Chapter 3

By Ash Darklighter

Disclaimer: The characters and situations used in this story are the property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd. I am only using them for some entertainment and will not even make one republican credit from this endeavour.

Mara wandered back out into the pool area and headed towards the spa pool, screened by lush, exotic ferns. As she approached him, she stared at the sight of Luke in the bubbling water. His head was thrown back, his eyes closed and he looked at peace with the world. But Mara had not only been trained as an assassin. She had also been taught how to read people, to look for signs that they were not what they seemed. Luke's eyes had dark shadows underneath them and there was a hint of white tension around his well-shaped mouth. It was easy if you knew what to search for. Luke's face could be so innocently open, like that of a child. But Mara couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him like that. His was one of the most holographed faces in the galaxy.

Mara cast her mind back to the last few holonews reports she'd seen where Luke was present. There had been one about three months ago and he'd been standing behind his sister at some function. Mara came to the uncomfortable conclusion that Luke hadn't smiled once. He'd been grave and distant as befitted the Jedi Master. Mara wanted him to act like a human. All that reigning in of his emotions had to be causing him some serious stress inside.

Tugging the slightly too big costume into place, Mara made her way towards the pool.  Luke's eyes suddenly snapped open as he sensed her approach and gave Mara's figure a very comprehensive once over. Mara felt unaccustomed heat travel through her body and she almost blasted him for the sheer impertinence of the survey when she remembered that she had done the very same thing to him earlier.

"Does it fit?" Luke asked closing his eyes again, the very picture of relaxation.

Mara slid quickly into the water beside him and sighed as the water closed about her shoulders. "This is good," she almost moaned. She moved her neck from side to side. "Ahh! I hadn't realised that I was so tense. That's what a long spaceflight does to you."

Luke chuckled but inside his heart was racing. She'd walked out of the changing rooms dressed in his sister's demure bathing costume and his pulse had soared off the Imperial Palace spires. How could something so simple and functional on his sister look so sexy on Mara Jade? He hoped she hadn't noticed him staring at her. She wasn't tall but she was perfectly formed. Then she had let out the husky, satisfied moan as the warm water had immediately relieved her tensions. The Jedi Master had almost shot out of the water as if he'd had a rocket pack affixed to his shorts. She didn't know the meaning of 'tense'.

Mara gazed around her with interest. They were alone in the pool, the plant life screening them from the main swimming and exercise areas. Cut off like that, it felt quite intimate. Mara slid the errant strap of the costume back onto her shoulder and closed her eyes letting out another contented sigh. She hadn't been here in years and the changes were drastic. Gone were the utilitarian exercise features of the Imperial gymnasium. In its place was a bright modern facility with areas for exercise and relaxation. Mara decided that she would have to visit it more often.

"Does it fit?" Luke repeated.

"Does what fit?" Mara muttered, her eyes still closed.

Luke rolled his eyes. "The costume, Jade."

"Yeah, nearly. Leia's shoulders are wider than mine but I think I might have more in the chest area."

Luke's gaze was immediately drawn to her rounded breasts.

She opened her eyes to find Luke considering her assets rather thoroughly. Mara's mouth tightened but she wisely said nothing as his eyes darted away nervously, his face flushing.

They sat in silence letting the water sooth them, although Luke was still trying to banish the image of Mara's breasts barely covered in clinging wet fabric, the outline of her nipples clearly visible through the material. He'd never thought of Mara Jade having nipples. Well, he knew she had them – everyone had them but… Luke clamped down on the direction his thoughts were taking but, waywardly, they refused to be cowed. Would the tips of her breasts be a dusky rose or sweetly pink? He knew his mouth was made to fit perfectly over the hardening peaks. He mentally shook himself again. She was going to kill him if she found out what he was thinking. His face flamed again and he shifted uncomfortably in the water. He was suddenly aware of Mara Jade's total femininity.

"So what are you thinking about, Skywalker?" Mara asked and then blinked in surprise as the same sense of panic crossed his face.

"N… nothing," he stammered, his blue eyes wide.

"Luke," she drawled. "Your sister told me enough…"

"She did? Oh sithspawn!" The rosy colour faded from his face leaving him ashen.

