THE PORT OF LOVE

Fan Fiction – Alternate Universe

Caroline & Klaus

From: Lovely Vero

Summary:

Fish & Sea International, worldwide company, with its head office located in New York city, sent one of its commercial manager, Miss Caroline Forbes, in England, at the picturesque fishing village of Clovelly, with the mandate to reduce the number of employees, due to the global economic crisis. Caroline Forbes arrives on the site, at Clovelly village, high heels, red nail polish, and with her designer clothes on her, but immediately have the distinct impression of not feeling welcomed in the middle of the villagers, especially, when she meets Klaus Mikaelson one of the fishermen on their boat company: an unpleasant, surly, and rude man, without good manners toward her. Violent insults fly between them, and this hostility is preventing her from doing her job. But beneath this hostility, a fire burn … A fire of pure, hot, desire between them.

Chapter 1

"Clovelly, here I am!"

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure that I've heard you correctly. I need to go where exactly?"

Caroline Forbes, Manager of the International department, at Fish & Sea Company, located in the downtown of New York city, asked her boss, while sitting straight as an "i" on her chair, with her manicured hands placed over her black pencil skirt, and her legs crossed in the purpose of showing her new Louboutin high heels shoes.

"Clovelly village, my dear, in England." Mister Hollman answered her, while signing a pile of papers that were placed on his desktop.

"Mister Hollman, I perfectly know where Clovelly is located, after all I am in charge of the International department, I'm just not exactly certain of the reasons you want to send me to this village located at the end of the world."

"My dear, Clovelly is far from being located at the end of the world. Six hours of commercial flight to London, and a short transfer to the village, is not what we could consider travelling to the end of the world." Caroline's boss answered her, while raising his head and staring at her, with a beginning of annoyance in his eyes.

"I'm perfectly aware of that fact, Sir...I mean, Mister Hollman, I'm just still dumfounded of the reasons my presence is necessary in one of our worldwide Ports?" Caroline insisted, while playing with one of her red fingernails.

Mister Hollman closed his eyes for a few seconds, while taking deep breaths, before removing his glasses from the tip of his nose and dropping them on his desktop. He leaned his back on his chair, joining his hands together, almost as a prayer gesture, while staring into Caroline's eyes.

"Miss Forbes, are you implying that I don't pay you an enough salary? I think that a six figures salary is more than generous for your present position." Mr. Hollman asked Caroline.

"What?" Caroline exclaimed, while blushing a hundred shades of red. "Of course not, Mister Hollman, you're more than generous, and I value my position at Fish & Sea. But I don't…" She added to him, before being interrupted.

"Perfect! Then you will understand that if I say "Jump", you'll simply "Jump" without asking questions." He informed her, with a smirk on his face.

Caroline lowered her head, while closing her fists in anger. That was the price to pay in our modern world for an intelligent, independent and professional woman to succeed.

"Yes!" She responded to him, while raising her head and chin, showing that not one single man in the world could ever make her feel incompetent.

"Perfect!" He replied to her, before adding. "Then you'll have no problem packing your luggage in a hurry. Your flight is schedule for Friday night; you'll arrive at Clovelly on Saturday morning. Your mandate will be to evaluate the staff at sea, and cut the half of the men effective on place. Do you have any other questions, Miss Forbes?"

"No, I don't have any more questions, Mister Hollman." Caroline answered him, while biting her bottom lip in anger.

"Perfect! You can leave now, Miss Forbes." He added to her, while putting his glasses back on the tip of his nose, and lowering his eyes on the papers in hands.

Caroline rose on her feet, before storming out of her boss's office, while closing her fists in anger and swinging her hips on her very expensive high heels.

"Can you believe this?" Caroline asked her friend Bonnie, before kicking her Louboutin high heels on the floor, while taking a sitting place on the luxurious leather sofa of her friend, with a glass of red wine in her right hand.

"Hardly…" Bonnie replied to her friend, before pouring popcorn into a large bowl, and while holding her laughter.

