A/N: An update! Thanks to everyone who is subscribing and leaving reviews. It's my own personal crack, hearing from you :)
P.S.: TVD's still not mine, though with the shirtless Damon goodness recently you might assume otherwise ;)
The fifth chapter, in which someone is attracted to someone else
The house was as beautiful from the inside as it was from the outside. The door opened directly into the big living room. A fireplace was built into the northern wall and comfortable couches were placed in a half circle around it. Large windows allowed for a breathtaking view of the beach and the ocean. The room was big enough to also serve as dining room and an enormous dark oak dining table was positioned under an elaborate chandelier. The kitchen was off to the side, as were two single bedrooms that now housed Damon and Bonnie who wanted to be on the first floor to be able to react more quickly to possible intruders. Elena and Vicki shared the master bedroom that was situated on the second floor and offered the best view of the ocean and, facing east, sunlight in the morning. Next-door was a slightly smaller room that had become home to Caroline and the children.
After unpacking everything, Elena sat down on the bed to gather her thoughts. On the one hand she was glad to be out of the house. She didn't feel safe there anymore and she did feel safe here. She trusted Damon and Bonnie to protect her and her children. On the other hand she felt like she had been dropped at the end of the world. The little bay was completely secluded and she hadn't seen any signs of civilization on their way here. Damon had 'confiscated' their cellphones upon leaving the Lockwood estate so they couldn't be traced. She had spotted a landline in the living room but that was it. She was torn between relief at being away from the threat and her life and on the other hand anxiety over what was waiting for her here and how she would deal with this unpredictable situation. She hating not knowing what life had in store for her or what to expect from the next day. Surprises never turned out well for her. She just hoped that this time would be different.
When she walked down the stairs, she noticed Vicki lounging on one of the sofas before the fireplace. Small flames were dancing in the stone hearth and distributed comfortable warmth throughout the big room. The woman was lying across the sofa, leafing through a small book. Elena couldn't hold back a little giggle when she asked, astonishment audible in her voice: "You're reading?"
"There's no TV," Vicki replied offhandedly.
"What'cha reading?" Elena asked, hoping to spark up a conversation, sitting down by her friend's feet.
"I don't know. 'The Awakening' or something, it was on the shelf." She waved towards a couple of bookcases propped up against the wall behind them. "Seems boring though." And with that she dropped the book onto the little side table and turned to look at Elena.
"There's no TV, E! What are we gonna do here for weeks?" Vicki seemed exasperated and they hadn't even gotten through the first night.
"I don't know. Tan? Swim in the sea?" Elena supplied.
"You can only tan so much before you turn into Snooki," Vicki huffed and Elena had to giggle at her friend's antics.
"Where is everyone?" Elena asked.
"Caroline is playing on the beach with the kids. Damon and Bonnie are in the kitchen making dinner," Vicki replied, disinterestedly inspecting her nails.
"They're making dinner?" Elena asked, surprised.
"Well, we gotta eat," Vicki supplied.
"Well yes, I just… I don't know I guess I thought we'd order in or something. It's not their job to cook every night."
"We're trying to stay hidden here. Ordering take-out would kind of defeat that purpose, don't you think?" Vicki argued.
"Of course," Elena agreed. "It's just… I'll talk to Mason about giving them a bonus."
"We should have just taken François," Vicki half complained.
"Just wait till you try Damon's Cannelloni," Bonnie's voice interrupted them. She came in from the kitchen, carrying a pile of plates to set the table.
"We're eating carbs at night now?" Vicki asked of no one in particular. Elena decided to ignore that comment and instead tell her nanny to get the children cleaned up for dinner. When they had disappeared upstairs, she joined Vicki again, who had changed positions and was now leaning in the kitchen-doorway.
"He's even hot when he's being all domestic," Vicki whispered. "Normally that's a big turn off. But he sells it. He makes taking milk out of the refrigerator look sexy." Elena giggled lightly but was startled by Bonnie who tried to squeeze through them to get into the kitchen. Elena felt her cheeks flush at the knowing look and small smile that the female bodyguard threw in their direction. Vicki's obvious leering made her look bad and she felt the need to make it clear that that was not what she herself was doing. Bonnie stepped next to Damon and with a quick move of the head made him aware of the women's presence. He turned around and smiled a winning smile at them.
"Are you settling in okay?" he asked, while tossing a salad.
