Several hours later…

Rey lay dozing with her head pillowed on Ben's bare chest. His fingers weaved idly through her hair, soothing her toward sleep. If someone had told her yesterday that she'd be falling asleep in the arms of the man she loved today, she'd have thought them crazy. Something was bothering her, though. She felt like she'd forgotten something.

"What is it?" Ben frowned at the top of her head.

"The Resistance!" She gasped. "Finn and Poe probably think I'm dead!" She said in a rush as she jerked upright. "I have to let them know I'm alright!"

She hurriedly dressed as he watched, frowning. She didn't need to look at him to feel his displeasure. "I'm not leaving you." She answered his unspoken concern.

"There's no need to call them from the Falcon, I have a holo in here." His frown deepend. "Walking around this ship is too dangerous for you right now."

"We can't stay in this room forever." She countered.

He grinned, "I could."

She still wasn't used to seeing him smile, she doubted she'd ever get used to it. "I could, too." She said dreamily before giving herself a mental shake. "But first I have to let Finn and Poe know I'm alright. Your holo will do."

She walked over to pick up her boots from where they lay on the floor next to him.

Ben caught Rey's hand in his and kissed her nearly healed knuckles, her other knuckles, the back of her hand, "Good." He murmured against the skin there. and turned her hand over to kiss the other side. "Because I'm not ready to let you go, yet." He kissed each of her fingers from palm to tip and back again. Though his burning hunger for her had been thoroughly quenched, he couldn't seem to stop wanting to kiss her and the more of her he kissed the more of her he wanted to kiss.

The tenderness exuding from his soul combined with the warm, light caress of his lips as he feathered kisses across her palm then slowly past the inside of her wrist drove all other existing things from Rey's mind for quite some time to come.

Maybe it was because Rey was so beautiful she took his breath away. Maybe it was because when she looked at him he could feel how much she truly cared. Maybe it was because he couldn't believe she was really here with him. Maybe it was a natural side effect of finally, after a lifetime of not belonging, finding a sense of home with her. Whatever the cause, Ben knew it was far more than passion or desire.

He tugged her down onto the edge of the matress, sat up and brushed her hair back from her face. Tenderly, he cupped the back of her head with both hands and kissed each eyelid, each cheekbone, her brows, the tip of her nose, her chin. He trailed kisses from one side of her jaw to the other and from her earlobes to the tips of those little pink shells. He kissed the underside of her chin, the column of her throat, the hollow between her collarbones.

Ben was in no hurry, he felt neither urgency nor clawing hunger. He wanted simply to kiss her, to love her, to cherish her.

He kissed the exposed parts of her collarbones, the bare bits of her shoulders. He slid off the bed and leaned down to kiss the parts of her midrift left bare by the ill-fitting grey shirt she had donned so hastily just moments before.

She hadn't yet put her boots on so her legs from the calf down were also bare. He kissed those too, and the bones of her ankles. He kissed each dainty toe and the arch of each foot.

When he was done with that he kissed every exposed bit of her again on his way back up her body. When at last he had kissed everything else, he kissed her lips, first one, then the other, then both.

He could feel the fogginess in her brain caused by his kisses, see the heaviness of her eyes, hear the ragged quality of her breath.

He could feel the pounding beat of her heart, the ache in her loins, and the soreness their earlier passion had caused in the delicate flesh between her thighs. His driving need, in this moment, was not to lose himself in that aching flesh, no, it was simply to show her how precious each and every bit of her was to him.

Wordlessly, minds connected, they shifted positions so that she was facing away from him and he eased the baggy cloth over her head, allowing it to pool in her lap. He kissed the nape of her neck, across the ridge of each shoulder, down her spine, up the blades of her shoulders. Down the backs of her arms, around the curve of her waist, to her navel.

He kissed every part of her belly and moved upwards to her ribs. He kissed those, too, before moving on to her breasts. Those he kissed every bit of twice and nuzzled the stiffened peaks only briefly as he kissed them too. He moved on, kissing her chest every bit as thoroughly as he had her breasts. Then back to her collarbones, without the cloth of her top to impede him, he kissed those thoroughly, then did it again before kissing his way up her neck and back to her mouth. This time when he kissed her mouth he allowed himself to plunder it's depths with his tongue.

When he had captured her hand and began to kiss it, Rey had been distracted by the need to check in with her allies, but by the time his warm, suprisingly soft lips had finished their feather light caress of her fingertips he had gained her full attention. The thoroughness with which he kissed her combined with the tenderness of what he was feeling held her entranced.

He kissed her slowly, not a trace of the nearly mindless hunger from earlier was evident in him at all. No, this was something else, something deeper, something far more real and emotional than she would ever have suspected he was capable of even a heartbeat before that realization had hit her.

She'd run through a gamut of emotions since she had awakened some six or seven hours ago, from terror and rage to joy and passion, but this was somehow more powerful than all of them.

