Divorcing Her Mafia Family
Chapter 45

Dimi jumped out of the kayak, sending it rocking and Miklos almost into the water and darted down the beach in the direction of the enclave. Miklos had warned her the minute he got her back to shore he was going to smack her a*s and she decided this time he might actually do it.

His surprise on the ocean had been a little container of strawberries and melon with the cutest little bottle of wine she had ever seen. Who knew they made half l****s? He had forgotten glasses, so they passed it back and forth like college kids, but it was still fun. Then he’d made a comment perhaps she’d been right about the kayak having seats being silly because he wanted to k**s her, and he couldn’t reach her the way they were sat. She suggested they jump into the water but the laughing of the huge family following them around had dashed their plans for s*x in the ocean.

Tired of them following her around and hoping it would keep them at bay, Dimi had ripped her t-shirt off and then took her bikini top off and sat brazenly in her seat while Miklos sputtered and spewed at her to put it back on. She manoeuvred herself lower in her seat but knew from the shriek of the mother of the group she had been spotted considering their boat was quite shallow. She simply grinned merrily at their discomfort. Serves them right for sticking so close to them.

Then she had made a flagrant display of eating the strawberries loudly, sucking on them and licking the juice off her fingers and Miklos had threatened to kill her where she sat and when she looked over her shoulder, his e******n was straining long and hard against his Bermuda shorts. She had started talking dirty then, telling him all the things she wanted him to do with her while she slipped her fingers into her bikini bottoms and got herself off.

Miklos had been helpless to do anything, furiously cursing he should not have brought anything on the boat, and he’d have just tipped them. After being silent for five full minutes after she gave a satisfied m**n, he’d begun paddling the kayak in the direction of shore, ordering her to put her shirt on and swearing on her life she was going to get a belt across the a*s.

She had shimmied into her t-shirt, tucked her bikini top into her jeans pocket and the minute they were shallow enough, she’d jumped off the boat and bolted.

She was brave on the water, but something told her she’d pushed him over the edge. She was either truly getting spanked or roughly f****d and she was absolutely down for either option. He simply needed to catch her first.

By the time she got to her unit, she was breathless and pulling her key card from the protective case of her phone, she unlocked the door giggling nervously and locked it tight behind her.

She ran to the balcony to see if she could see him coming down the beach. Her phone tinged in her hand, and she looked down to a text from her father.

“Where are you? I want you home now. Call Miklos before I have to deal with him and this situation myself.”

She frowned and sat in the chair and answered him back, “not coming home. You sold me off like a piece of property. I’m surprised Miklos didn’t get a couple gold coins in a black velvet purse.”

“Duty to our family comes first. He loves you. You love him. What is the big deal? Come home.”

“How do you know he loves me? Loves me like you love mama?” Distance from her father was making her brave or stupid, at the moment she wasn’t sure which it was. Adrenaline from messing with Miklos coursed her veins.

“You compare apples to oranges. You know nothing. Go to your husband. Work this out. Come home.”

“I’m not a breeder. If you want a little b***h to do your bidding, get a dog.”

“When you are home, you and I are going to spend time discussing respect.”

“It is something earned not taken. Fear and respect are not one and the same.” Yeah, it was definitely stupidity and not bravery she thought as she typed back at him furiously. He was going to deliver a beating when she was home.

Her thought made her pause. When she was home. She had thought when, not if. Was her heart and mind already reconciled to her returning with Miklos? She bit her lower l*p as her father’s next text popped through.

“I will hand the reigns to Tariq on Friday and an order will be issued to bring you both home. Only one of you need be alive and we both know I won’t kill my little girl.”

“Jesus,” she mumbled as she read his words.

“Do your worst pops. I literally have more money than brains now. I could be anywhere in the world. You’ll never replace me. You trained me to blend in. Kill him if you must. It’s on your hands not mine.”

Her phone started ringing in her hand and she shut the entire device down rather than answer her father’s call. She watched Miklos come up the beach and he pointed at her and shook his head warningly.

She felt a frisson of excitement at the raw fury she saw on his face. As he drew close, she leaned over the balustrade. “My old man husband. It took you long enough to get back.” She tilted her head. “Why are you all wet?”

“Went for a swim. Needed to cool off before I came back and killed you instead of f*****g you.” He called back up.

The gasp of the unseen couple two balconies over made her grin.

“My love, if you want to try breath play and choking, we could. I look forward to your slapping my a*s though. My panties are drenched.”

He stood under her balcony glaring at her, “I am going to my room to take a shower. Then you and I are going to have a,” he flicked a gaze to the couple openly eavesdropping, “long and intense discussion on your activities in a kayak before we go on our date this evening. My little wife, you are in trouble.”

“Bring it old man,” she ripped her t-shirt over her head, squeezed her breasts up and winked at him boldly.

His muffled curse carried upwards, and she leaned sideways and saw the woman leaning over the balcony openly watching their argument. Dimitra covered her n*****s with her hands and winked at her. “He’s even more fun when he’s mad!” she gave a giggle and raced inside. He gave a single pound on the locked door of her unit before she heard him move away to his room and slam into it.

