A vow of love

12

Shane was sinking deeper and deeper. The more he tried to delve into Claire's unknown stalker, the more Claire obsessed over every corner of his being. And that led to an almost instant loss of control at even the slightest hint that she might even be upset about something. He couldn't bear the thought of even being away from her, every step out of the house made him nauseous.

And that was starting to show. "A man is a woman's greatest strength, a woman is his greatest weakness, but when the two halves are firmly connected, not even the universe can defeat them" Shane couldn't remember if he had read or heard it somewhere, his father had told him something similar in Chicago, advising him not to fight his feelings for Claire, but was it possible when it interfered with his work?

And that made him mad. He felt like he couldn't take a breath without her, she was the moon, the sun, the sky and everything that kept him alive. Her scent was intoxicating, her kisses clouded his mind, and her body turned him into a drooling, hungry dog, ready to crawl on his knees in front of her, beg and whimper, as long as she would let him be with her, inside in her.

And that scared him. He had never been so dependent on anything else, never had anything taken over his world so much that he would forget to eat, miss business meetings, make up stupid excuses just to stay close to her, stay up at night, just for watching her sleep like some freak, wondering if he had done enough for her to get what she wanted most.

"Son?" Shane grabbed the punching bag and turned to his father. "What?" he growled and Derek raised an eyebrow. "Claire?" his father asked softly, sitting on the edge of the boxing ring. Shane just nodded and rested his forehead on the sack, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "When we talked and you asked me if I was in love with her, I didn't expect anything like this. What should I do, how should I handle it?" he turned his head and for the first time Derek saw his son so confused and scared.

"Looks like you've got a lot going on, huh?" Shane gritted his teeth and stepped back slightly, clasping his hands in front of his face and delivering a few quick hard punches to the punching bag. "She's driving me crazy dad, playing with my mind" he stopped and his shoulders slumped forward. "Yeah, women have that power" Derek sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Men aren't used to being emotional, we're the weaker sex in that respect" Shane rolled his eyes and took another hit on the sack.

"It always amazed me how your mother managed to keep her composure when I was freaking out at the mere thought of someone looking at her. I almost killed a saleswoman once just because, while helping your mother try on a dress, she lightly touched her arm" Shane raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You think you're jealous? Boy you know nothing, absolutely nothing" Derek laughed bitterly and Shane smiled.

"How did you handle that?" Derek shrugged. "I didn't succeed, but I learned to trust her, to tell her without being afraid, and she always seemed to find a way to calm me down, but also stoically put up with everything when I freaked out" Derek tilted his head and looked at his son sharply. "You didn't tell her you loved her, did you?" Shane shook his head and Derek burst out laughing. "I thought you looked more like your mother, but apparently you took some of my traits too, the bad ones obviously" Shane grunted and stepped back from the sack, peeling off the patches on his boxing gloves, he took them off and ran his fingers through his sweat wet hair.

"You should tell her, it'll make you feel better and it'll be easier to trust her. You can't hold on to her skirt forever for fear of someone taking it from you" Derek advised and Shane gritted his teeth. "Telling her I love her won't guarantee someone won't take her" Shane huffed and Derek snorted. "There's a difference, Shane, a woman likes to hear that the man next to her feels the same, it acts as a brake on them and she herself keeps others at a distance, and those boundaries are much harder to cross than the boundaries we want them to enforce" Shane looked at him, considering his father's words.