Today, should have just been like any other morning I'd woken up, but it wasn't. It was bright, the thick curtains that hung from the window were drawn back, allowing the growing sunrise's rays to reach out and stretch across the walls of the room like fingers, searching for something to caress. It was unbelievably quiet, the only noise I heard through the entire house was my own breathing, the birds outside would be chirping soon if they weren't already, and all creatures, human and animal alike would be stirring to start their day. I was awake, but I didn't want to climb out of the warm bed I was sleeping in, I closed my eyes and resettled myself before I felt his hand run across my naked hip and settle on my stomach, grasping my hand where it lay against me. I lay there for a minute, smiling, I knew he was awake by the now liveliness of his body and the strong beat of his pulse against my skin where he held me. I couldn't wait any longer, as I rolled over closer into his arms his startling blue gaze crept over my shoulder like the tide pulling back from some long forgotten primitive shoreline, there was so much pull in his eyes.

"Good morning, sweetheart" Damon said, taking my hand between his, kissing it gently, he hadn't fed since last night but his lips were still warm and velvety smooth.

Today, wasn't just like any other morning, because I was waking up in the arms of Damon and had been for months. I realized I had feelings for Damon a little before our Atlanta trip and it had scared me for months because I didn't know how to decipher what I felt, until the night we entered the tomb and Katherine wasn't there, it broke Damon's heart, and I think some deeply buried part of his humanity. I considered Damon a friend before I developed feelings for him, he was Stefan's brother, and my savior so many times through; when people only wanted to hurt me, Damon wanted to protect me. But I wasn't able to come to terms with what I felt because I knew I loved Stefan, I thought I was in love with him. If you're in love with someone, or you love them, how can you begin to think you love someone else? I loved Damon and Stefan in very different ways, but it was still love and I had to walk away from someone. The night Damon came to give me my necklace back, grounded every feeling I'd ever felt about him, and has kept me grounded till this day.

If I closed my eyes I could see us standing in my bedroom.

"Nice P.J.'s" Damon's voice hummed out softly through my bedroom before I noticed his presence, he was sitting on my window sill with a look I hadn't seen on his face before.

"I'm tired, Damon" I said with a sigh, knowing I sounded short and uninterested, but I couldn't help it, I had too much on my mind without adding more to it. I knew I owed it to him to listen to what he had to say, to acknowledge what he wanted because he had helped rescue me earlier in the day from Elijah, who was at the time staked to a wall, who we all thought was dead. Damon had rescued me so many times even when I didn't realize I needed saving, he had been the shoulder I leaned on without me ever asking time and time again, but he was also my friend. As he got up and walked towards me, he rolled those sultry blue eyes up to look at my face, and that's when I felt the nervousness of my feelings and his approaching closeness resonate through my stomach and down the rest of my body as if he were the one touching me. Damon stood in front of me, scrutinizing my facial expression the same way I was his, I told my body to step back, to put more distance between us but I couldn't move, I didn't want to.

When I didn't step back, Damon stepped closer, his shirt sleeves brushed my bare arms as he held out my vervain necklace, "I brought you this" he said softly, the smell of him so close to me was like wine gliding down the back of my throat.

I was glad to see it, but it wasn't for the same reason I thought I should be. I was glad that Damon had thought of me and that he had cared enough about something so small in the mist of a situation so large, to find my necklace for me. I knew that if Damon wanted to compel me he could easily break my vervain necklace and force his compulsion on me. I also knew though, with unwavering certainty that Damon would never compel me or force me to do anything.

"I thought that was gone", I said glancing at my necklace, after Elijah had pulled it from my neck and thrown it aside like it had no longer had any relevance I thought it was forever broken, and I also hadn't thought about it until now, dangling right in front of me.

Damon silently shook his head, watching my face.

I sighed, pretending to be relieved," Thank you," I said as I reached to take it from him, but he pulled it away, out of my reach.

I wasn't sure what his point of bringing my necklace back if he wasn't going to give it to me, though I had a feeling that Damon had more intentions than just returning my necklace, "Please give it back," I said, trying to sound stern when I was really just tired and overwhelmed, but more than anything, nervous. If I moved back and allowed that distance between Damon and I, he would close it, and that would make my heart want to race even more than it already was struggling not to.

"I just have to say something," Damon said, stepping forward, our bodies nearly touching shoulders to hips. I stepped back hesitantly, I didn't want to be to this close to Damon and know that I had feelings for him, it wasn't that I didn't trust myself it was that I knew if he closed that last breath space of distance, I wouldn't tell him to stop.

