"You want me to meet them?" I gasped, looking at Dimitri as though he'd grown a second head.

"Very much so," he said hopefully. "Please? For my birthday?"

We were lying in bed cuddling after making love again. Twice. Every time was better than the time before it. But now it was approaching 9 pm, which was when Dimitri was due to skype his family.

"Dimitri? They won't know me from a bar of soap. It's your birthday. They're going to want to spend the time talking with you not wasting time with me."

"Milaya nothing will make them happier than knowing I've found love, especially with everything else going on. I know it will make Mama feel better to know I've found someone to give my heart to. Someone who cares for me, too. They're going to want to meet you, and I want you to meet them. They're my family, and you're the woman I've fallen in love with. Please let me show you off to them?"

He looked so sweet and genuine I couldn't refuse him.

"Fine. But let me put some clothes on first. I'm not skyping your family wrapped only in the quilt! And you can put some clothes on, too, Comrade!"

"I don't know – it will save them asking if we're having sex…" he teased, a wicked look in his eyes.

"They're not going to ask about that are they?" I groaned.

"No," he laughed. "At least not in English…"

Regretting I'd agreed to this, I threw on my bra, a pretty top and the jeans I'd been wearing earlier. We decided he'd tell them about me first and then introduce me. I thought they might like to sing happy birthday to him, so I put the cake on the little table and put in twenty-five candles, finding Dimitri's zippo in his duster pocket ready to light them when the time came.

Checking I was ready, he sat on the sofa, fiddling with the phone. When it connected, I could hear a gaggle of female voices, all talking in Russian. Dimitri laughed, sounding happy and at ease. He listened for a while, and then he started talking in Russian. I'd catch the odd English word here and there, but most of it was a complete mystery to me.

After a while, I heard 'Missoula' and the name of the bank we'd visited today and then I could hear an older female's voice. Maybe his mother's? He answered a few questions, and then he held up his hand and was talking. After a few seconds, I heard 'Rose Hathaway' and then a few seconds later 'Princess Dragomir.' There were questions and then he had a loving look and said 'Roza.' There were quite a few more questions, most of them excited and happy sounding, although one of the voices sounded annoyed. And then Dimitri said, "She's here now for you to meet!"

He held out his hand to me, and I walked around to sit beside him on the sofa. He had his phone resting against a book on the table, and I could see five small faces on the tiny screen but not in any great detail. Dimitri lifted his arm, and I cuddled in beneath it, tucking my feet up underneath me and resting against the side of his chest.

"Hello, Rose," the older woman's voice said, "I'm Olena, Dimka's mother, this is Yeva his Grandmother, Karolina, Sonya and Viktoria his sisters. It's nice to meet you." She had the same accent as Dimitri but much thicker.

I was feeling very shy, so I smiled and said it was nice to meet them.

"So are you Dimka's girlfriend?" one of the younger women asked.

"Yeah, I am. It's all very new, though," I said softly "although we've been falling for a while now…"

"So you waited until he was going away to declare your love for him?" another of the girls asked. "Nice." It was the voice that had sounded pissed off earlier, and the sarcasm was unmistakable.

"Sonya..."Dimitri was about to say something biting when I stopped him by stroking his chest and giving him a look.

"Actually, it was the other way around. We've both known for a while the other cared, but we'd finally told one another half an hour before Dimitri got the news," I said with a bitter laugh. "There are a lot of reasons why us loving each other is not ideal – but none of it matters now. So we're here together making the most of the time we have."

Through the video link, we heard a little sob.

"Don't cry Karo, it's ok," Dimitri said, looking at his older sister. "We've had a wonderful day!"

"Yeah! We watched the sunrise together, which was lovely, and we went to lunch and then the movies. And then," I said, trying to keep my voice upbeat, "the birthday boy chose himself a cake! Are you all ready to sing happy birthday to him?"

Dimitri laughed and was saying something in Russian as I jumped up and started lighting the candles on his half-and-half cake. When they were lit, he picked up his phone and carried it over to the table. He sat in front of the cake, with the phone to one side filming him and it, and I pulled the other chair around to sit beside him, so we were both in shot. We all sang happy birthday and I demanded he make a wish before he blew out the candles.

"Now you have to pull his ears!" one of the girls said.

"Pull his ears?"

"Yes – one tug for every year," Dimitri laughed. I stood up and straddled his lap, putting a hand on either side of his head, pulling his ears as instructed and laughing the whole time.

"Did I do that right?" I checked.

"Perfectly, milaya," he confirmed, pulling me to him hard for a soft lingering kiss. I blushed a little as I could hear happy sighs and cheers from his family.

Sitting back next to him, his grandmother spoke for the first time. "The night before your birthday, what did you dream Dimka?"

