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Chapter Four

I was irritated and I wasn't sure why.

Mikel surely knew it the minute I stormed into my office without even letting him finish his morning greeting. My door slid shut just as he was asking if I'd like a cup of stimcaf but knew it was best when I was in such a mood to leave me be unless it was an absolute emergency. I'd apologize later. I always did.

I untied my cape and tossed it onto the couch before flopping down into my plush desk chair. With a big sigh, I stood right back up and moved over to the large window to gaze out at the city below. However, I wasn't really seeing what was right in front of me because my mind was still trying to decipher why I was so agitated this morning.

Li'andra had noticed my mood last night, my head still reeling from that encounter. After spending the evening at a reception for visiting dignitaries from her home planet, we returned to her luxury apartment located in the most upscale area of the city, of course. Nothing but the best for Li', which is why we never went to my place. But that was fine with me. It meant I didn't have to clean up my mess.

The evening had been pleasant enough---shaking lots of important hands, smiling thousands of fake smiles until I thought my cheeks would literally slide off of my face. It was the type of outing we had shared many times before. Afterward, we would usually head back to her apartment if we were both up for it.

Last night I hadn't been up to it.

We were standing in her spacious entry hall having just come inside when she got that predictable glint in her eye and sidled up to me running her hands up my chest.

"So, are you staying? It's been a while," she purred seductively as she pressed closer.

It was a game I had played before, but, for some reason, I wasn't in the mood to participate. I grabbed her hands to stop her progress and offered a curt, "I can't."

For the second time in one day, those two small words brought a look of utter astonishment to a woman's face. Li'andra yanked her hands from mine and her pale eyes flashed icy blue, revealing what I knew to be her true nature.

"Not tonight," I added for clarification noting the vicious glare she was spearing me with. "Thank you for the offer though."

She studied me intently, as if assessing her options. "You sound so formal…like it's a business proposition," she said haughtily, quickly regaining her superior disposition. I immediately put myself on guard. I had seen her on the offensive. She could be ruthless.

But then so could I.

"Isn't it?" I replied insolently with an arrogant huff. "You got what you wanted from me tonight, so you should be happy I'm not expecting anything in return."

Her brow arched flirtatiously and she stepped in closer to gaze up at me through her long lashes. "I haven't gotten all I want from you just yet, darling," she insinuated, raking a possessive look up and down my body before leaning up and placing enticing kisses along my jaw. It was a move that had worked often enough in the past, but did nothing more at that moment than further my annoyance.

I turned my head away from her mouth and took a step back. "I have to go," I said coldly. "I have to get up early in the morning."

For a brief moment, I thought I saw a hint of disappointment in Li'andra's eyes caused by my rejection of her offer, which so many times before had been readily accepted. But then I remembered who I was looking at and saw the look for what it was. If she was hurt, it was only because she hadn't gotten what she wanted.

"It's her, isn't it?" she asked hastily, blocking my exit.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

She stared at me and crossed her arms in front of her chest causing even more of her usually tempting cleavage to spill out of her revealing bodice.

"Your little friend---Jeanie, or whatever her name is," she declared snobbily.

I felt my temper begin to flare. "Her name is Jaina—not Jeanie," I explained calmly although my jaw clenched. "And I still don't know what you're talking about."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Don't play games with me, Kyp. I saw how your eyes lit up when you saw her yesterday. Any woman worth her mettle knows what that means. But isn't she a little young for you?" Her words struck like a blade right to my own doubts.

Ah…so this was how it was going to be. Well, then…

"True, she's younger than you," I stated plainly, crossing my arms and relishing the stunned look on her face. Li'andra had issues with her age, trying desperately to hold back the hands of time by utilizing any and all beauty treatments she could to keep her thirty-five year old face and body as ageless as possible. I knew it was a sore subject and had chosen my words carefully.

It worked. She backed down, albeit very grudgingly.

"She's a friend, Li'," I explained kindly, loosening my arms in an attempt at a truce. Despite her selfish flaws, Li' was good at heart…sort of. "I knew Jaina when she was just a toddler."

She took a deep breath and looked at me sweetly. Amazing how she could she change moods so rapidly. "So, she's like your little sister then?" she asked hopefully moving closer to run a finger up my arm.

How could I explain what Jaina and I had? I couldn't…not to Li'andra. "Not exactly." Her gaze turned cold again. "We're just…friends. We went through a lot together in the war and I just haven't seen her in several years."

I could see the wheels spinning in her mind as she struggled with how to respond. "Funny how such a good friend hasn't seen you in so long," she jabbed. "Maybe she's not as good a friend as you think."

I didn't even remember what I said next. All I know is that I was out of there and back home in record time. It's interesting how fast time flies when you're busy seething with rage.

