Hi guys, I loved all your reviews! They really made me smile, and I tried to incorporate some of the suggestions into this chapter :) I'm so glad you all liked the last chapter, and most of you didn't find it too racy. There's another racy bit towards the end of this chapter, just to give you all a bit of a heads up - again, rated M for a reason! I struggled to write this a little bit, because it's more of a fill in chapter, rather than anything terribly important. Nonetheless, I've tried to develop a few relationships a little! I'm not very good at concentrating on everyone else's lives aside from R&D - sorry! I'll try to work in a bit more of everyone else's story, but really, it's about R&D (i.e., I haven't really developed strong plots for everyone else - sorry! - but if you have any ideas, please feel free to send some my way!). I am, however, working towards hooking Adrian up with someone special. I have a vague idea, but nothing too concrete just yet, so watch this space. Anyway, I haven't had the time to proof read this chapter, so my apologies if it seems a little choppy/full of errors.

The usual disclaimers apply, and lastly, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you did the others. :)

Chapter 12

Rose's Point of View

My life couldn't get any better. Despite having separate bedrooms, Dimitri and I were always together. Always the professional, Dimitri insisted on maintaining our distance when we were out in public. 'You don't know what the rules are like over here,' he explained when I started to get annoyed at him for rejecting any of my public displays of affection. I would stalk off huffily, but I really didn't mind; it was really just a ploy to get him to make it up to me. Shh, don't tell him! Besides, there was enough action that went on behind closed doors to make up for the lack of it when we're out in public. Our close circle of friends knew about us, and that was all that mattered.

The Morois were slowly improving in refining their magical skills. Adrian once complained to Macca about not learning anything offensive, and Macca gave them a lecture about how their basic skills were so elementary that they should not dream of doing offensive magic until much later on. Christian was crushed. Adrian had learned how to heal a dead plant by now, and Lissa was increasingly able to read auras. She has appeared in my dreams once or twice, but always as a blurry vision, as opposed to the real-life detail of Adrian's dream walking. I believe that if anyone was close to learning offensive magic, it would be Christian, although I would never tell Lissa that. He was able to conjure up fire dragons that did his bidding for 5 minutes. They started off as small burst of flames, but gradually, across time, took shape as dragons. No one knows why they're dragons – my theory is that he plays too many slaying dragon computer games and it's now entered his subconscious. Christian thinks it's a stupid theory, but he couldn't come up with anything better, so I guess my theory stands.

When Alberta first learned that Dimitri and I were back together, she turned her sternest look on him and demanded a chat. I laughed at this, and said to him, 'now how do you like it when someone else gives you that look!'

He gave me a withering look, which made me laugh harder and flashed him two thumbs up as he plodded outside for his 'chat'. When I asked him about it, he became all secretive and didn't want to disclose anything that went on between him and Alberta. I finally wormed it out of him though – he couldn't resist my charms! – and was glad to know that despite having a mother who was absent for most of my life, I had an older woman looking out for me. It didn't matter that for the most part, I could look out for myself. The point was that someone else cared. And it made me see Alberta in a different light.

On a few occasions, we encountered a few Strigoi, but never anything we couldn't handle. Dimitri continued to receive letters from Alex. Somehow, he's found out that Dimitri and I are together. I found it extremely disconcerting to know that he's either been spying on us, though I can't imagine how, or has been getting information about us from someone. Dimitri has grown increasingly protective over me because he believes that I'll be the one Alex will try to target first. I scoffed at this, 'Haven't you seen me kick ass?'

Dimitri couldn't help but smile at this. He knew how good I was, 'I have; but I just want you to be careful too,' It always frustrated him when I brushed his warnings off; he has always been a lot less reckless than I have, choosing to step back whilst I charged forward.

'Rose,' Dimitri warned seriously. We were taking a walk through a park, a few minutes away from where we lived. We could see the sky start to light up. 'I'm serious. Alex's letters have become increasingly frequent. It usually means that he's near, and he'll strike anytime,' Dimitri squeezed my hand for effect.

'Dimitri,' I rolled my eyes at him. We've had this talk so many times. 'I…'

I was cut off by some voices in the distance. I brought my fingers to my lips and motioned for Dimitri to keep quiet. He did that quirky eyebrow thing that made him look irresistible. My heart leaped in my chest as I admired how handsome he was.

'Are… Are you free tomorrow night?' a male voice said. I spun around and crept closer to the sound of voices. It sounded like Eddie.

