The fire was hypnotizing. One of the good things about living in the Salvatore house was this fireplace; there were so many nights that he just sat down here and drew, warming up by the fire in silence. His mind was akin to the roaring fire at the moment. Jeremy struggled to get his thoughts together as he was literally snapped back to the moment.
"Hellllllooooo? Earth to little Gilbert?" Damon was snapping his fingers at him, looking at him with those interrogative eyes, "We are all here. Now tell us what this is about."
He turned on the ottoman and faced everyone. Elena, Caroline, Stefan, Damon, and Bonnie were all sat around in a fragmented circle. They were waiting for him to talk, he knew, but he didn't want to say what he had to tell them.
He hadn't even told Bonnie, who was now rubbing his back while she watched him struggle. He looked up at her and she gave him a reassuring look; that look would change in the next few minutes he was sure.
Jeremy turned away from her, not wanting to see her face change when he spoke, "Anna and Pearl are back…" the hand rubbing his back disappeared and he sighed.
"Excuse me?" Bonnie whispered, seething.
Damon threw his hands up, "You have got to be kidding me. How do you know?"
"Yeah, Jer…" he looked up at the sound of his sisters voice, "what happened?" She was his rock right now. He knew out of all of them she would always be on his side.
Caroline was looking at Bonnie who was staring out the window, obviously upset. The Salvatore's were both staring at him, silently urging him to continue.
"They came to the school," he started, "I had gone to my locker to grab a book and when I closed the door Anna was standing next to me. I asked her what she wanted and she said that she and her mother had been in contact with Emily Bennett on the other side… She did a spell to allow them to stay here when the veil got dropped, kind of like what Bonnie did for me. They… they want Katherine. They want to settle the score with her, kill her."
"Let them have her then," Caroline said abruptly, everyone stared, "What!? She has caused enough problems in this world and so have Anna," Her eyes turned to Jeremy, her stare was cold when he said Anna's name, "and her mother. So we get rid of both Katherine and those two. Easy choice here,"
Stefan started shaking his head, "We can't do that," he was wrestling with something, Jeremy could see that but, if it had to do with Katherine he did not want to know.
"And why not?" Damon said, frustrated by his morally driven brother.
"Because Katherine is already dying and she is leverage for us for anyone who comes knocking. It seems everyone wants her dead so if any one of us is put in danger we have her as a bargaining chip. Anna and Pearl are not worth it."
Elena ran a hand through her hair, "As much as I'd love to see Katherine dead, I agree with Stefan. We gain more by having her here for the remainder of her life. Anna and Pearl need to go."
Damon stared at her but looked away. The old Damon would have challenged her but Jeremy could see him surrendering to Elena's decision. His icy eyes flickered to Jeremy, "Tell them no deal," He said gruffly, he held a hand up before Caroline could say anything, "Barbie, I agree with you that Katherine should go but my brother here makes a good point. I'd rather have leverage then nothing when some new bad guy comes around to kill us all."
"So how do we do this?" Bonnie said finally. Her eyes were on Damon and him only, "Are you gunna do it?"
"Good to see your on our side, witchy… well former witchy," Damon said, "I would, as per usual, do the killing, but it may just be best to drug them and send them off. They can have their perfect little life far away from us. Where are they staying, Jer?"
Jeremy was conflicted. Of course he wanted them to go away… didn't he? He and Anna never got closure, never really ended things. He needed that if he was going to keep moving. He needed to officially be done with Anna so that nothing like before ever happened again.
"Give me the day," He said quietly, "Give me the day and I'll lead you to them."
Caroline and Elena both shifted their eyes to Bonnie who was clenching her jaw so tightly Jeremy was worried she would crack a tooth. He reached for her hand but she got up and started to walk away.
"Tell me when it's done," she said over her shoulder, she spun and looked directly at him for the first time since the conversation started, "Tell Anna, I said hello Jer," Her words were spiteful and full of venom. Then she turned on her heel and left.
The two girls went after her, Elena giving him a very sisterly look before departing, and then it was only he and the Salvatore's. They were both looking at him but, as usual, Damon spoke first.
"Idiot, absolute idiot," he shook his head and began to walk away, "If I were you, Jer, I would get on that whole 'give me the day thing' cause the longer you wait the longer you are in the proverbial dog house. Text me the address," and with that he was gone.
"Are you gunna give me a lecture now?" He said tersely to the brother across from him. Stefan's usual pensive stare was focused on Jeremy.
He sat down on the couch and looked into the fire, "I know why you need the day, actually both Damon and I know but he would never admit it. I needed closure from Katherine when she burst in on Elena and I's relationship the first time," He said quietly, "It was the only way I could move past that situation and for me and Elena to really begin. You handled it all wrong the first time and you let Bonnie go. This is your second chance to prove yourself to her, to prove that you are faithful to her, Jer. Don't waste it, okay?"
