Chapter Text
-THEN-
The look on Ben’s face when he picked her up the night of the formal was everything Rey hoped it would be.
He stood on her porch dressed in a navy suit that looked a little tight on his broad shoulders. His hair was actually styled with product, but still looked so soft to the touch.
She found she wanted to mess it up.
He was holding a corsage of small sunflowers.
“You look…” His eyes cased her figure again and sighed as though he didn’t have the words.
“You too,” she told him, grinning up at him.
“We have to get pictures!” Leia called from somewhere behind Ben.
And so they did their duty - taking a few photos on Maz’s front porch and in Leia’s garden - which was thankfully lit by twinkling lights since the sun had already gone down.
Ben finally put his foot down and told them they needed to go.
Rey couldn’t wipe the smile from her face. She probably looked maniacal, sitting in the passenger seat grinning at nothing, but Ben didn’t call her out on it.
He cleared his throat and said, “You look beautiful.”
The words set off a flurry of butterflies in her belly and when she glanced at Ben, she saw the pink in his cheeks and on the tips of his ears.
She reached over the console and grabbed hold of his hand, lacing their fingers together.
His hand is so big, she thought, but somehow mine fits inside it perfectly.
Once again, she tried to stop that train of thought, to squash the rush of affection she felt for him. She wasn’t even sure when or how it had happened.
He was so different from any of the other boys she had dated in the past. He was smart, but he still worked hard. He was not overly friendly, but he was kind and genuine. He may not have offered smiles to everyone as easily as she did, but the smirks and grins he saved just for her stole her breath. And his sarcastic humor was different from the outright goofiness she was used to from guys her age.
And he looked at her like she mattered - not like a girl who’d grown up destitute; not like a girl who had been abandoned by her father and came in second to her mother’s shitty boyfriends.
Ben looked at her like she meant something to him and, while he’d tried to explain it to her, she still didn’t quite understand how someone like him - smart, handsome, with a promising future - could care about a girl whose life was a clusterfuck.
At the winter formal, he held her tight as they danced. He had fibbed - or at least downplayed his abilities - because he actually danced rather well, moving with a grace that was surprising for someone of his size.
His lips grazed her temple, her cheek, her jaw, before skimming along her neck.
“Ben…” Her hands moved into his hair and she tilted her head up to meet him as his mouth found hers.
She was forever in awe of how soft his lips were. He kissed the corner of her mouth then gently took her bottom lip between both of his.
Goosebumps broke out along Rey’s skin and heat rushed between her legs when she felt Ben’s tongue slip inside her mouth.
He pulled her closer to him, tilting his head to get a better angle at her mouth and she felt it then, brushing against her belly.
She gasped into his mouth, but before she could figure out how to line up their hips, Ben pulled away.
“Sorry,” he rasped, tugging at his tie.
“Hey!” They both startled and looked to Poe, whose index finger moved between them. “Keep it PG, Reylo.”
Rey wrinkled her nose. “Reylo? What the hell is that? Some kind of weird nickname?”
Poe rolled his eyes. “It’s your couple’s name.”
Ben massaged his temple like he had a headache. “How is that our couple’s name? Shouldn’t it be Ren? Or Bey?”
Poe grimached. “Hell no. Those sound awful. Reylo, it is!”
“How is it Reylo?” Rey asked.
“Rey and Solo .” Poe told her. “Sounds perfect, right?”
“Okay, break time,” Ben muttered, moving his hand to the small of her back and pushing her toward the lobby. “Poe is such an idiot.”
Rey fanned herself when they emerged from the stifling gym, only to be nearly tackled by Kaydel.
“Where have you been? I haven’t seen you all night and damn , I was right about this dress.” Kaydel snapped her attention to Ben and bounced her eyebrows suggestively. “Hot, right?”
Ben narrowed his eyes on his cousin. “If I go take a piss, can I trust you not to touch my girlfriend?”
“No promises.”
Ben leaned over and pressed a kiss to Rey’s cheek. “I’ll be right back.”
