Creative Workaround #2

The morning of the coronation was the happiest moment of my life. Not because Lissa was going to be crowned the youngest and most kick-ass queen in Moroi history (though that was pretty awesome too) but because my doctor finally gave me the okay to leave the apartment/prison I'd been cooped up in for the last fortnight.

'Don't forget you're still recovering,' Dr. Vega chastised me like I was a naughty child. 'You may be taking part in the procession as part of Queen Vasilisa's royal guard but only in an honorary capacity. You won't be cleared for active service or any form of vigorous activity for another week or two yet. If you feel tired or unwell at any point in the proceedings you must inform Guardian Belikov and he will escort you back home to rest. Do you understand?'

'Feeling tired, Dimitri takes me to bed. Got it,' I grinned up at my boyfriend, who quickly donned his guardian mask and became very focused reading the label on my latest batch of pain killers.

Our super-sexy, not-actually-sex session a few nights ago was meant to ease the pent-up tension between us but, if anything, I was even hornier now than I was before. I'd had a taste of the good stuff and I wanted more. My bandages were off by now and I was feeling stronger with each passing day, so I didn't see why we had to wait any longer. But Dimitri was being a stickler for the rules as usual, and no matter how many hints I dropped he stoically ignored my constant attempts to jump his bones. I ignored the fact he was ignoring me. He could try to hide it all he liked, but I knew the truth – he was nearly at breaking point too, and it would be only a matter of time before he gave in to my demands.

Leaving Dimitri to show the doctor out, I made a bee-line for the bathroom and spent the next hour soaking in the deep, claw-footed tub (without a doubt my favourite feature of our new apartment). Reclining back against the cool porcelain, the water skimming just below my breasts, I peeped an eye open and screwed up my nose at the round, purplish mark in the middle of my chest. It was already beginning to fade a little, thanks to the miracle cream Dr. Vega prescribed for me, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me – my once-perfect boobs marred by the ugly scar between them. In a moment of deep self-pity I admit I had a little cry about it but Dimitri made me feel better, reminding me that nothing says tough like a guardian who's taken a bullet in the line of duty. It may have also helped that he was kissing my breasts when he said that.

The coronation was an all-day affair. A lengthy procession from the church to the palace – followed by two hours of standing up during the ceremony in the royal throne room – had me utterly exhausted, but it's not every day your best friend gets crowned vampire queen, so I pushed aside the tiredness and threw myself into the festivities that carried on into the evening. Moroi might have been shit at governing lately but they sure knew how to throw a party, and after a fortnight of bed-rest I was ready for some fun.

'Roza,' the sexiest guardian in the room had been the model of discretion all afternoon, but he edged closer behind me as we watched the happy moroi couples spinning gracefully around the dance-floor, dropping his mouth to my ear. 'Come home with me.'

I twisted my head around to look at him, one corner of my mouth tweaking up into a cheeky smile. 'You going to put me to bed, comrade?'

He just looked into my eyes. 'Maybe.'

We were out of the door in seconds.

'So… what happens now?' I accosted him as soon as we entered our apartment, walking my fingers up his chest and tugging on the collar of his guardian uniform.

There was a wicked gleam in his eye. 'You go to bed, Roza. You must be exhausted after the day you've had.'

'But…,' I protested, disappointment flooding every corner of my body and my soul. 'I thought…'

'No buts. You need to rest,' he smirked at my desperate expression, physically lifting me from the ground and carrying me to the bedroom; depositing me in the middle of our gilded, king-sized bed. 'I've got a few things to sort out before I'm ready to hit the hay. Don't worry if you fall asleep before I get back.'

I glared at him and he chuckled, exiting the room.

It didn't matter that I was tired. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep with this dull, persistent ache between my legs. I briefly considered taking care of the problem myself but I usually did that by fantasising about Dimitri, and right now all I could think about was how much I wanted to choke him. In the end, I had to satisfy myself with balling up my guardian jacket and pitching it forcefully in the direction he had disappeared, closely followed by two shoes and a pair of black slacks.

Now the outer layer was gone I figured I might as well ditch the rest of my clothes as well. I let my hair out first - massaging my fingers over my scalp in an attempt to alleviate the slight tension headache that was developing from wearing my pony tail too tight - then unbuttoned my collared shirt, scowling at the white satin balconette bra and panty set I'd purchased online in hopes of seducing my man. Why did I even bother? He clearly had more important things to do than making love to his neglected girlfriend – damn him.

Fortunately, a faint buzz from my phone on the nightstand distracted me from my pessimistic thoughts. A video call from Lissa.

'Where are you?' she smiled regally towards a group of moroi well-wishers nearby but I could tell she was worried. 'I got stuck in a conversation with Prince Ivashkov and his wife, and when I looked around again you were gone.'

Some friend and guardian I was. I didn't even tell her I was leaving. 'Sorry Liss. I...'

'Wait on,' her expression changed. 'Is that your bra I can see? Please tell me you're not in the disabled toilets with Guardian Belikov.'

