A/N ... Hello my lovely readers... I hope you enjoy this update... this is the second last chapter...
Shoutout to Lilou019 and Jaz78...
What was love if not for madness? A disruption of rational mind and an everlasting blemish on the heart, carved and marked by someone. A disaster, a calamity happening in perpetuity whom one had no sway over and with no escape in sight. An addiction, a craving intoxicating the heart and adulterating the mind, leaving one incapacitated to the very root. Caroline's thoughts lately in a discombobulating disorder. Her heart ached and it was bittersweet, a torment she was minute by minute becoming affected by and somehow it all made sense in the most senseless manner.
Finding herself in their bed confused her at first and then joy seeped in. He cared. He cared. Perhaps it was too minute, too little but it was something. She meant something to the man who once wouldn't have hesitated to take her life.
FLASHBACK
Her body ached, each muscle fibre, every nerve ending throbbed. Her eyes darted around as she made a survey of her prison. Life had dealt her a lousy hand. Struggle and fight had been her constant destiny.
Defeated and broken. A ray of light poured in one corner leaving rest of the room bleak but she was devoid of that light even. She felt doomed and lost
Running away had been futile. Hunger and thirst, dulled her senses. As if her wish granted, he brought food and water.
The metal door clanged open resounding in the stable, the door opening and yet it was the sound of her captivity.
"Look, just let me go. I will not tell anyone, anything. I just… please. None of this is right. This doesn't make sense…"
"Water." One word and not even a twitch in the dispassioned eyes. Some unknown emotion in her resonated with the secrets he hid behind them, maybe it was her compassion or her curiosity she could not tell. The enigma and the intensity he carried was tempting but she doubted she had enough time left to unearth it.
The fluidity of his movements reminded him of a lion or perhaps it was the way she felt cornered each time even with many feet between them. A predator keeping its prey on leash because the hunt was worth the wait. The way his eyes gazed as if assessing and measuring each move, like she was a puzzle to be solved, an enigma to decipher.
She despised that those ceruleans left her breathless each time, scared, she was scared and nothing else she cajoled. She saw him turn away without another word as if her plea had ricocheted off a soundless wall.
"Please. Let me go." She ran after him even as the metal door shut in her face, a crude reminder of the hard luck written in her fate.
"You cannot keep me caged like this. You hear me. You will regret this. You will pay for every damn thing."
Her yelled threat put an invisible hitch in his step for an insignificant second. The good doctor had no fucking clue he was already paying with every second of his life.
TTTTTTTT
Survivor. She had always been a fighter and a survivor so why was she giving up now? Wrath soon replaced despair and dejection morphed into determination. Caroline Elizabeth Forbes would rather face death before exhausting every option. Her brother had raised her into a strong woman, not to cower but to fight in the face of adversity. Fight and flight reflex took longer to kick in but it hit her nonetheless.
She surveyed her makeshift jail cell and saw the ventilator on the top right corner. Stacking the bails of hay she crawled into it. Adrenaline drowned the paranoia and the survival instinct propelled her lending her a new vigor. Strength of mind and spirit aided her as she followed her gut, hurriedly moving towards freedom.
TTTTTTTT
Sweat and nausea made for an unsavoury amalgam. She saw a familiar face carry out the most gruesome grievance ever possible, take a life. The life she had been abducted to save. The life of the dying man she had been pressured to safeguard. A human life as a doctor she had been taught and vowed to save at all costs.
Another shot rang, and the gasp tore out of her mouth. Her sympathetic system in overdrive she instantly turned, knowing if they knew she was a witness she would be next. But as bad luck would have it she collided with a chair on the side of the wall she was hiding behind, it fell and the sound echoed in the farm house.
She didn't have the time to ascertain if they were following her because it was a no brainer that they were.
She had not gone far and when they caught her. His men, the one he had called Robb roughly yanked her arm with a gun cocked at her temple.
"If you do not listen to me I won't hesitate to kill you. The boss wants to see you."
