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Moving on

Chapter 1

Mara awoke with a start, the smell and feel of Luke still filling her senses. She didn’t know how much time had passed since she had crept to the top bunk to snuggle beside him but she knew with near certainty that her training and a subtle nudge from the Force had aroused her. Something in the Force didn’t feel right at all.

The next series of events occurred in such rapid succession that she didn’t immediately have time to fully process the information.

She first felt the ship drop out of hyperdrive with a slight shudder – a shudder she had not expected to feel. Mara silently swore to herself. The ship must have dropped out on its own. Probably according to a pre-programmed sequence that had been set shortly after they had gotten the course from the navi- computer. She had known that they would need to drop out of hyperspace and make course adjustments at least once during their extended trip from the outer reaches of the galaxy. Luke, bless him, must had set that up. She had been far too tired to think of such things at the time.

The fact that the ship had dropped out on its own meant that they had both overslept – but being seriously tired was not an excuse. Dropping out of hyperspace with no one at the controls was foolish. You never knew what – or who – might be around when you popped back into existence.

Climbing over Luke – none too gently – to get to the control cabin, she heard the beginning of an alarm that rapidly faded away to silence. She had not quite made it to the cabin door when the import of the shudder and the fading alarm began to register so she was not surprised to find that the autolock was engaged. And if she was reading the door panel properly, the other side was in vacuum.

Uttering obscenities in three languages under her breath, she hurried back to the bunks where she tried, without success, to wake her fiancé.

She checked their bond and realized that he was in a healing trance. Mara would have liked to have found a more sentimental moment to speak her next phrase for the first time but time could be a critical factor here.

“I love you,” she began softly, repeating the words they had agreed upon back in the caves. Then, as Luke’s eyes began to flutter, she finished a bit more sternly, “now get your ass out of bed and in gear. I think we’re in some serious trouble.”

Luke snapped to full awareness. “Anything you can’t handle on your own must be serious,” he muttered, rolling out of the top bunk and landing lightly on the balls of his feet beside her. “What’s our situation?”

1 Mara quickly explained what had awakened her and her assessment of the situation. “I think something breached the hull when the autopilot took us out of hyperspace. That means the shields have probably failed and we are wide open to attack. Not to mention the fact that with the controls in vacuum, it’s going to be difficult to pilot this odd ship, even with the two of us working together.”

“I assume you didn’t detect any hostile intent when you scanned the local area with the Force?” Luke asked.

“No, I didn’t,” she replied, warming at the thought of how well he understood her. It was practically the first thing she had done once the puzzle pieces had fallen into place. It was pretty clear that Luke intended to share the pants in this union. Well, since he had just shown his trust in her, then she had better start thinking of them as a unit too. It was a new sensation for her and she found herself oddly lifted at the thought. “But I would prefer to have you take a look too. I had just woken up and might have missed something.”

“I doubt that, but let’s have a look anyway,” he stated, smiling at her. They had walked to the control cabin door while discussing their situation and Luke took a moment to close his eyes and sink into the flow of the Force. Mara felt him reach out as she had done, but with much greater depth and subtlety than she was yet capable of.

Amazing that he considered her an equal, she thought. Luke opened his eyes.

“We really aren’t equals though, are we?” He held up a hand as she was about to object. “Before you start, I am simply saying that we are each better at certain talents and skills than the other. Together we are better than either could be as individuals. If you were equal to me, then you would match me at every point. Instead, you complement me in ways I never knew I was lacking. So we really aren’t equal at all.”

As his words crystallized into meaning for her, she realized that what he said was true even if it was poorly stated. “The Qom Jha proverb,” she said softly, smiling as she reflected on the idea. Yes, she was definitely going to enjoy being a part of this union. But she couldn’t resist giving him a bit of a dig and continued with an edge in her voice, “Didn’t I tell you to stay out of my mind?”

He seemed to shrink a bit, “Sorry, it was hard to miss when I was trying to search the local area for threats. Oh, and I didn’t find any danger either. I think we are in the clear for now.”

She felt a measure of relief wash across her.

“I’ll do better at excluding your mind in the future, Mara. I really wasn’t trying to pry.”

“Relax, Luke, I wasn’t really trying to keep that one private. I just couldn’t resist. You’ll have to learn to not be so sensitive about stuff like that. Besides, you don’t expect me to change all my habits just because we’re married, do you?

2 Luke’s eyes took on a mischievous spark. “So are you going to tell me when it’s teasing and when it’s serious, or should I just have a look inside?” He gave her forehead a gentle tap with his finger.

His quick uptake surprised her but she managed to keep a stern look on her face, hoping that he wouldn’t notice the edges of her lips. She couldn’t seem to stop them from trying to twitch into a smile. Baiting him was just too much fun and having him bait her back was like confection on the ryshcate.

She moved nose to nose with him – hoping to keep her twitching mouth out of his peripheral vision. “That’s not in the Married Couple’s Rule Book, Skywalker, and you know it!” she growled, putting as much heat into her voice as she could muster, emphasizing each word with a forefinger to a wonderfully toned pectoral. She was losing her battle with mirth and his nearness was having an intoxicating effect on her.

Maybe getting so close to him wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Trying to keep her voice even, she continued, “How will I keep you line if there are no mysteries between us? Page three hundred forty six, paragraph three, forth sentence, it clearly states, ‘the wife shall keep the husband off balance at all times.’”

And then the moment was ruined as her smile finally reached her eyes. His blue eyes sparkled in return and, quick as a flash, he touched her nose with the tip of his tongue and backed up a half step.

They stood there lost in the moment, grinning foolishly at each other.

Then they both started when a tapping from the door brought them back to reality. “Artoo must have been near the controls the when we dropped out,” Luke said as he quickly scanned the corridor walls, apparently searching for something. “Do you remember seeing an access terminal anywhere?”

They found one in what looked like the galley. At least it had a screen so they were able to communicate with Artoo. After Luke got the droid calmed down, they learned that the location of the breach was behind a bank of control panels. It could not be accessed from inside the ship without removing some panels and those particular panels could not be removed while the ship was in flight. But it didn’t matter anyway – there were no vacuum suits on board that would fit either of them.

Artoo had been able to get the shields up, so at least they were protected from attack and any more strikes. Apparently this weird Chiss ship they had pinched was not programmed to automatically raise the shields when the hyperdrive cut out. Unfortunately, the shields could not be set to hold the atmosphere in the control cabin, so they were stuck with no way to physically pilot the ship.

Mara took a deep breath as she considered all of this new information. “We’re going to have to use the Force to find a place with a breathable atmosphere close by, land, and repair the hull from the outside before we can try…” The words faded on her lips at Luke’s raised eyebrows. “Rather, before we can get home, aren’t we.” It was more of a statement than a question.

3 “Well, I can’t think of any other way to do this.” Luke admitted. “And it’s going to take all three of us working together. Artoo can handle some of the routine tasks. What would you rather do – guide us in or fly the ship?”

Mara bit her lower lip for a moment and considered her options. Luke had more practice with levitation and the Force manipulation of objects. She was better at sensing danger. Both of them were roughly equal when it came to piloting a ship. Of course, she could use this opportunity to hone the skills that were more difficult for her but surely there would be a better time for such training.

Earnest green stared back at expectant blue.

“Although I know I can pilot the ship as well as you can, perhaps just a bit better,” – she just couldn’t resist – “I think in this situation, I’d rather have you at the controls. You’re better at Force manipulations.”

Luke smiled at her simple statement. “I’m glad you chose that answer. I trust your sense of danger better than my own.”

They both grinned foolishly at each other – again.

The monitor lit with communication from Artoo. He had found a suitable world very close at hand. They could be there with a single micro-jump.

They spent the better part of the next two hours practicing and planning the approach and landing, making sure that nothing had been overlooked. Once they made the jump, they would be committed. Luke had insisted that they stay in the galley where they could communicate with Artoo effectively. This was over Mara’s initial objection. She preferred to be closer to the controls.

“I don’t want to have my back to the cabin door, Mara, and we both know that we should probably be sitting down when we do this.”

“It will take us nearly ten seconds to get to the cabin from here once we are deep enough in the atmosphere for it to be habitable.”

“I know, but the ship will be much easier to pilot if I’m oriented the same as I would be in the pilot seat. If we are outside the control cabin I’ll be facing backward and trying to pilot the ship with the Force backward as well. I’d rather be facing forward even if it’s further away. There’ll be fewer opportunities for mistakes.”

Mara could see his point and finally agreed. Even she would not want to pilot the ship blind where every movement to port felt like a turn to starboard.

And so with Luke beside her, hands and minds joined, they both sank deep into the Force to select the landing site. It was an odd sensation for Mara, both similar and yet completely different from when they battled the droids together in the cavern. Though their joined minds could not really sense the

4 planet as such it seemed to her as if a brilliant white, fire-gem strewn path was laid out before her against a velvet backdrop with the endpoint – the landing zone – marked by a soft blue-green glow.

‘That’s our way...’ Luke’s thought appeared in her mind, almost indistinguishable from her own. ‘Ready??…’ It was both a statement and a question. He was ready and making sure that she was too. And he knew she was ready almost before she did herself. His free hand was already moving to the terminal to tell Artoo initiate the jump.

She was hyper-focused on the path and the position of the ship with respect to it. Yet a part of her mind was also analyzing the sensation itself. It was as if she was Luke and herself at the same time but her thoughts were her own – even when they weren’t. She didn’t really have any sort of reference for this.

As they dropped out at the prescribed point, she sensed that they were slightly off course but Luke was already making the necessary adjustments and the ship moved back in line.

Focusing on the path became easier.

She found she had more time to better appraise the sensation of their linked minds. Luke could see the path through her mind and she could feel his touch on the controls through his. It was almost as if she were sitting on his lap, her hands lightly on his, as he piloted the ship and she watched the screens.

There was an underlying intimacy to the sensation that was almost sensual. There was also a growing sense of arousal and she couldn’t tell whose it was. ‘It’s probably both of us,’ she/he thought. The feeling was strange and wonderful and it had the potential to be very distracting. ‘I wonder what sex will be like if we are linked like this?’ She felt them both clamp down on that thought for now. She was so deep into the link that she didn’t know which of them that thought had come from or who had stifled it. And it really didn’t matter anyway. Together they were getting this done, even with the desire simmering in their veins.

