SMUT ALERT: If smut (or tentacle kink) makes you squirmy, you may wanna skip the second scene...
The crew watched Rey and the captain fight on the Silencer's main deck. As their blades collided, Ben parried Rey's attack. Blocking her, he forced her back and ended with his blade inches from her throat. Disgruntled to have lost to him again, she surrendered.
Smug, Ben smirked and lowered the weapon to his side. "And again," he crowed, announcing himself the winner for that round.
Breathless, Rey flexed her grip and grit her teeth. "Damn it," she sneered. Loud enough for Ben to have heard over the boisterous whistles and cheers.
"You ready to quit, Turner?" he asked. "Or shall we go another round?"
After Ben taught her the sword fighting basics that morning - footing, techniques, and whatnot - Rey had suggested that she and Ben spar together. He'd gladly accepted, establishing the rules so she needed to disarm him in order to win. Several sparring rounds later in the Caribbean heat, her skin was dampened by a sheen of sweat and she had wispy stragglers coming loose from her ponytail sticking to her face.
Giving herself a moment to recoup, Rey shook her head and snorted. "Give up? Not a chance," she retorted. "I almost had you!"
Almost was merely an understatement.
For the last few rounds, Ben had made a habit of handing Rey the advantage, realizing his error he would immediately recover the upper-hand. It wasn't that he had done it on purpose. Rey had fiercely proven herself a worthy opponent and a fast learner. He had just been—distracted.
Inconveniently, years of him starving for a woman's affection were catching up to him. To say he had been humiliated during the earlier incident inside his cabin couldn't begin to cover his level of embarrassment. Because nothing was worse than having an erection and feeling like a newborn virgin all over again, in front of a woman he was madly crazy about.
And not only had Rey let him kiss her once in less than twenty-four hours...but twice. Twice the amount he thought he deserved.
His dick seemed to have traitorously thought otherwise.
Thankfully, not all of him had been altered by the curse. Needless to say, it surprised him Rey had appeared the slightest bit curious. Or so he had thought, at least. Perhaps it had been the hormonal imbalance in his brain that made him think Rey was resisting the urge to look while he talked himself out of a full-blown erection. He didn't blame her though if that wasn't so.
He did resemble a goddamn squid, after all!
But even when he was more human than beast, Ben had always been self-conscious of his size. Women who were labeled the stereotypical virginal type (like Rey) hardly ever ventured past second base with him; whereas those at the tavern, the every-size-is-welcome sort of type, preferred shillings on a nightstand next to marriage and raising a family. He may or may not have known that based on experience.
Now that his long-lost inner virgin had awakened again, he blamed his failure to focus on Rey's sweat-drenched tunic exposing her pert nipples underneath. His usual coordinated moves and attacks were substituted with wicked fantasies of him tearing the fabric from her lithe figure.
Okay, so her anatomy might have been to blame had the captain actually lost…
Remembering that it was he who was playing Rey's teacher then, he needed to enlighten her of her mistakes that round. "Almost?" he echoed, his elevated browline wrinkling his forehead below the bandana he donned. "I spotted numerous breaks in your form where I could've easily killed you and your swings were too wide."
Scoffing, Rey scowled at the reprimand. "In all fairness, you have—what, years of experience over my two hours' worth?"
"Years don't mean jack shit to your enemy, Rey," he snarled. "In the real world, there is no room for second and third chances in battle. You fuck up, you die, plain and simple. But everyone has a weakness. Your highest skilled fighters are no exception."
"Everyone besides you, you mean," she muttered, ridding her forehead of perspiration with the back of her hand. Clearly tired and losing steam.
Taking a breath, Ben stepped forward and brought his face closer to hers, catching her gaze. "How many years did you survive alone on that island? I have no doubts that you could kick my ass if you wanted to." He smirked at the faint chuckle the comment extracted from her, and she nodded in agreement. "Focus. Visualize me as your enemy and do not hold back."
Nodding, Rey spared the men to her right a glance and exhaled deeply. "Okay."
"Ignore them," he grimaced. "It's just us. Clear your head. Find an opening and use it to your benefit. Whatever it takes."
