"Firstly you're not my boyfriend" she hissed through gritted teeth, pulling the sheet over her head to muffle her voice. Enzo was sleeping on the sleeper couch in the lounge and she didn't want to wake him.

"Am too" Kol insisted.

"You're not!"

"What's the second thing?"

"What?"

"You said firstly so what's the second thing?"

"Secondly, go away!"

"Will not"

"Go away"

"Shan't"

"I miss making you come." He lowered his voice and she had to shift against the mattress again, clenching her eyes shut. She crossed her legs but the throbbing between them remained, suddenly inflamed by the treble of his voice.

"Kol" she warned.

"I miss slipping my fingers inside you. I miss fucking you."

"Kol" she closed her eyes, breathing sharply.

"Yes, darling?" he drawled, gorgeous and unaffected.

"Please go away"

"Do you want me to cause a scene?" his voice was soft but she could sense the intent in it "Because if you don't-"

"Fine" kicked off the sheets and climbed out of bed.

"I'm coming down." she whispered, phone wedged between her cheek and shoulder as she rustled into an oversized coat. She tiptoed on the balls of her feet, trying to find a comfortable pair of shoes to wear from items strewn on the floor. Coming up empty handed, she decided to brave the sidewalk with her bare feet. Quietly, she passed the lounge where Enzo was snoring, sheet thrown over his naked body barely covering his cock.

..

Her feet slapped against the stairs, one hand on the railing while the other held the phone as she spoke to Kol. Finally the soles of her feet touched the cool pavement when she pushed through the glass doors and exited her building.

Alfred, who had been leaning against a gleaming black town car, knocked once on the tinted back window at the back before walking around the car to take his position behind the steering wheel. Bonnie watched as the passenger door opened, Kol's hand on the door handle as smoke wafted out of the car. He leaned forward, a cigar held between his teeth. Plucking the cigar out of his mouth, he winked as a slow sloppy smile broke across his face. His gaze locked on hers and a smile threatened to work the corners of her mouth as he staggered out of the car holding a half-empty bottle of champagne.

"Did I wake you?" he asked, stumbling toward her, seizing her shoulders clumsily.

"What do you think?" Bonnie shot him a look and stepped back from his grasp.

"Can I come up?" he asked, pointing his dimpled chin up at the brownstone behind them.

"No."

"Come away with me."

"Just like that?"

"Come on, embrace life!" he yelled, spinning around with his arms stretched out and his face tilted up to a blooming sky.

"I miss you." He declared, first at the heavens and then lowering his eyes, he addressed her. His eyes softened and he closed the distance between them. She didn't move, struck by the warmth in his eyes.

"Maybe I'm not this guy you believe me to be." He lowered his head, his breath fanning her face, his lips inches from hers. He reached up to stroke the curve of her jaw, then her chin and the corner of her lips.

"I don't know who I'm supposed to be anymore" he said quietly, his eyes grazing her lips. Time didn't move at all nor did the air that had stirred the leaves dangling off reedy trees dotting the pavement.

"I have this theory that you are who you are when no one is watching when nothing is expected of you." She said quietly.

When his eyes locked with hers, his were ringed with a gold that seemed to grow brighter as the darkness in the street cleared. The air in her lungs stilled as his eyes took pleasure caressing her face but he broke the moment by pulling back and taking another swig from the bottle.

"I can't be myself in New York. I can't be me at Esther." He said softly, almost to himself. She watched the first lights of dawn dance across his hair and shook her head trying to recollect why she was out here at the crack of dawn instead of her apartment, nestled in her bed.

Clearing her throat, she said "So you're running away from your life."

"This is not my life. I'm just leaving New York." He admitted, not looking at her but rather to his left beyond the greasy streets of East Village to where the world lay waiting between dark and dawn, caught between two worlds just like Kol.

Suddenly he turned to her; his eyes frenzied," Come away with me."

For the briefest of moments she imagined throwing caution to the wind, sliding her hand in his and running away with him. Then reality struck when his stubble grazed her cheek and she smelled the whiskey on his breath.

"Me running away with you won't solve any of your problems." She said, jerking away from him. Crossing her arms against her chest, she looked beyond him, beyond the waiting town car and the gated shop lining the street to the rooftops where the dawn was bleeding pink and purple. Morning chill seeped in through the fabric of her clothes and she swung her eyes back to him.