TTTTTTTTTTT
Caroline could hear her heartbeat drumming loudly, the sound of her shallow breathing resounding and sweat trickling down her back, as two pairs of cruel eyes looked at her but his were as always void of any emotion.
Ansel Mikaelson, the CEO and business magnet known for his charitable works and donations had his hands red from the blood of the nameless stranger she had been ordered to save. Disbelief paralyzed her. A week ago this man was inaugurating a new wing for paediatric surgery in his hospital now stood over a dead body.
The deathly muzzle of the gun, a chilling reminder of the impermanence of her life. Courage drowned by the fear for her life. Tremors took over when she heard Ansel order her captor to kill her.
TTTTTTTTTTTT
He dragged her to the woods nearby, both au courant, with the circumstance. Birds chirped, sun shined bright and high as always, trees green and tall imparting shade and shelter, wide and open as far as the eye saw, but Caroline was trapped. Like a fly in a spider's web getting caught deeper and deeper each time it struggled, fighting to escape until it met its end.
The torrid of sentiments thrashing inside her incongruous with the serenity around. Too quiet and yet jarring. As if time slowed and her breath echoed, like the howling wind in her ears, blowing, cooing in the distance, eery and frightening.
His hand clamped around her arm, she wordlessly followed her death. Taking each heavy step towards her end, here in the wild like a nameless animal. No one who mattered with her to weep goodbyes. No one who loved her, with her in these last ominous moments.
Was this how each moment she had been striving towards shall end? Each battle, each little effort to lead a prosperous existence culminating so inconsequentially.
A twist of his arm and she faced the gun that was her end. Tears, useless fell of their own accord. Self pity and terror had never struck her so fully, fracturing each coherent thought, punching holes in her self respect and pride, urging her to beg one last time.
"Please. Don't kill me. I beg of you please." Her shaky voice sounded alien to her but she didn't deserve to be so carelessly killed.
In a defining answer he pulled on the safety.
"Look please. I did everything you said. I even saved that man's life and I swear I will not tell anyone." Brushing away her tears like a child with jerky movements Caroline kept pleading with him,"You can trust me I will not tell anyone. Please. Please. I shall do anything." The gun now at her forehead.
Her leaking blue eyes, unknowingly nicking the walls that he had erected for his own self preservation. He couldn't afford to feel. The glimmer of hope even when she knew death awaited her, mesmerised him. She expected the man who had essentially been tasked to take her life, be her salvation.
And just like that he witnessed the switch from desperate pleas to defiant anger fascinating him even more. "You think you can kill me and get away with this. You may end me but that shall be your end too. My brother is the sheriff and he will not rest until he sees justice being prevailed."
One moment she was staring at the gun and the next his furious opal eyes. Being in his arms was as nerve wracking as being on the other end of a gun. Frenzy and feeling, too loud and too discordant, an order-less symphony from a broken violin, screeching in her ears. Everything too much all at once and she was mad for seeking a haven in his arms.
"Justice? There is no justice in the world we live in, Doctor. If there were, you wouldn't be here begging for the life you think matters." The vitriol of his words bombarding her pride and beliefs.
"Every life matters and that has nothing to do with the sins we think their soul bears." Tears had never affected him before, but an odd heaviness settled around his heart seeing hers. "You won't get away with this."
"Maybe I don't want to." His eyes held something sinister and cynical. He jerked her away intending to be done with it pointing his gun, but hesitated.
"Please. I… I … just please don't kill me. I will do anything." Rambling, alternating between beseeching and threatening hoping something might stick.
"Anything?" He cocked his head to the side.
The way he asked, stirred goosebumps. "Anything." She whispered.
"Then you will marry me. And we'll see what justice there is and how the righteous Sheriff brother avenges you." Delirious and overwhelmed she mumbled her assent.
TTTTTTTTTTT
A beautiful lace and silk ivory gown, a few of close friends and family with her brother giving her away to the man she loved, was the dream that had been shattered so callously.
