Chapter 13

One week later, Damon watched Elena laugh and talk with some guy at what felt like his billionth book signing. There had been a rush in the early afternoon, but now it was quiet enough for him to be able to observe her. She wasn't the same woman he'd watched at Ric's bar and Grill six or so weeks ago. When she'd approached her target back then, she'd literally repelled him with her lack of confidence. Now, she'd shaken off all of her nerves, and she was attracting men to her like bees to a honey pot. He would probably be proud of her, if it wasn't for the knot that lodged itself in his gut every single time a guy talked to her, or looked at her. Yesterday he'd almost broken some guys arm when he touched her.

He should be walking on sunshine; he should be happy. He had Elena in his bed every night, and not only was she more than willing to be there, but she was as insatiable as he was, telling him she wanted to learn as much from him as possible. The limit they'd put on their fling made them both desperate to kill the thing between them once and for all. He wanted to make the most of every moment with his publicist, but at the back of his mind he was always counting down the nights before they had to fly back to Mystic Falls.

When they returned home, he still had Katherine to deal with. Katherine had left New York the day after he'd overheard her conversation. He should have told Elena about that conversation days ago, however, he tended to get distracted when they were together.

"Damon Salvatore; no way."

Damon's head snapped around, when he heard the familiar voice from his past. "Alice Westwich. What are you doing here in Boston? Are you still stalking me?"

The brunette curled her lip unattractively. "You still think you're God's gift to women, I see."

"Have you read my book?"

"The only thing I'd use your book for is toilet paper."

Damon chuckled. "You're not the first woman to say that."

"I'm sure I won't be the last either."

"How's Lucy?" he asked her, suddenly serious.

"Is this you pretending to care, or do you actually want to know the answer?"

"I want to know the answer."

"She was a mess when you left."

Damon wondered how the guilt of how he'd treated one person eleven or so years ago, could stay as sharp as ever over the years.

"And now?" he asked her.

"She needed counseling for a little while, but she's back to her old self. She's been engaged for the last three years, and they finally set the date last week."

"That's great news," Damon said to her, genuinely pleased to hear that Lucy was happy.

"Feel better now?" Alice asked him.

"It doesn't change what happened; how I acted."

"I won't argue with that. I suppose I've eased your guilty conscience now. I take that back. A man like you doesn't feel guilt, does he?"

"You wound me, Alice."

"I'm sure," she said, giving him a smile. "What about you, you seeing anyone?"

Damon paused when he realized he'd been about to say yes. He wasn't seeing Elena, not like that.

"I'm steering clear of relationships these days," he said to her.

"That's in the best interests of women everywhere," she said to him.

"You're right," he returned. "So, what brings you into this bookstore, if it's not me?"

"Actually, it is you," she admitted, only looking slightly ashamed. "I was curious to see if you'd turned into some balding, fat guy. Imagine my disappointment."

Damon smirked when she handed over one of his books for her to sign. "This isn't going to be used for toilet paper, is it?" he asked her.

Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "You'll never know."

Elena was in a great mood when she finished talking to Ben. The store clerk had been hitting on her all afternoon. It was amazing just how much difference her arrangement with Damon was making to how she felt about herself. She'd always been confident at work, but the confidence she was gaining both in the bedroom and on a personal level was seeping into all other areas of her life. She felt happier than she had in a very long time. Everything looked brighter and smelt better, and Elena knew she owed that to the man she'd been sharing her bed with for the past couple of weeks. She walked back to where he was seated, to find him chatting away with a brunette.

"Say hi to Lucy, for me," Damon told the brunette.

"Mind if I don't? You screwed her up real good, Salvatore."

"Yeah. That was a stupid idea. It was good to see you anyway, Alice."

The woman named Alice gave Damon a look which said she doubted his sincerity, before giving him a little wave.

"Old friend?" Elena asked him casually, when he turned around and saw her standing there.

"Friend of an ex-girlfriend," he told her.

Damon hoped she wouldn't ask him any more questions. He had no idea how long she'd been standing there for, or what she'd heard, but he had no desire to rehash what he did to Lucy. Elena knew he was bad, and that was enough for him; he didn't need her to discover just how bad he had been to the first nice girl he'd tried to have a relationship with. He was playing at being the good guy with Elena, but it didn't erase the way he'd acted in his past; it didn't erase who he was.

Elena sighed inwardly, when she noticed Damon wearing the same expression he had when she'd asked him about his writer's block. It was the 'I don't want to talk about it look.' She knew better than to try and get him to open up. If she felt slightly hurt by his refusal to share with her, or disappointed that she wouldn't find out about this girl named Lucy, she tried not to show it.

"Ready to go?" she asked him.

He nodded. The book store was only five minutes walk from the hotel, so they started to walk back together. After two minutes of silence, in which Damon seemed completely absent, she put her hand on his arm. He turned to look at her.

