Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or it's characters. If I did, The Originals and Steroline would never have happened, Kol would be alive and happily causing mayhem somewhere, and Klaus and Caroline would be travelling the world and sexing it up.
This is dedicated to Sophie, aka Justanotherfiveminutes, who patiently hammered out the plot and the circumstances of this story with me from the other side of the world. Thanks Sophie!
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, 2015
She's sipping at a margarita in the corner of the bar when she notices him enter. She has a good vantage point with her back to the wall, exits all covered and her weapon holstered at her thigh should she need to use it.
She'd been on a mission in Central Mexico, one that had ultimately been successful. She hadn't had much of a chance to see the country, and she had some time to kill before she had to be back in Langley for her debrief and her medical and psych eval, standard protocol for all CIA agents after a mission.
That, and she really just wanted to lie on a beach and sip cocktails and forget about the reality of her life for a while.
After much pleading, Alaric had allowed her a short stay in Mexico, promising to have a jet waiting for her at the Los Cabos International Airport exactly 72 hours from now. If she was late, she needed to make it back to Virginia using her own money rather than the CIA's.
She'd very quickly agreed to Alaric's terms, and had immediately hired out a suite in one of the lavish beach front resorts that littered the Playa El Medano, Cabo's main beach.
With it's impossibly blue water, Cabo was like heaven on earth, a nice change from the conditions that she'd been operating in on her mission towards the centre of the country.
Despite the stifling heat, the stranger moves with a kind of leonine grace, with absolute confidence despite the unfamiliar surroundings. With his blonde hair, broad shoulders, and crystalline blue eyes, he sticks out like a sore thumb, commanding attention with every movement that he makes.
He's seated at the bar seconds later, posture open and relaxed as he speaks in near fluent Spanish to the bartender, a bottle of Corona appearing in front of him in seconds.
She cocks her head to the side, letting her eyes roam over his body, taking in the broad shoulders, the well defined chest outlined by the simple white shirt that he's wearing. As her eyes slip down further, her eyebrows raise slightly at the obvious outline of a gun tucked into the waistband of his pants.
It's not obvious, but she's been trained to catalogue each weapon on every person that she comes across. She hopes for his sake that he's got his safety on.
As if sensing the weight of her gaze the stranger turns, eyes sweeping around the bar as he takes a sip of his drink. He's got the bottle to his lips when his eyes meet hers, and she sees him hesitate for a moment before taking another sip and smirking.
She taps her fingers against the wooden tabletop in front of her, unconsciously crossing and uncrossing her legs as she holds this man's gaze.
He's all heat and grace as he stands, the crowd parting before him, lost in their own conversations and problems.
He places his bottle on her table before depositing himself into the seat opposite her.
"Hello sweetheart."
She can't help but recoil at the endearment, because maybe she'd gotten this guy all wrong. All the same, she's somewhat intrigued by the obvious British accent, and wonders if he's here for business or pleasure.
"A little early for endearments don't you think?" She replies a little waspishly, toying with her glass absentmindedly as his lips pull back into a disarming smile.
He's even more handsome up close.
She's usually so confident in these sorts of situations, but he's thrown her for a loop and she's not sure how to play it.
"I don't know. You tell me." The man replies, running a hand through sandy blonde hair before fiddling with his collar.
Outside the light changes, the reflection of the setting sun off the water burnishing everything with an orange glow. It had perhaps been her favourite part of Mexico, the brilliant vibrancy of the sunrises and the sunsets.
"What's your name?" She asks suddenly, trying to trip him up, cataloguing his behaviour, his mannerisms.
"Klaus. And yours?" He turns the question back on her, watches as she lifts her hair away from the back of her neck, fanning herself.
"Very Germanic. And yet it seems that you were born and raised in England. I'm Caroline." She adds, tying her hair into a messy knot on top of her hair.
"Perceptive love." Klaus replies with another quick smile. "And of course you're American. What brings you to Mexico, Caroline? Business or pleasure?"
