Penumbra (The Midnight Society #2) (33 page)

Aria shook her head. “That wasn’t your fault,” she said, “Nor mine, I came to realize. The fault in that was Calisto’s, and Calisto’s alone.”

“You blamed yourself at the time, and I wanted to tell you that it wasn’t your fault. But every time I came close, I felt so much shame, and I was afraid that you’d hate me.”

“I hated
that you ignored me,” Aria replied. “You have no idea how much it hurt.”

“I know, and once again, I’m sorry,” I said. I took a deep breath, and then continued. “Finally, I don’t know the extent of Calisto’s brainwashing. I don’t know if I can trust myself. I feel like I’m in control now, but I don’t know what will happen when I wake up tomorrow. I figured pushing everyone away was the best way to protect everyone from me.”

“You never thought that by keeping us close to you, we could protect you from yourself?” Aria asked. “We could help fix you, and whatever potential shit was inside your head?”

“I was never good at asking for help.”

Aria sighed. “Typical male,” she said. There was a brief pause. “We moved really fast, didn’t we?”

I nodded. “Our romance—our chemistry—was instant. But hell, I figure when two people meant for each other found one another, there’s no such thing as a
minimum time to fall in love.”

“There is some basis behind the words ‘love at first sight,’” Aria agreed.

“When I found out I was programmed to fall in love with you, it tore my world apart. I thought that Calisto had done such a good job manipulating me that my feelings for you
felt
real, as opposed to
were
real. I couldn’t believe that I could have been played so easily. A small part of me didn’t want to give Calisto the satisfaction that she succeeded in her plan—that she had succeeded in making me fall in love with you. There was a small part of me that wanted to give you up just to prove to Calisto that I was the one in control and that she didn’t succeed in playing me for a fool. It took me a while to realize this, but she didn’t succeed after all. She failed to program me to fall in love with you.”

“What are you saying?” Aria looked at me as if I had poked her in the heart with my middle finger. I was quick to take her hands in mine.

“I fell in love with you on my own,” I replied.

And then our lips found one another, the pull from an invisible gravitational force telling us that at this very moment, o
ur mouths needed to kiss.

I missed the taste of her lips and her tongue.
I wanted it to be a gentle, loving kiss but once my mouth found hers, I lost all control. I wanted to devour her and as I crushed my lips to hers, our tongues tangling together, the only thought I was capable of was I needed to be inside her.

Her moans reverberated through her entire body and I felt my
self go hard, my erection straining against the front of my jeans. We continued to kiss hungrily, fueling our desires to be with one another.

I wanted her so badly. My fingers found their way underneath her blouse and in one swift motion I undid the back of her bra with my thumb and forefinger.

She pushed me back.

“Shadow,” she
whispered, shaking her head.

Though she was hesitant, h
er eyes told me differently.

I kissed her again.

My hands felt the hard buds of her nipples through her blouse, my thumb circling around them.

She moaned, but after a few s
econds, she pulled back once more.

Aria was resisting me, but her shallow breaths and her eager eyes said it all. She wanted to be ravaged. She just needed to be guided first.

I would take control.

“I want to fuck you,
underneath the stars,” I stated with complete authority just before I kissed her again. She was elated to take my mouth once more.

Through the thin fabric of her pants, my hands found the heat in between her legs. I pressed down with two firm fingers. Her anxious breaths, parted lips, and the look of need in her eyes told me what she wanted.

And I wanted it too. 

“S
trip for me,” I said.

This time, she didn’t resist.

I helped Aria by tearing off the buttons of her blouse while she removed her jeans. Slowly she unveiled her beautiful breasts.

I allowed my hands to run across her entire body, bathed by the moonlight, exploring all of her nakedness with my fingers.

Aria knelt on the passenger seat, her focus on the bulging erection in my pants. She reached over to my cock and rubbed the length of it with the palm of her hand.

I tilted my head back. Fuck. I needed her so badly.

My fingers found her pussy.

She was wet, allowing me to slide into her with ease.

Her moans were eup
horic as I continued to indulge her, my fingers moving in and out of her wet sex, the sound of my palm smacking against her skin. I focused on her face the entire time, seduced by her look of bliss. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was parted, as she continued to release sounds of ecstasy.

My cock was now aching. I needed her to satisfy it.

“Touch me,” I growled as I stroked her faster. Her hands immediately went to work on my belt and zipper as she focused on freeing my erection. She squeezed and stroked my hardened length, her eyes fixated on my look of satisfaction. One hand pumped the base of my flesh while the other massaged the tip of my head.

I closed my eyes, and allowed her soft hands to pleasure me.

Enough of the foreplay. It was time to fuck. 

She trembled as I lifted her onto my throbbing cock, and let out a satisfied moan as she slid down its full length.

While straddling me, her hands moved under my shirt and lifted it over my head. She rocked against me, moving up and down the length of my cock, slowly, taking pleasure with every inch that filled her. My mouth found the tip of her breasts as my tongue traced circles around each nipple.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head back.

We continued like this for a while, her pussy gliding up and down my length, both of us indulging in the passion and the pleasure.

Finally, she looked me in the eye and whispered, “Fuck me, hard.”

I grabbed her hips and thrust deeper inside her, my movements now fast and fierce. My mouth found her breast again, my lips pulling on her nipples, and her moans grew louder while her nails dug into my shoulders. She threw her head back and cried out while I continued to build up my pleasure with every urgent thrust.

