Dammit.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.

This was not supposed to happen. This was not part of the plan but his lips are on hers and his hands are running along her skin like he's trying to brand himself onto her or maybe he's trying to brand himself with her. And god forgive her but she can't stop. She doesn't want to.

Klaus pulls back a little, and she mourns the loss intensely, but it's just long enough for him to yank his shirt over his head. She takes advantage of the seconds reprieve to save her bra from the same fate as her shirt, because hello! underwear is not cheap, and then he's back on her so much skin pressed together all heat and friction and more, she needs more.

Apparently she said this last part out loud because a huff of laughter escapes his lips and she breathes it in. His laughs are too rare not to savour and deep down she loves that she can coax them out of him. Klaus moves his hands down from her torso to slide under her thighs and lift her effortlessly up wrapping her legs around his waist.

He lays her down gently on the leaf strewn ground and leans up on his palms taking in the sight of her pale skin and golden hair spread out before him. Caroline reaches up and hand to cup his cheek, feeling warm skin beneath the scruff of his beard. His eyes soften, the crease between his brows smooths and she can see the belief that she is really here, with him, work its way into his mind. This is how it is, she thinks to herself, this is how you fall for the devil not because he promises to drag you down to hell but because he looks at you with those soulful eyes as says, 'you, you are the only one who can save me' and suddenly you don't care if you will be damned yourself.

She pulls his head down for another of those more necessary than air kisses. "Klaus." she whispers. "Klaus."

The Caroline who never really believed she could come first sneaks up on her as she catches her breath lying on her back beside him, legs still tangled up, his hand gently brushing through her curls. She turns her head to him. "Is that it then? You've got what you wanted?" she tries to keep the fear out of her voice but some of it must have seeped through because he doesn't pass her off flippantly or even get angry at her expectation of him.

Klaus just smiles, "Caroline. I want you. I want your body, yes, but I want your soul too. I want your laughter and your tears, your light and your dark. And I want you to give them freely. I won't take them. So I can wait until you are ready."

"You can't own me." she said.

"I know." he replied softly, "I don't wish to own you. You already have all of me, Caroline. I will wait."

As Caroline makes her way back to the house, his kisses still on her lips, his 'Goodbye Caroline' still in her ears she knows that he will have to wait. Because you can only wait for something that is coming. Not this year. Maybe not this century but Caroline suddenly knows that Klaus is her path. It doesn't scare her like the thought used to. She supposes it's because she has gotten to know him, just as he had dared her to not so very long ago, knowing that she never backed down from a dare.

So while Klaus waits for Caroline, Caroline will wait for her too. She is not that person yet. But, for better or worse, she can feel herself becoming her.