Thank you to my amazing beta Kitty for reading this so fast. I hope the rest of you enjoy this chapter.
When Damon woke up the next morning Elena was nowhere to be found. He supposed it was probably a good thing since he didn't know what to think about what happened last night. He rubbed the evidence of sleep from his eyes and sat up, running his hand through is hair. He swung his legs out of the bed and walked into the bathroom to take a shower, needing all his faculties fully charged before he seen Elena. He started up the shower and waited for the water to get hot before he got in. There was nothing worse than a freezing cold shower. He would be lying if he said that last night wasn't spectacular, because it was. It was so beyond amazing, it had never been that good between them before. Damon didn't know what came over them last night, but some part of him said that it was too soon. He just hoped that it didn't make it any worse for them. They had been getting along so well since they had arrived, but his raging libido had the chance of ruining it completely.
Elena said outside on the terrace with her hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee. Last night was not supposed to happen, but it had and as much as she wanted to she couldn't just ignore it. Their relationship was on such unstable ground at the moment, and something like that could end it for them. Elena saw Bella outside pruning the roses and she offered the older woman a small smile.
"Good morning Miss Gilbert, how are you this morning?" She asked kindly.
"I'm fine." Elena said reflexively.
"You look really contemplative." Bella noted sitting down across from her.
"I have a lot going on in my head." Elena admitted shaking her head.
"Like what? Do you want to come with me to take care of the flowers? If you want you can tell me anything, I find being in the gardens and the flowers helps me with any problems I may be having." Bella offered.
"That would be lovely, thank you." Elena said smiling warmly.
"Good. Let's go. I find that my roses really help me when I am fighting with Antonio." Bella confessed knowingly.
"How do you do that? Know my problems are about me and Damon?" She asked staring at the older woman.
"I've been around for a long time. I know how to read people. You have that look on your face telling anyone who is looking that you have man problems. I am here to listen if you want me too." Bella said as they walked across the grounds to the rose bushes on the east end of the house. Bella gave Elena a pair of gloves and they started pruning the roses.
"Things got a little heated between us last night." Elena confessed.
"Fighting or intimacy?" Bella asked knowingly.
"Intimacy. It was so perfect, it felt so right. But it was too soon. We know that in order to be as strong or stronger than we were we need to work things out before we fall back into bed again. It was too soon." She said.
"Who instigated it?" Bella asked.
"He kissed me but I didn't push him away. It was both of our faults." She admitted.
"It's good that you can admit that. Why do you think it was too soon?" Bella asked.
"I don't know if it was for sure. But we just got back together, and we're taking it slow. We don't want to rush things this time. I feel that it was too soon for us to take that step." Elena confessed.
"Maybe it was the right time to take that step. You'll never know until you talk to Damon dear." Bella said patting her hand.
"I know. But I know if I talk to him and he says the same thing I said I will feel rejected. But if he doesn't I'll feel awkward." Elena fretted.
"But regardless it is a conversation you need to have. What are you guys doing today? Are you hitting the road again?" Bella asked.
"As far as I know. I haven't talked to Damon since yesterday." Elena admitted.
"Well here he comes now, if you do decide to go somewhere today, the car ride would be a good time to talk." Bella said winking. Elena smiled at Bella and stood up to face Damon who was walking over to them. The expression on his face made it clear that he wasn't listening to their conversation, which was good.
"Morning. So what do you want to do today?" Damon asked, deciding to just brush the sex off to the side until he knew how to deal with it.
"I don't know. What do you want to do?" She asked.
"Well we can go see the ocean. Spend the night there at a bed and breakfast that's right on the beach." Damon suggested knowing she'd like the beach.
"Ah the beach..." Elena sighed.
"Is that a yes?" He asked.
"Yes. I think that's a great idea. How long is the drive?" She asked.
"A couple hours. I'll email the bed and breakfast and book us a room overnight, if that's what you want to do." He offered.
"That sounds perfect." Elena said with an almost dreamlike expression on her face, her issues with the sex from the night before temporarily forgotten. Damon turned and walked back into the house and Elena turned back to Bella.
"A couple hours in the car together. It's just what you two need." Bella said.
"Or it could be what breaks us." Elena noted.
"I doubt that. I've only known you for a few days now, but I've known Damon for a long time. I see something special between the two of you. Something like intimacy that you deem to be too soon is not going to break you. You look at him like I look at my dear Antonio." Bella said patting Elena's hand.
