In the previous chapter: Leia hires Cue as a Resistance mechanic, to Poe's immense delight. Rey reveals Ren's true identity to Fariya, who quickly figures out that more is going on between them than just Potentium missions. Rey rejects Finn's romantic advances. Rey and Ren comfort each other as they fall asleep after a harrowing day.

Chapter 15

When I opened my eyes the next morning, I was alone in my head once more.

Thoughts rolled around my mind as the balm of sleep drained away. I was worried about Kylo Ren and Finn. Both of them had been badly hurt the night before, albeit Ren suffering from Snoke's torture was significantly different than Finn's heartache caused by my clumsy rejection.

How had things gotten so twisted, that I was harming my ally with one breath and soothing my enemy with the next?

A spark of the fading scavenger from Jakku flared to life with an indignant reminder: I certainly hadn't encouraged Finn's romantic intentions toward me, and at least we'd handled the whole sorry situation like adults. Furthermore, I wasn't being fair to myself by dumbing down my evolving relationship with Kylo and labeling him as just my 'enemy.' He'd been more than that – much more – for months now.

I was doing my best to balance the demands of Leia's mission, Luke's Jedi training, and my own well-being. After a lifetime of having only myself to disappoint, it was bound to sting when I let down someone else. I had survived the absence of both food and friends on Jakku. My situation now was a different, more complicated struggle than anything I'd faced before, but I would not let it break me.

With that bout of self-pity defeated, I stared vacantly at the jagged rock ceiling of my bedroom, well-rested and alert though not quite yet willing to leave the warmth of my bed. I flipped through messages on my datapad, checking new reports and generic updates shared basewide with Resistance personnel. Once I was done, I stretched and rolled onto my side. I instantly spotted the silver disk sitting on my desk where I'd left it the night before. My heart rate ticked upward.

I had to watch it. Knowing what was in the memory was surely better than not knowing, right?

I swiftly dressed in a clean shirt and pair of pants, shrugged into my gray vest and wound my linen wraps up my forearms. I stared at the disk, beguilingly smooth and harmless, before delicately scooping it off my desk with my fingertips and sliding it into my vest pocket.

A new day had dawned, and with it brought the usual surge of activity around the Resistance base. I walked faster than usual and hoped to all I held dear that I wouldn't bump into Finn. I wound through the crowded hallways, stopping by the base's media center to grab a spare holoplayer, and then headed to the far edge of the base where an exterior door opened into the clear, morning air.

I turned to nod at the guard usually stationed outside the door, but to my surprise, the post was unmanned. I curled the Force web tight around me like a blanket, using the surge of power to search for the guard. No one was nearby, however, and as I released the Force power back into the web I concluded that the guard's schedules must have been adjusted and no one was posted here this morning.

I frowned. In the past I would've been aware of this type of change, whether Finn told me in person or through a security update on my datapad. Perhaps someone had blocked my access to that kind of information as a precaution in case something had gone wrong on Skunkt. If I'd been captured, detailed knowledge of the base's guard rotations would be invaluable to the Order if they wanted to infiltrate the base undetected.

Then an ugly thought settled in my gut: what if the information had been restricted as a permanent safeguard? What if Leia and Finn, like Luke, weren't absolutely certain I was trustworthy anymore?

I shook my head and started up the familiar path to my mountain clearing. The whole thing was probably just an oversight, I reasoned, given that I'd spent the past few days off-base. I needed to focus on the memory.

Nausea clawed at the pit of my stomach every time I thought about watching the disk. I recalled Roony's last words to me as he handed it over. This one involves both of you.

A strange thought occurred to me: if I truly thought the disk contained Ren's memory, was it right to watch it without his consent?

Had things gone differently on Skunkt, the entire galaxy might be watching it, I reasoned. It could even be the twin of the memory I'd handed over to Roony – Ren's version of the sensual moment when he'd held me in the Ramarode temple pool – or perhaps afterward when he'd confessed his growing doubts about Snoke's knowledge of the Force.

Yet no matter how much I wanted this scenario to be true, I couldn't overlook two simple, undeniable facts.

