Chapter 11

The first time Damon saw Bonnie, he had her pegged pretty quickly. Although she was the oldest of her trio of friends, she was the least experienced and most reserved. Where Elena allowed other people to make her decisions for her, and Caroline jumped into situations without thinking or looking back, Bonnie was more cautious and wary, judgmental and completely unaware of her own power. She considered everything. In other words, she was not easily manipulated, and that was exactly why Damon overlooked her. She hated him, of course, and with good reason. Although he pretended to hate her, too, the truth was that he always had a bit of a soft spot for the witch. Something about her unwavering loyalty and stubbornness reminded him of himself.

The first time Damon realized that Bonnie was pretty was at the Masquerade ball. The night had been so crazy and there was so much going on that he couldn't even remember interacting with her. But he did remember how naturally beautiful she looked with her hair down in soft curls and a mask on her face that brought all the attention to her eyes.

The first time he realized that she was hot was at the decades dance, when she was squeezed into that skin-tight sixties dress. She had pretty much kept her figure obscured from his leering eyes, always dressed in billowy tops and jeans that didn't accentuate her curves. He had actually done a double take when he saw her, with that ridiculous wig on her head and a dress that couldn't hide her perky chest or her surprisingly curvy behind. He'd flirted with her that night, and to his surprise, she flirted back. It was also the same night that they forged a very tenuous friendship, and he was shocked by how much it bothered him when she fake-died.

They went through their ups and downs after that but they always seemed to have each other's backs. He didn't realize how much he had grown to like her until he returned from the prison world and she didn't. The guilt that racked him was worse than he had ever felt, and getting her back consumed nearly all of his thoughts.

He was thinking about the course of their relationship as he sat in front of the fireplace in the Salvatore boarding house, nursing a glass of bourbon. The rest of Mystic Falls was partying it up at the Lockwood mansion in the name of Christmas, while Damon sat alone and pondered. His phone buzzed every few minutes, mostly with messages from Bonnie, who he was pointedly ignoring. She wanted to know where he was, why he wasn't at the party, if he was coming, and why the hell he wasn't answering her messages.

The truth was that he wasn't sure he wanted to see her at the party because he knew that she would be all dolled up, wearing something skimpy, makeup flawless. And that was a problem because he had recently come to the conclusion that he was attracted to her. It happened just a few weeks earlier on Thanksgiving night. They were at the girls' apartment, and Bonnie was sitting on top of him, drunkenly rambling on about all the things she liked about him. She wasn't wearing anything particularly sexy, and her speech was a little slurred compliments of Jose Cuervo, but she looked so...damn...cute.

It was the first time he had ever wanted to have sex with her. Of course, he had idly wondered what she was like in bed. He was a guy, after all, and she was a young, vivacious, pretty woman. He'd wondered in the past if she was a screamer, if she was as bossy in bed as she was in regular life, or whether she finally let her guard down and allowed her partner to have his wicked way with her.

But that night was the first time he had wondered those things with him in the picture: how she would scream his name, if she would use her magic to hold him down while she rode the hell out of him, whether he could screw her senseless and drink her blood when it was all over. It took every ounce of willpower, something he didn't have in great supply, not to flip her off of him and rip her clothes off.

Damon clenched his teeth and took a big swallow of his watered-down bourbon. For all his posturing, he had always been a one-woman man, and ever since he'd finally won Elena's heart, he hadn't even looked at another woman. He certainly hadn't been seriously attracted to one, and yet there he found himself, wishing like hell that he could bang Elena's best friend until her voice was gone. And it wasn't like Bonnie would even entertain the thought. He was sure that she only saw him as a friend and she was way too good for him anyway.

Still, the thoughts lingered. They were there the morning after Thanksgiving, when Bonnie woke up and told him that her head felt like someone had swung a a hammer at her. They were there whenever the two of them hung out and trained. They were definitely there when he slept over, which he did a lot less these days. He made a point to wake up before her so she didn't feel the evidence of his thoughts pressed up against her butt.

"Hey," Stefan said as he appeared in the room. "You going to the party? I'm heading that way."

"Nope."

"Oh, why not?"

Damon threw back the rest of his bourbon and snarled. "Because. I've just realized a very inconvenient truth."

He glanced at his brother to see Stefan's forehead crumple into a frown. "Um, okay. What are you talking about?"