Dimitri and I crouched behind some bushes and peered through them. Sure enough, Eddie was sitting on a bench next to Mia, with his back turned to us.

Mia laughed her tinkling laugh. 'Are you trying to ask me out?' she flirted mercilessly. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from giggling and giving myself away.

'Well…' Eddie ran his hand through his hair nervously. I could imagine him blushing. Mia was clearly enjoying putting him through this.

'Do you know that this is the first time you've asked me out?' Mia giggled. Eddie shifted uncomfortably and mumbled an apology. Mia laughed and shoved him playfully, 'I was just teasing!'

Eddie kept quiet, probably stewing in a pot of embarrassment. After some time, Mia said quietly, 'I'd love to go out tomorrow night,'

I couldn't keep the grin off my face and I felt Dimitri's lips silently touch my cheeks. It filled me with warmth and so did the scene unfolding in front of me. Eddie turned to face Mia and smiled happily at her. She leaned in for a kiss, and mumbled against his lips, 'Would you like to walk me home?'

Eddie chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, 'I would like to do nothing better,'

I slowly, silently retreated away from them. 'Aren't they cute?' I whispered to Dimitri once I made sure we were out of earshot.

He laughed, 'Aren't you a busybody?'

I stuck my tongue out at him, 'I want them to be as happy as I am!'

Dimitri's smile reached his eyes and I wrapped my arms around him. I love our early morning walks.

...

'Hey Eddie!' Christian called out as Eddie came into our house for breakfast the next day.

'Morning,' Eddie said cheerfully, as he sat himself down. Lissa served up bacon and eggs for Dimitri, Eddie, Alberta and I.

'Well aren't you cheerful,' Christian commented as he flipped through the newspaper.

'Things are good,' Eddie said mysteriously as he cut into his bacon.

Christian looked at him suspiciously, before he slammed the newspaper on the table and half-yelled, 'She said yes!'

Eddie blushed a deep crimson.

'Oh my God, did she?' Lissa squealed. I bit my lip down to suppress the smile creeping up. Eddie nodded shyly and Lissa squealed even louder as she ran over to hug him.

'It's taken you long enough, dude,' Christian commented.

'Yeah that's kinda what she said,' Eddie said self-consciously.

'Well, it's quite obvious that you two have something going on,' I contributed, 'Everyone could see what was happening!'

'Was I that obvious?'

'Why did you think we always gave you and Mia such a wide berth whenever we could?' I said, chowing down on my eggs.

Alberta laughed. 'You young people and your love lives,' she said, as she stood up to wash her dishes, 'Enjoy it whilst you can,' she added sagely, and I swore she gave Dimitri a look. I squeezed Dimitri's thigh under the table and he smiled back at me.

We were suddenly interrupted by Adrian bursting through the door, saying, 'Alright guys, I have next week's timetable from Macca! We're fighting!'

'You know, I'm seriously starting to worry about Adrian constantly barging through our house,' Christian commented.

'What's your problem with it?' Adrian demanded, his hand holding a sheet of paper that undoubtedly contained the Moroi's training timetable.

'Well, you see… We could be in the middle of something private,' Christian argued.

'Like what?' Adrian was incredulous.

'Use your imagination!' Christian shot back.

'Oh guys, that's just gross,' Adrian squirmed and slammed the piece of paper on the table. There was a hell of a lot of slamming going on this morning, 'Anyway, I am finally going to be moving on to dabbling in some high-end Spirit stuff,'

We all listened attentively. Once he was satisfied that he had captured our attention, Adrian went on, 'Macca is finally satisfied with my dream walking abilities, so he has agreed to teach me how to permeate Strigoi's dreams, and I'm hoping that eventually, that will lead to me kicking some Strigoi ass in their dream and somehow destroying them. I haven't figured that part out yet, and Macca isn't letting anything on but I'm damn excited!'

'Is that even possible?' Lissa asked, 'I didn't even know Strigois could dream,'

'You learn something new every day,' Adrian winked at her, obviously chuffed at his latest advancement.

'So when do the rest of us get to do something cool?' Christian asked jealously.

