A/N: Hey there! So this was my lame attempt at a one-shot. This is kinda what happens when its late and I get punched in the face with Klaroline feels and have to deal with the fact that they've been torn apart from each other. again.

Caroline sighed as she fiddled with her necklace, looking at the bracelet Tyler bestowed upon her. The "this is an important client so please shut up and be my trophy wife" charm bracelet, special order from Tiffany's. She wished more than anything that she could just set it aside and wear the gorgeous diamond encrusted one hidden in the false bottom of her jewelry chest.

"Babe, change of plans! Saltzman and Fell can't make it. Family death or something." Tyler said absently as he loosened the tie he'd just knotted and put it around his neck.

"Oh, what a pity. I suppose this means I won't have to go then?" Caroline asked hopefully. She hated being looked at as nothing more than a trophy by groups of men who normally had their own. She allowed herself to be near Tyler's associates only when it was absolutely necessary.

"No you should still come. Mikaelson and Salvatore are coming instead." Tyler said passively. Caroline perked up instantly. The Mikaelson's and Salvatore's were the only associates of his she liked.

"Do you by any chance know which Mikaelson and Salvatore?" She inquired, returning to fiddling with her necklace. Tyler shot her a look.

"Does it matter?" he said tightly, his posture stiffening.

"Well I want to know whether I'll be hanging out Bekah or Elena and Kat or Bonnie while you talk business." Caroline shrugged and turned back around to her vanity. She'd quickly fixed her make-up and turned back around to face Tyler. He knew she was lying. She could see it on his face.

"Stefan and Klaus." Tyler grunted as he adjusted his tie. She knew how much Tyler despised Klaus, which should have made her feel worse than it did. As if it wasn't bad enough that Klaus was his biggest business rival, and almost always came out on top when they went head to head, he'd found numerous 'hints' over the past year. Whether it was little notes she'd hesitated to throw away or the romantic drawings that she got, he found them, purposefully or accidentally, and pieced things together.

Caroline nodded and stood up to make her way to her closet. She hummed to herself as she pushed away dozens of possible dresses she could wear. Eventually she stumbled upon the perfect outfit, a little black dress both comfortable and sexy, and slipped it and the matching shoes on. Flattening the small crinkles in the dress she made her way into the master bedroom to find Tyler holding her purse, already set to go.

"Come on Care, I want to beat traffic."

She nodded and told him to go ahead and wait for her in the car. Caroline took one final look at herself. Her curls were in place, her make-up was flawless, and her curves were accentuated. She smiled at herself, happy with the turn of events. She flicked the light to the bedroom off and went to join Tyler, but not before digging into her jewelry chest and clasping on the gorgeous bracelet hidden inside.

Tyler and Caroline met Stefan and Rebekah at the restaurant, as they arrived at the same time. Punctuality was a good thing Tyler mentioned, smirking. Caroline nodded and pretended to care as she greeted Stefan with a big hug. She'd known him since high school. He would forever be like a brother to her. Moving away from Stefan she linked arms with Bekah and the four of them made their way into the restaurant.

"Thank god Tyler brought you."

"Aw," Caroline pouted playfully. "Did wittle Bekah miss wittle ol me?" Rebekah rolled her eyes and pinched Caroline lightly on the shoulder.

"In your dreams, Forbes. There's this skank that's been sticking to Nik like super adhesive glue." She grimaced in disgust. "If you hadn't come I'd be stuck here all by myself with the wretched thing."

"Klaus has a girlfriend?" Caroline blurted, trying to keep the shock out of her voice and praying there was no hint of jealousy in it either.

"Ugh, don't use the 'g' word. But it's possible. She's been tagging along to every function for the past two weeks. Including family dinner sometimes." Caroline went green. That was a big thing.

