Damon groaned as he watched his little brother from across the aisle. They had been in the air for well over eleven hours now. However, Stefan hadn't spoken a single word to Damon. As soon as they boarded the private jet, the younger Salvatore took a seat in the back. Stefan had put on noise cancelling headphones so that he could get some sleep. He managed to get eight and a half hours of uninterrupted rest before he woke up to eat breakfast. Damon had been tempted to wake Stefan up just to irritate him. He hated that his brother seemed so unaffected by their fight while it was eating him up inside.

Unfortunately, Stefan wasn't exactly more talkative once he was awake. After eating breakfast, he had put in ear buds so that he could listen to music as he worked on his laptop. Occasionally, he spoke to Zach or Ric if they stopped by his seat to ask him something. The little bastard even had a lengthy conversation with Mason Lockwood about something that Damon couldn't hear from his seat. All he knew was that Stefan and Mason kept laughing about something and it grated on his nerves. However, as soon as Mason returned to his seat, Stefan put his ear buds in again.

Damon wasn't good at apologizing to the people that he hurt. Generally, if he wronged someone important in his life, he gave the person expensive gifts as a gesture of goodwill. However, that sort of move never worked with his baby brother because it was too reminiscent of Giuseppe's old tricks. The man would terrorize his family in unspeakable ways while he was drunk. Days later, he would leave terribly expensive gifts in their bedrooms as an apology. Giuseppe would never verbally acknowledge how badly he had hurt his younger brothers and sons. For example, Damon had received his first dirt bike after Giuseppe broke his arm during one of his drunken rampages.

Alaric shook his head as he watched Damon glare in Stefan's direction for what felt like the thousandth time. He walked over and sat down beside his nephew. "We are going to be landing in less than an hour. Go talk to your brother."

"I have nothing to say to the asshole. He has been acting as if I am invisible. He can come to me when he wants to talk. I am not about to kiss his ass," Damon replied in a sour tone.

The older man shook his head in exasperation. Sometimes dealing with his nephews was like dealing with children. He said, "He's the one sporting a black eye, Damon. You should be the one extending an olive branch to him. More than that, you are the older brother. It is your job to make this right. Your brother is always going to be your greatest ally. Stefan will never admit it but he still looks up to you. You hurt him Saturday night—not just with your fists but with your words."

Damon glared at his uncle. He didn't feel like being the bigger man right now. He felt as if all of his personal relationships were going to shit. Damon knew that he was at fault for that. He had been so focused on securing his base of power that he had neglected everything else in his life. He raked a frustrated hand through his hair. He barked out, "Okay! I will talk to him if that will make you stop lecturing me. You are worse than Zach is."

Ric smirked as he stood up. He squeezed Damon's shoulder. "Where do you think he learned it?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah," he muttered darkly.

Ric chuckled and returned to his seat. He was confident that Damon would do the right thing. He wanted his nephews to be on speaking terms because it made his life easier. However, he was more concerned with making sure that Damon was in a good headspace when they made it to Milazzo. He couldn't be dragging around that surly attitude while dealing with the old guard. They had seen enough of Giuseppe's volatility to spot it a mile away. His nephew was more like his father than he would ever willingly admit. But Ric didn't judge him harshly for it because he was in a similar boat. Sometimes Ric saw Giuseppe staring back at him when he looked into a mirror.

Damon opened his carry-on bag and retrieved a bag of Hershey's candies. It was no secret that he liked chocolate almost as much as he liked bourbon. However, his love for chocolate grew exponentially when he quit using cocaine regularly. Damon knew that it was exchanging one vice for another but it was the lesser of two evils.

He stood and walked back to where Stefan was sitting. He plopped down in the seat beside his brother and tossed the bag of candy onto his laptop.

Stefan looked down at the bag of candy and then looked up at his brother with a raised eyebrow.

Damon rolled his eyes and pulled out one of Stefan's ear buds. He said, "It's meant to be a peace offering. Don't be an asshole."

