The bar was old. Comparatively, for her. Caroline had started to get a feel for age, the weight of time against her skin as she stood in the ancient places of the world. Boston wasn't ancient, but it was old enough. There was history here and it was filled with old blood and laughter.

It was so different than any of her previous stops. She wondered if she'd ever stop being surprised by the places she saw. She hoped not. She freely admitted she traveled with a certain set of expectations, and Boston just wasn't a place she'd thought she'd like. Sitting in an old bar, scarf shoved into her purse, jacket open to let in the heat and joy of this place... she did.

Maybe she'd try to bring Bonnie here. Her lips curved. Rebekah wouldn't see the charm. Her smile dropped, and she tucked her lip between her teeth.

It'd been three months since she called Klaus. It'd been four weeks since she finally escaped Rebekah's clutches. Truthfully, she'd probably still be drinking expensive wine and shopping, had Bonnie not asked for help.

Caroline ran her finger down the side of her glass, absently making patterns in the condensation. It was amazing what twenty years did for confidence and power. Bonnie had come into her own, and Caroline couldn't be happier for her.

"I know you drinking your way through Italy, but think you can spare me a week or so?" Bonnie had asked, her voice muted.

Caroline frowned. She knew her sabbatical from life was partly to blame for that hesitation in her friend's voice, but still. She didn't like it.

"You know I can. What's wrong?"

Bonnie took a moment and then sighed. "I've got some cousins who are less than thrilled that I've been helping vampires. They aren't exactly aware of who I've been helping, the spirits apparently haven't divulged that yet. It's not anything I can't handle, but I'd prefer to deal with it now. And have another pair of eyes on the situation."

"Cousins? Bon, I thought your family tree was... not large. Small-ish."

"Tell me about it." Bonnie huffed. "But apparently, Grams kept a few other things secret. She may not have produced that many children, but others didn't have that issue. Apparently when magic is passed along bloodlines and directed by spirits, they like contingency plans."

"And not a single one of them got off their asses to help you?" Caroline demanded. Hand going to her hip, she growled. "But now they want to be grumpy about your choices?"

Bonnie sighed. "Apparently. How do you feel about Chicago?"

"I'll be there tomorrow."

"Thank you." Bonnie said.

And hadn't that been fun? Caroline relished the burn of her drink as she thought about Chicago. Snorting out a laugh, she caught the bar tenders eye and tapped her glass.

Three days and she'd remembered why she'd loved and hated supernatural politics. And wasn't it so much more fun when the balance of the world or her friends lives weren't hanging so precariously? It made such a difference, to go up against weaker, mortal foes. After Silas, after that drawn out feud with Klaus, bullying some witches had been easy.

God, how'd she missed that. Standing shoulder to shoulder with her best friend, kicking ass. This particular trip might not have been about ripping heads off, but they'd gotten their point across. Bonnie had just laughed when she'd commented on it.

"Care, we've spent years butting heads with the worst of the supernatural world. We killed the first immortal, we forced the Originals into a deadlock... okay, fine; we have earned a little bit of respect from the Originals. Maybe. But a couple of witches? Annoying. Not something we can't handle."

Of course, when Caroline tried asking her friend what she had been doing for Klaus, her friend had refused to elaborate. She supposed she could always ask Klaus. If she ever heard from him.

"Hey, did it hurt?"

Caroline squeezed her eyes shut in a bid for patience. When the thumping pulse next to her did not, in fact, go away she sighed and looked at him. Taller than her, he was dressed nicely. His smile was a touch shy. He smelled like heavy cologne and sweat. If she'd been hungry she might've smiled back, but she honestly was just annoyed.

"Go away."

It wasn't as if she hadn't heard every variation of that particular pick up line. Some men seemed to think themselves especially clever to compare her to an angel. She blamed the curls.

His smile never wavered. "You won't even let me finish?"

Caroline arched both brows. Honest to God, she did not have the patience for this. Putting on her best Miss Mystic Falls smile she leaned close. She listened to his pulse pick up and barely refrained from rolling her eyes. Catching and holding his gaze, she spoke quickly, firmly.

"Go back to your table, finish your drink and go home. And going forward, you're going to treat women with some respect. No woman has to sit and listen to you hit on her. Nor is it her responsibility to pretend to be entertained by harassment. Got it?"

