A/N- So this carries on from where we left off last chapter… Enjoy!
Chapter 6:
I shot up from my bed with a gasp on my lips, my limbs a tangled mess in the thin sheets of my bed. My hair was pasted to my neck and forehead and my heart was pounding relentlessly in my chest. Damon's t-shirt, that I'd spent the night in, was lopsided on my shoulder, revealing the edge of my black laced bra. But the sticky sweat that covered my body wasn't what had awoken me. No, I owed that to the obnoxious shrill of music –if you could call it that- drifting from Jeremy's room.
I was panting and disorientated and, looking over towards my nightstand, I realised it was nearly time to get up for school.
Leaning over to flick on my bedside lamp, I peeled the comforter from my body and threw my legs over the edge of the bed.
No, I hadn't been subjected to visions of Dad's accident last night. I'd been subjected to dreams far worse.
Damon. Damon making me whimper with pleasure beneath him, and then on top of him, and then-
Oh my God!
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to rid the disparaging thoughts from my mind. Damon was dick –a sexy dick, but a dick all the same. He was insufferable, overpowering and he had a reputation to boot.
Sure, I was sexually attracted to him and had plenty of lustful thoughts of him… and me, but that didn't mean anything. Everybody has dreams of the sexual nature in which incongruous things happen with people we are not attached to in real life.
As I fumbled with my willowy off-the-shoulder coral top and dark jeans that I'd chosen for the day, Jeremy casually strolled into my room. With my mouth agape, I slipped my jeans past my thighs, hastily slid the zipper up and folded my arms across my chest.
"Are you incapable of knocking?" I spoke patronisingly, folding my arms across my chest. It wasn't exactly like he was peeving on me or anything, but whilst I was getting dressed I would have liked the decency of some privacy.
"Sorry," He apologised, but he didn't really sound sincere, "just thought I'd tell you that your cars not starting up."
"What?" I panicked, my eyebrows furrowing in concern. I'd only had the car for just over a year, but I'd bought it second-hand and I was willing to wager a bet that the previous owner had purchased it second-hand as well, and the one before that and the one before that and so on so forth.
I dropped my arms to my sides and stalked past him towards the stairs, taking them two at a time, and calling out behind me, "Why were you in my car anyways?" Of course, Jeremy hesitantly followed suite, handing me the car keys as I fumbled with the locks on the front door.
"Mum told me to start the car up and turn the air-con on," He stated, following my every footstep like an errant child, "She said there was going to be a heat wave or something like that." He tagged on dismissively.
And sure enough the car churned unhealthily as I inserted the key. Jeremy muttered an "I told you so," from where he was leaning on the window besides me. He was grinning superiorly, and I wanted to slap the smirk off of his smug face.
Instead, I slammed the palm of my hand against the steering column and groaned in despair.
"Crap!" I cursed, and ran a hand through my hair, defeated. I could faintly hear mums disapproving admonishment at my cursing from the kitchen. As if by some miracle the car would magically roar back to life, I took the key out of the ignition, glared at it for a second, before jamming it back in again; nothing. It spluttered and wheezed for a moment, before idling back out.
"Mum said she'd give us a ride to school, but we'll have to make our own way back since she's in work." Jeremy said by way of explanation. Jeremy took a step back as I swung the door open and leapt to my feet, letting the car door slam shut behind me. My sombre expression and pouted lips must have made him feel bad as he added reassuringly, "I'm sure Tyler or one of my other friends could give us a ride home, or at least drop us off at the mechanics."
I nodded my head in thanks and smiled at him appreciatively.
Jeremy could be a good brother. When he wanted to be, of course.
Fifteen minutes later and mum was slipping the old, yellow, coiled telephone back into the cradle. She had called up the local mechanics repair shop and towing company and they'd be here within the next six hours, since we didn't have any ideas as to how to jumpstart a car between us. Consequently, mum had begrudgingly allowed me to skip school for the day as she needed to be at the hospital and wouldn't be here to sign the paperwork for the car.
I, on the other hand, was smug with my mother's decision. I didn't want to face Damon after the awkward interview and last night's dream. It would be tense and uncomfortable on my behalf, even if he didn't have an inkling of a clue as to what I was acting so paranoid about.
Yes, I'd be terrified the entire time that he was telepathic and could somehow read my mind. How pathetic I am…
An upside to skipping school was that I finally got around to finishing unpacking the remainder of my boxes. With my room finally prim and proper, I sprawled my textbooks across my bed and began revising for the pop quiz I had next week.