He removed the other ear bud and picked up the bag of candy. He said, "If you are going to bribe me there is a Patek Philippe watch I have had my eye on for awhile."

The older man huffed out a laugh. His younger brother had an ostentatious collection of watches. He pinched Stefan's cheek and said, "Maybe if you are a good boy Santa will bring it for Christmas."

Stefan laughed despite himself. He shoved Damon's shoulder. "Fuck you."

Damon's expression sobered. He said, "I'm sorry for hitting you, Stefan. I was drunk and angry but I never should have let it get that far. Most of all I am sorry for what I said to you. I am happy that you have never had to fight Giuseppe. I never wanted that life for you. It doesn't make you any less of a man."

He closed the laptop and slid it into his bag. If Damon was willing to apologize, then Stefan was willing to participate in the conversation. "Yes, it does make me less of a man...at least it does in your eyes."

"I was just angry and spouting off bullshit to get under your skin. I didn't mean it. I know that I don't say it but I am proud of you Stefan. You're a good kid."

Stefan gave an exasperated sigh and complained, "That's the thing, I am not a kid anymore, Damon. You would have at least listened to our uncles because you respect them. You don't respect me because you've been protecting me since we were kids. You didn't even want me to come on this trip with you. I am a grown man and I don't need to be protected anymore. Not from our father and certainly not from our business."

Damon sighed and scratched at the stubble on his face. "Maybe I do still treat you like a kid. You are always going to be my baby brother, Stefan. I am always going to try to protect you from all the awful shit in the world. That's my job. I know what I am. I am a fucking monster because of the things I do for this family. I don't want that for you. Do you think any of us want you to turn out like we did?"

The younger man was quiet for a beat. He asked, "How exactly did you think I would turn out with a man like Giuseppe as my father? I still grew up in that house. I escaped most of the beatings that you all suffered but I didn't escape the violence of this life. I'm just as fucked up as the rest of you. I am just better at hiding it. I make better decisions than the rest of you do but it is only because I put forth the effort. I can do more than just be the numbers guy, Damon."

Damon's eyes went to his brother's side like a heat-seeking missile. Even while Stefan was wearing a shirt, Damon knew where the scar was located. A bullet had grazed Stefan's side when he was all of six years old. He and Bonnie narrowly escaped being killed by automatic gunfire. They both probably would have died if not for Paul Bennett and Alonzo Lockwood's quick reaction time. The two men realized the drive by was about to happen just as the first shots interrupted the jubilance outside the church. Alonzo and Paul pushed the two children to the ground and shielded them from the hail of gunfire.

Damon had been behind the church when the drive by shooting happened. He had been drinking with some of his cousins. Damon had hit the ground on instinct and stayed there until he heard tires squealing away from the church. When it was safe he had ran around the building to check on his family. Stefan and Bonnie were lying on the ground covered in blood. At first, Damon thought they might have been dead because of how still they were. Of course, they both survived, and most of the blood belonged to Paul and Alonzo. A bullet had only grazed Stefan. Meanwhile, Bonnie had a gash on the back of her head where she had hit it against the pavement.

"Is that why you kept pushing me at the club? Were you trying to prove that you weren't a little kid anymore?" Damon asked. He genuinely wanted to understand what was going in in his brother's head. Something was definitely off kilter with Stefan.

Stefan shook his head. "No. I saw that you were angry and frustrated. I know this thing with Giuseppe has had you in a weird emotional place. I was worried that you would take that frustration out on Tyler. He is my best friend, Damon. I couldn't stand by and let you hurt him. I trusted that you wouldn't go too far if I was the target for your rage."

He scrubbed a hand over his face. "Do you know how stupid that was? I could have hurt you, fratellino."

"I know but you might have killed him," Stefan replied.

Damon felt as if his little brother had just stabbed him in the chest. Did he truly think Damon was the type of animal that would beat a man to death without provocation? He could admit to being suspicious of Bonnie and Tyler's friendship. However, he wouldn't kill the kid simply because he was suspicious. Damon also wasn't stupid enough to think that Richard would just accept his youngest son being whacked over a woman.

