The fact that oxygen was still such an imperative aspect of existence even for a vampire seemed to be a silly impediment. But alas, Caroline had woken from her seemingly sound sleep with a start, grasping her chest and the covers around her, trying to will herself to take one really good inhale.

She felt herself trembling inside her skin. She momentary tried to discern what had happened and how it had catapulted her so violently from her deep slumber. Feeling her nose, mouth and lungs starting to facilitate themselves again she looked frantically around her dark room as the images of what had just flooded her unconsciousness met her swiftly.

A nightmare, she realized. One that had decapitated her serenity and peaceful sleep. Her skin crawled as the horrific memories of what still seemed so real, flooded her brain. Images of blood and something else... fur.

Her face was wet.

She suddenly realized, snapping back to reality. She touched her face hesitantly, noticing the slight vibration of her unsteady fingers. She was crying. Her neck catching residual tears that hadn't dissipated on their descent from her eyes. Caroline took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut on the exhale, trying to will herself to calm down and further suspend her hyperventilation.

Even the fact that it was just a dream and that it was now over was not enough for her fear to subside. Part of her felt it was only perpetuating her anxiety. She'd never dreamt something so horrific before. It wasn't like she was clairvoyant, right? It wouldn't actually happen, right? She looked around the room again frantically, searching for something that would catch her eye and calm her down. Something that would help her with her bearings.

When her eyes reached her nightstand and fell on her phone she grabbed it quickly.

She needed something. She needed someone. She almost felt like she was going crazy. Who was she even going to call? It was the middle of the night.

Her fingers moved quickly over her phone, though she hadn't actually consulted her brain as her phone starting emitting the sound of ringing on the other end.

What was she even thinking? Her eyes darted to the time.

2:27

She suddenly felt silly. It was way too late for her to be doing this. She didn't need to burden him with her irrational fears and disrupt his sleep. She abruptly ended the call during the third ring.

She pulled her knees, wrapped up in the sheets and comforter, up to her chest rocking back and forth slightly as she tried to self-soothe. Something like a dream shouldn't rattle her so intrinsically. She took a few more deep breaths, concentrating on the feeling of the air filling her lungs, focused on the sound as it escaped from her mouth.

She nearly skyrocketed off of her bed and out of her skin when her phone started buzzing beside her, almost sending her further into a tailspin. She plucked her phone up quickly, slightly more concerned about silencing it rather than answering it. Putting the phone to her ear, she nervously brought her thumb to her mouth, slipping her fingernail between her teeth. She didn't even attempt to speak once she heard him on the other line.

His breathing sounded erratic, she felt like she could even hear his pulse through the phone. She wondered if it was just in her mind.

"Caroline," Tyler started urgently, his voice lower than usual and filled with concern. He could hear her breathing. "Caroline, where are you?"

She felt the muscles in her body relax just at the sound and familiarity of his voice. It was uncanny the calming effect he sometimes had on her. That and the other not-so-similar effects. Before she could mutter a response he kept going.

"Caroline, what happened? Where are you?" He had the thickness of sleep laced in his vocal chords but that was slowly melting away as his worry and almost intense concern came bolstering through.

"I'm at home," she managed, the own sound of her voice sounding foreign in her ears. "I'm sorry, Tyler. I shouldn't have... I'm sorry."

"No," he responded, feeling his heart start to sink back into his chest. "No, it's okay. It's alright, Caroline. What happened? What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry," Caroline repeated, she felt so childish about the actual reason for her melt down. Everyone had bad dreams. But like that one? She shuddered and hoped not. "It's stupid. I didn't mean to...to wake you. I wasn't thinking."

"No, it's fine." Tyler responded in as even a tone as he could muster. He could hear the unease and uncertainty in her voice and he didn't want to make it worse by adding his own on top of it. "Caroline, tell me what happened."

"It's so stupid." Her voice was shaking. "I just...I just had a bad dream but... it was so real."

The way her voice shook and broke caused him to feel a pit well in his stomach. This was so unlike her. She was always strong and calm. And even when she wasn't calm she was in control. She knew what to do. She rarely fell apart the way it sounded like she was now.

