Sorry, this is kind of a short chapter, but it's stuffed full of Delena so that makes up for it's length, right?
I hope everyone had a happy New Years!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Damon took in the beautiful, sumptuous woodwork and rich satin upholstery of Elena's suite for a moment, setting his sketchbook and drawing materials on the marble table. Elena switched on the light.
"Will this light do? Don't artists need good light?" Damon laughed, impersonating an over exaggerated French accent.
"Oui, c'est vrai. I am not used to such 'orrible conditions." His eye caught sight of the paintings. "Hey… Monet! Isn't he great… his use of color? Mother had him come up to our palace once in Florence and paint the gardens."
Elena laughed. "Ok, your Royal Highness, sit down," she said as she went into the adjoining walk-in closet. Damon chuckled. "Klaus insists on lugging this awful thing everywhere," she told him as he followed her in and she turned the dial.
"Should I be expecting him anytime soon?"
"Not as long as the cigars and brandy hold out." She opened the safe and removed the necklace, holding it out to Damon, who took it carefully.
"The Heart of Blood," he whispered, "He gave this to you?" His eyes searched Elena's.
"Yes, and I want you to draw me like one of your French girls in that book, wearing this." She smiled up at him. "Wearing only this."
He looked up at her as she carefully drew the butterfly comb from her hair, laying it on one of the side tables, shaking her hair free around her shoulders. Damon had been laying out his pencils like he was about ready to start surgery on Elena rather than draw her. She had come out of the room wearing a silk kimono.
"The last thing I need is another picture of me looking like a china doll. As a paying customer, I expect to get what I want." She handed him a dime and he laughed good-naturedly at this. Then she stepped back, and his laugher ceased as she parted the kimono. The blood red stone lay between her olive colored breasts. Her heart was pounding as she dropped the robe on the floor.
"Così bella," he breathed. He looked stunned, like he was seeing for the first time, and what he was seeing was a beautiful gem. Then, seeing she was waiting for instruction, "Over there…on the bed—I mean, uh, the couch, er, settee," Damon stammered, staring at her, unable to take his eyes off her. She was his princess. She would be his.
"Tell me when it looks right to you." She moved around until she was sprawled across the settee.
"Uh...just bend your left leg a little and lower your right slightly and...and lower your head. Eyes to me. That's it." Damon began to sketch, mentally chanting not to let himself be affected by the scene before him.
"I believe you are blushing, Mr. Big Artiste. I can't imagine Monsieur Monet blushing." Damon wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.
"He does landscapes. Very nice ones, might I add."
His eyes met hers over the top edge of the sketchpad and all nervousness faded away. Elena looked at Damon and knew she would never be happy with Klaus as long as she remembered Damon and remembered what could have been. The image of his eyes she would carry the rest of her life, as he would hers.
He drew Elena with confident strokes, creating some of his best work ever. Her pose was languid and fluid, her hands were soft and beautiful, a writer's hands, and her eyes radiated her energy from within.
Even after nearly eighty-four years, Elena's eyes looked the same to Damon. Wrinkles had been added with time, but it had been time spent together, his princess, his love, his wife.
"My heart was pounding the whole time. It was the most erotic moment of my life...up until then at least."
A semicircle of listeners were frozen, enraptured in Elena's story of her and her husband's days on the Titanic.
After a moment, Jeremy was the first to unfreeze. "What, uh...happened next?"
Elena smiled at the young man, "You mean, did we 'do it'?"
"Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Gibbons," Damon's voice came from beside his wife, "but I was very professional about it."
The crew was enticed, unable to pull away. Stefan met Elena's eyes. "So then what happened after that?"
Next chapter is even more Delena-y. In fact, this is where it's really going to differ from the movie, so if you want to see that, make sure you review and check out some of my other stories!