I Never Told You I Love You - Complete

Chapter 50 - Not So Sure

"Rose! I swear it's not what you think!" Eddie said urgently. "We didn't..."

"Eddie - what I think is irrelevant. But if Dimitri finds out you had his sister stay over alone in your room overnight, he's going to rip you limb from limb! Vika? Are you decent?"

"Yes Rose," she called out sheepishly, so Rose pushed past Eddie and into the room, closing the door behind her. Thankful to see Viktoria fully clothed, apparently having slept on top of the bedclothes, she noted the only part of her clothing that appeared to have been removed were her shoes. Eddie was also dressed in last night's attire, and his clothes looked as though they'd been slept in.

"Quick – get your things together, Vika. We were meant to leave an hour ago! If Dimitri catches you here, you know he's going to go ballistic," Rose said urgently. "Come on, I'll walk you back to your room. Does anyone else know you're here?" Viktoria shook her head.

"Well come on then. Eddie, we'll talk about this later, but for the love of God don't say anything to Dimitri. Even if nothing did happen," she said, holding up her hand to interrupt him as he started to protest their innocence again.

Stepping back out the door, and checking the hallway was clear, Rose quickly moved Viktoria down and around the corner and off towards her dorm room, congratulating herself on a crisis averted. Of course, she should have known life was just never that easy! Rounding the corner and heading into the Novice women's dorm corridor they could see Inna standing in front of Viktoria's doorway with a Guardian.

"Let me do the talking," Rose said under her breath, walking up to the pair.

"I went to ask her a question last night after the dance, and she wasn't there, and then this morning again. Either she's sick and may be passed out, or she's not been back all night. Either way, I thought I needed to report it," Inna said self-importantly. While it might have appeared that she was being civic-minded, Rose could tell she suspected Viktoria had spent the night somewhere with a guy and was itching to get her into trouble. With friends like that, who needed enemies?!

Recognizing the Guardian as one of Dimitri's friends from the drunken pool competition night, Rose was hopeful she could still nip this in the bud.

"Morning? What's the problem?" she asked cheerfully.

"Oh, Vika! I'm so glad you're here! I was so worried!" Inna gushed insincerely, hugging a surprised Viktoria. "When you weren't here last night, and still this morning I was worried something had happened to you!"

Rose stared at Inna as though confused. "What would have happened to her? She was in my room – we were watching a movie, and she fell asleep, so she stayed over." The Guardian was staring back and forth between Inna and Rose. "Vika? Quick get changed and pack for Baia. We're already an hour past when your brother wanted to leave, and we'll muck up your Mama's lunch if we're any later. Hopefully, Eddie is up and ready."

"Eddie? Is he going with you to Baia, too?" Inna asked, her disappointment apparent.

"Yes. He and Dimka are friendly from St. Vlad's, and we didn't want to leave him alone here for the weekend where he doesn't know anyone. We'll all be back Monday morning as usual," Vika said, not entirely unaware of how much what she was saying was annoying Inna. Rose used the opportunity to step back and pull Dimitri's mate aside.

"Sorry about this. We went back to our room to hang out after the dance, and she fell asleep. I know she was breaking curfew, but technically she was with a Guardian..."

"That's fine. I mean, she was with her brother. How irritating is that one?" he muttered under his breath, nodding his head towards Inna.

"Oh, you have no idea," Rose giggled, relieved that he'd accepted her explanation about Viktoria and hoping he didn't feel the need to discuss it with Dimitri. Seeing she wasn't going to get any joy from her mission, Inna headed back to her own room. "Hope you have a fun-filled weekend, Inna," Rose called out facetiously towards her retreating back.