Blankly he nodded. Huffing as he disappeared, she tossed down a few bills and headed for the door. Terrible pick-up lines were so freaking annoying. Sometimes, she really hated Katherine Pierce for sticking her with the face of a teenager.

Moving into an alley, determined to go back to her hotel and order something with chocolate and calories, she froze as a voice cut through the air.

"Personally I would've just taken his heart. While I understand his attraction, that line was terrible."

Turning, she ignored the bite of the fall wind. The dim lighting glinted in his curls, and a heavy leather jacket hugged his wide shoulders. But it was the expression on his face, the look behind his eyes that made her breath catch.

"Klaus."

"Hello, sweetheart."

Caroline arched both brows. "I can't say I expected to see you here."

"Come now, love." Klaus chided as he walked towards her, hands sliding into his jacket pockets. "I got your message. Surely you expected me at some point."

This close, she could smell the faintest bite of cologne, and under that, just him. He was watching her with a faint smirk on his lips, but the heat behind his gaze was scorching.

"I believe I left a number." Caroline said mildly, pushing her curls away from her face.

"One you've changed. I felt the need to be creative."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "That's because it's been months. Besides, your sister has my info."

"But this is better," he drawled as he stepped close to her. "Phones can be so impersonal, if convenient. Although we both could have done without the little bar scene."

She rolled her eyes. "Please. I've heard your lines, they aren't much better. And you can't kill all the idiots. Who would you eat?"

His smile was slow. "You'd be amazed. Let me buy you a drink."

Caroline paused, considering him. His expression was slightly guarded, but the edges of his smile were playful. Before Berlin, it'd been twenty years since she'd seen him. More importantly, she'd missed him.

"You may buy me one." Caroline said finally. "But I hope you have somewhere else in mind. Wherever you are staying doesn't count."

"A challenge." He murmured, smile widening. "I know just the place."

The bar was tucked away, more of a dive than anything. She rolled her eyes, pretended to be annoyed when he compelled them seats at one of the booths. She had to bite down hard on that smile when he leaned over and grinned at her. There was a lightness in his expression, an outward indulgence she hadn't seen since before he'd killed his hybrids.

"They're known for their fries, sweetheart."

She blamed Rebekah for sharing her fry habit. She didn't want to think that he'd noticed all those years ago. That'd her paid that kind of attention then.

"Thanks. Maybe I'll try them."

Her fingers plucked the drink menu from the table and she ignored the weight of his gaze. To give him credit, he held his tongue until they'd both ordered. Then he watched her demolish her fries, keeping a light, careful stream of conversation between them. It always surprised her, how good he was at small talk, when he chose to be.

She'd once accused him of not being able to connect, of not understanding people. She'd been both wrong and right. Klaus didn't make personal connections. But he knew how to foster them, how to skim the surface and dig around for shallow truths; how to entertain.

It was those rare occasions that he chose to dig down into the depths of someone that you had to worry. When he used words to hunt, to stalk slowly those who didn't even realize they were prey. Klaus was here for a reason. Only idiots thought he didn't have a million plans going on at any given time. The reason for tonight might have been her, but there were others.

There were always others.

So she let him entertain her, smiled at him people watching and let him skim along her surface. Pretended not to notice his gaze as she licked salt from her fingertips and rolled her eyes at his threats to the frat boys who stared too long.

And waited.

"How was Italy?"

"I thought I shopped a lot," Caroline laughed. "Rebekah killed that notion."

"She's had more time to decide what she likes." He shrugged. "You'll get there."

She made a face. "You know, I hear that a lot. 'You'll understand when you're older, Caroline. Just wait until a hundred years from now, Caroline.' Seriously, it's like revisiting my childhood."

Klaus shrugged. "In vampire terms, that isn't inaccurate."

She pointed a fry at him. "Shut up."

A flickering smile, then his expression turned serious. "Why did you call?"

Caroline blinked at him and finished the last of her fries. They really were good. "What? I thought my message was pretty self-explanatory."

"Come now, love. We both know it's never that simple between us." Klaus chided. He somehow managed an air of indifference, but his eyes were calculating. Searching.

"Particularly since previous circumstances aside, you've never seemed particularly receptive to my presence."

"Why?" She tilted her head, considering. She shrugged. "Why not?"

He leaned forward, a faintly mocking expression on his face. "Now, now sweetheart. No games tonight."

"That's rich. And who says I'm playing one?" She retorted. "What do you want me to say? I don't regret leaving."