“You really do look amazing, Rey,” Kaydel gushed.
“Thanks. You look great too.” Kaydel was dressed in a short, light-blue sequined dress paired with silver strappy heels.
“These shoes are definitely giving my legs a workout,” Kaydel commented.
“Rey!”
Rey’s smile dropped at the sound of her voice. Kaydel peered over Rey’s shoulder and made a face.
After taking a breath, Rey turned around and attempted to give Bazine a carefree smile.
Bazine was smiling too, just a little too wide for Rey’s liking. She looked stunning in a satiny white dress that hugged her lithe figure. Her makeup was flawless and not a hair was out of place. Rey reached up to her own half-updo self-consciously, wondering if all the dancing and sweating had caused something to fall out of place.
“I love your dress. Great color on you,” Bazine said as her eyes swept up and down Rey’s form. “Definitely something I would’ve chosen for myself.”
The gaggle of girls that followed her everywhere snickered behind their hands.
Rey was clearly not in on the joke.
Frowning, she smoothed a hand down her dress, wondering if she’d spilled something on it.
“Thanks,” she muttered, hoping Bazine would just go away.
“Then again,” Bazine said, stepping closer to Rey, her manicured nails reaching out to adjust the strap of the dress, “I did choose it for myself. Last spring.”
One of Bazine’s companions snorted.
Rey rolled her eyes and jerked away from Bazine’s hand. “Okay? Sometimes two people buy similar dresses.” She was trying to keep the frustration out of her voice. “What does it matter?”
Bazine tilted her head and squinted her eyes at Rey, as though she found her adorably delusional. “It’s true. Girls can buy the same kinds of dresses and there’s nothing exceptional about that,” Bazine waved the thought away. “However, the dress didn’t originally have those little rhinestones sewn onto the edge of the slit. My mother added those.” Bazine grinned even wider. “But she knew that once I’d worn it, I wouldn’t wear it again, so she donated it to the thrift store on Main Street. Lucky find for you, really.” Bazine gave her a pitying smile. “I doubt you could afford it otherwise.”
Rey’s cheeks heated with embarrassment and she didn’t even know why. She had never been ashamed to shop at thrift stores before. She didn’t understand why it suddenly mattered just because Bazine had pointed it out.
Bazine tilted her head as she studied the dress. “I wore it to prom last year.” Her eyes snapped back to Rey’s and her smile turned downright nasty. “Ben loved it.”
Rey felt sick as she stood there, not knowing what to say, unsure if there was anything she could’ve done to have kept herself from the humiliation she now felt.
“Fuck off, Baz,” Kaydel hissed. “Go be a miserable bitch somewhere else.”
Bazine barely glanced at Kaydel. “I’ll leave you to it then,” she said finally. She turned to go, but stopped and looked back over her shoulder at Rey. “You sure seem fond of my hand-me-downs.”
Rey’s hands curled into fists and she clenched her jaw when she felt the growing lump in her throat and the burning in her eyes.
“Why didn’t I say anything?” She asked quietly to no one, even though Kaydel was still at her side. “Why couldn’t I just open my mouth and tell her to go fuck herself?”
Kaydel reached out haltingly and patted Rey’s shoulder. “Because you’re a good person? Because it might have made it worse?”
“Maybe because I’m a damn coward.”
“Rey, no-”
“I’ve got to go,” she said, the sick feeling growing as she thought about facing Ben. “I have to get out of here.”
Kaydel’s dark eyes widened and she looked around. “I’m sure Ben will be back soon.”
Rey shook her head. “No. I can’t…I don’t want him to see me cry over…” A sob broke free and she covered her mouth, her head shaking as her eyes darted around the lobby. “I’ve gotta go.”
She rushed away from Kaydel, pushed her way through the doors of the gym, and took off walking.
The high school wasn’t too terribly far from her house, but it was freezing outside. She wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered her way across the school campus. She nearly tripped several times, her shoes not meant for walking over the uneven ground. She debated taking them off, but knew it would only make her colder.