"Yes, thank you," Elena answered quickly and then, wanting to give a reason for standing in the doorway, added: "I wanted to thank you for letting us stay here and also for having taken it upon yourself to cook for us. It is greatly appreciated. I will talk to my husband about a bonus for you and Miss Bennett." She saw a small smile hush over his face.
"That won't be necessary," he waved her off and then added: "You ladies can just help me prepare dinner tomorrow." And with that he turned back to his salad bowl, his back towards them. Elena didn't miss the little look and smirk that passed between the two Bodyguards. She also didn't miss Vicki's look of shock. She herself couldn't believe he was asking her to cook after the conversation they had had about his enlisting her children for work in the kitchen. On the other hand, they were stuck in a cabin and they didn't have a chef. She knew that it wasn't her bodyguards' job to cook for everyone and that these dire circumstances asked sacrifices from everyone.
"Uhm, of course," she said half-heartedly and gave Vicki an apologetic shrug.
They were sitting at the table and digging into the food. Elena had to agree, the Cannelloni were really spectacular. Only Vicki was sticking to the salad.
"If I'm being made to cook tomorrow, I demand a carb-free dinner," she griped.
"You know, you don't have to abide by everything Paris Hilton does," Damon remarked from the other side of the table. Elena couldn't help but smile, even though she thought it very improper of him to speak to his employer this way.
"Well, this body needs to be maintained," Vicki said while waving her fork nonchalantly in the direction of her torso.
"It also needs to be sustained," Damon retorted with a wink.
"I don't even know if he's insulting me or flirting with me," Vicki said in a stage whisper to Elena, who was sitting next to her.
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of doing either, Mrs. Lockwood," he assured her with a cheeky grin.
"Well, you've insulted me enough for me to know that that is a blatant lie," Vicki replied, the pleasure she felt from the verbal sparring bringing a twinkle to her eyes. "And with all this temptation around," she quickly motioned to the women sitting around the table, "I'm sure you've dreamed of a lot more than flirting." Elena blushed at the directness of her friend's words. She also wondered if he wasn't more of a temptation to Vicki than the four of them combined were to him.
"I don't mix business with pleasure," he replied, leaning back in his chair.
"Really? You spend your days making rich and lonely women feel safe. That's a strong aphrodisiac," Vicki provoked.
"Miss Forbes, what's an afrodijack?" Jeremy asked, trying hard to follow the conversation.
"How about you guys go and play a little? We'll call you for dessert," Elena suggested. The kids weren't happy with this development, but they also knew that their mother's suggestions were never debatable. So they reluctantly got up and scurried upstairs to their room. "These Cannelloni really are delicious," Elena then supplied, hoping it would be enough to steer the conversation in a new direction. Unfortunately Vicki wasn't so easily deterred.
"You've never been tempted?" she asked, a challenging glint in her eyes.
"Never," he answered promptly, looking her straight in the eye.
Damon knew this was a lie. It hadn't been a lie a day ago, but it was now. It was true that in his years as a bodyguard he had had numerous opportunities to start very unprofessional relationships with his employers' wives. Some more alluring than others, but none of them ever seriously tempting. These women were uninteresting to him, with their narrow world-view and their obvious dissatisfaction with life and he had enough prospects to not have to go after anyone he wasn't interested in. And then he had met Elena, who had seemed just as jaded and obnoxious and he hadn't spared her a second glance. He didn't have a lot of respect for young, beautiful, intelligent women who chose to be trophy wives out of laziness. But he had seen a fire in Elena that he hadn't seen in any of the other women before. And he had seen her suppress that fire. He had seen her gaze longingly at her children playing in the gardens and he had seen her wander her house restlessly. There was something underneath the surface, underneath her proper and standoffish exterior and it had intrigued him. He wanted to see how much she was suppressing and he wanted to know why. Then, to make matters worse, her hair had smelled heavenly when he had carried her across the beach. He had started to notice her attractiveness only recently. It had come as a bit of a surprise to him at first, when he had noticed the depth in her brown eyes and the almost lascivious way in which she drove her hand through her long hair. And then he had caught himself finding more and more parts of her body that appealed to him. He had discovered that her lips were plump in a way he hadn't realized at first and that they looked incredibly kissable when she closed them around her finger, licking off some whipped cream she had wiped off the rim of her cup of hot cocoa. He had caught himself noticing that, despite being quite slim, she had curvy hips that practically begged to have his hands run over them and, his personal pinnacle of shame, when she had been lying passed out on that chaise longue, wrapped in nothing but a towel that revealed almost her entire thigh, he had not been able to keep his admiration for her long legs at bay, neither had he been able to suppress the desire to find out how pliable those shapely limbs really were.
