They didn't spend too much longer at Billy's. Damon never did get to see his old friend, but with Rebekah distracted by her next meal it was the perfect time to slip away and get that hotel room for the night. As they got in the car, Elena said, "I think a saw a little hotel a few blocks down the street we can stay at."
Damon gave her an incredulous look, "We're vampires in New York and you want to stay at a shitty motel? Clearly you've got a lot to learn."
He threw the car into drive and peeled out of the parking spot to go towards his personal favorite hotel in all of New York. Elena was going to love it.
After handing his car over to the valet, they walked into the lavish lobby with white marble floors, glittering gold chandeliers, and classic Greek columns two stories tall. The raised ceilings were painted with an elaborate design, and all of the furniture looked far too expensive to even look at let alone sit on.
Elena was impressed with his choice. She couldn't wait to see what the actual room was going to look like, and more importantly, what kind of trouble they could get into in it.
Damon sauntered up to the front desk and she moved right next to him, noting the judgmental look the receptionist was giving them. Probably because they weren't dressed in the most expensive designers, but rather clothes more fit for a place like Billy's.
He gave her that devilish smirk of his and Elena watched in awe how the woman instantly softened, flashing him her bedroom eyes. Damon was the biggest flirt she'd ever met, hands down.
"Hi there…Courtney." He greeted her, reading her nametag. "My girl and I will take the penthouse."
She gave him a small sympathetic frown as she typed on her computer, "I'm sorry, sir, but it seems that that room is unavailable."
"Is there anyone staying in it right now?" He asked.
"Well, no, but—"
"Great, then it's available." He compelled her, not in the mood to deal with arguing. "Put it on my card." He tossed his credit card to her and she quickly charged the room before handing it back.
"Have a good night." She gave them a fake smile that was probably well practiced before Damon walked away without throwing her a second glance.
Elena was kind of liking this new heartless Damon. He'd probably be even more fun with his humanity off, and only then could she truly trust him, but she'd make do with what she could get.
He led her to a private elevator in the back, the interior decorated in the same white marble and shiny gold trim as the lobby. Definitely not the type of elevator for everyday guests.
And it moved pretty fast. The penthouse suite was on the top floor in a building with fifty some floors.
But whatever she was expecting hadn't been even close to what she got. The elevator door opened to black marble floors, an open floor plan, and massive floor to ceiling windows spanning two stories. There was a kitchen on the left, a dining room on the right, and a step down onto the gray carpet led to the living room with the best view of the city she'd seen yet. Gray couches with endless pillows were arranged around a large black coffee table with a fireplace and a television above it. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, the sparkling gems resembling rain as they hung in straight lines. There was a small bar over to the right, where Elena noticed a beautiful glass spiral staircase leading to the second floor balcony which hung over the kitchen and dining room. She guessed the bedrooms and bathrooms were up there.
Her feet took her to the kitchen first, and she grazed her hand across the shimmering white quartz counters. Had she needed to cook her food, this wouldn't be the worst place to do it. An elaborate light fixture hung above the breakfast bar, and the stove had six burners on it. Damon was a good cook. Maybe if she was in the mood she could talk him into making her food.
As she walked into the living room to explore more of the suite, she noticed the terrace outside. There was a pool that would be open if it had not been February, and there was a hot tub tucked away in the corner. If she hadn't already fucked Damon in a hot tub it might have held some appeal.
"Nice place…" She commented, trailing her fingertips across the back of the couch.
Damon smirked, "Better than a shitty motel?"
She gave him a pointed look as she sauntered over to the bar in search of some more alcohol. She wasn't quite ready to let the party end just yet, and who better to keep up than Damon, the self-proclaimed pro at drinking?
She picked up a remote sitting on the coffee table on her way and flipped on the surround sound stereo. One of the many overplayed pop songs came on the radio, and she turned up the volume and danced the rest of the way to the bar. She poured herself a drink while kicking off her heels and looked to Damon, "What's your poison? Bourbon?"