The Force only knows how many physical climaxes she had experienced during the incredibly long period of time their passions had burned so hotly, but as he feathered what could only be described as chaste kisses across every bit of exposed skin on her body she felt as if her heart was experiencing a climax with every brush of his lips.

She knew, without the need for instruction, when and how he wanted her to move or shift her position so that he could better access which bits he wanted to kiss next and she complied with no concious thought to do so.

She was lost in a fog of feelings so thick she could barely see through her own eyes. The way he kissed her, the reverence with which his lips worshipped her stole her breath away.

A lifetime of eeking out a living in the harsh environment of Niima Outpost had taught her to be tough, but the soft brush of his lips against her skin showed her the very meaning of tenderness. Her entire life spent waiting for someone to want her melted away into the absolute certainty of having found exactly who she'd been waiting for. The bitter loneliness that had been her lifelong companion faded into nothing as her heart was filled near to bursting with his love for her and hers for him. She had never known she could feel so cherished.

When at last their tongues entwined the spark of arousal blossomed into full blown desire. It was not a frenzied desire born of passion and hotly burning lust, as it had been before. No, this desire was soft and warm, gentle and achingly tender. It was the physical manifestation of their soul's desire, each for the other.

"Sir, we're receiving a communication request on a First Order frequency." The young blond woman at the com station said.

"Put it through." Poe said, frowning.

A few taps and Rey's one quarter sized hologram image appeared.

"Rey!" Poe called happily. "We thought you were dead!"

"I'm alright!" She said, grinning. "Is everyone there alright?"

"We're all fine. The evacuation was completed hours ago." Poe said, then asked with obvious concern in his voice, "Where are you? Are you safe?"

"I'm aboard the First Order flagship." She replied. "I'm perfectly fine. Did you receive the message about the conference on Correlia?"

"We received it, we're still authenticating it." He said dubiously.

"It's authentic." She assured him. "I was standing right behind him when he sent it out."

"You were standing… Rey? Do you need help? Blink once for yes, twice for no." He leaned in to watch her eyes.

She laughed. "No, really, I'm ok... Ben and I have reached an…understanding."

"Who is Ben?" Poe asked, confused.

"Errm… Kylo Ren." She said awkwardly

"Don't trust him, Rey! He's evil! He'll destroy the whole galaxy given half a chance. That bogus proposal is just a trap, a way to bring his enemies together in one place to eliminated them." Finn cried out, shoving Poe out of the way so that it was him that she could see on her end of the call.

"Finn! It's good to see you!" She smiled. "It isn't like that at all! I promise you. The offer is real. It isn't a trap."

"You don't know that!" He argued vehemently.

"I do know it." She replied just as vehemently. "He's changed, Finn. He isn't like you remember him. He's different."

"Different isn't always better!" Finn insisted.

"Do you trust me?" She asked.

"Of course I trust you!" He scoffed, "I don't trust him."

She motioned with her hand and the man in question appeared beside her.

"Uh… hi." Ben said awkwardly and waved even more awkwardly.

Poe shoved Finn out of the way and leaned in toward the holo. "Ren! If you harm so much as one hair on her head, I swear by all that is holy, I will personally hunt you down and kill you!" Poe threatened ominously. "Release her, immediately!"

"She is free to go." Ben said mildly, ignoring the threat.

"I'm not a captive." Rey said reassuringly. "Come to the conference. I'll explain everything to you there."

"What? No way! I'm not walking into his trap." Poe said incredulously.

"Please, just trust me." She said. "I'll call you back in a few days. Take the time to think about what I said about him before I left."

Reaching with the Force she terminated the holocall.

"That went better than I expected." She said, turning to Ben.

He snorted. "Yeah, they're really warming up to me."

"They will." She said twining her arms around his neck. "Maybe not for a little while, but they will."

"I'm done talking about them right now." He said, leaning down to touch his forehead to hers.

She grinned. "Me, too."

She tilted her head back and kissed him on the tip of his nose.

"I'm telling you, she's in trouble." Finn insisted stubbornly. "We have to go rescue her!"

"Two freighters, one medical ship and two cruisers against 300 First Order Gunships?" Poe barked. "What do you expect us to do? She said she's fine. She didn't seem to be under duress. Let it go, Finn. She'll call back, we can get more information about her status when she does."

"What if she doesn't call back? He could be killing her, right now!" Finn said, exasperated.

"He could be kissing her, right now." Poe countered. "Did it look like they were fighting, to you? Because from what I just saw, it sure didn't look like it to me."

Finn tried to argue but Poe cut him off. "Look, I don't trust him any more than you do, ok? But remember what she said about him before she left! She said he's in love with her. She's all smiles right now, standing beside him. I'm pretty sure that means she's not in any immediate danger! Give it a few days. We'll see what she has to say then."

Finn was obviously not happy for the new couple when he thundered, "If he hurts her, I'm holding you personally responsible!" And stormed off.