First, Roony had been calling to me and Luke on Skunkt. He'd meant for both of us to see this memory. I'd just happened to get there first and chosen to hide the disk from everyone else – at least until I'd seen exactly what it contained.

The second, and more irrefutable fact, was that Roony had kept the copy's existence a secret while he suffered and eventually went mad from Snoke's torment. He wouldn't have died to protect information he knew I already had. No matter how much I might wish otherwise, this disk was going to show me a memory neither I nor Luke had been present for – which meant that whatever secrets it contained were dangerous, and the anxiety crawling around in my gut was completely justified.

'What's wrong?' Ren's voice unexpectedly rumbled in my head.

I froze mid-step on the rocky path, eyes darting around in panic.

'Nothing.'

'Liar. I can feel your heart racing all the way from the Finalizer.'

'I'll try harder to keep my shields up,' I replied carefully.

'Don't try too hard,' he murmured back. My neck bloomed with sudden heat as Ren pressed the shadow of a kiss upon my skin. I inhaled sharply at how real it felt – the heat of his mouth, the pressure of his lips and the slight scrape of teeth between them. Our passionate kiss on Skunkt swept through my thoughts, and I briefly shut my eyes to calm the sudden sensual desire pulsing between my legs.

Last night I'd discovered some sort of mental door between us, and by figuring out how to touch Ren through the bond I'd unwittingly thrown it wide open.

I shivered in the thin, morning air and burrowed deep inside my shields, shifting power around to reinforce their strength. Ren was a welcome distraction, but not while I was preparing to watch one of his deepest secrets. And if it wasn't his…well, it was imperative to keep him out of my head either way.

The secluded mountainous clearing was still draped in shadows at this early hour, the sun's ascent hidden behind the mammoth peak of Skybreacher overhead. Pebbles ground into my thigh as I sat down, assuming the same cross-legged position I'd used while practicing meditation and other Force exercises here in the past.

The golden lines of my Force signature emerged around me in a perfect sphere. For several minutes I carefully wove additional power into its ornate architecture, further enhancing my shields to keep my mind shrouded in absolute secrecy. Eventually the elegant, lightbound structure refused to absorb any more power and it gleamed as brightly as if the sun were rising on this side of Skybreacher instead of the opposite.

I took a deep breath, empowered by my golden haven, and cautiously pulled the holodisk out of my pocket. I flipped it over several times, examining the smooth, unadorned surface, before inserting it into the portable holoplayer I'd hauled up the mountain with me.

The player clicked and projected a blue hologram of a simple room with a single, oversized window. The image was grainy, as if the memory data was scrambled or corrupted, but my eyes picked out the scene beyond the window: a humble market, decorated with woven banners and bright ribbons that swayed in an afternoon breeze. It was filled with several merchant's stalls and two dozen bronze-skinned humans calmly going about their daily shopping. Beyond the marketplace, plains stretched to the horizon and met a distant, primordial jungle.

The projection originated from the perspective of someone tall, as if I were looking out at the market through their eyes. The person – was it Ren? – turned to the right and Daamith came into view. The crazed, bestial Force-sensitive was staring at me – technically, staring at the owner of this memory – with an expression close to reverence.

The projection's view shifted and focused on a sphere hovering nearby in midair. It was perfectly round, about a foot in diameter, and floated at chest height. The surface appeared slightly textured, perhaps like brushed steel, but the object was clearly not metallic. In fact, its true physical appearance had obviously not translated well through whatever process Roony had used to transcribe the memory to a disk. The sphere had a strange oily sheen to it and flickered in and out of sight like it was formed of matter that wasn't supposed to be trapped on this plane of existence.

I struggled to piece together what was happening in this memory. Was this Ren's perspective? Where was he? What was the sphere's purpose?

It wasn't until a grating, guttural voice emanated from the holoplayer's speaker that I realized with awful, spine chilling clarity that this wasn't Kylo Ren's memory at all.

It was Snoke's.

"You know what this," he said, gesturing slowly toward the sphere. It wasn't phrased so much as a question but an order for Daamith to provide the correct answer.

