Chapter 16

Leia hurried down the gangway as soon as it hit the ground, her hair whipping behind her in the breeze as she trotted along the pathway through the lush tropical plants between the landing pad and their pod and private beach. Once she felt the soft, pink sand between her toes, she smiled with glee. Just around one more corner, and there it was: the turquoise-blue water of the bay, with gentle waves lapping at the shore. Their podhut built out over the water. Two weeks of this with Han.

She breathed deeply, inhaling the salty ocean air, while taking in the view of lush, green atolls, some with waterfalls tumbling down hundreds of feet into the sea, against the setting sun. She didn't think she'd ever seen anything more beautiful.

"Han, where are you?" she called out, turning to look at the pathway. "You're going to miss my first-ever mad dash into an ocean if you don't get out here. I'm not sure I can wait much longer."

"Cool your jets, I'm coming," joked her husband, as he appeared from the flora, a pallet droid filled with the boxes carrying their clothes, food, and drink behind him. Han turned to his wife after instructing the droid to unpack their gear in the pod. "Not all of us could change into our swimgear as soon as we took off from Mav's place."

Leia grinned again. He did look, well, delectable in swim shorts and nothing else, although the bright pink new skin on his chest stood out like a constant reminder that they were both still healing. He was ok for now, given that the sun was going down, but she'd probably have to be all over him to wear a tee-shirt, in addition to taking the sun-blocker tablets they'd bought, when the sun was at its peak.

"Ok, this is it, Solo. I'm going in," she said, before turning toward the boardwalk that led to their pod. He watched admiringly as she ran down the boardwalk, her lemon-yellow racer two-piece thankfully hiding none of her lithe figure. The he too set off at a run, because if she was hitting the water, so was he.

He caught up to her and managed to grab her hand just as she jumped feet-first from the boardwalk into the waters, taking him with her. It wasn't very deep, he realized as his feet hit the bottom before his head went under. Of course, it was plenty deep for a short person like his wife, who bobbed to the surface with a brilliant smile. He pulled her toward him.

"Like it here?" his voice rumbled against her neck as he kissed it, his hands brushing against the bare skin at her waist.

"It's perfect," she breathed, feeling a small shiver of pleasure at the lazy circles his fingers were tracing. "It's like something out of the most perfect dream. I almost can't believe we're really here." She turned to Han, a mischievous look on her face. "So, I guess I'm going to have to do this" – she splashed water at her husband, adamant that he'd get his hair wet—"to prove it's real."

Han laughed; this was what he wanted to give her room to be over the next few weeks: herself, in all its facets, without any obligatory artifice.

"Well," he drawled, brushing a tripping tendril of hair from his forehead. "I was about to get all mushy and romantic, but if you're gonna insist on being trouble, I guess I'll just have to do this—" With that, he picked her up and tossed her into the water with a splash.

"Oh,' she replied, laughing and raising an eyebrow as she separated the long curtain of wet hair covering her face and expertly twirled it into a bun, "you are in trouble now, nerfherder."

As she dove under the water, Han thought, in the seconds before his wife pulled his legs right out from under him, that Leia was trouble of the very best kind.

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

"Are you staying in there all night?" Han called from the bedroom of their pod. He couldn't deny that the fresher was ultra-luxurious, and he had a few thoughts about things a certain married couple could do in that rainwater shower outside and the oversized whirlpool tub in the fresher that had nothing to do with getting clean. In fact, he considered, they could get very, very dirty. He chuckled to himself at his private joke and grabbed a medrang date from the platter of food he'd thrown together while Leia had escaped to the fresher to get the saltwater out of her hair.

But she was seriously taking too long. She was about to miss the spectacular Taneras moonrise, that moment when the three small satellite moons rose one after the other in the west, turning the dark of the planet's evening sky into a romantic half hour filled with moonlight dancing off the water.

"You didn't fall INTO the fresher, did you?" he called out.

In the fresher, Leia gave herself a critical look-over in the mirror. "You are an impatient man," she called back, pinning up just enough of her loosely-curled locks to keep her hair out of her face.

"The moons are about to rise," Han warned. "You're gonna miss it."

She intended that they would both miss it. The hour of alternately roughhousing, floating lazily in Han's arms, and engaging in deep, languid kisses had sent her libido into overdrive. She had planned to wear a very feminine, very pale pink shimmersilk and chiffon peignoir on their first night on-planet, because it struck her as the kind of wedding night lingerie she would have worn a few nights ago had she actually had that option. But that hour in the water had utterly changed her plans, sending her sneaking off to the fresher with a deep scarlet number that was one of several more risqué pieces she'd picked, even though she was unsure that she'd actually wear them.

