Epilogue

Several Months Later

The pillow was soft under his cheek and the sheets slid like satin over his skin as he stirred, automatically reaching for Elena to pull her close. When his hand curled around empty space, he cracked open an eye only to discover that she wasn't in bed where she was supposed to be.

Rolling onto his back, he scrubbed a hand down his face as early morning sunlight streamed into his eyes. "Elena?"

"Here," she responded distractedly. Bent over in front of his dresser, she was rummaging through one of the lower drawers. Clad in nothing but one of his black button-down shirts, her luscious little ass and the backs of her shapely thighs were fully visible.

"Elena," he complained despite the tantalizing view, "come back to bed."

"Hold on, I'm coming." She shot a glance over her shoulder. "Today's your birthday."

He groaned.

"I know you were hoping I'd forget, but I didn't."

"Please tell me you're not throwing me another party. Remember what happened last time? Zombies running amok … a murderous psycho-witch … Caroline."

She laughed, an enticing sound that made his hands itch to grab a hold of her and throw her back in bed. "No party, I promise, but I did get you a present."

Stretching his arms over his head caused the white bed sheet to skim down his torso, revealing ridged abs and a happy trail of black hair that directed the eye to an impressive erection still hidden from view, though clearly delineated, under the sheet. "Mmm, is it whatever I want?"

She gave him an inquisitive look, shutting the drawer, a tall, cylindrical package in hand. "What would you want?"

As he pretended to ponder, she hopped back into bed beside him. This close, her clean, floral scent, so deliciously feminine, saturated the air all around him. "Lots and lots of sex," he said.

She wrinkled her brow. "We already do that anyway." She handed him the heavy, wrapped package. "Here."

The ache to be inside her obliterated any curiosity he possessed, and after only a cursory glance, he set the gift down. Then, he pulled her on top of him so that she straddled his hips, rising over him. The sight of her took his breath away. Sleep-tousled locks of hair fell gleaming around a face devoid of any make-up, and her warm, tan skin practically glowed, gilded as she was by the morning light.

Only a single button half-way down her shirt was fastened. He made short work of it and glided his hands up her sides, parting the black fabric and revealing her breasts. He kneaded the lovely mounds of flesh, softly plucking peaked nipples. The sheet barely covering his waist vanished, and his hard arousal came into contact with her silken heat.

"Why does it sound like you're complaining?" he asked, hands descending to her slim waist in order to hold her in place.

"I'm definitely not … oh," she gasped as he began to work his way inside her snug little core, slowly, inch by inch, "not … complaining …."

"Good, because all the consequence-free sex you could ever want is the number one perk of having a vampire boyfriend."

Her pink lips quivered with laughter, but only another gasp escaped her as he sank deep. He moved slowly at first, enabling her to relax into his easy rhythm. High, full breasts wobbled enchantingly with each movement, and her mesmerizing whiskey-dark eyes darkened with desire.

Continuing to flex his hips up into her with deep, skillful strokes, he stretched a thumb out and teased that most sensitive part of her body. She moaned in response and skimmed her delicate hands up his strong, lithe body until she was leaning over him, pressing supple breasts against his chest. Her lips, soft as flower petals and honey-sweet, brushed over his, accompanied by sexy little nips and licks. He opened his mouth and their tongues met in a seductive dance.

Cupping the delectable swell of her ass, he picked up his leisurely pace just enough to make her gasp his name. She sank her little fangs into his bottom lip and sucked erotically at the blood that flowed, blood that burned like fire through his veins.

As always, she reduced him to nothing more than overwhelming, intoxicating, pure sensation. His thrusts increased until she was writhing atop him, and he heard the short panting breaths that signaled her impending climax. Her skin was hot, flushed with passion, heart thundering wildly in her chest.

"Oh, my god," she whimpered into his mouth.

"It's okay, baby girl," he rasped soothingly, "I'm right there with you."

Spine arching, she tightened convulsively around him, and he couldn't stave off the inevitable any longer, hurtling over the edge with her. Every muscle taut with lust, he drove up into her one final time, shuddering and coming apart at the seams.

For some time afterward, they lay peacefully together, her face nuzzled into the side of his neck, their bodies still joined. With reverent hands, he stroked the graceful lines of her back through the satiny black button-down shirt she still wore. As their heart rates calmed, she shifted over to the side, tucking herself under his arm and hooking an ankle around his calf.

Fully satiated, at least for the moment, his eyes slid shut. Mere seconds away from dozing off again, Elena poked him, causing him to grunt in protest. She said, "Hey, your beauty sleep can wait. You still need to open your present."

Lips twitching upward into a smile, he obligingly picked up the package again and regarded it curiously. Then, he looked over at her with a mischievous glint in his blue eyes. "Let me guess. It's the diary entries you wrote filled with all the dirty little fantasies you had about me while you were with Stefan, and you're going to let me read them so I can make them all come true."

