Damon sat around their table at the Live Lounge with a few of his 'friends', listening to the singer perform her rendition of Iris. Katherine was sitting next to him with her freshly manicured nails gently scratching at his leg. They were predominantly Katherine's friends, but he spoke to their husbands and boyfriends and they weren't all that bad.

It wasn't often that Katherine forced him to go along to gatherings with her friends, but that didn't mean he enjoyed the ones he had to go to. The women were all models and the men were the type to throw money at them as they thought it gave them the permission to flaunt them off to their other male friends.

Damon looked down at his fiance's hand on his leg as she moved her hand up further and further. He reached down and held her hand tightly on his thigh, cautiously rubbing circles with his thumb to keep her happy.

"So Damon," Sherry, one of Katherine's closest friends, "How do you find being back in the big smoke?"

"I've always loved London," he said. "That's why we opened an office here so quickly."

"We also own property here," Katherine added.

"Damon owns property here," Sherry laughed. "You just get to reap the benefits."

"I suppose I do," she chortled. "What's yours is mine, is it not?"

"That's what I said in my vows," he grimaced. "'Til death do us part."

It was their first night in London, a few members of the team had come to support Enzo, a client, for his first tour. Elijah, Klaus, Vicki, Jenna, Kai and Elena had all hopped on a private plane straight to Heathrow. Katherine had decided to play the doting wife role and surprised him just before take-off, claiming she couldn't spend the week without him.

He watched her shoot daggers at Vicki the entire flight. She genuinely thought he was sleeping with her and while it was risky for Katherine to be thinking like that, he was secretly glad she was unleashing her wrath on the wrong woman. It spared Elena of the queen of hell's manipulation and selfishness.

But he wasn't blind to the disappointment that pooled in Elena's eyes. They thought they'd get the week together, some time to act like a relatively normal couple. He could show her around London, somewhere she'd always dreamt of going. They could go out for meals (away from the rest of the team of course) and he planned on them staying at one of his apartments, excited to wake up to her every morning, share a pot of coffee and bicker over who put the empty container back in the fridge.

And as if on cue, through the door walked the woman who'd taken his mind and heart hostage. His heartbeat skipped as his eyes explored her body, he'd not seen her dressed up before, not like that. She wore a strapless, ruffled black dress and heels that made her legs look ten times longer. She wore more make-up than usual but nothing in comparison to how Katherine did. Her hair was pinned back and curled.

He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Men would be all over her, he could already see their eyes undressing her, and he couldn't do anything about it.

"You couldn't be anymore obvious," Katherine sneered.

"What are you on about?"

"Staring at her. You're basically fucking her with your eyes in front of me. Do you realise how sick that is?" She hissed.

His breath caught at the back of his throat and his heart thundered. Partly due to Elena being so close and looking so good, and partly because his wife could tell.

"Vicki Donovan," she laughed. "Pathetic. Feel free to go over there, fuck her for all I care."

"Katherine," he sighed.

"I hope she's worth a lifetime behind bars," she snickered.

His blood boiled. She knowingly spoke loud enough for others around the table to hear what she said, obviously raising questions about what she meant. She'd play it off as a drunken argument as she had done before, but this time, he couldn't bite his tongue and just play along with it.

He pushed up from their table, knocking over his chair as he did, and left the bar through the fire exit. Kicking over a black trash can by the alley wall, he screamed out in frustration.

It was getting harder and harder to play her games, cater to her every whim and pretend that he was happy living with her blackmail constantly hovering above his head.

The past six months, while great due to Elena's presence, had been the hardest of his life. He'd fallen in love with his personal assistant, he'd got all these exciting plans in his head for their future and yet, he knew nothing would ever come from it because of a stupid mistake he made many years ago.

Elena wasn't going to stick around and hide in the shadows forever and it began to feel like he would never find a way to escape Katherine's grip.

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Katherine-"

"Do you think I don't know that you're not screwing your personal assistant?"

"The only person getting screwed here, Kat, is me! And I'm fucking tired of it," he snapped.

Katherine snickered and pulled her phone from her clutch. After clicking a few buttons, a familiar sound began to play.

It was him. It was Elena.

It was intimate.

He heard her moan his name and he caught the moment his breath caught at the back of his throat.

Katherine was smirking - she'd got him. And while he wanted to grab the phone from her hand and smash it against the wall, he froze as he listened to minute after minute of him making love to Elena, an innocent woman who was just meters away from them.

"Katherine, I-"

"Don't," she hissed. "Don't you dare try and make some pathetic excuse. You can't get out of this one, Damon. I listened to the whole thing. I listened to my fucking fiance screwming his assistant. How do you think that made me feel?"

