With an unnerving speed harnassing the Force, Lupercus ran around her and picked her up in his arms before she could protest.

"So is there anywhere you'd like to go to get out of the cold?"

Jai gasped and wasn't quite sure what had just happened.
"Um......no...I don't really care."

Later on, she'd probably regret that, but at the time, it was all she could think of. And, even though she knew it was wrong, being in Lupercus' arms felt awfully good.

With a grin and a chuckle, Lupercus turned and carried her out of the Rose Garden and onto a hidden grassy area. As he carried her into the clearing a ship seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was a luxury yacht. As they approached Jai saw the entranceway was down. He carried her towards the ship and up the gangway revealing the luxurous settings with. Plush couches and furnishings covered the place, and that was only in the first room.

Walking towards a larger couch, he dropped her playfully on it.

"Not too shabby is it?"

Jai gasped at being plopped down onto the couch like that and gave Lupercus a slight look. She sat her heels, yeah the broken one too, beside the couch and sat up, looking around.

It was a breathtakeing ship: spacious, beautiful, plush, and very much like it's owner...dark, but handsome.

"You have a very nice ship. It puts my little MJFalcon to shame."

That's when she felt something she hadn't felt in a very long time...butterflies. No, not flying around or anything. She felt the kind you get in your stomach, that little quivering feeling that kinda feels good and bad. And who could blame her? This had been an eventful night. Yet...now it seemed like things were going a bit too far, a bit too fast.

"Um...shouldn't we be getting back to the party? I mean...people are going to wonder where we are. Dakkon'll get suspicious. And Kas...Kas will wonder where I ran off to."

She didn't really want to go. Lupercus was dangerous, and therefore, exciting to be around. He felt like one of her own kind...a scoundrel, an outlaw, maybe even a smuggler too. She liked him. Not the way she liked Kas, but she liked nevertheless.

Jasmine was about to reply to Jaina when Dak asked her to dance. Turning to answer him, she was whisked away even before she could answer him.

Enjoying the feel of Dak's arms around her, she let him lead her around the dance floor gracefully, giggling softly.

Ren turned from talking to Mister Asher for a moment, his thoughts pulling away from thier conversation to something elsewhere, something not in the ballroom.

Hey felt through the crowd, proding and poking, searching throught the other force presences.


Dakkon, the only other, major force signature present, was dancing with his wife.

A few others, too faint to bother about.

There was something else, an echo, a shadow of another being.

A voice sounded through his head like a claxon.


"Keep your thoughts on the here and now! Don't let your mind drift. Concentration is key to a Jedi's surroundings."

It was a memory, a latent image of Master Jiren's teachings to him.

Ren shrugged it off, and brought his attention back to his actions at hand.

Lupercus smiled sinisterly, looking down on her, his body bent over hers slightly.

"But really? Do you want to go back?"

Jai looked up at him with those big, brandy brown eyes of hers full of excitment and fear as she replied very softly and very breathily, "Um...No. N-no, not really."

Without a word he leant down and kissed her, deeply, passionately. They had been brought together for purely chemical reasons, animal instinct telling each other that this one could be fun, that they could be good together, and indeed they were.

As he kissed, he lowered himself down onto the couch next to her, the door to the yacht closing silently.

I'm now locked inside a ship, with a man I hardly know, who's kissing me....oh yes, life is good.

Jai melted into Lupercus' arms like there was nothing more natural. The kiss was earth shattering, like nothing she'd ever felt before. She leaned into him a bit and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him closer as they kissed passionately. Being there with him like that was the craziest, and yet most natural-feeling thing she'd ever done, and she didn't want the moment to end...