A.N: Big thanks to the lovely reviews today! And an ESPECIAL big thanks to the wonderful guest who left me such nice long reviews, whoever you are, you really spurred me to continue! Leave your name next time :D Much love!

Chapter Seven

After Caroline and Klaus managed to resolve their love-hate feelings, Caroline was glad to discover that things were settling back down to normal. For the last several weeks, everything had been going smoothly – there were no awkward comments, stares, or reproachful feelings. Caroline did everything by the books, and was out of the office before Klaus could offer her a lift home.

As much as she hadn't been looking forward to working in the back office with Klaus, she discovered that it wasn't as bad as she had thought. It had its own private elevator, so she never had to wait for it to arrive. The office also had its own kitchenette, so she didn't have to fight over the kettle with Logan Fell, who generally spent most of his office time making coffee in the communal kitchen, and complaining about anyone else who tried to make use of the services. They were either too messy, used too much of the coffee, or they didn't have the decency to put the milk back in the fridge. So it was blissful to be able to just wander into the kitchen without having to face Logan's wrath.

But the thing she enjoyed most about working in the private office was that she had absolutely no distraction. Even though Klaus had originally told her not to accept jobs from other members of the office, it really was easier said than done. The other employees had begun to grow aware of when Klaus was out of office, or at a seminar or a meeting, and used that time to slyly ask Caroline to do little jobs for them. It was her own fault really, as she occasionally did the odd job for Lexi, the other employees thought that she was available to drop everything and do a 'little job'. Only those 'little jobs' often multiplied, and Caroline would find herself struggling to keep up with her own work.

So it was completely heavenly to have no one sidling up to her and dropping random tasks on her desk. She could work her way through whatever Klaus asked her to do, and as a result of this, she was becoming a lot better at her job. Klaus had commented multiple times the last few weeks that she had been blossoming within the company, and Caroline was beginning to hope that a pay rise might be around the corner.

Even though she had sworn to herself that she wouldn't let her confusing feelings for her boss get in the way, she couldn't help but notice that there was a severe lack of dates in his personal planner during the last few weeks. She usually had to make arrangements for Klaus with up to five dates with five different women per week, but his evenings had been pretty clear for a while now, apart from spending the occasional night with one of his brothers. Caroline had rolled her eyes expressively to discover that one evening he had plans with Rebekah, and had only hoped she hadn't come up in conversation that night.

Despite the fact that she was determined to not care about Klaus' personal life, she couldn't help but feel slightly glad, deep down, that he wasn't still entertaining so many random girls each week – but she definitely wasn't going to let on to him that this was the case.

She was eating her lunch in the office and looking at a holiday page on the computer, when Klaus strolled back in after his quick coffee break with Elijah. He immediately wandered over to where she was, and leant over her shoulder.

"The Hamptons, hmm?" he commented. Caroline could see his smirking face in the reflection of the computer, and she privately rolled her eyes.

"Elena and I want to spend the spring shutdown there," she replied to Klaus. The shutdown was the initial spring week at the beginning of March, where most of the staff at the company was given the week off work. There would just be a skeletal staff hanging around, running the show (Caroline had been delighted to discover that Logan would be spending the shutdown period at work). "We must be the only people in New York who haven't been able to get anywhere to stay," she muttered, scrolling through the page mindlessly. She had been looking on this page for a while, and still hadn't managed to find anywhere that was quite cheap, and near to the house where Lexi and the Salvatores would be staying. They were all planning to meet up there and spend the week together, but it would be pretty pointless if they all ended up at opposite ends of the Hamptons.

"What do you mean? I'm sure there's plenty of sharing lodges you can stay in."

Caroline spun around in her chair, and gave Klaus a meaningful look. "Crummy showers and no hot water? Or anywhere to plug in my flat iron – seriously? Do I look like a lodge kind of girl to you?"

Klaus grinned. "Of course not." He wandered over to his desk. "I've never cared much for the Hamptons, personally. I prefer sightseeing over sunbathing. Have you ever been to the Hamptons?"

Caroline continued to scroll through the page. "No. I'd never left Mystic Falls until I came to New York – so you can understand why I would want to stay somewhere where I have access to a hairdryer at all times," she groaned, and shut the page down. "Do you know anywhere we could rent last minute?" she asked him. Klaus, being the big city business man that he was, should surely know something as trivial as holiday homes in the Hamptons.

"I have a house in the Hamptons," Klaus replied. Caroline continued to stare at him, her eyebrows raised. "What?" he added, with a small laugh.

"Bragging really isn't your most attractive look, Klaus," Caroline murmured.

He offered her a lazy smirk. "Oh really? What is my most attractive look?"

Caroline found herself trying to supress a humoured smile, but decided to ignore the flirt. "You just said you don't care for the Hamptons – why on earth would you purchase a house there?"

"My parents own a network of property up there. Along with our fortunes, most of us were given a section of property – mine just happened to be one of their Hampton Manors."

"Manor?" spluttered Caroline, though she didn't know why she sounded so surprised – of course he had a manor in the Hamptons. His prestigious family probably had houses all over the globe. "You were really born with a silver spoon in your mouth, huh?"

Klaus scoffed. "Do you want to spend your week in my Hampton house, or not?"

Caroline blinked at him, her forehead creased. "I would, Klaus. But I can't afford to rent a manor."

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Do you really think I would make you pay?" he replied. "Go to the Hamptons with your friends. I don't expect a penny out of you."

"I'm not staying in your house for free," she muttered.

