Thank you so much for reading and for the reviews!

This chapter gets a little...adult themed. :P

I clutched the pillow in my hands and watched as Stefan contemplated answering the call. And then relaxed as he stared at it until it stopped ringing. He tossed the phone on the bed and met my eyes. We both exhaled breaths that we didn't know we were holding. There was tension floating around us. As always, I felt the need to clear it.

"Probably a butt-dial," I said, placing the pillow back on the bed.

"Yeah," he agreed, doing that cute eyebrow lift thing that he did.

However, neither of us were surprised when it started ringing again. Stefan's eyes sought mine as if to ask what he should do. It was no secret that Elena was one of his few weak points. Unfortunately for him, I had no idea. As his best friend, I wanted what was best for him. As this strange new person that was just cuddling with him and spilling my guts about how much he means to me...I didn't really want him to answer it. As Elena's former friend, I thought maybe he should. But back to being his best friend, which is what I NEEDED to be...I still had no idea what he should do. As of late, Elena was bad for him. But it could be important...

It stopped ringing. And started again. Stefan answered it immediately. I made sure it wasn't an emergency by listening to Stefan's tone and then excused myself from the room. I made my way to the balcony so that the pounding rain could drown out the sound of their conversation. I watched the rain beat down against the ocean and I thought. I thought about what they must be talking about. If Elena wanted me to know what they were talking about, she would have called me. Why DIDN'T she call me? For a second, I remembered a time when I thought we had been friends. I remembered sleep overs and trips to the mall and braiding hair. It had meant something to me. Had it meant anything to her? Did she ever think about that?

I thought about my time with Stefan. About how our friendship had grown through the years. How things were changing between us and about how I had no idea if I liked that or not. I thought about the idea that our time together might be ending thanks to this phone call. I wondered what our next move was going to be. I thought and wondered until I couldn't do it anymore. I made my way back through the living room and into my room. I threw on some rain boots and a jacket and got out of the condo.

After a pretty pink strawberry cupcake and a vanilla coffee at the bakery, and a new pair of sandals and a yellow sundress, I was feeling better. The rain had stopped and the sun was peaking out from behind the silvery clouds. When I got back to the room, Stefan was sitting at the kitchen counter waiting for me.

"Hey," he smiled, "I wondered where you'd gone." He followed me with his eyes as I walked to put my bags down in my room.

"Yeah, I was getting cabin fever. And a cupcake was calling my name." I said casually, perching myself on the edge of a chair. "So, is everything okay with Elena?"

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, "Yeah...yeah, everything's okay." He ran his hands through his hair, "She was just checking on me." I arched an eyebrow. "On both of us,actually," he corrected, his eyes glancing to meet mine.

I nodded and looked at my hands. My baby blue nail polish was starting to chip. Sunlight spilled in through the balcony door, making the white skin of my hands so bright it hurt my eyes. I was so lost in observing my own extremities that his voice almost startled me when he began to speak again.

"And," he said, hesitating before he said what he said next, "She thinks that maybe there is a way to bring Damon and Bonnie back."

My head jerked up then and I stared at him, wide-eyed. Confusion, excitement and worry all fought in my head, each trying to dominate my emotions.

"That's...amazing!" I said with a smile, excitement winning out because of the possibility of seeing Bonnie again. At the same time, I didn't want to get my hopes up, "...how?"

He shrugged. "I'm not exactly clear on that. Something about Liv and Luke...although I don't see them wanting to help willingly after everything they've been through...I don't know really...Elena wants us to come back to Mystic Falls and she'll explain it more then." He looked at me from beneath his heavy brows.

I nodded slowly, thinking. Going back to Mystic Falls. It's not that I thought this day would never come. I guess I just thought it wouldn't come so soon. We'd only had a few weeks on the road together. Part of me was considering making a run for it. Going out on my own. I would be fine. I knew that. But what about Stefan? Being alone with Elena, the stress of trying to get Damon back, the very-possible failure. He couldn't handle it. He would spiral. Then again, when had I vowed to become his guardian. We were friends. We weren't soul-mates or anything. I mean...we weren't...right?

"But you know," he interrupted my train of thought and my head jerked up in response, "We have one more day here. I'm not in a hurry to leave right this second..." He stood up and walked over to me, holding out his hand for me to take. I placed my small white hand in his large one and he pulled me to my feet. "Show me a good time, Miss Caroline Forbes."

A smile spread across my face and in that moment, I knew I was going with him.

A couple of hours later and we were having dinner in the nicest restaurant in town. Him in a suit, me in a little black dress. People stared at us. I'm sure we looked the part of the perfect couple. We talked and laughed over drinks and dessert. Neither of us mentioning going home in the morning. Slow music played and Stefan invited me to dance. I tried to memorize the way our bodies fit together as we danced. The way that his hand felt at the small of my back. The way his thumb softly stroked the skin of my hand.

