Notes: WARNING, this chapter is almost entirely smut so skip to the end if that isn't your thing.
Basically - my interpretation of the store cupboard scene we missed out on.

He had always thought of her as beautiful, Reyes had a certain eye for beautiful things and Sara Ryder was no exception. He'd known that from their very first meeting when she'd flashed him that dimpled, coy smile that he now understood was certainly not the way she greeted everyone. But he decided that right now, her head cast backwards, lips parted in a rapturous gasp, a rosy flush creeping up the skin of her neck and inflaming her cheeks, right now she was at her most beautiful. As he looked at her, the desperate fingers entwined in his hair tightened and she let out a whine.

"Reyes… please…" Sara panted, her voice catching as he pressed his fingers deeper inside of her, punishingly slowly against the spot that was making her tremble.

He knew what it was she wanted. His lips, chin, fingers were slick enough, the shivering tightening of her thighs enough that he knew how tantalisingly close she was.

"I don't know Sara, what if people hear? You're not exactly being quiet…" Reyes admonished teasingly, even though he was half mad with arousal himself at the sight before him. His eyes grazed, lingered, over the lines of her body as she bucked urgently against his knuckles, taking in the bare curve of her hips, her free hand bunched tightly in the shirt that obscured the top half of her body pulling it taut, and beneath he could see the impressions of her raised nipples. As well as this was the ridiculous idea that he was, him, Reyes Vidal, pleasuring the Pathfinder atop a crate in a storage cupboard not two hundred metres away from members of Nexus leadership, all of whom he was entirely sure were extremely unimpressed with his presence at Port Meridian in the first place, and would likely execute him without a second thought were it not for the very woman curled so exquisitely beneath his attentions. As he raised his free hand to brush away hair that was obscuring his view of her face, Sara flashed her tongue over the skin of his thumb, taking it into her mouth and sucking it, forcing images of those teeth scraping, that hot, wet mouth closing over his cock instead. As much as he didn't want to admit it, as much as he really, really fucking loved teasing her like this he was so achingly hard it was becoming increasingly difficult not to give in and bury himself inside her instead.

Sara's eyes flashed open, searching for his, their glazed blue locking on his beseechingly when she found them, "I… please-"

Her words were cut off as he did as he was bidden and his mouth slid back between her thighs, lapping at delicate flesh that caused her to grind herself forward with a whimper. He had been rocking his fingers back and forward, always just shy of enough, but at her insistence he quickened the pace.

"Like this? Is this what you want?" he asked, taunting like he didn't already know.

The long moan this ripped from her lips confirmed her satisfaction and he ran his hand down her body to lock her hip in place as she shuddered against him, groaning as the spot he was tormenting luxuriously with his tongue became almost too sensitive. Her breath became increasingly ragged, fingers darting out, nails clawing at the shoulder of his flightsuit as he spread her ruthlessly with his fingers assuming an unforgiving pace. The soft whimpers she made stimulated his pulse as it hammered at his throat, urging him on as he wondered at how just the taste, the feel, the sound of her could have him so stiff and wanting before she had even touched him. Reyes felt her tense abruptly and he pitched his body upwards and crashed his mouth against hers just in time, stifling her cries, catching them in his mouth greedily as her body quaked against him, his hand still working between them as she spilt over his fingers. Reyes held her firmly as her back arched, continuing his motions even as she twitched and gasped in shuddering waves, driving her deeper. Then her body softened around him and he slid a hand under her back so she wouldn't slam back against the crate as she whispered breathy "ohs" against his neck. After she took a moment to regain herself, Sara laid back against the crate, breathing deeply, eyes scrunched closed, "Well… shit."

"I did say you deserved to celebrate," he mused, aware his voice was still rough with desire.

"That was… if that's what I get every time I save the galaxy then…" she exhaled again and made a choked sound of approval.

