Chapter 9
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Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries.
I woke up this morning with my head pounding from the wine last night, and quickly all the memories from last night came rushing back. The cake. The music. Damon. Our dance. I checked my bedside table for the notes to reassure myself that last night was not just a dream and there they were, lying innocently on top of my rough copy of Wuthering Heights.
"Ugh!" I groaned out loud, sinking back against the down pillows and pulling the floral blanket up over my head.
"It wasn't that bad." I recognised Damon's deep drawl and peeked out from under the covers, but the man was nowhere to be seen. Sure that I had heard him I sat up in my bed and looked from the open door to the now open window. Damn vampire speed. Unsure of where he was right now, I cautiously got out of bed, got a pair of black sweats and a knitted jersey as the air flowing through the wind was quite chilly. Moving slowly towards the bathroom, I glanced around me keeping an eye out for the cocky vampire that was roaming around this morning. I quickly closed and locked the door behind me, carefully scrutinising every inch of the bathroom, satisfied that Damon was not there I laid out my clothes on the towelled chair and began to undress. "Nice bra. Love the flowers." I spun around, clutching my shirt to my chest.
"Damon!"
"Elena." He said mockingly, his eyes skimming up and down my form before wiggling his eyebrows.
"What do you want, Damon?"
"Me? Oh nothing but the pleasure of your company."
"Get out."
"Make me."
"Damon, I have to shower and it's already almost noon and I have to help Care prepare for tonight. I don't have time to do this."
"Do what?" And in the blink of an eye he was standing in front of me.
"Argue." I narrowed my eyes at him.
"I wouldn't call this arguing. My side is more like witty repartee."
"No, your side is childish repartee."
"Potato, Potahto." he shrugged his shoulders and took another step forward, closing me in between him and the door.
Aware that my defensive body language was giving him the upper hand in our conversation, I dropped my shirt and placed my hands on my hips. "GET OUT."
"Ah, there's the feisty Elena I missed." Flashing his taunting cocky grin he backed away, allowing me to move from my prison against the door.
"Elena! There you are! I need you to go with Stefan and fetch the fairy lights from Mrs Lockwood for tonight. She is away today, but has given me the key and I just know that Stefan will get the wrong ones!"
"Sure Care, whatever you need. I'll go find him now."
"Great! And did you manage to finish the cake last night?"
"All set and in the fridge, I'll do the topping later." I was not going to mention any of Damon's involvement in the cake making last night.
"Good! We're on schedule! Unless something goes wrong. Oh god, I've got to sit down. What if something goes wrong?" Caroline leant against the impromptu bar that had been set up over looking the expansive grounds alongside the sparkling pool where men in white overalls were setting up round tables and chairs for tonight's engagement party. It was a little late for an engagement party, but tonight was the night when Care's relatives from Los Angeles arrived as well as Lexi and they wanted to welcome everyone specially.
"Care, nothing will go wrong. You've planned this all to the absolute tee. You can see that just by the extensive list that you are clutching!"
She looked at her list and immediately appeared reassured. "You're right. Ha. Just a pity that I can't use my vamp speed with all of these muggles roaming the place."
"Oh my God, Stefan's got you watching Harry Potter."
"What, it's good! Anyway, get out of here; I want to get the lights set up before everything else arrives. Go!" She shooed me away with the papers in her hand before turning around and marching determinedly towards a candle stick of man in a black suit who had just arrived with the linen, although he looked more like a funeral director.
"Stefan? Stefan! Stefan …" I walked back through the living room and up the stairs looking for Stefan. I had just reached the landing when someone grabbed me and pulled me into what looked like a study with a vast oak desk and white upholstered chairs. "What the hell?" spinning around I saw Stefan and Matt behind me. "What is up with the grabbing? I thought we'd all moved on with the 'grab Elena'!"
"Sorry, but Caroline can't know where we are." Stefan looked at me earnestly.
"Well she will soon, you have to come with me to fetch fairy lights from the Lockwood place."
"Sorry, no can do. We are organising a surprise and Care can't know. But this is perfect! If she thinks I've gone with you then she won't suspect a thing! Great thinking 'Lena."
"But who am I supposed to go with?"
"Elena, they are just fairy lights." Matt chimed in from the window where he was spying on Caroline.
"Fine, fine. So what's the big surprise?"
"Sorry, can't tell you. Bye." And with that I was nudged out the door which shut firmly behind me.
Damn sentimental vampires, I muttered while marching back down the stairs. Arriving at the garage I scanned the wrack of keys choosing a car. This one. I grinned, checked that no one was around and jogged towards the blue Camaro. Damon never let anyone drive his car. This was going to be fun.
