A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I've been sick for the past 2 weeks and still recuperating until now. Thanks to all those who read and reviewed this story. Also, special thanks to my brother who spare me his time to check this chapter for errors. Here's chapter 4. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. The only characters I own here are the OOC's.
Rating: T for Teens (Ratings may change)
Age of Characters:
Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke – 21 years old.
Uchiha Mikoto – 40 years old
Summary: Non-massacre AU. Sasuke had been missing in the forest for 2 years. When he returned, Sakura had just gotten engaged to his best friend. The years apart had changed them both. Could they make their marriage work again?
The brief shower had washed away the last lingering traces of unreality. Wrapping the sash to her royal blue terry-cloth robe around her middle, Sakura walked through the open doorway of the private bath to her bedroom. She moved to the clothes closet at the far corner of the room to choose what she would wear for dinner, all the while trying to assure herself that she was making mountains out of molehills where Sasuke was concerned.
There was a click and then movement in her peripheral vision. She turned as the door opened and Sasuke walked in. Her mouth opened to order out the intruder then closed. He was her husband. How could she order him out of their bedroom?
His gaze swept the room, located her and stopped; fixing her with a stare like a predator would his prey. Her fingers clasped the folds of her robe at the throat, her palms moistening with nervous perspiration. Sakura was conscious of the implied intimacy of the room and her own nakedness beneath the terry-cloth material. Blood pounded in her head like a thousand jungle drums signaling danger. Vulnerable, she was wary of him.
The brand new tan suit and tie he wore gave him a cultured look, but she wasn't taken in by the thin veneer of refinement. It didn't conceal the latent power of that muscled physique, nor soften the rough edges of his sun-hardened features. Sasuke closed the door, not releasing her from his pinning gaze and searing alarm halted her breath.
"I've come through hell to get back to you, Sakura, yet you can't seem to walk across a room to meet me." The accusation was made in a smooth, low tone rife with sardonic amusement.
His words prodded her into movement. Too much time had elapsed since his return for her to rush into his arms. Her steps were stiff, her back rigid as she approached him. She was cautious of him and it showed. Even if she wanted to, she doubted if she could batter down the wall of reserve she had erected. Stopping in front of him, she searched her mind for welcoming words that she could issue sincerely.
"I'm glad you came back safely," were the ones she could offer that had the ring of truth.
Sasuke waited…for her kiss. The muscles in her stomach contracted sharply with the realization. After a second's hesitation, she forced herself on tiptoe to bring her lips against his mouth in a cool kiss. His large hands spanned the back of her waist, their imprint burning through the material onto her naked flesh. His light touch didn't seem at all familiar. It was almost alien.
At her first attempt to end the kiss, his arms became a vise, fingers raking into her pink hair to force her lips to his. He slender curves were pressed against the hard contours of his body. Her heartbeat skittered madly then accelerated in alarm.
The hungry demand of his bruising mouth asked more than Sakura could give to a man who seemed more of a stranger than her husband. She struggled to free herself of his iron hold and was surprised when Sasuke let her twist away.
Her breathing was rapid and uneven as she avoided his eyes. "I have to get dressed." She pretended that was her reason for rejecting his embrace. "The others are waiting downstairs."
Those fathomless dark eyes were boring holes into her. Sakura could feel them even as she turned away to retrace her steps to the closet and her much-needed clothes. Her knees felt watery.
"You mean Naruto is waiting," Sasuke corrected her with deadly softness.
Her blood ran cold. "Of course. Isn't Naruto with the others?" She felt ignorance of his meaning and immediately regretted not taking advantage of the opening he had given her to tell him about Naruto.
"I've had two and a half years of forced celibacy, Sakura. How about you?" The dry contempt in his question spun her around, fires of indignation flashing in her eyes, but Sasuke didn't give her a chance to defend her honor. "How long was it after I disappeared before Naruto moved in?"
"He did not move in!" she flashed.
With the swiftness of a swooping hawk, he seized her left hand. His savage grip almost crushed the slender bones of her fingers into a pulp, drawing a gasp of pain from her.
"Figuratively speaking!" His mouth was a thin, cruel line as he lifted her hand. "Or don't you call it moving in when another man's ring joins the ones put on your finger? Did you think I would not see it?" he blazed. "Did you think I wouldn't notice the looks the two of you were exchanging and the way all the others watched the three of us?" He released her hand in a violent gesture of disgust. Sakura nursed the pain-numbed fingers, cradling them in her right hand. "And neither of you had the guts to tell me!"
