The local shops reminded me of boutiques on other planets that never sold enough to be worth keeping open but stayed open anyway. The food I scrounged up was decent-moreso when they discovered I was presently rich-and the clothing was tasteless but wearable.

By the time I'd finished up a very short shopping list, he'd only been gone an hour. I cursed at the grey sky, wishing whatever light gave this planet life would peek through and tell me how much longer until dark.

Maybe if it was closer to a standard bedtime I could readopt a sleep schedule, one uninterrupted by Mandalorians and annoying sex drives in the middle of the night.

The alien who'd come to collect Din had long since disappeared behind a sliding garage door. The whole landing pad, in fact, was surrounded by shopping and mechanical shops alike, as if nobody ever ventured past the circular barricade.

Honestly, who knew what was going on elsewhere on this planet? It could easily be a dangerous hellhole with frogs big enough to swallow a person whole.

I wasn't sure what to think aside from the fact it was about to be a shitty few weeks without Din.

The Razor was one of the oldest ships in the parking docks, but nobody paid more attention to it than all the rest. A Mandalorian would draw enough eyes that his ship went unnoticed.

Or maybe nobody cared out here.

I headed back to the Razor, eyes still seeking a light source in the flat gray around me, but nothing presented itself. So maybe Eros was one of those planets that didn't have a sun, but survived thanks to heaters and atmosphere domes around cities. But if that was the case, we would have passed through an atmosphere lock before descending, and we didn't.

It was still fucking cold inside the ship, but then it dawned on me that Din was probably always hot in the layers he wore, and given the chance would rather be cold than warm.

Me on the other hand, I headed straight for the air conditioning control near the ladder into the cockpit and twisted the knob back, sighing as a gush of tepid air swept against me.

Finally. Warmth.

I stashed the fresh food before shrugging off my clothes and switching out for one of the new outfits. It'd been a while since I'd had the luxury of owning more than one outfit thanks to traveling so much before getting stuck on the planet with the PleasureWife service, but it looked like that wasn't going to be an issue from here on out. Din seemed well enough off, and if he thought he could take on another mouth to feed, he must have had more than enough to spare, because otherwise I don't think he'd have risked it.

I switched on the local signal transmitter and found a semi-decent music station, though the language was foreign and the instruments sounded more flat than anything. At least it was something to break the silence. Force knew it was weird being alone again after living on my own for so long, then suddenly having a companion.

I found the comm-link Din had mentioned, but it was too soon to call out. He didn't need someone so clingy, and I wasn't clingy, so I ignored it and focused on the transmitter, growing annoyed when they didn't speak a single sentence in Common.

Once again, the language barrier made me feel like the outsider I was, and soon enough I shut the machine off, preferring the silence to something that made it obvious I was out of place.

Not that the Mandalorian could speak every language in the universe, but I could have bet respect and fear followed every place he set foot.

Maybe I was good in a fight, exceptional even, but when it came to commanding a room, all people saw was a blue-skinned woman with little to show for herself.

If only to distract myself, I scanned the instrument panel and familiarized myself with the buttons. I'd only been in here a couple times, so most of the instruments were foreign and so old-style, I didn't recognise them by their newer counterparts.

I had the sudden desire for a glass of cold spice, but it didn't seem wise to venture off on a strange planet for something they probably didn't even sell. Spice might have been common on more advanced planets, but it wasn't hard to see this planet was lacking plenty of tourist attractions.

…

By the time I'd stared at the cockpit controls until my eyes ached, taken a nap, and wandered into the storage area for a second meal, there was still no sign of night falling or the light changing in general. Din hadn't called in yet-if he was even planning to-and there was little to do to entertain myself, especially when my head was confused with the continual half-light.

Even Din was better company than the silence of the Razor, and I was surprised with how soon I'd come to expect his presence. I guess people in general were always present in my life, but the ship was so silent and the only remedy was heading outside to seek out a stranger's chatter, which I didn't feel like doing.

"He said I could call him," I said to myself, voice strung out with disuse over the last half a day, or maybe it'd been longer, as I eyed the comm-link.

