anhonorcode | (no subject)

There are certain things that Caroline hated on principle. The sorts of things that she rarely encountered but knew weren't for her. Then there were the sort of things that made her skin crawl with an all too familiar feeling. The sinking of the pit of her stomach, the frown, the wrinkles of her forehead that gave way to frustration and wringing of her hands.

She had been that girl before. She seemed to always be the girl that guys wrote off, said that it was too much too fast when nothing at all had happened. It was terrible. It made her sick and she was done with it. Maybe that was who she was back in Mystic Falls, but she was on Tabula Rasa now. She can be a different kind of girl.

The hours that she'd spent steeling herself against any temptation that might come at the hands of Tyler Winklevoss had been worth it. Here he was, running into her (or had it been the other way around?) causing her to not only stop her jog, but forget her place in her lines that she'd been going over. The frustration boiled up right then, but instead of spilling out loud and angry, she folded her arms against her chest and took a step back.

"Hi Tyler." Her words were clipped, short and to the point. "Don't worry. It's fine. Accidents happen, now if you excuse me," she continued as she went to step around him. The sooner this was over the better.

He doesn't have to be a mind-reader to know she's pissed. Her frustration with him is brimming to the surface and all in the time it takes him to come skidding to a stop before he barrels right into her. He even lifts his hands towards her shoulders as if to further steady them before thinking better of it, lowering his arms to his sides and looking down at her with a chagrined expression.

"Caroline, no, wait - " He sidesteps when she does, trying to cut her off before she can move around him, and he's actually grateful for the size advantage he has, covering a wide berth. It means he can beat her to the spot she's trying to get to before she manages to get there herself, stopping in front of her to keep her from moving.

"It's, uh - it's good that I ran into you, actually." He's managed to catch his breath now, speaking more slowly and evenly, and he squints down at her, trying his best to ignore the sound of rumbling thunder from far off. There might be a storm coming soon, but he's going to say what he intends to before that happens.

It wasn't so much that she's pissed, except yeah she kind of was. In her opinion she had every right to be and no right to be at the same time. It had just been a kiss at midnight, a make out session before and sure he'd said that he'd liked her but that didn't mean anything. It just meant that he probably would kick her for his team if they were playing kick ball. It could be strictly platonic. Even if they didn't kiss like they were just friends.

Letting out a mild grunt of frustration when he stepped in front of her, she looked up at him, hands on her hips. If he was going to stand there, looking all hot and sweaty and very nice then he had better make it quick. She didn't know how long her resolve was going to hold out, but she wanted to make it out of there before it gave out.

"Is it, Tyler?" Cocking her head to the side she looked at him expectantly. "Cause all the other times we could have seen each other, at builds for the play or the Compound or anywhere, you just couldn't be bothered? It's fine."

He's fully prepared to suffer any and all repercussions for this, because there's not a doubt in his mind that he deserves everything she wants to throw at him at this point, whether it be cutting rhetoric or a lobbed shoe.

He's wanted to have this conversation with her for a while - since New Year's, at least, but the timing had just never felt right, especially not in the midst of rehearsals with Lionel screaming at someone in the background or cast members being pulled every which way for fittings. He's wanted to wait until they're alone, when he can say what he needs to without feeling like he's got a million eyes on him, or without thinking he's going to lose her attention. He could very well be boring her right now, so maybe he needs to just nut up and get to the point.

"It didn't feel like the right time, then," he insists, reaching out for her hand. "Caroline, you know how I feel, it's just that - you intimidate the hell out of me, alright? You're smart, and funny, and you know how to take a joke and you also know how to laugh at yourself, and in the back of my head I think I just started to convince myself that I'd have a snowball's chance in hell of making this into something more with you. I haven't asked you anything along those lines yet because - quite frankly, I haven't thought ahead to what's going to happen if you turn me down, and - I really don't want you to turn me down."

"Are you freaking kidding me?"

Despite the fact that this conversation felt seriously like a case of déjà vu, Caroline couldn't help but be a little surprised. Her mouth was agape, a frown wrinkling her forehead as she tried to process this. She was pretty certain that they'd sort of talked about this at New Year's but maybe she'd been mistaken. Maybe she'd been drunker than she had thought and they had really talked about something else all together.