Forty-five minutes later, at precisely 2:15pm, and I was cooped up in the small confines of the repair shops' waiting room. Due to the lack of air-conditioning, I was sweltering; even the window sheathed walls were foggy with condensation.
After filling in the pages upon pages of paperwork and then double-checking them out of utter boredom, I'd reverted to flicking through the glossy columns of the old magazines piled high on the coffee table at my feet.
Jeremy called, twice, to inform me that he and his friend would pick me up after they'd finished school at three, but they still hadn't showed up half an hour later at 3:30pm.
Mum was right, as always. It was dizzyingly hot and the receptionist of sorts –whom I'd been informed was an intern- was sipping agonisingly slowly on her small plastic cup of chilled water. I felt myself salivating at the sight of the refreshment and when she caught me staring, she deliberately licked her studded lips. Referring to ignoring her petty display, I internally reprimanded myself for not bringing a bottle of water with me. Now, I'd been forced to pay the price.
I slammed the magazine I'd been reading shut and placed it on the empty leather seat beside me. None of the headlines had really captured my attention, so, as it neared 3:45pm, I retorted to playing Flappy Bird on my phone. The stupid bird just kept dying every time I neared my high score. After narrowly dodging one of the fluorescent green pipes, the bird fell to the floor with a low crashing sound. I cursed at the unknown number that had popped up on my screen and ruined my buzz, the trill of the ringtone making me jump in the unorthodox silence.
Maybe Jeremy's phone had died and he had borrowed his friends to apologize for his tardiness? I pondered the possibilities for a second before answering curiously.
"Hello?" I said into the receiver. My voice was filled with condemnation and an airy drowsiness. After all, I'd been engaged with studying, assignments and labouring away at my bedroom all day long. Not to mention the pesky nuisance that was Flappy Bird.
"Why weren't you in school today?"
I sighed. Of course, Damon gets straight to the point.
I dodge his question with one of my own, "How did you get my digits?"
I was convinced that I had not given him my number, so how in the world had he acquired it? My thoughts immediately drifted to that of Caroline and how she'd bent over backwards just to get me to speak with him…
I heard the frustrated intake of breath before he replied sourly, "I got it from your resume. Now, are you going to answer my question or are you going to continue to blatantly ignore me?"
"I'm not ignoring you." I scoffed.
"Elena…" He spoke condescendingly. I could almost imagine him rubbing his hand down his face in exasperation and my girly parts quivered in delight at the imagery and the way his tongue caressed my name as he spoke. My thoughts drifted to that of Damon and the blissful dream in which he'd starred in, yet again.
"Fine," I breathed in defeat, "my car wouldn't start this morning, so I had to get it towed and fill out forms and stuff. I didn't know when or if the towing company would show, so I was forced to bunk off of school to loiter about for them. "
He didn't say anything for a handful of seconds, and just when I suspected that he had hung up on me, he added, "Where are you?" He sounded thoughtful and relieved, like he had expected me to have ditched school in spite of him.
It suddenly dawned on me what he'd said just moments ago. I must have blanked out or something with all of the questions he'd been firing left, right and centre at me. Had he really gone through all of the trouble of driving to the Grill to get my resume, just so that he could call me?
Wow.
"I-I'm at the repair shop." I muttered dumbly.
"You've been there all day?!" He blanched, appalled.
Damn, he was so domineering. It was sort of annoying, but a complete turn on at the same time.
"No," I said cynically, rolling my eyes skyward, "I got here around two hours ago, but Jeremy was supposed to pick me up nearly an hour ago."
"And he hasn't showed." It wasn't a question; it was more of a statement.
"Nope."
"I'll be there in five."
"Damon, I-"
And then he cut me off.
Sure enough, six minutes later Damon's blue Camaro screeched to a halt outside the repair shop. The brilliant sun was shining down on me and my eyes were closed against its piercing rays. I'd shimmied down my coral top, exposing both of my shoulders to its rays in hopes of catching a natural tan. I winced at the harsh noise that broke my reverie, and sighed with my back pressed against the brick wall of the building and my leg propped up behind me.
Squinting my eyes in the direction of Damon's car and cupping my hands over them to better see him, I propelled myself off of the wall and made my way over to him.
The roof of the convertible was down today and as I neared him, I voiced my faux irritation at him, "You're late."
"By a minute."
I shrugged indifferently, "Late is late."
He glared at me for a moment, before sighing and effectively concaving to my stubbornness.
