Hey guys! Thanks so much to everyone who commented and reached out! My dad is doing a lot better. He's back home now and recovery is going good so far!
I appreciate your patience and understanding!
Anyway, here's the next chapter!
Damon's SIN-finity Night Club looked a lot different in the morning hours than the smokey neon aesthetic it dorned after dark.
With no bouncer, no music, and broad skylights shining sunbeams over an empty dance floor, it was hard for Elena to believe she was even in the same building.
But the address was the same, and Alaric was sitting at the bar where she had first met Damon; with two other men beside him that seemed vaguely familiar.
"Alaric?" she called out, and dropped her bags before starting toward the Head of Security.
Alaric lifted his head and spotted her, "Shit. You did come."
"Yes?" she paused, "We were supposed to meet here, right?"
"Yeah, but I had a...never mind," he grinned forcefully, sliding from his stool, "You're a bit early."
The other two men backed up a step as she approached.
"Am I?" Elena tossed a quick look at her watch, "Ten minutes or so. That's not really early."
Alaric shrugged, then pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the bar, "Can we get you a drink?"
She laughed, "Okay, it might be too early for that!"
"I meant more of the water or sprite variety," he pretended to scold, and she smiled, "A water would be great. Thanks."
He motioned to one of the guys, who hopped the bar and got to work filling a cup with ice.
"Damon will join us shortly," Alaric promised, pulling a stool out for her, "In the meantime, I have the blueprints you'll need."
He reached over the other man and grabbed the papers sprawled out on the bar there, "This is Enzo, and Mason; they work for Damon as well. We were just finishing up some last minute details."
Elena nodded and took a seat as Alaric sorted the pages into a folder.
Her temporary bartender, Mason, placed the glass of iced water in front of her, "Here you are, sweetheart."
"Thanks," she told him, and he winked, "I'll do almost anything for a girl as pretty as you."
"Barking up the wrong tree," Alaric muttered, not even looking up as he continued rearranging loose papers.
"What?" Mason, challenged, "I can't give her a compliment?"
Enzo, the darker-toned one on Elena's far side, shook his head, "Not if you want to remain employed, my brother. And breathing. You know that she's spoken for."
"I'm what?" Elena interjected, but they ignored her.
"Oh, please. Damon isn't even here yet. Besides, it's not as if I was insulting her, or even making a move, so lighten up."
"Right. Are you a fan of pine?"
Mason frowned as he leaned against the bar, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Cheapest coffin is a pine box," Enzo noted, "Thought I'd better go ahead and pick one out for you."
"Fuck you," Mason shot back, before Alaric held a hand up, "Enough, you two. And here you are."
He gave Elena the folder, "Everything you'll need for the job, and I put a business card in there as well. It has my cell number, just in case you need it."
"Thank you," she said, and Alaric nodded.
Mason huffed beside them, "Oh, so he can give her his number, but I can't even give a compliment?"
Enzo sighed.
"You know what," he said, "Go ahead. But don't blame me when pieces of you start floating up from the Hudson because-
He was cut off by a sudden clanging, and the heavy front door of the club opened, letting in a fresh pour of morning light.
Damon stepped inside, capturing Elena's complete attention, as he had the night they'd first met.
The low light of the bar danced across his windswept hair, making it appear jet black, even darker than the faded leather jacket that fit across his muscles in a way that should be sinful.
Aviators covered his eyes, but his head did a quick swivel of the room before stopping in her direction, and that increasingly familiar smirk lifted the corner of his mouth.
"So you did not chicken out after all," he pulled the sunglasses off and tucked them into the top of his shirt, "Ric, you owe me fifty dollars."
Elena's gaze darted to the Head of Security, who gave her a guilty shrug before digging in his wallet, "Sorry. Seemed like you were already hesitant when you called and I thought it would be easy money."
"It was easy money," Damon chuckled darkly, barging right over into her personal space, "Because I know my girl."
With a yank, he spun her stool around so that she was facing him completely, and heavy palms came to rest against her thighs, "She is too damn stubborn to back down."
Unfortunately, he was right.
Elena had debated over and over about going through with the trip, and had almost called it off several times in the past couple days, but in the end her pride had won out.
She had told Katherine about the job, and her twin had less than helpfully said that it was entirely her choice.
It was a one woman job, and since Elena was the one going on the trip, she was the only one who could make the final decision.
