Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 5a - There's Got to be a Morning After

I laid there in his bed, just feeling Dimitri's arms around me, gazing into his wonderful chocolate-brown eyes and feeling the love that we shared together. I couldn't decide if it felt like I was there for an eternity or if it was barely any time at all. I would've stayed there forever if I could have. My eyes started to drift closed as I felt sleep threatening to overtake me.

"As much as I would love for you to stay here," Dimitri began, "we can't risk having someone see you leave my rooms."

I frowned. He was right. I knew he was right. But I so wanted just to stay. Dimitri ran his hand across my cheek, brushing my hair back from my face, and kissed my lips softly.

"I know," he said, meeting my eyes, "but the next patrol shift starts at five o'clock."

I looked over at Dimitri's alarm clock and the numbers 4:37 flashed back at me. I pulled back the blanket as he helped me out of the bed, still naked, except for my useless bra around my waist. As I got up, I could practically feel Dimitri's eyes on my body, filled with heat and hunger.

"You see something you like?" I asked, echoing what I'd said to him long ago, when he'd caught me in that compromising position with Jesse Zeklos in the lounge last fall.

"Everything," he said, leaning over to kiss me again.

I almost hated to pull my bra back into position and start to search for my clothes, but I knew that I had to. A few minutes later, I'd found all of my guardian uniform and had dressed except for the jacket and shoes, Dimitri threw on some boxer briefs and a pair of pajama pants and laid on his bed, watching me with rapt attention from his perch. "Don't you have to get dressed, too?" I asked.

"Not for four more hours," he replied, giving a small yawn, "I've only slept for four hours in the past two days. And I've fought two battles and had lots of," he grinned at me, "other exertion in that time. I'm still hoping to get some rest before my morning shift. We'll still be on partial lock-down today, so there will be a lot of extra guardian work for me to do, escorting people around campus and patrolling."

"Did they say anything about when we'd go back to classes like normal?" I asked.

"A couple more days, I think - as long as there are no further Strigoi encounters," he said, "I am not supposed to tell you this, but once things are back to normal, I'm not certain your field experience will still be only half-time. After the attack, Guardian Petrov felt that you had proven you could handle a larger assignment. If she still decides to keep you at half, you and I will be resuming our previous training together on your off days. If not, we may not be seeing much of each other for the next four weeks, unless we are fighting."

I nodded, trying to keep the gloom out of my expression. "It's only four more weeks. Then, we'll have another four weeks of training together before my qualifier exam - right?"

"Yes," Dimitri replied, quirking an eyebrow, "Though, sparring with you is going to be a lot more interesting after tonight ... " He stood from the bed and closed the distance between us, wrapping one arm around my waist and placing the other to the side of my face, running it into my hair.

I stared into his warm, brown eyes. "I'm going to miss you," I said.

"I'm scheduled to be one of the guardians to escort the novices back to the dhampir dorm after breakfast this morning. At least I'll see you then."

I smiled. "I'll see you then," I replied, and kissed him again.

"Adrian will be there with you at breakfast this morning," he said, furrowing his brow.

"He will be. What do you want me to tell him?"

Dimitri thought for a moment. "As far as he knows, you haven't talked to me yet, right?"

"Right," I confirmed.

"Stall him. For now. If he asks, tell him you haven't talked to me. We have a couple of days before we'd be placed into a normal situation that would have the privacy to have a conversation during sanctioned hours. No need to give him too much information about tonight."

"Okay," I said.

"I'll try to help you come up with a better explanation by the time when we can talk alone. If you have to, are you able to convince him we're not together," he asked, "so that we can stay hidden until the time is right?"

I gave Dimitri a shaky nod and blinked. "I can tell him you said that it's not the right thing for us right now."

"Vasilisa will be there, too. Are you going to talk to her?" he asked.

"Maybe not about what happened tonight, but I should tell her how I feel about you."

"Will you tell her your theory about Vladimir and Anna, too? About taking spirit's darkness through the bond?" Dimitri asked. "I think you should."

"I'm not sure I'm ready, but I will if it's important to you."

Dimitri kissed my forehead. "Good. Now, are you ready to go?" he asked.

"I guess," I said. I grabbed my jacket, sliding it on and tucking my hair into it. Dimitri looked out the peep-hole of his door and cracked it open, poking his head out into the hallway. "It's clear," he said.

"Roza," he whispered, just before I walked out the door, "if you really need to see me while we're still on lock-down and daylight hours," Dimitri said, "I'm scheduled to patrol your dorm once each night and walk past your room around midnight as a part of my shift. If you put a piece of paper on the floor under the crack of the doorway at night, I'll know you want to see me. I may not be patrolling alone, and we would only have five minutes, at most, if I am, but if I'm able, I could knock on your door."

"You can count on it, Comrade," I said, kissing him one final time.

I left and went back to my dorm room, setting my alarm and going back to bed.

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