Klaus eased himself into the chair next to her bed. She had left the doors to the balcony open and he was able to see her, listen to his child's heartbeat and watch his city from that spot. He had become accustomed to listening to the child's rapid heartbeat every night through the wall in the sitting room adjacent to Hayley's bedroom at the plantation house. Since moving them to the compound and allowing her to choose her own room, of course the one furthest away from his, he had missed this.
As he flipped open the pad and automatically started sketching rooftops, she turned toward him, giving the moon the perfect angle with which to accentuate her beauty. And Hayley was nothing if not beautiful. Her looks had shaken him from the first moment he laid eyes on her in Tyler's study back in Mystic Falls all of those months ago, a lifetime ago. But during the chaos that had ensued upon his arrival to New Orleans, the quest to reclaim his empire, ensuring her safety and retrieving Elijah from the teenage witch, he had barely noticed her beyond her growing belly.
The sheet had fallen away and a strap of her lacy nightgown had given way exposing a breast. Klaus flashed to the last time he'd seen her breasts. The night they made the child. He remembered using his mouth and hands on them as they swayed back and forth in front of him while she sat in his lap riding him until he lost control, grabbed her, flipped her over and latched onto the pulse in her neck, her blood fulfilling one of his needs. Klaus would never admit it but he had spent an unfathomable number of hours remembering their one night stand. He had not been lying to Elijah when he had said she was exquisite.
In his thousand years on the planet, he'd never made love with a wolf. Countless humans, witches, vampires and even two doppelgängers but never a werewolf. He had never known a woman as equally matched to him as Hayley had been. Klaus knew from the moment he'd pushed her back onto the table to attack the soft folds between her thighs and heard the feral growl escape from deep in her throat, that it was going to be different. Little did he know just how different. The steady heartbeat of their child interrupted his thoughts.
Looking her over now he noticed the changes. Her face and the exposed breast were fuller, her skin a bit flushed, and dark circles marred the skin under her eyes. Was the child the culprit? Was he and his mission to oust Marcel? Or had worry for his noble, doting older brother caused it?
Klaus knew what Elijah and even Hayley didn't know, that his upstanding brother would never truly satisfy her. The girl needed some wolf in her man. She liked to skate that dark and dangerous edge of pleasure, where pushing right to the edge of the abyss and dragging your lover over were all that mattered. Klaus knew only he could accomplish that feat. Ultimately it didn't matter. The woman and the child were his.
Only he could give her the child that he knew had already captured her heart. Klaus knew even better than the witches just how special that child was. Their daughter was the child of the Original Hybrid and the only grandchild of one of the world's most powerful witches, but what they didn't know was she also descended from the First Werewolves. Klaus had recognized the unique birthmark on Hayley's shoulder immediately. A witch he'd employed when they first arrived on Louisiana's shores had told him about them. Larger, stronger, quicker and more loyal than average wolves. They had the extraordinary power to change at will, a trait completely unique to their bloodline. Klaus now understood how Hayley had been able to free his Hybrids.
Her accelerated heartbeat alerted him to her waking. Hayley opened her eyes and met his. Too startled to react, Hayley lay completely still thinking he'd leave but he sat in the chair by the balcony entrance and held her eyes. She could hear her own blood pulsing, her breathing suddenly jagged. His calmness unnerved her. The calm intensity of his gaze reminded her of that night. She shivered at those particular memories.
"Take off your nightgown."