Chapter 2

The 'Diadem' coasted in a final high orbit above Coruscant, preparing to depart. The observation deck of the semi-luxury liner was crowded with tourists, travelers, students, and idle rich on their way to various Mid-Rim destinations.

Standing amid the observers, as far away from the windows as she could be, Valia was engaged in a conversation with a young man, mostly centered on their occupations. She was trying to keep it as impersonal as possible, steering the talk back toward the latest upgrades on the U9-G16 food prep droids. She hoped she wasn't being too obvious with her glances toward Qui-Gon, who was seated next to the bank of windows that enclosed the observation level. He was practically leaning against them. But this wasn't attracting Valia's attention quite as much as the apparently deep conversation he was having with a tall, elegant-looking red-haired human woman.

As for Obi-Wan, he was nowhere to be seen in the crowd. Valia smiled inwardly, thinking he was probably occupied with evading the trio of young women who had taken an instant and intense hormone-driven liking to him. Lately he was often the object of such attention, and it amused Valia no end to watch him politely fend it off. While he would always have boyish good looks, in the last two years Valia had seen the last of the softness about his face give way to more mature planes, and a subtle filling out of his frame. He was truly fine-looking young man, though completely unaware of it. With stoic Jedi devotion, he was unwilling to give his physical appearance a second's thought.

It was far less amusing, however, to watch Qui-Gon be on the receiving end of any such attention. She found herself wondering what he was talking about with the woman. For all appearances he was giving redhead his undistracted attention, but Valia knew he was quite capable of listening to three conversations at once and track everything else that was going on in a room. And he could always find her in a crowd.

Valia entertained the passing thought of making sure he knew exactly where she was in the crowd by giving in to the childish urge to saunter over to him and casually sit in his lap. She realized she was being ridiculous, and being rude to the man talking to her, and turned back to him. Now there were three of his friends with him. Maybe it was just as well that her attention was in demand, because she saw Coruscant's glimmering sphere receding as they pulled away from the planet's gravitational field. They would shortly be making the jump to hyperspace, something she had no desire to view out the window or be aware of at all. She knew it was silly: it felt like nothing, and was harmless. Ninety-nine point nine six two percent of the time. But already she was squeezing tight, nervous handfuls of her dress. She was under no obligation to stay here, and could have gone back to her cabin, one of the holo-chambers, bars or game rooms at any time she wished. But two things kept her planted to the observation deck. Her desire to be near Qui-Gon, and the desire to face her irrational fear squarely. She had managed to stay on the observation deck the last three trips off world she'd made. But it hadn't been easy. How she wished she could be like every other being in this room, acting as though it was nothing more than walking from one room to another. She began a subtle breathing exercise Qui-Gon had taught her, to calm herself. She could keep conversing, but try to ease this fear.

Qui-Gon's eyes were maintaining conversational eye contact with the ship's chief security officer, but also watching Lia on the far side of the room. By all that was just, she was going to drive him to distraction with those looks she kept flicking at him with lowered eyelashes, and that gown she was wearing. He wondered if she was aware of the terrible weakness he had for anything she wore off the shoulders. He was willing to bet she was. The gown and its floor length over-tunic left her shoulders and upper chest bare above a folded-over bodice. It hugged her small waist and fell away to the floor in a simple sheath. What was that color? Mauve? Lavender? Whatever it was, it shimmered softly and nicely set off her skin, hair and eyes. She eagerly accepted advice on clothing and color from her friend, the pestiferous Ravi. But the young man did have a good eye for fashion and colors that complimented her.

And what did this have to do with tracking a gun smuggler? Precisely nothing. Vastly annoyed with himself, he pulled his attention back to his own conversation. But not before he noticed Lia had attracted a semi-circle of human males who were apparently fascinated by the merits of food prep droids and preservation units. She was far and away the loveliest female in the room, and he was well aware of the bias that influenced that opinion.

