Klaus throws his bag down on the bed and then sits down next to it, putting his head in his hands. His entire trip was filled with meetings, drinking and strip clubs. He has never much enjoyed strip clubs, but when he is drunk his mind works in different ways. Now he is sober he can only condemn himself for his actions and be sure not to let Hayley find out what was including on his business trip. Yes, business was the main reason of the trip, but when they finished the project earlier than planned, pleasure quickly replaced business and became the new main reason for the trip.
He runs a hand through his blonde curly hair, which seems to have grown a lot as of recent and sighs. His mind suddenly wonders to what Hayley has done while he has been away. Probably spent everyday with Elijah complaining about his terrible drinking habits. Klaus knows he drinks too much, but why spend life doing the things that you dislike when you could simply open a bottle of scotch and enjoy it?
There is no way he is imagining that Elijah enjoys Hayley's company a little too much. He knows what it's like to be in Elijah's position, to want what you can not have. However, there is one big difference between the brothers, Klaus sees what he can not have and takes it anyway, Elijah does not take what he can not have... or does he?
Hayley walks in slowly and sees Klaus sat on the bed with his head down. Unsure of what mood he is in she treads lightly and makes sure she doesn't stand too close to him in case of another lash out. She does not fancy being pinned against a wall again.
Klaus looks up and gives her a small, genuine smile.
"You look nice" Klaus says, surprising both of them.
A little taken back, Hayley doesn't know what to say. She can't remember the last time Klaus complimented her unless it was about sex, or something she cooked and even that is rare.
She smiles in response and Klaus clears his throat and sits up before speaking again.
"I've been thinking... I owe you an apology" Klaus says quietly in his strong British accent.
Hayley folds her arms and waits for him to continue. She knows he is finding this hard; he has never been good at saying sorry, or admitting when he is wrong.
"I should of just asked you if you were involved with Elijah instead of assuming and acting on a theory. It won't happen again" Klaus says and Hayley nods her head. She isn't entirely sure whether to believe him, after all he is a complete different person when he is drunk.
"Besides, I know my brother, he wouldn't do that to me" Klaus adds and Hayley's heart stops.
Hayley bites her lip to stop herself from telling Klaus the truth. She hates lies. She always has, she would much rather know the truth, or be given the truth than hide behind lies. But this is one lie she has to keep. She knows Klaus will go off the rails, sober or not if he finds out what has just happened. Last night was one thing, she can blame that on the alcohol, but the kiss was nothing to do with how much they had to drink. The kiss was fuelled by the strong connection they feel towards one another.
This is a lie she will have to keep.
"He's a good man. You should trust him more. He's just looking out for his family" Hayley doesn't know whether she is trying to convince Klaus, or herself.
"The noble Elijah." He pauses. "He always was the good brother" he says, staring at a spot on the floor as his mind begins to wonder.
Before he can fall too deep into his thoughts, he shakes his head and gives Hayley a small smile before he stands up. He turns away from her and starts to unpack his bag. Hayley watches him cautiously and takes a step closer to watch him pull the dirty clothes out of his bag.
"What did you do while I was gone then? Did you have fun?" Klaus asks purely because he wants to know if she mentions Elijah.
"I just stayed in and watched films with Elijah mostly... I went to the gym too" Hayley adds, making sure she talks about more than just Elijah.
"Sounds like you had a nice relaxing few days" Klaus says and takes the last item out of his bag before he turns back around to face his wife.
Hayley nods and starts to fidget with her hands, feeling nervous and anxious about what could happen next.
"I have to go and see Rebekah, and make sure she doesn't hate me completely" Klaus says and Hayley gives him a quick smile.
He picks up his dirty clothes and tucks them under one arm before walking closer to Hayley. He stops when he is right in front of her and puts his hand on her shoulder. She shakes slightly, unsure of what he might do after the last time he lay a hand on her.
"Hayley, I know you trust him, but be careful of Elijah. He never did quite get over what I did to him and Katherine, he could just be using you for some kind of revenge" Klaus says and Hayley's heart drops again.
Surely he wouldn't use her, all of his intentions have been good. He has been there for her, supported her, held her when she cried, taken her out for a fancy meal. He's done everything he could to make her happy again and it has been working. But now, she is starting to question everything.
Klaus gives Hayley a rare, chaste kiss on the cheek and then says "see you", before he leaves.