She could feel Luke command Artoo to set the shields for entry into the atmosphere. Then there was the gradual sensation of slowing as the air around the ship began to thicken. Mara realized she was hearing Artoo’s twittering which meant that the Control Cabin was again becoming habitable.

Eyes still closed they rose together and slowly walked to the cabin, her inner eye still on the path, his ‘Force’ hands still at the controls.

And their path remained true.

Artoo overrode the door controls as they approached. Air roared past them into the cabin as the pressure equalized pulling her hair in streamers in front of her face as they went. The breach was whistling with the speed of their flight its pitch modulating continuously as the air thickened and the ship slowed.

5 Mara felt Luke sit in the pilot seat and could feel its icy touch through his clothing. The seat was still freezing from its exposure to vacuum. She could feel his eyes snap open as he reached for the frigid controls. She knew that the ship’s windows were fogged the moment he did. They were still blind so she kept her eyes closed and focused on the path. She shuddered as their link briefly dimmed when she released his hand to pilot the ship, so she quickly touched her forehead to his temple and the link flared back.

The landing zone approached glowing blue-green at first, then resolving into two distinct, separate, and roughly circular patches – one electric blue, the other vivid green – overlapping along slightly along one edge.

She felt the ship pitch up, slow, hover, and finally drop with a soft thump exactly where the patches overlapped.

They were down.

As one she felt them begin to pull away from each other, rising out of their link. The resulting emptiness caught her off guard however she felt a bit tired from the effort of maintaining so a deep link for such an extended period. They had been at this for the better part of three hours. She was surprised to find herself feeling strangely refreshed.

Mara opened her eyes to find grinning blue. Luke’s hand cupped the back of her neck, pulled her head to his, and he hungrily claimed her lips. Her eyes fluttered closed again, as her smouldering arousal re- kindled quickly but Mara clamped down again, her need to feel safe about their condition barely overriding her growing other need.

Their kiss broke, and she breathlessly said, “Let’s see to the ship and our security first, then…”

She left the idea hanging.

Luke’s face fell a bit. She could see his desire as keenly as she could feel her own but she saw from his expression that he agreed with her.

“You are a serious distraction, Mara,” he said, touching her nose with his finger. Then he stood, offered his hand to her, and together they made their way to the hatch with Artoo trundling along behind them.

Luke squeezed Mara’s hand and she enjoyed the pricking sensation it sent through her whole body.

She turned to him to tell him how she hadn’t realized that such a simple touch could bring so much pleasure, but at that moment the hatch opened. Luke’s hand tightened around hers and she could feel his surprise.

Her head snapped back to look out the hatch and see what had astounded him so. And her eyes took in what lay outside the hatch, she momentarily forgot her newfound happiness and gasped in unison with Luke beside her.

6 Chapter 2

It wasn’t just some planet lucky enough to have a breathable atmosphere that they had landed on – it was a paradise!

Slowly, and still hand in hand, they descended the landing ramp.

The ship had come to rest on a wide rocky peninsula that stood perhaps twenty meters above an ocean of the deepest blue Mara had ever seen. As they walked across the stony surface of their makeshift landing pad to where it fell away to the ocean they were greeted by another surprise. They found themselves overlooking a bay, guarded by the very bluffs they stood upon, which swept to their right and then back again at the far end of the bay in the distance.

The bay was blue like the ocean to their left but gradually lightened, shading to dark green then aquamarine as it swept up to a beach that was red as Tatooine’s setting suns. They watched as gentle waves drifted lazily across the bay, gradually rising up to the beach and finally curling over before crashing on the sand and pulling back again. The beach was cut by a single rocky stream that disappeared into a grove of tall branchless trees, which appeared to sport green puffballs for tops. Behind the trees, a short cliff as red as the beach, climbed to their level and behind that soared a mountain, its peak hidden in pillowed clouds.

The mountainside was fluted with impossibly deep valleys and razor sharp ridges, both covered in a blanket of green. Each valley had a ribbon of white. “Waterfalls beyond count,” she heard Luke whisper beside her. ”Wow! This is even better than Yavin!”

“Yavin is a jungle, humid and dank” Mara countered. “This is…” She drew her breath and the salty tang of ocean air, laced with fragrant flowers filled her senses, “...pleasant! Warm, but in a nice way…”

Artoo whistled something behind them and Luke let go of Mara’s hand to turn to check his display.

“Artoo says we’re on an island. That could explain the agreeable air.”

“Nothing hostile, as far as I can detect,” Mara remarked, reaching out with the Force.

“Me neither,” Luke murmured, still looking at the display. “The island seems to be a pretty big one, but is also far from any of the continents. It’s possible then that there are no bigger predators.”

“Nothing with big teeth, huh?” Mara was listening intensely at the sounds surrounding them. There was the intermittent breaking of waves on the beach below, the call of birds, the occasional sound of a light breeze in the tops of the trees below and…

“Is that a waterfall I can hear? It must be close.”

7 Luke cocked his head and listened too.

“I’d say so. It sounds like that. It might even be the source of that stream on the beach. Let’s have a look, shall we?”

They started to walk but a whistle from Artoo made them stop.

“Er… Artoo, I think we need to explore a little before we make repairs,” Luke mumbled and glanced at Mara. She grinned and tugged his hand.

The droid whistled again, a bit disappointed this time, and beeped some comments. Luke threw a glance at the display. “You’ve found the breach and it will be easy for you to fix? Why, of course, you can just start on your own. Actually that would suit us … er, just fine! Hey!”

Mara had let go of his hand and ran along the edge of the bluff, searching for and quickly finding a path down to the beach below. She started down toward the sand and the alluring sound of the assumed waterfall. She laughed at Luke over her shoulder as he tried to sooth his droid. “Ok Artoo, you stay at the ship, right? We’ll be back soon – or as soon as…” she heard him say. Then she saw him start to run after her but Artoo continued beeping. “No, no enemies. None that I can feel. You’ll be fine, just fine!”

Mara was careening almost out of control down the path to the beach, trying to suppress her giggles as she heard Luke abandon Artoo and run after her. Determined to reach their destination before him, she slogged briefly through loose sand before she managed to get on the darker wet sand near the water’s edge. Reaching the stream, she followed it up toward the stand of trees where the sand gave way to what appeared to be some sort of short grasses.

The stream was flowing in sand at the shore of the beach, but the sand gave way first to cobbles, and finally, water smoothed boulders as she ran, following the stream to its source. Shortly after passing beneath the tall trees, the vegetation grew thicker and the streambed began to climb steeply. She fought through this, for a moment considering whether she should use her lightsaber to cut through more effectively. But as the streambed broadened and climbed more slowly, the clinging vines gave way and the banks became easily traversed gravel. All around her, the strange trees were not too dense for her to be able to maintain a steady jog. She could hear Luke right behind her and the spontaneous hunt made her already teased senses go wild. Her heart was pounding much more wildly than seemed reasonable and she started to feel a bit silly.

Suddenly the streambed took a sharp turn, broadened to a wide pool and she was there.

She stopped in awe.

Before her, the roughly egg shaped pool was rimmed on three sides with the same puffball trees they had seen by the beach. Beneath them, the sand was dappled by sun and shade and faded from red-gold to almost purple. And diagonally across from them, a gossamer stream of water cascaded into the pool from perhaps forty meters up the red cliff beyond. Mara could see a small sand beach behind the falls,

8 the sun playing shadows on it through the cascading water. The pool was large, easily three hundred meters across at its greatest length.

Luke had caught up and now slid his arms around her from behind and rested his chin against her temple.

“Isn’t it romantic?” he murmured.

Mara couldn’t help a wry smile.

“Romantic? Sure… “

Typical, Farmboy! Just typical!

But leaning against him, her back against his chest, his arms steadily around her, she felt a strange peace, unknown to her earlier.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath – and was instantly distracted by an aroma somewhat different than the fresh, salty air.

“It could be even more romantic…” she mumbled tentatively

“Hmmh?”

”… if we’d wash. You see, you… stink”, she purred.

Luke straightened a bit and gave her the accusing expression of a hurt ego. Then his face cracked to a grin.

”Just you wait until I get my boots off…”

Mara made a mocking face.

But the romantic moment was gone and it gave her an excuse to focus on action again.

”Let’s jump in!”

She opened her suit and peeled it quickly down her spine. Then she bumped down on her buttocks to pull the suit off together with her boots.

The sense of a sudden embarrassment from Luke made her glance at him.

”What?”

“Er… Nothing…or… well, perhaps we should wash our clothes too…”

9 She couldn’t believe her own ears.

“You’d jump in with your clothes on??? Luke!!! We’re going to get married for Force’s sake!!!”

She started to laugh.

”…and besides…”

Mara brought herself up short in alarm as she started to wonder how the earlier excitement they had shared fit together with this unexpected chastity. After all, one had to get rid of clothes to…

”It’s not the same thing,” Luke mumbled, blushing heavily as he caught her line of thought.

”No? I don’t see the difference?” She raised her eyebrows teasingly.

He looked away, clearly very embarrassed now. He had even started to shield.

Mara shrugged. “Well, I’m going in naked. You can do as you choose. But don’t expect to come near me until you have washed everything thoroughly. ”

Turning her back to him, she pulled her top off and wriggled out of her knickers. She gave him a taunting look over her shoulder, long enough to see a nonplussed look on his face, and ran out into the mesmerizing blue water.

The water deepened almost instantly. She moaned with pleasure and took a few strong strokes that brought her far out into the pool.

She could feel Luke shielding insistently behind her and dared to throw a quick glance in his direction. Well, he was on his way - top off already - exposing a well built and muscular chest he certainly had no reason to be embarrassed about. She could feel that kindling arousal rise in her again, despite the cooling water.

Why was he embarrassed? Was it only his Tatooine upbringing, or did he have… a reason? The last thought popped up in her head and right then she was grateful that he was shielding at that moment.