Something mildly unpleasant and nebulous was creeping in his gut. Qui-Gon focused on it, faced it, and demanded the feeling identify itself. Ahhh. So that was it. Jealousy. So he wasn't quite immune to it after all. But then that could be said about many things when it came to Valia. He gave the petty feeling a fierce inward scowl and easily sent it fleeing.

Now she had clasped her hands behind her back to keep from scrunching her dress, the nervous gesture she had been making almost since boarding the ship. She pleasantly smiled and chatted with her admirers, but he could feel her distress from across the room.

Such a contradiction she was. Someone who could throw herself from the top of one of Coruscant's skyscrapers and maneuver a paraglider between the towering structures, yet was dry-mouthed and clammy-palmed aboard a ship jumping to hyperspace. Someone who was in love with unspoiled places and all things green and growing, but who'd made herself at home in the largest, most densely populated city in the galaxy. Someone who believed to the marrow of her bones in the importance of family ties and the innate bond that ought to exist between family members, yet had all but severed relations with her father and had as little to do with her family and home world as possible.

One of their glances at each other finally connected. Their eyes met. The general idea of leaving the area for a quieter, more private location occurred to them simultaneously and communicated across the room. Valia gave him a small smile. She saw him end his conversation with a polite incline of his head and rise from his seat. It was no longer any use trying to pay attention to the multi-branched conversation she was trying to have as she watched him approach. He could get the most delicious hint of a swagger in his hips when he was up to something, and she saw it now. Her smile widened.

Qui-Gon stopped just outside the circle Valia was surrounded by and did nothing, did not try to insinuate himself into it and did not say a word. He just patiently waited. Valia politely excused herself and went to him through the opening that had somehow cleared for her. He guided her around a group of young humans gleefully inhaling something out of a shared dispenser, giving them and the fumes a wide clearance. He led her in a leisurely way between a cluster of brilliant robed, crest-headed Phalosians and a pair of Twi'leks in the enthusiastic preliminary steps of a mating ritual. They strolled out of the knots of passengers and into the dimly lit corridor.

Valia looked up at him expectantly. "Now where are you dragging me off to?" She put enough mock annoyance in her voice to let him know she was teasing.

"Off the observation deck. I could no longer ignore your plaintive cries for rescue."

"Ha! I would have been just fine back there, you know."

"You don't need to put up a brave front on anyone's account."

"'Front'? That wasn't a front!"

Qui-Gon softly clucked his tongue and smiled down at her. "A bit testy yet, aren't we?" he teased. In truth, he took her fear seriously, as well as her efforts to confront it.

Valia just snorted. "So, where are we going?"

"Oh, nowhere in particular," Qui-Gon said. He had one arm behind her and was rubbing his thumb in a lazy circle in the skin above her shoulder blade. This was an unusually public gesture of affection from him. There was something vaguely possessive about it. Something Valia found herself not minding one bit.

"Right. As long as I've known you, you have never been a man who goes 'nowhere in particular'."

"All right then. Maybe I've already gotten where I want to be."

Now Valia slanted him a knowing look. "But if that's the case, you still aren't really where you want to be. If that's where I think we're eventually going."

"Perhaps."

Valia just smiled at this vague conversation. She was just relieved to be away from windows and the sickeningly terrifying sight of stars being suddenly pulled into bizarre streaks, and the anticipatory panic of crashing into some stellar body in their path. And right now she was with him. Just him. Maybe the next few days wouldn't be so terrible after all. They had two days of travel ahead of them before they reached Nyme'. And two nights... Her cabin was quite large and nicely appointed. There was plenty of room for him. Surely Obi-Wan wouldn't mind having a cabin all to himself.

"Do you want to go over family members and what I might know about this villainous gun smuggler of yours now?"

"We'll do that in the morning. Right now you look in need of a distraction."

"And are you going to 'distract' me?"

"If you'll let me, yes."

