Wicked Game

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Later, much later, there was the sensation of being lifted and moved further up onto the soft bed by strong arms and gentle hands; of being divested of my crumpled nightgown, of being settled back into the plush linens while soothing caresses and whispered words I did not understand lulled me into an abnormal calm.

The rapid drumbeat of my heart and my shallow breathing began to steady as I kept my eyes shut in an effort to regain my equilibrium. Trying to assimilate all that had transpired since Anakin had ridden into my room on the back of the storm was a dizzying task. Pushed and prodded, dragged and cajoled, led and lured until I no longer knew what I wanted or what was right. He had a way about him I had never encountered in another person before, a strength of will that surpassed even my own – especially when he was after something he wanted badly enough.

I was stunned by what Anakin had done; stunned at my response to something I never in my life imagined. The undeniable pleasure my body had taken frightened and confused me. I was not use to letting the desires of the flesh rule my head and that unnatural state of affairs was leaving me grasping for any kind of reality I could wrap my mind around.

“Lea’l nu mi’lé.” Anakin crooned against my breasts, the ends of his spiky blonde hair brushing softly against my hypersensitive flesh. “Ke’ah tu, shay nil tol’el.”

A hereto forgotten memory working its way to the surface brought my eyes flying open. Quiet, lilting words filtered through my mind. Strange words from a time long past. A careworn woman with brown hair twisted into an odd side bun, dressed in the drab clothing of a slave, speaking to a tow headed boy in the shadows of a room which, while clean and orderly, had seen better days once upon a time.

I do not know where the memory came from for I had never recalled it before. My time on Tatooine had been brief and stressful, fraught with worry, fear, and anger at what was happening on my home world. And then there had been the annoyance at a Jedi Master who did not treat me as a queen because out of necessity I had chosen to hide my identity. As a lowly handmaiden my input had been ignored and I had been made to feel useless and, even worse, helpless. The horrific events that followed our escape from the desert world had only served to bury the memory deeper.

Now the layers of time peeled away and in my mind’s eye I once more stood on the far side of the hovel half listening to the foreign words spoken between mother and son. I doubted the words he was murmuring as he kissed his way from my now tender breasts down the slope of my abdomen were as innocent as those clearly had been.

“Tey nu fera ki na.” Each word was interspaced with succulent kisses and whispered in a tone of voice that made me quiver within. “Padmé, shay tee’na kai lee.”

Long fingers stroked my flesh, skimming my sides and gliding over the swell of my hips. The delicate caresses and the criminal way Anakin was using his tongue to circle and dip in and out of my navel was a sensual combination that worked its magic on me all too well. Every touch sent my pulse skittering and robbed me of life sustaining breath. Each place where his flesh contacted with mine opened new worlds of sensation, destroying the one dimensional view of the universe I had previously held. New vistas were opening to me and I worried that I would never want those feelings to stop.

“Anakin!”

The sudden needy cry wrung from me turned into one of scandalized protest. Anakin’s mouth had moved lower, kissing the soft hollow where thigh met pelvis and then, shockingly, he pressed his lips to my most intimate part.

I tried to sit up but a hard hand pressed itself against my abdomen, splaying flat to keep me on my back. Likewise his other hand tightened its restraining hold on one bent leg, his fingers digging into my thigh. I could only watch in horrified embarrassment as he drew back slightly to regard me with a puzzled look. I knew what he was thinking before he even said anything. The experienced woman he thought me to be was surely well versed in this particular act.

His tone was smug when he found his voice. “You must’ve had very uninteresting . . . experiences before.” He rubbed his stubble roughened cheek against the soft skin of my inner thigh while holding me mesmerized with his smoky gaze. “I can change that – make you feel things you’ve never felt. Just relax, ti nu ele’.”

Our eyes dueled - mine filled with panicked uncertainty and his filled with a ferocious determination that told me he was intent on expunging the memory of all those phantom lovers he insisted on tormenting himself with. The memory of his unflattering assessment of my private life came trickling back into my awareness and his hold on me began to unravel.

Gods, this should not be. Anakin should not be in my bed. I should not be allowing these unprecedented liberties. But such realizations were for naught. As with all my reactions that night, it was too little, too late. In the next few seconds my renewed concerns were torn asunder when Anakin bent his head and his hot breath tickled along my exposed flesh. A frenzy of nips and kisses followed and I squirmed against the bedclothes. A craving was welling up inside of me but it proved maddeningly elusive; like something beautiful dangling just out of my increasingly desperate reach. When his tongue finally found me again I almost sobbed with relief. Then all thoughts fractured into a million different pieces and I was carried to a world of incredible heights where words did not matter.

Long, slow licks were followed by a hot mouth sucking, teeth scraping and tongue flicking away at the hard nub. Anakin was savoring me like he would his favorite desert. Embarrassment and self-consciousness receded as years of propriety and decorum fell to the superior power of desire.