"Seriously?" Her voice had increased in pitch, the confusion and frustration plain as ever. Gesturing towards him she shook her head slightly. "Look at you. You're hot and tall and kind of like a freaking Disney prince come to life. You went to Harvard, you've done things that I'll never do and seen things that I won't get to at least not for a long time and you're intimidated by me?"

That was definitely not the sort of thing that made any kind of sense to her. She was kind of a mess. Her life had been a mess back home as had her afterlife. She'd always just been kind of pretending. Who would be intimidated by her, especially now that she didn't have fangs?

There was another low roll of thunder that she ignored. It would just be her luck if it started to rain on top of everything. "Well, Tyler, you can't know unless you just do something. But since you've kind of already run through the whole thing without me, I don't know why I need to be here now. Just do something or leave me alone. I can't take it."

"Look, I'm fully prepared to admit how ridiculous this sounds, even to me," Tyler replies, wincing not at the tone in Caroline's voice but with the realization that he's being more than a little stupid here.

Cam would be the first one to call him out on it, were he here, and Div would unquestionably be a close second, but neither of them are, and Tyler stuck with the ghost of their voices on repeat in his head, and it all amounts to what a total and complete ass he's been in the situation, what he continues to be the longer he chooses to stay in limbo without making a decision one way or another. She doesn't deserve that. She's better than all that.

"Caroline, I want - " There's nothing preceding the torrent of rain that cuts off his words, no preamble or warning thunder, and the normalcy of the rate at which the skies open up here isn't what surprises him. It's the fact that it does, here, while they're out in the open, and he tenses reflexively as the rain washes down in a sheet over them.

"Shit." He's not thinking, only looking around, trying to find some cover for them. There's a hut a few paces away, its windows darkened and its roof overtaken by jungle growth. It's probably been abandoned, but they can wait it out inside for however long this lasts. "Come on." He grabs for her hand again and leads her toward it, getting the front door open with a strong shove of his shoulder after it stutters on dusty wood flooring.

He gets the door closed with minimal effort, but now he's half-soaked, and he glances back to her. "You alright?"

The sudden downpour of rain made her squeal, gasping in shock as the heavens opened up drenching them. It really was just her luck. Whatever he'd been prepared to say had suddenly been lost in the effort to get out the rain. It was one thing to be sticky and sweaty, it was quite another to suddenly be freezing cold on top of that. There was something unfair about the fact that rain could be kind of cold when it had been sweltering minutes before.

Letting him lead her by the hand, she followed after him trying to ignore the gross squelching noise of her feet in her sneakers. Once inside it took her a moment for her eyes to adjust to the sudden dimness. The strands of her hair that escaped her ponytail are now matted to her head. She wouldn't be surprised if she resembled a drowned kitten.

Pushing the pieces of hair back off her face as she turned back to face him, she nodded. "Yeah. Just wet and kind of cold, but that happens when it decides to just randomly rain like that," she griped through slightly chattering teeth. "Are you okay?"

In the end, he has to laugh, ducking his head slightly to hide the full wattage of his grin as he shakes his arms, trying to fling stray water droplets off his hands. The hooded sweatshirt he's ripped the sleeves off of a few months back is almost complety soaked, and it's not doing him any good leaving it on, so he strips it off, laying it over the back of a the dusty couch to dry out before he slicks fingers through his hair once, combing it back.

He takes a second to glance around, trying to figure out who lives here - if anyone, at this rate. The furniture's pretty dusty, but there's still a few pieces scattered around, none of real sentimental value - and a bed in the corner, on the other side of what looks to be like some kind of old Chinese screen. It'll be a safe place - a dry place, even - to wait it out until the rain stops - which, unless they've entered monsoon season, should only be within a couple of minutes.

