Author's Note: You guys are quickly catching up on all I've written so far. Two more chapters till you'll have to start waiting on updates, but I have to get focused on finishing the book and I've been feeling some Carpal Tunnel twinges so I forced myself to take last night off. At any rate, hope you enjoy the update. Thanks as always to MissSherrie, Elohcin, and my WC friends for their support and advice.

Chapter 8

I'm not sure when I fell asleep, but I woke up as the sun began shining brightly through my unshaded window. I lifted my hand to shield my eyes before looking around the room in confusion. I was pretty sure I fell asleep grading, since I didn't remember putting my papers away or climbing under the covers, yet that's where I was, no sign of my papers anywhere.

I sat up and blinked around the room, freezing when my eyes landed on Damon's form, head propped back on the top of the loveseat in his slumber, mouth wide open. He'd stayed all night and I'd fallen asleep on him. I felt horrible.

I got up and began to tiptoe to the end of my bed to find my papers piled neatly in front of him, all graded with a blocky script that appeared very masculine. My heart melted as I realized he'd tucked me in and finished grading my papers for me. I looked up from the stack to see him staring at me with hazy blue eyes.

"You graded my papers for me?"

He shrugged. "I kept you busy too late with dinner and the tour, and when you fell asleep while grading, I figured the least I could do was finish it up for you. I'd forgotten how plebian secondary school essays can be. That was painful."

I chuckled picking up the Freshman level essay questions from Act 5 of Romeo and Juliet. I scanned his comments and his apparent standards for grading and they seemed resonable. I still planned to skim the rest before handing them back just to make sure he was completely fair. I set down the paper with a smile and moved to lean down, kissing his cheek sweetly.

"Thank you…thank you for grading and for sticking around last night. After that little encounter with Katherine, I was feeling a little on edge."

He smiled knowingly before standing and stretching. "I'd figured something like that. It's fine. I have all day to sleep while you're slaving away at the school. Speaking of, I'm going to go pass out while you get ready. See you back here after?"

I smiled and nodded but turned away, giving him my cheek as he leaned down to kiss me. He paused and gave me the raised eyebrow to which I responded behind my hand, "morning breath."

He rolled his eyes and yanked my hand away before planting his lips firmly on mine. I only remained tense a second before I finally relaxed, enjoying how his hands rubbed slowly up and down my back. He rested his head against mine reminding me in a whisper to have a good day before leaving me alone to clean up and get dressed for the day.

I got ready in short order and had everything ready to go, leaving the house a full twenty minutes early, only to open the door and find myself face to face with Katherine. She sneered at me with her arms propped on her hips. "It's only an infatuation. It will pass soon enough. When he realizes he can have me again, he'll be crawling on his hands and knees for me to take him back. Just you watch."

I rolled my eyes as I moved past her, closing the door behind me. "If you're what he really wanted, then I wouldn't stand in his way, but I get the sneaking suspicion that he has your number now. I doubt he'd be as easy to lure back as you think."

She dropped her arms and made her face innocent and sweet. "Even if I was Elena?" She cocked her head in an innocent look at her feet, doing an impressive impression of my niece. "Because I suspect that if Elena decided that her heart lies with Damon instead of Stefan, he'd have no problem following his heart."

I scoffed and licked my lips. "You're good, but you're not that good. If he wants me, he'll choose me. If he doesn't then he'll choose you. There's not a whole lot I can do about it, but I have faith that there's a lot more to Damon than you realize and that he's done a lot of growing up in the last century and a half. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a reason to get up in the morning as a productive member of society. See you after school."

I could feel her beady eyes burning a hole in my back as I walked away, so I palmed my stake just as a precaution, but thankfully, she didn't bother me further. I walked out the front door and down to my car, waiting for me under the portico. I smiled as I climbed behind the wheel and started it before going off to another day of school.

Apparently my mood swing from the morning before to today was giving my students whiplash as the Freshmen sat quietly in their seats with the eyes of deer in headlights, waiting for me to go back to the uberbitch. As a reward for everyone getting their assignments done, I gave them class time to read the next portion for study to themselves and answer the study questions while I looked over their essays. I then set aside the last twenty minutes of class to go over the answers in hopes of preparing them for the pop quiz I had planned for the next day.