A flush crept across her face, and she blurted out indignantly, "No!"

One dark, slanted brow arched. "Don't act like you didn't. You think I couldn't smell how wet you got every time you were around me? How wet you still get?"

She opened her mouth, then shut it. Her rosy cheeks deepened another fifty shades of red.

"You're blushing," he observed out loud just to be an ass.

"Yeah, because you're being ridiculous!"

"Tell me," he coaxed gently, rolling onto his side and propping his head on his bicep. "Tell me what naughty little thoughts you have about me."

At the word 'naughty', her gaze dropped to his mouth which was curved upward in a sinful smile. She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue and sucked in a soft breath. Her eyes grew wide, almost completely round. Then, she shook herself slightly as if she'd realized she was staring. "No!"

He made puppy dog eyes. "But it's my birthday."

"You hate birthdays," she retorted.

He could sense her weakening and stuck out his bottom lip.

Flustered, she shook her head. "No, they're silly. You'll laugh at me."

"I won't," he vowed, replacing the dramatically sad look with a gentle smile and reaching a hand up to caress the curve of her cheek. "Whatever you want to do, I want to do."

Though he wouldn't have thought it possible, her blush intensified even more. She drew her lower lip between her teeth and chewed delicately. "I mean, I guess there are a few things that I've thought might be fun to try."

"Do tell." He had no intention of letting this go, not when he was so keenly interested in her answer.

Elena took a deep breath. "Well, I've always thought a man in military uniform is super sexy." Despite her hesitant speech, she ran her fingers over his arched ribs down to the sexy V cut over his hip bone, a light touch that raised goose bumps in its wake. "Maybe you could dress up like a soldier – any era would be fine. And I could be the sweetheart waiting faithfully at home ready to give her war hero a proper homecoming."

He'd loathed his brief stint in the army, but for Elena? "Done. What else?"

Warming up to the subject, she eagerly informed him, "We need to get a faux bear skin rug that we can have sex on in front of the fireplace in the living room." She paused with a thoughtful look. "And the library. And the kitchen."

"In every room of the house," he assured her, beyond charmed by the vivid image his brain conjured of a nude Elena rolling around on a bear skin rug, tan skin and chocolate brown hair warmly suffused with fire light. God, she was so adorable. Even her fantasies were sweet and wholesome. For the ten billionth time, he fell in love with her all over again. He added, "Oddly enough, I think there's already one in the attic. Okay, what else? There's gotta be more."

She shook her head. "Nope."

Icy blue eyes narrowed. "Lie. Out with it."

"It's stupid," she protested weakly.

"Uh-uh, it's too late now to be self-conscious around me. Spill."

Stumbling over the words, she divulged, "It's just…I thought it might be fun if you pretended like you'd never," she ducked her head and refused to meet his eyes, "you know, been with a woman."

That was definitely not what he'd been expecting. His lips quirked and incredulity laced his voice. "You want me to pretend I'm a virgin?"

She nodded shyly, still not looking at him.

"Why would you want that?"

Her gaze slowly rose to meet his as she explained, "Well, if you'd never slept with anyone before, you wouldn't know what to do, so it'd be my responsibility to teach you." When he remained silent, it emboldened her to keep going. "I'd have to teach you exactly how to please me in meticulous, graphic detail. I'd have to teach you how I like to be touched here." She cupped one of her breasts. After a moment, her hand slid lower between her legs. "And here."

His gaze was riveted on her demonstration.

"What do you think?" she asked huskily. "It could be fun, right?"

"I think that you should keep trying to persuade me, though I'll admit I'm pretty much sold on the idea."

Delighted, she wrinkled her nose. "Yeah? You'd really be my student and let me teach you how to pleasure a woman?"

"Hell yeah, in a heartbeat. I'd do anything my hot teacher told me to."

She smiled impishly. "Oh, really? Then open your present." She gave him an expectant look.

To please her, he picked up the gift again, though not before warning her to hold onto that thought because they were definitely doing the whole Elena-touches-herself-while-he-watches-and-pretends-to-be-a-virgin thing in the very near future. Holding the gift up to his ear, he gave it a good shake.

"Damon!" she objected, "it's fragile."

He ceased agitating the tube-shaped package and scrutinized it, surprised to feel a glimmer of trepidation – or was that excitement? - growing in his chest. The present was precisely wrapped in shimmery dark blue wrapping paper. A red bow rested on the round lid. Elena had obviously put a lot of care into its presentation, and he found himself strangely reluctant to ruin her wrapping job.

He stared at it for some time, making no move to open it until he felt Elena shift impatiently next to him. Only then did he rip through the wrapping paper and pry away the lid to see what his present contained.

Its contents, two tall, lumpy, newspaper-wrapped bundles, were cradled protectively in a Styrofoam-shipping-peanut embrace to prevent them from banging together and thus incurring damage.