"So why are you so upset about it all?" Mara hadn't a clue what the problem was, but had seen enough Imperial interrogations on holovid to know how to ask for information without knowing what you were talking about. Luke was worried about something and, to Mara's mind, wasn't concentrating on what he was saying. He was trying to hide something. Whatever this was had got the Jedi Master good and rattled. Still, he was showing some sort of emotion and for Luke that was quite rare. It should be easy enough to get him to crack.

"I don't know," he confessed painfully. "It's the… the…" He shrugged helplessly. "I feel I'm being punished… which is illogical, I mean… I think I'm being tested in some way. The Force… and yet…"

"I'll be honest, farmboy. That was the worst explanation of anything I've ever heard." Mara grimaced. All right, so it might not be that easy. Luke wasn't one for spilling things he didn't want people to hear. He could chatter on about the Force and x-wings and speeder races with ingenuous frankness but for the things that affected his vulnerable heart he said not a word. Still, she owed Luke Skywalker quite a bit and didn't like the thought that he was hurting.

"Tell me," she said softly, moving a little closer to him and noted how the blue eyes widened at her nearness. He was acting very strangely, even for Skywalker. "Leia told me a little," Mara said. It was only a half lie. "I want to hear the rest from you."

Luke lifted his hands from out of the swirling water and stared at them as if he'd never seen them before. "Then you know that I'm getting married."

"You're what!" Mara's mouth dropped open and something that felt like pain rippled through her body.

"I'm getting married." The statement was flat and he lifted his blue eyes and caught Mara's horrified green ones.

"Why?" she asked baldly.

"The usual reasons?" But Luke's statement was another question, not an answer.

She swallowed, shaking slightly and forced a false smile to her lips. "C... con… congratulations."

"Thanks," he replied and turned his head away. "You're very calm about it all but I suppose if Leia told you all the gory details already, it's not a surprise."

"Leia didn't tell me very much. Just that you were upset about a Force vision," Mara confessed quietly. "Old Imperial interrogation manoeuvre. You wanted to tell me – there was no resistance."

Luke's face flamed again. He'd been set up very cleverly. Leia had told Mara almost nothing and Mara had tricked him into revealing the rest. "Oh, fool the farmboy – it's so easy to do because he's so gullible." Luke closed his eyes, hurt that Mara would resort to trickery to find out what he was reluctant to tell her.

Mara's mind whirled. Luke was getting married! And then the snippets Leia had revealed began to surface. Mara's keen analytical brain reasserted itself and began to add up the facts. Leia was worried about her brother who was in turn upset about something. It had something to do with a Force vision and lastly. Luke did not appear to be happy. He couldn't possibly have got some girl in trouble because he wasn't like that - of that she was certain. Who was he marrying, she wondered? She hadn't seen him for some while but she would have known if he was seeing someone. The whole galaxy would have known. Luke Skywalker was still big news.

Her anger surprised herself. Luke's marital status had nothing to do with her. "Okay, spill the rest of it, farmboy," Mara almost snarled. "Where's the catch in this little Force induced piece of lunacy?"

Luke jerked his head back to stare in surprise at the incensed woman sitting beside him.  What was she so angry about? "Mara!" he exclaimed his face confused.

"Who are you marrying?"

"I couldn't tell you that. You know I didn't even tell Leia that. It wouldn't be fair…"

Comprehension dawned on Mara's face. "Leia's the only one that knows, isn't she? You haven't actually proposed to anyone yet, have you?"

Luke turned his head away to avoid having to meet her sharp green eyes but Mara lifted her hand and placed it on his chin drawing him back around to face her.

"No, not yet," he said reluctantly, her touch sending messages to his already beleaguered body.

"There are no reports in the holonews even linking you with another woman let alone dating one. So this must be very sudden or extremely hush-hush. You can be secretive, I grant you that, but this is extreme even for you."

"I'm not dating anyone," he confessed tiredly.

Mara's hand dropped from his face, her fingers tingling strangely from the contact. "Does this woman you're engaged to even know of your intent?"

Luke bit his lip and the colour faded from his face, leaving him white. "No," he whispered. "I don't know how to tell her. I haven't even asked her out."

"Then you're not getting married," Mara pronounced, wondering why that made her feel better.

"I am," he retorted. "It'll happen. I had a vision and…"

"'I had a vision,'" she mocked. "Luke… Listen to yourself!" Her ire at his stubbornness rose. "This makes no more sense than that Corellian brother-in-law of yours and Lando Calrissian put together."