Strong arms hooked themselves around my legs and pulled me even closer to his ravaging mouth. Curling tendrils stuck to my damp cheek and brow as I rocked my head back and forth. My world was crumbling and all I could do was moan and whimper, sometimes in Basic but more and more I lapsed into my native tongue.

Anakin’s own disjointed phrases still made their way to my ears. Sometimes they were muffled yet more often than not they would also reverberate in my head as clear as day.

//Sha’tay ti meté . . . mor nu fen’l kah//

He was forcing me to the edge of the unknown and I thrashed against the weight of his determined hand holding me down. The mounting pressure building inside was overwhelming every part of me. Too-fast breathing, shallow and harsh, forced its way past my clenched jaw, my nostrils flaring. Any miniscule thoughts of resistance had long since folded under the powerful tides of pleasure he was creating.

The panting of his name thrummed a beat in time with the invasion of his tongue. My hands groped at the sheets, clawing at the fabric, fisting the material in a white knuckled grip. I had to find purchase to keep myself from flying from my body; from losing myself entirely.

A fountain of inarticulate noises bubbled up from my throat as the dam within broke wide open. My head craned back against the mattress. Every muscle in my body tensed so sharply I could not help but cry out. Heavy pulses of sweet release swept over me, crashing through my mind and body like a fierce and destructive tidal wave. His name was on my lips as I careened back into a body drained and heavy with sensual lassitude.

Between my parted legs, Anakin continued to lap at the wet heat dampening the juncture of my thighs. The grunts and liquid sounds crawled in my head and made me want to be hurled over the edge again and again.

I collapsed back against the bed, the damp linens clinging to my glistening body. In a state of euphoria, breathless and dazed, I stared at the painted glow of the Naboo sunrise beaming down at me from the plastered ceiling. The artificial sun seemed out of place, a benevolent presence in my chaotic, topsy-turvy world.

I was not sure how much more I could take. This process of being torn apart, of having everything I thought I knew ripped from my desperate grasp and shredded before my very eyes was exhausting . . . and, gods help me, disturbingly exciting. Anakin was taking me to places I never dreamed existed. It was heady and intoxicating like bubbles in champagne but always in the back of my ever rational mind was the knowledge that this could not last past this one night. What I had said earlier that evening was still true. To live a lie would destroy us both.

A thousand such thoughts raced through my whirling mind. Perhaps Anakin sensed them with his uncanny powers or perhaps it was just instinct but I was not allowed to dwell further on such negative practicalities. With a last intimate kiss, he slowly began to retrace the route he had taken earlier, dragging his lips over my skin, using his skillful mouth to partake of every centimeter he could as he moved up my flushed body.

Then the warmth disappeared as Anakin suddenly rose to his knees to tower over me once more. His fierce gaze was intense, the lines of his face stark with lust and the desire to possess as he loosened the drawstring of his pants. The slow, calculated movements, the way his eyes bore into mine with such raw need, made my stomach flip and roll. I was not sure if it was with excitement or arousal tinged heavily with fear. All I was sure of was being held spellbound by the dark fire in his eyes and the smooth, hard lines of his graceful body glowing golden in the dim light.

He thinks you have done this before, my mind cried in warning. But it was too late. Anakin murmured my name with a hungry growl before lowering himself on top of me. The weight of his body pressed me down into the giving mattress, his mouth greedily fastened over the delicate skin at the hollow of my throat. Twining my fingers through hair coarsened by ten years of missions in harsh climes, I pulled him closer, encouraging him to ravage my neck; asking without words for the feel of his teeth and tongue against my flesh once more.

Anakin’s length was heavy and hard against my thigh. He pressed himself insistently at my entrance, searching for where he most wanted to be. I gasped, arching my body as my legs automatically tightened around the lean hips grinding against mine. Every feeling known to mankind coursed through me like molten fire as the ache to be taken increased with each passing second.

My eyelids sank beneath the barrage of sensations; beneath the compulsive hunger that Anakin’s ministrations were creating within me. Control was gone. Reason was gone. In there place was want and desire and nothing else.

“Padmé, no!”

The command was harsh and compelling and my eyes flew open to find Anakin staring down at me with a tightly drawn mouth and hard eyes. “Don’t close your eyes. I want you to know exactly who's inside you – that it’s me giving you this pleasure and no one else.”

The pain and jealousy behind the words gripped my heart, its devilish fingers tightening around the beating organ like a noose around my neck. I tried to tell him then but he was too far gone to listen. Any chance to disabuse him of his error was lost.

Besides, he would not have believed me anyway, I thought with a kind of bitter regret, and then all conscious thought ceased as the look in his eyes pulled me into a new realm of spiraling desire, dragging me down without pity or remorse.