Jeremy didn't respond; he didn't have to. He rose to his feet and walked out to his car; it was time to get this over with once and for all.
Anna's new home was just outside of Mystic Falls; a modest one story home tucked into the woods like their first house after Pearl was let out of the tomb. He thought of texting Damon the address now but telling him to hold off for a few minutes to let him talk to Anna but he knew that Damon would never go for it. Instead he tucked his phone into the pocket of his jeans and sauntered up to the door.
Before he could knock he felt someone behind him. Whipping around, in hunter mode suddenly, he came face to face with Anna. She looked exactly the same as she always had. Her hair was up in a ponytail and she was wearing jeans and a tank top. Her expression was wary of him.
"Jeremy, you okay?" She questioned, her head tilted to the side slightly in confusion.
He blew out a breath, thinking of Bonnie, his detour, and calming his hunter senses down. He looked down at her and sighed, "Yeah I'm fine. Can we talk for a sec?" He said, gesturing to the woods behind her home. Anna nodded enthusiastically and led him down the path.
He followed, walking beside her but purposefully not too close. He wanted to make sure his intentions were not misinterpreted. She brought him to a creek where chairs were set up. She sat down in one and motioned him to sit in the one beside her. He sat down cautiously and looked into the shades of green surrounding them.
"So…" the vampire began, "What did they say?"
He kept his eyes trained on the green as he spoke, "They said there's no deal, Anna. Katherine is too good of leverage for us and, if you hadn't noticed, we get ourselves into situations where leverage is needed too often to not have any." He looked at her then, the solemn expression on her face.
"Well, that's too bad," she said quietly. Too quietly, it was as if she was formulating a plan B as she spoke.
He pulled out his phone then and texted Damon the address; what he had to say to Anna would not take much longer. She was staring at him when he put it away.
"Is there something else you want to tell me?" She asked; her guard was going up slowly.
"Yeah there is," his voice was shaky. Jeremy swallowed and calmed himself before beginning, "You can't keep doing this. You can't keep coming into my life and messing up everything. Every time you've come back you play off the feelings I had for you and you use me. I'm not going to let that happen anymore. This needs to be goodbye Anna, for good. I don't feel the way I did about you. Before… before I think it was just residual feelings. I think I let it happen because we had no ending, I never got any closure from you, but I've had time and I've come to terms with us. It's done and over with and I need you to understand that. I'm with Bonnie now more than ever and I should have stayed with her before. I was an idiot to chase a ghost," he heard footsteps coming down the path. Anna was too focused on him to notice, "I did love you, I really did; I hope you know that. But I'm done and… I'm sorry,"
With that, he got up and walked away as fast as he could. He tried not to hear her call after him, he tried not to hear Damon come out of the trees, and he tried not to hear him vervain her but he heard it; he heard everything.
Jeremy sat in his car for what felt like hours, just sitting and trying to get the noises out of his mind. He watched as Stefan, who had gone in the house after Pearl, carry her body out to their car. He stopped and looked at Jeremy, but he didn't meet Stefan's eyes.
When he heard their trunk slam shut he decided it was time to go. Before he could blink, Damon was at the passenger side window. He tapped on the glass and Jeremy reluctantly rolled down the window.
"What do you want? I'm really not in the mood for your condescending remarks and all that bull sh-"
"What you did back there," Damon interrupted, "took guts. I was never able to do what you did. I'm… Ric would have been proud of you."
"Th-thanks… dick." Jer said in return. There wasn't as much fire behind the word at the moment, but he was sure Damon would do something to make it come back sooner or later.
After Damon and Stefan got into their car, Jeremy started his own and began his drive back to Mystic Falls. He had a very angry Bonnie Bennett to deal with.
He pulled up to Bonnie's around dusk, the last bits of sunlight were shining through the trees outside of her house. He got out of the car and looked up to see Bonnie waiting behind her screen door for him; her expression was hard but softer than it had been the last time he'd seen her.
He blew out a breath and started walking up to the door. She came out of the house, walking to meet him on her front walk.
"So…," she murmured, "What happened with, Anna?"
She was guarded, an unspoken wall was up and he could see it in her eyes. He could tell that she truly didn't know what he was about to tell her. He could see that there was still a part of her that thought he may have gone back to Anna; it killed him to see that mistrust in her eyes but he understood it.
"They're gone," He said calmly, "Damon and Stefan vervained them and took them off, I don't know where."
"Okay," her voice was firm but still held a questioning tone.
"Bon," he stepped toward her and she flinched. He stepped back and looked at her in surprise, "Nothing happened! I swear to you, I swear that nothing happened."