He looks back to find she's shaking visibly, trembling from the cold, and instinct as well as long-lost Boy Scout training takes over as he reaches out to her, beckoning her closer with a few curling fingers. "We've got to warm you up." It might be back to sunny in a minute or two, but the rain can have a chilling effect when sweat is already doing its job to cool them off. He finds the arm of the couch and sits, drawing her in, his hands moving up and down over her arms in a quick repetitive rubbing.

"I'm fine," Caroline assured him even though it wasn't exactly true. It had been a while since she'd had to deal with this sort of thing. Winter was one thing, the chill that followed being caught in the rain was quite another. The last time it had happened to her she had been a vampire. Vampires were already cold. It was kind of hard for them to get colder.

But she couldn't really say that. This had the potential to be embarrassing and uncomfortable enough as it was without her throwing in, oh by the way, I used to be dead and eat bunnies. That was something that could hopefully be pushed off for a little while longer.

Stopping just outside the reach of his arms, she wrung out the bottom of her shirt. Sighing at how useless that seemed to be, she peeled it up and over her head, dropping it onto the floor. Instantly she felt a bit warmer, despite the fact that she was clad only in gym shorts and a sports bra. The goose pimples that rose up on her arms had just as much to do with the temperature change as they did with Tyler's hands on her skin. "See? Much better," she told him, casting a look around the dusty and largely abandoned place. "Feeling warmer already."

He makes a face at her that reveals just exactly how far he believes that particular sentiment - in this case, not at all - though he drops his hands when she stops within arm's reach, keeping a respectful distance if she wants it. He's not going to stop being concerned, though, not by a long shot, and as she steps back to peel off her shirt, there's a beat where he has to will his eyes away from lingering too long.

"Liar," he counters, calling her bluff when he notices the goosebumps - not that he's looking closely enough to spot them.

"Well, fine," Tyler adds, shifting off the arm of the couch to take more of a definitive seat. If they're going to be here, he might as well make himself comfortable. "Maybe I'm the one who needs warming up." His gaze finds her again, a smile quirking the edges of his mouth.

The face he made was almost enough to make her laugh, which she nearly did but it turned out silent, nothing but an expression and hot air. She can't even manage to squeak, which almost felt like tiny failure.

"No," she returned shaking her head, ignoring the fact that the goosebumps were still there and that another shiver ran down her spine. At least her teeth had stopped chattering which was something.

Quirking an eyebrow, a smirk on her face Caroline almost wanted to point out that this was not solving the problem. It was just going to create new ones. He had never finished what he was going to say before it rained, but she can't make herself ask him to finish. She wanted to know and didn't want to know all at once.

"Then we should fix that." A streak of deviousness ran through her. If this, whatever it was, was going to be over the moment they stepped out the front door then she was going to make the most of it. A sly smile was on her face as she moved to sit on his lap, straddling him with her legs on either side of his. Her hands resting lightly on his shoulders, she hesitated just long enough to look him in the eyes before pressing a kiss on his mouth.

He's expecting - well, some kind of countering look, maybe, or a clever retort while she insists on keeping her distance, and he leans forward, bracing his arms on his legs. He's starting to dry off a little more, but his clothes are still wet, and he glances around, finding a blanket draped over the other end of the couch.

It's probably full of mothballs, but it's dry, and it'll keep him warmer than his wet clothes will - but as he reaches out for it, he finds her moving into his space, and he leans back against the couch cushions while she eases into a straddle across his lap - and it's almost embarrassing, the effect that has on him almost instantaneously as his hands grip her hips, slowly running up the curves of her sides to the elastic of the sports bra bordering her ribcage, his thumbs dipping underneath for a second or two.

"Caroline," he says, looking up at her, want in his gaze alongside the want to tell her everything he'd already planned to, but then she kisses him and all cohesive thought flies right out of his head. He wraps his arms firmly around her, one hand splayed across her back as his other arm slings low around her waist, and he sits up, shifts forward, drawing her in close against him, sighing against her mouth.

Instantly a sort of heat spread through her body. Caroline can't tell if it was from the contact or the fact that she initiated it or a little of both. It was a strange sort of high, the kind she so rarely felt, the kind that came from going after something she wanted even if she had to lose it minutes later. Caution could wait.

