Disclaimer: This story is based on characters created by L.J. Smith, as portrayed in the TV series created by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. All rights to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

ELENA'S ESCAPE

~ Lying Lips ~

Elena woke up with a splitting headache. She turned over to see that Lexi was still fast asleep. In search of an aspirin to ease her pain, Elena slipped out of bed and stumbled towards the hallway bathroom.

"Cute PJ's," a voice said and Elena spun around, suddenly wide awake. Damon was sitting in the living room with a cup of coffee and smirking at her.

"Damon? What are you doing here?" Elena said, entering the living room. When she did, the two men on the couch with their backs against her turned around.

"Hi, Kat," Matt said. "We came back early, someone thought it'd be a good idea to bring you girls breakfast. I told him you'd all be asleep and hung over," Matt rolled his eyes and winked.

"Hi, I'm Lee, by the way," the dark-haired, broad-shouldered man said, extending his hand in greeting.

Elena took it and smiled. "I'm Kat. You must be Lexi's boyfriend."

"The one and only," Lexi said, walking up to the couch and planting a kiss on him. "Hi, babe."

"Hey."

"So, what'd you bring? I hope you got coffee…"

"Yup. Plenty of it."

"Excellent. And…?"

"Breakfast tacos."

"Yay. You know me so well," Lexi purred and climbed into Lee's lap.

"Ok, now you're making me queasy," Damon complained and got up from the armchair he had been lounging on.

Elena suddenly remembered she got out of bed to find aspirin, and she ducked into the bathroom. When she emerged moments later, Damon was waiting for her with a cup of coffee. "Here," he said, handing her the mug,"I thought you might need it."

"Thanks."

"So…" Damon said as they walked to the kitchen. "Did you sleep well?"

Elena felt herself flush. She had slept well, but she had also had dreams. A lot. None of which she wanted Damon to know the details of.

"Um… perfect. How 'bout you?"

"Oh, the sounds of nature are really soothing. Unfortunately, my buddy Ric's snoring is not. I had a lot of time to think."

"Oh? Must be refreshing," Elena mocked.

"Cute."

"So… during all this thinking, you decided you should come back early to bring us breakfast?"

"Who says it was my idea?" Damon said, feigning innocence.

"Oh, please. Matt was kinda obvious."

"How do you know he wasn't talking about Lee? You saw how gross he and Lexi are."

"Maybe you're right," Elena shrugged. "After all, why would you have any reason to come over here?"

"Oh, I can think of one or two," Damon said, taking her in with his eyes. Elena's hair was mussed and she was wearing grey silk pajama pants and a black camisole.

"So did you catch anything?" Elena asked lightly, attempting to break the tension that had arisen between them.

"Huh?"

"You went fishing, right? Did you catch any fish?" Elena clarified.

"Nope. But to tell you the truth, I wasn't trying that hard."

"Oh?"

"Fishing is Ric's favorite pastime. Not mine."

"What's yours, then?"

"Not anything I can do with my buddies," Damon wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Ugh! Besides that?"

"How did you know what I was talking about? Sounds like you're the one with a dirty mind, Kat," Damon teased. "I could have been talking about knitting, for all you know."

"Were you?"

"No. My favorite pastime – besides that," he winked, "- is reading. Give me a good book, a comfy spot and a bottle of Scotch and I'm golden."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given that you teach literature," Elena mused. "So your perfect day would include you reading a book and drinking…"

"Correction – a perfect day – or evening – would include me reading to a woman laying beside me after we've engaged in my other favorite pastime."

Elena stood dumbstruck for a split second, then she spoke. "Nope. Don't see it," she said casually, walking away.

"I could just show you…" Damon said in a soft, seductive voice, making Elena pause in the doorway. She wasn't going to pretend she heard that. She wasn't. Despite herself, Elena started to turn around when Caroline showed up.

"Oops, did I interrupt something?" she giggled, noticing Elena's rosy cheeks.

"No. I was actually just going to use your shower, if you don't mind?" Elena said to Caroline, slipping past her.

"No, of course, go right ahead," Caroline said.

"Actually, now that you mention it, I could use a shower as well…" Damon said in a loud enough voice for Elena to hear him even as she closed the door to the bathroom.

"Well, there's no arguing that," Caroline made a face, "but you have a shower at your own house," she said, poking him in the chest.

"You're such a buzzkill, Barbie," Damon complained. "Ooh – Buzzkill Barbie… that could be like your stage name or something – you know, if you should ever grow some talent," Damon mocked.

"So… what's going on with the two of you?" Caroline prodded.

"And here I thought us guys were the only ones on a fishing expedition… It's none of your business, Blondie."

"Oh, come on," Caroline whined.

"There's nothing to tell," Damon shrugged.

"Riiight… well, you didn't see her face last night when Lexi and I admitted to hooking up with you," Caroline teased.

"You said what?"

"We were playing a game," Caroline shrugged.

"Yeah, I heard," Damon muttered under his breath.

"What? From who?" Clearly, Caroline's ears could pick up any frequency when she was curious.

"Huh?" Damon acted as if he hadn't said a word.

"I knew it! I knew Kat snuck off somewhere during our game. She called you, didn't she?" Caroline squealed, practically jumping from the excitement.

