An unbreakable bond

I clung to Damien Jaeger, feeling safe in the comfort of his strong arms- the same ones that had ripped off my clothes just moments ago, "You're always so shy, my Queen." He said and my cheeks heated up.

"A freak in the sheets is just my type though."

I moved away from him, giving him a frightfully long look, "So are you trying to say that I'm not your type?"

Damien Jaeger chuckled, "You know that's not possible."

"Your words, not mine!" I said, already getting exasperated, "You know what? I'm just gonna leave. Some husband you are!"

I yanked the sheets as I got up and wrapped it around my naked body. This idea totally backfired as my eyes landed on a naked Damien Jaeger. My face flushed with embarrassment, "Gosh, Damien!" I cried and turned away from him.

"What?"

The bed shifted and soon, I felt a towering body envelope me from behind, "What is it, my shy bride?" Damien Jaeger asked, teasingly. His arms wrapped around my shoulders,"You want another session of complete, blissful relaxation?"

I felt his hot breath against my face and a bulge below, "Damien, stop it!"

"You know you don't want me to." He was right, I didn't! "Lying turns me on, you know."

He turned me to face him, his eyes fixed on my lips. I bit them seductively, making them harder to resist, "You make me crazy, Mélie!" I groaned and he lifted me in his arms to return back to bed.
~

"Damien?"

"Yes?"

"You still haven't told me about the other day?"

"What other day?" He asked.

I adjusted in his arms and briefly looked at him. The early morning sunlight against his morning face was something worth staring at for all eternity. Thankfully today was a weekend and we both didn't seem to be in a rush, "About Derrick, your brother."

"I mean, I absolutely had no idea you had a brother. And your stories...they're not really adding up." I stopped talking and looked at him another time, afraid he might have picked up an oddity in my tone. However, his facial expression was unchanged.

"Derrick's last name is Hudson." He said. I knew, which was what confused me all the more, "He's my stepbrother."

I kept mute, knowing that Damien Jaeger had another story to tell. He heaved a deep sigh, "My father and my mom never loved each other. Or at least for some time, my mother loved her husband." He started.

"It was an arranged marriage. A marriage of convenience. My mom's father was a million dollars in debts to my grandfather's company and since he couldn't afford to pay back after many years, my spoiled father made a request. He saw Serenity; my mom and fell in love with her."

"Or at least that was what he told her." He said and his voice suddenly became firm, "But he lied."

"My mother, she fell hopelessly in love with that man and she thought that he would love her back. But how could a man without a heart ever love someone?"

"He failed!" Damien Jaeger added, spitefully, "Reality dawned on my mother after she had me that she could never be loved by Bruce Jaeger because he was nothing more than the father of her son...and an abusive monster!"

"You mean!" I said with a gasp.

"He started being unfaithful. He had always been unfaithful. But when mom found out and confronted him about it, that was when he became a complete monster."

Damien Jaeger went silent. I felt his heartbeat getting louder and I rested my palm on his chest. This little gesture seemed to have comforted him a little as I felt his body becoming less stiff than it was.

"What happened next?" I asked after a while.

"When I turned 6 in February, mom left. She ran away."

"At first, I felt angry and hated her for it. But when my father brought her back as a 'gift' for me on my 11th birthday, I knew that I had no right to be angry." He said with regret and went mute again, "Mom returned with cancer." He continued.

The fragility in Damien Jaeger's voice told me that he was breaking down, "But my- that monster refused to get her treated."

"He felt that cancer was the universe's way of punishing her...because mom left him and fell in love with another man."

"And she even went as far as starting a new family. He felt like she didn't deserve to be happy."

I felt tears building up in my eyes as I pictured the scenarios in my head. How could a man be so evil?

"Still, mom fought for her life for 6 more years and died a day before I graduated high school."

Another round of silence fell upon us. The tears in my eyes had already had its way and were now running down my cheeks. I clung unto him tightly, knowing that I was only just sharing in his grief. We both had deep scars to show for our past but lying there silent in the comfort of his embrace, I yearned to take his pain away.

"On her dying bed, my mother made a request...and a confession."

I needn't be told what it was.

"I had a brother'" Damien Jaeger said, "She told me all about him with motherly pride, yet with regret and a heavy heart that felt she betrayed her first son."

"He didn't have any other family except me. His father passed away a few years ago. I was all that he had left to call family."

"He had just turned 12 and I was already an adult."

"So when my mother died, I looked for Derrick without my father's knowledge and I found him." Damien Jaeger said. In his silence, I recalled the rest of the story.

"I'm so sorry." I said in a whisper.

Damien Jaeger rocked my body against his without saying a word and I didn't urge him any further to talk as I myself became accustomed to the heavy silence which was accompanied by the heaviness inside my chest.

I'm so sorry, Damien Jaeger. My voice echoed in the void of my head.