She hadn’t thought this through, clearly. She wasn’t dressed for thirty degree weather and wasn’t wearing the proper shoes to run home. She couldn’t even call Maz because her phone was in Ben’s pocket.
“Fuck,” she hissed, dropping down onto a curb not two blocks from the school.
She dropped her face into her hands and resisted the urge to scream.
God, she was so mad . Why did she have to feel embarrassed? Why did it matter that she was wearing Bazine’s old dress? Why hadn’t she stood up to her?
Ben had loved how she looked in this dress. He hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off her and hadn’t that made it worth it?
But then a more disturbing thought crept in.
What if he liked it on her because he had recognized it as Bazine’s dress? When he looked at Rey, was he remembering how Bazine had worn it? Was Rey just a stand-in for Bazine - who was more refined and elegant and classy than Rey could ever dream of being?
When she finally lifted her head so she could come up with a plan, she was nearly blinded by the headlights of a vehicle that was pulling up near the curb she was sitting on. The driver threw the truck in park and hopped out.
“Rey?”
She groaned and buried her face in her hands once again.
“Baby, are you okay? Kaydel said you weren’t feeling well…” he dropped down beside her and pulled her into his big, warm body. His lips pressed into her hair.
“All you had to do was tell me and I would’ve left with you.”
“I didn’t want to see you,” she admitted, her words muffled in the palms of her hands.
He must have understood though because he stiffened and removed his arm.
“Did I- have I done something to upset you?”
He tried to cover up the hurt in his words, but Rey heard it and guilt gnawed at her.
“You didn’t do anything. I just -” She paused when the wind blew, a shiver moving through her frame.
“Look, just get in the truck, okay? If you’re mad, I’ll take you straight home, but there’s no point sitting out here and freezing.”
Rey nodded and stood up. Ben’s hand automatically moved to her back, likely out of habit, before dropping away.
She hated that. Hated that she’d given him a reason to doubt the things he did, the way he touched her. He didn’t deserve to second-guess himself because of her insecurities.
He opened the passenger door and helped her in, then cranked up the heater when he got behind the wheel.
“Home?” He asked her.
She just nodded, rubbing at the chilled skin of her arms.
Ben cursed quietly and then wrestled his jacket off and passed it to her.
“I’m fine, Ben.”
“Just put it on. Please.”
She slipped her arms into the sleeves and basked in the warmth of his lingering body heat. The stupid thing smelled like him too.
He drove them home and pulled his truck into her driveway instead of his own. At her questioning look, Ben explained, “Didn’t want you to have to walk any further in those shoes.” A beat, then, “Do you want me to walk you to your door?”
Rey shook her head as she began pulling the jacket off.
“Just keep it. Your phone is in the left pocket.”
Rey nodded and opened the door, slipping to the ground without another word. She didn’t look back as she climbed the porch steps and found the hidden key under the welcome mat. She let herself in and was thankful to find that Maz had fallen asleep in front of the television.
Once she made it to her room, she collapsed on her bed. Her tears felt hot on her cool skin. They pooled beneath her eyes and ran down the sides of her face, soaking her comforter and she didn’t even know why .
She didn’t know if she was crying because of the hateful things Bazine had said or because of the way she’d treated Ben. Maybe she was just tired of never being good enough, no matter how hard she tried - somehow, she always managed to fall short of being worthy.
She had loved this stupid dress as soon as she tried it on, but now she hated it. She slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the pathetic whimpering.
She was supposed to be strong and happy and unflappable. But right now she just felt like a girl with a bruised heart. All the little and big things that bothered her and worried her on a daily basis converged on her at once, weighing her down.
The humiliation she felt at Bazine calling out her insecurities in front of a lobby full of her peers. Her mother’s failure to protect her from an abusive asshole. Her father’s refusal to let her disrupt his new family. The uncertainty of when she would have to leave Ben. The constant fear that she wasn’t good enough for him anyway.