Her hands slid up from his shoulders, one touching his cheek, the other on the back of his neck as she nipped at his lower lip coaxing it out with her tongue. Giving in as he pulled her close, she briefly wondered if this was stupid. If she was making things so much worse by kissing him. If she was never going to know what he had to say because of it.

She didn't care. At least not right then. Not over the feel of his mouth on hers, his hands on her bare skin, the sound of her heart racing in her ears. When she stopped kissing him, it was out of a need to breathe more than anything else and she only just barely pulled her face from his.

"Feeling warmer?"

He'd only predicted this to go so far when he'd made his initial comment, the remark about needing body heat. His first guess had been that she'd laugh it off, that he'd give her the blanket in the end and just count on his damp sweatshirt to keep him warm, but she eases in over him and he finds his temperature rising faster than he can help. The heat between is almost starting to stifle at this point, and when she breaks away, he puts a little more space between them as he leans back to tug his shirt up over his head, pinching back between his shoulderblades to draw it off.

"Little bit," he admits, semi-breathless in his own right, and his hands are unconsciously eager as he reaches for her again, tugging her close, something catching in his throat when he feels the cant of her hips against his waist, his hand spanning wide across the side of her thigh. The other slides up from the small of her back into her hair, and his lips descend simultaneously, over the curve of her throat and the angle of her collarbone, kissing open-mouthed until his nose nudges the edge of the sports bra.

"You?" he mumbles, shifting slightly to kiss lower, across the tops of her breasts, until he tilts his face back up to hers to find her mouth again, lips slowly and lazily shifting over hers.

It was ridiculous but of all the random thoughts that ran through her mind just then, it was the one about how ridiculous it was that she still had her wet gym shoes on. Of course it was true, but that didn't make the fact that she actually thought about it, with this golden god kissing her, any less horrifying. Sometimes her brain was a real piece of work. Like who did that even.

Don't even get her started on the fact that she probably looked like a giant mess. She was dressed for working out, not for this, whatever this was. Again, not the point and she willed those thoughts away. It'd been so long that she'd almost forgotten how good this sort of thing was even as a human. It was all heat and contact and his hands, his mouth, everything.

"Oh yeah. Warming up, " she nodded faintly, eyes closing for a moment as his mouth worked its way lower on her chest. She was no longer cold. She was everything but cold. Lowering her head, her hands run down the planes of his chest as her mouth found his again.

She feels good under his hands, her skin soft and smooth as his fingers move over her thigh and back, respectively, caressing everything he can get access to now. He's had glimpses of it, at the earlier parties, taken advantage of the bodice she'd worn at Lambeth to let his lips do a little exploring, but now that there's even less covering her, it's mesmerizing, and he wants to touch everywhere she'll allow it.

"Good," he mutters, giving her lip a gentle bite before leaning back in to claim her mouth, his hand blindly fumbling down across the cushions for the blanket he'd seen in order to pull it down to cover the remaining length of the couch. It'll make it a little easier once he does, a little more comfortable for her once he shifts them, picking her up in his arms and laying her out across it as he braces himself up over her with one hand resting on the arm.

"You're beautiful," he whispers, sitting up slightly to look at her, working his feet out of his own wet sneakers one shoe at a time before he takes each of her feet and unties the laces on her shoes, tugging them off, followed by the damp socks. The sneakers hit the floor with twin thuds and he stretches out over her again, one hand guiding along her ribs as his fingertips nudge up the elastic of the sports bra and he presses his mouth to the under curve of one breast, not going any further than that until she gives the okay.

The blanket was vaguely itchy against her back, but she didn't really care. Letting out a soft squeak as Tyler moved her, she resisted the urge to pout at the fact that he leaned away. Not that she wasn't grateful that she was now free from her definitely not sexy at all footwear, but the fact that she had been wearing them in first place was still mildly traumatizing. Not that she was being dramatic or anything.

Yet again Caroline found herself being extremely glad that no one could read her mind. Her cheeks were flushed from the combination of a blush and the heat that was running through her. Every touch made her feel like she might just burst into flames. There was a faint smile on her face, but she didn't really know what to say to him. Fortunately his mouth was on her skin again, her mind going blissfully blank as she arched her back towards him.