He glanced toward the front of the plane to ensure that Mason wasn't paying them any attention. He lowered his voice and said, "I will admit that I am a jealous fuck but I am not going to kill Tyler. I don't actually think that anything is going on between Bonnie and Tyler. I was just irritated to learn that they are closer than I knew. I don't like that she kept that a secret from me. I don't appreciate that you kept it from me, too."

Stefan grimaced. "I didn't say anything because I thought that you would make a big deal out of nothing. Bonnie had to give up so much when she married into our family. I didn't want her to give up one of her only friends."

Damon huffed. "Bonnie has friends."

He lifted an eyebrow at his older brother. "Name three of her friends."

"Caroline."

"I suppose that you can count her sister-in-law as a friend," Stefan replied.

"Hayley," he suggested.

The younger man glared at Damon. He knew his brother wasn't dense. Hayley was Elijah's wife. Therefore, there was only so much that Bonnie could share about her life. She had to project a certain image of her relationship with Damon to the outside world. Afterall, they were supposed to be a fairytale romance. How else could they have sold a man marrying a girl ten years his junior to the public?

"She has you, too," Damon added.

He nodded. "Right. Bonnie's only friends are her brother and sister-in-law. You allowed Giuseppe to turn her into a prisoner in the same way he turned our mother into a prisoner. Don't be like him. Be confident enough in your marriage to know that Tyler isn't a threat. Bonnie loves you. She's been in love with you for years."

Unfortunately, Damon didn't feel very confident in his marriage. He loved Bonnie but something was off in their relationship. Damon couldn't tell if this was a new occurrence or if he was only now recognizing it. For the first time in for years, Damon was truly concerned that he might lose his wife. The idea scared him more than almost anything else did. It was easier for Damon to place the blame on a possible interloper instead of owning the ways in which he had broken her trust and her heart.

Damon said, "Alright, I'll back off the issue. You're right that it's unfair to dictate Bonnie's friends."

Stefan relaxed a little. He hoped that Damon truly meant what he said. No one would be overly shocked to learn that Damon didn't pay enough attention to his wife. However, Stefan was more detail oriented than his older brother was. Furthermore, he just spent more time with Bonnie than Damon did. Therefore, the sudden appearance of the Saint Christopher's medal around Bonnie's neck did not go unnoticed by him. Normally, Bonnie wore a white gold crucifix unless she was attending a formal affair. Since Shadow Hills, she had been wearing the crucifix and the medal.

Stefan had hoped that he was drawing the wrong conclusions when he saw the medal. However, when they made it back to Los Angeles Stefan realized that Tyler was no longer wearing his Saint Christopher's medal. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Bonnie was now wearing it. Stefan wasn't sure exactly what it meant but he knew that Damon would go ballistic if he knew.

Stefan found himself in an impossible situation. He loved his older brother. He would never be able to repay Damon for literally stepping in front of Giuseppe's fists for him. However, Bonnie and Tyler were like his brother and sister, too. They had grown up together and he loved them both. He also knew how much Damon's actions hurt Bonnie on a regular basis. He tried to encourage his brother to be a better husband but Damon usually responded by taunting Stefan for being whipped.

"Are we good now?" Damon asked.

"Yes, I forgive you for being a drunken asshole."

The older man chuckled and grabbed his bag of candy.

Stefan said, "Hey! I thought that was meant to be a peace offering."

"You said that you wanted a watch. I'll get you the watch instead."

He mocked his older brother, "Thanks, Santa. At least give me a few pieces of candy."

Damon rolled his eyes and tore open the bag. He dumped half of the bag onto Stefan's lap. He stood up and asked, "Happy?"

Stefan scrambled to keep the candy from tumbling onto the floor. He glared at Damon. "You are such an asshole."

He unwrapped a piece of chocolate and popped it into his mouth. "You're just figuring that out?"

Stefan shook his head and put in his ear buds again. He looked toward the front of the plane and stared at the back of Ric's head. The situation with Damon wasn't the only thing weighing on his mind. He looked down at his phone and pulled up Lilly's contact information. Stefan couldn't get the conversation with Lilly out of his head.

