Chapter 16: Thin Walls and Cannonballs
"Seriously? Oh my god! Really? We're really going?" I sounded like the teenage girl that I sort of am.
Dimitri laughed. "Yes, seriously. Do think I'd joke about something like this? You'd kill me if I got your hopes up for no reason."
I called Lissa immediately after hanging up with Dimitri. I figured that she was the one to thank for this trip, being the queen and all. We were going to spend the weekend at a fancy Idaho ski resort for wealthy Moroi. I had been there once before, during my winter break as a senior, right after the Badica massacre and right before Mason's death. I hoped I could make new memories there. It really was a great place.
But Lissa was just as surprised as I was. "Actually, I just found out about it too. Christian told me about it today. Weird, huh? But he booked a room for Adrian and Sydney too. Rose, this is going to be so much fun!" We chattered about what we were going to do and wear and see. Even when I hung up the phone for the night, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.
Friday afternoon
I stood on the runway with Sydney, Adrian, and our luggage. Adrian would not shut up about going swimming. Sydney, who was starting to look slightly healthier (though still underweight), was not thrilled about wearing a swimsuit.
"I didn't even bring one to campus! I don't own a swimsuit!" she protested.
"You can buy one there!" Adrian exclaimed. "They have a store! You can buy lots of things there… cashmere sweaters… bikinis… fancy dresses… maybe something else fancy for when the dresses come off…"
"Adrian, stop it, you're freaking her out," I chastised. "Syd, you don't have to wear anything you don't want to wear. But I've seen those pools, and honestly they're pretty great. And at this time of the year, the resort won't be too crowded. Hardly anyone will see us anyway."
The flight was short, but Adrian and I still managed to sneak a couple drinks each. I had been so good lately, and hey, it was vacation. A short vacation. After that week, I had earned both the vacation and the drinks. I was bruised all over from the four-way attack by my human novices. Every step hurt a little bit, but it was so worth it. I knew we had really turned a corner. Mutual respect was already making such a difference in the gym.
The plane from Court had arrived that morning, and the rest of our party met us in the lobby of the hotel. I actually ran to Lissa first, squeezing her as tightly as I could. Neither of us said a word, just held each other like we hadn't been together in years. When she released me, I turned around and was met with a long, slow kiss from Dimitri.
I heard a cough behind me. "Get a room."
I hugged Christian, catching him off-guard. "Nice to see you too," I said.
After a long day of school, work, and travel, none of us were in the mood to get dressed up for dinner. We decided to just get comfortable, order room service, and hang out. Of course, Christian insisted that we play May I, a card game that is slightly fun if you're winning and really, really frustrating if you're not.
"Noooo, I wanted the Ace of Spades!" I whined, sitting on the floor of Lissa's and Christian's room. Adrian just laughed and took my card. I curled my knees into my chest and took a bite of my chicken parmesan, hugging the plate and giving Adrian sad eyes.
"Good try," he said. "But I'm still taking the card."
"Whatever," I said. "I want to go in the hot tub." Lissa and Christian had the most elaborate suite in the entire resort. It spanned two stories. The second floor balcony gave them a great view of the sun rising over the mountains, and the first floor patio had an in-ground hot tub that looked more like a small swimming pool. Both were entirely hidden by pine trees, making them private.
Adrian's ears perked up. "Wet t-shirt contest?"
Sydney gave his arm a light punch. "Nobody is having a wet t-shirt contest."
Lissa leaned back on her elbows and crossed her ankles. Her second cocktail was nearly empty. As queen, she didn't get to drink very often, and her tolerance was lower than it used to be. I didn't need the bond to tell me that she was getting a little tipsy. That made two of us. Okay, it made four, if you include Adrian and Christian.
"Well," she said. "There's no need for a wet t-shirt contest if there are no t-shirts involved." She pulled her light blue sweater over her head, revealing a bra in a rich shade of purple. Christian immediately snapped to attention, but Lissa turned to me. "Rose?"
I didn't need to be told twice. I stood up and flung off my own shirt. "Hot tub!" I yelled. I pulled off my jeans as well, grabbed my drink, and made a run for the patio in my black lace bra and panties. Lissa downed her drink and managed to get out of her jeans and out to the patio with me. We left the door open, allowing a gust of cold wind to brush over everyone else.
The hot tub was more than big enough for all six of us. In fact, Lissa and I had already begun swimming small laps around it. "Dimitriiiii!" I sang. He shook his head, but couldn't hide the smile on his face as he followed Christian outside. Adrian looked after them longingly.
But Sydney was already wrapping herself in Dimtri's duster. "Aren't we going to go outside? I'm not swimming, but we don't have to sit in here by ourselves either."
