Dominating the Dominatrix

Chance Encounter in the Park

Darya sat at the desk in her bedroom and stared for what felt like the hundredth hour at the file Dimi had given her on Kostas Masalis.

The thought of Dimi made her chest ache. Only a few hours ago she had put her friend on a plane to a location only Dimi would know. She missed her terribly already but there was nothing she could do about it now. Dimi had her own long game to play and if this was what it took to get free of the Lykiaos family, then it was what she had to do.

She’d spent time with Magda and had encouraged her to go after Ares. With the contract signed, there was no reason for Magda to feel the sale of the application was the reason for his pursuit of her. For Magda’s sake, she really wanted her friend to find love.

She lifted her phone and opened up her banking application and looked again at the number of zeroes. She was a billionaire as of today. Dimi had once questioned whether the devil would come for them when they reached this financial milestone but so far, all she’d gotten was another email from her mother and several dirty texts from Kostas.

She looked back to the file at the thought of his name. He was supposed to be the enemy. Yet, she had a very visceral reaction to him and his presence at the club this week. His admission he was a Dom who wanted a sub was making her envision all kinds of crazy things. She contemplated how much she wanted to take his ass, make him surrender his Dom card to her and let her flog him while doing it.

Unfortunately, the idea had been keeping her awake the last two nights and she was sexually frustrated as hell.

She wasn’t paying any heed at all to his comments about making her his wife. The fool had to have been drunk off his ass to suggest such things. The only ring she wanted to put on him was a c**k ring an inch too tight. Maybe a wedding band would fit his d**k. Perhaps the reason he was so arrogant and bastard-like was because he was compensating for having a little p***s.

She smiled to herself at the thought and then grimaced. No. It was clear the man had big d**k energy. She scrolled through the file again on her laptop and sighed. Every single woman he had been with were nothing like her. At least seventy percent of them were curvy, voluptuous and brunettes. He definitely had a type. All of the photos Dimi managed to find of him with a woman, not that there were many outside of what the tabloids ran, showed him as cool and standoffish and the women looking at him simpering and needy. She imagined he made them all kneel in front of him in the bedroom, blindfolded and naked.

“Ugh,” she slammed the laptop closed and cursed herself for once again being more concerned about s*x with him than finding out his secrets.

She noted Jinx was lounging on the bed and she shook her head. “Want to go to the park?”

Jinx immediately perked her ears up. She was ten now and her age was starting to show a bit yet she still seemed to have quite a bit of her energy left in her. The vet at her last appointment had praised how spry she was. Leaving her behind when her father had kicked her out had broken her heart. Dimitra breaking into the house to get the dog back at Christmas had been the best gift anyone had ever given her.

She got up from the desk and patted her thigh so Jinx would follow her. She happily stepped into her little harness and then Darya lifted her and carried her to her car, noting the presence of the guards Miklos had assigned to the house. Despite him being a jackass towards Dimi, he’d at least made sure they were safe. She couldn’t fault him for this. For having shitty tastes in friends though, she definitely found fault.

Darya swore under her breath as she buckled Jinx into her special car seat. She needed to stop thinking of Kostas. He was under her skin. She turned the music up in the car and began the drive to Jinx’s favorite dog park. It had an area for smaller dogs to run without leashes while protected in a fenced in spot. Jinx didn’t particularly love other dogs, not having been fully socialised and large dogs especially made her cranky.

By the time they arrived to the park, music blasting and Jinx howling along to the music, she was feeling heaps better. They got out of the car and Darya opted to take Jinx for a good walk around the park before taking her into the gated area.

The sun was out and the fresh air felt good as she soaked up some vitamin D. Jinx was stopping to smell every single flower and blade of grass she could find and Darya didn’t mind. This was a great distraction from Dimi leaving. She wondered how Mags was making out at the beach.

She didn’t love the beach like Magda did. She didn’t love sand scraping her skin. What she did love was the sunshine and she was basking in it now without grains of sand caught on her butt cheeks.

She heard the sound of a small dog barking and Jinx growled and moved away from her flower and closer to Darya. She offered an apologetic wave at the owner of the other dog at Jinx’s clear irritation of another animal sniffing her flower and then fought the hitch in her breath at the image before her.

