Hi everyone! Sorry for the long, long update. So many things had happened these past few weeks. First, I was sick. Second, on Valentines Day, my other friends set me up on a date with my "hot" guy friend (his charm doesn't work on me) then he confessed that he was in love with me. Third, on our prom night, his best friend confessed that he was in love with me also. Fourth, my hot boy friend and his friend got into a fight on our prom night and I had a hard time stopping those two. Fifth, the "fangirls" (exes) of my hot boy friend are all angry with me and blame me that my friend and them broke up because of me! But I didn't do anything! I have nothing to do with their breakups. Sixth, I don't know what to do! Our exams are near and I need to study but I can't concentrate because of them!

Enough of my rant…anyways, I wanna greet all of you a belated happy valentines day! And I want to thank all those who reviewed the last chapter and to the people who is still supporting this story.

Here's chapter 10 of Mysterious Lover. Enjoy reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. It only belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

This is RATED M for MATURE. This contains lemons and actions that are not suitable for mature teens and older.

All good things have to end sometime. Sakura had heard that phrase all of her life but to tell the truth, she had never given it much thought. Since there hadn't been many good things that had happened to Sakura, she had never learned how and when they ended.

Her brief honeymoon was different. If she could have wrapped the memories and taken them home with her, she would have, to savor and enjoy it over and over again down through the years. Unfortunately, life didn't work that way.

They caught an evening flight back to Los Angeles. Sakura had long since let go of her need to ask questions. She was quite content to follow Itachi's lead at the moment. She had found nothing to complain about so far in his plans. Adopting a wait and see attitude was not only different for her but fun as well.

Her boss had never been one for small talk so she wasn't surprised that he had little to say to her now. He could no longer hide the possessive gleam in his eyes when he looked at her. She rather liked that possessive gleam. Sakura had a hunch that if she took the time to look in a mirror she would see a similar gleam looking back at her.

What a weekend. Itachi had requested toothbrushes – everything else had been provided by the hotel when they got there. Obviously, clothes had not been a problem. They merely put on what they had worn on Friday. Luckily, Sakura had had the foresight to hang up their clothes so that they didn't look too wrinkled.

Her hair had been something of a problem. She had managed to subdue it with some pins she had in her purse. Anyone looking at the two of them in their sober suits would assume they were business associates returning from a meeting.

And what a meeting that had been!

Sakura glanced down at her bare hands. He hadn't given her a ring. When had he had time to get one? She was not sure when he had made up his mind to marry her but she had a hunch it was during the last sleepless nights they had both spent when she had been so explicit in her fantasies.

He had an amazing memory, come to that. He had done everything she had ever suggested in her wildest fantasies plus some things she had never read about in the books she had borrowed in the library. Well, what do you expect from a genius? And a handsome man like him? No wonder he could say he hadn't slept with very many women. When did they have time to sleep?

Sakura glanced at Itachi from the corner of her eye and noticed a slight grimness around his mouth. Perhaps, it was normally there but she had not noticed it during the past two days. His lips had been anything but grim.

After arriving back in Los Angeles, Itachi guided her to where they had left the car. His experience at airports and in airport parking lots was understandable – and welcome.

Sakura was curious to know where he intended them to spend the night. She would need to go home and feed Sam. Poor Sam. She had also need clothes for his work tomorrow. However, he might prefer staying at his place. She would need to wait and see what he suggested.

However, his suggestion was the last thing she expected.

They pulled into the office parking lot and Itachi parked next to her car. For the first time since they left Las Vegas he turned around and looked at her fully. Sakura felt a sudden premonition that she wasn't going to like what he had to say.

She didn't.

"I am going out of town early in the morning. I need to go home and pack. I should be back by the end of the week. That should give us time to decide what to do about our marriage."

She stared at him, stricken by the lack of any emotion in his voice. "What do you mean, what we should do about our marriage?"

Itachi ran his hand through his hair. "This is not the time to discuss it."

"I agree," she said "We should have discussed it before we got married. However, we didn't, so it looks like now is the time."

Itachi leaned his arms on the steering wheel and rested his chin on them. She had never noticed his profile before. The clean, strong lines intrigued her. This man of the many different personalities intrigued her. If she ever figured him out, she would probably be able to write a book about him. There was no one else around like him.

"You made me angry," he finally admitted to the windshield after a moment of thinking.

She thought about that for a moment. "So you married me as punishment?" she asked.

"You have been slowly driving me out of my mind for months with your lovemaking fantasies. I could not take them anymore."

Sakura didn't know what to say. She sat there, staring at him.

"You have been a part of my life for too long, Pinky. I could not take advantage of you. I knew exactly how you felt about sex and lovemaking. And why not? I helped to instill those values in you. Yet you had pushed me past my limit of tolerance. So I married you. I didn't feel I had a choice."

"You married me so you wouldn't feel guilty about making love to me?"

"Yes."

"I see."

"But I don't like being manipulated. Nobody does. You took something special that we shared something so unique that I have never been able to explain it in words and used it against me. Okay. You won. I am not sure what it was you wanted but if it was to make me want you so much that I never seemed to be able to get over aching for you then you accomplished what you set out to do."