"You make it sound so easy," she quipped lightly.
"You'd be surprised just how easy it is once you understand your enemy," he countered. Seeing this had apparently given her confidence a boost, Ben paced several steps back from her. Both assuming the correct posture for the beginning pose: knees bent and legs evenly spaced apart, swords extended and angled, elbows in line with their designated shoulders.
"Do not hold back," he repeated for good measure.
Intentionally hurting Rey was undoubtedly out of the question, but what she didn't know didn't hurt. It gave her the gumption she needed to finish what they had started. To beat him whilst giving Ben a peace of mind that she could hold her own against a man of his expertise and build. If anything ever happened to her…
Well, there would be hell to pay.
"I won't," Rey promised with a straight face. Noting the seriousness in her expression and tone, Ben knew she was sincere in her threat.
Good. It was precisely what he had been hoping for. No holding back.
After a few moments had passed where neither appeared willing to budge, Rey advanced. Her aggressiveness automatically putting the captain on a defensive front. As opposed to her consistent negligence in the previous fights, her movement and strikes were more facile and precise this time. His feet maneuvered over the floorboards according to her steps, eluding her lunges and jabs.
He had to admit, witnessing this side of Rey was quite...invigorating.
Blocking Rey's attack at the first sign of an outlet, he pushed her back toward the ship's nearest ledge. Closer and closer, she came to pressing her backside against the Silencer's siding and yet she exhibited no signs of yielding. Not until she had been barricaded between himself and the hull.
Hurling his blade down from above, Rey successfully blocked the captain's attack. The metal on their weapons clashing the instant her hazels met his brown. For how long they had stood there that way, Ben couldn't say. Finding the longer he stared into her eyes, the longer he couldn't breathe.
She was so beautiful, this scavenger girl from Jakku. And why she looked at him this way, he hadn't the slightest idea. The purity in her heart and soul made her everything he wasn't in this world.
And he was so fucking in love with her.
In unison, they lowered their swords. Placing her free hand at the crook of his shoulder and neck, Rey rose up on her toes and kissed him soundly. Charged with an implicitly raw and unexpected passion. Something that made the life inside him stir and his body sing a harmony as equally sweet as her honeyed taste.
Grips loosened on their weapons, metal clanged upon contact with the wood flooring as the swords fell to the ground at their sides. His hand clasping the back of her skull, holding her in place as Rey held onto his shoulders, pressing her chest as close as she could to his without damaging his tentacled beard and deepening the kiss. The ocean waves calmly thrashing, the wind cutting through the sails, the hoots and whoops from his men - Poe ushering them away to give the couple privacy - all of it faded to black. To the farthest recesses of his mind.
The only thing that mattered to him was Rey.
It wasn't till they parted for air, Ben realized he was without a weapon. "You cheated," he admonished hoarsely.
Pleased with herself, Rey's smile feigned innocence. "Whatever it takes, remember?"
Amused by her answer, he snorted and moved his hand to tuck a sweaty mass of hair behind her ear. "You do realize though you couldn't get away with this during a real fight."
Huffing, she looped her arms around his neck. "How about you shut up and kiss me, Ben?"
Ascending the quarterdeck stairs was a lot trickier when Ben was half-blind and more centered on kissing Rey. But with her arms and legs clinging to him for dear life, it was difficult to resist when her lips were right there within reach.
God, he was pathetic.
Relying on his claw for grabbing the rail for balance, his hand provided her backside support. Clumsily, he took one step at a time, stumbling and almost falling over the last. Her laughter revealing the cherubic dimples on her cheeks. He'd trip a million times more just to see them again.
Once they were inside the cabin, Rey uncrossed her ankles and the captain settled her onto her feet as he turned to lock the door. "That would've been a lot easier if you had just let me walk, you know," she flippantly remarked.
"It was worth it," he rasped. Turning, his back to the door, his hand reached for her hip and he pulled her flush against him, her fingers gripping the fabric at either side of his creamy white tunic. "I wouldn't have let you fall."
"I know," she whispered, a smile playing at both corners of her mouth, red and swollen. "And I trust you with my life," she said rising up on her tiptoes and capturing his lips.