She thought about closing her eyes and trying to sleep, but she couldn’t bear the thought of wearing this stupid dress a minute longer.
She stood up and made her way to the mirror hanging on her door and turned just so, enough that she could see the zipper.
Except her arm didn’t want to bend enough to allow her a good grip on the tiny zipper. She couldn’t even reach the hook and eye at the top. She struggled for a few moments, attempting to release the hook. She was getting a cramp in her arm and cursed the fact that she hadn’t thought this through.
Maz was asleep and Rey didn’t want to wake her up to have her unzip it. She chewed on her lip as she contemplated. Maz would be sore if she slept on that couch all night, so she probably needed to be woken up anyway so she could move.
Rey descended the stairs and immediately realized the television was turned off and the lamp had been flipped off. She could hear Maz’s soft snores from her open bedroom down the hallway.
She must’ve moved while Rey had been having her pity party.
“I should just cut the fucker off,” she grumbled to herself, once again reaching behind her in an attempt to grab hold of the zipper.
On a deep exhale, she dropped her arms and cast a glance across the street. The light in the living room was on, as well as the light in Ben’s room.
Maybe she could just ask Leia to unzip her?
Rey slipped out the door and made her way across the street, dismayed to find Leia’s SUV missing from the driveway.
She stopped at the front steps, chewing at her lip, considering turning back.
But she wanted the damn dress off more than she wanted to avoid Ben.
So she climbed the steps and pressed her finger into the doorbell.
It took him almost a full minute to open the door. He was probably wondering what lunatic was ringing his doorbell at ten o’clock on a Friday night.
He pulled the door open and just stood there for a moment, wordless. He had already changed out of his formal attire and into a pair of basketball shorts and a gray tee shirt that was stretched to its max across his broad chest and shoulders.
He eyed her warily as she fidgeted on the welcome mat.
“You didn’t wear a jacket over here,” he sighed. “Not even the one I gave you.”
“Well, I took it off because I was trying to take my dress off, but I need…” She felt heat rush to her cheeks when she realized what she was about to ask him to do.
I’m asking him to take my dress off. Holy shit.
Ben, for his part, looked clueless. He arched an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders before turning away from the door and heading toward the stairs.
Frowning, Rey crossed the threshold and closed the door. “Where are you going?”
Ben flicked a finger toward the stairs he was climbing. “My room.”
She followed him up and watched as he plopped down on his bed. He scratched at his cheek where stubble was growing and kept his eyes on his feet.
“Did you come over here to break up with me? Because I think that could’ve waited until tomorrow.” If she hadn’t known him well, his flat tone may have hurt her. But she could hear the undercurrents of hurt and fear beneath the words.
“Ben-”
“You couldn’t get out of the truck fast enough. Didn’t even say good night,” something that sounded like a bitter laugh burst from his lips and he shook his head. “But you had to rush back over for…what?”
Rey’s hands tangled together as she stared at him, willing him to look at her. She wanted to run over and throw her arms around his neck, but fear and stubbornness kept her frozen to the spot.
Finally, Ben picked his head up, his brows furrowed over his dark eyes and his lip curled into a snarl. “What is it you want right now, Rey?”
His tone sparked her own anger and she growled back, “I just needed help unzipping my dress!”
For about two seconds, Ben’s face was frozen, his frustration painted across his features. But then confusion bled into his eyes and he shook his head. “What?”
Stomping toward him, her hands balled into fists, Rey turned around. “I can’t get my zipper undone!” She stabbed a finger over her shoulder in the general area of the zipper. “Can I get a little help?”
She didn’t turn around, but glared at his closet door, waiting for him to help her. She wondered what his face looked like right now. Shocked? Pissed? Sheepish? As curious as she was, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of turning around right now because she was mad .
And okay, maybe she had deserved some of that attitude, but she certainly didn’t care for the way he’d jumped to conclusions about her breaking up with him.
After about fifteen seconds of standing there without feeling her dress get any looser, she tapped her foot impatiently and demanded, “Well?”