"The Victive. An artifact of immense power," Daamith rasped. "It is a beacon in the darkness of the Force."

"Yes," Snoke said, his voice a pleased growl. "And you know where it came from?"

"It was constructed by Darth Khec. The Victive helped him harvest the Force and amplified his powers. Until he lost control of it."

"And what fate did Darth Khec meet?"

Daamith replied without flinching: "Death."

"More than death. Evisceration. The Force turned on him and consumed him whole. I require your aid now, Daamith, to ensure I do not meet the same fate while using the Victive."

Daamith nodded feverishly. "Yes, Master."

"The Victive thrives when connected to minds steeped in the Force," Snoke continued. "Simply touch the artifact while you call to your power. The Victive will do the rest."

Daamith's arm stretched toward the sphere. His claws sank through its surface with little resistance. The artifact hummed, fervently responding to the malevolent energy surrounding it. The people in the marketplace continued shopping, ignorant to the scene unfolding inside.

The sphere's droning hum crackled and ratcheted several octaves higher. The air around the Brenza rippled like a mirage induced by desert heat, creating strange distortions in the holoprojection. Though it was impossible for the holoplayer to reproduce the true sight of the Force's manifestation, it was clear that the Victive had worked as Daamith described and somehow amplified the power around the two Force users.

Suddenly, Daamith's arm plunged elbow-deep into the sphere as if snatched by something supernatural at incredible speed. The Brenza snarled and tried to jerk his limb free, but the Victive refused to release him now that his arm was anchored in its dense core. For the first time Daamith looked nervous, eyes flicking between the Victive and peering directly at me, as Snoke.

"Master?"

Snoke was silent, perhaps relishing the fear emanating from Daamith's beady eyes. Then he lifted his hands to either side of Daamith's head, careful to not touch the Victive as he greedily began to absorb his apprentice's Force power. The air boiled and bubbled like a hot pot of water. The Brenza's face twisted and he snarled in pain.

"Hush," Snoke crooned, his thin, decrepit arms beginning to turn pitch black as he drained Daamith's dark energy. "The strong need never fear their destiny. The gods you worship, your Silenced Ones. How proud they would be of you now. You shall sing praises to them in a voice you never knew you possessed. They will feed you the blood of heretics to make your spirit everlasting. But that time has not yet come. There is much to accomplish first."

Snoke's voice was practically cheerful, and, by association, all the more eerie and monstrous. His hands dropped away from his apprentice and the projection spun to observe the town on the other side of the windows. I gasped – the people in the previously bustling marketplace were all standing unnaturally still, as if frozen in place.

Snoke raised a single gnarled, black hand and every single person slowly turned their heads to stare straight at me – at Snoke. They were all trapped inside some sort of massive mind trick Snoke had created with the surplus of dark Force power he'd taken from Daamith.

Snoke's hand twisted as he relayed silent, invisible orders to the helpless civilians. They began moving with uncanny uniformity, forming an orderly line in the middle of the marketplace – all except for a young man who stood apart from the others as he robotically pulled a blaster from the holster at his belt.

"No…" I breathed out loud, terrified of what I was about to see.

The young man, caught in the same perverse mind-trick as everyone else in the marketplace, aimed his blaster at a frail, white-haired woman. She crumpled to the ground. The rest of the civilians waited in perfect tranquil stillness as the young man systematically moved down the line and executed every one of them with a single blaster shot to the forehead. At the end, he held the blaster against his temple and delivered himself to the same fate.

"An impressive sight, Supreme Leader," a new voice spoke. General Hux stood to Snoke's left, hands rigidly clasped behind his back as he surveyed the carnage outside the window. "Your most successful test yet, I assume? Considering this apprentice was the first to live through it."

"Only the strongest minds can survive the price the Victive demands," Snoke replied. "Its power will render the Order unstoppable once Lord Ren takes Daamith's place. Together, he and I shall gut the Resistance and smear their entrails through the galaxy."

