They're in the dining hall and she won't let him go. He feels like he's won the whole galaxy and he thinks perhaps he has. She keeps a hand on his thigh, and her ankles rest against his. She's a bit like he felt at the beginning, as if she's afraid he'll float away.

No one is sitting with them and suddenly she looks at him with a coy expression and says "So … when you were … let's say, hiding." He's on alert now, but her tone is playful.

"Uhm. Yes?"

"Did you see everything?" She lifts her eyebrows suggestively.

He swallows quickly. Oh, he's in for it now. "Generally no, I would leave when you were changing or … other intimate things." It's her turn to look embarrassed but she recovers quickly.

"Generally?" Caught that, did she?

"One time, only once. Well, twice. You were swimming naked in your dream, you remember? Anyway, it was after the Bond had started to bleed, when you were picking up on things because my control was in tatters. After you'd begun to dream of me. You'd had tea with my mother that day and were softening towards me. I told myself you wouldn't mind so very much if I peeked … while you changed. I know I shouldn't have done it." He looks down. He's very afraid of her reaction. He's feeling so close to her and he knows this will likely ruin it all.

"I should be furious."

"Yes."

"I should refuse to speak to you."

"Yes." This is it. He just knows he's lost her.

"But I find I'm rather … flattered." He can't quite believe what he's hearing. Then her eyes fly open as she's making connections. "That was the first night I …" First night? She'd … like that night, again? She goes an adorable shade of pink. "Did you stay for … that?"

"I didn't mean to, but … seeing you like that, it, uh, well it affected me. I was …. thinking about you, rather … interactively. When you began to … I couldn't help myself, I'm so sorry, I know I shouldn't have." Will she forgive this too?

"It's alright, Ben. So last night wasn't the first time you've seen me naked, hmm?" She's just full of mischief and he's impossibly relieved.

"Why aren't you angry?"

"I'd thought a lot about it, when I first found out. I'm actually surprised it was only once. I'd assumed you'd made a habit of it. Why do you think I was so angry about everything you took?"

"Maker, it's a miracle you're sitting here now if that's what you thought." He throws his napkin down. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but I really did try to conduct myself honorably. I admit I made a mess of it, I did, but I tried not to … take."

She grasps his hand and looks into his eyes and says, "Maybe it's time for me to give." She says this heavy with meaning. At first he's confused.

"Oh. Oh!" His whole body is infused with heat at her insinuation. "Are you finished with your dinner?" he says rather desperately.

"Yes, I'm finished. With dinner." She keeps looking at him like he's something delicious and he almost trips over his own feet in an effort to get them moving as quickly as possible.

~BR~

He's just closed his door and has her pushed up against it, kissing her neck, sucking at her pulse point. He's pushing her shirt up and her bindings down. He wants her so badly and tonight she'll be his. He pauses at this thought, realizing he must slow down. She will only have this once in her life and he means to make it perfect. He takes her hands and pulls her over near the bed. He waves his hand and the lights dim. He stands in front of her, looking into her eyes and says, "Rey, I need to know that you want this."

"I think I made that pretty clear at dinner." She's smiling up at him and he wants her, badly.

He growls low in his throat and whispers, "You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. I have wanted this for so long. Wanted you." He pulls her shirt over her head and makes quick work of her bindings. Then he pulls his own tunic off. He circles her and stands behind her, pulling her flush against him. She gasps and throws her head back, exposing her delicate throat. He bends his head and kisses her neck, trailing his fingers along her collarbone. He smooths his hand along her side, feeling the curve of her waist as he moves his fingers over her exquisite skin. Then he's cupping her perfect breast with one hand while teasing her waistband with the other. He's placing hot, open-mouthed kisses along her throat and bites gently where her neck and shoulder meet. He feels her nipple pebble under his long, sensitive fingers and he delights in the feel of the weight of her breast in his palm. She's so soft and he can't help but grind himself against the small of her back.

While his left hand is busy with the gentle swell of her small, firm breast, his other hand slowly makes its way into her panties. His clever fingers delve through her soft curls, finding her so very wet for him. He whimpers when he feels that; feels how she wants him. She wants him. Oh, it's so much more than he'd ever dreamed. He dips his fingers deep inside of her, drenching them with her essence. He strokes along her perfect bud and she's trembling.

