Just a Kiss Challenge: Submission #2 by Push

Okay, here's my attempt to get them pretty hot and heavy but not end up bumping uglies.  Enjoy.  :-)

Bespin

Their gaze cut across the room and although they had not been a couple for a long time, each instinctively knew what the other was thinking:  We're safe...and we're alone.

Han took a deep breath and considered the petite woman in front of him.  They had settled a great deal during their trip to Bespin.  He knew there was much more to be worked out: How would he get her back to the Alliance?, When would he leave for Tatooine?, Would they ever see each other again?  But they had mutually agreed to keep their eyes on the road directly ahead of them.  It was much easier to concentrate on getting off of Bespin first and worrying about all of the rest later.

She watched him studying her and looked at him with an air of patience and earnestness.  Their physical relationship did not flow out of them as easily as their mental or verbal one did.  It had been that he could much more easily throw a jibe at her and she much more adeptly parry with an insult than they could hold hands or otherwise share an intimacy that might reveal any sort of tenderness toward the other.  For their strength had come from hiding their vulnerability.  But that was quickly changing, too.

He walked toward her and she shifted on her feet.  It was a movement that could've been construed as anxious or anticipatory.  Han accepted it as either without judgement.  He had learned not to read too much into her hesitations, they rarely reflected her intentions or wishes.  The closer he got to her the smaller she appeared, he noted, yet that was a contradiction, as well.  She was the strongest person that he knew and the thought of him taking advantage of her was one that no longer plagued him but sat now as a most preposterous notion.  She was not a woman that did not know what she wanted.

Leia raised her chin up to meet his eyes as he came to stand before her.  Even with his towering build, she had never felt scared of him as a man that would physically hurt her.  From their first meeting she had instinctively felt as though she could trust him in that regard.  Her fear of him had developed swiftly after that, but on a vastly different plane.  His nearness caused an involuntary gasp and her lips parted to give it breath.  The way that Han looked at her mouth as it hung slightly open, was the way that she thought love was supposed to look like.  It was not as such that she had seen amongst the faces of some men: a brainless, aimless lust.  Han wore it as a conscious, focused desire that quite literally stole her breath away.

She saw his face dip down to meet hers, she felt his lips brush against her mouth, soft and tentative.  Her eyes shut as she leaned into him, inviting him to explore her more.  He wasted no time in deepening the encounter, his hand wrapping around the back of her neck keeping her steady, his other hand pressing aginst her hip and crawling toward her lower back.  She became quite aware of her body, something that she now knew he was more than capable of helping her do.  She stretched her arms up and around his neck, pulling him toward her and guaranteeing that every inch of her body was now in contact with every centim of his.  Through her upbringing Leia had, on more than one occasion, been treated to some of the most celebrated symphonies and cultural singers of the time.  She had a well-trained and a very critical ear.  There was nothing more beautiful, she then decided, than the sound of Han's pleasured groan.

He felt the slenderness of her body as he pulled her against him.  The raw, burning want that tore through him had him pull away from her and press heavy, open-mouthed kisses along her jawline and down her neck as if he might literally devour her.  He moved her toward the curved lounger, landing draped beside her as she sat strewn across its pillows, her back propped up only slightly.  One hand remained trapped behind her, but his free hand landed on her knee and began to roam upwards, his fingers cupping the inside of her leg.  It was fortunate that she was almost always so fully clothed, he thought, for the thin, sanguine fabric of her outfit was currently the only thing fortifying his restraint at that moment.  He stilled his hand near the apex of her legs and kneaded his fingers into the soft flesh of her inner thigh.  She reacted almost violently as her arms tugged at him greedily and she pulled him into another kiss, pressing her legs together and leaning into him, effectively trapping his hand where it was.  The moist, damp heat of her desire drove him to press his hand further upward and find the source of this wanton reaction.  She curled her hips into his touch and breathed, a soft, whimpering breath into his mouth.  His own reaction was immediate and painful as his desire swelled maddenly and his body ached for relief.

