Damon was so far gone over this woman. Rose would roll her eyes, deeply exasperated with him, but he couldn't help it. And as good as Elena looked in his shirt and nothing else, her shower-damp hair falling past her shoulders, it was not that. Even that face and those long legs crossed as she ate the fish he made for her wouldn't have him missing meetings. Her strength drew him to her. He loved the unflinching way she looked, not just at the world, but at herself, the way she faced her mistakes and her flaws head on. She believed that even flawed, she could do good. Her willingness to change and evolve, but to never be less than who she authentically was. All of those things tightened the grip on his heart he didn't think she even knew she had.
"This fish is delicious." Elena gestured to the panga Damon brought back just so he could prepare it for her. "Is this another of your mother's recipes?"
"No, I had it at the Michelangelo in Johannesburg, and requested the recipe." He rested an elbow on her dining room table, his chin on his fist. "Glad you like it."
"I love it." A smile took its time spreading across her face. "Tell me how you came to break into my house two days earlier than I thought you would be back. We kind of skipped the conversation part of the reunion…"
When she smiled at him like that, they could skip it again, if it were left up to him.
"I finished everything for the Collective, and felt confident Enzo and Rose could handle the rest of our meetings."
"You skipped meetings?" Elena slowed her chewing while she processed what that meant. "To come back to New York?"
Damon got up from his seat and squatted on his haunches in front of her, positioning himself between her bare legs, sliding his hands under the hem of his shirt to rest at her hips.
"I skipped meetings and came back, not to New York," he said, answering the questions in her eyes, "but to you."
Elena's smile faded, eyes dropping to her lap.
"Damon." Her whisper danced across his skin. "I don't want to get in the way of what you need to do for the Collective. You deserve that position."
"There is something you should know about me." Damon took his hands from under the shirt, sliding them to her lap, capturing her slim fingers between his. "When the people I care about need me, I'm there."
"I'm fine." Elena shook her head, slipping her hand behind his head to caress his neck. "I don't want you putting all you have worked for at risk."
"It is not."
Maybe it was. Damon didn't care what Thurston insinuated or what Rose said. He believed his record and his character would speak for themselves, and if they didn't, to hell with it. He didn't want to lead an organization ruled by the same politics he had to work against to make a difference.
"I know you are okay, Elena." He pushed the hair over her shoulder, curving his hand around her jaw and forcing her to look at him when he brought up the bad news she told him earlier. "I also know it has to hurt that the Whitmore board let you down. Has to hurt that your parents have turned their backs on you. It has to hurt that so many call your story into question because of things that have all to do with what Liam Davis did to you."
Elena held their stare for a few seconds before pulling away, turning back to her plate.
"And how did you get into my place?" She looked at Damon, telling him with her eyes she was not ready to deal with all the hurts he enumerated. "No one can even get up here unless they are on my list, much less inside."
"A little birdie helped me with that."
"A little bitch birdie named Caroline, I presume."
"That would be the one," he confirmed with a grin.
"No wonder she was so eager for me to get out of the office."
"She texted me about twenty times." Damon grinned when his phone lighted up. "Actually, there she goes again."
"Tell her she is on my list."
Damon's grin faded as he read Caroline's latest text.
"What did she say?" Elena took another bite of her panga. "This really is divine. Make it for me again soon."
"She says 'Welcome back. Did Elena tell you about her visitor?'" Damon looked up from the screen, a frown sketched between his brows. "What visitor?"
"Why that little…" Elena pushed her plate away, reaching for her wine to take a sip.
"What visitor, Elena?" Damon's voice hardened. "And don't lie to me."
Elena rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. She cleared her throat, tongue swiping across her lips.
"It wasn't a big deal. I wish Caroline hadn't—"
"What. Visitor."
"Liam came to my office one night."
Rage blurred Damon's vision and pounded the blood in his ears, drowning out everything else for a second.
"What the hell?" He demanded, on his feet, fists clenched. "When?"
"The day…" She dropped her words for a second, drawing and releasing a quick breath. "The day before I went public."
"But that was more than a week ago." He ran agitated hands through his hair. "How many times have we spoken since then, Elena? And you never even mentioned it?"
"I wasn't going to…well, I didn't think you needed to know."
"Why the hell would you not tell me that?" Damon slammed his fist into his palm, needing it to be Liam's face.
"Because of that!" she pointed to his fist. "I knew you would respond just like this, and it won't help a damn thing, Damon."
"Won't help?" He leaned forward until their noses almost touched and their breath mingled. "What did he say? What did he want?"
Elena didn't back down, didn't shy away, but met his anger with her determination.
"He wanted to convince me that I had it all wrong. He wanted me to drop it all, and when I refused, he tried to intimidate me."
"Who was there with you?" His voice, gruffed, growling.
"No one," she whispered. "It was just me. He came by after everyone had gone."
Fury, helpless fury, almost choked Damon. This was exactly what he had feared, that Liam would find a way to get to her. That he wouldn't be around to protect her.
"You should have told me, Elena."
"So what?" She gestureed to the fist balled at his side. "So you could go beat him to a pulp?"
"Yeah, and I still can."
"Good luck with that." Her laugh was brittle. "He had a security detail with him. If you can get through those thugs, then what? It won't change anything, Damon."
Elena stood, her eyes wet with rare tears.