"Well, no one else was showing you the gratitude you deserved so, I thought I'd give it to you…"

He leant back trying to centre himself, legs far less steady than usual. As he did so Sara caught hold of his collar weakly, eyes already bright again as they flickered open yet still drunk on his touch. Her gaze made his throat feel dry, his face, his body already entirely too hot as she rose to her feet with him, not helped by her thigh sliding between his legs, the contact scorching even through his flightsuit. He tried to dull a groan, catching it in his throat, as she leant towards him and his eyes fixed on her full bottom lip, inflamed, reddened from biting. The covetous flicker of her eyelashes suggested she'd heard it as her probing fingers found the zip beneath his throat and she began easing it down, "Your turn."

He allowed her to skim the garment off of his shoulders, eyes fixed on hers, on the thirst that still danced in magnificent blue.

"Hmm, not this time," he slid his hands over her naked hips, thumbs skimming across the bones that jutted out just enough to be a pleasing anchor for his hands. The question lingered in her eyes for a moment. Reyes answered by turning her slightly, her bare feet twisting on the tiles, guiding her until her back was against the wall, "I want all of you. Now."

As much as her brilliant tongue excited him, the desire to feel her shiver and strain against him, to watch her come apart in his hands again was as all-consuming. He was done waiting.

"But…"

He thrust his hips forward as he kissed her, making her forget her words, Sara's mouth parting in a soft gasp. Reyes savoured the touch of her like he hadn't been able to for weeks, the breathy press of her lips against his, the distinct, sweet scent that lingered in her hair as he combed pieces of it behind her ear. His mind was fogged with it, his tongue tangling with hers, taking her mouth with his. She was like a wild thing pinned beneath him, hands roving over his torso until fingernails found purchase instead, mouth pushing for more even as his lips were bruising on hers, skin humming wherever he touched. His fingers were biting into the cheek of her ass, the other hand stroking over her neck, her collarbone, down to her breasts. Sara was pulling down the back of his flightsuit, groaning against his lips in frustration as the heavy material resisted her. Reyes' hands left her body for a moment to help her, kicking off his boots before wrestling his legs free of his clothing. When he returned his hands, fingers climbing her back, he halted, startled, a surprised yelp wrenched from his lips as a shudder wracked through his body. Sara's hand had skimmed down from his hips until the pads of her fingers trailed gently over the length of him, the corner of her lips curling. He remained, paralysed for a moment as her touches ascended his shaft, thumb skimming ever so delicately over the tip. Then she squeezed and he had to place a steadying hand on the wall beside her.

"Sara… fuck…"

His head sank onto her shoulder, burying his face in her scarlet hair, strength sapped in a groan as her palm taunted his inflamed skin and her fingers clenched around him again. There was an appreciative sound in her throat as he submitted, momentarily, to her touch, before he wrenched his face back up towards hers. Reyes pushed her backwards, hard, so her shoulders met the wall, hitching himself forwards so he was pressed against the warmth of her hip. Her eyes snapped to his, her pupils impossibly wide.

"Take it… off," Reyes murmured, words far less pliant than he'd wanted them to be.

She caught his meaning anyway. Reaching up, she pulled the fabric over her head, letting her shirt fall onto the ground. Sara paused as her fingers traversed the lace straps of her bra.
He thought it was the appreciative weight of his eyes on her that caused her to pause until she mumbled, "What if someone manages to get in here?"

"Sara Ryder," he chuckled before continuing, tone chastising, "if someone somehow managed to get in here, past SAM's encryption on the door no less, they would see you taking such a fucking that you lose all sense. Surely after that, it doesn't matter if you're topless or not?"

He saw her delicate throat working as she swallowed, "Oh… no…"

"Well then?" Reyes paused, hand sliding over her arm, pale beneath his darker skin, trying to distract himself from the endless throbbing, the searing urge to buck into her side. She reached behind her back, an alluring grin back in place that pulled at his self-control, unhooking her bra. As soon as her delicious - really fucking delicious, annoyingly, distractingly so when he was trying to think about other things, or just fucking sleep – breasts were free, his fingers were working over them. Sara caught his chin urgently as he rolled her nipples gently beneath his fingers, eliciting a strangled whine from her throat.

