** STRONG SEXUAL THEMES** Please note that the following 3 parts take place simultaneous in the same timeline.

Aleera tossed and turned, unable to find enough courage to fall asleep. When she closed her eyes she was haunted by visions of war and death. But when she opened them, she found herself amongst a living nightmare and Alexios was her only companion. It was a circling drama that had no apparent end and Aleera was its lead actress.

From the moment their lips met, she had been lost in a beautiful, yet sadistic hallucination fueled by Alexios's hunger for sex. She resisted ecstasy, resisted the truth of her emotions, and fought for control over her mind, which in turn, rattled in chaos. It was as though her visions and her reality were morphing together, making her lose her ability to determine reality from fiction. It wasn't long until she had no other choice but to give in, to enjoy the sensation that he awarded her and submit to the supernatural power that the two of them created.

Aleera felt the space around her with her fingers trembling. She should have been relieved to find that they had made their way below deck, but the cushion of her bed and potent smell of lavender brought her little comfort. Slowly, she pulled herself to the edge of the bed. Her legs were tired, and the throbbing between them grew with every move she made. She had never been left with such soreness before and the discomfort, albeit fulfilling, was also shameful.

Alexios rolled onto his back and stared at the darkness above him. He could feel beads of sweat drip down the sides of his face and wondered how Aleera could possibly be awake after enduring such vigorous activity, when he himself was exhausted. In his nearly 30 years he had never exerted such physical, or emotional efforts when bedding a woman. Always taking what he could to fulfill his materialistic need and paying no mind to the sentiments that could come with it.

But Aleera was different. She awakened desires in him that he didn't know he had, and made him bear emotions he had never felt before. Emotions he both feared and yearned to experience again. Comfort and vulnerability, weakness and passion, feelings he thought he had lost after decades of torment and abuse by the cult.

Alexios stared at the ceiling above him and relaxed with a long, drawn out breath. He envisioned their scene over and over until he could see it play out in the shadows of the candlelight. He wanted to feel her again, her bare skin against his, the warmth between her thighs as pushed himself deeper. He bit his lower lip to hide his lustful groan.

" You could bed every woman in Greece, and it still wouldn't be enough to satisfy you." Aleera whispered with judgment. She could see the visions that danced in his mind and resisted the temptation to partake and instead turned her hack to him.

Alexios smiled and turned his head to look at her, "You are not like every woman."He trailed his fingers over her bareback, fighting every urge to completely uncover her.

Her skin trembled under his touch. Her back arched uncontrollably, pressing into him. She closed her eyes and breathed his name with a sensual breath "Alexios."

He loved hearing her say his name, his real name. He inched closer, pressing his hips against hers with a heated groan. He pressed his lips to the back of her neck, "You need to rest before I can have you again." he purred. He reached under the blanket and trailed his fingers over her outer thigh, frowning discreetly at her trembling reaction.

Aleera bit her lip, "why is he making this so hard?" she thought to herself. She hesitantly turned over to face Alexios. He was vaguely visible in the dull candlelight, but Aleera could still make out his chiseled features.

In all the years they had known each other, Aleera had never been able to grant herself the pleasure of memorizing Alexios's stoic characteristics. But it seemed that the shadows offered her the comfort she needed to study him. She pushed her hand out and felt for the muscles defining his broad chest. Slowly, she moved over the pricks of dark hair until she found his racing heartbeat.

"What we felt, what we did." she paused and swallowed a hard breath, "it can never happen again." She lifted her chin. Alexio's face was shrouded in darkness, but she didn't need to see his eyes to know that he was looking at her.

His chest rose and fell underneath her hand, "what I felt with you was unlike anything I have ever felt before, you can't tell me you didn't feel the same." he stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. He would do anything to feel that way again and to continue to feel that way. It wasn't a matter of want anymore, Alexios needed her and would gladly kill if it meant that he could have her.

"There's more to it than that." She said, She wrapped his hand with hers and gently lowered it but never let go, " You have always believed in my abilities and protected me against those who wished to abuse them. For so long I wished to do the same. From the moment I met you, I knew you could be so much more than what the cult wanted you to be. But I…" She couldn't finish her sentence, too afraid of how Alexios might react.