I was equally as nice to my upper level classes, giving them their midterm essay assignments and allotting them over half the class time to outline and prepare while they had me at their disposal to ask for suggestions. They were a good portion of their grade and I wanted to make sure to set them up for success.

I was still working on grading the last of the Freshman essays when my phone vibrated halfway through class. I flipped it open under my desk when I saw the message was from Damon, fighting hard not to laugh as I read the frantic message in all caps.

JUST WOKE UP TO FIND KATHERINE HALF NAKED IN MY BED TRYING TO PRETEND TO BE ELENA. I KICKED HER ASS OUT BUT NOT BEFORE SHE MENTIONED YOU CHALLENGING HER. WHAT THE F IS UP, BEK?

I glanced up to see if anyone was paying attention before typing back a quick reply, promising to call during lunch, only to smile wider when he replied that he'd just come see me during lunch, and asked what I wanted him to bring me.

I responded and thanked him before doing a little happy dance with my feet under my desk before rolling my eyes at myself. I glanced up to see several students giving me funny looks and Stefan smiling at me like I just told him he won the lottery. I winked at him before looking back down at my essays.

Stefan came up to my desk under the guise of asking me a question just before class ended. His Cheshire cat-like smile made me blush.

"So what's got you so happy today?"

I smirked at him before telling him it was a long story I'd share later, but I had something he needed to see. I slipped him my phone with the string of texts between Damon and myself that morning showing. I watched his eyes grow wide before his face started going red, is lips fighting to keep the laugh bubbling within him from coming out.

"What challenge?" he finally whispered when he had himself under control. I told him the story of my morning confrontation with Katherine which left him chuckling and shaking his head.

"You know sometimes I'm not entirely sure what we ever saw in her."

I smiled knowingly. "She was a girl who put out in 1864. I think that would sum it up, but if you needed more, she was and is a pathological liar with a flair for the sociopathic. I'm guessing it wasn't too hard to convince you of whatever she wanted. You weren't the first or the last, I'm sure."

He sighed and nodded his agreement just as the bell rang. The class emptied, leaving only Stefan to gather his things when Damon appeared with a bright smile and a bag of take out. Stefan looked up at him and smiled again before turning to wink at me before disappearing into the hallway.

Damon sauntered up, sitting the food on my desk before moving to stand in front of me, tipping my face up for a kiss. "You seem to be in a much, much better mood today, Miss Gilbert. Pray tell, what brought on this mood swing?"

I smirked at him, moving a hand up his coat covered bicep. "I couldn't tell you, Mr. Salvatore, I assure you."

He narrowed his eyes at me before another smile broke out across his face. "Should we eat before you tell me what the hell possessed you to challenge Katherine to seduce me?"

I nodded, reaching for the bag and pulling out the long sub sandwich handing it to Damon before reaching in again to get my own and sitting on the edge of the desk next to him. "Well, first off, I didn't really challenge her. She appeared at my door this morning when I was leaving for work telling me about how you were just infatuated with me and when it passed you'd come crawling back to her. So I told her that if that was what you truly wanted I wouldn't stop you, but I thought you saw her for what she really was and weren't fooled by her anymore. Then she put on her Elena act and asked if that would still be true even if she were Elena. I told her you'd never fall for it and I had faith in you. I guess she accepted it as a challenge. Sorry."

I looked over to see him staring down at me, that softness was in his eyes again before it morphed into dancing amusement. "Don't be sorry, that's actually hilarious. I can't believe she tried it. Uh…thanks, by the way."

I took a bite as he said it so instead of speaking I lifted my eyebrow in question. He looked at me, his cheeks pinking up slightly. "For having faith in me."

I nodded before resting my head against his arm and taking another bite. Far too quickly, lunch ended and Damon had to leave, but I promised to get home as soon as I could. He kissed me just as the bell rang before disappearing before my first student entered. Not surprising, my afternoon was even better than my morning had been.