Kostas Masalis wearing shorts and a t-shirt walking a Yorkshire Terrier who was excitedly barking at every flower it could find. He had thick biceps and his walking shorts were delicious on his legs. She mentally pinched herself to stop ogling him. She swallowed at the image of him.

She had been to this park countless times and had never once seen him here. Twice in one week. What were the chances?

“Darya Pappas. What a coincidence!” He echoed her sentiment as he bent down and scooped up the exuberant dog who kissed his face happily. “Look Butch, it’s your soon to be mama.”

She wasn’t sure which of them growled louder at the comment, her, or Jinx, but both females were unhappy with him.

“What are you doing here?”

“Walking my dog,” he grinned at her, his smile lifting higher on one side of his face.

She noted for the first time he had a big dimple on his right cheek. She hadn’t noticed it before because he’d never really smiled at her but he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. The sun hitting his brown eyes were highlighting those flecks of green she had noted the other night. His hair was almost black, the sunlight making it shimmer. She strangely flexed her fingers to stop herself from brushing a lock which had fallen over his forehead back.

“He’s your dog?”

“What’s wrong with my dog?”

“He doesn’t suit you. I’ve never seen you here before.”

“It’s a huge park, Darya,” he laughed at her words. “Or maybe we’ve passed each other a hundred times and we were in the zone and didn’t see each other, though,” he looked her over, “I would know if I passed you in the park.”

The dog in his arms was a wriggling mass squirming to get to her. She reached out her hand and let the dog sniff her and was rewarded with it trying to jump out of his arms into hers. “Oh, wow, he’s excitable.”

“Here, hold him. He’s fun.” Kostas shoved the dog into her arms. “His name is Butch.”

“Butch?” She laughed as the dog immediately began licking her face excitedly. “Oh wow, he’s got a lot of energy.”

Kostas squatted and held his hand out to Jinx who approached him tentatively and sat obediently while he scratched her ears. “She’s so calm.” He looked up at her from his crouched position. “Is she always this calm?”

“Pretty much,” Darya couldn’t help the giggle escaping her lips as the dog in her arms was over the top. “How old is he?”

“He recently had his fifth birthday. I made him his own peanut butter cake. He puked everywhere. I felt terrible.”

“You made him a cake?” Darya was stunned as she looked down at the man and blinked as Jinx uncharacteristically rolled onto her back and accepted the belly rubs from him. She wanted to call her a traitor but she herself was holding the dog of her enemy.

“Yeah, I made him a cake. He’s my best friend.”

“I thought Miklos was your best friend.”

“Miklos is my best human friend,” he chuckled. “Butch is my best furry friend. He’s a great judge of character. He likes you.” He stood up and took the dog from her arms. “Congratulations by the way. Saw the sale today.”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, “thanks.”

“Why aren’t you out celebrating with the girls?”

She felt a sudden sense of loss hit her as she thought of Dimi. “Dimi had to go away. We’re trying to deal with her leaving in our own way. Magda hit the beach and went surfing. It’s how she copes.”

“She left?”

She shrugged sadly. “She felt the only way to live her own life on her own terms was to leave and not ever come back. We don’t even know where she went. We dropped her at the airport and she left.” She fought the tremor in her voice and cleared her throat. “Anyway, Mags surfs to clear her head and I like to go for walks with Jinx.”

“Jinx?” he looked to the dog. “How did you get your name?”

“I was going through a James Bond phase when I got her. I named her after Halle Berry’s character. She was super sneaky and devious but gorgeous.”

“What’s your favorite movie ever?” he asked suddenly.

“What genre?”

“Excuse me?”

“You can’t ask me to choose without narrowing down the field.”

“Comedy.”

“Grumpy Old Men.”

“What?”

“Walter Matthau reminded me of my grandfather. He was a cranky old man but funny as shit.”

“Horror,” he continued his question.

“Silence of the Lambs.”

He frowned now. “Drama?”

“Schindler’s’ List or The Iron Giant if you like cartoons.”

“You really have your favorites sorted by genre?”

“Yes. Favorite Disney is Lilo and Stitch. Favorite Mob Movie is the Godfather, the third one. Favorite Musical is Grease but I didn’t like the second or third ones. Favorite movie about animals is Beethoven.”

“You like movies.”

“I liked escaping reality as a kid and movies helped.”

“Why?”

“You’ve met him.”

“Yannis?”