For what hours remained of the day, Ben would've been perfectly content kissing her, touching her. Fuck. He absolutely loathed working with one hand when there was so much of her he wanted to explore. To commit those subtle rises and dips of her curves to his memory, every gasp and sigh included.
Just in case...
Abandoning her lips, he showered kisses along the slender column of her neck. Cradling her jaw, he followed the shell of her ear, leading a straight path to her pulse. He lingered there the longest, his teeth nipping ever so gently then reverting to licking and sucking the blemish left in his wake. Marking her so every mortal on both land and sea would recognize her as his. The mere aspect of others seeing the evidence of him there was making him hard.
"Ben," she breathed, the worry threaded in her tone giving him pause. Drawing back, he perceived a pale blush dusting her cheeks, reluctance dappling her orbs and her lips were parted like she didn't quite know how to address the issue. His mind went to the most obvious answer before she could even express what was wrong.
Rey was a virgin.
Nice one, ass fuck. Fearing his selfishness had already blown his chances with her. He had been taking as he well pleased for years and not once did it occur to him he should be asking her this stuff.
"Shit—Rey, I'm so sorry," he entreated, his thumb caressing her under her jawline. Hoping it wasn't too late to start backpedaling because Christ he was bad at this whole apologizing thing. "I got ahead of myself and I shouldn't have. We don't have to do anything else if you don't want to."
Hearing himself speak the implications of them maybe having sex was seriously astonishing. Even if all the riches in the world were being waved in his face, he still couldn't fathom looking at his own reflection. Yet for reasons unbeknownst tohim, Rey was always looking at him like he was normal.
Rey blinked. "Oh! I um…" Snorting nervously, she glanced down at her hands fingering the bottom hem of his shirt. "That's—not what I was gonna say, actually." Lifting her gaze, her face was a shade deeper of red. "I um...I was just wondering if I could see you—without this." At that, she gave a slight tug on his shirt.
Ben stared at her in bewilderment. Had he just heard her correctly? She wanted to see him shirtless? "You—You're sure?" he sputtered, unable to vocalize anything bigger than single-syllable words. "I'm...You're not missing much, really."
Furrowing her brows at him, Rey frowned and cocked her head. "You're not a monster, Ben," she stated softly. "Not to me. And I'm asking you to trust in me as I do you."
How was he supposed to argue that?
If only she were aware of the things he had laying at her feet. That it was her love he needed for the spell to break and he was throwing himself at her one splintered piece at a time. He could tell her he loved her and pray there was a possibility she felt the same. But telling her the cure then confessing his love seemed—wrong. Manipulative. Like he was guilt-tripping her into speaking it sooner, out of pity, than waiting till she was ready and saying it from the heart.
At this point, he knew all about waiting. And knowing him and how terrible he was at expressing words, he would probably fuck it up anyway.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Ben nodded and his hand fell from her face, his eyes flicking down to her hands, grasping his shirt. Allowing her to help push the garment up and over his head. Carefully, she pulled the neck opening passed his tentacled beard, depositing the shirt on the floor. For a minute or perhaps longer, Rey did nothing but stare. Taking him in. Meanwhile, his eyes were scanning hers for signs of disgust. Anything that signified she should've taken his advice and ran.
He found none.
Working her bottom lip, she pressed her palm flat to his left pec, then did the same to the other on his right. Ben held his breath and shivered in response to the heat of direct skin on skin contact. Her gaze veered up at him and she cracked the smallest hint of a smile. He smirked in return and proceeded to observe as curiosity carried her away. Not once mentioning his skin's flaky appearance. It was the first time he had ever been remotely at ease with this version of himself.
Using the pad her index finger, she outlined the muscle grooves indicating his pecs. Descending to his abdomen, she toyed her nail beneath his navel and grazed the band of his trousers. Her touch causing his skin to prickle and his nipples to pebble. Rey also seemed to like that.
If Ben had to be bluntly honest, his dick did too. A lot. If she kept exploring him this way, he wasn't going to survive without busting internally.
