Ushar stood, shadows hissing their annoyance as they swarmed around him. "Two guards," He warned. "Coming up the north stairwell." His head tilted to the side as a shadow wafted through his hair. "They'll be here in seven minutes."
I nodded my understanding. We were running out of time. I pried myself from Rey enough to look at her. She wiped the back of her hand down the right side of her face and across her chin. Her bright hazel eyes, that I'd too often lost myself within, were swollen and bloodshot, and her left cheek was flushed, a bruise starting to darken along her cheekbone. I shoved down the rage that roiled at the sight. I could be angry later, I had other things to focus on. "Ushar is going to take you to the Buzzard." I told her, my voice gentle though it was shaking.
She blinked, her dark brows pulling together as she fought inside her own head to comprehend what I was telling her. But, after a silent beat, she nodded weakly, and they were gone.
My attention went to the man who still lay several feet away, his wide blue eyes locked on what I couldn't see. I thought about killing him, about all the ways I'd wanted to kill him not half an hour before. The Force shifted around me and I felt the cool brush of darkness and power as shadows breezed past me.
"What should we do with him?" Ushar asked, and I shook my head.
"There's nothing that we can do to him what will be worse that what Rey has already done." She'd funneled six months worth of suffering into him in a matter of minutes, and that wasn't something the mind could process, nor was it something that he'd ever be able to recover from. He wouldn't be a threat to her or anyone else, not anymore.
Ushar laid a hand on my shoulder and a second later, we were in the Buzzard, its engines purring as they idled. Rey was seated next to a window, staring down at the steel floor beneath her feet. No one spoke on the flight home, the only communication being nonverbal through the Bond with Ap'lek about the status of our return. I kept watch over Rey, my stomach twisting with worry each time I looked to see that she hadn't moved. When we landed, Ushar vanished into a swirl of shadows and mist, and Kuruk went to his meticulous maintenance of the Buzzard.
I knelt in front of Rey, my heart dropping at the deadened look in her eyes. The fight, the fire that had been there when she'd thrown me on my ass in the stairwell, was gone. Now, with her empty, hollow stare, the only sign of life was her rhythmic breathing. She wasn't even crying.
"Rey?" I called, placing my hand over one of hers on the arm rest, my heart sinking further when I received no response. I reached up, gingerly brushing my knuckles across her uninjured cheek, noting that her eyes didn't even shift when my skin met hers. I stood, sliding an arm under her knees, and another behind her shoulders, and lifted her up, holding her against me as I carried her.
The townhouse was empty when I walked in and kicked the door closed behind us, and she didn't offer the slightest hint of surprise when I went upstairs and sat her down on my bed. Panic began to creep into my mind that she'd done some irreparable damage to herself, or that her psyche had been lost. When I'd found her in that office, and realized when she'd done, I dove in after her without a breath of hesitation to pull her out. But, now, as I patted her hand and called her name again, I was going over every minute detail trying to see if there was anything I could have missed.
I began to unbuckle the straps and stays of her fighting leathers, loosening the top so that I could work her arms out and tug it off. The pants were considerably more difficult, but when I was able to peel them off, leaving her in a pair of leggings and a thin white tank top, I lifted her up again and carried her into the bathroom. I probably should have removed all of her clothing, but it wasn't like she could give me her consent to do so, and she'd already been robbed of being able to tell me herself that she was pregnant, I wasn't going to also take away her right to show herself to me on her own terms.
I stepped into the shower, holding her against me with one arm as I reached behind her and turned the cold water on, full blast. The icy stream hit us, and I held my breath as I watched it pelt her face, silently reciting every prayer I knew, begging the Force to send her back to me. My desperation grew with each agonizing second that ticked by with no reaction from her, but then she gasped and a heavy sigh of relief ripped out of me. My heart pounded to life again, the sudden rush of blood to my head making me a bit dizzy.
She blinked her eyes into focus and looked up at me, her hands gripping my forearms to keep her balance. I held her, expecting her to move away from me once she had her footing, but she leaned into me, her arms going to my shoulders. The soft, sweet smell of jasmine and vanilla flooded my mind, my body recognizing the press of hers against it. Her gaze went to my lips, heat radiating between us despite the chill of the water still dousing us, and when her eyes found mine again, they were clear, dark, and burning with an intensity I hadn't seen in six months.