Unlike the rest of the talk, which was cheerful albeit perhaps forced, Yeva sounded quite tense. Dimitri looked at her saying something with his eyes. He sighed. "I dreamt of Roza, Babushka. I dreamt of Roza and I living a long and happy life together. It's the same thing I dream about every night…"

There was an awkward pause. I'm not sure why, but the question seemed significant. "That is good then," was all she said, and then the conversation continued. Everyone seemed determined to keep things upbeat. Olena recounted funny stories about Dimitri from his childhood, his oldest sister Karolina was teasing him about waiting until he was twenty-five to finally introduce a girl to the family and Viktoria was commenting how romantic it was that Dimitri and I had fallen in love during our training sessions.

"So how old are you, Rose?" Sonya asked. And for the second time, Dimitri tensed.

"Seventeen," I answered a smile on my face, refusing to be upset by the age difference.

"So there are eight years between you?" she was quick to point out.

"Seven years, three months," Dimitri said calmly. "Roza is eighteen in March."

"That's quite an age difference," Sonya replied.

"The heart wants what the heart wants," Yeva said sagely. "Age doesn't matter."

We chatted for another twenty minutes or so, and then it felt like time to sign off. Dimitri slipped back into speaking Russian as he was saying what were obviously his farewells to his family. I could see his mother starting to weep, and his eldest sister bury her face into the youngest sister's shoulder.

"Thank you, Rose. For giving him your love. It helps us to know he's not alone through this," his mother said in a shaky voice. "Especially on his birthday."

I shrugged. "Loving him was never a choice, Olena. But he's so very easy to love," I said with a sad smile, taking one of Dimitri's massive hands between the two of mine.

She smiled in understanding. "Dimka will give you our number. Please keep in touch. If you hear anything…" She didn't have to finish. We both knew what she was asking.

"Yes, of course."

"Keep your faith, Rose," Yeva counseled before slipping into Russian to say something to Dimitri. And then with final farewells, Dimitri rang off.

We sat in silence for a little while, me holding his hand in mine.

"Thank you. That was hard," he said. "It really helped to have you there."

"Will you speak to them again before you leave?"

He shook his head. "No. I don't want to drag it out. I want their last memories to be of me celebrating and sharing the news that I've fallen in love. I want it to be as happy as it can be."

I swallowed the bowling ball welling up in my throat and looked around to try and change the subject. "Well, it's past 10 pm, and I believe you wanted to get very drunk tonight, Comrade? How does leftover pizza, birthday cake, vodka and me sound?"

"That sounds like every man's birthday fantasy come true," he laughed softly.

I woke up the next morning feeling a good deal worse than horrible. Finally managing to extricate myself from Dimitri's grasp, I walked into the bathroom, shuddering at the sight of my reflection in the mirror. My hair looked as though a bird had slept in it, my skin looked creased and sallow, and there was a small yet undeniable love bite on my left breast. I could vaguely recall Dimitri giving it to me the night before.

After relieving myself I looked around the room, seeing the accumulated detritus from our night of drinking. Our clothes had been thrown in various directions, there were a couple of empty liquor bottles lying on the side table beside some shot glasses, along with plates with leftover birthday cake on them. And the room reeked of stale alcohol.

I showered, lathering my hair, washing thoroughly and scrubbing my teeth for about ten minutes. I noted my downstairs was feeling tender. Probably overuse, I thought ruefully. Ditching sexy lace briefs in favor of super comfortable cotton boyleg panties, I put on some sweats and moved around the room, disposing of the rubbish and straightening up. I took the rubbish bags to the bins outside, relishing the crisp, clean air, then I boiled the kettle and made myself a coffee. Usually, I didn't drink it, but I could tell today was already an exception!

Dimitri was still sound asleep, cuddled up under the quilts on our bed. He'd been an entertaining drunk, and unusually loquacious. Quite the comedian, he'd drawn on years of silent observations of those around him to come out with insightful yet not unkind witticisms. He'd also been particularly loving, cuddling me and telling me how much he cared and how happy he was that we were together.

By some unspoken agreement, we'd avoided all talk of the future, instead telling each other more about our pasts. Dimitri had told me more about Ivan, including tales of the numerous scrapes Ivan had gotten into at school and then after they'd graduated.

"He was more than my charge, he was my brother," he'd explained. "We'd always assumed I'd be the first to die, so when it was him, I was completely unprepared for it. For a long time, I wished it had been me." And I got it. I really did, because that's the way I felt about Lissa.

