AN: This chapter was a hard one to write: I wanted them to get on with the dancing, but first they kept chattering like magpies, and then Damon didn't comply with my wishes by refusing to dance with Elena! He said she had to get comfortable with the steps first: sure, Damon, as if we care! We're only interested in the whole salsa contest because it makes for sparks flying between you two ;-). He's definitely off my free drinks list for the moment! Still, I hope you like it!
As usual a big thank you to the best beta ever, Shadowfaxangel!
Damon didn't dare give Elena any more time to reconsider, so he held out his hand to her and said, "So how about we get started then?"
Elena looked slightly taken aback, "What? Now?"
Damon nonchalantly lifted one shoulder, "Why not now? You do know that the best thing to do if you fall off a horse is to get back on immediately." He frowned, considering, "Or was that falling off a bicycle? Nah, I don't think so. Not that I am necessarily comparing myself to a horse or a bicycle, but… well, you get my drift, I suppose." Pointedly, he held out his hand again.
Elena looked at his extended hand as if wondering what to do with it. Finally she took it, hesitantly, but she balked when he gently tugged at it to get her to move away from the wall, "But Stefan…"
Damon stopped pulling. He started to sound slightly impatient at her dilly-dallying, "You can't have any pressing engagements with Stefan, Elena. I know for a fact that he won't be back for a while. He was going to get some 'dinner'," Elena heard the quotation marks in his words, indicating that Stefan had gone out hunting, "And then he was meeting someone at the Grill."
He looked at Elena expectantly, a slight smile playing about his mouth, because he knew exactly what Elena's next question was going to be.
Elena's brow puckered and she took the bait, "Meeting someone?" Stefan hadn't told her about that!
Damon smirked, "Didn't tell you, did he? Well, well, it seems my little brother is keeping secrets from you. Never thought I'd see the day!"
He laughed when he saw that Elena was irritated about being left in the dark while he obviously knew all about it. He wondered why Saint Stefan had neglected to mention it to Elena: it wasn't exactly top secret information, or at least it wouldn't stay secret for long if you agreed to meet at the only bar/social establishment in Mystic Falls!
Then he mused that Elena was absolutely adorable with her face all scrunched up like that. He couldn't resist tapping her playfully on the tip of her nose with his finger before reassuring her, "Oh, don't worry, Elena! He's just meeting Matt at the Grill! Something about his car. And you know how boys get when talking cars…" He winked at her, "Let's just say I'm not expecting him home any time soon!" Then he lowered his voice and whispered suggestively, "It's only you and me tonight; no Stefan to interrupt us!"
That was exactly what she was afraid of, Elena thought distractedly, but she was not about to boost Damon's ego by admitting that his nearness alone caused her to feel all kinds of funny (the word is 'unwelcome', Elena, she corrected herself instantly) sensations. She replied rather sharply, "There will not be anything to interrupt, Damon! After all, it's only a dancing lesson." But a slight blush stained her cheeks when she remembered yesterday's dancing lesson and her own unexpected (and unwelcome!) reaction to Damon's proximity.
Damon lifted his eyebrows but didn't let go, "Then why be all worried if it's not about what Stefan might walk into when he comes home?" Elena wisely refrained from answering.
Damon pondered that for a moment, "You can't tell me you're really worried about Stefan and what he might be up to, all by his lonesome at the Grill on a Saturday night!"
Damn, why did he have to be like a dog with a bone, Elena thought. But she would let him believe that if he wanted to, since it was so much safer than the alternative.
Damon surprised her then. He sidled up closer to her and tilted up her face so he could look into her velvety brown eyes. She stared at him, wide-eyed, when he told her in a strangely sincere voice, "Because let me tell you, Elena, there's not a man in his right mind that would cheat on you!" He paused and added matter-of-factly, "Well, I know I wouldn't, so I'm sure my brother won't either."
Elena blushed, his soft words causing a violent fluttering in her stomach, as if butterflies had suddenly taken up residence there. She didn't know where to look: his intense blue gaze seemed to pierce her soul.
