"What's the matter?" Damon implored, as Elena refused his advances for the seventh night in a row. "Please don't tell me you're tired or maybe tomorrow. Just tell me the truth."

Elena, sat up in bed, and looked away from him, pouting. "You don't really love me."

Damon groaned in frustration. "I do anything you want. Give you anything you want. What more can I do to show that I love you? Is it cause I danced with the three women at the bar? You know they mean nothing to me. You egged me on. What? What?"

Elena took her sweet time answering, running one finger over the covers. "You won't help me get the one thing I want."

Damon's face hardened and then crumbled. "Stefan. After all these years, it's still Stefan." He looked her in the face. "It's not that I don't love you; it's that you don't love me." His voice betrayed his pain.

She ran one finger lovingly down the side of his face. "You really don't get it, do you? I love you, both of you. I will never let you go. You're a matched set, and you belong to me."

There was something about the tone of her voice that scared Damon. He had experienced many emotions where Elena was concerned; admiration, avuncular, amazement, awe, lust, love, and fear for her. But this was the first time he had felt fear of her. He swallowed and asked, "What will make you happy?"

"The three of us together."

He considered the options. He couldn't live without her. He knew that. He could enjoy other things, even other women, but only because she was there, one of the two hemispheres that made up his planet. The other was his brother, and he needed him also. If they could pull it off, he would still have everyone that was important in his life.

He sighed, surrendering. "I'll work with you."

She smiled victoriously, not that she ever had any doubt that she would win in the end. She hadn't been idle. She had been carefully planning and cataloging her resources, but his cooperation was essential. Now that she knew he would not sabotage her, she could gather information and plant the seeds of Katherine's destruction. She planned on getting what she wanted, but without losing any loved ones. She would accept nothing except total victory.

She threw back the covers and pulled off her sexy nightgown. She pushed Damon flat and sat on top of him, pinning his arms over his head, and lightly licked his ear. "Do you want me to be the boss, tonight?" She purred.

Damon shuddered. He wanted to resist her, wanted to tell her 'No' just once, but he gave in, thinking next time. Next time he would refuse her. "Yes," he whispered thickly. "Be the boss."

As she gazed down at him she said, "Don't forget that. I am the boss."