Over a dream. Well, it must have been one hell of a dream.

"Care..." Tyler started, leaving the tail end of her nickname bare, waiting for her response. He could hear small gasps as she tried to regulate her breathing. "Caroline."

"Yeah."

"Breathe," he softly instructed her over the phone. "Take a deep breath."

She did as she was told. Took three in fact. Which did aide to calm her slightly but then she was hit in the face with how silly and uncertain she felt.

"I'm sorry," she offered again, her voice more even this time.

"Stop apologizing," Tyler replied, as he rubbed his eyes. "You don't ever have to apologize for calling me when you need me."

"I didn't mean to wake you," Caroline offered. Knowing that it was only a half truth. She had meant to wake him but then had changed her mind when it was already too late.

"It doesn't matter," he said, taking a deep breath of his own. "I'm awake."

She had nearly scared him to death. A billion scenarios had swept through his mind at an alarming rate. Things that he didn't want to think about. He had felt an overexertion of adrenaline pumping in his veins. Most of him knew it was genuine and legitimate concern, a tiny part of him wondered if it was overcompensation for his ghastly misstep where she was concerned that irrevocable night when he hadn't saved her.

Caroline was concentrating on the sound of his breath and other small sounds on the other end of the phone. He was shifting. Silence loomed delicately on the line. She wondered if she could just rest her head in that crux for a moment.

"I'm okay," she broke herself out of the trance she was in. "You should go back to sleep."

"Or I could come over," he assessed carefully. He suddenly had this overwhelming need to see her and verify for himself that she was really okay.

"Oh no, Tyler. I'm really okay," she reasoned, almost more for her own benefit than his. "Really, you should get some sleep."

"You just sound like you could use some company," Tyler ventured, careful not to bring up the dream outright though he was increasingly intrigued by its content. Especially if it had her this beside herself. "But I won't if you don't want me to."

"I...um. That..." Caroline trailed off. She was struggling for the right words to use.

"I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay, the door will be unlocked."

Tyler's mind was racing on his way over to her house. He felt a strange sense of pride that he could be there for her when she was going through something difficult. It was no secret that Caroline had been his rock in the midst of everything that he had went through in the last few months. What was also no secret is that Caroline had a slew of people to surround herself with and any one of them could have received that call tonight.

But anyone didn't. He did.

It was both sad and significant to him at the same time. She had everyone and he had her. Just her. But tonight she had chosen him. For whatever reason she had, it had happened and crazy as it was... it made him feel special. If only for a moment. Like maybe she could depend on him as much as he depended on her.

He turned his headlights off before he pulled into her driveway, careful to close his car door as softly as possible. Caroline's mother was likely asleep and he didn't want to wake her. He quietly but swiftly made his way up the yard and across the porch. He tested the door handle tentatively, she had said she would leave it open, and she had: the door opened easily.

Tyler eased his way into the house, mindful to lock the door behind him. He climbed the stairs carefully, noticing how quiet the house was. It was strange almost, it didn't creak or make noises the way his house did, maybe because it was so old, maybe because it was haunted, he hadn't figured that out yet. Not that he was in any big rush to find out.

Her door was open a crack, a small light from inside her room illuminated the insides minimally. He opened her door slowly, though he wasn't fearful that he would scare her, he was positive she had heard him from all the way outside.

Vampy amplified hearing and all that.

When his eyes landed on her he immediately felt his heart drop. He instantly felt insufficient and lame for that reaction. It was his turn to be the rock. She just looked so small and timid sitting in the middle of her ginormous bed. She was pushed all the way up to the headboard, knees pulled in, much like a little ball. Covers pulled up all around her, her golden hair a bundled mass on the top of her head, a few stubborn tendrils had fought their way from the grasp of her hair tie.

Their eyes met and she managed something that looked in between a forced smile and a sigh of relief. Her eyes were rimmed red, either from sleep or from crying. Or maybe both. Tyler closed the door behind him, never taking his eyes off of her.