Mute and dazed she followed him, to his apartment, replaying over and over how she had sealed her fate to something much worse than death. Marriage to someone who took life as if it was dirt cheap. Forever being bound to the man who had not even flinched at the dismaying prospect of taking her life.
The walls closed in on her. Lightheaded, she took in her new prison, brown walls and black furniture, the minimalism and class suited the man who inhabited the cold place, an assassin.
"You shall stay here. I need to straighten out the details of this marriage, Doctor." With that he disappeared leaving her a broken mess of what she had become.
TTTTTTTTTT
Food felt like charred paint and water like thorns, nothing went down her scratchy throat. Appetite and sleep had left, insomnia, her new unwelcoming companion. Worries of her brother's safety circled her stubborn alert mind. On edge recognizing the danger that might befall her, her body refused to unwire.
Her brother must be going insane thinking something hazardous had happened. Dozens or maybe more times she had searched for ways to escape. Her jailer had taken her phone and had made sure the apartment was properly locked before leaving. Any hope of absconding was lost.
TTTTTTTTTTT
A day later he returned with food and supplies. She lay on the bed, inanely drawing shapes in the ceiling with her mind to ward off insanity.
He jammed the numbers in the security system effectively shielding it from her and took off his jacket. A dagger at his back and a gun on his waist should have scared her but it didn't, not when she knew the crisis was averted, he shall not execute her now.
The apartment was a large one bedroom place with a large bathroom to one side and the kitchen to the other didn't afford much privacy. Too at ease at being alone here he began taking off his shirt, forcing himself to avoid those inquisitive eyes, that perforated his impassivity.
She saw him shuck off his weapons, lose his shirt and rummage through his closet for a new one before heading to the bathroom. Resentment and wrath didn't stop her from noticing the hard planes of his body and the tattoo that marked his left shoulder. Birds in flight, ironic he sported a sign of freedom and yet had her imprisoned.
Characteristically quietly he walked to the bath and she availed that opportunity to pocket the dagger he had left on the table.
TTTTTTTTTT
Warm water sloshed over his body, melting away the grime and fatigue. The shipment of the weapons and Jason's usual inability to effectively procure it had left him depleted. And yet through all that commotion he thought of her. Those strange teary eyes, that disturbing desperation and that emotive hope he witnessed in her.
A background check had told him the blunder Rob had made. Caroline Elizabeth Forbes, a diligent surgeon and the only sister of the City's Sheriff, had been covering for Hayley Marshall, the one they had meant to abduct and dispose of after getting Elias to reveal sensitive information. But fate had other designs, if he were to be fanciful and believe in it.
And now he would soon be married, to a woman who believed life was sacred and there was justice in the world. Her erroneous and bizarre notions about hope and justness made him ponder what world she had lived in. Whatever it was, it was utterly contrasting to his, one desolate and dreary.
Convincing Ansel of how marrying her effectively granted him spousal privilege and added leverage hadn't been a feat. After all, what brother would want his sister to be miserable and penalise her husband, even if he was a Sheriff?
TTTTTTTT
He exited the bath adorning a grey shirt. The way his murky blonde hair curled when wet imparted to him a formidable air. Something squeezed her heart and she shut herself to it, not willing to deal with any novel sensation.
"The wedding is tomorrow. I'll take you to the dress shop. Buy a wedding dress for yourself." He fastened a belt around his waist, not looking at her. It felt peculiar to look at her when he dressed, the intimacy was strangely perturbing.
"I will not marry you." She stood up. Not even pausing to gaze at her he casually put on his jacket.
"Well. That would be inconvenient, Doctor." He grasped his gun and loaded the magazine, noticing his dagger was missing. Curiosity as to what the moral and just doctor planned was tempting but he couldn't let the deal they had agreed upon, slide. In two long steps he approached her and grasped her arm. "Let's go then. I do not enjoy squandering away my time."
The implied meaning of his threat was crystal clear to her. She twisted away, "No please. Just… this is insane. Try to understand. What would my brother think? I have been away for two days and then all of a sudden return, married to a stranger. And if he finds out who you are? He would never believe this sham marriage."