'Calm down, even though I am clearly Macca's favourite,' Adrian started, which lead to much eye rolling around the table, 'He hasn't forgotten about all you mere mortals. Lissa, he wants you to concentrate on dream walking; he reckons that it's probably the safest way for us to contribute to the fight against Strigoi at the moment, aside from the obvious healing stuff. Christian, basically it's just about setting more things on fire,'

Christian narrowed his eyes. Adrian was clearly messing with him and enjoying it, 'Okay, okay, yours is actually pretty cool. He wants to spend a day or two on controlling your fire – so controlling the release so you don't burn out so quickly – yes pun intended!' Adrian chuckled at his own joke, 'And then he wants to move on to working up your stamina, so producing more fire with less effort. Basically he's going to give you a whole lot of shit to burn,'

'Sweet,' Christian grinned, as he spontaneously conjured up a ball of fire. I instinctively scooted away from him. He tossed the ball between both hands, and spun it around like it was a basketball. Lissa looked on, enthralled.

'Show off,' Adrian scowled.

'Anyway,' Adrian continued, getting back to business, 'Where's Mia? Macca seems to think that Mia's strength lies more in her interest in combat than in her element, so is thinking of asking one of you guys,' he gestured at myself, Alberta, Dimitri and Eddie, 'to take her into the gym,'

'No that's not going to happen,' Eddie piped up, 'She's much safer using her element than combating. She doesn't have the strength of Dhampirs,'

'Looks like I'm not the only one who's over-protective,' Dimitri whispered in my ear. I turned to smile at him, and gave him a quick peck on the lips. He grinned at me. His eyes crinkled at the side, and I noticed that there were lighter specks of brown in his deep brown eyes.

'Oi! Get a room!' Adrian interrupted rudely, and I turned to scowl at him. Dimitri draped an arm around me and raised an eyebrow at him. Adrian raised an eyebrow back and I nearly laughed out loud. It was comical to see the two of them still at odds with each other.

'Anyway Castile,' Adrian said, taking charge again, 'If you have a problem with it, go speak to Macca about it. I'm only conveying the message. Alright, that's all from me folks,'

'Thank goodness,' Christian said drily.

'Oh grow up,' Adrian threw back at Christian, 'I'm going to head off now; I've got a lovely lady waiting for me,'

'Oh my God! Tell!' I said excitedly.

'Oh don't get too excited. She's hot, she wants me – but I mean, who wouldn't?' we all rolled our eyes at him again and he continued, 'And I'm going to get some action, which is all that matters at this point in time,'

There was a look of disgust on Lissa's face. 'Oh Lissa don't worry, I'll try not to break her heart,' Adrian winked at her and grinned handsomely.

'Can't you develop something a bit more substantial?' Lissa pleaded.

'What's the difference? I'm not interested in a relationship. I'm sure she's not either, so we're just out to have a bit of fun,' Adrian wiggled his eyebrows. I felt Dimitri's hand tighten around me protectively. He must have been thinking of a time when Adrian was pursuing me and Dimitri was convinced that it was just to make another notch in his bed post.

'Anyway, if you'll excuse me…' Adrian gave a low bow and let himself out of our house.

'I should go get ready too,' Eddie said, standing up. We all cheered him as he left, no doubt, eager to escape our teasing.

'Well, I guess that leaves just us,' I said, 'any plans for a Saturday evening?'

'I was thinking of hiring a small gondola boat, and cruising down the Yarra,' Lissa suggested. The Yarra flows through the middle of Melbourne's city, and possibly in an attempt to cash in on the tourist industry, they have introduced gondolas, much like those in Venice. It sounded incredibly romantic and I was looking forward to sharing some romance with Dimitri. We quickly agreed and I sped upstairs to change. I pulled on a black tube top and a pair of light blue denim jeans. I brushed on some make up and I was ready to go.

'You look beautiful,' Dimitri whispered in my hair as he pulled me close. 'Thanks, you're looking pretty handsome yourself,' I winked at him and he kissed me hungrily.

'PG 13 please!' Christian interrupted as we walked out of the door.

Dimitri and I decided to take Dimitri's motorbike, whilst Christian, Lissa and Alberta went in Christian's car. Dimitri bought his motorbike a few weeks after arriving in Melbourne, saying that he always wanted to own one, but when he was guarding Tasha, was made to drive a car instead because she apparently wouldn't get on a bike. I didn't think I would like the idea of her wrapping her arms around Dimitri as he sped about anyway, so I was silently grateful that she wasn't a fan of motorbikes. I didn't think Dimitri could get any sexier, until the day I saw him with his shiny black motorbike, and leather jacket on. We nearly got carried away in the garage! Thank God no one was home!