"I was waiting for him to be mentioned." Luke's anger began to rise to match Mara's.

""Lando?"

"You still seeing him?"

"What!" she shouted. "Lando Calrissian? That pompous, self-centred, slimy, conceited excuse for a ladies' man?"

"Yeah." Luke lifted his chin belligerently. "Him."

"I wouldn't go out with him even if someone paid… Oh, sith!"

Luke's eyes narrowed. "If someone paid you to," he finished softly. "But you did go out with him. The entire galaxy thought you were an item."

Mara bit her lip. "It was supposed to," she mumbled. "What does it matter to you?"

Luke leant forward, his anger disappearing. "You didn't?"

"Of course I didn't," she bit out. "What do you take me for?"

"Someone who gave a very good impression of enjoying Lando's company in the best nightspots on several wealthy resort worlds." Despite his efforts, the words came out low and bitter.

"It was a cover job for Karrde," Mara finally admitted, moving away from the intense expression that had suddenly appeared in Luke's blue eyes. She couldn't let him go on thinking that about her.

"A what?!"

"It was a cover job for Karrde." She shifted in the pool and the water bubbled up around her shoulders.

"I thought…"

"I know what you thought. You were supposed to and so was everybody else. What use is a cover story if it fools no one?"

"I thought we were friends, Mara."

"So did I, Luke."

"So why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Mara said, her eyes again meeting his. They were so blue.

"About Lando."

"Lando?" She blinked to try and clear the hypnotic effect Luke was having on her senses.

"Yes," Luke breathed inching closer. "Lando."

"I didn't know how to. Besides, I didn't think it was really necessary."

"Really?" he drawled suspiciously.

"Really," she muttered, feeling slightly irritated. Why was so Luke so interested in her tiresome dealings with Calrissian? "Look… Skywalker! There was nothing there. I hope I have more taste than that."

"But Lando wanted it to be real, didn't he? He took advantage of the situation, hoping something would come of it between you two." Luke's eyes darkened as his irritation began to make itself felt. Not at Mara but at the absent Lando Calrissian.

"How did you know?" Mara asked curiously.

"I've known Lando a long time and I'm familiar with the way he operates. I saw the way he looked at you," Luke admitted softly, his eyes almost black with something Mara refused to name. "I heard him invite you to dinner on numerous occasions."

"I turned them all down."

"Why?"

"I didn't want to build false hopes. I don't think of Lando in that way. I can't."

"What way?"

"As more than a friend. As a potential…"

"Lover?"

The word eased from Luke's well-shaped lips and Mara felt something arrow straight into her woman's core. This was wrong. The feelings she was suddenly experiencing while close to Skywalker. This was Luke. Her slightly naïve friend and she had to help him not desire him. "I don't think of every man as a potential lover," Mara protested.

"You don't?" Luke smiled. "But when a man looks at you, Mara Jade, that is what he will be thinking about. It's just natural to think about you in that way."

"Skywalker!" Mara warned through gritted teeth.    "I am not a sex object."

"I know that," he murmured placatingly. "If you had wanted Lando, you would have had him. You are a beautiful and desirable woman, Mara. You have wit and intelligence – far more than just a pretty face. Any man would be a better one for having loved you. Lando can see that, as every man that meets you does. I should have known that you couldn't have felt anything for Lando and I'm sorry." He held her gaze for a moment longer, then stood up and climbed from the spa bath. He stared down at her, the expression in his eyes unsettling. "Who am I fooling?" he said bitterly. "I'll ask her out and she'll refuse. All the visions in the galaxy won't change me into someone desirable. I'm destined to be alone and the Skywalker name will die."

"Luke…"

"Leave it, Mara."

Mara's eyes took another inventory of his body and found that she was shivering. He was a well put together man; his wet shorts left little to her imagination. And she was beginning to imagine quite a bit. 'For Force's sake, stop it!' she told herself angrily. 'He's just told you that he's supposedly marrying another woman and you're wondering what's inside his shorts!'She must be cold. That would account for the tremors racking her svelte form.

 

"Calrissian admired you for your beauty, your wit and the fire that is in you. He would not be able to handle that fire. Your Jedi side would call too strongly for you to follow his mindless pursuits of pleasure. I like Lando – he has aided the New Republic well over the years - but he is not the man for you. You need more than he could ever give you."

"You're so certain?"

