NIKHEDONIA

(n.) the feeling of excitement, elation, and pleasure that comes from anticipating future attainment

Leia was combing her still-damp hair before the fresher's half-mirror when a knock came on the outer door.

"Hey, Sweetheart," Han called.

She set her brush down near the basin, beckoning, "Come in," and popped into the main room to greet him.

The hatch to the captain's quarters slid open but before he could take more than two steps inside, Han's eyes widened to the size of a Mon Calamari's as he took in the sight of her.

"Leia," he rasped in consternation and immediately averted his eyes, then turned to face the wall. "Sorry, I—" He recovered his wits enough to slam his palm onto the sensor, closing the cabin door behind him lest anyone else be treated to the same inadvertent view. "I knew the fresher'd been running, but you said — you said to come in."

"I did," Leia calmly verified, walking over to him.

"But you're…." He gestured vaguely towards her body, or as much as he could with his back tactfully turned to her. "…you're only wearing a towel."

There was a smile in her voice as she rightly pointed out, "A towel that conceals more cleavage than some dresses I've worn, and that goes down nearly to my knees."

"Yeah, but it's—" Han broke off, flustered and confounded as to why she wasn't seeing the problem. "Leia, it's just a towel. And nothin' else underneath," he emphasized.

"That's generally how it works straight from the shower, yes."

"But—"

"It's all right, Han," she tried to put him at ease, while graciously tamping down the giggle at his expense that was threatening to bubble up. "You're free to turn around." Unable to resist teasing him just a little, she made her voice scandalized as she added, "Even if I do have nothing else underneath. Really, I don't understand the fuss. I've removed clothing in front of you before. How many of my wounds have you tended?"

"We're not in battle now, Princess, we're in the bedroom," he responded, gruff and low.

"You can still turn around," she answered, her tone dipping sensual at his insinuation.

From her angle she could see his throat bob unsteadily, but he slowly turned; warily, as if awaiting a trap, not entirely sure he should be doing this.

Leia laughed outright now, no longer even attempting to conceal her amusement. "And you used to goad me about 'royal sensibilities'. I thought you were a blasé spacer who's seen and done it all. I don't mind," she said, indicating her towel-clad state, "so why should you?"

"'Mind' ain't the right word, Atori," Han shot back in a timbre that clearly signaled his predicament. «Worship»

It was hard for him to know where he stood with her, specifically what was and wasn't allowed. Leia had made it clear during yesterday's fight over Jabba and his decision to leave her with the Alliance that she had no intention of having sex with him until those issues were resolved. They'd made their peace, but afterwards things had become more tentative between them, at least on his part.

It was nothing like the weeks after Ord Mantell. There was no anger in the aftermath; Leia had kissed him and insisted she wanted them to continue to do so. Still, he couldn't help but approach any physicality between them more carefully. Knowing now that she didn't want those affections to lead into bed made him more conscious and cautious over what she might consider too far, too much; where she drew that line and where he might unintentionally transgress it.

Judging by the playfully provocative smirk she was leveling his way, Leia had no such concerns about any perceived line. Then again, it was easier for her to be blithe when she wasn't the one likely to combust under the heat and strain of keeping himself from devouring her on the spot.

"You've seen me in a two-piece swim suit," she reasoned, if mischievously. "We weren't 'in battle' then, and this is more covered up than that."

"Yeah, maybe, but this…" Han ran a hand through his hair while his eyes absorbedly skimmed over her figure. When he finished, his voice had dropped an octave. "This has implications."

Leia's eyebrow arched with interest. "Implications, hmm?" Her eyes ran a circuit over him, too, her expression gamesomely naughty as she closed the remaining space between them. "And what exactly might those implications be, Flyboy?"

Her hands alighted on his hips, making him hiss in a breath as they glided with purpose up his abdomen before coming to rest over his pectoral muscles. She felt the left one jump when her palm grazed his nipple and she smiled, pleased as a purring tooka.

There, in the up until now off-limits bedroom, Leia went up on tip-toes and whispered just shy of his lips, "Rules are made to be broken, isn't that what you always say?" She tilted her head and kissed him, soft and brief, then opened her mouth against his for a second slower, more lingering kiss that focused on the delectable expanse of his plump lower lip.