Damon returned to his seat feeling much better now that he had settled things with Stefan. Now if he could just square things away with Katherine he would be 2 for 2. His biggest challenge would be fixing whatever was broken in his relationship with Bonnie. However, that situation would have to wait until Giuseppe was dead. Then he would be able to give Bonnie his undivided attention.

Soon the plane landed at a private airstrip near the capital city. They had departed from Los Angeles at 11 o'clock on Sunday night. Currently, it was just shy of 9 o'clock Monday evening in Tenerife. Their small contingent deplaned and then climbed into the two SUVs waiting for them on the tarmac.

Stefan frowned as he stared at his phone.

Damon looked over at him. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just trying to figure out what to say to Caroline," he admitted.

"About what?"

"I don't like lying to my wife about where I am, Damon," he deadpanned.

The older man frowned because he hadn't considered that their pit stop would present a problem for anyone. "Just tell her that you made it. I doubt that Blondie is going to ask for details."

Stefan said, "I guess that you are right about that. Caroline wasn't really thrilled about me coming on this trip in the first place."

Damon decided to send a similarly vague text to Bonnie. Afterwards he put away his phone and relaxed against the heated leather seat. It had been a long time since Damon had last visited the island. However, he had spent many vacations there as a child. The villa in Tenerife had been a favorite destination for his father because of its close proximity to Milazzo. Giuseppe would fly back and forth conducting business while they were on vacation.

He lifted a surprised eyebrow as the SUVs pulled up to the two-story villa. There were several cars parked on the street. Furthermore, he could hear the persistent thump of a bass heavy song. Damon tried not to be irritated with Katherine for throwing a party. He had called in advance to tell her when they would arrive.

The chauffeured SUVs parked in the vacant driveway.

Damon climbed out of the car and headed up to the house. The door opened before he even had a chance to take out his keys.

Katherine stood there holding a glass of bourbon. She was wearing a halter dress made of red lace and a pair of stilettos. The dress barely brushed the tops of her thighs. However, the piece de resistance was that dress didn't have lining underneath the lace. Therefore, the dress was completely see-through.

The mobster's cerulean eyes were drawn to the La Perla bra and panty set that was visible through the sheer material of the dress.

She smirked seeing the way Damon hungrily drank in her appearance. She handed him the glass of bourbon and said, "Welcome home, Damon. I hope you don't mind that I invited over a few of my friends. I just figured you wouldn't want your uncles and brother to be bored senseless."

Damon grinned as he kissed Katherine. "You always think of everything."

"Well, I have been a very bad girl. I had to make it up to you somehow," Katherine said. She moved aside to let them into the villa.

Damon took a sip of the bourbon and followed Katherine into the living room where seven young women were currently dancing and drinking. He also noticed the rather large quantity of drugs on the coffee table. "This is a nice start…"

"Oh, I fully expect to be punished for my bad behavior," she replied seductively. Katherine turned her attention to the other four men. "These are my friends and they are here to make sure you all have a great time tonight. They are all very discreet and I have instituted a no cell phone policy for the night. Go wild…"

Zach frowned when he saw the way Damon's eyes seem drawn to the cocaine. His nephew no longer had a problem, but that didn't mean there weren't small relapses periodically. Zach could tell that tonight was going to get out of hand quickly. He decided to go put his bag down in one of the bedrooms. He would be turning in soon. Unlike Stefan, Zach hadn't slept a wink in an attempt to adjust to the time difference.

Enzo walked into the room with a leggy brunette woman at his side. He finished zipping his pants and then grinned at Damon. "I am glad that you made it!"

Damon chuckled. He could tell by Enzo's over exuberance that he was already drunk. The two men hugged. "Having fun?"

"Yes! My goal is to sample all of the beauties here tonight. Two down…six to go," he replied.

Katherine sauntered over to Stefan while Damon greeted Enzo. She stroked a hand up his arm. "I didn't expect to see you here tonight, Stefan. Did you finally decide to join the big boys?"