Deciding to speed up what she felt was fairly inevitable, she sat up slightly, reaching down and pulling her bra up and over her head, tossing it aside. She had never been much for patience, especially not when it came to this stuff. Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around him as she kissed him, first on the mouth and then along the line of his jaw, down his neck, pausing at the base to lightly nip at where it met his shoulder.

It felt so good to not feel the urge to feed on him, to be able to give into everything else besides that hunger. That was a thrill all on its own.

Her mouth is like fire against him, continuing to stoke that heat in him to where he's eager for more, almost desperate. She's small under his hands, but ample, like he could span the width of her body but still find more and more that he wants to touch for himself, and when she makes that squeak of sound as he shifts them over, he grins, ducking his head to kiss the side of her neck briefly, hiding his smile there even though she can probably feel it as it happens against her skin.

He's preparing to be the one who divests her of that last top layer when she moves to do it herself, tossing the bra off to one side and then winding her arms around him for another kiss, and his hands start to roam, palming over her sides and up to her ribs until he can cup a breast in one while his other notches down by her hip, holding her steady in his grasp. Her mouth descends and so does his, his thumb seeking out the peak of her nipple until he can close his mouth around it instead, tongue swirling slowly before his lips draw tight into a slow suck.

He spends the next few minutes like that, lavishing attention on her breasts, from one to the other and then back again, and the one he isn't teasing with his mouth still receives a touch from his fingers - kneading, even gently pinching and rolling her nipples between thumb and forefinger. He's reluctant to stop, though his attention is understandably gravitating towards other things - at least if the telltale hard-on in his shorts is any indicator - and he starts working his way down her body some more, tonguing along the flat of her abdomen as his fingers curl underneath her cotton shorts and tug, coaxing her hips into lifting. For now, this is going to keep being about her, and everything he wants - everything she deserves to feel.

A moan rose low in her throat, her hands tangling themselves in his hair as she arched towards him. In a largely failed effort to keep herself from crying out, Caroline bit down on her lower lip. This was definitely not playing fair, not even a little bit, but she'd be damned if it didn't feel fantastic.

Her blood was thrumming in her veins, a blissful sort of white noise blocking out any distracting thoughts. There was always the chance that her reaction was the result of the fact that it had been months since she'd had sex. A dry spell could do strange things to a girl. But it was just as likely that it was Tyler, his mouth and hands and ability to frustrate her that made her feel like she was about to burst aflame.

Lifting her hips, she gave in to what he was going for, easily surrendering to the slow loss of the last pieces of clothes she was wearing. Her hands slowly moved down his chest, a silent hot damn echoing through her head at his pecs and abs. God, she didn't know what they fed him back in Harvard, but it was working for him. Seriously. It was barely even fair. Reaching the waist of his own shorts, she smiled wickedly at the tell-tale swell that she felt beneath the fabric. It was always good to know that everyone involved was into it. Doubts kind of sucked at times like these.

He draws in a breath, sharp and quick through slightly gritted teeth, a hiss against her mouth as she slips her hand down to the front of his shorts, unable to stop the reflex of his hips jerking in reply to her touch. If it's not evident by now that she has an obvious effect on him, there's only one more thing he can think of that will make it beyond clear.

He tips his head up to hers for one more lingering kiss for the moment before beginning a slow descent over her body, sliding his way down the couch. It's a little cramped, and he's forced to let his legs hang over the other end, but it's well worth it in his opinion when he gets down between her thighs, hitching her legs up over his shoulders in a smooth, simultaneous movement. The skin is softest right here, he notices, nuzzling against her inner thigh before he presses a series of kisses there, open-mouthed, trailing inward. It's a little too dark for him to fully appreciate his view, but what he can feel under his hands more than makes up for that.

