Sorry.. a bit late. Also, thank you to everyone favoriting and following. Sincerely, thank you!

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Chapter 4: Not This Again

The next morning, Han awoke to an empty bed. It was a sad state of affairs for a naked man first thing in the morning when he had gone to sleep with a very naked and willing Princess in his bed.

The fresher door was closed. Maybe she would be back in a few minutes. It was early yet, no need for them to rush getting up.

He rolled over and thought about the night before. Finally, they had had a breakthrough! He couldn't wait to kiss her now that she was open to it. Her lips were so sensuous that he honestly didn't know how he would ever stop kissing her long enough to lift off this backwater rock.

Plans of holding her in his arms, kissing her and loving her as they sat in cockpit of the Falcon danced through his mind. Once in hyperspace, he would pull her over onto his lap and kiss her until she moaned for more. Then he would carry her into his cabin and they would make love. This time it would be sweet, gentle, loving and full of kisses. He would not only crave her, but adore her in ways that she could see and feel how much he loved her. Yes, love.

Briefly, he wondered if he was losing his edge, but decided it was worth it when it came to Leia. No other being had ever had an effect on him the way she did. Loving her came with an exhilaration that couldn't be matched. It paled even when compared to being fully concentrated and forced to pilot to the edge of his abilities.

The fresher door slid open and she emerged fully clothed with her hands hovering over her hair putting the last pieces of the braiding into place.

His face fell as his initial hopes for the start of the day were dashed. Looking on the bright side, he decided whatever she had put on or done to her hair could be taken off and undone. It might just be fun in the process.

Jumping out of bed, he walked up to where she stood focused on her pack sitting on the cabinet. He put his arms around her and pulled her back against him, placing a kiss on top of her head. "Morning, Leia"

She pulled away from him and turned to face him. Her tone was mystified and affronted, "What do you think you're doing?"

Confused at her arm's length reaction, he echoed her tone, "I could ask you the same thing."

"I'm getting ready to leave. We need to get back to base so we can report on our mission."

"It's early." He soothed gently. "We have plenty of time for a mission of our own." He took a step towards her, his lop-sided smile sliding up his face a bit goofily, "I haven't even kissed you 'Good Morning' yet."

She took another step back and averted her eyes from his naked form. "That's not happening. In fact, none of it is happening ever again."

"Sweetheart, what's going on?"

She kept her eyes averted and returned to packing her things, "Captain, please get dressed. We need to leave."

"Not this again," Han sighed exasperated. "Leia –"

"That's right! Not this again and not anything else ever again!" She sliced the air with her hand with finality. "I'll wait for you downstairs." She picked up her bag and headed to the door.

"Stay here. It's not a good idea for you to be hanging around downstairs."

"Then I'll wait in hallway outside the door."

"Look, just hang on, Your Worship." He grabbed his entire pack and walked toward the fresher, pointing to her. "I'll go into the fresher and get ready. Stay in here so we don't invite problems."

Han aggravatedly threw his pack onto the counter in the fresher as the door slid shut.

Some of the tension released, he sighed before stepping into the sonics. This was far from the way he imagined this morning playing out. She was right about one thing, this wasn't going to happen again. No more sex with her until she openly faced her feelings for him.

Because of her, he was already a champion masturbator in between missions. She wouldn't end up leaving him any more frustrated than usual. He might as well channel that energy into deciding how this relationship was going to end.

She insisted she wouldn't have sex with him again, but he knew she was almost as weak as he when it came to resisting their sexual appetite for one another. If he held out, there was a good chance she would see to it they were sent on another mission alone eventually.

Still, he knew he couldn't take this circular banthashit anymore. After the intense crescendo of their lovemaking last night and her over-reactive shutting down this morning, his heart got stepped on.

He had to get to her admit her feelings or there was never going to be a relationship between them – sexual or otherwise. He thought about trying to romance her, but Leia was too strong-minded to fall for most of his tried-and-true moves. Mostly, he had used them to get women into bed and, honestly, he never had to try all that much. He never needed those moves to get Leia to have sex with him. He had never tried to romance a woman for the sake of love. He had no moves for that.

Great, he thought. How the hell am I supposed to do this?

It was complicated between them.

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