And then, m
y entire body was seized with an intense climax that possessed me. I spilled myself inside her, my cock pulsating over and over again.

I felt the muscles of her pussy
clench tightly against my cock as she came as well, squeezing every last ounce of cum out of me.

Sweat glistened on our bodies while we caught our breaths as we came down from our orgasm, our eyes never leaving one another.

Minutes later, we were both lying on top of the trunk, cocooned in a blanket. We were entwined within one another while gazing at the stars, which reminded me of tiny chandeliers in the sky.

It was a perfect night. I hadn’t
been this happy since Cambodia and I wished this moment could have lasted forever. But soon, she would need to let me go.

In order to get to Calisto—in order to keep Aria safe—I needed to fade away from this world.

I was living on borrowed time.

“Shadow, I have to tell you something,” Aria began. However I was quick to hush her.

“Not now,” I said. “Whatever you have to say, it can wait.”

For now, I wanted to forget about every dark cloud that had been looming over my head for the past few years. For now, I just wanted to appreciate what I had at this very moment, which was Aria, wrapped in my arms.

“Okay,” Aria whispered as she nuzzled her head into my shoulder. “Maybe it’s not important anyways.”

I brushed her hair out of her face, and noticed that she was crying again.

“Did I do something wrong?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, it’s nothing you did,” she replied. “I’m just stupid.” There was a moment of pause. “You’ll always love me, right?”

I nodded.

“Of course,” I replied as I closed my eyes, “Until the day I die.”

#

Epilogue Two

Calisto

She watched as they buried her friend into the ground. It was a shame really since Calisto only had a handful of people she called friends.

So this was what Shadow must have felt when he buried Abraham, Calisto thought.

She wanted to get closer, to pay her last respects to Elena Zhao, but that would have compromised her. As long as Shadow was still alive, she couldn’t afford to be seen in public. No doubt, he was searching for her at this very moment.

After Elena had gone missing, Calisto ordered a massive manhunt in order to find her. Five days later, her network had uncovered the skeletal remains of Elena, encased in concrete at a new condo development sight in Kwonloon. Five men had been tortured and killed to obtain this information, all of them working for the Triad.

They all said the same thing: Shadow had murdered her and it was Fat Tsung, after betraying the Triad, who had helped him dispose of her body.

Well played brother,
Calisto thought.
I hurt your friends, and now you hurt mine.

As for Fat Tsung, Calisto had him kidnapped, flayed, and burnt alive. She left the rest of the Triad alone, allowing them to find themselves a new leader. After all, no telling when she’d need their help in the near future.

Calisto continued watching Elena’s funeral from afar. Her father, Yuen Xi, otherwise known as the Dragon, didn’t even shed a tear for his daughter—the old bastard. But then again, who was Calisto to judge? She couldn’t shed any tears either.

She wondered what an acceptable time period was to mourn Elena’s death. She figured that four more hours should do it. After all, tomorrow was another day, which meant more shit needed to be sorted out.

She was still skeptical that Shadow had the gall to murder Elena in cold blood. But if he did, it was practically a death sentence for him. Yuen Xi was not a man who let things go. With the backing of every powerful family in Asia, it was a fight that her stupid brother couldn’t win.

Perhaps it was for the best though, Calisto thought. At some point, her brother had to die—just so Calisto could breathe a little easier—but she wasn’t ready to let him go yet.

After all, she still loved the idiot.

She figured that when the time came, getting over the death of her brother would probably take a day or two at most. More time wasted.

Calisto also had to decide what to do with Lincoln, now that she had him in her clutches. A few weeks ago, she was leaning towards having him killed after one last epic fuck. The thought of her dominating Lincoln, while he was in chains, delighted her but now circumstances had changed.

Fuck, everything had changed because of
her
.

And of course finally, she needed to figure out just what to do with
her
.

Calisto was getting a headache from thinking too much.

The funeral was coming to an end, and Calisto decided that now was a good time as any to leave the cemetery before she was spotted.

She got into the backseat of the Mercedes Benz.

The driver closed the door behind her, and then entered into the driver’s seat.

“Where to boss?” he asked.

“The same place I go every night,” Calisto sighed, “Home.”

Keeping a low profile also meant sacrificing all the parties and wild nights out, which she missed terribly. But that was alright. Circumstances had changed after all.

Her phone suddenly buzzed, which took her by surprised. Only three people had access to her phone number: Elena Zhao being one of them, but now she was dead so she didn’t count anymore. Odin London was the second—the man who Calisto assigned to replace Elena as her second-in-command.

It was neither of them who had texted her, which could only mean it was the third person, who was a complete wildcard when it came to loyalty. 

She was intrigued.

Calisto flipped open the phone to see an attachment sent via text message. She opened it.

The image made her laugh immediately.

“Oh Golden Virgin, what
have
you been doing?” she asked, rhetorically as she stared at the image of Aria and Lincoln, sitting next to each other on a swing, lips locked together. It would have been a cute picture, if the origins of it weren’t rooted in deceit.

Another text came in.

“?,”
it read, simple and to the point.

Calisto thought about it for a moment, before responding.

Have Shadow see it.

She closed the phone and looked out the window.

The day was getting better already.

Calisto smiled. It didn’t take long to get over Elena after all.

FIN.