The projection looked outside once more, where other residents of the small town had discovered the butchery in the marketplace. Their stricken expressions and horrified screams abruptly cut off as the disk ended. The only sound left was my harsh, frightened breathing.

–

–

–

I ran all the way back to my room, nestled deep within the base on Emmett II. I practically threw the holoplayer and the disk inside it under my bed, then sat on the thin mattress and cradled my head in my hands.

I had to warn Leia. Snoke possessed a machine that made him even more powerful with the Force. I pictured Snoke striding through the Resistance base, Force choking entire groups of soldiers or compelling them to fire on their allies. As long as he had the Victive nearby to replenish his Force power, he could cause catastrophic amounts of damage. And Kylo Ren… Snoke planned to use him in that vile machine.

Did Ren know that Snoke intended to sacrifice him to this soulless artifact? And if not… what if I told him?

My heart jolted at the thought.

Would his impending doom be enough to convince him to leave the First Order? To abandon his allegiance to a monster who sought to use him for his power?

My skin prickled and I realized I was covered in a sheen of sweat, both from running to my room and my abject fear. I needed to calm down and clean myself up before bringing my evidence to Leia, because afterward I'd no doubt be stuck in meetings for hours. I stripped off my clothes and stepped into my shower, cranking up the dial so the water blasted me with the force of a lukewarm cyclone. The water ran in heavy rivulets down my skin, cleansing me of the grime and sweat that permeated my body like a disease.

What was I going to do? I had to warn Leia about the Victive. I had to convince Ren to leave the Order before his stubborn loyalty to Snoke killed him. The Resistance had to find the Victive and destroy it before Snoke unleashed its terrible powers on any more innocent victims.

Momentarily overwhelmed, I closed my eyes and leaned forward, pressing my flushed forehead against the cool, smooth wall of the shower.

Breathe, Rey. Calm down. You're not in this alone. You have friends. You have help. You have…

Kylo?

The bond flared to life and he was suddenly in my head. My eyes shot open in surprise as he used the same trick I'd figured out last night – how to peer into the room through my own eyes.

'Scavenger, what's going on? You're projecting so loud I can't even–'

His words cut off, strangled by the realization that I was in my shower, soaking wet and naked. For a long, vulnerable second I froze like a skittermouse caught before a vworkka.

But Ren did nothing, said nothing, and several endless, motionless seconds dragged by until a flicker of mischievous, untempered lust rippled through our bond at the same time a pair of strong hands pressed against my waist.

I nearly crumpled to the floor of my shower basin as the pressure of his ghostly hands persistently whispered against my sides. I was only convinced nothing was physically touching me when I glanced down at my bare skin, where my skin was beaded with water droplets undisturbed by Ren's phantom touch. The only place his hands existed were in my mind – but that alone was enough to be devastating.

'What – why are you –'

Ren's husky laugh floated around my head as one of his hands stroked upward until his palm cupped the underside of my breast.

'You've been on edge all morning. Let me help,' he said suggestively.

His fingertips fluttered against my nipple, suddenly culminating in a tight pinch. My own hand flew to my breast, as if I could overwrite his invisible presence against my flesh.

I plucked at the golden cord so it was taut between us, then yanked so we shot out of my head and back into his. The sensation of his hands wandering my body dispersed like a dream upon waking. I hadn't the faintest clue how I planned to tease him in return, only that our fluid balance of power and control couldn't tip too far in his direction. That was up until my fingertips met the sheen of slick sweat covering his torso, accompanied by his deep, rumbling voice ordering someone I couldn't see to leave the room.

My gut clenched as my mind lurched forward to a frightening conclusion: had I stumbled on him being intimate with someone else? A vicious stab of jealousy knotted itself up inside my stomach.

Ren must have felt my reaction before I could properly hide it, because his amusement trickled into my ears: 'Rey, it's a Knight. I was training.'

Oh.

I shut off the shower and moved into my bedroom, letting the naturally cool, underground air of the mountainous base wash away the confused flush of embarrassment and lust tangled together across my body.

'Why did you close off the bond earlier?' he asked.

