Listen to me, mister. You're my knight in shining armor. Don't forget it.- On Golden Pond
It was nearing the end of Salvatore Corp's fiscal year which caused the whole company to turn into lunatics overnight and all hands were needed on deck. This in turn meant that Damon and I hadn't had any time whatsoever to go on any more dates. For the next couple of weeks I would be working next to Stefan, just until everything was organized and then we could all breathe a big sigh of relief and go back to working separately.
When I said we hadn't been able to find time to go out, the unfolding affair hadn't by any means been paused. Damon made sure of it. He was apparently under the assumption that the elevator and the photocopy room were his own personal zones for some pretty heavy duty make out sessions. Not that I was complaining. I finally gave in to the inevitable and accepted that Damon Salvatore was blisteringly attractive, it was refreshing to not have to pretend like I didn't notice anymore. Late nights at the office were spent pouring over paperwork while hastily consuming Chinese take-out, it's the only time we found to eat and the only time we allowed ourself to be distracted and have as many breezy conversations as possible well into the small hours of the morning.
It was a strange, undefined way to relate, not to mention the massive shift it was from our previous alliance. Despite all of that, I found it amazing living in the moment like we were, exploring what could be. Damon made sure to keep the pressure off and take it at my speed.
Tueday night found Stefan and I stood at the back of a packed auditorium in stifling heat, trying in vain to circulate some air by waving our welcome packets around our faces. It was Fall, we weren't even supposed to be having weather like this! Damon was presiding at the press conference, orchestrated so the company's objectives for next year could be revealed. It had been dragging on for the last hour and there was an endless line of journalists raising their hands hoping it would be their question that got answered next.
Bonnie was sat next to Damon on the stage, moderating any inquiries being shouted out. As the voices droned on, I distracted myself by making up the life stories of people in the audience (I decided the octogenarian in the third row and the young female covered in leopard print in the back row are having a secret affair). Without warning, a commotion came from a few rows in front and Andie Starr stood up. Considering how she left in Vegas, I was a little perturbed about how she was going to behave; even if Damon was being a complete asshole to her that day.
"Mr. Salvatore, as I'm sure we're all on tenterhooks waiting to find out" she paused to superiorly smile around the room and hold her tape recorder out further. "What exactly is your relationship status? Take Rose Slater, is she still in the picture?"
All good will i'd previously held for the journalist disappeared, I actually felt a little sorry that a bright, capable journalist degraded herself to get in a cheap, tabloid question just to have a dig at a former flame.
Bonnie shook her head and indicated for the next question to be asked but Damon held up his hand "No it's fine. If that's the only deep question Miss. Starr could think up at a conference about business that's on her." The room laughed and a faint blush covered Andie's cheeks. "But to answer your question, Rose Slater is just a friend and I'm very much single." He looked to the next reporter "Moving on."
That stung a little more than it should have. Technically he was single, we had no labels and we hadn't talked about exclusivity. What's more it's not like he was going to mention my name when we both agreed to keep whatever was between us private. But a flare of jealousy sprung up unexpectedly anyhow. Huh, that was new.
"Isn't that just the million dollar question" Stefan mumbled next to me.
The warmth of the room had already frayed my temper so I snapped "What did you say?"
"His relationship status" he illuminated. "What are you guys anyways?"
I grew agitated "I have no clue what yo-"
"I'm not stupid Elena, even if my brother has said otherwise." he interjected, laughing. "I'm also not attacking you or anything but i'd have to be blind not to notice what's going on."
Perceiving he was just genuinely curious with no malice intended, I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried not to go red "Is it that obvious?"
"Considering Damon's hands are all over you, all the time, and he walks around with a shit eating grin; you can't really miss it."
And here I was convinced we were being coy and stealthy. "It's complicated" I explained. "I don't really know what we are yet." Suddenly it hit me "The night we babysat Lydia, you knew then, didn't you?"
