Chapter 3

Damon POV

God he was nervous. At his insistence, he arrived at the location first. He was picked up at the airport and transported to a quaint rustic lake house in the middle of nowhere. The cabin was several miles down a dirt road and totally isolated save for a lake in the back.

As a 'fuck you' to Stefan and his all knowing laughter these past few days, he had insisted they use Mystic Falls and the old Salvatore lake house for the reality show. Stefan had gone belly up finding it out while their 'uncle' Zach had snorted and reminded him of his vervain collection he'd be sure to give the poor girl.

Some family!

The suits kept assuring him that no one would know of their location. That they were completely safe and were provided with every comfort they could want, not to mention the endless supply of food and toiletries that were provided for them.

He was given a grand tour by the suits. They showed him where all of the hidden cameras were in and out of the cabin and stressed again that if he and Bella wanted to leave they could, but only with advanced notice so they could get some cameramen out to follow them around in town.

The network provided a big black SUV to drive when these trips to town happened.

Damon didn't plan on leaving the cabin anytime soon. While it would be great if he could rattle Stefan's life a bit, he wasn't enough of an asshole to do it. However he might be able to turn into a raven and fly away to get snacks.

He had a bitter feeling he'd hunt for brunettes and being back home certainly brought back memories. The view was spectacular to say the least as lush, rich trees surrounded the cabin, tall mountains were behind the lake house with the deep lake in front of it with its blue-green waters.

He had lived in this same lake house as a child for the weekends. He and Stefan had spent a lot of time sitting on one of the comfortable lawn chairs, gazing out at the view while their mother cooked for them as father would read them stories. Before everything changed.

Being here again would be an ideal place for him to be creative and write songs while he took in the fresh air and spectacular view.

And what a view it was...

He watched the object of his late night fantasies walk gracefully into the front room and look around.

The photograph Damon had of her didn't do her justice.

That perfectly tousled hair looked silky and shiny under the florescent lights. Her skin still had that peaches and cream complexion that looked soft to the touch. Her lean body looked good in a tight red t-shirt and naughty loose-just enough jeans, only now Damon could see that sweetly rounded ass that those jeans seemed to hug in all the right places.

Damon felt his black leather pants tighten. He shifted and hoped that it wasn't too obvious. It's bad enough he lost the only woman he loved and he'd lose the option of fresh food every night.

He refused to lose his leather pants too.

Bella's face lit up with a sunny smile and she walked with an easy grace to him. I am so fucked. He thought, as he tried to muster a smile.

Bella POV

Bella's heart beat strongly within her chest as she looked at the handsome man standing before her. Throughout the ride up here, she found herself feeling nervous and antsy.

She didn't want to give Damon and the entire world a bad first impression, so she'd listened to the soft soothing music of Enya on the way to the cabin. She practiced some deep breathing exercises to keep her nervousness under control, but all of her efforts were blown to Hell as soon as she pulled her shiny red '69 Volkswagen Beetle in the circular driveway.

The show's producers had wanted to transport her to the location in a limo, but Bella knew he couldn't be apart from her baby for eight weeks. Not to mention Charlie would have a coronary if she was locked in here with a man and no way out. She already fought with Jake to not invite himself in any shape or form and live in the woods around the cabin.

She had let Jessica and Angela drag her along to the audition along back in LA but had lost her bearings when the producer had cornered her in the cafeteria where Jessica worked.

As soon as Bella had found out he'd been chosen to be the roommate she'd been far less than thrilled. In fact she had replied with a resounding 'no'. Until Jessica let it slip to Lauren who blabbed it on to everyone in Forks. When she had returned from work Bella saw her friends had accepted on her behalf.

Deciding she didn't want to remain a sous chef forever, she went on with it. While million dollars were just too much money, it'd go to a good place if it meant opening the restaurant she always dreamed off.

When she walked through the front door, Bella barely took notice of her new home. Her eyes immediately found Damon's from across the room. Those almost icy blue looked deeply into her own brown ones and she fought a shiver of delight. As usual, Damon's trademark smirk was in place and for a moment she felt as if she was gazing at Edward again. She felt a shiver go down her spine and rubbed gently at the bite on her wrist and the charm bracelet that covered it renewing her mental vow to call on the dogs if something happened.

With a shake of her head she put a mental lid on those thoughts. Edward had been gone for four years without a backwards glance and there was nothing to suggest that Damon was a vampire. No red eyes, no golden eyes, no sparkles, no paleness.

"Grow up Bella"

She chided herself glancing around suddenly remembering the cameras around them. Bella's heart beat faster as Damon's smirk rose more and she walked up with shaky legs to him and offered up what she hoped was a steady hand.

"Hi, I'm Bella Swan, I'll be your roomie for the next couple of months"

She managed to croak out, with what he hoped was a strong, steady voice. Damon looked at her and smiled, making those icy blue seem to light up from within and his face transformed from being stoically handsome, to breathtakingly beautiful.

