A/N: Just wanted to say thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter. I hope you continue to review as it makes the writers block which I often suffer from, disappear into the night. And on another note, am just bumping this up from a K+ to the next rating for the sexual content in this chapter and other chapters to come. I had no idea where I was going to take this story and this chapter but I found a route and I hope you enjoy...the beginning is for the Dimitri fans! Also I apologise once again for any improper use of gramma, mis-spellings etc, I do not re-read my work through. I'm lazy that way.

My eyelids reluctantly fluttered open and focused quickly to take in the dark surroundings. I was lying on my side with one arm draped over Dimitri's t-shirt covered chest and one leg enveloping one of his thighs. With my head tucked under his arm, I was completely and utterly enclosed in a little nook and realised that I had never felt more safe or content. Blinking the sleep from my eyes I moved from my safe position and climbed up his bed so that my face was level with his. Being more than a foot shorter than Dimitri had always served as an advantage during our training sessions, an advantage for me that is though now I was finding it a pain in the ass.

My hand repositioned from his chest to trace the shape of his brow as my eyes studied his beautiful face.

"Always looking for an advantage," he murmured as his eyes slowly opened and his face turned to look down at me.

I felt my pulse quicken as his dark intense eyes stared deeply into my eyes. "This isn't an advantage," I said regarding my hand which was currently trailing down the side of his cheek. A playful grin played at my lips as my hand moved down his neck to one of his broad shoulders. Gripping onto him I rolled from my side and onto him, quickly repositioning my legs in the process. I was on my knees with my legs either side of him and my butt resting on his lower rock hard abs. My upper body arched forward as my hands pinned his wrists above his head. My long dark hair which he so admired was freed from its ponytail, hung over him, grazing his skin. "…This is" The playful grin continued to dance at my lips.

I was prepared for his usual so called wise response that we should probably work on my self control during our next training session whenever that may be, what I wasn't prepared for was his actual response. His arms broke free of my restraint, unsurprising as I could have only kept him there under my grasp for as long as he wanted me to, sure I was a badass novice but he was a super badass guardian. His hands moved to grip my waist and hips and without breaking eye contact he rolled us over, so that his hard, lean muscled body pressed into mine. If my pulse had quickened earlier, it was now racing towards a finish line.

"Or not…" I gasped. My breathing was heavy and ragged and it had nothing to do with most of his weight leaning on me. "You know maybe this isn't…mmm"

My words were swallowed by his kiss. Our previous kisses had been passionate and heady but nothing like this. His mouth fed intensely on mine as one of his hands shifted to the back of my head and into my thick dark hair.

Oh God. I had been waiting for this moment for what felt like forever. I had been waiting for him to show me some of that passion that had been present when we were almost getting jiggy with it under that stupid lust spell…but this was even better. I was feeding on his desire for me just as Moroi drink from the feeders, though this was an equal measure of want and need.

He pulled his lips from mine and pulled back to watch me with a studious expression, the same admiring one that he used before and after some of our training sessions. My eyes gazed down to my literally heaving breasts which were at this point practically trying to jump out of their black laced confinement.

"Is something wrong?" I asked biting down on my bottom lip, fear beginning to travel through my body, fear of rejection. His brow furrowed as confusion swept his face. "Did I do something wrong?" I rephrased the question

"No I did…I am…" He let what must have been a long depressed sigh. His warm brown eyes no longer held that same lustful glint. Great, trust the goody two shoes guardian instincts kick in now, couldn't he have wanted until after and then they would have been classic morning after regrets.

"You said you had lots to teach me," My voice was ringing my irritation loud and clear, "Well guess what comrade, school's in session!" I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his body back down onto mine. My lips crushed against his and though the kisses didn't hold the same intensity that they did before, he was still kissing me back which I took as a good sign.

My arms moved from his neck now that they were no longer needed to keep him in position and instead moved to the bottom of his t-shirt. It was time to level the playing field, if he was allowed to ogle over my half naked my body then it was only fair if I admired his. I broke our kiss to slowly pull off his t-shirt, sure I may have wanted to expedite things a little quicker so that it gave him little or no time to rethink what we were doing but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to savour this moment.

I stared at his perfect smooth chest as my hands traced the outlines of his abs. He was perfect in mind, body and soul. Lifting myself up off the bed slightly so that I was angled somewhat, my face moved to his chest and I began little kisses on his warm torso, trailing up until my lips found a nipple. As my mouth engulfed it, his breathing became more uneven. "Rose…" His voice was rough but warning as he pulled back from my touch. "This isn't right."

I threw my head back and reached for the pillow beside my head, lifting it to cover my mouth as I let out a frustrated scream. Thankfully it muffled the majority of my sound that if curious ears were listening in they wouldn't have heard. He rolled off of me to the side and placed his head down where the pillow had been. "This isn't right," I quoted into the pillow with a harsh tone; I was beginning to tire of his constant rejection.