"Is everything okay?" she asked him.

"I need to talk to you about something," he said to her in a tone she'd never heard him use before.

"Okay," she said to him.

She waited for him to start a conversation, but he said nothing further. By the time they got back to the hotel, Elena's curiosity was getting the better of her. She walked back to her room, and changed her clothes, before she made her way to his room.

"Dinner," he said to her, once he'd let her in. "We should eat."

"Room Service?" she asked him, feeling quite nervous suddenly.

Damon knew once he touched Elena, they would end up in bed. He didn't want to talk about Katherine while they were in bed together.

"As tempting as that is, I think we should go out," he said to her. Maybe the outing would distract him from thinking about Alice and Lucy too.

"Oh."

They had spent every non-working hour together within the confines of their hotel rooms, and now he wanted to go out. Elena couldn't work out if this was good or not.

"Should I change again?" she asked him.

"You're fine. Let's go."

They walked out of the hotel and along the main street, until they found a restaurant that looked close to empty. As they were seated at the table Elena couldn't help thinking this felt a bit like a date. She wondered what it would be like if they were to actually date when they got home; what it would be like if they kept their affair going.

"You wanted to talk to me," she reminded him, after they'd ordered.

"Have you ever thought about quitting your job?" he asked her.

Elena looked at him. He was serious. Had he been thinking along the same lines as she was? Did he want to keep things going when they got back to Mystic Falls? A thrill of excitement ran through her at the thought.

"Why?" she asked him.

"I think Katherine is working with someone to get you fired."

"Oh."

It wasn't until Damon said those words that Elena realized she had been holding her breath. Had she really believed he was going to ask her to quit her job so they could keep doing this? Feeling more than a little stupid, she told herself she wouldn't have considered it anyway; that she'd never leave her job to be with him. Katherine was working with someone else. Wait. What?

"Did you hear me, Elena?"

"Katherine is working with someone?"

"You remember that day I came to see you, when I thought you were sick?"

She nodded, and Damon told her what he'd heard that night. "I was going to say something straight away, but I wanted to find out more first. Unfortunately, you're the best person to help me find out who Katherine is working with."

"You're sure?"

"I realize this must be a shock, but…you need to need to be careful when you get home."

"I need to be careful," she repeated. "You're not the first person to tell me that."

"What are you talking about?"

"Rose. The woman I told you about, who was fired a few weeks ago; I saw her in the coffee shop near work the week before the tour started, and she told me to be careful."

"You didn't think that was strange at the time?"

"I did; especially since she was meeting with two other girls who had also lost their jobs for sleeping with their clients."

"Do you have any idea who was behind it?"

"I just assumed it was Katherine, but…obviously she's not working alone."

"I checked Katherine's phone as soon as soon as I had the chance. I found the call information."

"What did you find out?"

"It just showed up as a call from Elijah's phone."

"Elijah?"

"It could be someone using his phone."

"I suppose."

"Elena, why would your boss try to set this up? It doesn't make sense. It has to be someone else."

"I know it doesn't make sense," she said to him. "None of this makes sense."

Damon was relieved to finally hear some anger in her voice. When he'd told her that Katherine was working with someone, he'd expected a volcano erupting, not the quiet confusion, and a few questions.

"I don't deserve this," she told him. "I work hard, Damon. I have been nothing but a model employee since I started working at Mystic Falls PR. Every account I've had, I've worked my ass off for. There is nothing I wouldn't do for my clients."

Damon thought it was a testament to how truly pissed she was that she didn't even see how funny that last comment was. He chose not to interrupt her flow of steam; it seemed like she was just getting started.

"You know what I get? Elijah breathing down my throat, after I had one bad day. One bad day! And Katherine sent out to check up on me. I have never made a mistake before, and I didn't deserve that. And Katherine – she's always there. She takes every opportunity to demean me, belittle me, and make my life miserable."

She stopped suddenly, as if just realizing who she was talking to. "I'm sorry," she said to him. "I'm venting. This isn't appropriate."

"You need to, Elena. It's healthy."

"I shouldn't be talking to you…about this."

He reached across the table and took her hand in his. "I want you to. You can talk to me."

"Katherine is your girlfriend, and you're a client of the firm…"

"Elena." He waited until she was quietly looking at him. "I want to help. Let me help."

"Why? Why do you want to help? I don't understand, Damon. Why are you doing any of this?"

"I care about you," he said to her. "Do I need another reason?"

"You and Katherine…"

"Are over."

"You broke up with her?"

"Not officially, but it's over. I was using her. She was using me. It wasn't a real relationship."

"This isn't a real relationship either," she said to him.

"No," he returned. "It's not. I don't do relationships."

"Is that because of Lucy?" she asked him.

The question slipped out before Elena could stop it. She'd had no intention of asking him, but they were talking about relationships, and she'd said the other woman's name before she could think better of it.