"Yes." Luke picked up his towel, wrapped it around his narrow hips and without a backwards glance headed towards the changing area.

To cover her confusion at being so affected by Luke's nearly naked body Mara shouted after his vanishing figure. "Why couldn't I have felt anything for Calrissian? Don't you think I'm capable of feelings?"

Luke slowed but did not turn. "It depends on the feelings, Mara."

Mara couldn't think of anything to say as he disappeared from view. Of course she had feelings - quite a lot of feelings. Bitterness, resentment, hate and pride, still lingered deep in her psyche from her time as the 'Emperor's hand' but no feelings of love, and very few of the other softer emotions. Luke would argue that love was not for the weak. He would say that it was one of the strongest of all the emotions - that love gives you courage and strength. She had not loved the Emperor – she had feared and respected him.

She slowly climbed from the pool herself and headed towards the changing rooms. Something approaching pain was in her heart. Was Luke saying that he thought she was incapable of love? Mara swallowed carefully as she considered the idea. She'd risen above her Imperial training. Of course she had scars, remnants of the betrayal she'd felt when she'd learned how the Emperor had just been using her, but the scars had faded with time – hadn't they? She could hear Luke's shower running and then heard the water switch off. He emerged from the shower area, the towel still wrapped around his narrow hips, his eyes carefully guarded.

Mara stood waiting.

She watched him hitch the towel more securely round his slim waist and shuffle nervously from foot to foot. She knew him well enough to realise that he wanted to ask her something. "What is it, Luke?"

"I need your help."

"If I can."

"If I'm destined to get married soon, I think…"

"Destined?"

"The vision I experienced, among other things, pointed to that. If I don't get married to this woman my chances of happiness and a family will die."

Mara grinned. Luke was so intense at times. "Surely it won't come to that?"

He frowned at her amusement. "It may. I will have to wait and see what's in store for me. The future is not easy to read. I am trying to resist the images. They don't seem to be a dark side temptation and the future is always in motion after all. I wanted to make my own choice."

"What do you want me to do?" she asked.

"You might not like this," Luke warned. He seemed reluctant to continue which made Mara all the more certain it was important for her to help him in any way that she could.

"Won't be the first time, farmboy," Mara quipped. "Especially where you are concerned."

"Mara! I resent that," he snapped but his face softened wearily and he sighed. "But it's true."

"Shoot and let me decide."

"Well…"

"Oh, get on with it, Skywalker. You're going to die of old age if you keep this up, and then all your problems will be solved."

Luke glared at her. "This is not easy, Jade."

"Sorry," she said mockingly, not sorry at all. "But if you are going to propose to some stranger…"

"You're as bad as my sister," he complained. "She will not be a stranger. I'll know."

Mara bit her lip. "Ah, but will she?"

Luke cleared his throat, "It's been a long time since I've gone out with a woman. I don't know if I feel that comfortable and this is too important to mess up. I need you to help me with my dating techniques. Go on a few dates with me; help me understand what might please you… I mean… a woman?"

Mara's mouth opened and shut. And, like Leia a few days earlier, nothing emerged but a surprised squeak.

"You want to…"

"Oh, forget it," he mumbled, his face flushing as he turned towards a changing cubicle. Luke began to shake his head. "Look, maybe this isn't such a good idea . . ."

"No, Luke," She pressed her hand on his shoulder and turned him around to face her. Mara could see that this was important to him, more important than she had guessed. He was upset and worried about this.

He lifted his head and his pained blue eyes tore at her heart. "I didn't want it to happen this way. I'd given up on love and then I began to hope again. This is not the way…" He lifted his own hand and covered hers. "I shouldn't have asked you, Mara. Just forget it," he pleaded.

Mara stared at his hand trapping hers against his warm flesh. "No – I can't 'just forget it'," she said quietly, feeling her stomach twist. To cover her feelings of awkwardness, she moved into command mode. "If I help you, then maybe this mystery woman of yours can take over hauling your butt out of trouble all the time." Something in her winced at her words – they sounded impersonal. She noted Luke flinch at her tone of voice, his eyes flickering with an imperceptible hurt. She knew him so well, Mara was sure no one else could have picked up on this. She squeezed his shoulder. "Listen, I'll help. I owe you that." She wondered if the strange twisting feeling she was experiencing in her gut was fear or something else.

"You don't owe me anything. I came to you because you're the only one I really trust."

