Pre Edit Count –   2,415 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Crash Into Me by Dave Mathew Band.

Previous:

He nods, as his finger continues to rub it.  He then tells her softly, “I need to tell you about the others.  I hate to say this, but they will try to turn you against me.”

She murmurs, “They will fail.  Damon, I’m stubborn.”

He kisses her on her forehead as he mutters, “Don’t I know it!  It took some persuasion and not a little bit of charm to just get your name.”  His hand trails down her arms to her hand and entwines around hers.

She grins, “You were the one who became stalkerish.  And don’t think I haven’t figured out the Raven is you.”

He laughs. “I was drawn to you.  What can I say?” He nips her throat. He cannot help it, he feels so much closer right now to her that he needs to touch, to claim what is his.

She laughs, “And you think Edward was odd.  He at least was there in person.”

Damon grins as he is kissing her neck, “And you think I wasn’t?  The raven is not only my familiar, but often the animal I turn into the most.  By the way, you need to give that contractor a bonus.  He effectively kept me out of the house.” He feels the vibration in chest starting again and just enjoys the moment.

Bella laughs, and they continue to spend the night, just getting to know each other better.

Now:

The early morning light creeps across the valley of Mystic Falls falling its easy light on the town and a plantation where two soul mates are lying in the protected confines of it. The two are entwined in each other, but the male holds the female in a safe cocoon of his body, as though he is protecting the most important thing in the world.

When Bella wakes, she is at first startled at the warm body holding her, but then relaxes back into Damon.  She is rewarded by his arm tightening around her as he pulls her closer to him and him nuzzling her hair.

She smiles as she sleepily comments, “Do you know how awesome it is that you sleep?” her hand is playing with his arms as they hold her.

His voice husky from sleep, he answers her, “How boring would that be to be always awake?  Then there will be no cuddling in bed.  In fact, other than sex, what use is a bed?” He lazily smiles as he enjoys waking up with her in his arms.  Last night had been wonderful as they had talked.  Nothing more than talk, but he cannot remember an evening he has enjoyed more.  But to fall asleep with her in his arms?  Heaven…

She can’t help but laugh at his lazy comments, “And that right there is why the hundred year virgin had no bed in his room.” She remembers the shock when all she saw was a couch.  And how that had actually made her think of never sleeping again if she became like him.

He laughs as he nuzzles her, “A virgin?  After a hundred years?  What is wrong with him?” Really.  To have someone like Bella and not want to have her be his in every way possible?  Mind Boggling.  And he will have Bella as his.

Bella answers him as she turns to him, “Mind reading.”

Damon kisses her on the lips gently then murmurs, “His loss, my gain.  And I won’t be stupid to lose you, my Carissima.” (Dearest)He is studying her this morning, committing her face to memory, and knowing he will do it all over again every chance he gets.

She asks, “What happened to Stella?” She can see the growth of his chin hair and as everything else, is amazed that his body lives, as hers does, it just needs blood in addition to everything else.

He is smiling as he answers, “You mean more to me today.  Don’t worry, my stellina, you will always be the luce dei miei occhi. (Light of my eye)”

She looks up at him and asks, “And how are you still single?  You’re nothing more than a huge romantic.”  And mine….

He laughs again, as he tells her, “Because no one but one other person has seen this.  And she threw it away for my brother.”  Strangely, the pain is lessoning from that betrayal and others like it over the years.

She quips back, “Her loss, my gain.”

He pulls her on top of him as he grins up at her.  “I can easily see us spending the rest of our life like this.” One hand on her hip, the other is lazily stroking her body, enjoying it and the chance to feel her this way.

She is grinning back at him, relaxing into him and the magic his hands are doing to her body.  Her head rests on his chest her hand helping her to look down at him.  Then her brain kicks in and she starts to think, “Damon, if the Salvatores are a Founding Family, what are your connections to The Original Family?  Isobel had commented on it.  And where is your home?”

He sighs, “Out in the woods, a shell of itself.  Stefan and I kept a member of the family in the boarding house.  That is where I am living, with my brother, and his girlfriend.” He would love to restore the house, and now that Bella is here, he might actually do it.  Make new memories to replace the feelings and memories in the old one.

Remembering their talk last night, Bella goes over the people in his life.  She laughs as she remembers which one is his brother’s girlfriend. “The one that looks like both of your’s ex.”

“Yep.”

She thinks on it, “How odd is that?” She couldn’t even fathom it.  To be so in love with one woman and loving his brother the same, he let her be with his brother.  Then to have them both betray him.  No wonder he has problems with trust.

