Their journey remained relatively quiet, and with no music to distract them they slipped into comfortable silence as the sun set behind them, bleeding the sky into vibrant red and then fading into violet. Soon, it was midnight blue painted across the sky, the cover of darkness settling over the horizon, embedded with glinting stars. Damon chanced a look over at Katherine, his eyes flicking towards her from beneath his eyelashes. He had to remind himself, and not for the first time since seeing her again, that this was the same Katherine who had broken his heart because seeing her beside him, her features cast with the soft glow of starlight, her dark curls cascading over her shoulder - she was still the same breathtakingly beautiful woman who had stolen his heart back then and made him chase her for almost a century and a half to get it back. Only, he'd never been able to catch her. Instead, he'd burned himself out in the attempt, only to realise she'd been alive all along and she'd never needed him like he needed her.

"I was thinking of crashing for the night. Your wittiness has exhausted me for the day, I'll need a good night's sleep to be able to put up with you for another twenty-four hours." His tone was sardonic, the words rolling off his tongue in his usual low drawl. He waited for Katherine to argue, to demand they do something else and simply shrugged when she had no disagreement. The motel they arrived at, the blinking neon sign directing him towards a small cluster of buildings not far from the main road, was not shabby for one that lay just off route fifty-four. It wasn't ideal but there wouldn't be any four or five star hotels for miles around this area, and for tonight, at least, this would do. Damon lipped out of the car, shutting the door behind him before striding over to the reception, not checking to see if Katherine was following behind but hearing her side of the door close right after his.

Sitting in the passenger's seat of the car after she'd finally deterred herself from further acts of vandalism she crossed her arms and sank back against the seat, no words exchanged, just the dull timbre of deafening silence as Damon drove them to some god awful motel. It figured he would pick a place with no class. She imagined several truck stop murders taking place in its parking lot. "Whatever." She casted out darkly, surly, moody even as she grabbed her bag and followed after him in the hideously tacky lobby.

Sauntering in through the entrance and making his way up to the counter he shot the woman there a charming smile. "Two bedrooms for an overnight stay." The woman tilted her head curiously, shooting him and then Katherine a look, "Two? You sure you're not looking for one?" Damon raised his eyebrows with an insistent look, nodding his head impatiently. "Alright, if you say so," the woman said, lifting her shoulders nonchalantly. She bent to stare at a screen, clicking her mouse a few times and typing at her keyboard before glancing up with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, it looks like all the single rooms are booked out. We've only got one with a double bed." Exhaling in exasperation, Damon glanced over at Katherine with a look of annoyance, before flicking his eyes upwards and back over at the woman. "Fine. We'll take it. Looks like we don't have much of a choice." The woman beamed at him, handing over a key in exchange for Damon's credit card, looking extremely pleased with herself at the idea of the two spending the night in the same room. "Have a nice night, lovebirds! Don't let your little spat get in the way of having some fun in the sheets!"

Her eyes roved over an ugly painting above the even uglier receptionist's head of a beaver or some other animal sitting on the wayside of a stream. Sighing, she tapped her foot and waited for Damon to sort out the room, though she couldn't help piping up at the assumption that there was only one bedroom. "There must be-" She was silenced by Damon's bravado, and shot daggers at the back of his head.

Damon's jaw dropped open at that and it took him some effort to clamp it shut at the woman's audacity as he shot Katherine another amused look. He clamped his lips together, giving the woman one last smile. "Will do!" he sang sarcastically before placing his hand on Katherine's back and steering her out of the room before she could do something drastic like rip the woman's head off. "Fine." She hissed, feeling his hand on the small of her back, steering her away from the pathetic woman at the desk, probably a good thing as Katherine was picturing her blood spurting onto the very image she'd been eyeing earlier. "I don't need a babysitter thanks."

Opening up the door to their room, Damon flopped down in the closest chair he could find. "So… Do you want to take a shower first or should I?" he wondered aloud, propping his legs up on the coffee table across from him with a casual smirk. "Also, I refuse to sleep on the ground so I'm claiming the right side of the bed. You can deal with it. And don't ask what happened to being a gentleman because you are definitely not a a lady."

Everything about Damon was pissing her off, from his smug smile, to the impenetrable boundaries of his cerulean gaze, to the way his body rippled from beneath his shirt, to the careless way he propped his feet up on the table as if he owned the place. Or turning her on. She wasn't sure which and that was egging her on to the brink of insanity. "I'm going first." She snarled, "I need to wash this day off of me." The brunette vampire grumbled mostly to herself, regretting this whole trip in the first place, not sparing another glance at him as she pushed open the bathroom door, barely shutting it before she had the water going at the hottest possible temperature.

She sighed in rapture, disgusted of course, by the motel bathroom, but sated by the steam as she took her clothes off and breathed, attempting to regain clarity. Once the water had reached maximum heat potential she clambered in slowly, breathing in a sweet sigh of relief once the cascade of water fell onto her tense muscles, she gave herself away to her thoughts, tuning out Damon and all else, though the arousal still clung to her. She felt his hands creep around her midriff, the sweet sensual desire coursing through her veins, unbidden and longing to be released, her hands scoping his backside, urging his flesh to singe hers, mouths agape, breathing blurred as she turned to him, unwilling to kiss, enjoying how he was mapping out each apex of her curves, "Damon…" A silent sigh eclipsed her lips, only heard because his lips were at her neck, marking her collar.

Reality smacked her in the face, placement of her hand, the warmth it had sought between her thighs sent a further rivulet of shame through her and she stopped instantly, pissed as hell at her small fantasy and the way he still got to her.

She did not want Damon Salvatore under her skin. But it seemed as if he already was.