"Neither of us really had a chance," she responded defensively, her temper flaring from the flame of his. "It isn't an announcement one wants to make in front of others. What was I supposed to say when I saw you standing in the doorway, a husband I thought I was dead? 'Oh, Sasuke-kun, I'm so glad you're alive. Oh, by the way, I'm engaged to another man.' Please credit me for having a bit more delicacy than that!"
He gave her a long, hard look. His anger was so tightly controlled that it almost frightened her. It was like looking at a capped volcano, knowing that inside it was erupting, and wondering when the lid would blow.
"This is some homecoming," Sasuke declared in a contemptuous breath. "A wife who wishes I was still in the grave!"
"I don't wish that," she denied.
"This engagement–" he began, bitter sarcasm coating his words.
"The way you say it makes it sound like something sordid," Sakura protested, "and it isn't. Naruto and I have been engaged for barely more than a week. At the time that he proposed to me, I thought you were dead and I was free to accept."
"Now you know differently. I am alive. You are my wife, not my widow. You're still married to me." The way he said it, in such cold concise tones, made it sound like a life sentence.
Sakura was trembling and she didn't know why. "I'm aware of that, Sasuke." Her voice was taut to keep out the tremors. "But this isn't the time to discuss the situation. Your mother is waiting dinner and I still have to get dressed."
For a few harrowing seconds, she thought he was going to argue. "Yes," he agreed slowly, "this is not the time."
She heard the door being yanked open and flinched as it was slammed shut. If this was a new beginning for their marriage, it was off to a rotten start. They had argued before Sasuke had disappeared, and now war had nearly been declared on his return. Sakura shuddered and walked to the closet again.
Her arrival downstairs coincided with their housekeeper's announcement that dinner would be served. Sasuke was there to escort her into the formal dining room. A chandelier of cut crystal and polished brass hung above the table, glittering down on the tablecloth set with the best of his mother's silver and china. An elaborate floral arrangement sat in the center of the buffet, not too near the table so its scent would not interfere with the aroma of the food. Sasuke was being warmly welcomed home, by everyone but her, and Sakura was painfully conscious of the fact.
As they all took their chairs around the Uchiha's dining table, the tension in the air was almost electrical. Yet Sakura seemed to be the only one who noticed it. Sasuke sat at the head of the table, the place of honor, with his mother at the opposite end and Naruto seated on her right. Sakura sat on Sasuke's left.
Ever since she had come down, Sasuke had possessively kept her at his side, as if showing everyone that she was his and effectively separating her from Naruto. On the surface, he seemed all smiles, at times giving her glimpses of his former devastating charm. But there was directed to her.
When everyone was seated, the housekeeper came in carrying a tureen of soup. "I fixed your favorite, Sasuke-sama," she announced, a beaming smile on her square-jawed face. "Tomato soup."
"Thank you." He smiled broadly. "Now that's the way to welcome a man home!"
The sharp side of his double-edged remark sliced at Sakura. She paled at the censure, but otherwise retained a firm hold on her poise.
The meal was an epicurean's delight, from the soup to the lobster thermidor to the ambrosia of fresh fruit. Sasuke made all the right comments and compliments, but Sakura noticed he didn't seem to savor the taste of various dishes the way she remembered he had in the past. She had the impression that dining had been reduced to the simple matter of eating. Food was food however it was prepared and man needed food to live.
Coffee was served in the living room so the housekeeper could clear away the dishes. Again, Sakura was kept at Sasuke's elbow. Naruto was on the far side of the room. As she glanced his way, he looked up, clear blue eyes meeting the green shade of hers. He murmured a quick excuse to the older woman who had him cornered–an old school friend of Uchiha Mikoto–and made his way toward her.
Through the cover of her lashes, Sakura dared a glance at Sasuke and saw the faint narrowing of his gaze as Naruto approached. The smile on Naruto's face was strained when he stopped in front of them. Sakura guessed he was trying to find a way to tell Sasuke of their engagement and she wished there was a way to let him know that Sasuke was aware of it.
"It seems like old times, Sasuke," Naruto began, forcing a camaraderie into his voice, "coming over to your house for dinner and seeing you and…" His gaze slide nervously to Sakura.
"Naruto," Sasuke interrupted calmly, "Sakura has told me about your engagement."
The room grew so quiet Sakura was certain a feather could have been heard dropping on the floor. All eyes were focused on the trio, as if a brilliant spotlight were shining on them. She discovered that, like everyone else, she was holding her breath. After the savage anger Sasuke had displayed upstairs, she wasn't sure what might happen next.
"I'm glad you know. I…" Naruto lowered his gaze searching for words.
Sasuke filled in the moment's pause. "I want you to know that I don't bear any ill feelings. You've always been a good friend and I'd like it to continue that way." Sakura started to sigh with relief. "After all, what are friends for?"
