Elena knocked faintly on Damon's door. Before he even opened it, she heard the front door slam. Soon after the sound of gravel spitting out from under the tires of Stefan's red Ferrari let her know not only was he angry with her, but that she was now completely and utterly alone with Damon. Here goes nothing, she thought.
"Come in," drawled Damon from within. He was lying on his bed, naked from the waist up. He'd kicked off his shoes and crossed his legs at the ankles. At the sight of this, Elena's jaw dropped for a moment before she was able to successfully recover.
"Oh, come on! Really, Damon?!?" She leaned against the door frame, crossing her arms.
He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, stretching his arms wide in an expansive display of his well-honed pectoral muscles. "You know you like it." He continued for a moment before letting it go, sensing her mood was more serious than his own. "All right, Elena. Spill it. My dear brother left us alone for now but you never know how long it will be before he comes back."
Elena took a seat at the foot of his bed, right next to those pale feet. She sighed, wishing she could affect his brevity, but there were things they needed to talk about. "Damon, look. I'm not sure of what I'm doing right now...." As she began to speak , he sat up. He was almost directly in front of her now. "Damon, please. I need to finish...."
"No. Right now, you don't. We're alone. Completely alone," he began. Before she could protest he brought a finger to her lips. "Shh...I don't know how much time alone we're going to have."
The look on his face froze the words on her tongue. She felt like she had a lump stuck in her throat. no one had ever looked at her like that. Not even Stefan. There was such a look of raw, unadulterated need on Damon's features that he if he were a sculpture, he might crack. Just as quickly as she saw it, he managed to make it disappear again.
With one hand Elena reached out and stroked the left side of Damon's face. His eyes closed as he fought to keep his facade in place. But she'd already seen behind that wall; beneath that mask. Elena knew it. Damon knew it.
Damon was fine at first. He was nothing if not an excellent actor, having practiced this type of situation over and over in the last century and a half in order to get what he wanted. But the moment Elena's skin touched his, he knew he was in trouble. Something about the young woman in front of him unnerved him. He'd actually managed to fool himself into thinking the only reason he wanted her was to avenge himself against his brother because of Katherine. But he'd been wrong. The closer he'd tried to get to Elena for that very purpose, the more he was doing himself in. He just hadn't figured that key piece of information out until that very moment. Damon Salvatore, ladies' man extraordinaire, had - for the second time in his miserable existence - fallen in love.
Elena sensed a change in him. She looked at Damon more closely. His eyes were different, like he was both surprised and in wonder in the same instant. Her hand dropped, frozen as she now was.
"Elena..." Her name sounded strangled as it came from his lips. All pretense dropped as he reached for her, crushing her mouth with his as he tried to drink her in with a kiss. She made him feel human again. For that briefest of moments, the last 145 years of his life disappeared. The memory of Katherine was now just that; an old and dead memory washed away with the sensory input of this young woman. Of the young woman he was now touching; tasting.
Damon pulled back from her and smiled, almost laughing at Elena's breathlessness. He leaned back on his pillows, pulling her along with him to nestle atop his bare chest. "You were saying?"
She thought quickly. If she started in with her serious conversation again, they would lose whatever ground they'd just made. He may not have said anything directly, or aloud, but Elena knew from instinct that Damon felt something for her. This wasn't some twisted farce to get back at Stefan. Or was it?
Choosing to go with her gut, and not really wanting to find out the answer then and there, Elena put the planned conversation on the back burner. She wasn't going to kill the good mood, smiling as she closed her eyes and allowed herself to relax against him.
"Nothing, Damon. Nothing at all."
