I still woke up in Damon's arms, although he was now curled up next to me and wrapped around me. Holding on tightly to me. I wriggled out gently.
He growled in my ear, "Don't move or I'll velvet you up. You'll be there for a while. "
Fine, be that way. He was stroking me, holding me close, sniffing me, and somehow I realized he hadn't had such pleasant dreams and somehow he needed to hold me close and wake up in peace. Our bond told me so much about him.
We were together for another half an hour. I kept my eyes closed and enjoyed the incredible feeling of security he gave me, and I didn't even know what it was based on.
Whether it was because he was stronger, more experienced, and able to defend me or whether it had something to do with what they called Damon in the prophecy, the Protector.
I woke up in bed by myself and heard the shower. Fine. I had then dozed off somewhere in between. I was feeling great, stretching in bed.
We were still in the hotel but this was a pretty damn well-sanctified room and we had a do not disturb sign at the door all the time. When the cleaners get here, they can take a while and they might be wondering about some places that need to be cleaned. And wondering why they've been fucking high on a bookshelf, or the windowsill, against the window, on the floor, and on every rug we could find.
I was feeling warm, content, and happy, so I didn't cover myself up while I stretched and enjoyed myself. The sound of the water stopped, there was a slight rattle, and the bathroom door opened.
Damon walked into the room with just a towel around his hips, looked at me, and threw the sheet over me.
He was grunting sexily, " Don't show off baby, or I can't control myself and I have plans for today. You're about to get in the shower and then I'll pick out your clothes and do your hair when you come to eat. Adam's with us today too and I can tell you might be pretty tired by tonight, but I've booked us two a table at the restaurant. I'll take you to dinner."
Oh, that sort of thing. Fine. I kept the sheet on and admired Damon rather uninhibitedly as he dressed.
Then he looked at me and said, " My lady, down to the shower, and then you get dressed. There are shampoos and soaps for you, so you don't get rashes and itching. You're a pretty damn sensitive creature and, by the way, baby, cilantro is really poisonous to you. It can kill you temporarily, so if you're more careful next time you eat out yourself."
I nodded and was silent. Oh, I'm a really sensitive character then, well that's ok. I'll try to remember that.
Damon left the room, so I decided to take a shower. While I was in the shower, I heard him come back and start preparing the clothes. I also caught snippets of Adam's voice, as it seemed Damon and he were engaged in a conversation.
I washed with the new products, the shampoo smelt of apple blossom, and the shower gel of lily of the valley. This was some rarer brand and I could see they were very natural products, not a lot of additives.
For the first time in a while, I didn't have to moisturize myself or scratch a spot almost bleeding, so I was very sensitive and Damon seemed to find the right products for me.
My clothes were a pink button-down shirt, a white silk skirt, black heels, red lace panties, and no bra. I got dressed and then walked to the living room and kitchen. Damon and Adam were sitting there, and the food smelled.
Damon made me sit down, set the table full of food, and started brushing and blow-drying my hair. I ate and ate a lot. Adam was sitting on the sofa. They had already eaten, apparently.
I didn't mind. They filled me up pretty damn full and made sure I had enough Coca-Cola and coffee.
Then Damon said, "Today, the two of us are going to take you shopping. We're going to buy you clothes and everything. And you're going to be a good girl and let us buy. You will not buy. You're the one who's going to be bought and, oh, we're going to make you try on some clothes."
I slowly replied, " Okay, fine with me, I don't mind trying on clothes and shoes,"
Adam said, "You can be pretty ripe for the job and you two still have dinner at the finest restaurant in New York, Jean Georges. Damon has already prearranged the menus there, so everything is taken care of."
I was silent for a moment, well I had eaten a little here and there, but going to a fine dining restaurant was a little exciting, but I was ready. I was ready for that, too.
Then we started wandering around the city, and now we were walking. Damon and Adam seemed to know where we were always going and, after all, New York was a city of millions. People were walking all the time, and cars were everywhere.
Damon and Adam were walking closely beside me and I could feel the looming charge of Damon. There were shops everywhere. I could have stopped and looked in the windows, but no. We were now on our way somewhere.
We then came to Fifth Avenue, which was full of designer shops like Armani, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Valentino, just to name a few. And we started to browse through them.
The atmosphere in a designer store like this, well, it's what you might call a money pit. When you go into these stores, you know you're going to spend money, but now we don't care; I went and sat down. I could get coffee, champagne, whatever, while the two guys with me started looking for clothes.
And then the problem started. Two handsome men, neither of them had a ring and there were women shop assistants in these shops. None of the female salespeople had studied how to deal with supernaturals and the danger signs to watch out for when dealing with a werewolf or vampire.
For example, the color of the vampire's eyes. If they were red, then you should walk away very discreetly and hope that the vampire himself would be restrained. Because red eyes were a sign of blood lust, and I had very rarely seen them on Damon.