Stefan held his hands up "Hey, it's none of my business. There's been some whispers around the office but apparently there always has been rumours, so I don't think anyone's really paying close attention." He leant in closer to my ear after we noticed the guy standing next to us straining to listen "For what it's worth, I haven't seen Damon this happy in a long time and believe it or not, that's something I like to see; so I guess keep doing what you're doing."
I did honestly believe Stefan wanted his brother to find some happiness, even if it was to allay some of his own guilt. Without giving us a chance to continue our conversation, the sound of numerous chairs scraping back on the floor filled the room and I realized the event had blessedly finished.
We'd been in the SUV driving home all of ten minutes before Damon broke and began his questioning. "What were you and Stefan gossiping like a pair of old ladies about?" he inquired with an air of affected nonchalance while he pretended to be fully focused on his leather planner.
The sound of the tires crunching over gravel grew louder, starting to chafe and I ran my fingernails along the upholstery of the seats. "I didn't realize you had been watching" I noted, glancing at the driver and then out of the tinted window. "Stefan knows, about us." I added, quieter.
"Is that a problem?"
"Not particularly" I replied, trying not to retaliate to his flippant questioning. For some reason we were walking the line of baiting each other. "We should probably cool it while we're it work though, be professional and keep it separate. I mean we wouldn't want anyone else figuring it out and ruining your bachelor image would we?"
He barked out a contemptuous note of laughter "I was wondering when you were going to bring that up. Tell me, what should I have said?"
Don't get me wrong, I fully understood how irrational I was being; Damon hadn't set out to hurt me and there was no other way he could have answered that question. I turned away from staring at the scenery rushing past and looked at him "I'm sorry, I was being a bitch. It's been a really long day."
Watching me fixedly, his face became warmer and he reached across to grab my hand, holding it tightly on the seat between us "Look, when we're at the office I won't lay a finger on you if it makes it easier." I could almost hear the unsaid end of that sentence But when we're in private, my fingers will be all over you. "And for future reference, if it's you that's wanting to know; I'm very not single."
I rolled my eyes, smirking, but he could tell he had said exactly the right thing.
"Screw this" I all but screamed two days later as I broke another pen, splattering black ink all over my hand. Under Damon's instructions I had been forging his signature on some of his personal correspondence he'd been too busy to finish. Stefan was out getting his brother's dry cleaning and the level of stress in the building had reached boiling point. I needed a break, fast, before someone pulled a Britney and shaved their head. I could see Damon in his office talking to one of the accountants from the second floor, he was struggling not to fall asleep and kept flicking tiny balls of paper over his desk every time his employee wasn't looking.
This. Was. Ridiculous. When inspiration eventually struck, I was frankly surprised a little light bulb didn't appear over my head.
I knocked and stuck my head around his door, schooling my face into what I hoped was a forlorn expression. "Mr. Salvatore, I hate to interrupt."
"Oh it's fine Miss. Gilbert." He addressed me eagerly, begging me with his eyes 'do not leave me alone with this guy any longer'. "What's the problem?"
I crossed my fingers behind my back "It's your car, it's been broken into. The security guard said it looked pretty bad."
Damon's face fell, genuinely worried "The Camaro? Fuck, of course that would happen the one day I chose to drive it."
He was referencing his vintage Chevy Camaro convertible; his pride and joy; his baby. One time I accidently, through no fault of my own, scratched a very small mark on the passenger door. I literally thought he was going to break down weeping and start whispering sweet nothings to it. "Yeah, you should come down and check it out. The police will probably want a report too."
"Scott, we'll have to resume this another time." Scowling, he strode out of the room with me hot on his heels. He snarled a few orders at some of the people he passed and let the receptionist know he would be taking the rest of the day off.
We rode down to the underground garage and his powder blue car, which was in immaculate condition, came into view. He tilted his head and turned towards me, eyebrows lowered. "Well, will you look at that. Seems to have had a miraculous recovery. Maybe it's magic?"
