Notes: This is later than I wanted to post it so it got kind of a rush edit job. [Properly edited Saturday, March 14] I'm on my way out for the evening but I'll probably clean in up later. I apologize for any mistakes! I didn't get to watch TVD last night so I only know from tumblr that dark!Caroline is awesome. Thanks to all those who read, reviewed, favourited and followed the first chapter. It's about to get smutty!
WARNINGS: Smut. Somewhat non-consensual bondage. Shades of non-con in general. Klaus uses the 'c' word once or twice. As well as borderline crack elements.
Gold
Part 2: Stage Four
Klaus regains consciousness slowly, too slowly, which is the first clue that something is amiss.
He doesn't sleep much, or particularly deeply. His body had long ago trained itself to waken at full alertness, ready to fight or flee as needed. That hasn't changed even if unlocking his werewolf side had rendered him nearly indestructible and killing his father removed the largest credible threat to his life. Habits solidified over centuries don't just disappear over a handful of years.
It's a struggle for Klaus to open his eyelids, adding to the unease he's feeling. It's like he's hungover, a feat that would take several bottles of strong liquor, a thing that rarely occurs. He manages to look around, he still feels groggy, but he sees enough to learn that he's in bedroom. It's posh but nondescript, the décor lacking any hint of personality in a way that screams hotel. The last thing he remembers is accepting a third glass of champagne from Caroline…
Caroline.
Klaus forces himself to concentrate. He opens his mouth to call her name, but his tongue is thick and slow and won't wrap around the sounds. It comes out as a jumble on consonants. He tries to sit up but cannot manage it. His limbs feel weak and heavy and don't seem to be responding to signals from his brain.
What in the bloody hell is happening to him?
Klaus tries, and fails, to move his arms again. Is this what panic feels like? It's been ages and he's not quite sure.
Glancing up he sees the problem. His wrists are bound in heavy leather cuffs and tied to the headboard with lengths of purple rope. He tries to pull free and pulls even harder when he cannot. It should be nothing to shred that rope and yet it won't give under his exertions. Klaus looks down and finds that he's missing his jacket, shirt and boots and that his legs are immobilized in a similar fashion.
Before he can process the new information a door opens to his left and Caroline walks out of the ensuite bathroom.
For a moment he's relieved to see her, to know that she's unhurt. His mind has regained its usual quickness, even if his body remains uncooperative, and is making connections.
Caroline's straightened her hair and changed her clothes (more black and more leather and the killer heels dangling from her fingertips match her deep red lips this time). She's stuffing a fistful of jewelry into a red bag, and seems entirely unconcerned about his predicament.
This can only mean that she is the cause of said predicament.
Klaus' blood begins to boil and it only highlights his current frailty. He is staggeringly angry with her, and irritated with himself. He'd underestimated Caroline, managing to do the exact thing that he'd been mentally (and verbally, over the phone) berating her friends for. And in making that mistake he's now helpless as a newborn kitten and completely at her mercy.
"Oh, you're awake," she says, "comfy?"
Klaus inhales deeply, attempting calm, to prevent himself from shouting at her. It won't do any good. She doesn't fear him, even with her humanity intact, "What is the meaning of this, Caroline?"
She sits on the bed, crosses one leg over the other to strap on a shoe, "You can relax, you know."
"Unlikely," Klaus snaps immediately.
"I'm not plotting to kill you."
"It wouldn't be the first time, sweetheart," he reminds her. Klaus can't help but notice that the loose black shirt she's wearing is see-through and that her bra is black and lace.
"Oh, please. It's been years. Hell, last time I tried to kill you I didn't even want to kill you." Finished with her shoes Caroline then sighs, and flops down onto the bed, her hair draping across the pillow next to him, "You really need to learn to let things go, Klaus."
Klaus shift his head to the side so he can look at her incredulously, "Oh? Have you managed to complete a psychology degree whilst flitting around North America?"
She gives him a deadpan look, so reminiscent of the real Caroline, Klaus misses the first part of her retort, "…scared of dying which, newsflash, is not a thing you have to worry about. A shrink would just be dumb, not to mention a waste of your money. Hey, do you like these shoes? Red and black is kind of a vamp cliché, you know? But I don't want to go full funeral and the gold ones don't really go with the earrings I compelled earlier." She lifts her feet in the air and twists them to and fro.
He's tempted to ask if she's serious, if she honestly thinks that her accessories are the most pertinent thing they need to discuss at the moment.
But then she probably does. Bloody humanity switch. It really was a bother.
