When I met up with Lissa and Christian later, Lissa kept shooting me looks – ones that I tried to ignore. I knew Lissa would try to pull me aside later, but for now, I could avoid it. I worked with the other guardians, organizing the safest way to get back to Lehigh. Lissa's house was nearly an hour from Court, and while her first class wasn't until 10am human time, it would be easier to leave as soon as the sun was up rather than going straight to class from Court. The plan was to leave at 6:30 and be back at the house no later than 8am. Myself and Lissa's other guardians on duty for the day would take an hour or so to nap, and then we'd escort Lissa to class like normal.

Lissa pulled me to the side as soon as the briefing was finished. I sighed and followed her without resistance.

"So?" Lissa asked, giving me another look.

"Did you organize that stunt with Hans?" I asked, not beating around the bush.

"On a scale of one to ten, how mad would you be if the answer was yes?"

I glared at her, not answering.

She sighed and nodded. "I might have volunteered you when Hans mentioned that there would be novices at Court."

"And Dimitri?"

She shrugged. "Once you were brought up, Hans jumped to Dimitri on his own. I just didn't dissuade him. Did you and Dimitri get the chance to talk?"

Unbidden, my cheeks heated up, and I looked away.

Lissa grinned. "Maybe did more than talk?"

"Maybe mostly the more and not a lot of talking," I said, lowering my voice.

"Did you talk to him at all?"

"A bit," I confirmed. "I told him that I wasn't ready for a relationship again. We agreed to be friends with benefits."

Lissa arched her eyebrow. "Friends with benefits?"

I nodded.

"He loves you, Rose," she said with a laugh. "That's the recipe for every friends with benefits relationship failing."

"Not this one," I said. "I already know that he loves me—"

"And you love him."

"And I'm fine with it," I said, continuing as if Lissa hadn't spoken. "We can make it work. It's just sex."

"Uh huh," Lissa said, a smirk still on her face. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Go finish packing," I said, a small smile on my face. "I'll see you in a bit."

Lissa did as I said, and I returned to my apartment. My bag was already packed and ready to go. As soon as we had started coming and going from Court regularly, I chose to invest in duplicates of everything so that I rarely had to pack anything. I had all of my necessities, including toiletries and pillows, at both locations, and I usually only took a few pairs of clothing in between residences, choosing to carry those back and forth versus getting duplicates of clothes.

When 6:25 rolled around, I was waiting in the lobby of the palace building. I could see Lissa and Christian coming from the hallway, walking hand in hand, and we quickly got Lissa and Christian loaded in one of the Court vehicles. I took the front passenger seat of their car while another guardian took the driver's seat. There were already two guardians sitting in the back row of the SUV, and another six guardians piled into another SUV. By 6:30, we were leaving Court, and the sun had just come over the horizon completely. As we left, my phone buzzed, and I pulled it out.

Dimitri: Let me know when you arrive back safely.

Dimitri: Purely as friends, of course.

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help the small smile that crept across my face as I put my phone back in my pocket.

We made it back to the house in a little over an hour, and I wasn't the only one choosing to retire to my bed for an hour to power nap. I quickly texted Dimitri that we had arrived safely before easily falling asleep. When my alarm went off at 9:15, I felt like I was more tired than when I had gone to sleep originally, but I shook it off and went into the kitchen, where a freshly brewed pot of coffee was waiting. I wrinkled my nose at the smell and turned on the electric kettle to brew a cup of chai tea. It had just finished steeping when Lissa walked into the kitchen, yawning. She eagerly accepted the cup of coffee I held out to her and took a large sip.

"Ready to tackle the day?" I asked, sipping my chai.

Lissa nodded. "As much as I'll ever be."

The school day passed by quicker than expected. The days tended to drag on longer when I was running on low sleep, and I was thankful that we'd be able to get back to the house soon and get some real sleep. When we arrived back at the house, however, Christian announced that he wanted to take Lissa to dinner, which meant that they would both need a guardian detail. To complicate matters, he had chosen a fancy steakhouse in town. The dining room at the steakhouse was small and at full capacity, but we were able to get the reservation rearranged a bit to ensure that I could sit at a table next to Lissa's, along with another guardian. Two more guardians sat at the table on Lissa and Christian's other side, making sure that they were well protected.

Their date passed just as quickly as the school day, and I used the black AmEx that Lissa had given me for guardian purchases to cover dinner for the guardians while Christian took care of his and Lissa's food. Part of me felt bad for the guardians who were on perimeter duty around the restaurant, but Lissa placed a to-go order for the other two guardians as we were finishing our meals, and they got their steaks as soon as everybody had piled back into the cars.

When we returned to the house, I didn't waste any time saying good night to Lissa and Christian and promptly fell asleep.

The following week passed in much of the same way. Lissa attended class during the day and spent the afternoons and evenings with Christian. The weekend came too soon, and Christian left Bethlehem to go back to Court, taking two of the guardians with him. In the months leading up to the wedding, Lissa and Christian had debated him coming to live at the house with her while we finished up our senior year, but they had ultimately decided that it was more important for Christian to help run the Moroi magic fighting classes back at Court. It also helped that the fall semester had a lot of breaks since Lehigh offered a fall break in October, Thanksgiving in November, and winter break in December. In a month's time, we would be at Court for a week over Thanksgiving, and that was enough for Christian to accept having to go back.