"Can you imagine me, in the middle of nowhere, having a conversation with fishermen?" Caroline exclaimed, while taking a big gulp of her wine glass.

"Not to point out the obvious, Caroline, but these fishermen – Aren't they the major reason why Fish & Sea exist?" Bonnie asked her, while raising one of her eyebrows, before putting the bowl of Chips on the living room table, and sitting on the sofa near Caroline.

"I hate fishermen! Erk…They smell like fish, and they chew tobacco and drink Whisky and beer, they are just disgusting!" Caroline exclaimed, while pulling her tongue out of her mouth, while making a funny face.

Bonnie busted into laughter, while throwing popcorn at her friend.

"Well, isn't it logical that fishermen smell like fish after a hard day at work?" She asked her friend, while blinking an eye at her, before adding. "Why in hell did you take that job if you hated fish and all the shebang that comes with it?"

"Hello! Six figures salary at the age of twenty seven years old. That is the only reason why I am working at Sea and fish. I love money as you know it, and all it can give you in life. And, I don't hate fish for say, I am actually in love with the new Sushi restaurant that opens on the fifth avenue, it's simply divine." Caroline replied to her friend, while smiling heavenly.

Bonnie rolled her eyes to the ceiling, while shaking her head and smirking.

"Darling, you love the lives of the rich and famous."

"I don't deny that." Caroline shrugged her shoulders.

"So, how long will you be gone?" Her friend asked her.

"Two to three months?" Caroline answered Bonnie, while pouring more wine into her glass, coming from the expensive bottle that she had bought to celebrate …. No, not celebrate, more so, to mourn her soon departure from New York.

"How long did you say?" Bonnie shouted at her, while spitting her wine and bursting into laughter.

Caroline raised one of her eyebrows, before narrowing her eyes at her friend.

"What are you implying by this outburst of laughter?" Caroline asked her, while crossing her arms on her chest.

"You, Caroline Forbes, the Diva of all Divas, are going to live two to three months in the middle of a fishermen village? You'll die after one day!" Bonnie laughed her sentence to explaining.

"Well, not everybody can be a dentist like you, with a private practice. Some of us need to listen to our boss to make a living, or just accept to be fired! I'm toast, aren't I?" Caroline asked her friend, while putting her head into her hands.

"No, no…Don't say that! You'll be fine…I'm sure there is plenty of stuff to do in Claveny?" Bonnie replied to her friend, while caressing her hair and trying to hold her laughter.

"Clovelly, the name of the village is Clovelly!" Caroline repeated to her friend, while shaking her head in annoyance. "And what will I do in Clovelly? There are obviously no Designers boutiques. I'm almost certain that they are wearing potato bags over heir heads." She exclaimed in laughter.

"Well…" Bonnie answered her, with a smirk on her face. "…You could go fishing!"

"Oh!" Caroline exclaimed, while reaching for the bowl of popcorn and throwing a bunch of them at her friend. "You're mean girl!"

Bonnie busted into laughter, while putting her arms above her upper body, to protect herself from the projectiles.

"Ok, ok, stop it…I'm sorry!" She screamed, while laughing. "Listen Care, I'll even go visit you if you insist!"

Caroline stopped her attack, while raising her chin up in the air.

"Promise me that you will come to visit me? Please?" She begged her friend.

"I promise, I will!" Bonnie answered her. "After all, I have a couple of days off coming in the next weeks; I need to see the paradise that you will be staying for the next months."

"Paradise, my beautiful ass..." Caroline replied, while crossing her arms in front of her chest and pouting.

"Hey, Caroline, Look at it this way: Maybe you will meet a sexy fisherman and have a torrid affair with him?" Bonnie said to her friend, while blinking an eye at her.

"Erk …. Just that thought in my mind is repulsing me!" Caroline said, while shaking her head and grimacing. "I prefer my man well dressed, sophisticated and rich!" She replied to Bonnie, while bursting into laughter.

