I Never Told You I Love You - Complete

Chapter 46 - Jealous of a Dummy

The car ride back to St. Basil's was a relief. Dimitri, Rose, and Viktoria were happy to be saying goodbye to what, for the most part, had been a horrible weekend. Riding shotgun, Rose had her hand resting on Dimitri's thigh, and he'd occasionally bring it to his lips kissing it gently. They were both still feeling unsettled, and neither wanted to be far from the other.

Sunday night had been the oddest family dinner to date. Coming downstairs after their intimate encounter, Viktoria kept shooting Rose and Dimitri looks – much to Rose's amusement and Dimitri's embarrassment. He'd finally whispered to Vika to knock it off, which only made her laugh and wiggle her eyebrows at him all the more. Then there was Abe – who'd been at the Belikov's fast asleep on the sofa for much of the afternoon. Pavel had joined him at the house after he'd returned from his duties at the hospital. The other Guardians went to the hotel for their evening meal, but Olena had insisted Abe and Pavel stay to eat with the family.

Xander was staying, too. He was sitting talking quietly with Karolina, bouncing Zoya on his lap, the two of them giving Yeva troubled looks every now and again. Yeva, for her part, was sitting in the armchair by the fire looking supremely unconcerned and perhaps even a little amused by their looks – not that she deigned to actually acknowledge them!

Just before they were due to sit down to eat, there was a knock at the door. Sonya opened it to find Tasha. Apparently, Olena had invited her to dinner, too. Of course, Tasha didn't know anything about the abduction, so when all discussion stopped as she walked into the room, she could only suppose it was because of what had happened the other night. She flushed bright red and tried to stop Rose to apologize for what had occurred, but Rose had brushed past her, racing upstairs with a worried look before coming back down a moment later with her hair down and a hoody on. After that, Tasha had been too discouraged to try and talk to her again. Dimitri, appreciating Tasha was still a potentially sore topic with Rose, did not say a word to Tasha all evening and wouldn't even look in her direction.

Olena had introduced Abe and Pavel to Tasha – introducing the latter only as a school friend of Karolina's. Abe, knowing all about Friday night's indecent proposal, seemed quite amused to see Tasha at dinner – although he didn't raise the issue. Tasha's behavior showed she knew precisely who Abe was, or more to the point what he did, and you could see she was curious as to how he was connected with the family. No one enlightened her, until finally at the end of the meal Rose offered to make hot drinks. Standing in the kitchen filling the various cups she'd called out "Dad? Did you want your coffee with milk or black?" Tasha's head had shot up eyes bulging. Seemingly completely unaware of Tasha's consternation, Abe had answered saying he wanted it black.

They'd sat around the living room on the sofas drinking their tea, coffee and hot chocolates, Rose perched on Dimitri's lap. There hadn't been quite enough seating, so when Karolina came back down from putting Zoya to bed, she'd been about to drag across a dining chair when Xander grabbed her hand and pulled her to sit on his lap. She'd not been expecting it, so had giggled in surprise.

Xander had shot Yeva a 'like it or lump it' look which the latter actually grinned at. Dimitri raised an eyebrow and had opened his mouth to say something, but Rose decided that was the moment she needed to passionately kiss him – and by the time they'd surfaced from that, the moment had passed and Karolina was cuddled in Xander's arms looking very content.

Finally, it was time for Tasha to take her leave. With misgivings, Rose was about to suggest that she and Dimitri drive her back to her hotel when they were saved the bother. Because he and Abe had not slept last night, Pavel had organized for them to stay with their Guardians at the hotel. They offered to take Tasha back with them in their car. Getting up to say goodbye, Tasha had given Karolina a big hug before coming to stand in front of Rose and Dimitri.