ᴀᴘʜʀᴏᴅɪᴛᴇ // $ᴜɪᴄɪᴅᴇʙᴏʏ$

Chapter Twenty Five

SCOTT

I let out a deep sigh through my nose as I stirred and felt something draped across my forehead. I slowly opened my eyes and turned my head towards Aphrodite. She was sitting next to me, her hand on my forehead checking my temperature, and then placed both of her hands onto the sides of my head. My temperature felt a little warm, but my sweat had dried up, and my eyes were once again in control.

She had also covered me in the blanket.

"Are you okay?" She asked softly and placed her fingers on my neck to check my pulse. When I nodded, she removed her hand and sighed.

I stared at her; saw the worry in her green eyes and felt... somewhat confused as to why she was so concerned for me.

I got shot at last night and it could have went straight through my skull. I sunk into the pit of my pain because of my unusual carelessness. But my confusion didn't stem from that. Aphrodite could have easily gotten away, could have easily let my pain overtake me. Instead, she cleaned and bandaged me, and continued to care for me even when I took over the bed. And even after she'd been screaming at me just a few days ago that she hated me.

I grunted a little as I moved onto my back, my neck was sore and aching from my movement. Aphrodite had yet to move. I saw that her hair was yet again tied back, something that wasn't very constant with her normally. But then again, she hadn't been acting like her normal self since the day she cut herself. She acted like I didn't notice things, but I did.

I thought I was coming to know her a little. She was normally an efficient woman with a glamour shell, and ready to fight back with her anger. Her upbringing had been abusive and cold. She reacted to that by distancing herself from people, honing her mind, fixing her goals and achieving them so she could escape her mother.

I took another deep breath and blinked slowly as I stared at her, noticing all the little things that didn't make up the woman she really was. I spoke low and deep. "Aphrodite." Slowly, I lifted a hand to her face, placed my fingers underneath her jaw, and gently brushed my thumb over her bare lips. "What happened to you?"

She frowned, but didn't turn away, didn't move her head as my thumb touched her lips again, the lips that she always kept red because it was something that made her who she was.

"Nothing." She whispered.

Her answer irritated me, but I didn't let it show. Instead, I found my eyes lowering and lingering. I glanced down and stared at her legs, the legs she still had yet to cover, the legs I had already seen, both unscathed and bloody from her own hand. I didn't know exactly where my eyes had settled, on her thighs or the panties above them.

I suddenly sat up then and leaned forward, staring at her the whole time with intense eyes. She drew in a breath and cringed when I brought my face close to hers. My eyes drifted down to her unpainted lips, my mouth just a small breath away, the bandaged side of my face almost touching her.

And then she inched back and turned away from me.

I felt the sudden urge to scoff loudly, the annoying itch of irritation heavy between my eyebrows. I had yet to figure out what that was about. I wasn't sure if I wanted to. Deciding to leave her to her inner suffering, I rose and walked out of the room, a sudden rage slowly starting to simmer underneath my skin.

And for reasons I couldn't explain, I slammed the door behind me, causing it to break.

◇◇◇

I decided to make a bedroom out of one of the storage spaces. The room was much bigger than the small room Aphrodite slept in, much more open. My guys and I moved in a bed for me, my own stash of weapons in case I would need them and a trunk full of my clothes. The soft yellow glow of a small lamp here and there gave the space a relaxing appearance.