Southbank was rocking by the time we arrived to get to our gondolas. It was loud, the people were beautiful, and there was music everywhere. I was definitely in my element. Dimitri, Alberta and I did a quick scan of the surroundings for any lurking Strigoi before we allowed ourselves to relax a little. Alberta kept a constant look out as she encouraged us young ones to enjoy the night. I always thought that it must suck to always have a constant chaperone around you on dates, but I really didn't mind having Alberta around. She seemed to have the ability to fade into the background, yet always keeping an eye out.

We finally boarded our gondolas – Christian and Lissa took one; whilst Dimitri and I took another. Alberta decided to hop on a third one, just so she can keep a better eye out on us.

We sailed slowly past the glittering lights of Melbourne. It sure wasn't Venice, but it was nice enough. Dimitri tilted my head towards him and kissed me lightly, 'I love you, Roza,'

I smiled and kissed him back, 'I love you too,'

In the distance, Christian and Lissa were cuddling up to each other. He whispered something in her ear and she threw her head back in laughter. I smiled. This was perfect. I didn't know what I had done to deserve it but I sure as hell was enjoying every minute of it!

Dimitri draped his arms around me and smiled into the distance, 'I can see us doing this for the rest of our lives. I can't imagine this with anyone else. You make me incredibly happy Roza,'

My heart fluttered as I turned to look at him. The shadows played on his face, highlighting his strong jaw. I leaned in to kiss his jawline. He reeked of pure masculinity and power. 'I don't want to be anywhere else but right here with you,' I whispered.

He turned to look at me, 'Roza, I would be the happiest man in the world if I could spend the rest of my life with you,' he reached into his pocket and my heart pounded faster. Was he trying to hint at something? Was he…? I didn't dare imagine it. It would be a dream come true and yet I had to know, 'Are you…'

But I was distracted by a slightly nauseating feeling. I shook my head. We were out in the middle of the river. There wouldn't be Strigoi around. 'Roza, what's wrong?' Dimitri asked, concerned at the change in my expression.

'I feel… I feel sick,' I managed to choke up. The feeling was getting stronger. It can't be. Not when it was going to be the best night of my life!

'What? Why?' Dimitri asked, concerned.

'Is everything alright sir?' our boatman asked.

'No, can you get us back please, she's not feeling well,' Dimitri said and our gondola started to head back.

All of a sudden, our gondola was overturned and I could hear screaming everywhere. One sounded like Lissa and I tried my best to block her out whilst I tried to calm myself enough to not drown. Dimitri! I yelled in my head as I fought back the bitter taste at the back of my throat. I swam under the overturned gondola and saw red eyes flashing at me in the murky distance. The fuckers!

It was good thing I had learned to swim because I swam as fast and as hard as I could away from the Strigoi. I finally resurfaced and looked around frantically for Dimitri. He was already fighting a Strigoi a few meters away. I swam towards him but was dragged down into the water by another Strigoi. I kicked down hard and managed to land a blow to his face. I scanned the distance for Lissa and saw that Alberta had already managed to get onto Christian and Lissa's boat and was already directing them back to land. I continued to swim towards Dimitri and reached him just in time to help him stake his Strigoi. A pool of red blood surrounded us.

'We need to get to shore,' I stated the obvious and we both swam frantically towards the banks of the Yarra. As we were swimming, Dimitri was dragged underwater by another Strigoi. This time, it was Alex. I swam after them and pulled at Alex's hair. He screamed underwater and made a swipe at me, which managed to catch my stomach. It stung like crazy. Dimitri pulled out his stake and was just about to stake him from behind when Alex quickly moved to the side and Dimitri only caught his arm. Alex's red eyes flashed angrily as he delivered a strong kick to Dimitri's stomach, winding him, before swimming off in a flash.

Dimitri and I quickly swam to shore, where we were met by Lissa, Christian and Alberta. Lissa quickly healed my bleeding stomach whilst Dimitri tried to catch his breath. He had a haunted look in his eyes, and I had a feeling that after our close call with Alex, we wouldn't be repeating tonight's activities.

'Are you okay?' I asked when we finally reached home and changed out of our wet clothes. Dimitri was sitting on his bed, staring off in the distance.

He smiled at me, 'Yeah I am. I was just thinking,'

'What were you thinking about?' I asked, as I took my place beside him. He put an arm around me and pulled me towards him.