"I'm fine," she whispered. As if she was reading his mind and the look on his face. Her eyebrows knitted briefly almost like she was trying to assess the veracity of her own statement. Tyler nodded his head lightly in response. He wanted to approach her but felt slightly apprehensive. She was on a bed after all.

Her bed. And no matter how many planes and boundaries they had crossed they hadn't yet reached that particular one. The overt connotation was hard for him to miss. But then again he was himself and his thoughts went somewhere less than pure.

"Come here," Caroline mumbled softly, mildly amused at his hesitancy. "I won't bite."

A small genuine smile played on her mouth at her play on words.

"Oh, look at you a regular comedian." Tyler replied dismissively.

Tyler managed to walk towards her in that comfortably humorous space she had just created for the two of them to lessen the sheen of awkward she could tell he felt. He sat on the edge of the bed facing her. He thought about getting in next to her but decided against it. He wanted to look at her face. He couldn't stop looking at her. She looked so fragile and emotionally disrupted.

"Stop," Caroline pleaded lightly. She could feel his eyes accosting her the way they sometimes did. In different ways for different reasons.

"Stop what?" He wondered aloud. He hadn't said or done anything yet. He was trying to refrain from smothering her all at once.

"Stop looking at me like that," she said easily, taking a deep breath. "Like I'm going to break or something. Like I'm a porcelain doll."

"No, you're a whole hell of a lot tougher than that." Tyler muttered. Subconsciously he reached for her hand. His fingertips grazing across the top of it gently. Her cool skin surprised him. She was always cooler than other people were but it was different now somehow. He grasped her hand tightly in his, his thumb rubbing on it's own accord as if he could warm her.

Could he even warm her? He wondered as his eyes roamed over her face.

"You're freezing," he stated softly.

"Am I? I'm always below normal temperature," Caroline reasoned lightly. The way in which he was handling her and this entire situation was extremely disarming. She was exponentially calmer, like he had some silent connectedness that reached her somewhere deep inside of her body. Somewhere she couldn't locate. "You know that."

"Not like this," Tyler replied softly, he brought their hands up and pressed the back of her hand to his face. She felt his warmth immediately span the small space of her hand. "How's that?"

"Better," she muttered, looking at him directly. She felt a light flutter in her stomach. She wrote it off as residual nerves.

"You wanna talk about it?" He questioned lightly, searching her eyes. He wanted to know so desperately what had gotten her to his point.

It wasn't as if she hadn't heard the question. She had, but for some reason as soon as the syllables left his mouth she forgot what he had said. She seemed to be infinitely distracted.

"What?" Caroline questioned, her wandering mind refocusing on his words as opposed to his being or his proximity. Or her hand between his and the side of his face.

Tyler broke their eye contact momentarily as he noticed the side of her neck suddenly, the t-shirt she was wearing was hanging off one shoulder haphazardly. He hadn't noticed it before. He had a strange impulse to trace the length of her collarbone with his finger. He pushed it down as he looked back into her eyes.

"Your dream," Tyler clarified evenly, removing their hands from his face but not loosening his hand's grip on her's. "You wanna talk about it?"

Caroline felt instantly propelled back to that vulnerable place where the images of that dream haunted her.

"No," she said, shaking her head lightly as she tried to keep her emotions at bay. "I don't want to think about it much less talk about it."

"Well just know that nothing is going to happen," he reassured her gently, he noticed the change in her demeanor instantly. "No one is going to hurt you."

"It wasn't me," her voice was barely audible. "It wasn't even about me."

Tyler squeezed her hand as her words resonated with him. If it wasn't about her than it had to be someone she cared very much about. Elena or Bonnie, her mom... Matt? Just the thought of him made Tyler cringe a little on the inside. Regardless of the breakup between her and his best friend/sorta friend/not-really-sure-if-they-are-still-friends friend, he felt an instinctual protectiveness and jealousy when it came to Caroline and him. Tyler realized it wasn't rational and that he probably had no right to feel that way, but it didn't change the fact that it was a reality for him. It was something he had to deal with himself.

Besides she hadn't called Matt. Matt wasn't there in front of her. He was.