"Sorry, little brother, it's private."

Stefan rolled his eyes. "Fine. I can see that you're in a mood. Whenever you decide to stop acting like a jackass, come to the party." Stefan's phone beeped and he read a message. "Oh, and answer your phone. Bonnie's trying to reach you."

Damon only scoffed when his brother left the house. He dragged himself off the couch and grabbed the bottle of bourbon. Rather than pour some more into a glass, he just tipped the bottle into his mouth and chugged the whole thing in several gulps. When he finished, he felt a little buzzed, but that wasn't good enough. He pulled out another bottle from the bar and guzzled that one down, too. His brain stopped firing on all synapses and when he felt himself sway on his feet, he knew he was drunk.

And drunk Damon was fun Damon.

When his phone buzzed yet again, he saw another message from Bonnie.

Where the hell are you?! And why aren't you answering your phone?

It took a little effort on his part to coordinate his fingers enough to type back an answer.

at the house

Bonnie's response was immediate.

Is there some reason you're ignoring me?

fell asleep. sry.

Fine, now that you're up, come over here.

Damon's lips curled into a devious smile and he chuckled when he wrote back a reply.

u want me to cum?

Duh. Why do you think I'm blowing up your phone?

ok i will cum but only for u

Are you drunk?

yes

Drinking by yourself is kind of sad, old man. Get over here. It's not as fun without you.

That was really all the provocation he needed to call Stefan and ask him to turn around and pick him up. Of course, Stefan grumbled about it but did it anyway. Damon grabbed another bottle from the bar and sipped it as he walked in a zigzag to Stefan's car.

"If you spill that in my car, I'll kill you," Stefan said.

"Pssh, please. I'm an expert. I can handle my booze, mother."

He thought maybe his words sounded a little slurred, but it was hard to tell so he sat up straighter to give the impression that he was okay. Stefan frowned as he pulled off.

"What was your problem earlier?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he sang.

"How much of that did you drink in the ten minutes that I was gone?"

"This is my third bottle," Damon said with a grin. He swung the bottle between his fingers and Stefan shook his head in disapproval.

"Something must really be bothering you."

"Nope. I'm just peachy."

Damon grinned and rested his head against the back of the seat. "Turn on some Christmas music, man," he demanded. "It's Christmas, right? Let's sing about snowmen and shit."

"I don't have any Christmas music in here."

"You're such a fucking Scrooge, Stefan. Jesus, I should buy you a new personality for Christmas." He looked out the window as they drove, and then he started singing. "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm..."

"Are you seriously singing right now?"

"Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Hmm hmm hmmmmmm hmm hmm hmm."

"If that's your idea of doing the instrument sounds, you're doing a terrible job."

"Yuletide carols being sung by a chooooooir..."

"Damon, if you don't stop, I'm gonna throw you out of the car."

"You think they'll have mistletoe at this party?"

"Caroline planned it, so I'm sure there will be some." Stefan glanced at his brother questioningly. "Why do you care?"

"I don't," Damon said with a shrug. "Just asking."

Stefan didn't ask any more questions, but the silence was soon filled with Damon's horrid singing again. Thankfully, they arrived at the Lockwood house and Stefan was more than happy to unload his brother on someone else. As soon as they saw Bonnie laughing with Matt and a couple of other people, Stefan practically dragged Damon to her and patted her shoulder.

"He's your problem now," he said.

Before Bonnie could ask what he meant, Damon wrapped her up in a tight hug.

"Bonniiiieee," he said as she swung her around a little.

"Wow, okay," was her response. She pulled back and caught a whiff of his breath. "You smell like you drank a liquor store."

"I'm a little loose," he agreed. He showed her the bottle he had brought in and took a swig. "Want some?"

"Uh, no thanks. I think one of us should be sober."

"Why's that? We might try to take advantage of each other if we're drunk?" he asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Bonnie opened her mouth, then closed it, and apparently decided against answering at all.

"Hey, Bon, come on, you promised me a dance," Matt said. He looped his arm in hers and whisked her off before Damon could object. Bonnie looked over her shoulder and mouthed "sorry," but that did nothing to quell the irritation Damon felt. He responded by taking a gulp of his bourbon. She frowned. He smirked.