He never looked at her. His entire conversation was directed to the windshield in front of him. She might not have been in the car with him for all the notice he gave her.

"I decided to solve both our problems. By marrying you, I felt it was acceptable for me to make love to you, something you have obviously been determined to have happen."

"But you don't want to be married to me."

For the first time he looked around her. "If you would stop and think about it, I don't lead a life that is conducive to marital harmony. I'm gone more often than I am here. I put in long hours at the office. I don't have the time nor the energy to work on a relationship…with you, or anyone else."

As far as that was concerned, Sakura hadn't given much thought to marriage, either. She enjoyed her life, her freedom and her ability to do whatever she wanted.

"Why does marriage have to change anything?" she asked in what she hoped was reasonable tone of voice.

"It just does, that's all."

"It doesn't have to. Look at it this way. Nothing that we like about our lives has to change. You travel; I have my time to myself. But when you are home, we are together. What's wrong with that?"

He thought about her suggestion for a few moments. "What about children?"

"You made very sure that we were protected this weekend. I think that's a choice we can make. Who knows? Maybe you'll get tired of traveling one of these days. Stranger things have happened, you know."

He shook his head. "I think we need some time to think about it. I'll see you later on this week."

So she was dismissed, just like that. Sakura got out of his car with all the dignity she could muster. Marriage ceremony or not, she felt that she had just participated in a wild, weekend fling that he regretted now that it was over.

She wasn't sure how she felt at this point. There was a blessed numbness that seemed to have wrapped around her.

Without saying another word, she got into her car and drove away.

This time Sam didn't let her off the hook for going away and leaving him alone. He had run out of food, although there was still some water left. As far as that went, he could go on a diet and it wouldn't hurt him away.

But his angry greeting seemed to be all Sakura needed. She closed the door of the apartment, looking around to see that nothing had changed. Not a thing. Only her. She had changed and she knew she would never be the same again.

Itachi had been right. She had exerted pressure on him, unfair pressure to get him to acknowledge how he felt about her. He had acknowledged it, all right. Although he wanted her physically, he resented her as well. Resented her for using his feelings for her to get what she wanted.

She could not blame him, really. She could remember several instances in the past when he had bullied her into doing something she didn't particularly want to do. She had resented his interference.

Now he felt the same way toward her.

Sakura lay awake that night for hours, staring at the ceiling, thinking of everything that had happened. She had been on an emotional roller coaster these past few days. She tried to decide her best course of action but nothing seemed suitable.

She was married to the man of her dreams, to her very secret lover, and he felt that she had trapped him into the relationship. In the small hours of the morning, Sakura took a long, hard look at what she had done and was forced to agree with him.

The question was, what could she do about it now?

When Sakura walked into the office Monday morning, nothing had changed. Everything greeted he as they always did, her desk was stacked with mail, as it always was and the phone was ringing. Nothing new.

Only she was different. She was not the same woman who had walked out Friday morning, mystified as to why her employer had told her to leave with him.

If he wanted to punish her for what she had done, he could have found nothing more fitting than to give her a glimpse of what life would be like living it with him then to close the door.

She looked into his office. His outbox was overflowing. He must have put in several hours of work before she arrived last Friday. Going into his office was difficult. It was so much a part of him and reflected his personality – organized, neat – and like her, waiting for his return.

By noon, Sakura knew she would have to talk to someone or go crazy. She called her mother and suggested dinner that night. Her mother was delighted.

"Mom, I have something to tell you that I know you're going to find hard to believe," Sakura said that evening, over coffee.

They had enjoyed a leisurely meal at one of her favorite restaurants near where her mother lived.

Her mother smiled. "Nothing you could say would ever surprise me, Sakura. I have never known anyone with an imagination such as yours. I can remember so many of your stories–" she laughed. "But go ahead, dear." She patted Sakura's hand. "Tell me."

Great. With a leadoff like that, Sakura knew her mother would think she had made everything up.

"Mom. Some of this I have known for a long time. Some of it I have slowly found out over the past few months. Please bear with me because I would like to take it in sequence."

Sakura paused, gathered her thoughts. "Do you remember the accident that caused Daddy's death when two boys…" she began the story. She took her time, telling her the little bit that she could remember from that time. Then she told her all that Shisui had shared.

Finally, she told her mother how Itachi had been able to mentally communicate with her.

Her mother's eyes had grown larger with the telling. But she had not interrupted Sakura. Not once.

Sakura continued the story through her growing up years and how she and Itachi had finally lost touch with each other. Or so she thought.

"A couple of months ago, I accidentally found out who Itachi was."

Her mother looked confused. "I thought you said you knew. He was the young boy who –"

"No. I mean who he is now."

A tiny crease appeared between her mother's brows. "And who is that, my dear?"

"My boss, Mr. Uchiha Itachi."

Her mother stared at her in astonishment. "I don't believe it. That cold, callous, arrogant man –"

Sakura grinned at the description her mother had gained from the many stories Sakura had told her. "That's right, mom. The same man."

"But you describe Itachi as so warm and loving, so very caring."

"He is."

"How could one man be so different?"