"Sometimes dreams are just dreams," Tyler stated. "It's not like you're physic or something."

"Are you a mind reader now?" Caroline asked in a bemusing tone with a quick laugh. "I thought the same thing. And then I thought how horrible it would be if it was some crazy curse or something..."

"It's not," he assured her firmly. "It's not, Caroline. It was a dream."

"I know," she sighed. "I know, you're right."

"Hmm, imagine that?" he joked, as he took a deep breath. "Me being right about something.

Caroline managed a small smile at his attempt to lighten the mood. He was being really supportive and comforting and she appreciated his willingness to just sit with her. It meant a lot. It was a lot.

Tyler was suddenly hit squarely in the face with her scent. It was this subtle mix of guava, powder and rain water. She always smelled this way but for some reason it was stronger in his nose somehow. Maybe he was just more inclined to it in that moment. He was more inclined to mostly everything that had to do with her in that moment. He wasn't sure whether it was from the fear slowly tumbling off of her frame or them holding hands, or how perfect she looked, even completely disheveled but the already building draw he felt to her seemed to seep deeper by the second. Caroline seemed almost overcome by a deep yawn, breaking their hands to cover it.

"Someone's tired," Tyler observed teasingly.

"I don't even think I'll be able to go back to sleep," Caroline admitted ruefully.

"Maybe you should try," he suggested. He had come to see her and make sure she was alright. He could pull himself away from her in order for her to get some rest. Or at least he would try. He gave her a reassuring look and gradually leaned away from her to stand. Before he could even facilitate another encouraging remark in sleeps favor she grabbed his arm tightly causing his reflexes to sharpen as he met her uncertain gaze.

"Will you...um," Caroline started off incoherently. "Will you lay down with me for a little while? Just til I fall asleep?"

Tyler's heart leapt and sank in the nanosecond of time he had to react and respond to her question. He wordlessly nodded his head, fearful that any verbal confirmation would give away his earnest propensity for any sort of closeness with her. He slipped off his shoes quietly as she moved over, pulling the covers back just barely for him to get in. He momentarily caught sight of her legs and wondered two things: what she had under that oversized t-shirt and if this was an exceptionally bad idea.

But he quickly resigned himself to the notion that he had to keep himself in check. That wasn't what this was about. This was about a friend helping and comforting a friend. Nothing more. Even if he had to repeat that to himself a million times just to not infringe on her current state, he would. She was vulnerable and scared for goodness sake and he would bet a lot of money on the fact that her mind was no where near where his was.

As they settled into her bed, she immediately put her head on his shoulder, angling her body against his, his arms instinctively wrapping around her. Little wisps of her hair rested on his neck, he could smell her smell so much more now. He was enveloped in it. Caroline took a deep breath and he could feel her whole body relaxing against his on the exhale. She fit perfectly on the side of him like a glove or a puzzle piece or something you go your whole life not realizing your looking for and finding it unexpectedly one idle night. Her body curled up in the crux of his side were all those things and so much more.

He tried to focus.

"You're warm," she murmured, she felt an unwavering degree of contentedness. He felt good in an overt way, but also in an understated way. In a way she wasn't really ready to admit.

"Occupational hazard," he responded gently, it seemed his fingers had started tracing shapes on her arm without him being aware.

"Wouldn't it be great if that was all it was?" She asked in a whisper. "If being a vampire or a werewolf was only a job, a hat we wore for a few hours a day and then we could go back to just being us? Wouldn't it be great if it didn't take everything? Consume every aspect of every minute of every day."

"Yeah, if only," he thought out loud. He felt an instant sense of sadness and was placated by her nearness in the same manner that she must have been by his.

"Are you comfortable?" Caroline asked lightly, she sounded on the verge of sleep.

"Yeah, you?"

"Mm hmm."

As sleep slowly crept up on her she became increasingly aware of his fingertips on her arm and the way her toes were pressing into the side of his heal, her other foot almost completely underneath his. She was very aware of all of the ways their bodies connected in a seemingly innocuous embrace. As she teetered between consciousness and sleep she wondered why she was so preoccupied with his body and hers. Before she drifted off to she chalked it up to vulnerability and emotions.

