Thanks for waiting! I wanted to wrap this up but...so much for that. Votes and commentary appreciated.
****
Before Aleksis could answer her bitter accusation, Sage unexpectedly stepped forward and cupped his face, her thumbs smoothed the black tears from beneath his eyes. They held gaze for a moment, then their lips met in a hard kiss.
Aleksis' arms enclosed Sage into a crushing embrace his height and ardour forcing Sage's head back though she pressed forward to meet his passion.
Emotionally exhausted, reckless and giddy with a strange excitement, Sage flung her arms about Aleksis' neck and felt her feet leave the earth. The kiss tasted sweet, fuelling her body in a way she could barely comprehend though she knew it was highly unnatural.
Suddenly the ground met her back, gently, the cool soil relieving heat of her back wounds through the fine material. Aleksis straddled her, his fingers worked quickly to unlace the pale front of her dress. His breath caught as his hands filled with her creamy breasts, at last touching them the way he'd craved, and then he lowered to taste them.
Sage sharply gasped and arched, her wide gaze on the sparkling sky, the trees lightly swaying high above. Aleksis' tongue and lips on her chest created a sharp pleasure between her legs, he spoke wretchedly through his ardour.
'Archetchin ardone, enctran, peris enctran, Sage...'
'I love you forever, forgive me, please forgive me, Sage...'
The ancient words carried across her bare skin, caressed her ears, penetrated her mind, encompassing her entirely.
"Aleksis," Sage moaned, her features tensed as though in pain. She closed her eyes and parted her thighs, feeling the cool night air as her skirt dragged up to bunch at her hips.
She heard his sharp intake of breath, shivering as his hands explore the area, the brush of his fingertips on her pussy made her cry out.
Aleksis growled and surged forward, overtaken by a strange, unfamiliar hunger. Not bloodlust. His mouth lingered, his tongue extended, tasting her intimately for the first time, and both were lost.
"Gods!" Sage gasped and jolted with pleasure, not realising her fists were filled with soil clawed from the earth at her sides. Glancing down, she saw her breasts swollen, nipples hardened little nubs, Aleksis' compelling black eyes staring up her body, the lower half of his face working busily on her sex.
Sage broke their gaze and indulgently arched to the sky. It was mind-numbing, decadent, everything he promised. It was physically thrilling and emotionally wrong. But she'd resolved to enjoy the forbidden.
A sob escaped Sage when the first climax struck. She seized up and shuddered, feeling that she was nowhere, her body humming with delight, not recognising her own eager voice screaming lust into the night. She opened her eyes and Aleksis' face swam before hers before their lips merged again, she tasted her sweet essence on his tongue, she opened wider, inviting his tongue and almost bit down when his hard tip nudged her entrance. Her cry was muffled by their kiss, then it was Aleksis who drew back.
"Sage, look at me," he ordered, cupping her cheek until her eyes fluttered open and he saw she was a bundle of emotions; nervous, aroused, afraid, but above it all, fiercely determined.
"Are you certain of this, Sage?" he asked, a warning in his tone that spoke his reservations but conveyed he would respect her choice.
That he offered this consideration now, in the wake of everything else, embittered Sage; the hardness in her eyes grew stronger, the blue of them striking with purpose. The effect on Aleksis was very powerful, but through his lust he could recognise she was in a wretched state that demanded he take what she offered, despite the reasoning being awry.
Her hands gripped the sides of his arms and squeezed in answer. He slowly lowered himself again, kissed up her neck, his hands moved between them, titillating her skin wherever they touched, deliberately rousing her to the giddy state he knew himself capable. If she would see through her rash decision, he could not refuse her, but would make sure she enjoyed it.
Aleksis heard her breath catch, sharply brushing his neck as he entered her. Slowly, she arched against the ground, her face tense with discomfort and pleasure. He groaned and she whimpered, resuming deep breaths, letting his talented lips take her mind elsewhere as she relinquished her virtue.
The pain was sudden and distracting, she relished in it; she wanted it to hurt. But the soreness didn't last, and immediately dissolved to a stark pleasure that crippled her mind. Relaxing into the cool Earth surface, she submitted to Aleksis' attentions, let his hands roam where they wanted and returned his kisses, raising her thighs by his waist to urge him faster.
Sage gasped and moaned every time he re-entered her, creating the most unique sensation, the act itself foreign and unimaginable. For the first time she witnessed Aleksis without composure or authority, grunting huskily against her lips, lost in his own passion.
They rolled and she was on top, Aleksis' hands found her breasts and pleasure jolted from her head to her toes, his touch calling to the magic in her blood, pulsing with an all-consuming ecstasy. Sage rolled her hips with rapture, filled with a reckless abandon. She closed her eyes, delighted in the evening breeze, the surrounding nature. She'd not care if the forest went up in flames at their sides and devoured them to nothing.
Aleksis betrayed her; she was always his prisoner. Nicholas abused her, and there was nothing left of her faith or purity for Edmund to salvage; he could never love her now. Nothing mattered; she didn't care anymore.
Even as tears spilled down her cheeks, Sage closed her eyes and felt the tell-tale sparking under her lids that seemed entwined with her heart, thudding rapidly, the exquisite man between her legs, sensing his hot gaze on her face, his love that broke her heart. The world was broken.
"Sage!" Aleksis begged hoarsely, squeezing her breast for attention, for her to connect with him, show some sign of forgiveness or affection before he was spent.
When she ignored him, his hand on her hip tightened demandingly, bruising her flesh. Caught up in his own release, he groaned and bucked under her, his chest trembled under her palms, and a delicious wet spread through her tight channel. It was a sensation she could not put to words, though its effect was staggering. At least he'd not lied about fulfilling her physical needs.
Sage rocked closer and closer to her finish, sobbing into Aleksis' soothing hand on her cheek. His voice in her mind was gentle but breathless, sharply ricocheting between her ears.
'My love for you was never a lie...'
In answer, Sage roughly dragged his hand from her cheek back to her breast, angrily shaking her head to dispel his words, feeling his hurt from her rejection and letting it fuel her sense of abandon. This wasn't an act of love, and she would not permit him to reframe it as such.
Even through her despair, an unshakable, shaming pleasure engulfed her entire body, somehow heightening her emotional pain. With a last urgent thrust, Sage threw back her head to gaze at the sky, grit her teeth and came again.
****
They lay together in exhausted silence, listening to the sounds of the night forest begin to lessen as dawn crept nearer. Tension brimmed in the aftermath, though Sage curled against Aleksis' chest, her eyes were starkly alert and not as sultry as to be expected after a pleasurable tryst.
Aleksis sensed the disquiet, though continued to watch the lightening night sky and stroke her hair.
With a resigned sigh, Sage sat up and began to arrange her clothes. Aleksis eventually followed suit, noting that she did not once look at him.
"Sage?"
