The Devil In Me

Chapter 7

Caroline pinned her hair up, more carefully than usual perhaps, though she denied the thought even as it formed. Being drawn would make anyone more conscious of their looks, she thought adamantly.

She had kept Klaus company a few times, twice with Kol and once with Rebekah over the last few weeks. He had also received other visitors, including Elena and Katherine, though those visits were more stilted and formal, and seemed to exhaust everyone involved. He was healing well, and would soon be out of his rooms, as it was, it was difficult to contain him to bed anymore.

Caroline had yet to see one of his pictures, though he had shown Kol. When she had visited with Rebekah they had read out loud one of his favourite plays, with Rebekah proving a natural actress, her voice changing with each character, Caroline smiled at the memory, it had been a very sweet day. Klaus had listened attentively, sketching at the same time, and now Caroline practically burned with curiosity to see the results.

She determined that today she would insist. She had also allowed his request that she wear blue, as today, he was going to teach Rebekah to mix watercolours, and she had agreed to sit for them. The only blue gown she owned was the one from Tyler, and she smoothed her hands over it nervously, aware of how formal it looked.

Leaving her room, she met Rebekah in the hall.

"Caroline, that looks lovely, I do hope my brother is able to help me. I confess to be quite terrible at mixing colour" Rebekah said breezily as she knocked on Klaus's door, and entered without waiting for a response. Caroline followed slower, giving Rebekah a chance to start conversation and check her brother was decent.

"Caroline' he said warmly as she entered and she noted with surprise how well he looked. She hadn't visited him in several days, and now, she could see the handsome, virile man she had first met again in his face. The bruises had faded, his eyes back to their blue, his hair, once again a tousled mass of gold atop his head. She bobbed politely, smiling back at him, and watched as he surveyed her dress, a shadow of a frown crossing his features.

"So, brother dear, shall we start?" Rebekah said, crossing to an easel, with a small table set up before it, holding brushes and bottles of paint, to stand beside him.

"Indeed" he said shortly, turned his attention away from Caroline to look critically at the window, moving a chair before it, this way and that, until he was satisfied. Gesturing to Caroline, he stood behind her as she sat, a little nervously in front of him, turning her head to look up at him. She practically jumped when he placed his warm hands on her shoulders and turned her gently back around. Caroline's eyes flew to Rebekah, to see if she had noticed his inappropriate touch, but she was absorbed with filling bottles with water from a pitcher in the corner. His hands still rested on her shoulders, and she felt a tremor run through her. Why did her body respond to his man with such intensity, she wondered. Perhaps because he had almost hurt her, she thought, but then, the feelings were difficult to define, they seemed to blur the line between fear... and excitement, to the point that Caroline preferred to keep distance between them, so she wasn't presented with such confusing emotions.

"Relax" his low voice purred in her ear, and she felt goosebumps spring out from the point of her skin, where his full lip had grazed. She nodded dumbly, and waited for him to move away. Finally his hands released her shoulders, and the cool air on them felt almost jarring, he walked back to the easel, turning at the last moment and smiling at her, so very... personally, she looked away. She had never met a man who managed to make her feel quite so naked under his gaze before. Who could look at her, and seem to know her own thoughts, better than she herself did.

The afternoon light was very warm on her, as the sun moved across the sky and at one point, she rested her head back against the chair back. The soft warmth of the sun, the quietness of the room, the quiet chatter of Rebekah and Klaus, it all conspired to drag her eyelids down and before she realised it, she had fallen asleep.