I know I said I would thank everyone in a different language every day... and yesterday, I totally forgot that over my silly excitement! Gah! :) Okay, here we go - muito obrigada, sou realmente grata!

Your reviews make me so happy that I won't even complain about the damn jet lag making me wake up at 2am without being able to fall asleep again... okay, busted. I'm still complaining. But the amazing reviews make up for it big time, so please keep them coming to help me survive my meetings!

Oh, there have been some comments on the update speed, so just to explain: The story is basically finished. Apart from a mistake I found in a later chapter that entails some corrections to other chapters, too. ;) But I've been at it for a very long time. I don't really write that fast. Unfortunately. ;)

So, shall we have them enjoy some fresh air and quiet times before they have to start facing the music? ;)

Thank you again, everyone! You're the best!

xx

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

THE MAN WHO COULDN'T MAKE LOVE

Caroline's head was filled with their lovemaking. There was nothing else she could think about. They were having lunch with Elijah, discussing how to proceed, but she simply couldn't concentrate. His hands on her. His face between her legs. His hard cock filling her, making her scream with unspeakable pleasure. The way she had hardly been able to move when they had finally managed to tear their hands off each other.

She needed to have him again, and soon.

"Caroline." Elijah couldn't quite hide his amusement at her obvious distraction, just as Klaus seemed to be unable to wipe the slight smirk from his face. He had every reason to be smug, she thought with an inward smile, after the countless times he had made her scream last night. But so had she. Smirk as much as you like. Remember just how often you moaned my name, Klaus?

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I said," Elijah answered patiently, "that I concur with Niklaus. It is imperative to have the upper hand when it comes to timing. Are you certain you can trust that black witch you went to, brother?"

"Yes," Klaus answered evenly. He went to see a witch before he came here? "She owes me a very substantial favour which I called in now. The moment I tell her to, she will be spreading the news of my coming to Tiffauges in such a way that we can be sure Prelati will be made aware of it."

Elijah looked at him thoughtfully. "It will on one hand give us more time, so that the others can join us once they found the oak. On the downside, it will give them more time, too, to find additional means to cause us damage. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to be prepared for any contingency. I have a helicopter and a private plane on standby to pick everyone up in Norway and bring them here the instant they find the tree."

Klaus nodded. His hand was on her back, his fingers softly tracing her spine. Caroline sensed he wanted to feel her skin as much as she wanted to get her hands on him. He was just better at covering it. He spoke up now. She listened to him, but in the back of her head, the only thing she wanted to hear from him right now was his desperate groan when he came. She tried to shake off the thought and concentrated on what he was saying.

"They will come here, that much is for certain. No other place would make sense. Mikael's goal is my insanity, and here is where he believes he can accomplish it the easiest. However, it might work to our advantage that Mikael will not expect me to be prepared. He does have a certain tendency to underestimate me. Apart from that, he will not be reckoning with all four of us standing together."

"There are nine of us," Caroline said. Klaus looked at her, puzzled. "Stefan, Damon and Elena are in Norway to help looking for the tree. They will join us, too. So we have a total of four Originals, four everyday vampires and one witch versus one Original and one warlock. Sounds manageable to me!"

Klaus groaned. "The whole Mystic Falls posse? What have I done to deserve this?"

"Be nice. They are here to help. And you know perfectly well that both Damon and Stefan can be pretty mean fighters. If I remember correctly, Damon almost had you staked a few months ago! And remind me again – wasn't it you who got burned and had to escape into someone else's body?" She grinned, making Klaus snort.

"Beginner's luck," he scoffed.

"Yeah right. And stop leaving me out of this. I am here, and I will do what needs to be done. So will Silv, and so will Elena. Get used to it." She saw both Elijah and Klaus flinch. Then they looked at each other, a moment of wordless communication passing between them. She would need to be on the watch, as the look the brothers were exchanging told her that they would be trying to keep both her and Silv as far from the action as possible, and she wouldn't have that. She was sure Silv would share her view.