He quirked an uninterested eyebrow, "I mean your immoral and corrupt profession… he would never believe my … association to you."
It rubbed him the wrong way, her piousness and morality was glaringly evident but he didn't appreciate the reminder that he was a deplorable degenerate. Somehow hearing her voice it, affected him when it had never before mattered from anyone else. Outraged and splenetic Klaus grasped her throat, intending to frighten. Caroline, wanting to free herself, kicked out and they fell on the bed.
Her eyes were a little leafy, green at the edges. The hatred in them shadowed the pull he felt towards her. Her lips, so close and her breath mingled with his. A magnetic tug clutched at his heart. Her compassion and bravery added a unique layer to her beauty.
Her heart thudded and her breath shallow, his proximity dulling her saneness. His eyes raked over her face as if remembering, peeking deep into her soul. Even clothed she felt a sense of nakedness, as if he was aware of each secret she had ever held close.
Seconds passed, an unknown ache engulfed her heart.
Hovering above her, the hand at her throat merely a cuff, meant to threaten. "That's your problem." He grumbled, "Remember your end of the deal. I have little patience for your so-called righteous outbursts."
Then he moved back slightly intending to effectively dismiss her. Rage burned blind and hot. Her life was falling apart, brick by brick, stone by stone crumbling, foundations becoming shaky and porous. She was being used as a pawn for his nefarious ends and he had the audacity to chalk it up to a hissy fit.
Enraged she struck and the dagger pierced his side. Pain filled his eyes, pulsating in his side.
Time slowed for her, something rattling her control, rage perhaps turmoil. Her breath a distant sound, her eyes surveyed him for fragility, weakness. Maybe the pain residing in them mesmerised her, too familiar with the stoicism she was tugged towards the emotion brewing, pouring.
Sanity returned, he recoiled and she leapt.
Cuffing her hands with his, he disarmed her and threw the dagger away, still imprisoning her with his body. The tears that pooled in her eyes reflected remorse and apologies tumbling out of her mouth. "Oh my god. I am so sorry. I didn't mean to. I… just. I don't know what happened.. please let me…"
Unable to dole out his fury any further, he pulled away and pushed away her soothing hands.
"I guess you're as corrupt as me, Doctor."
"No. I would never hurt…" she followed him as he examined his wound.
"And yet you did. We are all evil. It all depends on the right circumstance and the wrong time. Get ready you need a wedding dress." Then he went to the bathroom to wash his wound.
"Please I'm sorry just let me…."
She saw him cover the cut with disinfectant and a gauze. "Forget it. I've had worse."
TTTTTTTTTTTT
Caroline kept questioning her actions from a while ago. When had she ever resorted to violence to sort her problems, the answer, never, distressingly accurate. And yet when push came to shove she had attacked her future husband with a knife, a deadly weapon. To place the blame on his shoulders would never exonerate her because it was her hands that had wielded the weapon and struck.
Nothing about this situation was ordinary but she had vowed to protect life at all costs and under every circumstance. Guilt piled upon dejection. Melancholy and misery fusilladed her like bullets boring holes. Tears kept falling and shaky hands wiping them. When would she be free of him and this incapacitating grief?
Damn the woman had lightning reflexes. The wound, still raw and throbbing as Klaus swerved his car into a turn. The attack was a lame attempt to escape and hurt him. It captivated him how she had shed tears after lacerating him, even now sitting beside him her silent grief stirred foreign unnerving things within him. Unwelcome feelings were an invisible chokehold.
Those tears rolling down her enticing face burned a strange possessiveness within him. Drops of water so worthless and pathetic yet whisking alien emotions, rocking his control.
He was her worst nightmare, her captor and yet she shed tears. Mayhaps she lamented at her own turpitude she wasn't aware of but it shook him nonetheless.
TTTTTTTTTTT
PRESENT DAY
The shouts erupting in the house jolted her from the exhausted slumber. Rushing out of her room she landed in the living room where Klaus was berating Rebekah. Their mother, Esther unsuccessfully trying to act as a mediator and Marcel was holding off Klaus.