No one except Sakura seemed to pay any attention to last caustic comment. Naruto was too busy shaking the hand Sasuke offered in friendship. The others were murmuring among themselves about the moment for which they had been waiting all day.
"Naturally, the engagement is broken," Sasuke joked with a smile that contrasted with the sharply serious light in his eyes.
"Naturally," Naruto agreed with an answering smile.
And Sakura felt a rush of anger that she could be tossed aside so readily without protest. For that matter, she hadn't even been consulted about her wishes.
Immediately, she berated herself. It was what she wanted. Sasuke was alive and she was married to him. She didn't want to divorce him to marry Naruto, so why was she fussing? A simple matter of ego, she decided.
After the confrontation over the engagement, the party became anticlimactic. There was a steady trickle of departures among the guests. One minute Sakura was wishing Mikoto's old friend and the next she was alone in the foyer with Sasuke, his eyes watching her in that steady, measured way she found so unnerving.
"That's the last of them," he announced.
Sakura glanced around. "Where's your mother?"
"In the living room helping our housekeeper clean up."
"I'll give them a hand." She started to turn away.
But Sasuke caught her arm. "There's no need." He released it as quickly as he had captured it. "They can handle it by themselves."
Sakura didn't protest. They had been unconsciously long and she felt enervated from the physical and mental stress she had experienced. What she really wanted was a long night of hard, dreamless sleep. She started for the stairs, half aware that Sasuke was following.
"You did not return Naruto's ring," he reminded her in a flat tone.
Raising her left hand, she glanced at the flowerlike circlet of diamonds.
"No, I…must have forgotten." She was too tired at this point to care about such a small detail.
When she started to lower her hand, Sasuke seized it and stripped the ring from her finger before she could react to stop him. He gave it a careless toss onto the polished mahogany table standing against the foyer wall.
"You can't leave valuable things lying around!" Sakura instantly retrieved it, clutching it in her hand as she frowned at him–Sasuke, who insisted there was a place for everything and everything in its place.
"Valuable to whom?" he questioned with cool arrogance.
Her fingers tightened around the ring. "I'll keep it in my room until I can give it back to him." She waited for him to challenge her decision. When he didn't, she walked to the stairs.
"He'll be over tomorrow," Sasuke stated, speaking from directly behind her. "You can give it to him then."
"What time is he coming?" Sakura climbed the stairs knowing she was loath to return the ring when Sasuke was around, but he seemed to be leaving her little opinion.
"At ten for Sunday brunch."
At the head of the stairs, Sakura turned. Her bedroom was the first door on the right. She walked to it only to have Sasuke's arm reach around her to open the door. She stopped abruptly as he pushed it open, her look bewildered.
"What are you doing?" She frowned.
"I'm going to bed." An eyebrow flickered upward as he eyed her coolly. "Where did you think I was going to sleep?"
She looked away, her gaze darting madly around. She was thrown into a trembling state of confusion by his taunting question. "I didn't think about it," she faltered. "I guess I have become used to sleeping alone."
His hand was at the small of her back, firmly directing her into the room. "Surely you don't expect that to continue?"
"I…" Oh, God, yes she did, Sakura realized with a frozen start. "I think it might be better…for a while." She stopped in the center of the room and turned her face to him as he closed the door.
"You do?" inscrutable black eyes met her wavering look, his leathery carved features expressionless.
"Yes, I do."
Her nerves were leaping around as erratically as jumping beans, not helped by the palpitating beat of her heart. She watched with growing apprehension as Sasuke peeled off his suit jacket and tie and began unbuttoning his shirt.
She tried to reason with him, her voice quivering. "Sasuke, it's been two and a half years."
"Tell me about it," he insisted dryly.
Her throat tightened to make her voice small. "I don't know you anymore. You're a stranger to me."
"That can be changed."
"You aren't trying to understand, Sasuke." Sakura fought to keep control of herself. "I can't just hop into bed with–"
"Your husband?" He finished the sentence, and gave her a searing look.
"Who else would you choose?"
"Naruto?"
The shirt was coming off; exposing a naked chest and shoulder tanned the same dusky shade as his face. The result heightened Sakura's impression of a primitive male, powerful and dangerous, sinewy muscles rippling in the artificial light.
Her senses catapulted in alarm as she felt the force of his earthly, pagan attraction. In an attempt to break the black magic of its spell, she turned away, walking stiffly to her dresser to place Naruto's ring in her jewel case.
"No one. That isn't what I meant." She remained at the dresser, her hands flattened on its top, knuckles showing white. He came up behind her and she lifted her gaze. In the dressing-table mirror her wary eyes saw his reflection join with hers. "You've become hard, Sasuke, a cynic," she said accusingly. "I can imagine what you've gone through…."