Yet here I am three hours later wearing it…she looked at her reflection in the mirror, making sure that she looked sexy, not ridiculous, in the corset that ended in a lacy balconette bra with half cups that, she laughed to herself, were absurdly pointless when it came to doing anything that bras were actually supposed to do, like cover her nipples or provide any support. Clearly this bra has an altogether different kind of function…

"Leia…" Han sighed from the bedroom. "Wrap yourself in a towel and get out here. I'm hungry."

He was so enjoying his whining that he didn't hear Leia open the door to the fresher and lean against the bedroom door frame. "So you're hungry, are you, flyboy?" she said in a husky voice. "Maybe I can help you with that…"

Han looked up to see Leia lounging in the doorway, a seductive smile on her face, and…holy kriff. All the blood rushed from Han's face to his nether regions as he stared, dumbstruck, at the vision in a crimson bustier, lace panties, and stiletto heels in the doorway.

"Maybe I'm not as hungry – for food – as I thought," Han replied. "Maybe I'm hungry for something else."

She ambled across the room, thinking to herself that it was a good thing it was a short walk from door to bed, because she wasn't entirely sure she could keep her balance in these stilettos for very long, and climbed onto her husband's lap, straddling him and feeling his arousal grow beneath her as she reached for one of the sugar figs on the platter next to him, taking a bite of it before rubbing it against Han's lip.

"So you were hurrying me when I was getting ready, and you weren't actually hungry?" she asked.

"A mistake I'll never make again. This is definitely worth waiting for." He opened his mouth for the fig, but Leia popped it into her own mouth instead.

"That'll teach you to be nice," she parried, grinding her hips against him and feeling him inhale sharply in response.

"How often do I have to tell you I'm nice men?" he replied, as his hands found their way to the laces in front of her corset and started to loosen them.

"I hate to tell you this," she said, locking her hands in his tousled hair and tilting his face up to hers, luxuriating in the feeling of his warm breath on her neck. "The laces are just for show – the clasps in the back are what you're looking for."

As aroused as he was, he couldn't help but laugh. "Leave it to you to find red-hot lingerie that plays hard to get."

"Who's playing?" She looked at him innocently, but soon laughed at the incredulous look on his face. "Maybe I was hard to get. I'm not so hard to get anymore, am I?" She turned around, giving him greater access to the back of the corset, and ground her hips into his again, this time provoking a deep groan from him as she grasped his thighs.

He made short work of the clasps, and soon enough every stitch of their clothing was scattered on the floor – except the heels.

"Leave them on," Han ordered as Leia looked up at him in surprise.

"Kink," she murmured as he tossed her hair over one shoulder and started kissing the other.

"I'm not the one who walked in in stilettos," he whispered.

"I'd hope not, given the size of your feet," she replied, shivering with delicious anticipation as the hair on his chest tickled her back, as his hands made their way down to toy with her, hinting of intense pleasure to come.

"You know what they say about men with big feet," Han parried, just as a shaft of gentle light gleamed through the glass roof of the pod, catching them in its beam.

Leia turned toward her husband. "Guess we're missing the moonrise."

"It can wait until tomorrow."

"It's going to have to. Because something else has already risen," she grinned, "and I find that something much more intriguing."

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Leia ran her fingers through the hair on Han's chest as they lay, face-to-face, under the light of the three moons beaming down on them through the clear roof of their podhouse. He sighed contentedly at her touch, figuring that he probably looked just as dreamy and sated as she did.

"Did I surprise you with that?" Leia asked, nodding her head in the direction of the corset, which had found its way to one of the bedposts.

"That you chose to wear this? A little," Han admitted. "That you have an incredibly intense passionate side? No, not at all. I've been pretty confident about that for years. But the way I figured it, you found that lingerie intimidating, and since you refuse to be intimidated by anything for very long, you accepted your own challenge and went with your sexiest nightie."

"You were doing a lot of thinking for someone whose blood had places to be other than his brain."

Han laughed. "Ok, I mostly came up with that on the fly right now. But I did wonder if Zelis said anything to get you into that."

Leia thought for a moment. "We talked a little about the Alderaanian woman – Corellian man combination…."

Now THAT is something I'm going to need to hear about…Han thought.

"But she didn't say anything I wasn't already thinking about on my own…because to be honest, I almost thought I was going to knock you over and demand to have my way with you on the beach tonight, that's how badly I wanted you."

"I wouldn't have objected."

"Maybe tomorrow," she grinned, teasing him. "Wasn't sure I wanted to get sand in my vagina tonight." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she started laughing, because she knew Han wasn't going to be able to resist—

"I've seen you with sand in your vagina lotsa times."

"I walked right into that. Lobbed an easy pitch right at the ringer," she sighed, cuddling up to him as he rolled over onto his side. "Enjoy it while you can, because eventually I'll get enough sleep to start winning all our verbal contretemps again."

She nuzzled into the warmth of his body, feeling her eyelids getting heavy with sleep. "I love you."

"I know. I love you back."

"I know."