Disclaimer: I do not own Assassin's Creed or any material related to Ubisoft in any way or form.

Note: I had to do a cliffhanger for dramatic effect. My apologies to any frustrated readers, but you will be paid for your suffering with this chapter. Dear me, this was difficult to write without getting severely… incapacitated. Forgive the fluff and whatnot, and keep in mind it's my first lemon. Enjoy.

The run through Acre was very invigorating, but it also helped to clear my mind of the passion-haze that had descended over me while I was with him. Of course, I was still angry at his teasing, but I had a plan to make him pay. I slowed my sprint as I neared the gates of the stronghold, merely jogging toward the gatekeepers still dutifully at their posts. I internally cringed, wondering if I should have lightened the guard, making it easier for him to enter undetected… But no, he is who he is, and he has gotten past worse, particularly when we first met in Damascus-

"Exercise again m'lady?" A guard's voice interrupted my thoughts. I slowed to a stop, breathing fast from the run.

"Yes, but I can assure you I'm perfectly fine," I said, smiling at him. I caught a glimpse of his eyes, dark earthen eyes like his,before he sheepishly glanced down at his feet.

"Just making sure you don't overdo it, m'lady," he murmured. I smiled wider at him.

"Thank you for the concern," I replied, jogging off toward the gate. As soon as I ran up the steps toward the stone bridge, I felt it. His gaze was burning into my back, following my every move. I wanted to stop and look back, but knew that doing so would arouse suspicion. So I merely continued on as nothing had happened.

As soon as I set foot within the gateway's shadow, I could almost feel the electric tension of him following me, concentrating on nothing but his target: me. This was the way he stalked his victims, I realized, and a thrill of fear went through me. But it would not stop my goal. I scaled a few buildings and jumped to and from scaffoldings, all the while feeling his gaze intensify as we neared our destination. Whereas my footsteps were noisy against stone and wood, his were silent, and the anticipation was growing in the pit of my stomach.

I managed to reach my goal before he did, but I could sense him following close behind. As I leapt over the wall, I used my last ounce of strength to sprint full-out toward the open door at the base of the tower, and when I reached it, I slammed it shut behind me. Breathing hard, I barely glanced at the sleeping guard on his pallet before I began my swift and quiet ascent up the stone steps to the top. I reached a door about halfway up, but didn't make to open it, knowing it led to the balcony, and an easier opening for him to me. This is what I intended as payback, so I would make him work for it.

A minute later, I was able to breathe in the clear night air, tinged with a hint of sea salt coming in from the ocean. Bolting the trapdoor I had come through shut, I hastily scattered some of the straw I had brought up earlier in the day across it. The tension in my stomach had spread to every particle in my body as I stepped toward the western lookout point, and I waited quietly, trying to watch the moon but really listening for him.

I knew he had reached the balcony when I heard an uncharacteristic screech of the lamp hanging from the post as he pulled himself up, climbing, eagerly now, up the stone toward his destination. As good an assassin as he was, I still heard his light footsteps crunch down on the straw spread on the ground. For a split second, I contemplated not turning, making him suffer for the frustration he'd caused me down in the alleyway. But I relented; after all, I was as eager for this as he was.

Slowly, I turned, drawing my hood back as I did so. By all the heavens, the fire in his eyes was nearly tangible as he drew in a shaky breath, trying to compose himself. But no, we'd gone too far in this game to stop now. I lifted my hand, turning it palm up, and, mirroring his own smirk from the alley, motioned him forward.

He crossed the distance between us in three strides, his breath visibly quickening as his shoulders heaved, before he was suddenly before me and-

Oh. My. God! His hands were on me, lips crashing down on mine in a bruising kiss which I returned just as eagerly. Those callused hands of his, the hands of a killer, would not stay still; he grasped the back of my neck, lifting my chin so his mouth could suckle on my throat while his other hand strayed to my backside, lifting me up against the stone so I could wrap my legs around his waist.

My back arched as his chapped lips brushed over the skin of my collarbones as he pulled open my tunic, the rough stubble on his chin lightly tickling the tops of my breasts as he swiftly made his way down. My own hands scrabbled against his armor, cursing the complexity of its design, and I heard him chuckle as I fussed with it, trying to violently rip it from his person.

"So impatient…" I could hear the increased tension in his voice, feel the very obvious arousal pulsing between my legs as he slowly laid me on the straw, stripping me of my garments and throwing them to a corner of the tower. His hood had fallen back, allowing me to see his burning earthen eyes looking down on me as though I were his savior. He lowered his lips to my breasts once more, and, closing my eyes against the sudden onslaught of his tongue, I clasped the back of his head to my chest, soft moans escaping my lips.

"Ah…" My breath caught as I felt one of his now-bare hands graze that secret place between my legs, and I let out a strangled groan.

"Please…" He merely growled, shrugging out of his loose white garments, throwing them in a pile to join my own somewhere in the shadows. By this time, the moon was high overhead in the night sky, and when Altaïr turned to face me, all my breath escaped my lungs. My God he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, not that I had seen another man naked before.

The moonlight glistened off his sweat-damp skin, giving him an almost silvery glow. His eyes seemed to shimmer as he slowly drew back; I suppose to examine me as I did him. The look in his eyes haunted me and sent pleasurable tingles into my most secret regions, for he gazed at me as a starving man would on a banquet. His lips parted for a brief second, and an audible whoosh came whistling out as he slowly lowered himself onto me, covering my shivering frame with his warm body.

Immediately, my arms wrapped around his neck, as he snaked his arms under the small of my back, pulling my hips to meet his. A soft whine issued from the back of my throat as I felt him position himself between my legs, the tip of him gliding easily over the silken bud there. I nearly screamed in pleasure and frustration as he thrust himself against that spot several times over, heated air flowing over my ear as he breathlessly chuckled at my silent screams. I was nearing the end when I opened my eyes to plead with him, incessant moans issuing from my mouth, before he suddenly plunged himself into me, making the world go white.