'Lissa!' I wasn't in the mood to talk about my boyfriend right now. 'One, there's no echo, and two, that would assume I was actually with Dimitri.'

She looked shocked, her voice dropping to a whisper. 'You're with someone else?'

'No, you royal nutjob. I'm by myself. In bed. Guardian Killjoy told me I had to take a nap.'

That got a more sympathetic reaction. 'You're kidding me! That's so unfair.' Lissa knew all about my unfortunate situation and had specifically arranged for Dimitri to be rostered off duty tonight so we could spend some alone time together.

'Tell me about it,' I rolled my eyes to disguise the fact that I felt like crying.

'Roza?' A deep voice called out from the kitchen.

I didn't feel the need to respond.

Dimitri was unperturbed by my silence. 'Are you still awake? I just remembered I bought you a box of chocolate doughnuts to celebrate the coronation. They're on the table if you want one.'

If it was for anything less I would have pretended to be asleep, but just hearing the word doughnuts had me salivating like a dog at dinnertime. I swung my legs out of bed, my guardian shirt hanging open as I padded towards the kitchen. Hopefully I'd make in and out before Dimitri saw me – it might seem petty, but if he wasn't going to have sex with me then I wasn't going to talk to him.

'So how's the after party going, Liss?' I asked loudly, acting like I was completely absorbed in our conversation.

'It's been really g...'

'Hooooly shit,' I interrupted her, stopping dead in the doorway to the kitchen.

Dimitri was leaning back casually against the kitchen table with his legs crossed at the ankle. He was shirtless – dressed in jeans, boots and a black cowboy hat, one thumb hooked over the large silver buckle at the front of his belt. There was a red bandanna tied around his neck and his pants rode so low on his waistline I could see a teasing line of neat, dark hair peeking out from the base of his vee. If that wasn't enough to get my attention, he picked up a doughnut from the plate beside him and took a slow bite then sauntered over to where I was standing; speechless and frozen to the spot.

'My apologies, your royal highness,' he reached for the phone before I could turn it around and out him to the queen. 'I'm afraid Guardian Hathaway is rostered off-duty tonight. You will have to resume your conversation in the morning.'

What Lissa couldn't see she could guess from my expression, and her eyes widened in excitement. 'Rose! Oh my God! Have a good...,' her last words were cut off when the cowboy hit end-call, switching the phone off and crossing the room to deposit it on the kitchen table.

The view from the back was just as good as the front, and my attention wandered slowly from the tight cling of denim across his ass all the way up to the tattoos poking out from beneath his pony-tail. I always thought Dimitri looked hot in his duster. No duster and a cowboy hat was a thousand times better.

'I can't believe you just hung up on the queen!' I choked when he turned to face me once more, eying off a tiny trace of chocolate glaze that had crumbled on his bottom lip.

Dimitri disregarded the comment, resting his weight on the edge of the table and fixing me with a searing gaze. 'Ma'am,' he lifted his hat. 'I heard you have a problem that needs taking care of. May I be of assistance?'

I bit my lip and nodded. My breathing was already shallowing and my skin tingling in anticipation of his rough hands smoothing over my arms, my neck, my back – anywhere he wanted really.

I thought he was going to come to me straight away, but he ambled across to the kitchen bench instead and pressed play on the iPod dock. A lonely steel guitar wailed out from the speakers, followed by a snare and hi-hat tapping out the rhythm – soft and slow. After a few measures, a lazy, dark-chocolate kind of voice kicked in, singing with a deep southern twang. Dimitri knew my feelings about country music but I had to admit this particular song was putting me in a pretty good mood. The bassline had a laid-back swing to it that found its way into Dimitri's hips and I had to stop myself from drooling as he half-walked, half-danced his way across the room to follow the singer's instructions and turn down the lights.

By the end of the first verse I realised that I didn't hate country music after all. It just needed the proper context – in this case a tightly-muscled, half-naked man in a cowboy hat leading me over to a sturdy wooden chair in the centre of the room and swaying his gorgeous body in time to the beat; close enough for me to see each subtle movement but just out of reach.

I couldn't help rubbing my legs together, feeling the ache intensify as he unknotted the bandanna around his neck, drawing it slowly away from his body and letting it drop to the floor. My immediate instinct was to stand – reaching out to run my hands over his chest – but he pushed me back onto the chair, gripping the collar of my shirt in both his hands and yanking the material down my arms to the elbow, effectively restraining me from any further impatient groping.

The trade-off for that move was that now my expensive bra was on full display, and the position of my elbows was pushing my full breasts up even higher, which seemed to have Dimitri all in a bother. He'd unbuckled his belt and was drawing it inch by inch out of the loops on his jeans, but while he was trying to keep up the sexy eye contact, his gaze kept on dropping to my chest. I used his weakness to my advantage and squirmed again, letting out a moan of pleasure at the friction between my legs; leaning my head against the high back-rest of my chair and arching my back slightly to remind him what he was missing out on.

