1-10-12

This world and some of the characters in this story belong to the wonderful Richelle Mead. I own nothing except the storyline and the other characters that are not in Richelle's books.

I set my purse down on the bench and sprinted over to him. I couldn't wait to get my arms around him. Mmmm. Now I'm home. I open my mouth to speak and a rather wide embarrassing yawn comes out. "Oh man Dimi, I'm sorry. I'm so tired. **kiss** I can't **kiss** wait for you **kiss** to see my dress though. **kiss** I think it was worth it. I really hope you love it as much as I do."

"Oh honey, I'm sure that I will. I can't wait to see you in it. Listen the pizza hasn't been in the oven long. Why don't you go lay on the couch for a few minutes and I will call you when it's ready."

"I will, thank you." I walked over and laid down on the couch. The next think I know I'm swimming naked in crystal clear water looking up at a white sandy beach shore and seeing Dimitri swimming under water to me fast like a shark. Yeah, I could get used to this.

December 28th

DPOV

I need to be sure to be at Christian's suite by 10pm this morning. I don't want to be late but man, I hope by the end of the day I'm not like CC was last night. She was so exhausted that I had a really hard time waking her up for dinner. I would have just carried her to bed but I knew that she hadn't eaten much yesterday when she had sent me that text in the afternoon about the finger sandwiches. She was thankful that I woke her up and I was glad because she said that she was starving and I knew that our BBQ pizza was one of her favorite dinners.

During dinner we talked about the honeymoon and we both said how shocked we were to realize that we hadn't even thought about it before Adrian and Sydney brought it up. We both agreed that it sounds like the perfect honeymoon and can't wait to be in paradise together.

CC is meeting Sydney when I leave to go to Christian's so she will let her know but I am sure Adrian and I will discuss it again when I see him at 10.

I'm going to visit Tony later today and ask him if he wouldn't mind covering me in our classes if I were to take at least two more weeks off for a honeymoon. I'm sure he won't mind but I still want to ask, plus when I speak with Headmistress Sokolova to ask for the extra time off it would be good if I could tell her that Tony doesn't mind covering for me.

CC and I were eating breakfast when we started talking about our honeymoon again.

"Dimi, baby, I might have a slight problem when it comes to packing for our honeymoon."

"Yeah? What's wrong?"

"I don't have a bathing suit. The one that I had doesn't really fit right anymore."

"Well I don't mind swimming in the ocean in our birthday suits if you don't. Adrian said that each home has a private beach."

"Ha ha, yeah, maybe swimming in the buff would be ok but I kind of want to try out the jet skis. What if we should happen to pass a boat or something? Do you want them to see me driving a jet ski naked?"

"You have a point."

"Plus think of how much sun I would get naked on a jet ski or riding in a boat. You would be rubbing burn relief cream on every inch of my body for a week at least Dimi, my skin doesn't tan up nicely like yours. It burns first."

"Ok, ok. Since we're going to be on the human schedule to get as much of the sun as we can, we will only swim naked at dusk. Just before the sun has completely set. But just for the record, I would not mind it in the least if you wanted me to rub something, anything all over every inch of your body for a week, or a month, or everyday for the rest of our lives." I said as I pulled her body flush to mine kissing her softly and teasing her just a little with my tongue. Oh man, I'm starting to get hard just thinking about it.

"Dimitri my love, trust me, by the end of this honeymoon you, my Russian God, will feel thoroughly and totally shagged."

"Ok...if you say so...but first, could you tell me what that means exactly? What will happen to me when I'm shagged?" What? She is cracking up. Oh man, she is going to start crying if she doesn't stop laughing so hard. "What?"

"Oh wait, I can't breathe. Oh baby the look on your face, now that was priceless." Nice, what am I missing?

"CC?" I tried to give her my serious not fooling around face but it was hard because really it was funny to see her laugh so hard.

"To be shagged, well literally the word means exhausted but in England they use that word in place of fucked. To be shagged is to be thoroughly fucked. Screwed to exhaustion. Make love until you can't move anymore. Dimi baby I plan to make love during our entire honeymoon except for when we are eating or swimming, though making love while swimming is optional."

Ok, now I'm laughing. What? I didn't know. "CC my love, shag away. In fact, if you like we can start now."

"Yes we could start now if you want to be late to meet the guys over at Christian's. It's 9:50. But, you know, that's entirely up to you." She said as she is rubbing her hands all over my chest, down to my hips and around my back and puts a hand on each cheek of my ass and pulls me to her tight.

"Oh honey, can I have a rain check? I will never hear the end of it if I am late." CC chuckled at me.

"Of course baby. Whenever you want. I will never deny you."

"Thank you my love. I love you so very much."

"As I love you." I held her tight for a couple of heady kisses before I had to peel myself away.

"I will call you or text you later ok. Tell Sydney that I said hi and have fun."

"I will, thank you. I'm going to drag her shopping with me and see if we can find a new bathing suit, in the middle of winter. This should be fun."

DPOV

I picked up Paul on my way to Christian's suite and got to the door the same time as Adrian. "Good morning cousin." He said to me. "Good morning little cousin." He directed to Paul which was so cute I had to chuckle.

"Good morning Adrian." I said at the same time Paul said, "Hey, we're not cousins." Which just made me laugh more.

"Paul, Adrian is family now. It's just a sign of endearment."

"Oh, ok, what's endearment." Paul said making Adrian laugh and say, "It just means that we're family."

