Shadows in the Dark (Dark Lotus #1)

4. Adrian

I was soaring until I wasn’t. The crash back down to reality came quicker than the masochist currently writhing beneath me who was orgasming for the third time. The revulsion of shame always followed the few moments of completion I would feel when giving in to one of my own, but it would stay with me much longer.

Tonight would be no exception. It never was.

I pulled out of her still quivering pussy, ignoring the way her walls tried to selfishly hold me inside. My cock went flaccid the moment the air from this cool room hit me. I quickly removed the condom from my shaft, then disposed of it in the nearby garbage before tucking my cock back inside of my dress slacks.

Despite the coolness of the room, my skin felt clammy, and I loosened the buttons on the sleeve of my white button-down shirt. Considering that I had just fucked this blonde until she was a boneless mess, it was no surprise to me that I was still fully dressed.

The only things missing were my suit jacket, which was laid over the back of a chair, and my blood-red tie which I had used to tie Rue’s wrists together. Remembering the blonde, I moved over to her, then quickly undid her binds. She rolled partially over, her languorous body reminding me of the exhaustion I had driven her to.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, more out of common courtesy than actual concern.

“I’m always okay whenever with you,” she answered, the lazy smile of hers spreading as her eyes moved up my body. “Are we through playing tonight?”

I arched a brow at her. These submissives knew the rules, and one was to never question someone like me. She must’ve realized how badly she erred because she scrambled upright on shaky limbs.

“I’m sorry.”

“We are finished. I have somewhere I need to be.”

“Is this because of... I truly am sorry for questioning you, Ere... Sir.”

Addressing a dominant out of title was also worthy of a punishment, but I didn’t feel the need to do that tonight for two reasons. First, she didn’t know my name. None of these women at Lotus did. Every Dominant in this club used fictitious names. When on Olympus, I was simply known as Erebus69. The sixty-nine went without explanation, but the other part sometimes warranted one.

Erebus was the Greek god of darkness and shadows. Despite the demons inside of me, I could bring any woman I desired to heel. Some easier than others, but eventually they all dropped to their knees in front of me.

“I said I have somewhere I need to be. Put your legs over the edge, and give me a few seconds.”

The need to please me was strong inside of her, and that desire had her following my instructions to a “T”. As she sat and waited on me, I walked into the adjoining bathroom and quickly dampened a washcloth. After grabbing a towel as well, I returned to the blonde to clean her.

A few breathy moans escaped as I ran the cloth over some highly sensitive areas. A brief glance over at the nearby table, I could tell why. She had been the recipient of a pair of alligator clamps, and her gorgeous body was still reddened from the things I had done to her with the Wartenberg wheel. The sight of her raw flesh alone should have gotten me hard again.

It didn’t. That was simply another reason I had to leave. I was bored with these same women. Lotus was a very private club, and outside of the Dominants who ran it, no one knew where it was located. Only those explicitly invited by one of us were allowed entry. It limited the pool of submissives to choose from, especially since I desired true masochists. The demons inside of me would come to life during sex, and sometimes I even gave myself pause at the things I would come up with to do to them.

Their screams and other pained sounds were what kept me centered. I could make a woman moan with minimal effort, but I could make them scream with none. The blonde currently gathering her clothes had nearly yelled the roof off the sound-proof room tonight.

She hadn’t been the only submissive to do so, especially since she wasn’t even my favorite. The one who could claim that title once, could no longer do so. She had essentially been found, beaten and bloodied, floating in the San Francisco Bay.

When done, I grabbed my tie and hung it over my arm instead of putting it back on. I kissed the top of her forehead, then headed to the door. Before I could turn the handle, I paused at the sound of her voice.

“W-when do you want to see me again?”

I turned at her now mild voice, then shook my head.

“I’m not sure, but I will be in touch.”

With that, I left her alone. I made my way down the brick lined hallway, then shook my head as one of the other men as he held up a bottle of scotch. I rarely sat around with the guys to just hang out. I spoke enough to remain civil, but I had no real bond with them, or anyone else. My life here in San Francisco was even lonelier than my childhood had been because I’d at least had Aria back then. Now, I lived the life of a recluse.