“Right,” he muttered, and she felt him pinch at the little zipper and tug. “My hands are too fucking big for this,” he groused.
Her hands went to her hips, her foot still tapping as she glared at nothing. Ben cursed a few times, but finally, she felt the fabric part as her dress opened up.
“The hook at the top too, please,” she reminded him tersely.
~*~
Ben took a slow, deep breath in as he took in the smooth, naked skin of her back. He had pulled the zipper down as far as it would go, parting the dress all the way down to her tailbone. Dragging his gaze back up, he worked the hook above the zipper loose, biting his tongue to keep from making the strangled noise trying to climb its way up his throat.
Ben had never thought of shoulder blades as sexy, and yet…
She spun back around before he was done admiring her naked back, her brows pulled low and her pretty lips turned down.
She looked like she wanted to thump him.
Deciding he probably needed to be physically prepared to be tackled, Ben stood up, bringing them toe to toe.
“Why are you such a jerk?” She hissed, shoving at his chest.
“I’m a jerk?” He pointed at his chest, shaking his head. “Are you fucking kidding me? Everything was fine until you ran out on me! You took off without telling me and then I had to chase you down just to give you a ride home! You’re the one acting like a jerk.”
She bared her teeth, the skin of her nose scrunching in that way he fucking loved. She looked like she might bite him and he wasn’t a hundred percent sure that he hated the idea.
“You’re right. Everything was fine until your stupid ex-girlfriend had to remind me just how beneath her I am!”
Ben reared back, confused. “Bazine?”
“She mentioned how much you loved this stupid dress.” Rey tugged at the material with both hands. “I loved this dress and now I fucking hate it.” Her voice broke on the word hate and he watched in horror as her eyes filled with tears.
Ben’s hands came down on her shoulders and he pulled her into his chest, wrapping his arms around her tight.
“Whatever she said is bullshit. I don’t know what she said and I’m not sure it matters. It’s just bullshit, Rey.” His fingers trailed over the silky material of her dress. “You look beautiful. She’s probably just jealous.”
Rey pulled back, anger still evident on her face as she shook her head. “I can’t tell if you really don’t recognize this dress or if you just don’t think it’s a big deal…”
“Recognize…?” Hands stilled on her shoulders and he gently pushed her back, sweeping his eyes over the dress. Even hanging off her due to her loose zipper, it still clung to the curves of her hips. “What am I…?”
“It was hers , Ben. This dress,” she tugged angrily again, disgust clouding her features. “Bazine said she wore it to prom last year. The prom you took her to. And then this dress was dumped at a thrift store where I bought it. And well,” her shoulders slumped and her eyes flickered away. “She said I must really like her hand-me-downs.”
His hands tightened on her shoulders as his temper flared. His teeth ground together so aggressively that his jaw ached.
“I don’t remember this dress, Rey.”
She didn’t seem convinced.
“I remember taking thousands of pictures. Her parents hired a professional photographer and we spent two hours posing in front of the fountain at the park. Then we met what seemed like half our class at a fancy restaurant downtown - I don’t even remember the name. The entire restaurant was reserved for a bunch of high school kids and it was so loud I couldn’t think.” He pushed a hand through his hair before collapsing back onto his bed. “Then I spent the entire night sitting in a corner. She didn’t want to dance because her shoes hurt her feet, but she refused to take her shoes off.” He shrugged helplessly, meeting Rey’s eyes. “At the end of the night, she wanted me to take her a hotel room and -” Ben held up air quotes, “‘fuck her properly’ and when I told her I didn’t plan on losing my virginity in some bed that thousands of other people slept in, she got pissed and stopped talking to me.
“She didn’t talk to me for two weeks, even though I called to check on her, left her notes in her locker, and called every couple of days. After the two weeks, everything went back to normal, like it had never happened. I don’t know why I dated her for another two months after that. I didn’t enjoy prom because she sucked the fun out of it and I have no idea what she wore.” He felt his lips curl into a smirk. “I probably still have a ton of those goddamn photos in my cloud or something, but I haven’t bothered to look at them. Had no idea that she even wore the same color dress, much less the same dress.” His hands reached out, finding the dip of Rey’s waist. “But I will never forget the way you look in this dress.”