Valia's smile broadened. The last lingering smoke clouds from their earlier blow-up had disappeared by the time Valia had hastily packed and they had boarded the ship. They seemed to have been restored to their usual harmony again. She hoped he was thinking of the same kind of distraction she was. The way he was softly fondling her shoulder now reignited the spark he'd started back in the walk-in cooler.

"Want to go back to my cabin and get freaky?"

Qui-Gon just smiled at this unabashedly direct proposal. Thanks to Valia, he probably knew every colloquialism for sex used by humankind and several other species.

"Actually, I was thinking we don't have to go all the way back there for that..."

"Oh." This wasn't his usual style, but Valia was game to see what he had in mind. "But then, where--"

"Right here." Qui-Gon made a quick check both ways down the corridor and propelled her into an access passage off its side. A small utility closet was partway down it. Qui-Gon guided her into the open door. He followed her into it and activated the control that both closed and locked it. Except for the tiny diodes lighting the door control panel, complete blackness engulfed them.

Valia laughed. "Qui-Gon, it's blacker than a space slug's bung hole in here! I can't see a blasted thing." She groped with her hands, trying to get a handle on where the walls were, what she might trip over, anything. She snagged the back of his robe and clutched at the fabric, hanging on.

"That doesn't matter."

"I can't see."

"Stop trying to see," he purred. He turned around and pulled her against him. "We don't need our eyes for this."

She relaxed against him with a sigh and breathed him in. She closed her eyes, since they were useless at the moment, and he was right about not needing them. She wrapped her arms around his waist and just concentrated on feeling. She twined her fingers in the fabric of the sash around his waist. Finally. They hadn't had time to really get close in weeks. So it wasn't in her comfortable cabin, but it was private. She smiled against his chest. They'd never done it in a closet aboard a space liner before.

"Besides," he said somewhere above her ear, his breath making the fine hairs there stir and tickle. "I don't need any light to see you." His big hands skimmed over her bare shoulders, her collarbones, up her neck and gently bracketed her face. "I can see you perfectly well. You shine."

Valia didn't see any reason to question his senses at the moment. She felt her every breath expanding, quickening from his attention. She gave herself up to the pleasure of his warm hands stroking her skin. His lips found hers with perfect accuracy and he pinned her to a wall with an insistent kiss. She slanted her head so he could deepen it. And he did, teasing her tongue with his. She slid her arms up the length of his back and caressed it through the cloth.

He broke away, leaving her slightly breathless. "You wore this dress to deliberately distract me. Didn't you?" He asked this between soft kisses on her cheek, her temple. His voice was low and raspy. He stroked the backs of his loosely curled fingers up and down the stray tendrils of hair, which lay against the skin of her neck.

"Yes," she answered him with complete honesty.

"It worked."

Immensely flattered, Valia smiled. But she knew he was quite able to control himself in this area. He had chosen to be distracted. He wanted this every bit as much as she did.

"How did you know this place was here?"

"Most of these public transports have the same deck plans," he told her softly. "It's a simple matter of memory and using one's powers of observation."

Naturally. Qui-Gon's hands skimmed behind her shoulders and found the fastener at the back of said distracting dress. Valia shivered from both anticipation and the drift of air that dropped down into the suddenly gaping top of her dress. One of his hands was cupping her chin, stroking her jaw line. The other was making forays across her collarbones, down her chest and across the tops of her breasts. How could such a feather-delicate touch always wreak such havoc with her nerve endings, and with the parts he wasn't even touching? She was having increasing difficulty taking any sort of regular breath. Apparently his ministrations were causing the same problem for himself, as his breathing was none too measured either. He leaned against her, pushing her against the wall. Something next to them fell over with a loud clatter. She barely noticed the racket. Her attention was fully occupied with the warm mountain of amorous male pressing the entire length of her. She shivered with delight and smiled at this hasty, illicit lust-fest in the dark.

"Why, Qui-Gon, I do believe..." Valia squirmed against him, feeling now just how amorous he was getting. "That deep inside you there is a dirty old man just dying to get out." She made this sound like it was anything but offensive. She swept her hands up the backs of his thighs under his tunic and gave each gluteus maximus a fiercely appreciative squeeze.