"What did you do to me, Caroline?"
"I drugged you."
"Right, I gathered that, actually. I'm more interested in why. And how."
"I witch-roofied the champagne."
"But you drank the champagne."
"I drank the antidote first. Duh."
"There's an antidote?"
"Yup."
Klaus waited, hoping she would perhaps elaborate. When she didn't he attempts a different line of questioning, "And where did you acquire this 'witch-roofie'?"
"Witches."
Klaus blew out an aggravated breath.
Caroline flipped onto her side, towards him, bent her arm at the elbow, and propped her head on her hand, "I got the idea from Elena. She got hooked on witch-LSD when Damon died. And now she has the nerve to lecture me about my coping mechanisms."
"Pity Damon didn't stay dead," Klaus said. "Now, who's this witch friend of yours? Not the Bennett girl, obviously."
"Weak, Klaus. I thought you were supposed to be good at this."
He gritted his teeth, "Caroline, I don't think you understand…"
She cut him off, "Oh, I understand perfectly. You're tied to the bed, outmaneuvered by little ol' me. And you hate it. You'd like nothing more than to kill the witch who made it possible. Why would I give you a name and a target? I like you like this. In fact..."
Klaus watches a wicked little gleam enter her eye and the next thing he knows she's straddling his hips. Her short skirt bunches high on her thighs as she settles against him, "Caroline," he started warningly.
"What did I just say about relaxing?" She runs her index finger down the center of his torso, from collarbone to the buckle on his belt.
Klaus fights a shudder.
"Do you want me Klaus?" she asks, as though it's not a loaded question. But then the answer won't matter to her, one way or the other, right now.
"I do, Caroline. Just…"
"Not like this," she finished for him. "That's what I thought. Too bad." She traces the same path on his body, this time letting her fingernail bite into his skin. There was no stopping the shudder this time, or the involuntary arch of his spine to follow the touch. His cock begins to harden and there's no way she can miss it, situated as she is.
She's watching his skin, watching the red mark she'd made on it fade away, before she meets his eyes and deliberately rocks against him.
Klaus bites his lip and only just manages to stop from gasping. The pressure is exquisite. He should really look away but the view, Caroline tugging her skirt up higher, exposing the black lace between her thighs for a moment, is far too tempting.
Caroline doesn't bother to restrain her own pleasured sounds at the friction she's creating for herself. The first moan comes from deep in her throat and it drives him mad. She spreads her legs wider, presses her palms to his stomach, and makes slow circles with her hips, rubs her pussy against his rapidly hardening cock, accursedly still trapped in his jeans. Her body jolts and she pants slightly at the crest of each motion, where her clit grinds against his pubic bone and the lace and denim separating them.
It's torture as she's doing it and it's torture when she stops.
He watches, with great interest, as she closes her eyes and reigns herself in, her hands going to her hair as she tries to focus. It's fascinating, not what he's come to expect from vampires in her state, but so Caroline all the same.
"Rules," she says, not to him but to herself, "remember the rules."
"What rules?" he asks.
"There are four," she tells him. Her eyes open and she drops her hands down to rest on top of her thighs. "First rule: I keep it off for a year, tops."
Klaus is surprised. Her friends hadn't mentioned this, "You planned this?"
"Um, yeah. I planned everything. I made extensive lists. I got through the funeral, and then I flipped the switch."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"The grief will still be there in a year, love."
"I know. But it'll be distant. And I need the distance. Practically everyone in my life has died, you know? Died and come back. I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from looking for a way to bring her back too. And she wouldn't have wanted that. She wanted an ordinary death."
Klaus considers that, "And what would the Sherriff have thought about what you're doing right now?"
"Right now, right now? We kind of operated under a 'don't ask don't tell' policy when it came to sex."
"You're deflecting," he accused.
Caroline makes a derisive noise, "What does it matter? She'd say the same thing my so called friends did. That I'm stronger than this, that this isn't me, blah, blah, blah."
"Far be it for me to agree with the likes of The Salvatore's but…"
"Then don't," she cuts him off. "How do I know this isn't me, huh? I've only ever been a good vampire, because that's what everyone expected. Damon kills people when his feelings get hurt. Enzo kills people just for funsies. Stefan's massacred entire towns. Elena got the blood munchies after hallucinating about her dead boyfriend and started eating people in the woods. Why did I have to try so hard, feel so guilty, and they don't? Why do I have to be strong, all the fucking time?"