"Jeremy, you can't blame me for being paranoid, not after last time. Not after you… cheated on me with her. I can't help but be afraid that the same thing would happen."
He took her hands, even though she didn't automatically accept the gesture, he needed her to hear him, really hear him. "Bonnie, I love you. I love you more than anything. Last time… Last time I let lingering feelings get in the way of us. I was an idiot to trust Anna last time and I should have never kissed her. Today, I told her she has to stop coming into my life and expecting things to be the same because they aren't. My feelings for her are not what they were and I made that very clear to her. I am never going to let her or anyone else come between us again, okay? I promise you that I will never hurt you like that again."
Her eyes were shining with unshed tears. They had never talked about what had happened and he needed her to know how sorry he was that he had been such an idiot and that he knew what he had done was wrong.
She nodded, the questioning look in her eye was gone and it was replaced with the natural challenge that was always present in them. He leaned down slowly, not wanting to startle her, and kissed her lightly. She returned his kiss and let go of his hands to let them tangle themselves in his hair.
He kissed her with more fervor then. The look in her eye, that challenge that was always there was something that Jeremy loved. Bonnie had such a fire within her; a fire any man would want to be consumed by.
He pulled back and looked toward her house. The sun had gone down and it was getting cold, "Let's go get warm," he said.
As soon as she said okay, he quickly swept an arm behind her knees and lifted her small frame into his arms. She squeaked at the abrupt move, a sound Jeremy loved to hear from her. She pulled open the door for him and he kicked it back so they could enter. He took the familiar path up the steps to her bedroom. She was the only one living here now that her dad was gone so he didn't bother closing the door. He tossed her onto the bed and followed her there.
Jeremy hovered there above her, watching her chest rise and fall in quick succession. She was watching him, a new energy in her eyes that made his groin twitch in anticipation. Bonnie was bolder now when it came to sex; now that her magic was gone she was enjoying the new power she had, the raw sexual energy that she wielded like a sword.
Sitting up, she brought her skirt to her thighs and got on top of him, straddling his waist. He had never seen this look on her before; he couldn't quite place what it was. Then she kissed him, hard and fast and full of want. Jeremy brought his hands to her waist and held her tightly. Her hands tugged and pulled at his hair while she nipped at his lips. It had taken a few more times having sex for Jeremy to be comfortable with being rough with Bonnie. He hadn't wanted to hurt her by going to hard but she had made it known that she was perfectly capable of handling him being rougher with her.
She pulled back, panting. That look on her face was still there, her eyes smoldering as she drank him in. Slowly and deliberately she spoke, "You. Are. Mine."
The look, he understood it now and he understood why it was foreign to him; it was the look of a very possessive Bonnie. As the realization dawned on him he took her in, chest heaving, eyes ablaze, mouth slightly parted. She was undoubtedly primal in the sexiest way and he couldn't help but be turned on.
"And you," he said while grabbing her waist tighter and pulling her as close as she could get to him, "Are mine."
A whimper left her as she brought her lips to his. He met her with a bruising force, grasping her hips and bringing his rigidness against the hot heat he could feel through his jeans and her skirt. She gasped against his lips and he took the opportunity to delve his tongue into her mouth for a passionate kiss.
She was grinding against him now, her hips moving in ways that made his mind reel. The tugs on his hair were getting harder now and he loved it.
Bonnie broke their kiss and looked him dead in the eye, "Take off my shirt. Now," she said forcefully.
She didn't have to tell him twice! He yanked her shirt over her head quickly then looked to her for instructions. She looked down at his own shirt and quirked an eyebrow at him sassily. He did as she silently commanded and whipped his own t-shirt off.
Without a word she got up from the bed and stood in front of him; he turned to face her. Without losing eye contact she reached behind her back and unhooked her bra, letting it fall the to the floor. She unzipped the back of the skirt she was wearing and let it fall to the ground; she wasn't wearing any panties. Jeremy groaned internally at the thought, his fists clenched. He would never get over how beautiful she was. Her face was lifted defiantly, proudly as she stood before him. Her skin was unblemished, her bust was perky, her nipples hard and aching to be touched, and he wanted to oblige. Bonnie was a small girl but her hips flared out into womanly curves, the small patch of hair on her pubic bone was tantalizing. He drank her in, from her smooth, toned legs to her ruffled new short hair.
"Take your pants off," she said slowly, watching him stare at her naked form.
