Thank you Courtney for betaing this. You are wonderful. :)
"Anthony will be picking me up in a few minutes." Elena whined, trying desperately to extricate herself from Damon's iron grip.
"The guy is incredibly patient. He'd be fine waiting for a little while." Damon probed, pressing feather soft kisses to her shoulder. Elena idly realized that this scenario was happening far too often nowadays; Damon wouldn't let her out of bed in the morning, Elena would beg and plead, eventually he would give in, threatening with vowing to use his hand to get what she wasn't giving him. It was getting to be the norm and somehow Elena couldn't bring herself to care.
"I know but there is something so wrong about making a guy wait downstairs or outside while I have sex with you." She pointed out.
"Come on, you and I both know the actual sex part could be done by the time he gets here. We both know that I can make you come in 0.2 seconds flat." He reminded her.
"But then I have to get ready to go..." She told him.
"So, I'll let Anthony in, offer him coffee or something else to drink while you get ready. I'll be the perfect host if you just let me fuck you once more before you leave me. Overnight, I might add." Damon bargained.
"Are you going to let me say no to you?" Elena asked rolling her eyes, already knowing the answer.
"Most likely not. Unless you can give me a real good reason why I should. Which in my perspective there is no good reasons, considering that you don't even get to come home after Richmond. You're meeting me at the lake house for your dad's birthday. So hypothetically there is going to be three days of not having sex with you and I don't think I can handle that." He told her.
"Three days!?" She shrieked, not having thought of it before.
"Three long hard days." He affirmed.
"Oh God, I so don't have the restraint to go through that." Elena sighed.
"I have a minor solution for you... "Damon trailed off in a sing-song voice.
"Fine! I'll have sex with you right here right now." Elena shouted out with a pronounced scowl on her face.
"I'm doing you a favour baby. You know it and I know it. I can last a whole lot longer than you can without sex. I can promise you that." He told her.
"Wanna make a bet? I'm sure you'd explode with need before I would." Elena corrected.
"Nah, I have a supremely talented hand at my full disposal. I know how you feel about masturbation so I know you'll explode before me." He told her lying down on top of her and grinding his erection into her center.
"I have more restraint than you know." She gasped, feeling his naked cock between her folds. After they had mopped up all the water on the floor the night before, they had relocated to the bed and proceeded to rock each others worlds more than once before falling into an exhausted sleep.
"I can't wait see that for myself." He teased as he nipped up her neck and jaw.
"We don't have a lot of time. Do me already." She demanded.
"Fine, so bossy." He teased her, rearing back and thrusting into her warmth in one thrust. She screamed out at the sensation of him entering her so abruptly, but she couldn't' deny that she loved it. She loved it when he was slightly rougher with her. He slammed his cock into her over and over again, until she was sobbing from the pleasure.
"Please, please I need to come so bad baby. Please." She pleaded. He rubbed her clit with the pad of his thumb until she went off with a cry of his name. After two more thrusts he came inside her and rolled off panting hard.
"Fuck it. No bet. I will find a way to have you while we're at the lake house." He decreed.
"How? I definitely feel uncomfortable having sex with you where we can get caught by my parents." Elena told him.
"I'll figure something out. I already know that I will drive myself insane if I can't have you. If that means you win the bet by default then so be it. I'm sure I'll get over the loss, but I can not and will not go three days without making love to you." He told her firmly, the need evident in his gaze. The idea of not being able to make love to her clearly scared the hell out of him.
"Fine, as long as you make sex possible this weekend, then I won't declare myself the winner." She promised.
"Deal. Now you better get out of bed and into the shower. I just heard a car park outside." Damon urged her, gently shoving her out of bed.
"Oh my God, that took way too much time." She squealed rushing into the bathroom without a stitch of clothing covering her lithe frame. Damon ogled for a moment before standing up and slipping into a pair of loose pants.
He walked downstairs carrying a t shirt when he heard the door bell ring. He heard Elena step into the shower and he smirked. How he would love to be joining her right now, rather than opening the door for her friend. The friend who was kidnapping her overnight to play boyfriend girlfriend to appease his judgemental grandparent. He yawned and opened the door.