She takes her time to answer, a slow drag of her eyes up his body before she meets his gaze with a defiant tilt of her chin.
"Both I hope."
She stands, draining the rest of her margarita, pulling the spare keycard to her beach front suite out of her bra, placing it onto the table and flicking it towards him with a well manicured fingernail.
"Don't bother if you're not a good fuck." She says bluntly, meeting his eyes boldly.
Klaus raises an eyebrow but says nothing, leaning forward and picking up the keycard, slipping it into the pocket of his pants.
"Later, perhaps." He muses out loud, lips curling into an amused smile as he takes another sip of his beer.
She turns her back on him, the weight of his gaze heavy as she strides across the bar, pushing out into the cool afternoon air.
"Unbelievable Forbes." She mutters to herself as she lengthens her strides, making a beeline back to her resort.
She's still not quite sure what she's gotten herself into.
She absolutely does not wait around for this mysterious Klaus with the bright blue eyes and the banging bod when she gets back to her villa.
She likes to think she's better than that, hanging out for something that may or may not happen.
So she takes the time to pamper herself. She takes a long bath, shaves in all the appropriate places, slips into a slinky set of lingerie that may or may not be for his benefit.
She mixes herself a drink at the bar in her suite before she's slipping on a robe and stepping out onto the patio, infinity pool spread out before her.
The temptation to feel the coolness of the water against her skin is far too great, and she finds herself stripping, robe pooling at her feet and lingerie discarded. She sets her drink down at the edge of the pool before she's diving in completely naked, revelling in the privacy of her villa and the fact that she has this particular pool and stretch of beach all to herself.
When she surfaces, using both hands to slick her hair back from her head he's suddenly, unexplainably there.
He's standing by the side of the pool, dressed in exactly the same outfit that he'd been in some hours before.
The humidity has plastered his hair to his forehead, but he still looks as delectable as he had been the first time she'd laid eyes on him. She didn't often get to have much fun in her line of work, but Klaus was something she could definitely work with.
"Fancy meeting you here." She quips lightly, gliding through the water until her back's hitting the opposite lip of the pool, nothing but beach and ocean behind her, illuminated by the last rays of the dying sun.
Klaus' lips quirk into a smile but he says nothing in reply, eyes instead drifting down to the pile of clothing at his feet.
His body language and the heat in his gaze is practically begging for an explanation, and she simply shrugs, keeping most of her body below the waterline.
"I was hot and needed to cool down. You're welcome to join me if you like. Clothing not required." She tells him, turning her back on him and draping her arms over the lip of the infinity pool.
She hears rather than sees him strip, the soft noise of his shirt hitting the patio floor, the clinking of a belt buckle as he shucks his pants, toes off his boots.
She still doesn't turn when she hears the splash to indicate that he's actually dived in and joined her, continues staring out towards the ocean as he surfaces and moves towards her.
She jumps slightly at the feeling of his hand running gently up her spine before curving around her shoulder, tugging gently yet insistently to get her to turn.
If he'd been nice to look at from a distance, Klaus was even more devastating up close, all lean, contained strength and power as beads of water shone like diamond drops on his bare chest.
He's half hard, hot and heavy against her thigh as he moves closer, caging her in against the side of the pool with strong arms.
He's close enough for her to see the water beading on his eyelashes, gaze dipped low as he hovers tantalisingly close to where she wants him to be.
"It must be my lucky day." Klaus murmurs, more to himself than to her before he's closing the distance between them.
His kiss is fire, heat, enough to burn her from the inside out, toes curling as she twines her arms around his neck, tugging absentmindedly at the black beaded necklace that she'd noticed earlier, peeking out from beneath the collar of his t shirt.
Klaus, hands roam teasingly as he pushes her further into the wall, and it's enough to have her gasping as his lips move from her neck to her throat, nipping gently at the sensitive skin there.
