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Own it not, Vampire Academy.

Rose POV

I slowly open my eyes to see a heavenly sight, Adrian sleeping next to me with his arms tightly locked around my waist. My heart beats loudly as I remember the events of the previous night. I finally stopped being afraid of heartache and took a chance at happiness, I told Adrian I love him. And know he's mine, all mine. I lay in his arms and just stare at him, taking in how he looks so peaceful and perfect, how his scent draws me closer to him, how the little moans and wimpers he lets out in his sleep make me smile wondering what he's dreaming about, how the feel of his skin against mine sends a fire throughout my body and how his breath on my face causes my mouth to water needing to taste his sweet lips. Oh man, when did I turn into this girl. I guess Adrian just brings out the sap in me. But his lips do look very inviting. He needs to get up anyway and I'm sure he won't mind my method of waking him up.

I lean in carefully and gently brush my lips to his. I don't move, just let our lips lightly touch. I then place small kisses all around is mouth. I sense him begin to stir, but not wake. I glide my tongue over his bottom lip, which causes his to part. I kiss his mouth, using my tongue to caress his top lip, making him moan. Finally, he responds and starts to kiss me back. I'm not sure he's awake yet, his eyes are still closed. Our mouths move together perfectly and I feel his tongue break my invisible barrier and dance with mine. Yep, he's awake. His hands move from my waist along my back and tangle themselves in my hair. He moves himself so he is now hovering over me, deepening the kiss. He is only wearing his boxers, so I run my hands all over his magnificent chest and back. I love the feel of his toned muscles under my touch. I pull down on him, wanting to feel the full weight of him on me. I crave the way his body feels against mine. He lets out another moan as I run my nails down his back. I smile against his lips, loving his reaction.

"Good morning, babe." I pull away slightly to look into his eyes.

"Yes, it's a very good morning waking up with you." he kisses me again. "You have no idea how many times I wished you would wake me up like this." he confesses.

"You have no idea how many times I've been tempted to do so." he looks surprised at my admission. "I always gave you a kiss on the cheek, though, before I woke you up." I smile at him and pull him back down to me. After a while of making out, I know I have to get up to start my shift. Plus, if I don't stop us right now, we're going to go a lot farther than I'm ready for. I break away from lips, breathing heavily because, yeah, he's a great kisser. "Unfortunately, we both have to get to work, so we'll have to continue this later." He looks so disappointed, I can't help but laugh. We both get up and he starts to get dressed, which saddens me. After he finishes putting on his shoes, he comes over to me and wraps his arms around me.

"Don't look so sad, I'll see you later, I promise." He kisses the end of my nose.

"It's not that really. I was just hoping you could wash my back." I pout.

"Oh, Rose, don't tempt me, but I don't have any clean clothes here. Next time, I promise." I laugh out loud because that's what I used to tell him when he asked me to join him in the shower.

"Okay. I'll hold you to it." I walk him to the front door and we kiss each other goodbye. My lips are so chapped right now from all the kissing, it's not funny. I take a shower and get dressed in my stupid guardian uniform and head to my post. This morning I'm working in the daycare center, my favorite place to guard. I walk in and all the kids coming running to me and try to knock me down.

"Guardian Hathaway! Wrestle with us." the scream at me. I fall to the floor and about ten three and four year olds tackle me. I start to tickle them all as they do the same to me. Then, as they commanded, I play wrestle each one and eventually lose to them all. I love watching their little victory dances they do when they beat me. Once they all had a turn to defeat me, the teacher calls them all over to the carpet for reading time. I take my post by the door and stand guard. I love watching them play and color. One little boy, Kevin, loves to paint pictures of me. He pulls me over to the art area and has me pose for him. The other kids dress me up in silly hats and scarves and position me in silly poses. I have so much fun playing with the kids, it makes me think about Adrian and I starting a family. He is going to be a great dad. By the time nap times rolls around, my shift is over and I leave to find Guardian Conner.

My stomach starts growling at me demanding to be fed. I head to the guardian lunch room hoping there's something good on the menu. I walk in and take a look around to find a seat, and see just the man I was looking for, eating alone. I sneak up behind him and tap him on one shoulder while leaning around the other to steal a french fry. "Get your own lunch Hathaway." he pulls his plate out of my reach.

"Fine, I will. Don't go anywhere 'cause I need to talk to you." I say as I get up to get me some grub. I return with a cheeseburger and fries and sit in the empty seat next to him. I throw a fry at him to make up for the one I stole, only it doesn't end up on his plate, but in his shirt. "Two points!" I yell, arms in the air. He pulls it out of is shirt and throws it back to me. Gross. I dodge it and it lands on the table.

"So what did you want to talk about? Ready to admit your hot for my bod?" he waggles his eyebrows up and down.