He didn't know what to say. Elena was just steps away and he knew Katherine would not spare her in her path of destruction. On one hand, he could use this as his escape, hold his hands up and surrender. Prison would surely be better than a life with Katherine, but Alaric and his father's lives would also be destroyed. On the other hand, he could grovel and beg for a second chance but was he that desperate?

He also had to protect Elena. Katherine wouldn't let her get away with it. She'd destroy her and smile while doing it.

"Was she good?" She asked. "Better than me? It sounds like you're having a lot more fun with her than you do with me. Does she know you fucked me that morning too? Or do you tell her that she's the only one? Do you like to make her feel special?"

She dropped her phone back in her back and leaned back against the cold brick wall. He didn't tell Elena what went on in the bedroom with Katherine, he felt it was safer for her to pretend like he didn't have any sort of relationship with his fiance. He tried his hardest to avoid Katherine at all times, he didn't want to touch her like he did Elena. But no didn't mean much to Katherine.

"Bet she wouldn't like to know we share you."

"What are you going to do?" He managed the stutter. "To her?"

"To her? Oh I'm not going to do anything. To you? I'm going to give you one more chance."

He scoffed. Katherine wasn't that generous. There was no way she was going to let it slide and forget it ever happened. That wasn't the type of game she played.

"What's the catch?" He asked.

She was far too calm.

"You're going to do something for me."

"What do you want?" He sighed.

"I want you to fire her. Humiliate her in front of everyone. I want you to make her feel as small as I did as I had to listen to you screw her," she warned. "I want Vicki to feel as betrayed by you as I do."

Vicki? He thought. She still thought it was Vicki. She couldn't tell that the woman in the call was Elena and that slightly soothed him. It meant Elena was safe - for now. Though it didn't mean he was safe and Vicki was clearly going to be collateral damage.

"I can't fire her, Kat. I don't have legal reason to do that," he said. "She could sue for unfair dismissal."

"That's not my problem," she shrugged. "But you are going to fire her at the work party tomorrow and you are going to hurt her. If you don't then I guess I'll be going to the police once we are home."

"Katherine-"

"And don't think you can warn her beforehand or climb into her bed, I've got my eye on her. Trust me, if you are seen with her, I will know about it."

He ran his hands through his hair and took a deep, panicked, breath. Vicki, albeit quite annoying, was innocent in all this and it wasn't fair to humiliate her and fire her. Despite her questionable approach, Vicki was good at her job and there was no reason to fire her.

"And one more thing," she said. "The wedding. We move it forward. Three months. We will get married in three months."

"If I say no?"

"Then the police will be waiting for you the moment you step off the plane," she smiled. "You see, Damon, I've got you trapped. It's either jail for you, Alaric and your father or it's marrying me and firing that fucking dirty little slut of yours. You decide."

Elena woke up to heavy banging against her hotel door. Glancing at the bedside clock, it was barely 4am. She'd spent the evening out with the other girls from work, meeting possible clients and generally having a fun time. She'd never been to London before but it had quickly become her favourite place on earth.

The people, the food, the vibe and the bars were everything she enjoyed. The early wake-up call, however, was not.

The banging continued as she slid out of bed and into her slippers.

"Damon?" She said as she opened the room door, her eyes still adjusting to the light.

He didn't say anything. Instead, he reached out and forcefully pulled her into a searing kiss. It took a few seconds until she responded to him and tugged him into her room, pushing the door shut behind him.

He held her tighter than before. His hand gripped her hair in bunches and his kiss was forceful. He pushed her up against the wall as his lips broke away from hers and moved to her cheek, her neck, her ears and her shoulders.

He lifted her leg and wrapped it around his waist so he could push against her, show her how much he wanted her and what she did to him. He ran his hands under her shorts and growled as he dug his nails into her soft flesh.

She felt him cling to her body as if he wanted it forever.

He shuffled her PJ shorts down until they pooled at her feet as she unzipped his suit trousers. It didn't take long until he joined them, pushing into her as if he would die if he didn't. She bit into his shoulder, worried that the thin walls would carry the sound far too well.

His movements weren't soft or gentle but more animalistic, desperate and needy. She didn't mind, in fact she quite liked it.

He pinned her hands above her head, holding her still in place so he could get as close to her as possible.

He hissed as he hardened his moments, not caring whether others heard what was going on, and he watched as her head fell back against the wall and her hips bucked out in response. As she came down, she panted and tried to catch a spare breath.

"I love you, 'Lena," he said as. "Fuck. I love you."