Mara was an experienced woman and knew perfectly well that a man’s size didn’t play an important role in the sexual act. But size could heavily influence a man’s confidence and that, on the other hand, did play a vital part. Certainly, she had sometimes considered Luke Skywalker to be a bit buttoned up, but she had never assumed him to be inhibited or hesitating. Maybe she’d been wrong?

Maybe she should prepare herself for their first time not being all that grand…

Especially since…

10 The line of thought made her suddenly realize that certain things about herself could be out right discouraging for Luke, if they didn’t put things straight from the start.

Through her upbringing, sex for Mara had always been just about the only way to satisfy her basic need for closeness and contact. And due to that she had, after her first sexual experience at 14-years old, seized every attractive possibility. In a world like the court of Palpatine no one had raised an eyebrow. On the contrary, she had just filled yet another role expected of her. But though she had always enjoyed the act and that form of physical closeness with all her senses, she had never let her private barriers fall. She had never managed to give her body the full satisfaction an orgasm with a partner would provide. Those had remained something she only managed to receive in solitude.

Later, after the death of her former Master, she had avoided all physical relations - partly since she had needed to withdraw and had quickly realized that her sex life ‘on her own’ was satisfying enough and partly because the world of the galactic smugglers was a world of gossip. It was also a world where women were quickly turned to objects with virtually no provocation. Only precious few times in the past fifteen years had she met a man that she actually felt attracted to, and even fewer times had the needed discretion been attainable to allow her to take the step.

Her lacking the ability to have an orgasm during intercourse had never bothered her. Not before now. Suddenly she was troubled that it would add to Luke’s possible feeling of inadequacy.

What if he really felt that way? Or perhaps it was just she who…

She was interrupted in her musings by a splash. She turned around and could see the water making ringlets where he had jumped in. She grinned in relief. Well, he’d had the balls after all!

But he didn’t pop up right away. Mara tried to see him under the water but failed. Attacked by a sudden nervousness she stretched out with her senses but still couldn’t find him. She looked to the right and to the left and fought a rising and unfamiliar sense of panic.

”Luke!?!?”

Suddenly something grabbed her from nowhere and pulled her downward. She yelped and reflexively kicked out towards her attacker. She hit only water but her panic dissolved when Luke’s head popped up beside hers. His hair was slicked to his head and he grinned like a gungan.

”You rascal!” Mara swung at him and hit him rather hard on his shoulder.

”Ouch!” he complained but didn’t stop laughing. ”That hurt!” He splashed water on her.

Mara had started to laugh too. No man had ever dared to be so insolent with her and now she was about to show Luke Skywalker precisely why that was the case. She punched at the water and sent a whole shower straight up his face.

”Hey!” He blinked and gasped for air. ”NOW! That will be revenged!!!”

11 ”Going dark side now, are we???” She swam away from him with ease.

“I don’t need the dark side or the Force to get my revenge,” he exclaimed and took up the hunt.

He was a decent swimmer, she had to admit and she was just starting to wonder where in the galaxy he had picked that up when he managed to grab her ankle and pull her fiercely towards him. She was nearly splitting her sides with laughter and got her mouth full of water so her defence wasn’t working too well. Suddenly Luke managed to give her a stinging smack on her buttocks. Mara cried out in astonishment and mocked anger and started to kick for real.

Despite coming from a desert planet, Luke was surprisingly good at manoeuvring in the water. Yet Mara managed to get in some proper kicks. At one point she was afraid she had been too violent since she sensed severe pain from him momentarily. But he didn’t complain and they continued their playful fighting until Mara suddenly noticed she had sand under her feet. The next instant she was halfway up on the bank and let herself sink down in a lying position, hips still in the water.

Luke stiffened for a second, prepared to continue their battle, but then their eyes locked and he relaxed again. He slowly let himself sink down on top her and Mara opened her arms to him, leaning back in the soft sand. Never before had she thought of how much bigger than her he was despite his lack of height. As he loomed over her, he seemed to cover her completely and a shiver of expectant lust ran through her spine. Their lips came softly together as his arms encircled her waist and hips and she let her own arms slide around him, pulling him into a close embrace. The water lapped gently at their movements as their kiss deepened.

Chapter 3

Luke’s free hand caressed her back… slowly… as if tracing and memorizing every inch of it. Mara shivered with pleasure and let her hands wander more freely, caressing his thighs and buttocks and causing him to moan so that he had to break the kiss. She giggled teasingly and rubbed her abdomen against him, enjoying the feeling of his aroused state against her loins. And no, he had nothing to be ashamed of. It could only have been Farmboy bashfulness and that thought made her love him all the more.

For a second - and just for a second - she realized how exposed they were to oncoming danger since she very much doubted her danger sense was working properly at the moment. However, instead of distracting her, the thought only turned her on more.

Mara could feel Luke’s mind nestling closer and closer to hers and she opened her mind to him; it ached to welcome him, just like her body did. Luke gasped. He had started to kiss and caress her

12 breasts and she sensed that he was rapidly losing control of the situation - now all the more since he could almost touch Mara’s eager yearning.

“Mara…I…” He was breathing heavily and Mara could suddenly sense a note of panic worming into him.

“It’s ok,” she whispered. “C’mon.” She tugged him gently against her and he slid in between her legs, shivering with suppressed need. As he entered her, she knew with almost painful joy that he was all wonderful and he was all hers! She entangled her arms and legs around him and let herself go with the pleasure he was giving her and the pleasure she was feeling from him.

Luke wasn’t an impetuous man and somehow, Mara knew, he had been dreaming of making love to her slowly, taking care of her every need and enticing her to realize new ones. However, he was still weary from the hardships of the past weeks and his entire being seemed to be screaming for her, his need having been built up for a long time without release. Mara could feel that he just couldn’t hold back any more. He moaned and started thrusting fiercely into her. She welcomed it and marvelled at his forcefulness that yet was so gentle.

Close as two wing mates they dove towards the pleasure. Even when they split and Luke reached his pinnacle, finally releasing himself into her, she was there with him, feeling his pleasure and nestling into his mind again the moment he returned from his ecstasy.

“Mara, oh Mara!” Luke mumbled, still shivering from the power of his climax. “I’m sorry…!”

“Sorry?” She gripped him more firmly, preventing him from leaving her. “Farmboy!”

He looked down at her and couldn’t help smiling a little. “I just…”

“Hey.” She touched his cheek. “It’s me.”

He flung his arms around her, held her tight and just nodded, blinking tears away. “Yes!” he whispered, voice thick with happiness. “It’s you!”

They lay still, holding each other for a long time, body to body, mind to mind. Mara felt strangely and disturbingly touched by his concern for her, but she pushed those thoughts away. She carried a lot of baggage into this relationship and, while she would tell Luke about them, this was hardly the time to bring up her past denials and disappointments. Luke, clearly sensing her concerns and maybe even understanding them on some subconscious level, also did his best to let his regret and anxiety go. Slowly all of their misgivings, intents and desires slid away and it was just them and the moment.

Finally Mara moved a bit to crane her neck. “Here we are in the water again. What is it with us that we have to start kissing like crazy as soon as we get into it?”

13 Luke began to laugh. “Good question. And it certainly opens up to exciting perspectives. Did I mention that I have a bathtub at my apartment in Coruscant?”

Mara smiled but her eyes were drawn to the waterfall. It seemed to call to her with its grace and power. It looked like a gossamer veil, shimmering into the pool from the cliffs above, yet the water around its base appeared to churn and boil.

“You know,” she murmured, “I’ve seen pictures of places like this, but I’ve never actually visited one.”

Luke slipped off her and rolled leisurely back in the water. “I thought you had travelled half the galaxy?”

“I have but it has always been for business. That doesn’t leave much time for sights…”

He gave her a serious look. “Then I can see at least one thing we should change with this marriage. We should visit the places we’ve dreamed of but never really took time to see.”

Mara pondered his words. “I’d like that very much,” she finally stated. “It sounds like a thing ‘normal’ people would do and maybe it is about time to start to be just slightly that way.”

“Just slightly normal?” Luke inquired, a smile tugging his mouth as he eyed her knowingly. “Naah, you might as well just drop it…”

She splashed water on him again and he defended himself, laughing.

After another brief water fight they fell - silently - into each other’s arms again. Luke sighed in contentment as he pulled her close to him, their arms and legs tangling in comfortable disarray around each other.

“Have you ever been to Garqui?” he wondered, head resting on her shoulder.

“No.”

“That should be our first stop then,” he suggested.

Mara realized that she didn’t have an opinion in the matter and for once she was comfortable with that.

“Ok”, she murmured into his ear. “If you say so.”

Finally Mara’s eyes were drawn to the waterfall again. It fascinated her and she’d never really seen anything like it.

“Do you think we actually could walk behind it?” she enquired hopefully.

14 He didn’t have to ask her what she was talking about – their minds were still too close for that – and didn’t turn to follow her gaze either. Instead he looked at her and Mara felt a strong wave of so much warmth and tenderness from him that she almost gasped. She couldn’t help blushing but kept her focus stubbornly on the waterfall.

“Do you?” she repeated a bit tartly.

Luke continued to smile despite her reflexive flashing of edginess. Possibly the smile even broadened.

“Well, we could go there and find out,” he offered good-naturedly.

They got up from the water and started to approach the waterfall from the shore. At first they tried to continue holding hands but the wet slippery stones made that too troublesome an affair. Instead they had to be content with looking at each other and smiling, something they did so often it made the walking almost equally difficult.

With a flicker of amusement Mara noticed her farmboy wasn’t shy now as they walked on the stones.

She, on the other hand, couldn’t help noticing all the bruises and scrapes on her body, not to mention all the other cosmetic details she would have liked to change. Oh well, it was only Luke. And the way he looked at her, eyes shining, and his touch in the Force indicated that he was more than pleased with what he saw. She was relieved but also pleased. Though raised on Coruscant to always make the most out of herself she had, deep inside, always preferred the natural look - at least in daily life.

She could tell that the forcefulness of his feelings when they made love had shaken Luke. Mara had somehow been expecting that. Through the years she had seen how much Luke had been holding back. It was no surprise that everything would come out at once and, knowing him, she had also realized it would be powerful.