"Chill, Barbie," Damon said, "you're gonna fry your brain if you keep this up – or maybe it's too late for that…"

"Come on, Damon, I'm happy for you. Kat's great. She could do better, though."

"Nice," Damon rolled his eyes.

"No, but seriously, Damon. Be good to her. She won't tell me anything, but I get the feeling she's been through a lot – not just losing her family in a fire."

"That's plenty," Damon said.

"Sure, but I saw…"

"Caroline, that's enough," Damon snapped.

Caroline took a step back, startled at the sudden harshness in Damon's voice. "What'd I say?" she whimpered.

"You like to gossip, Caroline. Everyone knows it, it's part of who you are. But when you start spreading rumors – talking about things you know nothing about – people get hurt. I don't want to see Kat hurt. Got it?"

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Matt walked in and slipped his arm over Caroline's shoulders, picking up on the tension in the room.

"Nothing. We were just getting a few things settled, weren't we, Caroline?" Damon said, his jaw set.

"Yes," Caroline nodded and smiled up at Matt. "We're good."

"I'm gonna head out," Damon said. "Tell Kat to call me if she wants me to pick her up."

"Sure," Matt agreed, still a little confused as to what was going on. "See you later, man." When the door closed behind Damon, Matt turned to Caroline. "So you wanna tell me what really happened?"

"Ugh, you're such a gossip, Matt," Caroline rolled her eyes and headed for the other bathroom.

"Hi, Zach," Elena greeted her landlord – if that was the correct term – when she returned to the boarding house late Sunday afternoon. "How was your weekend?"

"Too quiet, I'm afraid," Zach sighed.

"No boarders?"

"Nope. Guess tourist season hasn't really kicked in yet," he shrugged.

"You won't have to close, right? If business doesn't pick up, I mean?"

"Don't worry, Kat. You'll have a home here as long as you like. Besides, I only keep the business going because I enjoy having people around. Money's not an issue."

"Oh," was all Elena could think of to say. It made sense, though, if the family had money. Damon was truly passionate about his job, she never got the impression that he did it for the money.

"But we'll be getting some company next Monday, though," Zach said. "One of Damon's old college friends is bringing his girlfriend to Mystic Falls."

"That's nice."

"Yeah, apparently he was here for the weekend and Damon suggested he bring the girl he kept talking about back here. They're flying in from LA, so I'll be picking them up from the airport on Monday night. I was thinking we could all have dinner together. Damon's cooking."

"Oh, ok," Elena said, absent-minded. She was too distracted by the two letters to absorb any information past that point. L. A. Too close for comfort. It would be highly unlikely that they knew her, but life had a cruel sense of humor sometimes.

On her way to her room, Elena passed by Damon's. The door was open and she could see him on the bed, reading. She paused in the hallway, debating whether or not she should talk to him. Their conversation at Caroline's had made her painfully aware of her own feelings, and she refused to act on them. It was bad enough that Damon was drop dead gorgeous, smart and kind, he just had to flirt with her as well. She didn't know for how long she would be able to resist him. But she had to. She had to distance himself from him, he deserved better. He deserved someone who would be completely honest with him. And she couldn't be. Not yet. Not until enough time had passed. She only left her husband a few weeks ago, for crying out loud. How could she even be considering the possibility of getting involved with someone new?

Damon's velvety voice snapped Elena out of her musings. "Did you stop by for a demonstration?"

"Excuse me?"

He gestured to the bed and the book in his hand.

"Actually," Elena cleared her throat and took a step inside the room. "I wanted to discuss something with you."

"Oh?" he said, propping himself up against the headboard, into a sitting – as opposed to lounging – position.

"I wanted to ask you…" Elena started, but got distracted by his piercing gaze and found herself at a loss for words, "I wanted you… You need to stop with your flirty little comments and that eye-thing that you do." There. She said it.

"Why?" he said, getting off the bed and approaching her.

His movements reminded Elena of a panther's, stalking its prey, and she felt her mouth go dry.

"Am I getting to you?" he said in a husky voice, all the while moving closer. "Do you find yourself drawn to me?" he whispered in her ear and she shivered at his proximity.

"No," she choked out.

"Liar."

"I'm serious, Damon, you need to stop," Elena breathed.

"Tell me why and I will."

"Because I don't want you to."

"You don't want me to – what?"

"I don't want you to stop," she admitted. What was she thinking? What happened to her steely resolve? What happened to her clear head? Oh, right, it got lost in the pools of his eyes, muddled by the smell of his cologne and surrendered to the feel of his touch. As his hand caressed her cheek, Elena felt shockwaves of electricity reverberate throughout her body. As his lips brushed hers, those sparks ignited a raging fire within, and she instinctively returned his kiss with a hunger she hadn't experienced before. She wanted him. Desperately.

As he felt her respond, and sensed her passion, Damon took control, guiding her over to the bed, not once breaking contact.

Elena felt genuinely happy as her head sunk into the soft pillows and Damon moved to plant kisses on her neck.

"You taste so good, Kat," he whispered against her skin.

No! Elena pushed him off her and bolted out of the room.

"Kat!" he called after her, utterly confused as to what just happened.

Elena slammed her bedroom door shut behind her and sunk to the floor, her face in her hands. Hearing her fake name from his lips made everything so perfectly clear. She was living a lie. How could she ever expect to move on if she couldn't be herself around the people she cared about? For how long could she continue to lie to Damon?