Thank you Courtney for your fabulous beta skills. Even the smallest additions or changes she makes, makes the story so much better. We're nearing the end now. There are three chapters left plus the epilogue. I can't believe we're almost at the end. It's been a wild ride and I've loved every second of writing it.
"God damn fucking jerk Grayson fucking Gilbert... trying to ruin my fucking life." Damon muttered under his breath when he and Elena finally walked through the front door of the Boarding House a couple days later.
"Would you stop your muttering! It wasn't that bad." Elena commanded.
"We did not have sex for two whole fucking days Elena." He told her holding up two fingers to demonstrate.
"If you can't handle two days without sex then you have a problem that should be discussed in therapy." Elena noted.
"I do not need therapy, what I do need is to have constant use of your sexy body almost whenever I need it, just like you need to have constant use of my body." He explained to her.
"What are you going to do the week before our wedding then dear?" Elena asked softly.
"What about the week before our wedding? I wasn't informed that anything was going to change during the week prior to our wedding." Damon demanded not liking where this conversation was going.
"Oh right I forgot to tell you about that..." Elena trailed off tapping her chin with her forefinger.
"Forgot to tell me about what?" He asked his voice tight.
"Honey, my mom and I discussed this last night when we went for a walk. She was thinking that we shouldn't have sex for the last month before our wedding, you know to make the day a little more special..." She started.
"Elena... No." He told her stopping her.
"Shush. I told her no to the month but she made me agree to a sex free week before the wedding. She makes a good point, the wedding night will be so much more memorable. Besides we're not going to have a whole lot of time the last week before the wedding since we have to finalize so much stuff. We won't even have time for sex, so it won't be that bad." Elena defended her decision while Damon stared at her with his mouth ajar. His eyes were wide and he looked completely terrified.
"Don't you love me at all?" He asked when he recovered use of his mouth.
"I love you so much, that is why we have to do this." She told him caressing his face.
"Which is why you're trying to kill me... makes so much sense." He drawled, rolling his eyes.
"I'm not trying to kill you. I am trying to make our wedding the best night of our lives, the sex included." She defended.
"Oh no... you're going to make me self combust." He told her.
"You're not going to self-combust. Just because we can't have sex doesn't mean that masturbation isn't allowed. There should be no reason why you're desperate for sex. If you're turned on... masturbate." She told him.
"But I don't want to masturbate. I want to be inside you." He told her.
"Relax honey... we still have a couple weeks before we have to go through that sex free hiatus." She assured him kissing his lips quickly.
"Well then I say we head on upstairs and make up for this weekend..." He told her taking her hand and pulling her to the stairs.
"I would love too Damon... but I have things to do today." She demurred.
"Elena... no." He said raising his eyebrows.
"Damon... yes. Tonight, when I get home." She assured him kissing his cheek.
"Ugh sometimes I really hate you." Damon whined as he walked into the parlour and pouring himself a stiff drink.
"You love me. If you didn't love me you wouldn't have given me your ring." She told him smirking. Damon muttered something under his breath but Elena didn't catch it and she didn't care too. She knew it was more whining and such coming from her clearly sex deprived fiancee.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4 days before the wedding
"So Ric and I are heading to Richmond to pick up my tuxedo. I'll see you in a few hours." Damon told Elena as she lay on the bed flipping through her checklist clipped to a clipboard, several sex deprived days later.
"Okay, I'll check that off of the list. Thank you for being so good about the no sex thing the past couple of days." Elena told him.
"I'm not happy about it but if it will make you happy then I'm happy too." He sighed rolling his eyes.
"I'm not happy about being sex free but I am happy about marrying you in four days." She whispered moving up onto her knees and crawling over to him. He stood in front of the bed and placed his hands on her hips as she moved up so she could kiss him. As usual with their kisses, things heated up quick. He let it go on for a couple minutes before he gently pushed her away.
"If you don't want me to break my promise then you have to let me go right now." He warned her.
"Okay. I'll see you in a few hours." She said returning to her spot on the bed beside her clipboard.
"See you later. Don't work too hard while I'm gone." He told her as he left the room. If he was in the room with her any longer than he would probably give up and take her.
When Damon got downstairs Alaric was waiting in the living room.