Still, it was nearly overpowering. And the fact that she was the one to bring it all out and receive it only made it more so.

She wanted to talk with him about what he felt, about what she felt herself, but at the same time it was all so utterly overwhelming. Her instincts told her to wait a while, so Mara decided to trust them. Probably Luke also still needed time to digest the enormous change in their lives that this sudden new aspect of their relationship implied.

As they approached the falls, the smooth stones gave way to a small sand beach that extended directly behind the falls. Mara sat down at the edge of this and stared, mesmerized by the falling water. A cool, mist-laden breeze blew from the base of the falls and she began to feel a bit of a chill. Then Luke was sitting behind her, pressing his warm chest against her back and the chill receded.

15 She began to realize that the plunge pool was just slightly less than knee deep with a base of flat stone. Luke mumbled something in her ear but she couldn’t quite make it out for the sound of falling water.

“I said it looks like you might be able to take a shower in that,” he repeated at her query.

Mara was dubious about that. The water looked like it was moving awfully fast where it hit the surface of the pool. As if to prove a point, Luke stood and started toward the plunge pool. The water was nearly over his calves when the first gossamer strands began to flatten his hair to his head.

He turned around to look back at her and smiled, the implied ‘See? It’s not so bad’ clear on his face. He was quite the sight, standing there naked with the water streaming down his well muscled torso.

“It was nice of you to let me near you without a complete wash after all, Mara, but this should get me clean!” He had to nearly shout over the noise. He must have caught her pleasure at the sight of him and he was hamming it up a bit.

“Actually,” she replied, “I saw a fair sized oil slick on the water where you first dove in, so I figured you were clean enough - at least for the moment. You did work up quite a sweat just a bit ago though, so maybe you should wash off again!”

She had been mocking in her tone and Luke stuck his tongue out at her showing that he knew she was teasing. Then, as if to honour her request, he took a few steps backward into the heart of the falls – and was driven to his knees. He hesitated there for a moment with a shocked expression on his face, then toppled backward and disappeared in the gossamer cascade.

She sat up straight for one worried moment and then his head popped up in front of the falls again looking none the worse for wear. It made for a weird spectacle as he stood back up, rising out of the water like some strange aquatic humanoid. One moment only his head showed and the next he was again in knee deep water. She knew that the churning surface had hidden his body until he stood up, but the effect was exotic and strange.

16 She walked out to join him. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah, it just surprised me a bit. I wasn’t expecting it to be that strong. It’s really invigorating though. You should try it.”

Mara took a tentative step into the edge of the falling water. Then another. And another.

The cascade felt delightful even if somewhat cold. She wanted to step fully into the falls but was concerned by what it had done to Luke.

Well, anything he could do...

She tensed herself, closed her eyes and took the final step.

He had been right – it was surprisingly strong… almost to the point of being painful. But the driving water also massaged her scalp, shoulders and possibly her very soul. She felt tensions she didn’t even realize she had drain away with the water coursing over her body.

Then Luke was there embracing her, warmth in the cold surrounding her. He turned her around and pressed his lips to hers. The falling water may not have driven her to her knees but his kiss, there beneath the falls, did. She felt him catch her before she could fall and help her back to the beach behind the falls.

She quickly regained her footing once they reached the sand but before he could kiss her again, she spun around, grabbed his arms and hugged herself with them, looking back at the falls again. The speed with which Luke’s kiss had made her lose control had frightened her. She was used to being in control and long ago had developed a reflex of pulling away when she felt she her control slipping.

17 She knew that she could trust Luke on an intellectual level, but old habits were hard to break. She wanted him badly – wanted to give in to his kisses and all the rest, but she was not sure she could do that just yet. So Mara fell back on deeply ingrained patterns and tried to regain her balance by withdrawing to practical necessity.

“We should wash our clothes”, she remarked practically, letting go of him again.

Luke made a funny face. She knew he was getting a glimpse of her dilemma, she wasn’t trying to keep him out of her mind, and she saw him relax and respond matter–of–factly. “I tried to suggest that earlier but you wouldn’t listen.”

“Well, I’m suggesting it now.”

“Luckily for you I’m the listening type.” Luke remarked with an angelic face.

“We’re really funny today, aren’t we?”

He mocked her flattery. “You think?”

She stuck her tongue out at him, released his arms, took a running start, dove through the falls and swam vigorously back to the other side of the pool. There she began to pick up their clothes from where they had dropped them.

Luke, streaming water as he emerged from the pool after her, smiled at her enterprising spirit. ”Not to put a damper on your energy, but all cleansing materials are at the ship,” he remarked.

Mara stopped, Luke’s undies in her hand. “Oh,” she mumbled. “That’s true.” For a moment she stood there, uncharacteristically wavering. The ship seemed so far away from where they were, almost like it was in another world. And she didn’t want to return to that world quite yet; she wanted to stay here with Luke, as long as possible.

Luke stepped to her and put his arms soothingly around her. “I don’t want to return quite yet either,” he murmured into her hair. “We can’t stay here forever, but we can stay a while longer at least.”

Of course he sensed her thoughts – she should have known. Maybe she still didn’t understand how close they really were? Was that why she didn’t shrink back from it, but instead enjoyed the nearness? Mara closed her eyes and moulded against him. He smelled of fresh water, sand and sun on skin. And Luke. She lifted her arms to encircle his waist and shoulder and as she did, her hand with his underwear came close to her nose. The garment smelled of Luke too - only in a lesser appetizing grade. She wrinkled her nose and smiled.

“I smell it too.” Luke’s voice came from her hair. “Yuck!”

18 “Haven’t I told you to get out of my mind, Skywalker?” She leaned in against him and enjoyed the comfort his muscled body spread in her.

“Oh, yes, many times.”

“Thought so. Then, why do I still find you in there?”

“Maybe you subconsciously pull me in?” He turned his head to look innocently at her again.

Mara rolled her eyes.

They stood together for while until Mara’s usual restlessness once again started to creep into the tender moment. Sensing the beginning of a change in her mood, Luke let go of her, obviously expecting her reaction and taking it with equanimity.

“Tell you what,” he suggested. “Let’s go back to the ship and get all the cleaning gear for the clothes and us, some food and maybe we can take a look at the ship. Then we can return here and wash our clothes and just stay until they are dry. Ok? We can allow ourselves that luxury, I think.

“We should return with the document,” Mara countered.

“We can’t go anywhere before the ship is repaired.” Luke shrugged.

“Then perhaps we should help your droid.” She hated herself for insisting on this, but she felt obligated.

He smiled at her. “Our droid.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Let’s go and find out how he’s doing and then we’ll see.”

Luke took her hand and started toward the ship.

Mara halted him and waved with his undies before his nose. “Just a second! Our clothes!”

“What about them?”

She stared at him. “Are you going to go back to the ship naked?”

He shrugged again. “Isn’t that better than to put on those stinking togs? But I think boots might be a good idea. Some of those rocks on the climb back to the ship were pretty sharp.”

19 He started to pull his boots on but gave her a curious glance over his shoulder. Obviously he sensed her hesitation and tried to figure out why she almost-objected.

The reason struck him and made his face crack into a grin. “Wait a minute, are you telling me you’re shy because of Artoo???”

Mara could feel her cheeks burn. “I’m not shy!” she snapped.

Clamping her feet down into her boots in a sudden rush, she spun on her heels, turning her back on his stupid grin, and started toward the ship. After a couple of steps away she spun back facing Luke again. “Wait a minute,” she called out. “What about our weapons?”

Luke cocked his head slightly, as if listening to sounds around them, but Mara knew he was reaching out with the Force. Her danger sense hadn’t buzzed even once on this planet so far but that wasn’t enough for her to leave her weapons behind. She hoped that Luke, with his greater attunement to the Force, would be able to detect distant danger better than she.

“We don’t need our weapons,” Luke finally stated. “There’s no danger here.”

He radiated such an infuriatingly calm. The Jedi Master, all-wise and overpowerfull! And still he was grinning at her!

“Well, I’m not letting my weapons just lie about,” Mara snapped and pulled her weapon belt free from her clothes.

As she fastened the belt around her, lightsaber and all, she got a peculiar feeling of just how stupid it must look; naked woman in boots and a weapon belt. She met Luke’s eyes. The look he gave her was amused, highly appreciative and even a little startled. Apparently “stupid” wasn’t the word that came to his mind.

“You appear…” He searched for the word. “Pretty wild…” His eyes had a particular twinkle to them. “I might be tempted to even say…delicious.”

Mara’s mouth started to twitch and she couldn’t help taking in his stature too. Skywalker looked pretty appetizing himself, even if he was wearing boots. “You don’t need a lightsaber dangling, do you?” she couldn’t help shooting back.

That made him flush neatly, to Mara’s amusement and great satisfaction. He tried bravely to stay with the matter. “As I said, there’s no danger here,” he deadpanned. ”I simply don’t need my lightsaber. Remember, a Jedi’s greatest weapon is his… er… his…”

Luke’s face began to crack as Mara’s eyes left his and wandered lower, purposely slow. Mara began to sputter and Luke simply couldn’t manage to hold his ground either. “Mind!” he croaked. “Mind!”

20 They had to grab onto each other, both shaking with laughter. Mara’s eyes began to tear from all the laughter but yet she was able to notice that Luke reacted to her appearance and contact. “Hey!” she chortled. “Don’t turn it on! There’s no danger here, you told me?”

“I’m not turning it on! You are!” Luke protested laughing, but still he let go of her and clearly made an effort to get hold of himself, wiping away the tears that had welled up in his eyes as well. “Well,” he finally managed, straightening himself up. “Should we go?”

Mara bit her lip. “Surely you do understand I will never be able to hear you lecture about a Jedi’s greatest weapon again without cracking completely?”

Luke shook his head. “You’re hereby doomed to private lessons. And don’t you ever dare to come in and interfere with my classes…!”