"If there is," he grated out and chuckled, "it's only because of the naughty little girl dragging him along by his whiskers."

Valia's low husky laugh seemed to come from somewhere near her toes. She playfully nipped at his mustache with her teeth and gently tugged. His indrawn breath hissed and he grunted. He wrapped his arms around her tightly. She gasped. He cut her off in mid-breath with his mouth.

"Can't...breathe. I can't catch...my breath..." she panted against his jaw when she finally had to come up for air.

"Ohhhh, now, you know I won't let it get too far away," he rumbled softly against her silky cheek. "We'll catch it together, later. I promise."

"Qu--Qui--"

He eased off slightly to give her relief. He effortlessly lifted her off her feet. Valia automatically wrapped her legs around him and hooked her arms over his shoulders. She reveled in the feel of his muscles flexing against her through layers of clothing. Slightly dizzy and unable to see anything in the blackness, she trustingly clung to the sure rock that was him. He set her down butt-first on some sort of ledge or shelf. Oh, this was much more comfortable. Just the perfect height and position for doing what was certain to be his purpose for taking her in here. This was a bit out of character for him, but nothing to really surprise Valia after the last couple years. Though they were infrequent, every argument, disagreement or misunderstanding was followed soon after by this type of peace making. His way of bringing balance to their relationship.

There was an unusual sense of urgency she felt in him. Normally he was a man who took his own sweet time at this. So many times she'd had to slow herself down to his pace. It wasn't always easy, but she'd found the reward was well worth it.

But now she responded to him, wanting to be every answer to this demanding need and want. The hem of her gown was already hiked up past her knees. She wrapped her legs around his waist. She pressed the heels of her soft shoes into his back on either side of his spine and squeezed him to her, grinding him and his superb and extremely sensitive manhood against her. She laughed again as his breath caught. A marauding kiss was his answer, and it cut off her laugh. He held the back of her head, one hand cradling it, cushioning it from the wall. His tongue swept against hers. She moaned softly and brought her hands up to caress both sides of his face, stroking his furry jaws, his ears, mussing his long hair. Now he was running a hand up her leg pushing her dress higher. He moved upwards in slow strokes, molding his hand around her leg muscles. Back and forth, almost massaging her out of her clothes. He never grabbed, pushed or plunged until he was absolutely certain she wanted him to.

Valia's pulse seemed to have settled right between her thighs. She felt herself growing wetter, the lips and folds of her swelling, flowering for him. Fast as he was moving, she still wanted him to go faster, to be inside her now. She suddenly was aware of the inequity in their state of dress, and slid her hands up under the front of his tunic to start undoing his trousers.

Qui-Gon smiled against her cheek. He'd wondered when she was going to get around to that. He enjoyed it when she undressed him with those talented, eager hands. He felt her softening now, slipping more into a role of a lover rather than a lascivious playmate. He wondered if all women laughed for joy as much as she did during lovemaking, or amused their partners with such ribald foolery and conversation. There were times when this type of banter would continue right up until she climaxed. She'd fallen quiet now, except for her heavy breathing. In any case, he had no intention of finding out anyone else's bedroom habits. Surely hers were as much as he could handle for the rest of his days.

He sank into the moment, filling his senses with her. He enjoyed the slightly salty, musky scent of her that had changed with her arousal, telling him she'd been ready for this, for him, since he'd pulled her in here. He enjoyed the sound of her breathing, the hot, moist vapor of it against his chest, neck and face. The sounds that would soon follow, her breathless gasps, and maybe an appeal to one of her animistic nature or tree gods when she came. Or better yet, he admitted with a quickly stifled trace of pride, his own name.

The thought gave speed to his hands when he might have been content to take much more time slowly stroking her or teasing her with his fingers. He was fairly certain she wouldn't mind if he speeded this up a bit. She usually wanted him to move faster anyway.

