The next few days were a delightful blur of sun and sand. I swam, read, sipped fruity drinks and slept until my heart's content. For a vampire, I sure seemed to be fueled by the sun. We stayed on the beach for hours everyday, except when we were sleeping. It was the height of luxury as far as I was concerned. I couldn't really tell with Stefan. Was he happy? Was he bored? All that matter was that he didn't seem to be thinking about home anymore. Our days were fun and light.

Then there were the nights. Warm and salty. Strolling hand-in-hand with Stefan through the shallow breakers and along the city streets. Seeing bands, movies, fireworks. Eating dinner on a rooftop restaurant with a perfect view of the crashing waves. But my favorite thing was just sitting on our balcony, drinking beer and talking. We talked for hours every night. He had hundreds of years of history on me, and yet I somehow always had more to say. On the fourth night, I fell asleep in one of the comfy outside chairs. I woke up only slightly as Stefan carried me to my bed.

"My hero," I mumbled with a smile in my voice.

I felt his chuckle vibrate through his strong chest where it was pressed against me. He placed me in bed as easily as if I weighed nothing and covered me with a thin blanket. I absently reached for him as he walked away but he never even saw. That was probably for the best.

The next night, I convinced him to take me dancing. And boy did it take some convincing!

"I just don't think it's the best idea," he said for probably the fourth time, pouring us both a cup of coffee.

"Why not?" I whined, twisting my hair into a bun and packing a bag for the beach.

"Because," he explained, handing me my coffee and perching on a stool at the table, "Environments like that tend to...rile up the Ripper." He said it so casually, as if that didn't mean anything serious. But at this point in our lives, we had to laugh or we'd cry.

I tossed a book into my bag and straightened up to look at him. "Are you forgetting who I am?" I said, hands on hips.

His eyebrows arched.

"I'm your sober sponsor!" I said, excitedly! "So if there is ANYONE you should go clubbing with...it's this gal." I pointed to myself with two thumbs.

I watched him rolling the decision around in his mind before he finally gave a defeated shrug and stood up to walk in front of me.

"Sure," he sighed, "I'd love to go dancing with you, Miss Caroline Forbes." He grabbed my hand and gave me a little twirl.

I giggled. "I'm not sure we're talking about the same kind of dancing, Stefan", I laughed as he dipped me and then pulled me back to my feet. The look of concern on his face gave me another fit of giggles.

After a long, hot day on the beach, an epic nap and a luxuriously long shower, I felt like dancing the night away. I straightened my hair and then curled the ends, stained my lips red and then shimmied into a little white number and red heels. I gave myself a good, long look in the mirror. I just wanted to be all boobs and legs and bouncy blonde hair tonight. Just for fun. I nodded at my reflection in approval and walked out to retrieve my date.

He was walking out of his bedroom, fiddling with his navy blue tie.

"Hey, are you sure this looks okay?" he asked, still looking down at his tie. I had picked it out for him. A plaid dress shirt, solid blue tie, jeans and his normal boots. "I feel a little...weird." He admitted, straightening his shirt sleeves.

I looked him up and down and didn't see anything wrong. In fact, it all looked very, very right. His clothes hugged him in all the right places, the green stripes in his shirt brought out his eyes. He finally looked up at me and the humor left his eyes.

He made helpless gestures with his hands as if to indicate his speechlessness, "Wow...you look...Caroline...you're beautiful," he said, simply, honestly. I blushed furiously and covered my cheeks with my hands.

"Stefan! You're embarrassing me!" I said, tossing my red vinyl clutch at him. He deflected it and smiled.

He picked it up for me and held out his arm for me to take. With my 4 inch heels, we were nearly the same height and I enjoyed it. I looped my arm through his, enjoying his warmth and the smell of his cologne. It smelled like suited Stefan, like high school dances and Founders Balls. It smelled like dancing and being in Stefan's arms.

We walked to the club since it was only a few blocks away. I tied my hair around itself to keep the wind from whipping it around my face. Stefan pulled us along with his wide stride and we were there in no time. I compelled the bouncer to let us in and the bartender to give us free drinks.

Stefan was smirking at me as I walked back up to him with a whiskey for him and an amaretto sour for me.

"What?" I asked, innocently.

He smiled and shrugged.