"Be that as it may, and we'll still talk about that," Klaus continued, ignoring her last remark, "I am the one who is least exposed to mortal peril. Mikael does not want me to die right away. In fact, he might even go to some lengths to keep me alive. He knows that in my book, there are worse things than death, and that is what he wants for me. Madness, solitude and eternal suffering. He will, however, want everyone else to perish, with the exception of Prelati and Elijah. He needs Prelati to do the spell to extend his little stint on this side. As Silv pointed out, he requires blood from a relative. We are not actually related, so my blood would not work. Elijah is the only one of our siblings Mikael has ever even remotely accepted, therefore it is his blood he will be after."

Elijah frowned and shook his head. "He knows I would never give him so much as a drop of my blood."

"There are ways, brother," Klaus said curtly. "So once the troops are here, we will need to go into strategy details." He grinned at Elijah. "Remember? 'The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself'."

"Sun Tzu was a wise man. And may I add, 'All war is deception.' Am I correct in assuming that you are planning to work with distraction and confusion?"

The brothers exchanged another knowing glance. Even though she had no idea what they were talking about, she had to again admire the blind understanding between the two. "Who is Sun Tzu?" she asked.

"He was a Chinese general and a philosopher who lived around 500 BC. He is the author of a work called 'The Art of War'. Despite the fact that his writings are more than two thousand years old – yes, sweetheart, there are things older than me on this planet – they haven't lost any of their relevance. You will not find many military or political leaders who haven't read and been influenced by that book." He smiled with his typical Klaus cockiness. "Few truer things have been said than 'Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win'. This is why I am still here after so many years. Always one step ahead."

Caroline felt his hand increase the pressure on her back, and a quick rush of desire went through her. Couldn't they discuss this later? A slight hint of guilt invaded her mind. This was really important, and she was thinking of his lips on her body. What the heck was wrong with her?

Elijah got up. "I will call Rebekah and see if there are any news, and I have a couple of other phone calls to make as well. The financial markets never sleep, and we do want to remain the richest family in history, don't we?" His face split into a large grin at Caroline's nonplussed face, then he cleared his throat. "Niklaus, do you mind if we went to Tiffauges at nightfall? I have reason to believe that there is a hidden tunnel leading from the dungeons to the river. We should find it."

"How do you know?" There was the slight strain to Klaus' voice again that always showed at any mention of Tiffauges.

"I was here a few years ago."

"What?"

"No need to be upset. I had business to attend in Nantes and visited the ruins. That was when I heard a whisper about the tunnel from a local village boy. People perceived him as a little retarded, therefore no one took his ramblings seriously, but you know how it is – they usually know more than you would think at first glance. It is just that no one cares to listen to them. Unfortunately, I did not have time to find out whether that claim was substantiated, but we need to know the grounds inside out. Six o'clock?"

"Of course. And tell Rebekah to find that bloody tree already. How hard can it be?"

Elijah rolled his eyes at his brother, smiled at Caroline and left. She looked at Klaus. The electricity that had been sizzling between them during lunch seemed to turn into a series of electric shocks. I want you. I want you. I want you.

"Shall we go for a walk?" he asked with his velvety voice. It sent a shiver down her spine.

"I thought you'd never ask."

Klaus raised her hand to his lips. Her heart melted again.

After they left the hotel, they walked down a narrow path towards the little river Caroline had run to the previous night. It was sunny, a few birds were chirping and a cool, light breeze rustled the leaves of the trees next to the stream, but Klaus did not notice any of it. All of his senses were focused on the beautiful woman walking next to him, as they had been for every single second since he had first laid eyes on her last night.

