Disclaimer: yeah it's almost midnight so I'm not going to bother,you all know it anyway
I let out a deep breath. YES! That was EXACTLY the kind of progress that I had been hoping to get! She had kissed me! My beautiful, sweet Roza, after running away from me for so long had just reached up and kissed me! My lips were still tingling from it. And the best part was that she didn't cry! It was such an odd thought, but after last time seeing her in so much pain, I never wanted to cause her pain. But this time it had been her choice, she had been the one in control and she had chosen to reach up and kiss me. I had the biggest, stupidest smile on my face and I didn't even care.
I couldn't wait to try out my plans now. After a kiss like that, I was sure that I could win back Roza's heart.
RPOV
I walked back to my room in a daze, going between feeling shocked and slightly happy about kissing Dimitri again and absolutely furious with myself for being so stupid! What had I been thinking? Kissing Dimitri like that! After all the hard work I put into being a total bitch to him and then I go ahead and give him a clear sign that there may be hope for us yet. How could I be so stupid? I mentally kicked myself as I walked into my room and threw myself onto my bed. I had kissed him! After everything I had done, I just had to go and throw it all away.
But oh what a kiss it had been! His lips had been so gentle on mine, not hard and demanding like last time. And he had let me control the kiss, set the pace. I could tell that all the hunger and passion of our last kiss was just waiting under the surface, and it was all mine if I wanted it, but this kiss had been different. It had held longing and love and all the things that I couldn't let myself feel for him if I was going to be able to walk away with my heart intact.
But mad as I was with myself, I couldn't pretend that I didn't know why I had done it and Dimitri did too. I closed my eyes and remembered the way he had looked at me, like we could be overrun by an angry hoard of Strigoi and he wouldn't have worried as long as he had me at his back.
I mean trusting me not to let him get pummeled by baseballs was bad enough, but rocks? He could have been seriously hurt! And somehow I knew that if I had asked him to just stand there all morning and get hit with baseballs he would, he would do anything to prove to me how sorry he was.
I was still mad at him for finding a weakness in my shields and exploring it so well. So what if he trusted me with as far as a life or death situation, that didn't mean that I could trust him. And now I would have to do something really big and stupid involving Adrian to throw him off the scent.
As if thinking about him had summoned him, I was suddenly sucked into a spirit dream. I hadn't even realized that I had fallen asleep.
"Well hello there Little Dhampir, your aura is looking exceptionally bright today. Had another stolen kiss with your cradle robber?" he joked, but I knew that he knew that he was right. He could see the love that I was trying to hide but that refused to be shoved into a cupboard.
"I just don't know what to do," I said as I walked over to the hammock that was hanging from the trees. Today Adrian had imagined us in a nice rain forest, I could hear water running and birds calling, it was very relaxing.
"The more time I spend around him, the more I have to fight to stop myself from forgiving him and jumping into his arms," I complained as I threw my leg over the side of the hammock to gently rock myself back and forth.
"And would that be such a bad thing?" Adrian asked as he walked over and took over rocking the hammock. "I can see how much you still love him, why not give him a second chance? You only live once...or in your case twice, which means it's even more important to take a chance at being happy. I know I would risk any pain there was to have my Lilly girl back in my arms if I had somehow screwed things up enough to lose her," Adrian said with a far off look in his eyes.
Dimitri had looked at me like that not to long ago. "How is Sydney?" I asked because I couldn't take thinking about that kiss anymore, and like with Lissa, it was easier distracting Adrian than talking about what I didn't want to talk about.
A troubled look crossed his face. "She's dodging all questions about her involvement with me very well, she's not just a really pretty face. But we are going to have to step up our public PDA to get people talking more," Adrian said biting his bottom lip.
"Fine with me, after what I just did, I need to do something stupid to get Dimitri off my tail."
"And what was that?" Adrian asked raising one eyebrow. And because it was a dream and because I was in a bad mood, I finally did what I had always wanted to do whenever someone did that around me. I reached over and smacked him on the side of his head.
"Ow! What was that for?!" he asked as he stepped back.
I laughed. "Because everyone in the world seems to be able to do that but me, so I finally snapped," I said with a huge grin.
"I can now understand what all of your friends mean when they say "Rose logic," he said with a cheeky grin. Then I sat up so I could look him in the eyes and told him about Dimitri and his "trust building exercises" and how I had been so overwhelmed after he had trusted me so much and gotten hurt that I had kissed him.
"So basically the man that you're desperately in love with did an incredibly dangerous thing to prove to you that he trusts you and you're mad because you rewarded that trust with a light kiss?" Adrian asked, raising one eyebrow again, but this time staying out of hitting range.