"That didn't take as long as I thought it would." Alaric noted.
"Of course not because I have self control. I do not need to fuck every time I'm alone in our bedroom with her." Damon retorted.
"It's been three days since you last had sex Damon. How are you dealing with it?" Alaric teased.
"Easy... I masturbate to me and Elena on a sex tape. It's a couple thing. Her mom said no sex but she didn't say anything about mutual masturbation." Damon smirked.
"That is sick and disturbing." Alaric muttered.
"So far it's been effective." Damon argued as he walked to the front door with Alaric following behind him.
"Care to explain why you needed me to come to Richmond with you?" Alaric asked.
"I didn't feel like going alone so I invited you. End of story. Also since you're coming with and you hate it when I compel cops out of giving me speeding tickets, therefore I have to drive the speed limit. Now the trip will take longer." Damon explained.
"Why would you want the trip to take longer?" Alaric asked baffled.
"Because... I need more time out of the house. I don't know how much more I can take with her walking around in the house in skimpy shorts and tank tops." Damon admitted.
"Ah I thought your whole mutual masturbation thing was working out for you?" Alaric joked.
"It is for the most part. It's not as bad as I thought it would be but there are still difficult periods." Damon explained.
"Well at least you're not forced to partake in all the planning for the wedding." Alaric said.
"This is so true. Thank God for all the female friends and family Elena has." Damon muttered.
"You're the luckiest groom in all of the world." Alaric agreed as they hit the highway.
After Elena got off the phone with her mom she walked into the kitchen to make herself a sandwich. All this wedding planning was getting tiresome, at least in a few days it would all be behind her and she would be married to the man she was so in love with. She glanced at her watch and smiled, Damon and Ric should be in Richmond by now picking up the tuxedo. She couldn't wait until he was home, everything about this wedding was going so good and she wanted to celebrate with him in their new and improved way. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and sent him a quick text message.
Hurry home ;)
She knew he would know what it meant and would hurry home. They could be together soon with the way he was capable of driving. She smiled and took another bite of her turkey sandwich when the phone started ringing. She quickly swallowed and walked over to the phone seeing the caterers number on the phone.
"Hello?" She answered the phone.
"Hello, Miss Gilbert can I talk to you for a moment?" The man asked apology clear in his voice.
"Is something the matter?" Elena asked worried officially. It was never good when someone called four days before the wedding.
"Yes, I'm sorry about having to call you out of the blue like this. But it seems we have double-booked you for your wedding." He said apologetically.
"What does this mean now?" Elena asked.
"For me it means losing a valued customer only four days before the event. I have never been so careless before to double book a client." The man continued.
"But what does it mean for my wedding. You're still catering for us right?" She asked not having a good feeling about this.
"I'm sorry Miss Gilbert. The other event was booked by a dear friend of mine for his mothers birthday." The man said his voice soft.
"So you're going to cater for a fucking birthday party instead of my wedding? When did they book, it had better be before I did." Elena demanded.
"Actually they only book two weeks ago but since it was a family friend I had no choice but to choose them." He said.
"Did you know you were double booking us?" She asked outraged but trying to keep her voice level.
"No of course not. But when I realized I did it, I had no choice who I had to choose." He told her.
"What if I was able to convince whoever's party this was to reschedule? Could I have my day back?" Elena asked.
"Of course. I'll give you his number and name." The caterer told Elena relieved that she was being somewhat pleasant.
"Good." Elena told him grabbing a pad of paper.
"On second thought just go to his office and request to see Anthony Carlyle. He works at the Mystic Falls newspaper." The caterer told her and Elena saw red.
"Great, I will go talk to him." Elena said hanging up the phone abruptly.
The drive to the office was quick and Elena stormed into the office.
"Hey Elena... you're not supposed to be back until after your honeymoon." Chelsey said surprised to see her in there.
"I need to talk to Anthony. He's is in such deep shit." Elena hissed as she walked through the double doors towards Anthony's office. Everyone watched her curiously not daring to stop her when she was so clearly on a mission. Either because they could see the look in her eyes or the speed of her step, either way they weren't doing much to stop her. She pounded on Anthony's door a couple times and Dennis opened it.