Although she thought about his offer, during some of the hardest nights. The careless, casual way he'd offered her his home. As if it was the first, the only option he could make. His life, his home. Hers if she'd just take them.

And everything that included.

His smile was sharp, edged in something she couldn't read. "I hardly expected you to. Grief does terrible things to vampires."

"Yes." She agreed, blinking to hide her expression. Maybe someday she'd talk about those first months. But not here. Not now. Not when he watched her with challenge in his gaze. When he hunted with words and eyes. Tonight wasn't about vulnerability.

"But I called... however not on purpose, and you dropped everything. To help me." She felt out her words, slowly giving voice to what had been bouncing in her head for weeks. Fumbled with them. "I thought you'd want to know that I was okay."

Wasn't that inadequate? Rebekah had been unnecessarily detailed in describing how Klaus had reacted to her disappearance. Caroline was fairly certain it was the only time that he hadn't known exactly what she was doing. He was such a paranoid bastard. She didn't like it, didn't agree with his brand of stalking, but she acknowledged the motivations behind it.

Hadn't she been the one to tell him he was in love with her? She was many things, but she tried to avoid being a hypocrite. Having your heart out in the world, away from you was hard. She could only imagine what it meant to a thousand year old vampire.

She felt a little clumsy, suddenly uncertain. It was one thing to know he was dangerous, but the years had muted her memory of what that focused intensity felt like. But it was different, now that she let herself believe that when he'd told her he wanted to be her last love, he'd meant it. Or maybe she was just really seeing it for the first time.

She was unexpectedly rattled.

"Ah. Well then, sweetheart." His eyes went a little flat. "I suppose that a return call would've sufficed after all."

That hit her in her gut. The way he pulled back, the dismissal in his voice. Surprised at the hurt from the verbal swipe, she covered it with anger. "I suppose so."

A polite turn of his lips that was so at odds with his eyes. The jumping of a muscle in his jaw. "I suppose I should be thankful you at least thought to call, then. Next time, feel free to pass your notes through Rebekah."

You know what? She wasn't doing this. Wasn't going to turn this into a sparring match. He said didn't get to swipe at her to see if she bled. She pasted in her own best smile, watched his eyes narrow.

She'd reached out. Had gathered the pieces of herself and tentatively opened up. He'd shown up to see what it meant. Now he was pissy, because she didn't answer in the way he wanted. Well, he could go fuck himself.

"I'm not doing this with you, Klaus. You don't get to show up months later and take swipes at me. I'm not apologizing for leaving. I'm not apologizing for disappearing. I called you so you'd know I was okay, because God knows you're a paranoid ass and I thought..."

She stopped, and shook her head. No. Purse firmly in hand, she shoved out of the booth and pushed through the crowd. The fact that he let her go - that they both knew he could have stopped her and didn't, pissed her off even more. Seeing a side exit, she hit the cold air and took one bracing breath before marching away from the bar.

Forget it. She hated Boston. She clacked down the alley, furious with him and herself. Why did they always do this? Barbed words and hurt feelings. Stupid, paranoid asshole hybrids.

"Caroline."

She refused to run. But she wasn't stopping either. She was three feet from the entrance to the alley when his hands caught her shoulders and spun her into brick. His hands were rough, his expression furious, but she barely felt the impact.

Not that it mattered. Manhandling was not allowed. Ancient asshole or not.

"What is your problem?" Caroline demanded, shoving at his chest. "You don't get to take whatever bunched your goddamn hybrid panties out on me! Excuse me for trying to open some kind of dialogue between us, for not answering your questions correctly; you're such an asshole! This is why I..."

His mouth pressed against hers, blunt human teeth biting hard enough to sting. She gasped and he sucked on the hurt, tongue stroking her lip before he pulled back. His arms caged her in, the brick cold at her back, but she hardly noticed.

"Caroline," he growled.

Her insides felt too hot. Her lip burned. Shaking her head, she jabbed him in the chest.

"No! You do not get to snarl at me. I swear to God, I'll never try to be nice again. It clearly doesn't get me anywhere but manhandled. You can just go back to your creepy, hybrid-stalking-self and I'll be sure to let Rebekah know that she's been elected to be my momager again. I'm sure she'll be thrilled."

She pushed at him again and he refused to budge. Snarling, she bared her human teeth. "Move."

"No."

Her eyes narrowed. "I swear to God, I will make you regret it if you don't let me go."