"Care..." Tyler whispered after a few moments, he brought his hand up to her ear and caressed it lightly.

She didn't respond. She had fallen asleep. Tyler took a deep breath and felt his entire being relax further.

Just a friend comforting another friend.

And before he realized what was happening, sleep came to take him too.

Tyler awoke disoriented to movement beside him. It took him a moment upon opening his eyes to fully understand and recollect where he even was. The sound of her next to him shook him from his sleepy state as he looked over at her. She was still asleep but had completely dislodged herself from him. She was on almost the other side of the bed. She lay askew, legs and arms every which way. It was a wonder he hadn't woken up sooner by how much she was tossing and turning. Her eyebrows knitted curtly in a deeply set expression on her face. Like she was fighting someone or trying to reach someone.

She was having it again. She was dreaming again.

He quickly squeezed his eyes shut. Battling inwardly the discomfort he felt seeing her like that. It frustrated him that this subconscious thing in her head wouldn't just leave her alone. She needed to sleep peacefully for goodness sake. Tyler crawled towards her slowly, he gripped her shoulders gently, trying to steady her from struggling against her own body and against the bed.

"Caroline," he stated evenly. He didn't want to startle her awake but felt that option must be infinitely better than whatever hell she was fighting in her sleep. "Caroline."

She didn't wake up. He thought about shaking her, trying to sit her up, anything that would extricate her from her current state.

"Caroline, wake up." He pleaded, holding her arms firmly, smoothing down pieces of hair that had escaped their confinement. "Please wake up."

Her eyes frightfully popped open and she looked around the room in utter discombobulation, seemingly unaware of his presence right in front of her. Her breathing was ragged and shallow. When her eyes locked onto him and she realized he was there she plummeted into his his arms with almost enough force to knock them both over.

"It's okay," Tyler murmured as he rubbed her back. Her level of fear, discomfort and anxiety were magnifying his own subtle undertones of the same emotions. " You're okay. It's over, okay."

"I'm sorry," Caroline emphatically exclaimed. "It was all my fault."

"What?" He was confused, he tightened his hold on her; she was practically in his lap. "No, no. It's okay. Shhhh, it's okay. It's over, alright. It's over now."

Caroline's brain was foggy as she squeezed her eyes tight, burying her face in his neck and holding onto him for dear life.

"Breathe, Caroline." He instructed her as he tried to calm her. "You're okay."

They stayed that way for several moments. Him whispering calm and encouraging words to her, trying to dismantle her heightened fear and perplexity. Her holding onto him as if her entire world depended on the closeness of their bodies. After many minutes had passed and her regular breathing had been restored, she felt as if she might be able to let him go and exist on her own merits. She didn't want to though. She felt so safe and protected in his capable, firm grasp. She also felt an immense sense of relief that he was safe as well. She breathed him in and exhaled with the satisfaction of his nearness and the notes of wood and pure testosterone. He smelled so good it stung her. She silently thanked whatever had propelled him to come over after her slightly inconsiderate call earlier in the night.

Caroline pulled back and looked at him, instantly floored with how close their faces were.

"Better?" He questioned gruffly. He was thrown off by the sudden change of dynamic in the moment and how desperately he wanted to kiss her.

"Yeah," she replied with a whisper, their eye contact spanning unnecessary depths of time.

Caroline boldly closed the space in between their mouths, giving him a tentative light peck on the lips. She left her mouth on his just barely and lightly prodded his lips with hers. Testing. Tyler's lips reacted instinctively, matching her gradual pace gently. Sampling. The agonizing pace of their kiss started to build monumental ardent curiosity within the both of them. Tyler placed both of his hands gingerly on either side of her face and expertly deepened the kiss, exploring her mouth with his tongue, but still not quickening the pace. She let out something that resembled a whimper and felt her fingernails involuntarily dig into his shoulders. She pulled back only slightly to change angles on his mouth, the kiss deepening still when there lips connected again. Caroline could feel his fingertips on her neck as he was slowly driving her crazy, she inadvertently started quickening the pace of the kiss, feeling the beginnings of an innate desperation. She hadn't realized she could want him this much.