So I had spent most of the night in restless contemplation of Li'andra's insinuations about Jaina. My mind mulled over our relationship trying unsuccessfully to pin down an exact description of what we were to each other. But try as I might, I couldn't do it.

With Li'andra, it was simple…a basic give and take. We had an agreement and each of us played our parts with no strings attached. But with Jaina, things had never been simple and probably never would.

Li's words haunted me as I tossed and turned all night long. Why had Jaina not contacted me in so long? Did she not care as much for our friendship as I did? True, I hadn't tried to contact her either, but that was because I didn't want to seem pushy or overbearing. She was still growing up and needed space to figure things out on her own. Or was I afraid to admit that she had simply tired of me and our relationship?…seen fit to cast me aside like so much useless trash.

I growled in disgust and banged the window in my office.

"Still not a morning person, I see."

I spun around to see Jaina standing in my open doorway, an amused smirk on her face. I'd been so lost in my distressing thoughts that I hadn't even heard her come in.

"I didn't get much sleep last night," I stated, dragging a hand back through my hair as I took a seat at my desk.

"Oh," she said quietly, the smile instantly gone from her lips. Then thankfully she changed the subject. "Mikel informed me that my office won't be ready for another few days."

"Um, yeah, that's what I figured. They've been remodeling it." I knew since mine was right across the hall. The sound of power tools and busy construction droids had drifted into my office on too many occasions over the past few weeks. "You can just share mine until yours is finished," I offered without even thinking first. It had slipped out of my mouth as a natural reaction to Jaina Solo. I could never seem to refuse her anything she asked for.

I forced myself not to wonder why that was.

"Great," she said taking a seat on the couch after pulling my cape into her lap. She didn't know I was watching, but I saw her bring it to her nose and take a deep breath. A tiny smile curved her lips when it descended, and, for some reason, that pleased me and soothed my irritation. After folding the cape and placing it carefully on the cushion next to her, she leaned back and realized I'd been watching her every move. A slight blush crept up her neck and onto her cheeks and I grinned.

"So," I exclaimed, "are you ready to get started?"

"Please, make it stop!"

I laughed out loud as Jaina plopped onto the couch and admitted defeat.

"Giving up already, Solo?" I teased. "Funny. I never took you for a quitter."

She glanced at me, her expression warring between a glare and a sulky pout.

"Oh, I'm not quitting. Solos never quit," she stated defiantly before slumping back into the cushions. "It's just that I didn't think there would be so much stuff to learn. How many planet files have we gone through so far?"

I leaned back casually in my chair and propped my feet up on my desk. "Only twenty-two. We have hundreds more to study to get you up to speed for your Council duties," I informed her sadistically.

A very unladylike groan issued from the sofa. "I hope you're kidding. And here I thought this job would be exciting and adventurous."

I chuckled again. "First things first. You've got to crawl before you can walk."

She shot me a look to kill.

"Thank you, oh, wise one, for that tidbit of knowledge. But if I'm going to have to read hundreds more files, I'm going to need to be fed. When's lunch?"

So, we ordered lunch in and kept on working. Jaina had always been a hard worker and it was good to know she hadn't changed. She determined to make it through thirty more files by the end of her first day, and we beat it. She actually finished with thirty-one and positively beamed with pride as she closed out the last file card and ejected it from her datapad.

"Well, I now know that the main export of Tano V is bunkin, a type of livestock manure that is considered a rare delicacy for the people of Rynos II. My life is now complete." She rose from the couch and walked toward my desk. I shut down my datapad and straightened the stack of data discs strewn every which way. Jaina grabbed a few more on her way and added them to my stack.

"Just think," I said sarcastically, "tomorrow we get to start all over again with the second batch…or rather, YOU get to start. Technically, as head of the Council I suppose I really don't have to lower myself to such menial tasks."

She froze and stared at me, mouth agape. "You're not going to help me tomorrow?" The distraught expression on her face was so uncharacteristic and took me totally by surprise. She seemed genuinely crushed at the thought of my not working with her that I immediately regretted my jest and found myself apologizing.

"I'm only teasing, Jaina," I assured her, happy to see her look of obvious relief. "Of course I'll work with you until you're finished…or until you're so sick of my company that you beg me to leave you alone."

Her brown eyes bored into mine.

"I'd never do that, Kyp."

What!

My mouth went dry and I think my heart actually stopped for a minute…or maybe it was my brain because my mind blanked and my tongue wouldn't work for about five seconds---or was it more? I don't know. I don't really remember anything much except trying to comprehend Jaina's last sentence. My first reaction was to laugh. For anyone that knows Jaina's and my history, to see it written down you would assume she was being extremely sarcastic, at the most, playful and teasing. But being there, standing in front of her as those eyes of hers locked on mine, she wasn't playing and she definitely wasn't being sarcastic. I think she actually meant them.