No. I told myself, my blood rushing for an entirely different reason. No, you're imagining things. She's been through too much, we'd been through too much. I was just emotional and overwhelmed and she was closer than she had been in months, and I was imagining things.
"I'm….sorry." She said, her breathy voice so low I could barely hear it over the running shower. "I shouldn't have…" She swallowed. "Gone by myself. I should have told you what I was doing, I just-" Her bottom lip began to tremble. "I wanted to be the one to stop him."
I nodded, not trusting my own voice. Her wanting revenge on the man who'd wronged her, I understood that. Hell, I might have even been on board with it, if she'd taken a moment to let me in on her plan. But, I realized that I couldn't be angry with her for hiding it from me, not when I'd hidden so much from her.
She reached behind her, turning the knob, and the water falling on us started to heat up, calming her chattering teeth. Her hand came up to run through my wet, tangled hair, and my shiver had nothing to do with the temperature.
"And now," She held the back of my head, standing on her toes as she pulled me closer to her. "Everything that's been ruling my life for the past six months, they're just memories, and I can feel everything else instead."
I wanted to ask her what the everything else was that she was now able to feel, but her lips met mine in an urgent kiss, her arms clinging her to me as if she couldn't get close enough. She opened her mouth, her tongue dancing with mine and I groaned at the taste of her, so much sweeter than I remembered. Her hands found the tail of my shirt, and I lifted my arms as she tugged it off. It wetly slapped against the tile and she giggled, grabbing the waistband of my pants and made quick work of relieving me of them.
This was too much, too quickly, and it didn't feel right. "Rey," I said, panting, and she stopped, looking up at me. Her lips were swollen, her face and chest flushed. I wanted to take her right there on the bathroom floor, but I forced myself to focus. "We don't have to do this." I reminded her.
She straightened, sucking on her bottom lip as her brow furrowed. "Do you not…want to?"
I sighed, realizing that I'd unwittingly stirred some unfounded insecurity in her. "Of course I want to." I said, hopefully quelling it. "Of course I do. But, I understand if you don't want to, if you're not ready." My needs weren't an issue, I was perfectly capable of taking care of them myself. My concern was her. We hadn't been intimate since the morning she was taken, and had barely touched each other in the months she'd been back.
She let out a breath, and leaned forward, pressing herself into my bare chest. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. I could feel her heart racing, and I willed my own to slow. I turned off the water, and stepped out to retrieve towels from under the bathroom sink, wrapping one around Rey before securing the other around my waist. "I'll get your nightgown." I told her, and she nodded, still in her wet clothes in the shower. I walked out, and rummaged around in the top drawer before finding the thin, cotton gown she slept in, and a fresh pair of panties. When I returned to place them on the counter for her, she hadn't moved.
I was still in my towel, looking through the drawer for something to change into, when I heard the bathroom door open. I turned, my eyes bulging when I saw Rey clutching the towel around her waist and her wet hair plastered to her neck and chest. She'd removed her tank top and leggings, and had her arm crossed over her chest, covering her breasts.
"I do want to." She said, breathily. "After everything, everything that happened to you," Her gaze lowered. "To me." She blinked and looked back up. "I never stopped wanting you."
I could scarcely breathe, her words hanging heavy in the air between us. My blood roared, throbbing as I tried to speak. "I…" My voice broke, and I swallowed thickly. "I never stopped wanting you."
Her eyes brightened, and the towel fell to the floor, which she stepped over without a glance. I drank in the sight of her body, the soft curve of her hips, and the swell of her belly. She moved her arm, slowly letting her heavy breasts fall. My body immediately reacted, the towel still secured around my waist doing absolutely nothing to conceal that fact, but I could only stare.
Her blush deepened. "I know I look different-"
"You're beautiful." I breathed. And, she was, the sight of her sending my already racing heart into overdrive. Then, she was in my arms, her lips melded to mine, her hands tugging away that useless towel to wrap her fingers around my cock. I hissed out a curse, my hips jerking as she started to stroke. "What-" I groaned as she swept her thumb over the head. "What's ok?"
"I'm not sure." She admitted, leaning forward to kiss the hollow of my throat. "But, I'm willing to figure it out."