"Oh, hi Dennis. I need to talk to him if you don't mind. It's very very important." Elena said.
"Oh, sure. I'll finish with him later. I look forward to the wedding in four days." Dennis said.
"If I don't get this dealt with there isn't going to be a wedding in four days." Elena hissed as Dennis's head snapped to look at her.
"What are you talking about?" Dennis asked.
"This son of a bitch sniped my caterer, dubbing himself a friend of the fucking family in order to cause me to lose my caterer." She yelled.
"Is this true?" Dennis asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Anthony laughed.
"Oh yes you do. The caterer gave me your name. Just give me my caterer back and we'll all be good." Elena told him.
"I can't do that. After-all it is my moms birthday." He said.
"Is it really your moms birthday or are you doing this to just fuck with my wedding?" Elena asked.
"It's really my moms birthday although granted I could have celebrated it any day. It didn't have to be that day. That part was purely to mess with you. But it could have went wrong so easily. The caterer could have remembered your wedding being pencilled in and told me that I couldn't have that day. " Anthony said smirking. Dennis looked between the two of them and sighed.
"Are you really going to ruin her wedding?" Dennis asked knowing there was nothing he could do about it.
"She broke my heart I may as well return the favour." Anthony shrugged.
"I've been planning every last detail of this wedding for months now!" Elena cried.
"I'm sorry Elena..." He said without an ounce of sympathy.
"You and I were never friends." She hissed as she bit back tears and rushed out of there. Her wedding was officially ruined.
When Elena got home she walked inside and straight up the stairs. She immediately started the water in the free standing tub before stripping out of her clothes. She knew she had to call Damon and tell him that they wouldn't be getting married but she couldn't bring herself to pick up the phone. The water was scalding hot and she finally let her tears fall. She opted out of calling him, knowing he would be home soon. She could tell him them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When we get back to my house, you are going home immediately. I have a needy fiancee." Damon said when they passed through the city limits of Mystic Falls.
"Fine fine. I really don't want to be around for mutual masturbation." Alaric agreed.
"I didn't think you would." Damon said when he parked in front of the house Alaric immediately got into his car and Damon walked inside draping his tuxedo over the banister and rushing up the stairs. He went into the bedroom expecting to find her in bed but he heard a soft sob come from the bathroom.
"What's wrong?" Damon asked when he walked into the bathroom to find her crying.
"We can't get married in four days. We have to cancel the wedding." Elena cried.
"What happened? What can I do to help?" He asked kneeling beside the bathtub and clasping her face in his hands as he brushed away her tears.
"The caterer double booked us. He's helping the other family instead. It's all Anthony's fault." She cried.
"What do you mean it's Anthony's fault?" He asked disdain for the little human oozing from his pores.
"He knew when the wedding was so he planned his moms birthday party for the same day. He set out to steal my caterer because he knew it would ruin the wedding." She cried.
"What can I do to help?" He asked running his hands through her hair and fastening it for her on top of her head so the bubbles in the bath wouldn't get in her hair.
"There's nothing that can be done. It's ruined. All my hard work... down the drain." She sighed.
"No it's not. I guarantee we're getting married on Friday. I'll be back." He said standing up and wiping his hands on the front of his jeans.
"Where are you going?" She asked wiping some tears from her eyes. When she needed him, he was walking out even though he said it was to save the wedding.
"I am going to make sure we have lots of food for the wedding." Damon said walking out of the bathroom. Elena heard him shut the door as he left the house.
Damon first drove to Grayson and Miranda's to ask them for help. They warmly invited him in and he sat down at the table.
"So I need your help with the wedding. Our caterer fell through and it's too late to get a replacement. If we don't have food our wedding is more or less ruined. Let's just say Elena is not taking it well. She's sitting in the bathtub crying." Damon explained.
"What can we do?" Miranda asked not willing to let her only daughters wedding get ruined.
"Any sort of food you can bring and anyone you can rally to cook for us would be great. I'll make up a few dishes the morning of the wedding and hire or compel some people to cook it for me while the ceremony is happening." Damon said.
"Well we will bring a variety of salads, a roast and a ham. My mother will bring her famous scalloped potatoes and I'll ask Jenna to bring her marshmallow jello salad. You don't want to let her do anymore than that." Miranda inserted.