Damon had only told her what he felt to be true, but he felt her discomfort and released her. Then he took a step back and tried to lighten the mood by teasing her, "Then again, I'm not Stefan! I sure wouldn't have left you all alone with my depraved, but incredibly hot brother on a Saturday night…"
Elena chuckled in spite of herself. He was just so full of himself, she thought, but a little voice in her head whispered that he was not exaggerating... She quickly suppressed the little voice and looked away from Damon. Her eyes fell on the couches and tables shoved up to the wall.
"You really are taking this seriously if the look of this room is any indication," She remarked. "It is only a high school dancing contest after all."
Damon had of course noticed her very transparent attempt at changing the subject, but he just shot her an amused glance to let her know he was onto her, before answering, "No contest is ever to be taken lightly. If I decide to participate, it is because I have every intention of winning!"
Elena laughed and said, "What happened to participating is more important than winning?"
Damon rolled his eyes, "Oh, cut it out, Elena! Bad losers undoubtedly invented that particular profundity. Winning is the only thing that matters, since no one ever remembers who came in second."
Elena looked at him then and said impishly, "Well then, if you have your sights set on winning this contest, hadn't we better get started, instead of standing here just talking about it? We're losing precious time!"
Damon let out a disbelieving snort and shook his head. Trust a woman to turn everything on its head: he hadn't been the one turning every stone looking for excuses! But he didn't say anything; he just motioned for her to precede him to the empty space in the middle of the room.
She stopped and looked at him expectantly. Damon smirked and dropped onto one of the couches, lounging there as if he didn't intend to get up any time soon. She looked puzzled and quizzically raised her eyebrows. When he didn't say anything but only raised his own eyebrows in return, she started tapping her foot and demanded, "Well, aren't we going to dance?"
Damon tilted his head to the side as if considering her question before answering, "Aren't you suddenly the impatient one! The answer is no, we are not going to dance today. You are." Elena's mouth fell open, but Damon continued casually, "I will just sit here and observe you and give you pointers and…. Oh, yes, probably make you slightly uncomfortable in the process."
She sputtered, "But… but… shouldn't we be practicing together?" If he was going to be sitting there, looking at her like that, she already knew she was going to be very uncomfortable indeed!
"Can't wait to get your hands on my body again, Elena?" Damon laughed as she gasped in indignation: she was so easily riled and he absolutely relished flustering her. "Don't worry! You'll get your chance next time!"
He did get back up then, but only to walk over to the stereo so he could start the music. He looked at her over his shoulder and remarked, "Today you just need to rehearse the basic steps so you have them firmly in your head before we start on the more complicated moves. Next time we'll get to the actual salsa dancing, I promise! Now take off your shoes."
Elena's mind had been busy wondering why she felt disappointed that today wasn't going to bring any actual dancing (she should be happy that at least there wouldn't be any close bodily contact today… No, Elena, that's forbidden territory!), so she thought she surely must have heard him wrong, "Excuse me?"
"Daydreaming about me already, Elena?" He smirked at her before repeating, "I asked you to take off your shoes. You can't possibly dance wearing those rubber things you call shoes, so you had better do it barefoot until we can find you something suitable."
Elena bent over to undo her shoelaces. She asked, "What do you call suitable?"
When he didn't answer her, Elena looked up to find he had turned from the stereo to openly check out her backside when she bent over to take off her shoes. She blushed furiously and lost her balance, landing on her butt.
Damon finally answered her question, "You should definitely wear heels." Then he grinned, "Mmm, maybe they'd better not be too high though. We don't want you falling over after all. Your balance seems to be a bit off."
He chuckled when she scowled at him from her spot on the floor. Damn him, Elena thought, he knew very well that her falling over just now hadn't had anything to do with her balance or lack of it! She knew she should just keep quiet, but she couldn't resist, "I don't believe it! Were you just checking me out?"
He lifted one eyebrow and nodded. Elena glared at him, and Damon said, "What? Turnabout is only fair after all, and I distinctly recall you checking me out yesterday..."