"Talking about sophisticated and rich man, how did Elijah took the news?" Bonnie asked her, while raising one of her eyebrows.

Caroline shrugged her shoulders, while blushing.

"We decided to take a break in our relationship. So, it's the perfect time to evade myself to Cofelly I guess." She replied to her friend.

"Klaus, Klaus, Klaus, Klaus, Klaus…." The men started to shout in the "Rose Garden" English pub of Clovelly, while hitting their fists on the wooden tables and on the bar counter, cheering for their favourite in what seems to be a battle of arm wrestling. "Yay!" They finally shouted their joy in screams for their favourite winner, before raising their beers, and applauding.

The said Klaus rose on his feet, before getting rid of his t-shirt, grabbing a bucket of water and ice, and pouring its content over his head, with the water sliding on his muscular chest, while shaking his army cut /golden hair, to get rid of the excess water. That man was not what you could call of a typical masculine beauty; he was tall, with blue eyes, well build, with muscular abs and arms, several tattoos on his arms, back and chest, with the addition of a large scar on his right cheek that gave him the look of a bad boy, for the pleasure of the ladies.

"One day, we'll find someone that will beat you, Klaus!" A man shouted, while pointing a finger at him.

"Yes, and one day, Jamie, you'll talk to me while being sobered! It's not going to happen!" Klaus responded, while triggering the general laughter in the pub.

Klaus smirked while grabbing his T-shirt, before drying his face with the piece of material in his hands.

"Hey stranger, I thought that you could be thirsty after this manly battle." A redhead whispered in Klaus's left hear, while sliding a large glass of beer on the table, in front of the winner.

"Give me a woman who thinks of the welfare of her man!" He exclaimed, while grabbing the ass of the redhead, making her giggle, before crashing his mouth on hers.

"Hey, Klaus? I think you will get some tonight, mate?" Jamie shouted more, while bursting into laughter.

"Mate!" Klaus shouted to get the attention of the crowd, while raising his glass of beer in the air. "A man can only hope that God will grace him one day of the presence of such a beauty by his side for the entire night!" He added, while slapping the girl's behind with his left hand, kissing her on the cheek, before putting back his t-shirt and walking to reach the bar, where a middle age man was standing, his face empty of expressions, his sight lost in front of him.

"George." Klaus saluted him, while nodding his head.

"Klaus." George replied, while nodding his head back at Klaus and sipping his glass of Whisky.

"Did you get any news?" Klaus asked him.

"They are sending somebody from the head office of New York." George answered Klaus, while passing a nervous hand on his reddish hair.

"It's bad?" Klaus asked more.

"They want to cut the half effective of our staff." The foreman answered him. "But, please keep this to yourself, in this economy I don't want to alarm the men in advance."

"Damn it!" Klaus exclaimed, while hitting his fist in anger on the bar counter, before gulping the beer in his glass and lowering his head near George's. "Charles is too old to find another job, he'll have to sell his house and his wife is now getting sicker by the day."

"You think I don't know that already? I'm aware of how critical the situation is presenting itself, son." George responded, while gulping his glass of whisky.

"When this American asshole will arrive from New York in his classy clothes, and his expensive cologne, I'll kick his ass so hard that he will ask for more!" Klaus mumbled angrily between his teeth, while closing his fists in anger.

"Mate, don't be a fool!" The foreman told him, while holding him immobile with a hand placed on Klaus's chest. "You're my best man on our boats, but that is not saying that you are safe from being laid off, nobody is!"

Klaus growled before pushing George away from him, reaching his table to grab his leather coat, passing near the bar counter, once again, before grabbing a bottle of whisky and heading toward the exit of the bar.

"Hey! What about our romantic night together?" The redhead girl screamed at Klaus.

"It will be for another time, sweetheart!" Klaus screamed back at her, while waiving his left hand, before slamming the door behind him, closing his eyes and breathing the chilly night air of August, winter was getting close now. He opened the cap, before drinking from the bottle.