"I will fucking kill that bastard. You hear me. Rebekah, you do not want me to repeat myself. Who's the father?" He shrugged off Marcel's hands and lept for his sister. "Rebekah!!!" He would have grabbed his sister but Caroline shielded Rebekah behind her.
"Klaus stop."
"Doctor. This is a family matter in case you are forgetting..…." Her defiance should not look so brilliant. Klaus took a step back.
"And you made me a part of it in case you are forgetting." She saw him back down. His wrath and control both enthralled her in equal measure. "This is no way to deal with it. Hurting her won't achieve anything."
Her belief that he could harm his sister lanced his heart, but then again he was nothing but an inhumane assassin as per her standards. He swallowed the misery that engulfed him. Her opinion of him had begun to matter, since when he had no clue.
"She is my sister, Doc. I won't harm her. I merely want to know who the father is?"
The peculiar sheen of grief in his eyes tormented her. She had begun to recognize each new emotion in his eyes, if only she was cognizant of his heart as well.
"It's okay, Caroline." Rebekah moved from behind him. "Nik. I am so sorry. I was in love…" At her confession he scoffed his displeasure, love apparently was a foolish notion to the man who had hers.
"Rebekah don't test my patience." Klaus warned.
"Son…."
"Mother, you are wise enough to know not to interfere." He bit out and Esther quietened.
"Leave us." Marcel and Rob complied with Klaus's orders.
"I'll tell you Nik but you have to promise me you won't hurt him."
"You, little sister, are in no position to make demands. If you tell me now I may spare him but if I have to find him on my own he'll die at my hands you understand." Impatience and fury reared. His voice grew harsher with each syllable.
"Jason."
TTTTTTTTTT
No sooner had Rebekah confessed who the father was, all hell broke loose. Klaus locked Rebekah in her room and ordered his mother to keep an eye on his sister and strode out. Esther pleaded on behalf of her daughter but alas it all fell on deaf ears and he called his men to track Jason down. Then he hurried out. Him leaving in anger was never a good omen so she followed him.
She saw him sit in his Volkswagen. Caroline knew if she didn't waylay or accompany him he might end up doing something fool-hardy out of the love he had for his sister. Harbouring jealousy, for him having such a pure emotion for his sister was idiotic but love wasn't a wise sentiment.
Caroline blocked his way standing in front of the car. He could have turned around her and driven away but curiosity won again.
"What are you doing, Klaus?" She walked to the passenger side.
"I could ask the same, Doctor." She sometimes abhorred the way he called her Doctor as if insulting her. It made her wonder had he ever used her name.
"You can not go like this."
"Like what?"
"All wound up. You might hurt yourself." She desperately wanted him to let her in, both figuratively and literally.
Did he witness concern? No he wished he would. "Wouldn't that be better for you?" How he wanted her to refute it.
"Maybe." Her answer shattered him. "But it won't be for the people you love and consider family." Caroline was plagued by her own feelings for him, agony was as much a resident in her heart as the love.
Out of patience he turned the ignition and had her blurt out. "I won't let you go alone. I'm coming with you." Instantly she sat in.
"Doctor…"
"If you insist on this foolishness then I will accompany you."
"Fine, suit yourself." He grated out but couldn't prevent that soothing sensation which saturated him.
TTTTTTTTTTT
Silence etched between them just as the distance she wished to breach. Klaus never said much to her, except when he grumbled orders or informed her of some family event. The first time he had brought her home he had commanded her not to set foot outside, trust was lacking as much as communication. She had hurled insults and cursed him, yelled at him for being a monster and now the irony of her loving her Boogeyman rather pronounced.
Countless accusations and offences. A marriage of convenience or rather inconvenience, a thread thin and flimsy binding them in an invisible bond. A bond becoming pre-eminent, cocooning her heart in its shell, merging the boundaries she had so dearly protected. Losing all sense she had fallen into the craziness of the charade they both played, but he never lied, truthful even in his ire. Honest even in his feelings for her. A blessing or a curse she didn't know.
