Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Dimos
Scanning the aquamarine sea over the tops of my feet, I yearn to be on the water in my yacht instead of on a beach surrounded by obnoxious twenty-somethings.
I told Ez I would sail us out here, but he couldn’t be away from work for that long.
It would take more than a month to get from Hermosa Beach, California to Mykonos and back, not to mention the week-long stay at the Santa Marina Resort they booked.
My yacht, The Cerulean, is where I feel most at home.
I should have sailed out here by myself and met them on the island.
Oh well. Now that I’m here, I supposed I better make the most of it.
I let my compass guide me in every aspect of my life—faith, love, family—as well as on the open sea.
It’s why I have a compass tattooed over my heart.
Even when it seems like it’s not working, I have to have faith in it.
Like when it led me to Emma. I don’t think it was wrong; I just think I needed to be with her so I know what I’m not looking for in life.
Which is why I’m even here in the first place.
It’s not every day you finalize your divorce. What a shitshow it was. That circus finally coming to an end is more than enough reason to celebrate.
Laying back in my chaise lounge, I take a swig of my beer as I try to cast off the secondhand embarrassment I feel for these young guys out here. They’re laying the compliments and pick-up lines on thick. Now that I’m single, is this really what I have to look forward to?
Fuck that.
I’m not planning on getting back into a relationship anytime soon anyway. Maybe never again.
I down the rest of my beer and look for the server who has been floating around here. When I spot him, he’s busy flirting with the friend of the captivating girl I locked eyes on at the pool a few days ago. But she’s nowhere in sight.
Where is she?
Théa mou. My goddess.
My mouth pulls up at the corner, recalling when I first laid eyes on her.
As I scan the clientele on the pool deck of the resort, my eyes lock onto one of the most alluring girls I’ve ever seen. Her long brown hair is in waves down to the swell of her breasts. Her sunglasses, which are blocking my view of her eyes, sit atop a thin nose. Her skin is perfectly sun-kissed.
My eyes roam over the rest of her body, taking in the sight of her laying back against the cushion under the cabana in her lavender bikini, and my cock hardens instantly.
She’s much younger than any other girl I’ve been attracted to before.
Unless she showed a fake ID at check-in, she’s at least twenty-one, which is how old you need to be to reserve a room here.
At least I know she isn’t jailbait.
I think that as though I’m actually considering pursuing her, which is absurd.
I watch as she tries to hide behind her sunglasses, but it’s fruitless. I may not be able to see her eyes, but make no mistake, there’s no missing the way I’m affecting her.
It doesn’t appear she realizes the way her shoulders are pushed backward, arching her back slightly so her tits protrude out a little more than they were a moment earlier.
But I did.
She also may not notice her thighs rubbing together the longer she pretends not to stare at me. I ache to know how strongly her clit is throbbing.
I jolt back to the present before my cock gets too uncomfortably hard. The girls left not long after that, and it killed me to watch her go. My eyes hadn’t had their fill of her beauty yet.
What did she do when she left? Did she forget about me? Did she go back to her room and rub herself off to thoughts of me? Did she make herself come, pretending it was my fingers that were rousing her orgasm?
I tear my eyes from her friend. I can’t have these thoughts here. Not when I am in public. Not with Ez and Eliana right next to me. Not when théa mou isn’t in my sights.
Where is she?
Irritated I can’t find her, I take another swig of my beer, forgetting it was empty. Not knowing how long the server is going to be shamelessly flirting, I decide to go to the bar myself to get another round.
“I gotta take a leak and get another beer. Either of you want anything?” I inquire.
“Sure, I’ll take one,” Ez speaks up. “El?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” Eliana responds.
I pretend to take one final sip of my beer as I silently plead with my erection to die down, so I’m able to stand.
I sneak another look at Ez who glances strangely at me.
Not wanting to explain myself, I get up and rearrange my cock as discreetly as possible.
Walking away from the shining sea, I head to the building—a hut, really—just outside of the access trail from the resort to their private beach, where the bar and bathrooms are located.
I place our order then tell the bartender I’ll be right back to pick them up. Heading around the end of the bar to the bathrooms, I take a deep breath. I need to chill out where this girl is concerned.
The ink on my divorce papers is barely dry, and the last thing I want or need is to get involved with someone else right now. That’s partly how I got myself into this mess anyway. As I round the corner past the bar, I run head-on into someone else.
“Ma Kala den prosexeis!” Watch out!
This théa has me so riled up, I’m about to lose my shit on this person when I’m just as much to blame. My irritation is very short-lived as a light, floral scent fills my nose, and my eyes latch onto the sparkling, blue stare of none other than théa mou.
Her eyes are the color of the sea, and they run just as deep. My mind is momentarily paralyzed by her beauty, whereas my body reacts like that of a sixteen-year-old boy.
“I’m so sorry!” she exclaims.
Her eyes catch on mine, and I watch as her pupils dilate when she realizes who she’s run into.
“No, please,” I protest. “The fault was all mine, théa.”
I lift the corner of my mouth slightly as I use the nickname she doesn’t know I’ve given her.
She narrows her eyes at me, barely, but it’s noticeable.
Nodding her head slightly, she tucks her hair behind her ear and walks around me, back toward the chair where her friend is still flirting with the waiter.
