He took a step back and his eyes went wide. Rey let go of his clothing, about to take a risk she might regret, even though it felt like the right thing to do.

'Actions matter, not words, and you've shown that I can't trust you. You lied to me.'

A shadow crossed his face. 'For good reason. I won't do it again if you say you'll stay.'

'You tortured my friend. Why should I forgive you?'

'I've already given orders that the Resistance will be left alone as long as they obey the law, that's all I ask. And I'll be changing my interrogation methods as well. I didn't enjoy being tortured much.'

She folded her arms, pushed to see how far he'd go. 'I won't stand by and let you terrify everyone into submission. I'll fight you if I have to. I want fairness, and justice for all, and peace and I want democracy.'

He shrugged. 'I'll consider it, if you stay.'

'You'll need to do more than consider it.'

'If you walk away from me again I can't say what I'll do. Or what I'll become.'

'Was that supposed to be a threat? Kylo.' The last word was an accusation.

His face darkened. 'The way I feel about you isn't enough, is it? You don't love me enough to stay without political reform. You probably don't love me enough to stay without threats either.'

She tilted her head, questioning. 'That might be what you heard, but it wasn't what I said.'

His expression softened slightly. 'Sit on the throne, rule the galaxy. You already rule me.'

She swallowed, because he was offering her everything she'd ever wanted, which wasn't a throne or power, but the chance to make a difference, a place to belong and love. Most of all love.

Still unsure, she spread her hands. 'Loving me doesn't change who you are, or how you've lived your life. You betray everyone who loves you. How can I trust you again? Where do I start?'

He shrugged, but it was a stiff and uncomfortable gesture and she had the sense he was forcing the words. 'You can read my mind like Snoke used to. Check that I'm telling the truth.'

She started shaking her head before he'd finished the sentence, conscious of the desperation revealed by that offer. He was no longer the man with the mask who'd dedicated his time to threatening her, he was vulnerable, as close to begging as she'd ever seen him, but the thought that he was equating her with Snoke horrified her. His relationship with his former master was no laughing matter. He wasn't perfect, and his past would always come between them if she let it, but if she wanted to have any involvement in his future she was going to have to stop holding on, let the past die, as he'd once suggested. 'That's not what I want.'

'Then I don't know what you want. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.'

'Don't tell me,' she said, deciding. 'Show me. Show me you love me today, and tomorrow and every other day until the day you die. Talk to me. Trust me. Show me I'm not alone.'

He cocked his head to one side, considering, but his eyes were shining. 'And will you do the same?'

'I will.'

'There's no going back. This is forever. You won't be part of the Resistance any more, you'll be on my side. And I'll be on yours. No Jedi, no Sith, something new, something we create for ourselves. A new order.'

She took a deep breath, aware of everything she was leaving behind – it would be far more of a challenge to use the power she had been given in the right way, than perch on the moral high ground and criticise from afar. 'Good.' She smiled. 'I'm not sure I like your mother.'

'Then I offer you my hand.' This time she heard the formality behind the words, the sense that he was giving her not just his outstretched fingers, but the rest of him as well, with all its faults and flaws, and all its wonder.

She reached out and took it, despite the risk, because he'd asked twice and twice was enough. 'I accept it. And I offer you mine in return.' She let him draw her in and stretching up, she slid her palm over his cheek, watching his eyelids flutter as he registered the rapture of that touch.

'It hurts when you're not here,' he said, a small smile touching the mouth closing the distance towards hers.

'I can't breathe without you,' she answered, because this was what she needed to survive, this man, this life.

Then he was kissing her and she stood there and kissed him back until she felt his control beginning to fray and she could start removing his clothes.

The heavy tunic came off without a hitch, and she wondered if she could get him to wear something that wasn't black, and maybe a little less formal when they were alone if she issued a royal decree. She broke contact with his mouth to touch her lips to his chest instead, getting distracted by how much of it there was that needed kissing and how absolutely all of it belonged to her.

He glanced down indulgently at the dark head ranging over his skin, took the opportunity to strip off the top half of her cheap layered garments, flinging the breast band away in disgust and considering whether he could slip some cleaner, whiter clothes on her without her noticing as soon as he got her back to the ship. His hands covered the small mounds of her breasts easily and she stopped tonguing his chest long enough to look down at herself; he could tell that she liked the sight by the sudden hardness under his palms, the sparkle in her eyes, the wetness of her lower lip.

'Massive hands,' she commented approvingly, feeling the warmth growing between her legs in anticipation. He was going to use those hands on her again, fill up the empty places inside her with his body and his love, over and over again until she started really believing she wasn't alone.

He gave her a smile, concentrating on freeing her from the rest of her clothes, pushed her backwards so that she bounced onto the bed, coming to rest with her legs open and her eyes burning. There was something about having her fully naked while he was still dressed that appealed to him, he decided, idly wondering whether to fuck her with his fingers first, or his tongue. It was some kind of power exchange, where she had no clothes and was under his control while he retained his dignity and his authority. He knelt on the floor, pulling her hips forward and placing kisses in carefully thought out positions from the soles of her feet upwards.