She reminisced how she had hollered at Esther for being complicit in his wrongdoings, but looking back she realised he had wanted her to feel at home sending Esther to him.
He was a complex intense man who held his sentiments concealed like his most treasured possession, but his gentleness always touched her. The affection he had for his family was heart melting, if only he considered her one too.
His wife was uncharacteristically silent. Her strength and humaneness even after his oppression affected him mysteriously. He wondered by now she typically would have launched into a tirade of his lesser qualities and likened him to a monster keeping her locked against her will. Her unpredictability, especially since he was shot, threw him off.
Caroline was gradually becoming something vital, an essential volatile element binding his world in an intricate balance, at peril of distortion leading to utter destruction. An essence dissolving into his soul making the evil in him murky. Her scent, her eyes and her abundant compassion astounded him.
Slowly he was losing all objectivity where she was concerned, her sitting by her side was the biggest evidence. She had begun to matter, her words, her thoughts and those damned tears everything had begun to hammer at the armour he had reinforced so meticulously around his own empathy.
Words unsaid stretched between them, sentiments unshared agonising them both, each wallowing in the ache of their own demons.
Fighting for his sister on her behalf touched and irked him simultaneously.
"Klaus." Finally she thawed the awkward silence. "Can I ask something of you?"
He just gave her a look. One that probably meant she should tread cautiously. "Please don't do something you might regret later."
"Such as?"
"I mean Jason is her baby's father. Don't hurt him."
Nervously wringing her hands she waited a beat for his reply.
"Do you really think that low of me? Of course you do, Doctor. As much as I want to rid the world of the likes of Jason I am merely going there to fetch him. Give him an opportunity to right his wrongs."
His belief that she thought of him as someone capable of violence against his own sister touched something unpleasant and he gripped the steering wheel as if reiging in the bitterness he tasted. Her beliefs and her motives stemmed from morality as opposed to who he was.
His sudden impassivity, that mask of indifference falling over his handsome face dug deeper holes in her heart. Self isolation and aloofness second nature to a man who evoked a lava of an inane fondness in her, it rattled her beyond words. So effortlessly donning a mask of detachment, after a night of such maddening passion.
"I don't believe what I think matters, Klaus."
But it did, so much.
TTTTTTTTTT
Raining bullets and noise and his solid embrace the only shelter that shielded. Amidst the chaos and the pandemonium his heartbeat against her ears, strong and sure lended the focus she needed to survive. He pulled her to safety, inside his car and sped even as they followed. Jason and his men. Her hands shook, adrenaline accelerating her heart beat but he didn't flinch, swerving and dodging until they lost them.
TTTTTTTTTTTT
A curvaceous rocky path led to a cottage secluded deep in the mountainous land. It was picturesque, sitting quaintly against the backdrop of towering mountains.
Without a single word he got out and she mutely followed suit. For a moment she rested against the door, dizziness took over, nausea threatened. Strong arms cradled her and concern stared back at her in his eyes.
Once inside he settled her on the sofa and handed her a glass of water.
"I'll fetch something for the fireplace." As always he didn't wait for her acknowledgement and left and it piqued her. Her inconsequentiality to him, her disposable state in their so called relationship vexed her, so she didn't battle the resentment that blanketed her. Maybe the quick release from facing her death yet again or his careless dismissal of her spurred her vehemence but nonetheless she ripped into him the moment he was done.
"Is it always going to be like this?" She shot up straight, not anticipating that her legs trembled a little.
"Like what?" He took off his jacket. Of course, she was spelentic. Temper flaring red in her cheeks. Was it sick that he found it fascinating?
"Me being freaking shot at, the moment I set foot out with you? Always running for my life, looking around for danger. Wondering which enemy of yours next might kill me?" She pranced towards him wanting to see the same emotions, a confused mess of sentiments that threatened her peace day and night.
