Charlotte

Chapter Nineteen

"Do you...want to come back to my room?" Dimitri asked while avoiding eye contact. The door had just clicked closed behind Rose, and I trailed my eyes from the empty doorway to Dimitri's sheepish face. I cocked an eyebrow at him. "I still have your Christmas present," he explained quickly. I let my smirk soften into a gentle smile, letting him off the hook. 

Nodding, I threw my hand out toward the door. "Lead the way, handsome." 

He gave me a smile of his own as he moved toward the door. I shrugged off his jacket and handed it back to him as the warmth of the indoors sent a violent shiver over me before thawing me out. We were quiet on the way to his room, and I sunk in all the details of the path...in case I needed to find my way there on my own. He unlocked the door and stepped in and I followed after him, looking around. The room was pretty much the same as mine, but the bed was made and the basket of chocolate was left untouched, sitting in plastic and tied up with a red ribbon. Not even his usual novel was hanging about. 

A backpack on the side table near the entryway was pretty much the only difference. I stalked over to the chocolate as he closed the door behind me. "You gonna eat this?" I asked, gesturing to the chocolate. He shook his head with a small smile. 

"Help yourself," he chuckled as I immediately tore into it and settled in the leather rolling chair in front of the desk. I ripped off a piece of milk chocolate with my teeth and chewed slowly, glancing around the room for any sign of a live person living in here. 

I focused on him when I came up with nothing. "You come here often?" I said it as a joke, but I was mostly serious. 

Dimitri settled for digging in the backpack instead of maintaining eye contact. "I've been too busy to relax in here." 

My shoulders drop, feeling sad for him. While the rest of us were here having fun, Dimitri was still saving face and in guardian mode. Even when he was off duty, instead of relaxing in his room and sleeping like the other guardians, he was out there working with Janine to figure out a strategy for these Strigoi attacks. His job was his life, and the dedication and love he showed for it would be admirable, if it wasn't degrading his mental health. You can't distract yourself from your personal life with work forever without consequences coming from that. I got the feeling that his personal life always took a back burner, and they melded together more often than not. 

I stood and walked up behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist. He stiffened at first, but then his muscles loosened. I pressed my cheek to his back. "Let me help you relax." 

Dimitri sighed, pulling out a box that was as long and as thick as my forearm. He had to have been stalling, because there's no way it took him this long to find it in that small bag. "Charlie..." 

"Hush," I said and trailed my hands up from his waist, and back around to his back muscles. I gently dug my thumb pads into the tight muscle, feeling the knot there spasm under my touch. He tried to conceal a sound that escaped from between his lips, but I heard it, and it made parts of me tingle. I needed to hear more of it. "You know, this would be a better experience for both of us if you took your shirt off and laid down." 

He chuckled, stepping away from me and rounding to face me with the box in his hand. I dropped my arms to my sides and waited for him to speak because it looked like he had something important to say. Usually, whatever he said was important. There weren't many conversations with him that didn't include some kind of 'zen life lesson'.  He didn't hand the box to me right away. "Before I give this to you," he said slowly. "I need you to promise me that you'll be responsible with it. Don't let Rose swing it around like a hyper child. Don't be flashing it around and advertising that you have it. It's a weapon, not a toy."