He's the one who even suggested this, I thought, sliding off the detachable earpiece and fitting it around my ear. I thought back to my last words to him, the way his back tightened as I'd directed his touch somewhere no one else could feel.

It was already dialed to what I assumed was his helmet's frequency, and a second after I fit it on, it started buzzing as the signal went out. It was newer tech as tech goes, and the receivers were probably close enough to get a good signal.

Even so, I waited with embarrassment coloring my face and making my palms damp. What the fuck was I actually doing?

"I wondered when you'd call," he said, voice close through the speaker. It made my stomach knot, as if I'd just remembered this man was still technically a stranger, yet was completely available to me.

"I almost didn't," I managed to get out, shifting in the worn but comfortable pilot's chair. The places where his legs bent over the edge had shaped to his body, leaving impressions that were easily bigger than me.

He let out a quiet hum, but I couldn't tell if it was questioning or accepting.

"Did you catch your bounty?" I asked, only to realize he wasn't going to give me an answer. He'd said weeks, and if he'd already caught the quarry, he'd have already been on the way back.

"I thought we agreed about these questions."

I shifted again, his voice vibrating low in my stomach, making my head want to go places where he and I-

"I forgot." I had to get my mind going somewhere else or it was liable to get me doing something stupid, something that wouldn't be done in the dark this time.

He let out another sound, and there was no mistaking the desire in it. "I guess I need to make sure you can't forget this time."

Fuck yes.

My pussy throbbed just enough times to make me think he'd made me come with just those words, but it was only the beginning, a tease, as if I had nothing else I could be doing but rubbing myself off to my husband on the other end of the comm.

"How do I know…" I began, throat swollen like his cock had been using it for an hour. In the darkness, without him actually here, my mouth was running more than usual. "How do I know some Twi'Lek whore isn't sucking that dick right now?"

A hard breath came over the comm and his voice came over, reserved and nervous, "There's no one but us."

Fuck his voice and fuck his innocence and fuck the distance between us.

"You know I've never been with someone before." I shifted on the seat, trying to ignore the way his body had molded the old material, the way I fit inside the shape. "I mean, not really."

His breaths came softly over the comms, broken in time to something he was doing. Something that wasn't hard to guess. "Even if you had I don't think…I'd have cared."

I unbuttoned my top slowly, pretending he was here to watch. "Chiss have this, um, ritual when they get wed. After the ceremony, the couple goes home and settles in, and after they've gotten comfortable with each other, they undress."

His breaths had increased, tiny groans filtering over the comm. His voice came out thickly, shyly when he asked, "That's all?"

"No," I said slowly, pressing a palm between my legs for some relief. "Well they undress, and then they come together, but they do it sitting, and they don't move. They just stay together like that, and they talk." I shook my head, letting my fingertips press my clit. "It sounds silly now that I'm saying it."

"No," he groaned. "It sounds like heaven…With you."

I smiled at the comm set, wishing I could see his eyes. The eyes that were still a stranger's eyes, but eyes that I could get used to seeing every single waking moment.

"Din," I said, closing my eyes as I spread my legs.

"Yes?" His voice was so soft, running like cool water against my stomach, making it clench and yearn for him in a way that wasn't entirely from lust and that I couldn't quite describe.

"Are you…holding yourself?"

"...Yes," he said, voice a bare whisper. "I can't sleep."

"If you were here…" I pictured myself between his legs, his half-awake gaze stuck on me, on the way my mouth fit over his cock. "I'd have you in my mouth. I'd hold you there, tasting you, letting you fuck me there."

"You'd really let me…do that to you?"

"Yes," I said, breathless as I pressed against the chair, letting the pressure turn me on even more. "And maybe later, I'd let you take me right here. In the pilot's chair. It's fucking uncomfortable, but I'd be wet. All for you."

"Oh Force," he groaned. The quiet reserve in his voice made me want to keep him safe, to hide him away from the world somehow. "Keep talking. Please, Jay."

The power of knowing my voice alone was destroying the stoic, valiant Mandalorian was enough to make my pussy throb, ready to please and be pleased. But it wouldn't be satisfied tonight.

