strongerthanblood | (no subject)

Sometimes it's a little hard to comprehend that Rey has been in this place for two years now. Time has flown by, and she has accomplished so much between going to school and restoring her motorcycle. She has her mechanic's license now, and she knows that someday she'll open her own auto shop. Maybe it isn't quite as exciting as saving the galaxy, but she likes the life that she's created here, the one with Ben in it, alive and well.

There are even some days where she gets bored. There was plenty of downtime in Jakku, but she never really had the luxury of being bored. There was always something to do, something to find, something to run from. Here, that isn't the case. Darrow may be very strange and come with dangers of its own, but it's probably the safest place that she's ever been.

It's boredom that leads to her wandering downtown one afternoon, eating from a bag of candy while she window shops. They aren't wealthy, but Rey never has to wonder where her next meal is coming from, or if she'll have a roof over her head. When she sees things that she likes, she can usually buy them, as her tastes are far from extravagant. Shopping is something that she can do now, something that's fun, even if she doesn't end up actually purchasing too much.

When she passes by a store selling fancy underwear and bras, something makes her stop and look at the window display. Perhaps it's how the place is all done up for Valentine's Day. The mannequins are wearing underwear that looks strappy and uncomplicated and the signs are all telling Rey how she should buy them for that special someone. Ben comes to mind, and she keeps her thoughts on the matter to herself, wondering if maybe she could surprise him. He has never expressed interest in seeing her in fancy underwear, but she thinks that maybe he'd like it. He is a man, after all.

She decides that in any case, it'd be fun, so after a brief time spent with a helpful saleswoman, Rey leaves the store with a delicate pink bag hanging from one arm and heads home. The place is empty when she gets there, which isn't a surprise, but she knows that Ben will be home soon so she heads into the bathroom to undress and pull the lingerie out of the bag.

"Well, this is complicated," she tells herself, frowning at all the straps and hooks on the delicate lace. She manages to get the bra and panties on easily enough, and then the stockings, but it's all the rest of it that she's having a little trouble with. She's still fiddling with the useless belt when the door opens and Ben steps through, and she pops her head up to call out to him through the closed bathroom door. "Hey, I'm in here. I'll be out in a minute!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's completely untrue," he said flatly, already drawing his shirt up over his head and letting it fall to the floor.

He reached for her again, his fingertips grazing the top edge of her panties.

"What's the occasion?"

She smiles as he tugs off his shirt in a way that betrays his calmness, and Rey steps forward as he reaches for her, resting her hands on his chest as his go to her hips.

"The occasion is that I felt like it," she says with a cheeky smile, sliding her hands up his arms as she presses up onto her toes to press a kiss to the point of his chin. "And I thought you might like it."

After kissing him again, she steps back and lifts her arms to twirl slowly away from him, turning up on her toes as she drags her hair up on top of her head so he can see all of her. "It's even your favorite color."

"That's not my favorite color," he said calmly, his eyes bright with equal parts affection and lust. He wasn't sure he had a favorite color, but if she wanted to tease him, he'd do the same.

She turned a circle, exposing the strong lines of her spine, silk and lace stretched over the curve of her ass. He drew in a controlled breath. In, out... In, out.

Letting his knuckle trace the curve of her ribs, he lifted his other hand to her hair, fingers burying in the soft strands as he bent to kiss the juncture of her neck.

"It's not?" Rey asks with a playfully innocent expression, blinking up at him as he breathes in deep, chest expanding in its impossibly broad way. Heat flares between her legs as he pulls her closer, and she tips her head to the side to give him access to her throat.

"You don't have to do that," she murmurs as he takes in another careful breath. "Control yourself like that."

Rey wants Ben to know that he can be himself with her always, and maybe she doesn't want him to be careful and controlled. Maybe that's a part of why she did this, hoping that he might loose that careful grip. She wraps her arms around his waist and slides one hand down into his pants, squeezing at his ass as she presses her lips just under his ear, whispering into it. "I didn't buy all this expecting it to last the night."

He pulled back, eyes narrowed, deathly serious.

"You want both of us to last the night, don't you?"

He paused for effect, as cool and devoid of compassion as when they first met. Then, a rare smile broke across his face, and without warning, he swept her off her feet, one arm behind her knees and the other behind her back.

A bridal carry, he'd once heard.

