Chapter 11: Breakfast In Bed
Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy
Okay my lovely readers and reviewers. This is especially for you. I've been super busy with last minute stuff before my trip, but I decided that I needed to give you this last update since you've been so loyal to me through all my stories. Enjoy and I will hope to update by the 4th of July=)
RPOV
I woke to the wonderful aroma of cinnamon and the sizzle of bacon. I yawned and stretched confused as to where I was. My eyes fluttered open and I took in my surroundings.
"Good morning sleeping beauty," Dimitri's voice greeted me from across the room. The events of last night came back to me and I realized we must have fallen asleep on his couch, which was where I was right now.
"Morning," I greeted him not wanting to move from the comfort and warmth of the blanket and pillow he had brought out for me. I wondered briefly if he'd slept on the couch with me or if he'd gone to bed. It had to have been uncomfortable for a man of his height to sleep on the couch all night. The thought of him having slept next to me all night though was very appealing.
"Are you hungry?" he asked coming out of the kitchen wearing pajama bottoms and a sleeveless under shirt. He was also wearing a very sexy apron and damn did he look fine.
"Mmm, when am I not hungry?" I asked with a grin. "What time is it?"
"Almost eleven," he replied. My eyes widened and I gasped.
"What is it?" he asked with concern.
"I didn't tell anyone where I was going last night and now I didn't come home. Lissa is going to be worried sick," I cried fumbling around to find my shoes.
"Relax, Milaya, I texted Christian that you'd fallen asleep last night and he relayed the message to your friends," he said putting his hand on my shoulder before kissing my forehead.
"Thank you, that was very thoughtful." I couldn't believe what a true gentleman he was. Here I was ready to throw myself at him in his bedroom last night and he's the one to suggest we slow things down. I'd fully expected him to take advantage of me. Most men would have, according to Mia. Wouldn't she be surprised?
"You do like bacon and French Toast yes?" he asked as he poured two cups of coffee adding cream and sugar to one and handing it to me.
I nodded. "I love bacon. It's my new favorite food," I joked causing him to raise his eyebrow at me.
Damn it, I'd just stuck my foot in my mouth again. How could it be my new favorite food if I'd lived in Chicago my whole life? Way to go Rose!
"I just meant that I've been enjoying it a lot lately."
"It is good," he said plating the food and setting it in front of me at the breakfast nook.
"Would you like to go for a run after breakfast?" he asked as we sat side by side eating.
"Definitely, there's no way I can eat all this and then lay around. I'll be five hundred pounds by the end of the week."
"I hardly think you'd gain four hundred pounds from a few pieces of bacon," he laughed at my overly dramatic statement.
"Well as Lissa and Mia say; a moment on your lips, forever on your hips," I joked repeating the mantra my friends used when they watched me eat bacon like a pig.
"I for one like it that you eat normally and exercise instead of going on one of those crazy diets most women are obsessed with," he commented.
"Good, now hand over the last piece of bacon and you'll live to see another day," I commanded holding out my plate.
"Your wish is my command," he chuckled placing it on my plate.
"So I should probably go home and change. I can't go running in this," I said looking down at my Greek Goddess dress."
"Don't go just yet, let me put this away and I'll walk you," he said clearing our dishes and throwing the pans in the sink. We walked across the street hand in hand and when we reached my building he put his hands on my cheeks leaned in and brushed his lips gently across mine.
"Waking up to your beautiful face this morning made today, the best day I've spent so far," he breathed boring his eyes into mine. My heart fluttered wildly at his statement.
"Well then Comrade, you need to get out more," I said smirking as I punched him in the shoulder and turned towards the door.
"Meet you back here in twenty. Thanks for breakfast," I called blowing him a kiss.
All the way up in the elevator I fanned myself with a flyer I found taped to our mailbox. The heat between us just a few seconds ago was red hot. There was no mistaking that he was into me now and after he opened up to me last night about his father, I felt we were finally making some headway. There were still things I'd like to know, but I think I was beginning to trust him.
I stumbled over what looked to be a dead body as I entered the apartment.