"Kriff, Leia," Han broke away from her, almost panicked. "You can't kiss me like that when you're in nothin' but a towel." Never once had she so much as given him a peck goodnight in the bedroom, and then to do it while she was almost naked, and touching him that way? Did she think he was made of durasteel?

Leia gazed up at him, watched as the tanned skin of his face was lost to a hue of red that spread across his cheekbones. "Han Solo, are you blushing?" she accused with a grin, stepping back into him despite his cautions and pulling him down to her by his shirt.

"Well — well, kest, Sweetheart, when you get all flirty and come-hither like that, it's a lot — it's—" He stumbled over the words as she took his earlobe into her mouth. "—a lot for a guy to — god, Leia," he groaned as she gently bit and sucked at his lobe. She moved her enticing nibbles down to his neck, but when her tongue darted out to taste him there, hot and hungry, he brought his hands to her waist and set her safely away. "Haven't you ever been warned not to play with fire?"

"Haven't you learned by now I never listen to warnings?" she countered.

"That's me, honey, not you, and—"

"Why, Captain," she made her voice low and alluring, "I thought you liked it when I flirted with you. Or is it that you can excite me but you can't take a little excitement yourself?"

"I can take it, but I'm gonna wanna take you. That's the problem."

He did, indeed, look very tempted to do so. "You could always run smashball statistics in your mind," she suggested and cheekily walked two fingers down his ribcage to his belly button.

"I'm serious, Leia," he gently warned, taking another step back out of her reach, for his own sanity.

"All this because I'm in a towel?" A devilish glint lit her eyes as an idea occurred to her. "What would you do if I did this?" she questioned, making a show of toying with the knot at the center of her breasts that kept the towel secured.

"Leia…."

"Or what about this?" She further escalated her teasing by actually releasing the knot, holding each end secured in her hands but making as though she was about to open the towel.

Stirred and ruffled as he was, Han couldn't help but smirk admiringly at her audaciousness. "You just love torturing me, don't you?" He shook his head at her with that lopsided half-smile that was her undoing.

"Okay, Hotshot, I'll be good," Leia promised, though she giggled even as she tied the knot back in place.

Han looked at her a beat. "That's what you think — 'cos now I won't be. C'mere, Highness," he growled low, swooping down and capturing her around the waist.

She laughed euphorically and not only let him draw her back in but wrapped her arms over his at her waist, encouraging him to keep them there. The laughter sputtered out in her throat entirely when his other smile appeared. That smile. The entirely delighted and past the point of any artifice smile, the one that lit up his features and went all the way to his eyes where his happiness shone, the little crinkles at their corners evidence of his utter enjoyment, a flash of perfect white teeth dazzling against his bronze skin.

When Han had that wide, bright smile he was the handsomest thing she'd ever seen. Stunning was the word that came to mind. It left her stunned, anyway, and she told him so. "You know, when you smile like that you are devastating."

His smirk came back in answer, but he didn't boast and swagger the way she expected him to, and Leia realized he thought she was being tongue-in-cheek. "No, I mean it. In the most direct sense of the word: overwhelmed, restraint overcome, without any hope of resistance. When you smile like that, a woman would give you anything."

"Yeah?" And there was that irresistible smile again that radiated his joy. "Wish I'd've known that a couple years ago. Could've done a lot with that."

"Don't I know it?" Leia wryly rejoined. "Why do you think I kept such a tight lid on it? That smile of yours could bring the entire galaxy to its knees."

"Think it'd work on Vader?"

She cocked her head mock-thoughtfully. "It's worth a try."

"How about I just try it again on you? Yours are the only knees I care about." Han stooped down to gather her closer. "Your knees, eyes, shoulders, legs," he said, underscoring each word with peppered kisses across her face. "Every single part of you. Now: prepare to lose all resistance…." With calculated bravado, he flashed the smile that slayed her. "Is your restraint overcome?"

"Completely annihilated," she uttered, low and full of promise.

"Just the way I like it, Worship."

"Are you going to devastate me?" The look Leia gave him said she really hoped he would.

"Oh yeah. Gonna start by devastating that smart, incredible, hot little mouth of yours." He pressed his lips to hers, coaxing them open. When his tongue stroked hers, she made a soft sound of satisfaction, clutching tighter at his arms, but an instant later he eased away. "Then I'll take a journey down your neck."