But in the very first shop, he looked at me and I saw blood-red eyes as this 35-year-old saleswoman thought she was Damon's type and it was a good thing she didn't seduce him.
Now I didn't know what to do. I could step in, but then again, is it wise to jump between a vampire and this prey? Humans were stupid, but is that a reason to get yourself killed?
Then I noticed Adam's eyes flashed yellow and at that point, yes, I rolled my eyes. I got up and went to find the manager of the shop, who was an older woman in the back room, doing some paperwork.
She looked surprised when I came to the door of her room and said, " Sorry to disturb you but apparently your staff have not had proper training on how to deal with a vampire, hybrid, or werewolf and there will be unfortunate tragic consequences."
The woman looked up and said, " Yes, everyone has had the mandatory four-hour danger sign lecture. What are you talking about? "
I gestured to the woman to follow.
I said, " The hybrid is my boyfriend, and the werewolf is my pack leader. See for yourself. I'm not stopping either one. My boyfriend is about to have himself a proper meal and that anemia is going to be lethal."
The woman took one look at the situation and hurried to the saleswomen, telling them both to go to the back room and stay there. She apologized to Damon, brought him a couple of blood bags, and gave Adam a drink. She watched herself and helped if either of them asked questions.
As we left the shop, Damon pulled me into him and said, " Do that, baby, again. Come between me and my prey and you will be my prey and I can guarantee it won't be fun." He was very upset. Angry at me. And he meant every single word.
I nodded and tried to learn. I was sneaky. I always went to talk to the boss first before any salesperson could do any damage and then there was always someone watching. Some stores had proper salespeople and knew exactly how to behave.
And because Damon is quite possessive, Adam didn't really approach me all the time, either. We were in downtown New York. We went through all the designer stores and neither man got nervous anymore when I did my little thing. It was just a one-time thing and neither of them could say no to me.
We went into a store or shop. The salespeople would come up to us and I always asked to see the manager first. I could be so demanding. Then the boss came over, and I introduced him to Damon and Adam. I always explained what we were all about first, and then everyone was businesslike when the boss was aware of the customers.
I introduced Damon as my boyfriend and Adam as my pack leader. Then I sat down and watched as the men gathered a lot of clothes in their laps. Or rather, Damon bought more than Adam.
He seemed to be teaching Adam how to buy clothes for me. Then came a time when the men had a bunch of clothes they gave me and I had to try them on. Nowhere near all the clothes worked and in the end, I didn't even look at the total when Damon paid for all my clothes. It was something that I had to just learn. He was very wealthy, well; he had lived for over a thousand years, so one has had time to get rich.
It was a long day when we finally went back to the hotel to get dressed and ready for dinner. I was exhausted, though. Shopping takes energy and my little prevention. But the idea of one of the fancier restaurants with a view of Central Park was appealing.
The men had put all the shopping to go in different houses, and Damon was only carrying a few bags. I had found my passion though, and that was shoes. I loved to buy shoes, but it did not mean that I could decide.
We had gone to a shoe store to look at some heels and oh that was fun, but the men were running out of patience when I couldn't decide whether to take or not. Well, there was always some pair that got my attention, but then again, where I would use them. Damon got bored with the whole thing and took every pair of shoes with him and we bought them all, although I wasn't sure about all of them.
We arrived at the hotel, and first, we had to shower again. I then went and washed the day's sweat and foreign smells off myself. I wrapped myself in a thick bathrobe and went to dry off when Damon went to shower.
Adam was waiting for me, sat me in a chair, and started to blow dry my hair. By the time Damon had washed, my hair was dry and Adam gave me underwear, a full body corset, fine. Adam pulled it rather tight.
I was in okay shape, well, 53 kilos, and I put the corset on. It made my breasts stand out more, made my waist look even narrower, and gave some illusion of hips.
Damon came into the room, he was wearing black leather pants, and a black silk shirt with gold trim, fantastic looking, sleeves rolled up sloppily almost to the elbows, he was carrying a makeup bag, a briefcase rather, and started doing my makeup, then he did my hair.
I looked in the mirror and I had strong smokey eye makeup on, and it highlighted my cheekbones. Somehow he had made my wild and unpredictable look turn almost sexy and seductive without making me look like a slut. My hair was put up in a frizzy, curly cloud.
He said, "I'll finish your hair when I get your dress on. Get up and I'll help you put the dress on."
I stood up and Damon took a dress out of the bag. It was black satin, silver, metallic trim, and thin straps because my corset was strapless. He helped me into the dress, pulled it up and the dress showed my shape.
It was as deeply slit in the front as possible; the cleavage was clearly visible; the dress came almost to my ankles, but it had a slit almost to my hips and then the shoes were white heels with only very thin laces. Very delicate shoes.
