Author's Notes:

You know the drill: no ownership rights to anything but my own plot, error-ridden text no one else helped with, and some of this might be grown-up.

-=o0/&\0o=-

Rose's POV:

I was so nervous about this date. After last night, I really wanted it to go well. Dimitri really surprised me with everything that happened in the car on the way here, but it was way more amazing than I could've ever hoped for.

I love Dimitri. I'm sure of it. But love isn't something I take lightly. I have told Lissa that I love her and my parents have each heard it a handful of times, but that is it. I never said it to Jesse, despite giving him my virginity, and in hindsight, that's something I'm very glad of. Part of me still wished I had waited for the right guy to come around. That I had waited for Dimitri to come around.

On the other hand, I never felt it for Jesse, either. Love, I mean. It was still a mystery to me how I could know Dimitri for so short a period of time and feel so connected to him like this. I had never felt like this before and there was absolutely no explanation.

Dimitri had my heart and if he wanted to, he could smash it into a billion pieces with one word. I know he's 'innocent' compared to me and it's not like I want to corrupt him, but I do have to admit that it makes me trust him just a little bit more. In the short time I've known him, I have no reason to, but I trust him. With sex and everything else. I want to be his first. I want to be his everything.

I just hope he's being completely honest with me.

I had been trying to wait for the exact right time to tell Dimitri that I loved him, but it just never came. I very nearly said it without meaning to when he made me come in the car. I only just stopped myself from blurting it out. I can't just let myself say it. It has to be right.

I took Dimitri's hand and led him to the go-karts, excited for the chance to just have fun together.

"Did we want to have a shared kart or each drive our own?" I asked him. I had hoped to stay close to him, but I knew it could also be fun if we each got the chance to drive our own kart.

Dimitri scratched his chin looking at the side-by-side seats in the two-seater kart closest to us. "I don't know. I'd like to share, but do we both get a chance to drive if we share?"

I grinned at him. It was like we were on the same train of thought. "We get two sessions with seven laps around the track each. We could switch places between laps?"

Dimitri smiled back and replied, "Perfect," then he gave me a peck on the lips and we got the attendant to give us helmets and strap us in.

There wasn't a lot of talking while we were on the track, but it just felt good to be together. Dimitri and I each whipped the car around the turns, careening into each other on each one. It was nice just to laugh and have fun. We even held hands while speeding into the straightaways. Fifteen minutes later, Dimitri and I were circling into the final lap.

"That was incredible, Roza!" Dimitri said, removing his helmet, "I've never been on a go-kart before."

I laughed, pulling my own helmet off. "Really, Comrade? That makes two firsts for you today, doesn't it?"

Dimitri's cheeks turned pink as he scratched the back of his neck and unfastened his seatbelt. "It might."

"You ready for some mini golf?" I asked him, getting out of the kart.

"If I am, that would make another first," he chuckled.

I grinned at him as I asked, "You've never been mini golfing?"

"No," he said, "Randall always had a lot of money, but my mama did not. With nine mouths to feed, it never went very far. Responsibilities always just seemed to take precedence over fun."

I frowned. "And you paid last night," I told him, "Even though the restaurant was really expensive."

Dimitri pulled me aside so that I was facing him and put a hand on my cheek. His fingertips threaded through my hair as he tilted my face up towards his and looked me in the eyes. "Roza," he told me. I loved Dimitri's accent and there was something so indescribably sexy about his using the Russian form of my name like that! "I wanted to be able to pay last night. Being with you like, being able to give you a nice dinner and spend time together talking and having good food, side by side like that was exactly where I wanted to be. I may not have a lot of money and I may give a lot of it to my family, but I enjoyed being able to spend it on you." The depths of his dark brown chocolate eyes were amazing. I felt like he could look right into my soul.

"Except when Natalie came to the table?" I asked.

Dimitri shrugged. "I probably could have used to have not had her as our waitress last night," he said, "but I have to admit that what you did to me when she was at the table was the most," he kissed me lightly on the tip of my nose, "exciting," he kissed me on the cheek, "enticing," he kissed the other cheek, "arousing," he kissed my chin, "exquisite, sensual torture I have ever experienced before." Dimitri kissed my lips long enough to gently nip my bottom lip just slightly.

"I also probably would've appreciated it much more if I hadn't taken those pills beforehand."

"And if I hadn't had four drinks with my dinner?" I internally groaned.

Dimitri kissed my forehead and pulled me close for a hug, with his hands behind my shoulder blades, saying, "It was five, but at least I didn't have to pay for them."

I groaned, but then Dimitri said, "And besides, for maybe the first time ever at a restaurant with table service, I didn't leave a tip."

I looked up at Dimitri's face and he smirked. "What?" he asked, "Right before you came back to the table, she told me not to leave her a tip and to call her to go out sometime instead. She got half her wish."

Dimitri kissed my lips again and looked into my eyes. "Now, then, I believe I was promised a chance to play mini golf for the first time?" he asked.

"I think you were, Comrade," I told him.

"Well, lead the way." Dimitri took my hand as I directed us to the mini golf course.

-=o0/&\0o=-

Dimitri's POV:

"Comrade, you suck at this," Rose told me as she watched me looking like Quasimodo hunched over my putter that was at least a foot too short and haphazardly swatting at the little orange ball over and over again, "This might be the only thing I have ever seen you do that you're absolutely horrible at. This is a par six hole and you're at twelve now. Just give up and we'll move on to the next one."

I don't know why, but thanks to my sisters, I always pictured mini golf being this super-romantic thing where the guy puts his arms around the girl and moves in close. Oh, how wrong I was.

We walked up to the next hole and Rose sunk her ball in one putt. "Ah!" she exclaimed, "There it goes, right in the hole. Right. In. The. Hole." Rose chuckled as she licked her lips seductively.