"Reyes… fuck me…"

He had changed his mind. When she was giving him that look, that said she wanted him, needed him and those words were rolling off her tongue, that was when she was at her most beautiful.

"Yeah?" Reyes slid his hands under her thighs, lifting her, shifting her weight so her hips were anchored against the wall just above his before positioning himself so the head of his cock was rubbing, aching against her wetness. All it would take was one thrust of his hips and he would be inside her, and he clenched his jaw with the strain of it.

"Now, Sara?"

She gasped out the words, voice thick, "Yes… fuck me… please…"

He nudged his hips upwards just a little but stopped so he was only just pressed inside her, hands shaking from the strain of holding back as he held her above him, and Sara jerked like someone had blown her biotic shields.

"I'm sorry, what is it you want?"

She scrabbled at his shoulders, eliciting frustrated sobs as she realised he had her pinned too strongly and she couldn't ease herself down onto him.

"Reyes, I am going to throw you through this fucking wall if you don't-"

A cry, louder, higher than the others cascaded from her as he slid inside her, and he had to focus for a moment on maintaining his footing as a tremor ran the length of his body at the feel of her tightening around him.

"That better?"

She nodded furiously, back flat against the wall, angling her hips back and forth so he filled her, nudged all the right places, her small movements so agonising that his eyes nearly rolled back into his head. Reyes shifted himself back so she could feel his cock drag nearly all the way out again before thrusting back inside her, his own breath hitching back out of him with the motion. Sara caught her bottom lip with her teeth to stop herself from crying out, her body bending to meet his, and the last measure of restraint he had snapped like a rubber band. He kept her pitched just above him so she could feel the entire length of him as he thrust in and out of her, again and again, falling into a steady rhythm. She rocked her hips, following his motion the best she could, punctuating the air with a muted but no less wanton sound every time he drove into her. Before long her thighs were trembling against him, her moans descending into desperate mewls, and he had to refocus his attention away from her and on his own measured movements lest he lose control. Just as he could feel her clenching around him, her breaths short rasps in her throat, there was a sudden, loud voice outside.

"You brought us all this way and we haven't even seen the human Pathfinder yet. Typical."

Automatically Reyes turned his head to the doorway which had remained, as he had predicted earlier, firmly closed. Sara tensed, although this time it wasn't through desire, and as he turned back to look at her an expression of panic was coursing over her flushed cheeks.

"Well, I'm sorry Narinda, I thought we were here for diplomatic reasons, not just so you could gawk at her," a haughty voice responded, sounding just as close.

Sara quickly brought a hand to her mouth, stifling a nervous laugh. She looked down at him, still wanting, still breathless but clearly uneasy.

"Well, yes of course, but her ship's leaving today."

Still burrowed inside her Reyes readjusted himself and she hissed his name sharply, shaking her head.

"Trust me," he mouthed and after a long moment she nodded.

With a sharp exhale of effort he slid her downwards, her breasts against his chest, resting one of her feet on the floor as he carefully hooked the other knee over his arm. Her eyes watched him, caught between trepidation and lust, as the buzz of conversation between the two women outside continued. Now his other hand was free he curved his thumb over her full bottom lip, moving to the skin of her cheek before sliding his hand over her mouth. Then Reyes snapped his hips forward without warning and the brief alarm in her eyes was snuffed out as she gasped against his hand. He resumed his previous pace and despite her previous reticence she demanded more without words as she squeezed against him. Silently he fucked her, and it was the single hottest thing he had ever experienced; feeling her pant against his fingers, knowing that Sara was just as aware as he was of the possibility of being caught, and was just as exhilarated by it. Every nerve ending in his body felt like it was firing at the same time. When her body wracked suddenly, violently against his and she bit the inside of his finger to stop herself screaming, he had no idea how he managed not to come with her. Instead he continued driving into her languorously, lengthening out the quivering, fluttering swells. Gently she peeled back his hand from her mouth as the voices from beyond the door retreated. Sara's wide eyes traced over the lines of his face as though they were worth taking the time over, before her nails inched into the short hair at the back of his neck and she pulled him towards her.