He rose from the bed and did as he was told, shedding his jeans before sitting back down onto the bed; his hard-on obvious through his thin boxer briefs. She walked towards him confidently; she kissed him hard on the lips then his neck, nibbling the sensitive flesh there. Bonnie sank to her knees and before he could see what was happening she had let his erection spring free from his underwear. He leaned back on his elbows and looked down at her. She continued to stare as she licked up his member with a flat tongue. He shuddered at the sensation and saw her smirk. Wrapping her lips around the head of him she sucked and swirled her tongue around it; Jeremy's eyes slammed shut and his head dropped back, his mouth open wide in a silent scream.
Once she started bobbing her head up and down the length of him he couldn't stay quiet any longer. Growls and groans left his lips as Bonnie sucked him. When he thought he could handle it, he looked down at her and soon realized he wasn't ready at all. Bonnie was not only giving him incredible head but she also had her knees spread wide and her small hand was rubbing her clit to the rhythm of the bobs of her head.
Jer felt her release him and his eyes left her working hand and flew to her eyes. Her mouth was damp and open still, her eyes full of need as she continued to touch herself.
She licked her lips and spoke, "Do you like what you see?"
His breath hitched at her words. Bonnie was a polite, well-mannered girl usually and hearing these kinds of things come out of such a refined mouth was incredibly sexy.
"Yeah, yeah I do. You know what it makes me wanna do, Bon?" He asked her as he brought his hand to his dick.
"What?" she asked breathlessly. Her eyes on the hand that was slowly pumping up and down his member.
"It makes me want to fuck you senseless," the last few words were annunciated with hard pumps of his hand.
"So do it," she dared him, "I said," she got up and brought her face within inches of his, "do. It."
He couldn't take it anymore. He had let her be in control but he couldn't help his need now. He picked her up and practically chucked her on the bed. Climbing on top of her, she reached into the bedside drawer for a condom. She rolled it onto him quickly and before she knew it he was buried deep inside of her.
She let out a quick yelp at the unexpected feeling. He was afraid he had hurt her but upon further inspection, she had a Cheshire grin plastered onto her face. Her bottom lip was caught between her teeth and one of her hands was gripping her breast.
"You are so fucking sexy," he breathed, not able to handle this new side of his girlfriend.
Her eyes popped open, the fire that was in them had turned to an inferno, "Now what did you say about fucking me senseless, Jer?"
His name came out in a moan and it pushed him further, he reared back and slammed into her again, eliciting another moan from Bonnie. He kept up a relentless pace but she matched him thrust for thrust.
He sat up and grabbed the legs around his waist, bringing her ankles to rest on either of his shoulders, hitting that spot in her that always pushed her over the edge. She was writhing against him, unable to match his thrusts from this angle; she had to just lie there and let the pleasure consume her. Her moans were growing louder and Jeremy could feel her walls tightening around him. But Bonnie had something else in mind; she brought her legs down quickly, hooking them around his legs and flipping them over; Jeremy suddenly found himself on his back and at Bonnie's mercy.
She sank down onto him and he groaned loudly. He made move to wrap his arms around her waist but she slapped his hands away.
"Ah, ah, ah," she said while wagging a finger at him, "No touching," and brought her hands down on his wrists, pinning them above his head.
He knew he was stronger than her, that he could break her hold but he appeased her; God was he a masochist or something? She rode him hard and fast, swirling her hips in manic patterns that were driving him crazy. He wanted to grab her hips, dig his fingers into her flesh as she bounced up and down.
"Bon, please," he said threw harsh breaths, "Don't make me beg you," even though he practically was.
"Oh but Jer," she said, slowing her pace into a maddening pattern of circular swirls, "That is exactly what I want,"
He was stunned. She wanted him to beg her! She continued the swirls of her hips, her face so close to his that their harsh breaths mingled. Her pace was slow and steady; it was driving him wild. He wanted her ruthless bouncing back, he wanted to slam into her and feel her come undone around him.
But to get what he wanted he had to surrender to her. Even though he could easily get out of her hold, he knew he had to earn it.
"Please," he practically whined, "Please, Bonnie. Let me touch you. I'm… begging you. Just let me touch you,"
A rueful smile overtook her face and she released him. Faster than she could imagine he flipped them over. This was worth the surrender, he thought. He plowed into her; the only noise in the room was their bodies smacking together, Jeremy's uneven breaths, and the almost giddy moans coming from Bonnie.
He felt her start to tense, start to plunge and he too could feel his own release coming. He took that time right before she came to bring a hand to her face.
"Bon, look at me," he said. Her eyes rolled to meet his; her expression was taught with her oncoming release, "I am yours and only yours. You own me; heart, body, and soul. I'm yours."
She came at his words, falling apart in his arms and he couldn't hold on any longer. With a few more pumps into her, he was lost in his own bliss; calling out to a god he didn't know if he believed in.
She grabbed his face and looked into his eyes as the aftershocks overtook him, "I am yours," Bonnie whispered, "Heart. Body. Soul."