Thank you to everyone and I hope you're all feeling romantic today. Since I can only say it here: thank you to the guest reviewers!

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Chapter 10: Kinda Romantic, Isn't it?

The lighting was soft and so were the plethora of pillows that surrounded a low thick mattress with clean blankets. Next to it was a low table with several plates of food that she recognized as a couple of her favorites, perhaps leftovers from their previous dinner. A bottle of wine and napkins rounded out the setting. Han had made them a secret hideaway. A cozy romantic one.

"You've been working long hours worrying about everyone else, Sweetheart. I thought you could use a decent dinner. In here, we can have complete privacy. Even Chewie doesn't know."

Still dumbfounded and trying to process, she looked to him and back to the serene setting before her. "But I thought… don't you…?"

Leaning close, he rumbled into her ear with his hot breath tickling her deliciously, "Want you? Always. There is nothing I love better than being hard and deep inside of you." He kissed the hair near her temple sweetly. "But, I told you, Princess. I want you. That means all of you."

Leia shivered pleasantly, but his words stunned her all the more. Her mind raced trying to absorb his blatant declaration. He couldn't be nice to her. Not like this. It wasn't in the plan. She shouldn't do this. "Han… I don't know about this."

"Well, you gotta eat something." He directed her by the shoulders over to the low table and encouraged her to sit down on one of the large floor pillows. "C'mon. I know you're hungry."

Yes, her stomach had made sure he knew that, but that was when he was in the Command Center collecting her just now. Another disturbing thought crossed her logic breaking her spell. "You made all this before you came to the Command Center. How did you know I would be hungry?"

"How could you not be? You skipped lunch and dinner." He sat down next to her and started filling a plate.

Her mind was racing now, piecing events together. Suddenly, it dawned on her. "That's what you meant before!" She pointed an accusatory finger at him. "You had 3PO spy on me."

Han pointed to himself in wordless denial.

Leia tilted her head, narrowed her eyes in a stare of warning.

He handed her a glass of wine. "Well, I might have seen him earlier and I might have mentioned to let me know if you left for the mess hall, but I don't think that counts as spying on you." He put some of the food on a plate for her. "Why don't we eat before it gets cold?"

Leia cringed inside and wondered how she would defend herself against this… attention. Should she fight it? She no longer knew. Probably because her all-day ignored blood sugar level was causing her not to think straight. The food smelled delicious. In spite of herself, the Princess took a bite of food and sipped her wine, relishing in her body's instant satisfaction. Now having sealed the deal with the Dark Side about this, she noticed that he had built a wall with crates made of various solid composites and metal. They were piled in front of the various other junk that was sitting closest to the doorway.

She gestured to his makeshift wall with her glass. "Looks like you went to quite a bit of trouble."

"You like it?" Han looked proud of himself. "Figured it would give us an extra bit of soundproofing. Plus, if Chewie did come in looking for something that mess in front of it would stop him from poking around."

He had taken her privacy provision seriously. She let her eyes wander a bit around the small room. He definitely put a lot of effort into making it comfortable.

Han snapped his fingers. "Almost forgot." He jumped up and walked back around the junk wall. Leia heard soft music begin to float through the room. Solo reappeared and sat down, but said nothing.

"Nice touch," she finally said referring to the music with her eyes firmly averted and feeling ridiculously shy.

Leia kept her attention on her food. The awkwardness she had felt on the way here was gone. Instead, her feelings of infatuation were threatening to bubble back up from the depths where they had been relegated. Get a grip, Organa, she warned herself. This was no time to be going soft on him. Still, he was making an effort to be charming and there was no reason for her not to be amenable.

"Thought it would be more relaxing."

That caused her to look up and be taken aback. Leia had the strongest feeling he had wanted to say 'romantic' instead. So distinct, it was almost tangible. She shook it off. He was probably right. She was putting in too many hours without enough down time.

"I didn't have time to run the controls back here though." His voice had a note of apology, but was more conversational that anything else. "I just set the timer instead, for now."