'I've had a shit morning.' I couldn't tell Ren about Snoke's gruesome plan now. It had to be in person. I cast about for an acceptable substitute. 'Finn is still upset about us,' I told him, then winced at my phrasing and added, 'I mean, upset about finding us training together on Gryl.'

Out of nowhere, a warm body pressed against my upper back. I gasped softly at the startlingly corporeal sensation of him behind me – suddenly reminded of his size, his strength. Invisible hands returned to my waist like a warm, heavy weight.

'He doesn't matter. I don't intend to share you.'

'It's not up to you,' I shot back as my breathing quickened. The heat that had so quickly dissipated after the shower came flooding back, amplified by Ren's mental and metaphysical presence.

It was impossible to ignore the sensation of him against my back – the rise and fall of his chest, his breath spreading goosebumps along my neck – as vivid as the vision he'd pulled me into on Gryl, after we barely escaped the storm. I knew I could turn around and face empty air. I was clearly still standing alone in the middle of my room on Emmett II.

He isn't actually here. This isn't real.

Ren's head dipped down and his lips ghosted against the shell of my ear.

'You want it to be real.' His hands slid down until his fingers squeezed against my hip bones, sparking off tingling electricity through my entire body.

Every wild heartbeat fueled the pool of liquid heat deepening between my legs. Ren's mouth drifted down my neck and he pressed hot, breathy kisses there, massaging the skin with his tongue, scraping it lightly with his teeth.

I had to relay my information to Leia. There was no time to get caught up in whatever game Ren was playing. And yet… as long as his hands roamed my body, it was proof that he was alive and that meant I still had a chance to save him. I hesitantly relaxed in his touch as my thoughts turned darkly self-indulgent. I wondered how it would feel to have those same hands moving across my stomach, my breasts, perhaps even lower to that blindingly sensitive area between my legs where only my own hands had ever ventured.

'You would like it,' Ren murmured, his breath burning the promise into my skin.

The importance of heading straight to Leia was quickly receding in my mind, crowded out by thoughts of all the ways I would enjoy Ren's hands on my body.

I lifted an arm behind my head, expecting to find nothing but air until I brushed against a soft head of hair. My fingertips hesitantly curled through the strands. My eyes slipped closed and all the sensations of this shared fantasy multiplied at once: Ren's bare skin touching mine, the vitality pulsing through his veins, the sounds his hands made as they massaged my body – all of it became more intensely, exquisitely real. My plan to talk with Leia vanished unseen over a distant mental horizon.

Ren's palms enveloped my breasts, squeezing them together to form voluptuous mounds which he released only to grab the buds of my nipples and pinch them into hard peaks. His breathing quickened and he pressed forward. Ren's entire body was now flush with mine, and I groaned in breathless pleasure at the solid wall of masculine muscle behind me. His chest pressed against my shoulder blades, followed by a pocket of cooler air where my spine gracefully dipped away from his toned stomach, until my round ass flared back out to meet his thighs. And between his thighs… his solid girth pressed up against me, nestled between my cheeks.

A delicious, aching need began to pulse hard in my core. I was practically panting in anticipation of what was to come, but also apprehensive. I had never gone this far with a man before, and had no one to compare him too, but I could already tell that he was bigger than I'd imagined – fantasized – about. I pushed back against him, experimentally rolling my hips up against his hard length.

His entire body vibrated in a husky groan, and his teeth latched onto my shoulder, biting down as he sucked with his lips and tongue. My fingers clenched in his hair, gasping from the exquisite pain that lanced through my shoulder. He abused the tender skin as he showed me exactly what sex with him would be like: rough, passionate, uninhibited.

An erotic thrill coursed through my body, leaving me trembling with need. My hand dropped between my legs to satisfy the throbbing emptiness in my core. I rubbed my slit, my finger sliding into my folds to discover the warm slickness within.

I buried the dark shame of getting carried away in this surreal, forbidden fantasy, because in this moment I wanted nothing more than to feel Ren push inside me, stretching me out to accommodate his size, filling me from the inside and then fucking me til I was wild and raw.