Gathering her hair aside, he touched his mouth to her, humming against her skin, "Mm, talk about devastating. Know how many times I wanted to do this?" Han disclosed thickly while he traced and nibbled his way down her neck. "We're on a mission and you're in one of those fancy dresses, schmoozing some royal someone into bankrollin' the Alliance, and I'm supposed to be on the lookout for Imps but all I can think about is running my tongue along your collarbone…" He bent low to do just that and Leia whimpered, trembling as his hands moved up her sides over the thin towel. "…sucking right here till you sigh my name."

He set his lips to the little valley just above her clavicle, drawing her skin into his mouth hungrily, and Leia tipped her head back with a softly moaned, "Han."

"Yeah, just like that," he encouraged.

"I…" She struggled to articulate what she was feeling now that the tables were turned, now that she was the one caught in his spell. They both were caught up, which made for a dangerous combination. "Han, I still—" She broke off into another moan as the hot suction of his mouth at the junction of her neck and shoulder literally made her knees weaken and set a warm throb of lust pulsing insistently between her legs. Her hand shot up to stroke at his neck and hair, the other gliding down to his waist, fingers catching in his belt to ground herself.

"Or maybe…." Leia arched into him, pulling him closer by the worn leather, and in response he pressed his hips into her. She felt him rigid and wanting against her abdomen and the sudden need to have his hardness at the crux of her, answering the ache he had started, was nearly overpowering. "Oh, fuck tomorrow," she exhaled in a rush of yearning.

He raised his head, grinning libidinously at her. "Language, Princess."

"Shut up and kiss me," she demanded, tugging at a fistful of his hair to bring him back down to her.

He had no problem at all complying with that command, and they were at each other fervently. Their height difference soon made the standing position a challenge, but Han could work around it. Walking them the few steps over to the tiny desk affixed to the wall, he hauled out its stool and sat down, pulling Leia onto his lap.

His mouth found her neck again and after several passionate minutes, she gasped, "Stars, Han…I'm on fire."

He opened his eyes, lifting his face to glance at her: head thrown back, biting her lip, a look of pleasure-pain intense on her face. He knew she was speaking sexually — they were, after all, mid-clench — but her expression was of such a private agony, one that he understood well but wondered if its cause could be attributed solely to desire for her. That seed of doubt planted enough concern for him to ask, "Where?"

"You know where," she panted, and demonstrated by wriggling that part of her anatomy against his lap, brushing his erection in the process. That seemed to push him beyond his bounds of self-control and his mouth claimed hers again ravenously.

Abruptly, an irritated growl came from the other side of the wall, followed swiftly by a rough pounding on the cabin door. [I am still waiting on that spacer's tape, Cub! If you intended to mate with Little Princess first you should have told me rather than leaving me hanging upturned in the ceiling panel.]

"Fuck, Chewie, have a little tact!" Han yelled back, dropping his chin against Leia's shoulder in frustration, though his eyes did travel guiltily across the room to his toolbox beneath the fresher sink where he'd been fixing a leaky pipe earlier. He'd entirely forgotten that retrieving the roll of tape had been the point of coming in here in the first place.

"It's all right, Han," Leia conveyed breathlessly. "That got…a bit out of hand, anyway."

"Yeah," he muttered, feeling somewhat dazed.

Her electrified smile conveyed the lustful stupor was mutual but she stood from his lap, smoothing her rucked-up towel in the process. "I suppose his interruption was for the best. Playing with fire and all that…"

Han grunted as he got up, adjusting himself while he walked to the fresher. "Do me a favor," he requested as he made his way back through with the tape. "Leave that towel on my pillow, would ya?" he asked with a wink, nodding toward the only thing covering her naked and admittedly aroused body.

"Scoundrel," Leia chided with a laugh, shoving him toward the cabin door. "Get going. Your copilot needs you."

AN: Sorry for the short chapter. I originally had this all in one piece but it was unmanageably long so I broke it in two. This was the natural spilt since Part 2 is the following day, but the lengths are wildly uneven. The second part will be nice and long (I'm talking three times longer) and it's fully written, just needs to be proofed, so it shouldn't be too long before the second update.