"I can't fix you, Kol." She murmured and her voice echoed, suspended in time in the waking universe. Light fell on his shoulders and he turned up the collar of his jacket. Running away wasn't the best move for her especially with the possibilities of her column. She couldn't just abandon everything, she couldn't bet everything on him and what he might feel for her particularly when whatever he felt for her could disappear any day.

"Good things are starting to happen for me." She smiled and tried to slow her racing heart.

"Let's go back to the beginning-let's start over and then maybe we might be able to save each other." Kol pleaded, his thumb tracing the mouth of the bottle. He didn't look at her but the pull of his eyes was still strong, tugging at places she'd long forgotten in the pits of her stomach.

"Isn't that what you were looking for the other night?" he asked, his gaze jumping back at her.

"The other night?" she asked.

"Online, weren't you looking for someone to save you?" he queried and she could see the fear in his eyes, a flash before his eyes fled hers again.

"I was looking for a story" she told him.

"And I was looking for a connection." He admitted, glancing back over his shoulder at the waiting car.

"Is that what they call casual sex these days?" Bonnie challenged him and swallowed the knot in her throat.

He ignored her jab but rather struck her with his tormenting eyes again, "You said you were trying to get to my heart."

"I was."

"I didn't know."

"How could you know?" she murmured, cutting her eyes to the car.

"I thought about it…you, me…us." His voice trailed off as he stepped back, moving away toward the car. She realized that he was walking away and she wanted to scream but her voice wouldn't come out. He opened the door and climbed inside the car not bothering to look back over his shoulder. Slowly, he rolled down the window and leaned out. He smiled and the window rolled back up, leaving her standing on the curb with her arms wound around her coat.

Maybe New York couldn't contain him or maybe he was just a coward.

..

When she walked back into her apartment, she was greeted by the hiss of a kettle and the gurgle of boiling water poured into ceramic mugs. Enzo stood at the small kitchen island, tanned barefoot and lithe in tiny black briefs and a tangle of dark hair touched by morning sunlight.

"I hope you don't mind." He lifted the kettle and indicated to a pair of mugs on the island top in front of him.

"Not so much the coffee but the uh-"she pointed to his briefs.

"Sorry." He shrugged and shimmied into a pair skinny leather pants that had been flung over the couch. Bonnie noticed that the couch was still unmade and that a tangle of sheets now trailed the floor. She tracked him with her eyes as he wandered back into the small kitchen, rummaging through cabinets for sugar. She pointed him in the right direction and stood for a moment, watching him and transfixed by how well at ease he was in a stranger's apartment. She hadn't been embarrassed about asking him to stay over even though he'd insisted and she'd been drunk when she agreed but even now having him in her space didn't bother her like it would've bothered her had it been Kol because she didn't care about his opinions of her. He couldn't harm her, not the way Kol could harm her because she wasn't in love with him.

"Are you seeing anyone?" Enzo asked and she didn't turn to him. Slowly, she collected the sheets from the floor and laid them in a neat bundle on the sleeper couch. The stretched out couch made her apartment appear even smaller than what it was.

"Uhm-no, why?" she finally shot him a glance, the stifling summer heat already making the hairs at her nape stick to her skin. She looked out the window again and noticed that the shadows on the floor of the apartment were receding, chased by beams of sunlight that made the floor shimmer.

"Just a question. How about lunch today?" he held up a mug and brought it to his lips.

With a sigh, she approached the kitchen, "I can't, I have a lot of work. I'm supposed to write a report for Hayley and I'm nowhere finished with the draft."

"Dinner then" he asked, tilting his head down to stare into his coffee.

"Dinner?" Bonnie smiled feebly and picked up her coffee mug. She wrapped both hands around the circumference of the mug and felt the warmth seeping into her palms.

"Come on, throw me a bone here." He flashed a cheeky smile.

"What's your agenda?" she gave him an amused stare over the rim of her mug. The coffee was too weak and too sweet and so she set the mug back down on the counter.

"Huh?"

"Are you looking for something long term or are you merely chasing a fuck?"

"I'm excited about you and the possibilities." He shrugged, corking an eyebrow.

"What is-?"

He silenced her with a kiss, soft, his fingers tangling in the sweat soaked hairs at the nape of her neck before pulling back to gaze down at her.

"Call me when you're ready." He said, grabbing the rest of his clothes as he walked out of the apartment.

..