He'd had so many women over the years. They had been beautiful, plain, skinny, large, intelligent, dumb, experienced, innocent. But not a single one of them had ever given herself to him like Caroline had, touched him like she did, moaned his name with such burning passion. Not one woman had ever been this flawlessly beautiful to him, inside and out. Her scent would never leave his senses again, and neither would the image of the sinfully erotic expression on her lovely face when he had made her come in his arms. It had bloody well been the best sex of his entire life.

By the Gods, he could not wait another minute.

Without a word, he slammed her into the nearest tree. She gasped in surprise but her arms came around his neck instantly and she pulled his lips to hers. He growled and let his tongue savour her mouth. He had no idea how he was supposed to ever be without her taste, her touch, her skin for so much as an hour again. Klaus had always been a very sensual man with an exceedingly healthy sexual appetite, but this was new to him. He knew he could easily make love to Caroline for days at a time without ever getting enough of her, without needing anything else.

She was lowly moaning into his kisses now, but he wanted more than whispered sighs. He wanted his name to tumble from her lips and her eyes to tell him that he was the only one who could give her what she needed. He released her lips and let his hands explore the silken softness of her hair – he had discovered very early on that she liked it very much when he caressed or kissed her hair, just as he adored the feeling of her hands on his face. Her eyes closed and she almost purred at his touch, making him shake his head in delighted wonder. This girl brought him to his knees.

He let his hands glide down to her throat, seeing a faint smile grace her lips. It had thrilled him beyond imagination to find that Caroline actually liked it when he did that. His fingers curled around her sensitive skin, exerting just the right amount of pressure to make her hover on the brink of pain. He brought his lips to her ear, sensing her shiver.

"So this is what you want, my love?" he asked huskily, slightly loosening his grip. "The thrill of pleasure and fear?"

"Everything you do to me gives me the thrill of pleasure, but there is nothing you could ever do to make me afraid." Her eyes were sparkling, challenging him, and he started to feel dizzy with desire.

"So be it." His hand squeezed her throat again, but this time he brought his tongue into play. He let it run on her skin, following the outline of his fingers. Her eyes widened and the loud moan she gave him made him feel all but godlike for a second. She was so distracted that she hadn't noticed how his other hand had reached the top button of her snug red blouse. With a slight smirk, he undid all buttons so swiftly that she still didn't realize what he was doing. Then he moved back and pulled the blouse off her, letting it fall to the ground.

She was wearing a dark blue, transparent lace bra that was beautifully set off by her alabaster skin. He swallowed. Her proximity had had him semi-erect ever since they had left the room, but now he was as rock-hard as he had been all night and most of the morning.

"It never ceases to amaze me just how exquisite you are," he whispered. He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. This time though, he kept his eyes on hers and slipped her index finger into his mouth, running his tongue around it. He licked and sucked her finger, delighting in her passionate little gasps. Then he flicked his tongue over the spaces between her fingers. Gods, her skin was delectable even there! His mouth moved on, kissing the back of her hand, then her palm, her wrist, drawing little wet circles. Very slowly, he ran his lips, tongue and teeth up her arm until he had reached her bare shoulder. He took a moment to revel in the look on her face. She was panting, a dreamy expression in her eyes.

Klaus gave her an impish smile and covered her shoulder with open-mouthed kisses before he slid his tongue under the strap of her bra and pulled it down her arm, his tongue never leaving her skin. 'Oh…' she mouthed, her hands knotting in his hair. He loved to take her by surprise. Last night, he had been too overwhelmed by her, by his feelings, by his loss of control, to be at the top of his game. He smiled to himself. How utterly unforgivable.

His hand slipped into her bra and he gently freed her breast. "My love… I know I showed you a million times last night… and this morning… that I could spend a lifetime just devouring your breasts." And he gave himself over to the incomparable feeling of her soft, fragrant skin in his mouth. Her nipple hardened under the incessant assault of his tongue and teeth, making him quiver with lust. With a throaty moan, he freed her other breast and cupped them both with his hands, briefly squeezing her nipples between thumb and forefinger, pulling a series of groans from Caroline.