"You know it!" I return the eyebrow gesture. "Actually I need a really big favor." I give him the puppy dog eyes that always work on Adrian. They don't seem to have the same effect on Conner, though, because he's just staring at me waiting to hear what the favor is. "Well, you know how Adrian is dating that skank, Emily Conta, right?" he laughs at my description of her and nods. "He wants to break up with her, but can't tell her the real reason why, so we thought about making it look like she's cheating on him and then he could use that as an excuse to end it with her." I hope he doesn't ask too many questions.

"What's the real reason he wants to break up? Is it because she's a royal bitch?"

"That's part of it. If I tell you the real reason, you have to swear you won't tell anyone. I mean it, I will hurt you if you open your mouth." I say seriously while pointing at him. He puts his hands up in surrender.

"I promise not to tell a soul. What's going on?" He looks so curious. He must love gossip.

"Adrian and I are secretly dating." I whisper so no one else in the room can hear. He looks a little shocked, but then a smile pulls at the corner of his mouth.

"I guess his persistance finally paid off. Good for him." Not quite the reaction I expected, but good nontheless. Suddenly he looks confused. "What does any of this have to do with me?"

"Well, umm. we thought that it would really humiliate her if she was caught cheating on him with a Dhampir, particularly a guardian. You know how she feels about Moroi and guardian relationships, that it's shameful and wrong. Ugh, I can't stand her. Anyway, I was wondering if you would be that guardian that she was caught with?" I ask the last part timidly. I hope I didn't just totally offend him.

"Do you really think she's going to fall for this? I mean, the way she thinks of guardians is like we're servants. She doesn't seem the type to intermix with the help." he says while eating his fries.

"You don't know anything about women. All women have a fantasy about a big strong gorgeous man sweeping us off our feet and making us feel like the sexiest woman alive. You just need to flirt with her, you know, gaze at her, compliment her, help her with her packages or that damn dog. She'll eat it up. And make sure you smile at her. You have a great smile that we girls just melt to." This seems to have boosted his confidence as he sits straighter in his chair.

"I still don't think it'll work, but I'll try, on one condition." Uh oh, here it comes.

"I want to take ballroom dance lessons in town, and I need a partner. You take the lessons with me, I'll do what I can with the Conta chick." I try hard not to laugh at his desire to take dance lessons.

"Wow, umm, wh-why do you want to t-take l-lessons?" I get out as best I can. He glares at me and I manage to calm down.

"Remember when we went to the mall with Conta's guardians?" I nod, how could I forget getting attacked by Strigoi. "Well, Guardian Jenkins mentioned that she liked to ballroom dance, and I thought it would be nice to learn and then maybe take her dancing one night." Oh my gosh, that's so cute.

"Oh, that's so romantic. I would love to take lessons with you. I don't know how but I know Adrian does. When are the lessons?" Maybe if I learn to dance, I won't feel so ackward at the royal balls I just know Adrian will drag me to when we go public about our relationship.

"They start tonight, and run everynight for the next week. I'm sure we can get someone to replace any night shifts you have." he suggests. Hmm, that means less Adrian time, but he'll be with Emily anyway. I'm sure he won't mind.

"Okay, you have a deal. Oh, we need to get photographic evidence of the two of you together, so when you think she's about to crack, call me and I'll take care of the rest." This is going to be great.

After lunch, I go to my grueling training session. We're doing the same as yesterday, but since I did so well my confidence is higher. I get through the boring part of the session, weights and drills and then wait for the combat portion. I assume Adrian will be here again, but I don't see him, yet. We get started anyway. I'm fighting ten guardians again, and I'm doing very well. I'm staying focussed and concentrating on using all my senses to help me know where my enemy is. We take a break, and I check out the damage I've received so far and find I suffered a couple broken ribs and the beginnings of a huge bruise on my hip and back. Not to mention the scratches on my arms. I look around and I still don't see Adrian. Emily must be keeping him busy somewhere. I wonder if she ever found Spartacus after Adrian let him loose.

The second half, Roger says we're going to work on not letting myself get distracted, since I voiced to him my concerns about that. While I'm fighting, he's going to have certain things around me to try and get me to avert my attention away from my attackers. I'm a little nervous, because this is my worst nightmare coming true. But I know I can only get better through practice, so I get ready. We start fighting and I hear someone shouting my name, but I block it out and keep fighting. I manage to stay so focussed I don't even notice any other distractions, until I certain voice rings out. I hear little Kevin from the day care. "Guardian Hathaway, help." he yells as I hear him running toward me. I turn around to stop him from getting too close when I feel a fist as solid as stone hit me in the temple. Then blackness.

Emily POV

I am so pissed at Adrian right now, I could spit. He never came back last night after looking for Spartacus. Luckily, I found my little baby in the park, shaking under a park bench, he was so scared. It took me a while to calm him down, no thanks to Adrian. I went to his apartment after I found Spartacus, but he wasn't there. I have a feeling he was with that guardian of his. Apparently keeping him away from her isn't working too well. I'll have to come up with a better plan. I'll have to think about that later, because now I have to go to that damn committee. At least I'll see Adrian there and find out what happened to him.

