"So where are you two coming so late in the evening?"

"Oh, dear brother, she's impossible. First she wanted to spa, then they went for an early dinner that took so long as they decided to have some cocktails after. You know how women are."

"She's not allowed to drink alcoholic drinks unless she's out with me."

"Really? Sorry, I didn't know that." Klaus glared at Caroline who just shrugged it away.

"Next time, brother."

Caroline excused herself and let the brothers talk business.

The next day Klaus had to go somewhere with Elijah for the most of the day and she was ordered to stay in the confines of the apartment.

So she spent the day rearranging her wardrobe and continuing to read the novel she had started the other day.

Suddenly early in the evening she was let known that a courier was coming up with a package.

"Hello, Mrs Mikaelson, package for you. Please sign."

"For me or my husband?" She muttered but then found an envelope that had her name on it.

"Thank you. And have a lovely evening" Caroline thanked the courier and went to put it on the table in the living room. The card inside read,

Caroline,

Please wear this tonight.

She opened the box and it had in it a black strapless cocktail dress from Dior's latest collection that wasn't even on sale yet

It was very pretty and exactly her size, but still… 'What the hell?'

And as is if on cue, Elijah texted her that there was to be 'a very important' cocktail party that night that they all had to attend, her included. He told her to wear something dashing as it was a really important party.

Meaning Elijah needed some male to drool over her again.

"Great," she muttered to herself.

But the dress was obviously from Klaus, so where was he going with this?

About 6 pm, the brothers returned and seeing that she was already getting ready, Elijah only said to her that they were leaving 7:30 pm.

When she was dressed and ready, her hair put up so her bare shoulders and cleavage was more at display, she went to join the brothers who waited for her at the elevator. The way Klaus looked at her, told her that she looked very good tonight cause even her husband stared at her for a few seconds longer than usually.

"You look absolutely 'dashing' tonight, Caroline," Klaus said and winked at her.

'Wait, what is going on? Did Klaus actually send out that text to her?'

They used the limo again.

"So what is it with this sudden party? Why is it so important and who am I suppose to impress?" Caroline asked them.

Elijah and Klaus looked at each other and then Elijah started, "The human faction chose a new leader and he's very new to the New York high society and the supernatural community. And to keep the peace between factions, he wants to impress us, throwing this party for us, and we need to do the same. It's just politics, honey."

'Something you know nothing about´ he wanted to say in the end she thought.

Klaus told her how it was straight away, "Meaning my brother wants him to like you so he would be easier to control if any problems should arise between them."

"Yes, If needed you have to spend a little time with him."

"Great," she muttered.

Then they reached the deputy mayor's mansion and the limo stopped in front of it. When the brothers got out, it was Klaus who gave her his hand to help her out. They went in with Caroline in the middle, holding on to both of the brothers.

And they were right away met with the deputy mayor who was the new leader of the human faction. He was quite old, probably in his sixties already.

"Mr Elijah Mikaelson, I presume? I'm Alan Walker. Welcome to my home." The deputy mayor welcomed them.

"Yes, this is my brother Niklaus and here is my lovely wife Caroline Mikaelson."

"Nice to meet you, Mr Walker." Niklaus said as they shook hands.

"Call me Alan, please."

And then he turned to Caroline and with lustful eyes he checked her out before Caroline smiled and said, "Nice to meet you too, Mr W- I mean Alan. I have heard so much about you."

"Nothing bad, I hope?" The way he stared at her having a hard time keeping eye contact made her very uneasy. I was worse than usually.

"Of course not," Caroline smiled her best Caroline Forbes smile.

"Okay, so enjoy the party, I have to go meet the other guests. It was so nice to meet you all, especially you Mrs Mikaelson." He winked at her.

'He actually winked at me?' Caroline thought in bewilderment.

"Good, good, nicely done, Caroline," Elijah commented while smiling smugly.

Sometimes her husband really disgusted her. And Klaus seemed not jealous, just a little uneasy too.

All Caroline could muster was, "Ugh," and left to take a champagne glass from the nearby table.

He thought that the brothers wouldn't leave her alone for long but she suddenly saw that Elijah was occupied with talking someone and Klaus was in the company of a pretty brunette. She couldn't help but watch as the girl basically threw herself at him and Klaus didn't seem to mind. He whispered something in her ear and she giggled.

'He's clearly trying to make me jealous and damn it, it is working.'

