ᴀᴘʜʀᴏᴅɪᴛᴇ // $ᴜɪᴄɪᴅᴇʙᴏʏ$

Chapter Twenty One

SCOTT

Dreams chased me, memory moving into memory in a turbulent race, being with Sienna for very few, very precious hours. Touching her skin and seeing her smile bloom when she talked. And then oddly, I started to dream of Aphrodite, fussing over me, threatening me, cursing at me all the time. Her expression when I told her she was mine now, the fear in her eyes when I'd taken her away, and her two ex-boyfriend's lives in the palm of my hand. The unhappiness in her green eyes and the marks along her forearms.

Then, I was back again; awake again, in the very chilly, dank room of the warehouse my homies had made up for me for our regrouping. I could tell by my learned internal clock that it was dawn and time to get up, even though my body tempted me with more sleep. Giving in for just a few moments, I relaxed on the mattress and breathed.

A loud, smooth sigh emitted in the small bedroom, and my eyes were open again. I stayed still as I felt something crawl along my thigh, first going up, and then slowly roaming down. My body instantly awoke to full alert. Glancing down, I saw a foot with toenails painted the color of cherries and watched as that small foot moved along my thigh, slowly and gently, sleepily and softly.

And just after I discovered the friction to my leg, I then felt fingers on my bare back. I seemed to slowly realize every foreign feeling on my body, my nerve endings coming to life and feeling skin to skin contact. I was about to turn, about to push Aphrodite away, until her moving leg enveloped mine, and entangled our limbs and brought her already close body flush against my back. And when she pressed her face between my shoulder blades, I glanced behind me and saw her deep in a dormant sleep.

Now, as Aphrodite tightened her leg around my thigh and snuggled closer to me, I realized that it was just her body reacting normally during sleep.

She stretched, a low, almost purring sound vibrating in her throat, and I could feel every curve and surface of her body against me. I felt her nails slide along my skin softly as she moved, felt the bare skin of her stomach against me as her tank top rose up from her stretching, and almost cringed at the gentle tickle of her blonde waves along my back.

And when I felt her stretch again, and her left hand very slowly moved forward over my waist, I moved away, sitting up at the edge of the bed and glanced behind at her.

Her hand drooped when I moved, landing in the space my body had occupied, and her other limbs curled in. Her hair was a wild mess as usual, a few sunshine blonde waves now taking up my side of the bed and the others behind her, hanging off the edge of the mattress. She breathed steadily through her slightly parted red lips. I watched her draw her eyebrows together in sleep, assuming she was dreaming as she slowly and sleepily rolled onto her back, her right hand now resting on the side of her head.

I couldn't stop my eyes from wandering down to the visible white skin of her stomach where her shirt was bunched up from her restlessness.

I looked away then and convinced myself that my eyes only felt the need to roam because of my memory of Sienna during sleep.

Life suddenly seemed so much crueler now that she was gone.

◇◇◇

I observed the clouds in the chilly, grey early morning just a few yards from the warehouse and storage units as I shuffled through a stack of one hundred dollar bills, counting them. The dense fog lingering over the tops of trees gave off a threatening, almost spooky vibe. The sun had been swallowed by the empowering clouds.

I continued to watch the fog with a cigarette in my mouth as I heard Summit approach.

"The guys are paying one of the more... secondary gangs a visit this morning. They'll get the weapons we need so we have something." Summit stood next to me, his voice rough from morning as he spoke. "More weapons are also being shipped from our boys in New York. It'll take a while to get 'em, but the generous donation of the gang will see us through until then."