Rootbound

Chapter Sixteen: Warmth

The drive home was cloaked in heavy silence.

Leia sagged against the passenger door, her forehead pressed lightly to the glass, watching the night roll past in streaks of orange and black.

Owen glanced at her once, briefly, without any real emotion.

Just taking inventory:

Flushed cheeks.

Half-lidded eyes.

A soft, absent smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

---

By the time he pulled into the driveway, Leia was already fumbling sleepily with her seatbelt, blinking like the simple act of staying awake was a test she was failing.

She made it to the front door with a clumsy, crooked smile and a giggle that was barely louder than a breath.

Somewhere in that broken sound, Owen heard the fragility.

And it made him harder than it should have.

---

Inside, the house smelled faintly of old coffee and new paint.

Leia kicked off her shoes, leaving them abandoned near the threshold, and padded barefoot down the hallway, peeling herself free of the tight dress in clumsy, exhausted movements.

The fabric slithered to the floor, forgotten.

Her bra followed.

She didn't even bother with modesty — just stumbled into the bedroom in nothing but a pair of black panties, her skin shining faintly with the sweat of the day.

Owen followed slower, deliberate, savoring the view.

Savoring the slow collapse.

Savoring the way her body was so beautiful

---

Leia faceplanted onto the bed with a groan of pure exhaustion, wriggling under the sheets without ceremony.

She lay sprawled there, limbs loose and vulnerable, eyes fluttering closed almost immediately.

Owen stripped down mechanically — shirt, jeans, boxers — and climbed in beside her.

Leia rolled instinctively toward him, nuzzling into his chest, her thighs tangling with his, her body clinging like ivy.

She felt fever-warm and sticky, her breath brushing fast and shallow against his skin.

Her hand slid weakly down his chest, tracing his ribs, fingertips trembling slightly with effort.

"You're so good to me," she whispered, words slurred and thick.

Owen hummed low in his throat, noncommittal.

He shifted, rolling half on top of her, pinning her smaller frame beneath him.

Leia giggled breathlessly, mistaking the movement for playfulness.

Her arms looped around his neck with clumsy eagerness, dragging him down into a sloppy, wet kiss.

Owen kissed her back —

but there was no love in it. Just hunger.

He slid a hand down her side, tracing the curve of her hip, the dip of her waist, the trembling line of her thigh.

Leia arched into him, needy, whimpering into his mouth.

She wanted closeness.

Comfort.

He wanted to c*m.

He hooked his fingers into the waistband of her panties and dragged them down in one rough pull.

Leia gasped and squirmed, but didn't resist.

She never did anymore.

He shoved his knee between her thighs, spreading her easily, and positioned himself with the blind, mindless urgency of a man scratching a deep, festering itch.

Leia whimpered again, wrapping her legs around his waist, pulling him closer.

"Love you," she breathed against his jaw.

Owen didn’t respond.

He pushed into her with one hard thrust, burying himself to the hilt.

Leia cried out softly, clutching at his shoulders, her nails dragging weak trails down his back.

Her body was fever-hot and slick, her skin shivering under his touch.

Owen set a slow, grinding rhythm, his hips rolling lazily against hers.

Leia writhed under him, breath hitching with every thrust, her moans growing higher, thinner, more desperate.

"Please," she whispered against his neck, no idea what she was asking for.

Owen drove into her harder, grinding against her c**t with his pubic bone, forcing small broken sounds from her lips.

He kissed her throat, not gently — sucking marks into the fragile skin, leaving bruises he didn’t care if she saw in the mirror tomorrow.

She was trembling now.

Sweat-slick.

Sick-sweet.

Weak.

And still she clung to him like he was salvation.

---

Owen grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head, his fingers digging bruises into her skin.

Leia gasped, eyes wide and glassy.

He f****d her harder now —

pistoning into her with punishing thrusts that made the headboard thud against the wall.

Leia cried out, legs tightening around his hips, trying to anchor herself against the onslaught.

Owen watched her face carefully.

The desperation.

The panic curling at the edges of her pleasure.

It was beautiful.

It was honest.

For the first time in a long time, Owen felt alive.

---

Leia came with a broken sob, her whole body spasming around him, her fingernails clawing at the sheets.

Owen followed moments later, gritting his teeth as he spilled inside her, grinding out the last cruel thrusts that made her whimper helplessly into his shoulder.

---

They lay tangled together afterward, panting, sweating, shivering.

Leia clung to him, kissing his neck, whispering thank yous and I love yous like prayers.

Owen didn’t answer.

He let her cling.

Let her soak the last scraps of warmth out of him.