Damon is rubbing her back as he thinks on his answer.  He finally tells her, “Odd.  I have no idea if the similarities drew me or the differences.  Either way, I don’t really think my brother loves her.”

She glances down at him and asks, “What?”

He gazes at her as he tells her, “Stefan is enamored of Katherine.  Always has been.  And now that I found you, I can see what I had was the same as you did for Edward, an obsession, a fascination.  Nothing like what I feel for you.  I don’t think it is love, yet, but I can see that happening.  Stefan, is the tragic one, the one who always looks like he is pining.  Elena can do better than him, but she is unwilling to be adventurous since her parents died.  And nothing has happened since they have been together to allow her to grow past it.”

Bella sighs, “Nothing is easy is it?”

He says softly, “We are.  The others stuff will only affect us as much as we allow it.  I have obligations I cannot allow to fall by the wayside, as much as I wish I could now.  But if you don’t-“

Bella silences him with a kiss.  As they come up for air, his eyes search hers. “Damon, I will help.  Besides, I think you need me.  You would be still on that Sun and Moon curse if it wasn’t for me.” She gives him a cheeky grin as she looks down at him.

He smiles briefly, then his face get serious, “If you were serious about having my blood, then we will do that before you get involved.  There are too many factors going on, and I don’t want to take a chance.”

She smiles, nodding.  He sits up with her in his lap, turning her.  With her back to him, he raises his wrist to bite, but before he can, he is stopped by her hand.  He lifts an eyebrow at her.

She tells him softly, “If you are going to give me yours, then take mine.” She has no idea why she feels strongly on this, but she does.  If she takes his, he will take hers in an exchange.

Damon’s head jerks back and then he says softly, “Are you sure, my Carissima?”

She shyly smiles as she asks, “Will it hurt?”  At his negative answer, “then yes.”

He stares into her eyes, and reading the truth, he raises his wrist, his fangs drop and he bites.  He then offers it to her, his eyes closing in lust as she drinks from him.  He kisses her neck, and finding the place he wanted, he carefully bites her.  His eyes roll back completely at the taste of her. It is nothing but sweet ambrosia to him.

Bella gasps as she felt the slick pinprick of his fangs in her, but relaxes as all she feels is a gentle pull.  After a minute, Damon licks her neck clean, not a drop to be wasted.  When she went to stop, he entreats her softly, “Just a little more.  I want to make sure you don’t have a mark, carissia.”  When he is sure she won’t mark, he lets the wound heal.

She falls back into his arms, and he pulls her close to him as he is leaning against the headboard. They both relax into each other.  Damon’s arms wrap around her closely, molding her body to his as he gets control over himself.

Damon tells her softly, “That was certainly different.  And isn’t there something you wish to tell me?” a smirk appears as he realizes what a gem he has found.

Bella blushes as she mutters, “Didn’t want to embarrass myself.”

He kisses her as he tells her, “I will be blunt, my carrisima.  I love the fact that you are a virgin.  And yes, to someone like me, I can tell the difference from your blood.  But, I can also taste…something unique.”

She snorts, “And this is when you go all caveman on me?”

Damon laughs. “Yes and no.  You’re mine.  I don’t think there is any question is there, mia carrisima?”  At her nod, he continues, “All that means is that I will be your first and last.  I will make sure of that.”

Before she could retort, Damon’s cell phone goes off.  He groans, then lifting her and putting her to bed beside him, leans down to grab it out of his pants.

“Yeah.”

Bella lifts an eyebrow at him, and he grins briefly.

Then he gets slightly irritated, “Well Daddy Stefan, I figured that being over a 140 years old and your older brother gives me the right to do what I wanted without informing you.”

Bella laughs.

Damon then gets angry, “No, that is not one of my brainless twits.  And no it isn’t any of your business.”

Noticing how angry he is at whatever Stefan is saying, Bella snuggles up to him.  He automatically puts an arm around her holding her to him.  He finally growls out, “Enough. I’ll be home when I want to.” With that he turns off the phone.

Snuggling into him, she quietly says to him, “He cares.”

Damon snorted.  “He’s nosy.  He also told me he knows the storm last night was me, and I should have more control than that.  As if he knew what I was going through!”

Bella can’t help herself, she laughs.  When Damon looks at her as though he is offended, she asks him, “Think, Damon.  How long ago would it have been that you would have had a brainless twit?”