My eyes fluttered open and I caught glimpses of stone and water and moonlight – which made no sense until I blinked and realized just how deeply we'd sunk into this dreamlike Force vision. My room on Emmett II had vanished. We were now surrounded by the circular stone walls of the Gryl's Ramarode temple at night. Moonlight illuminated the center rocky island on which we stood and pooled on the water nearby.

As I stared wide-eyed at this surreal change in scenery, a different hand suddenly pushed mine aside. I looked down and could clearly see Ren's hand buried between my legs, his forearm flexing as his fingers rubbed shockwaves into my skin. Two of his fingers slipped between my folds, his blunt fingertips teasing my entrance, and the sheer fact that it was Ren touching me there, pleasuring me while I watched, made the pulsing ember in my core bloom into a raging wildfire.

I raked my nails across his scalp as his fingers slid further inside me, deeper than my own had ever gone due to my intact virginity. It should have been impossible for him to do that, especially without pain… but this was a sinfully carnal fantasy we were sharing through our Force bond and our bodies were not bound by any physical rules. It wasn't actually happening.

My brain wailed at the unwelcome reminder that Ren was lightyears away on the other side of the galaxy; that even while he seduced me in the temple, his warmth was fabricated, his hands were intangible, his body an ethereal falsehood behind me.

Yet at the same time I wondered if I only let him touch me like this because I knew it was safe. I could cut the bond at any moment and return to the cold solitude of my room. How far was I prepared to let this fantasy go? Did anything he do to me really count when his touch was purely imaginary?

Ren sensed my thoughts and his fingers immediately flexed and curled inside my body. Waves of bliss emanated from a sensitive spot inside me that had never been touched. I moaned, shamelessly rocking back against him.

'This is real,' Ren growled against my neck, his fingers still moving inside me. 'How much I turn you on… how badly I want you. There is nothing imaginary about that.'

His fingers pumped harder, and though my body had never physically experienced the sensation of having anything so deep inside me, my mind lustily filled the gaps.

I surprised myself with my own boldness as my hand snaked behind my back and grasped his shaft. The hard length felt like silk wrapped around a thick steel rod.

I wasn't entirely sure how to move my hand – or honestly what to do at all – until Ren grunted and slid a jumble of intimate memories into my head. It was times when he'd brought about his own release, and they showed me where to grip him so my fingers partially enveloped the tip, how hard to squeeze, and the exact pace that would bring him crashing over the edge.

I matched my grip to his memories and stroked him in one long, smooth, experimental motion. Ren groaned into my hair, thrusting his hips up to meet my hand. It was exhilarating to control his pleasure this way.

My hand swiftly picked up speed to match the pace of his fingers still working in and out of my core. For a rapturous moment our hands moved in perfect unison, stroking and rubbing and caressing each other. My mind knew nothing but our lust-fueled haze, my body only conscious to heat and skin and friction. Pleasure ricocheted through our bond and my head fell back against Ren's shoulder, eyes tightly shut, gasping, until my body succumbed to the rhythmic pressure of his fingers.

Euphoric waves flooded through every inch of me. My mind stuttered and nearly stopped as I came harder than I ever had in my entire life. My clit was so hypersensitive it momentarily went numb from pleasure, but it prickled as feeling returned and my climax renewed with every heartbeat. It gradually faded into a dusky, humming vibration.

Ren's ragged breathing hitched against my ear as his fingers slid out of me. His cock was still rock solid against my ass since I'd reached my climax before him, though he didn't seem to mind as my hand slipped off his shaft and my fingers unthreaded from his hair. I wanted to turn around and kiss Ren senseless, but I was afraid it might shatter the illusion and I'd be left alone in my room. Instead, I took his hand and languidly drew his fingertips across my breast and down the silken skin of my stomach, imagining him ardently following that path with his mouth.

Ren groaned my name against my shoulder. When I turned my head I could see the side of his face: his dark eyes heavy-lidded with lust, the ragged scar across his cheek lending him the visage of a wild animal.