"You didn't come to me. Your sister sent me after you," Mara mumbled.

"Who cares how it happened? I would have come to you eventually. You know that."

Mara sighed. "Yeah."

"What should I do?"

Mara pulled her hand from Luke's smooth, warm flesh, ignoring the little voice that told her to linger and want to stroke. "Ask her out."

"Where to?"

"A restaurant," Mara decided. "A friendly conversation over a meal is usually a good bet. Does she like to dance?"

"I think so," Luke replied carefully.

"Well, then. Take her dancing. Contact her on the holo or find out where she goes and be there too. A casual chat… an invitation to dinner."

"It's that easy?"

"Where have you been?" she queried. "With a bunch of boring Jedi on Yavin 4? Oh I forgot!" Mara pantomimed surprise. "You have."

Luke scowled, wrinkling up his face like a little boy.

'Force!' Mara blinked. He looked exactly like his nephew when he did that, apart from the hair colour.

"When do I kiss her?"

Mara's eyes widened. "What?"

"When do I kiss her?"

"Luke, you haven't asked her out yet, you don't even know that she'll go and you're wondering about kissing her?"

He nodded. "I was never the toast of Tatooine's female population. My uncle and aunt wouldn't let me in any case." He gave her a self-deprecating smile. "Being the spawn of Vader had its down side. I sometimes wondered if I was one walking example too many of the Skywalker gene pool. My aunt loved me but my uncle didn't trust who I might become and I guess he was right. During the war you weren't sure if you would even be alive the following day to follow the correct etiquette. You lived for the moment. Not that I lived that often, if you get my meaning. I'm not inexperienced but I'm not a galactic bed hopper…"

She did. Mara closed her eyes and prayed for guidance and then for her sanity. "Too much information, Skywalker. You are hinting at stuff I don't want to know about." She wondered with horrified amusement if she had just made the biggest mistake of her life.

"It's a joke, Mara."

"What is?"

"Me, I think." He shrugged, causing the muscles in his chest and arms to ripple. "I know that I shouldn't kiss her on the first date. Maybe the second." He grinned at her, the first real smile she'd seen him give and yet, it lacked its usual power. "You should see your face."

"I can imagine," she snapped. "As for kissing on a first date - depends on the woman. Who is she again; just run it past me?" Mara began to shiver and definitely from the cold this time as the wet suit began to cling uncomfortably.

Luke handed her a thick, fluffy towel. "I'm not telling you. Go and get your shower. I'll wait for you with a hot drink in the lounge."

Mara nodded and made her way to the shower room. Just before she entered she turned to look over her shoulder at her friend of many years and almost passed out with shock. Thinking her gone, Luke had just stripped the towel from his waist and was using it to dry his hair. The rest of him was naked.

Mara willed her feet to move and dashed into the shower area before he saw her gaping at him like a love struck teenager. Her shivering stopped as she suddenly felt very warm - very warm indeed. Luke Skywalker was well-endowed in all the right places. She didn't think his mystery bride would have very many complaints. Pity she didn't think about Luke in that way or the unidentified bride would have competition.

Mara subsided against the side of the shower stall. The idea of Luke getting married didn't appeal to her one bit. 'This woman, whoever she is, had better treat him properly.' Mara didn't think that Luke could emotionally cope with another disappointment of the heart. She knew she'd be there to pick up the pieces but she didn't want there to be pieces of him to pick up. Mara couldn't work out exactly what she felt. Luke was her friend and she was fond of him in an annoying brotherly sort of way. Sure, she'd go and haul his well-shaped rear out of trouble when he needed it, but coach him in dating? Mara was definitely sure she'd done something foolish.

Arranged marriages were still common in some far flung parts of the galaxy and some closer to Coruscant too – like Kuat. But this was the first time she'd ever considered the Force as a matchmaker.

By the time she emerged and headed towards the private lounge attached to the gym, she was no clearer in her muddled thinking. Why did he have to get married at all? He was fine as he was. If he got married he wouldn't be able to go on missions with her or just spend an hour taking apart some piece of machinery, or sparring in the gym with their lightsabers. Things would be different.

The door to the small, attractively furnished lounge area slid open and the service droid clattered out, its movements stiffly economical. Luke sat lost in thought with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate in front of him.

"Still here, farmboy?"

Luke raised bright blue eyes and blinked. "Yeah! Still here. Told you I would be."