Rather than torture himself with the sight of them bumping and grinding like teenagers, he roamed around the large house in search of something, or someone, interesting. Caroline and Stefan were off talking in a corner somewhere, and he really didn't know anyone else. He turned his nose up in disgust at every girl who approached him, and after about ten minutes, he decided that he was bored. He wondered out to the large patio and leaned against the stone railing. A few people were playing in the snow, making snow angels and throwing snowballs at each other.

"Hey," Bonnie said as she stepped outside. She wrapped her arms around herself. "I was looking for you."

"I got tired of watching you and the quarterback have fake sex."

She snorted. "We were not having fake sex. Matt can't even dance."

"I noticed." He leaned his back against the stone and sipped his bourbon. "So, did you fuck him yet?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you always have to be so crude?" He shrugged. "No, we didn't do anything."

"Sure seemed like you wanted to."

"I was drunk, and so was he. But we're friends and we've been friends too long for me to jeopardize it for sex."

She stood next to him and swiped the bottle from his hand. She drank some and grimaced.

"That tastes like motor oil."

"Excuse you? This is good stuff. You liked it in '94."

"Temporary insanity. Being stuck with your for four months will do that to a girl."

She smiled, and so did he. He noticed that she was shivering, so he put his bottle down and pulled his leather jacket off. He wrapped it around her and then took her hand and led them to a swing underneath the big white columns on the Lockwood porch. He put his arm around her and she snuggled up to his side as they swung.

"I love Christmas," she said. "It's my favorite holiday. What about you?"

"Halloween," he said with no hesitation.

"Of course. A night of debauchery is right up your alley."

"Mm hm. But if Christmas was like this when I was a human, it would have been my favorite holiday. Back then, it was more about the religiousness of it all. Is religiousness a word?"

"I don't think so," she chuckled.

"Whatever, you know what I mean."

They kept swinging while people played in the snow, and then Bonnie looked up at him and nudged him slightly.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I don't know. You've seemed different lately. Like something is bothering you."

He met her concerned gaze and in his drunken state, he seriously considered blurting out exactly what was wrong with him: her. Her damned eyes, rounded with worry about him. Her soft body and delicious scent. She was what was bothering him. But instead of telling her that, he opted for the next best truth.

"I miss Elena."

He thought he saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes, but it was so gone so quickly that he was sure he imagined it.

"I do, too," she said sympathetically.

"You think she's okay, while she's off in her little dream world?"

"I think she's fine, Damon. And I think she would want you to be happy while she's gone."

"You don't think I'm happy?"

"I think you're holding back. But I won't push it. You'll tell me when you're ready."

She rested her head on his shoulder again and he closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the swing. When the hell had Bonnie Bennett gotten so perfect and mature? She seemed completely confident that he would open up to her when he was ready, and he knew she was right. He didn't know whether to pick a fight with her to keep his distance, or throw her over his shoulder and carry her up to one of the many empty rooms in the Lockwood house. He blew out a breath and opened his eyes, only to find mistletoe hanging right above their heads.

"Oooooh, looky there," he said with a wicked smile. "Mistletoe."

Bonnie's head rose and she saw the offending plant. Her eyes caught Damon's and he smiled even bigger at how uncertain she looked.

"We don't have to kiss, you know," she said.

"Yes, we do. It's tradition. What would Caroline say if she found out that we were under mistletoe and didn't kiss?"

"How would Caroline even find out?"

"I'd tell her."

Bonnie pinched his thigh.

"Just a little kiss," Damon said.

"No."

"What's a kiss between friends?"

"You're drunk."

"And? I'm not asking you to strip and do a lap dance for me." He paused for a second, letting that play out in his head. "I mean, I wouldn't say no to that if you offered."

"You're a pervert."

"And you're a coward."

She pursed her lips and scrunched her nose up, which let him know that she was thinking about it. He planted his feet on the ground to stop their swinging motion and he stared at her, mostly because he knew it made her uncomfortable. He edged his head in closer to her and when she didn't pull away, he was elated.

"I won't bite," he said lowly. "Not unless you're into that."

She didn't respond, but she didn't move either, and he inched closer and closer. He didn't realize how badly he wanted to kiss her until their lips were so close that he could almost taste her lip gloss.

"Well don't you two look cozy?"

They jumped apart to find Lily standing in front of them, looking a combination of amused and annoyed.

"What do you want?" Damon barked.