'I have everything I could possibly wish for. I have you, and you make me so happy,' Dimitri said, with a wisp of melancholy in his voice, 'It makes me realize how much more I have to lose,'

'You're not going to lose me,' I chuckled. Was this what he was brooding over?

'Alex…' he started.

'Oh,' I realized. Tonight's encounter would only serve to fuel his paranoia.

'Are you having regrets about us?' I asked testily.

'No,' he said almost immediately, 'Never. You're the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It's just that now that I have you, it makes me more conscious about losing you. I could never live with that,'

I smiled and kissed him seductively, 'You'll never lose me, I promise you,'

'Mm…' he smiled into my kisses and wrapped his arms around me, 'I really would be the happiest man in the world if you spent the rest of your life with me,' he repeated his sentiments, but whilst my heart pounded in anticipation, no ring came. And though I was slightly disappointed, Dimitri quickly made me forget about it as the night went on.

...

A few months later

Lissa and Christian decided about a month ago that they would like to have their wedding in Melbourne. Lissa argued that it would be more intimate as they obviously wouldn't be able to fly out the whole royal Moroi population, and as they wanted to stay longer to learn more magic, it was a lot more practical to have their wedding in Melbourne. I quietly rejoiced at this because it meant I wouldn't have to see Tatiana. I was going to be in charge of Lissa's hen's night, and Adrian was in charge of Christian's buck's night. Lissa was absolutely horrified at the idea of Adrian being in charge. Adrian promised he would be good, but neither of us believed him. Dimitri tried to make me promise that I wouldn't plan anything too raunchy for Lissa, but I think he was secretly more worried about me. 'It's her last night as a single woman!' I protested, already planning strippers and lap dances for Lissa.

'Doesn't mean it has to involve strippers and lap dances,' Dimitri had already second-guessed my intention.

I sulked, 'But it's tradition; besides, I bet Adrian will drag you boys to some seedy strip club anyway! And you'll be surrounded by all these beautiful women, tempting you to take them to bed,'

'But I will only have eyes for you,' he chuckled, reaching out to play with my ponytail. I made a face at him and promised him nothing. It was Friday night and we were huddled up on the sofa, watching TV. There wasn't anything interesting; we had it on just for the hell of it. Lissa, Christian and Alberta had gone across to Mia's place to finalize and mail out wedding invitations. Dimitri was surfing the internet on his laptop, looking at cowboy books on Amazon. 'Can you believe this? Humans can be so ridiculous sometimes; they're currently crazy over some vampire book some idiot wrote, and all the girls are swooning over this Edward Cullen guy,' Dimitri shook his head in disbelief, loading a picture of so-called Edward Cullen and turning his laptop around for me to see.

'He's a bit pale,' I scrunched my nose up; he didn't look anything like a vampire, Moroi, Strigoi or Dhampir.

'He's wearing make up!' Dimitri said, as if it was blasphemous. I laughed and turned back to my magazine, flipping through it, catching up on the latest celebrity gossip. I saw 'Edward Cullen' in there again; the actor's Robert Pattinson, and there was a feature on him and his girlfriend, who was apparently his girlfriend on set as well. It must be nice to finally admit come out in the open about your relationship, I thought sadly. I quickly brushed that thought away – I had much to be thankful for, I get to be with Dimitri every day; I'm my best friend's Guardian, life can't be any better for me.

After a month of searching for an ideal location for the wedding, Christian and Lissa finally decided to have it at the Botanical Gardens. There was a large lake in the middle of the gardens with willow trees scattered around its banks. They now planned for a spring wedding, and hopefully there would be flowers everywhere and even swans in the lake. There was a small gazebo beside the lake where they would exchange their vows and the place was large enough to easily accommodate 100 guests. I do not know how 100 guests translates to 'intimate' to Lissa, but it was her wedding and there were a lot of people she still felt 'obliged' to invite, despite them having to fly halfway around the world! I had reluctantly become unofficial wedding planner for the two of them, but Mia had jumped in to help out whenever she could. Eddie and her have been going out for a while now, and he finally gave into her getting skilled in combat, rather than magic. Macca had picked from the very start that Mia was always much more passionate about learning self-defense than she was with learning how to bend water to her will.

'This is putting me off ever getting married,' I once groaned to Dimitri after a particularly long day spent shopping for wedding dresses with Lissa. He just gave me a funny look.