He started back down the stream again and Mara allowed herself a look at his derriere before she followed. “Private lessons?” she called out. “That sound like fun…”

They moved on with fixed purpose until they reached the beach. At the sight of the blue waves, rolling onto the red sand, Mara forgot her resolve and just stood speechless, taking in the beauty. She sensed Luke’s amusement but he was smart enough not to make any cheeky comments about her sudden emotionalism. Instead he slipped his arms around her and rubbed his chin gently against her hair. She leaned back towards him, distantly wondering how many times they had already embraced that day, but letting the thought go and allowing herself another moment of pure, luxurious enjoyment.

The waves came rolling towards them in their silent majesty - terrific, eternal and overwhelming - only to withdraw in fizzling foam, leaving their fading promise of infinite renewal. Mara felt she could have kept watching them forever.

“We should get back to the ship,” she finally mumbled without much conviction.

“Anything you say, Mara,” Luke murmured into her ear. “Anything you say…”

When they finally managed to turn their back to the beach and began climbing the path up to the ship, Mara noticed Luke was limping.

“Oops... Was it that kick I gave you when we had our water fight?”

“It’s nothing,” he reassured her quickly - too quickly. “I’m just a bit stiff.”

Stiff after swimming in warm water? Well, have it your way, Farmboy… Mara bit her lip in amusement.

21 Maybe this all was really true? Maybe she was lucky? Maybe she had found the only man in the galaxy who could handle a marriage with her?

“…and survive…” he grumbled.

“Stay out of my mind, Skywalker!”

Chapter 4

They must have been something of a sight, Mara thought, when they returned to the ship hand in hand. Two naked Jedi – in boots! If Artoo would have had any human sense of humor, he’d have burned his circuits for sure!

And if a journalist somehow would have been lucky enough to be here to take a holo, he’d have his living insured for the rest of his life, she thought a bit sourly. She still couldn’t get it that Luke had dropped his shyness just like that.

Artoo whistled a welcome and toddled out to meet them as they climbed the path up to the ship. Luke affectionately patted the dome of his metallic friend and Mara had to look away and bite her lip not to laugh. It was a long time since she’d thought of Artoo as “only a droid” but Luke’s attachment to the little machine still amused her.

A long series of flutings, beeps and whistles followed as Artoo explained how far he’d come in the repairs. Luke read the display as he followed the droid to the hull where he scrutinized the work himself.

In the meantime Mara went to fetch cleansers for their clothes and themselves and was immediately assaulted by the stale odor of the ship. The last thing she wanted to do was to smell that all the way back home. That would never do, so she quickly went through the ship to open as many vents as possible to the outside air. Next, she looked in her small travel bag and sighed in relief. Her sunblock pills were there! She cracked the seal on a pill and swallowed. The pills were something she always carried with her to keep her fair skin protected. Normally she always took one before landing on a planet as she could never be sure what kind of exposure she would have to endure and the pills were proof against all save the bluest of stars. One pill usually lasted for several days but she hadn’t needed them during the weeks she had spent in the caverns. They had only been exposed to direct sunlight during the return to the ship, yet her shoulders already had the tense, pricking feeling that heralded the beginning of sunburn. She had no wish of going into a healing trance while being on this island.

Luke emerged from under the ship, meeting her when she descended the landing ramp again.

22 “Artoo confirms he has everything under control,” he told her. “There was a minor breach that had penetrated all the way through the secondary hull. The hull is not metallic so he just can’t weld it. He says it was made of a complexly woven poly-electroplasma. He was able to synthesize a suitable patch material, but it must be cured slowly so it will bond properly to the hull. It’s not that difficult but we won’t be able to leave before it sets.”

Mara’s heart made a little jump. They would be able to stay a while longer? “How long does it take to cure?” she asked hopefully.

Artoo fluted an answer and Luke grinned at her, clearly peeking inside her mind again. Or maybe he just reads my face, she thought.

“Yup, I was only reading your face.”

Mara managed to give him a foul look that was completely ruined by the quivering corners of her mouth. His comment was so deadpanned and so well timed that it was all she could do to keep from bursting into laughter. Of course, she would still have to make him pay for that little offence at the earliest appropriate opportunity.

“Artoo says we’ll be ready to take off sometime late tomorrow morning.” Luke came closer and lifted her chin in an affectionate gesture. “He also says he can handle the repairs himself, so we’re free to explore the island.”

Mara’s jaw dropped. Not an ordinary droid, all right!?! Was that little beeper actually arranging them some time to be by themselves? She’d gotten used to the little droid fighting predators, getting annoyed, making decisions on his own and finding secret documents where nobody else would know where to look, but being considerate and arranging time for romance was more than she’d expected even from him.

“Are you sure?” she gaped but the droid responded with a clear affirmative.

Mara sighed almost in exasperation. “Well in that case…”

Then she held up her bag of cleansers, shaking it energetically. “I’ve collected what we need to wash our clothes and to wash ourselves a bit more thoroughly as well. And here,” she said as she tossed him a sunblock pill of his own. “I suggest we go back to the waterfall first to wash up and then maybe set up a camp somewhere?”

Luke nodded in agreement. “Good idea. We could maybe go up in those mountains and camp there?”

“No way, Farmboy! We’ll camp on the beach!” Mara had already set her mind to that. “There aren’t any tides we should worry about, are there, Artoo?”

23 The droid indicated the negative with an electronic raspberry.

“The beach is very nice, Mara, but there’s always something special in the mountains. Now… we could…”

“On the beach!”

xxxxxxxxx

Hand in hand and still bickering, they turned and started down the cliff. Artoo followed his humans for a while, beeping softly to himself. Sometimes the signals sent by Master Luke and Mistress Mara were a bit confusing, especially when he compared them to other humanoids. On the other sensor, those signals had been pretty consistent over the past ten years and the signs that they now were happy with each other had been rapidly increasing over the recent past as well. And if his master was happy, then Artoo was too. Content with that, the little droid rolled back to dutifully continue his work.

xxxxxxxxx

This time, Luke and Mara gave themselves plenty of time to reach the waterfall stopping to admire and comment on anything that caught their eye. In the end, the stops turned to more of an excuse to take a hold of the other and exchange kisses than to really admire the landscape. When they finally reached their abandoned clothes, Mara was very much in need of cooling down and walked a few steps ahead of Luke, determined not to turn to look at him right now. The state he was in she could feel well enough through the Force; she didn’t need to look for herself. She was committed to getting their clothes washing done before cutting loose again. Yet, in the back of her head she was suddenly in a mental argument with herself about her own priorities – she knew she was complicating things unnecessarily. She had spent all of her life keeping things clear – working in a specific order – whether it was plans, weapons, or anything else and to hold on to her habits a bit more gave her a sort of comfort. It was like a protection towards the complete twist she knew her life had taken in the past few days and that she needed to get used to gradually.

Yet when they arrived at the waterfall and Luke caught up with her, sneaking his arm around her from behind, Mara could feel her resolve melt away like a sandcastle before a wave.

“We should wash…” she tried to protest as his lips gently tugged her earlobe.

“I know…” Luke murmured huskily as he placed tender kisses on her neck. “Give me the cleansers and come into the water. I’ll wash us.”

24 Mara gasped and found herself doing as she was told without protesting. The sudden chill of the water against her skin didn’t diminish her arousal one bit. On the contrary, its cool caress seemed to stir every nerve in her body awake.

Luke stayed behind her as he began with applying cleaning solution to her hair. “I’ve always loved your hair,” he whispered as he gently worked up a lather. “Do you know it has the same color as the cliffs and sand around us?”

Mara wanted to tell him that she also felt she belonged here - that they belonged here, but her mind was too occupied with sensations to come off with that. She had never had another person wash her hair and the act was more sensual that she could have imagined. She soon found herself in waist deep water, leaning back against Luke’s warmth, while he gently massaged her scalp. By the time he rinsed the lather out, her blood was fizzing in her veins. Then, before she could turn around to kiss him, he began to soap them both. He was washing her back with his soapy, muscular chest while his hands worked on her chest and abdomen. His hands were incredibly slow, working her body thoroughly, while he sensuously kissed the nape of her neck. Mara arched against his touch and could feel herself boiling. The feel of his hardness against the back of her loins made her pant hard and she instinctively spread her legs, unable to control herself.

Luckily for her, Luke seemed to be as eager as she was. “I want to taste you,” he murmured. “Let’s get up from the water, shall we?”

Mara nodded and together they dipped to rinse off. Mara started to rise from the water but Luke had another idea. Sliding his arms around and under her, he simply lifted her up.

Mara dropped her jaw. Here he was, carrying her around like some kind of …well… something?

Though petite, she had never been carried before and she had to suppress her built-in suspicion against everything new to even begin to find out if she liked it.

Luke smiled smugly and set her down, half lying on her back in a soft bed of grass growing beside the pool, settling himself on his side next to her. He begun to kiss her neck again, picking up where he had stopped a moment ago.

Mara moaned and tried to turn to face him but he resisted and continued to treat the base of her neck with his lips and tongue. Sucking the soft skin into his mouth he suddenly found a spot that made Mara cry out in pleasure and astonishment.

“Oh! Yes!! That’s… aahh!”

He cupped her breast with his vacant hand and started to nudge it at the same time his mouth continued the sweet torture. “It’s …aaah??” he teased.

“Yes!!! It’s…. oooh”

25 The former assassin had to drop every plan of making sensible replies when Luke slid his mouth from her neck to her other breast, licking the nipple smoothly. He positioned himself better so he could make use of both hands and let the other trail down her side, over her hip and in between her thighs.

Everything he did was so utterly slow, as if he wanted to drag her very soul along with him one centimetre at a time. Slow, but so marvellously firm.

Through their bond she knew that Luke could feel her response to everything he did and he took full advantage of it, concentrating fully on the woman in his arms. He let his lips follow the curves of her breasts, teasing her nipples at first by refusing to give them attention, yet soon enough he was sucking them into his mouth and teasing them with his tongue. A hand had strayed between her legs and, rather than reaching her core, was slowly caressing her inner thighs.

Mara had forgotten her impatience. She just wanted this to go on forever. They had melded again but this time their meld was even deeper, as deep as it had been when landing the ship. The borders between them washed away and Mara found herself drifting on waves of sensual pleasure. Needs unknown before emerged from her depths and were being welcomed by her lover. She had never felt so whole, so loved and accepted, and never ever, had she felt a lust even close to what she was experiencing now.

