This had to be breaking all sorts of unofficial rules. But what did he care. He was a rule breaker. Still, he couldn't get rid of that nagging feeling that this was crossing the line. Stalking his kids almost nanny outside of her house.
On the plus side it was a beautiful house. Almost too much house for a person a nannying salary. Affording a single family home with blue shingles had to be rare. Especially a two story, although the second story looked like an add on to the house. It made him wonder what else the little minx had going on. Hopefully, it was enough to distract him from his own problems.
Yet, he'd have to get out of the car for that to happen. He'd already sat in front of the house for two hours. Watching her fluttering back and forth in front of the big picture window behind navy blue curtains that were just the right amount of see through. To leave him wanting and guessing. Craving her silhouette.
"Damon, what are you doing here?" Came the knock on the window.
He jumped startled that Rachel was even able to get the drop on him. Rolling down the window, thinking his stealth skills were more than a little rusty.
"Should I call the police now or just stake you?"
He laughed, pushing the door open and getting out. "See this is why we didn't hire you, Rach." Vampires can't just be killed by a stake."
She folded her arms around her chest. "Not my concern anymore. What are you doing here?
He looked her up and down, her blond hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. Wearing some grey shorts that fell at her knees and a white tank. "I wanted to see you."
She rolled her eyes and walked back towards the house. "I already apologized to your wife profusely. So no harm no foul."
Damon stopped at the doorstep, physically unable to go any further. "No, I think you misunderstood me. I'm here to see you," he said reaching out to grab her back pocket before she could make into the door.
She looked at him bewildered. Shrugging off his touch. "Do I really look like the married man type? I mean please point out what ticked you off so that I can change it?"
"Alright," he said trying for a different approch. "I could totally tell you that I haven't slept with my wife in a year. Or that I moved out of the house today and that I physically can't stand being in the same room with her."
"You could-" she said with an eye roll.
He put his finger on her lips to silence her rant. "And it would all be true, but all you need to know is that I want to be your next bad decision. Next to whether to cook the tv dinner or order bad takeout. Both will probably leave you on the toilet tomorrow."
She repressed a smile and then laughed. "You were out here a weird amount of time."
He leaned on the side of the house. Looking out at the street and his parked car. "I usually am more direct, but a lot of things have changed."
"Well you didn't disappoint."
His brow furrowed as he licked his lips. "Do I hear a little I was hoping you'd show up and rock my world in there?"
She pushed his arm. "How old are you? You rock my world. No. But yes you can come in and be my next and only bad decision because I'm making salad."
The place he entered was opposite of anything that he would ever have expected from the voluptuous blond. It looked like it had been decorated by her mother or some other maternal figure. A quilt thrown over the back of the couch. A rug that matched the throw pillows and the china cabinet in the Which wasn't a bad thing? But he was interested to get a better peek into her personality.
"Would you like something to drink?" She asked disappearing into the kitchen.
"Sure," he said throwing his jacket onto the couch.
He couldn't have been out of the game so long that he actually wanted to know this chick's personality. He needed to get his head in the game. Empty sex. "Forget Bonnie, and just have fun."
"Did you say something?" She asked carrying in two glasses of red wine.
"No," he said taking the offered glass and downing it in one sip. He didn't even taste it. Before wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her in. Discarding her wine glass to be forgotten on the coffee table.
She pushed him away, hesistant. "Whats going on here? What is this about? What are you hiding behind those eyes?"
He threw his hands up in the air. "Let's not do this again. Remember. Bad decisions. No thoughts. No thinking." He used his vampire speed and lifted her up into the air. Her legs wrapping around his waist.
"Is vampire sex always like that?" she asked a little breathy, and heady from the dizziness.
"We're not having sex yet?" He laughed holding on to her as they found themselves at the base of her steps. Her laugh infectious as he stopped just long enough for her to catch her breath and feel the full power of his speed. They reached the top of the stairs and he whispered in her ear, "Which one is your room?"
"The last one on the right."
He dumped her on the bed and threw off his black shirt. This room was much more indictive of what he had pictured. Clothes thrown all over the floor, to the point where his shirt fit right in. Empty two liter bottles of pop, strewn across her dresser. One that seemed to be half filled with pennies. A floor length mirror on the far wall that seemed to be decorated with pictures of herself and her bestie.
That aside, it was good to be wanted by someone. To see a smile that wasn't followed up by a snarl of disapproval or so much expectation that it was enough to choke on. Even as his fingers found there way underneath Rachel's shirt, she felt like freedom, and ice cream, and laughes on a warm summer day. Her lips were soft and inviting and whispered more than just apologies, and worries.