She knew the feeling really well and she couldn't believe that Klaus was flirting with someone in front of her like that. Just like his brother often did.

Few short glances at her direction confirmed it, he was trying to make her jealous.

"Caroline, dear, would you join us, please?" It was Elijah calling for her to join him to meet some new people.

'God, I can't stand this much longer.'

The rest of the night was spent mostly like that. Klaus was flirting with different single women at the party and Caroline had to accompany Elijah when he talked to different people, mostly of male gender.

When Elijah told her that they were leaving, Klaus joined them with a pretty red head.

"This is Lisa, I'm going to the after party with her. Don't wait up for me." He told them and left.

Elijah and Caroline followed them out where Caroline saw the pair sit in a SUV that he had called there with his driver and Elijah directed her at the limousine.

In the limo, the husband and wife didn't talk much but Caroline tried to keep her jealousy at bay so Elijah wouldn't suspect anything.

In the middle of the night, actually more like early in the morning, about 6 am, she woke up because of something breaking in the living room. Like a glass or something. And she heard Klaus swear. He seemed to be alone so at least he didn't bring his whores at their home. She couldn't help but wonder what he had been doing the whole time. Had he slept with that red head? The curiosity and jealousy got the better of her so she put on her robe and went to check it out. Klaus was sitting in the living room drinking bourbon.

"Don't you think you have had enough?"

"No, definitely not." Klaus said to her and it occurred to her that he was more drunk than she had thought.

"You're drunk."

"So?"

"So, you should go and sleep it off, not keep drinking. Do you know what time it is?"

"Of course I know, it's 6:03 am."

"And don't you have something you need to do today, some place to be?"

"No," Klaus shook his head. "I'm all yours today, Caroline."

"Klaus, he's at home, in the next room," she hissed.

"Actually, he's not. What's wrong with your vampire senses?"

"He isn't? I just assumed. Where has he gone this early in the morning?"

"He's driving Katherine to the airport, she's leaving town for a few days."

Caroline didn't say anything at first and watched as he stood up and walked over her.

"So what do you want to do today, sweetheart?"

"Many things, but not with a drunk. So would you mind and go sleep it off. And don't forget to shower. You have red lipstick all over you." She pouted.

"Oh, is somebody jealous here? I thought that you didn't want to have anything to do with me?"

"I am not and I don't, you are single, you can do whatever you want," Caroline told him and started to walk away when he grabbed her arm.

"Don't,"

"Don't what?" Caroline asked him.

"Don't act like you don't feel the same for me that I feel for you."

"Did you sleep with her?" Caroline blurted out.

Klaus chuckled and then looking her straight in the eye, he said, "No, I didn't."

But, Caroline, if you don't want to see me with other single women, all you have to say is… actually show me why I shouldn't." he seductively whispered in her ear.

The closeness of him and his scent, the way he looked at her, made it so hard not to do exactly what he had suggested.

"You know I can't," She said looking away.

"Yes you can, Caroline, you just have to risk it."

"Risk what? Getting murdered by that son of a bitch?"

"I will never let anything happen to you, I promise."

"The way you just promised Elijah that nothing will happen between us?"

Klaus rolled his eyes, "Sometimes you need to give false promises, All is fair in love and war. But now I have no reason to lie."

"Yeah, maybe your intentions are pure, Klaus but still, he's stronger and-"

"And I'm smarter. So let's see who's gonna win."

"You are ruining your relationship with him."

"Yes, but you're more important."

"Stop saying things like that." She pulled away from him and went to her bedroom where he followed her.

Seeing that, she said, "Klaus, please, I don't have the strength to fight you off indefinitely."

A huge grin formed on his lips as he closed the distance between them and caressed her cheek with his knuckles.

"So just say it, Caroline, You want me."

"Fine, I want you. But-"

"You need me." Klaus leaned in to kiss her neck

"I do. But"

Klaus moved to look her in the eye, "You are in love with me already."

"I…am." she barely got it out before his lips crashed on hers again and this time she didn't fight. She forget herself in this kiss while his fingers slipped the robe off of her and she backed toward the bed while they were still kissing. She only had a nightgown on and he was ready to rip it apart when his phone buzzed. He quickly glanced at it and instantly pulled away from her.

"Fuck, Elijah's home." And he flashed back to the living room and she quickly closed her bedroom door and just a second after that she heard the elevator doors open.

She heard Klaus say that he heard her stir so she's awake.

Caroline sat on the bed and put her head in her palms in both fear and relief.