Bella felt herself twitch with interest. Seems like Edward hadn't broken for all vampires or humans after all.

Damon reached out and clasped his long fingered hand around hers. Damon's hand was warm and slightly rough and felt so good swallowing her own smaller, delicate one.

"Damon Salvatore, it's nice to meet you too."

That famous deep melodic voice washed over her making her shiver with delight.

Damon let go of his hand and Bella immediately felt its loss. She mustered up what he hoped was a cheerful smile, took a step back from Damon and forced himself to look away and briefly scan the open front room.

"You want a drink? There's a spectacular view from the back porch. We could sit for a while"

Damon said as he turned around and walked toward the bar in the lounge. Between that tight black t-shirt and those leather pants, Bella had to force himself to breath normally. How in the hell was she going to survive this for the next eight weeks?

"I don't really drink; do you have any coffee instead?"

She followed Damon into the kitchen and walked over to the stainless steel sink to wash her hands in cold water. Maybe the cold water would tamper her down.

"How do you like your coffee?"

"Lots of sugar and cream, please. I'm afraid I have something of a sweet tooth"

Bella stated as he reached to the faucet and turned off the cold water. He grabbed a paper towel off the rack by the sink and quickly dried his hands. tossing the towel in a nearby trash can she turned around to face Damon.

Damon had negligently leaned that delicious ass against the counter. His well-toned arms were crossed in front of his chest as he watched Bella through light eyes.

They stared wordlessly at one another for a few moments.

Bella looked down, breaking eye contact with Damon as her cheeks filled with blood. He glanced around the kitchen and managed to summon up a smile.

"Nice kitchen. Can you cook? I love to cook! I have to warn you though, I have no concept of the word 'limit' so I'll cook for an army"

She blabbered before she clamped her mouth shut and mimicked Damon's stance and leaned her hip against the edge of the sink. Damon shrugged as he reached and handed Bella the dark green coffee filled mug.

"I don't cook. I burn things. Last time I tried to cook something, I set off every smoke alarm in my house and almost burned my baby brother"

Damon laughed, Bella's eyes widened in shock. God, even his laugh was gorgeous. Bella found herself easily laughing with Damon and suddenly felt more relaxed by the easy camaraderie that seemed to be forming between them.

"I take it you eat a lot of take-out then?"

"That would be a safe bet"

was Damon's cryptic answer. Bella grinned at Damon and took a sip of his hot coffee. Damon must have taken his sweet tooth statement seriously because it had a lot of sugar and cream just like she liked it.

"Wanna sit on the back deck for a while?"

Bella nodded and followed Damon out of the kitchen and through the living room, until they reached a glass door. Damon slid it open and they walked out into the warm sunshine. Taking a covert glance at him Bella let a relieved sigh when no sparkling appeared.

There was hope for her yet.

Damon sat on a brown and rust colored cushioned lawn chair and Bella sat in the one next to him. Bella forced her eyes away from Damon's gaze and looked at the lush greenery of the forest around them. There was a gentle breeze and the soft sounds of birds chirping and singing in the background or as they dove in the lake water.

It was spectacular, but not as spectacular as the sexy man sitting beside her.

Bella took another sip of her coffee and leaned back against the soft cushion of the chair. She crossed her legs and sat his mug on the wooden flooring beside her.

"Tell me about yourself, Bella."

She looked at Damon and was once again captivated by those eyes.

"Well, I'm afraid I'm not as exciting as the crowd you're probably used to hanging out with,"

She joked as she tried to get her thoughts together. The sight of the small black microphone tucked in to the neckline of her t-shirt

"Let me be the judge of that."

She looked at Damon and raised her eyebrows questionably. Damon raised his own black eyebrow back, but his face remained stoic.

Bella pushed a stray lock of her highlighted hair away from her eyes and took a deep breath. Letting her fingers play with the charm bracelet she shrugged.

"As you already know my name is Isabella Swan. I'm twenty two, my parents divorced when I was too little to know what a divorce is and my mom took me with her to Phoenix. When she got married I decided to live with my dad and finish school in Forks. After school was done I moved to LA with my friends for college. I'm single and I have the very best friends a girl could ask for"

Her red tipped fingers played lightly with the wooden wolf charm hanging from her bracelet. Jacob's gift for graduation still hung on her wrist. Taking a sip of her coffee she looked at him.

"One of my passions in life is cooking. In fact, I love cooking so much I work full time in a restaurant in LA. I want to open my own some day."

She took another sip of her coffee and looked at Damon and smiled. Damon continued to watch her with intense dark eyes and smiled back, making the two dimples on each side of his cheeks stand out. God, she had forgotten about the dimples. She was always a sucker for a man with dimples. It was the sole reason she dated Mike in senior year

Bella bit her bottom lip with her top teeth. She really needed to get her libido under control before Damon discovered her attraction to him and kicked her ass.

She really was fucked.