She gnawed at her lip as she considered him. It was a nervous habit of hers that just about drove him crazy at times because he wanted to be the one gnawing on that lip.
Finally, her small hands moved to lay over the top of his.
“I’m worried.” Her voice was a small, fractured thing - so unlike the Rey he was used to - full of fire and temper at times.
He squeezed her hips and pulled her even closer until she stood between his knees. “Why?”
She lifted a shoulder, as though that was enough of an answer to get her out of this conversation.
And by some stroke of genius that Ben didn’t know he possessed, he realized that in order to get her to open up for him, to show him her vulnerable side, he would need to do the same.
He dropped his head to her stomach. “Please. Tell me how I can make it stop. I promise there’s nothing for you to worry about.” I love you very nearly followed that statement, but Ben bit his tongue to stop it.
He hadn’t thought about saying it to her. It had almost slipped out without Ben being able to think it through first.
He had said it to Bazine, but only because she had said it with such frequency that it was clear that she was waiting on him to return the sentiment. He hadn’t wanted to admit that he hadn’t really loved her because then all that time they’d spent together would’ve been for what? He’d liked her okay, especially in the beginning, and she was pretty to look at.
But this fire he felt in his chest when he was with Rey - it was a different beast entirely.
He wanted to protect her. He wanted to laugh with her. To fight with her. To kiss her. He wanted to be with her constantly. When they weren’t together, he was thinking about her. Sometimes, he’d find himself on the free throw line during a basketball game thinking about her . It was highly inappropriate and he knew he was in so much fucking trouble but he just didn’t care.
Her hands in his hair brought him back to the current situation.
“I’m worried that one day you’re going to want Bazine back - or if not Bazine, someone with a lot less complications than me. There are plenty of girls out there that don’t have all this baggage. I’m messy, Ben. My life is messy. My mom is messy. One day, you’re going to realize you didn’t sign up for messy. That’s why I’m worried. And there’s nothing you can do.”
“I may not have signed up for messy, but I want you. Is that not enough for you?”
She tugged at his hair. “You’re more than enough for me. I’m just…scared, I guess.”
“Well, I hate to tell you, but you don’t get to decide how I feel or how I handle any of it.”
“I know.”
He pulled away from her and pushed her back so he could stand again. Eying her dress, he asked, “You aren’t leaving here with the back of that dress gaping open. I’ll get you something to wear.”
He grabbed a baseball tee shirt and sweatpants out of his drawer. “You want a hoodie too?”
“No, I’ll be fine. I’m just going across the road.”
Ben nodded and handed over his clothes. “That bathroom…”
His words halted as she pushed the dress off her hips. She was wearing light pink panties that showed enough ass cheek to distract him, though it was her bare chest that he couldn’t look away from.
Her little nipples pebbled as the cold air and his gaze hit them. He was vaguely aware of a blush coloring her chest, likely flooding her cheeks as well.
He opened his mouth to say…something, though he wasn’t sure what, but before he could string together anything, Rey slipped his tee shirt over her head and then quickly pulled his sweatpants up her legs.
When Ben’s eyes snapped back to her face, her cheeks were on fire.
But her back was straight and her chin was lifted, as if daring him to tell her that she shouldn’t have done that.
And even though she didn’t actually say it, Ben muttered, “You won’t get any argument from me.” Her brows furrowed and he clarified. “If you want to do that again.”
Interestingly, her eyes turned darker at that suggestion. She shifted from one foot to the other, her fists opening and closing as though at war with herself.
And then she launched herself at him.
He caught her small frame just as her mouth slammed into his, hot and hungry. Ben’s hands framed her face, tilting her head to better access her mouth.
He walked her back to the bed and coaxed her down, dropping down beside her before resuming their kiss.
