Thanks for the reviews, they make my happy. Just finished reading Spirit Bound and I LOVED it.
I'm not the wonderful Richelle Mead, therefore have no claim on Vampire Academy
Rose POV
Only days ago I thought the best feeling in the world was the endorphin rush from being bitten by a Strigoi. Boy was I wrong. As I lay here in bed with the man I will soon vow to spend the rest of my life with, the pure bliss and euphoria he creates in me fills to overflowing. The feel of his soft, strong lips caressing mine starts a craving deep inside me. I find myself pulling his body closer to mine and deepening our kiss in an almost frenzied craze in an attempt to mesh out bodies into one. I just can't get enough of him. These clothes are a very annoying barrier keeping me from experiencing him to the fullest. They've got to go. Now. The buttons of his shirt give way one by one as my fumbling fingers release their hold. I put my hands on his hot, hard body and push the fabric away, revealing the most amazing chest I've ever seen. He is glorious. He breaks away from me and finishes removing his shirt for me and looks down at me with so much lust and hunger in his eyes, I feel a rush of heat building up between my thighs. He leans back down and kisses my neck up to my ear. "As much as I like seeing you in this dress, I'd rather see you out of it." he whispers, causing more heat in my core. I nod my head, not able to put together coherent words at the moment and let him pull me up to stand by the bed. He takes a moment to let his eyes wonder over the dress one more time before he puts his hands on my thighs and slowly gathers up the fabric and pulls it up and over my head. I kick off my heels and stand before him naked. Even though I know I have a great body from both mother nature and all the training I do, I'm still a little nervous as to how he will react. His gaze lingers, taking in every inch of me as I stand before him. "So beautiful." he whispers.
I step closer to him, placing my hands on his chest as I gently begin to kiss along his collarbone. I feel him tremble at my touch. While I continue kissing up along his neck, I let my hands drift down his torso to the edge of his pants. His hands are busy roaming all over my back as I make quick work of removing the remainder of his clothes. Now it's my turn to admire him. I step back and look him over, drinking in his gorgeous features. "Damn sexy." I say as I wrap my arms around his waist and let my hands glide over his backside. He mirrors my actions and leans down, finding my mouth and kisses me softly. My heart swells as I consume all the love he feels for me pouring from his touch. It doesn't take long for the kiss to get heated. We tumble back into his bed, never breaking contact. My desire for him is building exponentially as we touch and kiss and caress and whisper declarations of love and devotion to each other. Soon enough, tenderness leads to raw passion that builds up between us, begging to be released. "Are you ready?" he asks. Am I ready? I'm more than ready, but I know he's being protective, not wanting to hurt me. I nod my head and bring his mouth to mine letting him know how much I want this, want him. The sensations of pain and pleasure shoot me, causing me to scream out. I've thought about how this moment would be for a long time now. The fact that I waited to experience this for the first time with Adrian, knowing how much he loves me and I him, makes it all the more wonderful. He's so patient and gentle with me, teaching me what it means to totally give yourself to someone else, to surrender. We spend the entire night showing each other physically what's in our hearts. Although I know he likes taking the lead, it seems he likes surrendering to my will as well. Finally, after many hours, we collapse on the bed and hold each other tight. It doesn't take long at all for sleep to claim me as I dream about all the endless nights we'll have together, just like this one.
The next morning I wake up to a deep ache in my body. I groan as I stretch out along side Adrian. His eyes slowly open and he smiles brightly when he sees me. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" He asks with a mischevious grin, like her already knows the answer. I replace my arms around him and pull him closer as I rest my head against his chest with big smile across my face.
"That was the best sleep I've had in a long time. You wore me out last night. I might need a healing if I hope to get out of bed." I say against him. I feel his body shake as he laughs. His hand slides down the side of my body and stops at my center. I feel Spirit entering my body, taking away any pain left over from our love making. So much better. Adrian presses closer to me and I can feel that he is ready to show me how much he loves me all over again. I take a quick peek at the clock and see that time is not on our side this morning. But, a better idea comes to mind. I sit up without saying a word and take his hand and lead him to the bathroom.
After what was the BEST SHOWER EVER! we manage to pull ourselves away from each other long enough to get dressed for work. I use the spare clothes I keep here just for this occassion. I steal glances at him while he gets ready and notice the big ass smile he has plastered all over his face. I can't help but laugh at his expression. "Do I amuse you?" he asks. I walk over and take hold of his collar and pull him in for a kiss.
"You're smiling like you just won the lottery or discovered the meaning of life. People are going to wonder what's wrong with you." I explain. He takes my hand and runs his thumb over my finger with my ring on it.