His cock nudges at her entrance, hot despite the coolness of the water. It's enough to have her wrenching herself away from him with a sharp intake of breath.
Klaus freezes, picking up on her obvious discomfort as he turns to gaze down his nose at her warily.
She presses a hot open mounthed kiss to his cheek before pushing him gently on the chest. Taking the hint, he takes a step away from her, giving her whatever space she needed.
Hmm. Hot, and a gentlemen. Certainly a rare breed of men these days.
"I totally do want to have sex with you, for the record." She begins without preamble as Klaus hides an bemused smile. "Just not in this pool." She adds, waving a dismissive hand to encompass the body of water surrounding them. "UTI's are never sexy."
She makes her way past Klaus, to the corner of the pool where the ladder is. Once she's back on dry land she pads over to where she'd left her drink discarded, bending over to pick it up and take a sip.
"I'm taking this inside, and I'm not really fussy about the surface or the position. You're welcome to join me if you're up for it." She says teasingly, hand sliding down her body to toy with her nipple.
Klaus' gaze darkens as her hand slides lower, resting on her belly as she drains the rest of her drink.
"Oh I'm definitely up for it love."
She tries not to roll her eyes at another endearment dropped from his lips. Instead, she simply turns her back on him, striding towards the entrance of the villa even as she hears the splashing of water behind her as he pushes himself out of the pool.
She's taken a grand total of two steps into the cool interior of the villa before he's upon her, hands gripping her around the hips as he lifts her, twisting them and stepping until her back slams up against the wall.
Almost unbidden her legs wrap around his waist, arms around his neck as he pauses, cock nudging at her entrance.
"Are you on…" He trails off helplessly as she rolls her eyes, pressing a kiss to his lips.
"Birth control. Move please."
He enters her with one smooth stroke, stilling when he's fully sheathed inside her, face pressed into her throat.
Needing that friction, she can't help but gasp out loud at the sensation of being filled, digging her heel into his arse to get him to move already.
He sets a rhythm that has her seeing stars, not able to do much in her current position pinned between his body and the wall. She just holds on, lips hot against his neck as he drives up into her heat, strength evident in his body as he keeps her in the one position.
As she very quickly discovers, Klaus is a very good fuck. She comes once against the wall, milking his cock as she throws her head back with a sigh.
Klaus seemingly not done with her yet, grips her tightly around the waist, stepping backwards until he's able to sink down onto the couch, still hard inside her.
This time it's her turn to do the work, Klaus helping with a gentle grip around her waist as she rocks against him, lips meeting clumsily until she can feel herself building towards that blissful peak.
Klaus makes her come again twice before he spills inside her with a groan. With a wince she climbs off his lap, heading off towards the bathroom in search of a cloth to wipe themselves down.
Klaus is still splayed out on the couch when she returns, all loose limbed and pliant, eyes at half mast as he gazes at her.
"Some interesting bruises you have there." His gaze tracks over her chest and abdomen, taking in the graze on her shoulder from where she'd had to tuck and roll to escape a few assailants.
She says nothing, handing him the cloth as she eyes off the interesting bruises and scars littered across his own chest.
"The same could be said for you." She remarks pointedly as he wipes himself down before discarding the cloth on the side table.
Klaus smiles, and it doesn't quite reach his eyes.
"We all have our secrets love."
And honestly, she couldn't agree with him more.
Klaus doesn't just stay the night, he stays for the entire weekend. They spend most of it in bed, the sex broken up only by the occasional arrival of room service or when one of them jump into the shower.
Klaus is good at getting her to open up, and she shares select tidbits about her life- the fact that she's an only child, that she's still friends with her childhood friends, that she likes pop music but hates rap, that she wants to travel the world one day.
In return he shares snippets of his own life. The fact that he is most definitely not an only child, with five siblings to boot and a mother with a tendency to worry. He likes art, painting, and classical music, and he's a bit of a wine snob.