She nodded and marveled at his determination to keep the civil conversation between them going. It wasn't something they were used to. Their contemptuous relationship had started from the first second they met and adding in their secret sex life that had developed over the years had only upped the contentious blaze between them. 'Civil' and 'conversation' were not words that applied to them on anything other than an ad hoc basis.

Still, it was again hard to ignore the time and effort he put into the small area to make it private and inviting. It wasn't much bigger than his cabin, but it was comfortable.

He refilled her glass. "Everything taste okay? We had a little leftover from the other night. I thought you might appreciate it since it's your favorite."

"Yes, thank you. It's all quite good. It always does seem to taste better the second time."

"That's 'cause the spices have longer to fuse." He moved closer, his voice dropped an octave and slowed, purposefully enticing her. "You know, it's like that with some spices. At first, when everything is being thrown together and they're heated up, it's fiery and intense. But afterwards, when they have time to just sit and blend together." Han's smile seductively tugged up the right corner of his mouth. "That's when their true flavor comes out and that developed complexity is truly tantalizing."

He wasn't talking about the food. It didn't matter. Leia wasn't going to acknowledge it. It's is not where she wanted to take things with him. To do so would mean she was giving in to her underlying emotions. Emotions she was conscientiously ignoring with all of her might. It was enough that she was trying to release her distractive lust for him. She needed to keep her priorities straight where this man was concerned. Her future was with the Rebellion. Solo hadn't left yet, but he hadn't officially joined either. The emotional soup he was currently stirring within her threatened to make her not care if he joined or not, but just that he stayed. Stayed with the Rebellion. Stayed with her.

In an attempt to redirect, she put her napkin on the table. "Actually, I think I'm finished. Thank you."

Han drained the last of his wine and moved the plates to the side before standing up. "Ok, ready for phase two?"

"Phase two?"

He took her hand and she stood up next to him. He pulled her to him, dropping her one hand onto his shoulder and wrapped his arm low around her waist. He swayed them gently in time with the music.

Leia looked up at him in surprise. What was he doing?

"Phase two," he confirmed tenderly. He held her close and leaned his jaw to the side of her head.

She let the song play out, but continued to fight the war with her emotions while it played. Again, Leia was perplexed. She had expected they would be naked and done at this point in the evening. Instead, Solo was making true romantic overtures, steadily threading them throughout tonight.

Just when she had thought she figured out how to not want him in any way shape or form, the charismatic Captain somehow turned it all around on her. Forcing her every hidden emotion to rush at her, conquering her and it was only 'phase two' of whatever he had planned. Han had said that he wanted all of her. Her heart started pounding again at the thought of what he meant by that.

"I don't remember our bet including dancing." Her somewhat stammering voice betrayed her losing battle. She had intended to put an end to this, but she certainly didn't sound the least bit resolute even to her own ears. Worse, once her eyes looked into his, she felt caught.

Han let the weight of their magnetic stare pull him even closer. "It didn't not include it."

"I don't think it's a good idea." She shook her head, but stayed locked into his eyes.

"Why? Don't you like dancing with me?" His voice was rumbling through her and his breathing had noticeably increased matching hers.

"It's not why we're here." She argued in an excited whisper completely captivated by his surrounding presence.

"You're right. It's not." He nodded, but his usual smirk was nowhere to be found.

He closed the space between their lips and kissed her. It was soft, sensual and slower than she had ever been kissed. There was no comparison to their other kisses. The barely-controlled craving rode just underneath the gentle and passionate sweetness of it. Riding the intoxication, Leia trembled in his arms while hoping he couldn't feel it.

When they finally broke for air, it was all Leia could do to stop herself from pursuing more of this new type of hunger between them. Overpowering emotions were rocketing between them again and her ability to fend them off was weakening further than ever before. She would be so relieved when this night was over and she could stop focusing on the sensuousness of his lips on hers.

His breath ragged, Han moved his hands to her shoulders in a concerted effort to stay in control and whispered. "Phase three."

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