A month passed quietly and Nik and Caroline's relationship bloomed from a close-knit friendship into a passionate while tender romance. The world shed its cold and gray skin and began again, this time covered in warmth and sunshine. It was as if the universe was perfectly in tune with Caroline's emotions, slowly disregarding the depressing and graciously welcoming the bright ones. It was absolutely incredible.

"Caroline? Caroline?" Nik called out, his voice sing-song as he lightly tapped a far away in day dreams Caroline.

Caroline jerked back into awareness with a tiny start. Nik and she were currently sitting out on the quad of Mystic Falls High School, basking in the soft heat that early May supplied.

Caroline was mesmerized by the sun and all it's pure, unadulterated glory. The sun was something most took for granted, she decided. All it did for the inhabitants of the Earth was rarely appreciated. Its beauty was often left by the wayside in favor of much more striking objects like a scarlet rose. But Caroline had come to realize that most things that were truly beautiful were regarded just as the sun was. Strange, she thought.

"Yes?" Caroline finally said, sweeping her rather philosophical thoughts away under the rug that was her mind to be revisited another time.

"What were you thinking of?" Nik asked her.

"Beautiful things," she replied simply.

Nik grinned a secret smile at her, the kind of smile that threatened to cause her heart to leap from her chest without a moment's notice.

"Some would consider that quite narcissistic of you love."

It took all of a second until Caroline felt her face become almost slick with warmth and her breath to tangle in her lungs.

"You- you really are ludicrous sometimes," was the only feeble comment that her mouth could seem to produce in reply to his gentle compliment.

"I suppose I am insane," Nik agreed.

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked, her arms tingling just the littlest bit with newly formed goose bumps.

Nik reached out a hand and began to rub her arms up and down, "Relax," he said with a chuckle.

"I must be insane because I keep telling you that you're beautiful and even though you cease to believe me a single time, I still try, hoping for a different outcome."

"I do…I do believe you Nik," Caroline whispered, though there was no need to do so. There were only two other students out on the quad that afternoon.

Nik smiled. "You do huh?"

His demeanor went from serious and heartfelt to playful and witty in an instant.

And then her lips were on his, grazing them ever so slightly. Caroline wanted to kiss him more intensely but she was hyper aware of the fact that they were at school, in a public setting and well…displays of extreme PDA just didn't quite sit with her very well.

Nik, on the other hand, had different intentions. Caroline could feel his smirk against her lips and his arm wrap around hers, effortlessly bringing them both to a standing position.

"Venir rendez-vous avec moi, belle dame

Caroline brain began briskly filtering through the sparse amount of French that she had picked up during her sophomore year of high school. What Nik had just seductively whispered to her roughly translated into something like, "Come on a date with me, lovely lady." How romantic.

"You speak French?" she asked him in a tone that was almost breathless.

Nik giggled, giggled really, "Not one syllable actually, I just learned that phrase in the hopes that it might bring about ugh… a rather heated situation, he confessed, fumbling over the words a bit.

Caroline's whole body trembled with excitement and her eyes gleamed with lust.

"This is the last period of the day…we both have it off and-and…my mom won't be home till late, if she comes home at all," she informed Nik, her voice wavering.

Nik and Caroline nearly ran to his car.

Caroline didn't waste any time in opening her front door, she and Nik nearly falling into her house.

"Mmph" Caroline muttered as she tried to shut the door, her lips still firmly sealed to Nik's.

Nik noticed her difficultly and withdrew an arm from the soft fluff that was her hair and slammed the door shut. Caroline laughed and beckoned him to her bedroom in a way that was meant to be sexy but in her case, just looked plain cute.

Nik didn't care though, he'd go anywhere in the world with Caroline if she so much as asked.

"Nik, I want you to know I really like you," Caroline gasped, trying to suppress her abundt source of moans and sighs.

Nik laughed, "Do you really like me when I do this?" he questioned, tearing his lips from her and bringing them down to nestle into the crook of her neck.

Caroline shivered at the touch and nodded vigorously.

At last they made their way to Caroline's bed and Nik helped her slide backward so that she was propped against her headboard in a seated position. He couldn't fathom what exactly would become of himself if she were to lie down on the bed. Or what exactly he would do with her either.

"Nik…Nik I need to feel your hands," Caroline said, feeling almost dizzy with adrenaline.

Nik automatically complied with her request, offering her his large, lovely hands.

There truly was just something about a man's hands.

Caroline shook her head when she felt Nik's rough palms envelop her own, "No-no, not there," she sputtered and shoved his hands down…lower.

"Oh," was all he managed to croak out.

The sensation was exquisite, burning hot and cool as water all at once.

Nik discovered a new universe in Caroline's arms. Every curve of her soft form was an uncharted country, every freckle a new city.

Caroline didn't speak for quite a while, not even when Nik's fingers traced the hem of her sundress, inching it up ever so slightly. The only noises that fell from her lips were sharp intakes of breath and quiet sighs.

Nik continued to explore the blonde beauty, he knew at this rate, she was his for the taking. Completely and utterly submissive. But he didn't want to have sex with her. Well that was a lie, he did. It was just that…well he didn't have any protection and he thought that Caroline deserved better than this. No, when he made love to her it was going to be spectacular, music, roses, candle-light, the whole shebang. He smiled to himself at the mere thought.

"Caroline, Caroline I'm stopping," Nik told her ragged with pleasure.

Caroline's body locked up. "You don't have to-," she started to say but Nik stopped her before she could finish the sentence.

"I want to, I want to do this, trust me I do, just not like this, not here," he said softly, reassuringly.

Caroline blew out a breath and ruffled her hair, beginning to come down from her splendid high, "Okay."

"Okay," Nik confirmed.

And it was okay, it was enough for now. It was all they needed, to take solace in the fact that they could simply be while the notion waited patiently in the shadows, always there.

*A/N* Hello again! It's official guys, Klaroline smut is my bread and butter haha. I hope you all don't mind the lack of storyline progression in this chapter. Caroline's just getting a little more feistier with Nik and a lot more comfortable I suppose! PLEASE REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! (I hope you liked it, feel free to critique it regardless though!)