Twisted Rose

Thanks for reviewing on the last chapter everyone! I hope you all enjoy this one and please keep the feedback coming!

Lyrics: Little girl, you like it loud. Come alive in the middle of the crowd. You wanna scream. You wanna shout. Get excited when the lights go down at the rock show.

Chapter Nine

By the time we finally docked in Finland, I had started feeling closed in on this boat. I was not presented with the opportunity to leave the room because Dimitri wanted to keep me safe. He only went out to retrieve food for us which was less than what I was used to. We kept ourselves entertained by telling stories. His were always more interesting than my own. He told me tales of when he was in Russia. The most interesting was when he fell from a balcony and ended up in the infirmary for five days.

Any story he told me sounded so exotic compared to the ones that I was able to offer him. All the same, he acted as though he was interested in what I had to say. Apparently, he thought the idea of Lissa and I spending three hours hiding in the scullery whilst my mother sent out a search party for us positively hilarious.

Oh, Lissa. The mention of her sent a pang of guilt throughout me. How could I have just left her to deal with royal life alone? It was ever so cruel and selfish of me. How would she be feeling now? She would probably never talk to me again if I was to return.

"So, what are we going to do now?" I asked Dimitri in a feeble attempt to take my mind off Lissa. Dimitri took my hand in his as we walked away from the dock.

"It's going to be an hour before the ship going to Russia comes in" Dimitri answered with a look that made me think that he was thoroughly annoyed by the delay. "For that hour we're going to find you a new dress to wear."

"Oh, let's go then" I said cheerfully as I pulled him along with me to the nearest dress shop that I could find that wouldn't be too far away from the dock.

Dimitri looked awkward in a dress shop. There was no other way to say that. He was so much taller than all of the women strolling in and out. He led me straight over to a corner where no one was because he didn't like the attention that women were giving him. I wasn't a big fan of it either. Each one was clearly attracted to him.

"Get that one" Dimitri said, pulling a red sundress off the railing. I was beginning to think that Dimitri was willing to get me any dress in the shop that I wanted if it meant that we could leave quickly. Did he really hate the attention from the women that much?

"What will the weather be like in Russia?" I asked, feeling stupid at not even knowing what the seasons were like there. "Won't it be cold?"

"No, it'll be quite warm" Dimitri answered. "Russia gets absolutely sweltering at times." I had always loved the sun, but not to the point that I could barely stand it. I never really had that problem with living in England all of my life. It didn't really get too hot.

"Oh, that must be better than the weather at England" I commented as I let my fingers run through the material of the dress. It was a lot thinner than anything that I was normally used to. It looked so much easier to walk in than the one that I was wearing.

"Yes, that's one of the reasons why I missed Russia" Dimitri laughed, watching me feel the dress intently. "The weather in England isn't particularly nice."

"Well, that's an understatement" I joked. "I'll take the dress" Dimitri walked with me to the counter to buy it. The man who stood behind the counter didn't talk to us, but simply handed me the dress and snatched the money from Dimitri's hands and then gestured towards the door.

Dimitri took nothing of the offensive nature of the man and simply took my hand in his once more and led me out of the shop.

"When am I going to put this on?" I asked Dimitri as I gazed at the dress lovingly. It felt like a symbol of my freedom. The sooner I got the dress on, the sooner I would be free of my mother and all of the other business involved with being royal.

"I've never really been to Finland before" Dimitri admitted. Oh, it was a first for both of us. That was rather interesting. "I don't know where we could go for you to get changed. You could get changed at the back of that building and hope that no one sees us." I knew it was a joke, but I found myself wanting to do it anyway. It was as though I was willing to do anything that my mother would class as rebellious.

"Let me do it" I whispered in Dimitri's ear, nipping his earlobe gently with my teeth. The shock that registered on Dimitri's face was one that I wished I had a photograph of. His eyes managed to elicit a short bubble of laughter from me.

"Why on Earth would you actually want to do that?" Dimitri asked even though he led me to the back of the dress shop regardless of his own opinions on the matter.

"Because it's adventurous" I answered, my hands reaching out behind me to loosen the corset styled back. Dimitri reached out hesitantly to help me, his hands moving ever so delicately and hastily for fear that I would be caught by someone.