He laughed, the sound making her already furious temper go incandescent.

"Should I tell you what I did to the boy who killed your mother?"

Caroline froze, angry words dying on her lips. The sudden, abrupt change in topic threw her as much as his question. The edges of his mouth were curled into that familiar, mocking smile. But his eyes were filled with fire and iron.

"Of the way he suffered during those handful of days he survived? How he killed those he loved, the torture he experienced at my hands?" Klaus leaned forward, pausing a hairs breadth from her mouth.

Her skin itched, her monster near the surface. This close and the heat of him pressed against her cold skin. She hadn't been this warm, this pissed in years. That he was pushing into her space and cataloging his sins should've pissed her off even more.

She wanted to fist her hands in his curls and kiss him until he begged.

"It's an art, Caroline, to break a mind. Too fast, and they shatter. To slow and madness sets in. But weaving a fissure of a crack, forcing someone to maintain awareness and sanity until a single push breaks them apart? That's a rare talent."

He moved his head, the scruff of his beard barely brushing her cheek as he leaned close. He took an unnecessary breath, and it ghosted in a hot exhale across the ridge of her ear. Awareness prickled down her spine like fingers.

"Shall I tell you about the compulsions I layered in Damon Salvatore's mind? The spider's weave of suggestions, orders and deep-rooted paranoia that eats at his soul? Each moment he wants Elena, each time he denies her, how he has to live with the knowledge that he'd had her, that he could still have her if only he'd the will to fight what I buried in his soul?"

Caroline swallowed and watched him pull back. His eyes had lost none of their hardness, but they were hooded now. The fire that burned him from the inside banked to coals. Slowly his hand lifted, thumb ghosting across the faintest of veins under her eyes.

Emotions she couldn't process where piling in her chests. He'd killed her mother's murderer. Slowly. When her friends had hidden his name, buried his file and refused to give her answers.

He'd clearly done something to Damon.

His touch was setting her skin on fire. Taking in an unsteady breath, she swallowed. Hard.

"I won't be an excuse for you." She told him. Her voice was steady, but softer than she wanted. "You've no reason to hurt Damon."

His smile was sudden, a boyish thing that caught her in her chest. "Oh, sweetheart. That's where you're wrong."

He dragged a line down her cheek, stroking up behind her ear. His touch was careful, like he was trying to absorb her through his fingertips. Awareness was making her hypersensitive and she caught the inside of her lip in her teeth.

"Let's say for a moment he hadn't called you and nearly left you broken and alone in Berlin. That you never called me because of one of my sister's whims."

The sudden, incandescent rage on his face stunned her. She blinked at him, at the way his body suddenly pressed against her, crowding her into the wall.

"Do you think I've forgotten Kol?" His smile was mocking, his touch gentle. "That something as easy as death would claim any of them?"

There was no mercy in him, nothing giving then. This was Klaus. The thousand year hybrid. The monster that haunted the supernatural. She didn't know if she was horrified or aroused by his words, the truths that lay behind his eyes. Maybe both. He'd always been her temptation. He was the first - the only - to put her first. He wasn't selfless, but he considered her.

She lifted her chin. She would not be bullied by this man. She'd never allowed that. Regardless of the tangle of emotions and physical attraction between them.

"Elena is mine."

They weren't friends. Not really, not anymore. But they had lifetimes to find their friendship again. And Caroline would never forget the girl who'd been her friend. Elena who slept squished up against her side in matching sleeping bags, the girl who snored like a drunk sailor and who cried on her shoulder when she lost her parents.

"Bonnie is mine."

He could take whatever revenge he'd cooked up for her witchy best friend and shove it. He wasn't allowed to hurt her. Neither of them.

"But not Damon." Klaus whispered, fingers pressing against her skin. "You don't claim him anymore, the way you no longer claim Tyler."

Caroline went still. She didn't move, didn't retreat an inch, but his eyes told her he knew. He didn't have details. No one had details - not her mom, not Stefan, not even Elena - but he knew something. Knew that something had happened between her and Damon. Klaus understood what it took to push her to let someone go. Somehow, he'd figured out that she'd only ever protected Damon for Elena.

Whatever it was, he'd carved what he did know into Damon's skin. And not just him. Hadn't Rebekah casually mentioned something similar? That she'd 'cleaned up her mess?'"

"No arguments, love? No denials?" His mouth curled. "No requests for mercy?"