"Can you?" He challenged. There was a faint curl of his lip. "Can you imagine how many nights I held onto my sanity by clinging to the vision of a green eyed woman with silky pink hair?" His fingers twined themselves through the loose strands of her pink hair and Sakura closed her eyes at the savage note in his voice. "Roughly nine hundred and twenty-two nights. And when I finally see her again, she's clinging to the arm of my best friend. Is it any wonder that I am hard, bitter, when I have been waiting all this time for her lips to kiss away the gnawing memory of those hours? Did you even miss me, Sakura?" With a handful of hair as leverage, he twisted her around to face him. "Did you grieve?"
Her eyes smarted with tears she refused to shed at the tugging pain in her scalp. "When you first disappeared, Sasuke, I was nearly beside myself with fear. But your mother, Mikoto-san, was even distraught–losing her husband then possibly you. I had to spend most of my time comforting her. Then the company started to fall apart at the seams and Naruto insisted I had to take over or it would fail. So I was plunged headfirst into another world. During the day I was too busy to think about myself, and at night there was your mother depending on me to be her strength. The only moments I had alone were in this room. And I took sleeping pills so I would get enough rest to be able to get through another day. To be truthful, Sasuke, I didn't have time to grieve."
He was unmoved by her words, his dark eyes flat and cold. "But you had time for Naruto," he accused her with icy calm.
Sakura winced as the point of his arrow found its target. "It began very innocently. He was your closest friend so it was natural that he kept in touch with your mother and me. Later, there was the company connection. He was always there, bolstering me, encouraging me, and offering me a shoulder to lean on the odd moments that I need it, without mauling me in return," she explained, refusing to sound guilty. "It grew from there after you were reported killed. I needed him."
"And I need you–now." He drew her inside the steel circle of his hands, flattening her against his chest. The hard feel of his naked flesh beneath her hands rocked her senses. The warmth of his breath wafted over her averted face, the musky scent of his arm enveloping her. She pushed at his arms, straining to break out of his hold.
"You haven't listened to a word I've said!" she stormed angrily, inwardly battling against his physical arousal of her senses. "You have changed. I have changed. We need time to adjust!"
"Adjust to what?" Sasuke snapped. "The differences between a man and a woman? Those are differences we could discover and compensate for very quickly." The zipper of her dress was instantly undone.
"Stop it!" She struggled to keep him from sliding the dress of her shoulders. "You're making me feel like an animal!"
"You are." The words were issued in a cold, insensitive tone.
Hysterical laughter gurgled in her throat. Sakura choked on the sound.
"Shut up!" He growled the order against her mouth and smothered the sounds when she refused to obey.
Leaning and twisting backward, Sakura tried to escape the domination of his kiss, but his hands used the attempt to mold her lower body more fully to his length, her hipbones crushed by oak-solid thighs. The silk of her slip was a second skin, concealing and revealing while callused fingers moved roughly around in exploration.
Cruelly, Sasuke ravaged the softness of her lips. Sakura thought her neck would snap under his driving force. Beneath her straining hands she felt the flexing of his muscles, smooth like hammered steel, latent in their sensuality. He was devouring her strength by degrees, slowly and steadily wearing her down. Doubling her fingers, she began hammering at him with her fists, hard blows that had little effect on Sasuke.
The effort seemed to use up the reserves of her strength. Within seconds, blackness swam in front of her eyes and a dizzying weakness spread through her limbs. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and she clung to him to keep from falling into the yawning abyss that seemed to be opening in front of her.
As her resistance ebbed into nothingness, so did the brutality of his assault. The terrible bruising pressure of his mouth eased, permitting Sakura to straighten her neck. Gradually, she began to surface from the waves of semi-consciousness, enough to become aware of his loosened hold.
With a determined effort, she broke out of his arms. Gasping in air in panicked breaths, she backed away from him, her knees quivering. Sasuke swayed toward her then stopped. A second later, she realized why, as her retreat was stopped short by a wall. A cornered animal, she stared at the man who held her at bay. A stranger who was her husband.
She lifted her head, summoning all her pride to beg. "Don't do this, Sasuke."
Slow, silent strides carried him to her and she didn't accept to flee. There was no mercy in his eyes and she would not submit to the ignominy of cowering. Her resistance became passive as he undressed, her eyes tightly closed.
Sakura paled as she remembered, too. A flicker of the old searing fire licked through her veins as he drew to him and her bare curves came in contact with his nude body. The tiny flame couldn't catch hold, not when the hands fanning it were callused and rough instead of the smooth hands that had once brought it to a full blaze.