"Wa-waiitt..." Tyler let out, pulling away just a little bit. He suddenly was overcome with prior scenes from the night. She was vulnerable after all. He was a lot of things but one thing he wasn't was a jerk. Well, at least not anymore. Especially when it came to her, he didn't want to do anything to take advantage.

Caroline shushed him persistently. Kissing him with renewed vigor, her hands went from his shoulders to the back of his neck, her fingertips interlacing the short hairs on the nape of his neck. She sucked on his bottom lip sweetly, causing him to grip her hips where his hands had traveled to.

"God, Caroline..." Tyler moaned into her mouth. "I don't want to take advantage of you."

"I'm gonna be the one taking advantage of you if you don't stop talking." Caroline replied against his mouth.

Tyler, for a moment, couldn't actually believe this was occurring. He had a fleeting thought about not wanting to be her rebound from Matt but that quickly was eradicated by her oscillating mouth against his.

They fell back onto the bed, her body fully on top of his. She felt a tumultuous level of intense excitement and couldn't for the life of her figure out why they hadn't done this before. Their mouths battled against one another, both competitively angling for control over the pace. Caroline started to feel like she couldn't breathe but it didn't matter because she didn't want it to end.

"I need you," Caroline gasped against his mouth, sneaking in some oxygen.

All of a sudden she was on her back and he was hovering over her, the weight of his body pressing impeccably into hers. Kissing her forehead, her cheek, her chin, Tyler worked down to her neck, placing his mouth at the base of her throat and sucking the sensitive spot there causing her to hiss. She suddenly remembered where they were.

"We have to be quiet," Caroline mumbled between gulps for air.

She fumbled with the bottom of his shirt and he swiftly reached behind him and pulled it off at the neck. He looked down at her beneath him, stunned by how gorgeous she was. The oversized t-shirt she wore had ridden up showing her black underwear, his heart nearly dropped to his feet and he went rock hard. She wiggled effortlessly out of her shirt, she wasn't wearing a bra. She leaned up briskly to pull him back onto her, their mouths continued their duel. Both of them beckoning the other, yearning for leverage.

It wasn't lost on Caroline that this would be the first time since her change that she'd actually be with someone and the way she was feeling in that moment, just based purely on skin to skin contact alone, she wasn't sure she would be able to handle it. It was already making her dizzy. She wondered if this was the first time for him too, since he changed, then realized she probably didn't want to know the answer to that question. Their mouths disconnected and he continued an extensive onslaught on her neck.

"You're making me crazy," Caroline moaned, inadvertently her knee bore into his crotch, making his jean covered hips jerk.

"Baby," Tyler mumbled weakly against her neck, he had to grip her arms to keep from making a less than quiet noise. Caroline smirked slightly as she grappled with the button of his jeans, that's the first time he'd ever called her that. She was immeasurably turned on by everything about him in that moment.

Tyler gently swatted her hands away from his pants and made a slow descent down her body, leaving tiny kisses every couple of inches. Caroline felt her toes curling before he even reached his destination. He hooked his fingers in her underwear and pulled them off, running his hands down her legs. He licked her slowly and methodically, making her neck crane and hips arch. She reached down for his hand, gripping it tightly as their fingers interlaced. She tried to keep the sounds that were threatening to escape from her mouth at bay but she was loosing the battle. She felt the skin shifting around her eyes and her gums began to itch. Her legs started to shake and he held her in place, wrapping an arm around her waist. He didn't stop, he just kept winding her up. They both could feel the unnatural strength reverberating in her body when she gripped his hand to keep from crying out.

Caroline felt herself turning and she fought hard against it. She didn't want anything bad to happen. This was too good. She didn't want to hurt him. She didn't want to bite him.

Or rather, she completely did. So badly.

But she knew that she couldn't give way to it. She had to be stronger than that. Even though he was slowly demolishing any semblance of control she'd ever possessed. She tried to focus on controlling the turn instead of directly focusing on how he was manipulating her with his tongue. It was so intense a pleasure that she couldn't really handle much more of it.