The place that Han had found and the dizzying, slow pressure of his caress was almost more than she could handle.  She squeezed her legs shut more tightly on his hand, whether to still his movements in protest or lock it there in encouragement, she wasn't entirely sure.  In sharp realization of the moment, she only knew that if he continued she might go insane but that if he stopped it might very well drive her crazy, so she was a goner either way.  Dropping her head back against the pillows she allowed him to plant bruising kisses along her face and neck.  She had relaxed her leg muscles and he manipulated his thumb and fingers over the fabric of her clothing in such a way that she felt helpless to make sense of anything.  When he breathed against her ear and pressed himself against her, she ran her hand down the length of his side and up and over his hip to graze the front of his trousers, finding the hardened evidence that was the extent of his desire for her.  He flinched instantly at that first contact, almost as if he had been burned.  Growling, he pulled her toward him as he drew them back onto the sofa until she laid sprawled on top of him, her body pressing intimately where her hand had just been.

Han ran his hands up her back and began to slow down their kisses.  It had never been verbalized, but Han knew that this was where things had to stay between them at that moment.  If he had her now, he might never be able to leave.  It was silly, he knew, for he would've never had gotten her this far if they weren't already so far gone.  But he stood by the conviction, regardless of what little sense it made.  She returned his attentions with an expertness that he knew she had no right to have and for a long while they remained that way, exploring each other's mouths and astutely studying the fine art of kissing.  He enjoyed the look on her face when she would try something new, like when she bit teasingly at his lower lip or ran her tongue along the shell of his ear.  He wondered at the intelligence of tickling her ribs in an attempt to further lighten the mood, when the reaction it got him was her squirming on top of him and against him in the most delightful way.  When she caught his mistake, when her eyes widened playfully and deliciously at the realization of what she was doing to him, he rolled them over so that he was on top of her and kissed her until he was certain she wouldn't even be able to remember her own name.  

There was a definite competitive streak in this man that she was falling in love with, she thought, as he assaulted her (most pleasurably) with his mouth.  It wasn't always a good idea to tease or taunt him, at least that had been her experience prior to discovering this particular past-time with him.  Stirring up his ire with her when the results ended in this kind of kiss, was something that would most easily replace her once constant desire to better him in verbal warfare.  She hummed into a particuarly intoxicating swirl of his tongue against her own and wondered why they had wasted so much time and energy using their mouths merely to speak to one another when this was proving to be such a far better option.  Pulling out of the kiss, he rolled his body away from her until he was wedged between the cushions and her side.  He propped himself up on an elbow and stared down at her.  It was no longer such a mystery as to what he was thinking all of the time.  That fact alone allowed a greater relaxation and intimacy to their time together.  He looked down the length of her body and began to move his hand along the fabric of her outfit.  His touch was light, almost imperceptible, as it seemed that he was drawing them out of their passionate interlude and back into their normal interactions.  She closed her eyes as he brushed a few stray hairs from off of her forehead.  I love you.  She heard the words, not as if she had said them to him but as if they had just said them to each other.  They had not traded those words as of yet.  It was something else they seemed to be holding back on until their future was more concrete, something else to look forward to and to return for.  She realized just how futile it all was, yet she still played along.

Han smiled down at her and waited for her to open her eyes.  When she finally did, he leaned forward and kissed her on the tip of her nose.  His body had simmered back down to his usual state of arousal when he was near her.  It had been a constant battle to control (and sometimes deny) the affect she had on him from nearly the first moment that they had met.  To some men an encounter such as this one might seem excruciating, but to Han it held its place in their relationship.  The fact that she wanted him was enough for now.  It was a comfortable thought, moving forward, not knowing what they had yet to face but knowing that they wanted to be together (even when they wouldn't be).  She raised her hand up and tapped him on his nose, signaling him to snap out of his thoughts.  He grinned at her, grabbing her hand, lacing their fingers together and kissing her knuckles.  There was plenty to look forward to, he thought happily.  The Falcon would be ready soon and they would leave Bespin and the rest would all work itself out until they finally ended up together.  It didn't sound so bad when he thought of it that way...