She shimmied into a sundress and then when she was confident, he was in the shower, she snuck towards his room and prayed in his fury he hadn’t locked the door behind him. She grinned when the door easily popped open, and she heard the shower running and the whistling. He wasn’t really angry if he could whistle Talk Dirty.

She looked around his room noting how pristine it was. He really was a neat freak. She looked into his fridge and noted the only thing in there was juice. She tiptoed into his bedroom and the shower was still going strong, but he had stopped whistling

She stood there for a moment panicking he was getting ready to get out but then the water splashed and as she stood there listening, she realized the water was splashing rhythmically. “Holy s**t,” she gripped her abdomen. He was jerking off in the shower. She knew her eyes were wide as she moved closer to the bathroom door. She snuck a peek into the room and noted he was standing with his legs shoulder width apart in the shower stall, facing away from her with one arm braced against the wall and the other moving at what must be his perfect tempo. His perfect muscular a*s faced her through the tinted shower stall door, and she almost m****d with the pleasure of watching him. His muttered curse followed by her name told her he had just jacked off to a thought of her and had finished relatively quick. She must have had him close in the kayak. She knew her own cheeks were flushed at what she just witnessed so maybe watching her in the kayak had done him in.

She tiptoed away and noted his suitcase closed up beside the dresser. She quietly pulled the top drawer of the chest open and grinned at the very neatly folded stacks of boxers. She grabbed them all and raced out of the room just as his water in the shower shut off. She gingerly clicked the door of his unit closed and then took his underwear into her unit and shoved them under the sink in her bathroom.

She stood there contemplating how much she enjoyed toying with him. After the past week of tormenting him the way she had when she was younger, could she go back to never seeing him again and never playing another prank on him again? Her eyes flicked to the divorce papers on the counter, and she felt a sudden immediate increase in anxiety.

All of her plans, all of her hopes, dreams and desires of the last eight years were crashing down hard around her and the whistling that started on the other side of her bedroom told her he was getting dressed. His exasperated shout when he opened his chest of drawers made her eyebrows pinch together and she grabbed her stuff and hightailed it out of her room.

She needed to think. She whipped down the stairs and through the enclave gates faster than she’d ever run before in her life. She was still at a jog by the time she reached the marketplace and knew she was drawing stares. She slowed her pace, leaned against a lamp post, and tried to catch her breath.

“Elektra, is everything okay?” Theresa’s voice carried from a vending stall not far from where she gasped.

“Fine,” she waved her hand. “I have a date tonight and I just realized I need a dress. I only have a couple of sundresses like this one and a dress I wore yesterday. I saw a few cute ones yesterday but looking for one a bit more,” she grappled for the right word.

“Sexier?” Theresa asked with an eyebrow perched high in her forehead. “Your date is with Draco, isn’t it?”

She nodded with a twist of her lips realizing she had forgotten they’d checked in with aliases.

Theresa approached her with a curious expression. “Is this a date you’re willing to go on?” At Dimitra’s look of confusion, she gave a hapless shrug, “when I met you Friday you said you weren’t interested in a fling with the man next door. I’ve met him a few times now and he is a very handsome man. I just want to make sure the only single girl in my enclave isn’t in danger.”

“No, I’m not in danger. He asked and I said yes. I actually had a really crummy day yesterday and he took me to the taverna up the street and made me laugh harder than I have in a long time. I figure he did okay with an impromptu thing, he might be okay with a planned one.”

“Men have a way of messing up,” Theresa said suddenly very seriously. “Don’t let him make you do anything you don’t want to. We girls need to stick together. You call my cell if you feel you’re in trouble, okay?”

She gave the woman a sweet smile, “sure. I will. Any idea where I might replace clothing a little fancier than the dresses here?”

“There is a little boutique up the road about ten minutes more of a walk. They have beautiful designs. You might replace an outfit there you like.” She pointed up the street, “and Elektra, there’s a little cantina there and a little ice cream shop. If you need to sit and think. You appear to me a girl with a lot on her mind.”

“Right,” she nodded and began walking in the direction Theresa had pointed out, waving a thanks in her direction.

She found the little shop quite easily and she entered and was immediately happy with the variety in the store. The shopkeeper was friendly and kind and helped her into a fitting room with a handful of dresses and Dimitra stood there in her bra and panties staring at them.

She plunked down on a little stool and ran her fingertips across her brow. “Dimitra, what are you doing? You told him you’d give him two weeks and it’s been two days and you’re already sleeping with him, dating him, and watching him shower.” She grumbled to herself. She needed to talk to someone.

She took a deep breath, turned her phone back and on ignored the slew of message alerts and called the one person who was always the voice of reason when she was feeling lost.

“Dimitra, my love. Where are you? You promised to take me with you if you left,” Mrs. K chastised her gently.

“I didn’t even take the girls with me,” she sighed, “besides, I didn’t get far. You can’t tell my dad, okay?”

“My lips are sealed. What is going on?”

“Miklos is here, with me.” The woman’s silence was deafening. “We didn’t travel together. He followed me. He knew I was running and where I was running to. And he got here and convinced me to play a game like we were two people who just met each other yesterday.”