"Drinking won't change any of your problem you know." He heard a voice address itself to him.

Klaus turned his head, before seeing the crazy woman of the village. She was named Esther and known by all to be the unbalanced poor soul that ran the streets of Clovelly at night, in the spirit of a fortune-teller, for the few tourists who where enough fools to believe in her nonsense.

"Mind your own business Esther, and go see if I am not somewhere else." He responded to her.

"Your destiny is coming Klaus. She'll come, and she will change you – As you will in time, change her." She said, before passing beside him, raising her head to look at the night sky filled with clouds before disappearing into the night.

"How is it that the boat returned so early?" Eric, the young sailor screamed to the men on the boat deck, which has just docked at the port of Clovelly.

"The storm is intensifying, and the sea was not cooperating." Klaus screamed at the teenager, while throwing the rope at him, to tie it to the column. "Tie it solidly, or the rope will come off."

The young man nodded his head, before executing the order.

"Klaus, put your coat!" Charles, the oldest man on board, screamed, while handing a duffle coat to Klaus.

"I don't need it!" Klaus screamed at him, while dragging his army boots on the deck, his clothes soaked by the heavy rain that was now falling from the sky over the open deck. Not that it was bothering him much; his wool sweater and his ripped jeans had seen better days. "Get out of the boat, Charles, I'll take the buckets of fishes with the others, and I'll wait for the other boat to arrive."

The men on the deck bustled with the buckets of fishes, with the wind rising in intensity; it was now evidence that a strong storm would hit Clovelly very soon.

"Ok!" Charles screamed, while waving his hand at Klaus. "I'll go back home, to see Rosa…I'll need to close all the shutters, thank you, Klaus!" The older man said, while turning on himself, before suddenly holding his walking pace on the dock. "God, Marie, Jesus…I'll be damn! What do we have here?" The man exclaimed, while opening his eyes widely, and putting his hands on each side of his waist.

The men on the deck turned their sights to the same direction, and Klaus suddenly raised his head while noticing what Charles was looking at.

A taxi driver had dropped on the dock, what at first sight looked like a tourist passenger who was now standing under the pouring rain, with placed near her feet, several large luggages. It was a young woman, and she could not have been older than thirty years old. She was waving at their direction, like an angry seagull, gesturing and screaming from the top of her lungs, with her handbag placed on her head to protect her against the rain and the wind, a pair of high heels boots and a very short skirt.

"Oh, this must be the American classy lady that George talked to me about. She's coming from the head office of New York." Jamie shouted through the curtain of rain.

A spark of malice appeared in Klaus's eyes, with a smirk that could only imply no good. So it was a woman and not a man that the head office had sent to them. Way better!

"Sir George told me that he was in his way to pick the lady up and brought her to a room above the Rose Garden English pub." Jamie continued explaining, in front of a speechless and dumfounded crowd of fishermen. "I should go and tell this young lady to find a shelter till George's arrival."

"But we don't want to make Miss New York City wait, don't we?" Klaus asked, while jumping with both feet on the dock and passing a quick hand over his wet face. "At Clovelly Village, We have the best hospitality of the county, am I right, mates?" He screamed through the wind, with a devious smile on his face, while staring at the blonde Diva who was still waving at them.

"Klaus, whatever you're thinking of doing, son…Just don't do it!" Charles exclaimed, while putting a hand on Klaus's forearm to retain him.

"Jamie? Throw me a pack of your chewing tobacco. Roland? Give me the key to your truck and the key to the old fisherman house." Klaus screamed to the men.

"Mate, whatever you have in your head, we are all with you!" Jamie screamed before throwing the pack of tobacco to Klaus, soon followed by the set of keys, with the cheering of the all group. "Show her the good hospitality of Clovelly, Klaus!" They all screamed at him, while laughing.

"No, no, no, no!" Charles screamed to all of them, before adding. "Are you all out of your minds? We need to make a good impression to the head office, maybe we'll get a rise in salary after?"