And while Katherine wasn't a huge fan of the continued partnership, she'd admitted that the money was nice, and that some time away might help Elena figure out what was going on in her head when it came to Damon.
"Just be safe," Kat had said, "Take protection."
"No, we only have the one gun, and I'd rather you keep it here," Elena had argued, "Damon will make sure I'm safe."
"Oh I'm sure he will," her sister had said, "But that's not the kind of protection I was talking about."
Understanding had hit too late, "Katherine; I swear to god."
"I'm just saying," Kat had laughed, "You never know what type of gun you might get your hands on; and there's a good chance that a man like him isn't shooting blanks."
Elena had turned red and effectively ended that conversation in a huff.
She wouldn't need protection of any kind, because she was going on this trip to work.
For god sake, she was a grown woman capable of self control, and she'd be damned if the fear of temptation was going to cost her a possible thirty grand.
No matter how much heat she felt, or how much Damon flirted, or whatever her sister might believe, Elena was determined to stick to her resolve and see this through.
Except now that the prideful indignation had worn off, and she was face level with those fuck-me blue eyes, that resolution cracked like glass in her stomach and the fear came back.
How the hell was she supposed to survive five hours alone in the car with Damon Salvatore, when the man's mere presence had already spiked her breath.
A pink tongue swept across those kissable lips as he leaned closer, "Are those your bags by the door?"
Elena managed a nod, and Damon made a motion at his employees.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the two she'd just met start toward her stuff, presumably to put the bags in the car they would be taking.
Alaric followed them outside, which must have been what Damon wanted, because the moment they were left alone, he lifted Elena into his arms and sat her up on the bar.
The gleam in his eye was all bad, and everything she wanted in that moment, but she knew once something started, it was going to be near impossible to stop it.
"Don't," she pressed her fingers against his lips when his head dipped in to meet hers.
Damon filled the space between her legs, overwhelming her, and the muffled, "Why not?" was a gravel siren call.
"You can't kiss me," she said, for them both, "We're about to leave."
"And?"
"And...we have a job to do," she hated that her voice stuttered the proclamation.
"And?" he repeated.
"We can't."
He moved ever so slightly, that perfect jaw flexing, "None of this mattered before. That night, at your car..."
She tensed as he leaned in again, pushing her hand away; but his lips only grazed the skin beneath her ear, "You were wet for me, cara mia. You wanted me that night, and you want me now, no?"
Elena braced her palms against his chest, intending to shove him away, but god, that expanse of muscle beneath her fingertips felt good.
Teeth nipped at her neck and she almost purred in pleasure.
"Damon-"
A firm kiss was placed on her juglar, and he murmured in her ear, "You will change your mind, Elena. Sooner or later. I am a patient man and we have nothing but time before us. When you are ready, I will have you."
He withdrew slowly, slipping away with that fucking smirk back in place.
So confident and certain, and Elena worried that he might be right.
Just a few touches and her body was already opening for him, wanting more, hungry for the taste of him on her tongue…
And like the pusher he was, Damon would feed her craving until she became a full blown addict, never satisfied and at the end of his mercy.
Like hell.
A violent thought ripped through her brain, breeding action, and Elena's legs tightened, wrapping around Damon's waist, and pulled him back so forcefully, he had to grab the bar to catch himself.
The surprise had barely registered when she grabbed his face and brought his mouth down to hers.
The kiss was explosive, in both the fireworks and the shrapnel variety, but Elena didn't stop.
She could not go this entire trip strung out from the sexual teasing she and Damon had been dancing around, especially if he was insisting on goading her every chance he got.
She would not be at his mercy.
If some control had to be loosened, to defuse the tension, it was going to be on her terms.
Damon melted into her without reluctance, and Elena used his shoulders as leverage, lifting herself into his arms.
Driven by the pressure of her weight, he stumbled back, until his ass found the bar stool she'd been occupying and he sat down, letting her straddle him as his tongue worked its way between her lips.
She locked her ankles behind his back and rocked against him.
Fuck, he was already hard beneath her and it would be just so easy, wouldn't it?
To rip off her own pants, tear down that zipper of his, and do what they had both wanted to since that night in the parking lot.
She could imagine how he would feel inside of her; thick, slick, and hard as a rock.
If he were someone else, she might have let him strip her clothes, lay her back on the bartop and thrust away until they both saw stars…
But she couldn't go there with Damon; not without losing herself entirely, and letting him take control.
