Rose's first instinct was to scream, but she squelched it. There hadn't been a single soul on the way to Mark's room; the only noise she'd heard was music blaring down the hall. No one would hear her—his plan, she was sure.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Think, Rose! Lissa's father had been adamant that both the girls take self-defense courses, and Rose had exceled. It hadn't been much of a surprise; despite never playing organized sports, she'd always been extremely athletic.

She stilled herself as she tried to collect her thoughts, but it was hard with her mind racing. Rose saw an opportunity when he pulled her wrists together and pinned them with just one hand. She swiftly lifted her leg so she could knee him between the thighs, but he was too quick for her. "Not yet, honey," he told her.

"Let me…go!" Rose thrashed her entire body from side to side, and when he lowered his, she turned her face quickly, her cheek connecting with his.

"Fuck!" His grip on her wrists tightened, all of his body weight holding her in place as he lifted his hand and smacked her cheek.

Rose howled from the pain and for a moment, it was enough to subdue her. When she felt his hand clasp her thigh in an effort to part her legs, she pressed them together with as much strength as she could gather. He squeezed her flesh and Rose had to grit her teeth from crying out again. She squirmed beneath him, trying desperately to throw him off of her. He was relentless in his quest, and when he squeezed her flesh again in the same spot it was agonizing. She lost her composure, and in that second he thrust his knee between her thighs to keep them separated.

When he looked down to reach for the button on her jeans, Rose didn't hesitate. She lifted her head as swiftly as she could and smacked their foreheads together. It hurt, but at least she'd been expecting it. Mark's grip on her wrists faltered, and Rose seized the opportunity to poke him hard in the eyes.

He rolled off of her with a yelp and Rose jumped to her feet. It took a second to gain her balance—she was still dazed from knocking her head against his—but as soon as she did, she fled from the room as fast as she could.

Rose took the stairs two at a time, moving so fast she almost fell on her face more than once. She ran out the double glass doors and into the cold night air, but she didn't stop sprinting until she reached the pole with the blue light at the top. She picked up the receiver and waited. "My name is Rose Hathaway," she told the person on the other end of the phone breathlessly, her eyes darting around to make sure she hadn't been followed. "And I've just been attacked."

"Lissa, drop it," Rose said again as Lissa and Christian followed her out of the police station to Christian's waiting car.

"Rose—"

She swung around angrily. "You heard him," she said heatedly. "Mark probably wouldn't do any jail time anyway, but they'd delve into my past." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she wiped at her eyes; it was after four o'clock in the morning and after the previous night's events, she was exhausted. She pulled her hands away and looked at her friends. "I've been sleeping with my professor, Liss. Do you know how that would look in front of a judge?"

"Ummm…like you're in a monogamous relationship?" Lissa shot back.

"Dimitri could lose his job," Rose finally said, reigning in her temper. "They'd probably find out that I'm a minor hanging out in bars, and Adrian would get in trouble for our fake ID's."

"So what?" Lissa said angrily. "Rose, he attacked you! He deserves to be punished for what he did!"

"Yeah. And in a perfect world, he would be. But I don't feel like having my past dissected, Lissa. Do you know what I am?"

"Rose—"

Rose scoffed. "Liss, I'm so fucked up, even my parents can't stand to be around me. What does that tell you?"

"That they don't deserve you," Christian said in a low voice as he joined the conversation. "The way your parents treat you has nothing to do with you, Rose. They don't not want to be around you because you're fucked up; they fucked you up."

Rose gave him a dirty look. "Gee, thanks, Chrish. Now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

"That's right, Rose. Shut down when someone tries to get serious," Christian said dryly.

"You know what?" Rose snapped as she shoved her hands in her jacket pocket. "I think I'll walk."

Dimitri had gotten the call at eleven this morning that there was a mandatory meeting for all faculty members. Apparently a female student had been attacked on campus last night and they'd wanted to gather together to brainstorm ideas on how to present it to the students without causing a panic. They'd shared thoughts on how to lessen the likelihood of being assaulted. Among them had been reiterating to students how effective the buddy system could be, reminding people that it was common for a victim to be attacked by someone she knows, and to never let your drink out of your sight while at a party. They'd also decided they were going to offer self-defense classes free of charge to any student who wished to attend.

On his way home, he couldn't help but be relieved that Rose lived off campus. He hadn't seen her outside of the classroom in weeks, but it didn't mean that he wasn't thinking about her. In fact, the opposite was true; thoughts of her consumed him. Part of him wished he could go back to the last night they'd been together and take back what he'd said or at least word it a bit more eloquently. But the other part of him—the part that knew having an affair with his student was wrong—wouldn't take it back even if he could.

The sooner Rose moved on the better.

Dimitri arrived to his World Civilization class bright and early Monday morning. Rose was already there, as she always was, with her roommate's boyfriend sitting next to her. Dimitri couldn't help but notice that the young man seemed unusually preoccupied with her this morning. It's none of your business, he reminded himself as he stood. He was about to address the classroom when Rose looked up.

Dimitri froze as his gaze wandered over her face. There was a huge bruise splayed across her left cheek, and her bottom lip was obviously swollen. His hands fell to the desk in front of her to where her hands were resting. The red marks on her wrists told him she'd been part of a struggle.

His eyes flew to hers, and when she quickly looked away, Dimitri felt something inside of himself break.

a/n: Thank you all so much for your reviews for last chapter. I loved reading your thoughts!

A lot of you mentioned that you wanted Dimitri to save Rose, but I really wanted Rose to be able to do this herself. I think it's really important to the core of who she is in this story to think she can handle everything herself. She's not quite ready yet to admit she needs help sometimes. ;)

Let me know what you think about how it all worked out!