Perhaps, she thought, hearing his soft footsteps behind her, she should have kept him out. But he had never hurt Margaret or Aunt Judith. She had to show that she trusted Damon if she expected him to start trusting her.
In the kitchen, Elena reached into a high cupboard to take out a vase and began to fill it with water.
“Elena?” Aunt Judith asked. “You’ll be late—” She stopped in surprise as Damon came through the doorway.
“Look what Damon brought me,” Elena said lightly. Damon turned on his most brilliant smile and held out his hand.
“Damon Salvatore,” he said, introducing himself. “I’ll drive Elena to school today, make sure she gets there on time.”
Flustered, Aunt Judith reached up to smooth her hair before taking Damon’s hand. “Pleased to meet you,” she said, shooting Elena a look that said, as clearly as words, Who is this? What happened to Matt?
Elena plopped the flowers into the vase and took a few minutes to arrange them neatly, half listening to Damon and Aunt Judith’s conversation behind her.
“At university,” Damon was telling Aunt Judith. “I’m just here to visit family. Fell’s Church is lovely.” His voice was, if anything, a little too polite. And there was a familiar note in it, almost coaxing. Elena’s fingers stiffened on the rose stems. Was Damon using his Power on Aunt Judith? Aunt Judith and her fiancé, Robert, had always liked Damon. Was that because Damon had cheated? She hadn’t realized he would use his Power so casually. She swung around to stare at him. Damon met her eyes innocently, a bland smile on his lips.
Behind him, Margaret stared at Damon from the kitchen table. “Aunt Judith?” the little girl asked, her voice quavering. Perhaps she could sense Damon’s will working on Aunt Judith, compelling her to welcome him here.
“Let’s go,” Elena told Damon sharply.
“Certainly,” he said, still smiling. “You don’t want to be late to class.” He nodded politely to Aunt Judith.
Elena set the vase of roses down on the table, a little harder than she needed to, and kissed her aunt on the cheek. “See you later.”
Damon followed Elena to the front door. “Now that you’ve got the roses, perhaps you should leave those little flowering weeds in your pocket behind,” he said idly.
“Very funny,” Elena said, opening the door and turning to look at him. She was aware of the vervain nestled deep in her pocket, but it was interesting that Damon could sense it as well. Or perhaps he was only guessing. “The roses are gorgeous, though,” she added, and Damon’s lips curved into a smile.
The car parked outside was amazing: low, sleek, and clearly very expensive. Damon opened the door for her.
“Are you sure you want to go to school today, Princess?” he asked. “There’s a whole wide world out there. You could show me around Fell’s Church.”
“It’s tempting,” Elena admitted, and Damon’s smile widened. “But I should get to school. Aunt Judith will worry if she hears I cut.”
“I could make her forget,” Damon suggested, and held up a hand defensively when Elena glared at him. “Just teasing you, Princess. School it is.”
Elena settled back in the soft leather of the passenger seat, and Damon shut the door behind her and crossed to the driver’s side. She watched as he started the car and pulled out, admiring his strong, graceful hands on the wheel. When he shot her a sidelong smile, she grinned back. This was all so familiar. She knew the way he scanned the road, the way his long legs fit into the footwell of the car. This is Damon, she thought, with a sigh of satisfaction. When she was with him, she felt at home.
When they pulled into the parking lot at school, Caroline’s head shot up first. All around her, their friends turned as if drawn by a single, invisible thread. Damon parked and got out, coming around the car to open Elena’s door with a flourish.
“Who is that?” She heard Bonnie’s voice rise above the crowd. Meredith shushed her.
She smiled prettily up at Damon as he helped her out of the car, pretending not to notice the spreading whispers all around them.
“They’ll be talking about you all day,” Damon said, his voice low. Elena gave him a small, private grin in reply.
“I’ll see you later?” Elena asked him, squeezing his cool hand in her warmer one.
“Oh, I’ll be around,” he said, and bent his head to press his lips, lightly, against her cheek. Raising her hand to touch where he had kissed, Elena watched as Damon slid back into his car and drove away. A tendril of affection curled warmly inside her.
Once the black car had turned out of the high school parking lot, an excited babble of voices rose up behind Elena.
“Did you see that car?”
“There was a car? I was too busy looking at the guy.”
“No wonder Elena didn’t care about the new boy.”
Elena smirked a little. Then, turning, she came face to face with Matt. His lips were pursed tightly. Elena flinched. She had told him there wasn’t anyone else.
“Matt,” she said quickly, “it’s not what it looks like. When we talked, I didn’t …”
Tyler Smallwood and Dick Carter swaggered over. Tyler slapped Matt on the back, his big, red face openly amused. “So someone finally cracked the Ice Princess, huh? Too bad it wasn’t you, Honeycutt,” he said loudly. “You wasted a lot of time there.”
On Tyler’s other side, Dick Carter broke into rough laughter. His girlfriend, Vickie Bennett, clung to his arm and tittered uneasily.