Chapter Thirteen: Deceit.

The deceit

As the banquet progressed, with clinking glasses and polite laughter, Tyler leaned close to Damien and whispered, her voice barely audible beneath the soft music.

"I'm really sorry, but I need to leave."

After she got what she wanted, she went back to the dinning, but she felt so uncomfortable that she couldn't wait one more seconds in that environment, and even though the meal is just halfway, she had still requested to leave.

Damien turned to her, brows furrowed. "Now? Are you feeling better? Don't you like it here?"

"No, yes, I mean, it's not any of that," she said quickly, offering a small, apologetic smile. "Actually, my cousin messaged me. She lives just around the corner and is about to leave for her night shift. I haven't seen her in a long time, and I really want to catch her before she heads out."

Damien frowned, clearly unhappy with the idea. "Are you sure that's a good idea? You've barely recovered. You should be resting. And one of the reasons I brought you all the way from Singapore to California was so I could keep an eye on you and take very good care of you."

Tyler laughed softly, touched by his concern but unmoved. "You've already done more than enough. I'll be fine, I promise. It's just a quick stop. I need to see her."

Seeing the resolve in her eyes, Damien sighed in defeat. "Alright. But I'm driving you."

They both stepped away from the gathering, and Damien made a quick round to politely excuse himself from the family, saying he needed to drop Tyler off. Joseph raised a brow but said nothing just gave him a knowing smirk.

The car ride was quiet, filled with the soft hum of the engine and unspoken thoughts. When they arrived at the modest little house Tyler had described, Damien put the car in park but didn't unlock the doors just yet.

"So, he said slowly, glancing at the dimly lit house. "This cousin. You've never mentioned her before."

Tyler smiled, her hand already reaching for the door handle. "You never asked."

Damien tilted his head, his gaze sharpening. "I've asked about your family plenty of times. You always dodge. And now this cousin just pops out of nowhere?"

Her smile didn't fade, but something unreadable flickered in her eyes. "She's private like me. But next time you visit, I'll introduce you. Deal?"

Damien didn't look convinced, but he let it slide for now. He reached across the console and gently took her hand.

"Just don't shut me out completely, Tyler. I meant what I said the other time I want to know your world too."

Tyler stare at him longer than expected, with an expression Damien couldn't really place his hand on.

Pain? Hurt? Guilt?

Then she leaned in before she could stop herself, her breath trembling with something unspoken. Then their lips met slow, deep, lingering. A kiss that held the weight of all the things they hadn't dared to say.

At first, it was tender. Searching. Then she pulled back just enough to meet his gaze. Her eyes shimmered with something Damien couldn't quite place, he could almost swore he saw pain in her eyes, or perhaps longing. Or maybe both.

Without a word, she grabbed the front of his shirt, her fingers curling into the fabric, and climbed onto his lap. Still in the quiet cocoon of the car, she kissed him again this time wild, urgent, like she was pouring everything into him all at once. Passion surged between them, raw and consuming.

Damien gasped into her mouth, overwhelmed. There have always been fierceness to her person, but it seemed different this time, a kind of desperation that made his chest ache.

It felt like a confession. Or maybe a goodbye.

Then, slowly, she pulled back, her chest rising and falling, her face flushed with emotion. She looked at him, really looked at him, like she was memorizing him.

"Goodnight, Damien," she whispered.

And just like that, the door closed behind her, leaving the air heavy with everything she didn't say.

He watched her disappear behind the gate before finally exhaling and driving off, the echo of her kiss still burning on his lips and a thousand questions rising quietly in his chest.

The Revelation.

Damien pushed open the door, breathless from the search, only to be hit by a wall of humid heat and candlelight dancing against the walls. The room was cloaked in steam, thick with the scent of lavender and something darker, something feminine.

"Tyler?" he called out, voice hoarse.

And then she appeared.

She stepped through the mist like a fantasy given form, wearing a sheer crimson robe that clung to her curves and slid off one shoulder like an invitation. The fabric barely concealed the lace beneath a barely black lingerie set that left little to the imagination. Her hair was damp, her skin glowing, and her eyes_God, her eyes blazed with something wild and unrestrained.

"Tyler... did you really betray me?" Damien choked out, though the words nearly died on his lips.

"Shhh!" she whispered, placing her perfectly manicured finger on his mouth, silencing both his doubt and his logic.

Then like a seductress from the pit of hell itself, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into her body, her heat searing into him. And then she kissed him.

It wasn't gentle.

