I'll Be Your Last

The Wrong Blonde

Slowly I was waking up, feeling solid warmth behind me. Pulling the covers up to my chest, I burrowed into the bed, pressing back into that warmth. A strong arm curled around me, pulling me back against him even tighter.

“Caroline,” he whispered.

Still half asleep, I reached for his hand, lacing his warm fingers with mine. I pulled our hands up to rest at my heart, fully intending to get in another couple hours of sleep.

“Caroline,” he whispered again, pressing a kiss into my hair.

I grunted at him. “Want to sleep,” I mumbled. The back of his hand rested against the flesh between my breasts. With a knuckle, he gently began to rub small circles on my skin. I sighed, a happy sigh.

“So you missed me too?” he asked.

My eyes flew open. Granted, I was a heavy sleeper and always had been. But I remembered going to bed, alone, last night after my run in with Klaus on the stairs. Now he was here in my bed, snuggling with me?

I threw off his arm, sitting up.

“Do you understand what boundaries are?” I demanded, glaring at him.

“Good morning, love.” Klaus was stretched out on his side, fully clothed, with that devilish grin on his face. His eyes were so blue.

Forget the cute smile and the eyes already. Boundaries!

“I actually haven’t been here that long,” he informed me, hooking a finger around the strap of my nightgown and pulling it over my shoulder.

Oh, he was up to something. I could tell.

“And you’re not going to be here any longer,” I told him, planting both of my palms on his chest. I felt quite a bit of satisfaction watching his eyes round in surprise when I pushed him off my bed. The thump he made when he hit the floor was satisfying too.

He rose from the floor gracefully, still grinning at me.

“Come now, Caroline,” he teased me, “if you’re not nice to me, I can’t give you your present.”

“Present?” I groaned, burying my face in my hands for a moment before looking up at him. “Is it another house I can move into?”

Playfully, he pressed a hand to his heart. “You wound me, love. Have we been such terrible hosts then?”

“No,” I admitted.

“Then you’re cross with me because you feel I neglected you yesterday?” he asked.

Don’t look at his dimples.

“You know, actually? That was working out for me pretty well. You being gone.” I grabbed the filmy peignoir from the foot of my bed and pulled it on. It didn’t hide anything but it made me feel a little more covered up.

His expression was a little more sober when I climbed out of bed. “So this is still about Haley then?”

I was still dealing with that. I shrugged, trying to give the impression that it didn’t matter to me either way. But I could tell by the way his gaze searched my face that he wasn’t buying it. He looked a little uncertain of where to go from there.

“So, what’s my present?” I asked, trying to help him out and because I preferred his playful side to his dark one.

Slowly, warily, the smile reemerged on his face. He turned and opened the door to my room, motioning to someone beyond it. A couple of young men, vampires I realized after a moment, carried familiar looking boxes in and set the down before the armoire.