He doesn't mention his fluency with Spanish, and she chooses not to share that she's fluent in six languages either, Arabic included.
Things between them change, the more time they spend together, hours slipping away. The sex gets less urgent, less rough, more tender. Slower, and softer.
He takes her into his arms after, sweat cooling on their bodies, and she absentmindedly wonders to herself if this could be something more.
The hours tick down to her imminent departure time as she stares up at the ceiling on her last night here, sheets tucked into her chest as Klaus sleeps peacefully beside her, the heat from his body an odd sort of comfort.
She's scared of the conversation that she wants to have with him in the morning. She barely knows anything about him and yet she's drawn to him in a way that she hasn't been towards a man for a very long time.
She wants to see if it can be more, if there's even a possibility that there could be something there between them. Surely she's not imagining the hot spark of attraction between them, the undeniable chemistry that threatens to suffocate her.
With a sigh she rolls over, getting into a comfortable position until she's finally, blissfully able to fall asleep.
When she stirs the next morning, she regrets not leaving on the air conditioning overnight, because the heat is absolutely unbearable.
She blinks the sleep out of her eyes, back facing away from the centre of the bed as she sucks in a breath of fresh air. She could totally do this. She could hold the gaze of the hot guy she'd had mind-blowing sex with for the past 48 hours and totally have the coversation that she wanted to have with him.
She rolls onto her back, arm reaching out for him, expecting to find the warmth of his body, the smooth skin of his chest.
Instead, the sheets are cold, with nothing but the smell of sex and cologne to indicate that he'd ever been there.
She was alone.
Los Cabos International Airport
Upon seeing the small jet land on the tarmac, Klaus Mikaelson stands, bag slung over his shoulder and aviators perched on his nose to hide his most recognisable features.
Security just nods at him when he flashes his badge at them, striding out onto the hot tarmac, air shimmering with the heat.
His older brother Elijah hops down from the pilot's seat, lifting his sunglasses to give him a quick once-over.
"You look like hell." Elijah pronounces, genteel accent a stark contrast to how intimidating he seems to strangers.
A special forces soldier, Elijah had been involved in some of the most highly classified missions on both domestic and international soil. Apart from the useful ability of being able to fly all sorts of aircraft, Elijah was the person that you wanted watching your six when things went South.
"I'm fine." He replies tightly, handing over his bag for Elijah to sling into the back of the plane, taking the headset that is offered.
In reality he felt like absolute shit, sneaking out on Caroline like that when he'd wanted nothing more than to stay with her. Something had shifted between them during those 48 hours, and he was dying to find out if she felt the same way as he did.
But Elijah was on a tight schedule, and he knew that his brother would wait for nobody, least of all him.
He'd scribbled a note for her explaining that he'd had to leave quite suddenly on business, leaving his email address down the bottom of the note and adding that he would love to hear from her whenever she was ready to get in touch with him.
He hoped that she'd see the note before she left Mexico.
He settles into the passenger seat of the small plane, strapping himself in as Elijah starts the engines once more, flipping the many switches in the cockpit to begin the pre flight checks.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Elijah asks after he's finished communicating with the air traffic controller, cleared for take off and taxiing into position.
He just sighs, running a hand through his hair, watching as the coastline sinks away beneath the wheels of the plane as they ascend.
"No, I don't."
AN: Hello all! *waves*. So I know it took awhile, but didn't I promise you guys that I'd get around to reworking my Spies AU eventually? As much as I enjoyed my foray into the genre, I felt like it wasn't my best work, which isn't fair to you guys.
I'm hoping that you'll enjoy this version a lot more, just like you did with Billion Lights.
Big thank you to Sophie for being an excellent sounding board as I bounced ideas off her via Skype. You're a star!
Hope you enjoy, and looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this new and improved story.
Next chapter we'll be seeing more of Katherine and Caroline in the present day as she comes face to face with the person that she's done her very best to forget.