Watching her tanned, bikini-clad ass sashay away from me for the second time this week, it’s getting harder to let her go.
My cock agrees with me.
Today, she has on a black bikini with some type of cream-colored, crocheted sarong tied around her waist that looks more like a fishing net than a cover-up.
Her suit isn’t cut high or too revealing like the suits some of the other girls out here are wearing, but that’s just fine by me.
It leaves a little more to the imagination.
It takes me longer than I’d care to admit to use the restroom because I had to wait for my erection to die down before I could go.
I would have been fine if not for running into her, but you’ll never hear me complain about that.
Once I’m finished, I wash my hands, grab our drinks from the bar, and return to my seat.
“Here you go,” I grab Ez’s attention and hand him his and Eliana’s drinks.
“Thanks, man.”
“So, D,” Eliana chimes in, “Ez and I are thinking about heading up to Little Venice tonight for some drinks and dancing. Are you in?”
In an effort to delay my “no”, I take a drink of my beer. The cold, crisp taste of hops and citrus slide down my hot, parched throat.
“I might let you crazy kids go out by yourselves tonight,” I respond after a few moments. “I’m not sure I’m up for it.”
I laugh inwardly. Ez and Eliana are older than I am, but I feel like the old man at the moment.
“You know what you need, don’t you?” Ez encourages.
“What’s that, Ez?”
This ought to be good.
“You need to get laid, my friend.”
A dry laugh escapes my mouth. “I think that’s what got me in to the mess I’m in.”
“D. How many times do I have to tell you? Your… mishap wasn’t what killed your marriage.
You checked out a few years ago when Emma’s grip on your balls began to tighten.
Way before what happened between you and Kati.
Christ, for all you know, Emma was fucking whatever his name is long before Kati got her claws in to you. ”
“Gary. And thank you for that thought, Ez,” I mutter sarcastically, tipping my beer in his direction.
“Look, all I’m saying is now that your divorce is final, Emma and her games are out of your life for good. I know it’s been a long and tiring journey for you. I just think it’s time you begin your new life as a born-again bachelor.”
As glad as I am about having Emma and all of her bullshit behind me, as much as I would love to sink my cock inside of another woman and try to forget about the past year—fuck, the past ten years—I just don’t think I’m ready for it.
My eyes shoot to théa again. She’s currently in a fit of laughter over something, and I desperately want to know what it is. More than that, I need to know why this girl is holding so much of my attention hostage.
Maybe I could be ready for something if it were with the right person…
Or maybe it’s just because it’s been too long since I’ve had any kind of meaningful sexual encounter. My cock doesn’t know what the fuck it wants, but it has a stronger pull than my heart and my brain combined at the moment.
“I’ll think about tonight, but I wouldn’t count on my being there.”
“Fair enough,” Ez replies.
I shoot him a smile, knowing he has my best interests at heart.
I met Ez and Eliana nine years ago when I moved to New York temporarily while getting Okeanós’ New York City office up and running.
Just after opening, I was visited by someone from the NYC Business Owner’s Association, who wanted to welcome me to town.
I hadn’t had any interest in going to the luncheon they’d invited me to, but I thought at the very least I would be able to start a good rapport with other business owners in the new and unfamiliar city.
Sitting at Ez and Eliana’s table was the one good thing to come out of it.
We quickly learned they only asked us all there to get donations out of us.
They were trying to create a program for college-aged kids who wanted to start their own business.
About halfway through, Ez mentioned the fact that they would have gotten more money out of us if they would have plied us with alcohol instead of boring us to death.
To which I picked up my water and hooted, “Opa.”
That’s when I found out Eliana is Greek as well, and we got to talking.
Ez mentioned he was the CEO of Martinique Enterprises, and he talked me in to meeting with him the following week to discuss some of my investments.
Eliana suggested we meet at their place over dinner instead of the office, and the rest is history. We’ve been like family ever since.
It’s tough living three thousand miles away from them sometimes, but I try to get back to the big city once a month to ensure the east coast office is running just as smoothly as the one back home in Torrance.
At least, I used to, before Kati.
Now I see to it that my assistants work out of the New York office exclusively, keeping me at a three-thousand-mile distance from them at all times. I haven’t been back there in nearly a year.
Sensing their eyes on me, I feel antsy, like I need to move around.
“I’m going to go cool off,” I tell them.
I take a long pull of the ice-cold liquid in the bottle I’m holding before I hop up out of my seat.
“Enjoy,” Eliana calls from behind me in a wistful tone.
I know she wishes there was something she could do to help me.
I’m not sure there’s anything that can be done, but, fuck.
.. If there was, I’d take it. The mistake I made with Kati was just one of the many unfortunate events that occurred during my marriage.
I know we weren’t perfect. Ez was right about Emma.
For years she’s berated me, talked down to me, and made me feel like less of a man.
But that doesn’t make what I did okay.
The fact that Emma was cheating as well also doesn’t make what I did okay.
My head is jumbled. My heart is heavy. My cock has a fucking mind of its own. I chance a glance at théa, briefly, once more as I walk toward the water.
The sea is calling me, and it’s the only place that will calm me and offer my mind and body the peace it’s looking for.