Once the invitations were sent off, and the RSVPs start rolling in, I would be stuck with the tedious task of sorting seating arrangements. This was tricky because it was going to be largely a Moroi event and Moroi events are always full of politics, which meant that I had to be careful not to sit X Moroi with Y Moroi. I hated it. I wasn't a Guardian for nothing. Give me Strigois to fight and I would be in my element, give me politics and all I would do is cringe. Nonetheless, Lissa was my best friend and I did agree to help her out.

Talking about Strigois, Alex did manage to stage a few more attacks on us, but we easily fought him off. There were many times when Dimitri was close to staking Alex, but missed, making me wonder if it was because of his decrease in objectivity when his best friend was involved. I didn't blame him for it – if Lissa ever turned Strigoi, God forbid, I think I would really struggle to drive that stake through her heart. I'm sure Dimitri struggled with the ethics of fighting his best friend every day.

...

It was 2 months before the wedding now and Lissa still hasn't found her dress yet. She was becoming increasingly hysterical about it. I once suggested that she should just invite Vera Wang over to the house and get her to design the damned dress. Lissa looked at me like I was an idiot and mumbled something about freaking Vera Wang out when she sees the fangs. I rolled my eyes at her, and said, 'no one asked you to bare your fangs at Vera Wang,' Lissa left the room huffily after that. She was seriously getting more emotional by the day.

As Lissa's big day drew closer and closer, I often caught myself wondering about what would have happened that night a few months ago, if Alex hadn't interfered. Was Dimitri about to ask me to marry him? Was I reading too much into it? Maybe he just bought me a really nice necklace? Despite all my musings, I never brought it up with him. I think a part of me was too scared to find out that it may not have been a proposal at all. Despite that, we were as close as ever, so I really didn't mind at all.

Aside from the venue, the dresses, the invitations and the damned seating arrangements, there was the cake, the food, the flowers, and the music to worry about as well. 'You're wearing yourself out,' Dimitri said one night, as I collapsed on my bed. He played with a strand of my hair as he leaned over me. 'This wasn't what I signed up for,' I sighed, rolling into his embrace. I breathed in his after shave. He smelt good and peace washed over me. Either my brain couldn't function when I was around him, or he just had a calming effect over me. I like to think it's the latter, but it could very well be the former too.

We finally found Lissa's dream dress a month before the wedding. It had never felt so relieved in my life. Her obsession with it was starting to drive me up the wall. It was Vera Wang, naturally. It had a tight fitting bodice that accentuated Lissa's slim figure and puffed out slightly into a princess-like skirt. The detail on the dress was incredible, with random, inconspicuous patterns of swirls and flowers hand sewn all around the bodice and skirt. I knew it would take Christian's breath away the minute I saw it on Lissa. Hell, it took my breath away. The skirt was naturally rumpled towards the bottom, but that only perfected the fairy-princess image.

Naturally, I was maid-of-honour. I read somewhere that the traditional roles of maids-of-honour and best men were to take the place of the bride or groom, if either one of them didn't show up. The thought of having to marry Christian repulsed me. I was not going beyond the call of duty in that case. I had long picked out the bridesmaid dresses. Mine was going to be turquoise – Dimitri lifted an eyebrow sexily at me when he saw it; the colour reminded us of the first night he arrived in Melbourne. I put it on for him one night and it hugged me perfectly, enhancing all the right curves and bringing out my tan beautifully. It was understated elegance; after all, I wouldn't want to steal the show from Lissa. The dress didn't stay on me for long that night, I had to remind Dimitri to be gentle and not rip it. The bridesmaid dresses were a pastel green. The rest of Lissa's bridal party were Mia and Ayeshah, and as they were both Morois, Lissa insisted that they wore a pastel green instead as it would look better against their pale skin.

Christian's bridal party consisted of Eddie, as his best man, and Dimitri and Adrian. The boys had already picked out their suits – Christian was going to be wear a black shirt and a white suit; the rest were wearing black suits, black shirts and a turquoise coloured tie. Being the perfectionist that she was, Lissa insisted that the colours had to match. I couldn't wait to see Dimitri in his suit. He insisted that I had to wait, which I thought was very unfair considering I already modeled my dress for him.

My main concern for the wedding was Strigoi attacks, and how I would be able to fight in heels. 'Maybe I should start training in heels,' I wondered out loud to Dimitri one night.