Damon's blue eyes pouted at me with confusion and some other emotion I couldn't place, I had seen Damon hurt, and angry, grieving but I didn't understand this vulnerability and the rawness that circled around his eyes like an ocean, if an ocean could breath, think.

"Why do you have to say it with my necklace?" I questioned him, scared of what his answer was going to be, my heart gave way to my nervousness and started thudding quickly, filling my body with adrenaline. I knew I needed to relax my body and take deep steadying breaths, but that would be too obvious with Damon standing in front of me. I didn't want Damon to know he was the reason why my heart felt like it was trying to climb through my chest.

Damon seemed unsure of how to reply at first, his blue eyes looked to the floor as if he were searching for something he couldn't see, and then he looked back up at me with intensity in his eyes that was both soft and demanding, "Because what I'm about to say is probably the most selfish thing I've ever said in my life".

I felt my heart suddenly drop through my stomach and into the floor beside my feet like I'd been punched. I knew where this conversation was going, this was going to be the defining moment for Damon and I. After this conversation, there was no turning back, no fixing anything, no denying the way I felt about him, this would be fireworks and rockets, this would be the collision.

"Damon, don't go there," I said trying to keep my breath from shaking, I would not reject him this time.

"I just have to say this once, you need to hear it," Damon said with touchable vulnerability in his eyes and voice, he stepped forward again and our bodies touched, only the long sleeves of his shirt kept my body from breaking out in Goosebumps. Damon gently held the sides of my arms " I love you, Elena and it's because I love you that I can't be selfish with you, why you can't know this" he said, staring into my eyes with a look that I thought would crush me internally and leave me for broken," I don't deserve you, but my brother does", Damon took in a deep breath that seemed painful and leaned into me, I couldn't hold the shaking in my voice anymore. I almost gasped as I looked up into his eyes, my lips burning to touch his, but his lips touched my forehead softly ,lingering.

I closed my eyes and begged myself not to cry, I had been denying Damon so long, I had rejected him, turned him down, and I had even insulted him, and now, with the truth of his emotions, he was kissing my forehead. I was upset that he hadn't kissed me, upset that he hadn't used the opportunity to show me that he loved me, upset that I wholeheartedly wanted him to kiss me and he was giving me up, because of Stefan.

I opened my eyes as he pulled his lips away from my forehead, I felt something wet gently splash my chest but my eyes couldn't see what my body had felt, I was in a different world, a trance that was hazy, it blurred everything together like real life in slow motion, I could only stare at his lips, willing them to press against my mouth.

Damon cupped my head gently in his hand, stroking my hair where he held it, "God, I wish you didn't have to forget this," he said, his voice held sadness, and foreshadowing that, heartbreak, his blue eyes were wide, and haunted.

I screamed at myself mentally to say something, to tell Damon I loved him too, to beg him to hold me in his arms while I cried out the weight and realization of my feelings, to tell him that he didn't have to compel me, because I didn't want to forget. Damon's compulsion wouldn't be able to make me forget, I had drunken vervain when I got home.

"But you do," I felt my eyes gloss over as his pupils contracted and the power of his compulsion beat down over me like a roaring tidal wave, I couldn't move and I couldn't tell him to stop. I had never felt Damon's compulsion before, but it felt like a door had been opened inside my body and Damon was breathing cool electric air throughout me, willing me to do what he asked. A single tear, crystalline and hot trailed down his cheek and splashed against my chest. I wanted more than I had ever wanted anything in my life to kiss the tears, and the pain away in his eyes that threatened to spill out like a cup that's been poured too closely to the rim.

I closed my eyes and felt what I'd lost, Damon.

I opened my eyes and my own tears burned as they burst and rolled down my cheeks in scalding hot waves that made me catch a breath I didn't know I was holding, I looked up at Damon to kiss him and smother my body with his, but he wasn't there.

I reached up and felt the new solidness of my vervain necklace encircling my neck like a long lost love, and the coldness of the night's wind blowing in my room as I shivered, my widow left open.

I opened my eyes and found Damon's bright blue eyes searching over my face, the sight of his blue eyes calmed down an uneasiness I didn't know had grown in me.

"What's wrong?" Damon asked gently and attentively, stroking my cheek.

"Nothing", I said, wrapping my hand around his where he held my face, I kissed his wrist softly and smiled at him, letting him see the comfort he gave me when he was around me or I was in his arms.