Stefan glared at Katherine and easily brushed her hand off him. "I see that you are as classy as always, Katherine."

"It's not my fault that your brother likes me when I'm dirty. Why don't you loosen up a little bit? I have the perfect girl for you. You prefer blondes, right?"

Stefan watched as she called over a blonde woman with bronze skin. She was wearing what could only be described as a t-shirt. However, he could admit that the woman was stunning.

"This is Damon's brother, Stefan. He's a bit of a stuff shirt but I am sure that you can bring him out of his shell."

The woman extended her hand to Stefan and smiled. In an accented voice, she said, "Hi. My name is, Noa. It's nice to meet you, Stefan."

Stefan shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you, too. Noa is a very pretty name. Unfortunately, I won't be staying."

The other female guests quickly swarmed Alaric and Mason.

Katherine rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, Saint Stefan…live a little."

Stefan had never been fond of Katherine. He thought the woman brought out his brother's worst qualities. Moreover, she had come onto him numerous times when she first started seeing Damon. He had rejected every one of her advances much to Katherine's utter humiliation. "No, thank you."

He turned around and walked right back out of the house.

Alaric followed his nephew outside. "Where are you going?"

"I am going to check into a hotel for the night. This isn't the reason I came on this trip. Damon and I have already settled our differences. There is no good reason for me to stay here tonight," Stefan replied.

He said, "You can just crash in one of the bedrooms upstairs."

Stefan looked at his uncle seriously. "How do you look Abby in the eye knowing that Damon treats her daughter like shit? Because I have a difficult time being around Bonnie and pretending I don't know that my brother is a cheating asshole."

The older man frowned because of the direct nature of the question. Stefan didn't usually approach situations in that way. "It's not my place, or yours, to get involved in Damon's marriage."

He huffed out a laugh. "Look who I am asking. Of course, you don't see anything wrong with what Damon is doing. How many years have you been cheating on Jo with Abby?"

Stefan had only recently learned that Ric was the father of Abby's three younger children. He couldn't believe that his uncle had started another family while still married to Jo. Even Giuseppe hadn't been so careless or callous. However, infidelity was just sort of par for the course for Salvatore men. Stefan's grandfather had been an unrepentant philanderer that ended up fathering two illegitimate children: Alaric and Zacharias. However, there had been rumors of others.

"What the fuck is going on with you? First, you provoke Damon into fighting you. Are you trying to provoke me now?" Alaric asked.

"I am not trying to provoke you. I am really just trying to figure out how you hid an entire family for twelve years. What kind of person does that?"

He ground out, "My personal affairs aren't your concern."

Stefan asked, "I have three cousins that I didn't know about until last week. I've known these kids since they were born and never knew that I had a connection to them. In what world would that not be my business?"

"What do you want me to say, Stefan? I'm not perfect."

"None of us are. It's just sometimes I forget that you are my father's brother in every way."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Ric's voice had dropped to a near growl.

He shook his head and walked toward the car. "Forget it."

Alaric grabbed his nephew's shoulder and turned him around. "Don't walk away from me when I am talking to you. What the hell was that little jab supposed to mean?"

Stefan stared at his uncle completely unafraid. "I've had this recurring nightmare for years. I just chalked it up to my fucked up childhood corrupting my dreams. I had it again while Caroline and I were in Paris with the kids. Only this time my mother was there when I was wide awake in the middle of the night and unable to fall asleep. She asked what was keeping me awake and for some reason…I told her about my nightmare. She called me Sunday morning and told me that my nightmare was real."

Ric slowly released Stefan's shoulder as an unsettling feeling washed over him. Something about the look in the younger man's eyes unnerved him. Moreover, he wasn't aware that his nephew still had nightmares. He thought that Stefan had grown out of those in his teens. Before then he used to climb into Damon's bed whenever he had a nightmare.

"What nightmare? What are you talking about?"