Lily ignored him and said to Bonnie, "going back on our deal? Shame, shame, Miss Bennett. I thought we had an even trade and here you are trying to get yours without me. I must say I'm disappointed."

"What deal? What the hell is she talking about?" Damon asked.

"There was no deal," Bonnie said through gritted teeth. She stood up in front of Lily. "I thought I made myself clear the last time we talked. I gave you a pass once, but I won't be so nice again."

"It is I who has been too nice," Lily said. Her face drew into a serious stare and the smile dropped from her lips. "I tried to allow you to come to me on your own. I tried gentle persuasion. But apparently, I'll have to use force. Pity."

Before Bonnie or Damon could ask what that was supposed to mean, Lily darted into the yard and grabbed the first person she saw. She vamped out and bit the guy on the neck, causing a blood-curdling scream to come from him. Everyone else in the yard screamed as Lily drained the man of nearly all of his blood. She stopped just before he died and threw his crumpled body onto the ground. She sped back into the house, leaving Damon and Bonnie to figure out what to do.

"You give him some blood and compel as many of them as possible," she said quickly. "I'll try to stop Lily."

They rushed off in different directions. While Damon gave his blood to the dying man and then sped around trying to compel all the witnesses to forget what they had seen, Bonnie dashed inside to find Caroline, Stefan and Matt. She ran into the crowded dance hall and squeezed her way through the throng of people in search of her friends. She spotted Caroline and tried to call out to her, only to have her voice drowned out by Lily's. She whipped her head around and saw Lily standing on the stage with the musicians, holding a microphone in her hand.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll excuse me," she announced.

The music stopped and everyone turned to her.

"I apologize for interrupting your good time, but I just wanted to let you know that you're all about to die. And you can thank your friend, Bonnie Bennett."

That was the extent of her announcement, and the crowd looked around in confusion. Then, out of nowhere, ten or fifteen vampires appeared and began to attack. Screams and cries of agony went up all around Bonnie, and the people who weren't being attacked were trying to run, causing mass hysteria. She got crushed in between people and she tried her best to get away or do something, but her brain wasn't working fast enough. She yelped when someone grabbed her from behind but she was flooded with relief when she saw that it was Stefan.

"We have to get out of here," he said over the loud yells and commotion.

"No, we have to stop her!"

"She's got more people than last time! We're outnumbered! Let's go!"

She tried to fight him but he picked her up and sped her out of the house. She was kicking and swinging to get away from him even as he loaded her into Caroline's SUV, where Matt, Damon and Caroline already were. She gave him a slight aneurysm, just enough to jump out of the car.

"Bonnie, get your ass in here!" Damon yelled.

She ignored him and held up her hand, sending every bit of magic she had towards the Lockwood house.

"What are you doing?" Matt shouted.

"Locking the vampires in there," she said.

The others watched as human after human escaped from the house, but no vampires. Damon saw Bonnie begin to slump a little and he hopped out of the backseat and held her up.

"Stop," he told her. "Let it go."

"We can't let them out," she said. "They'll kill everyone."

"And you'll kill yourself if you keep doing that. Lily's got a whole team full of heretics and they're fighting you back. You can't do it alone."

She stubbornly refused to quit, until he grabbed her face and made her look at him.

"Keep doing that and I'll snap your neck myself."

Bonnie finally dropped her hand, and he scooped her up and put her in the car. Caroline raced off towards the Salvatore house, and once they were all safely inside, Bonnie did an extra protection spell on the mansion.

"What the fuck was that?" Caroline asked once they all gathered in the living room.

"I don't know," Bonnie said. Damon saw her hands shaking and when she looked at him, he sent her a questioning stare. She shook her head slightly, silently telling him they would talk about it later.

"This is a problem," Stefan said as he paced. "Lily's officially lost her mind and now she's got a whole team full of heretics to do her bidding."

"Well, you said no to killing her when we had the chance," Damon reminded him.

Stefan opened his mouth to respond, but Matt said, "let's save the brother bickering shit for a time when a bunch of crazy ass vampire freaks aren't about to kill everyone in town."

"Agreed," Caroline said. "We need a plan."

"We need more people is what we need," Damon said.