He holds her up with his left arm, keeping her close to him, with no space between his hard chest and the elegant curve of her back. He keeps kissing along her neck, and then his breath is ghosting in her ear, "I'm going to make such sweet love to you, I'm going to fill you up and make you gasp my name in pleasure. I'm going to make you mine. Will you be mine, Rey?" He flicks his tongue out along the shell of her ear as she nods frantically. "Yes Ben, please, please." She's almost begging.

He draws his hands from her body and goes down on his knees in front of her. He removes her boots one at a time then peels her leggings and panties off. She's standing in front of him, naked, with him still on his knees, looking up into her wide, lovely eyes. He just looks at her for a long moment, not quite believing that he's here. After a year of furious longing and desperate hope he's here, on his knees in front of his incandescent Rey. He bends forward and leaves a single heated kiss on her mons, wanting so badly to taste. She gasps and he can feel her desire swirling across the Bond. It tickles along his spine and curls within him deliciously. He lifts one of her legs and puts it over his shoulder, opening her to him. She's so beautiful. She grasps his shoulders, gently encouraging him forward. He buries his face in her delectable heat, needing to feel her with his mouth. He inhales deeply; the scent of her desire so intoxicating.

He thrusts his tongue up into her, imagining how it will feel when it's his cock. Oh Force, she tastes like honey and sun and he knows he will never get enough. He's lapping at her core, her clit so hard against his tongue as he rolls it slowly. She's tangling her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer as she wantonly presses her hips into his face, needing more. He takes her bud between his lips and sucks as he curls his fingers deeply within her. She moans, then, the sound of her desire stoking his want for her. He needs her, so badly. She's gasping and breathing out his name and he feels that she can barely hold herself up. He knows it's time. Swiftly he stands, picking her up in his arms, and the sudden shift leaves her bleary. He pauses then, just holding her in his arms, as if she were his bride. An entire life spins out in front of him; he can see forever so clearly in her eyes. He can't believe he's here with her, about to join with her in this way.

He whispers, "You are everything to me, you understand? Everything. Love is not nearly large enough a word to encompass what I feel for you. I could spend every day for the rest of my life trying to show you what you mean to me and I would fail."

Her eyes are wide and oh so open and she reaches out and traces his jaw with her delicate fingers. "I feel it. I feel it in your hands and your lips. I feel it when you hold me. I feel it," she says.

He lays her on the bed then and quickly removes the rest of his clothing. He stretches out above her, pulling her close and kissing her deeply. He feels how her need is making her tremble and it's all he can do to keep from thrusting himself into her with one sure motion. But he knows this may hurt, and wants to go as slowly as he can. He's so close to her now. His cock is twitching, as if instinctively seeking her heat. He looks deep into her eyes and is struck by how perfect this is, how this is what he'd been seeking. This incomparable woman with her fierce loyalty and her aching vulnerability. He stills, drinking her in, feeling the heaviness in the air and the tremulous perfection of his Rey. He holds himself just outside her, pushing against her folds, but he needs to hear that he is welcome. He needs to know that she is giving herself to him; that he's not taking. He holds her fathomless hazel eyes in his and says, "Let me in, Rey, oh please, please let me in."

She wraps her legs around him, pulling him closer. Caught in his dark eyes, she breathes out, "Yes …"

He enters her so gently, feeling every inch of her as he pushes home. He sees a moment of discomfort flit across her face, feels as she stretches to accommodate him for the first time. Her face softens again and there is heat in her eyes. Soon he's buried deep within her and he can feel her pulse. He holds himself there, wanting to just feel, experience, know his glorious girl in this, the most intimate of ways. Months and months of inexhaustible need, desperate desire, all of his wishing and dreaming and he's finally here. She feels incredible. She reaches up and trails her fingers along his face and sighs, "Oh Ben, it's like the Bond, it feels like the Bond," as she rolls her hips in order to better feel him inside of her. He's filled with awe as he feels her heart begin to beat with his.

Slowly, he begins to move. Feeling her this way, it's making his emotions go haywire. This, this is what he was built for. This is where he was meant to be. He's nearly overcome with the totality of being one with her like this and he feels a fluttering across the Bond. His eyes have never left hers and he senses no distress. "Let me in, Ben," she whispers, and he opens himself to her fully, giving himself to her the way she is giving herself to him. He feels her fill him with her radiant light and then she finds it. This is the place in him that no one has ever touched; that last scrap of himself he guards so closely. This is his sanity; the source of his strength and his pain. His light. He feels when she touches it, frees him, sees him. She's basking in his light and he feels his eyes fill with tears.

