I only want to be wanted
Chapter Ten
Bonnie slips on a short, blue sundress, and retouches her lip-gloss. Bonnie calls Caroline and makes plans to meet up with her. She doesn't intend to take Klaus up on his offer for dinner.
When a car comes for her, she politely tells the driver that she will not be joining his boss for dinner this evening.
The driver is so terribly human and his fear shows in the thinness of his skin and the sweat on his brow. He pleads with Bonnie to reconsider, "Please Ma'am." What is unspoken is the fact that the driver can't go back without Bonnie in tow, not if he wants to live another day.
Bonnie hems and haws as the driver stands in front of her looking for all the world like a doomed man. She relents, eventually. The driver shouldn't suffer at anyone's hands because of her decision.
She expected to be blindfolded or some other ridiculous methods to secure the secrecy of Klaus' whereabouts, but all of her senses are left unimpeded.
She texts Caroline to tell her that she will be late.
The driver doesn't make much conversation, and Bonnie prefers it that way. She memorizes her surroundings, absorbing the slow give away of Virginian suburbia to the lushly lit city.
At last, the car pulls up in front of an apartment complex. The driver opens the car door for Bonnie. She resists the urge to bulk at the driver's formality.
The doorman of the complex follows suit, and opens the door for her. Amid pomp and circumstance, Bonnie feels her annoyance rise. She wishes this was happening under happier terms.
As she gets on the elevator, she doesn't know where she should be going, but everyone else seems to have a good idea who's company she's gracing. She is directed to the top floor, a penthouse.
Just once, Bonnie would like to meet a vampire who wasn't filthy rich.
She reaches the penthouse. She has a grand speech prepared sprinkled generously with insults, and reasons why Klaus is quite possibly the Antichrist.
Her phone vibrates, a "WHERE ARE U?" from Caroline. She ignores it in favor of telling Caroline the goings-on in person.
Stepping off the elevator, Bonnie is confronted with soft music and candles. "You've got to be kidding me," Bonnie says to herself.
The romantic ambiance makes her vaguely nauseous.
She follows the candles and the music, stopping to find Klaus in the process of opening a bottle of wine.
He gives her a quick, angelic smile and her stomach flutters.
He pours the wine into two glasses. It's red, and Bonnie remembers that she is in the room with a killer. He ambles over to her, a glass outstretched in his hand.
Bonnie steps away, "I can't."
Klaus pauses mid-step, "You don't drink?"
"No, that's not what I meant. I don't want to be here," Bonnie says.
Klaus looks at her in disbelief, "Then why are you here?"
"Your driver. He was afraid of what you might do if he didn't bring me."
"I would have been displeased," Klaus admits.
"That's all?"
Klaus doesn't respond. He downs the glass of wine he had offered Bonnie and muses at how difficult this seems.
He turns his back, lost in his own thoughts, "You know, I don't usually cook but I figured why not?" Klaus mumbles, changing the subject so swiftly that Bonnie suffers whiplash.
Bonnie feels a sigh working its way up from the expanse of her lungs and she turns on her heels, walking from whence she came.
He's in front of her before she can make her escape, "We haven't had dinner yet." Klaus cocks his head like he's trying to decipher what he's doing wrong.
"I don't want to have dinner with you. In fact I already have plans," Bonnie says. The fact that she is reasoning with him instead of forcefully removing him out of her path does not go unnoticed.
One moment, she is upright, and the next she is flat against the wall. He kisses her as a last ditch effort to save the night.
It's always shocking, his lips against hers, because she can never picture him wanting to be close to another person in this way. He seems too preoccupied with destruction.
Both of his hands frame her face and she knows she should be doing something to get him off of her but she's slow to respond.
Because he feels good, and he's kissing her like he's wanted to do so for a very long time.
She senses something different against her back and she realizes it's a cushion; she is on his couch with him above her, around her.
His shirt is off, and she thinks that perhaps she should put a stop to this. He's nice, and pale, and lean and perhaps Bonnie should tell him no. She feels need burning in the center of her chest and perhaps it's time to end the night.
Klaus swallows her first attempt; he doesn't let up his assault on her mouth. On her second attempt, she actually says "Stop." Klaus presses the middle of his body between her legs, his teeth set against her bottom lip in response.
Bonnie wakes out of her lust-fueled coma and transmits a hard rush of power that sends him flying into the opposite wall.
It looks painful, a crack appearing in the painted plaster a tell-tale sign of Klaus' injury. But he laughs, his arousal still apparent, "You don't look like the type who likes it rough."
Bonnie gets up from the couch, mad that she didn't follow her former inclination of not coming. If Klaus didn't have the wrong idea before, he does now.
"You're right," Klaus comments, even though Bonnie has yet to say anything aloud, "Everything in moderation. Dinner first. Then―" Klaus leans against the wall, "I'm all yours."
"I don't know what I have to do to get you to understand that you disgust me. When I look at you, I don't see someone I want."
"Have you forgotten where your lips were a moment ago?" Klaus was still all smiles but there was an edge to his amusement, as if her rejection of him is wearing thin.
"I haven't forgotten," Bonnie acknowledges. "But attraction is not enough. I still see you for what you are. A monster."
"A monster," Klaus repeats. "Damon is a monster. Stefan is a monster. But that's fine with you. Doesn't matter how many people they kill. They are fighting the good fight. Good and evil, yes? Well we could be good together. I could offer you everything you've ever dreamt. You wouldn't be an afterthought, a secret weapon when your friends need you to get them out of a bind. And what is Damon offering you? What does he have that I don't?"
Despite there being a kernel of truth in his statement, desperation flourished words.