"Basically yeah. Except in my world that's a bad thing, because now he's going to try harder than ever to win me back," I said miserably and set myself back down on the hammock.
"And you don't want that?" Adrian asked but it didn't really sound like a question.
I shook my head. "Part of me wants exactly that but the other part is yelling at me for even considering it because it hurt so bad the first time." But with the way things were going, the part that wanted to kiss Dimitri breathless was winning.
"A girl's heart is very sensitive," I said trying to convince myself as well as him not to let myself become that vulnerable again. "You can't just say you're sorry and put a bandaged over the hurt and say that everything is going to be ok from now on! You have to prove it!" I said angry at Dimitri for doing this to me, for making me feel this way, for showing me love and then taking it away from me, for everything.
"And how would he prove it to you hmmm? By trusting you with tasks that are above your pay grade?" Adrian asked with an "I win" grin.
"So I take it that you've heard about the trip to the mall tomorrow?" I asked with a sigh. I had been so excited about that when Lissa told me, even spending extra time with Dimitri hadn't seemed so bad. But now it just seemed cruel to make me do this. Especially after kissing him like that.
"Well I was invited! And this is a big deal, apparently they only let the best Novices on field assignments early, you should be happy they he recommended you for it."
Yeah, and I might of been if he hadn't only done it to try and win me back. But even if that was the case, Dimitri was a very responsible guardian. If he didn't think that I was capable of doing this then there was no way he would endanger innocent Moroi lives.
I shook my head. "Ok enough talking Doctor Phil, what "big thing" are we going to pull to get people talking?"
Adrian grinned his now famous "devil may care"smile. "Oh I have something in mind."
I woke up in time for dinner. A few more hours sleep and I would be all good to go for a human time schedule. I jumped into the shower and walked down to the dining room. After grabbing food, I walked over to where my friends were sitting, when I was joined my Adrian.
"Well hello there beautiful," Adrian said taking my tray like a gentlemen. He wanted us to make a bigger deal of sitting together in a group to encourage talk.
"Hey," I said as we sat down at our table, where everyone else was staring towards what I assumed was their now boyfriends/girlfriends.
"Well, don't you all look cozy," I said just having to ruin the moment. They all jumped back a bit and tried to look innocent and failing.
"Hey Rose," Jill said blushing and suddenly looking very interested in her food.
"Are you two all set for tomorrow?" I asked Eddie and Mason.
"You bet," Mason said with a huge grin, he loved a challenge.
"But it's going to be hard being professional when we have these two lovely ladies to watch all day," Mason said and Jill and Mia both blushed the same shade of red.
"Well you had better because I'm not going to stop a Strigoi from chewing on your sorry ass's if you two are too busy checking out your girlfriends ass's instead of doing your job and keeping an eye out for danger," I said with a playful smile. I knew how seriously they both took being guardians but it was just way too fun teasing them.
"Don't worry about us, and have you considered that you might be the one in danger of losing your focus? You are after all the one dating pretty boy over there," Eddie said looking at Adrian.
"You think I'm pretty?" Adrian said with a flirtatious grin. "Why if I had known that you swung that way I would have approached you first instead of Rose." Adrain smiled and I could see him holding back his laughter.
"That's not what I meant!" Eddie shouted over Mason's historical laughter. I laughed too, it was too good a come back not to. But I was in no danger of being to distracted by Adrian to do my job. Dimitri on the other hand...no, while we were on the job he would be professional. But the car ride there and back would be interesting.
Dinner finished and Adrian asked in front of everyone if he could walk me back to my room. I could have been imagining it, but I swear that both Mason and Eddie had shot Adrian looks. After we were alone, I asked Adrian if he had noticed it.
"Oh yeah, they're just making good on their threat," he said like it was no big deal and he got threatened all the time, which considering his lifestyle, he might.
"What threat?" I asked not expecting that answer.
"Well, after out first "official date" your two besties cornered me the next date and warned me that if I was just playing around with you and just saw you as another number on a scoreboard, then they were going to make my life very "interesting."
I gasped. Dhampirs did NOT threaten Moroi, especially royal Moroi. And DEFINITELY not the Queen's favorite nephew! They could be thrown in jail just for the attempt.
"I can't believe that they did that," I said still shocked.
"I can. They both love you and don't want you to get mistreated by some price of Moroi trash like other Dhampir girls are. They are seriously two friends worth having," Adrian said with a nostalgic smile. I wonder if he ever had friends that would do that for him.
"Yeah, they're pretty great," I said with a huge grin of my own. I was so lucky to have those two knuckle heads looking out for me.
We walked in silence for a while before we got to my room. "And here we are," Adrain said making a big deal out of bowing. We looked around, but didn't see anyone to put on a show for. So he just smiled and walked away.