"That's what I like to see on your beautiful face" Damon said smiling back gently, the bright cast of sunlight surrounded and bathed his body beautifully in a golden halo, making his eyes seem bluer and wider than they were, the gentleness in his eyes I had first seen the night he returned my vervain necklace, and now, I saw it every day that he looked at me. It filled his eyes with a vulnerability he hadn't allowed himself to feel for over 145 years, it was a lost innocence that Katherine had taken from him. Katherine and Damon had been wonderfully smitten towards each other, for each other, but she fully appreciated that delicate, genuine, innocence that someone has for another person when they're in love.

I wrinkled my nose up at him with a bitten back smile and mockingly gushed at him, knowing what he would do.

Damon used his supernatural speed and rolled me on my back before I knew I had changed positions, he held every bit of his ivory muscled potential filled body off of me and smiled down at me flirtatiously, but it wasn't just flirtatious, it was teasing and full of intentions, "Are you mocking me?" Damon asked, raising his eyebrows at me, taking on that hint of cockiness he exuded so well.

"Maybe" I said, laughing as I smiled up at him, my eyes unconsciously rolled down to look at his body, right in front of me, but just out of reach. It made me feel lusty because it brought back every time he was inside of me when I looked up at him and saw him watching my body, bathing in the beauty of our bodies being inside each other. I was waiting for him to cover me with his body and tickle me, but what I wanted him to do was smother me with his kisses, his sensuality. I wanted to reach up, and stroke my hand across his body, down to his prominent hip bones where they parted in a deep V and held the most sensitive part of his body.

Damon shifted the slightest and smiled down at me mischievously, I braced myself with my arms across my chest, coming out of my day dream to cover my most ticklish spots, my sides.

"Bracing yourself so soon? And I haven't even started" Damon said," yet", he gently laid his body on mine in speed I couldn't follow and started tickling my stomach and sides in a fury, I didn't know where one touch started and another one stopped, I felt like he had more than ten fingers and was using them all on me at once, stroking his fingertips across every sensitive nerve on my body.

I laughed loudly and squirmed pointlessly underneath him, I knew and he knew that I couldn't get out from underneath his hold unless he wanted me to, "Damon!" I yelled, struggling to call his name again between laughing and breathing so quickly, and then his hands stopped moving just as suddenly as they'd started.

Damon stare down at me with warm blue eyes, smiling that touch of gentleness only love brought out of him, he rolled on his side and gently pulled me in his arms, holding me softly at the small of my back ,"I love you " Damon said kissing the top of my head, cuddling down closer into the warmth of my body.

"I love you too" I said, smiling against his skin.

Damon looked down at me contently, my body held closely to his, 'What do you want to do today?"

"Well first, I want to take a shower", I said.

"Mmm, a shower" Damon said kissing me gently, he pulled back slowly, and then he was standing to the side of bed, I would never be able to keep up with the quickness of his movements. He stood looking down at me with a smile that was arrogant, but soft, "Last one there has to give the other one foreplay for one hour, no breaks!" Damon grinned, he turned his muscled back side to me and pulled down his boxer briefs.

I was suddenly staring at the perfect roundness of his ass, he knew I would be, "Elena" Damon said, dragging each syllable in my name out, turning to face me and show me the full view of his naked body.

I looked up at Damon's face and let him see the heat held in my eyes for his body, "You're not playing fair, you're using your body as a distraction?" I said, pulling the white comforter back. I was wearing my light yellow lacey matching bra and panties, the bra which was new had a small lift to it so my breasts seemed fuller, and the panties just as equally eye candy were shaped so that they traced and cupped my body to accentuate every curve.

I climbed out of bed slowly, using my body the same way Damon had used his, I stood up and used both hands on the front of my bra to unfasten the small hook. I watched Damon's eyes while I dropped my bra drop to the floor, they were dark and fully attentive to my hands as I let them trail down to my hips, pushing my panties down slowly. I allowed my hands to linger between my legs, gently brushing my fingers against myself, showing him where I wanted his body to go, "And who is to be the winner Mr. Salvatore?"

Damon's breath came out in an uneven sigh, I raised one eyebrow at him questionably, fully submerging myself into the role of being the seductive mistress before I started laughing. I knew the effect I was having on him, on his body, it was already thick and luscious between his legs. I turned on my feet and ran as fast as I could to the shower, " It looks like your mouth and my body have a date!" I yelled.