ᗰOᑎᔕTEᖇ [🧡 ᑎᗩᖇᑌᕼIᑎᗩ 💜] [Ɱҽէąʍօɾքհօʂìʂ] Bσσƙ Oɳҽ

Fear

Chapter Twenty-Three

Fear

April 7, 2010

The door creaked.

Languid lids raised a sliver, sleepy blue orbs blinking sluggishly in the pitch-blackness of the bedroom. Ino groaned, swiping latent moisture from her tired eyes as her bleary gaze swung to the fiery red, illuminating numbers slicing through the darkness. Her drowsy mind struggled to make out the projected time on the digital clock.

2:14 am.

Blonde brows creased when another creak reached her ears. A small current of unease coiled, tingling warning signs of alarm slithering up her spine before easing as the covers shifted.

Tension leeched from her shoulders.

Sai was home.

An increasingly rare occurrence, but one she welcomed whole wholeheartedly.

She missed him.

Missed his awkward, hilarious and usually incorrect assessments of social situations.

His beautiful sketches and the subtle tranquil expression that graced his face when ink met paper.

The warmth and safety of his arms.

Arms that were curling around her slender form even now.

The fine hairs at her nape stood on end, goosebumps pebbling her flesh.

Confusion bloomed, muting the contentment that usually followed an embrace by the former Root nin.

The body pressed to her spine felt really...cold...

Frigid.

Heated lips pressed against the back of her neck, the gentle smooch achingly familiar, turning her thoughts from his low body temperature. A shiver of desire slithered through her body as the soft pecks met the sensitive skin below her ear, traced her bare shoulder, trailed down her upper arm before reversing course.

"Ino." he breathed against her ear.

His husky murmur igniting a flame of lust. Seeking hands slipped beneath the soft cotton of her tank top. Chilly fingers finding her nipples. Ino shuddered, the glacial sensual caress conflicting, stirring and cooling her ardor.

"Your hands are cold, Sai." she complained on a soft moan.

The abrupt pinching of the harden peaks ripped the grievance from her mind. It felt as if years had passed since they'd made love. Long before her assignment of traipsing through the muck that was a jubokko's mind, Sai's new position and duties had whittled away their time together. Ending the date nights they shared on Friday, the one sided chatter over breakfast she loved, and the finger painting sessions that often led to gentle loving. In place of the beautiful days their relationship spawned, Ino found herself all alone at night with nothing but the nerve racking aftermath of the horrors she'd witness in the psyche of humans turned monsters. Sai being home was rare enough, intimacy was even more so.

Hot, cold or in between she'd take what she could get.

She needed him.

Physically.

Emotionally.

She wanted to feel safe and cared for in a way she hadn't felt in a while.

To bask in the shelter and protection of the person she loved more than anything.