"Awww for God's sakes. This is getting beyond ridiculous!" I whined petulantly to my best friend, Lissa. I say best friend, but she was being a serious pain in the ass at this very moment in time.
"Well if somebody hadn't decided to break up with her boyfriend, who incidentally, also happened to me our ride home, then we wouldn't be here!" She shot back, and gestured wildly to the never ending expanse of road that lay ahead of us.
"He suggested that we ditch you on the side of the road so I could give him a blow job whilst he drove!" I cried, defending myself. Though how I could be seen as the one in the wrong here was beyond me.
"You could've come back for me when it was done!"
"Eeew gross Liss. And are you seriously complaining that I stood by your skinny ass?" I asked, incredulously.
"I told you before, stop saying I have a skinny ass! Not all of us have your well endowed curves!" she snapped back.
I scoffed at her "Come on, you have the height and body of a supermodel, every man turns their head when you walk in a room."
"Yeah! And then they turn to you instead as soon as you enter!"
I rolled my eyes at her. She was my complete opposite, tall, slender, graceful and elegant. With her long blonde hair, always tied up into perfection (even now when we'd been walking for hours in scorching heat) and jade green eyes, she was the picture of poise and beauty.
Me, on the the other hand… well I was shorter for a start, and had more weight on me that gave me...certain assets. I had long dark hair, and dark eyes to match, and olive skin which gave me a sort of wild, exotic look.
But she was stunning. And the sort of girl guys wanted to propose to. Me? I'm lucky if a guy calls me back after a drunken snog in a bar. They soon lost interest when they realised that was all I wanted.
So in other words, she had nothing to be jealous of. But Lissa gets like this if she's gone without sex too long; grouchy and irritable. It's the same with me, only with food.
"I didn't even want to go on this stupid trip anyway." She complained.
I rubbed my temples to try and stop the headache she was causing. She let out a loud moan that seemed to pierce through my skull and made my head hurt even more.
Son of a bitch. Somebody get her laid already.
"It was your Uncle's birthday party! It was YOU who dragged me along!" I exclaimed.
I had just about had enough, when we heard the hum of a vehicle. It was the first car to appear in two hours drove up the road.
"Please tell me I'm not hallucinating." Lissa said warily.
"Nope." I said, equally in a state of caution and shock.
"You have to sit next to the driver, whoever it is." She said, and because I was too tired to argue I just sighed and nodded. I just hoped the person wasn't some creep.
I stuck my hand out, hoping the stranger would stop, and when the car began to slow down near us, we both let out a sigh of relief.
"Hi, I began as the person rolled down their window, "Thanks for stopping. We're on our way to California and wondered if you'd be so kind as t-"
I stopped mid sentence as the stranger himself leant out of the window giving me a full view to his godly looks.
He was the most good looking guy I had ever seen.
He had long, brown, shoulder length hair that framed his face, and dark, seemingly bottomless eyes to match. He had a strong, masculine nose and sharp cheekbones. He had full looking lips, that I imagined were capable of doing all sorts to a woman.
Casting my eyes further down, it was impossible not to noticed how perfectly muscular and sculpted this man was. He was like a Greek God.
The man didn't seem to notice my gawping at him, and asked.
"California? Yes, I can drop you off there, I'm actually heading there myself, I've got a new job based there."
Now my smartass self would have usually replied with something along the lines of.
"Maybe I can show you all the sights there." But I was so caught off guard by the fact that the man had the most incredibly sexy foreign accent to accompany his looks, that I stood there with my mouth open.
Lissa gave me a slight nudge and after blinking and rubbing my eyes to see if he was a mirage, I nodded, still not capable of words.
"Hop in then, I apologize for all of the stuff in the back, as I said I'm moving there and have had to take a lot of my belongings with me."
He waved his arms for us to climb in, and went about clearing some room for the back.
"Mine." Lissa declared, almost drooling at the sight of him. Gross.
"Uh huh, no way honey. What happened to your bitching about me going shotgun?" I whispered back.
"Yeah, but now I know he's hot I wa- ROSE!!!"
I shoved her out of the way and ran to the passenger side before she even had a chance to argue.
She mumbled something no doubt uncomplimentary, and took her rightful seat in the back.
I opened the car door and slid inside. I meant to slide in the car in a way that made me look sexy and smooth, and instead I hit my head on the top and landed awkwardly on the guy's lap.
"Good one Rose." Lissa laughed, and I shot her a glare that soon shut her up. For the most part anyway, I could still hear her sniggering in the back.
I sat up, rather reluctantly I must confess, and glanced at the man beside me.
I noticed hot stranger man also had a slight smirk on his face as he started the car, and I felt my temper rising and internally groaned at myself.
My first impression was supposed to leave him wanting more after the first taste, not give him his own personal comedy show.
"Maybe you too should just go and cuddle up together in the front, never mind me." I muttered to myself.
"Don't mind if I do!" Lissa shouted, and attempted to leap into the front seat and push me out of the way.
I pushed her back, and it soon turned into a full on cat fight.
We were both screaming at each other, momentarily forgetting our company. Lissa had a tight grip on my hair, and I grabbed her ear lobe.
"Enough!"
Both Lissa and I jumped back into our seats.
Hot foreign man looked angry for a second, before his face became unreadable. I had never seen anything so weird in my life.