"I can explain" I vowed, taking a small step backwards and second guessing my bright idea. "You needed a time out before you stuck a pencil in someone's eye. And besides, I promised you a date. You sprung one on me, now I get to spring one on you."
Prowling towards me, Damon vividly reminded of a predator stalking it's prey. He moved behind and kissed me whisper soft on my neck. "That was very, very bad of you Elena, but it's also a very good idea." Playfully biting the lobe of my ear, he accused in a voice that was all velvet and honey "Let me guess, you couldn't wait to lure me out and have your way with me."
It took everything in my power not to close my eyes and lean back into him. "No, actually I was worried about your blood pressure" I teased. "Alberto has been telling me all about how males of a certain age need to be careful in stressful situations."
His hands which had been tracing figure eight patterns on the sides of my waist, stilled "Did you just call me an old man?"
"Maybe."
Fingers pressing deeper into my skin, he tickled me mercifully until I begged him to stop, laughing until I had tears in my eyes. "Okay, I'm at your disposal. Where are you going to take me Gilbert?"
Woops, my plan hadn't stretched that far. "Let's get out of the city." I suggested. "Upstate?"
He swung his car keys around his pointer finger and smirked "Upstate it is".
As I moved around to the passenger side, he untucked his shirt and flung his tie into the back seat through the open window. We simultaneously turned our cells off, a mutual decision to really escape from all distractions. Tapping his long fingers on the steering wheel, he looked at me pensively "How about you drive for a while?"
"You'd let me drive this car? The one we're sitting in right now?" I challenged skeptically, toeing my too-high heels off my feet.
"Sure" he shrugged, like it was no big deal he had just offered to let me get my hands on one of his most prized possessions.
Eyes widening, my teeth immediately started to worry my lip. "I don't know how to drive stick shift" I admitted lamely. My father, lover of all classic cars, would have a fit if he found out I'd turned down this opportunity.
Damon waved his hand "That's easy, I can teach you." He slipped on a pair of aviators and spun out of the parking spot and onto the road "Let me get us out of the city and then it's all yours."
Staring down into my lap, I tried to hide a wide smile. Seems like my date idea was a good one after all. Peeking out of the corner of my eye as Damon maneuvered though the other cars with military like precision, I could see him looking more liberated than I had seen him in a while. It took me at long time to notice the speedometer steadily rising as we flashed along the freeway. "Hey Speedy Gonzales, wanna loosen up on that pedal a little?" I warned lightly. "You already have a criminal record, let's not add to it."
"Criminal record?" he scoffed, looking at me with a half smile. "I knocked someone out in a bar Elena, not really Charles Manson caliber is it?". Tilting his head to one side and raising his eyebrows suggestively he added "But hey, if you want to role-play at being Bonnie and Clyde I wouldn't complain."
"Okay, eyes on the road Casanova" I reached over smirking and smacked his chest gently.
He grinned and pushed his foot closer to floor "Oh relax, I'm not going to get pulled over. I have like a built in radar."
And then with perfect timing for future story telling, red and blue lights started to flash in the rear view mirror and I had to clap a hand over my mouth to stop the laughter begging to escape. "A built in radar huh?" I bragged as Damon groaned and pulled over to the side of the road.
Much to my annoyance and adding no doubt ten-fold to Damon's smugness, he was able to talk himself out of the ticket with his usual flawless oratorical skills. I knew I would never hear the end of that one. Eventually we were at a spot he deemed appropriate enough to switch the wheel over to me. He jumped out and pushed the top down. Ignoring the crispness in the air it was going to be a thrill to ride it as a convertible.
We slid into our leather seats and I hovered my hands around the wheel and gear stick too nervous to touch anything yet. Damon reclined his seat and crossed his arms behind his head. Finally, I had the wherewithal to turn the key to start the engine and wait for instructions. "Alright, teach me O' wise one."
"Put your foot on the brake, and make sure the clutch, thats the third pedal, is down as well." I made sure my feet were in position and waited for further directions. He briefly explained the different gears and helped me get it into first. Smiling like it was the funniest thing he's seen all week he advised. "Okay, when you're ready release the clutch".