'That was close. Too close. It can't happen again' she decided.

The rest of the day, at least the daytime part of the day Elijah spent in his study, while Klaus slept it off and Caroline had to be quiet for both of them. So she spent the day reading in the living room.

Suddenly Elijah came and walked past her to go to the elevator. "Something came up. I have to go out."

"Okay," She said casually without really looking at him.

Half an hour later she heard Klaus wake up and go into the shower and she decided that the best course of action was to get out of his sight for the time being so she went to have a relaxing bath herself. While she waited for the huge bath to fill with water, she was going through her clothes, wondering what to wear the next day. And she was also wondering if she could go to the bookstore with her bodyguard. 'It's a public place, so he has to behave, right'.

"What are you doing, sweetheart?" he purred the last word.

Caroline jumped with startlement.

"Klaus."

"Want to go out tonight?" Klaus asked her.

Without throwing him another look and focusing on the task at hand, she casually said, "Not tonight. But tomorrow I would like to go to a book store not far from here. Can you take me?"

"Unfortunately Elijah and I are going on a little trip tomorrow morning. But I know a few bookstores that are open quite late tonight," he said and then walked to her and standing behind her, he started to kiss her neck, as he murmured, "So maybe we'll go tonight?"

"Klaus, don't. I can't, we can't." She tried to pull away from him, but he refused to let her go. "Please, you saw what happened this morning."

"What do you mean?" He played dumb, trying to kiss her neck while she tried to pull away.

"You know what I mean. Elijah almost caught us."

"Oh, come on. I had it under control."

"You call that having it under control? I almost had an aneurysm."

Klaus chuckled, "That's what living dangerously is, sweetheart. Sometimes it's a very close call."

"Well, I don't want to live like this, so LET ME GO, KLAUS!" She pulled away from him and this time he let her, sighing heavily.

Caroline went to check her bath and as it was ready, she closed off the water while Klaus continued to talk to her.

"So do you want to go tonight or not?"

"Yeah, sure. Only if you behave yourself."

"I'll try my best."

"Then let me have a quick bath and find something to do while you wait."

Without saying anything he left her bedroom and Caroline made sure to lock all the doors.

At the bookstore she quickly found the shelves dedicated to romantic novels and while she was browsing, Klaus sat in the chair near her.

"Why do you like romantic novels, Caroline?"

Caroline glanced at his direction for a second and kept on browsing while trying to explain it, "I don't know. I guess being imprisoned in a loveless marriage I kind of need a little dose of it every day. And these kinds of books are perfect for it."

Klaus then stood up and walked to her. "But, sweetheart, you do have love in your life now-"

He was cut off by how Caroline was glaring at his direction and laughed at that.

"Don't you think that now you are in danger of overdosing on it?" He ended his train of thought.

Without looking at him, she muttered, "Maybe."

Klaus then smiled and took her hand. "Come on, I want to show you what I like."

Reluctantly Caroline went with him and they stopped at the very back of the store.

"Russian literature?" She asked frowning.

"And the best part of Russian literature was the 19th Century literature. For example, I love Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment".

"I have heard about it for sure, but never really read it."

"Do you want to?"

Caroline hesitated for a second too long, so Klaus picked out a collection of short stories by Nikolai Gogol. "If Dostoevsky is too much for you right now, then read a short story, like Gogol's "Nose", it's included in here."

"Okay, I'll try it. I have thought about reading something more serious but I have postponed it so much."

Klaus smiled, "So here's your chance and do tell whether you liked it or not."

"Of course," Caroline said and they shared a moment where they both smiled and Caroline felt butterflies making a nest in her belly.

Suddenly she was pinned between the shelf and Klaus and he was kissing her. He pulled away less than a second before the shopkeeper saw them when he came to ask them if there was anything he could do. Caroline tried to compel him but he turned out to be a vampire. At first they thought he was one of Elijah's men and Caroline really panicked but Klaus was able to compel him as an Original. Which meant that he wasn't Elijah's cause all his vampires digested little bit of vervain. Klaus had learned that recently when dealing with them.

But to Caroline it was the final straw. She didn't say anything to Klaus, just started to hatch a plan. The escape-them-both plan.

In the car, Caroline asked him casually, "How long are you gone?"

"Why? You afraid you're gonna miss me?" he flirted with her.

"No I meant how long you and Elijah are gone?"

"Couple of days and only one night. And don't ask where we are going. I can only tell you that we'll be driving there."