| Fan Fiction |
by x.shuang.dao.x
Robert Strong was 78 years old. But he was almost every bit like what his name suggested. He was the vice chairman of Trailblaze Technology, one of the leading electronic devices company in the world. He had been holding this position for more than twenty years and had been a great help in boosting the company’s status to what it was presently. But recently he had been turning down proposals from the marketing department to upgrade the image of Trailblaze, citing ridiculous reasons for his actions.
The marketing department wasn’t exactly very happy with what he was doing. Besides, the head of the marketing department was looking for a promotion. With the old fogey in his way, William Koo could accomplish nothing. Anyway, it was time someone took over from the reins of Robert Strong. He had occupied the place since he was 50. The company needed some new blood in the lead. The chairman was a relatively young man who had fresh and interesting ideas for the company but like William, Robert Strong had to stand in his way for everything and no plan was ever executed unless Strong agreed to it. He never agreed to anything except his own ideas.
William couldn’t wait until Strong was gotten rid of. Because till that day, Trailblaze would forever be stuck in the same spot without moving forward. He liked to think that he was doing the whole of Trailblaze and the new chairman a gigantic favour.
Robert Strong was on a month-long vacation in South Africa. Obviously William Koo thought this was the best time to finish him off and let him rot in the wilderness and probably get devoured by hungry vultures.
Kale was fine with William’s request. After all, all his lodgings and air ticket fares were provided for. In addition to that, he still had close to a million to gain. There wasn’t anything bad about leaving the country at all, except he would be away from Ashley for a while. The idea hadn’t appealed to him at the time, but a contract was a contract and Kale never turned down any projects. He treated every project like a challenge and running away from challenges would be an insult to his name.
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Owodog’s cell started vibrating in his jeans’ pocket. Unfortunately, his jeans were lying on the floor where he could neither hear nor feel the vibration. It stopped vibrating for a few moments then it began shaking violently again.
He had just stepped out of the shower and was towelling himself dry. Then making as little noise as he could, he opened the bathroom door and walked naked across the room in search of his boxers. He found them lying next to the bed and quickly put them on as he grabbed his jeans and wore them as swiftly as he could. He took a much longer time to find his t-shirt. It lay in a heap by the door next to Elisha’s top and skirt. Owodog frowned. Had they really been in such a hurry?
Grabbing a pen from the side table, he scrawled a note and left it beside the lamp. He slapped quite a few hundred bucks down beside the note and used the telephone to weigh them down. He glanced at Elisha who was still asleep. Hanging back for one more moment, Owodog pulled up the covers to shield her from the blast from the air-conditioner. She moaned but didn’t wake up.
Owodog hurriedly left after gathering all his effects.
Once he had closed the door behind him, his phone started vibrating again. He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled it out. Ashley’s name flashed on the 176 by 220 TFT screen. Owodog’s brows were furrowed even more. It was two in the morning. Why would Ashley be calling him at such a weird hour?
“Hello?” Owodog said softly as he answered the call.
“Ao Quan..?” Her voice was feeble.
“Ash? What’s wrong?” He began to increase his walking speed as he made his way to his car.
There was no reply and Owodog heard soft sobs through the phone. It was the second time in no more than four days this was happening. Worried and uneasy, Owodog continued asking, “Ash? Are you okay? Aren’t you at Yu’s place? Is Yu there?”
“Quan! He…” Ashley broke into uncontrollable sobs again.
“He what? What is Yu doing? What did he do to you?” Owodog’s tone was demanding this time as his thoughts were bombarded with notions of Fabien doing something he wasn’t supposed to.
Ashley couldn’t speak anymore.
Owodog was practically running now. “Ash, I’ll be right over.” He hung up and sprinted the rest of the way.
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Owodog pounded on Fabien’s door. “Ash! Open up!” He didn’t even care if he was waking up the neighbours. “Ashley!”
It was almost five minutes before Ashley opened the door. Once Owodog let himself into the apartment, Ashley burst into tears again and Owodog said nothing but just took her into his arms. Sam twirled around his leg and mewed pitifully.
When Ashley’s sobs finally slowed and softened, Owodog let her go. She picked Sam up as Owodog went around the apartment in search of Fabien. Apparently he wasn’t at home anymore. Owodog cursed himself for letting Ashley stay here. Obviously Fabien didn’t have enough self-restraint and willpower.
