Thank you for the reviews and Happy Belated Easter!

As for those of you asking about why Padmé isn't a virgin. One, Vader clearly isn't going to push the issue. Also, Padmé is basically seducing him. I had a hard time picturing her doing that if she was still a virgin. Not saying that couldn't happen, but I found it a little more believable this way. Make sense? Also there are other reasons, but we'll get to those.

WARNING #1: Things will get a bit steamy, but nothing too graphic. It's probably nothing you haven't seen in PG-13 movies. However, if you feel differently, please let me know.

WARNING #2: Some of you may hate me after this.

Chapter Twenty One

Lust and Lies

Finally Padmé opened the fresher door.

Vader's eyes shot open

Wearing rather... seductive clothing. Actually there was very little clothing. A black silk robe. Underneath lay a matching blood red brassiere and underwear.

The colors of the Sith.

How poetic.

Vader got up from his meditative stance on the floor. His lustful eyes on the Senator. Vader had never stood up so tall and straight. Not even for his Sith Masters. He walked over to her. Circling her as she had once done to him.

For a time now, Vader had wondered if the Senator sensed it was inevitable too.

Apparently so.

The Senator really wanted to...

As he began to circle her again, she stopped him. Wrapping her arms around his hooded neck.

Really this...this was more than he ever could have hoped for.

Padmé noticed. She seemed... intrigued.

She truly was not afraid.

Nor he.

Of her or anything for that matter. Most men were intimidated by her. Her title. Her power. Then there were those that weren't afraid but instead tried to seduce her for her title, wealth, or both.

Padmé remembered a man once leading her towards a mirror at a gala, "Everyone says we make a beautiful couple, don't you agree?" Said...she could not remember that man's name. Nor did she really care to. He even had the gall to go on and on about how they would live. "Think of the beautiful younglings we will breed together." Which they might, if she actually wanted younglings- children to begin with.

Vader cared about none of those things. Power, titles, or children. Really they were equals on those fronts. Suffering from the same problems himself. Beings had been foolishly throwing themselves at him for these two long years.

Nor was he afraid to ask, even take what he wanted.

Well, maybe a little. At least, in this case.

Padmé could sense his...his hesitancy?

"Vader?" Padmé wasn't sure how to ask this question. "Are you..."

"What?" Vader stood there for a moment. Feeling rather foolish and self-conscious. "Is it that obvious?" Though he already knew the answer to that question.

Padmé said warmly near his hooded ear. "So you want me to lie?" She wrapped her arms around the danger hooded man before her.

Vader gave it some thought, "No," he answered. He got enough of that from Palpatine. He hoped she would always be truthful with him, but she was cut from the same cloth as Palpatine. They were politicians and they were not to be trusted. Which is why Vader to planned to do what Palpatine wouldn't and disband the Senate once he became Emperor.

Padmé couldn't help but smile. Darth Vader, one of the most powerful being in the Galaxy...was a virgin. What would the HoloNet say?

Vader knew what she was thinking. "Had I ever...with a woman," Or any being for that matter, "I would have to kill her." Vader explained, "If I didn't, the Emperor would see me as weak." Having a woman in the first place. Secondly, if he spared her would show signs of attachment and weakness. Besides Vader had been training, gaining power all these years. He didn't have the time or even see the appeal to sex. Well, lately the Senator had been dangling the forbidden fruit in his face. Still, at one time, he had thought of finding a woman. One of those beautiful Coruscanti models or dancers perhaps and bedding them. But in the end, though they were beautiful- gorgeous even- he never saw them as desirable. If he didn't see them as desirable, what was the point? Besides, they certainly wouldn't find him desirable. Nor would they really want to be with him. So what point was there in sleeping and then killing them? If his Master found out, he would surely find a way to use it against him. In a way, he was married to the Emperor and if he were ever unfaithful- so to speak- it would cost him dearly. Sidious would probably physically punish him. Take away his prize, the Executor. Palpatine might even seek to replace him as his Supreme Commander and Sith apprentice. Vader never wanted to take that chance.

Until the Senator came along, though he never thought of her as his wife. Just as "the Senator" and another one of Palpatine's games.

Padmé stat down on the bed. Giving a nod to her head. However there was one thing she did not understand. "Why the exception for me?" Was she some reward or party favor for Vader? Now Vader did not seemed pleased to have her around. Though he was attracted to her and Palpatine probably knew this.

Vader joined her to her right, "That I do not know." Vader shook his hooded head and shrugged. "An elaborate test? Perhaps in time, we shall discover the truth."

Back on topic, "Besides, what being would want to be with me?" Truly want to be with him. Just for him.

It wasn't like the Senator was really any different...was she?

No.

No, she just wanted...something from him. Like every being in the Galaxy. Though what Padmé wanted, he did not know. Perhaps she wanted to consummate the marriage. In case, Palpatine tried to annul it. Though that would likely never happen. The only way she would get out of this marriage would be if one of them- him, her, or the Emperor were to die. Though which one would die first, that was the question.

Though Vader planned for it to be Palpatine. Then he would kill the Senator... or will I? Vader was having second thoughts on that at the moment, but he would figure that out with time.

Padmé came closer. They were now face to face.

Vader was suddenly reminded how much smaller she was than he.

As for his question, "They don't want to be with you, because...they're afraid of you...like me."

Vader looked at her suspiciously and curiously. "Why would beings be afraid of you?" She was so intriguing and beautiful.

Padmé moved in closer. "The same reason beings are afraid of you."

