After successfully taking down notes, Klaus and I had silently exited the conference room and made our way back towards his office.
"Hopefully that didn't bore you to death." Klaus smirked closing the door to his office.
"Not at all, but even if it had, I'd just bounce back. You know- with the whole undead vampire thing." I teased.
"Witty. I like that." he praised.
Just as I was about to make some smart ass comment, my cell phone vibrated in my back pocket.
"Technically, you are on lunch. Feel free to text back." He said, walking towards his seat and leaning back slightly.
I nodded, quickly pulling out my galaxy s3. '1 new text message', the screen alerted. I opened the message to see Stefan's name pop up. I sighed deeply before reading.
'Hey, Care. Things were kind of awkward this morning...talk about it over drinks?' the message read.
"No way in hell." I grumbled lowly, scratching an itch on my right wrist.
"What was that, love?" Klaus asked.
"Oh, nothing. I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to-" I apologized.
"But I did." he interjected, leaning forward to place his elbows on his desk and rest his head in his hand as if he were a child being read a story.
"It's nothing."
"Promise?"
"I swear."
And with that, I went back to organizing files. We focused solely on our work until a woman barged in, breaking the silence.
"Mr. Mikaelson, Everyone is going out for lunch. Sushi. You in?" she asked.
"I'm sorry, Janice, but I'm far too busy." he said, looking away from his computer screen for the first time in ten minutes.
She nodded her head sadly as if she'd known this would be his answer. "And you?" She asked turning her attention to me.
"No, thank you. I just ate." I lied, but she didn't question it, instead shutting the door and leaving Klaus and I completely alone with absolutely no one else on the entire seventy second floor.
It was quiet for a while until he spoke. "You could have gone." he offered.
" I could have...but I'm not hungry." I smiled slightly.
"Are you sure about that, sweetheart?" he asked, his eyebrows shooting up.
"Where is it?" I asked, staring up at him through my eyelashes.
He smiled wildly before pushing away from his desk and reaching under it, tossing me a big bag of B positive blood.
"And it's chilled." he grinned.
"I wonder how your employees would react if they ever found that blood filled fridge underneath the desk." I teased as I sunk my teeth into the bag.
"Mmm...I'm much more interested in how it makes you react." he cooed, sitting on the edge of my desk stroking my face where the dark veins had just appeared. "Your vampire face. It's gorgeous." he complimented.
My breathing hitched at his words, a blush slowly crossing my cheeks. He smiled gently, clearly pleased with my body's reflex.
"It's the face of a monster." I managed, finishing the blood bag and throwing it away.
"Nonsense. A monster by definition is a typically large, ugly, and frightening creature, and I see none of those traits in you. You seem like the perfect girl, Caroline." he flirted.
The CEO of a major corporation flirting with me seemed completely irrational, but for lack of a better word, that's what he I was doing. Niklaus Mikaelson was flirting with me.
"I'm not perfect by any means." I assured him as I reached over to scratch my wrist again.
He nodded, pulling away after realizing that we were too close for a businessman and his personal assistant. "But who is? Certainly not myself or any vampire for that matter." he comforted.
My phone, placed on my desk, lit up and buzzed. '5 new text messages' it boasted. Guessing who it was I rolled my eyes and opened the new text. 'Care, please respond. Let me fix this! -xoxo Stef' they all pleaded over and over again.
I pinched the bridge of my nose between my index finger and thumb. I had to hand it to him. Stefan was nothing if not persistent. I growled to myself.
The sound of my displeasure did not go unnoticed.
"As your boss, I am no longer asking, but demanding that you tell me the source of your irritation." he ordered.
"And whatever it is, I assume that it has something to do with the reason you're single." he guessed.
I took a deep breath before explaining. "I was dating this guy, Stefan Salvator. He was great. He was sensitive, smart, understanding, he had superhero hair! It was perfect." I laughed.
"A vampire?"
"Naturally."
"Of course. Carry on."
"Well, I trusted him. I thought I'd marry him, actually, but after a year and a half, the spark wore off. I didn't know if it was something I'd done or if it was just that we weren't as perfect as I thought."
"But it was neither..." he said with realization heavy in his voice.
