stranded // d. salvatore au.

FOURTEEN

Chapter 14

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THE NEXT DAY WAS EVEN HOTTER THAN THE LAST ONE. Florence groaned as she placed a blanket on the sand before taking her shirt and shorts off, leaving her only in a simple black bikini.

Damon was out somewhere so she was left alone. Taking a sunscreen, Florence started to apply it on her arms, then stomach, then legs. She didn't even notice Damon coming out of the woods while carrying some coconuts.

He stopped when he saw her tanning and then shook his head before approaching her and covering the sun. Florence opened one eye and looked at him weirdly. "I'm pretty sure you are covering the sun," she commented as he raised up two coconuts. "Mm! Yummy!"

Before she could reach it, Damon raised it higher so Florence glared at him. "There's a lot of good stuff in there. But... I'm not the biggest poisonous or not poisonous things guy. So..."

"Coconuts aren't poisonous as I recall," Florence scoffed before standing up and grabbing one coconut. "Can you open it?"

Damon nodded then used his vampire strength to open the coconut as white substance flowed down his fingers. Florence grabbed it before drinking and moaning in pleasure. "Good..." she trailed off as Damon tried it by himself.

"It was just a small thing of the big thing I'm planning on doing," he smirked as she looked at him in confusion. "I went back to the house tree and found some fishing rods. We can easily find a lifeboat."

"Wait? You're saying we can go fishing?" she asked excitedly. When she was little, her favorite thing to do was fishing with her dad.

Damon nodded his head so Florence just threw her arms around him and squealed as Damon was taken aback by such warmness. "Yes! Finally," she exclaimed before pulling away. She wasn't helping Damon. First, he kind of liked her, second, she wasn't entirely dressed. It stirred feelings.

"I'll go and bring those rods," he nodded awkwardly before walking away as Florence looked at him, realizing how much she over went with her actions.

~~~

THE WAVES WERE MODERATE BUT IT STILL MADE FLORENCE QUITE SICK. She wasn't used to such waving while she fished, and worst, it wasn't fun. She was sick and in the past hour they haven't caught any fish. Her stomach gurgled once again as she laid down on the lifeboat, her hands touching water.

Damon held the fishing rod with a bored face as he saw how sick she felt from floating. "Awfully quiet," Damon said quietly as she didn't glance at him, just continued splashing water around. "You're scaring the fish away."

"What fish?" Florence scoffed lowly before glancing at his brooding face. "If we're lucky we're gonna catch a some small fish. I don't think many fish lives in such water."

"Since when you're an aquatic biologist?" he asked with a grumble and then suddenly the fishing rod started dragging down as if caught something. Damon focused on that and started pulling the hook up.

When he did, they both saw a small fish. Florence gave Damon a 'told you so' look so he just shook his head in disappointment then let the fish go before making another hook. "From sleepless nights in New York to this... Fishing with the most judgement girl in the world."

Florence had no idea what was wrong with him. But clearly he wanted to hurt her, because it was working. "Okay, what did I do to you?" she asked brining herself up then closing her eyes from the spinning.

"What do you mean?—"

"Oh, I'm as hell sure you know what I'm talking about," she interrupted him angrily. "Yesterday everything seemed fine, and today you're not you. You're..." she paused, trying to find the right word. "You're the old you. The one, who wanted to kill me."

Damon didn't answer as he looked at the water. "Fine. Don't answer," she told him incredulously before laying back and leaning over the boat as she touched the warm water. "By the way, you're judgmental too."

The vampire looked at her. There it was again. The feeling of not wanting to hate her. The feeling of  wanting to protect her so much. That's what Damon hated, and that was why he acted so cold. To push the girl away so she wouldn't get disappointed afterwards. "I don't want to kill you," he then said as Florence blinked a couple of times before blinking the sudden tears away. "At least not anymore."

"Soft."

He just clenched his jaw before becoming furious. Damon just hissed and threw the rod into the water. "What are you doing?!" Florence shouted with wide eyes as she sat up on their lifeboat.

Damon just sat there, fuming as she stared at him with scared eyes. She knew she crossed the line. He was a vampire and could've lost it any second and that seemed to be happening. Damon took a peddle and started swimming back towards the shore.

When they reached it he quickly got out before walking away angrily while throwing stuff away. Florence got out of the boat and slowly started heading back to the plane. She hesitated to go up as she heard Damon break things there. He lost it. He actually lost hope and it was bad, because Florence was holding onto his hope.

"Damon..." she trailed off before actually finding courage to go up. When she entered the plane, she stopped to see him looking at her while breathing heavily. He held a face that had a lot of emotions and she hadn't seen him like that since the first day they met. When he fed from her without her permission. "Damon."

Damon then threw down the chair's part that he broke and marched towards her. Florence widened her eyes but he just placed his hands on her shoulders. "Tell me that we'll get outta here," he said with pleading eyes.

Florence's shocked eyes softened as she saw the need of assurance from him. "Tell me that we will!" he shouted so she flinched and nodded her head quickly.

"We will, Damon. We will," she said assuringly so Damon slowly loosened his grip of her as he sighed deeply. "Damon, you need to keep hope for both of us. Because your hope is my hope. Okay?"

Damon looked at her before nodding his head. "If we're in this, we are together. And that is what will keep us sane. Do you trust me?" she asked once again.

"Yes."

Florence smiled before Damon hugged her. It felt out of blue but she hugged him back. Her hugs were sweet and comforting. Damon missed such touch.

The girl finally gave in and buried her head into his shoulder before shutting her eyes off and sinking into the moment.

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