Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 86

"Oh my god," I mutter, my mouth full of crab cake, my eyes almost rolling back into my head with how delicious it is. "This is...seriously, how do they get such good seafood up in the mountains? This tastes like it was caught this morning!"

"I think it was," Ivan replies, equally intent on a lobster tail. "I think they've got a guy whose whole job is to drive up from the shore in the mornings with the freshest catch. Then he goes back at night."

"A lot of lonely hours on the road," I murmur, nodding seriously, "but he's doing God's work."

I take a final bite and then, groaning, lean on the backrest of the queen-sized lounge positioned on my father's third-floor deck, looking out over the scenery. We're eating al fresco tonight and the view is...amazing. Just treetops and mountain peaks as far as the eye

can see.

As much as I resent my father - my cheek still carries the phantom sting of his slap - I have to admit...his taste in vacation property is flawless.

Ivan leans back next to me on the lounge, our shoulders brushing. He holds out a beer to me, fresh from the cooler at his side. Smiling, I take it, twisting off the top and taking a swig.

"So," I say, leaning into Ivan and giving him a little nudge with my shoulder. "What do we do now?"

Ivan pauses and then turns his head slowly to me, his eyebrow suggestively raised, and I swat at him, cackling with laughter. "Seriously, a couple of crab cakes and you think you're going to get me in bed!?"

"Crab cakes!" he insists, laughing with me, "and a multi-million-dollar property!"

"Which is more mine than yours!"

"Details," Ivan mutters, flicking a hand to dismiss my point as he brings his beer bottle to his lips, "semantics. Not important."

"It is pretty here, though," I sigh, my laughter fading to a happy hum in my chest. "Thank you for bringing me."

We sit there for a long time, chatting about nothing, as the sun fades over the horizon and stars take the sky. I smile when I see a few early fireflies flitting their way through the treetops, the swoop of bats and owls as they start their nighttime prowl. I shiver, a little, as the evening grows colder, and Ivan wraps a warm arm around me.

I lean into him and then feel a twist of discomfort in my stomach when I remember...well, that someone else was keeping me warm with their body heat just a couple of hours ago.

God, I wonder suddenly, am I a slut?

My mind starts to race, my body going tense as I consider the fact that I'm letting Ivan hold me on the deck of my father's house when only a few hours ago, his enemy - my boss, and maybe... my boyfriend? - was... God. Maybe I am a slut.

Is it a bad thing to be a slut? I wonder frantically. Should I be sitting here, slut-shaming myself, or should I like Janeen says - just give in to the impulses of my body and not bother with puritanical questions of shame - "Are you all right, Fay?" Ivan asks gently.

I blink back to myself and realize that I'm panicked a little bit - breathing harder than I should be when I'm just relaxing on a deck drinking a beer. My body is tense against Ivan's. No wonder he noticed - how could he not?

"I'm okay," I reply after a moment, deliberately making my muscles unwind. I give Ivan a wan little smile.

He studies me carefully, sweetly, frowning a little. "Can I hazard a guess?" he asks.

I tense again - can he know, like Jerome did? Can he tell that this morning -

"This world is getting to you a little bit, isn't it?" Ivan speculates softly. "It's not an easy place."

My breath leaves me in one big relieved exhale. "Yes," I say, relieved that Ivan is not as perceptive as Jerome. "Yeah it's...it's been a lot, lately." I work to give him a smile and fail a bit. Ivan raises a hand to my face, his fingertips cool and a little damp from the condensation of his beer.

"Well then," he says, smirking at me. "Forget about it. For a little bit. For just one night."

"Forget about it?" I echo, disbelieving. "Fat chance there -"

"Seriously, though," Ivan says, grinning at me. "We'll just forget about our lives for a couple of hours. Be two totally different people. Leave it all behind. Hi, my name is Rodrigo," he says, his smile growing as he holds out his hand to shake mine. "Pleasure to meet you."

I laugh at his stupid little game, shaking my head, hesitating. He reaches out and takes my hand, though, lifting and lowering our clasped fingers in a forced shake. "Come on," he whispers. "Try it."

"Nice to meet you Rodrigo," I murmur, flicking my eyes up to him, smirking a little.

"I'm a lion tamer," he says, pitching his voice lower as he takes on his role. "I spend my days taming wild beasts and my nights...taming wild women. And who are you?" he asks, holding my hand tight. "Come on, Fay," he urges in a whisper, giving me a little nudge with his shoulder when I hesitate. "You can be anyone."

I tilt my head back, giving into it, my hair falling back over my shoulders as I look up into the sky and consider my options. "I'm Sister Mary Alexander," I say finally, smiling to myself as I decide. "I'm a Benedictine nun. I make fancy marzipan and sell it on the streets of Austria to raise money for the orphans under my care."

"Fay," I hear Ivan whisper, snapping me out of my imaginary wanderings and drawing my gaze immediately back to him. I blink in surprise when I see a smile stretched across his face from cheek to cheek. "You're so weird," he says, shaking his head at me a little, a laugh starting in his chest.

"What!" I gasp, "you said I could be anyone I wanted -"

"That's right," he laughs, his grin growing, "you can pick anything in the world - any fantasy at all - and you pick a nun?"

"What!" I protest, leaning forward and laughing with him, joy running through me. "I liked The Sound of Music a lot when I was a kid -"

"Oh, so did I," Ivan agrees eagerly, his words overlapping mine as he reaches out to grab me, pressing his hand against my lower back, "you actually hit the nail on the head, Sister Mary -" he mumurs, pulling my body closer to him so that I'm laying flat on the lounge and he's curved over me. "This is actually working for me -"

"What!?" I shout, aghast - laughing through my shock - I was going for the opposite of that - the least sexy thing I could think of -

"Oh yeah," Ivan nods, smirking down at me, moving the hand on my back to graze the side of my ass and move briskly down my thigh, his fingers teasing at the edge of my skirt, "I went to Catholic school - I've been fantasizing about this for a long time -" "What?!"

"Mmhmm," he continues, "do you think you could say the rosary for a little bit, and like, look at me disapprovingly? Or, actually, could you get a ruler and slap me on the wrist - just a couple times -"

I'm laughing so hard now that I can feel tears pricking at my eyes. Ivan goes along with me, our bodies shaking against each other at the ridiculousness of it, and suddenly I find myself a little bit in love with his sense of humor, his ability to take anything and twist it and make it fun.

"Well, Rodrigo," I murmur a moment later when my laughter fades a bit. I'm smiling up at him, not allowing myself to think too much about what I'm doing as I raise my hands to run them through his blonde hair, my eyes roving over the tattoos on his neck, suddenly wanting, very much, to see the extent of them printed on his arms and his chest. "What do a lion tamer and a chaste nun do next? I don't have any animals for you to tame. And there are no wanton women here."

"Aren't there, though?" Ivan murmurs, dipping his head to press his lips softly against my clavicle.

"No," I whisper, closing my eyes and letting my head fall back, clearing the path for him to kiss his way up my neck.

A shiver runs through me as he does it, as he runs his mouth over the length of my jaw. "Liar," he whispers, the word just tender breath against my ear.