"That's because I did find the meaning of life, loving and spending the rest of my life with you." he says. My heart does a flip listening to him. Everything is so perfect right now, that I'm afraid it's all a big dream, that I'm going to wake up alone in my bed any second now. He leans down and kisses me again, letting me know how real this all is. "How about you call the gang and invite them over for dinner, and we can tell them the good news at once?"
"You want me to cook?" I ask hopeful to put some of my new culinary skills to use. He hesitates before answering.
"Cook, order in, whatever you want." Okay, that so did not answer my question, but I'll figure something out. We walk out the door, hand in hand, and head to the coffee shop to get some wake up juice. I see Mia and quickly pull my ring off and hide it in my pocket so she doesn't find out the good news too soon.
"Hey Mia, two coffees. What are your plans for dinner tonight? Can you come over?" She pours the orders while she thinks.
"Umm, I have no plans actually. What time and whose place? Oh that's four dollars." Adrian gives her the money while I grab the cups.
"I say about five at Adrian's."
"Sounds good. See you then." she says as she helps the next customer in line. We turn to walk out of the busy cafe when someone stands in front of us, blocking our path. Emily. So not the person I want to see when I'm so happy right now. Well, I'm just not going to let her get to me. She smiles brightly at Adrian and faces him like I'm not even here.
"Adrian, I haven't seen you for a few days. I hope your field test went well. I can't wait to hear about the results today at the committee meeting." God, she sounds so fake I want to just smack her upside the head.
"Yes, we accomplished what we wanted to." he replies back to her as he puts his arm around my waist, indicating me as the end result. "You'll get all the details shortly. Right now, Rose and I were just leaving." he says as he tries to walk around her, but she doesn't move.
"Oh, and don't forget Adrian, you promised to be my escort for the Queen's Aniversary Ball next week. Since you are the Queen's nephew, you'll be expected to attend with a proper date." she says that last part glancing at me, as if we didn't know who she was talking about. Bitch!
"I'm sorry. After your birthday dinner, I assumed you would want to take Guardian Castile, so I made plans to ask someone else." Adrian turns to look right at me. "Rose, would you accompany me to the Ball next week?" I can see the anger flare up in Emily's eyes when he asks me to go instead of her. I knew about the Ball but was originally going to be on duty, but with all the crap that's been going on lately I kinda forgot about it. I don't really know if I'm ready for us to put our relationship out there on such a big stage right now. I'll have to talk to him seriously about it later, but now I'll play along just to piss Emily off.
"I don't know Adrian, it's such short notice... Hell, why not. I'm always up for a good party." I shrug. He smiles at me and then turns to face Emily.
"See, I already have a date. But don't worry, you're pretty decent looking, I'm sure you'll find someone willing to go with you." He tells her while I fight to keep myself from laughing at her appalled expression.
"You can't be serious about bringing a..a..Dhampir! It's a Royal Ball, for Royals. Bringing a common Moroi is improper enough, but this," she says gesturing to me "is just indecent. I wouldn't be surprised if they turned you away at the door." At the beginning of this conversation, I would've been grateful to be denied entry to this Royal shindig. Most Royals are just a bunch of self absorbed idiots that think their shit don't stink. Spending an evening with a room full of them is torture of the cruelest kind. But, the more she talks about how I shouldn't even be allowed in is pissing me off. Now I want to go just to rub her face in it.
"If I were you, I would worry more about finding someone to take you and less about us. I'm sure there's some pathetic soul desperate enough to consider taking you. I don't know of any that desperate off hand, but I'm sure you'll find him." I say with fake enthusiasm. I didn't think she could look more irrate than before, but she does now. Just as Adrian and I are about to leave, Emily tosses her iced coffee right in my face, getting me soaked. On instinct, I lunge at her, only to be stopped by Adrian's arms grabbing a hold of me. He pulls me to him and whispers in my ear for only me to hear.
"She's still a Royal and harming her can get you in a lot of trouble and I can't compell the entire crowd in here to forget what they saw." I let his words seep into me and I start to calm down. She isn't worth it. Mia comes running over to me and hands me a towel to dry off my coffee stained face.
"I think you need to leave before I finish what she started. I'm not a guardian and didn't take any vows to do no harm to Moroi." Mia says to Emily with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.
Emily looks at Mia for a second and comes to the conclussion that she's not bluffing and turns on her heel and leaves in a huff. Mia turns to look at me and takes the towel from my hand and dries the cold liquid off my neck that I missed. "Thanks Mia. Next time just hit her. She needs to be knocked down a peg or two." I say taking the towel from her and attempting to dry my top. It's no use. I'll just have to go back to my room and change, not letting me walk Adrian to work.
We thank Mia and tell her we'll see her at dinner and head out the door. He looks me over at the mess Emily made of me and appologizes. "I'm so sorry that she did this to you. She doesn't seem to know when to let something go."