He pulled the pillow from my grasp and touched his hand to the side of my face, moving it so that I had to look at him. "You know I want you…"

"Do you?" I asked my voice breaking with the question, "Because it sure as hell doesn't feel like it when you constantly push me away."

"You know why I have to…"

"I thought we had agreed that while I wasn't Lissa's guardian that we would …" I couldn't finish the sentence because we hadn't really agreed to anything. It had been a silent agreement on both of our parts, or at least I thought it had been. And then it occurred to me, sure that had been one of the bigger issues between the two of us but the age difference was also, at least on his part. "You wanna wait until I turn eighteen?" I guessed.

He didn't need to say anything his facial expression spoke volumes. He did want to wait until I turned eighteen.

"UGH!" I sat up on the bed as the frustrated moan escaped my lips. Any other night I would have tried to work my way around him and use the classic Rose Hathaway charm to try and convince him that seventeen years, ten months and twenty two days was practically eighteen. But not tonight, he had ruined my happy, almost erotic dream worthy moment with his stupid bloody morals.

Sliding down to the bottom of the bed, I bent down to pick up my workout t-shirt which had been discarded earlier in the evening when he tentatively applied cream to my bruises. Standing up from the bed I pulled the top over my head and picked up my white sneakers. I hadn't taken them off so Dimitri must have while I was asleep. "Good night, Guardian Belikov" Instead of making my way towards his bedroom door the same way I had entered, I moved over to his closed window.

"What are you doing?" His voice was closer, he had moved off of the bed. It was disconcerting that I hadn't heard the movement, especially considering my so called enhanced senses. Maybe it wasn't me, maybe he was just silent but deadly.

I turned and found myself face to face with him, "Well I can't go out looking like this can I? What would the neighbours think?" Turning my back on him, I quickly slipped on my sneakers and climbed halfway out of the window before a firm hand on my arm stopped me.

"Don't be ridiculous, you can't climb out of the window."

Working my way out of his grip, I shrugged. "Trust me; it wouldn't be the first time." And on that note I climbed out of the window completely and moved across the roof of the academy. Climbing out of windows and choreography my way across the academy's rooftop was an old pastime – I had done it every week before Lissa and I had left, sure it had never been for this reason but the implication that it had would hopefully leave him stewing for a while.

--

By the time I had taken a cold shower to cool myself down from my encounter with Dimitri and changed into my all in one black swimsuit, covered by low riding dark denim jeans and a black tank top just in case I was spotted out and about, I was running twenty minutes late to meet Mia over on the west campus for our one on one offensive magic training. Running across the campus grounds towards the primary campus, I bumped into a guardian who was patrolling the grounds.

"Miss…"

The auburn coloured haired guardian whom I had never seen before in my entire life actually called me miss to get my attention. Who said chivalry was dead? I stopped in my tracks and raised my brow at the guardian giving him my best innocent expression, one I hadn't unearthed in a while. "Yes?"

"Your breaking curfew." This was a man apparently of little words.

"Yes." I said acknowledging the rule breaking situation I had caught myself in.

"You'll need to return to your dorm."

"She's with us," I looked past the guardian blocking my way to the west campus and saw Lissa approaching him from behind. He turned and nodded in her direction, acknowledging her royal status.

I should have been questioning myself and reaching out through our blood bond to find out why she was here, but I was too busy festering on the 'us'

"I'm afraid, Princess that both you and your friend are breaking curfew and therefore must return to each of your dormitories. I will escort you." Wow, I was astonished that Lissa had managed to get full coherent sentences from the man of few words.

Lissa lessened the distance between her and the guardian, unearthing the butter wouldn't melt in her mouth smile. She looked directly into his eyes, "You'll go on and continue patrolling, ignoring the swimming pool over on the west campus. You'll forget that you've seen us tonight."

I shook my head at her disparagingly, she shouldn't have been out here in the first place and she most definitely shouldn't have been using compulsion on a guardian. The guardian turned on his heels and walked past me, heading back towards the dorm I had just left. "What are you doing, Liss?" My body turned back to chastise her but instead my dhamphir excelled eyes looked past her and over to the building which hosted the swimming pool. The lights weren't on but there was definitely something going on. "Wait – what did you mean by we?"

"Well…word got out about our…uh, practices."

"Our practices?" I turned my attention back to her. Crossing my arms over my chest, I sighed. "That's funny because I remember telling Mia that I would meet her there…not you, certainly not your fire happy boyfriend or your psychotic so called cousin..." When I referred to Adrian I lifted my hands in the air to air quote the term cousin. They weren't actually blood related but in the Moroi royal court it was how they referred to one another, I personally didn't understand it.

"Rose," Her soft voice grew softer and soothing, trying to stop storm Rose from hitting. "People want to learn how to defend themselves in case there is another attack. I mean look at me," I didn't need to, I already was. "If I had known spells to protect myself, if I had known ways to protect myself with my ability…then maybe you wouldn't have had to come and save me the other night, like you always do."