He growls, “I told you that was the past, my carissima!”

Bella can’t help but to laugh again. “Damon!  I know.  I am asking how do you expect your brother to understand?  You told me yourself that it is rare!”

He pulls her towards him as he tells her, “I can’t help it.  As I said, I don’t know how to explain this, but I can’t let someone insult you.  Bella. Mia carissima, please don’t walk away.” His voice is begging at the end.

Bella can understand where he is coming from, all his past relationships have pushed him away or left.  No one seemed to want him for him.  And then she comes along, a complete stranger, and something that is so rare that most of his kind have no idea about, happens to him.  He finds his other half, and is now scared that all the things he did to get here will come back and bite him.  He has been convinced by Elena and Stefan that he deserves it.

But Bella herself has been there.  And she genuinely cares for Damon.  She may not have the pull he does, but she does feel something for him.   And like him, is not willing to let go of whatever this is between them.  Like he said, it was more than she ever felt for Edward.

“Damon, look at me.  I am not going to be walking away.  I don’t want you to be away from me longer than you need to be.  I never wanted to be that couple, joined at the hip.  But now?  I can’t imagine you not being here.  It is fast, we both know this, but I think we are both old enough to know ourselves. So let it go.  As long as we are happy, then what does it matter about the others?  We will prove them all wrong and in a couple of hundred years, we can laugh at them.”

With that, Damon grins. “As you say, Stella.  Now, can I treat you to breakfast, mia cara?”

Bella quips back, “I can get used to this quite easily.”

He kisses her forehead as he tells her, “That’s the idea.  Ruin you for anyone else.”  He gets out of bed, grabbing his jeans and putting them on.

Bella openly admires the form in front of her, as he puts them on. “Miles and miles, and all mine.”

He grins, leans over the bed and kisses her. “Get moving, and I will have breakfast ready for you.  Don’t forget to unlock the house.”

With that he is gone.  Bella gets up and heads to the bathroom to get ready, calling out “Dave Mathews Band”.

As promised, Damon met her in the kitchen with eggs, pancakes and bacon.  She had unlocked the house and they headed outside to eat.  Only when she was walking outside, did she pause and ask, “Damon, how are you outside?”

He passes her, dropping a kiss on her head telling her, “Magic.”

Bella continues to the table and by the time she has set her meal down, Damon reappears with their drinks. “Magic?”

He pushes in her chair and sits in the one beside her as he waives his finger with his ring on it, “Magic.”

He watches her until she starts eating then explains, “The ring has a lapis lazuli in it that has been spelled to allow me to walk in the daylight.  I have a couple of these, especially since in the last year, a favorite trick of other vampires to confine one of us is to take the ring.”

Bella stops and she incredulously asks, “That is what you are risking your life on is a ring?”

He chuckles.  “It has worked since the beginning.  Now that I am thinking about it, I may bring a couple of items over here just in case.  I like to keep some hidden in different places.  If that is alright with you.”  He cuts into his pancakes as he waits for her to answer.

Bella is just staring at him. “Yes, of course.  Damon, if a witch can spell one of them to protect you, can’t they just remove the spell?”

He sighs. “No, they can’t unless they are the ones that spells it.  By now I have a couple different witches that have spelled different rings and other items.  I have cufflinks and different things.  Like I said, I want to leave some here just in case.”  And he will also start acquiring a collection for Bella since she has already stated that she wanted to be turned.  He will not risk his mate on chance.

Taking a deep breathe, Bella says, “I have so much to relearn.”

He looks over at her, “Hey, look at me.”  When she looks up, he tells her, “We are in this together.  So whatever you are thinking, you need to change that to a we.”

She smiles as she chuckles.  “It will take me a little while.  I am used to thinking about and for me first.”

He smiles at her, then continues to eat.

Watching him, Bella thinks about their conversations and then asks nonchalantly, “So does this mean you are going to move in?”

Damon chokes.

Bella is watching him as she proceeds to daintily eat another bite then asks innocently, “Too soon?”

Looking up at this woman who proceeds to surprise him at every turn, he tells her, “Nope.  How soon do you want me?”

She grins as she takes another bite, “Today be too soon?  I mean, I have this huge house and it is soo lonely.  And who knows who could come in?”

Growling, Damon, pulls her into him for a kiss. “As soon as we are done, we can go grab some things.”

And it was settled as easily as that.  Too bad the world was going to intrude soon on their happiness.

Final count, 2,971 words.

Fairfarren~Wendy