So far we hadn't had to kiss for real yet, but soon we would if we wanted to make this dating act convincing. But right now kissing anyone was too much for me to think about. So I just walked over to my bed and hoped for a few more hours of a dreamless sleep.
I was being shaken awake by a noise that I swear if it went any higher it would only be hearable by dogs.
"Wake up Rose! It time to get ready to shop!" Lissa cried in my ears as she bounced on my bed.
"Mmmmmm I'mm up," I mumbled.
"No you're not, now move it or there won't be any breakfast left for you," Lissa said knowing my weakness.
"Mmmm mean," I muttered and pulled myself out of bed. Surprisingly enough I got my wish. No dream walking from Adrian and no unwanted dreams of Dimitri. I got up and got ready for my big day. I looked over the outfits that I had packed. I was going to be near guarded so I didn't need to dress up too much, just something casual that a girl like me would wear with a group of friends to the mall that would be give me enough movement to fight if need be. I chose a nice top that wasn't clingy, as I didn't want to distract Dimitri this time, and a pair of jeans that was flexible enough for me to do a high kick if needed.
I decided to wear my hair up in case of trouble, so I stilled it in a net bun that went with what I was wearing. I wasn't currently allowed a stake but would be given one before we left the wards. I looked myself over in the mirror and decided that I was good to go. Lissa was still in the shower and would be for another twenty minutes. I don't know how that girl does it. I would get bored just standing under there like that.
Not wanting to find out if her threat of breakfast had been a bluff or not, I decided to head down to the dining room to make sure. You did not want to be on a car trip with a hungry Rose.
I got down there and saw that there was in fact a small buffet breakfast being served. I quickly grabbed a plate and piled up bacon, eggs, and hash brown before walking over to sit with the others that were going on this trip.
"Good morning love birds," I said and laughed as they jumped at being caught again. When were they going to stop getting embarrassed at being in a relationship?
"Morning Rose, I knew threatening you with not enough food would get you down here on time," Mason laughed.
"So it was your idea," I said as I gave him my best death glare. I grinned when he cringed back.
"Where's Lissa?" Christian asked.
"In the shower," I said not needing to offer any further explanation. We all ate in silence for a while when the doors opened again and the other guardians that were going on this trip walked in. I deliberately looked down at my food and didn't even risk a glance at Dimitri. After what I did yesterday, he was probably going to shoot me goo goo eyes when the others weren't looking.
"Good morning," Jill greeted them happily and the others muttered greetings of their own.
"Anything special planned for today?" Jack asked with a smile. He was a nice guy and he actually cared about the answer, he wasn't just making mindless small talk.
"Well I need to try and get some anniversary gift ideas for Lissa but I won't be able to actually get anything unless we split up for some reason," Christian said because Lissa wasn't here yet.
"Well in my experience, it's best to go etiher with chocolates or jewelry. But I don't have a lot of experience so what do I know?" Jack laughed.
"Get Lissa some Taboo perfume and a pink teddy bear holding a heart with something about love on it. You know she would love that," I told him. I wanted Lissa to be happy and I knew what my best friend wanted.
"Mmmmm maybe," Christian said while thinking about it. And that was the closest that I was ever going to get to "good idea Rose."
A few minuets later, Lissa showed up and soon the trip was on the way. We decided to take two cars for safety so I ended up in the car with Lissa, Christian, Adrian and of course Dimitri while the others went in the other car.
At first it wasn't so bad, Lissa chatted most of the way about what she wanted to do and see. I would chime in sometimes but mostly stayed out of the conversation. But not because I wanted to, it was because I was in the role of guardian, so I had to sit up front with Dimitri.
He was silent most of the trip, not saying much. And as much as I hated it, I couldn't stop relaxing in his presence. Just sitting next to him, not talking or touching or ANYTHING and I still felt incredibly at peace. Man these two weeks in the cabin coming up were going to be a killer.
We met up with the rest of our group when we got to the mall and divided up. Mason, Jack and I started off as near guard while Eddie and the two other guards were far and we would switch later. Lissa set a demanding pace as she stormed through the crowds, determined to get what she had her mind set on. It was actually quite funny watching the far guards trying to follow us without being too obvious about it.
After a few hours of Hurricane Lissa, we were allowed to sit down for lunch but we had to do it in shifts. Mason, Jack and I were first, then Eddie,Stevie and...wait
"Where's Guardian Belikov?" I asked in alarm as I reached for my stake.
"He asked for an extra long lunch break to get supplies for your upcoming training trip," Said Jack with a smile. I didn't like the sound of that, was it too much to hope for that Dimitri was just out getting extra blankets and canned food?
"What do you need Belikov for when you could talk to me instead?" Adrian asked immediately taking the spot light off of why I was so worried about Dimitri's absence.
