Authress's Note: Urk... Sorry for the long update on this story. I've been writing this in pieces which usually get interrupted by homework or other plot ideas I have to figure out how to weave into other stories. But this one is FINALLY done... took me long enough ¬¬; The story is finally getting good and we're reaching the climax of this story. I'm going to have so much fun with the next chapter... I can just taste it!


Shadow
Temptation


Walking down the busy city street, Rio was ready to bounce off the walls. She knew very well that Tala was not happy with her growing interest in the raven-haired neko-jin. Never did she understand as to why Tala was so strict and cold about Rei. Even Kai, who had once felt the same way, seemed to be opening up to her crush ever since the incident on the cruse liner, accepting him into their tight family.

Kai had been correct in assuming the city police would come around questioning him with the town in an uproar of the Bái Hu Zu attack. Even Rio had been asked for questioning during one of her nights at the Benu. The club atmosphere changed with the presence of the police patrolling around. And on her way home from her college classes, she could have sworn she saw the same car following her around for a few days.

The Hiwatari became extremely uneasy and restless with the cops over his back the last few weeks. They even followed him around until he was home in his penthouse for the night. He hadn't such an onslaught of suits since Ian's death. And right about now, those days were not what he wanted to remember anymore than he already did.

But now, Rio hadn't pointed out anyone suspicious around her. Besides, the young Hiwatari was on her way to her first "official" – err well she never ran it by her brother—date with Rei, even though he did not know it yet!

Knocking on his apartment door, Rio quickly fixed her hair as she heard a shuffle from inside the apartment. When Rei opened the door, he felt his stomach flip at the sight of Rio.

And Rio could feel the same way. The neko-jin was dressed only in his boxers, socks, and sling. His hair was falling out of his long wrap and practically dismantled from his restless nights filled with nightmares. And the first thing that Rio took to notice was his nice six-pack and toned muscles. It just made Rio's knees give in, but she was good about masking that feeling from him.

"Wh-what are you doing here Ri? Err, not that I'm not happy to see you and all…" He stumbled on his words while a bigger smile grew on Rio's face than had been there previously.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out to the movies with me tonight. That is if you are up to it?" Rio pointed toward his injured arm with a raised brow. Rei glanced to it and smirked.

"You think something little like this would keep me from the movies with you?" Rio blushed and giggled at the comment, feeling her stomach doing somersaults in her body. "Come on in! I just need to… err… get dressed for the occasion." Rei stepped aside and opened the door more for Rio to enter.

Gazing around Rei's apartment, Rio took notice to the refurnished apartment room. From the new leather couch to the 50-inch digital flat screen TV and the array of paintings hanging on the decorated walls, Rio noted how well her brother paid his employees.

"Well, seems that my brother is treating you well," she smiled; sitting down on the couch, blatantly ignoring the Playboy magazine she was about to sit on. Rei's face flushed as he walked over and snatched the magazine from underneath Rio, putting it behind his back.

"Yeah, he's been good to me… err… not that way!" Rio giggled and wondered how many references people made to her brother being gay, when he clearly wasn't.

"Don't worry about it." Rei mushroom sighed and headed for the door to where she presumed to be his bedroom.

"I'll be right back…" With that Rei disappeared into the bedroom and Rio continued to look around the apartment. It took a bit of time before Rei reappeared from the room dressed in a loose pin striped button down shirt and jeans. His hair was still the same mess as it was before. Rio giggled and sat up.

"Let me help you… where's your bathroom?" Rei blushed and held up his hand.

"What are you going to do?"

"Fixing your hair… you perv!" she giggled. Rei rolled his eyes.

"Let me get the brush then…" Rei reappeared once again, a brush in his hands. Rio pointed to the couch, and Rei obeyed settling down on his couch. Rio sat down behind him and put the handle of the brush in her mouth while she started to figure out how to unwrap what was left of Rei's hair wrap. Rei just sat their patiently, until all his long raven hair was let loose.

"Wow… um Rei, did anyone ever tell you guys aren't suppose to have better hair than girls?" Rei chuckled at the comment.

"The more you talk, the longer this will take, and then you'll miss your movie…" Rio chirped and took the brush to the thick locks tidying it up much better than when she had first gotten to the apartment. Careful not to yank out the knots, Rio found it rather easy to fix up Rei's hair.

"Have you ever cut your hair?" she asked curiously as she had to use her finger to get out a few heavy knots.