"What would you do to me, Din?" His name was like heaven on my tongue. It sounded like he tasted, like he smelled, like he was. "If I was there?"

"The bed's small," he said, voice quiet, "but I wouldn't need much room to taste you."

My legs clenched at the thought of him between them, face pressed against my pussy. He wouldn't know where to touch or how hard, but in the end it wouldn't matter. Somewhere along the way, I'd fallen into something that wasn't quite love, but something that was strong enough to make up for all his shortcomings.

And it both scared and thrilled me to death.

Despite his innocence, despite the painfully obvious way he was shy regarding sex, it was the first time I'd ever felt wanted for more than the intercourse.

It was impossible to describe, but right then nothing needed quantifying. I just needed his voice.

"Din," I said quietly, grinding down against the chair, "promise me you'll come back. And not just for this."

His breaths stilled, but I kept my eyes closed. He knew exactly what I meant, and he said, "I'll always come back to you, mesh'la."

"I don't know what that means," I said, giggling at the foriegn word.

"You will." His breaths grew heated again, and it was easy to imagine his body close, his tongue working its way across my clit, fingers slipping in and out of me.

My lips tingled with the phantom pressure of his mouth, fingers working furiously to bring a release. "Are you close?" I asked, breathless as I forced my fingers away, holding the orgasm back, writhing with the terrible pleasure as my pussy clenched in search of something to fill it.

"Yes," he stuttered out, tiny breaths filtering over the comms. "Are you?"

I let out an affirmative hum, letting the idea of his closeness warm my skin. "Do you...want me to finish?" It was a tentative question, and even if he'd said no, I don't think I could have resisted.

"Yes…Until I can be there to do it for you."

I wanted to taste his skin, wanted the smell of sweat and beskar to fill my lungs as he found pleasure and comfort and solace in my touch, but I'd picked the time he'd left to realize just how difficult living without him was going to be. I wanted to know him, body and soul, and I wanted to share that part of me with him, too.

My clit throbbed as I pushed two fingers inside myself, laid out over the chair as I pressed against my clit, grinding into my palm, Din's phantom lips doing despicable things to me. It was his chair after all, and it wasn't hard to imagine him tipping his hips up into me, creasing new marks into the old seat.

"Oh Force," I whined, letting him hear the pleasure he couldn't see as my body tensed, shuddering as it tipped over the edge. "Din, oh Force."

"You're the most beautiful thing I've ever laid eyes on," he said, voice strung out with tension, followed by a stunted series of breaths as he finished himself.

The words pulled me away from just my body, washing over the parts of me that were falling into something with him. No one had ever called me that before, not even the Chiss men, and here he'd said it when he couldn't even see me.

"I…" I couldn't find words to say what I meant, not even after my body had stilled and I'd cleaned myself off.

"Din?" I asked finally, pulling the shirt closed over my chest. I had to ask, even if it was the wrong time. Even if he didn't want to say, I had the right to know.

"What is it, Jay?" His voice was quiet, smoothed with the aftereffects of an orgasm and comfortable as it fell on my ears.

"That baby hamper in the fresher...Were you and the mother…close?"

It's like a door slams between us, and even though all I hear are his breaths, they turn hard and cold as beskar.

"I don't want to hear another useless question." His voice cuts across the comms, making my skin prickle.

"I'm sorry." I could barely find my voice, could barely think through the churning in my stomach, poison leeching away the pleasure that'd been coursing through me just minutes before.

There was shuffling on the other side. "I need to go."

I huddled closer to the seat, throat tight with the need to cry or scream or do anything but sit still. "...Okay."

I knew he'd cut off the transmission before checking. I'd ruined everything, or maybe it was his secrets and not my curiosity that'd ruined it.

But this was the problem, wasn't it? He'd contracted with me to be his wife for sex and I'd agreed for protection and care. I had no business getting in deeper than his dick.

Then why did it seem like he wasn't eager at all to use my half of the bargain? And why did he seem so intent on caring about me?

It'd have been so much easier if he was rude and careless, but he wasn't. And it wasn't going to be easy.

And if he was going to reject anything past surface talk, then I'd leave him by himself until he returned.