Something she had already given him too much of the night he touched her.
Now it was her turn to take it back.
Making up her mind, Elena slid from Damon's lap and his kiss followed her, the threatening growl he released at the thought of their parting only spurring her on.
She pulled him to his feet as well and secretly loved how he towered over her as his lips grew even more desperate, biting at her, sucking her into his mouth.
Her hands twisted in the shirt beneath his jacket, until she was able to drag him along, walking backwards and stumbling into a lot of shit in the process.
Neither of them cared.
After three turned over stools, a shattered glass that had slipped off the counter's edge, and a few forming bruises from where they grazed the marble corner, Elena had Damon exactly where she wanted him.
Behind the bar and mostly out of sight of anyone who might walk in.
"Elena," her name was wrenched from his throat on a gasp when her hands slid down to work open the button on his pants, "What are you- Oh, cazzo!"
She had shoved her hands between them, past the waistline of his underwear, and held the impressive girth of him in her palm, "I'm returning the favor."
Damon's eyes closed as she stroked what her fingers had wrapped around, another curse falling from his lips before he was kissing her again.
She could almost taste how much he wanted her; rough hands twisting in her hair, those curving hips thrusting into her with every pump.
He said her name, over and over in a whisper against her mouth, which morphed into a groan when she quickened the pace.
"Cara mia," Damon's kisses trailed across her cheek, until he was biting at her ear, "Mi stai facendo morire…"
It was almost too much; and Elena knew she was tempting fate, filling her head with these erotic images that were sure to haunt her most creative daydreams.
But she never quit a job until getting what she was after, so nothing short of an apocalypse was going to stop her from watching Damon fall apart.
He was going to give back exactly what he had taken from her against her car, and then finally she would stop feeling as though he had the upper hand in their interactions.
Damon could hardly breathe, as his Elena grew even more frantic in her movements, loosening her grip to force his zipper further down, until she was able to pull his cock completely free from its confinements.
And fuck, if the thing was not ready for her; swollen and dripping, begging for continued attention.
Elena slowed, only for a moment, her gaze dropping with near reluctance to what she had revealed.
Damon almost exploded then and there, as those chocolate eyes of hers became hooded and she dragged one hand along his length at an achingly slow pace.
He twitched in her palm, and she swallowed, as if the sight made her hungry for more.
Fuck it; enough with this aching torture!
He reached out to that sexy body of hers, ready to rip those tight pants right off and put his throbbing erection to use.
But the moment his fingertips brushed her hips, Elena slapped his hand away and her grip on him suddenly tightened.
"No!" her eyes flashed up to his as he hissed, and the burning authority there stunned him frozen, "You're going to let me do this."
With their gazes still locked, Elena resumed her strokes, and Damon did not move, though he could not explain why.
"Per favore," he grit out through clenched teeth, 'I want to touch you,"
"And I want to watch you come," his mouthy intruder replied without mercy, "We'll see who gets what they want first."
With a growl, Damon reached out again, but Elena deflected the touch by pushing harder against him, so that his back rammed into the bar counter and a sharp bite of pain hinted that she may have squeezed his cock with a little more of her nails this time.
"Sorry," she said breathlessly, not sounding very apologetic at all, "Did that hurt?"
Damon was too damn frustrated to answer her properly, and Elena actually giggled at him, "What if I kiss it, to make it better?"
His heart lurched as her words registered, but she was already sliding down his body, and her lips parted before his could.
Oh. Fuck.
Getting head was nothing new for Damon.
Far from a virgin, there was not much he had yet to try, and in fact, the entire ordeal had become a bit of a bore.
A momentary pleasure that occupied his body while his mind roamed free.
This time, however, as he watched his cock disappear into Elena's mouth, every ounce of his attention was captured.
The sight was euphoric, the sensation...pure heaven.
He could not have torn himself away from her even if he wanted to.
"Dio mio," he exhaled, unable to stop watching her, feeling her, building faster and faster, "Si, bellissima, succhiami il cazzo."
His hands gripped the bar behind him because he worried that without the support, he would either fall from the sheer pleasure of what she was doing to him, or be incapable of keeping those hands to himself.
He wanted to touch her, every slick, warm inch of what she kept from him, but her mouth was relentless, sucking him deeper, tongue flicking in all the right ways, driving him absolutely mad.