Klaus wished that he could touch her. And not even for her, because she doesn't need to be soothed, her voice remains even, her recital matter of fact. He wants to touch her for him, because he needs it. He's forgotten, in the 18 months they've been apart, how this sort of empathy pokes at all the tender spots he pretends not to have.
But she won't welcome his tenderness right now so he moves forward and inquires, "Second rule, love?"
"The second one's just practical. Minimal killing, cause it's the 21st century and you're always on camera. I don't need an America's Most Wanted poster haunting me if I try to go back to college."
Klaus notes the 'if' and files it away, "And the third?"
"No compulsion induced sexcapades."
"Ah," Klaus remarks, understanding dawning.
"Yeah, I've been the girl who couldn't say no, and I won't do that to someone else. It's not like it's hard to get a yes, anyway. A little leg and a lot of boob usually seal the deal just fine."
"And vice versa, I'm sure," Klaus speculates, wry humor coloring his tone, looking her up and down.
"Exactly! The only downside is how breakable humans are. I might've had to heal a couple of broken bones in the beginning."
"Why not stick with vampires, love?"
"And make it easier for you to find me? That was one of Katherine's first tips. 'One never knows what vampires are in which Original's pockets,' she said. I only hang out in vamp friendly places when I'm getting ready to leave a city."
That explained why so many of the leads he'd followed had been dead ends. Clever girl, his Caroline.
"Thanks for ruining my second attempt at a threesome, by the way. The first one didn't go so well."
Klaus has to think for a moment, does he really need the details? But his curiosity is too much to contain so he prompts, "Oh? Do tell."
"Two dudes. More into each other than into me. Hot to watch but ultimately unsatisfying. I mean really, if I have to get myself off I might as well just watch porn."
"Not very gentlemanly," Klaus commiserates.
"Right? I had high hopes for Mr. and Mrs. Wisconsin. I'm not totally sold on women just yet but they seem to know how to make me come more reliably than your average 20 something guy."
Klaus made an agreeing noise, not knowing how to reply, and shifts restlessly underneath her, his imagination really working against him at the moment. Caroline, of course, noticed.
"So rule three means I can't fuck you, even if you couldn't stop me and your, shall we say equipment, is raring to go. You're not technically compelled but you are definitely saying no, right?"
"Correct, sweetheart."
"Fuck," she says, aggravation clear on her face, and rocks against him again, "That sucks. I'm so turned on right now, Klaus."
"I know," he says, because he can smell it. He watches her fingers begin to run slowly up and down her smooth thighs.
Caroline smirks down at him, having noted his interest in the sight of her stroking her own skin. "I should probably say I'm sorry for striping you."
"Probably," Klaus agrees and doesn't bother to chide her for the lack of an actual apology.
"You want to know a secret?" Caroline asks, in a conspiring whisper.
"About you? Always."
"I meant it when I said I like you like this. God, maybe it was the complete lack of partner induced orgasms since we had sex in the woods somehow frying my brain, but this scenario was all over my spank bank."
Klaus is fairly certain of what she means but can't help himself from asking her to clarify, "Spank bank?"
She rolls her eyes, "You're a thousand years old, Klaus. Please tell me you're not one of those guys who denies the existence of female masturbation."
He can't help but bark a laugh at that and she moans as it causes them to press more firmly together, "You really should stop fooling around with boys, Caroline, if that's the kind of idea they hold true. It's no wonder you were frustrated."
"Am frustrated," she complains. She stops moving for a moment and tips her head to the side, studying him as though struck by a new idea.
It's unnerving how transparent she is like this. So many of their past interactions had been layered. Caroline had always been trying to hide her true thoughts and motivations from him while he tried to push past her walls. To be able to read her face so plainly makes him wary.
And his instincts prove correct, since she lifts up without warning and shuffles forward so that she's spread higher on his abdomen, his cock no longer pressed against her. It's both a relief and a torment.
"I just thought of a loophole," she declares, and Klaus notes the triumph in her voice.
Fuck. That is not good. That is not good at all. Klaus is awash with equal parts anticipation and dread.
The hands she'd been using to caress herself begin to move more deliberately. One slips up her shirt and cups a breast over her bra. The other slips under her skirt and into her knickers. He can't see much, the leather of her skirt is obscuring her hand, but the arch of her back as she lifts and sinks down lets him know she's got at least one finger buried in her sheath.
Klaus' mouth dries, his heart begins to beat faster. He knows that he must be gazing at her like a wide eyed virgin, who's not quite sure where to look first, but quite frankly he does not care. He's not even sure whose fantasies they're enacting right now because watching her touch herself had definitely featured heavily in his.