I felt my toes curl against the backs of his well-muscled thighs, nails digging into his shoulders as he moved within me, slowly at first before getting faster and faster. His breath came in sharp gasps as he thrust into me, jarring my entire body with electric jolts. At every thrust, I could feel the fullness of him, strong and hard, his girth more than satisfying as he drew my hips to meet his in a violent collision. The friction he was creating dragged against my insides, causing my lower body to go limp in his hold in a deliciously submissive way. My arms tightened around his broad shoulders, and my legs unhitched from around his waist, opening like the wings of a butterfly, pushing my hips up to meet his as his thrusts grew more and more violent.

He was actually gasping for breath by the time my legs began to open further, and he slowed unexpectedly, much to my dismay. I cried out in frustrated agony as he lifted his face to gaze in my eyes, before a sudden jerk had me moaning for him again.

"Say my name." His voice was strained, low and husky, each word of his command punctuated by a swift buck of his hips, making me cry out in pleasure. I could barely lift my head to see through the haze that clouded my vision as we rocked back and forth, his shaft grazing that spot between my legs more insistently with the new position we were in. He growled and thrust into me harshly again.

"Maria." His voice—damn that voice that could reduce me to a puddle in mere seconds—was nothing I could deny when he said my name like that. The muscles in my neck straining, white puffs of breath issuing from my lips at a frenzied rate, I lifted my head, only to gaze into those beautiful fiery earthen eyes I loved so dearly. A wicked smile passed over his lips as he lowered his mouth to my breasts. Suddenly, his warm, wet tongue flicked over a nipple at the same time he drove himself into me, repeating his demand word by word, each punctuated by a powerful thrust.

"Say-"

"Ah-!"

"My-"

"Nn-!"

"Name!" I couldn't reply, the pleasure was too overwhelming. I didn't want to reply, because if I did, I knew he would know exactly who I was. He would see beneath the Templar emblem; all my strength and bravado would be stripped away until all that was left was the woman—me—moaning for him in his arms, defying everything in society and nature because I was secretly and desperately in love with him.

He held my hips firmly, hooking my legs over his shoulders as he drew my body closer to his with each thrust of his hips into me. I couldn't see, tears flowing freely from my eyes as he bucked into me, breath hot and heavy against my lips as his tongue passed over them. I felt one of his hands leave my hip, and I moaned in frustration at the loss of contact, before suddenly, everything went a bright white.

"ALTAÏR!" I screamed, body arching against him as his thumb drew circles around that sensitive spot between my legs. He thrust into me again and again, slipping his index finger in as he did so, prolonging the exquisite sensations I was feeling. I didn't know he was watching me intently, that his eyes were memorizing every move I made as he brought me to the pinnacle of pleasure again and again, until I was sobbing his name at every thrust.

My eyes peeked open a bit once when his thrusts jarred me, and it was then that I saw it. Altaïr knew the woman I really was; knew that I was truly and utterly his and his alone; knew that there was no other man in my life but him. But most of all, I could see that he knew my love for him.

His eyes held my gaze as he neared his own end, and I could feel in his body the exact moment he surrendered, throwing himself into a leap of faith as his body tensed over and around me, a low groan echoing in my ear before he collapsed on top of me. For a few minutes, neither of us could speak, but I wasn't about to complain, particularly when I could still feel him deep within me, our hearts gradually beginning to beat in time, the pulse spreading from where we were joined as one. My eyes were closed, tears staining my face as my breathing began to slow to normal and a heady drowsiness descended over me.

I was sure Altaïr could feel it too, because he made no move to remove himself from me. He remained sprawled out on top of me, his ear pressed to the valley between my breasts where I could feel the dull booming of my heart. Glancing up in the sky, I could see the moon was nearing the horizon again, and I began to fear for my love's life. Not trusting myself to speak, I gently clenched my inner body around him, and Altaïr groaned softly. His deep brown eyes lifted to mine, and he gently kissed me over my heart.

"I love you, Maria," he murmured softly, moving up on trembling arms to kiss my lips. I felt the tears start again as I whispered my love back to him, repeating it like a mantra. Slowly, as though not wanting to hurt me anymore than he had to, Altaïr lifted himself off of me, reaching for our clothes amongst the straw-covered stone. As soon as he removed himself from within me, I felt a part of myself leave forever, the part Altaïr would always keep, and I knew without words that he felt the same.

We dressed in silence as the moon dipped lower in the sky, until finally it began to descend into its watery bed. I lay looking up at Altaïr as he secured the last of his armor into place before gazing down at me. He must have seen the desolation in my eyes, because he lay beside me once more and embraced me, stroking my cheeks as I did the same, treasuring what could very well have been our last moments together. No words were really needed for what we felt, but he said them to reassure me anyway.

"I love you with my whole being, Maria. Do not ever forget," he murmured, cradling my face between his hands. I cupped his left hand to my face, stroking his rough skin as I gazed into his beautiful earthen eyes.

"I love you more than life itself, Altaïr." I choked, not being able to add "Just say the word and I will follow," knowing that it would be an impossible task as leaders of the Assassins and Templars. He smiled gently, a smile only I would ever see, before softly placing a kiss on my forehead. Knowing the time had come, I bit my lip as he rose, still holding one of my hands. Then Altaïr gazed at me reverently one last time before he turned and swiftly leaped off the tower.

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A/N: This is my Christmas present to my dear readers. Thank you for reading my stories! It means a great deal to me! Let me know if I should write another AC pairing, and I'll see what I can do.