I did as he said and promptly stalled the car, jerking us both forward. After a few more tries ending up exactly the same way, and Damon laughing hysterically, I threw my hands up into the air in acute frustration and slammed the car door open, hopped out and left him to hit the brake and turn the ignition off. "Elena, come back" he shouted after me, mirth still in his voice as I stomped away to the grass on the side of the deserted road.
Moments later I felt two arms strong as steel bands wrap around my waist and lift me up like I weighed as much as a bag of feathers. His muscles coiled beneath the skin. "PUT. ME. DOWN." I screeched petulantly. Shoulders shaking with laughter he only shook his head.
'Let's try this again" he commanded, sitting into the driver's seat and pulling me onto his lap. "I'll work the pedals and you can control the wheel and the gears." His hand covered my right one and placed it onto the shift. Within minutes we had the hang of it and we were cruising down the road with no more problems.
I nestled back further into his chest, he had both hands wrapped around my stomach and I could feel his smirk against the shell of my ear. "You did it purpose didn't you?' I realized belatedly. "You deliberately wanted me to screw it up."
"Had to get you on my lap somehow" he shrugged unabashed. Instead of a rebuke, I think I surprised him by leaning back and kissing his cheekbone. Teasing, he breathed into my ear "We could get pulled over again you know, pretty sure you on my lap is not a legal way to drive."
I couldn't bring myself to care "Legal shmegal". The trees lining the street had turned to a golden orange and with the leaves falling all around us as we passed I knew there was no where else I would rather be.
An hour later we had parked the car under a tree and were sat talking with our heads on each other's chests and our legs stuck out of the windows opposite us. "Liar" I accused, laughing after he had spent the last five minutes trying to convince me his favorite movie was Fight Club. "I've sat and watched The Goonies with you so many times I think you've worn out the DVD".
"Whatever" he allowed grumpily, understanding there was not much I didn't know about him. "It's like the gold standard of childhood movies". We fell into a comfortable silence as the sunlight danced between the branches above us, dappling our skin with shadows and the brisk breeze surrounded me with every scent that I associated with Damon; leather, aftershave and raw masculinity.
Catching sight of my purse, I remembered there was something I had decided to give to him and this was the perfect moment. I slipped my hand into the quilted blue leather tote and pulled out a thin stack of papers. "I don't know if you still wanted to read this, I mean it's not very good.." The small bundle of pages I held in my hand was the very poorly attempted first ten chapters of a story I had been working on, a few words I had managed to scribble here and there at lunch time and in the early hours of mornings. I wasn't even completely sure what possessed me to show Damon; maybe a sign of trust, that he wasn't the only one willing to put a part of themselves into this relationship.
"No, I definitely still do" he validated firmly, snatching the sheets from my hand before I could change my mind. He flipped through the first few pages and then rested them on the back seat, smiling "Thanks for letting me see this, I'll look it over later."
I blushed and suddenly wanted to wrench them back, the fact that Damon was going to read my deficient ramblings that I tried to pass off as writing was disquieting. As if he could read my mind he diverted my attention by lowering my head back down to him and playing with the ends of my hair. He chuckled abruptly, causing my head that was resting on his taut stomach to shudder. I propped myself up onto my elbow, and glanced at him waiting for an explanation.
"Stefan" he expounded, squinting up at me. "I just remembered Stefan's probably back at the office folding my dry cleaning like a good little maid. No way he's going to get to hijack this date"
Feeling a tiny ribbon of guilt that I left Stefan behind to deal with the clusterfuck back at home, I couldn't help but join in with Damon's amusement, his smile was kinda contagious. Fiddling with the hem of Damon's shirt, I mentioned tentatively "The other day I accidently saw some ideas he had drawn up for the Carrington account, he's really good. Looked like he solved some of the problems that were road-blocking you."
Rather than the hostile shut down I was expecting, Damon nodded slowly. "He was always good at problem solving. Maybe I should take a look at those."