"Reyes…"

"Hmmmm?"

"I really," her breath caught as he thrust upwards, "really," she dropped a brief kiss on his lips, "want you to come with me."

Her gaze met his own and he was transfixed for a moment, breaths cascading out of him. He nodded, for once not trusting himself to form any sort of clever response. Then her soft mouth was on his again, reminding him of how much he'd missed it, missed her, missed this, her clever tongue gliding over his bottom lip at the same time his cock drove into the deepest part of her making him groan and swear under his breath. She smiled against his mouth. Then he was grinding harder, making her ride him a terrible, urgent tempo, a flutter of worry of hurting her passed at the insistent rock of her hips back against his, the slipperiness of her thighs. His hand locked onto her hip as he licked, bit down her neck, sucking in hard breaths against her skin. This time he couldn't withstand it, didn't want to, the pitch of her cries, the rake of her nipples against his skin, how she clenched around his cock, soft and wet and hot all at the same time. He came with her, hard, lurching forward as the tingle of her biotics crackled over his skin like a lick of electricity, instead of hurting, a pleasant hum as he twitched and growled low in his throat. Then he sank, forehead against hers, as she gingerly lowered her other leg to the ground and he withdrew from her with a shiver, shaken, broken breaths still tumbling out of him. Sara was pressing slow kisses against his cheek, up to his ear and over his neck, each one careful, velvety soft yet considered as though they were postmarks. Each one said he was hers and somehow, somewhere along the way he had come to agree with her.

"I bet you're fucking tired," Sara breathed, a note of amusement in her voice.

He nodded back woodenly. Now he was no longer consumed by lust and adrenaline the very real ache of his limbs from holding up both their weight for so long was making itself painfully apparent. When he opened his eyes she was smiling at him, satiated, eyes sparkling, and rather than revising his thoughts about when actually she was at her most attractive again, he simply decided that any of the ways she looked at him were beautiful.

"Come here…" Reyes sank to the floor, planting his back against the wall, pulling her down with him with only a slight insistence, not demanding, but asking.

Sara followed him, curling between his legs, head on his shoulder. They were both still damp with sweat but that didn't seem to both her either, as she sighed in a satisfied sort of way, breath tickling his neck. Reyes rocked his head back against the wall, the stubs of his nails trailing lightly over the faint freckles on the back of her shoulders. He frowned slightly as his fingertips ran forwards over the knotted skin that indicated the fresh scar at her collar bone, involuntary pangs of anger and guilt flaring at the memory of how she had received the bullet wound. As if she had sensed something of his thoughts she kissed his neck twice.

"So, whilst what I said about the crates being sturdy was true. I'm not sure I was entirely right about the secluded part," Reyes smirked, twisting his mind away from such thoughts.

"You lying shit, I wouldn't be surprised if you picked this place on purpose," Sara responded, her tone mocking, "you loved that."

"Hmm, well if you didn't you have a strange way of complaining."

He nipped at the skin of her side playfully, just at the place where her hip started to flare out, and she flinched away from him for a moment before leaning back against him.

"Oh, I'm certainly not complaining. Bit worried about greeting the adoring public with bird's nest hair, grinning like a shitting fool though."

She turned her head so she was looking at him again and he found he was looking back for an inordinate amount of time. It was a welcome change to her smiling, really smiling, for once not looking harassed by something Tann had said or concerned over the threat of the kett. With a pang, he realised he actually felt… good himself. And not the good he felt after making a particularly brilliant deal, not the kind of good he felt after 'liberating' competing smuggler's supplies from right under their noses, certainly not the same as when he'd finally gotten rid of Sloane and secured his ascension. It was stronger and more fragile all at once, and that wasn't something he was ready to even begin to process. He was greatly relieved when her eyelashes flickered, a strange, soft look on her face, and she pressed three quick kisses against his lips. They felt too far too chaste so he pulled her back but she resisted him, laughing, "If I stay here any longer they'll really start to wonder where I am. Some sending off party it'd be if I only reappear for the last five minutes."