"I know I don't have the right to ask, but I overheard the end of your conversation."

Damon sat back in the chair and looked at her. He deliberated for a moment before he spoke again. "There have been many things in my past that I'm not proud of. The way I treated her is the thing I'm probably most ashamed of. She's the only girl I ever tried to have a relationship with, and I messed it up big time. I messed her up big time."

"You'd never try a relationship again then?" she asked him.

The tension in the air between them suddenly felt far too thick to breathe in, and Damon was feeling hot; his palms were sweating, and he actually felt faint. He reached for his water glass, and downed the contents, before refilling it. She didn't understand.

"I'm not good relationship material. I told you that from the start."

"You did, and I don't expect any more from you."

Damon was totally confused right now. "You don't?"

"No."

Elena knew Damon Salvatore didn't do relationships, but she had just needed to hear him say it again. The past couple of weeks, bar Katherine's appearance, had been amazing. She'd wondered if all the great sex and late night conversations they were having had changed his mind. They shared a connection. She knew it was crazy to think he might change his whole stance on relationships for her, but she'd realized tonight that she had been holding onto a sliver of hope that he would. Now that sliver was gone, and she could continue this with a clear head. When the tour was over they would both walk away; she wouldn't let hope slip in again.

Damon was now eyeing her now with such a wary expression on his face that she laughed. "Sorry," she said to him, when he glared at her.

"What is so funny?" he all but growled at her.

"You look so scared."

"Scared?"

Damon wasn't scared; he was completely freaking out right now. One moment they had been talking about her job, and the next she was asking him about a relationship. Talking about that stuff would normally make him run for the hills without breaking a sweat, but with Elena he'd just about had a panic attack. Why? She mattered. He cared about her more than he'd cared about anyone in a very long time. That was exactly why he couldn't enter into a relationship with her. Even now Katherine's words were playing over in his head.

"We're dangerous to those we love, and we destroy those that love us."

That, combined with the seeing Alice today, told him a relationship was a bad idea. While the idea of a relationship with Elena appealed to him, he couldn't repeat his mistakes. He wouldn't let history repeat itself.

"You're not upset?" he asked her.

"I'm not upset. I knew what this was; what this is," she told him quietly.

"Then why did you ask if I'd ever try a relationship again?"

"Because I needed to hear you say it. The last week has been…"

"Incredible," he finished for her softly.

"Yes," she said to him, "and it would be easy to believe that what we're doing is more than sex. Hearing you say it again just helped me remember that there is nothing more between us."

There was a lot more between them, Damon wanted to tell her, but what would be the point in that? Nothing would ever come of it.

"So, what are you going to do about work?" he asked her, changing the subject back to her job.

"I…I don't know. I could look for a new job I suppose. They haven't fired me, and I'm entitled to my references."

"But?"

"But then I'm starting out at the bottom again, or close enough to, trying to work my way up, and I miss out on my promotion."

"Maybe we need to focus less on who is trying to get you fired, and focus on why," Damon said to her.

"The why probably goes along with the who."

"So let's start with Rose. If she warned you to be careful, then she must know something."

"That's a good point," she said to him.

"Didn't you think it was suspicious that three women who have been fired for the same thing, from the same firm, were meeting up?"

"I assumed they were going to start their own firm," Elena told him.

"Maybe they're going to sue Mystic Falls PR."

"What for?"

"Unfair dismissal."

"They can't," Elena said to him. "The rules are the rules."

"Do you know what the laws are? How did Elijah even prove that it happened? Did any of the girls deny it?"

"I don't know," Elena told him. "I've never stopped to ask those questions before now."

"Say Katherine caught us, but both you and I denied it. Could Elijah still fire you?"

"I don't know."

"You need to find out."

"My sister-in-law is a lawyer. She might know, and if she doesn't she could probably look into it."

"Worst case scenario, you're fired, what happens then?" Damon asked her.

"Well Rose's reputation was smeared before she'd even left the company. Image is everything in the PR business. No-one wants to hire a publicist who has a reputation for sleeping with clients."

"Then your options are; you leave the company now, before anything happens, or you try and fight this, and we find out what the hell is going on in that company you work for. What do you want to do?"

Elena thought about things for a moment. She didn't know if it was related to this affair she was having with Damon or not, but she wanted to take charge of this situation. She wanted to kick but. "I want to stay and fight."

"Okay then," Damon said, "when we get back to Mystic Falls, we start digging."

Things would be over between them when they returned to Mystic Falls, Elena thought, but he still wanted to help her. As they started eating, Elena tried not to think about how hard it would be to see him and not remember everything he made her feel, in bed, and out of it.