After digging in Carol Lockwood's attic for what seemed like hours, I eventually found four boxes labelled Plain Fairy Lights. For the organised woman she appeared to be, her attic was a mess. I managed to carry the boxes down although it did involve four trips, and loaded onto the backseat of the Camaro.
It was halfway to the house when my phone beeped. It was Damon, "Hello?" I answered innocently.
A voice whispered, "You're dead," And he hung up.
What was I thinking? This is more than fun! Pushing the gas pedal down a little more, I sped towards the boarding house.
I had pulled up outside the house and had just stepped from the car when I was flung over someone's shoulder, a very bony shoulder, and carried into the house. From my position I recognised the dark jeans that Damon had on earlier. Hell lets be honest. I recognised his ass and man was it a fine piece of ass. I tore my gaze away from its focus and looked around to see where he was taking me. We had walked through the foyer and the living room and were now on the veranda but Damon kept walking.
"You know, if you keep walking straight the only place we are going to end up is in the swimming pool." And in a second I realised his intention and started to struggle to get out of his iron clad hold. "Damon Salvatore! You let go of me this instant! If not I will hunt you down and maybe next time I will have the courtesy to scratch your precious car! Now put me down!" But before I could continue my threats, splash! The cold fresh water hit me with force. I struggled up to catch my breath and upon breaking the surface saw Damon standing at the edge of the pool with his hands on his hips watching me. Caroline and Bonnie, who had arrived earlier, rushed up to stand beside him both of them gaping.
"Nobody drives my car." And he turned around and stalked back into the house but not before I saw his sly smirk and that was when I knew that I was forgiven.
"Bloody vampires." I muttered again as I began to perform a backstroke across the pool. May as well enjoy it while I'm here.
What am I supposed to wear? I stood looking at my open wardrobe scanning the rack of dresses that Care had hung up for me. Red, green … green? Really? Frills, ruffles, what the hell is that? I flipped through the dresses until I found two that I liked. Pulling both hangers out, I laid them across the bed and stepped back to admire them and decide which one to wear.
"The black one."
I spun around and found Damon leaning against the doorframe. Damn, he looked hot. He was wearing a dark grey tux, unbuttoned down the front revealing a white dress shirt and an untied tie draped around his neck.
"Black?"
"Sexy." He gave me his signature smirk accompanied this time by a suggestive wink. I rolled my eyes at his obviousness, but gave a second glance to the champagne coloured dress that was covered with intricate black lace. (Elena's dress from My Brother's Keeper – I just loved it!)
"It is a beautiful dress."
"Great, then it's settled. Now get that dress on, wench and come and help me tie this thing. What was that story about the rabbit hole?" He gestured towards his tie trying to wrap it around his neck.
I had gently removed the dress from its hanger and sauntered into the bathroom try it on. "A hundred and forty something years old and you still cannot tie your tie?"
"Lena, its hard okay."
The dress slipped over my skin and I was shifting it into position as I walked back into the bedroom. "Okay, what do you think?"
Damon's eyes shifted focus from his tie to look at me and that was when his jaw almost hit the floor. "Damon?"
"Yeah?"
"You're drooling."
He gave a light laugh and walked towards me, "Lena, you look stunning." The dress came to just above the knees and hugged my curves, the lace framing my shoulders. "Now get over here and help me tie this damn thing."
Thankfully from years of practise with Jeremy when he was younger, I knew my way around a tie. Pulling him closer to me by the ends of the tie until we were only a few inches apart, I began to straighten the tie out before entering the 'rabbit hole' riddle and tying it for him. I could feel his eyes following the movement of my hands and felt a small shiver travel down the back of my spine. I smoothed the tie down, my fingers brushing down his abdomen through his shirt, and slowly buttoned his dinner jacket together before tucking the tie in. "All done." I whispered softly as I smoothed it all down. "Now do me up so that I can do my hair, we only have an hour and Care is already freaking out, the poor child hasn't even gotten dressed yet." I turned around and pulled my hair out of the way for Damon to zip up the back of my dress. His fingers trailed up my naked back as he zipped the dress up.
"Done."
"Good, now get out so I can finish. And I think Stefan's looking for you anyway."
"How the hell would you know that, as far as I know you're not a vamp yet."
"Oh I have my ways." I winked slyly, "Now out."
"Fine, fine." He strolled towards the door,
"Oh and Damon?
"Yeah?"
"I didn't mean to take your car."
"Its fine, you actually handle it a lot better than dear Steffie."
"Thanks."
"But don't do it again. Oh and Elena?"
"Mmm hmm?" I looked over to him.
"Save me the last dance." I had bobby pins in my mouth and couldn't muster a reply, but the devil didn't even wait as in a second he was gone.
I finished pinning my hair into a voluminous side bun with wisps that framed my face. Applying minimal nude make up and a dash of lip gloss, I sprayed on a dash of perfume and left the room.
A nice little Delena chapter