"Hey, watch it," an unfamiliar voice grumbled causing me to jump back. I surveyed the room and gasped at the sight before me. It looked as if a hurricane had blown through the apartment and left a dumpster full of garbage along with several strangers lying in its wake. I recognized the guy by the door as Ralph, Jesse's friend from the café.
"Lissa!" I cried hurrying over to her bedroom to make sure she was okay.
"Liss, it's me," I cried knocking on the door and then opening it without waiting for a response.
"Morning Rosie," Christian greeted me with a big smile on his face. He was sitting in Lissa's bed in just his boxers reading the morning paper.
"What the hell are you doing in here and where is Lissa?" I asked wondering just what my friends had been up to last night.
"She's in the bathroom. She had a rough night if you know what I mean?" he said pointing to what looked to be a wastebasket full of vomit next to her side of the bed.
"Oh gross," I groaned pinching my nose together.
"You're telling me," he said wrinkling his nose in disgust.
"You didn't take advantage of her did you?" I gasped thinking of what could have possibly happened had she been that intoxicated.
"Woah, wait, no, of course not. Nothing happened, I mean, well not nothing." I glared at him with my hands on my hips. "No no no, nothing like what you're insinuating. We just kissed a few times before she got sick and then she passed out and I spent the rest of the night taking care of her," he said holding his hands up in surrender.
"Besides aren't you doing the walk of shame?" he asked referring to the fact that I had come home in the same clothing I'd worn last night.
"I certainly am not ashamed. Your friend is a perfect gentleman," I said giving him another evil glare. How dare he accuse me of being a tart?
"Ugh," I heard the bathroom door open and a very disheveled and green looking Lissa appeared in the doorway.
"How you feeling drunky?" I asked smirking at her attire. She was still in her lingere, but her make-up was streaked all down her face and her hair looked as if rats had come and made it their home.
"Like death," she moaned flopping down on the bed.
"Are you done in the bathroom? I need to take a quick shower," I told her.
She shook her head in affirmation and waved her hand at me to go.
"Can you close the blinds on your way out? My head is throbbing."
"I'll bet," I muttered doing as she asked.
I took a quick shower, pulled my hair up in a bun, wrapped my towel around me and headed through the door to my room.
"Aggghhhhhhh!" I screeched, as I found that a large blond man currently occupied my bed.
"Who the hell are you?" I cried clutching my towel tightly around me.
"Woah woah, it's okay. I'm Andree, Lissa's brother," he said.
"Oh," I replied.
"I'm Rose," I told him. I'd met her parents a few weeks ago and Sydney, but I had yet to make his acquaintance.
"Rose, we're so sorry. Lissa told us you were gone for the night and we could crash in my old room," Sydney said sitting up next to Andree.
I let out a breath of air.
"No, it's cool. I'm sorry for screaming. I was just surprised is all. Let me get some clothes and I'll be out of your hair," I said walking over to the closet and grabbed my running gear.
"Are you sure? We can go if you want," Sydney offered.
"No, really stay," I said. "I'm going out with Dimitri and probably won't be back for a few hours."
"It was nice meeting you," Andree said as I hurried out of the room.
"You too," I called.
"You're very fast," Dimitri commented breathing heavily as we came to a halt after our five mile run along the lake. I'd beat him by a few lengths despite his long, lean legs.
"Running was always an escape for me at home. It was the one time, I felt free. Needless to say, I spent quite a bit of time running," I said bending down to tie my shoe.
"Hey, do you think you could help me with something today?" I asked as we did our cool down walk.
"Sure, what is it?" he asked.
"I want to get a cell phone. It's a real pain not to have one," I told him and frankly, I was tired of being the only one who didn't have one. I also needed to call Abi. He was probably worried sick about me by now.
"Sure, we can go now if you want," he said.
We ended up at a small store on Michigan Avenue called Verizon Wireless.
"What type of phone are you looking for?" the man behind the counter asked.
"I'm not sure." I shrugged looking at Dimitri.
"Do you want it to just be a phone or would you like it to play music and be a camera and access the internet?" The man asked.
"Uh, I guess all of the above," I said. "What kind of phone do you have?" I asked Dimitri.