"Okay, well, you can pay me by...coming out for a drink with me when you get back?" Now it was Caroline's turn to raise an eyebrow. But, before she could remind Klaus about the agreement they had just a handful of weeks earlier, he continued. "Just as friends, of course."

She smiled. "Okay. Just as friends."

After work, Caroline had met Elena at the subway station and they walked to a nearby diner to grab something for dinner. She was ecstatic to tell Elena that she had managed to arrange somewhere for them to stay during spring week – well, somewhere that Klaus had given her for a week.

When she explained the situation to Elena, there was a humoured smile playing on her lips. "Wait, wait, wait – your boyfriend is letting you stay in his fancy Hampton home – for free?"

Caroline kicked her sharply under the table. "Stop calling him my boyfriend! He's my boss!" she hissed. "But yes," she added in a primmer tone. "He is letting us stay in Hampton home, so be grateful."

"I don't know if I want to stay in his house, Caroline. What if he wants something in return?" she wiggled her eyebrows meaningfully as she said this last bit, and Caroline glared at her.

"He's my boss," she repeated. "He's just offering, because I was having so much trouble trying to find somewhere for us to stay while you were busy doing your work experience!" Elena had initially struggled to get a job when they moved to New York, but eventually she'd managed to get a retail job at Macy's. However, her true passion was in journalism, and after practically begging every newspaper for the last two years, the New Yorker had finally allowed her to intern for them. It wasn't really a difficult job – she spent most of her time at the moment running around after the journalists making them coffee, but her senior had promised she could write an article sometime soon. "I promise there's nothing dodgy about this, Elena. All that…weird stuff from before…is completely over. We have a great working relationship, now."

"Well, that's a good thing, because Lexi said that Kol was talking about joining us at the Hamptons, too," Elena replied. During the last several weeks, Caroline had started to invite Elena along to the bar when Lexi invited her out, and as a result she had made friends with everyone, too. "I'm sure he will definitely be up for a weekend by the sea with you."

Caroline rolled her eyes expressively. She hated that Elena was very much Team Kol, despite his previous behaviour. "Nothing is going to happen with Kol," she replied stiffly. "Surely this is the thousandth time I've told you – but whatever we did on that day was completely by accident, and it will never, ever happen again."

Elena didn't respond, instead just laughed at her. "Whatever. Anyway, you need to stop your super busy life during the weekend so we can go shopping. Somehow I think we're going to need new swimwear for the Hamptons!"

Back in Manhattan, Klaus was still in the office. He had allowed Caroline to leave early when she had finished up everything, and he could tell she was itching to tell her friend that she had somewhere for them to stay in the Hamptons.

It was getting to be around seven, but he still wasn't planning on going home yet. Going home meant rattling around that empty apartment alone, and when he did that, he usually ended up calling someone over – and he was trying to abstain from that kind of behaviour. He and Caroline were managing to uphold a great working relationship at the present, and he didn't want to ruin it. Even though she had assured him she wasn't going to take an interest in his private life anymore, he just didn't believe that she could push aside her feelings that way.

So, he had taken Elijah's advice, and admitted his true feelings. He slept with random girls because he was alone. And now, everytime he considered reaching into his black book when he was feeling lonely, he pushed the urge aside, and thought about Caroline.

Because even though he still hadn't quite established his feelings for her, he knew that he didn't want her to act unusual around him like she had previously – or worse, quit her job.

While he was leaning back on his chair, looking over at Caroline's empty desk, Elijah walked through the door. "Evening, Klaus," he greeted, sitting down at Caroline's seat.

"Anything I can do for you, brother?" Klaus muttered, twiddling a pen through his fingers. He could hear Kol lingering outside the door, and he really hoped that Elijah wasn't here to insist they went for another brotherly bonding session.

"Nothing, nothing. I come bearing the yearly invitation from our mother," Elijah reached into his pocket and withdrew a glimmering gold envelope with Klaus' full name printed on the front in neat italics, and dropped it on the desk. Klaus took one look at the envelope and groaned loudly, reaching up to grab his hair in frustration. "Oh, don't be ridiculous, Niklaus," Elijah continued. "You know your presence is necessary."

"No it is not," Klaus hissed back. The envelope was something that Klaus and the rest of his siblings had received annually since they fled the nest, and it held an invitation to the Charity Gala that their mother held at their estate in the Hamptons, every spring. Klaus hated going, partially because he didn't care to be forced to fraternize with all the relatives and old family friends, but mainly because it was the one social event that Esther insisted their father attended.

Klaus had absolutely no desire to interact with his father – who wasn't even actually his father. Klaus' mother had an affair during her marriage to Mikael, and nine months later, Klaus arrived. For his early childhood, Mikael acted the same way to Klaus as he did to the rest of his children – but as soon as Esther confessed her infidelity, Mikael seemed to take it out on Klaus.

Nevertheless, this always meant for uncomfortable conversation at family gatherings. Mikael almost always started an argument with Klaus once he'd had a few drinks.

"Even if I wanted to come along to Mother's wonderful little party, I couldn't," Klaus muttered, shooting Elijah a glare. "You've reminded me a tad too late, brother – I just handed my Hampton home to Caroline for shutdown week."

Unfortunately for Klaus, Elijah looked disinterested. He gave Klaus an impassive stare, and stood up. "If you don't turn up, Mother will be very upset. I suggest you sort something out immediately – you know about this all year, there really isn't any excuse."

As Elijah walked out of the office, Klaus rolled his eyes dramatically. The last thing he wanted to do was attend the Charity Gala – much less be in the Hamptons at all.