him.
Luke was too afraid to ask what was wrong. Mara's voice was embarrassed and tentative as she said, "Um... Luke, could you give me a hand? I having trouble with this bra clasp."
Luke shook his head. "There is no way..."
"I promise that I'm mostly dressed. I have a shirt on and everything I just need to reconnect the clasp and I'm not able to do it for some reason."
Taking a deep breath, Luke turned around. She was wearing leggings, black boots and, true to her word, the bra was pink. Gulping and zeroing in on the troublesome garment to the exclusion of everything else, he quickly fastened it and Mara pulled her top down. She was wearing black leggings, boots and a sweater dress that hugged her figure nicely. To Luke's surprise, she was blushing. "Thank you;" she said almost timidly before kissing him.
Suddenly, Luke felt inspired with mischief and he said, "No problem. I can help you take it off later too if you'd like."
Mara blushed and gasped. "My, my aren't you getting bold, Farmboy. Tell you what, behave yourself today and I might just let you do that."
It was Luke's turn to blush. Mara smiled and said, "Let's go."
An hour later, they were comfortably seated in a booth at one of the town's quaint little diners. Mara had incessantly teased Luke while he had gotten changed, refusing to turn around after he had a clean pair of pants on and making flirtatious and appreciative remarks about his body while he finished getting dressed, causing him to fall into a permanent state of blushing. At the booth, she reached across and took his hand. "I'm sorry. I give you such a hard time and you put up with it so patiently."
Luke chuckled and stroked her hand. "With the exception of extreme and borderline painful sexual frustration, it's not all that hard to deal with. Cold showers are becoming my best friend since I've started dating you."
Mara sighed and said, "Yeah... mine too."
They were quiet for a bit. Suddenly, Han Solo and Leia Organa walked through the doors. Luke was about to call them but Mara put a finger to her lips, silencing him. They waited to listen as the waitress sat Han and Leia right behind them. The couple didn't seem to notice Luke and Mara as they sat. In a quiet, almost shy voice, Leia said, "It's awfully sweet of you to take me to breakfast, Han. Thank you."
The older man's voice was easy as he replied, "Well I figure I antagonize you enough. I might as well do something nice to you every once and a while. Thanks for saying 'yes'."
Mara's eyes shined with mirth and pleasure and Luke covered his mouth to stifle a chuckle. They listened as long as they could until their waitress came with a big pot of coffee, a basket of creamers, sugar and to ask for their orders. Luke and Mara tried to be quiet but it didn't work. Han peaked his head around and grinned. "Hey! Morning you two. Luke, Wedge texted and said that you didn't make it back to your dorm last night. Everything alright?"
The sparkle in the senior's told that he knew that everything was just fine. Leia poked her head around to, her face mildly interested while her own eyes sparkled. Luke blushed and said, "Yeah. Everything's fine. We were hanging out and fell asleep."
They both studied Luke and Mara. Han was a shrewd individual. "You know what, I believe you."
Luke and Mara rolled their eyes. Mara got a mischievous grin on her face. "How bout you two? Most people thought you annoyed each other to the point of violence almost. Since when did you two have breakfast together?"
Leia shrugged but her cheeks had just a hint of pink to them. "We don't always fight. We actual get along fairly well, thank you very much."
Mara looked at Luke and smirked. "Told you it was just sexual tension;" she said though she had never said any such thing allowed but the effect the words had were just too good.
Leia's face turned bright red and she gasped, "Mara! It is NOT sexual tension! We just never took the time to get to know one another."
Han covered his face and Luke grinned. "So... you two, um, got to know each other last night, did you?"
Leia's mouth fell open and she covered her face. "Shut up, Luke!"
Mara laughed and nearly spilled her coffee. "It's okay. You two are both consenting adults. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
"We didn't do anything last night;" said Han. "In fact, we basically had the same night as you. She came to the house for awhile and we talked and watched tv until we fell asleep."
Luke and Mara nodded. In their opinion, it was about time Han and Leia stop circling each other and actually try to have a mature, civilized relationship. Just then, the waitress gave them their meals. While he was eating, Luke's phone buzzed a couple times. He had tried to make it his policy not to have his phone out constantly when hanging out with Mara. With an indulgent smile, Mara swallowed her food and said, "Go ahead, Baby. I don't mind."
Luke smiled sheepishly and looked at his phone. The messages said that their would be a race in the city that night. It was strange. Not much time had passed between their last race and the present. That was doubly odd considering that the cops had gotten involved with the last race. He gave Mara the news and she frowned. "Are you going?"
Luke hesitated and then shook his head. "I'm going to talk to the Rogues about it but I don't think I want to. I have a bad feeling about this, Mara. It's just way too soon since out last race especially given the circumstances the last race ended in."
"What if the Rogues insist on going?" Mara asked quietly.
Luke thought about it but then decided. "If they do, I'll go but not to race. I'll just go to be there in case of trouble."
Mara's green eyes widened. "If you think there's going to be trouble then why on earth would you go?"
Luke shrugged just a little unhappily. "I can't just let them go without me into a potentially risky situation. I would feel terrible if something happened and I wasn't there to at least help."
Mara nodded. She wanted to be frustrated but that was just Luke - loyal and self-sacrificing to a fault. It was one of the things she most admired about him. With a heavy sigh, she said, "Well if you're going then so am I."
Luke opened his mouth to argue but she slapped the table, looking at him sternly. "I said 'I'm going!' If you don't like it, tough. If you're going then so am I."
Luke couldn't help it. He smiled and said, "You are so sexy when you're being authoritative."
Mara grinned and said, "Yeah? You like it when I take control?"
"I dunno;" Luke quipped. "but I can't wait to find out someday."
They both laughed and Mara gave him a sultry wink. "Soon, Farmboy. Soon."
Luke felt his hear skip a beat. Soon!
Luke had talked to Wedge and the Rogues and, no matter what he said, they still planned to race. Wedge was a little chagrined that Luke wasn't going to but in the end, he grinned and said, "Well I guess it's my turn to take the spotlight this time. Sounds good."
Luke chuckled. Despite all his misgivings, a small part of him was looking forward to watching the races later that night. Later, when he and Mara were hanging out in her dorm, she asked him, "So what should I wear tonight?"
Luke looked at her. She was still wearing the snug, gray sweater-dress that didn't quite reach her knees, the black leggings and the black boots. She had showered and washed her hair, allowing it to dry into its natural curls as she fluffed it lightly. Apparently, he had lost track of how long he had been staring because she turned around and crossed her arms with a patient smirk on her face. "Earth to Luke, Earth to Luke - are you going to answer my question or just ogle me?"
Luke chuckled and said, "I think I'll just ogle you."
Mara walked up to him slipped into his lap. "I take it. That means you like what I'm wearing already?"
As she wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders, Luke wrapped his around her waist and said, "Yup. If you dress like a racer groupy then you'll have racers ogling and groping you all night. I'd rather not have to break any hands."
Mara laughed. It was going to be an interesting night.
Updated 10/15/2018