When Luke finally spread her legs to give his mouth access to her womanhood she hardly knew what he was doing, so lost was she in sensation. But as his lips reached into her deepest core she felt a mighty need gather inside her. It grew and grew, throbbing and pushing all resistance away.

As she stirred, trying to get hold of herself again, she could almost hear Luke’s whisper in her mind, “Let go, my love…”

His presence was surrounding her with tender approval and she could hold back no longer. Panting and almost sobbing, she went over the edge, fearing deeply for the first time in her life and enjoying every second of it.

Slowly she returned to reality, only to find Luke smiling at her, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I somehow got a feeling you liked that…?”

“What a clever observation” she growled, still blissfully exhausted.

He started to caress her breasts again and Mara moaned. “Just give me a break, will you?”

“Nope.” He snickered at her abashed face. “I’m not letting you go yet. Not by a long shot.” He bent down to suck her nipple gently and slowly moved to position himself between her legs.

Mara felt happiness fill her, almost making her seethe with emotion. She lifted her hips to welcome him but when he again filled her she had to boil over somehow. She started to giggle uncontrollably.

26 Luke eased gently into her, moving steadily and reaching out for her mind to adjust his movements to pleasure them both.

“Stop laughing,” he demanded with a stern face even as he tried to hold the laughter away from his voice. “This is serious lovemaking!”

“Oh it is - it is!!!” The pleasure was gathering inside her again and she lasciviously gave in to the sensual delights.

“You’re ruining my rhythm when you giggle – your whole body is shaking,” he muttered, face against her throat.

“It’s... not…the...giggles,” Mara gasped. She gave him a nudge and he rolled flexibly onto his side and then his back, pulling her with him in the movement. Now she was on top, free to take control and fulfil her need to take action. She smiled gratefully and straightened herself so that she sat with his manhood buried deeply inside her. Then she started to rock, gently at first but with increasing vigour, letting go of her control.

Through their bond she caught a glimpse of how he saw her, with sparkling eyes, flaming hair and her lithe body bent backwards in ecstasy. She felt his pleasure, love and admiration and he reached to caress her breast, so surprisingly full despite her slender form. Mara groaned and bent forward to give him better access. He wasn’t that much taller than she was and could easily take her nipples in his mouth while she rode him. She felt her climax approaching again and automatically started to block.

“Oh no, Mara Jade,” Luke growled and grabbed her hips firmly, pressing her even tighter towards his body as it followed her every movement. “I won’t have any of that! I know you can, I know you need it and I won’t leave you before you let go again, no matter how long it will take!”

He re-took control of their lovemaking, rolling her to her back again and pressing his mind close up to hers, so close that the borders between them started to blur again. At the same time he filled their bond with reassurance, with love and acceptance and Mara could feel her barriers tremble. Her physical fulfilment had been approaching for a long time, only her mind struggled against it due to old fears and habits.

Still, he wouldn’t leave her, not because he expected the impossible, but because he believed in her and wanted all of her – wanted the innermost part of her soul. Mara felt herself try to shake him but found to her joy that she could not.

Slowly, slowly she gave in as he almost pushed her to her release. She had hardly climaxed before Luke let go of his hard kept self-control and released himself into her with an orgasm, almost painful in its intensity.

27 He stilled inside her and Mara wrapped her arms round him to prevent him from leaving her. Their minds were still so closely joined that she hardly knew where her feelings ended and his began.

Maybe they really had become one, as some love poets declared was possible? Only that in their specific case it wasn’t just love that made a union possible but the Force as well? Maybe that was why Luke had been practically pulled to her orgasm? She smiled as she sensed his small embarrassment about it and as she did, it vanished as dew before the sun.

“Earlier, when we made love for the first time, I hardly could hold back either,” Mara murmured. “And I’m an expert at it.”

Luke stirred in her arms and rolled onto his side, pulling her with him and nuzzling her neck. “In that case, I’d better start to work on it,” he muttered. “As refreshing as it can be for a start, my male pride requires me to have a bit better control.”

Mara giggled. “Yet you wanted me to lose control? That’s not fair, is it?”

He played lazily with her hair. “Who talks about fair here? You’re a woman and I’m a man. That’s not fair either. ‘Fair’ requires equality. And we’re not equals, remember?”

Oh, yes, that was their discussion earlier, back on the ship. She was still trying to find a suitable, bantering reply when he murmured into her hair: “I think it’s much more fun that we complete each other!” His hand squeezed one of her breasts as if to make a point.

That made her giggle again. Luke pulled back from her hair and looked at her, eyes shining. “I like it when you giggle. You should giggle some more.”

“With you, that shouldn’t be a problem, silly! But I like it that you like it that I giggle.”

“I like it that you like it that I like it that… oh… never mind.” Luke interrupted himself when he saw her eye rolling face.

Mara begun to disentangle herself from his embrace, not without some reluctance. She wasn’t used to idleness, no matter how lasciviously it presented itself, and her restless nature had already made her remember the clothes waiting to be washed. “We still have a job to do, Farmboy.”

Luke pouted. “Spoilsport. Besides, back on Nirauan you told me that sometimes it was better just to lean back and let someone else do the work.

Mara, who had already stood up, stopped short and looked at her husband-to-be with an almost comic look that mixed disbelief, laughter, and accusation. “Now, didn’t that lesson sink in conveniently!?!” she drawled. “And just who are you imagining is going to work while you sit back and do nothing?”

28 She could see on Luke’s almost-blushing face that he was just about to start to explain her partly deliberate misunderstanding. Then she sensed a different mood take him and he leaned back in the grass, propping his head comfortably on his arm and picking up a straw of grass to stick into his mouth. “Oh, I will have my duties too, so don’t worry. I’ll be busy.”

“With what? If I may ask?” Mara enquired, hands on her hips. She hadn’t seen Luke in this mood before and though she did her best not to show, it both amused and charmed her.

“I’m going to watch the delicate movements of your lovely behind when you are bent over in the stream washing our clothes.”

xxxxxxxxxxxx

When she was finally done chasing him – he’d come to his feet with a speed that did even a Jedi Master honor – and when he’d excused himself for the tenth time, still not managing to sound sorry, they agreed they could actually do with some division of labour. Luke chivalrously offered to do the washing and then fetch food, camping gear and blankets from the ship, while Mara strolled off to see if she could find something edible to supplement their ration bars.

It took her more than an hour but finally Mara had managed not only to find some delicious fruit, but also to bag the large avian creature that had led her to the fruit. It was not without pride that she returned to their rendezvous point on the beach where Luke had already set up a camp, had their clothes drying on a line he had strung between two trees at the edge of the beach and was busy gathering fuel for a fire.

He looked up and obviously took in the sight of her, because she could sense a wave of warmth, love and amusement from him. The last feeling made her almost chuckle herself. Oh yes, she was still nude in boots and weapon belt. Now he could really see how stupid it looked!

Not that Luke looked stupid at all of course. The sight of his merrily grinning, boyish face when he winked at her, almost dropping the branches he’d gathered in doing so, made Mara’s heart warm. And the sight of his slender, well-muscled naked body, moving with its usual energy over the beach made some other parts of her body warm too. Heart pounding with happiness, she hurried to meet him.

Chapter 5

Mara watched the dancing flames of the fire they had lit on the beach. The firemoths danced merrily out into the darkening night, orange flames licked the air in caresses, warm enough to reach her body, and in the center of the pyre, blue, green and white were mingling in perfect harmony and

29 understanding. Mara sighed of delight and nestled closer to Luke’s firm, comfortable body behind her. His arms around her tightened for a moment in a welcoming response to her move and he turned his head slightly to press his lips softly to her temple.

She was still getting used to this…

She had always known he was warm and empathic but she had been unprepared for this passionate sensuality.

She had thought she knew him so well…

In a way she had…

And yet, she had not – Force bond and all.

On the other hand she had also thought she knew herself. But with Luke everything was different, or perhaps they had both changed by linking with each other?

They had spent the rest of the day doing nothing by her typical standards. After their late lunch, Luke had shown her how to make something like sandals out of fallen tree fronds, a skill he had picked up while working with a primitive culture on a planet she had never heard of. Having the sandals meant that they didn’t need to put on their boots when walking from the beach to their pool.

She had noticed how the breaking waves seemed fascinate Luke and finally asked what he found so interesting. He had commented that he had always wanted to learn how to surf and wondered if that would be possible here. “Too bad there is nothing we could use for a surfboard,” he had said wistfully. So she had shown him how to body surf on the waves in the bay. Luke hadn’t known that such a thing was even possible, yet he got the hang of it so quickly that they were able spend some time racing against each other to the shore.

Then Luke showed her how to use the Force to hold small bubbles of air in front of their eyes so they could see under water. This proved to be a delight and they spent nearly an hour watching brilliantly colored fish swim among the rocks and reefs in the bay.

They had lain out in the warmth of the sun on the beach, swam in the pool, fooled around in the waterfall, and made love whenever and wherever the mood struck them. All in all it was a completely unproductive day, and Mara found herself hoping that the ship would not be ready the next morning so she could experience more of this lassitude.

As evening approached, they had gotten the nearly extinct fire going again and had settled by it, eating the rest of their food. A gloriously magnificent sunset had drawn them out to walk by the waves again, but in the end they returned to the fire, lying on their backs to watch the stars wink into view one by one in the sky. Finally they lay wrapping up in blankets and each other, enjoying the warmth and light from the pyre.

30 Mara knew Luke’s mind swirled close to hers and that he sensed all her feelings, despite the silence between them. For the first time in her life, she felt the need to share her thoughts with somebody else and she finally opened her mouth.

“Until we fought those droids in the cave, I never knew what it really means to care for and respect someone as much as you do for yourself – as I know that you do for me. I was taught that such feelings were a lie.”

“I never understood the depth of your loneliness,” Luke murmured. “Nor of your distrust. I thought that if you wanted anything from me, you’d let me know and since you never gave me any signs clear enough for me to trust, I whined in my own solitude, believing there was nothing for me to find. Nothing that you wanted to be found by me, anyway.”

