ᴀᴘʜʀᴏᴅɪᴛᴇ // $ᴜɪᴄɪᴅᴇʙᴏʏ$

Chapter Forty One

SCOTT

Unfortunately, my work called me away again before Aphrodite could even finish getting dressed.

Work kept me away for most of the day. The police department was still looking for me and Aphrodite, but there was a bigger problem now, the Italian mob was apparently after me.

I came back to Aphrodite late in the night, the thought of the Italian mob after me completely out of my mind. She seemed to not be allowing thoughts of her mom affect her the way I thought they might when discovering the things she did today. Or maybe she was once again locking it away deep inside herself so she wouldn't be reduced to the crying mess she had become the day she cut her thigh so long ago. But whatever the reason, she greeted me with desire in her eyes and insistency in her hands, the redness of her cheek from the slaps of her mom's attempts faded and gone.

She may be using her lust to cover up the pain. I suddenly thought of Sienna, shook my head to clear it, and shed Aphrodite's clothing as she did the same to me.

I made her grasp the bars of the headboard as she kneeled on her knees, spreading her thighs apart so I could kneel right behind her. I kept only her bra on her body because I found that I loved the sight of the pretty dark underwear she always seemed to be wearing. I rubbed my mouth against the back of her neck after moving her long hair over her shoulder, reached forward and placed my large hands over hers around the bars before I slowly entered her, knowing that she hadn't really been given time to heal from her soreness, and oddly not caring because we both refused to wait. I bucked her against the headboard, brought her to the point where she was loud and shameless, encouraging me with her words and her arousing sounds. I felt her body quake in front of mine as I pumped into her and heard her gasp and moan when I hit the right spot.

"Right there." She breathed.

I reeled my hips back and gave her the long pushes we needed, moaned against her neck when she tilted her pelvis back for more resistance. I ran my hands down her arms and grabbed her tits before moving down to touch her waist. Going further, I ran my hands along her wetness, making her whimper and clench around me, and trailed her shiny arousal up her lower stomach. I watched as she turned her head to peek at me over her shoulder and then I kissed and licked her cheek. Then she started talking to me again, driving me to madness with her tantalizing, breathless voice.

"Fuck me harder." She said to me, kissing me softly all over my face as she held my cheek with her hand.

I growled at her, wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her away from the headboard, bending us forward and holding myself up by my other hand on my knees. I held Aphrodite's lower half against me as she set her own hands on the mattress, whimpering loudly for me as I pounded away at her wet pussy. I groaned against her hair and found that I desperately wanted to finish so I could feel the overwhelming release. I pumped at the speed I knew would undo me, rode her right through her orgasm and straight to my own. I bumped against her a few more times as I finished, listening to her soft, satisfied moaning as she came down from the high.

We lied down next to each other and stared up at the ceiling as I thought back to the day I met her for the first time. The beautiful blonde with red lips scared shitless standing at my cousin's door, the light of the day shining down on her, making her glow. I thought back to when I showed her how to use a gun and her face turned pale. Then she fell in love with my cousin and I kidnapped her months later, and things changed. Then we knew each other, and the balance shifted.

Now, we lied there exhausted and sweaty next to each other in my bed.

Aphrodite's bra rose and fell with her chest, and as if she were reading my mind, she said, "What happened to us? I was with your cousin. You kidnapped me. Now we're here. How did we get here?"

I had one arm behind my head with my eyes closed. I took a breath before I answered her. "Life is unbalanced." I murmured, telling her again something she knew all too well to be true. "Lust can be just as fucking crippling as love."

"Would you consider me your lover?" She asked me, taking me a little by surprise.

I slowly opened my eyes and turned my head to look over at her. "Do you consider yourself my lover?"

She looked over and met my eyes, and I wondered how she had gotten to be so comfortable with me.

"No." She said.

"Understandable." I said and turned my head back to the ceiling as I smiled. "But you are."

I suddenly felt the need to have her curl herself against me and hold her, thought maybe I would be content enough to simply take her hand into mine. I knew that we remained touching each other after sex last night right before we fell asleep, but to touch her now seemed different. I didn't really understand, maybe I didn't want to, but if I held her right now, I felt maybe that something inside me that I needed to protect would fall and not belong to me anymore.

But after she fell into a deep sleep and her restlessness controlled her body, I felt Aphrodite roll closer to me and hug my arm.

◇◇◇

I rested for about an hour as she slept. Feeling the need to get up, I unwrapped Aphrodite's limbs constricting me, and scooted away from her sleepy, reaching hands as I pulled on my pants. I rubbed the exhaustion out of my eyes and stretched and cracked my neck and shoulders.

My eyes widened and my heart stopped when I saw the form of Sienna standing right in front of me.

It was so quick. Not even for half of a second was she right there. I swear she was. She had to be because now my heart ached, now my chest felt heavy with something I couldn't quite place. I found myself suddenly longing for her, longing for the ability to talk to her, if only for a few moments, and ask her questions I felt I needed to ask for my sanity. I needed to hear her tell me things so I could know that they were true. I needed to prove certain accusations wrong so I could move on.

My dream from the night before suddenly came to my mind, the image of Sienna looking down at me as the men attacked me and refusing to help, simply watching, simply taking from me everything I'd already given her all over again.

I shook my head and forced myself not to think about things like that because I couldn't...

Couldn't what? I asked myself. What couldn't I do?

I couldn't do the impossible. I couldn't believe certain things about Sienna because I didn't know if I could survive it.

She was haunting me, plaguing me, and following me like a shadow in a way I didn't want.

I looked over at Aphrodite as she clumsily threw the pillow away from her in her sleep and decided that I needed a distraction. Rising from the bed, I found Summit in the warehouse watching the monitors of footage from various cameras we placed in areas that needed to be watched. We didn't speak, didn't have to because we had known each other for so long. Movement from one of the screens had my eyes drifting towards it, telling me that it was from the camera installed outside of Lieutenant Brooks' home. I inched closer to the screen along with Summit and watched as a man approached the door and simply walked inside.

"Who is that?" Summit asked, tapping against the monitor for a better picture. I squinted as we rewound the tape.

My blood ran cold, my fists clenched, my thoughts turned dark as I watched and something spread through me, something in the form of intense anger and anticipation mixed into one overwhelming feeling.

"I don't know why the fuck he would be at the Lieutenant's house, but that's Sienna's ex-husband, Sam." I answered through gritted teeth.