Semblance (12 page)

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Chapter Sixteen

It was a long sixteen hour flight. After we landed, I desired sleep. I had smuggled in an hour or two of rest but I was worn out from travelling and needed another few hours to recharge my batteries.

By the time we reached the hotel—a charming European inspired Villa on beachfront property—it was roughly 5 A.M. Cambodian time. I collapsed onto my bed, not bothering to change, and closed my eyes. Just as I began to fall asleep, there was a knock on my door.

“You’re kidding me,” I muttered. I trudged towards the door slowly as if I were wading through molasses.

When I opened it, a young Cambodian man greeted me. He looked to be in his late teens and was full of enthusiasm as he spoke.

“Tut-tut driver,” he beamed.

“What?”

“I’m tut-tut driver,” he repeated. “Mr. Shadow sent me to pick you up.”

“You’re kidding right? Do you know what time it is?”

He looked at his watched before replying. “Five fifteen.”

“That was a figurative question. Anyways, I’ll go after I get seven hours of sleep,” I replied. “Can you come back around noon?”

“Noooo,” he replied, his gentle voice full of concern. “Mr. Shadow made me promise to take you to Angkor Wat before 6:00 A
.M. I can’t break promise to him. He very good to me. Give me and wife a job.”

“You’re married?” I was shocked. He looked as if he hit puberty two minutes ago. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-Seven.”

“Must be the Asian gene,” I surmised. “Look, I know you made a promise to Mr. Shadow but I made a promise to my pillow to spend some quality time with it. I hope you understand.”

The tut-tut driver shook his head. “Please, it’s very beautiful.”

“What, Mr. Shadow? Yeah, he’s definitely not hard on the eyes.”

“No, Angkor Wat is very beautiful. We go see now, yes?”

“I’m sure it is very beautiful, but we can go later in the afternoon, yes?”

“No.”

I let out a huge sigh. “You’re not going to let me sleep, are you?”

He nodded. “I let you sleep later. For now, we go to Angkor Wat. Shadow waiting for you there.”

“Fine,” I gave in. “But next time you see Mr. Shadow, you tell him that Aria said he was a dick for dragging her ass out of bed so early in the morning.”

“Okay,” he nodded.

“On second thought, don’t say that. Just wait for me while I get ready.”

“Temperature today will be very warm. Dress with more skin. I’ll wait for Ms. Aria at front of hotel,” he said before taking his leave.

I closed the door and stared at my bed, tempted to dive into its sweet embrace. However if I did fall asleep again, the tut-tut driver would only be pounding away at my door again ten minutes later.

For a moment, I considered scaling the window ledges from the outside and breaking into a different room so I could have an affair with another bed. It probably wasn’t worth the effort.

I sighed.

When I finished changing and wandered into the lobby, sauntering like a tired creature out of a zombie flick, the tut-tut guy was waiting for me by the entranceway, still smiling.

“Tut-tut ready,” he said as he gestured for me to follow him. I had to admit, I was curious to know what a tut-tut was.

“You wait here and I bring it over,” he said as I waited in the hotel veranda. It wasn’t long before he pulled up in a vehicle that looked like the combination of a rickshaw and a Vespa scooter.

“That’s a tut-tut?” I asked.

He nodded. “That’s
my
tut-tut,” he said with a sense of pride. The vehicle clearly meant a lot to this guy, despite it looking like an unregulated death trap. “Please enjoy yourself.”

“I’ll try,” I mumbled as I sat in the vehicle.

Soon we were speeding away on the winding roads of the Cambodian streets, the darkness of the night melting away into a pale morning gray. I was amazed at all the beauty of Cambodia but saddened by the poverty as well. For every temple that we passed, I saw whole families sleeping on the streets.

It didn’t take long for my fears of sitting in the tut-tut to fade away. It was actually quite fun. In fact, there were quite a few of these tut-tuts on the road, which made me feel a bit better.

Eventually we reached our destination. I was completely blown away by the wondrous sight of Angkor Wat.

Standing against the backdrop of the early morning dawn was a majestic stone palace, hand crafted by the gods themselves. Five tall towers, the heads shaped like lotus blossoms, stood erect behind smooth stone walls, like mountaintops peeking through an ancient fortress.

A moat surrounded Angkor Wat, reminiscent of an old medieval castle, the dark waters deterring unwanted visitors from its surreal realm.

I felt as if I were standing at the nexus of the universe and behind Angkor Wat’s sacred walls were all the mysteries of the world, woven into one harmonious tapestry.

“Beautiful isn’t it?”

I spun around to see Shadow standing behind me, looking like a bronze Adonis, his smooth skin tanned from the Cambodian sun. His muscular frame was practically bursting out of his black, ribbed tank top. His bulging shoulders reminded me of boulders while his six-pack protruded through his tank top. He wore cargo shorts that hit his knees, his muscular thighs on full display. My mind diverted to my naughty dream of him on the plane and immediately I felt myself blushing.

Shadow took a step closer to me, his dark eyes tracing the curves of my body as he placed his strong hands on my bare shoulders. I felt the heat radiating off his body and I instantly felt wetness in between my legs. My stomach was fluttering and my heart was pounding like a jackhammer. I was breathing hard and struggled to maintain my composure.

He leaned closer to me as his breath glazed the side of my cheek. I was entranced by everything about him: his heart-stopping good looks, his hard sculpted body, the mystery behind his haunting past, and the excitement of his unpredictable future.

“You’re missing the sunrise,” he said in a soft, yet commanding voice, just before he turned me to the direction of Angkor Wat. I was captivated by the miracle before me.

