I Never Told You I Love You - Complete

Chapter 12 - Keep Smiling It Confuses People

Once they'd leveled off, Dimitri had the armrest between them up and pulled Rose towards him. "Come here milaya – I want to hold you" he'd said. She cuddled against his side, leaning up to kiss the edge of his jaw.

"Dimitri?" she asked. "What are we?"

"What do you mean, Roza?"

"Well, what have you told your family about me? That I'm your student? Your friend? Your girlfriend?"

"I told them you're my Roza – the woman I'm in love with."

"You told your family that?" she gasped shocked, pulling away to look at him in astonishment.

"Of course I told my family that – it's the truth, milaya." Dimitri looked at her confused. He thought she'd be pleased, but if anything she seemed angry.

"Did you tell them you were fired from St. Vladimir's because of me, too?!"

"I wasn't fired, I resigned. And no. I told them that I left St. Vladimir's because it was getting too hard to balance duty with the way I feel about you and that I came back because I loved you too much to stay away."

"Honestly, Dimitri! You're giving me whiplash here. For months it's been we have to stay away from one another because of duty, then it was friends without benefits, and now I'm the love of your life?!"

He looked at her in consternation. "I guess we should have talked about this before we decided to head halfway around the world together," he said bitterly. "I thought you loved me? That you wanted to be with me?" Dimitri looked crushed.

"I do," Rose said. "I'm crazy in love with you. I just don't know what us being together looks like."

Dimitri exhaled with relief, looking carefully into her eyes. "Roza? As long as you love me, then it will be ok. My family knows I love you, and I've told them at St. Basil's that we're together. We can take our time and work out what that means for us."

"And they're ok with that? A Guardian teacher with an underage student?"

"Roza, firstly the age of consent in Russia is sixteen. And it's not uncommon for feelings to develop between a mentor and their student. It's not ideal, but it happens quite often. Maybe it's because St. Basil's trains more Novices than St. Vladimir's, but relationships between Dhampirs are not so frowned on there. Of course, they'd like us to be discreet about it during class time – but they understand that we're a couple, and they don't have a problem with it."

"Yet you've arranged for me to share a room with your sister?"

Dimitri looked embarrassed. "I didn't want to assume you'd choose to share a room with me, Roza. To share a bed."

"Do you want me to share a bed with you, Comrade?" Rose whispered huskily, looking up at Dimitri from under her lashes.

"Very much so milaya. Sometimes I want to share a bed with you so badly it seems like it's all I can think about." Dimitri's voice was soft, but his accent was so much thicker than usual.

"Me too, Comrade" she whispered, leaning up to bring her lips to his for a soft lingering kiss. "So did you have feelings towards your mentor?"

"No milaya. I think it was his mustache that turned me off..." Dimitri laughed, pulling Rose back against him, resting his cheek on top of her head.

They slept through to O'Hare, arriving just before 7 pm. Although the flight would be continuing to Munich, some passengers were disembarking there.

"Your luggage is already checked through to Munich, but you have about twenty minutes if you want to stretch your legs in the terminal" their Dhampir steward advised.