After work, I spent the evening hanging out with Damon, Elena, and Stefan. Thankfully, Katherine was nowhere to be found. Damon even helped me grade what was left of my papers while Stefan and Elena did homework. That night, Damon camped out on the love seat again. I really wanted to tell him he didn't have to stay there and could share the bed with me, but every time I opened my mouth to say it, I chickened out.

The next week was more or less the same as the one before. Matter of fact, life in general seemed to have evened out in a nice little calm before the storm and I decided I was going to savor it.

The following Friday brought with it midterms and a teacher's social at the Grill after work. As I'd pretty much let my life revolve around work and Damon, I decided it was a nice idea to go along. There was one thing I hadn't counted on though…Jenna.

As a guest of Rick, who had more or less avoided me after our run in the day Damon moved me into his house, she cornered me within ten minutes of walking in the front doors.

"What is going on with you, Bekah? I haven't seen you at all since you've been here, and Rick told me you MOVED IN with Damon Salvatore? What in the world?"

I cringed at the disdain in her voice. I knew she didn't know and would never understand, and so things looked even worse than they were, and I had no clue how to reply.

"It's a lot more complicated than that, Jenna. It's hard to explain."

She rolled her eyes. "How complicated can the fact that you moved in with a man be? You just met him!"

People were starting to stare, some listening in with big noses and bigger mouths. Grabbing Jenna by the arm, I tugged her into a quiet corner.

"It's not really like that, Jenna. I'm not sharing a room with him or anything. I have my own room down the hall from his and we haven't even shared a bed…I swear. He just didn't like the place I was staying in, so he talked me into renting a room from him and Stefan. WAY nicer place for the same rent I was paying my landlord for 1/3 of the square footage I have in the bedroom of the Salvatore house alone, so I took him up on it."

Okay, so it was a lie, but I had to tell her something more plausible than 'I'm a half-breed vampire and he thought I would be safer with my own kind, sharing a house with three vampires and on more occasion than I care to think about, my niece.' Yeah, that would have gone over about as well as a lead balloon.

"Well, Rick said that the two of you seemed awful cozy, and more than friends."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "We've been on a date and kissed, okay? I'll admit that much. Is that such a crime?"

"When he's a playboy, yes. I mean, you don't know anything about him. Just five seconds ago, he was dating my friend Andie, and then all of a sudden he dumps her out of the blue at the beginning of last week and is dating you. It just reeks of player and you haven't been back long enough to know that yet. He's handsome, but he's far more the type of guy I usually fall for instead of you. You were always too observant to fall for their tricks. You saw right through the bullshit to the asshole underneath. So I have to think that your radar must be broken this time, because Damon Salvatore is BAD news!"

I nibbled my bottom lip as I listened, not really hearing the rest after the part where he had a girlfriend until sometime last week. I felt a pang of guilt in my stomach. Did he dump this poor girl for me? Was she the last infatuation he had before he moved on? Katherine's taunt echoed in my mind. I had dismissed her right away, but something niggled deep inside me, making me question if she hadn't been all wrong.

"I…I didn't know he had been seeing anyone. Nobody mentioned a thing about it to me…even Elena. Is she heartbroken?"

Jenna frowned into her cup, turning it in her palms. "Not at all actually, but I know she must just be hiding it, because she was crazy about him. They spent a lot of time together and even threw a dinner party at his house a few weeks back when that historical author, Elijah Smith, was in town. She seemed head over heels and I suddenly didn't feel so bad about introducing them when she begged me to do it, and then it was just over without any warning and she's fine with it. It just…doesn't compute."

I stiffened when she mentioned Elijah Smith, knowing he was the same Elijah I knew and hated. I tried to ignore it for now and deal with the issue at hand. "That is odd, but if she doesn't seem upset about it…"

"You don't understand, Bek. It's almost as if she forgot she loved him in the first place, like they were just friends or something."

Her phone began buzzing and she asked me to wait while she checked it. She lifted it almost in triumph. "What do you know, she texted to say she was here. Come on. I want you to meet her."