Hayley however, doesn't move. She doesn't know what to do. For the first time in her life she has found a man who she feels like she might actually like, but it's at the complete wrong time in her life because she is married to his brother and now she finds out he might be using her.
And she is a cheat. Hayley feels her heart almost physically crack into two. She is a cheat. After all of the years she has hated cheats and said how terrible they are, after feeling herself hate Klaus for going behind Elijah's back with his ex, she went and cheated on her husband. She went against her morals, she destroyed almost all of her self-respect, and all just so she could have the chance to kiss one man.
Tears well up in her eyes and she shakes her head. Her behaviour is not acceptable. If Klaus cheated on her she would be mortified, despite what he has done to her and despite the fact that they were never truly in love.
Slowly, she turns to leave her room and there he is stood in the doorway... Elijah. He has one hand, his left, in his pocket and the other draping by his side. Even now after the horrible thoughts that have just attacked her mind, Hayley cannot help but think he looks absolutely gorgeous stood there like that. So casual yet so smart.
She wants to run to him, but she won't.
"You got all your pictures?" She asks, putting her defences up and trying to shut him out.
"Not quite, but I should have enough" Elijah replies and gives her a half smile.
Hayley nods her head .
"I was wondering if you are staying home tonight?" He asks and Hayley folds her arms again.
"Yeah, why?" She responds and Elijah gives her a small smile.
"I'm going to cook" he tells her and Hayley can't help but let a smile slip through. She loves Elijah's cooking.
Elijah can tell Hayley is being slightly off with him but he puts it down to the fact she has just seen her husband seconds after kissing him. He has never been one to agree with cheats, or cheating, but he couldn't deny himself the feeling of her lips on his. They may regret it sometime in the future if Klaus finds out, but for now Elijah doesn't regret a single moment of it.
"What are you making?" Hayley asks, a small smirk still lingering on her face.
"You'll have to wait and see" Elijah says and gives Hayley an adorable smile before leaving, probably to go and start his cooking.
Hayley remains stood still in her room. She is having a major internal conflict right now between one side of her which is determined to stay loyal to Klaus and possibly start to distrust Elijah. And another side of her which is falling away from Klaus and falling a little too close to his older brother. Maybe she should trust Klaus over Elijah, he is her husband after all. But Klaus is renown for letting Hayley down and destroying any faith she puts in him.
These are times when she could really use Rebekah's counselling.
The right thing to do would be to let Elijah down gently and pretend nothing happened before slithering back into Klaus' arms. But how would Elijah react to being let down? Would he lash out the way Klaus did? She really hopes not. Would he tell Klaus about their kiss, knowing that Klaus would lash out? No, surely not. Elijah isn't that kind of man judging on the sides Hayley has seen of him so far.
So, going back to her unhappy marriage and giving it another shot is the right thing to do... but Hayley has always enjoyed being a bit of a rebel. This is not something she should be deciding right now, things like this take time and to try and stop herself from losing herself in her thoughts, Hayley goes to put Klaus' bag back under the bed where it belongs. As she lifts the bag, it feels heavier than an empty bag should. She puts the bag back onto the bed and opens it up to see an empty bottle of scotch.
Hayley feels her heart fill with anger. She was just about to push Elijah away and try and give Klaus a second chance, and now this... this changes everything.
There is no way Hayley will give her marriage another chance if Klaus has been away getting drunk with all of his dodgy work friends. All of them are bad influences and that is really saying something considering Klaus is far from being an angel himself.
Hayley bites her lip hard and stares down at the empty bottle. There are so many different ways she could play this out. Confronting Klaus is one option, not the safest one but definitely an option. Another is telling Rebekah and letting her try to pry information out of her brother, or maybe she could continue this thing with Elijah for awhile. Maybe doing nothing is the right thing to do. She could just pretend she never saw the bottle, try her hardest to resist Elijah's charms and tell Rebekah everything is fine. But that would be a lot of lies. Hayley wonders whether she can keep up with that many lies without breaking and telling everyone the truth.
Unable to decide what to do because of the millions of thoughts wildly running through her brain, Hayley shakes her head and wonders to the kitchen, where she knows she will find Elijah. She leans against the wall and looks into the kitchen to see Elijah with his back to her while he hovers over the grill. Hayley can see he has his black shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows and part of his shirt is not tucked in.