“He wasn’t a warm and fuzzy guy. He never beat us or anything but we had to stay out of his way. He and my grandfather butted heads and whenever my grandfather would give him hell, he would yell at us. We usually stayed in our rooms with the nannies watching us.” She shifted uncomfortably, “anyway, I need to get going. I have other things I need to do today.”

“You know, I didn’t know he kicked you out. I kept him on at the company I took over so I could watch him. I made him work for me and took half of every one of his paycheques but he also said he had money tied up he couldn’t access yet so I needed him where I could see him.”

She snorted, “and he stole from you again.”

“I admit, I was distracted over the last year with another project and wasn’t paying as close attention to him as I had been. He was logging in using the credentials of one of the colleagues in our accounting department. I got a flag from one of my auditors about money going missing and it pinpointed to the colleague. I interviewed the colleague who was able to prove to me there were two dates money went missing where he was actually with me in Europe during a period, we had no computer access. It meant someone else had his credentials. It didn’t take me two seconds to figure out who it was.”

“You were stupid to keep him on.”

“I had just lost my father. I didn’t want to put you and your sisters through the same thing I was going through and therefore putting him out of my misery wasn’t an option. I decided my best course of action, was to allow him to continue to provide for his girls under strict supervision. It worked well for six years and then he started f*****g around.”

His words surprised her. “They would have had a bigger support p*****t from life insurance if he was dead.”

“Putting your sisters through his death seemed excessive at the time. Now,” he shrugged, “I am slightly annoyed Dimitra elected to only break his fingers.”

“You and me both.”

“Miklos said you wanted his liver for Jinx?”

“He kicked her. Dad hit me when you left the house. He was always a jerk but he’d never hit me before. He hit me so hard I fell to the floor and Jinx barked at him and he booted her clear across the room. The housekeeper got her out and off to the vet while my sister packed my bags for me to leave.”

“Where did you go?”

“I didn’t have a lot of friends. Most of them were Lyra’s friends and the only reason they kept me around was to do their homework. I went to a hotel for a week and then I went back when I thought he’d cooled off but he hadn’t. My options were to agree to marry Jurek when I knew damned well, he had raped one of the girls at school or leave and never come back. I knew if I could get to Boston for school, I’d have a place to stay. I went to Boston.” Memories were bringing back her anger. “You did this, you know. You could have flat out refused to marry me instead of offering Jurek.”

“I didn’t know he would kick you out Darya.”

“When he offered me up, a normal human being would have told him exchanging a daughter for cash was a twelfth century bit of bullshit and refused. Instead, you called me much too boring and dull for you and said I’d be good for Jurek. My father got it in his head if I married Jurek you would reduce the amount he owed you.” She shoved his chest as he frowned down at her in disbelief.

“You truly blame me?” he was stunned. “I’m not the one who offered you up or kicked you out of your family.”

“No. You were the one who suggested Jurek and when I refused you told my father he’d have to come up with the money instead. You shouldn’t have suggested Jurek. You should have shot him down. He had it in his head marrying Jurek would appease you because you suggested it. I hold you as much accountable as he is.”

“Okay, but you went to MIT and got a great education. You didn’t need him anyway. You got through it with flying colors.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Look,” he looked around the park as if suddenly aware they were still in public. “Why don’t we go grab a coffee and sit and talk. We can –”

“No. I don’t want anything to do with you, Kostas. Your involvement in my life caused irreparable harm to me.”

“Irreparable harm?” He looked her up and down, “you look incredible to me. No harm.”

“Here,” she tapped her head, “and here,” she tapped her chest. She stepped closer to him. “Tell me Kostas, do you know what it does to a young woman to have nowhere to sleep and no food in her belly for days and have to resort to trying to make a dollar any way she can? Do you know how hard it is to get a job when you don’t have an address or a cell phone? Do you know what I had to do in order to get food? Do you know how much I cried when I had to follow a creepy bastard into an alley way and blow him for the twenty bucks, he offered me?” She saw his face freeze at her words. “Do not stand there and tell me I got through my father throwing me out because I wouldn’t agree to your suggestion of marrying your abusive bastard of a brother. f**k you Kostas. You don’t know shit.” She scooped Jinx into her arms and made a hasty retreat away from the man who appeared to be stunned into silence and unable to move.

By the time she got to her car, she realized she was full on crying. She needed to go home and lick her wounds because right now everything felt raw and open. This day was the worst one she’d had in a long time.