"You know me too well, kitten." He confirmed, crossing his arms and leaning his hip against the back of the couch.
She danced over to him to hand him his drink, then took a gulp of her own before setting it down and unbuttoning her pants. While the clothes made her look like sin, they certainly weren't as comfortable as being naked.
That, and Damon would be less likely to resist her seduction this time if she was already naked and flaunting her goods right in front of his face.
She hooked her fingers in the waistband and met Damon's eyes, unable to hide her smirk. He raised a brow and she bit her lower lip, deciding that it would be much more fun to push all of his buttons rather than just a few. She walked up to him, taking his glass out of his hand and setting it on the table next to hers before taking his hands in hers. She placed them on her hips, and his thumbs automatically went into her waistband. A dark look crossed his features, proof that she was pushing all of the right buttons. She slowly pushed his hands down her hips, dragging the jeans with them.
He couldn't believe the little minx—no, wait, actually he could believe what she was doing. He just couldn't remember why, for the life of him, they weren't already in bed.
Her thighs were soft as silk against his hands, her jeans bunched around her knees as his hands explored the expanse of smooth skin against his will. Their foreheads were pressed together, her hands resting on his chest as she stepped out of the jeans and kicked them to the side. He tugged her hips against his, pressing his hardness into her stomach and she let out an involuntary gasp, making him smirk.
She laughed huskily then whispered, "Easy, tiger…we've got all night, and I'm not quite finished with the surprises."
His eyes narrowed at her words and she stepped back out of his embrace, turning to walk away. Of course she was wearing a thong, and of course Damon's hot blooded male body couldn't resist staring at her perfectly round ass encased in the lacy red scrap of fabric that somehow passed as underwear.
Wait, no, she said something about another surprise! What the hell did that mean? Damon really wasn't in the mood for more surprises, because that's come to mean problems. So help him if she did anything stupid…
Then she was shrugging out of her leather jacket, leaving her in just the white tank top that ended at her belly button, and his question was answered. He was going to need a doctor if his jaw stayed on the floor any longer.
There on her right shoulder blade was a tattoo a little bigger than a golf ball blazing bright against her olive skin. But not just any tattoo—no, this one happened to be a red heart with his name scrawled in the center.
Not for the first time since she shut her humanity off, Damon was speechless. His brain wasn't even functioning, and Elena knew it. She had a newfound love for riling him up, for seeing him lose the control he so expertly keeps even if he pretends that he has none. Watching the moment he snapped and gave in would be more satisfying than all of the alcohol she could ever consume. She smirked over her shoulder and turned up the volume on the music a few notches, beginning to rock her hips to the beat.
She downed the rest of her drink, sending Damon a wink before finishing off his too, not that his eyes had strayed from her once. She stepped up onto the couch, facing the city so her brand new tattoo was staring him down, and trailed her hands over her curves as she danced and moved like the minx she was.
She sang along softly to the lyrics, jumping down from the couch to dance around the room.
She felt Damon's resolve snap before she even felt him move. He was behind her in the blink of an eye, his hands on her hips in a death grip and his chest flush against her back. His mouth was attacking her neck with frenzied kisses, devouring her taste like it was the last time he'd ever experience the heaven that was Elena Gilbert, even with her humanity off. Her eyes slid shut and she fisted her hand in his hair, forcing him closer. His arm wrapped around her waist, holding her tightly, while his mouth coaxed every whimper, mewl, and moan from her mouth that it could.
She breathed his name, clenching her thighs together as her arousal made itself quite obvious to any being with a heightened sense of smell. The space between her legs throbbed with need to the point of pain, and she wiggled her ass against Damon's prominent erection. He growled, a primal sound from deep in his throat, and sunk his blunt teeth into her shoulder, then trailed down to her tattoo and gave that a good nip too. She yelped in pleasure and again pleaded his name, prompting him to lift her and blur them upstairs to the bedroom. He threw her in the middle of the pristine white bed, her dark hair fanning out as she spread herself open for him.