"Thank you Bella. But I should go pack an overnight bag." Elena said.
"Do you know what will help a young relationship like yours? More sex. Pack a sexy bikini and hopefully get your relationship the nudge it needs to get sexy again." Bella said.
"But that's what put us in this situation. The sex happened too early." Elena stated.
"I know but if it happens again, it's supposed to. I firmly believe that if something happens more than once it's supposed to happen." Bella said.
"Thank you." Elena said before walking back towards the house. She met up with Damon on his way upstairs.
"This really was a brilliant idea Damon. I've wanted to see the beach." Elena said.
"I thought you would enjoy it." He said shrugging.
When they were both ready to go, they walked downstairs with more distance than there had been yesterday. Elena sighed knowing that the sex really did push them further apart.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
"Yeah. Let's go." Elena answered, following Damon out to the Ferrari. Damon started the car and peeled out of the driveway. Bella waved at them from the front walk of her guest house. When they hit the highway the silence got really awkward. About halfway to the coast Damon had finally had enough.
"What the hell is your problem?" He demanded.
"Nothing." She said shrugging her shoulders.
"Elena what is your problem?" He asked speaking slower, enunciating each word.
"Last night." She answered not wanting to delve into it.
"What about last night?" He asked knowing they had to talk about it sometime. May as well be now.
"You shouldn't have done that." Elena answered.
"Ah, so you think all of that was my fault?" He asked getting angry again and raising his voice.
"You kissed me!" She yelled.
"You could have said no!" He yelled back as he kept complete control over the car.
"When was I supposed to say no? You walked in and kissed me, you gave me no choice." She yelled.
"Any time before I shoved my dick into you would have been fine. You had lots of fucking time Elena. I won't let you put all the blame on me this time." He seethed. Somehow knowing that he was right, she turned her head and stared out the window while Damon watched out the windshield.
After a couple of hours of tense silence Damon pulled up at the beachfront bed and breakfast. Once the car came to a complete stop Elena jumped out and grabbed her bag from the car before walking to the front door. He followed silently behind her. When they walked in the owner appeared and welcomed them.
"We have a room booked under Salvatore." He said showing the elderly lady his confirmation email.
"Of course Mr Salvatore. Come with me." She said gesturing for them to follow her up the stairs. She led them to a large room complete with a private bathroom and a couch.
"Thank you." Damon said.
"I will leave you two, dinner is at 6. My name is Rosa if you need me. Call at any time." She assured them.
"Thank you." Elena said. Rosa walked out of the room, shutting the door on her way.
"I'll sleep on the couch." Damon said taking his bag over to the plush couch.
"Fine." Elena said shrugging her shoulders, trying to remain aloof. It seemed that in the matter of a couple hours all the progress that they had made as a couple had been destroyed.
Dinner was an awkward affair. The table was silent with the sole exception of forks scraping against plates.
"Is your room satisfactory?" Rosa asked.
"Yes its fine." Elena assured the woman.
"That's good. Are you going to visit the beach tomorrow?" She asked.
"I plan to." Elena answered.
"I'm sure you'll love it. It will be nice in the morning if you choose to go." She told her.
"Thank you." Elena said before the table got silent again. When dinner was done and the plates were cleared they walked upstairs. Elena locked herself in the bathroom and Damon sat down on the couch and turned the small TV on. When Elena came out a few minutes later Damon was watching some American crime drama on TV. Elena crawled into bed and shut off her lamp, still having nothing to say to him.
"You're going to have to speak to me sometime." He said staring at her completely still form laying in the bed. "Fine." He said when she didn't respond a few minutes later. When his show was over he grabbed the blanket he had taken from the foot of the bed earlier and draped it over himself. He closed his eyes but didn't fall asleep.
The next morning, Elena woke up after only sleeping a couple hours during the night. She saw Damon on his side facing the back of the couch, so she got up and as quietly as she could went into the bathroom. She quickly washed up and dressed in a white bikini and a sarong before silently leaving the room. She walked downstairs and to the french doors facing the beach.
"The beach is lovely in the morning. Enjoy." Rosa said seeing Elena.
"Thank you." Elena said opening the doors.
"Is your husband coming down?" Rosa asked.
"He's not my husband." Elena said before walking out onto the sand.
When Damon decided to get up, after not sleeping a wink the entire night. Somehow over the past few years he got to the point where he couldn't sleep unless she was beside him. It was weak and pathetic, but it was the truth. Even at their worst they had always slept in the same bed. The argument wasn't as bad as some of the other ones they had, but somehow it had the worst effect on their relationship. He walked downstairs after pulling on some jeans and a t shirt, seeing Rosa sitting at the kitchen table.
