Author's Notes…

Some of you won't be surprised. Hopefully, some of you will be! Uh… slight NSFW language warning.

For Carla

Chocolate

Chapter Six

Sprinkles

"Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate chip?"

"It's bloody delicious."

"I'll have to take your word for it."

"Don't like chocolate?"

"Oh, I like chocolate." Ben eyed her triple-scoop ice cream. "In reasonable amounts."

"You're missing out," Rey said around a mouthful of chocolate great enough to put her into a sugar coma. She was making a grand attempt to be dainty enough to not get an ice cream moustache, but she could make no promises with herself. This was her bliss.

And she was going to eat the Whole. Damned. Thing.

She noticed Ben was fidgeting. He never fidgeted. The man exuded confidence. "What?"

"Nothing." He cleared his throat and took a bite out of his waffle cone. Vanilla with sprinkles. Surprisingly ordinary for an individual far beyond it.

Hmmm… "No. I want to know."

"I can't."

"Why not?" The sun was beginning to sink beneath the clouds. City lights were coming on everywhere, from lampposts to signs to headlights to office windows. The sounds that normally protruded were faint, due to their walk through Theed Park. It was relaxing, mostly because Ben's presence was intimidating enough to warn off troublemakers.

Rapists, muggers, the like.

"You'll be angry." A pointed crunch to the cone. He suddenly found the skyline very fascinating.

"Er…" Hmmmmmmm… "What if I promise I won't?"

He swallowed a chuckle. "You will."

Rey rolled her eyes and fought the urge to smash her chocolate into his face. So aggravating… No one else vexed her this much! How did he do it? "If you want to be in my life, you have to trust me. I said I promise I won't get angry."

"Now I definitely don't want to tell you," he laughed.

"Ben—"

He grasped her elbow and lightly tugged her into his body. She moved her ice cream out of the way so his shirt wouldn't get smeared, concentrated on that action so that she didn't twist over her own two feet for once. That didn't matter in the next moment—standing upright was important when your knees lost all feeling in them.

His lips pressed to her ear, his voice a dark murmur. "Every time I see you flick your tongue like that, I think about the way it looked around my cock. Those cute little moans you're making aren't helping, either."

Chocolate smashed into the sidewalk.

Rey backed away. Ben let her go, nibbling on the edge of his cone. The way he did it was like he was telling her he wished it was the curve of her ear.

"You promised you wouldn't get angry," he half-sang in a low tone.

The problem was, she was far from angry.

Embarrassed, yes.

Wanted to run away again, yes.

So turned on it was almost painful, yes, yes, yes.

Angry?

No.

Remembering to breathe, Rey ducked her head down to buy time to figure out what expression she wanted to wear. She'd lost her ice cream, but it had missed their clothes and shoes. That was fortunate. Regrettable—she'd been enjoying that treat—but it could have been worse.

"I did that?" she blurted. She cupped her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide.

Ben shrugged. "Maybe. You forgot that night, didn't you?"

Did I or didn't I? Rey swallowed the snip just as it reached the tip of her tongue. She had. She knew that down to the marrow of her bones, knew it as surely as the blood rushing to heat her cheeks.

"…You should be honored," Rey said.

Her companion's brows rose. "Should I?"

"Yes. I never do that. To anyone." Rey took his ice cream cone swiftly from his hand and swiped her tongue over the vanilla. Begh. Nowhere close to how good hers was, but it was his fault she'd dropped her cone.

"Reaaaally?" Ben drawled. He made no remark on the fact that she'd stolen his treat.

"No. Haven't wanted to. Never been pressed on it."

A desire to be evil tickled the back of her thoughts.

No. She shouldn't.

She let her tongue run the length of the vanilla in a slow, purposeful fashion, more of a graze than anything else. To be truthful, she had no idea what the hell she was doing. She hadn't lied. She'd never given head before (and she'd had very few partners).

Regardless, it worked.

He hissed in a breath. "Tease."

"I believe we established that already," she hummed innocently. "Well, you know what I do for a living now. What about you? What do you do?"

"I write," he replied.

And that was it.

"Care to elaborate…?"

"I write novels," Ben elucidated.

"What—really?" Excitement ran through Rey in a tremor. She loved to read. He wrote novels? "That's amazing! You said you had a deadline the last time I saw you… So you must be published."

"I am," he confirmed.

"BEN!"

"Speak of the devil," he muttered.

"BEN SOLO, YOU SLOW DOWN THIS INSTANT!"

Rey and Ben turned. A woman was barreling at them, and she barely skidded to a stop in time to avoid them. She had short, sandy brown hair and dark eyes. The only reason Rey even knew she was a woman was because of the high pitch of her voice. She was androgynous as hell and was wearing a man's suit, tailored to fit her small frame.

Another lover…?

"We—had an agreement!" The newcomer bent over, grasping her side, sucking in huge gulps of air.

"Noelle…"

"That's Mrs. Quinn, Solo!" 'Noelle' thrust a finger at Ben with a purely venomous look.

"We've known each other for years. Stop being dramatic." Ben sighed. "I have the chapter—I'll email it to you tonight. I finished it this morning."

"You were supposed to finish it a week ago, and then you straight-up vanished, you selfish asshole!" Noelle thundered. "It's lucky for me that you frequent this park so gall-damned much, or I wouldn't have been able to find you!" She poked him in the chest, punctuating each prod with a word. "Don't! Ignore! Your! Editor!"

Editor?

Unexpected relief swept through Rey.

"Is it customary for editors to hunt down their writers like this?" she wondered aloud.

"It is when it's Ben Solo!" the other woman exclaimed. She glared murderously up at the tall man. "You! Don't disappear!" She hesitated, glanced at Rey.

Rey blinked back at her.

Noelle cupped a hand over her mouth and whispered loudly. "You didn't say you were seeing someone. Tell me all about it later! Okay! Ciao!"

Shoooooooooom.

"She runs really fast," Rey murmured.

"Yeah."

"Really intense…"

"Can't disagree."

Rey came to stand before him. "Now I'm more curious than ever!" She was waving her cone around. Conscious of it, she winced and removed it from the splash zone. "I've never seen your name anywhere. What genre do you write?"

"Actually…" He wet his lips. "You… kind of did see my name."

She had? When?

"No, I'd definitely remember…" She furrowed her brows, genuinely unable to recall seeing his name on a shelf somewhere. She read rather broadly. Even if it had been some time ago, she would have made the name association the night they'd met.

"It's not under my real name." His stature shrunk a little. Nerves? Odd. Yet another thing she'd never seen from him.

"All right…" That would make sense, then. Her curiosity spread like wildfire. Who could he possibly be? She almost wanted to play a guessing game first. "Who do you write under, then?"

"Ah…" He tucked his thumbs into his front pockets and wouldn't look at her.

Why?

"Ben?"

"When you were at the bookstore, the day you ran away from me… what book did you steal?"

"Firstly, that book wasn't stolen, it was paid for—" She trailed off as her memories migrated to the moment in question.

No…

No way!

There was no—

Or could there…?

She gasped.

She was shocked, afraid—

Excited.

A squeal left her lips, uncaring of how much she wanted to keep it in.

"You're Ashley Hayden!"