She's taking him apart and making him anew. She's inside his soul while he's inside her body and it's a closeness he would never have even dared to imagine. He feels what she's feeling as he moves within her. He knows what it's like to be filled and she knows what it's like to fill and they're both nearly overwhelmed with the depth of pure love coursing through them. His eyes stay on hers as they build a gentle rhythm. The feeling of thrusting into her, he hadn't known – Force, he hadn't known it could be like this! Her warm, tight heat, caressing his length … he's becoming incoherent with the bliss of being buried within his love. He feels her arms along his back, pulling him closer, her legs pulling him deeper. It's as if she's trying to bring all of him inside of her. He wants to push all the way in and never leave again.

He knew this would be sacred, but no, this is holy. He feels her walls flutter against him and heat curl in his center as he moves within her. He senses through the Bond that a delicious ache is forming in her depths and he shifts just slightly, the head of his cock brushing against that special spot and she digs her fingers into his back and cries, "Ben – Maker, Ben. Just like that, oh Force, just like that." She's whimpering now, thrusting her hips in time with him. He keeps himself angled just so, and reaches between them to roll her perfect bud between his strong fingers. He strokes into her as he firmly rubs her; he wants so badly to feel her shatter around him. For him.

His pace is growing erratic and he can feel her, feel her coming undone around him. The sensation of her warmth around him and her love inside of him starts him moaning incoherently. Suddenly she shouts out and grabs his face, her eye contact incredibly intense and he feels the moment her orgasm breaks. She keens. Waves of her wash over him and he feels her climax move through him and he's right behind her. He pushes deeply into her one last time and gasps out, "Rey!" as he comes spectacularly; undulating bliss suffusing him, filling her with his pleasure. He's gasping and panting and their eyes are locked, hearts beating as one.

Slowly they come back into themselves, and she blinks up at him. He kisses both cheeks and then her perfect, pink mouth and leans his forehead against hers, still deep within her. "Rey …" he sighs.

He doesn't know how to tell her that he feels like he's never done that before, that this has somehow made him clean again. He doesn't know how to tell her that being with her, like this … it has changed him profoundly. He doesn't want to withdraw; he wants to stay inside her forever but he's worried he'll crush her.

"No Ben, you won't crush me. Stay. Stay just like this. I never want you to leave." He's holding himself on his elbows, his face inches from hers.

She's looking at him in wonder and says, "Will it always be like that?"

"I don't know. I think we're creating something new. I knew it would be different, but oh, Rey … I don't have the words… I just … I love you, Rey. I love you."

She smiles then – a small, secret, deeply feminine smile. Like she's unlocked some cosmic mystery. She strokes his back and trails her fingers along his jaw. Her eyes glow. She glows.

"And I love you," she says.

"I've waited my whole life for you. I didn't know, but I know now that I've always been yours. Before you were even born, I was yours." Ben gently nips at her fingers.

She sighs, completely sated. She wraps him in her arms and pulls him close, resting his head next to hers, settling his body over hers. He closes his eyes and, still connected, they drift.

~BR~

In the middle of the night he wakes, having slipped from her. She's deeply asleep and he watches for what could have been minutes or hours. He can't quite believe this has really happened. He didn't think it was possible for him to love her more, but somehow, it's as if she's become his very soul. He knows then that he would die without her. He had been so worried for her and her emotional needs that it never occurred to him that he would be the one for whom everything would change. He'd never known anything could be like that. That he could give everything of himself and have it be accepted and returned tenfold. She's in so deep now, he could never dislodge her even if he wanted to.

He shifts to the side, pulling her back to his chest, holding her in that perfect spot, just so, where she fits so nicely. She stays sleeping but murmurs a bit. He stays like that for a long time, simply feeling how everything is different now.

~BR~

Thank you to my tremendous beta, Meaghan M/Juulna. Her constant mantra of 'trust yourself' keeps me focused and this story would not be possible without her. Everyone should read her stuff, she's very talented.

Thank you to everyone who reads, follows, favorites and reviews. I love hearing from you! Come say hi on tumblr.

I also want to thank my anon reviewers, I wish I could reply to you personally. Thank you so much for taking the time to review!

Next chapter up Friday!