Our little witch is getting bold in her irritation. ;) Hope you all are gearing up for things to get . . . intense *laughs in mischief*
As soon as the door shut, Damon was spinning, facing her with his strong arms crossed. "What the hell was that about?"
Bonnie twisted a curl tight around her finger until the circulation at the tip was cut off. "What did you hear?"
"That you …" Damon huffed, tipping his chin to the sky like he was praying to some deity for assistance. "You … wanted me. A certain part of me, in a certain part of you."
Screw Damon's protection. She wanted to die. She wanted Shinichi to come back and kill her. She wanted the portal to the dark dimension to open and enslave her in bloody twilight for eternity.
Had she actually projected that?
"I take it that wasn't on purpose."
Her eyes stung in the fires of mortification. "No, it wasn't on purpose! Why would I say that to you?"
And then the worst thing happened. Damon smirked.
"You don't have to be embarrassed. You're human. It's natural to want it."
"The look you gave me inside didn't seem to feel the same."
"I thought you'd done it intentionally," he said, unfurling his arms from their lock around his chest.
Something about his relief sliced at her, reopening the wound she'd been carrying in her gut for days. "Do you honestly not think about it? Ever?"
At that, Damon wiped a hand over his face, fingers disappearing into the thick waves of his hair. "I thought we'd already settled this. You know where I stand, Redbird."
Avoidance. It somehow hurt more than a direct answer.
Bonnie bit into her lip to keep it from trembling. "And you know where I stand. But apparently my feelings don't matter. Apparently, I don't get a choice."
Damon did that little glance to the sky again, but his brows were lower, more frustrated as they shaded his eyes.
His hand fisted in the back of his hair. "You get a choice, Bonnie. You get to make any choice you want, but so do I. You can't expect me to change my mind just because you don't like my decision. I don't expect that of you."
Her teeth ground, fire burning in her veins and simmering all the way up her throat until it gathered on her tongue. "Then I guess I'll find someone else to fuck me."
Her fire plumed high over her head, igniting to temperatures of the sun. And then it died just as quickly, simmered out as the last ounce of her confidence burned up.
Had she meant it? Maybe she had. Or maybe she just wanted him to hurt.
Bonnie grabbed at the last licks of the metaphorical flames, but they wisped out of reach, leaving her bare to the reality of her ruins.
Damon's jaw ticked.
She watched the strain travel down to the tendon in his neck.
He lunged at her.
Bonnie's back hit the house, its dingey paneling digging into her spine. It didn't hurt, not when Damon's mouth smashed into hers.
Her hands flew to the lapels of his jacket, twisting, clawing into the leather.
There were no gentle formalities this time, no pauses for consent as his tongue pushed into her mouth like he owned her. She opened wider, letting him infuse his flavor into her tastebuds.
His hand slid up her throat until it wrapped around her jaw. Pressing his fingertips in, Damon shoved her back. Bonnie's head hit the panels, but the brush of his lips kept her too dizzy to care.
"You think someone else could make you feel like this?" The hand that had been digging into her hip, rose, slid up her side and took her shirt with it. "You think your body would respond to someone else's touch?"
Bonnie swallowed his breaths as they formed on his lips, pausing to collide with hers in between. The tip of his tongue explored the caverns behind her teeth, keeping her subdued, pliable while his fingers found the band of her sports bra.
Bonnie squirmed, her breaths embarrassingly uneven.
"I could make you come if I wanted to. I could take you right up against this house. Right now. It would be so easy." His thumb brushed her clothed nipple.
Bonnie's head swam with thoughts of her legs around his waist, his hips rutting into hers without relent, the desperate force of their bodies shaking the walls and all the clutter from them.
"You'd let me, wouldn't you?" Damon's teeth grazed her jaw.
"Yes." Her teeth found their way to his earlobe and bit down.
He hissed, slipping his fingers into her bra. Damon's grip was strong as it clawed around her breast, squeezing it with a harshness he hadn't before. She squeaked, but to her surprise, her hand covered his, pressing it even harder into the aching mound.
Maybe it was wrong to want it outside, where anyone could see them, maybe it was a selfish desire. After all, Mary was in the house and still very much awake. But Bonnie couldn't find it in herself to care. Not with Damon's length coming to life at her stomach.