"Oh my God," Caroline breathed through ragged breaths, trying to nudge his head away and bring him back up to her. "Too much, it's so good but too much."

Tyler let up, quickly unbuttoning and discarding of his pants. He crawled back up her body and kissed her fervently, she matched him with a renewed desperation. She could feel his excitement against her leg and the anticipation was electrifying. He pulled back to look at her, he just wanted to absorb her face for a moment. He wondered if his own face was as lust filled as hers was. It must have been. He took both of her wrists in his hand and carefully pinned them over her head and she let him which was outlandishly hot. He was momentarily distracted by the heaving raise and fall of her chest.

"Please Tyler," Caroline could barely get the words out, she felt like the anticipation was slowly destroying her. She felt certain that she might very well evaporate into thin air if she couldn't feel him inside of her.

"Tell me," Tyler teased her, so enamored with her and the fact that she was allowing him to truly be in control, even if he was prolonging the inevitable. "Say it."

"Inside, please." She gasped, practically begging. Tyler obliged her, more so because he himself couldn't wait any longer.

She felt a hundred times better than he had imagined, he didn't even move for a moment just to relish in being completely surrounded by her.

His thrusts were slow and deliberate. The ache he instantly feels completely overwhelms him and he's not sure he can last very long. He squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed her hip with his free hand.

Caroline was almost certain that she might pass out, the pleasure was so intense that it hurt a little, but not so much that she wanted him to stop, more like just the right amount that all she wanted was more. She could hear the sounds that were building in her chest and threatening to escape from her throat as she tried to subdue them. Her gums started to itch again and she desperately tried to push it down but she was so involved in everything that he was doing that she couldn't seem to get a handle on it. Their bodies, his hands, with every movement everything kept getting more elevated. Her hips grinding up to meet his with ever-increasing fervor.

She was being too loud, she suddenly heard herself and just as she had that thought she felt his hand clamp over her mouth firmly, muffling her. Every sense and nerve and instinct were heightened to such a degree that the smell of the blood beneath his finger made her fangs descend and she suddenly could breath.

Do not bite him. Do not bite him. Caroline kept thinking over and over, raw and palpable pleasure radiating from her core all the way to the tips of her fingers over her head. She managed, by some other greater force that was more inclined to his safety to clench and lock her jaw, filling the points of her teeth poking the bottom of her mouth.

Tyler couldn't control it anymore, he was going to come and there was nothing he could do to prolong it, it felt like she was close too, she was contracting against him more and more and he could feel her starting to tremble. One more motion and they both climaxed almost dangerously. Tyler held his hand over her mouth and buried his own face in a pillow next to her head, hoping that it would successfully muffle whatever expletive that had come out of his mouth. His ears were buzzing.

Neither one of them could move for several seconds, Tyler finally regained cognition to focus and heard Caroline's distinct pants in the back of her throat from behind his hands. He let go of both her mouth and wrists and pulled out of her. Caroline looked up at him with wild eyes, still struggling to catch her breath, she briefly touched her mouth to find her normal teeth restored.

"Breathe," Tyler whispered into her ear, kissing it gently then he kissed the side of her face and the inside of her wrist.

"I can't... I don't..." Caroline couldn't even facilitate a sentence that made any sense. She was almost sure the entire lower half of her body was throbbing so gloriously that she would go numb.

"That was..." Tyler himself couldn't express everything that he wanted to after what they had just shared together.

"Wow," Caroline exclaimed breathlessly, oxygen was starting to fill up her lungs.

"Let's do it again." He teased her, obviously joking. Neither of them could actually move, let alone attempt to go another round. Caroline gave a light laugh, that she felt to her toes.

"We can't," Caroline joked as she pushed his face playfully. "If we ever do that again I might kill you."

"That would actually be completely alright with me," Tyler responded, kissing her shoulder.

With that they didn't say another word, they stayed that way until they both fell asleep. Still touching, still connected, still intertwined in one another as the simmering, barely there glow of dusk started to illuminate the sky.