Her preservation and safety shall always come first not although wanting to dwell upon its imperativeness for the time being he answered. "Don't worry I won't let anything happen to you."
"How can you promise that?" She didn't need to be safe. She needed ….him. "There are no guarantees, Klaus. You can not promise anything. One of these days it's going to catch up with you and maybe I'll have to pay the price for your…sins and your cruelty and injustice…."
"I said I won't let anyone hurt you." He asserted even as panic took hold.
She had wanted his concern and gotten his temper, oddly it was far more appealing. He was close now, too close.
He didn't see fear in her eyes, just dejection as if it was hurting her. Testing her patience and against his better judgement he held her hands, shocking them both.
"I'm sorry…."
She abhorred that he was apologising, especially now. Once she would have cherished these words but today they frustrated her. He was supposed to bear his heart out and not show remorse. She shrugged his hands away.
He had never apologised and meant it but knew his words meant nothing to a woman who had higher values. He knew he wasn't worth her but he desperately wanted her and the perplexing clash within his conscience stunned him.
"I don't want your apology. I…" she turned away, running her hands through her hair. Defeated by her own love for him.
"Then what do you want?" The question echoed through the silence of the cottage. Wants and needs had never been a question before. But maybe here, when he was far away from the ugliness and miseries of his life, he could give her what she wanted just to see the smile that illuminated the darkest corners of his soul.
He never asked, it had never mattered before. But was it worth it if it was coaxed out? Was love worth it if it was begged for?
She faced him with tears. Each tiny drop fell and felt like a boulder crushing his heart. She shrugged, "Something…. anything….everything."
Everything, was she asking for freedom or ….no it was too tempting to even think about it. A few stolen moments of passion didn't equate emotions but then again passion without sentiment was non-existent for a woman like her.
He was clueless, words failed him so he did what he knew won't be rejected. He cradled her face, gently kissed away the tears he knew were his fault. And then he tasted her tears and her distress wanting to imbibe it all within his irredeemable existence. Yet again she had craved love and he was giving passion but she was helpless. His tenderness in touch, warmed and torched every little pore. She knew it wasn't enough but knew he was trying to make up for the offences she had accused him of. His mouth slashed across hers, evoking moans and sighs, lost in his flavour and her adoration she gave as much as she got. He lowered her onto the bed and placed desperate fiery kisses down her body. Hand enmeshed and mouths fused, love and desire drove them to the pinnacle.
TTTTTTTTTTT
Imprisoned again, but she didn't want to leave this cage, his arms held her possessively. She wondered how she betrayed her own indifference in sleep. Did she hold him? Was he recognizant of her besottedness.
Sleep stole the sorrows and trials that hardened the softness of his face. What was this yearning? This aching feeling she possessed for him, love she knew, protectiveness she struggled with for it was so unfamiliar. Wanting to safeguard him against any and all calamities, surprised her.
Snow fell in a silent white heap. Achingly beautiful and pure. She turned and he pulled her closer, spooning her. The warmth she felt appeared in the smile on her face.
But it was momentary when he began shaking, murmuring unintelligible words, fighting a nightmare. Sweat beaded. His strength was tempting, his vulnerability heart rending. She pulled him closer gently, waking him up from the dream that stole his peace. Running soothing hands down his naked back. He shuddered in her arms, holding onto her for his life hearing her heartbeat lended the much needed tranquil.
She cooed meaningless reassurances and naive promises, somehow it calmed him.
Awareness thick and confounding, inch by inch they painstakingly unentangled. His gut wrenched, his insides contorting, vulnerability equaled weakness in the world he had been raised in. Another aberration for she had witnessed the defect in the perfect facade he sported. He could not afford to lean on the woman he had so grievously wronged. She didn't deserve the ordeal of his purgatory but hadn't he himself selfishly embroiled her in his hell.
She felt him shrink away even before he actually did. Nimble fingers pausing in air where they had touched his back, and then curling in her palms as he left the bed they had shared in desire. Always desire, nothing more and nothing less. Sucker punched in her heart she firmly held her tears because she was done feeling self pity.