"You could beat him till the cows come home, but it wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't change the fact that he raped me. It wouldn't give anything back to me. It won't make this any easier."
And that was it. Damon wanted to make it all went away for her. It drove him insane that he couldn't fix this, that he couldn't protect her from, not a knife or a gun, but from words. From opinions. There was a part of him that wished he had never encouraged her to come forward, because it was killing him to see her suffer this way.
"Elena, I have to do something. He should pay."
Elena reached up, clasping his face between her hands, melding their eyes together with the heat of her conviction.
"He will pay. That is why we have to do this right. I don't need you to beat him up. I don't need you pissing circles around me, going caveman, comparing sizes." She laughed humorlessly. "Believe me. Yours is bigger."
Damon rested forehead against her, managing only a breath before she went on.
"You are my only vulnerability, Damon," she said, her voice trembling over his lips. "You are the only spotless thing in my life, and if he can bring you down to his level, if he can ruin you, he knows it will throw me off. He knows I may give in."
"Elena, I'm not spotless. I'm not perfect, darling. I'm not a saint."
"No, you are no saint." She closed her eyes, huddling against his bare chest, rubbing his back. "But in this messed-up fairy tale, you are the only prince I have got."
"Baby—"
"I need you to hold me." A tear escaped from under her closed eyes, making its way down her cheek. "I need you to remind me that there is more to me than what they say, that there is good in me. I need you to take care of me in the ways that count. Can you do that?"
Elena lifted her head, rubbing his biceps with one hand, taking his hand with the other. Damon was speechless. All he could do was to grip her tighter to him. He sat down, pulling her across his lap, pushing the hair off her neck so he could leave kisses there. Shelving his anger, his vengeance, was one of the hardest things he had had to do, but he could do it for now. For her.
"Yeah. I can do that."
Elena's phone vibrated on the table, Aaron Whitmore's name flashing on the screen. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"I can't," she said. "I know why he is calling, and I just can't. He wants to apologize for what happened with the foundation. I have to put that behind me for now."
Damon's phone vibrated on the table, too, but with a news alert. He picked it up to read the headline.
"That may not be the only thing he wants to talk about, Elena." He turned the phone to face her. "Nathan Whitmore just officially announced that he is retiring to focus on his company's philanthropic work."
Elena tensed in his lap, eyes going wide.
"Oh, God, Daddy. He is going to challenge Aaron, isn't he?"
Damon nodded his head slowly, placing the phone back on the table. Elena reached for her phone. When she listened to Aaron's voice mail, he apologized for not being able to save her with the foundation and confirmed that the Augustine board would vote soon on its new CEO because her father had challenged Nathan's choice.
"Oh, God. Daddy is really doing it." Elena stared unblinkingly at her phone. "He is challenging Aaron, and essentially Nathan's wishes, to make a play for Augustine."
"Augustine Enterprises is not your responsibility. Aaron can take care of himself, and your father certainly can and always does." Damon pressed a kiss to the softest lips he had ever tasted. "You are going to take the next few days to take care of yourself. And I will take care of you, too, in the ways that count."
Elena smiled against his mouth, angling her head to kiss him back. The touch and slide of their tongues raised goose bumps across his arms and incited his dick to readiness despite the heaviness of their discussion.
"I'm sorry." She squirmed in his lap. "I can barely walk. You can't put that big thing inside me again so soon."
Their laughter shattered any passion the moment held, and Damon could only shake his head.
"I'm serious, Elena. Let me take care of you for a few days. Take some time off."
She looked at Damon from under her lashes, capturing the corner of her lip between her teeth, considering his offer.
"I can't completely check out," she finally said. "I have a meeting with François Wednesday, and we have a press conference for Goddess Friday."
"I have a few things here and there, too, but they can be done from right here." Damon cupped her face. "Let's be together for a few days. Say yes."
He slipped his hand between the buttons of his shirt she was wearing, palming her breast, rolling her nipple between his fingers until it was swollen and pebbled. Her lashes dropped immediately, eyes closed, head falling back against his shoulder. His other hand slid between her legs, finding the wet warmth he craved. His mouth watered at the thought of tasting her, eating the sweetness nestled between her thighs. As soon as he slipped his middle finger inside, her legs fell open, her hips matching his rhythm.
"That is my girl," Damon whispered through her hair and into her ear.
"Are you controlling me with sex, Mr Salvatore?" Her breathy question was barely a sound.
"It is the only thing I have found that does the trick." Damon laughed against her neck. "Otherwise, I would have no upper hand."
"Oh, I like where your upper hand is right now." A husky laugh slipped past her pouty lips.
His hand went still, the wet walls inside her was still gripping his finger past the knuckle.
"So it is a deal? You will give me the next few days? Forget the madness out there for a while?"
Her face clouded for a moment with something other than passion, and Damon realized until he mentioned it, she had managed to almost forget the firestorm waiting for her outside these walls. He wanted that for her. Just for a little while. Just long enough to repair some of the damage this process had already done. He saw it in her eyes, and the bruises didn't show, but he knew they were there.
"Elena, is it a deal?"
Elena lifted her lashes to look at Damon, a small smile budding on her face.
"It is a deal." She turned so that her long legs hung on either side of him, straddling him in the chair. "And maybe I underestimated what I can handle. I'm ready if you are."
Oh, ever ready. I'm ready, there is no doubt about it, Damon thought silently.
