Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Thank you so much to Ari for beta-reading.
Baiser volé (Stolen kiss)
The crow, whose black coat was allowing it to merge into the darkness, was discreet on its branch, observing the window with rapt attention lighted by the first floor of the house opposite. A long brown haired girl undressed in all innocence, ignorant of the fact that she had a spectator. Keeping only her underwear, she slipped her bathrobe on and moved to the bathroom. By precaution, she made sure that the door of communication with her brother's room was correctly closed. Then, stopping in front of the mirror, she opened the clasp of her necklace and left it on the shelf. She allowed her bathrobe to slide off and hung it on the hook. She got rid of the little clothes she was still wearing and entered the shower.
The warm water streamed on her dark skin steadied her nerves. After the events of the evening, this moment of relaxation was quite useful. She needed, for a while, to let her mind escape and forget about Stefan's leaving. Suddenly an oppressive presence filled the bathroom. She turned around and suppressed a hiccup of surprise in front of Damon's piercing gaze.
The glass door of the shower offered a wide fuzzy band which, strategically placed, protected her modestly, however a gleam in Damon's pupils made her doubt its efficiency. Instinctively, her arms and her hands came to hide her breast and her sex, what made the vampire smile.
Such a voyeur! She cursed inside.
"What are you doing here?" She said loudly.
"I came to say goodbye to you."
"In my bathroom?!" Damon's smile widened a little more.
Suddenly a detail struck her. Her pendant. She did not have it on her, which meant that Damon could glamour her. She forced herself not to look at her necklace in order not to draw Damon's attention on it. In an unaffected way and with all the self-control she was capable of, she half-opened the door of the shower, making sure to stay hidden by the door, and stretched out one arm as to reach her bath towel, but as the last second, her hand tried to reach the pendant on the shelf. Her feint by no means deceived Damon, who was faster than she and did not forget at the same time to get an eyeful of her. Letting the necklace hang at the end of a finger, he offered, in sign of victory, one of his most "Damon-esque" smiles.
"Very careless to have removed your pendant, Elena."
She was done! What was he going to force her to do? After some seconds of bewilderment, Elena put herself together and with a quick movement she took her towel and tied it around her breast. She went out of the shower and faced him.
"And now?" She asked with the spunk he liked so much.
Damon's stare was still intensely fixed on Elena, while he was putting the pendant in his pocket. His smile did not fade. Still silent, he approached her and, as usual, stopped so close that she felt ill at ease, especially since she wore only a simple towel.
The bastard! He liked that!
"And now, I have the right to a farewell kiss"
"You certainly do not!" She managed to say before she felt the irresistible urge to stick her lips on his.
"You know that you want to kiss me, here and now. And I am sure that you will keep a long-lived memory of it." He suggested to her with his seductive voice, while he tilted a little more his head forward, his lips not being more than a few inches far from hers.
She filled the space which separated them. On her tiptoes, she tasted his lips with greed, while she was rolling up her arms around his neck and was pressing her body against his. Damon enjoyed answering her kiss. Putting his feverish hands on the hips of the young woman, he made her move back to stick her to the wall.
While their tongues jousted with passion, Elena was brought back to her senses when she felt the cold and metallic contact of her pendant on her throat. He allowed her to push him away and she remained panting against the wall, very happy with it being there to support her. She did not dare to face Damon's stare, but he took her chin between his fingers to oblige her to look at him. He was curious to know how she felt. And what he read in her eyes was all confusion.
He got closer again and smelled the perfume of her freshly washed hair and skin. She did not dare to make the smallest movement. She was on the alert for the slightest of his gestures, trying to figure out what was on his mind.
"I believe that we are going to stop here, before I lose my self-control… "
A settled smile stretched on his roguish lips.
Elena took a long inhalation, not totally relieved. She hardly had the time to wink, then he disappeared, as if nothing had ever happened, as if she had had a hallucination, an almost pleasant nightmare. The relaxing effect of her shower had definitely failed.