"Your lady friend is outside on the beach. You should really consider marrying her. You would be a beautiful couple." Rosa said kindly.
"We've been together for more than four years. We've just hit a rough patch." He said.
"Well she is not acting like she's been in a relationship for over four years. There is a group of young men talking to her and she doesn't seem to be pushing them away." Rosa stated with a small frown on her face.
"She's not comfortable with them either. I can tell by the tension in her body." He assured the older woman.
"You can tell that from over here?" She asked shocked.
"I know her better than I know myself." Damon explained.
"That's good. It's beautiful out there." Rosa said.
"It is. I'm heading out there now." Damon told her.
"You should talk to her. If you hit a rough patch, you should apologize for your part in it and talk it out. The only way to fix it is communication. So many couples think that intimacy is the way to go to fix issues, but it's not. It just hides it temporarily." She explained.
"Oh believe me, we know all about that. Sex is what got us into this problem. We also used to use it to solve our problems. I'll go talk to her. I'm not used to talking about this with people." Damon said.
"Go talk to your woman." She said smiling.
"You're kinda hot. Have I mentioned that before? Girls in white bikini's always turn me on." The dark haired tourist said ogling her tanned midriff and exposed cleavage.
"You've mentioned that a few times. How many times do I have to say I'm not interested? I have someone." She said rolling her eyes.
"If you have someone, where is he? If you were my girl, I wouldn't be letting you out here by yourself." He said doing a poor imitation of Damon's smirk.
"He's around. Just because he's not here with me now, doesn't mean he doesn't exist." Elena said.
"Sure. But I really think you should come hang with us. You're hot." He said smirking again.
"She said no. A few times I think." Damon said walking onto the blanket she was lounging.
"Who the hell are you?" The guy asked.
"I'm the someone she mentioned earlier." Damon told the guy.
"He is. Now scurry along. Go find someone else to annoy." Elena said brushing him off.
"Fine but baby you don't know what you're missing." The guy said attempting the smirk again.
"Somehow I'll manage to recover from disappointment, I'm sure I'll be fine." She said dryly. "Thank you." Elena said once they group of guys walked away.
"We may be fighting right now but you still belong to me." Damon said seriously. Elena didn't respond, she didn't know what to say, mostly because it was completely true. She unequivocally and irrevocably belonged to him and she always would.
"We need to talk." He sighed knowing he would have to start the conversation yet again.
"There's nothing that needs to be said this time." Elena sighed.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kissed you. It's my fault." He said
"I don't want you to be sorry." She breathed. She was sick and tired of lying about it; telling him that it was wrong. The timing may have been wrong but it felt so right. Anything that felt so right couldn't possibly be wrong.
"What?" He asked.
"I don't want you to be sorry. I don't think it was wrong." She explained, sitting up so she could look into his crystalline blue eyes.
"We promised to take our time but we rushed things." He said.
"But it happened so perfectly. There was no hesitance and we fit together perfectly as we always did. Anything that happened so smoothly can't be wrong. Maybe our heads were telling us it was still too soon, but our hearts and our bodies knew it was just right" She said trying to convince him.
" I don't know... there was a reason we wanted to wait." Damon said shaking his head.
"Did it feel right to you?" She asked.
"It felt so good. I wanted you so bad that night." He admitted.
"I wanted you too, desperately. We need to stop trying to control it. The best thing about us together is the unpredictability. We never know what's going to happen the next day. Every day with you is something different and I love that. Our relationship has ups and downs and it's exactly what I want. If I wanted it to be easy everyday then I would still be with Stefan." She explained.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yes." She said with no hesitation at all in her voice.
" Okay." He said taking a deep breath.
"Okay?" She asked.
"Okay. I believe you, and we're going to do it your way. But I think we should so something tonight, just you and me." He said.
"Like a date?" She clarified.
"Yeah. We haven't gone out on a good old fashioned date in a long time." He said.
"Okay." She said smiling.
"This time let's not put any restrictions on us. If it happens to lead to sex let's just embrace it." He suggested.
"That sounds so good to me. Do you think we'll be okay?" She asked.
"I think so. We just need to stop hurting each other. I'm sorry for yelling at you in the car yesterday." He apologized, reaching over and brushing a few strands of hair out of her face.