Seeing that look on Ben's face, dark and powerful, sends a bit of a shiver through her as she stares up at him, unblinkingly. It isn't a bad shiver. Now that she knows that she has no reason to be scared of him, she finds it more than a little compelling. It's no wonder that he commanded such attention.

"I know you'll never hurt me," she replies cockily, but she grins when he does and lets out a happy yelp once she's swept up off of her feet. She winds one arm around his shoulders and lets the other hand down towards the floor, smirking up at him as he carries her down the hall. "This feels a little familiar, too."

Rey had been unconscious when he carried her onto his ship, but she's seen it in his head like an echoing memory. Like it was something that marked a turning point.

"Does it?" He said impassively, though she would feel in him an echo of amusements, but beneath that, of deep regret and shame. But for all his posturing, he had been bound to her in that moment on Takodana. However much had changed between them, that had never wavered.

Crossing through the hall and into their bedroom, Ben unceremoniously dumped Rey onto the bed, just to hear the shriek of laughter he knew such a thing would produce.

Rey feels the shift of his emotions and reaches up to put a reassuring hand on his cheek, thumbing just under his eye. She won’t deny that she used to be afraid of him, used to hate him, but that’s behind them now. It’s a part of their story, but not one that needs revisiting often.

She’s still staring up at him when suddenly his arms give way and she twists into a fall, squeaking as she lands on her side with a bounce. She does laugh, bright and happy, and reaches out to kick his thigh with one stockinged foot.

“Brute,” she teases as she pulls herself further up onto the bed and stretches out in the middle of it, drawing one knee up as she lifts her arms over her head to rest against the pillows. She’s posing for him as well as she can without much experience in the matter, drawing on hazy memories of dirty holopads that were passed around Jakku, arched backs and heavy-lidded gazes. “Whatever will you do with me.”

"Maybe I'll do nothing," he said placidly, kneeling on the end of the bed, his arms handing at his sides. "That might be torture enough."

She was breathtaking— sexy in spite of, or perhaps because of her uncertainty. Whether or not it was her intention, he felt a rush of affection for her. The intensity of it was still enough to shock him.

He rested a hand on her bent knee, his palm drawing slowly up the inside of her thigh. He caught the edge of the elastic bracers attached to her stockings and gave it a tug. It drew back against her skin with an audible snap.

"As if you would dare," Rey volleys back, pushing up onto her elbows to watch as the bed sinks beneath his knees. "I didn't put on all of these straps for you to do nothing."

His large hand on the inside of her knee is tantalizing enough, but then Rey feels that surge of affection from Ben and gasps a little from the force of it. Her gaze lifts to his face, eyes a little wide as she stares at him, lower lip quivering as that warm rush of feeling seems to settle in her chest and between legs.

Focused as she is on his fingertips against her skin, she doesn't notice him tugging back the elastic until it snaps against her thigh, and her breath hitches at the brief sting, but she doesn't look away from him as he leans over her.

"I should have had you put your gloves on," she says without thinking much about it, and then feels her cheeks flush as she realizes what she's admitted. Rey rolls her eyes at herself and lets out a low chuckle as she lets her head tip back, like she realizes that she's been caught red-handed with something. "Kriff."

"You and those gloves," he chuckled. While they hadn't spoken about them specifically, he was aware of fixation on them. Perhaps more aware of it than she was herself.

Smirking, he bent to kiss the top edge of her stocking, just barely grazing her bare skin. He was teasing her, and he liked to think he had the self-control to keep this up for a while.

Rey's cheeks flush a little and she bites her lip, echoing his chuckle with one of her own. He ducks his head as if he's kneeling before her and while Rey never wanted to rule over anything, she enjoys this private act of worship between the two of them, both of them equal in their adoration.

She watches Ben's mouth barely touch her inner thigh and quirks a brow, playfully unimpressed as she reaches out to put her hand on top of his head, fingers sinking into his inky black hair. A part of her wants to tug his face in between her legs and hold him there, knowing that there's a good chance that he would go along with it, but she doesn't. Instead, she'd rather see how this plays out.

"And here I thought that you'd be unable to keep yourself from ravishing me," she teases, tone fond and self-deprecating all at once. She gives his hair a gentle tug and slides her fingertips down the side of his face until she can cup his chin and lift it a little, feeling her smile widen as she sees the heat in his gaze. "Look at you, steady as ever."