"Fine," He complied, "Now get your goddamn ass in the car, Elena."
I was officially having fun teasing him, now.
I'd had a stressful and mediocre day so far, and I needed some form of recreational fun. That fun came in the form of Damon.
I folded my arms across my chest defiantly once I reached his Camaro, "Goddamn ass?" I smirked, "I could have sworn you said I had a cute ass." I winked for affect as I fiddled with a piece of my hair absentmindedly.
He was seething.
I was turned on.
"Just get in the car." He sighed.
I snorted.
Very unladylike, Elena, I chastised myself.
"Or what?" I challenged him, raising my eyebrows. At my words, his head lolled back onto the headrest and he closed his eyes in annoyance. I sort of felt bad for teasing him in that moment, but all thoughts were swept away when I regrettably added, "You gonna make me?" I was smirking as I rhetorically asked him this in a sickly sweet voice, rolling on the balls of my feet as I did, but my smile faltered when he froze for a moment.
His head flopped forward and he was staring at me now with his signature smirk intact, his eyes were slanted and all sorts of sexy. He shot me another mischievous smirk and then he was strolling casually towards me with a sense of purpose. His car door slammed with a resounding thump, making me jump in fright. Suddenly, I didn't feel too bold anymore. In fact, I felt quite the opposite.
As he neared me, scuffing the heel of his black boots on the stony tarmac as he did, I registered myself taking a step back. My eyes darted everywhere in fright as he neared me before settling on his penetrating, blue eyes. Every deliberate step he took, I matched with two automatic strides backwards.
I was heaving and my eyes were wide, and his breaths were shallow, his eyes calculating my every move.
I only made it a few more steps before I was suddenly airborne. His arms snaked around my hips and held me tightly against him. All of the air left my lungs as his shoulder collided with my chest, and I found myself tossed over said shoulder, my top slipping up my back to expose the fastening of my bra. His hand slithered down from my hips, sensually tracing the pattern of my bones and skin before his fingers found purchase of the inner part of my thigh, directly below my heated core. I had to bite my lip to refrain from groaning aloud. Especially when his fingers began tracing small, smoothing circles there, too. Although, they were far from soothing.
"Damon, put me down." I groaned, resigned. Hopefully, he thought that my groaning was of annoyance rather than pleasure. I wasn't going to be one of those awfully cliché girls who thrashed and screamed profanities, when in reality they were most likely enjoying the view.
I sure as hell was. Damon had a mighty fine ass and I sure as hell wasn't afraid to ogle it since he couldn't see me.
"Not a chance in hell, darling." He sniggered. And then he spanked my ass with the hand that wasn't already drawing delicious patterns into my skin.
He fucking spanked me!
I squealed in surprise, but then I was sitting upright in the upholstery seat of his car with a permanent scowl etched onto my face.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" He grinned.
I couldn't string together a coherent sentence.
The only thing that was hard was you smacking my goddamn ass!
This only succeeded in reminding me of a few minutes ago when he'd said the exact same phrase "goddamn ass".
How ironic, I mused lamely.
Once he was buckled in besides me, I muttered a "dick" under my breath before turning my body to face out the window, ensuring firstly that he'd heard me.
He chuckled at my response to his assault on me and I referred to ignoring him for the remainder of the journey.
To no avail, of course.
"Sorry to interrupt your possibly murderous daydreams of me, princess, but," He began, casting me a sidelong glance, "I don't have a clue where you live."
"Didn't you look it up on my resume?" I spat, referring to his invasion of my privacy earlier on. He didn't answer and so I begrudgingly gave him the directions to my house before averting my gaze to the window once more to distract myself from my wandering thoughts of Damon, although they were far from murderous…
My ass hurts…
"How was your day?" Damon muttered awkwardly over the deafening silence, sighing when I ignored his attempts at casual chit-chat.
My eyes caught sight of the clear bottle of water protruding from the small storage compartment in Damon's car door. A trickle of condensation rolled down the surface of it and I couldn't refrain from asking any longer. "Do you mind?" I asked pensively, gesturing towards the enticing refreshment.
"Be my guest." He replied politely. If only the receptionist at the garage had been as obliging.
Leaning over his legs and under his arms that were clutching the steering wheel tighter and tighter by the second, I shimmied closer around my seatbelt, straining against its confines. My hand accidently on purpose brushed the inner part of his thigh and he inhaled audibly in response. His lips were so close to my ear…
Revenge is a bitch!