A week after Christian left, one of the guardians who typically did border patrol tore his ACL while running laps during his workout. Lissa was in class when it happened, otherwise I was certain that she would have offered to heal the guardian. Instead, he was taken back to Court, and a replacement guardian was sent out. I had received the update via text message as our last class of the day wrapped up, but it wasn't until we arrived back at the house that I found out the replacement guardian was Dimitri.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded once I realized he was truly standing in our kitchen, and it wasn't just something I had dreamed up.

"I don't have a permanent assignment," Dimitri said. "Hans sent me when they learned that the queen's guard was down one person."

Lissa hid her smile behind her hand as she spoke to me through the bond. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

I turned around to glare at her, but she simply shrugged.

"Fine," I grumbled. "You can take Rico's spot with border patrol. He did overnight shifts typically."

"That's fine," Dimitri said. "I've been on a nocturnal schedule at Court, so that actually works perfectly."

I nodded before turning back to Lissa to sort out dinner plans. I could feel Dimitri still watching me, but I resisted the urge to turn around and face him again. We ate dinner a bit early as a group before Dimitri went to his room for a nap before his shift started at sundown. Lissa and I spread out in the living room, attempting to work on homework. After five minutes, I couldn't help but voice the unspoken question.

"Did you have something to do with this?"

Lissa shook her head. "No. I know you both being assigned to me was something that was a concern when we were at the Academy, and I wouldn't put you in that position again. I genuinely think Hans sent him because he's one of the few guardians who doesn't have an assignment and is good enough to serve on my guard. Though I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing that he's here."

I glanced at her over the top of my anthropology textbook. "Why?"

"With him on border patrol versus actual protection, there will be less conflicts of interest," Lissa said. "So he can be nearby, and you both can sort out your shit without having as many concerns about protecting me."

"We have everything sorted out."

"Don't lie to me," she said. "I might not have a bond to read your every thought, but that doesn't mean I don't know what you're thinking."

"Fine," I said. "But this isn't some rom-com where everything gets fixed in the third act."

"Guess we'll have to wait and see, huh?" Lissa said with a smile on her face.

I chucked a piece of popcorn at her in response.

The next morning, I watched out of the window as Dimitri traded off shifts. As he walked back toward the house, I pulled out my phone, messaging him to meet me in my room. I saw the moment he got my message, and I could have sworn that his pace had increased. I smiled to myself and stripped off my clothes as I started the shower. As soon as the water was warm enough, I stepped into it, letting the water pelt my front. I heard Dimitri enter my room, but I didn't turn around and a moment later, the shower door opened, and Dimitri was standing behind me, just as naked as I was.

He didn't say anything as he stepped forward so that his front was against my back. I tilted my head, baring my neck, and Dimitri quickly got the message as I felt him kissing my neck a moment later. He brought his hands up to fondle my breasts, and I sighed, leaning back against him. He tilted my head up, kissing me as one of his hands left my breasts and traveled south to continue exploring. I gasped as one of his fingers slowly entered me. A second finger soon joined, and I found my hips moving against Dimitri's hand as he continued to finger me.

"Please," I whimpered.

"I've got you," Dimitri said softly. "Bend over, Roza. Hands on the wall."

I did as he instructed, bracing myself with my palms flat against the tiled shower wall. Dimitri pulled my hips back, and I felt his hard cock pressing against me. I shifted my hips against him, resulting in Dimtiri lightly slapping my ass.

"Stay still," he commanded.

I nodded, fighting the urge to shift my hips again.

"Brace yourself," Dimitri said.

It was the only warning I got before he was slowly pushing into me. I whimpered again as he bottomed out, craving the feeling of fullness that only Dimitri had ever been able to provide. He didn't waste time in gripping my hips and starting to fuck me. It was quick and dirty, and I found myself pushing against the wall as I met him thrust for thrust. The sound of the shower running drowned out our moans – mostly. Dimitri's grip on my hips got tighter as I started to clench around him, my orgasm racing through me a moment later. I buried my face in my elbow, trying to muffle the sound as much as possible. Dimitri came a moment later, his thrusts faltering as he did so.

Before I could fully process it, Dimitri was slipping out of me and turning me around. His lips met mine in a bruising kiss, and I kissed him back, matching his ferocity. We made out for a moment before I remembered I had somewhere to be and couldn't spend the entire day hooking up with Dimitri. I broke the kiss and stepped out of Dimitri's hold to finish showering. Dimitri stayed in the shower with me, and he also used the time to take a shower himself. I left him in there when I was done and stepped back into my bedroom to get dressed. Dimitri came out a moment later, a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Have fun getting back to your room, Comrade," I said with a smirk, leaving him standing in my bedroom.

In hindsight, it shouldn't have surprised me that Dimitri would choose to stay in my room rather than leave in just a towel or in his dirty clothes. Still, I nearly jumped when I opened my bedroom door after class and found Dimitri asleep in my bed. I stared at him for a moment as part of me longed to get in the bed with him and have him hold me like he used to. I shook my head, clearing that thought before quietly leaving the room. I went downstairs to his bedroom and grabbed a change of clothes from his still packed suitcase. I carried them back upstairs and slipped back into my bedroom.

Dimitri looked more peaceful in his sleep than I had seen in a while, and I couldn't bring myself to wake him. Instead, I pulled the covers back on one side and slid into the bed beside him. I told myself a small nap wouldn't hurt as I laid down. Dimitri rolled over in his sleep as if on instinct, easily pulling me to him. I let him hold me and was asleep before I knew it.