The Vampire Diaries: Trust In Betrayal (Kindle Worlds) (In Time We Trust Trilogy Book 3) (46 page)

Cali follows me inside and shuts the double oak doors behind us, turning back and crossing her arms as she meets my eyes for the first time since I compelled her to remember.

“When we first met, I was attracted to you,” Cali says, and my body stalls into motionlessness. “You were dancing like you were good in bed but you didn’t want to admit it in public.”

I take a breath, abruptly nervous. Not long ago, I would have loved to hear that but now... I glance in the direction of the kitchen and wonder if there are enough walls between us so that Caroline can't hear our conversation.

A little smile plays across Cali's face and before I can decide how I'm supposed to respond, she goes on.

“After you locked me in your basement I had all of those feelings still, but I was furious and trying
not
to have them, especially because you reminded me of me. Of what I was afraid of becoming.”

My head rears back. “Wow. Um, okay…”

Cali takes a step away from the door, light blue eyes so intent that I have to fight the urge to fidget. “You said to me, ‘I’m living with the consequences of so many wrong choices that some days, I can barely move under the weight of my regret.’” She swallows. “That’s exactly what
I
was doing, for all my ranting about how useless guilt is. Did you know the songs I wrote in that cell are the first notes I’ve put together since I moved in with my grandma? I still play, but I don’t write. My band…they deserve better than me. We were getting damn close to signing with a label when I bagged out to go help Gram, and none of them are songwriters. I’m holding all of them back.”

I tilt my head, uncertain if she’s trying to apologize or if she wants me to. I stay quiet, giving her the space to say what she needs to say, part of my attention still pinned to the phone in my pocket, waiting for the vibration of a call from my brother.

“I was scared shitless that you were going to make me forget, just like I did when I got roofied,” Cali explains. “It felt like you were going to steal part of my life and it was enough to make me realize I’d already been doing that to myself. I was helping Gram, yes, but I took everything way further than that. The CNA job, the refusal to use any home health care staff…I was paying my penance for not being there for my family, but in a way that hurt other people I cared about.”

She stops by the sofa, her fingers picking at the cushioned back.

“Meeting you sort of opened my eyes to what I was doing wrong, but then you compelled me and my epiphany was lost along with everything else. I woke up at Gram’s house but couldn’t remember where I’d been earlier that day. My Taser was missing and I was suddenly intrigued by Mystic Falls. I felt unsettled, like I might be losing my mind. And then I met Jeremy.”

I glance down at the carpet, trying not to show how thoroughly uncomfortable I am with her bringing this up. I have no interest in getting in the middle of whatever she has going with Jeremy and if that's what this little meeting is about…

“As much as I hate you for kidnapping me, they did a lot of things for me, those three days. They helped me realize it was time to move forward,” Cali says, shifting her weight but refusing to look away from my face. She takes a breath, her voice softening. “I sat with Gram after Matt drove me back to Mystic Falls and the way she is now is nothing like the person she was. She really has nothing left to lose and I think part of the reason I was afraid to trust vampire blood to heal her is because I was still set on living out my penance.”

I nod, because I’m not sure that would make sense to most people, but I understand completely. “Do you want us to heal her? Once we’re sure it’s safe to go back to Mystic Falls, I mean.”

She tilts her head, her eyes kind. “Actually, I was hoping
you
would agree to heal her.”

I frown. “Me? Why?” When we were on the road together, she seemed to be more comfortable with Damon than she was with me, and I know she gets along well with Caroline.

“Because when you picked me to dance with in that club, it was the start of some really dark moments in my life,” she says, “but in the end you brought a whole lot more good than bad, and I think we could both use a reminder of that.”

I clear my throat, the thought of being able to heal her grandmother more powerful than I would have expected. And the fact that Cali
wants
that person to be me…I don’t know how to thank her for that kind of trust.

Instead, I opt for the simpler option. “Thank you for coming here, for helping us find my brother.”

“I’m really glad he’s okay, but I didn’t do it for you,” she says, and shrugs. “And he didn’t end up needing my help anyway.” I’m smiling before I can stop myself, and she scowls at me, shifting self-consciously. “What?”

“Nothing,” I say, holding back my chuckle. “Just…that’s exactly what he would say.”

“Yeah, okay,” she says, glancing back toward the foyer and the direction Jeremy disappeared.

I wait, because this feels strangely momentous, and I sense we’re not finished.

She shifts her messenger bag on her shoulder and looks up at me. “Stefan, to be honest, I don’t really know how to be around you. I’ve hated you and been grateful to you and sometimes you remind me of the worst parts of myself and sorry, that’s kind of an asshole thing to say.” She winces and I smile slightly. “But I think you’re a good person. Plus, you’re a part of Jeremy’s life and I’m stupid in love with the guy, so…” she trails off, flushing a little.

I hold out my hand first. “Friends?”

Cali tips her head. “How about semi-awkward acquaintances?” She takes my hand and winks as she shakes it. “I wouldn’t want to start out our acquaintance-ship with a lie, after all.”

A low chuckle escapes me, and I release her hand. “Understood.”

“Good.” She pivots on her heel, leading the way out of the living room every bit as decisively as she led the way in.

