Torn
Klaus slowly entered her home thru the balcony window and crept soundlessly until he came upon her sitting on the couch. Cami was listening to her recorder, lost in confusion as she listened to their previous conversation she'd secretly recorded earlier in the day.
His eyes roamed over her, taking in her beauty. She was a sight to behold even in the casual black clothing she wore for comfort. His eyes drifted over her hair. He ached to run his fingers thru it, to gauge for himself if it was a soft as it looked. He felt his body quicken as his eyes continued to drink in the rest of her body. He wanted her. He needed her. But, alas, he couldn't have her. She was too pure for the likes of him. She was the beauty to his beast. One he could admire from afar, but was never allowed to touch.
He'd grown rather fond of Camille. She was bold, strong, brave and she challenged him in ways no one had ever dared. He liked that about her. Granted, he used her as a tool in his war against Marcel at first, but in the end, he'd ended up needing her for something entirely different. Something he wasn't willing to admit to himself at the moment because if he did, if he gave into the urge that had been building between them from the first moment they stood together analyzing paintings on Bourbon Street, then he wouldn't be able to do what obviously needed to be done.
He would miss her.
Klaus lowered his head and took a deep breath before he spoke.
"You are tenacious."
Cami jumped up, startled to see Klaus standing in her living room.
"It's one of the things I like most about you."
"Klaus you can't keep –"
"But you're looking for things you don't want to find," he continued. "Monsters better left as fiction." He stepped closer to her.
"It's time for you leave this place, Cami… for your own good."
Her spine stiffened. She knew what was coming. She'd been down this route with him before. She'd say something or do something that he couldn't control and he'd go all alpha vampire on her and compel her to forget things.
Not again. Not this time. She was getting her two cents in before he had a chance to rewrite the story to suit his needs.
"You are such a coward."
His stunned gaze clearly showed he didn't expect that response.
"This isn't about me," she said angrily, stepping towards him. "You've kept me here for weeks just so someone, anyone, would see who you really are and now that I have, it scares the hell out of you, doesn't it?"
"If you knew even a fraction of who I am, it would break you in two," he countered.
Cami stepped closer to stand in front of him. Challenging him, yet again.
"Then show me," she said, daring him to reveal something. Anything.
Klaus shook his head. She had no idea what she was asking of him. Show her the beast? No way in hell would he reveal that side of himself. Not to her. He turned to put distance between them.
When she grabbed his hand and yanked him back, Klaus's control snapped. Memories flooded from his mind into hers. Feeding, turning, agony, betrayal by one's own family. Cruelty and torment. Ostracism.
Klaus pulled away from Cami, his eyes filled with fear. She'd seen everything, he hadn't been able to stop it. He steeled himself for the scorn he was sure would fill her eyes when she finally looked up at him.
"Oh my God." Disbelief etched in her features, realization dawning as she looked at him.
"No one should have to experience things like that." Cami stepped closer to him, her heart hurting as the memories replayed in her mind. It explained so much in so little a space of time.
Klaus was stunned. He had expected fear, scorn, something other than what she was displaying. So many emotions played across her face. Sorrow, pity, then finally acceptance.
He started to feel uncomfortable with the last one so he grasp onto the one he could handle. The one that would aid him in completing his task tonight. He didn't want her pity. He didn't need it.
"Knowing what you do about this world, will only get you killed, and I cannot allow that."
Klaus slowly cupped her face and looked into her tearful eyes. Cami felt the beginnings of his control and squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't let him do this, not now, not when she was finally beginning to understand him.
"No. Don't do this, Klaus. Please."
Klaus's thumb gently caressed her cheek as he stepped closer to her, his body lightly brushing against hers. She smelled so good. Like fields of blossoms after a rainy day. She relaxed a fraction and leaned into his touch.
"Camille," he whispered, tilting her head up, "open your eyes, sweetheart."
Her eyes fluttered open but she refused to look up into his, instead concentrating on his lips. She had an incredible urge to see if they felt as soft as they looked.
She felt the pressure of his hands attempting to lift her gaze to his. "Please, don't make me leave," she pleaded.
When she stopped fighting the pull of his hands she finally looked up but he wasn't looking at her eyes, instead his gaze was locked on her lips as well.