Ren's arm tightly encircled my waist, and his hand, still slick with my own fluids, wrapped snugly under my thigh as he picked me up effortlessly, holding me aloft against him so my toes just barely scraped the floor. This vision wasn't real, after all, so what did gravity matter? But I reached back with my arms anyway, wrapping them around Ren's neck for support. For a moment I hung dreamily suspended in midair, luxuriating against the rippling brawn behind me and feeling more calm and satisfied than I had in a very long time.

Ren's hand moved away from my thigh and I felt something nudge against my entrance. I held my legs wider apart, wantonly eager for his fingers to return to that molten spot of pleasure buried deep inside me, but my eyes flew wide open when I realized the shape was entirely different this time – wider and thicker and smoother than his fingers.

I could feel his wicked grin pressed against my shoulder as he rubbed the thick tip of his manhood against my sopping wet cunt. He slid a half-formed question into my head – I want you-can I-let me-please–

My breath caught in my throat as a primal thrill shivered across my skin, control dangerously close to slipping away entirely. My body instinctively craved the powerful virility he offered. It seemed to want him inside me more than it wanted air in its lungs.

My eyes slipped closed once more. I subtly tipped my head in a nod that I knew he could sense, and without any delay Ren pushed the head of his cock inside me, slowly parting my slick folds. He was thick and hot and my inner walls clenched around his rigid pressure. My heartbeat went absolutely frantic, wondering if I should tell him no after all, but when I parted my lips my traitorous body only allowed a quiet hiss of aching need to escape. My fingers interlocked with one another behind his neck, clenching and straining so hard the skin went numb.

Ren's head dipped down so his cheek pressed against my own. He adjusted the angle with his hand fisted around his cock and sunk into me another inch, letting my still-throbbing core adjust to his size.

'You're so tight. So wet,' he murmured against my skin.

'I want to feel all of you,' I whispered shyly, hesitant to ask for something so raunchy, but I couldn't bear being half-filled any longer.

Ren gave in to my lusty demand. With a masculine grunt of satisfaction he thrust the rest of the way in so he was seated to the hilt. We both groaned, reveling in the delicious sensation of his cock intimately sheathed inside my body. His chest heaved against my back, one hand cupping my ass while the other pulled me onto his throbbing erection as hard as he could.

Deep down, I knew this richly evocative and sensual vision shared through the Force wasn't real. Though in our heads nothing separated us but skin, physically we were on opposite ends of the galaxy. But Ren was absolutely right: I wanted this to be real.

Ren's hips flexed as he partially withdrew and thrust into me again, harder this time. The swell of pleasure from the smooth, erotic motion almost made my eyes roll up into my head. The pressure from him burying his cock deep inside my core created a fullness I hadn't known I craved til that very instant. I wanted as much of this sensation as I could take, until he found his own release inside me.

But as Ren adjusted my weight against him one last time, and started to withdraw from my slick channel to actually start fucking me, an unexplainable urge compelled me to say, 'I've never… I mean, I haven't…'

Ren went completely still. A torturous second passed.

'It's okay,' I stammered into the silence. 'I just… I just wanted you to know.'

I moved my hips in slight encouragement. Ren's cock twitched deep in my belly and the sensation nearly made me come a second time. But even though I writhed in his grasp, Ren stubbornly refused to move.

'Fucking hell,' he whispered, pressing a kiss against my temple. 'You know how badly I want you. I'm going to fuck you raw. But not now. Not like this.'

And just like that, he evaporated from my head and body. The fullness inside me shrank, his warmth vanished, and my feet pressed flat against the cold stone floor of my underground room.

What. The. Fuck.

I stood in silent shock, chest heaving. His abrupt departure left me simultaneously horny and massively irritated.

'I'm going to have you, Rey,' he promised through the bond. 'Meet me on Gryl tonight. Tell the Resistance you'll be gone a few days. Make something up.'

'I am making no promises to not kill you when I see you.'

He laughed – a deep, rumbling chuckle that conveyed his masculine pride at getting me so worked up. 'Give me a chance to change your mind.'

Then he was gone, and I stomped back into my refresher to take a very, very cold shower.

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