The cowboy growled softly in the back of his throat, subconsciously rubbing a palm over his growing erection before unzipping his jeans to relieve some pressure of his own. Not to be outdone, I freed myself from the shirt that had been restricting my movement, then looked him directly in the eye as I slipped one hand inside my panties. My eyelids fell half-closed and I sucked in a shaky breath at the fantasy that they were his fingers, his lips touching me.

That did it. Electric shocks bolted across my skin and my insides clenched sharply as Dimitri's hands met my body for the first time, gripping onto my hips and boosting me up to stand on the chair. The man was literally putting me on a pedestal.

Being a few feet taller changed everything. My first instinct was to grip the cowboy's shoulders to steady myself, which meant retrieving my hand from its sneaky hiding place; the sudden disappearance leaving my sex crying out for stimulation. It also meant that Dimitri's head was now in line with my breasts. He leant in slowly with the intention of burying his face in my cleavage but the wide brim of his cowboy hat got in the way. He was about to throw the offending item away but I was growing very attached to that hat and didn't want to see it go to waste. Rescuing it from his hand, I flipped it onto my own head and looked down at him with a sassy grin.

His eyes darkened to black and he let out a muffled 'Fuck, Roza,' as his face disappeared into my breasts, nosing and kissing each in turn while his hands went to work elsewhere; one roughly kneading my ass; the other travelling up my spine, skimming under the back of my bra then diving back down to hook under the waistline of my satin knickers.

'Why did you wear your hair up?' I gasped, feeling his teeth sink down on my nipple through the fabric of my bra.

'Because I know how much you like taking it out,' he headed for the other breast, and my whole body shuddered - the lack of direct contact making me want him even more.

He was right as usual. I removed the hair-tie without delay and stuffed my fingers into his hair, fisting it firmly in my hands while he continued to excite me with his hands and mouth. When the next moan of pleasure escaped my lips he pulled back briefly to rid me of my panties. They slid to my ankles and I stepped out of them, kicking them to the floor as his lips headed southwards.

'Dimitri,' I whined needily, watching him drop lower; his left knee on the chair between my feet to support his weight; his mouth and tongue exploring between my legs.

'Roza,' he hummed my name against my clit and I nearly bucked right off the chair as the tell-tale ripples started to build.

Without warning he backed away, his warm lips replaced by a shock of cool air. 'What? Don't stop. I'm nearly there,' I pleaded shamelessly.

'I know,' he pulled me hard against his body, sliding me down gradually until I could feel his clothed erection pressing against my naked core. 'I want to be inside you.'

'Fuck, Dimitri,' I scrabbled feverishly, using my feet to push his jeans down off his hips so I could grind against him - skin against skin.

He hissed in satisfaction, returning the favour by nudging his cock against my lips, searching for the opening.

'I want you to be ready for me,' he dropped his mouth to my ear, his breathing fast and unsteady.

I dug my fingers into his back. 'I've been ready for weeks. Just do it.'

He teased at my entrance again but didn't go any further. Maybe he wanted me to make the first move? I rolled my hips against him, trying to connect, but he feinted away and I realised we were moving. My cowboy had his pants around his ankles, boots still on, but he somehow got us to the bedroom, sitting down on the edge of the bed with me perched on his lap, squirming persistently against his manhood.

'Please, Dimitri. Now.'

He leant in and kissed me deeply, pulling back one last time to look into my eyes. 'I love that hat on you.'

'Dimitri...,' I couldn't wait any longer and he knew it was time. With one decisive thrust he drove up into me, and my whole being cried out at the pleasure of being connected with him at last.

My satisfaction was echoed in his low groan of approval, and he lay back on the bed, his hands resting on my hips to support me if I began to tire.

'Ride, cowgirl,' he instructed, eyes smouldering with pride and desire, and ride I did.

I screamed when the climax took me - swift and strong - and Dimitri found his own release only moments after mine, emptying himself inside me with a shuddering groan. With my lover still embedded deep within me, I gazed down at him from my position above. I was lost and found in his chocolate brown eyes as we continued to rock to a lazy cowboy rhythm, and somewhere in the back of my consciousness I was aware of a deep, lilting voice singing;

I've been thinking 'bout this all day long,

Never felt a feeling quite this strong

I can't believe how much it turns me on

Just to be your man.

Author's Note:

If Dimitri was going to strip for Rose as a cowboy he'd need a backing track. So does this one-shot. Check out the YouTube clip to 'Your Man' by Josh Turner - you might just get converted to country music like Rose! (He's cute too if that helps?!)

Liked it? Let me know in the reviews :)

I posted this really late. Knowing me I may go back and tweak a few words here and there, but I promise I won't fiddle with any of the good stuff!

I had planned to publish a Creative Workaround #3 but after a few good attempts I've realised that the universal writing gods are not on my side. If I do think of something else that the gods also agree with, I'll be sure to let you know.