For a second, he's got to press the heel of his hand against his dick as it practically gives a goddamn jump in his shorts. "Jesus, Caroline, you don't even realize what you're doing to me right now," he mumbles, turning his head for one brief kiss to her hipbone. He's not going to linger on teasing her any further, though, and leans forward, feeling her heels bump against his back. She's slick, wet when he uses two fingers to spread her open, gently massaging over the outer lips, and he drags his tongue along the length of her slit before delving in, his nose nudging against her clit when he does.

Everything had become a reaction. Most of her experience with this kind of thing came from teenaged boys (and ugh, Damon), pretty much all of whom did sexual selfishness like it was going out of style. So it wasn't like this sort of thing was new, but more that this was the first time that it had been any good.

Oh boy, was it good.

Her mind had gone just the amount of blank that she can't even formulate a response beyond a vaguely questioning murmur and a halfway thought out notion of returning the favour. Even that quickly failed her, a squeaky moan escaping her as he touched just there. Back arching, she grabbed the arm of the couch behind her head. "Tyler," she breathed feeling faintly like she could see stars. "Oh God. Tyler."

Everything she's wielded, everything he's deserved over these last few weeks for seemingly ignoring her, for neglecting her, for turning away out of selfishness and a ridiculous fear that he doesn't even comprehend now, after the fact - it's all worth it now, the minute his name falls from her lips in that breathless gasp, a moan slipping somewhere in there that somehow serves as a direct line to his hard-on, bringing it to an almost painful degree as he grunts in response. He can't be blamed now if his answers are more instinctual, his movements reflexive, and at the first taste of her he's already eager for more, fingertips keeping her open as his mouth seeks out every little place to touch and savor.

"God, you're beautiful," he groans, pausing for only as long as it takes him to utter the words before going in again. He tongues her clit until it swells, until she's freely wet, making it even easier for him to nudge a finger inside her, index pushing in to the first knuckle before he pulls back and then eases in again, deeper still, his lips wrapping around her clit to suck slowly.

Her breath escaped in a long, steady hiss chest heaving in a combination of exertion and ecstasy. Caroline didn't care if she made so much noise that they could hear her all the way back in Mystic Falls. Whatever. She was beyond caring about that sort of thing, past wondering and worrying and all of that. Even the thoughts of paying him back or returning the favor or whatever had fled. She'd get to that, trust her she definitely would but now there was just heat and a blissful blankness of her mind that had been filled up with feeling.

With nothing but a wordless shout to warn of the orgasm that ran through her in a wave, writhing and messy but so good that she didn't care. Hips bucking she gripped the dusty coach for dear life as she moaned, "God, Tyler," trying to sound a bit more threatening than she honestly felt. She was rapidly heading towards the place where she felt a bit like blissful go (in the good way) and she was not ready for everything to be finished. Where was the fun in that?

But whatever was up next had nothing on the here and now. Not even a little bit.

She's beautiful - even more so like this, hovering on the brink for what feels like close to an eternity before she releases all that tension in a rush, and he holds her through it, one hand resting palm-flat against her abdomen while he feels her stomach muscles tighten and relax, the same way those muscles around his fingers squeeze with every wave of sensation coursing through her, and he coaxes her back down with idle tonguing, easing his hand away once she's still again.

He raises his head slowly, pressing a slightly sticky kiss to her inner thigh only seconds beforehand, and crawls his way up to her, brushing a few stray pieces of hair back from her forehead as he stretches out over her, smiling slowly.

"What about now?" he asks, sucking in his lower lip. "Still warm?"

Breathing heavily Caroline was pretty certain it was entirely unfair of Tyler to ask her anything right then. She could barely formulate thoughts let alone say them out loud. She was still partially reeling in the aftermath, enjoying the buzz of it and the way that she was definitely warm, right down to the tips of her toes. It was definitely good. It just made her want more.

Lazily smiling up at him, she nodded as she slowly ran her hand down his side and up again. "Oh yeah. Definitely warm." Honestly she wasn't so sure what they had been talking about before they had wound up in this abandoned hut. She couldn't even tell if it was still raining. Everything had kind of started to blur. Licking her lips she pointed her toes as she rubbed her foot lazily against his calf. The height difference had worked out just fine.

"What about you? You can't be left in the cold after a performance like that. It wouldn't be right."