Slowly, she scans over everything in the kitchen and folds her arms. On the kitchen island are two chopping boards. One has pieces of finely chopped radishes, pieces of torn lettuce, a handful of snap peas and a scallion on it. While the other has a thin bottle of olive oil, white vinegar and a small shaker of salt on it. Hayley is quite shocked to see how much food is out, mainly because she didn't even know they had all of this in the cupboards.
She watches as Elijah opens the grill and pulls out two steaks before turning to face her and putting the tray on the second chopping board. Hayley bites her bottom lip as she looks him up and down. She wishes she didn't but she feels even more attracted to him than before.
Elijah gives her a small smile as he uses a steak knife and a fork to lift one piece of steak off the tray and onto a plate. He then sprinkles some salt onto the steak and repeats this action with the second piece of meat before moving to the other chopping board. He lifts the pieces of lettuce, the pieces of radish and the snap peas together with his hands and puts a neat pile on both of the plates next to the steaks. He then quickly, but carefully and very skillfully chops up the scallion before adding that on top of the salads.
He lets out a deep sigh as he looks down at his work for a few seconds. He then looks at Hayley and gives her a small smirk as they make eye contact before he lifts both plates and places them on the other side of the island where the two stools are. Hayley slowly makes her way to her seat, sure she can hear Jack's claws clicking behind her, no doubt he will be expecting her to give him some of her meal. But tonight, she won't be sharing.
Elijah goes to the fridge and pulls out a bottle of red wine before grabbing two glasses from one of the cabinets. Hayley has no idea where he is getting all of this stuff from, but she definitely isn't complaining. Elijah pores two glasses of wine and places one in front of Hayley and one in front of his own meal before he sits down next to her ready to tuck in.
Hayley picks up her knife and fork and looks down at the food on her plate. It looks wonderful. She is tempted to take a picture and post it on Instagram, or Twitter.
"I don't know where to start" she says and Elijah smiles at her.
"Try the steak" he says as he cuts into his own meat.
Hayley takes his advice and starts to cut into her steak. Elijah watches her and only takes his first bite when Hayley takes hers. She closes her eyes as the flavours rush through her mouth and down her throat, and makes her mouth water... she has never tasted anything this good. After chewing and swallowing her little slice of heaven, Hayley looks at Elijah and smiles.
"This is brilliant, Elijah. You should really do this for a living, you could make millions" Hayley says and Elijah chuckles as he continues to eat his food.
"I don't need millions" he says, smiling.
"Make the money and give it to me" Hayley suggests jokingly before taking another bite.
Elijah chuckles again before taking a sip of his specially chosen wine.
"What exactly is this anyway?" Hayley asks before Elijah can reply to her joke.
"This is steak and spring salad. You do a medium-rare steak, cut up all of your vegetables and mix them together, add any seasonings you want to the salad and then do the same with the steak. My secret however, is to go against what Raymond Blanc says and add the seasoning before putting the steak in the grill." Elijah explains and Hayley hangs onto his every word.
Hayley has no real interest in cooking, or making fancy dishes, but listening to Elijah explain that and watching him move around a kitchen makes her want to get an interest in cooking. She imagines them cooking together on a Sunday afternoon after doing a full morning workout, if you know what I mean.
She quickly snaps out of her vision and tucks into her food once again, trying not to lose her mind to Elijah.
"I wish I could make anything even close to being as good as this" Hayley says and Elijah looks up from his plate.
"I'll teach you" he says and Hayley looks up.
They remain silent for a few seconds.
"I'm sure I could teach you a few simple, but impressive dishes" Elijah says, the confidence that was in his voice a few seconds ago dented silently.
"I'd be up for that if it isn't too much hassle" Hayley replies and Elijah smiles to himself.
"No hassle at all" he says just load enough for her to hear.
They finish the rest of their meal in a relaxing silence and when they are done, Elijah takes both plates and drops them in the sink ready to be cleaned. He adds any utensils that he used to the sink and starts to wash up. Hayley downs the rest of her wine and takes her glass to the sink quickly.
"Here, let me help" Hayley says as she gently puts her glass in the sink and grabs a towel to dry the plates with.
"You don't have to" Elijah insists, but Hayley shakes her head.
"The least I can do is help with the dishes" she says and takes a now clean knife and starts to dry it.