Adrian beamed. He couldn't get out of his clothes fast enough. Dimitri, on the other hand, was about to do a cannonball into the hot water fully clothed. He got a running start and flew through the air with perfect form, landing smoothly in the center of the pool. I had never seen anything like it. He sputtered when he came up for air and swore in Russian.
"That's hot," he observed.
"The water's not the only thing that's hot," Christian said, attempting to sound sexy as he wrapped his arms around Lissa's waist and kissed her neck. I just rolled my eyes. The hot water was loosening my tight muscles and soothing my aches and pains from training. I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh air, loving the way my body tingled. I opened my eyes to find Dimitri studying me, pure adoration in his eyes.
Sydney had taken off the duster and rolled up her pants. She sat on the edge of the hot tub, absentmindedly kicking her legs and watching the rest of us make fools of ourselves. She didn't notice Adrian pushing off the bottom of the pool and grabbing her forearms, pulling her into the water.
"You are in so much trouble!" she yelped, making no move to get out of the pool.
"You looked cold!" Adrian protested. Even Sydney couldn't help but loosen up, accepting that she was standing fully clothed in the craziest hot tub any of us had ever seen. Adrian found the control panel for the jets and multicolored lights. I sat on a ledge and enjoyed a back massage from the jets, watching rainbows dance over my feet.
Dimitri swam over to me. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
I thought of our friends, the landscape, the pretty lights. "Yes," I answered. "It's perfect."
To my left, tipsy little Lissa had settled into Christian's lap and was kissing him as though nobody else were in the pool. Or in the universe. I saw his hand slide off her thigh and gently brush the area between her legs. She twitched when he touched her.
"Alright, we should probably go back to our rooms," I said loudly. Lissa and Christian kept making out. His hands, thankfully, had moved to her lower back—for now, anyway. Awkward though the situation was, it was nice to see Lissa being a normal eighteen-year-old making out with her boyfriend in public. She moved in even closer, wrapping her ankles around his. Yeah, it was definitely time to leave.
Back in my own room, clothed in warm flannel pajamas, I snuggled up next to Dimitri. I was soothed by the weight of the down comforter and the steady sound of his heartbeat. Before he even leaned over to turn off the light, I was well on my way to sleep.
Saturday Morning
"Good morning, sweetheart."
I awoke to a kiss on the forehead. Groaning, I rolled over. "What time is it?" Because this was a Moroi resort and we slept during the daytime, the curtains were thick and designed to keep out sunlight. Dimitri stood next to the bed, dressed in athletic shorts and a form-fitting workout shirt.
"It's 7:30." He threw a granola bar at my head.
"Ow! What was that for?" I pushed the granola bar off my forehead and onto the pillow.
"I want to go check out the gym. Eat that before our workout. We'll have brunch with the others when they wake up."
His enthusiasm was just contagious enough to get me out of bed and into my workout clothes, a tank top and spandex yoga pants. It was a far cry from the sweatpants I used to wear for our workouts when I was a student. When he held the door open so I could walk in front of him, I'm pretty sure he wasn't doing it just to be nice. I turned around and gave him a teasing smile just to watch him try to avert his eyes quickly. He usually has a great reaction time. My ass must be pretty distracting.
Because it was at a Moroi resort, the gym did not see a lot of use. Still, like everything else in the place, it was elaborate. Dimitri and I didn't use any of the fancy machines. It had been way too long since the last time we just fought hand-to-hand, and I knew he missed it as much as I did. We positioned ourselves on the mats, each jumping into a defensive stance and waiting for the other to make the first move. As usual, I jumped into action.
And as usual, he dodged my first punch. We sparred for quite awhile. Fighting him was still more difficult than fighting anyone else in the world, including Strigoi, because we could read each other so well. Thankfully, fighting Dimitri was also a lot of fun. After the hot tub and a restful sleep in the luxurious bed, my body was up to the challenge.
Dimitri won the first round, and I won the second. Our deal was that whoever lost two out of three would buy brunch. It was a silly deal to begin with, because Lissa would pay the entire bill before any of us could protest. But we both thrive when we have something to lose, and it makes our workouts more productive and our battles more exciting. As it turns out, we never quite got to the third round.
I had him pinned on the mat and made the mistake of catching his eyes. Dammit. This kind of contact rarely ended in good behavior. Dimitri was clearly having similar thoughts. My hair was in a messy ponytail now, and he reached up to twirl a piece of it around his finger. I smiled down at him and leaned forward to kiss him. Dimitri put both hands on my ass and squeezed it.
"I've been wanting to do that all morning," he confessed.
I laughed. "I know."
All it took was one more glance at each other and I had rolled off him and jumped to my feet just as he did. He followed me into the men's locker room. Thankfully, it was as empty as the gym, and it was the cleanest, fanciest locker room I had ever seen. The marble floors gleamed, and the shower stalls looked more like private rooms. I pulled him into a stall and turned on all three shower heads. I didn't know what each one did and didn't want to waste time figuring it out. Different amounts of pressure hit our bodies from three sides. Our clothes were already wet when we threw them over the top of the shower stall. It meant that at least one of us would have to get out naked to retrieve them when we were finished, but at least they would serve as a warning sign to anyone who wandered in.
