As soon as he touched her, Caroline stopped moving, like a spinning compass that found a magnet. She opened her mouth to apologize again but he was talking. It was such a shift in direction that Caroline answered without thinking. "Klaus. It's complicated. I only did it to make him go away." That had been the deal - if she admitted how she felt, he'd walk away and never ever come back.

That had been the reason. Or at least the reason he'd let her have. She was smart enough to know that he'd been giving her an excuse to hold onto. Which made it worse, somehow.