The cool room of the hotel room gave me goosebumps after walking in the hot sticky night. I put my silver clutch on the kitchen counter and stepped out of my matching heels. Stefan was loosening his tie and turning on the radio in the living room. A smokey blues song floated through the room. I heated us both a cup of blood and we drank them with our feet up on the coffee table. Domestic bliss. Well...as close as we could come to it, I guess.

It was nearly midnight when Stefan finally stood up. "I guess we should get some rest. We have a long day of driving ahead of us tomorrow." I giggled. Sometimes he sounded so much like an old man. I think he honestly forgot that he was a vampire sometimes.

"Thanks for dinner," I said, giving his hand a quick squeeze. "I would have compelled us out the bill if I were you, though." He smiled. I walked to my room, looking back over my shoulder at him before closing the door. As soon as I hit the bed, I realized I wasn't going to be able to sleep. Instead, I slipped into my black bikini and headed for the pool.

The warm water enveloped me as I dove in. I found that not having to breathe made swimming more fun than ever. I sat on the bottom of the pool and watched the water shimmer around me. The lights from the lit tiki torches above the pool looked swirly and hazy from the filter of the water. I could barely hear muffled music from the speakers. Our last night. Some part of me regretted not spending it cuddling with Stefan. God only knew when I'd have that opportunity again. Something about being on the road alone together made things seem perfectly normal that would otherwise seem to be crossing some invisible line. I exhaled and watched the bubbles float from my mouth and burst on the surface of the water.

A splash startled me and then someone was in front of me. I was only half surprised to see Stefan. I allowed him to pull me out of the water. He lifted me onto the edge of the pool and shook the water out of his hair.

"What were you doing? For a second I wondered if you were drowning," he said, slicking his hair back. The Dracula look. It looked good on him.

"Uhh...swimming," I said, ringing the water from my own hair, "Can we even drown?" I realized as soon as I said it that I was being insensitive. He'd drowned repeatedly for months. Of course we can. We may not die. But we can certainly drown.

"I'm sorry, Stefan!" I said, covering my mouth.

"It's okay. It's okay! I'm over it, remember? You cured me with your...safe therapy," he smiled and placed his hand on my knee. It was like fire.

We both looked at his hand on my leg, and then back into each other's eyes. That tension was back. That tension that threatened the best relationship I had right now.

He disappeared back into the water and swam to the opposite end of the pool. I followed him, instinctively. That pull to be as close to him as possible over-taking me. I pinned him to the edge of the pool just as he resurfaced.

"Is this Marco Polo?" I asked, playfully, my hands firm against his hard shoulders.

His eyes raked across my face and the top of my chest that peaked up out of the water. He lingered on my lips and then licked the water from his own. I felt a slight blush creeping into my cheeks.

"Your turn," he said, smiling and closing his eyes.

For a minute I didn't know what he was saying. Then I realized that he wanted to play. I sped across the pool and tried not to move. He didn't even need to say "Marco". He was on me in a flash.

He lifted me up into a hug and I laughed, "I don't think that this is going to work, Stefan." He arched an eyebrow at me. "I mean the game," I clarified quickly, "We can both sense everything too strongly."

"You're probably right," he sighed, dramatically, "What CAN we do then?" The question hung in the air in a way that it shouldn't have.

I realized he was still holding me and suddenly I was on fire everywhere that our skin was touching. There was so little clothing between us. Some scraps of fabric from my bathing suit and his trunks. I looped my arms around his neck and our chests were pressed tight together. I made a little sigh of pleasure at the contact and laid my head on his shoulder. He tightened his arms around my back. Everything would have probably been okay if I would have left it at that. A loving embrace between close friends. But that's when I let my legs float up and wrap around his waist.

He gasped subtly, but I heard it. He pulled his head back and searched my face. I looked back at him with what I hoped was complete calm and reassurance. I can't be sure what he saw. But whatever it was, it made him decide to lean forward and press his lips softly to my cheek. I purred again, his loving caresses fueling something in my soul. He then pressed his lips to my other cheek before pulling away to look me intently in the eyes, then sliding one of his hands from my back, down over the back of my bikini bottoms and grasping my thigh to pull me tighter against him.

It was my turn to gasp. Something was happening now. We didn't have blood lust as an excuse now. It was just...happening. As much as I was confused and terrified, I was also burning and desperate for him. My hands found his face and I cupped his cheeks, then leaned forward to place kisses everywhere. Everywhere except his lips. If I did that...everything would change. And it wouldn't be me that did that.

I made it to the underside of his jaw with my mouth and his rock hard stomach with my hands before he groaned and sped me across the pool to pin me against the wall in the deepest part we could touch. The air whooshed out of me as we hit the wall. He surrounded me, kissing and licking the water from my neck. It felt like steam would rise off of me where his tongue touched. I clutched at his back as he nipped me with his fang and closed his mouth over the tiny river of blood.