She went back to her room lying on her bed without even making the effort to put on her pajamas. Her mind was totally upside down and lost in an ocean of confusion and contradiction. She was angry with him about glamouring her, about Bonnie, Vicki, Caroline and all the evil he had made around him. Why had he stopped? Why did he give her back her pendant knowing that it would neutralize his influence on her? Not that she complained about it. However it did not sound like him. Or maybe that so on the contrary? Was it a means to torment her? And this kiss? Another form of torture? She could not deny that she had appreciated it… She tried to convince herself that it was only the effect of his vamp glamouring power, although… He kissed rather well…
No! She decided. He had implanted this pleasant feeling in her head, just like he had deleted all the suffering in Jeremy's mind. She was sure of it. No way could it be otherwise. Damon was a monster, a psychopath. How could she feel, naturally, anything for him? The use of his vampire skills was the only explanation that she accepted.
***
The night, then the day passed without any sign of Stefan's presence nor Damon's. In what concerned Damon, Elena was quite relieved, as the burning memory of their kiss was still very present in her mind. On the contrary, she felt the profound lack of Stefan's reassuring presence and an immense pain.
Caroline had decided to leave behind her the small incident of the day before with the Ouija. Seeing the sad faces of her two friends, she suggested they go to the Mystic Grill after school, in order to take their minds off things. As soon as they had crossed the doors of the grill, Elena's glance stopped on a familiar silhouette, sat in the bar and which turned to her its back. Observing the reflection in the mirror behind the counter, she noticed that he had also perceived her presence. Damon winked to her, what did not escape either Caroline, or Bonnie.
"What is he still doing here?" Bonnie said, full of bitterness.
"I don't know." Elena answered, perplexed and less than reassured.
Caroline was also rather dissatisfied with Damon's presence, whom she did not keep the best memories of. She still felt the deep bite of the wickedness that he had spat in her face the last time she saw him. The farther she stayed from him, the better she was.
"I don't care! He is only a poor, selfish, arrogant jerk who do not deserve we pay attention to him." She said, while she sat down, deciding to ignore the so named poor, selfish, arrogant jerk. Elena was very sure that Caroline's comment had not escaped the vampire hearing of Damon and she exchanged a worried glance with Bonnie, then joined Caroline on the banquette, while Bonnie sat down opposite. The three young ladies tried to resume the course of their discussion, talking of unimportant stuff, avoiding the painful topics, which Damon was definitely a part of for each of them. However, in spite of their willingness, their hearts were not in it. The presence of the vampire, sat in the bar, filled the atmosphere.
Bonnie decided to go to the restroom, while Caroline took advantage of Matt's appearance to make off, so that Elena was suddenly left alone, to her great displeasure, giving Damon the opportunity join her, which he did. He had his most beautifully captivating smile stuck on his face.
"Farewells continue … " Elena said, annoyed.
Damon seemed amused, in spite of the acerbic remark of the young woman.
"Indeed I'm not very sure that I want to leave anymore. People here are so friendly."
A gleam of irony shone in his pupils.
The silence settled down. Elena did not want to engage the conversation with him.
"I see that you followed my advice and keep the pendant."
Seeing her sullen face, he easily guessed she contained her anger.
"What kind of sick game are you playing, Damon? I guess it's one of your twisted ideas to make Stefan miserable?"
"What? You mean the kiss?" He asked her with an air of complicity. "I was just curious." He continued.
Another sigh of annoyance escaped from Elena's lips.
"Curious about what?" A familiar voice interrupted them.
At the sight of Stefan, Elena's face illuminated. Stefan was not able to refrain from smiling to her in return, while Damon rolled his eyes at them, settling comfortably against the seat of the banquette.
"I was curious to know the taste of her blood." Damon said, definitely knowing that his answer was going to cast a chill over his brother. Their amorous glances gave him nausea and irritated him.
Stefan's reaction was not waited. In a firm and threatening voice, he warned his brother. "You better refrain your curiosity."
As an answer, Damon calmly smiled at him. Feeling the tension rising a notch, Elena got up and pulled Stefan towards the bar, far from his brother. On the way, an impulse of curiosity urged her to look behind. Damon was still staring at her with his electric blue eyes, a predatory smile on his lips.
"I forgot my purse." She apologized to Stefan.
She turned back to where she sat some minutes earlier, finding that Damon had not moved and the expression on his face perspired with arrogance.
"By the way, thank you." She said to him.
Damon, intrigued, raised an eyebrow, and then a gleam of understanding crossed his glance.
"Because I did not tell Stefan about our kiss?" He asked her in a teasing way.
"No, because your presence in Mystic Falls obliges him to stay." She answered back.
Then she left, going back to Stefan, who had missed nothing of their last exchange. He threw a murderous stare at Damon, who was looking rather satisfied and cocky.