"That's because she's used to getting whatever she wants. You're probably the first thing that's been denied her and she can't handle it. Can't really blame her though. You are pretty wonderful." I say with a flirtatious smile. I'm determined to not let her ruin my morning, well, any more than she has. He leans down to give me a kiss, and licks his lips, tasting the remnants of the coffee bath Emily gave me.
"Mmm, tastes good, but I prefer the way you taste alone." he says while coming in for another kiss. We pull apart after a moment and I see out of the corner of my eye a couple older Moroi ladies watching us with disgust on their faces. I don't know if it's because of the PDA or because I'm a Dhampir and he's a Moroi. Not wanting to cause yet another scene, I pull away more knowing we soon have to part.
"Well, I gotta go clean up. I'll contact Lissa and have her, Christian and Eddie come over. You invite Tasha and Dimitri when you see her this morning. I'll take care of the food and getting the place ready. I just need to go see when I can start guarding again." I think about our conversation last night about how Adrian didn't want me assigned to him anymore so we could get married, and I wonder who I will be assigned to now. Since that's what Adrian is in charge of, I look to him to answer my question. "Who are you going to assign me to?"
"I have an idea, but I need to talk to that person first. I'll let you know as soon as I can, alright?" I look at him and that face I so adore. I trust that whatever decision he makes will be in everyones best interest, so I just smile and nod. After leaving him, I go to the Guardian Office to see about getting me back on the roster. Just sitting around is going to drive me crazy, I need to work. I also inform them that I couldn't be on duty for the Ball since I was going as a guest. It was no problem since they replaced me when they thought I was dead. It irked me a little that they were so quick to dismiss me, but I guess they didn't have a choice. Maggie put me back on starting next week, which gave me a few more days off. Well, I do have a Ball to get ready for, so it works out well.
I spend the rest of the day shopping for food and staightening up Adrian's apartment, which wasn't too hard since he had the placed cleaned yesterday for our night together. I keep getting distracted all day as scenes from last night flash in my head every few seconds. The way my body burned when he touched me, and how wonderful it felt when he entered my body and we became one. I'm getting heated up just thinking about it. I shake the memories from my head so I can concentrate on the bare naked chickens sitting in front of me, waiting to be cooked, or burned depending on if I can keep myself together.
"Honey, I'm home." Adrian sings out loud as he walks in. He's so cute, I can't help but laugh at his enthusiasm.
"I'm in the kitchen, Dear." I say in the same tone he had. He walks up and hugs me from behind, planting a kiss on my neck.
"Something smells good. What are we having?" he asks while looking over my shoulder as I cut up the vegetables for the salad. I nod my head over in the direction of the oven. He takes a peek and shuts it back up. "Looks delicious. I can't wait to taste it." He's so brave it makes me smile.
All of our friends arrive and make themselves comfortable. We ladies end up in the kitchen as Tasha looks over what I cooked. She peeks inside on of the chickens and starts laughing. What the hell? "Would you like to enlighten me as to what is so funny?" I ask, arms crossed in front of me. I'm a little sensitive to my cooking skills since they're so new and underdeveloped.
"Oh Rose." she says as she pulls something out of the chicken's butt. "You're supposed to take this out before you cook the chicken. It the gizards and and neck." Oh that's just gross. I take a look at the other three birds and pull out the same stuff. Lissa and Mia start laughing too as I start to freak out.
"Holy Crap! Did I just poison the chickens?" I ask frantically wondering if I'm going to have to order pizza and explain to Adrian and the rest of the rest of the guys how I screwed up.
"No, it's fine." Tasha manages to say between bursts of laughter. I let out a big breath knowing a dodged an embarassing bullet. I look at the three of them who are starting to calm down.
"If any of you mention this to any of them" I motion to the men sitting in the living room "I will never speak to you again." I promise. They all nod and Mia wipes the tears from her eyes. I don't think I'm going to live this down for a very long time.
Everyone sits down and eats and all goes well. They all compliment me on my chicken and no one seems to be getting sick. So yay me! Adrian helps me serve dessert and while in the kitchen, I put my ring on. As I pass out the cake and Adrian helps serve coffee, I wonder if anyone is going to notice the new addition to my hand. Instead of sitting down to eat, Adrian and I remain standing waiting for everyone's attention. Finally, Adrian has to clear his throat to get them to stop stuffing their faces for a second.
"Rose and I would like to thank you all for coming tonight. We think of you all as family and wanted you to be the first to hear our good news." Adrian starts.
"You're pregnant! I knew it!" Christian shouts. "Pay up." he says, hand outstretched to Eddie.