Guardian Ross had already announced us and opened the door for us. Francois greeted us and led us to one of the unused bedrooms that the tuxedos and the tailor were in.

After about an hour of getting poked and measured we were done. That went way easier than I thought it would. Adrian and I decided to go see if we could locate our women. We could call them but we thought we would surprise them and take them out to lunch. After we dropped off Paul we made our way over to the stores.

As we were approaching where the stores were, we saw a small group of students making a commotion. Most of the students went home for the holidays and the ones that didn't were usually not happy being left behind. As we got closer it was clear that all of the students were boys but we still couldn't really see what was going on. Then I heard it. I heard CC scream for someone to back off and then I saw one of the boys being thrown to the ground. Adrian and I looked at each other for a fraction of a second before he screamed at me to go, knowing that I would be worried about his safety because we still didn't know what was going on. I took off running knowing that Adrian would follow.

As I approached I noticed that CC was in a protective stance in front of Sydney and that one of the boys that were taunting them started to charge CC ready to go for her neck in retaliation for what she had just done to his friend. Just before his fangs touched her skin I tackled him to the ground and stood up lifting him up off of the ground so fast his face turned several shaded paler that it normally was.

I recognized the kid right away. A lot of the Moroi don't like that they are being forced to take at least one self defense class and this James Zeklos is the loudest complainer of them all. He is in my class and he hates the class just as much as he hates me for teaching it.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE GOING TO DO TO MY WIFE?" I screamed at him. He was shocked and I'm surprised he didn't pee his pants for how scared he looked. I held him with one hand as I grabbed CC and pulled her to me with the other hugging her as tight as I could with one arm.

The other boys all turned around as if they were going to try to run away and leave Zeklos and the kid on the ground to take the fall but as soon as they turned they saw Adrian. Now Adrian's great aunt may not be queen any more but Adrian still has a lot of power as a royal and the Moroi respect and fear him. He has made quite a powerful name for himself since he sobered up.

Adrian yelled, "STOP!" Now I'm not sure if they stopped out of respect for Adrian or if it was the compulsion that he laced his voice with but either way, it did the trick as they all stopped. He then told them all to stay put and Zeklos to stand with them as he wrapped Sydney into a protective hug. I got out my phone and called the guardian office and explained what was going on. They are sending over some guardians and the paramedics from the clinic as the other boy is still laying on the ground.

"Oh my god CC are you all right?" I asked her as I held her tight and she started crying.

"Oh Dimi, thank God you showed up when you did. I was so scared. They were hassling us. Giving us a hard time because we're human. Saying things like, 'you two must be lost, the feeder quarters are on the other side of campus' and 'oh baby you look sweet, I bet you taste sweet, come here and give us a little taste', and shit like that. That guy was coming at me when I gave him a roundhouse kick." She said pointing to the kid that she knocked out.

"Oh baby, I am so sorry. I can't believe this. I'm so sorry I wasn't here to protect you."

"Don't Dimitri, don't do this. I told you before. You can't always be with me. You couldn't possibly have known that this was going to happen. You can not feel guilty about this. You couldn't have prevented it."

"I know but I can't help how bad I feel."

"Hey look at it this way, I took one of them down thanks to you. I could have never done that before. He would have bit me for sure. It bought us enough time for you to show up."

"Yes, you can be quite fierce when you want to be." I said as we both chuckled. She really has gotten to be a rather good fighter. I think I will ask Vik if she will spar with her more often to keep it that way.

As the guardians and paramedics approached, the boy on the ground was just getting up. The girls gave their statements and then Adrian and I did the same. Knowing that Lissa will get a report of this, we made our way back to her suite to explain it in person. I called Lissa and asked her if she had a minute for us to stop by. She said that she will have Guardian Ross show us right in.

About an hour later we were finally at the restaurant and had just given our orders to the server.

"I feel bad that Lissa is so frustrated. It's not her fault that our society is so slow to change." I stressed.

"It's actually amazing how much things have been changing. How many things are being done differently now and being accepted. Lissa is doing a remarkable job and I hope her full vision for our society comes to pass in our lifetime." Adrian said with such conviction. He really is a remarkable advocate for Lissa.

"I understand that those boys are going to be suspended but I can't help but be worried at how it will be when they are allowed back to school." CC said with a bit of anxiety in her voice.

"CC my love, you will not be bothered by those boys again. Not if I can help it. We will all be watching them closely and they know that they will be expelled from St Basil if there are any more incidents of any kind." I held her close hoping the security of my arms would help her to relax and I could feel it in her instantly when I did.

"I wouldn't change my life for anything Dimi, you know that. I just wish this would go away. I don't want you to worry about me and I know that this bothers you."

"CC honey, we will get through this, you know we will."

"Oh baby, I know, but in the mean time, keep your arms wrapped around me tight. It's working wonders for me." She said with a very sexy smirk.

Our food came and we started talking about the honeymoon. Adrian and Sydney are extremely excited that we have agreed to take them up on their offer. We told them that it's the best wedding present that we could have ever dreamed of. In return CC agreed to cook all of the meals as our wedding present to them which they loved. That in turn got us all laughing at the cooking disaster stories of Sydney's attempt to be Betty Crocker. Adrian was laughing so hard he was even showing his fangs which is very rare for him. In spite of what happened today, we had a wonderful afternoon together.

Thank you for reading and reviewing.

Jo *HUGS*