My heart squeezed, the magnitude of her words not lost upon me. I kissed her, hoping I could pour every ounce of what I was feeling into it. Not only that I loved her, of course I did, but how privileged I was to be the one she loved and trusted enough to even try this with.
She put her free hand on my chest, gently pushing me toward the bed, her other hand still stroking me. I pulled her hair back, careful not to touch her neck, and traced the tip of my finger down one of her full breasts. She gasped when I grazed her nipple with my thumb, and I halted. "Are you okay?" She nodded, arching into my touch in a silent plea for more.
My arms tightened around her, pulling her into another kiss that trailed down her sternum, then to her untouched breast. I closed my mouth over her nipple, and gently sucked, feeling her writhe as her fingers knotted in my hair. Not to push me away, but to pull me closer. I drew more of her into my mouth, flicking her nipple with my tongue. Her back arched further, and she threw her head back, moaning louder than I'd ever heard. I moved to her other breast, using my hand to roll her nipple between my thumb and pointer finger as I sucked and teased, when she cried out, her body convulsing against my face, and her grip on my hair tightening almost to the point of pain.
With a sigh, she relaxed, and I pulled away to look at her, finding a look of confusion that matched my own. "Did you just-"
She nodded, her flushed chest heaving. "Yeah." I'd made her cum from nipple play.
I couldn't help the swell of arrogant pride that I felt, and I smiled, wanting to see if I could do it again, but she put her hand on my chest, stopping me.
I went still, entirely at her command. If what we'd done had been too much and she wanted to stop, we would.
But, she looked up at me, her pupils blown wide. "Lay down." She said, and I did, watching her as she moved her legs over my hips to straddle me. The sight took me back to our first time, after we'd said our vows to each other again on Lothar.
She smiled at the memory as well, seeing it in my thoughts. "I'm going to go a bit slower this time." She said with a small laugh, and I nodded.
I held perfectly still, giving her plenty of time to change her mind, but she wrapped her hand around my cock, and guided me back, dragging the head through her glistening folds until she'd lined us up. She slowly circled her hips, taking me inside of her. My eyes rolled closed, a groan leaving my throat as I felt her tight, wet heat envelope me inch by agonizing inch. Her mouth flew open in a moan, and I tangled my fingers in her hair, tugging her close for another kiss. "I love you." I gasped out against her lips.
She sank down another slow inch, her eyes locked with mine and a moan ripped out of my chest as she gave her hips another swivel.
Her hands slid up my chest to grip my shoulders and she began to move, slowly working herself up and down my cock. My hands brushed her knees, up her thighs, and I caressed the curve where they met her ass. The symphony of our gasps and moans, of our panting breaths and her cries of pleasure filled the room. I let her set the pace, doing little more than gently guiding her with my hands on her hips.
She increased her tempo, her perfect tits swaying as she rocked. I lifted my head, kissing and licking, taking one into my mouth to gently suck. She clamped down onto me with a guttural moan, and I gasped at the sudden pressure.
She grabbed my wrist and moved it to the apex of her thighs. "Touch me."
I obeyed, my thumb rubbing tight circles around her clit. She sat up, arching her back, and altering the angle of how I entered her. I was so deep this way, my moans becoming grunts as I thrust my hips up to meet hers, the movement sliding my finger against her clit. "Don't stop." She begged, her strokes growing rougher, faster, less even. Then, she was coming, crying out with each pulse of pleasure that clenched down around my cock. The rhythmic flutter of her inner walls had me erupting, emptying into her with a groan as her body shuddered above me.
Still throbbing inside of her, I sat up, my lips finding hers, though our kisses were staggered between sharp intakes of air.
A crash downstairs had both of us starting, our heads snapping to look in the direction of the noise.
"Kylo!" I heard a familiar voice scream. Trugden. And a chill slithered up my spine, my power flooding my senses. "Kylo!"
The door to my bedroom flew open, and Rey shrieked, scrambling off of me as Trugden dutifully covered his eyes with both of his hands.
"Sorry!" He called, his voice muffled against his palms.
Rey sprinted to the bathroom and slammed the door.
"What the hell, Trugden?" I demanded, pulling a sheet over my hips to cover myself.
He lowered his hands and sighed, opening his mouth to explain, when an alert sounded across the city. My blood ran cold. I knew what that alert meant.
"Brendol." I breathed, and my brother nodded.
"He's launched an attack."