Mrs. K sniggered, “did he? It sounds silly if you ask me. All you two need is to sit down and actually have conversation.”

“We have, Mrs. K. We have talked a lot and now I’m panicking.”

“Why?”

“I want out, remember?” she whispered wiping a tear off her cheek. “I want to have kids who don’t know what this world is. I want a husband who only wants me. I haven’t wanted to be part of this family for eight years and I feel I’m being sucked back in like it’s a vortex of doom and I think I’m panicking.”

“People change their goals all the time. When you were eight you wanted to be a doctor. You are now a computer programmer.”

“I feel like a sellout.”

“My child, unlike changing goals you cannot just stop being who you are, the essence of you. People can change and people can adjust but people can’t alter their very soul. You are a Lykiaos. It is the reason you love to drive people nuts, especially Miklos. You are a warrior, Dimitra. It is why you fight tooth and nail for everything. It’s also why you love as intensely as you do. You do nothing by half-measures, including falling in love. Following your heart doesn’t make you a sellout.”

“So, I’m just supposed to give up on what I want because I’ve stupidly fallen back in love with the giant oaf?” She g*****d as the words left her lips, “I’m in love with him. Holy s**t, I’m in love with him.” She slapped her hand against her cheek and blinked.

“Well, yes, we knew it would happen. I am confident it is why the girls repeatedly said you were crazy to move back in.” The woman’s voice mocked her.

“What do I do?”

“I cannot answer this for you. Your heart is going to guide you to do what is best for you but Dimitra, do what is best for you. If you don’t want the life but you want the man, tell him. You may replace he is willing to compromise and meet you in the middle.”

“And if he isn’t? Pops is really on my a*s to take over with Miklos.”

“Dimitra, Miklos let you leave knowing he was going to end up with a price on his head. Does it appear to you he fears your father? If he is in your corner, he will help you in your battle with Vasili. I am not telling you what you should do. I am simply saying, you are a woman with a strong mind and a fierce heart. If there is anything in this world you want, then take it. Even if it’s Miklos Laskaris.”

“You don’t think I’m a fool for wanting him?”

“I think any woman who leads her life on her own terms is a woman I admire very much. Just be true to yourself Dimitra.”

“What if I’m making a mistake?”

“Then you and I pack up and relocate somewhere exotic. You take me with you, huh?” At Dimitra’s giggle, she continued, “You don’t know what life is going to deliver Dimitra. All you can do is plan for what is happening right now. If it falls apart, then you have a wonderful support system to help pick you up. Something tells me though a certain young man has learned a very valuable lesson in the last week.”

“He’s almost a different person.”

“He reminds me of the man I knew before your eighteenth birthday, no?”

She gave a smile, “somewhat. He’s a hell of a lot easier to talk to when he’s away from our family.”

“I don’t want to know where you are. As it is, I’m already going to have to lie when your father asks me if I know if Miklos found you yet.”

“He sent me a text message today ordering me home. As if a text message is going to work.”

“Are you at least having fun on your little getaway?”

“He took me dancing last night and I don’t remember laughing so hard. Today we went kayaking and we had such a good talk. I mean there is much to be said about being in the middle of the water and not being able to rock the boat with accusations and just talk.” She giggled as she made an inadvertent pun. “Literally and figuratively.”

Mrs. K laughed with her, “Dimitra. I love you like you are my own granddaughter, and I would do anything for you. I am here to support your decisions no matter what you choose . Remember this though, do not settle. You do not ever have to settle. If you truly believe being with Miklos will not bring you happiness, then do not be with Miklos. If you think a life without him is what you need and want to be happy, then it is the path you choose.”

“I was hoping you would just tell me what to do,” she pouted bitterly as she played with the fabric of a dress.

“I’m afraid I cannot but I am always here as your sounding board. Promise me next time you run away from home though, I get a heads’ up? I was quite worried.”

“I promise. I’m sorry Mrs. K. I love you.”

“I love you.” Her voice was soft in the receiver.

“I have to pick a dress out for my date.” Dimi sighed as she looked at the six dresses on the hangers.

“A date?”

“Miklos is taking me to a restaurant and a show.”

“Make sure he pays. Just because you have money in the bank, doesn’t mean he gets a free ride. Make him pay up.”

She giggled at her words, “yes ma’am.”

“Good. I’m going to go back to doing nothing since there is nobody in the main house. I hope to see you soon.”

“I am sure you will,” Dimitra said with a little smile.

As she hung up, she felt better. Part of her during the conversation had thought she was more confused, but Mrs. K’s words were resounding in her brain. Take what you want. The question was, what did she want? Did she want her freedom and a life in exile or did she want Miklos. Would he agree to her keeping her hands clean of the business?

She stood up and slipped a cherry red dress over her head and the memory of him yesterday saying she was fire made her smile. God, she loved him. The more she said it in her head, the more real it was feeling.

She took the dress off and slipped another on and immediately knew it was the one. She twisted and turned in the mirror and then met her own gaze straight on. “Time to take what you want, Dimitra. Balls up and do it.”