She propped herself up on one arm and watched him. There was one thing about the black uniform that she did like, she mused, and that was him wearing it while he was on his knees licking her clitoris, or when he was sitting on his throne and climaxing in her mouth. It was some kind of power exchange, where she was in charge, and could watch as the leader of the galaxy used his tongue for her pleasure, and lost control of himself if she so much as breathed too near his crotch.

His hands spread her thighs and he savoured that first taste, familiar but still unexpected, all musky salt and secret heat and he slid a finger inside her at the same time, revelling in the way she trembled as she felt it and the way she shifted her legs wider. She liked this, her hips arching up into his touch, and he liked the fact that she liked it, he wanted her to tell him what else she liked so that he could make all her fantasies come true. He paused with two fingers caught in her internal vice, noting how she'd closed her eyes and wound her hands into the sheets for support, as he tried to imagine what else she might dream about, and whether the contents of his refurbished exercise room might satisfy those desires.

Luckily, he had a free hand to reach down and release the fastening on his trousers to provide some much needed relief as the thought of the things he might do to her in that room powered through his imagination. She groaned, and he increased the pace of his tongue, inserted another finger at the silent request of her bucking hips. Despite how she'd boasted about having done this more times than him he was willing to bet that her experience wasn't extensive for the simple reason that nothing else was going to fit inside her, no matter how much she begged. If she wanted to act out that particular fantasy she was going to need…training. He swallowed hard, her taste in this throat. She might let him train her, in that room, with that equipment, if he asked nicely. Or maybe she might want to train him.

There was going to be a lot of sex in his future, which was a challenge he was more than happy to accept, but if it went on for long enough and happened as many times as he was expecting, it would lead to an obvious conclusion. The contraception he had taken wasn't going to last forever, and then he would have to have another awkward conversation with Rey about it. Unless he didn't. Unless it became apparent at some point in the future that neither of them wanted to use birth control any more. Unless they decided to become a family, and then he would have more than just Rey to love, and to be loved by.

He'd stopped. She was right on the edge of an orgasm when she became aware that he'd stopped and came crashing down into reality again. His head was still between her legs but there was a stunned expression on his face as if someone had hit him and when she threaded her fingers through his hair and tugged him up the bed it swiftly became apparent that he'd stopped concentrating on her and was thinking about something else entirely. Clearly, he was going to need to learn to focus.

She flipped him onto his back and he didn't protest as she slid off the already open trousers and then bent her head to his jutting erection. She worked her way down his shaft with careful swirls of her tongue, but he barely seemed to notice. Whatever he was thinking about must be having quite an effect, although it didn't look like he was planning on telling her what it was. She would have to train him to be a lot more honest in future, if she was going to trust him properly, and not just in bed. There was no room for lies or secrets between them. He slid between her lips, his taste strong in her mouth and she swallowed down the prelude to his climax, deciding that he really didn't need any more in the way of foreplay.

Kneeling up, she took a firm, guiding grasp and sank down on top of him, taking him deep while his eyes flickered open and his hands raised to grip her hips, holding her down as he thrust upwards. The sensation ripped through her, dancing lightning along her spine, arching her back. This was pleasure, and desire, and want and hope and need all balled up together and as she stretched around him she felt it in the core of her being - love, strong and sure, binding her to him more powerfully than any link created by the Force. He was going to learn how much she loved him, and through that, he would learn to love himself. He had a lot of training still to do.

She was magnificent, he thought, riding his cock with her eyes dark and her breath panting through her open mouth, her breasts bouncing with the effort, her clitoris a tight ball beneath his rubbing thumb, her cunt locked tight around him as he pushed into it hard. This was love, and it was no wonder his old master had tried to keep him away from it for so long, the power of it was transformative. He could tell already that he'd do anything to make sure she felt like this about him forever, that this same feeling between them, this bond endured. He wasn't going to last much longer though, and he wanted to feel her climax through her kiss, so he lifted her off him, rolled her onto her back and drove himself between her legs without missing a stroke.

She wrapped herself around him, her arms across his back, legs clinging to his hips as her body and her mouth opened to welcome him in. This was the new order he'd wanted, dreamed of, he thought, racing towards climax with her soft flesh yielding beneath him, urging him on. This place where love and sex collided, where his past died and was forgotten and his future was born.

Rey jammed her tongue into his mouth roughly, and her body began to shake in his arms as she thrashed into orgasm and he rammed home a few final thrusts and spilled himself into her with a single thought: this is who I'm meant to be.

I think this is my last story so thanks to every one who has been reading, I appreciate it. If you would like to read more of my writing my two romance novels The Car Crash Bride and The Postman's Daughter by Sally Anne Palmer are available now in print and ebook on Amazon, Smashwords and other online bookshops.