Chapter 14

Tennessee, 3 weeks later

Stefan stared at Lydea who was dancing with a beautiful young woman. Lydea was wearing a cute Tinkerbell top and pink and white skirt, her hair was in pigtails. The woman was wearing a light purple top and jeans, her blonde hair was down. They were touching each other quite boldly, but Lydea stopped the woman when she tried to kiss her.

"I don't kiss," Stefan heard Lydea saying.

"What a shame," the woman responded. "You have such pretty lips and I bet they would taste delicious…"

Stefan cleared his throat and turned his eyes to his drink.

"She's quite something, isn't she?" Klaus stated, he was sitting opposite Stefan.

Stefan glanced at him, he was looking at Lydea. He seemed amused, but there was also something else in his eyes. What that something was, Stefan really wasn't sure. The last three weeks had been more than strange, Stefan had to admit that he had no idea what was going on. They had kept tracking werewolves and found a very promising lead about a man called Ray Sutton. Klaus had made Stefan kill two women Ray had lived with. There had been no need to kill those women, they had told Klaus everything they knew about Ray, but Klaus had still ordered Stefan to kill them. Slowly.

It had seemed like Klaus would have wanted to punish Stefan for something. That hadn't been the first time during the last three weeks. Few times Stefan had noticed Klaus giving him a very hostile look. At first Stefan had thought that Klaus knew about Elena being alive, but clearly that wasn't the case. This was about something else. The problem was that Stefan had no idea what that something else could be, he couldn't think of anything he had done that would have angered Klaus. At least not this badly. Stefan pressed his lips together and looked at Lydea again. She was just whispering something in the woman's ear. After that she pointed at Klaus who smiled charmingly. The woman smiled too and winked at Klaus.

"Sure he can join us," she purred to Lydea. "Sounds like fun."

"Excuse me, mate," Klaus stated and stood up. He walked over to Lydea and the woman; they talked for a brief moment before leaving together. This wasn't the first time, so Stefan knew they wouldn't be back any time soon. He preferred not to think about any details, but he had certainly heard all kinds of things during the time they had traveled together. Whatever they were into, it wasn't any of his business.

Yet he had to admit that he was somewhat curious about Lydea. After almost two months, he still didn't know what to make of her. It seemed that she was more than withdrawn and she automatically assumed the worst from everyone else. At least she certainly couldn't handle compliments. Stefan didn't know what kind of a relationship she had with her other siblings, but her relationship with Klaus was strange to say the least.

He seemed to adore her, but at the same time he acted like he would own her. The weirdest part was that she didn't seem to mind, no matter how controlling he was. Katherine had called Lydea Klaus' lapdog, but somehow the whole submissiveness she showed Klaus didn't really fit the rest of her personality. At least so Stefan thought, but of course he could be wrong. In the end he barely knew Lydea.

He took his time to finish his drink and ordered couple of more before finally heading out. Slowly his fingers reached for his phone. No. He needed to stop torturing himself. There was no turning back for him. He had lost Elena the moment Klaus had forced him to feed on humans again. The thought filled him with bitterness, but he had no choice but to ignore his feelings. He closed his eyes for few seconds and sighed. When he opened his eyes he saw that Lydea had appeared in front of him, she was calmly observing him.

"Hey…" he started.

"I would like to have a word with you," she cut in; her tone of voice was kind of businesslike.

Stefan raised an eyebrow.

"Sure. What is it?"

"I have a proposition for you, but first I want to make it perfectly clear to you that you can refuse. There will be no consequences, I can assure you."

Stefan was surprised, but he was also cautious.

"A proposition?"

Lydea crossed her arms and looked at him calmly.

"I would like to have sex with you."

Stefan's eyes widened, for a moment he was sure that he had misheard her.

"Excuse me?"

"I would like to have sex with you," she repeated calmly. "Tomorrow. One night, nothing but sex, you're not required to do anything else. Yes or no?"

It took a brief moment before Stefan managed to reply, he had some serious trouble processing this.

"Now wait a minute, why would you…"

"Yes or no?" she cut in. "You don't have to give me any explanations; I only want your answer."

Stefan was still trying to decide was she serious or was this some kind of very weird joke.

"You want to have sex with me?" he finally managed to say.

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Not because of your intelligence, I can assure you. I find you physically attractive, so yes, I would like to have sex with you. As I said, you can refuse without any consequences; I can easily find someone else."

Stefan barely managed to suppress a smile.

"Well, you certainly know how to make a guy feel special."

"Fine," she stated. "I take that as a no…"

"I didn't say that, but I doubt that Klaus would approve this."

"I have his permission," Lydea replied. "I wouldn't ask you otherwise."

Stefan couldn't deny that he was stunned, had she actually asked Klaus if she could…

"I don't have the whole night," she snorted. "Is a simple yes or no too much to…"

"Yes," Stefan heard himself saying before he even realized that his lips were moving.

Lydea seemed somewhat surprised, but she hid it quickly.

"Alright. I will come to your room tomorrow night."

"Why tomorrow?" Stefan asked.

"Because it suits me," she replied. "Now, do you need something to improve your performance?"

Again Stefan was stunned.

"What?"

"I have some lingerie that I believe are designed for that purpose," she clarified.

"Right… Sure, why not."

She nodded.

"Alright. We can talk about the ground rules tomorrow. Good night."

With that she was gone. It took a long while before Stefan was finally able to move. What had just happened?