"Um… not that I know of. Does your brother know you are here?" Rio bit her lip. "Are you going to get us in trouble?"

"Of course…not…" she tried to smile through the lie. "What Kai doesn't know won't hurt him."

"And how do you plan to keep this from him?"

"He's in his penthouse all day and night now with the cops flocking around him like bees to honey. He's too busy trying to cover everything up enough to elude them that he won't notice us go out to the movies… there!" Rio started to wrap his hair up, and surprisingly, that did not take much time or effort. Rei finally got up and grabbed his wallet with a smirk.

"And I thought girls were the ones who were suppose to take long to get ready!" laughed Rio.

"Well it is rather hard when you only have use of one arm my dear," he replied offering his only able hand to help her up. "So how exactly do you plan on keeping out of your brother's eye for the night? He does have his other employees around, unless you forgot that."

"One...well you see I am suppose to sing at the Benu tonight, and I told everyone there that I needed to not be disturbed. I was in need of meditation before this performance. Then I snuck out the fire escape after leaving a note I got an urgent call from my study group that our professor moved out exam up sooner," she smiled as they left the apartment and headed out of the building complex.

"Well aren't you the daredevil to sneak around someone like your brother. We can't necessarily go anywhere Kai might spend his night at. I like my head where it is... on top of my neck," Rei informed her.

"And that is why I thought the movies would be the best place. Kai hasn't gone to a movie theater since he broke up with Nikita-"

"Whoa, whoa. I thought he hates her. From all the interactions I've witnessed..."

"He does now for some unknown reason. From my understanding, he just called it off with her after like three years. And now he is extremely bitter towards her... but enough about my brother." This was Rio's night, she did not want any of her brother's influence to fall on tonight, or as little as she could possibly prevent.

"So what movie do you want to see?" asked Rei, who hadn't seen a movie himself in a rather long time. He also did not know what was out in the theaters.

"I was thinking 'The Notebook'. I've seen everything else worth seeing already..."

"Isn't that a chick flick? A sappy one?" asked Rei raising one eyebrow at the thought of the girly movie she was going to take him to see.

"What? Is Big Bad-ass Rei Kon afraid of being seen watching a movie such as 'The Notebook'? I'll ruin your image, correct?" asked Rio in a sarcastic manner.

"Well..."

"Don't be a baby! Come on, your reputation will be safe with me! I won't tell a soul!" she declared.

"If you promise..."

"Pinky swea-"

"RIO! Rio is that you?" The two turned around when they got the entrance of the theater to see three girls running towards them. "Ohmigod! It is you! What a surprise running into you! Is your brother around?" Rei recognized that girl speaking to be the date Kai had brought with him to the cruise liner; what was her name again? Rio felted herself try to groan, but her manners won out and she just tried to lower down her rage level that was building up being around the college girls.

"No Tomoe. He has his own life-"

"Who's your friend, Rio? I haven't seen him at the campus before!"

"That's because he doesn't go to-"

"Hello. I'm Aiko!"

"I'm Reyna!"

"I'm... hey! I've seen you before! You were the guy who went to the dinner when Kai-kun took me on that cruise liner!" Rio wanted to gag.

"The name's Rei."

"Ohmigod! What happened to your arm!" All three girls surrounded Rei and proceeded on with their questions while shoving Rio out to the side. The neko-kin never really got a chance to answer one question before another was bombarded onto him.

Rio growled, uncaring if anyone heard her or not anymore. She was not all too pleased that the college girls were interrupting her "date" with Rei. Finally gathering herself the bluenette jumped in to save Rei.

"He fell off a ladder. He's fine. He's out of college; he moved here half a year ago. He's an employee of my brother. He's single. Yes that is his natural hair color. No those aren't contacts. He had braces for years. And he's out with me! So if you will excuse us we are going to be late for our movie!"

Rio grabbed onto Rei's good arm and dragged him out of the crowd without another word or thought. Quickly paying for two tickets, Rei eyed the employee behind the glass. It was Bruce, one of Mariah's personal lackies. Narrowing his eyes at Bruce, the other made no visible sign he knew the customer, but Rei knew better... Mariah was nearby.

The Hiwatari girl had not noticed the change in Rei as she continued her precession of scowling towards herself. She couldn't believe how low those three girls would scrounge to find another dated. They'd even stoop low enough as to steal someone else's date in her presence!