Damon had her naked faster than she could comprehend and his mouth was on her breasts, nibbling at the piercings and making her moan.
Had he mentioned how much he loved those piercings yet?
He flicked his tongue around the cold metal, taking the other in his hand to twist and pull while she writhed beneath him, her back arching and pressing her breasts further into him. He switched nipples, suckling at the other while grinding his still clothed bulge into her bare center. She groaned, beginning to pant, as she rubbed herself against him, desperate for some release. She attempted to pull his mouth to hers, but he refused, using the very good excuse of her nipples to resist kissing her. Not when she was like this.
When he finally managed to tear himself away from her for a few seconds, he shed his clothes at vampire speed before returning to her flushed body. He thrust into her before they both exploded from the overwhelming desire, and Elena cried out at the unexpected move.
Damon flipped them over so she was on top, letting her have him however she wanted him while he laid back and enjoyed the view. He had never seen perfection quite like Elena, and frankly, he never wanted to. She was the only thing he needed, humanity or not, and that wasn't going to change.
Even as she bounced on his dick, fucking him for her own pleasure without giving a damn what he felt, he couldn't find it in him to stop. He was hers, even if that meant letting her have him like this, because he was too weak to ever deny her what she wanted. She was his soft spot, and that's how it would always be.
He could tell she was getting closer. Her eyes were scrunched shut in pleasure, her mouth hanging open as she started losing her rhythm to the intense flutters unfurling in her belly. Damon rolled her beneath him and lifted her legs over his shoulders, beginning a pace that would send them both off the deep end in seconds. He was nearing vampire speed as he pounded into her ruthlessly, some dark part of him growling to assert his dominance and show her just who she belonged to. His hips hammering into hers, he sunk his fangs into her calf and drank deeply, her resounding cry so sharp that it could have shattered glass as she toppled over the edge.
He spilled inside of her not a second later, releasing her leg to groan and gasp through the spine tingling feeling shooting through his body.
He fell onto the bed next to her, not even bothering to pull her into his arms when he knew she wouldn't go willingly. His eyes closed and his chest heaving, he vaguely wondered how much longer he would be able handle fucking her before he craved the emotional side to sex that only seemed to exist with her.
Elena peeked an eye open to look at him, a sated smile curling at her lips. However, it instantly fell at the pensive look on Damon's face.
She didn't care if he enjoyed himself or not. Nope. Not one bit. She got what she wanted, and it seemed that was all the fun she was going to get from him tonight. But she wouldn't give up without giving it another try.
Swinging her leg between his, she flipped on top of him and ran her hand down his chest, giving him a coy smile, "Was that all you've got?"
He smiled a little, though there was no emotion to it. It was simply a movement of his lips, then he hummed a noise that Elena couldn't decide the meaning of. He barely even opened his eyes, and something about the lack of attention grated on her nerves.
After everything she did to get his attention, he fucked her and was bored with her? She rolled her eyes, not that he'd see it, and climbed off of him, grabbing one of the dark gray silk robes from the dresser and slipping it on.
"Where are you going?" He asked lazily, already beneath the sheets.
She scowled to herself where he wouldn't see and coldly said, "Wherever the hell I want."
He knew she wasn't going to leave the room in only a robe, and she cursed him for it before slamming the door behind her as she went back downstairs. She needed a snack, but there was no blood in the fridge. Normally she'd settle for fresh, but she had a feeling that she wasn't going to feel like stopping tonight, and she'd rather not have to deal with a dead body.
Instead she yanked a bottle of whiskey from the bar and threw herself onto the couch where she had been dancing only half an hour ago and poured it down her throat. It was only when the bottle was half empty that she had to stop herself and ask what the hell was going on. She didn't care about anything. She shouldn't care if Damon fucked her then stopped caring about her or not. Just because he's been telling her he loves her for the past year didn't mean she suddenly cared whether he showered her in affection or not.
She didn't need him.
Or anyone else for that matter.