I smiled sadly. "Nope." I replied weakly, popping the 'p'. "He cheated." I whispered as a tear I didn't even know had formed, fell down my face.
"Her name was Katherine. She was the one who turned him, all of those years ago." I sobbed.
In his eyes, I saw a glimmer of what seemed like recognition before I decided to ignore it.
Following his gaze across the room, my eyes landed on a picture of him with an arm wrapped around a girl with brown eyes and matching hair. She had on a shimmery silver dress and she was kissing him on the cheek. The girl in that picture- I'd know the bitch anywhere- was Katherine Pierce. "Seems like you know her." I scoffed.
A look of terror crossed Klaus's face. "That woman," he said pointing to the photograph, "is not Katherine, though I have come across her many times in the past five hundred sixty years or so. She was an old flame of my brother's. That woman is Elena Gilbert, a friend of my sister's and Katerina Petrova's dopplegänger." he clarified.
I forced a small smile. "Enough about my love life. Tell me about yours." I commanded.
"Nothing to tell. Its non-existent. I stopped believing in love the moment that I was turned. Love isn't real." he shrugged.
"I don't think you believe that." I challenged.
"I do. One day, someone may very well change that, but as for now, I completely believe that." He claimed.
"I can guarantee you that someone will change your mind. You just have to give them a chance."
"Perhaps." He answered.
"Well, lunch is over. I should get back to organizing." I suggested waving my hand over the files in front of me.
"Very well." he nodded.
The rest of the day was a blur with nothing new or interesting happening. The only thing keeping me awake was the annoying itchy feeling in my right wrist.
I looked down to examine the area, but there was absolutely nothing there except for the redness that proved how much I had been scratching.
"You realize that everyone else went home fifteen minutes ago, right?" he mocked with a smug smile, breaking me from my trance, as he got up from his seat to come stand behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. They were warm, even through the material of my blouse.
"Yes, but I had to finish-" I said before feeling his hands kneed into the flesh of my shoulders.
"Shh...relax. It's your first day on the job, and I can already see that you will overwork yourself." He soothed.
His hands felt like magic, but then again, he'd had over a thousand years to perfect his skills.
My phone began buzzing, and I blindly answered.
"Hello?"
"Caroline! You never responded. I was getting worried. So...drinks?"
"Umm...actually-" I protested before Klaus snatched the phone out of my hand and pressed it to his ear.
"Hello, mate. Stefan, is it? Caroline and I have been a bit busy all day. I'm afraid she can't go out tonight." Klaus snapped before ending the call and handing the phone back to me.
My eyes widened.
He smiled in amusement. "You seemed rather annoyed, so I thought I'd help." He smirked.
"Well, thank you for the massage and the help, but I do have to go." I laughed.
"Hopefully, you'll be back tomorrow if I haven't completely scared you off." he said.
"Oh, it's going to take a lot more than just some original hybrid to scare me away." I assured him. "Goodbye, Klaus." I murmured, leaving the office.
"Goodbye, Caroline."
UNDER STRANGE CONDITIONS
*Klaus's POV*
I pulled through the gates to my mansion, dreading what would come next. I parked out front and proceeded to the door.
"Hey, honey! How was work?" Elena asked, ambushing me at the door.
"Fine. Thank you." I groaned, untangling her arms from me.
"What's wrong, babe?" She wondered.
I clenched my teeth. I hated when she called me that. Actually, I hated that she called me anything.
"As your wife, I deserve to know. I just want to help." she said sadly.
"Yes, and as the woman who had an affair with my brother, you deserve nothing." I growled as I watched her face fall.
"I said that I was sorry!" She yelled
"You think that 'sorry' is sufficient? You are the reason that this family is in ruins and you expect me, the man who never wanted this in the first place, to fight for a marriage that I never believed in?" I roared just before trying to compose myself as I heard the pitter patter of small feet at the staircase.
"Mom? Dad?" The small voice cried. "Please stop fighting."
I took a deep breath, watching Elena wipe a fallen tear from her face as I walked towards the staircase.
*MuAhaha. What an evil cliffhanger. So, I feel like this chapter is pretty short, but I'm happy with it and I hope that you all like it! Thank you soooo much for the favorites, follows, and reviews. Tell me your favorite part, what you think should happen, and how you like it so far!*