Vader didn't move back, "You kill beings?" He didn't think so, but she had somehow gotten even more alluring.

Padmé didn't answer that last question, but she did point out, "Because we intimidate beings." Padmé whispered in his hooded ear. "They see us as cold." She pulled his hood back. "Untouchable..." She then climbed into his lap.

Vader then fell back onto the bed with the Senator sitting astride him.

But she was surprisingly right.

Between this and the Senator sitting on top of him, excitement, nervous, overwhelmed, and so many other emotions swirled around inside Vader.

He had never thought about actually having anything in common with the Senator.

He took off his gloves.

Now they were about to share much more.

Vader could not resist to touch her long, smooth, endless legs. He began at the ankles and worked his fingers worked his way up her thigh.

Vader raised his head as he found a blaster strapped to her thigh.

Padmé blushed. She had forgotten that was there. Truth be told, she felt naked without it.

Just as Vader felt naked without his robes. It did not help that the last time a being of flesh had seen him without those...it had not gone so well. Vader could still hear the crunch of those necks snapping. He hoped this wouldn't be like this or that he would snap. So far so good. He wasn't angry about the blaster.

While she wasn't supposed to have any weapons to begin with, Vader could have cared less. In fact, he felt himself even more turned on. How she even got such thing past security was a complete mystery. Before he discarded and threw it off to the side, the design of the blaster caught Vader's attention.

It was a Scorpion design.

Vader's eyes narrowed. The very same markings as Baron Clovis' tattoos...

Instead of lust, the Sith Lord's eyes turned to the color of flames. "Tell me about the Baron, Senator Clovis." It wasn't a question.

While trying to work at his belt, "Vader," Padmé did not like where this was going. "Speaking of another is often a mood killer," Trying to salvage the earlier mood.

Alas it was already gone.

Vader grabbed her and pinned her down and the bed, "Did you sleep with him?" Vader thundered quietly, but firmly.

Padmé looked up at Vader, "What does that-"

Vader cut her off, "Answer the question." He began to recall the clone trooper's report from all those weeks ago. Though Vader had only briefly looked at it. He hadn't really saw the need to look at it or care at the time.

Until now.

Baron and Senator Rush Clovis was a Human male who served as the representative of Scipio and a delegate for the InterGalactic Banking Clan in the Galactic Senate since the final days of the Old Republic. Clovis entered the Senate around seven years earlier and quickly formed a relationship with fellow first-year senator, Padmé Amidala which she later ended.

If only it had stayed that way.

Years later and during the Clone Wars, Clovis had CIS ties and sympathies. While Clovis should be behind bars, unfortunately the Banking Clan had been very influential with the courts.

One might think this would keep democracy loving and goody two shoes Senator Amidala away from her former flame, but no.

In fact around a year after Clovis' failed trials, he and Amidala reignited their relationship.

Now that he thought about it, that little detail made no sense to Vader. It seemed like a complete one eighty degree turn for her character.

While Vader was trying to understand this, the Senator finally answered his question.

"Yes," Padmé answered honestly. She saw no point in lying. Padmé sensed Vader already had an idea. Really why did it matter? Her being a virgin like him was that important to him? Or was he just that sort of man? Possessive and never wanting to see his woman with another man? Past or future.

Of course, she supposed the possessive part fit Vader's character. He would not even let her go shopping.

Padmé almost hear Vader's mind racing. His heart pounding as he already got up and began to pace back and forth.

How...how could she?

She was his.

She was always supposed to be his.

Even young Anakin Skywalker had known that from the moment he had first laid eyes on her on her fifteen years ago. If Vader recalled correctly, the boy even said they would marry.

This was all Palpatine's fault! If he had permitted Vader to come to Coruscant sooner, he could have made the Senator his years earlier. Keeping that fool far away from her.

Or better yet, in the ground where he belonged.

Vader stopped. Cape whirling back to face her, "Why were you even with him?" What was it? Lust? Love? "Do you love him?" She couldn't! She wouldn't...could she?

Padmé paused for what seemed like an eternity. Is that what he believed? That she loved Clovis?

While she cared for Clovis, love was a sacred emotion. Now Padmé loved her parents. Her sister and her family. Padmé even cared for the few beings she called "friends" like Dormé. But Clovis?

She enjoyed spending time with him. His company. The information he gave her...

Yet, despite all these things, she did not love Rush Clovis. She began to realize this after his proposal.

Love him? The more she thought about it, the more it took every fiber in Padmé's being not to laugh, but there was no time, her mind was racing.

Could she tell him why?

Her plans?

No.

Padmé could not trust Vader with that crucial piece of information. At least, not yet...someday.

Maybe.

When Vader proved himself trustworthy or Padmé had her claws sunk deep enough into him. To make sure he wouldn't run off and tell the Emperor. That or take matters into his own hands and mess up her plans.

Instead she would have to go to plan B, "Yes," Padmé lied, "Yes, I love him." She waited for a moment. Seeing if he would believe her. Also, she knew she was taking a great risk.

Vader looked at her in disgust.

For a moment, Padmé thought he was going to kill her.

Instead he stormed out of the chambers.

A surprised Padmé slowly rose. She peaked her head out the door. Padmé didn't find Vader, but a trail of unconscious bodies.

Well that went well.

Sorry to those that were expecting them to have sex, but you forgot what Vader said earlier about jumping to conclusions.

Next chapter: Padmé finally goes to far. Also I'll warn you now, it may be a bit short, but it's really good.

Review please.