"Oh, come on," I said, nudging him with my shoulder, "What's the point of being a vampire if you can't have a little good, clean fun?"

Stefan accepted his drink and my wink with a smile and a sigh.

After a long chat and a few drinks, I was definitely itching to dance. I stood on my tall heels and extended my hand to Stefan. He politely declined, as I expected he would. I shrugged and made my way to the dance floor. He would come around eventually. I found that I had a gift of persuasion when it came to Stefan Salvatore. My hips found the rhythm and soon I was lost in the movement of my own body. I imagined the eyes on me. I refused to look at Stefan to see if he was watching me. Either way, I just...didn't want to know. Soon, I felt body heat behind me and could immediately tell that it wasn't him. Some nameless body. I allowed him to dance against me. I could feel his blood coursing through his veins and followed it through mentally as it sped up. I was suddenly starving.

I turned to face my unrequested dance partner and smiled seductively. The young brunette grinned like the cat that caught the canary. I held back an eyeroll. Little did he know. I knew that I probably shouldn't. If Stefan saw, it might give him bad ideas. But this guy's blood was pounding through his body, calling out to me. I had to have a sip. Making sure that Stefan wasn't watching, I grabbed the boy and sped him to an empty corner of the club.

I caught his eyes with mine. "Don't scream." I compelled him, immediately sinking my fangs into his neck. I pulled two good drinks out, compelled him to forget and released him. I licked my lips and relished the warmth of the blood spreading through me. I checked the mirror to make sure I hadn't gotten blood on my white dress, popped a mint in my mouth and freshened up my red lipstick.

When I walked back to the tables, Stefan was gone. I looked around for him, walking through the crowded dance floor. I never expected to actually find him there. Pressed up against a tall girl with orange hair. He was whispering in her ear. I strained to hear what he was saying, but even with vamp hearing, I wasn't able to make it out amidst the blaring music and chatter. This wasn't like Stefan, to say the least, and something didn't feel right to me. I was trying to keep my eyes on Stefan and his mystery redhead, my eyes narrowing involuntarily as he reached out to press a hand against her flat stomach as she danced in front of him. I was startled out of my spying by someone bumping into me absentmindedly.

When I looked back up, Stefan and the girl were gone.

"Oh God," I mouthed, searching for them frantically.

I closed my eyes and focused. I searched past all of the music and voices and was able to single out a panicked female voice. They were in the women's bathroom. Before I could get to them, Stefan was already feeding on her. I pulled him away and his eyes and fangs flashed at me in warning.

"Stop it, Stefan!" I screamed, pulling him off of her once again. I listened for her pulse. It was faint, but it was there.

He jerked away from my touch, "Why would I stop? YOU did it." he spat accusingly, going back for his victim. He had seen me feeding. This was kinda my fault.

In an absolute panic, I grabbed a beer bottle from the sink next to us, broke it against the porcelain and buried it into my best friend's stomach.

I bit my wrist and forced it into the mouth of the now-slumping girl that Stefan had chosen to make into his midnight buffet. She came to and drank enough to heal the bite on her neck. I compelled her and sent her on her way and she was almost out the door when Stefan came to.

He was trying to go after her again.

"Stop, dammit." I said, pushing him back.

His eyes flashed at me and his chest heaved.

"Just stop." I repeated, more calmly.

"I can't, Caroline. Don't you think I would if I could?" he admitted, holding his head in agony.

"Yes, you can." I told him, reaching out to grab his shoulders.

His eyes caught my blood stained wrist and I watched his face vein slightly. I glanced down at my own wrist and a thought crossed my mind. I don't know why I did what I did next. Maybe it was the adrenaline making me not think clearly. Or the human blood flowing through my own veins. Or just because I felt like he could use a good distraction. But for whatever reason, I decided to tease the Ripper.

"What? This?" I said, holding my wrist to his face before nipping it with my fangs. "You like this?" I licked my own blood from my wrist and smiled at him.

His fangs shot out in an instant and he had me pushed up against the wall before I even realized what was happening. The breath left my lungs in a grunt as we hit the wall together.

"Are you offering?" he whispered into my hair. His warm breath tickling me and making knots in my stomach at the same time.

"What? Suddenly you need an invitation first?" I said with an exhausted laugh, gesturing in the direction of his most recent victim who had rejoined her friends with no memory of what had just happened to her.