The electricity seemed to crackle around them as they continued to stare at each other's mouths. What was happening? Cami's body began to heat from the intensity of Klaus's gaze on her lips. Her tongue darted out to moisten them as Klaus hands tightened in her hair, fighting against the urge to chase that tongue into the recesses of her mouth.
When Cami's hands came up to cover his Klaus pulled back and leaned his forehead against hers, gulping deep breaths of air.
"Klaus," she whispered, lifting her mouth to his, seeking his kiss.
"You feel it too, don't you?" she asked, her fingers wrapping around the back of his neck, pulling his lips closer. "Tell me you feel it too," she murmured, capturing his mouth with hers.
Klaus stiffened and then plunged forward. His tongue glided over hers, wrenching control of the kiss from her. The power of his kiss buckled her knees. He caught her to him as they both sank to the floor.
"Camille…"
It sounded like a growl, or a hopeless plea, she wasn't sure which. She only knew that whatever she was feeling, he was definitely feeling it too.
She could almost touch the leashed power of his aggressive virility, the tight-wire tension that packed every nerve and sinew of his body. For a fraction of a second, her self-preservation shrieked at her to draw back, but it was already too late.
As he groaned and then pushed her onto her back, her senses were already leaping to meet their own destruction and when his mouth came down over hers she arched towards him with a stifled cry, lost in the whirlwind of her own need.
The stubble of his jaw was abrasive on her skin, rough and unbearably arousing, while their mouths blended, breathless and devouring, demanding a deeper knowledge of the other that each knew could only be reached in the most elemental way.
Shudders racked her body as his hands slid under the soft fabric of her sweater, seeking, and claiming, kneading the slender curves of her eager hips. His massaging fingers moved to splay across the small span of her waist, and Cami caught her breath as they slid along her ribcage to trace, with tantalizing skill, the outer edges of her breasts.
"Bloody hell…" he breathed as though she had strained his self-control. She hadn't put a bra on. He slid his hands over her breasts now as reverently as if he were fondling priceless treasures.
"Klaus…" It was a small sobbed sound, torn from her as he yanked her sweater apart, sending buttons scattering across the floor.
She groaned as his mouth closed over one breast, his fingers caressing, molding and teasing the other into throbbing awareness before his mouth claimed that one too, drawing it into its erotically suckling warmth, sending an agony of exquisite pleasure down through her lower body.
Her fingers speared through the thickness of his hair, both hands eagerly caressing him, pulling him closer. Little murmurs of pleasure escaped her as his lips and hands moved over her, spasms bringing her straining against him.
She could feel the fullness of his arousal pressing against her through his jeans and she wanted him to be rid of the barrier, wanted him inside of her, guiding her, controlling her, taking her with him to some other place, some other part of the universe that no one else could share.
Sitting up on his knees, he grasp the hem of his shirt, pulling it over his head and then grappled with the waistband of his jeans. She sat up and reached to help him, sliding her hands beneath them and felt the tightening flesh of his firm buttocks.
He made fast work of her pants as well and came back down to her, causing her to gasp from the electrifying sensation of his warm nakedness.
This was where he belonged! This was where he had always belonged, he told himself feverishly, with no thought for tomorrow. No thought for what he must inevitably do. In this woman's arms. In her bed. Giving as much as she demanded of him. And taking too. Taking in turn.
With his lower body pressed against hers, tantalizing her with the promise of unbearable pleasure, he lay propped on his elbows, hesitating, as though gripped by a moment's doubt, like an undeserving soul unsure whether to take or turn away from the unexpected gift of heaven. Cami eyes desperately sought his. He was trembling, trying to hold onto any shred of control he had.
"I want to take you slow. I need to feel every inch of you with me. Come with me Cami…come with me." he whispered against her mouth, his eyes never leaving hers.
His hands threaded through her hair as he cherished her mouth, lingering over the kiss. Her hands traced the muscles in his back, running her fingernails along his spine pulling him closer. His lips left her mouth to slide hotly down her throat and then were at her breasts.
He sipped delicately and then sucked hard. Cami sank into a dark, whirling storm of pure desire, trembling with need. She felt dizzy, drunk with arousal. His body was so hot as his mouth moved downward, over her trembling stomach muscles.
His hands lightly caressed her stomach as his tongue probed her shallow navel, making her loins clench wildly as a bolt of pleasure shot through her. Down….down….