"Oh, Roza," he breathed. I could smell a hint of sweat on him, fresh from the fight. It was intoxicating. He pulled the ponytail holder out of my hair and I shook my head so that it fell around my face and down my back. Dimitri bent down to tease my breasts with his tongue, nipping at one just a little bit. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, loving the feeling of his hands on my hips. Dispensers on the walls held all sorts of fancy shampoos and soaps. I wondered what the showers in the women's locker room were like. With shampoo on his hand, Dimitri began to massage my head, sliding his fingers through my hair and kissing me slowly. I soaped him up too, running my hands over the contours of his body. He moaned softly when I reached his most sensitive places.
When we were all cleaned up, we put on some fluffy, white bath robes and grabbed our workout clothes.
"Come on," he said. "I have an idea." We walked out of the men's locker room and back into the gym like it was no big deal. The elderly Moroi man lifting weights gave us a scandalized look, and it was hard for me not to burst out laughing. We crossed the gym, and Dimitri tugged on the handle of a door set off to the side. To our delight, it opened, revealing a massage table, candles, and various creams and oils. I smiled.
We dropped our clothes and untied each other's robes.
"Should we light a candle?" I asked jokingly.
He didn't answer, just pushed me up against the wall, took my face in his hands, and started kissing me furiously. I responded instantly, never one to be caught by surprise. Our hands moved downward on each other's bodies, exploring them as if it were our first time all over again. We rarely went through this much foreplay. I loved it and yet I could hardly stand it. I was as aroused as I could possibly be without going over the edge. He kept me there, in a constant state of bliss, never quite letting me climax. He had always been the one with self-control.
When we finally moved to the massage table, things got a little more difficult. It was a narrow table to say the least. He took the top, and as he thrust faster and faster, we forgot to concentrate on balancing. He pulled out just as we started to fall, gripping each others' arms.
"Fuck!" I yelled instinctively, hitting the ground with a thud.
"Happily." Dimitri entered me again, never missing a beat. I had fallen pretty hard, but if anything, it excited my body and mind even more. Typical guardian reaction, I guess. When I hit my peak, I screamed. The feeling of me clamping down on him made him come too, evoking the same sort of animalistic noise soon after mine. We lay on the floor, breathing hard.
"Great idea, Belikov," I said dryly.
"Sex bruises are good bruises, my dear. Come on, it's almost time to meet the others for brunch."
"At least we already showered."
When we casually strode out of the massage room, several heads whipped around to face us. Apparently the room was not soundproof. All seven people who were now in the gym had heard Dimitri Belikov make me scream.
I smiled. "Nice morning, isn't it?"
Dimitri just shook his head, grabbed my arm, and dragged me out of the gym.
Saturday Brunch
Rose was glowing. I knew that look. Her cheeks weren't flushed just from her morning workout—well, not from most people's definition of a workout, anyway. I smiled knowingly as she gingerly sunk into a chair. I was a little sore too after my wakeup call from Adrian that morning. Maybe my body would have preferred a smaller boyfriend, but there are worse problems to have than one who makes you—I had to stop thinking about him. I could already feel myself getting aroused. Adrian put one hand on my leg under the table, dangerously close to my inner thigh.
His hand was comforting. The anticipation of food quickly distracted me from my sexy daydreaming, and I could feel my heart rate increasing just from looking at the buffet. The others were talking excitedly, oblivious to my anxiety.
"Do you want me to make you a plate, or do you want to do it yourself?" Adrian asked quietly.
I didn't want to rely on him, but the number of food choices were staggering, and I didn't know how to make one meal count for my breakfast, morning snack, and lunch. Plus, it wasn't like my problem was a secret. We had talked about that, too, and decided it was best if Rose let Dimitri, Lissa, and Christian know about it before the trip so that nobody would ask questions.
"Can you help me?" I asked reluctantly.
"Of course." He moved down the buffet line with me. "How about you take a little bit of a lot of different things? Does that sound good? Start with the hot food, and if you really need to take a break, you can take the other stuff to go and eat it in our room." Adrian had such a calming effect on me that I actually enjoyed brunch. I still didn't love the idea of eating so much food in one sitting, but true to his word, Adrian let me sneak some of it out of the dining room in my purse. I finished my giant meal sitting on the balcony off our room, bundled up in the fluffy comforter from our bed, with Adrian's arm wrapped around my waist so that nothing in the world could hurt me.
Author's Note: I decided to split this chapter into two parts because it's already pretty long! I haven't written the second part yet but it will be up within the next couple days. I've had a lot going on this week.