"You know I'm not one for sentiments, Aleera." he pulled her closer, pressing his naked body against her. He lifted her chin so he could see the highlights of her blue eyes, "But I can learn to be. Tell me what it is you want and I'll do it." His soft whisper sounded strange coming from his lips, but he knew that if he wanted her, he would have to show her how much she meant to him, and how much he was willing to do to have her.

Aleera shook her head, "Let this be a memory," she whispered. She lifted herself enough to kiss his sweat-laced forehead, "a beautiful, intoxicating memory."

Alexios furrowed his brows. He felt the heat of jealousy rise within him, a stinging pain that fueled his blood with anger. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, "Why?" He groaned, pressing his lips against her neck, "You know you don't want this to end. So tell me why it should." He kept his tone unrealistically calm. Not demanding truth from her, but rather requesting it. It was a style of speech that Alexios was unfamiliar with, but determined to perfect.

"I can never be what you want," Aleera said faintly, " I can never be yours."

She was repeating Cicero's words. Only now they were cutting harder, and deeper than before. Alexios tightened his hold around Aleera's small body, his nails treading over the skin on her back. "She's right," confirmed the voice in his head. He combed his fingers through her soft hair. At that moment, there was nothing left for him to do but accept what little victory he had and pray for the day that she would submit to him completely. Whether or not that would be induced by a forced intervention or not, would be determined by opportunity.

He drew a long, drawn-out breath, "your heart belongs to someone else, I know." His voice was solid but inside he felt like breaking, scared to feel his emotions and cope with disappointment, "I am willing to accept that your affections will never be mine alone, but please, don't say this has to end."

A cold shiver ran through Aleera's body, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Had she created this sentimentality in him? Or was it there all along? And had the years of cruelty hardened him so much that Alexios was forced to suppress it? There were so many questions, so many possibilities. Was he telling her what she wanted to hear? Will he use this relationship against her in the future? Can the two of them be satisfied with sex alone?

Her breathing quickened, heat and anxiety flushed through her body like a flood. But the questions didn't stop. The voices in her head were at war with themselves and she was powerless to calm them. What could she do to stop them? What was causing her to act this way? She wedged her hand between her and Alexios, pressing it firmly against his chest, coaxing him onto his back. Suddenly, the voices stopped asking their questions and everything went still as stone.

"Surrender daughter… Vehemence will set you free…"

Aleera closed her eyes and listened to the tender, supernatural voice. It was unclear if her mother's voice was inside of her head or alive in the air around her, but regardless she obeyed. After all, it was her refusal to accept how she felt that spiraled her into such dark hallucinations, and if what Alexios said was true, then she could welcome those feelings with little to no immediate consequence.

She opened her eyes with a liberating pant. Her nimble fingers slid over Alexios's chest, up the side of his neck, and into his thick brown hair. She climbed on top of him, straddling him between her aching thighs. She leaned over him, pressing her chest against his, feeling the excitement of his heartbeat, "I don't want this to end," she admitted, "But this is all we can ever be. Can you accept that?"

Alexios's lips curved into a handsome smile, he brushed a stray hair away from her face and wrapped his hand around her neck, bringing her a lips distance apart from him.

"You really don't understand how much you mean to me, do you?" he said softly. He could see her lips trembling, desperate for his kiss. But he made her wait, "There is nothing I wouldn't do for you, Aleera. If a lover is all you'll allow me to be, then I will endure the discontent. I will endure the heat of desire and the sting of jealousy if that means I can stay by your side."

There were butterflies in Aleera's chest. Excitement and relief controlled her body, forcing her forward into a deep and passionate kiss. Her tongue searched every corner of Alexios's mouth before she was satisfied enough to release him. Slowly, she pulled away, leaving little space between her lips and his. She felt the warmth of desire invade her lower body, overriding her pain with an insatiable hunger for pleasure.

Alexios's body was wracked with satisfying shivers. He could feel how much Aleera wanted him, coating his abdomen with a dampening heat. He wanted her again, to feel every inch of her from the inside out. But he knew she wasn't ready, her body was still recovering from the relations they had before and what he wanted to do would only weaken her more.

"It will be daybreak soon, we should get you cleaned up before you meet with Poldarkes."

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