"Mine is from Russia, but it works on satellites here," he said producing the phone I'd seen him with at the café so often. It looked expensive.
"I think she would like an I-Phone," Dimitri told the man.
"Good choice," he said sliding a white phone with a large screen on it towards me. It was identical to the one Lissa had.
"Do you like it?" Dimitri asked as I fiddled with it.
I nodded. "It's really very nice," I said.
"Okay, I just need to see an ID," he said taking the phone from my hands. I handed over my ID holding my breath that he didn't ask me for more. He then called a few numbers, programmed some things into it and handed it back to me.
"Well then, Mary Rose, you're good to go. Would you like to choose a cover to protect against water damage and in case you drop it?" he asked.
"That sounds good," I said.
"What about this one?" he asked handing me a sparkly bedazzled pink cover.
"Uh, no, that's definitely not for me," I snorted.
"How about this one?" Dimitri asked pointing to one that was a depiction of Van Gogh's Starry Night over the Rhone.
"Definitely that one," I said touched that he knew precisely which one would please me.
"Okay that will be three hundred and thirty-one dollars with tax," the man said.
I reached into my bag for a wad of cash, but before I could get to it, Dimitri had already produced a fat wad of cash from his wallet.
I looked at him curiously, but allowed him to pay.
"That was really nice of you Comrade, but you didn't have to do that," I said as we left the store.
"I wanted to. You work so hard at the café and I know how many days worth of tips that was. Let me do something nice for you," he said kissing my hand.
"On one condition," I said bargaining with him.
"What would that be?" he asked.
"No more tipping me at the café. Let me work it off," I said.
"That's fair," he said shaking my hand as a sign of an official agreement.
"I didn't know your name was Mary," he commented as we reached the door to my apartment building.
"Yea, well it's boring so I go by my middle name," I said trying to sound non-chalant about it.
"I agree. Rose is a very beautiful name," he said planting a kiss on the tip of my nose.
APOV
"Will you stop pacing; you're going to wear a hole in the floor."
I looked over at my wife and sighed.
"I just wish I knew she was alright," I said pinching the bridge of my nose.
"She hasn't made a point to check in with you?" she asked.
"No and it's been over three months." I was on the verge of getting on a plane and hunting her down myself if I didn't hear from her soon.
"Maybe it's too risky. You know she doesn't want your father finding her," she mused.
"That's another thing. He should be livid and out of control by now. He should have the entire world looking for her, yet he does nothing. Day after day, he goes on as if everything is fine. It's as if he doesn't even care that she'd missing!" I cried.
Something was not right with that. Alberta had managed to keep him out of her room for three days, which was longer than could be expected. When he discovered her missing, I expected a meltdown. Instead, he had growled in frustration and shut himself up in his royal chambers. I didn't see him again for over a week. I waited on edge for him to snap. Her wedding date with the Duke of Ambrosia came and went and nothing was said about it. There wasn't even a press release announcing the cancellation.
I was quite sure I had put the scrambling device in the right place. If so, he wouldn't be able to track her. I didn't know if he had at all anticipated her escape, but I was confident that he had no clue as to her whereabouts. I kept waiting for him to put out an alert or reward for any information on where she was, but still nothing.
"If I don't hear from her in a week's time, I'm going to Chicago," I told her.
"How do you know she is there?"
"I have a hunch," I said.
ABE POV
"You're not at all worried that your daughter is halfway across the globe living like a commoner?"
I laughed at my good friend Viktor Dashkov, the Duke of Ambrosia. He had agreed quite graciously to go along with the farce of marrying my daughter until she was safely out of the country.
"She's well looked after. I have Guardian Ashford tailing her every move and Belikov has his own Guardian as well."
"Still it seems a bit unorthodox," he said stroking his beard.
"Well you know my Rosemarie is quite the stubborn young woman."
"Why not just force her hand. It would be a lot easier and a lot safer," he mused.
"Safer yes, but easier no." I shuddered at the thought of forcing my daughter into the same situation as her mother.
"I may seem like I'm an uncaring, stone-cold dictator, but that is not the case when it comes to my children. I care deeply about her happiness and I am trying desperately to avoid a situation like her mother's. Janine was forced into marrying me and although at one point she grew to tolerate me, I knew she would never love me."