"Thank you so much. That would be great. I can't let this be ruined for Elena, she has put so much work into this." Damon said.
"I know. Ask Ric, I'm sure he'll help out. Maybe go see Matt at the Grill he could probably provide some stuff as well. You can ask Jeremy but I'm not sure what kind of time he'll have. Bonnie and Caroline will do whatever they have to since they're the bridesmaids." Miranda told him.
"Thanks." Damon said typing a quick "help" message to Jeremy, Bonnie, and Caroline before getting into his car and driving to Ric's.
"That was quick." Alaric said smirking when he let Damon in.
"I need your help jackass." Damon muttered.
"With?" Alaric said just as Jenna walked into the house.
"Oh Damon I'm so happy you're here. I will make whatever you want me to make to save your wedding." Jenna promised earning herself a dubious glance from Alaric.
"Thank you Jenna, although Miranda said it was only safe to leave you alone with Jello and marshmallows. Alaric on the other hand, as my best man you have to help me out. What can you cook?" Damon asked
"I make a mean spaghetti and meatballs. I'm also capable of mashing potatoes." Alaric answered.
"Good. Do both of those. Spaghetti may be an odd addition but beggars cannot be choosers." Damon said as he walked to the door.
"Where are you going?" Alaric asked.
"The Grill. I need to talk to Matt. I need to see if the Grill is able to help at all. All our beverages are safe, the bartender is helping with everything including non-alcoholic drinks." Damon explained as he walked to his car. When he got to the Grill he walked in and found Matt at the bar.
"I need your help with the wedding. Our caterer fell through and we need anything anyone can offer us." Damon said without preamble.
"What can I do?" Matt asked knowing how much the wedding meant to Elena.
"Anything." Damon said
"Well there is a turkey in the freezer that I could probably get away with taking. I can also supply chicken fingers and fries which I know isn't much but it's a start." Matt offered.
"Thank you." Damon said leaving again. He knew he wasn't being overly polite but he was doing the best he could. After two very annoyed text messages from Bonnie and Caroline and a helpful one from Jeremy, Damon headed home confident that he saved the wedding. Caroline was bringing a spinach salad because she was certain that's all she'd have time for with all her maid of honour duties and Bonnie was bringing perogies. Jeremy offered to bring a couple fruit and vegetable platters for which Damon was happy. On the day of the wedding Damon decided he would stop by the supermarket an pick up a couple meat trays for the people who liked nibbling on things throughout the night.
Once the car was parked he walked inside and up the stairs. He walked back into the bedroom and Elena was still in the tub.
"You're still in there?" He asked.
"I drained the water when it got cold but then got right back in. I didn't want to get out." Elena explained. Damon stood up and slowly stripped out of his clothes so he could climb into the tub with her. She raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything.
"So did you manage to fix everything?" She asked when he was settled in the tub with her.
"Do I ever disappoint?" He asked.
"No." Elena said although she still wasn't completely certain that he could have fixed the mess they were in.
"Let's just say you have the best family and friends on the planet." He told her lacing their fingers together and kissing her hand.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"We are going to have a feast the beats all feasts at our wedding. There is absolutely nothing to worry about." Damon assured her.
"You got us a wedding supper?" She asked.
"I did. You have nothing to worry about." He told her reaching across the tub to kiss her quickly. She threaded her hands through his hair and held on tight. He could feel himself twitch under the water and knew he had to stop this before it progressed any further. When he tried to move away she moved with him until she was straddling his hips.
"Elena..." He murmured the question clear in his voice.
"No one needs to know." She answered as she lowered herself onto his length and immediately started moving. He thrust up as she sank down. Since neither of them had had sex in three days it didn't last long. Only a few minutes later they were both coming. Elena collapsed against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her.
"I love you so much." Elena sighed against his chest.
"I love you too. I wouldn't have went through that for anyone else." He told her
"I know. I'm so lucky to have you. You single-handedly saved our wedding." She told him.
"Well I'm glad that I had someone I would do something like that for. You are worth that an so much more." He promised her.
"Thank you. I can't wait to marry you." She breathed.
"Only four more days." He assured her with a smile on his face. "And you'll finally be Mrs. Salvatore."