“Why are you so reserved?” the voice of the recently fallen had asked me, and as the feminine words echoed in my head, I had no idea who had actually spoken them.

They were wrong. I wasn’t reserved. I had the demons of mine to keep me company, so I was never truly alone. Not now, or then. I walked past those same men, then left out the side door.

My Maserati Cielo was parked in the back alongside other exotic sportscars that belonged to those same Dominants. Our cars were the only ones to be seen because as a rule of the club, the submissives lucky enough to garner an invite were escorted here by one of the six drivers we employed. The location of this club was to remain private, and as such, the vehicles they arrived in had windows so dark that one couldn’t see out of them at all. The darkness in those cars were simply precursors for the darkness they would find inside the walls of Lotus. That was especially true for those who scened with me.

I got in my car and headed straight home. Due to a nearby sporting event, the highway was clearer than normal this time of night, so it didn’t take me nearly as long to get there as it usually did. I parked my car in the parking garage, then remained quiet as I passed by the doorman as he held open the door for me.

A curt nod was all that I gave in response to his “Welcome home, Mr. Benedict.” I went straight for the private elevator which went up to my penthouse, and only once inside of it did I sigh wearily.

Tonight, I had to work harder to get a much needed release, and the night replayed in my head repeatedly as I showered. Normally, I would recall the night’s event in vivid detail, and I would often use it to get myself off an additional time. Considering the effort I had to put in to get what I did tonight, the release would only frustrate me instead of please me.

“Something has to give,” I mumbled out loud to myself as I finally finished washing the blonde’s touch from my skin and the entire scene from my memory. I turned off the hot water, then grabbed the nearby towel.

Fifteen minutes later, I was in my living room in nothing but a pair of dark sweatpants. I sat down on the couch, then rested my bare feet on the top of the center table. The San Francisco skyline illuminated the view in front of me, the glittering lights stretching ahead for as far as the eye could see.

I turned my head and through that wall of windows, the dark silhouette of the Bay, and the illumination of one of its bridges came into focus. I used to sit outside at night when I was a young boy. While California was a different beast than Greece, I would sit on the rooftop of my family’s mansion in Athens, and look out at the water surrounding the Attica Peninsula.

“What are you doing up here all alone, Adrian? I’ve missed you inside.”

Aria had once followed me up there, and the words following her question had made me realize that I wasn’t as alone as I had felt at the time. My father used to run me ragged. Between my studies and the work I was made to do for the family’s shipping business, I’d rarely had a moment’s peace for myself.

I suppose if anyone would sense the weary restlessness inside of me, it would have been the girl with my face. We were identical twins, and because I was born seven minutes before her, I took credit for our appearance.

“I wanted some time to be alone,” I had responded when she sat down beside me.

“You’ll never be alone with me, Adrian. I feel everything that you feel, and I am here for you.”

She then set her soft hand on my knee, before leaning back and using both of her palms to brace herself. After that first night, she would also find me when I would return. Our bond was an unbreakable one, until death stole her from me.

No, it wasn’t death. It had been all me.

I had stolen the brightest light in my life and extinguished it, so it was not surprising that my world had been filled with darkness ever since. I dropped my feet from the table, then grabbed the laptop from the couch cushion beside me.

I had a true problem when it came to these women, so it didn’t shock me at all that I had already logged in and pulled up Olympus before I even realized I had. Subconsciously, I knew what I needed to do.

I clicked into the one chatroom that served as a lobby. This server was similar to some of the other social media ones out there, but these secret rooms had many features that the others didn’t have just yet. I normally only went private when I wanted to talk to one of the submissives alone. As I skimmed over the usernames of those logged on and within that group, I noticed one name that hadn’t been deleted just yet. Never again would I see the green light beside her name.

Killer_B is offline.

“You’re gone, just as I always knew you would be,” I muttered under my breath. There was no need to look for her any longer. I shook my head to dispel her memory, before exiting Olympus and closing my laptop.

Tonight, I needed to answer a few international emails, but then I would try to get some sleep. Most nights were spent in a fitful state, but often after a scene, I would sleep like the dead. I only hoped that tonight’s disappointment wouldn’t bring forth even more insomnia.