"Even if Rosemarie does fall in love with this Prince, however farfetched that may be what makes you think that it will be different than your marriage to Janine? She'll still be living a life she does not desire."
"You're right in the fact that she will not want to be Queen, but if she loves him, she'll have incentive to stick around. True love often causes a change of heart. If she truly desires to be with him, she won't be able to stand him marrying another, which he must by his next birthday."
"How are you so sure she will fall in love with him?"
"She wants her freedom and I believe he is inclined to allow her to be her own person." He'd already encouraged her to begin taking art classes, which was one of the things she was most passionate about. She'd spent hours pleading with me to allow her to attend university.
"Well I'd hate to be either of you when she figures out she's been tricked."
"It will be a very bad day for all of us, but in time she will realize it was in her best interest."
"I sure hope so for her sake," he said taking a sip of his drink.
I knew she would hate me and possibly him at first, but so far, things were going quite well. I had every confidence that he would win her heart and in the end, she would forgive him because true love would prevail.
After Viktor left, I turned on the tapes that Ashford had been sending me. They'd drawn the line at audio feed so that is all I had to work with. I couldn't deny that hearing her happy for once brought me great joy. She'd been such a sullen child always shutting herself up with her nursemaid. While it was true that I hadn't given her many liberties, it had been for her own protection. There were many crazies out there just itching to get their hands on her. On average, I received at least two threats on her life each month. Right now, it was safer for her to be under cover in the states than here. The threats had increased ten-fold since she'd reached maturity. Every young suitor in town was willing to hang the other to obtain an alliance with me through her. She was better off with Belikov. He was a good man from a good family. He would be a good husband to her.
I sat back with my nightcap listening to her chatter away about her job, her trip to a museum and most importantly the man she thought she was falling in love with. The last thing on the tape confirmed what I'd already known. She'd somehow acquired a cellular telephone and used it to call my son. Their conversation was brief and she thanked him for aiding her in her escape. When this was all over, I'd have to have a conversation with the future King, but for now, everything was just as it should be.
SPOV
"Babe, what are you doing in her closet?" Andree asked, as we were getting ready to leave the apartment.
"I'm looking for a bag of books I left," I said rummaging around in the back of the closet. My hand hit a large bag and I reached my hand inside feeling around. I pulled out what I thought was a book, but my eyes flew open in surprise as I surveyed the item in my hand.
"What is that?" Andree asked hearing my gasp.
"I think it's Lira," I said flipping through the large wad of bills. There had to been nearly ten thousand Lira.
"Well you said she's from Turkey," he replied calmly.
"Yes, but this is a hell of a lot of money. I didn't even know two-hundred lira bills were still in circulation."
"Just put it back and let's go," he said.
I shook my head, but reached back to get the bag it came out of and instead came up with another wad of bills and then another and another.
"What did she do rob a bank?" he asked just as shocked as I was. I counted and all together, there were over two hundred thousand Lira.
I pulled the bag out from the back of the closet and examined the rest of the contents.
There was a diary, a huge diamond ring, a stuffed duck and a framed photo of what must be her family.
"Hey, doesn't that guy in the photo look like the guy on the Lira?" Andree asked looking over my shoulder.
"Oh my God!" I cried recognizing the man in the photo as King Ibrahim Mazur of Turkey. I'd just studied about him in one of my classes.
"What is she doing with a photo of the royal family in her bag?" He asked.
"Give me your phone," I demanded. Thirty seconds later my face paled and my jaw dropped as I found myself staring at a photo of Rose.
"Princess Rosemarie Mazur, age eighteen," I murmured.
"Isn't that a picture of Rose?" Andree asked.
I gulped and nodded. Lissa's pen pal and the girl currently occupying my former bedroom was none other than Princess Rosemarie Mazur.
Uh oh! Her identity has been discovered. What do you think is going to happen? Will Sydney tell Lissa and the girls or will she confront Rose. Is Dimtri's secret in danger of being found out because of this? Don't hate me too much for leaving you hanging, but please do review and let me know what you think!