His hand squeezed at her hip before slowly inching beneath the shirt he’d loaned her. She shivered at the feel of his hands on her skin, her own hands all over the place - fisting at the material of his shirt, squeezing his shoulders, and pulling at his hair.
Ben’s thumb circled the flesh covering her hip bone as his tongue probed her mouth. He was so hard that blacking out from lack of blood in his brain seemed like a real possibility.
There were so many things he wanted to do to her, but he wouldn’t rush her, would never make her feel the sort of pressure Bazine put him under.
Besides, he could kiss her for eternity. He would never get tired of her soft, pliant lips beneath his or the slick slide of her tongue.
He was rock hard in his pants, but despite the lack of blood getting to his brain he made a conscious effort to ease his hips away from her thigh.
The little moans that she let slip every so often were not doing Ben’s erection situation any favors. Any time he nibbled at her lip or brushed his fingers behind her ear or gave her mouth a break to nip at her jaw, she would hum pleasantly, her eyes closed, her chest rising as her back arched.
She was going to kill him.
When she rolled to her side, her front to his, Ben wasn’t quick enough to scoot his hips away - not that he had any more room on the bed - and he knew the moment she felt what she did to him.
She gasped and her eyes opened, curiosity and lust warring in those forest-colored pools.
He cleared his throat, attempted to scoot back though he knew he was at the edge, and opened his mouth to apologize. “Rey, I-”
But her fists balled in his shirt and she tugged, rolling to her back and pulling Ben with her, his top leg falling between hers. Her teeth grazed her lower lip as she looked at him questioningly, clearly trying to see if he objected to the new position.
Slowly, watching Rey’s eyes for any sign that it wasn’t welcome, Ben ground the hardness tucked in his pants into Rey’s hip and watched her eyes flutter closed.
He pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth but didn’t take his eyes off her face as he rolled his hips again, pushing a little harder this time.
His name was a broken whimper falling from her mouth and, on the third roll of his hips, Rey’s hips rolled upward, grinding into the thigh resting between her legs.
He could feel the heat radiating from that spot and he wondered if she was wet too. He wanted to sneak his fingers into those sweatpants and push between her thighs to see how slippery he could make her.
Her hands crept around to his back, her nails biting into his flesh through his shirt as she urged him further on top of her. When she had him where she wanted him, her hips resumed their rhythmic roll against his thigh, while Ben ground his cock into her hip, gritting his teeth to keep from tearing open his pants and palming himself.
Instead, he focused on Rey’s face. The way her brow furrowed as she looked up at him with hooded eyes. The way her chest rose and fell rapidly with each hurried little puff of breath that moved through her parted lips. The way color crept into her cheeks as her hips moved faster and harder against his thigh.
“ Ben ,” she panted, her eyes squeezing shut as her back arched, freezing a moment before she shuddered to her finish.
With a low grunt, Ben buried his face in her neck as he felt his release pulse through him.
They were both sweaty and panting when they finally pulled apart enough to look at one another.
“Holy shit,” Rey whispered, forcing a chuckle from Ben. “I’ve never done that with another person. I mean, you know, finished .”
Ben grimaced. “This wasn’t my finest hour, I promise.”
“What do you mean?” Rey demanded. “It was pretty fantastic for me.”
Ben laughed again and she slapped his chest. “My shorts are a mess now.”
“Oh. Well.” She gnawed at her lip and averted her eyes. “Maybe next time the shorts won’t be in the way.”
Ben groaned and dropped his head back into the space between her neck and shoulder. He was already getting hard again at the thought. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
After they had cleaned up, Ben walked her home, his arm slung around her shoulder to keep her somewhat warm.
He kissed her soft and slow at her front door and she murmured, “Kinda wished I could just keep you for the rest of the night.”
He brushed his lips across her temple. “You can keep me as long as you like.”
And maybe she thought it was just a sweet response to what she’d said to him, but to Ben, it was the first in a long line of promises meant to show her he wanted her forever.