"My history with Damon isn't any of your business." She snapped, reeling. He'd tortured Damon. He was right, when he said he had several reasons for hurting Damon. She'd always known he'd react badly to finding out, but to just suspect and to react…

"Damon is important to Elena." She swallowed and lifted her chin. "I meant it. I'm not an excuse, Klaus."

His smile made her gut clench. "You're important to me. Ask me to let him go."

Caroline's eyes widened.

He traced her cheekbone, his eyes taking in each line of her face. "Tell me what he did to you was nothing, that he didn't hurt you. Go on, Caroline. Tell me. Ask me."

The words caught in her throat. She wanted to say them. Once, she'd have lied. Once, she'd had pushed aside her own feelings and done what was right for everyone else.

No more lies. Either to him or herself. Swallowing, she shook her head. She couldn't say those words. She hadn't thought them in years.

"No?" The blue of his eyes was scorching. "One day, you'll tell me. All of it."

The imperious tone, the arrogance - she frowned at him. "Not everything is about you."

"That's where you're wrong, love." He brushed the pad of a finger across her lips. "You'll find everything is about me. Haven't you already seen it? Tell me, how have your travels been? Did you enjoy the vampire culture you found? Enlightening, isn't it? My family might be rumor, the nightmares in dark, but we're an impressive one."

Caroline arched a brow. Ignored his baiting her. "My life does not revolve around you."

"Why not?" He questioned. His eyes had lightened, turned teasing. Her cheeks threatened to flush at the heat there.

"Are you serious right now?"

His lips curled. "Of course."

"You're unbelievable." She growled to cover her urge to smile back. To roll her eyes at his ridiculousness. She pushed on his chest. "I think you should go."

Go before she gave in and bit at those lips. Before she slammed him into the wall and took that mouth, clutched at those curls and sated the need to remember what it was like to burn up in his arms.

"No."

"Klaus." She sank steel into her tone.

"Will you run, then?" He asked, tugging on a curl. "Will we continue this game for another few decades, a century? You called me, sweetheart. Here I am."

"You're such an ass." She huffed, glaring at his refusal to let her phone call drop. To keep nudging, to find the bits and pieces of her truth. Distracting her with his fingertips.

"Here's a bit of advice, love." Klaus told her. "I'm not like your other lovers. I've given you space, I've waited for you to come to me. But not even for you is my patience infinite. What do you want, Caroline?"

Caroline realized somehow they'd hit a crossroad. Decades earlier than she'd wanted. She could tell him she wanted space - next time, call me back. Don't chase me. I'll find you later. Or she could let him in. See what he'd do with it. See where it lead.

He's face told her he'd wait. But she'd hurt him, if she rejected him now. He'd come to her twice. Once in Berlin. Now to Boston. He'd watched for cracks in her armor and pushed. If she didn't care, if he hadn't wiggled past enough of her defenses, he'd watch her walk away. He'd bloody Boston for it, would stalk other horrors... but he'd let her go.

Except he had gotten past her defenses years ago. The armor around her heart was thin. She wasn't quite ready. But what did she want?

"I'm figuring that out." She said the words slowly, carefully. His expression flickered, but he didn't move, didn't flinch away from her.

"Why'd you call me sweetheart? The real reason."

Stubborn ass.

"You took me home. You let me think. I..." She licked her lips, ignored the way his eyes followed the motion. "I was sitting in on a beach in Bali. I'd talked to Bonnie. To Rebekah. I... I found that I was still lonely. I wanted to hear your voice."

His eyes closed for a moment, and when his lashes lifted his expression was determined. Cupping her face carefully, he gaze burned along her skin as he watched her.

"You must be very certain, Caroline. You've only the faintest of ideas of what I am capable of. You cannot comprehend, cannot imagine what I am willing and cable of doing."

She scowled, opened her mouth to argue and he shook his head. "That's not an admonishment, love. Simply fact. There are just some horrors you haven't lived through."

"Now you want to warn me?" Caroline demanded. "Scare me off?"

"No. Just making a point. There are no sins I've not relished, no crime I have not committed, and no lengths I am unwilling to go. Whatever choices you make, whatever you become - you need not fear that I'll walk away. But once I have you, I cannot promise that I'll let you go, either."

For a moment she let her control slip. Let her teeth show. His grip tightened on her face, his eyes drank in the black veins and eyes. She watched his pupils dilate and lips part. She realized he found this part of her attractive, and heat flushed through her.