"Credit for them, Skywalker?"

"Not worth that much, Jade."

"I don't know. Some holozines would pay a lot to know that the great Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker, was considering matrimony."

"I think it is considering me." Luke didn't smile. "I wasn't considering it."

"About that…"

"You're the only one I can ask." Luke leant forward and fastened his hand around her wrist preventing her from leaving, even if she had been going to.

"You have a sister."

"I can't try out my romance moves on my own sister. It doesn't seem… proper."

"Proper!" Mara clamped her mouth shut, and pulling her hand from his grasp, subsided into the soft cushions of the seat opposite the Jedi Master.

"I need someone who isn't a relative." He pushed one of the steaming mugs towards her. "Hot chocolate."

"Thanks." She picked up the mug and took a sip, the warm sweet liquid hitting her tastbuds. She gave an appreciate sigh and then glared once again at Luke. "I don't want to be romanced."

Luke suddenly grinned and something wicked sparked in his eyes. "Even better. You'll be perfect. You don't want to be romanced, you're not a relative and you're not afraid to tell me the truth."

"The truth!" Mara slammed down her mug, causing the chocolate to spill over the sides onto the spotless tabletop. "Like this is a really stupid idea, Skywalker, and you've had some really stupid ones in your time?"

"I saw it happen." He firmed his mouth stubbornly. "She's waiting for me. She might not know it yet, but she is."

Mara picked up her mug – anything to give her hands something useful to do. Otherwise she would have grabbed Luke Skywalker by the tunic and shaken him until his teeth had rattled. He was serious. Force-born, sith-brained serious. This wasn't a joke on his part. All the time she'd expected this to be a colossal wind-up – it wasn't. "She may be waiting for you, farmboy, but you're not yet convinced this is real or even a good idea. You're so used to playing the part of the Jedi Master that you're afraid to live."

"If you say so."

"Luke, you're clearly not happy about this. Why are you tamely accepting it?" Mara ground out. "This could be the dark side at work."

"I'm not happy about it but…"

A glimmer of understanding warmed her sharp green eyes. "You've always wanted a family, Luke. Jem, Gaerial, Cal…" Mara stopped in the middle of Luke's former love's name.

"Callista?" he queried. "I loved her in my way, but not enough."

"What?"

"It wasn't enough. I didn't love her enough and in the end she didn't love me enough. We both wanted something we didn't have and for a while we were happy, but it wasn't the real thing. I gave up looking for the real thing long ago."

His voice was so subdued that Mara was struck by how much he had written off his chance at the kind of happiness that most men took for granted. "I never took you for a quitter, Skywalker," she said.

He lifted his head, his eyes blazing. "How can you say that to me? I've kept going longer than most men would. I've done everything that was asked of me. It hasn't always been a success. I have really had the rough with the smooth. In all that time I've never given up. You obviously don't know me as well as I thought you did."

"You've not had a woman since Call… since…. Well you haven't. That's years ago, Skywalker. Years ago. You could have anyone in the galaxy if you wanted them."

"I don't see you married to Lando, with half a dozen little Calrissians running around your ankles."

"I told you - Lando was a cover job for Karrde. I don't see myself as the domestic type."

"Who said a marriage had to be domestic? I wouldn't say Corran and Mirax or even Han and Leia were typical examples of the traditional marriage. They seem happy."

"There are always exceptions."

"No. I think the exceptions in your mind are the norm in mine. In my world a pilot weds a mechanic, Intel officer pairs up with a Jedi or a Senator with smuggler. I couldn't have a normal domestic family life. Not the traditional kind of one. I'm a Jedi Master, for sith's sake. I could be away from any family I had at a moment's notice. Life would be dangerous for my family as well as myself. That is one of the main reasons I haven't been too keen to subject any woman to that. She would have to be very special." His eyes darkened and Mara couldn't help the little shiver that ran up her spine. It was amazing the way his eyes reflected his moods.

"I suppose so," Mara admitted.

"Will you help me?" Luke asked.

Reluctantly, Mara nodded. The thought of Luke being married to anyone was somehow abhorrent.

His eyes met hers, the bright blue darkening again almost to navy. "Thank you, Mara."

"Now will you tell me who she is?"

Luke shook his head, an evil glint lighting his blue eyes. "No."

"Skywalker!" Mara whined and then closed her mouth with a snap as she realised how she had sounded.

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