"There are worse places you could be found…" he faltered as she made to rise to her feet, "oh..."

"What?" Sara's eyes narrowed suspiciously, catching what must have been guilt in his expression.

"Well… I may have been a little… overenthusiastic…" Reyes replied hesitantly, tapping a spot over her collarbone that had started to discolour into a purple shade, a bruise beginning in the shape of a bite. He'd unintentionally left a rather more lasting postmark of his own. Although she couldn't see it, she could evidently feel it as she flinched slightly as he touched it, her expression moving between shock and annoyance and most surprisingly amusement.

She choked down a laugh, eyes warm, "You are such a git."

Thankfully, most of the sodding lovebite was covered by her shirt. When she entered what at one time was the Hyperion's habitation deck, having hastily neatened herself up, the eyes turning to look at her made Ryder feel uneasy. Although she knew they were likely doing so because of who she was, what she had done, rather than having any knowledge about what had just happened, that did not make her feel any less paranoid. Just carry on walking. Carry on walking like you've not just been banging your exile lover/boyfriend/undefined something in a nearby storage cupboard not nearly quietly enough.

"Sam… Is anyone aware of…"

"No, you were not overhead. Pathfinder. Do I need to edit my internal dictionary?"

"What?"

"Because I'm not sure we have the same definition of 'contained' if that is you containing your impulses."

Ryder snorted, "I think I preferred it when your only reference for humour was my dad, SAM."

She straightened her face as she passed the Nexus leadership team. They were still clustered together after their earlier conversation about the appointment of a new ambassador and, rather predictably, Tann was looking disgruntled at something Kesh was saying. Ryder noticed Drack lingering nearby, arms folded as he eyed the salarian coldly. She sped up her pace towards the doors to the Tempest's dock where many of the crew were already gathered. As much as she would thoroughly enjoy watching Tann's limbs being plucked easily from his body, she had to admit it might ruin the party atmosphere. Halfway across the atrium she caught Liam's eye. He was mid-conversation with an asari but he paused to smile at Ryder, one of his old goofy grins, all teeth. She responded in kind and meant it. Weeks before when she had emerged from the remnant structure, they had embraced each other firmly, both fumbling over apologies, just so grateful they had the opportunity to do so. They never mentioned their argument again. It didn't matter.

Elsewhere the crowd was thinning now where the room had been positively heaving before, filled with angaran diplomats, emissaries from the different outposts and planets, many figures of importance, most of whom she knew, but some she didn't. Now it was mostly familiar faces and the atmosphere was all the more welcoming for it. It didn't take her long to notice Reyes stood at the other side of the atrium talking animatedly with a turian she couldn't identify. His appearance gave no inkling that he'd been in a rather compromising position not an hour before, his clothes uncrumpled, demeanour entirely composed.

"You ready, Ryder?"

Cora had approached her. There was no drink in her hand and there was an eager gleam in her eyes.

"Well, you sure seem to be."

"We've been stuck here for weeks! Aren't you?" Cora asked, curiously.

Ryder nodded, distracted, "Yeah. Of course."

"I thought you'd be raring to go… oh," Cora said the last word resolutely, as though she'd worked something out.

"What?"

Cora angled her head pointedly to her right, in Reyes' direction. Ryder realised she'd been gazing at him as Cora had been talking to her and that was how she'd noticed him. An itchy, hot feeling crept over her neck as she tried very hard not to flush. She hastily flicked her eyes away.

"Oh stop it it's sweet," Cora grinned, before cocking her head, "you've not really had any time together what with everything going on, huh?"

Ryder sighed, the excited buzz she had felt earlier starting to dissipate as reality began to set in, "Not really. We did catch up a little today," a smile twitched at the corner of her lips, unwarranted, "but it's been weeks, over a month really, since we spent more than a couple of hours together. It's hard to gauge where things are between us."

