Perfect Match

Chapter 12

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Katherine sat silently in the tiny, austere interview room, putting on a fake smile for the camera man as he asked her different questions.

"Actually," she started bitterly, reaching into her big, Coach purse. "I have something to tell the general public, and the producers... It may come as a shock." Her eyes bore right into the glass lens of the camera. "It's about your so called, 'fan favorite' couple, Stefan and Elena."

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"Stefan! What are you doing?" Elena hardly got out through her relentless giggling. "Stop! Stop! That tickles!" She simultaneously gasped and laughed at the same time, attempting to press her head against her shoulder to keep him from attacking her neck with fluttering kisses that both warmed her up and made her skin tickle.

He chuckled against her, and she could feel the vibration of his lips against her skin as he did so, causing her to close her eyes softly. Almost unfortunately, Stefan actually listened to her and stopped placing those teasing kisses on the column of her throat. She huffed in protest, until she realized that he decided to move to her lips.

Minutes passed, and tender caresses gradually turned to hair pulling and eager gasps.

"Excuse me," Rob said as politely as he could, reminding Stefan and Elena that they were in a small crowd and in public. "I'd like to introduce the next challenge. It's called the Nearly Wed Game."

Stefan exhaled sadly against Elena's lips. Stupid reality show... he just wanted her without all of this extra attention. He didn't care if they were around everyone at the moment; he didn't want to pull away. Their lips hardly parting an inch, Stefan kept his eyes closed as he whispered, "Mmm... what have you done to me?"

Elena laughed gently. They were so close that she could still feel his breath against her lips, every little intake and outtake... "What have you done to me?" she commented right back.

Stefan smiled, leaning in to give her one more gentle kiss. "I never thought I'd be this kind of boyfriend," he sighed playfully with a shake of the head.

She arched a brow and pretended to be insulted, but really, how could she, when he was kissing her like that? "What kind of boyfriend?"

Grinning brightly and softly, he opened his eyes. "You know... midnight swims, night-long kisses, PDAs..."

Elena's chocolate eyes lit up with amusement. "Oh my god! I've turned you into a total sap," she exclaimed, extremely pleased with herself.

Stefan hung his head in shame. "You totally have." Despite his depressed body language, he couldn't help but glance up at her jokingly through his half closed eye lids.

She instantly raised his chin, going up on her tip toes so that their eyes were level, fiery brown to shining green. His skin was smooth beneath her hands, and the action of pulling him close, though it really was so foreign to the best friends, felt familiar in the best of ways. "I love it though," she chided, pulling him in for another kiss.

They completely missed Rob's instructions. Oh well.

It turned out the game was fairly simple. The guys all left the room and were ushered into the building while the girls all sat at their own booth. Rob asked them multiple questions, from their boyfriend's favorite color, to more uncomfortable and heartbreaking questions... But Elena answered as honestly as she could. Then, the guys were brought back outside where they had to answer the same questions. If both of their answers matched up, they got a point.

The game quickly progressed, and Elena and Stefan were easily getting points with simple questions, like how many boyfriends Elena had had, what Stefan's biggest fears were. They had a strong lead.