Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep - Being revamped!

Chapter 13: I am Anakin

Vader held her in his arms, his hand tracing slow circles on her shoulder. “Why do you always call me ‘milord’?” His voice sounded lazy and sleepy.

She snuggled deeper into his embrace. “To everyone else you are Lord Vader,” she murmured. “But it does not sit well on my tongue, and so I call you milord.”

“You are being silly, you know.” There was no ire in his tone. He sighed and curved his long body around hers.

“I don’t think it would sound quite right to scream out ‘Lord Vader’ in the heat of passion,” she teased.

He opened one sleepy blue eye to peer at her. “Perhaps you’re right,” he said dryly. “I don’t think my Master took that into account when he gave me my new name.”

Samri studied him, his eyes now both closed. “The Emperor named you?”

Opening his eyes, he snorted with laughter. “You really did live in the Outer Rim, didn’t you?”

She stiffened in his arms. “And what’s wrong with the Outer Rim?” Ree sniffed, offended at his tone.

Murmuring softly, he kissed her ear. “Don’t get your feathers ruffled, my pretty little bird,” he told her. “I’m from the Rim myself you know.” She relaxed against him, suddenly feeling very sleepy.

Tracing idle patterns on his muscular chest, she murmured a sound of acknowledgement.

“Did you get no word of the Clone Wars on your little planet?” He asked, his hand rubbing up and down her arm. It gave her a warm fuzzy feeling of contentment – peace.

Ree shrugged. “Perhaps, but I was a young girl and what use did I have for news unless it was happening there in my village?”

A chagrined look fell over his face and he gave a disgruntled snort of amusement. “Well I suppose that answers that question!”

Rousing herself from her drowsy contemplation of his nipple, she looked up at him in surprise. “What question?”

Laughing at himself more than her, he shook his head. “Whether you knew who I used to be, before…” His voice trailed off and he sighed.

“Before you aligned yourself with the Emperor?”

He swallowed hard. “Before I let him claim my soul,” he said quietly.

She cradled his face in her hands. “Your soul is always yours – to reclaim or to leave in his possession,” she said softly.

“I do not have the strength by myself,” he confessed, his lips tightening.

“You are not alone,” she reminded him. “Never alone unless you choose to be.”

He bent down and kissed her hard, his hand clenching at her shoulder. “I do not like to hear ‘milord’ when I am with you,” he rasped. ‘I want to hear my name; I want to hear you scream it as I thrust myself inside of you, when I my mouth closes over your breast and makes you tremble.”

Ree shuddered at the blatant sensuality of his words. He rolled so that she was tucked beneath him. She felt the hardness of him pressed against her thigh.

His lips came to her ear. “I want to hear you call me by my name – the name I can no longer acknowledge, except when I am here with you. I am Anakin,” he whispered. “Call me Anakin when I make love to you, please….”

Reaching out, she embraced him tightly and then her hand slipped down between them to grasp his already hard cock. She led him eagerly to claim her once more, guiding him into the warm haven waiting for him.

As he slid inside her, she leaned up and murmured in his ear, “Love me, Anakin…”

His name reverberated in the air around him, pierced into him, and the ice around his heart began to crack.


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Vader – Anakin – was sprawled in the chair before the fire, asleep. Ree smiled and padded over softly with a blanket. As she placed it tenderly over him, his eyes opened and he gave her a sleepy smile, holding out his hand in invitation.

After she settled herself in his lap, she rested her head against his broad, bare chest. She was content to merely sit there, hearing his heartbeat beneath her ear, feel the warmth of his skin where it touched her. She reached for his hand and entwined their fingers – the black of his glove a startling contrast to her ivory flesh.

Without conscious thought, she stroked the back of his gloved hand with her fingers. She felt warm and drowsy and far removed from all of the problems of the galaxy. When he spoke it was almost startling, so comfortable was their shared silence.

”Ree,” her name was softly whispered above her.

“Yes,” she murmured, feeling somewhat drowsy.

His fingers lifted her chin, his other hand still clasping hers, resting on her belly.

