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Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy.

CHAPTER 8

RPOV

"So how was the swimming with Dimitri and the kids?" Christian asked, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"It was okay," I said evasively, averting my eyes.

I ducked my head, letting my hair cover my face, so he wouldn't notice I was blushing. If I had to be completely honest, hanging out with Dimitri and his kids had been really fun. Maybe a little bit too much fun, I thought as I recalled how Dimitri and I had fooled around in the pool.

"Okay?" Christian repeated, arching an eyebrow.

I shrugged and desperately searched for a change of subject. I didn't want to talk about this anymore. Luckily, I quickly found something to distract Christian.

"Look, there's Lissa," I said, nudging him with my shoulder.

He looked up in the direction I indicated at. She was alone at the moment, carrying her tray of food as she scanned the crowd, looking for a place to sit.

"Go talk to her," I hissed in his ear, nudging him again.

Gathering his courage, he nodded and stood up. I could see he was really trying to look confident as he strode over to Lissa. A smile crept onto Lissa's face as she noticed him walk over to her. Christian said something to her and then they started talking. I watched them interact with a proud smile on my face. I knew Christian could do it. He'd just needed a little push from me.

After a few minutes, they came walking back to where I was sitting. I scooted up a little so Lissa could join us.

"Hi again," she said, smiling at me.

"Hey," I said, smiling back. "How are you?"

"I'm good," she said, glancing at Christian from the corner of her eye. "You?"

I grinned. "Oh, I'm great."

Suddenly, my phone buzzed. I picked it up from the table and looked at the screen. It said I had a text from Dimitri. I didn't know why, but my heart skipped a beat and I held my breath as I opened the text. I felt a little disappointed – but don't ask me why because I didn't know myself – when it was just to tell me I'd apparently forgotten one of my textbooks at his place.

"I got to go," I said sighing as I started to get up. "I'll see you guys later."

They both nodded and started talking again as I put on my jacket and walked off. Maybe it was a good thing I had to leave; now they had all the time to get to know each other without getting interrupted by me.

DPOV

When the doorbell rang and I went to open the door, I was surprised to see Ivan. I'd expected Rose to come and pick up her textbook.

"Hey," I said, stepping aside so he could enter. "What brings you here?"

"I'm on my way home," he said. "Thought I'd come by and see how it's going here. How are you?"

"I'm good," I said shrugging.

Ivan smiled. "Good. I'm glad." He glanced around the hallway. "So, where are the kids? It's been long since I've seen them."

"They're in the living room," I said.

His smile widened and he walked to the living room. As soon as he entered, he was met with squeals from my children and they all ran towards him, hugging him. I leaned against the doorway, smiling. Ivan was like an uncle to them and they'd missed him a lot. They hadn't seen him since Tasha's funeral so they were all happy to see him again. It was probably my fault too that they hadn't seen him sooner because I'd told Ivan not to come over when Rose was here.

The doorbell rang again. Shit. That would be Rose. Damn, I wish I hadn't texted her. Now she'd meet Ivan and God knows what he would say to her to charm his way into her life.

Reluctantly, I turned around and walked back to the hallway to open the front door.

"Hi," Rose said, giving me a small smile.

"Hey, come on in," I said, returning her smile. "Your book's in the living room. I figured you might need it for your class."

"Yeah, I do," she said. "If you hadn't texted me, I wouldn't even have known so thank you."

"It's fine."

Rose followed me to the living room and I glanced at Ivan, who was talking to Inna. As soon as we entered, though, he looked up and his eyes widened as he took in Rose.

"Holy shit," he said as he stared at her. "Y-you're the babysitter?!"

I glared at him warningly.

"Um, yes," Rose said, looking confused. "Who are you?"

Quickly, Ivan glanced at me and then cleared his throat. "I'm Ivan," he said, flashing her a smile as he stepped forward to shake her hand.

"Oh. So you are Dimitri's best friend?" Rose said smiling. I'd told her a little about Ivan and now I regretted that I had. "I'm Rose, by the way."

"It's very nice to meet you, Rose," Ivan said, kissing her knuckles softly.

I clenched my jaw and narrowed my eyes at him. Knowing I needed to do something before he'd really try to charm her, I walked over and practically pushed Ivan away as I said, "Your book is over there, Roza."

I pointed at the table and she smiled at me before picking it up. "Well, thanks. I should be going. Sorry for disturbing you."

"Oh no, it's fine," I said quickly.

She glanced at Ivan and gave him a smile. "It was nice to meet you, Ivan. Bye kids," she said, waving at them.

"Bye Rose!" they said in unison.

"Hopefully we'll see each other again, Rose," Ivan said winking.

I glared at him before leading Rose out of the living room.

"So, um, I'll see you tomorrow?" I said, not really wanting her to go. She couldn't stay, though, because, one, she had no reason to, and two, Ivan was still here and I didn't want her near him.

God, why was I so jealous? It wasn't like I was in love with her or something and there wasn't even anything going on between Ivan and her. I mean, they just met ten seconds ago.