"Rey," he groaned, the strain in his voice earning her awareness. Though instead of meeting his gaze, what grabbed her attention was the serrated scar half-hidden beneath his tentacled veil, dividing the plane above his left breast. He knew she understood what it was without needing him to explain.
Rey frowned and looked at him. "Does it hurt?" she asked quietly.
It had hurt like hell, at first; the numbness aftereffect hadn't been immediate. Leaving his heart behind on land had been more excruciating than the gruesome procedure removing it. Like he had continuously been punched by an ironclad fist with barbed wire for knuckles. The longer he stayed close to land, the worse it got. Now, the incision had been healed for a while and the pang from his absent heart had ebbed.
"Not anymore," he told her.
For a moment, the cabin fell silent before either made a move. Her right hand still on his scar, Rey slid the other to his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. So delicate it was like she was whispering to him her deepest secret. Ben was afraid this was all a dream. A figment in the back of his mind projecting the image reels of everything he was longing to have onto the backs of his eyes. Terrified of opening them and finding she had been torn away.
No, Rey wasn't a specter that resided in his dreams. She was real and kissing him and reminding him he was given a purpose in this life worth living for.
Shifting her tactics some, her right hand slid down his arm to his claw, resting her other upon his bare chest. Kisses replacing her hand, she drifted along the distorted flesh. Any man on earth would have crumbled when provided such care, but for Ben—she made him feel whole.
Finished, she kissed him deeply. As Ben was reaching for her his breath hitched, releasing a guttural moan into the kiss when she tried groping his cock through his slacks. Hindered by the act, he broke the kiss and grabbed her hand instead. Rey peered up at him, confusion carved on her face.
"Rey," he frowned. "It's okay...I—I don't want you to feel uncomfortable and like you owe me this."
Rey waved him off. "If I were uncomfortable, you would know," she affirmed. "I'm very well aware of what I can and can't handle. Ben, what we're doing here, I want to do it with you."
"I'm not saying you're incompetent in making your own choices. I want this as much as you do. It's just…" Scoffing, Ben averted his gaze, studying their now intertwined fingers. "It's been—a very long time since I've done this with anyone. I don't want to disappoint you."
It wasn't the whole truth, per se. But it wasn't lying either when he had solely omitted the embarrassing facts. Anyhow, he was dead set against making love to her and claiming her virginity while he was cursed. He'd reserve that for the future. A future where she was in love with him as much as he was in love with her.
Rey smiled in understanding and shrugged. "Well, lucky for you, I have no one else to compare to." Wetting her lips suggestively, she extended her opposite hand to his beard and fondled one of his many tentacles. "And I happen to know of an excellent teacher who can help me."
Oh, she was good.
His cock twitching was the conviction he needed to let her go. He nodded to her the okay and watched as her deft fingers unfastened each clasp on his trousers. His gaze flitting down then directly back up, alternating from her hands to the tiny micro-expressions on her face as she tugged the undergarments below his waist, his erection jutting proudly above the apparel. A cold draft emanating from the cracks within the Silencer's framework sent a cold chill crawling up his vertebrae.
Or perhaps it was nerves from having those vulnerabilities on full display.
For roughly a millisecond her eyes rounded, fleetingly surprised. Whether or not Rey was nervous from there onward, she never let it show. Ben couldn't help but suspect she was having second thoughts, weighing better options. But as if he had accidentally voiced his concerns, she proved him otherwise.
Deliberate and slow, she ghosted a finger up the veiny underside of his cock, gliding from the hilt and stopping below the tip. Intrigued by his arousal leaking from its bulbous end, she paused, a smirk splitting her face. One by one, she curled all five digits around him, her thumb smearing the clear bead of pre-cum over it.
If it were at all possible that his heart was running relays at home, he hoped to god that the damned thing wasn't causing a racket in its chest.
"Am I doing this correctly?" she asked, knitting her brows. Had he not been so fixated on losing his shit right then and there, he may have laughed at the irony of her looking so innocent fisting his dick. And Ben hadn't laughed in years.
Ben nodded, gulping. "Yeah," he croaked. "You can—it's like this." His fingers enveloping hers, he helped her find a pace rather than describing it and sounding dumber than he already did.