His eyes were troubled when he let his gaze meet hers. “I’m going back to the capital soon,” he said. “I want you to stay here on Vjun.”

Ree stared at him. “Why?”

He lowered his lashes. “It will be safer that way.”

“Safer for whom? For me? You?”

He placed a tender kiss at her temple. “Both…”

Ree studied him carefully, noting the determined set of his jaw, the sense of purpose in his eyes. She struggled with the idea of revealing what she suspected, and then decided that he would sense any deception on her part.

“I will be safer with you,” she said. “And if all is lost, then Vjun is no safer than the Palace itself.”

His eyes widened. “You know?”

“I suspected, no more,” she replied.

“Let us hope my Master is not as astute as you,” he murmured. “Or we will both be dead.”

She accepted his praise and his warning with equanimity. “I would rather be near you, milord, no matter what the outcome of this plan. It is where I’ll be safest.”

“But if I fail…” he did not finish the thought.

“Then I am damned anyway,” she reminded him. “I have thrown in my lot with yours and if you lose everything in this gamble then so shall I.” Ree hesitated, her shoulders slumping. “But I ask one thing of you.”

Smiling tenderly, he rested his forehead on hers. “What is that?”

She took a deep breath and spoke. “If you fail, do not let me fall into the Emperor’s hands.”

He started, his eyes jerking toward hers. “What do you mean?”

Shuddering, she buried her face in his chest. “He is beyond cruel, milord. I do not know what he would do to me if you fail,” her eyes filled with tears. “But I know I would rather be dead than to be at his mercy.”

He swallowed hard, searching her eyes for something. He must have been satisfied, for her gave one swift nod. “But how?” His voice was husky with repressed emotion.

“The Noghri…” she whispered. “They are loyal; they will obey you beyond death.”

“Order them to…” he could not say the words.

She caught his face in her hands. “If you harbor any tenderness at all for me, you will order them to do so.”

Anakin’s mouth descended to hers – cutting off the words, the ideas of failure and death. When he pulled away, his expression was resigned.

“I promise you that if I fail, you will not be given over to Palpatine,” he murmured.

In her heart, she knew he would succeed. She could not bear to contemplate any other outcome. But if – when – he did, what would become of her?

That was the question that echoed in her mind as Anakin pushed open her robe. His head lowered and he suckled gently, first at one nipple and then the other. She arched into his touch, the movement causing his erection to rub enticingly against her bottom. His hands went to her hips, grinding her down on his hardness.

A low rumble in his chest and the twitching flesh beneath her told her how deeply he was affected by the heat that blazed between them. He smiled up at her, pushing the robe off her shoulders. She shivered as the cool shimmersilk glided down her back to pool over her his legs.

One hand teased her nipple while the other freed his erection. Ree hovered over his hardness, lowering herself on to it at a tortuously slow pace that he allowed, though he began to pant with the effort of holding still and sweat broke out on his forehead. His strong white teeth bit at his lower lip as she slowly impaled herself on him.

His hands flew to her hips, but remained quiet there, shaking as she took control. “By the gods, Ree,” he bit out. “You’re killing me…”

She laughed softly, the husky sound making him swell inside of her. At last, he was completely buried within her and he groaned loudly, his hands still twitching at her hips.

Resting her hands on his shoulders, she set a leisurely pace that had him trembling. He arched up into her, awkwardly because of the angle, his hands finally clutching at her hips, quickening the pace.

Anakin grunted heavily each time he thrust up into her body, his eyes closed and the tendons in his neck working furiously.

Ree leaned down and kissed him, feeling his mouth soften beneath hers. His tongue reached out almost shyly, which seemed odd given that he was thrusting madly into her, but the kiss was sweet.

With a shudder, he arched up hard one last time, his hands slamming her down on his erection. She felt him explode inside of her, and the sensation triggered her own climax. As the waves faded, she slumped against him, their breath heavy in the quiet chamber.

“Anakin…” she murmured against his slick chest. His arms tightened around her but he did not speak.