Stefan just stared at Alaric in silence for a moment. "This thing that has been haunting my dreams since I was a little kid is real. Mom thinks that since I was so young when it happened that my subconscious repressed what I saw."

"She is crazy, Stefan. That woman is certifiably crazy. You have to take anything Lilly says with a grain of salt."

He chuckled darkly. "Mom said that you would say that."

Zach walked out of the house and frowned at the tension between his older brother and nephew. "What's going on out here?"

Alaric slowly stepped away from Stefan. "I can say with complete certainty that I do not know."

Stefan smiled at Zach as if nothing were amiss. He said, "Nothing, Zio. I am just headed to a hotel for the night. Caroline was cool with the strip club but this is something different."

Ric gave his younger brother a pointed look.

"I think I will come with you. That party isn't exactly my scene either. Just let me run in the house to get my overnight bag," he said.

They had left the rest of their luggage on the jet since they would be leaving the next day.

Stefan nodded as he climbed into the car. "Okay."

Ric and Zach walked back into the house. They went to the guest room where Zach had put down his bag. "What the fuck did I just walk into?"

"I don't know. I thought that you said that he was okay," Ric said.

"He was when I talked to him yesterday morning. He was only trying to protect Tyler from Damon's mood swings. What beef does he have with you?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "He started going on about my affair with Abby. Then he started talking about some nightmares he had as a kid. He said that Lilly called yesterday to tell him the incident from his nightmare actually happened when he was younger. He's obviously accusing me of something but I genuinely don't know what he is talking about."

Zach frowned at his older brother. He said, "Damon is the one who always helped him through the nightmares. I don't know what they were about but I can ask Stefan."

"You need to figure out if he's cracking up before we take him to Milazzo."

Zach nodded. "I'm on it. You keep an eye on Damon. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid and keep him away from the coke."

Ric said, "I'll kick his ass to Milazzo if he even looks at it."

Zach chuckled and clapped his brother on the back. "I guess I'll see you in the morning."

Ric sat on the side of the bed as Zach left the room. He wondered what Lilly had put into the boy's head. She had been waiting years for an opportunity to turn Stefan against the family. Lilly had wanted to take Stefan when she left Giuseppe but he wouldn't allow it. Her contact with Stefan had been limited to phone calls and gifts until he turned 18-years-old. However, even then Stefan was too beholden to Giuseppe to visit Lilly. That changed a few weeks ago when he went to see his mother without telling anyone. Ric wondered if he should have examined his nephew's reasons for visiting Lilly more closely before now.

He took a deep breath and decided to put it out of his mind for now. Zach was more than capable of getting through to Stefan. While he wouldn't call it favoritism, Ric was closer to Damon than he was to Stefan. Meanwhile, Zach was closer to Stefan than he was to Damon. He wasn't sure if it was the age difference. Ric was nine years older than Damon compared to being 17 years older than Stefan was. He also had a similar temperament to Damon's while Zach and Stefan had always been more even-keeled.

Ric stood up and headed back out to the living room. He needed a drink and maybe a line or two of coke.

He rolled his eyes at seeing Katherine straddling Damon on the couch. The way the two of them were going at it they might as well have been screwing right there.

Ric plopped down at the other end of the sofa and pulled out his wallet. He took out a credit card and separated a small portion of the cocaine from the larger pile.

Damon pulled back from Katherine's reddened lips to look at his uncle. He lifted an eyebrow at him.

"Do as I say and not as I do," he muttered in response to the silent question. "Also, get a room. I'm not interested in watching you fuck her on the couch."

"What crawled up your ass?" Damon asked.

"Your little brother."

Damon chuckled. "I told you he's been a little asshole lately. What did he do now?"

"I don't know. Your crazy ass mother put some bullshit in his head."

Damon's amusement faded. "That bitch isn't my mother. What the fuck did she say to him?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. She grabbed Damon's face and ground against his erection enticingly. "Damon…"

"In a minute," he snapped.

Katherine knew when to shut her mouth. She huffed but remained silent.

"I don't know. He brought up some shit about a nightmare. He said Lilly told him it was real."