He rolled her nipple under his thumb, his mouth swallowing all her sounds as he drew them from her tongue.
The door swung open beside them. "Are you guys, oka— Oh!"
Bonnie's nails caught in the threads of his shirt as he put an entire foot between them, and she placed them to her lips instead, tonguing the nick he'd made when he tore free.
"I'm sorry. I heard a bang, and I thought something had—had happened. Um, I'll just …" Mary pointed behind her, unable to hide the smile on her lips. "I'll see you inside, Bonnie."
The door shut harder than it had opened.
Bonnie jolted to the sound, the hard slam seeming to ricochet through the spreading hollowness in her chest.
She looked to Damon, braced against the porch's pillar, his fingers caged around his forehead.
No. No, he couldn't regret it. This was progress she couldn't afford to lose.
Bonnie took cautious steps until she was in front of him. Her fingers trembled as they reached up to his and slid into his palm. "Maybe we should go up to my room? We can talk there …"
She drew his hand down from his face, and the solemn mask he wore startled her. Too grim, too emotionless.
"You know I can't do that, Redbird."
Her fingers twisted through his. "We don't have to do anything. We can just talk."
Damon's lips pulled, and he almost smiled. "But you want to do things."
His hand squeezed hers as he bent to let their foreheads meet. "Which is exactly why I can't stay. I'm not naïve, little witch."
Bonnie's head shook, even if he was right. "Not this time. I'll be good. I swear."
Damon's black orbs sharpened, puncturing right through the thinness of her veil. "You really think I believe that? You've been trying me at every opportunity, disregarding my wishes in seek of your own desires. You're not in control of yourself."
Bonnie bit into the side of her tongue to curb the spikes there. "And you are?"
"Yes. I stopped," Damon said, as if he'd somehow stripped himself of fault.
"And if Mary hadn't come out?" Her eyes flicked between his, playing a dangerous game of chicken. "Would you have come to my room then?"
Damon brought their tangled hands up, his voice as soft as the lips brushing her knuckles. "It doesn't matter. It wouldn't have gone any further. I'm not changing my mind just because we indulged."
The kiss he placed to her fingers fanned flames through her body, dark lashes serving as embers as he stared beneath them.
It wasn't fair.
She'd been willing to comply with him, even now when she was so furious with him and his morals. But where she was like an egg in his firm hands, his shell was made of stone, and she didn't have the tools to make him crack.
The breath she took sounded as shaky as her legs felt. "We don't have to stop indulging. We could just … fool around."
Damon tutted.
"You don't even have to stay after or anything. We could just enjoy each other … a little." Bonnie felt her cheeks rush cherry at the suggestion.
What was she doing? She'd never said something so bold to any man, yet here she was whoring herself out to a centuries-old vampire.
Damon's smile rippled with haughty humor. "You want us to be casual?"
Hearing the modern phrase on his tongue sounded off, felt off in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't ideal. It was a settlement that would make things just a little bit easier.
Sure, she'd die every time he left, but she'd go happily if it meant he'd come back to revive her. "Exactly."
Damon chuckled. Regret crept into her throat in the form of a lump she was all too familiar with.
"My little love, look at what's happened already. We slept together once, and since then you've been crying; you've been angry; you've been begging me to stay the night … You aren't the casual type. Nor do I want you to be that for me."
Suddenly, the redness of her cheeks was not heat but an explosion beneath her skin. He had decided everything for her in their relationship, when they could see each other, when she got to kiss him, when she got to die.
She wouldn't let him decide who she got to be.
Bonnie ripped her hand from his. "I don't care. If I want to be casual, I can be. I can learn to be distant like everyone else. It can't be that hard. You do it all the time."
"It's not hard to block out human emotions when you're not human, Bonnie."
Venom unfurled from her tongue, eating away at her cheeks until she could no longer bear its gnawing. "Well maybe if you'd stayed human instead of jumping back into the dark dimension, you'd know what it's like to have the person you lo—"
Her voice broke, shattered under the weight of her secrets, the ones she kept buried so far down even she didn't notice them sometimes.
Tears sprung from overused ducts. "To have the person you care about cause you so much pain. Maybe you'd see things from my perspective, for once."
The wind rustled around them, kicking up a couple of leaves and winding through overgrown blades of grass before Damon had his fingers in her hair.