He watched Bonnie as everyone but her bandied around bad ideas about how they could handle the situation. Caroline went so far as suggesting that they call in Klaus, which made Stefan's forehead deteriorate so much that it almost disappeared. When an hour had gone by and they resolved nothing, they agreed to split up for the time being and reconvene after they'd all had some time to think. Damon followed Bonnie up to his room and as soon as they were alone, he threw his hands up.

"You want to tell me what that was about?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," she mumbled.

"Why the hell have you been meeting with Lily and not telling me about it?"

"I haven't been meeting with her! She's been stalking me!"

"And when was the last time she stalked you?"

"I don't know. Right before Thanksgiving."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing about it?"

"I'm sorry, are you my father now?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"I'm trying to keep you alive, Bonnie! You can't keep secrets like that from me."

"I'm not keeping secrets. It was a stupid pointless conversation and I put her in her place!"

"Apparently, you didn't. Since she's now recruited more heretics and seems pretty set on burning this whole town to the ground!"

She pressed her lips together and he blew out an aggravated breath. He ran his hands through his hair and asked the next question more calmly.

"What is going on with you and her? What deal is she talking about?"

"It's nothing."

"It's not nothing. Stop saying that, and tell me so I can help."

She fidgeted with her hands, bounced around on her feet, and looked at everything but him. He crossed his arms and waited for her to come clean.

"She wants me to make her immortal like Qetsiyah did for Silas," she finally said. "I told her no, and now she's throwing a fit about it."

"Why would she ever think you would do that for her?"

More fidgeting.

"She thinks she can give me something."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it."

Bonnie tried to walk past him to the bathroom, but he slid in her way and took her arms in his hands. He held gently enough not to hurt her, but firmly enough that she knew he wasn't playing.

"What on Earth does she think you want bad enough to give her immortality?" he asked slowly.

He stared at her and watched as her jaws clenched and she tried to get out of telling him. But when he didn't let her go or make any hint that he was going to drop it, she sighed loudly.

"You, okay?" she said.

Damon frowned. "What?"

"She offered me you."

He dropped his hands and shook his head in confusion. "I don't understand."

Bonnie sighed again. "Those sex dreams I was having weren't about Jeremy. They were about you." His eyes widened. "And she was the one making me have them. She was trying to make me feel a certain way about you, so that I would want to be a vampire with you and I could be strong enough to make her permanently immortal. I told her no, and she apparently went psycho. Okay? Now you know."

She moved away from him and ran her hands over her face in exasperation, while he stood there, trying to comprehend everything she had just told him. His heart was kind of stuck on the fact that she was having sex dreams about him, but then his brain reminded him that those dreams weren't of her own free will.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked after a few strained minutes of silence.

"And say what?" she asked with a dry laugh. "Anything I said would have made things awkward between us, and I don't want that. You're my best friend and I can't lose you. My life is so fucked up and I can't afford to lose anything or anyone else."

"You wouldn't lose me."

"If you thought I had feelings for you, I would." He started to tell her that she was wrong. He wanted to tell her that he was pretty sure he had feelings for her, but she spoke first. "You're in love with Elena. I know that, and I respect that, and I'm happy to have you in my life just the way you are. We're friends, and that's all we'll ever be. Right?"

She didn't look very certain when she added the "right," but he assumed it was because she was already uncomfortable with the conversation. He wanted to tell her that she was not right at all, but he was still a little drunk and he knew his judgment was off. She clearly didn't like him the way he liked her, so he nodded.

"Right."

"Okay," she sighed. She rubbed her face again. "I'm sorry about keeping all this from you. No more secrets." He nodded again, mostly because he wasn't confident that he wouldn't say something stupid. "Do you mind if I take a shower in your bathroom?"

"Knock yourself out," he said.

Damon excused himself from the room and went down the stairs. He thought about pouring some more liquor, but he nixed the idea just as quickly as it popped into his head. He decided to put his powers of obsession on something other than Bonnie and Elena and booze. He headed to the massive Salvatore library and started pulling out books, searching for anything that might help with Lily.

"Hey," Stefan said a few minutes later. "What are you doing?"

"Researching." Damon didn't look up from his book at first, but he did when he felt his brother looking at him. "What?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah." He frowned when he saw the pensive look on Stefan's face, and he rolled his eyes. "Let me guess. You heard my discussion with Bonnie."

"It was less of a discussion and more of a screaming match. I wasn't trying to overhear it...it just kind of happened."

