Consilium (Lawyer Kylo Ren x Reader)

Chapter 14

A/N: Finally heating up the slow burn;)

Kylo's POV :

Kylo's mind was made up. He had to tell you that he wanted to be off the case and that the court date was set but he wouldn't be able to do it over the phone. You deserved better than that from him. To disconnect in such a way from you seemed impersonal, cruel - and if Kylo was being honest, he had selfish reasons to break the news in person as well.

He wanted to be the one to reassure you and comfort you, maybe even get another chance to hold you close again. It was stupid and manipulative and everything he disliked coalescing into one but he couldn't stop himself from wanting it, wanting you.

Kylo had already texted you about coming over for dinner to try a new recipe, something he hoped was innocent enough as a cover. He'd been making up excuses left and right to visit you as often as he could. It was a miracle you hadn't called him out on his bullshit by now, always welcoming him into your home with open arms and warm smiles. It killed Kylo to see you so soft for him, to think you trusted him, liked him, maybe even wanted him.

You shouldn't trust him, you should want to push him away - this was wrong, falling for a client like this. It was eating him alive, the competing sense of good and bad. Nothing with you felt inherently wrong, it all felt right, too right - natural, meant to be. These were dangerous thoughts, thoughts that kept growing and spreading and taking hold in his mind.

This is why he needed out.

Hopefully, you would understand.

Hopefully, he wouldn't fuck things up so bad that you wouldn't take him back later. A future when things were safe and more black and white. This grey murky area was a minefield, ripe for analysis and destruction and scandal.

He was doing this to protect you, surely you had to see that - he would make you see that. He needed it. You both did.

***

Your POV:

You opened up the door for Kylo, trying and failing to stamp down your eager grin as his stony-faced figure came into view. Clean-cut and serious as ever, his eyes crinkled at the corners and his dimples surfaced when his gaze met yours. It never failed to make you melt, the way it felt to have him smile at you like this.

The Kylo Ren, lawyer bachelor extraordinaire, gifting you one of his rare smiles so easily.

You'd jumped at his suggestion for dinner tonight, heart fluttering at the invitation for something more intimate than his recent unsuccessful ventures as your handyman and personal shopper. Maybe this would finally be the next big step you had been hoping for. This could be your chance.

You poured some wine for yourself and whisky for Kylo, something he'd brought himself early on and kept stowed away here for occasions such as these. He always came to your apartment with some obscure mission but ended up staying for hours at a time.

Seafood pasta was on the menu for tonight, pan-seared scallops and angel hair with fresh tomatoes and basil. A more sophisticated meal than you were used to making but one you were looking forward to cooking. Especially when you got the chance to cook with the perfect specimen of a man currently next to you - or rather, mostly admiring and sporadically helping as you tried to stay out of his way in the kitchen.

You watched him over the rim of your wine glass as he deftly cut and sliced and diced, mouth going dry and stomach tightening at the careful, precise way his hands moved. You were mesmerized, warmth growing in your belly from more than just your wine, imagining other ways you could put those hands to good use.