This was supposed to be a one-shot. It is probably going to have one more chapter now, perhaps two?

Dirty Martinis were delicious.

Licking away the last of vodka, vermouth and blood from her lip, she gave a slow, slow smile to the bartender who'd mixed her drink - as well as the girl who'd donated the blood while Caroline had watched. Hmm, B positive. Who knew there were vampire clubs that catered to vampires with specific blood preferences?

With live donors.

This particular club was in Brazil, run by a vampire acquaintance of Klaus'. Hidden, remote and filled with both vampires and donors, it did little to hide what it was once you were inside. It was the kind of place her previous friends would have hated.

It was the perfect place to blend in. Turning, she sauntered through the crowd, fingers pushing her loose hair away from her face. Humidity and dancing had already made her curls wild, and she took another slow slip from her drink, savoring the rush.

"Enjoying yourself love?"

Caroline glanced at the hybrid leaning against another bar, his smile only for her. For three months he'd catered to her whims, taking her wherever she wanted. Letting her do whatever she wished within the perimeters she'd given.

Klaus didn't push, didn't judge, didn't try to hold her back. He let her be. Oh, he was never more than a few feet away, always prepared to change their plans at the flip of a coin. But outside of her previous request to avoid killing - to avoid the eventual regrets she might one day have, gotta plan for that - he let her explore.

And wasn't that just a delicious power rush.

Knowing that the most powerful being - the second oldest living - was allowing her to lead, letting her make the decisions? It left her a touch breathless. She couldn't get even get her so called friends to respect her decisions, but less let her lead.

Like this club. They'd walked in and he'd simply compelled his friend into silence. Then, he'd gone through the room, oozing charm and danger, using the same complesions. Ignore them. Do whatever she wanted. Forget they were ever there.

"Of course," she smiled at him and sauntered over. That smile of his widened as she pressed into his space. Her fingers slipped to his neckline, brushing that warm, fever hot skin of his. His hands moved to her hips, his face telling her he didn't mind her close. But she knew that already.

"I want to dance."

Her fingers gripped his shirt, and she tugged him with her while she turned. His laugh was a soft rumble of noise, the heat of him a blaze at her back. She didn't bother letting go once they were in the middle of the floor, instead she she turned and laced her fingers behind his neck.

There was that look, the one that heated her in all the right places. Part devotion, part indulgence, all want. She couldn't remember any of her other boyfriends or lovers looking at her like that. Lust, yes. Affection, sure. But none of them had ever adored her.

She liked it.

"So, do ancient hybrids know how to dance?" She gave him a wicked smile, pressing close. "Or should I just show you?"

His hands slid along her back, one tangling in her hair as he matched the beat of her body, eyes dark. "Sweetheart, you're hardly the first generation to indulge in such a primal form of expression."

Letting that little flicker of his lashes, the parting of his lips be her guide, she gripped his necklaces to keep him close. "It's fun."

"I prefer my fucking naked." His smile was sharp, but he never took his hands from her body. "This is hardly what I'd call dancing."

She rolled her body into his, nails scrapping his neck. "This is better."

Another noise of amusement. "Is it? I don't need music or crowds to move with you like this."

"Don't be a snob tonight, Klaus." She warned, eyes narrowing. "And maybe this is the only way I'm going to let you touch me."

He bent his head and kissed her neck, scrapping his human teeth just below her ear. She shivered, pressing closer despite herself. His hand on her ass kept their bodies anchored together as he ghosted his mouth along her ear.

"To be able to hold, but not touch. To use eyes and lips to whisper of want... that's real dancing, sweetheart."

She tilted her head back, taunting him with the line of her throat. "You seem pretty worked up to me."

He took her dare, bit a line of sucking kisses to her jaw. "That's just you."

Caroline watched him from under her lashes. He was playing with her tonight, not bothering to mask his want. Part of that was the compulsion he'd used on everyone in the building, the rest of it was her.

The sharp, hot bite of arousal sharpened her smile. "Is this the part where you say no sex? Tell me I don't know what I want?"

He laughed low, tilting his head to smile at her with such affection, close enough that his lips skimmed hers with every word. "Oh, sweetheart. The mistake that you and everyone else seems to make is thinking that by flipping the switch, you're no longer you."

Caroline arched both brows. "Seriously?"

That smile, sharp and delighted, aroused with just the faintest touch of danger. She touched it with her fingertips, wondered if he smiled like that in bed. He hadn't in the woods, but that had been to much, as fast as possible. Maybe this smile was for languid hours under the sheets.

"Turning off your emotions doesn't make you less 'Caroline,' love. It's just one of the many truths you've kept under your skin." His eyes flickered over her lips, then back to her eyes. "You've always been a predator."