She was so calm and patient as he reacquainted himself with those sentiments he had kept so tightly bound for all these years. And to have them unraveling in a matter of minutes was incredibly overwhelming. Her strokes started out slow, then progressively grew faster. Constricting her fingers and plying delicious pressure as his hips rutted into her grasp, her motions coinciding with his shallow thrusts.
"Christ, Rey…" he praised, a moan resonating low in his chest. Cupping her cheek, he bowed his head and caught her mouth again. Aware of that familiar warmth building within his abdominals, he imagined Rey being underneath him on a warm bed - inside their own home on earthy soil - and buried balls deep inside her than on this grungy ship.
"I'm so close," he groaned. "So fucking close."
"Let go, Ben," she purred. "Let go and don't hold back."
"I'm gonna come but Rey, there's...there's something I need to hear you say," he pleaded in a gravelly voice close to her ear. "Please, please tell me I make you feel the same way as you do for me."
He was begging her like a lovesick fool but Ben didn't care. What he hadn't foreseen was Rey taking him by the wrist and applying his first and middle digits firmly to the moist fabric at the apex of her thighs. Elated, he gave her hypersensitive nub there a tentative massage, her little gasp in exchange instating the final push that sent him over the edge. Trembling under the orgasm's intensity, he stood rigid and came undone, reciting her name and a slew of unintelligible curses all in the same breath.
It was the best fucking handjob he had ever received!
Now, Ben was so keyed up his carnal instincts were in full bloom. The minute his post-orgasmic haze receded, he resumed his ministrations at her core. Flustered and seemingly butterfingered, Rey made it as far as tucking him inside his trousers before she uttered fuck it and flung her arms around his shoulders. Her kisses hot and needy—and he was marveling at the fact that her cunt was soaked because of him.
Why? was a question that his sub-conscience was always asking him.
Half-encompassing her waist with his crustacean-arm, his hand clutched her thigh as Rey hoisted herself up and he carried her to the dining table, setting her down on top. Her legs bracketing his hips. If Ben couldn't say he loved her, he sure as hell was going to show her. But first…
"If there's anything you don't want me to do," said Ben, his thumb caressing her jaw. "I want you to tell me, okay?"
"I will," she nodded, a reassuring smile preceded. "But I trust I won't have to."
"You say that a lot," he noted.
"The compass wouldn't have led me to you if it weren't the case," said Rey assuredly. "Then again," her nose wrinkled, "there was this asshole who once told me I have a terrible sense of direction. So, who knows? I may be heading south when I should be going north."
Ben smirked, suppressing a laugh. "I hope you told this asshole off."
"I did," she beamed. "Wanna hear something funny? I kept running into him thereafter and eventually, he kinda grew on me."
"Is that so?" he grunted. "You still seeing him?"
"Mmhmm," she hummed. "Thing is...I kinda like him, too."
His grin broadened. "He's a very lucky son of a bitch, then."
Snickering, Rey cradled his face and kissed him. "And I do, Ben," she whispered to his lips. "I like you a lot and I wanted you to know that. Even if you never tell me what the cure to your curse is, I won't stop helping you. You deserve to go home and I want to be there when you do."
Ben bit his tongue to restrain himself from unloading the truth. Despite the intimacy between them, it was her words that latched onto the last remnant of emptiness inside him. She cared about him; she wanted to go home with him. And like was beneath love on the grid.
If it meant waiting another year or two for Rey to admit she loves him, he would certainly do that.
Untying her hair tie single-handedly, her auburn locks fell to her shoulders in loose waves. He loved it when she wore her hair down, and it wasn't until recently he was allowed to feel its softness, memorize its smell—a marvelous blend of the tropical breeze and yellowish sun rays. He admitted as much to her also.
Then he kissed her.
Somewhere during that period of heated kisses and roaming hands, Rey's tunic came off and was laying rumpled behind her on the table. For a moment, Ben had unabashedly relapsed to his awkward eighteen-year-old self. Save for the identical tan lines down her arms midway, she was flawless. From the freckles peppering her shoulders and chest to her visibly defined stomach muscles. Her breasts were a league of perfection on their own.