Damon's body tensed when Ric mentioned Stefan's recurring nightmare. He shoved at Katherine. "Move."

She balked at being treated so callously but quickly moved when she realized that Damon planned to stand whether she moved or not.

"Where is he, Zio?"

Ric said, "Zach left with him to go to a hotel for the night. Stefan didn't want to be around all of this anyway. Zach will figure out what's wrong with him. He always does."

Damon dug his phone from his pocket and called Stefan's phone. He scowled when the call went to voicemail. "He's ignoring my calls."

"You'll see him in the morning," Ric commented. He rolled up a twenty-dollar bill and snorted a line of coke.

Damon shook his head. He wanted to fly to Paris and choke the life out of Lilly for playing head games with Stefan. "You don't get it. I can't believe that crazy bitch would tell him that nightmare was real. I need to talk to Stefan."

Katherine pressed her lips together in annoyance as Damon walked out of the living room.

Ric chuckled at her expression and then tilted the makeshift straw in her direction.

The brunette glared at his apparent amusement with her predicament. However, she plucked the rolled bill from his fingers swiftly. She was going to need a little something extra if she was going to put up with the Salvatore family's bullshit. She snorted two lines of cocaine before returning the bill to him. "Thanks," she muttered.

Ric studied Katherine for a moment before he stood up and walked away. He already had one nephew hurling veiled accusations at him. He didn't need problems with Damon, too.

Katherine sat there sulking for a few minutes before grabbing a bottle of tequila and disappearing to the master bedroom. She stopped in the doorway when she heard Damon on the phone.

"Call me when you get this, Stefan," Damon demanded.

Katherine lightly knocked on the bedroom door. "Can I come in?"

He placed his phone on the nightstand as he looked up at her. He said, "Yeah. Close the door behind you."

Katherine closed the door and placed the bottle of tequila on a dresser. She was determined to get Damon's attention solely on her. Katherine unpinned her darks curls and allowed them to fall over her shoulders. She flashed a coquettish smile and asked, "Are you going to pay attention to me now? I thought you said that you missed me."

His cerulean eyes followed Katherine's every move. Damon chuckled lowly. "I did. Take off your clothes and I'll show you how much."

"Are you sure? Stefan might call you back," she replied in a petulant voice. "Besides, you've been very mean to me lately. You sent Enzo to threaten my life."

"You deserved it for bothering Bonnie with your bullshit. You are lucky that all I did was send him to warn you," the mobster replied in a serious tone. "Now take the dress off or I'll rip it off you," he ordered.

A delicious chill went up her spine at Damon's threat. She turned on some music and then slowly walked toward the bed. However, she stopped a few tantalizing feet away.

Damon licked his lips in anticipation. "I wasn't joking about ripping that dress off you."

Katherine pouted prettily at him as she slowly allowed the lace dress to slide down the length of her body. Once the material pooled at her feet, she said, "I'm sorry for what I did. I was just jealous. You haven't been spending very much time with me lately. I thought...maybe you were getting tired of me."

Damon watched the serpentine way her body moved to the music. "Never," was his simple reply.

She flashed a devious grin as she took off her bra and threw it at Damon's face. In a quiet voice, she suggested, "Maybe you want someone younger."

He easily caught the delicate scrap of material and tossed it aside. "You know that isn't true, Katherine."

She hooked her thumbs into the sides of her panties and slowly dragged them down her legs. Afterwards, the brown-eyed temptress looked at Damon from underneath her eyelashes as she slowly kneeled on the soft wool rug.

Damon's smile grew more lecherous.

Katherine crawled the short distance until she was kneeling between Damon's legs. She unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants. Katherine asked, "Are you sure? Maybe you want someone younger and more wholesome like your pretty little Bonnie."

Damon's expression hardened at the mention of his wife. He grabbed her face in a vice like grip and practically snarled, "Maybe you should put your mouth to better use before you get yourself into trouble."

A mischievous glint shone in her dark eyes as she licked her lips. "Yes, sir."