"You know, when Stefan said to keep an eye on me, I don't think he meant it this literally."

For the past three days, I had been all but chained to the inside of the Salvatore's home, with none other than Damon Salvatore for my be-humbling company.

Yup, bring on the confetti.

As I laid down on the black leather of the couch, not even the leather could soothe my irritated nerves. "And if you weren't so damn persistent with it then maybe I could actually get something done."

Damon's smile was pure male arrogance. "Elena, you of all people know that I am a man of my word. So when Stefan said to keep an eye on things- or more preferably you- of course I had to oblige. In plus, I don't need you dying on me every five seconds out in the real world."

That wasn't fair. And it wasn't seconds…more like minutes.

"Well, you would never know. After all, I haven't stepped in the sunlight in over 72 hours."

Damon just shrugged, as if my concerns were the least of his problems. "Too much sun is bad for you."

I threw my arms up in exasperation and groaned. "How is this fair? Next time Stefan goes somewhere, I sure as hell am going with him."

Damon was so amused by my attempt at a threat that he looked up from his glass of who-knew-what and glared at me. He then raised a long pale finger. "And that is where I have to interfere. Of course I would have to disagree, even though we all know what wonderful company you are." Sarcasm coated his tone.

I sat up straighter and rubbed my temples. "I honestly don't think that I can take three more weeks of this."

"I'm wounded Elena. And here I thought we were beginning to enjoy each other's company."

I rolled my eyes at this. "Not even close."

Damon chuckled and receded to plopping down next to me on the couch. I resisted the urge to nervously scoot away.

"Well, if you are so tragically bored, then I do have some activities we can adorn." He grinned wickedly at me.

"Ugh!" I yelled, throwing a dark pillow at him.

"Take that as a no." Damon's voice came muffled behind the pillow.

It saddened me greatly to say, but we had (well, he had) created so much sexual tension between us that even Paris Hilton would even be shocked.

Well, it was Damon we were talking about here.

If I said I was going to take a shower, he would ask to join me- sarcastically, I always hoped. I could never leave the clothes that I had packed anywhere in plain sight, in fear that he would be going through it in the next ten minutes.

I couldn't even say the word banana without him laughing. He was such a guy. Even worse, he was a vampire. So he was more like a freaky, man-vamp thingy with self-fulfillment issues. Just my dumb-luck I had to spend all this time with him.

I looked into Damon's patronizing blue eyes, and sighed, a long suffering sound coming between clenched teeth. What was I going to do with him?

He raised his hands, palm out. "Alright, I'll behave. But sooner or later you'll be good and give it." Damon lightly jumped off the couch and looked at me.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" I already knew the answer. I was just hoping I had misunderstood some of that.

He crossed his hands across his chest as I glared at him. "I think you know what I mean."

I blushed slightly. For some strange reason, all our conversations led to sex.

"Yeah, but that's were your wrong. You think that all the girls will just throw themselves at you're feet." I stood up, forcing his closeness away.

"But…"

"Without compulsion. That doesn't count." I quickly interrupted.

"Come on, Elena. We've been through this already."

"Enlighten me." I said dangerously, getting closer to him.

Oops. First major mistake with Damon. You never poke the viper.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that.

Damon's cocky smile was perched back on his handsome features. "I would love to, but I have a feeling Stefan wouldn't exactly approve."

God , how could he be so perfect and yet so horrible all at the same time? "You know that's not what I meant, Damon. And if you had any dignity left in your cold, dead body, you would know that, too."

"Elena, I have 170 years' worth of dignity bottled up, whereas you only have 18." He finished in a mocking tone I knew all too well. The sound made me want to laugh, even if I didn't know why.

Maybe I was crazy. It was hard to tell with Damon. Ask me when I wasn't in the presence of him and I could give you a straight answer. But with him? Never.

"You know, you actually could be responsible if you tried."

"Please, the last thing this little 'family' needs is another Stefan. I can barely stand one." Damon was pacing now, looking frustrated.

"What is it, now?" He was making me dizzy with his constant striding.

Damon just shook his head and glanced at me. In other words, he was making me extremely nervous. Damon did not pace, not unless the world was dropping bombs and all the blood in the world had mystically disappeared.

After a moment, he stopped and looked at me. "You wanna make a bet with me?

I waited to see if he were joking. He wasn't. "Oh, hell no. The last time I made a bet with you, I lost and ended up skinny dipping." By now, I had learned that it was not smart to make bets with any vampire. Humans always lost.

"Oh come on, it will be fun." There was that damn smile again. "And technically the whole skinny dipping thing was your fault," He grinned widely "Which by the way, I enjoyed watching."

I shivered. We made a bet that I could beat him at checkers, and of course, I lost. So I ended up stripping down in freezing weather and diving into the river. All while Damon sat on a rock with a huge ole' grin on his face and nonchalantly watched me.

The thing that I didn't want to admit is that I kind of liked it. Not the Damon seeing me naked part, but the rush of jumping into a river without clothes.

"Come on, Party Pooper. A little bet wouldn't hurt." Damon was laughing now.

Groaning, I looked up at him. "Fine. Whatever. What are we betting?"

"Alright Ms. Elena. I bet that I can make you forget Stefan for one whole day."

I huffed "And how are you going to do that exactly…?"

Damon grinned mischievously, his blue eyes flashing.

Damn!

"No! How could you even say that? What part of 'I hate you' do you not understand, Damon?" I started to run out of the room, furious, but he caught me before I could flee the scene.

"Sorry, but you can't go back on a bet. It's the golden rule." He didn't even seem fazed that I had said I hated him. He must have gotten it a lot.

"No!" I bellowed in his face, and he toke a surprised step back. "The golden rule is to respect people's space and privacy, and be nice to them, none of which you are doing. So just do us both a favor, and just drop it."

Damon looked temporarily stunned, but soon recovered. "I have plenty of time to convince you otherwise."

And with that… he was gone.