Owodog didn’t have any other choice now. He would have to take the risk that Ashley’s psycho-stalker might check out his place. But before he made any decision, he was going to consult Ashley first this time. He went to the living room where she was huddled on the couch, hugging Sam.
“Ash, will you be comfortable staying with me? Or should I put you up at a hotel first?”
She froze a little at his question. Did she trust him enough? Would she still be able to live so closely with another man after what had happened with Fabien? Ashley blinked at Owodog as her brain whirred to come up with a resolve. Staying in a hotel alone didn’t appeal to her as well. She decided to believe in herself and her trust in Owodog. “I’ll stay with you,” She said softly.
“Grab some stuff then, we’ll leave now.” Owodog said.
He accompanied her to the guest room where she was occupying and waited as she dumped a few stray articles of clothing into her holdall which was already quite packed. Then, pulling her jacket more snugly around herself, she took the holdall and left the room with Sam in her arms and Owodog in tow.
Owodog locked up behind him as they left. He would return the keys to Fabien when he confronted him as soon as possible.
The car trip was made mostly in silence except for occasional mews from Sam, who looked somewhat as forlorn as his mistress. Perhaps he was missing Monkey and Luna, just as Ashley was.
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Sam curled up into a ball on Owodog’s couch between his cushions and fell asleep without bothering about his mistress.
Owodog had tucked her into bed and he placed the key to her room on the side table. “I don’t have any duplicates. If you’re afraid you can lock the door,” Owodog informed Ashley. As he was leaving the room, he said, “Sleep tight. Don’t think about anything. If you want anything, just holler and I’ll be here.” He switched off the lights and was about to close the door when Ashley called his name.
“Quan!” She sat up suddenly.
Owodog stuck his head back into the room. “Yes?”
“Can you please hold me?” She said quietly. There was a hint of tears in her slightly quivering voice.
“Huh?” was all Owodog could say.
“Please?” Ashley pleaded.
“Um, but…”
“Ao Quan…”
“Okay.”
Owodog walked into the semi-darkness towards Ashley. He sat down on the bed outside the covers beside her and she flung her arms around him. He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back in a comforting manner as she rested her head against his chest and cried silently.
The tears dampened Owodog’s tee but he didn’t mind. He hugged her tighter.
Owodog wasn’t sure how long they remained like that, but Ashley spoke all of a sudden.
“Quan, Yu… He…”
“Hush now, don’t think about Yu anymore.” Owodog held the back of her head and fingered with her hair. It would have been awfully tempting but none of them had noticed.
Ashley moved and rested her chin on his shoulder. She was desperate to get that offensive incident out of her mind. Yet it was still too fresh. Her hands dropped from where they were positioned on Owodog’s shoulder blade to his waist where she could feel the waistband of his boxers. “Ao Quan, kiss me.”
Owodog was so taken aback by her request he blurted out, “What? Why?”
Ashley removed her chin from his shoulder so she could be face-to-face with him.
“Are you doing this to get over what had happened just now?” Owodog asked nervously.
“I don’t know. I just…”
“Ash, you know I can’t do this.” Owodog protested, afraid to do anything that might hurt her.
“You can! I just—I—I just want you now.”
“B—b—but—but—” Owodog felt like a wimp. If Ashley said she wanted him, why was he still holding back? There wasn’t even a need for but’s anymore. He gazed into her eyes. All he saw was desolation and misery. She was yearning for someone who could reinstate the hope in her and she was in dire need of love and concern.
Owodog closed the gap between their lips. If he had known he’d be kissing Ashley now, he would have postponed the trip to the strip-club. He wanted Ashley more than anything else; but he had just had sex with a stripper and the sight and feel were still deeply etched in his brain. If anything, Owodog felt he was being unfair to Ashley for contaminating their present kiss.
But it was nothing like what they had shared before. It was neither as fierce as their first one, nor as filled with guilt and haste as their second one. This time it was unhurried and sensual. Nothing else but their lips moved. Owodog’s hands were firmly planted at the back of her head and Ashley’s were still settled on his waist.
Just like that, they probed and explored the depths of each other’s mouths for a long time, with neither making other advances.