Elijah smiles and looks down at the plate he is cleaning. Hayley notices this and frowns slightly whilst smiling to herself.
"What're you smiling at?" She asks, playfully.
"You're so stubborn" Elijah says and Hayley looks at him, shocked, but still smiling.
"You really think that's a wise thing to say whilst I have a knife in my hand" Hayley says and Elijah chuckles.
Hayley's smile grows and her heart skips a beat as she hears his chuckle. She tries to tell herself that she can't picture herself falling head over heels for this man, but she can. And she already has, so many times.
"I didn't mean that in a bad way" Elijah says, just in case Hayley took what he said wrongly, even though he doubts she did.
"I should hope not" she says, joking again.
Elijah steps back slightly to look at Hayley and smirks, one eyebrow raised.
"Or else what?" he asks, his tone extremely flirtatious.
Hayley gives him a small smirk back before biting her lip and flicking water at him. Elijah tries to block it with one of his hands but fails and ends up getting splashed all over his shirt. Hayley laughs but also steps back from him, knowing that he will most likely splash her back. Elijah looks up from his wet shirt and is smirking at Hayley again, this time his smirk is more evil and Hayley gets ready to run.
Elijah grabs one of the wine glasses from the sink and chucks the water inside of it at her. She ducks but it hits her anyway and she starts to laugh. Elijah also laughs at the sight of Hayley crouching on the floor, blocking her face from the water. However, she quickly jumps up and makes her way towards the sink again.
"I don't think so" Elijah says and lifts Hayley into his arms before she can flick anymore water at him and carries her out of the kitchen and into the living room.
Hayley laughs loud and carelessly for the first time in what feels like forever as Elijah carries her to the couch. She sees Jack stood by the kitchen island wagging his tail before she plummets into the couch. She laughs even louder as Elijah holds her down by her wrists, with one leg in between both of hers. He looks down and laughs with her and she feels butterflies fluttering around aggressively in her stomach.
Their laughter finally settles, but none of them move. They maintain eye contact for a few minutes, staring into each others eyes and also into each others souls. And as much as Hayley could do this all evening, she has other things in mind.
Quickly, she frees her hands from his grasps and pulls his lips down to hers in a fiery, passionate kiss. Their lips lock for the second time today and their hands claw and caress each other desperately. Elijah's hands find themselves travelling all over Hayley's body. One of his hands slips behind the back on her head and tangles in her soft, curly hair, while the other settles dangerously low on her body at her hip, stroking circles on her delicate skin just under her top.
Hayley has one hand on the back of Elijah's neck, pulling him back to her every time he strays too far and the other holds on tightly to the collar of his shirt, squeezing tighter every time she feels a tingle shoot down her body to her most private area. She can't remember the last time kissing anyone felt this good and she doesn't want to. All she wants is to be absolutely intoxicated by Elijah Mikaelson, and apparently the feeling is mutual.
After a good twenty minutes of clawing at each others clothes and clinging to each other as they sink even deeper into their kiss, they finally pull apart. They are both out of breathe and can't seem to fully move away from each other, as Elijah remains on top of Hayley and Hayley continues to pull him down.
They both hear a small whining sound come from next to them and when they look to the left they see Jack sat there staring back at them. Hayley laughs and hides her face in Elijah's shoulder for a few seconds before emerging again and smiling up at him.
"I better go feed him" Hayley states and Elijah smiles down at her before nodding and getting up. Once he is standing, he offers his hand out to help her up and she accepts it.
Jack trots on in front of Hayley and she quickly follows him back into the kitchen. She quickly pores some dog food into his bowl and he happily starts to eat it. Hayley looks down at him for a few seconds and lets out a deep breathe before turning to see Elijah coming back over to the kitchen.
He looks up at her and gives her a small, cheeky grin.
"I'll finish the dishes" he says and Hayley smiles back at him.
"Okay... well, I'm gonna go and get a shower" Hayley says and she is sure she hears Elijah chuckle as she speed walks out of the kitchen and down the corridor to her en-suite bathroom, shutting all doors behind her.
After letting out another deep breathe, Hayley starts to run a cold shower and strip out of her clothes. She steps into the shower and is extremely thankful for how calming the water is as it glides off her skin. She certainly did not expect things to get that out of hand, but in a way she is glad they did. Now she knows what her decision will be... and there is no way she can miss out on bedding that man.