He withdrew one of the bundles, and as the newspaper fell away what emerged was a really expensive, sixteen year old bottle of bourbon. His favorite. He grinned, admiring the dark amber color of the liquid inside, before carefully placing the bottle back in the box.

The other bundle turned out to be a crystal whisky decanter. His blue eyes widened as he realized it was Waterford crystal, exquisitely crafted and obviously a custom job. On top, a crow in mid-flight clutched the spherical stopper in its talons. A second crow sitting on a tree limb looking back over its shoulder was etched into the actual body of the decanter. The whole thing sparkled brilliantly as the clear crystal caught and reflected rays of sunlight.

Damn, she knew him well. As he replaced the elegant vessel next to the bottle of bourbon which was no doubt destined to find its home therein, he reflected that this was easily the most thoughtful, amazing present anyone had ever given him – not that there were many competing precedents.

With an anxious expression, unable to hold her peace any longer, Elena asked, "Do you like it?"

He sniffed and wiped away a pretend tear. "I love it." Setting his present aside, he pulled her into a deep kiss, tongue thoroughly perusing every nook and cranny of her mouth, hands tangling in her hair. "Thank you," he said softly when they came up for air.

"You're welcome," she smiled.

They kissed again. Then, while tracing the shape of his mouth with one finger, she murmured, "You know what this means, right? The bar's been set really high for when it's my birthday."

He grinned, nipping her fingertip. "Challenge accepted."

"Alright," she announced in an abrupt change of subject, "now it's your turn."

"My turn to what?"

"To tell me your fantasies."

He shrugged lightly and shook his head to indicate that he didn't have any.

Brows drawing together, she pouted, "I told you mine. It's only fair."

He ran his fingers down her jaw, marveling at the softness of her skin. "They've all already come true."

With an indulgent smile, she told him, "No, you can't just do that. You don't get to just say something so obnoxiously romantic and think that lets you off the hook."

"Why not? It's worked before."

Sighing dramatically, she muttered, "Ugh, fine, I'll let it go. That was obnoxiously romantic."

"And true," he added.

She laughed and tried to brush some errant raven tendrils off his forehead, but they immediately, stubbornly resumed their delinquent wandering across his temples. "You really are impossible. Remind me again why I put up with you."

One corner of his mouth lifted and he rolled on top of her. "Easy. Because I'm sexy as hell."

Though she rolled her eyes heavenward, seeking patience in the face of his smug masculinity, her voice was full of nothing but affection when she admitted, "Yeah."

His lips whispered down the slim column of her neck. "And because I rock your world in bed."

"Yeah."

Going lower, his tongue delved through the valley between her breasts. "And because you're madly in love with me."

She arched and gasped. "Yeah."

Sliding back up, he pressed a tender open-mouthed kiss against her lips.

She whispered, "Happy birthday."

"Best birthday ever," he declared, and he meant it.

He still would have meant it even if they didn't spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon in bed making love repeatedly – which they did. He still would have meant it because Elena Gilbert, this one amazingly brave, stubborn, resilient, compassionate girl, loved him, and he loved her and he always would. She was his, the greatest gift he could ever hope for.

So, yes, he spoke truthfully when he said that this was the best birthday ever, and all he'd ever want was a thousand more exactly like it.

The End

So, I'm finally done. Whew, lol. :) Yeah, yeah, I know I got silly at the end there, but I figure they deserve a little silliness after everything I put them through. This story came about because it amused me to imagine scenarios in which Damon and Elena were constantly being thwarted in their attempts to consummate their relationship. I also wanted to make them darker together than they're normally portrayed in the tv show. I hope no one was upset by my personal interpretation of the characters – any of them, not just D & E. I freely admit to exaggerating the traits and attributes that I like or that were convenient for my story while minimizing the ones I don't particularly like or that were inconvenient.

I freely admit to doing the same with certain details in my story. For example, at the beginning, I make Damon's car a '67, even though it's a '69. However, it makes me happy to pretend that Damon's car is the same year as Dean Winchester's Impala, and that's the only defense I have, but I'm sticking to it, lol. :) Additionally, I also claim in an early chapter that Damon has never tasted Elena's blood before, even though I know he bit her when he was suffering from the werewolf bite at the end of season 2. Again, my only defense is that, well, he was out of his mind and delirious, so I'm choosing to pretend that he doesn't remember clearly or at all …. which is possible, right?

Anyway, I wrote this story purely because it was fun, and I hope that reading it was at least a little fun, as well. I also want to say that I'm extremely grateful to anyone who took the time to react or respond in any way to my story. I appreciate all the reviews. They've made me a better writer, and they certainly help keep the creative juices flowing. Anyway, I think I've reached my rambling quota for the day. Thank you so much for reading, you're awesome.

XOXO,

~JK~

P.S. I think I'm beginning to work on an idea for a new D/E story, so we'll see how that turns out. :)