And when she took him so far back in her throat that she swallowed around him, Damon well and truly lost it.
"Cazzo! Cazzo! FUCK!" His head fell back in climax, vision tunneling as Elena kept swallowing, draining him until his legs actually did give out.
She released him as he slumped down onto his ass, completely lifeless before her, breathing like he had run a marathon.
Had she sucked his fucking soul from him?
If he actually thought he had one, he might have been more concerned, because it certainly felt like something of importance had been taken.
A sudden brush against his forehead had Damon's eyes flying open, and Elena was there, leaning over him.
A satisfied smile was on her face as she pushed his hair back in a way that was almost tender.
He leaned into the touch without thinking, seeking the comfort it offered.
"You should get cleaned up," she told him after a moment, and damn that smug edge made her even more attractive, "I'm going to run to the bathroom, then we can go."
Damon managed a deep laugh, though it came out a bit hoarse, "If you say it is so, cara mia."
She smiled brightly, then stood, and he could only watch her walk away, but before she turned the corner of the bar, she paused, "Damon-"
"Yeah?"
She winked like the little vixen she was proving to be, "We're even now."
"You are sure of this?"
Julian had hosted important meetings in his office before, but never one with quite the weight of the men around him now.
He knew that he would need to proceed with caution and certainty.
"Absolutely," he promised, waving one of his men forward.
A file was placed in front of him and he slid it over to Dr. Richard Augustine; CEO of the Augustine Research Institution.
Also in attendance, besides the hired guns, were his brother, Wes, two representatives from the Whitmore family, and another Augustine board member, Markos.
"This is Katalena Pierce," he told Richard, who had opened the file to see an black and white image of Katalena taken from the security camera outside his work office, where all his visitors were screened, "She's the one who attended your meeting with Damon, is she not?"
Dr. Augustine stared hard at the photo, then passed it to his board rep, "It appears to be the same woman, yes."
"Definitely her," Markos confirmed, "Pretty little thing. I haven't forgotten her face."
Richard shook his head, "But this explains nothing. My lab was robbed the night this meeting took place. You said you could offer proof of the culprit responsible. Simply accusing this woman is hearsay."
Julian interlaced his fingers on top of the table where they were all seated, "Actually sir, I believe I can offer proof. See, I know this woman quite well. I have often even employed her in the past. Undetected thievery is what she does, and she is the best at it. So good," he motioned to the file, "That this is the only image I have ever gotten of her."
"Her credentials are not evidence," Richard argued.
"No," Julian agreed, "But her M.O is. You said this woman was at that dinner the night you were robbed. That is what Katalena Pierce does. I do not know how, but she has alibied herself for every single job she has ever done for me, usually by dining with her targets so they never suspect a thing."
A throat cleared from the younger of the two Whitmores, Aaron, he thought.
"You believe this woman is working for Damon, then?"
Julian nodded, "I do. It makes sense. I turned her on to the man, but ended the contract when Salvatore grew suspicious. Not long after, something was stolen from me. Something only a few people knew of, and even less could access."
Reaching into his vest for a cigar, Julian lit the thing and leaned back before finishing, "It is my belief, gentlemen, that Damon hired Katalena to take from me for slighting him. And that he has done the same to steal from you, Dr. Augustine...especially if he believes you have betrayed him by dealing with our friends here."
Richard considered that, as Julian took a puff off the smoke, but it was Markos that spoke, "Salvatore did appear rather aggrieved the other night; even insisted we pay interest on our sales to buy back his partnership."
Richard laughed harshly, "The boy is far from his father's code of honor, but he does have some balls, I'll admit. Perhaps one to many."
"He needs to be shown what happens to those who overstep their bounds," Julian agreed, "I do not have the means to take the man on myself, but he has been a grievance to each of us. Perhaps together...we can work something out to eliminate this problem."
Dr. Augustine stared at him for a long moment, before meeting the eyes of his rep, then the Whitmores, who nodded.
Once he'd assessed everyone's agreement, the man looked back to Julian.
"Alright, Mr. Maxfield, you have our attention. What are you proposing?"
Hoping the sexy scenes make up for the slight cliffhanger ;)
Let me know what ya'll think!
(Also I apologize if the Italian translations aren't perfect. I did try to make it accurate and didn't just go with Google translate, buuuut you never know if it's 100% accurate)