He closed the little distance she'd put between them, angling her face up to meet his. Though serious, there was a softness to his eyes.
"I'm sorry I can't be human for you and give us what we both want. But I'm a creature of obsession, and I cannot allow myself to have you every night because I may never let go. You're right, I'm only thinking about myself. But I would rather die a selfish vampire than risk losing you again. You don't know what it was like, how fucking frail you were when I found you in Matt's car. My blood almost wasn't enough. So yes, I'll handle the pain—I'll even handle yours—as long as I can feel your heart beating."
Even as tears dripped down her cheeks, bubbling against her burning hatred, Bonnie could not bring herself to love him any less.
"I hate you," she squeaked, fisting her hands in his shirt as he leaned down for one—two more kisses. They weren't long, but her body tingled just the same.
Damon hummed, licking his lips as he pulled away. "Did I cut you?"
Before she could answer, he was tilting her chin up, examining her mouth, curling her lower lip under his thumb. When he found the place he'd sliced, he hummed again, lower, on that frequency that made her insides quiver.
Damon kissed her once more. She certainly wasn't complaining as his lips locked around her cut and sucked, taking just a taste of her blood.
Bonnie flicked his upper lip with her tongue. The upturn of his mouth against hers had her smiling despite it all as he released her with a sloppy pop.
"So you haven't fed?"
"Not yet." He was breathier than he should've been.
Bonnie shivered as his fingers curled some hair behind her ear. Gemma was off the menu, but was any other stranger he ran across?
"You're going to have to eat eventually." She ran her tongue over the split just to savor his taste.
"Eventually, I will." He tucked his hands in his jacket pockets and away from her.
"What are you waiting for?"
Damon took the porch steps backward, a lazy smile playing on his lips. "The last minute."
Bonnie leaned against the pillar, praying it would hold her back from going after him as she dug her nails into the chipped white paint. "You'll come by next week?"
Damon winked at her over his shoulder, and he was a blur, a raven far over the tops of the trees.
She trudged back inside.
Mary was seated at the table, bouncing her crossed leg like she was waiting for a detailed case analysis.
"So we can stop with the whole 'friends' thing now, right?" Her fingers curled in air quotes.
What was the point in hiding it anymore?
Bonnie took a deep breath. "We had sex."
Mary's eyes shut in a long blink. For a moment, Bonnie thought they might be stuck, but then they flew open.
"I'm sorry?" Mary went for her throat like something was lodged in it.
"I'm not saying it again."
"I knew it. I knew something had happened. Your energy has been so …" Her fingers bobbed around an invisible sphere. "Magnetic."
Bonnie pushed two fingers into her eyebrow, making it arch. She wished she had no idea what her sister was talking about. But she could feel it too.
"When did it happen?" In the same breath, Mary stuck her hand up. "Wait! Can I guess?"
Bonnie shrugged, unsure of how to respond.
"Was it the night he slept over last week?"
Oh God, had she actually heard them?
Bonnie's silence answered before her head could nod.
Her sister squealed a triumphant laugh, kicking her feet and shaking her fists.
If only Bonnie could partake in such joy over the occasion.
"That was why you looked all flushed. So, wait … why has he not slept over si—"
"He's afraid of ruining our friendship. He also feels bad about everything because of Gemma." It wasn't the whole truth, but it was a close alternate version. A truth that would suffice for her less-than-supernaturally-inclined sister.
Mary slumped, throwing her head back to the ceiling and letting out a long groan. "Freakin' fudge! Well if he was so afraid, he shouldn't have done it." Her head popped back up, slinging ruddy red hair around her face. "How did it happen?"
Bonnie pressed the heel of her palm into her aching head. The sooner she answered, the faster she could run up to her room and let the rest of her tears leak from their dam. "I don't know. It just happened. We were, um, playing around, and he ended up on top of me, and … yeah."
Leaving out the whole vampire, blood-euphoria part, that was pretty much how it'd gone.
"I'm sorry, Bon." Mary offered up a sympathetic frown.
"It's fine. At least we're talking."
"'Talking'." Mary air-quoted. Again.
Bonnie tipped her pointer finger over her shoulder. "Can I go upstairs now? I'm tired."
Mary waved her off. "If you need anything, you know I'm here."
With one foot out of the kitchen, Bonnie leaned back around the archway. "I do know. Thank you."