She's still breathing hard underneath him, looking half-dazed and entirely sated for the moment, and he finds he's more than content to just linger near her, stretching out alongside her on the couch - which doesn't provide much room as is, so he's pretty much forced to crowd in along her side, but he gets the impression that she isn't objecting much to the closeness. Folding one arm under his head, his fingers absently run through her hair, pushing back a few curls sticking to the side of her face.

"Oh, so that's what you consider a performance?" he teases, smirking slightly. From what he can tell, the storm is starting to taper off, though he's in no rush to leave any time soon and he doubts she is either. His free hand maps out a descent over her body, fingertips trailing along the valley between her breasts before making their way to the flat plane of her stomach, circling over the curves of her hipbones.

"Well, if you wanted to ensure my warmth as well, I wouldn't be in a place to stop you. It wouldn't be right."

For a moment the only move that Caroline made was that of her chest going up and down as she breathed. Instead she just watched him, tilting her head to follow the path of his fingers with her eyes. She could feel it, the lines like a small trail of fire on her skin, but somehow seeing it made it feel a bit more real. A bit more solid.

"No, it wouldn't. You know, fair is fair and all that," she teased lightly, gliding her fingers over his abdomen as she headed south. God, did they make all boys like this up north? Or were the Winklevoss brothers just a really awesome exception?

God. Like it even mattered right now.

Reaching down she ran her hand down the length of his hard on, fingers moving in lazy circles up the shaft and lingering briefly at the tip before giving him a firm, but gentle stroke. "How's this for a start?"

"Fair is - " Tyler starts, only to find himself beyond incapable of forming a complete sentence by any stretch of the imagination the moment she gets her hand on him, first drawing in a shuddering chuckle of a laugh as her fingers tickle his abdomen and then having to bite down on the inside of his cheek in the aftermath.

"That's - that's - " It feels as though his brain stutters on the word, failing to compute much beyond that as the gentle touch of her hand turns into that surprisingly firm stroke, the one that's enough to turn his brain into something purely gelatinous. All he can do is answer reflexively, tilting his hips up in eager response as he presses his lips to the soft edge of her mouth.

His reaction bolstered her confidence, not that she'd really been lagging in that department for this sort of thing. It was basic stuff, but there was something to be said about knowing the basics and being good at them. Picking up just the faintest amount of speed, she continued to move her hand in practiced motions, cupping and stroking just a little bit at time. Everything was deliberate, drawn out in a way that might have been a little cruel, but if it only took one measly little touch to finish him then it was kind of boring.

"Oh, is it? How articulate," she teased as she kissed him on the mouth, never stopping. It might not be much longer, given that he was half-way there but she was going to have a little fun with it.

"Sorry," he manages, quick and breathless and bordering on a nervous chuckle before his hips snap up again at her touch. He can't ever remember being this attuned, this into every single touch and caress of her hand - then again, he's pretty sure the last time he did this, there'd been one too many glasses of champagne to constitute it as anything but awkward fumbling. But Caroline's better than that. She deserves better than that - and somehow better has turned into curling up somewhere in an abandoned hut, but screw it, he's not turning back now.

"You - kind of make it hard to speak," he manages, fighting to grit out the words as he braces a hand on the armrest next to her head in a white-knuckled grip. "Jesus, Caroline."

Part of Caroline was certain that it might have just been easier if they had just had sex. Not that any of this had been bad or that she wasn't going to give it her all. There was just something to be said for the basics, even if it boiled down to going all the way on a ratty old couch in an abandoned hut. If it had worked for McAdams and Gosling in The Notebook, why couldn't it work for her?

With a self-satisfied smile, she never ceased her movements, continuing to push him further along even as she moved to kiss down the line of neck, nipping slightly where it met his shoulder. Just because she wasn't going to feed off him didn't make that habit go away.

The sensation of her mouth is damn near intoxicating, heated and soft all in the same instant, enough to go straight to his head and hard-on in equal divide, and one hand slips away from its grip on the arm of the couch to tangle fingers in her hair, grabbing a fistful and tugging, walking the line between desperate and rough as he greedily seeks out her lips against his own again.