"Oh did I wake you? I'm sorry, did I misunderstand the time Elena said to pick her up?" Anthony asked completely baffled by Damon's pyjama clad form with messy bed head. He didn't need to know that the messy hair was a product of Elena running her hands through it as he fucked her a few minutes ago.
"No it's all good. Elena's just finishing getting ready." Damon stated inviting him in.
"This place is amazing." Anthony complimented, letting out a whistle.
"Thanks, its uh been in my family for years." Damon said walking into the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee, knowing Elena would want it when she came down. "Do you like coffee?" He asked.
"Yeah, I live on the stuff." Anthony agreed walking into the kitchen. While he had been out of sight he had slipped on the black t shirt.
"Just give it a few minutes to brew. Elena lives on it too. The Elena you know is the one that's fuelled up on coffee, the one without coffee is a very different person." Damon laughed.
"I'm sure she is. So you're okay with this?" He asked cautiously.
"I already told her I'm cool with it. I'll just see her at the lake house for her fathers birthday. I trust her, that's the kind of relationship we have." Damon explained for what he hoped was the last time. He heard the shower shut off and her step out of the shower. He heard her curse softly when she slipped on the tile floor outside the shower. When the coffee was done brewing, he poured some into Elena's to-go cup and placed it on the counter, while grabbing a mug from the cupboard and filling it with coffee.
"So how did you and Elena meet?" Anthony asked curiously.
"Uh... it's a long story." Damon said running a hand through his hair.
"Well Elena is still getting ready, so I have some time. You two are completely different, I was wondering how relationships like that get started." He asked.
"It started out as revenge against her parents for controlling her insanely. I had never seen a girl whose life was controlled to that extent in my life. We met, she liked me so she rebelled using me. Admittedly in the beginning it was mostly about sex, but it turned into more quite quickly when I fell in love with her." Damon admitted.
"Oh." Anthony said awkwardly.
"You're weirded out that sweet, precious Elena had a friends with benefits relationship, aren't you?" Damon asked knowingly.
"I never expected that, that's for sure." Anthony admitted.
"Well I'm the only one who's ever seen that side of her. I'd probably kill any other man who ever tried to see it. I don't share well, I never have." Damon pointed out. He heard Elena zip up her overnight bag and knew that conversation time was over. Just because he told her he was 100% cool with her going away with another guy, he still had to point out that Elena was his. That she always would be and that no one would ever come between them. He heard her footsteps on the stairs and grinned when she came into view.
"I'm so sorry that took so long. I slept in this morning." She apologized, making a bee line over to Damon.
"That's fine. I was just talking with Damon here." Anthony brushed it off.
"Okay." She smiled before turning to Damon.
"I made you coffee." He said moving the cup in front of her face.
"Yes! I love you, you know that." She whispered.
"I know that." He assured her.
"Good, I mean who else would make me coffee first thing in the morning? Especially when I am certain that there were places you'd rather be and things you'd rather be doing." She whispered trailing off towards the end.
"If you're not careful I'll take you back to bed right now, and then all that morning preparation would be for nothing." He warned her.
"Right, I'm sorry. I really don't have time for that. You're still okay with this right?" She asked tenderly, running her hand down his chest slowly.
"I'm fine with it Elena. You don't have to keep asking me. I only ask that you find a way to call me tonight, I want to be able to hear your voice." He told her.
"I'll find a way to talk to you tonight. I promise." She vowed reaching up to press a lingering kiss on his lips.
"Are you ready to go Elena?" Anthony asked.
"Yeah. Let's go." She said picking up her overnight bag and coffee.
"I'll walk you to the car." Damon said taking her hand and walking beside her outside.
"Is it any consolation that I'm going to miss you like crazy?" Elena asked softly as Anthony got in on the drivers side to give them a bit of privacy.
"I'm going to miss you too, but you better get going." He said opening her door for her before kissing her quickly. He didn't deepen it and she had to admit she was slightly disappointed.
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow at the lake house." She told him kissing him once more before climbing into the passenger seat.
"Ready to go?" Anthony asked once Elena was buckled in her seat.