"I am not pregnant!" I shout at him as I pick up a fork and throw at him. Unfortunately he dodges the silverware, but not Lissa's hand as she smacks him upside the head.
"Go on Rose, Adrian." Tasha encourages. I look up to Adrian who smiles back down to me. I put my hand out, showing off the ring.
"Adrian asked me to marry him and I said yes." I practically shout. Lissa squeals and jumps up to give us a big hug. Mia and Tasha follow. The Eddie walks over and shakes hands with Adrian since I'm unavailable with the ladies surrounding me looking at my ring. Christian comes over to offer his congratulations in his own unique way.
"Congratulations, man. I never really pegged you for a masochist, but living with Rose is going to be hell. You know that don't you?" Christian asks. Adrian just smiles and shakes his head.
"It won't be hell, it'll be an adventure. Never knowing what the next day will bring. You just don't understand her like I do. She's passionate, about everything she does, and I love that about her. She makes life interesting and worth while. Life with Rose is going to be wonderful. Isn't it, babe?" he says the last part to me and leans in for a kiss, which I gladly oblige. I look over to Dimitri who hasn't moved out of his seat. He sees me looking at him and forces a smile. I walk over to him and sit in the seat next to him.
"Hey comrade. Are you going to be okay with this? I know it's kinda sudden, but, like you said when you first got here, we already act like an old married couple. Now we're just making it official." I say as I nudge his arm teasingly.
"I know. I was just thinking about all the outside criticism you two will be bombarded with. Are you ready for that?" he asks with genuin concern. It's something I haven't really wanted to think about just yet, preferring to enjoy the moment of happiness.
"Well, we'll find out next week when we go the the Queen's Anniversary Ball." Suddenly the room went silent.
"You're taking her to the Ball?" Lissa asks Adrian. She looks surprised. Did she really think he'd go with someone else?
"Of course I'm taking her. She's my fiance. Why wouldn't I take her?" Adrian's starting to get deffensive. I walk over to him and hold his hand to calm him down.
"Adrian, I'm just not sure the Ball is the best place to announce you're marrying a Dhampir. You know we all love you guys and think you're perfect together, but there will be a lot of royals there who will have a heart attack seeing you two together." Lissa tries to explain.
"We're hardly the first Moroi and Dhampir couple to get married. We won't even be the only mixed couple there. Tasha and Dimitri are going together, right?" Adrian asks Tasha and Dimitri. They both look at us with sympathetic faces and shake their heads.
"I'm sorry Adrian, but we felt it best if I go alone. Dimitri will be there, but he'll be on duty. We didn't want to face the critics and put any more stress on me and the baby than neccesary." she explains. Great, leave us to face the firing squad alone.
"Well, at least you'll be there to support us, right?" I ask looking at Tasha and Lissa.
"Of course, Rose. We'll all be there to help you. Eddie will be guarding along side Dimitri and even Mia will be there working with the waitstaff. We just hope you realize the backlash you're going to face. Adrian being a royal is going against centuries of prejudices that forbid this kind of union. You two are not going to be easily accepted, if at all, by most of the guests." Lissa tells us. I'm starting to have second thoughts about going, until I see the look in Adrian's eye. He's not going to let some old small minded royals keep him from doing what he wants.
"They can say whatever they want. I'm still taking my fiance to the Ball and I'm still marrying her. They can all jump off a cliff for all I care." he wraps his arms around me and kisses my cheek for emphasis.
"This is going to be one interesting party. Now I'm glad I'm working that night." Mia says excitedly. She lives for this kind of action. Lissa, Tasha, Mia and I make plans to go shopping for my Ball dress the next day. Lissa and Tasha already have theirs. I tried to tell them that I could just wear the dress I had on last night, but Adrian objected.
"Rose, we're going to have enough attention on us for just being there. Let's not add to it with every male in the room ignoring their dates because they're staring at you."
"I hardly think that'll happen." Christian argues.
"You didn't see her in the dress. That dress is stricly for my eyes only." he tells me. He did have quite the reaction. I concede and agree to buy a new, appropriate dress. Eddie, who has been pretty quiet most of the night, decides to pipe up and put a damper on our happiness.
"You know what you two need to do now. You're going to have to tell your parents about getting married, before the rest of our world finds out at the Ball." Shit, he's right. The thought of telling my mom I'm marrying a Moroi, a royal Moroi even, scares the hell out of me. And I've faced an army of Strigoi with little problem. Adrian's parents like me fine as his guardian. I wonder how they're going to react to this bombshell. We both look at each other and cringe. Looks like we're in for one hell of a week.
Poor Rose and Adrian are in for a battle of a different kind. How do you think Adrian's parents will react? And Janine? Thanks for reading and don't forget to review and let me know how I'm doing.