Then he kissed her, his mouth hot and wet, his tongue swirling around her straining, yearning flesh. Her hips lifted wildly. She cried out, muffling the sound with her own hand. She couldn't stand it, it was too intense, it was torture and ecstasy all at once, and her hips bucked in an effort to escape the sensation.
He gripped her hips tighter, pulling her harder against his mouth as his tongue stabbed deep into her. She climaxed violently, shuddering, biting her hand to keep from screaming from the force of it.
Kissing his way back up he stopped and suckled at her breasts again. Cami pushed against his shoulder, forcing him to roll over with her on top of him. Sitting up, she tossed her hair back and looked down into his eyes.
Klaus's gaze chased the shadows as they played across her skin, showing every glorious inch of her. She covered Klaus's hands as they came up to cover her breasts, massaging each one, squeezing them to the point of pain.
Leaning down she kissed him deeply, letting her tongue swirl around his, sucking it into her mouth. Groaning he cupped her face and thrust his hips towards her. "Take me inside you" he growled against her mouth.
She felt him probing at her, his hands on her hips guiding her onto him. He speared upward into her, so hard that she felt bruised, so hot that she felt burned. Klaus groaned and arched powerfully beneath her.
Automatically her body responded, rising and falling, her thighs clasping his hips, flexing as she lifted herself almost completely off him only to slide back down. She rode him slowly so that she took him by increments.
Her body moved with the fluid grace that had always captivated him; she enveloped him with a downward glide and then tormented him with the threat of release as she moved upward again, almost off of him. He groaned at the wet heated relief of being surrounded by her flesh, held and caressed.
The sensation built unbearably with each upward thrust. Helplessly she felt herself standing at the edge, her inner flesh pulsing and hugging him as she started to go over. A harsh cry tore out of his throat as he reared up and pinned her beneath him.
Grasping her face he forced her to look at him. "You're mine," he said, kissing her as he plunged deeply into her, his release spurting hotly into her taking her over the edge with him.
He lay heavily on her, trembling and sweating. His release had been so powerful that he couldn't speak, couldn't think. Gently he withdrew from her, bringing a murmur of protest from her lips.
Reaching up he pulled the blanket from the couch and threw it over them. Wrapping it around their bodies he pulled her close, molding her body to his. Using his arm as a pillow, Cami curled into his embrace and drifted into a peaceful slumber.
Klaus continued to watch her as she slept. Torn between absolute pleasure and total despair. He hadn't planned on this happening. Why the bloody hell did he let it go this far? Why hadn't she rejected him or turned from him in disgust when she'd seen his memories. How could she possibly want him after seeing them?
But she had wanted him and he had felt it in every movement, every tremor that had gone through her body. Leaning down he softly kissed her temple. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, memorizing her scent and braced himself against the torrent of emotions coursing thru his body, demanding he take her again, make her his own forever.
"Camille," he whispered, gently bringing her out of her slumber. Her eyes fluttered open as she nuzzled against his chest. He groaned inwardly as her soft lips caressed his skin. She lifted her gaze to his and smiled.
"Klaus," she murmured, "that was so wond—"
His mouth covered hers for a searing, possessive kiss, one filled with something that felt achingly like a goodbye.
Lifting his head his gaze locked with hers.
"Leave New Orleans. Forget everything you've learned here today."
Cami's peaceful expression dissolved into one of confusion. Her eyebrows pinched together with concentration at the words spilling from his lips. Lips that had moments ago hurled her to heaven and were now slamming her back to Earth, knocking the air from her lungs.
Forget everything.
Klaus hesitated for a brief moment before repeating his next command. "Forget me," he murmured, his voice shaking with the effort. "You have no reason to stay."
Cami repeated his words back to him as he gently caressed her throat. "I have no reason to stay."
Releasing her, Klaus gathered Cami into his arms and stood, turning to place her down on the couch. He coaxed her to lower her head to the pillow and close her eyes, covering her with the blanket. Allowing himself one final touch he stroked her hair, feeling the soft texture of the strands.
Klaus began redressing himself. With a final look back, he sped from the room, distancing himself before he capitulated to his heart's demands.
Love is after all, a vampire's greatest weakness. And he would not be weak.