Owodog pulled away first. “I… You’d better get some rest.” He stood up to leave.
Ashley grabbed his hand.
Owodog slipped his hand out of hers gently. “Just shout if you need me.” He left her feeling all worked up and forlorn as he closed the door and the darkness enveloped her.
He stood outside her door and stared into space in a daze. His fingers touched his lips subconsciously. Then he remembered Fabien. And Owodog swore he was going to make Fabien pay for violating Ashley even though he wasn’t exactly sure what Fabien had really done.
As he went to his kitchen to pour himself a glass of beer, Ashley cried herself to sleep in his guest room, losing herself in her memories of Monkey and what seemed to be a rejection from Owodog.
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Kale was staking out Robert Strong’s bungalow, which he had built in South Africa some years back. Crickets were chirping in the long grass but there was absolute silence otherwise. Kale crept around the tall, big trees as he recorded in his PDA the positions of the surveillance cameras. He had spotted nine of them when he snuck around in the afternoon, and he was now scanning the surroundings for other security devices he might have missed and those that were only activated at night.
It would be quite appropriate to say Kale was a night owl. He liked to work at night, just like how many predators were nocturnal. The darkness of the night usually offered cover that the brightness of day could not. He heard a creature’s wings flap in the tree above him but the sound slowly faded into silence. It did not bother him one bit as he concentrated on his task.
He would be making the final trip here the following night. The old man had only one more day to live his life, although he wouldn’t know.
Before dawn broke, Kale gathered his things and disappeared from the vicinity of Robert Strong’s bungalow in a flash. He would first ensure that Richard Xie was still alive and breathing and eating, then he would go back to his hotel room and sleep the whole day away. He needed to be at his best to complete his assignment.
He was already looking forward to it.
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Elisha awoke to the sound of her own cell phone ringing. It was the alarm; it meant that she had two hours to prepare to go to work.
She had expected Owodog to be gone, but she hadn’t expected to see the wad of notes on the table. She had not stated the amount she wanted last night, mainly because she left with Owodog in view of the fact that she felt herself being quite attracted to him. She liked him even more after last night, enough not to ask him for payment.
She had felt rather drawn to Mr K previously, the sex was great but it was always rushed. And one of her reasons for sleeping with him was that he was filthy rich. Fucking rich. She had been about to discuss with him and come to a mutual agreement about how much she’d be given, but Mr K had just taken out his wallet and gave her five fucking thousand dollars in cold, hard cash. Elisha was so shocked she almost gaped. And Mr K thought she wasn’t happy with the amount and was about to add to it.
Elisha had stuck with him because she didn’t know where else she could get such easy money. Her family was in the slumps and in huge debts because of her father’s addiction to gambling. Her mother slogged night and day to pay them off and Elisha knew she had to do her part too. Her father might as well have been dead, for all he did.
She had dressed in more conservative and formal clothes.
That was her in the day. A soft-spoken, down-to-earth librarian who appeared unadventurous and plain. It was a huge contrast from the wild, feisty and bewitching girl she turned into at night.
Elisha folded her skimpy pieces of clothes neatly and stuffed them into a separate compartment in her bag. She did not take risks of her alter ego being exposed to anyone else who did not need to know. That included her colleagues at the library. To them, she was the polite, simple and hardworking girl who worked while pursuing a part-time degree course in business management.
It was actually quite amazing how she could handle her time so well, considering that she had two jobs, school and a ton of projects. She never looked tired before either, and thus no one ever suspected that she had such a risqué job that took up the whole of her night and sometimes the wee hours of the morning.
With a demanding schedule like hers, Elisha had no time for real relationships. Besides, she knew that no man in his right mind would want to date and consider committing long-term to a stripper-prostitute.
Even so, she hoped she would see Owodog again. She already liked him more than Mr K, money matters aside. He was a whole lot more sensational than she had expected, and his wit and humour certainly appealed to her. She also hoped that Owodog would see her differently from all the lusty old men or the eligible young ones who could not see past her unconventional profession.
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->shuang.dao
okay that was the last of completed chapters in my reserve. lol. the next update will be soon cos chapter 9 is almost done... but not SO soon.
but in any case, expect some blood and bullets in the next chapter. :D