"Do you think I'm training to become a brain surgeon? No, I'm training to be a guardian and what's the whole purpose of a guardian?" It was a rhetorical question. I would always protect Lissa, even if it was protecting her from herself.

"But what happens if you don't show up?" She rarely doubted my ability to protect her due to our past experiences.

"I'll always show up!"

"You know what I mean, what if like the other night it's an ambush. You're fighting one Strigoi and another turns up. You're a good fighter, Rose but you're not wonder woman!"

"My wonder woman t-shirt says otherwise," I joked. Taking a step closer to her, my hands reached out and held the side of her face. "Besides, I'm not going to be your only guardian." Dimitri was her primary guardian but as soon as I graduate, we would be working side by side to protect Lissa.

"You're making it hard for me to try and prove a point," She pouted. The truth was I understood what she was trying to say but I didn't want to heart it. It made me nervous to think of her using magic again, especially because of how unstable it made her. Mood swings, depression and cutting.

"I get it, I do Liss…I'm just," I decided honesty was going to be the best policy, "worried."

"Don't be," She raised her hands and mirrored my touch, her hands touching the side of my face, her face warm and caring. "What could I possibly do with you and Christian watching me like two hawks?"

My smile faltered and my eyes narrowed at the mention of the wannabe x-men Pyro. "And what does your other half say about this?" I couldn't imagine he was going to be on board with Lissa stopping her medication and restarting her magic.

"He's not too happy," Lissa admitted, "But he says that as long as I'm not hurting myself he wont stand in the way."

"How noble!" Sarcasm ringed through me and my disdain for her boyfriend was very much evident in my voice.

Lissa let out a frustrated sigh, "I thought the two of you were getting on better."

"We were…but it freaked me out, him trying to be my BFF so I've gone back to despising him." My tone turned cheerful as I imagined our next encounter, banter being thrown like punches at one another. It was going to be sweet.

Lissa tutted at me as her hands released my face and instead one of her hands took mine and she began to pull me along towards the swimming pool.

As we entered the pool, my eyes widened and my mouth opened out of shock. "When you said word had got out, I didn't think you meant this…" Half of the senior Moroi class were either in the swimming pool or sitting on one of the deck chairs poolside. In the pool, several Moroi were competing in a race, others were throwing a large white plastic ball back and forth while the majority of them just treaded water, chatting with one another. Crap… I was so going back on probation.

A body pressed up behind me and a set of arms wrapped around my waist. "Shouldn't you be leading the rebellion wearing …less?"

Pulling myself out of his grasp, I turned round and found myself face to face with Adrian. "Shouldn't you be…not here?" Great retort, Rose. I chided myself.

"What and miss out on all the fun?" He shook his head and a playful grin emerged on his lips. "Isn't this the part where you strip?"

I rolled my eyes at him. He was a typical Moroi guy. Lifting my top up and over my head, I threw it onto one of the empty deck chairs and proceeded to unbutton and unzip my low riding jeans. My eyes looked up from my busy hands and found several Moroi guys watching me, their eyes widening. Letting out a deep sigh, I dropped the jeans to the wet floor and kicked them aside. Sticking my index and middle finger into my mouth, I let out a loud whistle to capture everyone else's attention…everyone else who weren't perverts, already ogling my curvy body. Whistles broke out across the swimming pool, if Dimitri's rejection had left my ego bruised earlier this moment certainly boosted it "Listen up…"

"We are all ears and everything else for you, Rose!" I heard a Moroi shout.

"Well keep your everything else in your swim shorts," Girls giggled at my response and the guys simply grinned, expecting nothing less from me. "If you're here to be a pervert and eye fuck the guy or girl next to you, you're in the wrong place. We're not here so you can get down and dirty, we're here …" I couldn't believe I was saying this. "so you can master some sort of control over your elements and possibly even practice offensive magic."

"And how are you going to do that? You don't even have any powers!" A random person called out.

"Its guardian one oh one, pure and simple. You think it's easy to save your ugly looking ass from a Strigoi, Jesse?" Jesse Zeklos was far from ugly but he and spread an unpleasant rumour about me last year so he was going to be my little guinea pig. "The first rule about fight club," I teased, referring to the Brad Pitt and Edward Norton film where people beat the crap out of one another just because they wanted to "Is you don't talk about fight club…and if you do, well then hell have no fury like me pissed off!" I grinned eyeing up the swimming pool, everyone knew my dangerous reputation which had only been reinforced in recent months. "If you think this isn't for you or if you can't follow these rules, get your hands out of your pants and leave now."

No one made an effort to move.

"Okay then…let's learn control." Inside I was laughing at myself how the hell, was I going to teach them control when I hadn't mastered it myself. Was I not, less than half an hour ago throwing my half naked body at my very god like mentor? This was going to be interesting.