"Because you think that you're the prettiest person in the room and think that a good conversation would be about what hair products would be best to give you that "just rolled out of bed " hair style that you love so much?" Eddie said as he walked over to sit down for his break. We all cracked up at that.
"True, but beauty like this must be maintained," Adrian said playing along instead of taking insult.
"Watch it Rose or he will start stealing your makeup," Mason said and we all cracked up again.
Lissa's POV
After lunch I made the boys wait outside while I dragged Rose into Victoria's Secret to do some lingerie shopping.
"Come on Rose! I got sent an email of there VIP list of stock and we just HAVE to go and try them on!" I begged as I pulled Rose into the store because she was going to need a heck of a lot more than just warm clothes on this training trip of hers.
"Liss I don't even need any underwear," Rose complained, but she had no idea what she was talking about.
"Come one Rose, your dating Adrian now so you need some sexy lingerie to torture him with," I said even though I knew that excuse wouldn't fly.
"But I'm only pretend dating him," she whispered in my ear. Good, I wanted to make sure that she wasn't actually buying her own charade. Adrian could never make her happy.
"I know but word will get out that you're buying it and besides, don't you want to be prepared if you ever find a guy that you do want to wear it for?" I asked putting a little bit of compulsion into my words.
A sad look came over her face. "I guess," she said not looking at me. But it didn't matter ,I knew what she was thinking.
"If I ever fall in love again, which I won't."
Well she would if I had anything to say about it!
"Come on! Just buy some sexy stuff with me!" I begged with big eyes that I knew she couldn't resist.
"Oh fine!" she said with a smile creeping onto her lips. I ended up making her get several matching bra and panty sets and even some sexy corsets and teddies. She showed me how she looked and DAMN! I hope that Dimitri had some tricks up his sleeves, because he would need all the luck he could get to win Rose back with a body like hers.
"Rose you look so sexy in that that even if you walk around fully clothed with that underneath you will still get arrested for indecent exposure," I laughed as Rose walked back into the changing room. We had goton a lot of stuff overall so I asked Mason to run our bags back to the car with the other group while Rose and I finished up in here with Jack as guard outside.
But as we were about to leave, the sales lady came up to me with a way too big smile. I couldn't really blame her, with the amount of money that Rose and I had just spent here she probably thought that we some rich kids on a shopping spree with daddy's credit card.
"Are you two ready to see our VIP range? We keep it in the back room because of how exclusive it is and the designers won't let just anyone wear their label," she said thinking that she was complementing us by saying that because we were rich, we were better than other people. And it was because of people like her that I had trouble finding real friends in school.
But I did want to get some of there VIP line, the photos really did look good and Christian and my anniversary was coming up...
I put on a bright smile. "Sure, come on Rose," I said as we followed her back behind the counter and through the door. Inside was much colder than in the story and it was much darker, not that I had much trouble seeing but the lady thought that we were human.
"Why is it so cold and dark in here?" I asked and felt Rose tense up behind me. I felt a little on edge but we were just going down to the back room a lingerie store...
"It's better for the fabric to be in cold storage before use and bright lights would fade the color," the sales lady said as she kept walking. How far back was she keeping the stock? Shouldn't someone have been out front manning the counter while she did this?
Apparently Rose was thinking the same thing.
"Why are we going so far? And isn't it only sunlight that fades clothes?" she asked in a tight tone of voice and I knew that she was reaching for her stake.
"Sunlight isn't good for the designers," was all she said as she opened another door. But Rose had apparently had enough of this and moved in front of me in a protective crouch.
"I think that we've got enough lingerie for one day Liss, let's go and meet up with our friends," Rose said in a no nonsense voice and I was already backing up. Something didn't feel right here.
"Oh I'm afraid that your frends are going to be quite busy for awhile," the creepy sales lady smiled as she turned around...wearing a gas mask.
"What are-" I asked before there was a loud popping sound. And then suddenly a gas canister flew through the air and a thik film of gas was coating the air and I started coughing.
"Lissa run!" Rose yelled as she sliced her sake at the sales lady but she had already ran out of our sight. We were trapped.
"Rose!" I cried just because I didn't know what else to do.
"It's ok Liss, just hold your breath and I will call Dimitri," Rose called out to me, but I was already getting dizzy.
"Dimitri! Mason! We need help! We're under attack! Can anybody hear me?" she cried. I didn't hear any response. The last thing that I remember is Rose coming over to me before she collapsed, like she could shield me with her body even after she was out cold and a voice laughing in the background.
well we always knew that sails lady's were kind of evil,but I think that she was a bit over kill. SOOO Who attaked them?
What at happpned to the other group?
Will the lingerie survive? Review and you will find out faster;)