I see him sitting by himself, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed and a big goofy grin on his face. How much you want to bet he's thinking about her? I pull out the seat next to him loudly so he'll wake up from his daydream. "Adrian, where were you last night? I looked for you but you weren't home?" I wonder what excuse he'll give me.

"I went over to Tasha and Dimitri's after I couldn't find your dog. Rose was having a cooking lesson and I wanted to know how it went." Hmm, I don't think he's lying.

"Oh, well why didn't you tell me? I would've come witih you."

"Sorry, but I didn't think you liked socializing with guardians." he says a little bitter.

"Well, you could at least told me where you were. I was worried." I don't need him getting mad at me and breaking up with me. Then what would I do when the social season starts pretty soon. If I want to raise my social status, I need to be on the arm of someone higher up than me. And you can't do much better than the Queen's favorite nephew. I lean in and give him a kiss on the cheek. "Well, you can make it up to me today, sweetheart." He's not getting away from me tonight.

After the meeting, I drag Adrian with me to do a little shopping. I know he wants to go to the gym to watch his tramp of a guardian train so he can heal her if she gets her butt kicked, but I have other plans. "Hey, Emily, I think we should go watch Rose train. She might need me." He tells me as he grabs my hand and starts to lead me out of the store.

"Nonsense, Adrian. She's the best, remember." Wow that was really hard to spit out. "If they need you, they'll call. We're just a few minutes away from her. Stop worrying and relax. She'll be fine." I certainly don't want a repeat of yesterday when he kissed her, thinking no one could see them. There is no way I'm losing him to a lowly Dhampir blood whore. I need to disable his phone in case she tries to call him and get him away from me. "Can I see your phone a second? I think the time on my phone is wrong." He hands it to me and walks over to the jewelry case. I his phone off and slip it back into his pocket so he doesn't look at it and turn it back on.

We continue shopping but his mind is a million miles away. I convince him to get something to eat with me at the little cafe. He isn't eating much, just pushing his food around with his fork. I'm about to say something about his behavior, when the door burst open and a big guardian runs through the door. It's that guardian that knocked up Tasha, Damen I think his name is. He looks around the room, searching for something. He sees us and comes rushing over.

"Ivashkov, Rose needs you. Now!" he yells as he grabs Adrian and drags him out. I throw some money on the table and follow. They jump in a car and barely wait for me to get in. I wonder what she did now. I thought we were going to the gym to heal her boo boo's, but we aren't going in that direction. Instead, we're headed to the Court hospital. I can see the panic all over both of their faces. Adrian has gone ghostly pale and is holding his head in his hands. We pull up at the hospital and Adrian flies out of the car and follows the guardian in. I hand Spartacus to a guardian standing at the front doors and catch up to them. We get to her room and I freeze when I see her. She's laying motionless in the bed with all sorts of tubes and wires hooked up to her. She has bruises and cuts all over her and a bandage on her head. It looks like there is a machine helping her breath and a heart monitor showing that her heart is still beating.

Adrian runs up to her and places his hands on her and closes his eyes and concentrates. After about five minutes, he collapses to the floor. I run to him and try to pick him up, but he's too heavy for me. Thanksfully that guardian helps me sit him in a chair. "Rose." he murmurs. He scoots his chair closer to her bed and holds her hand. He starts crying into her hand and repeats her name over and over again. I see her eyes start to flutter and I smack his arm to get his attention. He looks up and sees her open her eyes and look over to him. He jumps out of his chair and practically jumps on her. I can't believe he's getting this worked up over his guardian.

"Adrian, maybe we need to leave her alone so she can get some rest." He doesn't even look at me but shakes his head.

"I'm not leaving her side until I can take her home." He looks over to Guardian Belikov.

"What happened?" he says with the authority he should be using all the time.

"She was working on fighting while being distracted. One of the children from the daycare came in and started running toward her. She turned her attention away from the fight and was hit in the head. The doctor said her brain started swelling. I tried to call you but your phone must be turned off because I couldn't get through." his voice getting angrier as he goes on. Adrian digs in his pocket to get his phone. He sees that it is turned off. Of course he looks at me with a glare that scares the shit out of me.

"Adrian, I'm going to leave you alone to take care of Guar..Rose. Let me know if there is anything I can do." I turn to leave but before I make it out the door, he grabs my arm and forcefully turns me around to face him.

"Did you turn off my phone?" he growls. I certainly can't tell him the truth.

"I'm sorry, I must have accidently done it when I was checking the time. I'm truely sorry." I say as I manage to sqeeze a tear out. I should get an Oscar for this performance. He stares at me for a moment and then lets me go. I watch him walk back over to her bed and lean in to kiss her lips. I turn on my heels and quickly walk away. I can't believe he is falling for her. There is no way I'm letting her take him away from me. I just need to come up with a better plan, and I will.

Ooh, lots of drama this chapter. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think by reviewing.