All she needed was herself. In fact, she should just make everything easier and leave now while he wasn't expecting it. She could escape him, run away and do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She could go somewhere where nobody would try to turn her emotions back on, where nobody would care, just like she didn't.
Her mouth twitched in anger as she berated herself for even allowing herself to feel used in the first place, especially when she wasn't supposed to care.
She can to live without him. She will never be one of those girls so hopelessly dependent on a man that it's borderline demented. Not feeling was good. She didn't have to deal with emotions like that. She could just shove them down, lock them away, and pretend they didn't exist.
At least that's what she told herself even when she could feel that dark box tucked into the deepest recesses of her mind growing bigger and bigger, the walls bulging out with the emotions she was suppressing and the feelings that could easily devour her. Sooner or later, it would burst, but if she could just stop adding to it, then she'd be okay. All she had to do was avoid more emotions, and she'd be good to go.
And that meant avoiding Damon, because he was a large source of her rampant humanity clawing to the surface.
She ground her teeth together, telling herself that she needed to get a grip.
No emotions.
No feelings.
No humanity.
She repeated the mantra over and over, making sure that it would reign true through all of Damon's attempts to bring her back.
"Thanks, Liz." Damon said into the phone to the sheriff just before hanging up. It seemed as if his luck was turning around after yesterday's failed attempts at reconnecting with any of his old leads. Billy came through, even if he didn't know it.
"Why were you talking to Liz?" Elena asked, appearing in the door to the bedroom, the accusation clear in her tone.
Damon smirked, "Worried I have a diabolical master plan after all?" She narrowed her eyes, not finding the joke as amusing as he did. He rolled his eyes, "Christ, Elena, pop a Xanax and relax. She was just keeping me updated on what's going on back home. There haven't been any missing persons or vampire attacks, and the house that Klaus occupied is empty and closed up. It seems as though he's moved on from Mystic Falls for good."
While everything he told her was true, he may have just left out a little bit of information that he had yet to break the news of.
They needed to go to a small little town in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania.
Oh, how being friends with the sheriff could come in handy. All it took was a nationwide search for the fake name Katherine was using and low and behold, a car rental place popped up. He had to admit, Katherine hiding in a small town was unexpected. She craved attention, and big cities were the only way she was going to get enough to satisfy her. However, unexpected was what she was going for, so they'd be taking a day trip.
He had just had to figure out how to tell Elena without pissing her off.
Lazily raking his gaze over her half naked body, he mentally thanked the hotel for providing silk robes that were thinner than paper. It showed everything, and he smiled in approval. When she was like this, he could ogle all he wanted and she wouldn't give a damn.
Noting the look on his face, Elena uncrossed her arms and slinked over to the bed, moving to stand between his legs. Her hands landed on his shoulders and his went to her hips, lightly holding her in place. He pressed his face between her breasts, nudging the fabric away from her skin to place hot, open-mouthed kisses on her sternum.
She allowed him to have his fun for a moment before fisting her hand in his hair and yanking back—hard. He gave her a 'what the fuck' kind of look and she glared down at him, "If you even think, that you can hide something—"
She didn't get to finish, because Damon's anger that had been accumulating for days snapped at the threat she was trying to make. His hand shot out and wrapped around her throat and he threw her to the ground, smiling wickedly at the way she unsuccessfully clawed at his wrist to try to dislodge him. He hit her head against the floor again, forcing her to stop as her vision blurred, and he hissed, "Are you threatening me, Elena? I think you're forgetting that I'm older than you, little girl. You have no power over me, and don't you dare think that you're the one in charge here. Just because the world revolved around you in Mystic Falls doesn't mean the rest of it does."
That was the absolute last thing she had ever been expecting him to say. It was easy to forget that he was one and a half centuries stronger than her when he so often used the gentlest of touches to care for her.
Immediately, she was shoving down the emotions his words invoked and glaring right back at him.
He released her then got to his feet, giving her a hard look that dared her to try something like that again.
She didn't take the bait.
He stepped away from her and as she stood up he said, "We're going to Pennsylvania. There's a little town I want to make a stop in."