A silence filled the air, while they all stared at each other. It was obvious that Charles was not aware of the reality.

"Don't worry Charles!" Klaus said to him, while grabbing one of his shoulders. "I'll treat the lady like a princess." He added, while walking toward Caroline's standing position, taking tobacco from the bag, before putting a handful in his mouth. "Ok baby, it's going to be you and me now, I'll take you in a ride that you will not soon forget…No one is playing with me and my fishermen."

Caroline jumped from one foot to the other, while trying to maintain her balance under the strong wind and pouring rain, her sight glued to the fishermen's boat in front of her eyes.

"Morons … They don't see me waving at them like a crazy fool, or what?" She said out loud, while gesturing with her right hand, while keeping in balance her beautiful Louis Vuitton bag over her head, which would be obviously ruined under this weather condition. "Hello! Somebody…I'm meeting with Mister George Chester!" She screamed from the top of her lungs.

And then she saw him! He was slowly…No, not slowly, an army of escargots would have walked way faster than him, it's like he was doing it in hope to make her blood boil.

"I'm sorry…Yes, you over there, hello!" She shouted, while looking straight at him. But the fisherman seemed to ignore her even more. "Are you deaf or something?"

He finally arrived by her side, turned his head before locking his blue eyes with hers. Caroline felt a range of intense shivers hitting her, all at once, but she could also feel that he had also trembled in shock at the same moment their eyes had met. She opened her mouth, but without even being able to let out a single sound. The man was not even what she could call awesome. He was standing under the pouring rain, as if it was a perfect sunny day. He was tall, with a muscular body, short army hair, and very peculiar facial features: a square jaw, and a scar that was crossing his entire left cheek, his clothes ripped and he stank of fishy smell.

"What do you want, Princess?" He asked her.

What does she want? She thought to herself, while closing her fists in anger. She was standing under the pouring rain since at least fifteen minutes. She was tired, hungry and extremely wet, and her suede high heels boots would obviously be ruined, she thought to herself before lowering her head to look at them, while splashing in the puddle. And then it got way worst. The man spit pieces of chew tobacco, which fell on the dock and on her shoes.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, while opening her mouth in a speechless expression. How dare he?

"What? Did I hit your shoes, sweet pie? My bad…Well, look at it this way, Love…They'll clean themselves with this pouring rain falling over them." He said to her, while nodding his head and retaining a smile.

"Are you George Chester?" She mumbled, angrily, between her teeth, while trying to keep her calm.

"No, my lady, I believe I'm not." Klaus answered her, while taking another handful of tobacco, before chewing with his mouth open, making Caroline closes her eyes in disgust, while counting up to ten, in her head.

This New York Diva, on her high heels expensive boots, was biting too easily his bait, thought Klaus, while enjoying every moment of her obvious suffering, and he would certainly give her the change for her money!

"Then do you know where I can find him?" She asked him, while raising her chin in a confrontational gesture.

"No, I don't, Princess." He replied to her, before adding. "Why?"

"Why?" She exclaimed. "Because I'm standing under the pouring rain, and I am supposed to meet with him. Do you even know who I am? Are you working for Fish & Sea?"

"I'm working firstly for my beautiful ass, sweet pie." He replied to her. "But, if it's George Chester that you're waiting for, he asked me to take care of you, so come with me, and I'll bring my Queen where she supposed to be." He added, before starting to walk again, his hands in his front pockets, while dragging his army boots in the puddle, leaving a mouth open – speechless, Caroline, behind him.

"Aren't you going to be a gentleman and help me with my luggage?" She screamed at him, while hitting her feet on the dock.

"I ain't a gentleman, Princess, I'm a fisherman!" He replied to her, while smirking of contentment.

Thanks for reading!

You have no idea how happy I am to have finally being able to post the first chapter of my first Alternate Universe story.

I hope you will enjoy it immensely.

Till next chapter, keep safe all!

Lovely Vero.