He breathed deep, eyes lightening to pale yellow. "I want you to choose me. All of me. The parts you hate, the parts that drag at your darkest desires, the parts you unwillingly admire. All of it."

"So sure of yourself." Caroline said. She hid her teeth, pushed back her shadows. "So certain it's just a matter of acceptance."

Klaus smiled slowly. "We'll fight. We'll argue, I'll disappoint you and I'll assuredly disgust you. But I won't give up on this. Has anyone offered you more?"

She looked at him. Considered the planes of his face. The ageless, old eyes that watched her and waited for a sign of weakness. Bone-deep terror, horror, disgust, tenderness, affection and a blinding pleasure that still haunted her. She'd experienced all of it at his hands. Watched his eyes reflect it all back at her.

Yet, here he was. Waiting. Hunting with words and careful, honest truths that sugar-coated none of who he was. Tyler, Damon, her mother's unnamed killer. They stained hands that carried older sins without care. Hands that wanted to clutch, hold and trace the lines of her. His sins weren't her weight to carry. But could she accept them? Could she let herself love this terrible creature who wanted her with the endless patience of the wolf?

Love rotted under the kind of pressure in her future. But it could also flourish. He was right. Nothing about this was easy. But easy had been for human Caroline. Vampire Caroline had teeth.

Caroline reached up and touched his face, fingers sliding against his scruff. "Prove it."

He arched a brow, dimples creasing against her fingertips. "Oh? Have I not done so? Waiting for you these years, keeping you and yours safe? Keeping my word, regardless of the personal cost? What else would you ask of me?"

She tossed her hair. "Please. Two decades is hardly waiting, when you're old as dirt. And it played to your favor, letting me go. And I'm not sure I've forgiven you for the arrogance in the thought that I'd just show up on your door, and ask to be shown the world. I don't need you for that. I never have."

His smile disappeared. Eyes turned to iron as his face hardened. "Is that so?"

She shrugged one shoulder, looking at him through her lashes. She let the faintest of smiles curve her lips.

"Of course. I don't need you at all." She softened her words with her fingertips, following the path along his cheekbone. Brushing the corner of his lips. "But if you're smart about it, I might decide I want you."

He closed his eyes, still and silent. She waited. When he finally spoke, his voice was low. Warning.

"Be very certain, Caroline." He repeated. "Once you throw down this gauntlet, there is no retreating."

"Afraid?" She challenged softly. "You want me to accept everything, then show it to me."

His eyes opened and threatened to burn her to ash. Long fingers tangled in her curls, arching her neck as his mouth caught hers. His kiss was hot and a touch rough as he sank into her mouth like a starving man. He took and gave, and she let him. She felt like she was burning up when he pulled back.

"You won't always like it." He warned, eyes wild. He cupped her jaw between his hands. "Because I'll demand the same from you. I'll dig through all your weak points, I'll cut you open until we both bleed. I'm selfish. I want all of you."

She lifted her chin. She understood being cut open. Making others bleed, the selfish fingers that clawed and gripped as you struggled to hold on. Love, the kind that sat in your chest like a knot and tangled deep in your veins, it was sharp. It cut even as it healed, it could destroy as easily as it created.

Caroline licked her lips. "I won't accept less than what you're demanding. Can you live with that?"

"Oh, sweetheart. I'll claim, and lay siege. I'll beguile and charm." His eyes burned. "I'll destroy anything that lies in my path. We'll scar each other, leave marks below the skin. But it'll be a glorious burn."

"So sure." She said softly, brows bunched as she watched him. "So certain."

"I've built and broken civilizations. I'm king." He chased her fingers with his lips. "What is such a man without hope?"

She rolled her eyes, deflecting from the emotional tangle in her chest. "Seriously?"

He bit her fingertip. Licked it. She sucked in a breath, heat flushing through her.

"Oh, sweetheart. You have no idea."

Clearing her throat, she lowered her hand. "So can you handle that?"

"Can you?" He murmured.

"I suppose we will find out." Sliding her bag back to her shoulder, she glanced at him once more between her lashes. "I'll see you later, then."

His lips curled, challenge turning his eyes dark. Because she knew that look, had tasted that expression on her tongue, she stepped around him before she did something insane. His low, wicked voice followed her down the stairs.

"Of that, you can be certain, love. I'll see you very soon."