She arched against him, giving him all the cue he needed.

"I like it when you do that."

"Mmmm...?" When he started using 'I like' or 'I want' statements, she knew he had abandoned his world for hers.

"Tell me what you want without saying a word." He spoke this against the curve of her arched-back throat. His beard brushed and filled the delicate, sensitive hollow at the base of it. She shuddered at the tickling sensation. Qui-Gon shifted slightly and found the heavy pulse in the side of her neck. He craved the sensation of her warm life rushing beneath his lips. Her small sigh of pleasure encouraged him to spend a long moment there, lips and tongue against her smooth skin. He nuzzled the soft spot beneath her ear with his nose.

His hands were still on her thighs, caressing them. She didn't have as much time for dancing as she'd had a few years ago, but she took good care of herself. He admired her healthy physique and the respect she had for her body. She had learned to treat it far better than she had in her youth. He palmed the large swells of her muscles, stroking, massaging, until he could hear her mental invitation to move higher.

"I like it when you--"

His hands swept up her thighs under her gown, and unexpectedly slid nearly to her waist. Anticipating the usual proper undergarments, he encountered absolutely nothing but bare, warm skin.

Valia felt him pause slightly, and then sensed his surprise and delight as he continued his caressing. "I was so much more comfortable without all that on under this dress."

Qui-Gon swore her smile could have lit up the interior of the closet. "You shameless little sybarite..."

"Oooh, you know I just love it when you use those big 'dirty' words on me..."

His thumbs circling in the hollows between her butt cheeks and her hips, he cupped her and pulled her toward him. She made a helpless little moan but smiled her approval. She felt in the dark for the folds of her dress and his tunic and pushed them out of the way. He wanted to touch her first, feel her with his fingers. He eased a hand between her thighs and caressed the fascinating, layered opening. How like a warm, ripe fruit she was. One finger, then two inside her. He felt her gasp slightly and then chuckle when she realized the flashes of erotic images in her mind's eye were his doing, not hers. It hardly seemed possible, but he felt her become even more wet than she already was, in response.

Reckless, impulsive, undisciplined...these words for himself flashed briefly through Qui-Gon's mind as he withdrew his hand and repositioned himself. And then they drowned in a flood of physical sensation. All that mattered right now was being there for her, with her. In her. He entered her only partially, teasing her, but also wanting to more slowly ease into her, to draw this out and heighten her pleasure. Her hands were up and down his sides, his hips, wherever she could reach, pulling at him. She slipped a hand down past his groin and with her fingers softly stroked the unsheathed part of him. He called upon his considerable control to move slowly, concentrate on every single nerve ending.

She could not bear much more. "Oh, please..." she managed a throaty whisper.

"And then when you ask so prettily..."

Valia bore down on him with a certain set of muscles. Muscles she knew were strong. At the same time she stretched her hand and gently squeezed right where it counted for most warm-blooded males, human and a good number of other species. She couldn't see, but she hoped his eyes crossed like the first time she'd put all her effort into this move. Asking? This was a demand. She felt the ends of his hair shift upwards against her face and she knew he had tipped his head back in a silent cry to the ceiling. Qui-Gon endured this sweet torture for all of one and a half seconds before he pulled her hand from between them and plunged the rest of the way into her. She was more than ready for it. He heard the satisfying sound of her toes curling inside her shoes.

He was lost in her. He was found. "Lia..." Her name drifted on his breath.

Valia fervently hoped no one was going to need anything in this closet for the next few minutes. But the idea of a lovers' tryst mere meters from other unknowing passengers and crew inflamed her even more.

"I want you so," he whispered hoarsely to her. It was a dark confession. It was a plea.

"Have me," she helplessly murmured against his neck. She welcomed him to the core of her. This is what she wanted, this closeness, to be filled with him. She arched against him and found the front of whatever she was sitting on with her heels so she could brace against him even harder. He supported the small of her back with his hands. Valia never knew the ship had already leaped toward the stars by the time she did so herself.