Damn, Elena thought, she didn't think he'd noticed, since he was dancing with that brazen hussy at the time, but apparently he had been aware of her scrutiny. Because she was sitting on the floor with one shoe in her hand, she threw it at him. He ducked, in time of course, and laughed out loud. The shoe hit the wall and thumped to the wooden floor.
So she pulled off the other shoe and threw it as well. He simply sidestepped and it just flew past him again. "You missed! And now you're all out of ammunition!" he said in a singsong voice, extending his hand to where she was sitting on the floor and hauling her up without any effort at all.
Then he turned back to the stereo and pushed the play button. Salsa music filled the room, and Damon said, suddenly serious, "Okay, Elena. First I'll show you a warm up routine. It's just a very basic salsa move, but it'll familiarize you with the rhythm."
"Do I really need to warm up for this?" She realized she hadn't thought of dancing as an actual sport.
"Yeah," Damon replied, "If you don't, you might feel it tomorrow. Of course, I wouldn't mind giving you a massage to work the kinks out, but I have this funny idea that your boyfriend wouldn't appreciate my efforts!"
Elena wisely refrained from commenting. Damon came to stand in front of her and turned his back to her, so he could show her the steps. It was quite a simple sidestepping routine. The hardest thing to grasp was the rhythm.
She got the hang of it fairly quickly, but as soon as she wasn't concentrating on Damon's feet anymore, she noticed he wasn't just making the moves with his feet. His whole body was moving: his arms were lifted at an angle and his hips sort of tilted with his steps. She focused on his hips and copied his moves as well as she could. She suddenly found herself wondering why she had never noticed before yesterday that he had a very nice ass? Because you have absolutely no business looking at his ass, Elena! She scolded herself. You're just looking at it now to learn salsa. That's right! Damn but it was getting warm in here!
Damon suddenly turned around as if he had felt her eyes on him, making her lose the rhythm. Her eyes flew up to his, because she didn't want to get caught checking him out again.
"Keep going, Elena!" He said, taking a few steps backward, observing the way she moved. Just like he'd thought, she seemed to keep to the rhythm easily, but she needed to loosen up a little. "You've got to shake those hips, Elena. Come on, let loose!"
She made an effort to "shake her hips" as ordered. But as she'd suspected, having his eyes on her made her feel awfully self-conscious. She felt a slight blush creeping over her cheeks: it felt so strange to be dancing like this just for Damon!
He must have noticed her high colour, because he said teasingly, "I'd say you're all warmed up now. Just start doing the basic step and turn you learned yesterday."
He didn't make a move to join her, so she supposed he was serious about the dancing alone part. And indeed he was. For over an hour he made her practice all the basic steps and turns that had been explained yesterday, but unlike yesterday, she found that she could actually perform them quite well. She even forgot about being self-conscious around Damon because he refrained from making any insinuating remarks but just corrected her and explained the steps like a good teacher.
When he stopped the music, saying they had done enough for today, she was genuinely disappointed and surprised to notice that dusk had indeed fallen. She had been having fun, it was going just fine and she had the idea that she could go on forever, so she protested, "Oh, come on, Damon, I don't want to stop just yet!"
"Can't get enough of it, can you?" She perked up when he said that, but he continued, "You've practiced enough for today, Elena. We can always continue tomorrow if you want."
She padded over to him, still barefoot, and looked up at him with beseeching eyes, "Can't we just have one dance?"
He looked down at her with an indulgent smile, and she thought he was surely going to relent, so she wheedled, "One teensy tiny little dance together? Please, Damon?"
But Damon didn't answer her. Instead he looked over her shoulder and drawled, "Well, hello, brother!"
And that was the end of the dance lesson.
AN: I hope kjewls doesn't mind my (well, Damon) borrowing one of her wonderful words to describe the Grill as the only bar/social establishment in MF… It sounded so very much like Damon that I just couldn't resist! All credit to you, Julie!
Reviews are most welcome, or send me a message on Twitter (val_victrix)