"Do you want me to lose the skirt?" she asks him.
Klaus swallows the 'yes' that wants to come out of his mouth. But he can't force out a 'no' either. He settles on a short nod, because it's been such a long time since he's considered himself a good man.
The smile she gives him makes his breath catch and she pulls both of her hands away from their activities. She smirks at him as she wipes her damned fingers across his chest. Caroline's taunting him, smearing her juices onto his skin, marking him with her scent in the process and causing his control to slip at a rate that is almost appalling.
He wants the taste of her in his mouth again. Desperately.
Caroline moves both of her hands behind her back, and he hears the skirt's zipper open but she pauses, waiting for something, "Say please," she requests of him.
Klaus glares at her, presses his lips together in refusal. He's not the begging type and not far gone enough to go against his nature just yet.
She waits a few beats, shrugs and remarks, "Interesting," then shimmies the skirt up her body and over her head, probably in deference to the spindly heels of the shoes she's still wearing. They would make standing on the bed difficult, even with a vampire's enhanced strength and balance.
"What's interesting?" he finds himself asking.
That seductive, breath stealing, smile graces her lips again as she returns one hand to her breasts, pulling both of the cups of her bra down this time, propping the lush flesh up and allowing Klaus to see how hard her nipples are through the sheer fabric she wears. Caroline doesn't answer him, though. Just touches herself, circling one nipple, than the other, with her fingertips. A scrape of a nail here, a rough pinch and tug there. Just watching him watch her.
So engrossed, is he, that he completely misses her other hand sneaking behind her to cup his erection roughly over his jeans. He jerks and growls out, "Caroline!"
"Shh," she hushes him and unbuckles and unzips him. Her fingers move clinically and do not linger, "I recognize that I'm blurring the lines here but that seemed painful."
Klaus doesn't protest because she's right, he'd been aching, and also because he's certain that, were she to touch him again to put his cock back inside his jeans he's come in her hand before she could complete the task.
"Now, where was I?" She pretends to think about it, index finger pressed to her lips, "Oh, right. Here," she sinks two fingers back into her depths and sighs in relief. Klaus watches her face for a moment before sliding his greedy gaze down her body, the soaked lace she wears does little to obscure the sight of her fingers working her slick core.
The little noises she makes, increasing in urgency, as she fucks herself sear into his brain. She picks up speed as she goes until her fingers are moving furiously. Klaus is only just hanging on to all the reasons why he can't ask her to ride him instead.
Klaus stretches his arms out a bit, wraps his hands around the ropes and clenches them in his fists so tightly they burn.
She's eyeing his white knuckles with interest, "God this is hot. I never bothered to imagine you actually tied up, but it's working for me."
Fuck it. He can only take so much, "Tell me what you imagined, Caroline." He phrases it like a demand, not a plea, but she knows that she's in charge. He can tell that she likes it, that part of what's getting her off right now is the power she's wielding. Klaus has played these games once or twice in his long life but he's never enjoyed them quite so much.
Klaus watches her add a third finger, the little whine she lets out at the stretch has the tension in his belly coiling tighter. Without warning Caroline pulls the hand working her breasts away and rolls forward, planting it next to his head. He can't watch her touching herself at the new angle but the hand that's been working inside of her is now pinned between them. He feels Caroline take advantage of the new leverage, her knuckles dig into him as she grinds down harder on her fingers and rubs her clit with the heel of her hand.
She's above him now, her hair floating around his face and her voice is husky as she does what he's asked, "Sometimes you take me, like you did in the woods. We managed an impressive number of positions that day,"
"Yes we did," Klaus recalls, unable to help feeling smug.
"But in my head we've done so many more. I want to suck you off in the shower, Klaus. I want to sit on your lap with my legs spread as wide as they can go while you play with my clit and I come over and over. I want it fast and rough from behind."
"Fuck, Caroline," Klaus can't help but groan, adjusting below her as much as he is able. He'd never imagined she'd be one to talk dirty but she's brilliant at it.
"And sometimes," she makes a particularly aggressive swivel of her hips and pants for a moment, "Jesus, I'm almost there."
He needs her to finish her thought first, "Sometimes what, love?"
"Sometimes I take you," she rasps out, "I didn't imagine the restraints, because I figured they wouldn't work given your freaky hybrid strength."
"A reasonable inference," he says, watching her avidly. There's a group of witches, more prone to personal avarice than most covens, near Paris, who charge hefty sums to spell bondage equipment for vampires with a taste for it. Caroline doesn't need to know that at the moment, however. No need to provide her with more ideas. Klaus watches her begin to unravel. She's flushed and dampened with sweat and he's aching to lick her skin.