TTTTTTTTTT
He downed a glass of water feeling parched, maybe more for the comfort she had generously offered then for water. Fire crackled as the wood burnt but Klaus felt it was his heart that singed.
He saw a shadow loom behind him but felt defenceless in the silent war against his opponent and his heart's desire. Realizing the power she wielded over him had petrified him.
"Klaus." The tremor in her voice affected him deeply.
He turned, stunned and paralyzed. To him she was the most magnificent and looked utterly desirable in the firelight, in her silk black negligee.
"Are you okay?"
His nod infuriated her.
"Well good. What happened?" Her straightforward question was a little astonishing.
"Nothing."
She should have left it at that but stubbornness was a deep rooted flaw that often led her to trouble. Crossing her arms over her chest she muttered, "We'll always be like this won't we? One broken step forward and a million miles backwards. But I refuse to accept the scrapes you throw at me." It was futile. Utterly futile and meaningless. Hurt bundled inside her, overfilling each little nook of her soul.
Her acquiescent dismissal and uncomplaining reconciliation prompted alarm. He tasted panic licking his throat.
"Caroline… please …" She turned away and he urged her to give him a chance but couldn't enunciate his desires and wants. Hope had always been cruelly ripped away from him so why should this be any different?
Her name from his mouth in that voice that had mumbled sinful endearments and empty avowals mid passion, rocked her. This time the plea in it touched something she craved.
"Why would you want…. Why cross this bridge that insulates you from the evil I am?" He exposed himself raw and bare for her to see. In this dimly firelit room when she stood just a few feet apart instantaneously it was peremptory and crucial she knew he wasn't unaffected.
Amazed and unnerved at his vulnerability she twisted around to face him. Bridling the urge to embrace him and take his doubts away hence she couldn't help but take two steps closer.
"Don't you know?" Nervy, she searched his face for the softness she needed. Understanding dawned, both enveloped by intense mind jarring sentiments. Lust foremost stemming from the fondness and intimacy that had taken root and tendrils of it spiralling slowly and deeply.
A log cracked the deafening silence, the climax defined by the next uttered word. "You deserve better…." His whisper barely audible. Dying to touch and take, dying with his wants and needs he reigned himself so he could finally do the right thing by her.
Cold soft hands cradled his face, "Maybe we both deserve something better. But I will take it all or nothing, Klaus." She kissed him, her soft lips, silk negligee rustling against his bare chest and warmth in the pit of stomach, a disastrous combination. His arms locked around her of his own volition pulling her in deeper for a more satisfying touch. An electrifying contact of their lips and yet she broke the kiss.
"Caroline, don't….Why does it have to be anything else?" Losing her wasn't an option any more and when one put all their cards on the table there was a chance they might actually lose. So desperately he held onto the hope that she wouldn't shift the dynamic. He wanted to drown and never float up to the reality that was altering.
"Let me say it. I can not bury what threatens to spill each time you touch me, anymore. I love you, Klaus Mikaelson." Tears brimming and spilling, tracking an abhorred path down her perfect face and the agony viciously clawed his insides. "I love you with all your flaws and faults. I love you with all I am." His forehead resting on hers. Elated yet aching, a contrary feeling.
"Caroline…" She at least deserved his honesty. Words and sentiments mirroring hers were so close on his tongue but afeared he might muck it all up, he gave her his truth.
Walking a few steps away, in an effort to distance himself he continued hoping to rid her of her fanciful notions of love. "I was thirteen, when I first killed. I killed the man who ruined my family, the one who murdered my father. He didn't deserve it. My father… didn't deserve to be ruthlessly shot at the hands of a drunk thief. He killed him for a few worthless pennies ..." He turned and she saw rage and pain streaming down his eyes. "And Ansel took advantage of a mean angry kid who had lost the father he had loved. There is no turning back for me. No redemption for the path I have chosen. These hands are red and forever will be, Caroline."
She hurried towards him,"There is always a way."
"Maybe. But sometimes it's too little too late."
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