Trying not to show the shock on my face that Damon was considering letting Stefan handle something on the business side of things, I murmured an agreement. Unfortunately, I caught sight of the clock on the dashboard and groaned, slumping back down onto him "We're going to have to head back soon, it's getting dark."
"Fine" he consented, sitting up and stretching out the knots in his back and neck. Winking, he informed "But we're driving down the way we came up."
A week later Damon and I stumbled unceremoniously through his front door, the several glasses of wine we had at dinner catching up with us. Alaric had threatened us with legal action if we didn't find time to have one meal with him and luckily we were able to get away early that night and have some much needed time with our favorite attorney.
Damon lifted me up and sat me on the desk in his home office. He stood between my legs, supporting himself by bracing his arms either side of me and said "Alaric wished us congratulations."
"For what?" I asked, concentrating on not slurring.
"I believe he elequently worded it as 'finally getting our shit together'. I guess we weren't as surreptitious at dinner as we thought."
I felt a pinprick of worry at yet another person finding out, it made everything so irrefutable. Though the nuzzling Damon was preforming on my neck cleared all my doubts for now. "We?" I snorted. "It wasn't me who was making sexual innuendoes all through the appetizers."
He tried to move his mouth up to mine before I stopped him by placing my hand over my lips. "I have wine breath" I warned, suddenly self-concious.
"That's a crock of shit" he snorted, prying my hand away. "So do I." He leant in and I was pretty sure he was using extra tongue to prove a point. His hands traced up my thighs and groaning he broke the kiss, his forehead resting against mine as he found the lace tops of my stockings. "Jesus Christ Elena." I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and pulled him back to me, past the point of caring of how far this could go right now.
"I'm so in love with you".
That one whisper into my neck annihilated through the daze, everything came to a screeching halt and all of a sudden I wasn't feeling very drunk. I pushed his hands away and leant backwards, needing space "I'm sorry Damon, I can't tonight. It's too fast." For the first time since we started whatever this was, he looked disappointed at the rate we were going at. I wanted to, I did, but sex with him swiftly seemed like it would be something much more. And that was one more step forward I couldn't go back from. "I really am sorry, I didn't mean..."
"Shit, It's not about the sex Elena." he bit out angrily, interrupting. "It's the fact that I don't know what this is to you. I mean you slept with Tyler but won't..." He trailed off but his point had been made.
Pushing my worries aside for the moment, I realized for the first time how vulnerable I made him feel. He felt like I didn't even care as much for him as I did for a one night stand. Cupping his face, I shook my head "Tyler was a mistake and this isn't a mistake." I pleaded "I'm getting there Damon, you just have to be patient."
A tight smile formed on his lips, but I was sure he still wasn't appeased. I pushed forward to hug him, rested my chin on his shoulder and hid my face. A severe bolt of panic run up my spine. What if I let him down? What if I could never match the depth of his feelings for me? The power to hurt him was terrifying.
He gently released me and went to the kitchen to get us some coffee, leaving a strange tense atmosphere following him. I sighed, dropped down behind the desk and went to sign into my e-mail account where I saw Damon's was already signed in. Before I could hit back, the top line caught my eye.
E-Mail from Parsley Publishing- Mr. Salvatore we have received the beginnings of the manuscript you sent us. We would be glad to look-
Frozen, I clicked onto the attached papers and realized I was reading my own words. I looked at the empty door Damon had just left from, he had sent my unfinished personal writing, that I wasn't even sure about giving to him, to a publisher behind my back.
A/N- Ugh the response I have gotten for this story is just stunning. You guys are the best. I'll never be able to thank you enough for just reading. And what Damon did with Elena's manuscript won't be a huge deal at first, more like another ripple added. Also, I'm going to Europe at the end of this month for a few weeks and won't be able to write there. I'm 99% positive I will be able to get out another chapter before I go but just in case I didn't want anyone to think I've abandoned DE (impossible). xoxo