But when he pulled away from her it wasn't Rachel, but Bonnie that he was looking at. Rachel's normally dark brown eyes disappered in way of Bonnie's hazel. Trailing kisses down her caramel skin and not the normally pale peach of Rachel's. He was so lost in his head until he couldn't tell what he was doing.
Her moans quickly deterioated to whimpers of pain. "Stop," she said trying to push him off, feebly "Stop." Smacking him across the face.
He fell back stunned. "I'm sorry."
"You were hurting me," she said near tears. "It was like there was anger in your every touch. For god's sake i'm going to have your finger prints digging into my thighs for the next month." Reaching over to cut on the night table lamp. The room instantly brightened by a warm yellow light. Pulling back the band of her shorts to see a black and blue bruise the size of a thumb print.
"I'm sorry," he said trying to reach out and touch her hand.
She pulled back a little scared. "NOOO, to whatever you're going to do right now."
He stood up. "Maybe I should just go."
"So you can almost kill some unsuspecting woman who falls for your blue eyes," she said incensed. "You're an adult, Damon probably for longer than I've been alive. So use your words. What exactly is the problem?"
He never planned on telling a soul about what happened. It grated on him like nails on a chalkboard, but everything was fine now. So what did he have to complain about. Just everything. "We were in this world and it was damn near perfect. I was also human."
Her eyes got wide. "I dont understand? You can be turned human?"
He sat on the edge of the bed. Careful to give her the space she needed. Staring at the closed door, "Not exactly. A higher power was at play, but unlike the tortured vamps you always see on tv. There never was a time when I wanted to be human. So although Bonnie was in paradise it was my hell."
"I guess, I get that. My sister loves animals, but if I was ever stuck at the zoo I'd have to accidentally trip and fall over a cliff," she said, the last part with air quotes.
He laughed. "Something like that. You psycho."
"But thats not where the problem comes in at does it?" she said eyeing him coyly.
"Much later I did something unforgiveable because I was sick, and to fix that she betrayed me." Rachel gasped, his next words dawning on her. "She made you human again."
"She swore she didn't know."
"But you don't believe her?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, maybe, but thats not what makes me so angry." He could feel her come up next to him, but he didn't reach out to her. His own emotion threatening to break through his chest. He coughed, swallowing the cry that wanted to escape his lips. "I lost my memory because of that decision. The memory of my kid, my life. And I thought that I deserved it. Caroline told me all these stories of my former life and I'm thinking. I must've hurt Bonnie for her to turn me human. I must've proven to everyone that I wasn't capable of love or being loved in return. She had to do what she did. Who could be with a man like me? The guilt was exhausting."
She put her hand underneath my chin to force me to look at her. "And when your memory came back you realized that the punishment didn't ft the crime."
"But that's just it. If you ask anyone in the world they'd say it did, but how, when i'm more angry than I ever was before," he said pulling away from her touch. Standing up to put some space between them.
"Okay," she nodded. "Then ask me?" She folded her legs underneath her, yoga style. "I'll be judge and jury."
"No."
"No," she asked him puzzled.
"Because you won't be on my side either. In fact, you'll probably force me to leave."
She didn't say anything and waited for him to respond. Finally saying after awhile, "Understand what. That your promised to love each other no matter what and you gave her the no matter what and she bailed."
"Children. I hurt children," he said through gritted teeth.
"But you were sick," she said trying to wrap her mind around what he was saying.
"Yes, but if you ask some I'm just selfish. I needed pure blood to deal with my illness or I was dead. So it was in a way self-preservation."
"What do you think?" she said looking up at him through her eyelashes.
"I didn't say I was innocent. Just angry with her choices."
Rachel shook her head, her nose scrunched up in disgust. "Damon Salvatore I rescend your invitation to this house.
He cried out as a force pulled him away frm the house and deposited him on the front lawn. He stoop up and brushed the dirt from his pants. "That went well." He yelled back up at her, "I need my jacket."
And just like that it magically floated in the air through the front door to hit him in the face. He was going to choose to believe that her aim was just off and that was an accident.
She sat on her bed stunned. In truth she had noticed Damon when he first pulled up. She had invested in her own vampire dectection system a combination of three spells that would immediately alert her when a vampire was within 15 miles of her. Something new that she had instituted when she first moved in.
At first it was flattering and a bit scary, but when he looked like he wasn't going to knock she decided to take the matters into her own hand. She didn't immediately think they were going to sleep together. She wasnt sure what she thought. But she didn't expect for him to bear his soul and see the darkness underneath.
Her phone rang, playing her favorite song from somewhere underneath the piles of clothes on the floor. She shifted through and saw that it was a text from her sister. She didn't bother responding instead sent one of her own:
'You're not going to believe this, but I think I just found another way in.'