Mara smiled softly. How easily had they been sidestepping each other all this time? Ten years of deliberate misunderstandings - for what? “I focused on your faults, believing you to be as prideful as I am myself,” she told him. “Sometimes, when I told you my opinions, I was trying to help you and took it as a personal insult when you didn’t smile with gratitude. Other times I just wanted to hurt you and when you hid your emotions from me I took it for arrogance.”

Luke sqeezed her gently. ” I always admired you for your abilities, your honesty, your dedication and your spectacular beauty, but I always believed that we were just friends and you wanted us to stay that way. Yet I always wanted what Han and Leia had, so I looked for that in a woman I could live my life with. I never realized that she was there in front of me the whole time – disguised as a friend.”

Mara shook her head. “I always wanted more from you than friendship but you seemed so absorbed in everything else. The Jedi Academy, the Galaxy – everything and everybody seemed to have the right to claim you, except for me.”

“I felt I was in constant lack of help and support in those years. I knew you were my friend in need, but I needed dedication every day. Also, I didn’t want to push you so I held back. I knew you needed time to get your life straight. And then, all at once, you were off with Lando. I was hurt and tried to find comfort in the belief that I only had imagined that our relationship was something special.”

“Your dismissal disappointed me. Then you found Callista and I thought, there, it was as well that I held back! He was not for me in the first place. I had begun to see a woman waiting for you around every corner and I just withdrew.”

She could feel the jolt as her words sank in. For a moment Luke stiffened and Mara became cold, fearing he would explode like he had in the cave on Nirauan when she had accused him of lack of dedication to the women he’d encountered. But though his emotions flared for a moment, they faded just as quickly to a quiet, simmering sadness – like a memory of great pain that had never really gone away but had changed to resignation.

“Sorry,” Mara murmured and meant it. “I didn’t want to bring that up…”

31 Luke started, abandoning his memories and re-entering her mind which was now wide open to him, and Mara could sense his smile return. She smiled too, slowly beginning to understand the consequences of having a partner who could read your mind. As scary as that prospect was, it offered a great privilege and comfort too. She didn’t have to explain how sorry she was - he already knew and she knew in return that he accepted her apology. Mara felt herself warmed by gratitude and by a heartfelt admiration for Luke, his open mindedness, his ability to accept and to move on.

Her sudden, forceful feeling made him back away in embarrassment – yet the fact that it was he who reacted to a strong feeling even before she herself had time to do so, brought a wicked smile to Mara’s face. “What’s the matter, Farmboy?” she inquired teasingly. “You can tell me that you admire me but I can’t extend the same to you in return? How fair is that?”

He opened his mouth to protest but she interrupted him before he even had the chance to speak. “And don’t give me that crap about ‘fair requires equality’ or whatever it was. I asked a reasonable question and it requires a decent answer. Having an open dialogue is one of the most basic principles stated in the Married Couple’s Handbook.” Her voice was teasing but her intention earnest. Somehow she felt this was a key to some of his many contradictions and she was eager to understand him.

Luke smiled quickly but also sighed in exasperation. “You and that book,” he muttered affectionately. “It’s not… Backing away like that is not something I do on purpose. Really Mara, it isn’t. It’s just that…” He hesitated for a moment, clearly searching both for words and an answer. “It’s just that your feelings, sometimes, when they pour out like that, they do it so quickly and so overwhelmingly. It just becomes so… overwhelming,” he repeated. “Your emotions and my own – it’s like they multiply and almost explode inside me. I still have to get used to that.” He turned to look at her with those wonderfully blue eyes of his.

“You have to admit,” he went on, “that most of the time it’s you who can’t accept what’s happening with us. For some reason that’s so much easier for me to cope with. In fact, I love that trait in you. I know your mind so well after all these years, so to give you the space you need to assimilate isn’t a problem. And if I see a breach, I simply can’t resist following you – even pursuing you – to find out if I could push you a bit further… It tickles my male pride, I guess. However, such a burst from you, almost an explosion of love, or even,” he blushed, “of admiration…I don’t know how to handle that.”

Mara felt a sting of worry. “Am I …too much…?”

He didn’t quite understand her question, she knew – she hardly did herself – but he understood the importance of it for her, and when he spoke there was no trace of doubt in his voice or in his mind. “I wouldn’t have you any other way!”

And her worry was gone, like it had never been there. Mara found herself smiling like a fool in his arms. “No?” she wrangled. “You like me volatile, abrasive, erupting ...?”

“I just have to learn how to handle it,” he grinned. “Like I had to find out that you like to go skinny dipping.”

32 She had almost forgotten his embarrassment at the pool earlier. “Are you telling me it was the quick change that threw you off?”

“Mmm. That. And the sudden sight of your naked back emerging from all that bulky clothing.” He smiled at her, a hungry glint lit in his eyes as he leaned in for a kiss.

Mara’s eyes fell closed as their lips met. She drank in the feeling of his mouth, his presence and his firm hands that began their exploration on her body once again. The blankets fell down as she raised her arms and pulled him into her embrace. xxxxxxxxxx

Later, when they finally pulled the blankets back to cover themselves against the slowly advancing night chill, Mara was smiling for quite a number of reasons, one of them the obvious satisfaction radiating from Luke. “Better, huh, Farmboy?”

He flinched but only for a second. “Much better,” he admitted and grinned at his own transparency. “I’m learning.” Then he gave her a gentle kiss. “But then again, if you don’t mind me saying it, so are you.”

“Mmhh.” Mara smiled lazily, basking in the wonderful energy of afterglow. “It becomes easier to let go each time. But I did enjoy it the first time already… really, I did. It’s not that just because I don’t come, I feel deprived of something.”

“Are you implying I’m spoiling you here?”

“Oh, go on, spoil me by all means. I must admit you’ve given me taste for it already.”

“Don’t worry. I intend to.” His face turned surprisingly serious. “I actually think you deserve to be spoiled.”

Mara felt a lump in her throat. She knew that if it was up to him, he’d spoil her completely and in every possible way for the rest of her life. “I’m not sure you’re right. I might turn into… a real hag if you do.”

“No you won’t,” he soothed. “You’ll just be all the more fun for me to play with.”

“I wasn’t talking about sex, Skywalker,” she croaked.

“Me neither,” he reassured and pulled her more firmly into his embrace. Mara sighed and fell back into the luxury of his arms around her. She knew he would be taking care of her, whether she wanted him to or not, and she would just have to find a way to cope with it. She was also beginning to realize that

33 while the thought of his protectiveness made her shudder, she was in reality beginning to not only accept it but to enjoy it as well. Maybe something in her needed and welcomed it. She was growing fond of the way Luke was able to show his concern and love. It was all him, she realized, the way he did it, the way he was. She molded against him, body and mind, surrendering into the closeness.

Suddenly she wrinkled her brow and withdraw a bit. Lifting the blanket up she peered under it. “Didn’t you just come?” she inquired frowning.

“Er… I did, yes,” Luke confirmed, trying to suppress his grin. “Why?”

“Shouldn’t that thing of yours be in a little more, hmm, relaxed state, then?”

Luke tried to stay solemn. “I’m afraid your presence has that effect on me, Mara.”

“You mean it won’t go to sleep yet?”

“I think it’s not actually demanding any action, but it will certainly not fall down before it is sure there will be no more of it tonight…”

Mara was still frowning but the corners of her mouth were quivering. “Persistent little fellow…”

“You might find it that way for some time to come…”

She grinned into the fire. “It’s ok. It’s quite ok.”

They laid back in comfortable closeness again, watching the firemoths spin off to join in the stars on the velvety black night sky. Mara could sense a question from Luke close to the surface, like a small tickling in her mind. She smiled, waiting for him to gather his courage to utter it.

“Uhm, Mara?”

“Mmh?”

“You’ve never had an orgasm before, have you? With a guy, I mean.”

“No.”

That hardly answered his question and she let him sweat a bit longer, trying to put his question into some words that were not too offending. Finally she continued. “None the less, I’ve had good sex a decent number of times. Have had some lesser experiences too, of course. But I learned pretty quickly how to spot a guy who could deliver a good one night stand, and that improved the odds …”

“Then why didn’t you come with them?” Luke inquired naively.

34 Mara smiled. “I don’t quite know myself. I guess my upbringing and training didn’t really encourage letting anybody near. Never much cared for feeling vulnerable. So it would be a question of intimacy - or something like that. A woman thing too, probably.”

“Ah.”

He acquiesced with that, she realized, content with the information that the men she’d once had, hadn’t mistreated her. Mara found herself wondering if it only was a question of intimacy. Or even had something to do with the even more complicated matter of craving and matching, of Luke simply knowing all she could give and demanding it and with his ability to meet her and give it all back. She didn’t know. She simply knew that he was all she needed and that she would gladly use the rest of her life to give it all back to him.

They held onto each other as the night grew old, watching the fire die. There, near the warm glow of the ruddy coals, they finally fell asleep.

Chapter 6

Mara stood alone at the edge of the bluff that overlooked the bay. The ship was finally repaired and nearly ready to leave but she kept her back resolutely toward it. Her attention was on their beach below.

Their beach.

When had it become their beach?

A light breeze blew off the ocean tugging gently at her fiery mane which, for the moment at least, fell unfettered about her shoulders and down her back. She was wearing clothes again for the first time in a local day. Both she and the clothes were clean now and smelled fresh but the clothes felt restrictive. She longed to be naked with Luke again down on their beach. She hugged herself against a cold that wasn’t there, luxuriating in her memories of their time together here – remembering the love they had shared that morning…

She had gradually awakened that morning while the sun was still below the horizon and the sky pale blue and full of small puffy clouds. Luke was snoring softly beside her still deep in slumber. She had been on her back with Luke snuggling beside her, his arm draped across her breasts and one leg hooked across her waist. He had felt wonderfully warm, yet Mara found herself restless again. She knew that they would be leaving later that morning – a prospect that she did not welcome. How odd, she thought, that when they first landed she had almost been restless to get going again and now it was quite the opposite.

