Unforgiven - Complete

Chapter Twenty-six

"Aren't you excited?!" Lissa gasped almost bouncing up and down in her seat at lunch. Other than Christian, they'd all brought their weekend bags to school. He was going to go home and pick up the car after his last class, collect the other three at school and off they'd go.

Seeing Dimitri and Christian deep in conversation, Rose asked Lissa nervously, "What did you pack to wear overnight?"

"I've packed the most divine silky nightie in jade green," she whispered conspiratorially. "Christian won't be able to keep his hands off me! Why? What did you pack?"

Rose sighed. She'd been trying to decide what to take all week, but as her moods changed so did the contents of her duffel.

"I couldn't decide, Liss," she moaned. "I don't think I'm ready to go there again yet, so I packed sweats. But then I want to be pretty for him even if we're not going to do it, so I also packed some sleep shorts and a singlet. And then I was worried what if I did want to be sexy? So I threw in that lacy red nightie you gave me as well."

Lissa gave her friend a sympathetic squeeze. "Well you're covered for every eventuality then, aren't you?" she said supportively. "Do you think you will?"

"I don't know," Rose whispered, her eyes darting to where Christian and Dimitri were talking. "I don't think I'll know 'til we're there."

"Does he want to?"

"He said he's happy to wait," Rose sighed.

"Then just see how you feel," Lissa counseled, still grinning from ear to ear.

The classes after lunch dragged, the four of them looking at each other with excitement the whole time. Physics was the worst. With only Dimitri and Rose in that class, the tension between the two of them was almost palpable. It didn't help that they were all but finished their project so didn't have a huge amount to do.

"Miss Mazur, would you like to sit on Mr. Belikov's lap?" Alto asked sarcastically, gesturing to how close the two were sitting holding hands.

Rose opened her mouth to tell him she'd love to do just that, but Dimitri's warning look stopped her. She couldn't afford an afternoon detention today of all days.

"Sorry Mr. Alto," she said, pulling back to put a more respectable distance between them.

"So where are you up to with your project?" Alto grumbled, surprised by Rose's restraint. Usually, she'd have something sarcastic to say. Rose and Dimitri pulled out their respective parts, and even Alto found it hard to fault their progress.

"You're pretty much finished," he said, narrowing his eyes dangerously.

"We've been spending every spare moment on it," Rose quickly explained, not wanting him to think it had been too easy and add more. "We've each worked out a schedule for our assignments, so we can try and put a hundred percent into them. We both want to do well."

"You obviously work well together. This is good work," he admitted begrudgingly. "Once you've finished the last bits, you can work on your other assignments in this class provided you're quiet."

Rose and Dimitri both knew Alto was only offering this because he couldn't be bothered setting them something else to do while the others continued to work on their assignments, but neither was stupid enough to call him on it.

"Thank you, Mr. Alto. Every moment counts, so we'd both appreciate that," Dimitri said seriously.

Rose sighed. She'd enjoyed slacking off a little in physics, but Dimitri was right. If they used their class time to do other work, it meant they could get more done which would give them more time to just hang out on weekends. Like this one.