He dropped his head onto her chest as he came down from his own height.

She ran her hands through his messy hair and pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. Her heart skipped a beat when he said those three little words. He loved her. She had always known that he did. They had spent nearly every day together for six months. Sleeping, eating, sex, movies, dates, he always put her first and it was obvious he loved her.

But he had never said it before. Neither of them had. It was too hard to hear, they agreed on that.

"Damon, I-"

"Don't say it back," he cut her off. "I can't hear it."

She kissed his head again and nodded.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she lifted his head. "Why are you here at 4am? And why couldn't you make it to the bed? Not that I'm complaining. I like surprises."

He laughed.

Something was wrong, she thought. His eyes were dark and sunken in, his hair was a mess and he was pale.

"Damon, what's going on?"

He looked up to her and cupped her cheeks, his hands cold for once instead of warm and tender.

"She knows," he said. "Katherine. She knows I've been having an affair."

Her heart began to race. If she knew that meant Damon was going to be in trouble. If she knew, that meant Katherine was going to make everything burn. Thoughts were running through her mind as she paced the living area of her room. They'd been so careful, how did she know?

"How?" She stuttered. "What does that mean? Damon, you'll go to prison. How did she find out? We can't… why did you come here?"

"Hey, shh," he reached for her wrist and pulled her into his arms. "Shh. It's okay. It's okay."

"How is it okay, Damon?!" She snapped. "How is it fucking okay? You've just come here to fuck me as if you aren't going to see me again. How is that okay?"

"That wasn't a goodbye fuck, Elena," he snarled. "Don't fucking reduce what we have to that. I came here because I needed the voices in my head to shut up and because… because… I love you."

She fell back into the chair and dropped her head into her hands, sobbing. She didn't understand how he was being so calm, how Katherine wasn't kicking down her door and why he wasn't trying to come up with a plan to spare himself a lifetime in prison.

He crouched down before her and wrapped his hands tightly around her thighs.

"She thinks it's Vicki, 'Lena. She doesn't know it's you," he spoke softly. "So you're safe from her. She doesn't know it's you, baby."

She finally looked up from her hands.

"I don't get it," she whispered.

"She called me when we were in bed together; the night we had dinner with your parents. I must have accidentally answered it and she heard everything. Apparently she went to the offices afterwards, where she thought I was. I thought I was the last to leave that night, but I wasn't. Vicki was still there. She signed out not long after me and Katherine put two and two together, and made three."

"So you let her believe that?"

"Of course I did," he frowned. "'Lena, I'll do everything to make sure she doesn't find out it's you. I'm not putting you at risk like that. So if she wants to believe that I'm screwing Vicki, let her."

"So is she going to the police?"

"No, not yet," he sighed. "But I have to do a couple of things for her."

"More blackmail," she huffed.

"Pretty much," he said. "I have to fire Vicki tomorrow. She wants me to humiliate her."

"Fire her for what? You can't do that. She hasn't done anything wrong, Damon. She is innocent in all of this!"

"I know that," he shouted. "But what the hell do I do? If I don't fire her, the three of us go to prison. What choice do I have?"

"But she hasn't done anything wrong! She could sue you for unfair dismissal."

"I know!"

They sat in silence for over an hour, both unsure of what to say or do. Both breaking inside as realisation overwhelmed them, they didn't work. They couldn't work. They'd been lucky to not get caught in the six months that they had been running around and hiding in secret. And while Katherine might not have known it was Elena, it wouldn't be long until she learnt the truth.

"Do a drug test," she said to break the silence.

"What?"

"Our contract says random drug tests are to be expected and it's instant dismissal if positive drug use is found," she sighed. "Vicki did Cocaine at a party tonight. She will be positive."

She hated herself for snitching. She was forgoing all her morals by helping to destroy an innocent woman's life - it wasn't her.

"She can't sue you then," she finished.

"'Lena-"

"I can't do this, Damon. I can't…" She stopped. "I'm helping destroy an innocent woman to keep you safe. I'm bending my morals for you, I am going against everything I believe in for you. I am doing things that make me hate myself."

"I know," he whispered and reached for her hands.

She pulled away.

"We don't work, Damon. This thing between us, whatever it is, is toxic. No matter what we do, we will never work while Katherine has her claws in you."

"Elena, don't do this. I need you."

"I need you too, Damon, but I need to get out of this alive because so far, this is killing me."

"'Lena-"

She took a deep breath and stood from her chair. She moved to the hotel room door and opened it for him.

"Elena, please-"

"As of now, I am handing in my two weeks notice."