"Hungry?" Rei asked as they passed the concession stand. Gazing over the selection of assorted goodies, Rio smiled and nodded. Thinking it over for a minute, the bluenette settled on a soda, buttered popcorn, and some Twislers. Rei just bought himself a small soda and popcorn, along with paying for Rio's snacks.

Quickly settling down in the back of the relatively crowded theater room, they had missed the previews and the opening scene was starting up.

No one was directly next to them nor was anyone sitting in the row in front of them either. Rio immediately got caught up in the tear-jerking love story. Her eyes were near their own tears during the movie, oblivious to the eyes at the entrance of the room staring holes in the back of her head. Rei was lost in his thought and flipping stomach to pay attention to anything else.

He couldn't helped but notice how Rio was not the childish girl that Lee and their leader had described to him when he was first informed about the Hiwataris and the mysterious power that they had stolen. But Rio was not a child, and Rei would have had to be blind not to notice that. He looked over her features, trying to avoid anything below her shoulders.

He noted how Rio wore her hair up in a messy way, but she made it look appealing. Her low 'v' cut shirt let her small pendant-like locket and hemp necklaces stand out, but not scream out at him. She barely wore any make, up except for her eyeliner and a light amount of shadow and powder. Her lips had a thin layer of lip-gloss and they looked rather...

By now Rio had this strange feeling that someone was staring at her. She blushed when she quickly glanced over to Rei, finding it was his golden cat eyes that where locked directly onto her.

"What's wrong, Rei?" she asked controlling the pitch of her voice as much as she could as she finally met his eye contact. Rei said nothing as he cupped her chin in his hand. Slowly he brushed his lips over hers before returning to softly press them to hers.

Rio's eyes shut in reaction to the touch and melted right into the soft kiss, following in suit. It seemed like an eternity before they parted enough to still feel each other's breath on their parted lips.

"Rio...I..." Rei didn't get a chance to finish his sentence or thought before Rio leaned forward and initiated another kiss. This time Rei's hand switched to cup around the back of her head, holding her closer to him. His tongue ran under her bottom lip asking permission for entrance into her mouth. Rio easily complied to his request and parted her lips enough to allow Rei's tongue to slide in and across hers.

Exploring her warm mouth, Rei moved his tongue across, memorizing everything curve and edge. Rio rested her hands on his chest as she started to press into him, getting lost in her first real kiss.

It was nothing like she had imagined after all those years of watching romantic films and reading novels. It was better than she had thought it would be and she melted right in her kiss. She couldn't explain the rush she was going through until she felt her lungs giving out and crying out for precious oxygen.

Parting from the heated kiss, Rio was panting for her breath, but Rei pulled her towards and nipped at her neck. Holding in a moan, Rio's eyes rolled back her sensation, as Rei started to suck on her neck and collarbone, brushing aside all her necklaces from his path.

"Rei... public..." Rei let her go at the comment as he noticed the movie was ending.

"Come," he said pulling her out of the seat and out of the theater. Allowing him to drag her along, Rio's mind was racing s they walked quickly back to Rei's apartment, trying to look nonchalantly about it.

As soon as the doors had closed and Rei had pushed the button for their floor, Rio had launched herself into her "bodyguard's" arms and desperately crushed her mouth to Rei's. Rei responded by pushing Rio backwards and pinning him to a wall, leaning down slightly to devour that hot mouth, using his tongue to demand entrance and to roughly duel Rio's for dominance - the pleasurable kind. Rio had willingly complied, groaning, the heat spreading through her like wild fire.

"Uhn! Rei…" The blunette grunted as Rei pulled back long enough to tug Rio's shirt from against her skin and slide one of his large hands up underneath before returning to his exploration of Rio's mouth. The younger woman shuddered and moaned loudly, fisting her hands in Rei's messy hair for a moment then releasing to glide down his shoulders and back.

The elevator doors swung open and they disengaged themselves from one another, both looking extremely rumpled and mussed then walked quickly down the hall to their rooms.

Rushing to the apartment door, Rio took the keys from Rei and looked through them until he found the correct key, but it was difficult for Rio to unlock the door with Rei breathing into her ear and nipping at her ear lobe.

"You know how to do that?" he asked huskily wrapping his arm around her waist and pressing himself against her lower back. "The key goes in that hole."

"I know where it goes... you are just making it difficult for me, Kon!" she groaned finally unlocking the door. Rei pushed her in and shut the door behind her, remembering to lock it on their way in.