Suddenly, her hand was on his, stopping his motion. She looked at him, biting her lip, and urged his hand toward her pants, making him smirk. "Impatient, are we?"

Her face grew serious. "I need you now, Klaus. I've needed you ever since the minute we left the bed."

He gripped her face very roughly. "Say that again."

"I need you. Now."

She needed him? Klaus felt a warm glow spreading inside his chest. Even if she needed him just for sex, it made him burst with happiness. He quickly got rid of her pants, holding on a moment to absorb what he saw. His Caroline. Leaning against the tree, her bra out of place, her face flushed, headless desire for him in her eyes. For him. With a groan, he tore off her panties and lifted her up. She was about to wrap her legs around his waist when he hoisted her up higher, flattening her back against the tree and pulling her legs over his shoulders. Original strength did come in handy at times, he mused before he lost himself in her.

"Caroline," he grated as he let his lips touch her sex. Her cry was the loveliest symphony he could imagine. Oh Gods, was she soft and wet again! Her divine taste invaded his mouth and took hold of his senses. There was nothing he would ever enjoy more than have his lips and tongue make love to her wet center. He moaned into her soaked flesh, in turns licking and kissing her clit. She was contracting with every flick of his tongue, gasping and groaning and totally oblivious to the fact that they were in the great outdoors, in plain daylight. He started to lick her entire length very languidly, one slow swish of his tongue following another, finishing each one with a slow circle around her clit. After a few strokes, she was a whimpering mess, her legs trembling uncontrollably. With the last and most intense swipe of his tongue, he squeezed her butt hard.

She came in delicious abandon, encaging his head between her legs with a helpless moan. He had the distinct feeling that each and every pore in her body was opening, exuding a scent that wreaked complete havoc on his senses, making him more addicted to her by the second. As she had before, she made him feel like a god for an instant – a god pleasuring his goddess.

Klaus lifted her from his shoulders and lowered her to him, wrapping her legs around his waist this time, kissing her with soft determination while she was still gasping for unneeded air. She held on to his neck, all but melting into him, her fingers playing with a curl of his hair. When her panting had slowed down, her lips moved to his ear and her husky whisper sent a thrill down his spine.

"Take me, Klaus."

He made quick work of his own denims, all the while holding her up against the tree. She let her hands slide down to the hem of his Henley, pulling it over his head in one swift move. Her eyes closed as her fingers caressed his shoulders and slowly slid down towards his chest. The feeling of her soft touch on his skin seemed to make him tremble more each and every time. How did she do that? His hands moved under her thighs now, supporting her weight against the tree, as he positioned himself at her hot, wet entrance.

"Look at me, my love," he muttered hoarsely.

Caroline opened her eyes and locked her gaze with his. Very, very slowly, he entered her, inch by torturing inch. She stared at him while he filled her, desire clouding her lovely blue eyes. Desire… and something beyond that. It was heaven. She was soft, wet, hot, welcoming. She surrounded him, and he had the unsettling feeling that she was giving him the home he had always been searching for. There, deep inside her, he had finally found it. His groan was long and very loud, but he could not have cared less about being heard when he felt her contract around him. She always reacted like that to any sign of his desire for her, and Klaus adored it in a way he had never thought possible.

"Caroline," he whispered, "I wish I could tell you how it makes me feel to be inside you, but I have no words. No… words."

Now it was she who trembled. "Why don't you show me how it feels?"

Cupping her face with one hand, he grabbed her backside with the other and started to thrust, deep and hard, emotions pouring from his eyes into hers and back into his. He knew she could read everything on his face. All that nameless passion he felt for her, the lust, the tenderness. The fact that she was his own personal paradise.