After the sudden mask change, he calmly said
"I can quite easily leave you back on the road if you continue. I suggest you behave yourselves before we have a serious accident."
We both rolled our eyes. Urghh. Hot foreign guy was really boring. Most men would pay to see two women fight. Though he didn't seem like most men. I guess you could call him a gentleman of sorts.
I smoothed out my denim skirt, something I had seen ladies do, and heard Lissa scoff from behind me.
"Trying to pretend like you've still got a scrap of dignity, are we?" She rolled her eyes.
"Still sour that I got to sit next to the hot foreign guy, are we?"
My eyes widened as I realised I just called him hot, and I hesitantly threw a sideways glance at him. He continued looking at the road, but arched an eyebrow by means of a response. Cool.
I blushed and became flustered. What was up with me? This NEVER happened to me. I was confident and collected around men. I didn't even know this dude, and he was already making me into a lovesick teenager again.
An awkward silence descended in the car after I had called the man hot, and it was making me sweat with uneasiness. I decided to try and fill in the silence with conversation.
"So…. What's your name?" I asked politely.
"What? Besides 'hot foreign guy', you mean?" He asked, chuckling to himself.
Oh well. This is just great. Now hot foreign guy was taking the piss out of me too.
"Sorry I asked." I mumbled, crossing my arms, " I don't even want to know your name now. You can be dickless bastard." I huffed like a child, and did that thing all women do when they fight with their man in the car; I moved my legs as far away from him as possible and stared out of the window.
Wait a minute. Did I just think of him as "my man"? I face planted in my hands and groaned again.
I felt his warm breath on my neck suddenly, making me shiver.
"I can tell you now… I am anything but dickless." He whispered huskily, causing me to jump a little and my heart beat accelerated. I turned to look at him, and got caught up in his dark, bottomless eyes. They were the most gorgeous shade of brown, and my heart fluttered when he gave me a not so subtle once over.
He chuckled at my reaction and sat back up straight in his seat, clearly he knew what effect he had on women. Cocky bastard.
"It's Dimitri. Dimitri Belikov."
His laughter snapped me out of my trance, and I scoffed at him, trying my best to pretend my knees weren't weak, and I wasn't extremely turned on by him.
"Shouldn't you be keeping your eyes on the road?"
"It's difficult when there's such a beautiful distraction sitting right next to me." He stated, as if it was a fact.
"Wow. You don't miss a trick do you?" I said. As usual, I was disguising how embarrassed I felt by his compliment with attitude.
I had been called hot, sexy, fuckable…. But never beautiful.
"I can show you my other tricks if you like?"
I blushed furiously, and my mouth went dry.
When I didn't reply, he chuckled to himself, and continue focusing on the road.
I couldn't stand the silence in the car, well besides the shitty 80s music playlist he had going on, so I tried to find out a bit more about him
"How old are you?" I asked.
"Rose, that's rude!" Lissa yelled from the back.
I shrugged and Dimitri laughed.
"It's okay. I'm 24" he replied.
Oooh an older man. I bet he was experienced too.
"Ahhh cool. I'm 20." I lied smoothly, and Lissa shot me a wide eyed glare.
I mouthed What? To her.
Sure, I was actually 18. But what did a little white lie matter? I wasn't gonna see this man again. And I assumed a man like him would want a woman, not girl. And because of my womanly figure, I could get away with looking more mature anyway.
This seemed to encourage him, as he asked.
"So… maybe before I am due to start my new job, how would you feel about dinner together? Maybe you could show me the area too?"
My grin widened as I stared at him in shock. This seriously gorgeous beast of a man was asking me out?! How did I swing this one after acting like a complete ass all day?
"Yeah sure." I said as casually as possible, trying to cover up how excited I actually was.
"But on one condition…."
His eyebrows shot up again, "Go on…" he asked warily.
"I get to chose the radio station. This 80s crap is driving me up the wall."
He laughed, a full on hearty laugh, and it was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard.
He shrugged his arms in defeat, "Fine. But I have a condition too."
I held my breath. Maybe he was into some weird shit. I cursed myself mentally. I had just accepted a date from a total stranger on the basis that he was hot.
"Okay…." I trailed off, dreading the answer.
"I get to pay for the date."
I let go of the breath I'd been holding and rolled my eyes.
"Tough shit, Comrade. I'm your equal, so I have to pay my fair share."
He gave me a curious look. "Comrade?"
I scoffed like it was the most obvious nickname for him. "Well yeah. Seeing as you're from Russia and all. I think anyway, judging by your accent. You know, with the whole RssR thing?"
He paused, a little confused, "You mean USSR?"
I glanced back at Lissa for confirmation, and she nodded, amused that I didn't know.
I decided to try and change the subject, hoping he would be too distracted to notice.
"Errrr… so, tell me about this new job."
"Subtle change of subject" he chuckled.
I blushed heavily and sank down in my seat, causing him to laugh again.
"It's a teaching job at an Academy. I teach Politics."
"Ah right. Which college is it?" I asked.
I actually had plans to study myself, at a place called St Vladimir's Academy. I didn't tell him that, as I didn't want him to know I was still studying.
He smiled at me, and replied.
"St Vladimir's. It's supposed to be a good one. Have you heard of it?"
I could feel the colour drain from my face as my skin paled.
I glanced back nervously at Lissa.
Oh Crap. What had I just gotten myself into?