"He loves me. And I love him. That's what he has, my love for him." Bonnie answers.
She walks to the elevator because she has to meet Caroline.
This time, Klaus doesn't chase after her.
Bonnie is at the boardinghouse first thing in the morning.
"We have to do something. We can't just wait for a way to kill him to fall into our lap," Bonnie insists.
"So, I suppose you think we should go over and settle this once and for all," Elijah responds.
"Why not?" Bonnie grows tired of sitting. She stands up and starts a frenetic pace that belies her overall nervousness.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened last night?" Elijah's inquires.
"I mind you asking." Bonnie says, hoping that the conversation ends there.
Damon descends the stairs, "I told you your plan sucked." He reaches the landing and he heads directly to the bourbon.
Lately, he's been starting his day off with alcohol like most people drink coffee in the morning: often and in large quantities.
He pauses in front of Bonnie to kiss her forehead like nothing has happened.
"What plan?" Bonnie asks.
The men answer simultaneously, and as a result the reply is garbled and without a hint of sentence structure.
"One at a time. Damon, what plan?"
"I was suppose exaggerate the turmoil in our relationship with the idea that Klaus would swoop down to comfort you. It failed miserably."
"I wouldn't say it was a complete failure," Elijah defends.
"Do you see Klaus anywhere around? It's like I thought, Klaus was only interested in wanting things that he can't have. As soon as he thought there was trouble in paradise and that he had a real chance, he dropped off the face of the earth."
"Well―"
"What do you mean by 'exaggerating the turmoil in our relationship'?" Bonnie inquires, interrupting Elijah.
"You know. Like when I pretended to be all outraged and shit about Klaus kissing you. It's kind of funny when you think about it."
Blinking rapidly, Bonnie breathes through her teeth. "So you let me feel guilty about Klaus when you weren't really upset. You let me think that you were going break up with me because of it. Is that what you're saying?"
"Well...yeah," Damon delivers with a shrug.
Bonnie's raises and eyebrow. "And you thought it wouldn't work because?"
Damon grins like the question is as easy as child's play, "Because he doesn't really want you. I mean, you're great and all but you're not like that Greta chick. You're a little more reserved. He likes the chase."
"I would duck if I were you." Elijah advises.
Damon takes his eyes off of Bonnie for second to respond to Elijah, "What for?"
A bottle of bourbon narrowly misses Damon's head because his instincts are not as stupid as he is.
Most of the liquor bottles start exploding in secession, shards of glass landing every which way.
Bonnie is unaware that she is moving closer to Damon until Elijah is holding her back.
"You should leave and let me talk to her." Elijah suggests causally. When Damon hesitates, Elijah urges him, "Now."
Damon obeys. He glances at Bonnie and cringes before retreating.
Elijah doesn't let Bonnie go right away. He lets her wiggle around in his hold and waits for her calm down.
"If you keep struggling against me, I will be forced to find another way restrain you," a teasing threat, his fingers tight around her.
Bonnie stiffens in his hold, and Elijah takes his hands off of her. She spends around to face him, the inappropriateness of his statement in question.
"What do you expect? I may be undead but I'm still a man," Elijah responds.
Damon is laying on his bed with his hands laces behind his head when Bonnie walks into his bedroom.
"Elijah's talked to you?"
"He talked to me," Bonnie eyes the things she has left there in her haste to give him his much needed space.
"Good. I totally forgive you for trying to kill me, by the way." He hops of his bed, sauntering across the room.
When he reaches her, he puts his hands on her hips and kisses her on the check. "You have no idea how relieved I am," he mumbles against her hair.
Bonnie pulls away to stare up at him, amazed that Damon doesn't seem to get it, "You don't see me as your equal. I've helped you so many times and you still think that I can't handle myself or that I need you to make decisions for me."
Damon grins a little in confusion, searching her face for a clue, "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the fact that you don't respect me. You say you do but you don't , not really."
"Bonnie, come on," Damon says. It's not an articulate response but he doesn't know what he is supposed to say.
"I'm going back to my place. And I don't want you to call me. And I don't want you to come over. I need some time to think about things."
She moves away from him. She stops at the doorway, craning her neck to look at him without starting back, "You were wrong. Klaus did want me. I don't know how it happened and I don't return his feelings. But he wants me."
"Sorry dude. I'm cutting you off."
The bartender wiped down the counter top, refusing to serve Damon anymore alcohol.
Damon regretted not compelling the bartender earlier in the evening. He thought that perhaps he could try now, but his focus was hazy.
"Just one more, man. One more."
Damon's head was so low on the counter the bartender had to lean in closer for him to hear.
"It's closing time. Look around. No one's here. Time for you to go home."
Damon looks around and sure enough, he and bartender were the only occupants in the bar.
Damon thought, 'fuck it' and hauled himself behind the counter.
"Hey, you can't do that―"
The bartender's admonishing is cut off as Damon pulled the man closer. Veins mapped his skin around his eyes.
The bartender's scream ended in a wet gurgle, as Damon's teeth sunk into his neck. There was something satisfying to Damon in drinking from the man, the warm blood mixing delightfully with the alcohol already in his system.
The man is dropped carelessly to the floor once Damon's done. He grabs a glass and helps himself to a drink.
The door to the bar creeks open.
"We're closed buddy," Damon offers, figuring he should give the person a chance at saving themselves.
"You sure you can't spare one little drink."
Damon eyes narrow at the sound of the voice.
Klaus sits at the bar, and peers over the counter, "I see you've already eaten."
Damon snarls, lunging full force into Klaus, the impact dense and unyielding.
"Having a bad day, are we?," Klaus says, laughter injected into every word.
It's the last thing Damon remembers before he blacks-out.