"Yes! Yes, yes," she all but screamed when he increased his pace. He had always loved it hard and almost close to violent, but nothing had prepared him for the way Caroline enjoyed the way he took her with such brute force. He moaned into the curve of her shoulder, huskier and louder with each thrust. This woman was driving him so wild… so out of himself. And then he turned. Again. His vision blurred for an instant, then his Hybrid senses took over. He gripped her harder and took her like a madman, his need driving him insane. Her inner walls started to vibrate around his burning cock and he felt his orgasm approaching like a bullet.

"You're… glorious," she suddenly rasped. That did it.

With a deep groan, he let go and gave her everything he had, reducing his universe to the explosion of pleasure in his body and soul. And to the way Caroline shouted his name to the skies above. Repeatedly.

They were sitting under the tree that had witnessed their heated lovemaking. Klaus' back was leaning against the trunk while Caroline was ensconced between his legs, her back on his chest. His arms were around her, and her head rested against his shoulder. She idly stroked his legs. They had dressed, but both of them were unwilling to leave, so they just sat there, enjoying each other.

If anyone had told me only a couple of weeks ago that Klaus of all people could make me so insanely happy – not to mention turning me into a serious sex addict – I would have thrown something at them.

"So tell me," she said lightly, not wanting to get into any heavy stuff for the time being, "Who was your first time with, and how old were you? If you remotely remember what happened in your dim and distant prehistoric past, of course."

There was a subdued chuckle at her ear. "Time for ghosts of sex trysts past, sweetheart? All right. But it will be quid pro quo. You ask a question, I ask a question."

"Deal." He kissed her hair, making her sigh with sheer blissful warmth. "Very well then. I was fourteen when I first had sex. She was a girl from a neighbouring village. There had been a big celebration that night, about five villages coming together to sound praise for a successful harvest. Thanksgiving, so to say. I had seen her a number of times before and caught quite a fancy to her, but I had been too shy to make a move."

Caroline laughed out loud. "You don't expect me to believe that, do you?"

"Darling, I have not always been the confident, regal, superior, wise, knowledgeable, charming, powerful, lethal and smoking hot stud who just shagged the hell out of you." He chuckled and kissed her neck, making her snort and giggle at the same time. But the butterflies were back with a vengeance now. Darling.

"So I hadn't really dared to make her acquaintance. But that day, there had been some games between the villages, and I had won two of the contests, namely the race and the younglings' sword fighting. After the feast, when night fell, she didn't stop staring at me from the opposite side of the bonfire. The other boys noticed and spurred me on. After two goblets of mead, I had finally mustered the courage to go and speak to her. She was a few years my senior, knew what she was doing and what she wanted. Turned out it was me that night. We ended up in the woods behind the village, and the burden of my virginity was lifted from me. Apparently, half the village had been watching, hidden in the bushes, and I was quite the hero for the other boys the next morning." Another chuckle, another kiss.

"Is that where your penchant for open-air sex stems from?" Caroline giggled. Town Hall gardens, benches in Norway, a tree in France… he definitely was an outdoors kind of guy.

Klaus laughed, ruffling her hair. "I would not call it a penchant, I would prefer to think of it as seizing the opportunity wherever it presents itself."

She playfully slapped his knee and grinned. "What was her name?"

"Rahel. Why?"

"Just wanted to see if you remembered," she smiled. "What happened to her?"

"I never saw her again. Finn told me at the time that she had been married off to some farmer, but I honestly can't tell you what became of her." Another kiss. "My turn. Same question."

"I was sixteen. He was Ryan Miller, a senior. Backseat of his Chevy. Turned out he, too, was actually after Elena and used me to get to her." She couldn't help a moment of pre-vampire bitterness, but she didn't want to go there now, so she quickly changed topics, noticing that he was about to say something. That first time wasn't really worth mentioning anyway. Ugh. "My turn again. Have you ever had sex with more than one woman at a time?"

"Yes. On a number of occasions."

Caroline swallowed. Figures. "Did you like it?"