The Mikaelson's were the most dysfunctional family she'd ever met. But every week they had 2-3 family dinners that involved them all coming together as a family, with the promise that none of them would attempt murdering another. Elijah was the only one to have brought someone to the dinners early in his relationship. Of course Elijah was the more levelheaded one, aka the sanest, and he'd already known early on Katherine would be his future wife, but that's not the point. Rebekah stalled as long a humanly possible before bringing Stefan around. Kol had waited an entire year before he put Bonnie through a family dinner. But Klaus? Klaus was the only one in the history of family dinner to have never brought anyone along. He'd had a fiancé once and even she hadn't been invited to one.

"Oh?" Caroline squeaked. Bekah nodded and continued to rant her annoyance with her, admittedly favorite but most annoying, brother and the new woman in his life.

When they got into the restaurant they were immediately seated at the best table. It was secluded and had a lovely view of the lake in the back of the venue, the lighting was comfortable, and they received immediate service. They'd all ordered their appetizers already by the time Klaus, followed by a tall brunette strolled over. Caroline assessed her carefully.

She was a brunette, her hair in messy waves just past her shoulders. She was tall and slim, a model physique really. She had big brown eyes, oddly pouty lips, and she was wearing the shortest, gaudiest red dress Caroline had ever seen. What had she been thinking? This was a business dinner, red was off the table, as was the cut of her dress. Ugh. Caroline felt eyes on her and pressed her lips together, knowing exactly whose. Klaus was looking at her, a smirk planted on his overly smug face.

He took the seat next to her, gesturing for the girl to take a seat among them. Caroline looked over how they were seated. She was next to Tyler, who was next to Stefan, who had Bekah by his side, who was now next to the woman, who'd gladly taken the seat next to Klaus, who'd insisted on sitting next to her and not his sister. Caroline was suddenly grateful their table was round. She'd only have to look at Klaus and his…date if she turned her head left. That was good.

Dinner passed by unnecessarily slowly. Rebekah and Caroline prattled on about any and everything that popped into their heads, neither of them making the effort to include the other girl. Not like they could have anyway. She was too busy hanging off Klaus, nuzzling her head on his shoulder and rubbing her hand around on his chest. Caroline grit her teeth and tried to refocus on whatever it was that Bekah was saying.

"We all need to get together for a weekend getaway. Elena and Damon are already on board, you and Stefan have no choice in the matter, and now all that's left is to promise Kat some booze, and pry Bonnie out from under my brother." Bekah stated proudly. She had everything together.

"Actually I think Bonnie is rarely the one under." Caroline giggled; sipping at the wine Tyler had kindly ordered her.

"Really?" Bekah asked. She raised her brows appraisingly. "Go Bonnie." She muttered, sipping at her own drink as the main courses finally arrived. There was a pause in conversation as everyone took the first bites of their food.

"Is there anything left to be handled?" Caroline asked, her neurosis taking over. She had to be a part of the planning. Bekah was great, undoubtedly, but she'd go crazy if she couldn't handle something.

"Don't worry I left some things up to you, Care. You're handling which island we escape to, our mode of transport, and you are my official shopping buddy."

Rebekah went on about what stores they could buy out and how long they'd be gone, because when she'd said weekend she really meant like two weeks, when Caroline began to feel it. A warm hand creeping up her leg to rest at the hem of her dress. She swallowed a bite of her food, glancing a peek at Tyler. He caught her staring and pecked her on the cheek sweetly. Caroline smiled weakly back and the hand slipped under her dress to move up higher. She bit her lip and held her breath in anticipation, hoping he wouldn't do what she thought he was going to do and half praying that he would. Caroline inhaled sharply as his fingers reached their destination. She clenched her jaw and glared at him, ignoring the tingles she felt. He was smiling and conversing pleasantly with Stefan about his recent trip to New Orleans. He knew he was glaring too, he just chose to ignore her and act perfectly innocent.