"You're so weird, Rose" He laughed before the dress was loose enough to slide off my body. He turned around to let me slip out of it in privacy and slip the summer dress on. Oh, he was ever such a good gentleman.

Before I changed into the summer dress, I tapped Dimitri on the shoulder to make him think that I was done. He turned back around to face me before his eyes went wide.

"You were supposed to get changed before I turned around" He reminded, not knowing where to look. Instead of saying anything, I reached up to caress his face with my small hand before standing on the tips of my toes to press a kiss to his lips.

Now that he had forgotten about the fact that I was practically naked in front of him, he wrapped his arms protectively around my waist and pulled me closer as he applied more force to the kiss.

"You really are changing" He laughed in between kisses. Oh, that was what I had been hoping for. I didn't want to be anything like the girl that I used to be. It was brilliant to hear Dimitri confirm that for me. I wanted it to come from someone that I cared about. I was becoming the kind of woman that I truly wanted to be.

Reluctantly, he pulled away from the kiss and pressed his forehead against mine, his deep brown eyes staring into my own so intently.

"Get your dress on, Miss Hathaway" He ordered, attempting to fix me with a glare. I bit my lips as I clasped my hands around the back of his neck.

"Do I have to?" I whispered, aware how ridiculous I was possibly sounding right now. Who knew that doing something like this would be so much fun? Why had my mother tried to stop me from being like this? It was much better than how I used to act.

"Yes, you have to" Dimitri stated with a gruff voice. Maybe this was affecting him more than it was me. The idea that I had power over Dimitri made doing this all the more fun. This was all just like a big game.

"But this is too much fun" I whined with a wink as I began to run my hands over the front of Dimitri's chest. What had ever made me so daring? His lightning fast reflexes caught them before I really did anything. With a smug smirk over the fact that he completely overpowered me, he pressed a kiss to the side of my mouth before turning around once more.

"Not here, Roza" He demanded before crossing his arms over his chest. I knew there was no point in pursuing it as I already felt as though I had had enough fun for one day. With a smirk to myself, I slipped the red sundress on and tapped Dimitri on his shoulder one more time. He was more hesitant to turn around this time…this almost brought a smile to my face.

"Could you zip me up?" I asked, turning my back to him, so he could see the zip. His deft fingers swept the zip up before pushing me back around to face him.

"I'm starting to understand why your mother locked you up all those years" Dimitri sighed.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I tried to keep any offence from oozing out of my voice. I was sure that I just got the wrong end of the stick here.

"Well, whenever you're unleashed, you wreak havoc with every man in sight" Dimitri answered, fixing me with a warm smile.

"I'm just excited to go to Russia with you" I rectified. I didn't want to sound too needy of having a man.

"Of course you are" Dimitri agreed.

"Hey, get out of here!" A rough voice yelled, snapping us out of our love filled haze. My eyes snapped towards one of the doorways at the back of a building to see a middle-aged man with broad shoulders, an apron covered in blood and guts, and a butcher's knife in his hand. Brilliant, we had managed to find ourselves right next to an abattoir.

Dimitri grabbed my hand and yanked me roughly away from the man who was holding the knife up threateningly at us. He ran forward with me with loud laughs as I scrambled to keep up with him. Finally, we reached the safety of the line of people waiting to get on the boat.

"I'm not sure I like Finland" I breathed as we reached the front of the line.

"Ticket please" The man on the dock said with a heavy Russian accent. Dimitri mumbled something in Russian and presented some money to the man whose face took on the same excited look as the man back in England. "On you go."

"So, are we sleeping in a store cupboard again?" I asked, almost looking forward to it. The last store cupboard we had slept in resulted in us spending some quality time together. I wouldn't mind doing that once more.

"Yes, we'll have to" Dimitri answered, walking the hallways of the boat as though he already knew them like the back of his hand even though he had never been on the boat before today. Would he ever cease in harbouring amazing talents? Did I even have to ask that question? Of course he wouldn't. After all, it's Dimitri Belikov. His talents are endless.

He opened the door to an unused store cupboard that seemed to be more comfortable than the one we slept in on the other boat. There was more space and even rags to lie on. I guess this was going to be considered as luxury for now.

"It's perfect" I stated, fixing Dimitri with a smile. It really was perfection to be here with him and away from home.

Yes, it was ever so cliché. Well, I hope you all liked this chapter and please drop off a review on your way out. Thank you all so much for reading!