She closed her eyes as she slid further under the water, so that only her head was visible above the bubbles. The heat relaxed her muscles as the delicate aroma of the candles lit around the bathroom soothed her senses. Her brown locks were wrapped up in a loose bun on top of her head, keeping most of her hair dry. A glass of wine sat on the edge of the tub, but there was no way she was reaching out of the water for anything at that moment.
God, this feels good, Elena thought to herself.
She stayed that way for several minutes until soft footsteps alerted her to the presence of someone else. Cracking open one eye at first, the other eye soon followed suit as she gazed up at the tall, dark, and insanely handsome figure before her.
"You're joining me in here, right?"
He gave her his classic half-smirk, an expression she found both charming and sexy, before taking a sip from his own glass. "You just want to see me naked."
Even so, he didn't waste much time in peeling off his clothes. Elena's eyes remained fixed on him the entire time. Before, it would have embarrassed her to see him in a state of undress, but these days she couldn't ever seem to get enough of him. To her delight, he carefully stepped into the opposite end of the tub, slowly lowering his body until everything below his chest was submerged in the hot, soapy water.
At once, she leaned forward, capturing his lips in a hungry kiss. "I've missed you," she purred when they broke apart.
He chuckled. The sound was music to her ears. "I'm surprised you're so willing, considering Kensie is right down the hall."
She shrugged. "She's twelve, Damon. I'm sure she's heard about sex by now. Besides, I know you wouldn't be in here with me if she wasn't asleep."
This time, Damon initiated the kiss, allowing his lips to trail along her jaw and down the side of her neck. "I can think of a hundred better things for us to talk about right now."
Elena pulled his lips back up to hers briefly. She actually had to push him back a little to find an opportunity to speak, and she didn't miss his confused look. "You know you're not getting out of this conversation," she explained with a soft smirk of her own.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he insisted, leaning in to kiss her again.
She deflected his advance. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, Damon Salvatore," she retorted, amusement shining through in her tone. "You adopted a child – a twelve-year-old girl, actually. If you're trying to tell me that isn't monumental, you're lying through your teeth."
He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, rolling his eyes the way he always did when he was trying to act like something wasn't a big deal. "You're reading into things too much. I didn't want child services on my back, so I made sure she wouldn't be on any missing lists. No one from the state will come knocking now."
"You might be able to fool everyone else, but you can't fool me. You care about her."
"I do not."
"If it wasn't anything more than trying to keep child services off your back, Damon, you wouldn't pester her about getting her homework done. You wouldn't have bothered to enroll her in school when no one in town even knew of her existence. You could have claimed she was homeschooled and left it at that. You wouldn't have taken the girl shopping for clothes, or bought her the things for her room that you did. Whether or not you want to admit it, you care about Kensie."
Damon rolled his eyes. "You have no idea what you're talking about it."
Elena leaned in close once more, her smirk growing. "You care," she repeated. "Face it Damon. You're going soft."
He brought a hand to his chest, a mortified expression on his face. "I'm wounded that you would even suggest such a thing."
Her legs straddling his, she captured his lips once more, this kiss more passionate than the rest. When his arms reached around to pull her body closer to his, her fingers combed into his hair, scratching at his scalp.
Damon moaned softly into her lips, and Elena grinned.
Kissing his jawbone, she whispered in his ear. "Really?" she purred, smiling to herself as he tried to pull her even closer. "Because I happen to like this side of you. It's incredibly hot…"