Caroline returned her gaze to her plate, moving around her potatoes. Noticing she'd gotten comfortable his fingers picked up their pace. Caroline scrunched her face in annoyance and stomped her heel into his foot as hard as she could without giving herself away. He didn't remove his hand as she thought he would have, he pinched her clit instead. She closed her eyes meditatively, trying to keep herself together.

"Caroline? Are you alright? You look flushed." Rebekah looked concerned. All eyes were on her, including his.

"Yes, love, you do look a tad piqued." he tried his best attempt at concern, but she could hear his amusement.

"Actually I could use some air." Caroline felt his hand slip away from her and into his lap.

"I'll join you." Rebekah set aside her cloth and made to stand. But Klaus put up a hand to stop her.

"I'll go sister. I need some air myself." Caroline rolled her eyes and placed her hand on Tyler's shoulder and kissed him lightly, promising to be right back.

She stormed out the restaurant towards the car, hoping in vain that Klaus would head to the balcony to 'get some air'. He didn't.

"Bravo, love. Your control is superb to say the least. I thought you were going to burst out in moans in the middle of dinner." He kept eye contact with her as he delicately licked the taste of her from his fingers.

"Don't. You can't just do that to me!" Klaus' eyes narrowed in concentration.

"If memory serves I've done that to you before, Caroline. That and much much more." He said accusingly. Caroline raised her chin high, feigning superiority.

"Yeah well if memory serves that was before you had a tall brunette skank hanging all over you." Caroline mentally smacked herself. She sounded totally jealous. "To use Bekah's words anyway." she added quickly, but it was too late. A cheshire grin had already spread on his face from ear to ear.

"Love, are you jealous? It's perfectly normal if you are." He was smirking now and she wanted nothing more than to smack the smugness off his face. Caroline glared at him in response.

"You know what this isn't worth the calories I burn talking to you." She crossed her arms over her chest and stormed away to rejoin everyone inside, or at least she tried anyway. Before she could really get anywhere Klaus had grabbed her by the waist and pulled her flush against him. "Stop it, Klaus."

"I'll stop when you actually want me to stop. Not when you feel like you have to." He whispered. "Caroline, talk to me."

"Fine!" she burst out, wringing herself out of his grip and backing away a few steps. "Fine. I don't feel like I have to tell you no. Its not that I feel obligated to. But that's exactly what I hate. I hate that I don't feel guilty about anything. Not about you or how I feel when I'm around you. I don't feel guilty when we're together and I hate it more than anything."

"Caroline…"

"No! Don't you dare 'Caroline…' me! You've ruined me, Klaus. Tyler…the way we were…I was fine with it. I was. But then you waltzed in like it was nothing and started making me feel like it wasn't enough for me, like the life I built with him wasn't good enough for me. You walk into my life as though you belonged there. As though you'd been there the whole time. Every kiss, every touch, and every small gesture I began to compare to you. And when I'm trying to enjoy a romantic evening with my own boyfriend that can really suck. So no, I don't feel obligated to tell you no. But I feel like I need to. For me. For the sake of my sanity. And maybe I'm making sense right now and maybe I'm not, I don't know. All I do know is that I have a wonderful boyfriend in there that cares about me. And I know that it is enough for me, that he is enough for me."

"This is the end then?" his face unreadable, his tone flat and any sign of how he felt undetectable.

"Don't act so bent up about it, Nik. You've got a perfectly…nice-seeming girl waiting for you."

"Hayley? She's got a powerful family. One that can make things happen. When I get what I want she's gone." He laughed humorlessly, still not giving anything away. "Caroline, I need you."

"No. Tyler needs me." She shook her head sadly. "You want me."

"No. I need you. You're the light at the end of the dark tunnel. You're the first thing on my mind when I wake up and the last when I fall asleep. You make me a better man."

"I'm sorry." She shook her head sadly, tears brimming her eyes. "I can't keep doing this to him, he doesn't deserve it." And with that she turned her back on him and walked towards the restaurant and, more importantly, towards Tyler and everything he had to offer her.