35 So, she had carefully gotten out from under the blanket – and Luke – and walked slowly back up to the pool and waterfall. The morning was cool and her clothes were finally dry but she resolutely maintained her state of undress. Putting on clothes would have meant leaving and she wasn’t ready to go just yet. Upon reaching their pool, she had found a tree to lean against and sat facing east to wait for the sun to crawl above the horizon.

As dawn had gradually approached, the base of the clouds had taken on a coppery color and for a moment it had looked as if someone had scattered bright coins across the sky. Luke would probably make some inane comment about the clouds matching my hair or something, she thought absently. He’s such a romantic – but I wouldn’t have him any other way. Besides – I think the sky matches his eyes. She then had watched as the light first touched the top of the mountain that rose behind the falls and gradually work its way down to the waterfall, creating a rainbow across the pool. Finally it crept to where she was leaning against the tree and she had basked in the sudden warmth of the sunlight on her naked skin.

It had been as if the sun rekindled her desire once again, reminding her of the feel of Luke molded against her and filling her. At the thought of Luke again, she had found herself wishing that she had dragged him awake just so he could experience the beauty of this sunrise with her.

Strange, she had mused, that she could be so torn by the thought of him at that moment. She had wanted to give him the time he needed to rest but also to enjoy this moment with her so that it would be something special between just the two of them. This thought of sharing had reminded her of the love they had first given one another right here by the falls, arousing her to the point of desperate need. In another time she would have simply pleasured herself but now, she found she wanted to share her pleasure with Luke. Maybe he’s done sleeping, she had thought wickedly, and if not, I guess I’ll just have to wake him up.

“But I did see the sunrise with you, love,” his voice had come softly beside her.

She had started and turned to find him, gloriously naked and definitely more than a little interested, smiling down at her and leaning against her tree.

“Have you been in my mind again?” Mara asked, smiling back up at him, knowing full well that he must have been.

“A little,” he responded as his face took on an impish grin.

“Then I guess I’ll just need to teach you a lesson about that.” She had risen, kissing him in earnest as she eased him onto his back in a bed of soft puffball tree fronds and gently sheathed him with herself. “I’ll just have to make sure that you learn to do a better job of reading my face. Don’t move a muscle, Farmboy.”

36 She had ridden him with an urgency that shocked her – almost as if she was trying to compress all of her newfound passion into this final joining before they had to leave. She kept her eyes tightly shut at first and allowed herself to focus on the sensations of the sun on her skin and of Luke beneath and within her.

Sensing his mind caressing hers, her eyes fluttered open to gaze at his face. It held an expression of love, joy and wonder along with more than a hint of his own need. As her eyes found his, she opened her mind fully to him once again. In that moment, when minds merged and eyes locked, it had seemed that they were staring into each other’s souls. She knew – through their link – that he was overwhelmed just watching her pleasure build and her body writhe above him.

Her older self would not have been able to do this, would not have been able to find sexual fulfillment with another soul, would not have trusted her most private moments with someone else.

It seemed so strange that trusting another with such a deeply personal thing could also bring freedom. And she had used that new found freedom to be selfish and use Luke as the instrument of her own pleasure, riding him like one of the waves that crashed upon their beach. Finally she had collapsed, sexually exhausted and fulfilled against him. As her mind had returned to her – muscles still twitching pleasurably around him – she had begun to feel guilty for having been so selfish.

“Sometimes… taking turns is just as much fun as trying to… get there together,” Luke panted. “Says so in… your silly book…Now sit up but let me stay inside you.”

Mara obliged grinning and, gathering his legs beneath them both, he stood and had carried her into the water until he was nearly waist deep. “Now lay back and float. You’re incredibly erotic to watch and I really need to have you.”

He took her there with her hair floating about her head like an ocher cloud.

It had been wonderfully relaxing, watching pleasure build on his face and feeling it build in his mind while she floated there. His hands were on her hips and their movements caused water to lap gently between them creating delightful sensations at her most sensitive places.

And he was right. Watching your lover take his pleasure was surprisingly erotic and enjoyable. So much so that she had been able to join him at his climax.

Afterward they had frolicked about in the pool, allowing the falling water to wash and massage them once more. Then they had lain in the morning sun, letting it dry them for one last time on this world. Finally they had walked, holding hands once more, back to their beach.

At the camp site, as if by some silent agreement, they remained naked while packing up their things, ogling each other in the process and making intimate smacks and grabs at one another. Mara had found

37 that bending down to gather up items could be dangerous but, as long as Luke returned the favor, she really didn’t mind.

The last thing they had done before leaving was to get dressed.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Now, standing on the bluff, Mara found herself wondering if she was even the same person that she had been just one day ago. Had it only been just one day?

She knew he was approaching her, felt his presence behind her, then leaned into him as he slipped his arms about her waist. They stood there in silence like that for a long time. She felt his mind nestling close to hers, much the same as their bodies were.

She let him in without another thought. It just seemed to complete the moment or maybe it had already become second nature to her. And as she continued her reverie of their past day, she was suddenly struck by the fact that there was one thing she had forgotten in all of the excitement and joy they had shared during their stay. Just one small but very important thing she had overlooked. Mara had regretted, when she had to wake Luke on the ship after it had been hulled, that there hadn’t been a better time for it. Now, here on the bluff, the perfect setting had presented itself unlooked for.

“I love you,” she said softly, like the gentle breeze off the bay.

His arms tighten about her and he echoed her words into her neck with a gentle kiss.

“You know,” he said after an eternal moment, “I really don’t think you are that much changed from when we first landed. You are still exactly the same person I fell in love with and I don’t really want you to change anyway, at least not so very much.” She could feel his grin at the bit of teasing and found herself grinning as well. “Seriously Mara, all you’ve really done is to let me into the very private circle that used to include only you and you don’t know how wonderful that makes me feel.”

Mara spun about in his arms. “Actually I do have some idea about that. Can’t go crawling into my mind without giving away your feelings too.” She reached up and kissed him, a long lingering kiss that was full of promises of love yet to come.

“I guess that we are all ready to go?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Unfortunately. I really wish that the repairs would have taken much longer.”

“Maybe we should test the repair – just to make sure it’s been done properly.” She slid her holdout blaster from its holster and leveled it at the hull, grinning impishly.

38 “I don’t think we could count on nearly as much cooperation from Artoo this time if we actually performed such a test. We’d probably have to make all the repairs ourselves this time.”

“You’re probably right,” Mara admitted and slipped the blaster home. “And since that doesn’t offer nearly the opportunities for fun as washing clothes does…” She left that idea hanging, then added brightly, “But we would probably get pretty dirty again and need to clean up.”

“Yeah, but with the ship ready to go, it would need to be a really fast wash up.”

“Quickies are OK too.”

They grinned at each other.

Then Mara became serious again, and looked back at their beach. “I don’t want to tell anyone else about this place, Luke. Something tells me that we will need this refuge from time to time. We are definitely going to stop here for our Honeymoon.”

Luke frowned. “I’m not so sure that we will be able to find this place again.”

Mara’s eyes widened questioningly and Luke explained. “Something in the Force tells me that this place is hidden for some reason.”

Mara felt a sinking feeling in her stomach – as if she had been physically struck. They only got one chance to experience this place? “I think it might have been a gift to us,” Luke continued. She could feel his regret as keenly as she felt her own. “Perhaps we were allowed to visit so we had a chance to repair the ship, but I think that we were allowed the time here as a way to say that the path we are on together is the right one.”

She considered this a moment, not sure that she liked what Luke was saying. In her experience such gifts always came with some form of expected payment. “I’m not sure that I care for the obligation that this – gift – implies. Marriages are hard enough without that sort of responsibility piled on top.”

He smiled and came forward to embrace her again. “Sorry, I didn’t make that very clear and the Force really doesn’t work that way. No obligation or responsibility is implied at all, love. Maybe it’s better to think of it as a wedding gift. No strings attached. How we do in this marriage is completely up to us. I think the Force is just saying, ‘A lot of good things could come of this and you have our blessing’ or something much like that”

Mara felt herself relax as his words sunk in. She still had a lot to learn about the Force. At least she had a good teacher to show her the way.

39 They turned and walked back to the ship hand in hand once more. Mara didn’t even realize that they were holding hands until they were half way up the ramp and she smiled at the thought. The ship smelled a bit fresher than it did when they had first popped the hatch.

She and Luke moved separately through the ship to insure that all the vents she had opened properly sealed again. Then she joined Luke at the hatch to watch Artoo, who had remained outside to make a final inspection of the hull, trundle up the ramp. As the little droid passed between them Mara gazed for one final time at their beach before the hatch slid shut.

Mara was feeling very out of sorts as they finally made their way back to the control cabin. She actually felt much more relaxed than she had in days, but she also felt a sadness like none she had ever experienced. She really didn’t feel like piloting a ship at this moment so she let go of Luke’s hand and plopped herself down in the co-pilot’s seat.

To Luke’s surprised look she mumbled, “Letting you into my circle means that I also trust you to drive. At least for now. I’m tired and don’t really want to focus on it just now.”

She watched absently as he went through the power up sequence, enjoying at the quiet confidence he seemed to exude. He really was her equal in many ways and she was glad fate had placed them together at last. She glanced at the screens as she felt them lift off and her heart fell. Luke had been right. Their view vanished the moment the pads left the surface and the screens fogged once more – just as they had been during their decent.

She gazed over at her lover. His eyes held the far away expression of lightly focusing on the Force, using its guidance to pilot them safely back into space and…home – where ever that would be. It would be where ever they could be together, she decided.

She leaned back and closed her eyes, focusing on the Force, using its power to insure that this day would be locked in her memory for the rest of her life.

Mara almost gasped.

There below them was their landing spot but instead of two separate patches of blue and green just slightly overlapping, she now saw just a single patch, the blue and green colors within swirling and dancing together in an unending pattern, impossible to fathom.

And leading away from the patch was the same fire gem path strewn across the stars.

Mara couldn’t help smiling for she knew – with a certainty she couldn’t explain – that she would be able to lead them here again.

40 © 2008 Kataja and Cat’s Cradle

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