Picking up my camera, I scrolled through the pictures while I drank my coffee. I could vaguely remember us taking some photos last night. Quite a few were blurry or black, so I deleted those, but there were some cute ones of Dimitri and I drinking vodka shots. The final one shocked me, but now I saw it, I could hazily recall Dimitri setting it up with the camera timer. He was sitting up in bed resting against the bed head, and I was straddling him, we were serving each other vodka shots, and even with our faces in profile, you could see the sexual tension between us. Of course, the fact we were naked supported that impression!

We couldn't have posed the shot any better had we tried. Dimitri's arm around my waist and my outer thigh blocked any hint of our intimate areas, my arm holding the shot glass up to his mouth obscured my breasts, and my bottom was out of frame. It was funny because while the photo itself wasn't too naughty, there was no doubt about what we'd been about to do together.

My thumb hovered over the delete button, but I decided against it. It was a record of a precious moment between us, and it's not like either of us would ever show it to anyone! I fiddled with the camera, turning the flash off. With the blinds open I wouldn't need the extra light. Then I took a few photos of my man asleep in bed. He looked so handsome with his full soft lips in a small smile, stubble evident on his jaw. I loved seeing him like that. With him still deeply asleep, I made sure he was covered and opened the sliding door a few inches and the front window a similar amount to allow the room to air. It was really cold out and quite windy, so within a few minutes, I figured the worst of the alcohol smell must be gone.

Closing the windows again, and feeling very in love with the man sleeping in front of me, I carefully climbed back into bed, lifting his heavy arm and nestling myself in under it.

"Hmm, Roza. So beautiful," he murmured in his sleep. And looking at him as he slept, my tears erupted. All the fear, the pain, and the love I felt for him just overflowed. Holding him as though I would never be able to let go I wept silently, my heaving shoulders the only testament to my distress. Life was just so unfair. I finally got to have him only to have to give him up almost immediately. I'd been crying for half an hour when I finally got myself under control. It was only once the worst of it had passed that I became conscious of Dimitri's large hand rubbing circles on my back.

"Does that feel better, milaya?" he asked as my cries finally subsided.

"Yes," I said softly. I wished he hadn't witnessed that. "I'm sorry, Comrade. I'm trying not to think of it, but it just kind of all got too much."

"I know. It's on my mind, too."

"Are you scared?"

"Yes," he whispered. "Not of dying. But I'm scared of being turned. More than anything I don't want that. And I'm worried for those I'll leave behind. My family. You."

"You know I'll wait for you," I promised. "For as long as it takes."

"Yes, I do," he sighed. "And that scares me, too. I want a life of joy and happiness for you. I don't want you sitting around waiting for a man who's not coming home…"

"Don't say that!" I shouted, pushing myself out of his arms and backing away from him. "Don't you ever say that!" Hearing him suggest his death was a foregone conclusion made me beyond furious.

"Rose?" he said beseechingly, holding his hand out to me. "You have to accept there's a very good chance I won't be coming back."

"I know that, Dimitri. It's all I can fucking think about, ok? But you need to accept that there's still a tiny chance you might be able to come back! Don't be so quick to give your life away before you're even dead! I need to know you'll fight with everything you've got to come back to me!"

"Oh Roza," he said with a little smile. "If there's the slightest chance of me coming home to you, rest assured I'll do whatever it takes. I promise you." He lifted the quilt and gave me a 'please' look. I climbed back into bed beside him, sighing as he pulled me against him. We lay together, him rocking me back and forth gently.

It was almost 11 am when we could no longer ignore the call of our stomachs, so Dimitri got up, showered and dressed. He'd suggested we walk to a café half a block away for brunch, insisting a cooked breakfast was just the thing for a hangover. I didn't want to go to a café in sweats, so I changed into jeans and a sweater before rugging up with boots, a jacket, and scarf. Grabbing the camera, we left the motel walking through the courtyard and out to the road. It was only a couple of minutes walk, but I was still glad to reach the warmth of the café.

Dimitri ordered us both hot chocolates and full cooked breakfasts.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, I'm still not feeling 100% from the vodka."

"Trust me, I've had a lot more hangovers than you," he smirked. "You'll feel better after breakfast. So what do you want to do this afternoon?"

"I have no idea. Any suggestions?"

"Well… one of the brochures in the room says the hot springs around here are worth checking out."

"What? In this weather?!"

"Yeah. Apparently, they're really warm, and winter is the perfect time to visit. There're indoor and outdoor ones. The place I was thinking about you can book a private outdoor thermal mineral spa for two…"

"I didn't bring any bathers, Comrade."

"I don't think you need them, milaya. The whole point is you're meant to go in naked…"

"Hmm. That does sound good," I said, thinking about cuddling up with my man in the warm water, watching the snow fall around us.

"So should I see if I can get us a booking?" Dimitri checked, pulling out his phone.

"Absolutely! Let's do it."