As I follow, a smile plays across my face. Jeremy’s going to have his hands full with that girl, but somehow, I don’t think he’ll mind.

When we get back to the foyer, it’s empty and Cali pauses, biting her lip.

I focus for a second, then tell her, “Jeremy’s upstairs, but he’s done talking to Elena.”

She gives me a suspicious look and I smile and tap my ear with one finger.

“Ah, right. Well put on your earmuffs or something,” she warns. “Because that wasn’t the only speech I’ve been practicing, and the second one isn’t for you.”

“Really, you practiced that?” I tease. “Don’t worry, the bulleted points didn’t give it away or anything.”

She scowls at me, but it doesn’t entirely hide the smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Apparently
all
the smartass in the family didn’t go to your brother. Too bad.”

“Too bad,” I agree solemnly, and she snorts and heads for the stairs.

I turn toward the kitchen, hoping everyone will stay upstairs long enough for me and Caroline to steal a moment for ourselves.

In the doorway, I stop and prop a shoulder against the wall, crossing my arms as I watch Caroline slam her way around the kitchen. The angry indie girl rock escaping from her ear buds is more clue than I needed that she’s feeling frustrated. Still, I can’t help but smile at the effort it must have taken her to resist eavesdropping.

Before today, I’ve rarely allowed myself to think about Caroline as anything more than a friend. There have definitely been some moments, especially when we’ve danced together, that my body voted its enthusiastic disagreement with that categorization, but that’s nothing unexpected. She’s a startlingly attractive woman, with one of those infectious smiles I can never resist. And if I think back—way, way back—I can remember having a similar physical response to Lexi when we first met. It faded over time, as I stopped really seeing her as a woman, and more just as the person who was my friend.

I figured I would eventually settle into that same comfort with Caroline. But today when she looked at me and said Damon wasn’t the only one who loved me, I felt myself snap taut, and then ease all at once like everything in me finally…relaxed.

I clear my throat to give her warning and she startles and whips around toward me, tugging out her ear buds.

“Oh hey,” she says with a bright, painfully artificial smile. “You two finished up?”

She looks down at her music player, fumbling much longer than necessary to find the pause button.

I smile, strangely tickled by the jealousy she can’t quite keep under wraps. “Cali was just thanking me for showing her how she
didn’t
want to live her life,” I say dryly.

Caroline looks back up at me, her fingers relaxing on the iPod. “Mmm, tactful,” she says with a smile much warmer than the one she had a moment ago.

“You told me the same thing in a laundromat not long ago,” I remind her, pushing off the wall and slowly, steadily making my way across the room to her.

Her eyes widen, a startled and lovely blue under darkened lashes. “Yes,” she hedges. “But in a nice way, though.”

“Very nice,” I agree, letting my voice drop low and soft.

She swallows hard.

I’m close enough to touch her now, and I take one more step so she has to tilt her head back to see my face, her lips trembling and enticingly shiny. They smell sweet, like berries with a touch of honey, because of course in the midst of me losing my mind and endangering all of them by offering to trade Silas, and Cali bursting in, and Damon somehow escaping the Augustines, Caroline Forbes not only found time to make lunch for everyone, she also applied lip gloss.

How the hell did I ever think I could resist this girl?

She’s still clutching her MP3 player and looped ear buds between my chest and hers. I raise my hands and let the very tips of my fingers trace the angle of her elbows, the thin layer of cotton between the pad of my middle finger and the sensitive back of her arm suddenly warm to the touch.

“Thank you,” I say simply, sincerely.

She sucks in a breath far bigger than what she needs.

“For what?” she squeaks. “I mean, obviously I insulted you at the laundromat and just now I was making sandwiches and I got distracted and accidentally put mustard on yours but it’s too late to switch because the only other person who doesn’t like mustard is Jeremy and I already put pickles on his and you
hate
pickles and—”

I kiss Caroline.

Her lips are already parted so my tongue slips inside as if I were invited and I stroke hers slowly, warmly, like I’m saying hello to a friend who has been here all along but that I’ve never appreciated the way I should have.

I taste the edges of her where the texture changes from smooth to rough and when she exhales in a jagged rush, I drink her in greedily, reveling in the caress of soft golden hair on my hands and her breasts against my chest and my head is spinning and I know I’m losing control of this but it doesn’t matter because her nails score me underneath the back of my shirt and my belt buckle snags on the top of hers and I feel her flat belly flutter excitedly in response and dear sweet
Jesus.

I flash her back against the cabinets and boost her up onto the counter, her tongue driving me out of my mind and there's the sound of tearing fabric and the tug of pressure against my back and I
hate
the button of her jeans and then there’s lace against my fingertips and I have to touch her and—

“Agh, what
is that?” Caroline shrieks, barreling off the counter and colliding with my chest. I catch her, hugging her tight against me because I adore her skin and her scent—fresh baked bread and her second favorite perfume which is rich raspberries with something silky smooth behind it—and I drop my mouth to her neck and scrape the hollow above her delicate collarbone with dull teeth and a hungry tongue. She gasps and laughs all at once, twisting in my grip as she swipes at something on the counter.