Damon was furious. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so angry. It was their last night together and Elena had told him she wasn't available until ten o'clock. When he'd asked what was so important, she had refused to answer him. He'd spent the last two hours in the bar fueling his bad mood. When his watch read nine-thirty he made his way back to his room, hoping he'd have enough time to calm down before she arrived. He'd contemplated staying in the bar for another hour or so to spite her, but somehow he felt that he would just be punishing himself. Besides, Elena would make up for every minute they'd lost tonight. If she thought he was going to let her sleep tonight, she was going to be severely disappointed.

Damon didn't even have time to wonder why it was completely dark in the room, before a lamp was flicked on and he saw Elena sitting on his bed.

"You kept me waiting," she said to him.

"You said ten o'clock," he growled.

She walked over to him, and he thought she was going to kiss him, but instead he felt a blindfold being slipped over his eyes, and tied at the back of his head.

"What the f…"

A hand was pushed over his mouth. He wondered if he was about to see Elena the dominatrix.

"It's our last night together," she said to him softly.

"I know that," he mumbled under her hand.

"Don't make me gag you," she said to him.

"I'm really not in the mood to be punished right now."

He still felt edgy and irritable, but having her closer eased it a little.

"Shh."

He felt himself being guided deeper into the room, and then she pushed his chest, getting him to sit on a chair.

"The last two weeks, you've been my bad boy. I've been using you for your knowledge," she said to him. Damon could feel her hot breath in his ear as she whispered to him. She was so close he could smell the delicate scent she'd told him was maple blossom.

"Tonight, I wanted to show you what an excellent teacher you've been. Consider this my final examination. This is my way of saying thank you."

The words sounded so heartfelt, that the rest of his anger slipped away. She definitely didn't need to thank him. The pleasure had been all his.

"You taught me to take charge in the bedroom," she said to him, sliding onto his lap. She put a hand on each side of his face and kissed him. She tasted of strawberries and champagne, and he wondered if she'd gotten tipsy before starting this tonight. Her kiss was slow and sensual. As her tongue stroked his, he felt himself beginning to harden.

"Can I touch you?" he asked her breathlessly, when they broke apart.

"When I tell you to," she told him, unbuttoning his shirt.

"You've taught me to be more confident," she said to him, kissing his neck, his jaw, and running her hands over his chest. When her hands reached his belt, she had him unbuckled in record time. He stood briefly so she could take down his jeans. He sat back down and he felt her remove his boots and socks, and jeans from around his ankles.

"You taught me what it feels like to be worshiped," she said to him, spreading his knees and kissing along his inner thighs until she reached his boxers. Every touch, every kiss, every word, sent wave after wave of hot lust slamming through him.

"Elena."

"You taught me to tease," she said to him, slipping her hands inside his boxers and touching him everywhere but there. He held his breath as her hand came so, so close, but then moved away. Her gratitude was starting to feel like punishment now. He reached out to touch her, expecting her to slap his hands away, but she didn't. Instead she guided his hands up to her breasts. The material was lacy and thin, and he groaned as he ran his fingertips over her.

"You taught me how important a touch can be," she told him breathlessly, guiding his hands over bare stomach, down to her garters, where he fingered the lacy material. He wondered what color they were briefly, before she moved his hands up to her lacy panties. He leaned forward, as he touched her with both hands, memorizing every line and indentation; memorizing how soft she felt to touch, and the feminine scent of her skin. She guided one of his hands between her legs, wanting him to touch her.

"Crotchless," he said, trying to draw breath into his lungs, as his fingers touched naked slick flesh.

"Damon," she cried, as he plunged a finger inside her. Her hands were on his shoulders, her fingernails digging into the skin there. She rocked her hips, as he stroked her.

"Tell me this thank you has a happy ending," he said to her.

"It does," she assured him, indicating she wanted to move away for a minute.

When she touched him again, she grabbed the waistband of his boxers, and he moved so she could draw his boxers off hips and down his legs.

"You taught me how to receive pleasure," she whispered, before she spread his knees again and reached for him. He was literally shaking as she took him into her mouth. He was close to climax, when she stopped. He was desperately trying to hold off the thought that this last night would never be enough, as he felt her straddle him once more. His hands went to her hips, and they both groaned out loud as she sank onto his length.

"I want to see you," he told her.

"Feel me," she told him in return.

He could feel her. He could feel his back pressed against the velvet back of the chair, but everywhere else he could feel her. He tasted the champagne on her tongue again as she kissed him. He could smell her perfume in her hair, and he could hear her whimpers and cries when she stopped kissing him, and started to move. His hands on her hips helped her move up and down easily. When he heard, and felt, the start of her orgasm, he whipped the blindfold off so he could watch her. She looked into his eyes as she reached her climax, and as she held on to him and said his name out loud, he finally allowed himself to admit the truth for the first time. He was in love with her.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed. Next chapter the characters return to Mystic Falls. Have a great weekend. Thanks for reading, and please review.