"Don't destroy our marriage," she whispered. "I want to love you again, Sasuke."
With a muffled imprecation, he buried his face in her hair. "Damn! Why didn't you say that when I came home?" he muttered thickly in a rasping sound that suggested pain. "Why did you have to wait until now?"
"Would it have mattered?" Sakura caught back a sob.
"It might have then," effortlessly, he swung her feet into his arms, his jaw set in a ruthless line. "I couldn't care less now. You're mine and I mean to have you."
The overhead light was switched off, throwing the room into darkness. As if guided by animal instinct, Sasuke carried her to the bed. Without bothering to pull down the covers, he laid her on the bed and towered beside it.
"Sasuke." There was an unspoken plea in the way she spoke his name, a last attempt to make him understand her unwillingness.
"No," he answered, and the mattress sagged under his weight. "Don't ask me to wait." His low voice was commanding near her ear, his breath stirring her hair. "It's been too long."
And we both have changed, Sakura thought, stiffening at the moist touch of his mouth along her neck. Can't you see the differences, Sasuke? Physical as well as mental. Haven't you noticed I am wearing my hair longer? As his hand slid over her ribs, to cup her breast, she remembered when the roundness had filled it. Now, with maturity, it overflowed.
But Sasuke seemed intent on discovering the ripeness of her female form, ignoring comparisons. His caressing hands roamed over her with intimate familiarity and she felt her body responding, reluctantly at first. A series of long, drugging kisses soon made her mind blank to all but the demands of her flesh.
Her senses took over, reigning supreme. She gloried in the taste of his lips probing the sensual hollows of her mouth and the brush of his muscled chest was enough to harden her nipples into erotic pebbles.
The rapidly increasing throb of her pulse was in tempo with the pagan beat of his, building to a climax. And the heady male scent of him, heightened by perspiration and his rising body heat, served to stimulate all her senses until she was filled with nothing but him.
For a time she glimpsed heights she had thought she would never see again. Sasuke sought all the places that brought her the most pleasure, waiting until she moaned his name in final surrender.
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Sakura lay in bed, the covers pulled up to her neck, but she knew the blankets couldn't warm the chill. Her passion spent, she felt cold and empty inside as she stared upward into the darkness of the room. A tear was frozen on an eyelash.
Physically, her desires had been satisfied by Sasuke's skilled knowledge, but she had not been lifted to the rapturous heights of a spiritual union. That only happened when there was loved involved. Tonight, it had been merely a mutual satisfaction of sexual desires. And that special something had been missing eliminated the warm afterglow Sakura had previously known.
Sasuke was beside her, their bodies not touching. An arm was flung on the pillow above his head. She could hear the steady sound of his breathing, but doubted that he was asleep. Her sideway's glance sought his carved profile in the din light. There seemed to be a grim line to his mouth, as if he was experiencing the same reaction.
As if feeling her look and hearing her question, he said in a low, flat voice, "There's one argument you didn't make, Sakura. If you had, it might have prevented this disillusionment."
"What is it?" she asked in a tight, throbbing voice, longing to know what it was so she could keep this from happening again.
"The real thing can't match two and a half years of expectations."
No, she agreed silently, not when there are no words of love exchanged, no mating of our hearts nor coming together of our souls. It had been an act of lust, born out of anger and frustration.
"Passion never can, Sasuke," she murmured.
He tossed aside the blanket draped across his waist and swung his feet to the floor. Her head turned on the pillow to stare at him in the darkness.
"Where are you going?" she asked softly. Something told her that if Sasuke would hold her in his arms, the aching void inside her might close.
There was a faint sheen to his sun-browned skin in the shadowy light. She could make out the breadth of his shoulders and the back muscles tapering to his waist. His steps were soundless, silent animal strides.
"Another unfortunate discovery I've made since returning to civilization is that the mattresses are too soft." He spoke in a low voice, a biting, cynical tone. "I'm used to firm beds. That's what comes from spending too many nights sleeping in trees and on hard ground."
She lost him in the darkness and propped herself up on an elbow, keeping the covers tightly around her. "Where are you going?"
"To find spare blanket and a hard floor." There was the click of the door being opened. "You have part of your wish, Sakura," he added caustically. "The bed is yours. You can sleep alone."
As the door closed, a convulsive shudder ran through her. She turned her face into the pillow, curling her body into a tight ball of pain. With eyes squeezed shut, she lay there, aching for the forgetfulness of sleep.
A/N: End of chapter. Hmm...I have nothing else to say. I'm such a boring person. Haha. Lol.
Please review.
~fallenleaves142~