"Care," he murmurs, only getting as far as that first part of her name before another groan rises, deep in his chest. His free hand reaches low, flexes fingers against the outside of the soft skin of her thigh before delving inward, wanting to unravel her as thoroughly as she's accomplished with him. He bites the inside of his cheek, hips jerking once, holding back that urge to release. It's too soon, too goddamn soon for it to all be over yet.

Caroline forced herself to not think about how Matt had called her by the nickname. Thinking of the ex (that's what he was, now at least, months later) when with someone else was what she had always accused him of doing. There was no need for her to do the same thing to Tyler. Feeling shades of confident and bold, a heat coiled low in her abdomen, her concentration momentarily lost at the feeling of his fingers on her inner thigh.

Her breath caught, her teeth biting down on his lower lip before she brought herself back into focus. She knew that he probably couldn't hold out for much longer, her hand moving slow, pointed strokes, pushing him further. If he wanted to take her down with him then she was more than fine with that. Whatever they had been meaning to talk about would just have to wait. "Tyler," she breathed as she kissed him again, slower this time, lingering with the faint taste of blood in her mouth.

Selfishly, he wants more of her, but he can't ask for that now. There's no access to anything in the way of protection, and he wouldn't be willing to take the risk. Maybe sometime in the future, later on, he can know what it's like to be inside her, but for now he can settle for this. Frankly, it's more than settling, but when her hand slows down, he muffles a groan against her neck, close to bursting from the sheer tease of it.

"Don't stop," he pleads, his fingertips moving up the inside of her thigh to touch her, two slipping in slowly to match the pace of her hand on him, his hips rocking up into hers as their wrists bump and hands fumble in between. God, it's so close and yet not enough, and his eyes meet hers, hungry and half-lidded.

Taking that leap from impromptu everything-but to actual sex had been a lot easier when she'd been a vampire. Despite the fact that dying actually kind of sucked, but it was killer birth control. Sometimes she just had to focus on the little things like to get passed all of the other stuff that she was less than a fan of.

What she didn't do was stop, rather just kept building the tension with each slow stroke of her hand. Quick and dirty was fine for some things, but a little build never hurt anyone. Her heart was racing, everything was sticky and warm and good. "I won't," she breathed and it was bit like a promise. "Not yet anyways."

He drops his head to bury it in her neck, groaning louder against her skin as the strokes of her hand overwhelm him, make it impossible for him to think about anything but what it would be like to kneel between her thighs and thrust in, to see the way her body would arch.

"Caroline, I don't have a, uh - " He falters on the word, ridiculous in its simplicity but somehow impossible to utter now, lifting his head slowly to meet her gaze and hoping she understands. He needs a release but he's not going to risk it at her expense, and he realizes he's been neglecting things on her end, brushing a thumb over her clit before curving the fingers inside her, crooking them slowly.

The answer that came her to her mind disappeared before she could say it. His touch sent shivers down her spine, like an electric jolt to her core that she didn't want to stop. It almost caught her by surprise, not enough to make her stop what she was doing, but enough to slower down.

"Figures," she said trying to not sound as exasperated as she kind of felt. It would be easier to just get them both there the old fashioned way, but that wasn't going to happen. Nothing killed the mood like the probability of a negative consequence. "Whatever you want. I'm good."

He ducks his head against her neck to muffle an equally frustrated groan, kissing her collarbone while he's there, his hand still moving against her as he struggles not to grind into her thigh like he's not as desperate as he feels.

"I know," he breathes, kissing her neck again before his lips trail up to her jaw, her cheek, nose nuzzling her temple gently. "If you want, we'll go slow? And I'll time it - God, I swear, if I don't get inside you soon I'm going to go insane."

Timing seemed like it was something that was definitely beyond them. Caroline had nothing against a little organization, but she couldn't really figure out how that was going to work out.

Nor did she really care to. Breathing deeply she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. After all she was pretty certain that going any slower might actually kill her. Again. Turning her head she kissed him. "Can't have that," she breathed with a smile. "So let's just go for it."