"Yep." She sighed, already missing Damon. She knew it was sad that she missed him so soon, but in reality they hadn't spent a single night apart since her attack. It was going to physically hurt her to be apart for him for 24 hours but she reconciled that she was helping her friend out and that was a good thing.
"So Damon is quite possessive of you isn't he?" Anthony asked trying to make conversation as they hit the highway.
"Why would you say that?" She asked curiously. He hadn't displayed any possessive actions that she had noticed.
"Just the way he was talking this morning. He said he'd kill anyone who tried to take you from him. I can't say I blame him but it came as as a bit of a shock considering how even tempered he has always seemed to me." Anthony pointed out.
"I wasn't aware of that." Elena said with a small smile on her face.
"Why are you smiling?" He asked confused, sneaking a glance at her.
"He is jealous. I'm so happy." Elena cheered.
"Why does that make you happy?" Anthony asked getting more confused by the second.
"It's hard to explain. But I thought he was completely fine with me going away with you, it sort of upset me though I didn't show it that he didn't say no. Or he didn't act jealous or moody about the whole thing. I didn't like it because I knew how I would feel if he had to do this for a female friend he had, which he doesn't have any of. I would have been sick with jealousy and I don't think I would have let him go. I guess it just made me feel weaker than him, and it made me feel like I was more invested in our relationship. It's stupid." Elena explained.
"Did you tell him that?" Anthony asked.
"No, I couldn't. I thought he was good with me going, and I didn't want to start a fight with him. But now that I know he has some lingering jealousy, I'm so much happier. Even though I am sorry he threatened to kill you." She told her friend.
"I probably would too, so it's not a big deal."Anthony assured Elena.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Damon picked up the phone and dialled Ric's number. Alaric answered on the third ring.
"Get to the Grill, it's drinking time." Damon said through the phone with no greeting.
"Damon it's only 10am. It's too early to drink." Alaric said.
"Its never too early to drink. Come, Elena's gone overnight and I want to hang with my drinking buddy." Damon stated.
"Are you going to give me the option?" Alaric asked.
"Nope, hurry up and get your ass to the Grille. I'll see you in a few, best man." He muttered before hanging up the phone without a single pleasantry. Damon knew that since he pulled the best man card, Alaric would be there. Alaric was beyond excited to be the best man at the wedding and Damon honestly liked seeing his friend so happy. Damon walked into the local hangout and saw Alaric already at the bar.
"You're here before me." He noted.
"Yep, you pulled the best man card. I'm putty in your hands when you do that." Alaric stated dryly.
"Good to know." Damon nodded with a smirk on his face. The bartender placed a glass of bourbon in front of Damon and he took a quick gulp of the smooth liquid.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Last time I was here, I got engaged." Elena recalled happily when they passed the city limit line.
"Speaking of engaged, you should probably take off your ring. We'll be at my mom and dad's house soon." Anthony told her.
"Oh. I suppose you're right." Elena said pulling her ring off her hand and undoing the chain around her neck. She slipped the ring onto the chain and did it back up again as Anthony made a left then two rights turning into a nice residential area.
"This is where I grew up." Anthony said when he parked in front of a nice two story house.
"It's nice." Elena responded appraising the house. It was nowhere near as grand as the Boarding House, but it was nice in it's own way.
"Thanks." Anthony said as the front door opened revealing a tall skinny middle aged man and a short and chubby middle aged woman. "There's my mom and dad. Come on Elena." He said absolutely beaming. Elena smiled and opened her car door before the woman came running down the stairs.
"You must be Elena. I'm so happy you could make it. Anthony has told us so much about you. Please call me Gwen." She said throwing her arms around Elena as if she had known her for far longer than she actually had.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm Elena." She greeted, staring at Anthony over his moms shoulder.
"Come on in. Lunch is almost ready. We'll serve it when Travis gets here. My younger son is always late." Gwen babbled with her arm around Elena's shoulder. She followed behind the older woman as Anthony and his dad followed behind them.
"Mother, this is Elena. Anthony's girlfriend, isn't she pretty? I never imagined she would be so gorgeous." Gwen enthused.