Rose nodded. "Yeah. See you."

"Bye Roza," I said softly.

When I returned to the living room, my children had disappeared and Ivan was just standing there, smirking at me.

"How do you work when she's around?" he said, arching an eyebrow.

"I don't," I muttered.

"Damn, she really is hot," Ivan said. "No wonder you wanted to keep her all to yourself."

I know. "She's not a toy you can just throw away when you're tired of playing with it, Ivan," I said briskly.

"I know, I know, but damn… I'd definitely tap that!" he said grinning.

"No!" I said quickly. Maybe a little too quickly. I cleared my throat and continued, "Just leave Rose alone, okay? There are plenty of girls out there. Don't go messing around with Rose."

"Why not? Does she have a boyfriend?"

I was tempted to lie, but instead I decided to tell the truth. "No," I admitted.

"Then I don't see what the problem is," Ivan said.

"Ivan, don't," I warned. "I don't want you to ask her out. She's my – she's my kids' babysitter. I already told you, if it doesn't work out between you and her-"

"Yeah, yeah," Ivan cut me off, rolling his eyes. "I know why you don't want me to ask her out, but I have a feeling this is not the only reason you don't want me anything to do with her."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said stiffly.

"Do you like her?" he questioned, arching an eyebrow.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, I don't know… You seem protective of her," Ivan said carefully. "Like you really care about her."

"So what if I care about her?" I said defensively. "That doesn't have to mean anything, right? She's just been a good friend to me and I don't want to see her get hurt. That also means I don't want to see her get hurt by you," I said, giving him a pointed look. "Which you will definitely do. You know the effect you have on women. So please…just leave her alone."

"Fine. Touchy subject," he mumbled. "If Tasha was still alive, she wouldn't be too pleased about this."

I glared at him. "Ivan…"

"That was uncalled for," he said, giving me an apologetic look. "Sorry."

"It's fine," I muttered. I knew he hadn't meant it like that.

He cleared his throat. "Well, I should go. We're still good for Thursday?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Alright. See you then."

I nodded and he walked out.

I only saw Rose briefly the next day, much to my disappointment. I tried not to think about why I was so disappointed about that. She'd already put her jacket on when I arrived home. Apparently, she'd been waiting for me to come back. Luckily, I wasn't late today.

"Inna's in her room, doing homework. Liam's taking a nap; he was tired and Alisa is taking a shower," she said.

"Oh okay," I said. "You need to be somewhere?"

She raised her eyebrows, giving me a questioning look.

"It's just that you seem to be in a rush," I said, gesturing towards her.

"Oh yeah… Christian and I are planning to have dinner somewhere and then go to the movies afterwards," she said with a smile. Then she glanced down at her watch. "That is, if he's still coming to pick me up."

"Oh. Well, have fun."

Her smile widened. "Thanks." It was quiet for a while until she cleared he throat and said, "So, um, Ivan seems nice."

Alarmed, I said quickly, "Oh, he isn't."

She frowned. "He isn't? But isn't he, like, your best friend?"

"Yes, he is," I amended, "but he's not nice with, um, girls." She gave me a weird look. "I mean, he – he doesn't treat them right. He's kind of a player so it's better if you don't get involved with him. He's never been in a serious relationship so yeah… It's best if you don't-"

Rose cut off my rambling. "I was just making conversation, Dimitri," she said, looking like she wanted to laugh. "I'm not interested in Ivan if that's what you're thinking."

Thank God, I thought.

"Oh. Okay," I said, trying to hide my relief. "You're probably the first girl who's ever said that."

"Well, someone's gotta be the first one," she said grinning.

I smiled. I wondered why she wasn't interested in Ivan. Every woman liked Ivan. They were attracted to him like bees to honey. Could it be possible she already liked someone else?

Why the hell are you thinking about this? I chastised myself. Does it matter if she likes someone or not? It's none of your concern.

I stood there, trying to think of something to say, but before I could the bell rang and Rose disappeared into the hallway. I followed her and watched as the kids came running downstairs to say hi to Christian.

"Have fun," I said again, feeling a spark of jealousy as Rose looped her arm in his. God, I really had to stop feeling like this around her. This was crazy.

"Thanks," she said smiling before leading Christian back to his car. "Come on, Chris, we can't be late for the movie."

I waited until they were gone and then closed the door with a sigh. I kind of felt guilty. I should be grieving over my wife, but instead I was crushing on the babysitter. But I couldn't help myself. She was just so different and amazing and…all kinds of good things.

I groaned inwardly. I guess I couldn't deny it any longer. Ivan was right; I really did like Rose. Probably a little bit too much.

Shit.

So Ivan met Rose and Dimitri was jealous. What do you think about that? :P Also, Christian finally found the courage to talk to Lissa. It was about time, huh? I'm going to try and update again this weekend and if it's not this weekend it'll be on Monday probably. Hope you have a nice day/evening! :)