He had set very strict rules for himself and getting involved with an employer, especially a married one, was completely off limits. But he had been startled by his reaction to having her body in his arms and therefore, to say now that he had never been tempted was clearly a lie.
"Don't tell me you're a monk," Vicki kept prodding, a teasing quality to her voice.
"I said I didn't sleep with my employer, I didn't say I was abstinent," he replied nonchalantly.
"Ah! Well, Miss Forbes, you better watch out then," Vicki said suggestively.
The blonde blushed furiously at the insinuation and Elena decided to put an end to this discussion. "Vicki, can you help me get the dessert?" she asked, already getting up.
When they reached the kitchen, Vicki let out a little giggle. "Am I going to get scolded now?" she asked, picking up a strawberry.
"I just thought it was time that conversation came to an end," Elena answered, picking up the bowl of fruit from the counter.
"Only because you were upset by what he said," Vicki contended.
"I was upset by what you said, V!" Elena replied firmly. "This was very inappropriate."
"Come on, don't tell me you don't want a piece of that," Vicki challenged again. "I saw him frigging carry you into the house!"
"That was not… That was… I didn't enjoy that!" Elena replied heatedly.
"Yeah right," Vicki huffed, but her face held a gleeful expression. "Well, you can be in denial all you want. I for one am not letting him get away with his no diddling the boss shenanigans. I want him. And I always get what I want."
"You don't even like him," Elena argued.
"I've heard very good things being said about hate-sex," Vicki reasoned.
"You're so vulgar," Elena sighed.
„Well, if you want to make sweet love to him, be my guest. But that man is doubtlessly capable of pounding me into oblivion and I am going to get him to do it."
Elena lifted her free hand to her temple, rubbing it gently against the oncoming headache. "Can we end this conversation, please?" she pleaded.
"Oh sweety, why must you be such a prude sometimes?" Vicky complained.
"I'm not being a prude. But you're married. To my husband's brother. This conversation is making me very uncomfortable."
"Well, there's married and then there's married," Vicki huffed.
"What do you mean?" Elena asked, now concerned. "Is something wrong?"
At that moment the door to the kitchen was opened and Jeremy stuck his head in. "Miss Caroline said that you were getting the dessert, but now you're not coming back," he complained.
The women turned to him quickly and followed him back into the living room, agreeing in silence to continue this discussion another time.
After dinner was over, Vicki retired to her room, claiming she had a headache. Damon and Bonnie started doing the dishes, claiming that it was always the cook's duty to clean up the mess he made, which made Elena uncomfortable because it meant that she would be doing the dishes the next day. Caroline was playing with the children and since she had nothing else to do, and also because she wanted to seem cooperative, she helped clearing the table. When she stepped out of the kitchen, having just disposed of a large pile of plates, she was startled by her son's laughter. She turned to see him sitting on a rug in front of the crackling fireplace and playing legos with his nanny. Her daughter was sitting next to them, working on a coloring book. She was concentrating so hard that a frown creased her forehead and her pen strokes were short and slow because of the effort she put into not coloring over the printed lines. Elena leaned against the doorframe, just watching her children, not daring to join them. Suddenly she felt heat right behind her and when she quickly turned her head, she realized that it emanated from Damon's body, who was leaning against the doorframe right behind her.
"You can play with them if you want to, you know," he said quietly.
"Oh yeah, I know," she replied, waving him off. "I'm glad Miss Forbes gets along with them so well. I wouldn't know what to do." She laughed lightly, hoping to throw him off her track, hoping she could cover up her anxieties.
"Doesn't matter," he answered. "They will love you for being there."
"Oh yeah?" she snapped. "And what makes you such an expert? Do you have kids?"
She thought she saw a flicker of something like sadness rush over his face, but it was gone before she could fully recognize it. "No," he answered curtly. "But you do. And you want to play with them. I'm just telling you that you can." And with that he turned and went back into the kitchen, leaving her in the doorway, stunned. Was it that obvious that she wished she had a closer relationship with her children? Could everyone tell that she felt she failed as a mother? Or was it just Damon, who could read her like that? She wasn't sure which possibility scared her more.
A/N: There it is. A bit short, but I hope you still liked it. I'm trying to make shorter chapters and update faster for this fic. Please tell me what you think. Even if you didn't like it. I can take the criticism (I think…). I want to improve, but I need your help :) Also, after that last episode, I wish you all a DElicious weekend! Lots of repeat-viewing of certain scenes I would assume ;)