Emerging through the five towers of the temple was the orange sun which casted its warm glow over its majestic kingdom. The sky was a canvas of ambient yellow light, which grew brighter as the sun made its ascension into the heavens.

Perhaps the most brilliant thing about this breathtaking scene was the reflection of the temple cast against the still waters of the moat. I was staring at an endless world where the sky and the earth met in a seamless union.

“See pretty lady,” the tut-tut driver said, “I knew you would like.”

I nodded, my eyes still transfixed on Angkor Wat. I was afraid that the second I looked away, it would vanish forever, like a forgotten dream.

“The City of Temples,” Shadow said, unveiling his knowledge of the holy place. “It was built to look like Mount Meru, home of the Hindu Gods.”

“Mister Shadow remembers the history I tell him yesterday,” the tut-tut driver said with excitement.

“I was trying to impress the lady,” Shadow sighed.

I turned to him and grinned. “Failure on your part for taking credit for someone else’s knowledge, though you do get full points for bringing me here. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s stunning.”

I felt myself tearing up at the thoughtfulness of Shadow’s gift. I couldn’t help but wonder what dad would have thought of Shadow if I had brought him home to dinner one night.

“You’re going to love it here. It’s your idea of a perfect vacation,” Shadow said. “There are ruins to explore, hot sunny weather, and friendly locals.”

The tut-tut driver tilted his head towards me politely.

“What’s your name anyways mister driver?” I asked.

“Narendrapong,” he replied, “But you can call me Johnny.”

“Huh?”

“He’s a fan of Johnny Depp movies,” Shadow explained. “Most tourists have trouble pronouncing his Cambodian name so he decided to take on something more American.”

“Pirates my favorite,” he said, flashing me two enthusiastic thumbs up. “I also like his Scissor Hands.”

“Well Johnny,” I said. “I’m really happy you dragged my whiny ass out of bed so I could experience this. I’ll always remember this sunrise. Thank you.”

“We’re not done with Angkor Wat yet,” Shadow said as he took my hand. A warm sensation from his touch radiated through my entire body like the burning sun.

“Come on, let’s check this place out,” he said.

“What?” I was surprised. “You’re telling me we can go inside?”

“Of course, it’s one of Cambodia’s main tourist attractions,” Shadow said before turning his attention towards Johnny. “We’ll probably be inside for a couple of hours.”

“Yes sir,” Johnny said. “I’ll be right here when you are done.”

Shadow looked at me with warm affectionate eyes. “Well, if you’re ready, let’s begin our second date.”

“Let’s,” I agreed.

#

The insides of Angkor Wat were just as beautiful as the outside. Shadow guided me through the different galleries, scaling across flat sandstone tiles and pointing out the intricate stone carvings that lined some of the walls.

“What are these?” I asked, gesturing towards a pair of naked women sculpted into the walls.

“They’re called Aspara,” Shadow replied, “Otherwise known as nymphs or dancing girls.”

“Strange things to have on holy temple walls,” I commented.

“They apparently help ward off evil spirits and demons from this place.”

“By giving them a lap dance?”

Shadow shrugged. “They actually seduced them into having sex, believe it or not.”

“Interesting.”

Shadow gestured towards another wall where a mean son-of-a-bitch was carved into the stone. “And here are the Dvarpala. They’re demonic temple guardians used to fight off other demons.”

“Was this all part of the same history lesson Johnny gave you yesterday?” I teased.

“Perhaps.”

We continued our exploration through the rest of the temple. I felt like an overstimulated kid, climbing over rocks and balancing on stone walls, while forgetting about all the stresses in the world.

Shadow seemed to enjoy watching me navigate through broken stone piles that littered the ground.

“You look really nice,” he said, the first compliment he gave me today.

My gaze danced across his large, sweaty body—admiring the raw strength that he exuberated—before finally settling on his eyes.

It was one of those romantic stares that you read about in books and saw on television, where everything around us faded from existence and we were the only two people left in the universe.

Shadow broke our staring contest; his eyes working slowly down my body, and then up again before settling on my lips. I practically whimpered when he licked his lips, and I imagined how soft and hard they’d be all at once--how they would feel on me.

Damn, I was so turned on.

“Hey look where we are,” Shadow said, pointing to the large, magnificent tower that stood over us like a silent giant. He was diving right into another little history lesson instead of diving into me, and I did my best to hide my disappointment.

“It’s lovely,” I said. It really was.

“It’s the main tower of Ankor Wat,” he said. “The temple of Vishnu.”

“How many times have you been here, to Cambodia?” I asked.

“A few; Cambodia is one of those places that has both captivated and broken my heart.”

“I noticed the poverty.”

It was sad.

“Have you set up business’s here, like Lincoln and Abraham?”

Shadow shook his head. “Between those two, they can create a sound business infrastructure that can last this country a lifetime. I don’t have the expertise like they do. Instead, I just contribute money wherever I can.”

I nodded.

We spent another hour exploring the temple ruins before hunger and thirst finally settled in. I was also a sweaty mess and was beginning to feel self-conscious of my appearance.

“I must look disgusting,” I said as I tugged on my shirt collar in a hopeless effort to cool myself down.”

“I’m not any better,” he said. Beads of sweat glistened across his bare shoulders and traces of it soaked the collar of his tank top. There was something about a sweaty, physical man that did it for me.

I prayed that I wasn’t blushing right now.

“Besides, I like a girl who doesn’t mind getting wet,” he said with mischief in his eyes.

Shit. If I wasn’t blushing before, I most certainly was now and damn it if I wasn’t picturing every way of getting wet with him.

“I need some water,” Shadow said. “If we’re ready to leave this place, we can head back to the tut-tut.”

“Water would be amazing.”