Hopefully this wouldn't rile up the Ripper. But I didn't really care if it did. I wasn't thinking clearly, to say the least. But if thinking clearly would lead to this stopping abruptly. To not feeling his skin and tongue against me. I didn't want it. This was all I wanted. I pushed him back and for a moment he looked panicked, but I smiled and showed him my fangs for a split second before sinking them into his neck. He groaned and grabbed my arms as I pulled the blood from his body. I wrapped my legs back around him and rubbed against the front of his trunks. The friction combined with Stefan's blood in my mouth was causing a warmth to spread through me, coming up from my toes. One of his hands had drifted from my arm down to my ass and was using it to hold me tight to him as he ground into me hard.

I tore my mouth away from him, blood all over my mouth and slowly dripping into the water below and swirling around us magically. His own fangs were out and his mouth was on me in an instant, kissing the blood from my chin and catching the drops that ran down my chest with his tongue. Suddenly, he jerked down my bikini top and my breasts popped free and floated just at the surface of the water. Stefan groaned in appreciation and lowered his mouth to them, devouring me. I wished he would. One of my hands was in his hair, holding his head down to my breasts, the other had drifted down to the impressive bulge in his trunks.

He growled as I grabbed him through his shorts and squeezed his eyes shut. I smirked, enjoying having a moment of control over him. The lights and music turned off around the pool and we were left in the dark, silence. It helped to slow us down and bring things back down to earth for a minute. He gently took my hands away from him and held them together, taking my knuckles to his mouth and brushing his lips against them. I smiled at the romantic gesture in the midst of this madness.

"Caroline...," he said, a question his voice.

"Stefan," I said back, in a mock serious tone.

He laughed and lowered his head. I took the opportunity to kiss his forehead. We were still connected with my legs around his waist. He brought a hand up to push the wet hair from my eyes. The moonlight was just bright enough to show me the tender look in his beautiful green eyes. He cupped my face and then pressed his lips to mine. Finally. He pulled back and then kissed me again, longer this time. I kissed him back, opening my mouth to invite him in. His tongue slid against mine and I moaned into his mouth. Oh yeah, this was back on. His hands were all over me, leaving fire where they touched.

There was so much heat and tension between my legs, I thought I might ignite. As if reading my mind, one hand slid slowly down my stomach and into my bathing suit. I gasped into his mouth as his hand covered me there. He smiled into our kiss as one long finger brushed against me, exactly where I needed it to. I moaned and panted against his mouth as his fingers brought me to the edge at a speed that surprised even me. I threw my head back and opened my mouth, but no sound came out. His fangs sunk into my now-exposed neck and I cried out as waves of pleasure rippled through me.

As the waves subsided, I released him and sunk under the water. I swam over to the shallow water and resurfaced, pushing my wet hair back out of my face. Stefan watched me from across the pool, his eyes drinking me in now that he could see more of me. I wiggled my finger to call him over. He smiled and was there in a flash. His mouth attacked mine, all tongue and fangs and hot breath. I could see his perfect chest and stomach now and I pulled away from his mouth only so that I could get my tongue to other parts of him. I kissed and licked my way across his torso. The blood was surging through his body. I reached the waistband of his shorts with my lips and looked up at him, batting my eyelashes. He grabbed my hands in a flash and held them behind my back.

"Nuh uh," he scolded, "Not this time." He kissed my cheek sweetly even as he held my hands captive.

I grinned playfully, but the smile soon faded as Stefan lifted me up out of the pool and placed me back down on a lawn chair. He kissed me slowly and deliberately while ridding us both of our bottoms. I was surprised to find the tension within me back to an alarming level. Then he was right there, so ready for me and my head was spinning but there was no question about what I wanted.

"Caroline..." he whispered in my ear, sending a shiver through me, "Are we about to do something that you're going to really regret in the morning?" He kissed my earlobe and sucked it into mouth.

I moaned and involuntarily pushed against him. He sucked in a shaky breath. As much as I wanted this with every fiber of my being, I couldn't form the words. I could offer no comfort or reassurance. But I also couldn't possibly stop this, with words or otherwise. This was inevitable.

Instead I forced out, "Will you?"

He too remained silent, looking between my eyes and my lips before making his choice. He captured my mouth and pushed himself into me in one swift motion and I squeezed my eyes shut and cried out. The sound had slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it and I was worried that Stefan would stop the wonderful things he was doing, that he'd be afraid that he'd hurt me and not want to keep going. Tenderness, compassion was his way. To my surprise, and delight, he simply groaned huskily into my ear and pulled out of me slowly before plunging back in even harder and deeper. He lifted himself up to watch my face while he entered me again and again. He kissed me while I came over and over and drank deeply from my neck as he emptied himself into me.

As soon as our thoughts cleared a bit, Stefan wrapped us both in a big towel and sped us back to our room. We were in his bed in an instant, with soaking wet hair, covered in his thick comforter. I guess this was my invitation to stay the night. Although he hadn't given me much of a choice. I smiled happily and snuggled up to his side. Just like always. Well...except now we were naked. He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer. Briefly I remembered that we were leaving tomorrow. That so many things would be different. But it was late and I was too happy and exhausted to care. I sighed deeply and allowed sleep to take me under.