"Why?" She instantly asked.
"Because I fucking told you so." He snapped. "If you're unwilling, I could always break your neck and tie you up to make you more agreeable."
He turned on his heel for the bathroom, already cringing at his hard words. Today was going to be a long day, and there was nothing like a bad mood to start it out.
At least Elena didn't care. Or at least he thought she didn't care.
And she didn't. That's what she kept telling herself as her buried emotions seethed where they normally would have cried. She was sick of doing this; letting Damon bring her emotions back out. She had to put an end to that—now—before he was really able to disarm her.
Making sure that switch was securely in the 'off' position, Elena threw open the closet doors where Damon had the hotel stock some clothes. It was nothing too great, but she would have to make do. She chose a pair of black skinny jeans with rips all along the thighs and a simple gray t-shirt that fit her snugly. She deliberated wearing a bra or not, but decided that if she wasn't trying to seduce Damon then she'd have to wear a bra. She saw the way his eyes darkened and widened when he saw her new accessory.
She learned her lesson where he was concerned. No more fucking the one person that has the potential to destroy her.
Thinking back on it, that should have been a given.
While Damon was in the shower, she heard a beep on the intercom system and walked over to the electronic box on the wall. She pressed the button and sweetly asked, "Who is it?" She was dying for a fresh meal.
Rebekah's saccharine sounding voice drifted through, "I take it Damon's preoccupied? Let me up; let's have ourselves a talk about priorities."
Elena frowned slightly, wondering what that meant, but buzzed her up anyways. Damon asked from the bathroom, loud enough that she'd hear it, "Who was that?"
"Room service." Elena answered instantly, not bothering to give him any further explanation. She slipped out of the room and downstairs, her feet hitting the soft gray carpet just as the elevator chimed and Rebekah strutted into the stunning hotel suite.
She smirked, looking around, "Damon's got good taste."
Elena didn't comment, she just moved closer until they were a few feet away and softly asked so Damon wouldn't hear, "What are you doing here?"
Her eyes skimmed up and down the brunette girl, a fleeting thought wondering when she seemed so much like Katerina. It made what she was about to tell her all the more sweeter.
"Damon didn't take you to Billy's just to have fun." She shared.
Elena scoffed, "Tell me something I don't know."
She shrugged, "Okay. He's looking for Katherine."
Elena's body went stiff at that one simple name, rage almost filling her completely. Almost. "Are you gonna tell me why or keep me guessing?"
"You must be a riot at parties." She deadpanned. "Unfortunately, I have no idea what he wants with her. That's where you come in."
She narrowed her eyes, "He's not going to tell me anything, and you know that."
"That's not what I meant." She chuckled. "At Billy's, Damon managed to find her file in the back room while we were busy and swiped a list of aliases she's gone by. He's taking you to a place in Pennsylvania, no?"
So that's what he was up to. Elena hesitated giving her an answer, though it was an answer enough.
Rebekah smiled smugly, "I say we don't let him get whatever it is he wants, and if he's chasing Katherine, you know it's got to be good."
Elena couldn't deny that. Damon would never seek out the woman that ruined him without a damn good reason, and suddenly Rebekah's unspoken offer sounded very appealing. She smirked to herself, then said, "Follow behind us. When I get the information we need from him I'll give him the slip and we can find that ancient bitch."
The blonde woman smiled deviously, "Always a pleasure, Elena. Well, only when your humanity's off."
She stepped back into the elevator and the doors closed just as the water from the shower turned off. Elena returned to the bedroom just as Damon walked out with just a towel wrapped around his waist.
"Where's the food?"
She shrugged, "They got it wrong, so I sent it back. I'd prefer to grab a real bite to eat anyway, if we can get this show on the road."
Damon went to the same closet where her clothes had been and pulled out some of his own: jeans and—surprise, surprise—a black button down. She resisted rolling her eyes as he said, "I think that can be arranged, if you're ready to go."
"I've been ready." She said, already walking towards the elevator.