"From you, I do," he said, sincerely, nuzzling his nose against my neck and hair and pushing his entire body against me.

"You know what blood-sharin-" he started.

"Yes, I know what it means, Stefan," I cut him off abruptly. "But I think you just need to get this out of your system." It sounded practical, whether my motives were honest or not. "It doesn't have to mean anything else right now."

He lowered his head, trying to make sense out of what I was saying through the obvious fog in his head.

It seemed like Stefan was back though. And somehow, that made this entire situation feel more dangerous than when the Ripper was here. I'd like to say that I thought long and hard about what I did next. But I didn't. I acted purely on what I thought I wanted in that moment. I looked Stefan right in the eyes and leaned my head to the side, displaying my white neck to him. He hummed in pleasure at the simple act of my offering myself to him in this way. His left hand which had been bracing himself against the wall above my head, slid down the wall, caressed my cheek and then settled on my waist. His right hand came up from his side to brush the hair off of my neck. His fingertips danced across the blue veins there while his eyes traveled from the milky white skin of my neck to meet my own.

He gave me another split second to change my mind when he lowered his head down to my neck and softly kissed the skin there. I purred softly at the contact. That did it. His left arm tightened around my waist, pulling me impossibly closer to him as his fangs sunk into my neck. I gasped at the sudden sting of pain. He pulled the blood from my body and I could feel it all over me. Desire swirled in my middle as I melted in his arms. I threaded my fingers through his hair, holding his mouth to me. I was so dizzy, but I didn't care. I closed my eyes and focused on the tingly that danced all through my body. I just wanted to keep feeling this forever. A little moan slipped from between my lips and Stefan responded by rubbing his impossibly hard body against mine. He slipped a muscular thigh between my legs and I pushed myself against it. I had lost all reasoning. He couldn't kill me. Could he?

And just as the thought crossed my mind, it seemed to have also crossed Stefan's. He threw himself off of me and fell back against the wall of the stall behind us. My eyes flew open as I became aware of his absence. I caught myself before I fell, the person holding me up now feet away. Instinctively, I moved toward him, desperate to keep feeling the things that he was making me feel. He stepped away before I could reach him.

"Caroline..." he said, warning his voice. My blood was dripping from his mouth even though my neck had already healed.

"It's okay, Stefan," I said, reassuringly, keeping my voice perfectly calm in hopes that he wouldn't freak out. "I'm fine, see," I showed him my healed neck.

"I was hurting you," he said, horrified and continued to step away from my touch.

I laughed. Is that really what he thought? He arched his eyebrow at my unusual reaction.

"No, you weren't. I promise. I asked you to do this, remember? Does your guilt know no end?" I asked him in gentle frustration.

He thought for a moment..."That girl...I was about to..."

"But you didn't!" I interrupted. "You didn't. She's fine."

"Because of you" he said, gratefully. "Thank you. Thank you for...everything." He gestured awkwardly to the dried blood on my neck.

"Don't mention it," I said, suddenly deciding to pretend that I didn't enjoy it as much as he did. "You just owe me a new dress."

We both looked at my blood-stained dress. "Uh..sorry about that." he said, again, needlessly embarrassed.

I smiled warmly at him and held out my hand. Finally, he stopped moving away and reached toward me. He wrapped his arms around me and sped us out of the club unnoticed. Suddenly, we were standing on the sand in the pouring rain. I laughed in shock as the cold water hit my skin.

"What are you doing?!" I asked him, being showered by the summer rain.

"Cleaning your dress for you," He joked, looking down as the blood did nothing except further stain my dress.

"Do me a favor and never do my laundry, Stefan," I said, giving in and just letting the water wash away the evidence of the night as best as it could. Although it would take more than a rain shower to erase what had just happened. Just the thought of it brought back a shadow of the feelings and made me shiver. I hoped that I could disguise my shiver of desire as one of being in the cold rain.

Even with my eyes closed, I knew he was watching me.

"I thought it never rained on a Caroline Forbes beach trip?" he said, nudging his elbow against mine.

I turned my head and looked into his playful green eyes. "Only when I want it to."

We both smiled at each other then and stood with our feet in the sand, our fingers laced together until the rain stopped.