"Not quite my cup of tea, to be perfectly honest. I prefer to dedicate all my attention to one woman and I think a ménage à trois is an overrated experience, but just as with everything else, this is a question of personal preference. I know quite a few men – and women – who would give their right arm for it." He hugged her closer. "What is the one place you've always dreamed of having sex at?"

She blushed, glad he couldn't see it. How did he guess there had been one specific place she had so often seen in her fantasies? "Something rather cheesy, I'm afraid." Another kiss on her hair. "Tell me, darling." I like it when you call me that.

"A lagoon. Clear, warm waters, soft sand, a tropical breeze… yeah, too many romance novels, I know, but I have seen that in my dreams very often. There are other places, too, but the lagoon is something I keep thinking about. Making love in the shallow waters with the stars above me and no sounds except those of the sea… Okay, my turn. What was your craziest sexual experience ever?"

Klaus laughed his wonderfully rich laugh. "You really care to know?"

"Of course! Come on, you're thousand-year-old Mr. Sexypants! If anyone has kinky stories, it's got to be you!"

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that. Kol is quite in the vanguard when it comes to the really bizarre stuff. That boy is weirdness personified. Even Elijah… never mind. I believe BDSM is no longer a taboo these days, so I will not bore you with any tales of that."

"Let me guess – you were not the submissive one."

He chuckled. "That is not too difficult a deduction, is it, love? No, I would say the craziest sex I ever had was during the French Revolution. Paris was burning, there was fighting in the streets, and barricades blocked virtually everything. She was a duchess, married to some aristocratic tyrant and actually on the side of the revolutionaries, for her lover was one of them. I knew her vaguely from a number of society gatherings. We accidentally met somewhere between two barricades right after her lover had been shot during a skirmish. People were fighting all around us, bullets whizzed through the air. There was nothing but mayhem and smoke. She knew she would not survive the revolution either way – being a duchess, the mob would have killed her sooner rather than later, without so much as considering her true sympathies. As a supporter of the people, however, she would have been sentenced to death had the Ancien Régime proved victorious. Her husband would have made sure of it. So she just looked at me in my ragged garments, all covered in blood from the fighting, and said, 'I want to live, one last time.' And that was what we did. We lived. Against the burning barricade, in the midst of the sounds and sights of war, for everyone to see."

'We lived.' The way he smiled over the reminiscence sent a bout of jealousy through her. Now we are starting to be jealous of dead French duchesses, or what?

"You are an exhibitionist after all. So how did she die in the end?"

"She deliberately walked straight into a blaze of musket fire. I could have got her out of the barricades alive, but it was not an option for her, and quite honestly, I did not care enough to stop her from doing what she did. There were so many things happening, so many people dying that one's thoughts never lingered on anyone's particular fate for any length of time. That revolution was truly nasty. When one thinks of atrocities in history, the first thing that springs to mind are usually the Nazis or carnages like the Killing Fields in Cambodia, but truth be told, the violence of the French Revolution was remarkable."

"Is there any historical event you haven't witnessed firsthand?" she asked, shaking her head.

"Very many. You can't be in all places at once. But I have seen history being made on a number of occasions. We somehow always knew to be in the right place at the right time. And there were many beautiful events, not just cruelty and war."

His whisper became silken now, stirring her senses anew.

"Will you let me be the one to make love to you in that lagoon, Caroline?"

How can you even ask? Have you not yet understood that after last night, there is no other man I would ever want to touch me again – no matter what becomes of us?

She didn't say it. Instead, she just covered his arms with hers. "Silv… Silv said you never actually make love. You only ever have sex."

"That is very true indeed."

Her heart sank, even though she had expected his answer. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to keep her body relaxed so he wouldn't sense her tension. Suddenly, she felt him brush a strand of hair from her face, and his lips were touching her earlobe.

"Last night, darling, you have seen history being made. Last night was the first time in my entire life that I gave something of myself. Last night was the very first time that I have made love to a woman."