"Fuck, Rey," he breathed. "You're so fucking beautiful it hurts."
Face reddening, Rey bit her lip and tipped her chin down. "They're—I mean, they've always been a little on the small side," she winced. "But if you insist…"
"I do insist," he said assertively. "Maybe they are to you but to me, no." He skimmed his fingers across the swell of her left breast before giving it a tender squeeze, making her keen. Grinning wolfishly and repeating the gesture, he bent at the waist and took her right nipple into his mouth, sucking and nipping gently at her skin, coaxing her rosey bud to a peak. Satisfied, his lips releasing her with a lewd pop, he moved onto the next, bestowing its twin equal affection as he did the other.
"So beautiful," he groaned into her warm flesh. "So perfect." His sweltering lips marking a trail as he moved to the valley between her breasts.
"Ben," she mewled, hearing his name breach her lips played like church bells ringing inside his head. He would never get over the fact it was barely over a month ago when Rey despised him and now, she was letting him touch her in ways some had only lived in their wildest fantasies. Arching her spine, her head reclined back as she dragged her nails along his shoulder blades. Sliding his palm from her backside to her thigh Ben sunk to his knees, descending to the taut muscles on her abdomen and pausing just above the waistband of her slacks.
He peered up at her through dark eyes, seeking permission to explore her nether and to which she nodded in earnest. While Ben proceeded to remove her boots, she anxiously shimmied out of her slacks and underwear, dropping them to the side on the floor. His gaze returning to Rey, Ben sucked in a breath when it was her slick folds and a light patch of curls that his vision had landed on, and fuck he was totally getting hard again.
This girl was going to be the death of him…
He took his time, easing himself and Rey back into the moment at a leisurely pace. To begin, he kissed her slowly and softly down each leg, ankle to thigh, hooking one leg then the other over his shoulders. His claw behind her, a pair of thick tentacles circled her thighs, their itty-bitty suckers lining their undersides meaning to anchor her in place. Pursing his lips, he blew a cool breath at her entrance before inserting a finger inside her.
"Oh god, yes," she gasped breathily, hands flat on the table she instinctively bucked her hips.
Stroking and rubbing his pad along her velveteen interior walls, he withdrew the one to insert two before the unthinkable occurred to him. She wouldn't go for it, would she? She certainly enjoyed fiddling with his beard whenever given the opportunity. And each of them was relatively the same circumference in breadth as two fingers at the ends.
After a moment of hum-hawing, Ben took the risk and went for it. Certain he was going to get kicked or punched or kneed in the face but instead, Rey threw her head back and cried out a throaty holy fuck to the raftersas he ever so gently slid a tentacle inside her. Stilling, he regarded her with rapt attention, anticipating the daggers to start flying but to his surprise, they never came.
Spurred on by her hips canting and pitiful pleas, he began to thrust. Slow and gentle at first so to give her a chance for her to accommodate his width and becoming enraptured by the sheer ecstasy on her face as the tentacle moved inside her.
With his hand at her hip, he pressed soothing kisses up her inner thigh and ending at her clit. His tongue flicked and teased at the sensitive skin over her entrance before sealing his lips around her and sucked, groaning as the exquisite flavor of her assaulted his taste buds. His actions driven by her labored breaths and encouraging words, alerting him she was drawing closer to finding her release.
"Ben," she panted. "I'm gonna...Oh, shit, I'm gonna come."
Humming his acknowledgment to her, Ben blindly reached his hand for hers on the table and gave it a squeeze. Digging her heels into his back beneath his shoulder blades, her body shook and fluttered when the tip of his tentacle hooked inside her, hitting her pleasure spot and she came chanting his name like a prayer.
Pulling his tentacle out and releasing those on her thighs, vigilantly, he let go of her hand and held onto her hip as he lowered her legs from his shoulders. He stood then and kissed her. Her mind inebriated still, her response was slower when she finally returned the kiss.
"And you were worried that you'd disappoint me," Rey pointed out with a blissful smile on her face.
Ben preened. "Is it a bad time for me to ask if you'll stay with me again tonight?"
Pretending to ponder his request, she lazily arched a brow and said, "I would love to."