He leant forward, as if about to brush his lips to my earlobe, but he must have thought twice about it as he quickly readjusted himself and settled back into his seat. My hands finally gained purchase of the water bottle, and after disentangling myself from him I took a healthy swig before clutching the bottle against my heaving chest.
"So," He tried again a few minutes after his first attempt at chatting with me, "I spoke with Giuseppe."
My head immediately snapped to his and my eyes widened in surprise.
"And?" I urged, still squishing the now crushed bottle against my chest.
"Ah, so you've decided that I'm worth listening to now. Although, I am quite offended it was due to the mention of my father." He turned his head towards me for a fraction of a second with a lopsided grin on his face, punctuated with a darn cheeky wink.
"Eyes on the road, Salvatore."
He grinned at my playful behaviour and continued, after focusing his attention back on the road, of course, "He wants me to congratulate you on getting the job," He clarified, his eyes not wavering from the uneven highway ahead of him, "So, congratulations. You'll be starting Monday, and I've obviously confirmed this with Giuseppe –he's quite smitten that you're aboard his members of staff. Arrive at around 5-ish and we'll sort everything out. "
Monday.
I'd officially be working for Giuseppe Salvatore by Monday. Granted, it was currently a Friday, but that gave me time to prepare.
Throughout the entire exchange –which had only lasted several minutes- Damon was nothing less than civilised. He'd been polite and congratulatory, but he'd also been business-savvy and somewhat formal, as if I was just some colleague, which technically I was, but still. It had annoyed me to no end. I could suddenly relate to Damon's intensely annoyed attitude that he'd maintained due to my formality during the interview that he'd administrated.
Was he trying to infuriate me as I'd not-so-subconsciously him?
As I ascended the steps to the wrap-around porch that surrounded our cosy home, I didn't once turn back to fix Damon with a wave. Of course, I'd thanked him for his generosity, but I barely knew the guy. Besides, it would just be awkward anyways, since I highly doubted he'd return the farewell gesture.
I inserted the key into the door and it flung open with a small click. I hung up my jacket on the end of the banister, and just as I turned to close the door I saw Damon speeding back down the street. He honked jeeringly thrice before disappearing out of my view.
When Jeremy finally returned home from school that evening, I was scanning the refrigerator for something to eat.
The faint sound of the door clicking into place, the resounding thwack of his bag hitting the wooden floor, and the echoing of his heavy footfalls leading to the kitchen signalled his arrival.
"Sorry," was all he said as I pondered on what he'd prefer for tea.
Decisions, decisions.
"I was held up at school," He continued, "Some punk wouldn't admit to leaving the teacher a very… provocative note. He made us stay behind until someone owned up to it. Nobody did, so I admitted to it."
I spun on my heel at his words, my mouth agape and my hands ensnared around my hips in shock, "You did what?"
On the defensive, Jeremy threw his hands up in an effort to calm me down, "It wasn't even me, Elena. Just think of it as an offering, so that everyone else didn't have to suffer the hour's detention he landed me with."
I shook my head, sighing, "How do you always get yourself into these situations, Jer?"
"I don't know, 'Lena. But I am truly sorry for deserting you. If it's any consolation, Tyler bunked on me after I got out of detention, so I had to walk home."
I suddenly felt sorry for my outburst directed at him, and so I walked the couple of steps towards him and wrapped my arms around his neck. He may have been younger than me, but he was leering above me, so I had to reach up on my tippy-toes to encircle him in my arms.
"It's okay," I mumbled into the crook of his neck, "I got a lift off of a… friend."
In mock horror, he placed his hand over the place where his heart was located in his chest and feigned a gasp, "Elena Gilbert having friends, well I never."
Playfully, I slapped his shoulder and he reeled back a step before laughing carelessly, "How about we go catch up over some ice-cream?"
I grinned up at him. He seemed happy, for once, and I was all for soaking up as much happy moments as I could with Jeremy these days. "I'd love to."
A/N- *squeals exuberantly* Am I the only one counting down the days until Friday (since I'm in the UK) for Vampire Diaries? I was hooked from the start, especially with the TWO cliff-hangers in episode 1 and then Damon's little dancing session in episode 2! I'm also anticipating the imminent return of the Originals episode 2 *le sigh*. Anyways, this was sort of a filler chapter, although we did progress further into their relationship what with Damon knowing her digits and where she lives, etc. Thanks to Charlliess for prompting me to update quicker for you guys and conjuring the image of Ian Somerhalder cast as Christian Grey *shivers*. Thank you ALL so much for your kind words of wisdom! Until next time…