"Great," he groaned. "Are you here to give me a lecture now?"

"No."

He actually seemed to mean that, so Damon eased up a little. "I'm fine."

"Okay. But if you're ever not fine, or if you just wanna get some stuff off your chest, you can tell me, you know."

"Yeah. I know."

Stefan nodded, and just like that, the matter was dropped. "So how can I help?"

The two of them poured over books and were eventually joined by Bonnie and Caroline. Matt was curled up on a bed somewhere, dead to the world. The four of them worked quietly but consistently, looking for anything that might lead them in the direction of something to use against a team of witchpires. Bonnie yawned a few hours later and even though she tried to stay up, Caroline made her go to bed and joined her. Stefan threw in the towel, too, leaving Damon alone in the library. His head hurt from the searching, and partly from the copious amounts of bourbon, and he was about to call it a night when an idea struck him. He pulled out his phone, made a few phone calls, and finally got the phone number of someone who might able to help.

"Who is this and why the hell are you calling me this late?" the person answered.

"Damon Salvatore," he said. "And it's important."

"What's going on?"

"I need you and everyone you know to get to Mystic Falls as soon as possible. Bonnie needs you."

Those were the magic words. Damon stayed up all night to greet his guest and her friends, and when they showed up about eight hours later at his doorstep, he grinned and let them in. They talked strategy while the rest of the household trickled in slowly, with Bonnie bringing up the rear.

"Hey's what's going..." She stopped in her tracks when she saw Abbie, Lucy, and thirteen other Bennett witches spread around the living room. "...on?"

"Hey there, cuz," Lucy said with a smile. "We heard you need some reinforcements."

Bonnie blinked a few times in disbelief, and then she smiled and rushed into her mother's and cousin's arms. The rest of the witches, some of whom Bonnie hadn't seen since she was a little girl and some she'd never met at all, crowded around her. They hugged her and took turns telling her what a lovely young woman she'd grown into. One of them even said that she could feel her power vibrating off of her in waves.

Damon smiled to himself and tiptoed into the library, where he shut the doors behind him. He figured he'd give the family some time to reconnect, and then it was time to get down to business. But first, he needed a nap. He kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the couch. He pulled a blanket over his body and was about to drift off when he heard the doors slide open and then close.

"Go away, Stefan," he said without opening his eyes. "I'm sleepy and your nagging will have to wait."

He felt someone come close to him, but the voice that spoke wasn't Stefan's.

"Was this your doing?" Bonnie asked.

He opened his eyes and saw Bonnie kneeling on the floor in front of the couch. The smile she wore was more radiant that any he had seen from her in a very long time, and it warmed his dead heart to know that he had something to do with it.

"Maybe," he said with a shrug.

"Thank you."

"It's no problem. Someone had to come up with a plan and God knows Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb weren't going to." She chuckled, and he smiled. "This is what we do, right? You and me. Come up with good plans and beat the bad guys."

"Yep. We're a good team."

He nodded in agreement and she took his hands and said, "sit up." Damon eyed her suspiciously but did as she said. She made him scoot further off the couch, until his butt was just barely perched on the edge.

"Close your eyes," she said.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Marginally."

"Then do it, please."

He made a show of sighing, but he closed his eyes. He heard her moving around, getting something from her jeans, maybe. He squirmed around a little, only to be told to hold still. He was about to ask her what she was doing, but then she kissed him.

His eyes shot open in surprise. He thought he was imagining it, but when he saw her kneeling in front of him, eyes closed, and her lips on his, he realized that it was actually real. And then it was over. Just as soon as he'd wrapped his mind around the fact that she was kissing him, she was pulling away. She opened her eyes and a blush came over her brown cheeks. She briefly looked down and licked her lips, which made him do the same.

"For last night," she said. She lowered an arm that he didn't even realize was raised and in her hand, he saw mistletoe. "Because we were so rudely interrupted."

Damon blinked about fifty times because he wasn't sure how else to respond. He wasn't able to articulate anything before Bonnie stood up and licked her lips again.

"Merry Christmas," she whispered. "I'll make sure nobody disturbs you while you nap."

His eyes were glued to her butt as she walked away and closed the doors behind her. He stared straight ahead for a few minutes, rendered thoughtless and speechless, and then he fell back onto the couch and groaned.

He was so screwed.