"Nice to meet you Elena. I am Anthony's grandmother. You can call me Grandma." She told Elena offering her her hand.
"Oh." Elena muttered still staring at Anthony. It was starting to feel like they knew she was coming far longer than Elena herself did. She was wondering just what Anthony told them.
"Sit sit. Lunch should be served straight away. Travis is always late since he emancipated himself and moved in with this group of other young men." Gwen muttered. Elena's head snapped up and hoped that it wasn't the same Travis that she knew. That would really complicate matters. She was starting to get a bad feeling about Anthony's motives on this trip, but she couldn't prove anything and in her mind he was innocent until proven guilty. Everyone heard the front door open.
"Never worry Travis is here." A voice called into the dining room as the door shut again and he walked into the dining room.
"You are late darling." Gwen chastised her son.
"Sorry mom. Now where is the infamous girlfriend of Anthony?" He asked. Elena tried to make herself smaller in her chair. How was it possible that Jeremy's roommate was Anthony's brother? This was not good.
"Elena?" He questioned, his eyes locking on hers.
"Uh hi Travis." Elena whispered. Everyone at the table looked curiously between the two.
"You're dating my brother?" He asked confused.
"Uh..." She started not sure of how to answer. If she said yes, Travis would go back to Jeremy, tell him that she was which would get back to Mystic Falls and her parents. It would be hard to explain to all of them what was going on. If she said no then she was essentially throwing Anthony under the bus. She had no idea which was the best way to go.
"If I remember correctly, you were talking to Jeremy on the phone yesterday and were telling him about all sorts of wedding plans and how happy you are. Are you cheating on your fiancee?" He asked baffled.
"Uh?" She said again hoping he'd just drop it.
"You are aren't you? I have half a mind to call Jeremy right now and tell him you're cheating on Damon. But then again I sort of think you're not really cheating on him. I remember the weekend the two of you were here and how in love you were with him. I think there's something else going on." He mused.
"Alright alright, I'm not really dating Anthony. I'm engaged to be married to the best man I have ever met. The man I'm passionately in love with. I'm just here to help Anthony through this. He asked me to pretend to be his girlfriend so that no one here would bother him about still not having a girlfriend. That's all this is." Elena explained. Anthony was staring at her with a mix of hurt and betrayal evident in his gaze as he walked out. Travis looked at her with understanding and everyone else at the table looked at her completely confused. Anthony got up and walked out the door slamming it on his way.
"Anthony told me about you two almost a month ago. Are you saying you've never dated?" Gwen asked.
"He told you we were dating a month ago?" Elena asked outraged.
"Yes. It's not true?" She asked sadly.
"No it's definitely not true." Elena muttered taking the chain off her neck and putting her engagement ring back where it belonged.
"This is awful, I never thought that Anthony would ever lie to us about something like this."Gwen sighed.
"Mom, I've seen her and her fiancee together, they are the real deal." Travis shot in, still standing on the sidelines of the drama.
"How?" Gwen asked softly.
"Jeremy is her brother and my best friend slash roommate." Travis explained.
"I have to talk to Anthony and call my fiancee and see if he can pick me up." Elena sighed standing up and grabbing her purse and overnight bag from where she stashed it by the door.
Elena found Anthony leaning against the railing of the balcony and she walked right up to him.
"We can still salvage this Elena. I have an idea." Anthony said smiling again until he saw the expression on her face and her bag by her feet.
"Damon is coming to get me. I texted him before I came outside." Elena stated coldly.
"Why would you do that? Elena I said we can still fix this. We just have to tell my mom and dad that you're slightly delusional about the state of your broken engagement. I'll talk to my brother and beg him to keep quiet about what he knows." Anthony bargained.
"No. Your mom told me that you told her we were dating a month ago. That is so far from the truth, you have only ever been my friend. I don't know if you can even be that now." Elena stated.
" You can't just cut me off Elena. You can't do that. We're friends, I'm trying to help you!" He insisted. Elena watched over her shoulder as Travis came to stand on the balcony to step in if he needed to. It was his job as her brothers best friend. If Jeremy wasn't around he had to make sure no one hurt her.