"But I give you orders," she manages to continue shakily, "You can't touch me unless I let you. I make you watch as I touch myself. You come when I tell you to."
So this is her fantasy, then. That it aligns with his is just a bonus.
"Sometimes I kneel over you and you fuck me with your tongue. Then I pin your hands and ride you so, so slowly, until you beg me to go faster so you can finish."
It's sensory overload. Hearing that she's fantasized about him, in detail. She sight of her on top of him. The scent of her juices. The feel of them, slick and hot on his skin. He licks his lips, recalls the taste of her.
Fuck, is he ever ridiculously close to coming right now, despite the fact that she's not touched him much at all. His muscles are so taut he'd be sore tomorrow from the tension if not for his healing capabilities.
"Sometimes…" she trails off, eyes squeezed shut. Her supporting arm buckles and she collapses against him, rubs her chest against his. He can feel the scrape of her nipples through her flimsy shirt and then she's writhing and moaning through a powerful climax.
Klaus arms move with the urge to hold her against him, thwarted by his bonds, and he just manages not to find his own release.
She quiets, keeping her face tucked into his shoulder. Once her breathing has returned to normal she sits up, whimpering as she stimulates herself with the three fingers still inside her pussy. She shifts up to gingerly remove them, more of her wetness leaking out onto his stomach.
"Well, if I wasn't sure before I am now. Sweet Lord, I am a genius. Best loophole ever."
Klaus manages a hoarse chuckle, torn on whether he agrees or not. On the one hand, it had been one of the most erotic experiences in his long life and he'd relive it in meticulous detail when he finally got free. But he was still rock hard and throbbing and sure that she was going to leave soon.
Confirming his suspicions she climbs off of him, though he's pleased to note her legs are shaky as she stands from the bed. She bends over, peeling the ruined knickers off, and he moans at the sight of her sex from that angle, bare, swollen and still dripping.
Caroline picks up her discarded skirt and puts it back on, flits to a mirror to smooth her hair and reapply the lipstick she's chewed off of her lips. She reaches into her shirt to get her bra back into place and puts on a necklace and a bracelet she'd left on the dressing table.
She turns back to face him, drinks in the sight for a moment, and Klaus can't help but preen a bit. At least he wouldn't be the only one reliving this interlude.
Caroline clears her throat, "Now, the witch told me the stuff I used on you would weaken an average vampire for about thirty-six hours. I'm guessing, since you're super old and also a werewolf, that it'll burn through your system much faster."
Klaus takes a moment to take stock of his body. He does feel a bit better, the awkward weightiness of his limbs having abated somewhat, "How long has it been?"
"You were out for just about two hours, and I wasn't exactly watching the clock while we were doing," she gestures at the bed he was still bound to, "that. Were you?"
Klaus scoffs and attempts to shock her, "It's a little late to be shy love. You fingered your cunt to climax on top of me while telling me all your naughtiest fantasies."
"Yeah. That. And since you'll be right as rain soon enough it's time for me to go. Do you want me to compel a maid to release you in an hour or so or do you want to wait it out and get yourself free?"
Klaus considers, his current state would be somewhat embarrassing to be found in it's true, but he can always compel the chosen staff member to forget it. And he is a bit hungry so a snack coming to him sounds splendid, "The maid, if you please, sweetheart."
"Alright," she agrees, collects the bag she'd been packing earlier and gives him a little wave, "Bye Klaus. I had a blast, we should do this again sometime," she jokes.
"This isn't over, Caroline."
"I figured," she answers, resigned. "So I guess I should've said see you later."
Klaus is glad they understand one another, "Just one question? Before you go."
Caroline turns, presses her back against the door, and crosses her arms, "Sure. Why not?"
"What was the fourth rule?"
Caroline wrinkles her nose in distaste, "No tattoos. Can you imagine the hideous tramp stamp I'd pick right now? Nothing I'd want to be stuck with for an eternity, that's for sure."
Klaus shakes his head, amused, and settles back into the bed, listening to the click her heels as she exits the room, taking deep breaths to will the arousal still humming in his body away.
He'll find her again, he's sure of it. He just needs to be patient.
More notes: Suggestions on things you'd like to see going forward? The initial plan was to flash forward to Caroline being herself again but I'm tempted to write more smutty cat and mouse adventures. Caroline's super swank outfits can be found on Polyvore (lalainajanes).