"I have given considerable thought to that over the past few months. I believe the Itachi I knew felt free to express himself. There were no conditions placed on him, anything to anyone. In the fullest sense of the word, he allowed his inner self, his very essence, to unfurl and grow without hindrance."

Sakura leaned back in her chair and sipped on her coffee. "I don't know the whole story but from what I have learned through the office grapevine, Itachi's father was a ruthless sort of a man, very intimidating, who insisted on perfection from everyone around him and considered that he gave nothing but the best as well." She set her cup down and idly toyed with the handle. "I have tried to picture what Itachi's young life was like. I have no idea who else was in his family but obviously his father expected him to follow his footsteps. So Itachi did. He bottled all of his softer emotions away so that nobody ever saw them."

"Except you," her mother murmured.

They sat there quietly together, thinking about the young Uchiha and the conflicts he must have had to master.

"The only real coincidence in the story is that I went to work for Itachi's company. That isn't as much of a coincidence as you might think since the secretarial school I attended was only a few blocks away and the agency was always looking for stenographers. I understand the Uchihas, both father and son, were difficult to work for and they had a high turnover of personnel."

"I thought you said that changed after you came to work."

"It did and I am beginning to understand why. Somehow I became a buffer between Itachi and the rest of the staff. I was the one who caught most of the flak and I could take it. At least most of the time. As he became accustomed to working with me, he calmed down."

"It probably didn't hurt that you were his childhood friend."

Sakura grinned. "Good point. I hadn't really thought about that. But maybe he knew me so well he didn't need to intimidate or browbeat me into doing what needed to be done."

"As I recall, he did enough of that anyway."

"I know. I often look back and wonder why I stayed with him. He used to make me so angry!"

"I never could understand that, myself. You used to call me in tears. Whenever I suggested you quit, you said you didn't want to admit he could get the best of you."

They looked at each other. "I still don't, Mom, which brings us to the rest of the story, as they say."

"You mean, there's more? You know, this beats some of the wildest stories you used to tell as a child. I don't think even you have imagination enough to have dreamed up all of this."

"Just wait, Mom. You haven't heard everything. You see, last Friday, my boss, Mr. Uchiha and I flew to Las Vegas and we're married."

Sakura's mother looked as though a bucket of ice water had just been tossed in her face. She sat there staring at her daughter, her mouth slightly open.

Sakura nodded. "I know, Mom. Unbelievable."

"But you never hinted, never by word that anything was going on between you."

"There wasn't, at least not in the way you mean. You see once I found out that Itachi and my boss were one and the same, I began to spot the similarities. He tried his best to keep the two personalities separate. But I started treating him differently in the office. I talked to him the same way we mentally communicated – easy, casually, and with a great deal of warmth."

"What did the people in the office think about your change?"

"Oh, they didn't see it. People avoid him as much as possible in the office so no one would stick her head in my office whenever he was in town. It's almost comical; really, the lengths people will go to avoid him."

"Well, what do they think now? Were they surprised to hear you're married to him?"

"Nobody knows."

"Ahh, that makes sense. He wants to keep it a secret."

"I have no idea what Itachi wants, mom. That's why I am here telling you all of this. You see, he brought me back from Las Vegas after the most beautiful weekend, dropped me off at my car, told me he would be out of town all this week and he would see me later."

Sakura's mother choked slightly on her water. Coughing, she waved away her daughter's help and eventually exclaimed, "The man has to be the most insensitive, irritating, boorish oaf I've ever heard of."

"That's one explanation. There might be others."

"Name one."

"I was a little underhanded in my attempts to get him to spend more time with me."

"In what way?"

"Let's just say that I used our unique manner of communication to help him visualize some of the delightful ways we could spend our evenings, and nights together."

"Sakura! You didn't!"

"I'm afraid so, Mom. I can't say that I am particularly pleased with my tactics but they provide some results. Not exactly what I had in mind, though."

"Are you saying you were hoping for an affair with him?"

The way her mother said that caused Sakura to bite her lip to keep from smiling. Her mother's words were spoken in a tone that indicated how hard she was trying to make an affair seem like an everyday occurrence. But Sakura knew for a fact that her mother had shown no interest in a man since she had lost her husband.

"I am not sure what I was hoping for, to be honest. I hadn't given any long range thought to what effect I was having on him and how he would handle it."

Her mother sat back and studied her for a moment in silence. Then she smiled. "So you're married, are you?"

She nodded. "It looks that way, doesn't it?"

"What do you intend to do about it?"

"Fight for my marriage. What else?"

"Do you have any idea how?"

"No. I am open to suggestions."

Sakura's mother gathered up her purse and stood up. "Well, let's go home and see what we can do. At least, you can't say you don't know the man. Surely with all that knowledge, you can figure out what to do to convince him the two of you belong together."

Sakura followed her mother from the restaurant, a sense of expectancy invading her being. Somehow, she had to convince Uchiha Itachi that he made the best decision in his life when he married her.

A/N: Whew! Chapter's done. Sorry for the misspelled words or sentence errors and for my rant above…I just needed to release it all out. Two more chapters and this story is done. I hope you still continue to give me more reviews and continue supporting this story. See you on the next chapter!