Stupid me, instead of pausing to think things through or, heaven forbid, ask her what she meant exactly, I made light of it and changed the subject.

Idiot.

"Ready to go?" I asked, moving toward the door.

She glanced at me in confusion. "Go where?"

"Dinner. We had plans, remember?"

A mischievous smirk tilted the corner of her mouth. "Oh, did Lady Li'andra let you off your leash for the evening?" The tone of her voice was teasing, but the glint in her eyes was not.

"Very funny, Goddess. For your sake, I'm going to pretend you didn't say that. And for your information, no one keeps Kyp Durron on a leash." I bent down to retrieve my cape, recalling how she had tenderly folded and lifted to her nose to breathe in…what? My scent? How…interesting and unexpected.

She lifted a challenging eyebrow and pushed past me out the door. "That's a shame," she tossed back over her shoulder. "Sounds like it could be fun."

Again--- me---frozen into place by something Jaina Solo had just said. She was already in the lobby saying goodbye to Mikel, and there I was still in the same exact place. Had she just shot me a suggestive innuendo? Jaina Solo? The girl who once told me she wouldn't spit on me if I was dying of thirst in a desert? Did she really just---? Forbidden images popped into my mind, but I kicked them out as forcefully as I could. Having this kind of banter with her was a strange new experience for me and I didn't know what to think or do. Eventually, after she turned and asked if I was coming or not, I picked up my jaw from the floor and followed her out the door.

Yet another sign I should have paid heed to and didn't. And I'm the head of the Jedi Council? What were they thinking?

I slept for several hours after Jaina left me drugged and locked in the cabin on board her ship. I had to laugh at my predicament as I lay flat on my back, hands behind my head staring up at the ceiling. Glancing over at the door, I was sure I could open it if I really wanted to, but I wasn't yet convinced it was in my best interest to be on the other side of that door. Jaina Solo was up to something, and while part of me was still recovering from the shock of the whole situation, another part of me was scared to death to find out what she had in mind. I had seen her ruthlessness during her 'dark time'. That's what we had jokingly called her slight descent into the Dark Side of the Force after Anakin's death--- years later, of course.

As the minutes ticked by, I became more curious about Jaina's scheme and my part in it. I tried to sit up and a pain shot out right from the stun blast---the one she caused--- reminding me of how angry I was with her. Who did she think she was luring me to a secluded spot under false pretenses only to shoot me and hijack me to gods know where! She had a lot to answer for.

'Jaina! Get in here--- NOW!', I sent to her via our long dormant Force bond. Glad to see it still worked, because in just a few minutes she was walking through my door.

And she was smiling.

"Awake?" she asked innocently.

"Yes, I'm awake," I answered menacingly with a glare as I struggled to get up from the bed.

"Are you hungry?" she asked, her 'sweetness and light' routine only serving to add fuel to my growing irritation.

I finally stood right in front of her and, if I'm not mistaken, snorted. "Like I would eat or drink anything from you after what you did to my drink earlier, not to mention the fact that you SHOT ME!"

Then she had the nerve to roll her eyes at me. She rolled her eyes!--- at me.

"Not this again. Didn't we already have this conversation? What I'm doing is for your own good, Kyp. Trust me."

The lopsided smile on her face looked so amazingly like her father that I had to blink to make sure it wasn't really Han Solo in front of me. I had heard him say that on several occasions, usually before he was about to do something that would put everyone in his general vicinity in extreme peril. Trust her? Yeah, right!

"You're insane, you know that?" I replied. "The Jaina Solo I knew may have been a bit arrogant, a bit brash, even a little bit too intense, but you, I don't know you. You're not the same person."

She was still smiling, although I had seen it falter for just a second when I mentioned she was a bit arrogant. But still she stood there grinning at me as if she knew something I didn't. Which she did, technically, but still--- it was annoying.

"You're right," she stated simply. "I'm not the same person." She took a step closer to me and I didn't know what to expect next. "That's what I've been trying to make you see, Kyp. I've changed." She took a few more steps and was then only inches from me. When her tiny hand came to rest above my heart, I flinched. "I've grown up. I'm not the same Jaina. I'm a better Jaina. I'm not that foolish teenager anymore who doesn't know what she wants or what's best for her. Now, I know what I want and I know who is best for me."

She closed the gap between us, our bodies brushing together and I felt myself tremble--- or was it her? Oh well, it didn't matter because she looked up at me with those big brown eyes, smoldering so hot I could feel all my anger instantly melt away. My hand moved to brush her cheek and she leaned into my palm, breathing deeply and closing her eyes in what I think was pleasure. Moving my hand under her chin, I forced her to look up at me again.

"And what do you want, Jaina? Who is best for you?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. I could hardly breathe waiting for her answer.

Without a moment's hesitation, she replied, "You."

And, of course, I kissed her.