"How are you trying to help me? Because I don't see it." She yelled.
"Your fiancee isn't human Elena. I've had my suspicions for quite some time, and the people I've talked to on the council validated my suspicion. I'm trying to save you from him. You belong here with me and if you stay you'll realize that." He shouted.
"I know about Damon okay. I know about him and I'm fine with it. He's the only reason I'm alive right now, so shut up about him being dangerous to me. He's not. I belong in Mystic Falls with him, that's where I will always belong. There's nothing you can say that will convince me otherwise." Elena stated crossing her arms.
"I'm in love with you Elena. I have been since you walked into the office on your first day. You belong with me. You and I both know it." He hissed.
"That's a lie and you know it Anthony. Damon will be here soon." Elena said glancing at the clock. He texted her when he left saying he would be there in about 45 minutes considering his ability to drive at WAY above the speed limit.
"It's a 2 hour drive, he'll be a while yet." Anthony stated.
"Like you said he's inhuman. He has faster reflexes therefore he can drive at way above the speed limit." She hissed.
"Whoa, what do you mean inhuman?" Travis asked from behind them.
"Exactly what it means. Damon isn't human. He's a vampire, please don't tell Jeremy." She begged.
"A vampire? That honestly makes a bit of sense when I think about it. It explains how he was able to drink as much as he did and how he hit every shot. Jackass cheated." Travis whined.
"Damon never willingly enters into a bet that he know he can't win. Especially when I'm the prize." Elena laughed.
"Understandable." Travis laughed. Elena's phone vibrated and she grinned when she saw the message.
"He'll be here in 10 minutes." Elena cheered.
"That's good. Well all in all this was the best family gathering I've been too in a long time. Guaranteed grandma and Anthony aren't too happy though." Travis murmured.
A few minutes later Elena saw the blue Camaro park in front of the house.
"He has a kick ass car you know that?" Travis whispered to Elena.
"I know, he knows it too. Elena said as Damon got out of the car to meet her.
"Ready to go?" He asked bending down to kiss her quickly.
"Yeah, lets go." She said. "Travis, tell Jer I said hi."
"Will do." Travis said as Elena followed Damon to his car. He tossed her overnight bag into the backseat and opened the door for her. She smiled and slipped in before he walked around to the other side and slid into the seat, gunning the engine and speeding away.
"Care to tell me why I had to leave Ric at the bar and come and rescue you?" He asked.
"Anthony's an asshole. He only wanted me there so he could badmouth you and try to get me to fall in love in love with him. I'm done with him." Elena stated angrily.
"Huh." Damon answered unsure of what else to say.
"So you were a little jealous that I was coming here without you?" Elena pointed out after driving in silence for a couple minutes.
"Why would you say that?" He asked without taking his eyes off the road.
"Anthony told me you threatened to kill him this morning." Elena said eyeing him.
"Not necessarily. I told him that I would kill for you more or less. We both know I would, I already have." He said.
"I know, but I don't think death is necessary for Anthony's transgressions." Elena told him.
"I know, I'm sure I'll survive not being able to mindlessly murder someone, though it will be hard." Damon sighed.
"I know you will, if you find yourself weakening, I'll help you get through it unscathed." Elena promised dramatically.
"Good, what would I do without you?" He asked.
"You'll never find out." Elena promised him.
"I'm sorry for being jealous." He said, deciding to apologize.
"I liked it. It made me happy knowing you were trying to hide your crazy from me. I was happy knowing you weren't quite as okay with this as you said you were." Elena told him.
"It made you happy that I was jealous?" He asked.
"Yes. Well it's more that now I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're as into this thing we have as I am. I know for a fact that it would have killed me if you would have left town with another girl, but you were fine with it. It was making me crazy." She told him.
"If it makes you happy I was insanely jealous. That's why I called Ric and forced him to come out with me. I had to have company or else I would have come and found you, taking you away from there and bringing you home. I'm a possessive asshole, but you knew that already." He joked.
"So, how fast can you get us home?" She asked curiously.
"Let's find out shall we?" He suggested, gunning the engine causing the car to race down the highway towards Mystic Falls.