When he got the dress on, he let some of my hair down the back and gathered some of it just in a cloud of curls on my head. Then we were ready. We went out and there was a limo waiting. Oh, that Damon had a smug look on his face as he looked at my expression when I was very confused and almost unsure.
The car drove slowly through New York nighttime. Everywhere there were big advertisements, lights, and people moving around as much as in the daytime, New York really never sleeps. The car was fancy and quiet and I felt we were almost gliding, not driving.
We arrived at the restaurant and Damon got out of the car first, gave me his arm and we went into the restaurant. The dress felt around me very luxurious, but I was very aware of just how much it showed my body and how much my leg peeked through the slit.
He said, "I hope this is the most memorable night you will ever have. "
We went in. Of course, the table was under the name Salvatore, and they ushered us to a table.
We sat down and Damon explained it to me, " So baby, we have a ten-course tasting menu. The portions will be small for us but tasty and I have taken great care to make sure everything is suitable for you. As for the cutlery, I'll advise you. telepathically."
I nodded and said, " Wow, this place is gorgeous and fancy. Somehow, I feel like I don't belong here."
Damon laughed and said, " Look to your left."
There was a big mirror, and it amazed me to see myself sitting with Damon. I even looked elegant, the kind that belongs in such a fancy restaurant. The conversation was quiet here. These were fine people, and no one was talking loudly. No one's phone beeped, and the waiters glided between tables with discretion and skill.
We had dishes in front of us and I didn't even know what was what until Damon always told me. The waiter would tell me a fancy French or Italian name and I wasn't fluent in the language to that extent.
We had lobster soup, white shrimp, and wagyu tartar. The main courses were fish, and pike with mushroom sauce, and then we had bird quail with duck liver stuffing. And then there were huge big wagyu steaks, well they were tasty, then there was a salad. It had duck and goose, lettuce, and cucumber, but no tomatoes. There were some herbs and one herb did get me quite excited, though.
Damon laughed devilishly huskily and said, "I recommend you limit the use of thyme, as you will find it has a special effect on you."
Well, yes, there was. Then there were two desserts. The first was a great chocolate souffle, and it was lovely tasting, but it was enough. I wanted no more chocolate. We had drunk several bottles of fantastic wines and they didn't feel like anything.
Damon said, "Your metabolism is too fast to even get a pleasant buzz. You need something stronger for that job but don't worry, I'll get you drunk one day."
I giggled.
The waiters brought the last dessert to the table next. They brought with them a fine champagne and a bowl of fresh berries, strawberries, raspberries, even blueberries, and passionfruit.
They started to prepare the dessert at that table and I realized that this was a very special thing people watched enviously as the chefs skillfully prepared layer after layer and the result was absolutely stunning.
They had mirror glaze, multicolored, black, and pink, gold. Inside there were strawberries, whipped cream, raspberries, blueberries, and some sauces. The chefs lifted them in front of us.
Before I could even look at Damon to see how we were going to eat, Damon stood up and came in front of me, knelt, dug out a jewelry box, and opened it. There was a ring.
He looked at me almost adoringly, and I felt everyone was looking at us. My heart was pounding in my chest and I was so happy, so touched, and I felt like I couldn't contain myself. Damon's voice was a little louder now, so much so that everyone must have heard.
"Mimi. The love of my life. Will you make me the happiest hybrid in the world? A man and maybe a husband? Will you marry me?"
I looked deep into his eyes, tried to make my voice heard, hoped they would hear it, and said, "Damon, love of my life, yes, I will. I want nothing more in this world than to be your wife, to be yours.."
Tears streamed from my eyes, as I was so damn happy. Damon smiled. Wiped my tears and his eyes were wet too. He stood up and lifted me too, and then I saw Adam, Bran, Samuel, Nick, and Elias grinning from the corner table. Bran had kept them hidden, and this was a planned affair.
But I was so damn happy. We kissed passionately. At that moment, my soul sang. I was as happy, as in love as I could ever be.
The whole restaurant cheered, and he slipped the ring on my finger. The gorgeous ring was gold with a large pink diamond. Colorless diamonds surrounded it. It was perfect.
We sat down and started eating our cakes. I fed Damon, and He fed me. We kissed many times and I couldn't stop looking at the ring on my finger.
My life had just taken a wonderful, surprising turn, and I couldn't wait to see what happened next.
I must say that this was the most romantic proposal that I have ever had. Oh, we have been married on and off during the centuries so many times and have very many special weddings but this was most romantic, other times it had been pretty obvious that I was saying yes, and no need to be overly romantic about it. But I must say Mariella had never gotten to experience this. So I won. And I am pretty sure that she learns the story of Damon and Elena from these pages. Damon has never told her about it.