I followed Jenna in a daze as she led me through the crowd to a gorgeous woman with long brown hair. She was almost model-like in her perfection and I felt my stomach turn. If this had been Damon's last girlfriend and he'd tired of her…what would keep him from tiring of me?

I watched as Jenna greeted the beauty and introduced her to me before explaining I was Damon's new girlfriend. I saw the intelligence in her eyes glaze as her responses changed, feeling less like the girl I'd just met and more like an automated response.

"We had a nice time together, but honestly, I always knew it was just casual. I have bigger dreams than Mystic Falls and I have a feeling he's not one to enjoy the big city where I hope to end up some day. It was just as well we ended now."

Jenna shook her head. "Andie, it was just three weeks ago you were talking about soul mates and how pretty your babies would be. How could you change your mind so completely in such a short time?"

Confusion flooded her face before the cloud came back and she shrugged. "That's life I guess. We live, we love, we move on."

Cue my heart freezing mid-beat. I moved my hand to rub over the icy hole there. If I didn't already suspect Damon had used compulsion on her, that phrase confirmed it, as Damon had said those exact same words to me just a couple of nights before when talking about how he would never love Katherine again knowing now what he didn't know then.

I looked around the room before looking back to Jenna and Andie. "I'm sorry to be rude, but I gave some major assignments to my students this week and have a foot high pile of mid-term essays to grade. I really need to get home and get started or I'm never going to get them done. I'm glad we got to catch up, Jenna. Give me a call on my cell and we'll have supper sometime soon."

She looked at me sadly before nodding. I pushed my way through the busy room toward the door only to come face to chest with Damon. I looked up at him to find him smiling down at me, but at that point, I was too angry to return it. Instead, I grabbed his arm and tugged him with me through the front door into the now dark street beyond.

"How could you?" I seethed at him, standing toe to toe with him and glaring up at his confused face.

"What did I do? I just got here."

I sucked my teeth before planting my hands on my hips. "I have two words for you…Andie. Star."

He curled up one side of his lip and crinkled his brow down at me in the classic 'what are you getting at crazy woman' look of his before dragging out a long, "Sooooo?"

"So, YOU were dating her until you met me and then you compelled her to fall out of love with you, as if nothing ever happened between you. That poor girl, how could you Damon? That's just wrong on so many levels."

Damon stiffened in front of me, his hands balling at his side.

"Oh and now you're getting mad at me for calling you out on pulling shit like that? Please! I knew you were an asshole, but come on!"

"That is the past, Bekah. That was before you, so how can you get angry about something that doesn't concern you?"

My eyes bugged as I stared up at him. "Was before me? Doesn't concern me? Damon this happened all of five seconds ago. You broke things off with her two days after you met me. How can you say this doesn't concern me? Did you break up with that girl just so you could pursue me? God, am I some kind of homewrecker?"

Damon rolled his eyes before tugging me further away from the Grill. "You can't wreck a home when there was no home to being with. It was casual…just sex to let off some steam. It was never going to be a happily ever after, and she knew that."

"Oh she did, did she? Then why was she spouting happy little scenarios to Jenna about soul mates and babies with Salvatore eyes and raven hair, Damon? That doesn't sound like she believed it was casual to me at all."

His eyes narrowed and his jaw flexed as he leaned in closer, his nostrils flaring to match the flames in his eyes. "What do you want me to do about it, Bekah? Did I compel her to care about me so I could enjoy her body? Yes, yes, I did. And when I realized that you were someone I'd rather spend my time with, did I compel her to move on and enjoy her life without feeling sad about ending our little arrangement? Yes, I did. It may not have been the nicest thing in the world to do, but I've told you before, I'm not a nice guy. I'm trying, but I don't always succeed. If you can't handle that, then you should cut your losses and rid yourself of me now, because I can guarantee you that I'm not going to be perfect."

With that he turned, stalking off into the night, leaving me alone in the dark street only about ten feet from my car. I sighed, hugging my waist and feeling very conflicted. I was still angry, but could I blame him for something he did before he was with me? Even if it was wrong?