Between Rose talking about going in the hole and the way she licked her lips, she was definitely doing things to me. Damnit, focus - another erection will not help the hunching over this tiny little golf club!

I began putting again, but I just wasn't having any luck. Only five more holes to play and then I never have to do this again. "If you don't stop whacking it so hard like that," Rose said, "Your shaft's going to get all bent."

Now, she was doing it on purpose. I smirked and tried to ignore her.

"Aww, Comrade, there's a little river if you miss on the hole after next. Your ball's going to get all wet." I smacked the little ball again. It bounced off a barrier and rolled right over the hole.

"You need to spread your legs a little more," Rose told me with that man-eating grin again, "and keep your head down." I growled as I continued swatting at the little ball with the tiny stick.

"Adjust your grip," she continued as I hit it for the fourth time this hole, "Try choking down on the shaft a little more." This woman would be the death of me!

"Seriously, Comrade, you need to work on your stroke a little, or you'll never get it in the hole." I actually heard Rose snicker at that one. I took my shot and then looked over at her and shot her a dirty glare.

"Okay, that was five and this was a par five," Rose said, "I'm sorry, Comrade." I'd had enough. I moved up to her and took her in my arms and pressed her body tight up against my own, kissing her ferociously. Without even trying to, I was pressing my hard manhood up against her belly.

As I broke the kiss, Rose said to me, "Wow, this is really getting to you Comrade, isn't it?"

"Yes!" the word practically ripped out of me.

"I'll help you on the next hole," Rose told me, "but I might have to get a little creative."

After Rose finished sinking her ball into the hole in three shots - this one was trickier, even for her - she came up beside me, saying, "Get in position like you're going to putt it, but don't take the shot. I did as she instructed and then Rose stood in front of me and took my hands and repositioned them. "I'm gonna try to do the whole 'I help you putt from behind' thing, but seeing that you're practically a giant and I can't see over you, I don't know how well that will work."

I chuckled at her assessment of my height. True, I am over six and a half feet tall, but I'd hardly call myself a giant.

As Rose came up to stand behind me, I felt her breasts against my back and her arms wrapped around me. "Damnit, Comrade," she said, placing her hands on the inside of my own arms and craning her neck around my side, "this would be so much easier if I were the taller one."

As she stretched to see around me, one of her arms bent lower and she painfully elbowed me in the stomach.

"Dimitri! I'm so sorry!" Rose cried, and began gently rubbing my stomach where she had elbowed me.

Unfortunately, where she was rubbing was very close to the upper tip of my quickly hardening erection. I let out a low, throaty moan at the sensation.

"Later, Comrade," Rose chuckled, positioning my arms again and placing a chaste kiss on my tricep as she craned to look around again, "It's time to sink this ball."

With Rose's hands pushing and directing my arms, I made another putt, far gentler than I had been hitting the ball on my own. It felt completely different from all of the other attempts and she had helped me aim it at a side wall instead of directly at the hole. In one roll, the little orange ball bounced off of the side and sank effortlessly into the hole.

My eyes widened in surprise at how easily it went in. I sat there gaping at the ball in the hole. Rose had made what I believed to be impossible happen. Effortlessly.

Yet again, Rose showed me that she possessed an amazing ability to do nearly anything she set her mind to. In one instant, I thought to myself, Rose makes everything that I thought was impossible, possible. She was so amazing. Maybe I could tell her the truth and it wouldn't change anything between us.

"God, would you look at them?" asked Rose, drawing me out of my thoughts, "What pains in the asses!"

"Who?" I asked.

"Them. Those kids over there." Rose pointed across to the other end of the golf course. I looked over and saw a couple of underclassmen I had seen from St. Vladimir's. One of the boys was taking selfies while he was humping a statue while the other two were smearing ice cream into the benches along the course. I didn't know any of them personally, but they weren't that much younger than I was. "I'm glad we're both old enough to have grown out of that phase," Rose added.

"Yeah," I said.

I could never tell her.

-=o0/&\0o=-

"Dimitri, I had an amazing time tonight," Rose told me as she stopped the engine on the car.

"I did too."

"I am really glad we could spend time together again. Hopefully this made up for last night?" she asked.

"It did," I told her with a smile.

"I'm really tempted to ask you to come in with me," she said, "but Lissa's home tonight. Plus, after last night, maybe it's better if we don't. At least, not just yet."

I mentally frowned, but I said, "Okay, Roza."

She leaned in and kissed me. I let my hand tangle into her beautiful silky hair as I deepened the kiss. For a moment, Rose let her hands wander along the planes of my chest, even dipping down below my navel for a few moments, before I felt Rose pulling back from the kiss.

"Comrade, I should probably call it a night now and we could both head inside or I might be forced to violate that whole 'not in a car' thing you told me on the way here."

"Okay, Roza," I said again.

"Text me when you get to your bedroom for the night?" she said, sounding more like a question than a directive, "I have something I'd like to show you."

I nodded, gave her another quick kiss, and then we both got out of the car, said goodnight, and went our separate ways.

-=o0/&\0o=-

Author's Notes:

I have a plan for where I want the rest of the story to go and we're looking at maybe a dozen more chapters until the end, at most. Before I write the next several chapters, is there anything you really want to see (or don't want to see)? Any characters that you'd like to appear or appear again? Any interactions you'd like to see happen? We're in the home stretch now, but the last little bit isn't set in stone yet, so here's your chance. I can't promise I'll write everything that gets requested (for example, if it goes against the nature of how I see the characters or can't fit in with what I'm already planning), but I am willing to try.

Feel free to comment/review here, send me a PM if you're on FanFiction, or send a note on Facebook (page on profile) if you want to have an impact on this story.