A Persistent Lover

The First Date Part 1

At 5:50, Caroline sat in the lobby, tapping her foot in anger.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," she muttered under her breath. She was playing right into his hands. She knew she should have left the moment he hung up on her. She also knew that leaving wouldn't make this end any sooner.

She had picked out the most modest outing dress she owned. Modest for Caroline Forbes, however, wasn't that modest. The black dress hugged down her body to her knees. The one strap of the dress gave lead way to more exposed skin on her back and of the shoulder of her other arm. A silver necklace hung from her neck and silver earrings propped her small shaped ears.

She was smart to leave the bracelet in the drawers of her room.

Throwing her now curly luxurious hair over her back, Caroline stood up and walked over to a tall mirror, giving herself one last check. Her vanity was not helping her out at the moment. She wanted to look like she hadn't tried to please him, but of course she had walked out of her room looking prepared for a photo shoot.

'You will not let him win tonight,' she ordered herself as she applied a shimmer of lipstick. 'You have fought him off for three months, tonight will be no different'.

Her thoughts froze as the reflection in the mirror displayed the hybrid himself walking into the lobby.

He looked the same as ever, with the exception of his hair looking like it just had a trim, and goddamnit he looked gorgeous.

Caroline quickly took in his attire. Black shoes and dress pants and a dark blue buttoned up shirt. A black tie hung from around his collar and to her reluctant happiness, saw that he had not removed his stubble.

Hell would freeze over before she admitted that she found his stubble sexy.

She saw him turn to face her, saw his mouth open slightly, and in a flash he was beside her. Thank God there was hardly anyone around.

She turned to face him, expecting some smirk and a sexy hello, but instead found him just staring at her face, as if memorizing every single feature he could look at. His chest was slightly heaving and when Caroline looked directly into his eyes, she swore he looked as if he had just seen an angel descend on Earth.

"Well, I'm ready to go," she spoke coldly, trying to break the tension.

Klaus cocked his head to one side. The moment broken, the smirk Caroline knew so well on him appeared.

"You look flawless tonight, love," he crooned before taking her arm in his and wrapping it around his own before she could protest. "But of course, you already knew that."

A limo awaited them. Caroline rolled her eyes as Klaus opened the door for her before climbing in after her. She scrabbled to the far end of the seat, trying to make as far a distance from him as she could.

"The L'atelier De Joel Robuchon, Robert," Klaus gave orders to the driver. The limo took off and Caroline was left to face Klaus.

She strained her eyes out the window, hoping to avoid him any discussion with him. Of course, it was unavoidable.

"Really, sweetheart, are you going to be ignoring me this whole outing?"

She turned to face him. "Fine," she snapped, annoyed at his fake look of pain. "What do you want to talk about?"

Oh lord that was stupid. She remembered the last time she had asked that question...and what his reply was.

A smile spread across his face. "I want to talk about you, Caroline. Is it not a curious thing that we have quite a little history together, and yet one of the only things that you have ever told me about yourself is that you like horses?"