It was hungry. Fierce. A collision of guilt and desire, pain and longing.

He tried to resist, swore he would, but the second her lips met his, the war inside him vanished. He kissed her back with the desperation of a man drowning. Even though he could hear the warnings echoing in his mind, but he shoved them away, consumed by the fire between them.

Damien scooped her into his arms with an urgency he could no longer tame. Tyler melted into him, her body pliant and hungry, as if she'd been waiting for this, aching for it.

The bed creaked as he laid her down, not gently this time, but like a man who had been holding back for far too long.

Their lips crashed again, no more softness, no more hesitation. Just fire.

She moaned against his mouth as his body pressed into hers, and her hands flew to his shirt. Impatient, greedy, she pulled at the fabric until it came off over his head in one fluid, frantic motion. Her fingers explored his bare chest, skimming across hard muscle, nails grazing his skin with feverish need.

When his mouth dropped to her throat, she tilted her head back with a gasp.

But when he sucked her earlobe, teeth dragging just enough to blur pain with pleasure, Tyler cried out, loud, uncontrolled.

"Damien_God..."

He growled low in his throat at the sound, lips curving into a grin against her skin.

Then he trailed lower, kissing along her jaw, down her neck, slower now, letting his breath warm her every inch. He found her collarbone, and traced it with his tongue, then his teeth, worshiping her like she was something sacred. Tyler squirmed beneath him, every nerve ending alive, skin flushed, heart slamming.

"Please..." she whispered, voice shaking, begging with everything in her.

Damien's gaze snapped to hers.

And then he kissed her again, rough, possessive, his hands sliding beneath the last of her lingerie, pushing it aside. She arched into him, already wet, already trembling.

He slid into her in one long, aching thrust.

She gasped his name, back arching, legs wrapping tightly around his waist. The moment their bodies met, it was chaos and clarity all at once.

They moved together, wild and unrestrained. His hand gripped her waist, pulling her against him like he couldn't get close enough. Her lips found his shoulder, his neck, her moans breaking between kisses as the bed rocked beneath them.

Every movement was urgent, messy, electric.

Every sound, every breath, every desperate whisper was a thread pulling them deeper into something neither of them could name.

And just as the moment swelled to breaking,

Damien's eyes flew open.

Darkness.

Silence.

The echo of her name still burning on his lips.

His chest heaved up and down, drenched in sweat.

He reached for her, but his hand found only air.

Gone.

All of it.

Just a dream.

"No..." he whispered, dazed, disbelieving.

A dream?

Damien sat up, running a hand down his face, shaken. The sheets were tangled around him, damp with sweat and something more humiliating.

A wet dream.

Damien gasped in disbelief, he couldn't believe he had just had a wet dream because of her.

Because of Tyler.

He stared into the darkness of his room, the vivid memory of her body still haunting his senses. Her voice. Her lips. The way she had looked at him like she wanted to converse with him through her soul, like he was the only man in her world.

He couldn't believe how deeply he'd fallen already. But the betrayal still pulsed like a bruise in his chest, confusing the hell out of him.

His chest heaved up and down, and he wondered what he needed to do next.

He felt feverish just thinking about everything about her, from meeting her, and how he had brought her home, to his house and how she had stolen the codes.

He finds that possibility in unbelievable, and Part of him still hoped and pray desperately that there should be an explanation for all of this. That the betrayal was a misunderstanding. And that everything should just be a dream, perhaps like the one he had just had.

He knew he had to find Tyler, this damn dream has to stop replaying or else he is going to lose his mind.

He had to make this obsession stop before it swallowed him whole.

He has sat up for a moment to think about what she did to him, why she deserved his fury and how much he is going to destroy her.

But instead?

He was shocked when all that clouded his mind was thought of how he could have made love to her back in Singapore, about the day she had kissed him and offered her virginity to him, about how he fantasized about the very day he gets to have her, about how he had stopped because he felt they had all the time in the world.

And now he wondered if anything that ever came out of her lips is even true, perhaps she had lied about everything, even her virginity.

He felt hurt, yet finds himself wondering how it would really feel to make love to her.

Would she be that soft? That responsive? That wild?

He wondered.

He wondered if she was just as sweet in real life just as she was in his dream.

And when he realized what he was fantasizing about, he groaned, shutting his eyes in defeat.

He was done for.

This Tyler, or unknown girl#thief #betrayal #ex_girlfriend whatever, already has him in the grasp of her hand.

And that revelation shocks him to the core of his being.