'Fighting in sneakers not challenging enough for you these days?' he joked.

'I'm always looking for ways to improve myself,' I laughed.

'You're already perfect,' he said tenderly, before leaning in to kiss me. I could never get tired of his kisses. We've been together for close to half a year now and it still has the power to make me giddy with desire.

'Don't worry,' he said, pulling his lips away from mine, turning serious again, 'There'll be more than enough Guardians on site; it will be a top security event and the wards will be triple cross-checked. Everyone knows the importance of the occasion and I'm sure everyone in charge is aware of the large numbers of Morois, especially Royal Morois, attending the event,'

I nodded my head. It seemed like a reasonable argument and I knew he was right, but I still questioned the safety of triple cross-checking the wards. Back at the Academy, they had insisted that the wards were safe, but we still got Strigoi attacks every now and then. I had learned not to trust authority. I couldn't help but feel anxious about it. 'You don't believe me, do you?' Dimitri said, as if reading my thoughts. He had an uncanny ability to read my moods, like I was one of his Western books.

'Am I really that predictable?' I asked, forlornly.

He laughed, 'No; I just know you that well,' a spark went off in his eyes as we both remembered our first night together, and how he had uttered those same words. A shiver ran down my spine, as I ached for his touch. He must be feeling the same thing because he was soon reaching for me, kissing me urgently, and we were tearing each other's clothes off. 'I love getting to know you,' he murmured in between bruising kisses.

'Stop teasing me,' I whimpered in his mouth, burning under his touch. He laughed and moved his lips down to my breasts. His hands made their way smoothly down my body until they reached my clit. He rubbed and pinched it intermittently. I arched myself towards him, spreading my legs wider, feeling myself moisten with desire. He delicately nipped at my nipple and rolled his wet tongue over it. I felt my breath catch as my nipples hardened against his touch. Quickly, he moved down my body until his head was between my legs. I tried to sit up to protest but he held me down.

'Dimitri…' I started but was stopped by an incredible wave of ecstasy rushing through me as I felt his moist mouth cover me. His tongue was ravenous as it flicked at my clit every so often, driving me to the edge of reason. His hot mouth was demanding as he gently nipped and licked me. His hands pushed my legs further apart and I raised my hips to meet his mouth. His tongue dipped into me, wet and hard and I moaned his name in pleasure. He sucked gently on the outer lips of my sex and pleasure wracked through my body. My hips bucked against his mouth as I felt myself approach my climax. My gasps of pleasure were becoming more erratic as I felt him push a finger into me. I raised my hips towards him, begging him for release. He curled his fingers towards my G-Spot and rubbed me sensually. I was oozing with desire and was about to be pushed over the edge, when in true Dimitri style, he stopped.

I looked at him, begging with my eyes. His lips came crashing down on mine and I tasted myself on him. I couldn't hold on any longer so I flipped him on his back and impaled myself with him, feeling my juices coat his hard length. I heard him groan with pleasure and usually, I would tease him back, torture him the same way he tortured me, but I was beyond the point of caring. I rode him roughly, seeking for release as he pinched my nipples.

'Like it rough do you?' he whispered, in between groans. His Russian accent was prominent and it made me want him more than ever.

'It's the only way I like it,' I retorted and he immediately flipped me back on my back as he drove himself into me, hard, rough and urgent. I felt my legs start to tingle and I decided to fight for control, so I flipped him on his back again, all the while still attached to him. I tightened myself around him and he nearly lost his resolve. I pinned him down and grounded my hips against his groin. This stimulated my clit even more and I was drenching him with my juices. I rode him hard, moving up and down his length, and our moans increased in intensity.

'Roza…' he growled, gripping my hips tightly as I continued to ride him, urging myself not to cum before he does, 'Come with me,' he said urgently and that was my undoing. I came down hard on him as I felt him explode in me. I moved up and down him slowly, as if trying to prolong our climax, as if trying to milk every drop of him. I finally collapsed on top him, both of us struggling to catch out breaths.

'Where did you learn how to do that?' I asked him breathlessly.

And again, in true Dimitri style, he merely winked at me and said, 'Guardian's secrets,'

...

What did you think? Send me your thoughts! I do try and incorporate them into the plot whenever I can, so would love to hear from you guys what you think should happen next. I realize that this chapter does race through a few months - I wanted to get to Lissa's wedding asap because things will get interesting. :) Until the next update, take care xox!