"Stefan doesn't agree." She countered, waiting to see his response. They'd slowed, until their bodies were just brushing each other, Klaus loosening his hold.

Klaus made a dismissive noise. "That's because Stefan can't accept one of his fundamental truths: blood. His dislike has nothing to do with control, little to do with with his personal horror, although I'll concede that his guilt is amusing if misplaced."

"Oh?" She was curious, despite herself. Stefan had once been the best Vampire she knew. Now, she'd second thought 'best.'

"We're vampires, sweetheart; monsters in the dark. Blood is life. Those like Stefan, with that little extra itch, they want the world to bleed its offerings like old gods. They reflect the more primal heart of our natures. Stefan's shame isn't that he is a ripper, but that he cannot accept it."

He stroked his hands along her back. "Now you... your reasons for not killing might be logical instead of emotional, but it's also not your nature to be a blunt instrument. You must admit, Caroline, that Stefan is hardly subtle; unfortunately, he still doesn't understand the differences between the two you."

"Killing indiscriminately is boring," Caroline said with a sigh, watching him from beneath her lashes as they swayed. "It's not any fun if they aren't worked up about it."

"So I've heard." He touched her chin, eyes bright. "You would play with your food."

"Why not?" Caroline asked with a shrug. "Where's the entertainment if they just die?"

"Vicious little predator," he murmured. Hand sliding back to her ass, he pressed her flush against him, rolling their hips together. She moaned into his ear, nails cutting into his neck.

"I'm not prey, love," he warned as he rocked into her, body moving to the slow steady beat. "Remember that."

She bit his ear, licked the blood until it healed, smiled at the way his lean body shuddered. "You'd be no fun if you were."

"As for sex..." Klaus murmured. "Only if that logical brain says you won't regret it."

She pulled back, frowned at him. "What?"

"I'll play with you, hunt with you, but I won't fuck you, Caroline." His eyes were dark.

"What if I want to fuck you?" She asked.

His mouth flickered with a smile, but he caught her gaze, held it. "No regrets. Not with me, Caroline. I won't be used and discarded, another of your trophies. I won't let you use me to hurt yourself later, either."

"Is that so?"

He gripped her hair between her knuckles, tugged her neck back to suck on her skin. She gripped his shoulders, body pushing against his as marked her skin.

"I stripped you bare in the forest, watched you come with leaves in your hair, my name on your lips and dirt on you knees. Spread you open like a pagan offering, the forest our broken alter." Klaus told her, voice tough with arousal. "When I take you to bed, it'll be with silk and blood; your body a feast in which I'll indulge for hours. But it'll be all of you, sweetheart. Not just the darkness, not just the monster - I want the woman who eats the people who annoy her, manipulates her friends for good and ill, and who cries over baby rabbits."

"So certain I'll turn it back on." Her skin felt too tight, to exposed. So she verbally put as much distance between them as his hold would allow. "Planning on using compulsion if I refuse?"

"I don't have to use compulsion," he chided, refusing to let her move away entirely. "You've already said it yourself. You're not weak."

"You see my remaining like this - free - as weak?" She tossed her hair, expression remote.

Klaus tucked a curl behind her ear, his touch more proprietary than gentle. "Of course not. But you do."

She went still against him.

"You know what your emotional trigger is sweetheart. You're to smart to not have figured that out. I'll bet that you made a list." His breath was hot on her ear as he leaned into her. "You're so called friends are the worst kind of fools."

Caroline watched him, eyes dark with her monster. "You think you know me better, that you understand me?"

Klaus laughed, pulling her sharply against him. Hand curving against her jaw, he held her still as he deliberately dragged his gaze along her face. "In seven months, you'll give up this little vacation, and struggle through the grief."

She bared her fangs at him. He bit her lip with blunt teeth until she bled, tongue hot against the burn. She clung to his shoulders as he took, tongue hot and slick against hers; the unexpected taste of blood made her shudder as he licked at her fangs.

When he pulled back, his lips were smeared with them, eyes tinged yellow. She couldn't look away, ignoring that knowing, wicked smile.

"But until then, why would I limit you? Spread your wings, little vampire, and let's see how you bring down your prey."

She slid one hand up his shoulder, leaned into him as the beat changed, thrumming through both of them. Eyes locked with his, she pressed against the lines of him and savored it - the heat of him, the faint bite of his cologne, every hard line of him. The way his body moved with hers and that faint, slight hitch in lungs that didn't need air.

Catching the corner of her lip in her teeth, tasting blood, she let her lips curl, lashes heavy as she gazed up at him.

"Let's."

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