"I wasn't sure about it at first, I'm still not, not totally, but you'd have to be blind not to notice how he looks at you," Cora was looking at her closely, "you deserve it, Ryder, you have more than enough shit to deal with."

"Thanks, Cora. It'd just be nice to have a bit more of a chance to see each other when one or both of us isn't being shot at."

"Hmmm… leave it with me," Cora smiled in an elusive sort of way.

Ryder frowned at her, "What?"

"Let's just say I have friends in high places… namely human resources…" Cora shrugged, offhand, before walking over the join the others.

"We still have a human resources?" Ryder questioned Cora's retreating back, sceptically.

When Ryder glanced as surreptitiously as possible back at Reyes she was surprised to see he was stood alone now, already looking at her, leant against the wall nonchalantly. He winked at her in his usual way and it made her stomach turn over like she'd flipped the Nomad. Although it was exhilarating, the familiar sensation was accompanied by an unexpected uneasiness that made her chest contract. She'd had casual lovers, serious relationships, friends with benefits before but how she'd felt then was entirely different to this. With Reyes it was entirely more intense, more complex, more perilous… and yet she knew without question that it was what she wanted. Even if it frightened her more than she liked to acknowledge because she knew how easy it would be for her to be hurt if this undefined something was far more meaningful to her than it was to him. Reyes looked as though he had caught the expression on her face and moved as though he going to come over when he paused sharply, dark eyebrows furrowing. Someone else had already approached her.

Moshae Sjefa was looking at her, pale blue eyes deep as whirlpools. She looked more regal than ever dressed in a sumptuous ivory cloth rather than her usual violet. The jewels set about her head glittered in delicate shades, casting her face in an otherworldly light, "I fear you are in some degree of danger, Pathfinder."

"Excuse me?" Ryder snapped, harder than usual in her surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"Sometimes people are," the Moshae's eyes drifted across the room then back again, "not always what they seem."

It could not be more obvious who she had been looking at.

"I…" Ryder frowned, bemused about the Moshae's apparent knowledge of her and Reyes' involvement, bewildered in her sudden interest in her affairs, irritated she had been caught on the backfoot, "I don't…"

"Believe me, it is not my intention to pry," Moshae Sjefa's gaze portrayed sincerity, though there was a hard knot caught in Ryder's throat as she looked at her, "it's just I've met many like him. Every one a black hole."

Ryder blinked at the suddenness and sheer absurdity of the conversation, "You've lost me entirely."

"The attraction is unavoidable, almost magnetic," she wove her fingers between each other and Ryder found her eyes drawn to the angaran's hands, watching her digits weave in and out, "it drags you towards them until you are totally in their power," she snapped her palms together, "then it destroys you, utterly."

Despite herself, Ryder started at the sudden motion, the hardness of her words. Her eyes slid back up to meet the Moshae's, who looked more solemn that she had ever seen her, though it wasn't enough to quell the bubbling, churning swell of irritation that hissed and spat in the pit of her stomach.

"Even if that were so, why are you warning me of it?" Ryder answered, eyebrows furrowed, angry heartbeat pummelling her ribcage.

The Moshae laughed lightly, "Do you not realise the effect you have on the world around you?"

Ryder stared at her, swallowing hard, not trusting herself to speak.

A shadow crossed Moshae Sjefa's face and she leant towards her, voice low and soft, "I am not saying it would even be purposefully done. He may care for you as much as he portrays. But I fear he will be your downfall."

Ryder drew away, not aggressively but firmly. She held the other woman's gaze for a moment

"Funny. I've known that since the moment I met him..." Ryder muttered to herself as she turned on her heel, swiftly, so she wouldn't see the concern in the other woman's face, or the hard line in Reyes' when he regarded them conversing, or any of the other eyes that watched her retreating back that also knew more than they should and given half the chance would use that information to do something about it.