Trigger/content warning: minor flashback to Adrian/being kidnapped/raped
"Good morning, Roza," Dimitri whispered, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
I sighed and moved further underneath the blankets. "Just a little longer."
He chuckled. "Five more minutes. Then we need to get up to catch the ferry to Capri."
I nodded and snuggled back into his arms. The sun was bright through the curtains and warm on my bare skin as I reminisced about the time we had spent in Italy.
Spending the past two weeks in Italy had been close to paradise. We had spent three days in Cinque Terre, exploring the five towns that made up the small city before we traveled inland to Florence for a couple of days. In Florence, we toured a couple of the basilicas, since they reminded Dimitri of Russia, though he promised me that the ones in Russia were much more colorful. I, in turn, made him promise to take me there for our next vacation.
Rome was the next stop on the trip south, and our three days there were crammed full of tours and sightseeing. We spent a day visiting sites of Roman history, including the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Pantheon. Dimitri insisted on visiting the Vatican Museums, and I wanted to go to the Sistine Chapel, so we spent another day doing that before spending our last there walking around the city and finding the best eateries that Rome had to offer. I sent Lissa and Christian a picture that a kind older woman took of me and Dimitri in front of the Trevi fountain, and Lissa responded with heart emojis and a video of Katerina and Levi playing together.
Further south, in Naples, we spent most of the day relaxing, which was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the previous days. In the afternoon, we spent a little time exploring the city though we didn't venture far. Spending only a day in Naples, we traveled to Sorrento where we were eventually planning to catch a ferry to the island of Capri as our last stop. On the first day in Sorrento, we traveled back north to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were situated almost halfway between Naples and Sorrento, though slightly closer to Naples. The second day was spent relaxing, similar to our day in Naples, except this time from the comfort of the beach. Today was our planned trip to the island of Capri, which was a short ferry ride away before we would be boarding the airplane to take us back to the United States tomorrow morning.
In what seemed like no time at all, Dimitri was nudging me again.
I groaned and rolled over onto my stomach. The covers slid off, and a cool breeze from the open patio doors brushed against my bare skin.
"Roza," Dimitri whispered, "it's really time to get up now."
I sighed and sat up on my knees. Whatever coverage I had left from the blanket fell away as it pooled at my waist. I ignored the gut instinct to hide my body from Dimitri's eyes as I arched my back, stretching. I leaned forward to kiss Dimitri softly, and felt his hands hot against my back, pulling me closer. I pulled away, cupping his cheek, and smiled.
"Thank you for organizing this," I said. "I'll be ready to go soon."
I gave him another kiss before sliding out of his reach and off the bed. I could feel his eyes on me as I walked to the bathroom.
I was true to my word and was ready to leave for the ferry within the hour. Dimitri had insisted that I wear a bikini under my shorts and tank top but was keeping the itinerary of what we'd actually be doing in Capri to himself.
We were a short drive from the ferry dock, and we parked before walking to the boat. Some people were driving their cars onto the ferry, most likely Capri locals. Since it was recommended that tourists didn't bring cars over to Capri, we were leaving ours here and would pick it up once we caught the ferry back from Capri to the mainland.
The ride to the small island didn't take long, and we strolled off the boat holding hands. Dimitri still wouldn't let me look at the itinerary, so I followed him as he walked to the entrance of a tram center named the Funicular. We rode that to the top of the island, and spent time exploring the views from the top before we decided to walk back down. We took the Via Krupp on the way down, which overlooked the gorgeous blue water that surrounded Capri.
In Capri Town, we stopped for lunch, and I was surprised to see how much the sun had moved, indicating that it was well past noon. After lunch, Dimitri led us back to the marina where we had docked, and we rented kayaks to explore the waters around the island a bit. We were able to see the Blue Grotto after a short wait and had to lay down to get into the entrance before sitting up once more. There were a few other people in kayaks and canoes in the grotto, and we stayed for less than ten minutes so that others could get into the grotto.
A little further down from the entrance to the grotto, Dimitri leaned forward to adjust his grip on his paddle and promptly flipped the kayak. He popped up out of the water a moment later, and I started laughing so hard that I soon toppled my own kayak.
Dimitri pulled me to him once I surfaced and kissed me. After having to chase down our kayaks from where they had started to float away, Dimitri helped me back into mine before pulling himself back into his. We continued to paddle around the island a bit, stopping for a picture in front of the Faraglioni rocks.
The sun was further across the sky when we returned the kayaks to the marina, and we sat out at a little restaurant with a patio near the marina to dry off and eat dinner.
The sun was setting as we rode the ferry back to the mainland, and Dimitri and I stood at the railing on the highest dock for the twenty-minute ride.
"Roza, I know that I've said it a lot over these past couple of weeks, but you truly make me the happiest man alive. While I'll forever wish that I could have saved you from the pain, I'm glad that we met and that we've grown to be where we are now."
He bent down to kiss me, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. His hair was hanging loose and was still a little damp from when we flipped the kayaks.
"I love you," I whispered. "I don't think I could've made it without you. You're my everything. Forever and always."
"Forever and always," he murmured back before kissing me again.
When we landed at the dock on the mainland, we tried not to be obvious about rushing to get off the ferry, but we both moved quicker than we had earlier. The entire drive back to the hotel, Dimitri had his hand on my thigh, rubbing a small circle with his thumb.
The hotel door was barely shut behind us when I pinned him to the door and pulled him down into a searing kiss. His hands pressed into the small of my back, pulling me closer before they slid underneath my top and pulled it over my head. He quickly untied my bikini top, tossing it in the same direction that he had thrown my shirt.
"Bed," he whispered roughly.
I started to back up, pulling him with me. The back of my legs hit the bed, and I fell backward, still pulling Dimitri with me. My back had barely touched the bed before Dimitri was flipping us over so I was on top. In one fluid motion, I tugged his shirt over his head before bending my head to kiss his chest.
Dimitri's hands explored my body, eventually reaching down to unbutton my shorts, and I helped him pull them off and throw them across the room. Dimitri was left in his shorts and me in my bikini bottoms. Dimitri shifted so that he was sitting up against the headboard of the bed, and I followed him, straddling his waist again. I could feel him pressing against me urgently, and I slowly started to grind my hips.
"Roza!" he groaned, pulling me into another kiss.
He trailed kisses along my jawline and down my neck as I continued to move against him. His lips trailed a searing line in between my breasts, and as his lips pressed kisses over one of my breasts, his hand came up to cup and massage the other, his thumb placed perfectly over my nipple.
"Dimitri!" I cried out as he sucked one of my nipples into his mouth. My hips continued to grind against his as he continued to kiss and massage my breasts, and my cries got louder.
He bit down lightly on one nipple while squeezing the other breast, and I cried out again.
"Please! Don't stop!"
He abided by my command, and I could feel my orgasm starting to build.
"Dimitri, Dimitri, Dimitri!" I chanted, letting the pleasure wash over me.
A banging on the wall made me freeze, and the pleasure coursing through me was instantly gone.
"Shut the fuck up, whore!"
I slid off Dimitri's lap, feeling cold all over. It was as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over me. I was instantly aware of the fact that I was mostly naked and likely covered in hickeys. Dimitri looked like he wanted to follow me as I continued to back away, but he stayed still on the bed, just staring at me.
"Roza?"
I glanced away. "I'm going to go take a shower."
I turned around and hurried to the bathroom before he could say anything else. I locked the door behind me and flipped on the water as hot as it would go. I refused to look at myself in the mirror, knowing I would burst into tears the second I did. I climbed into the shower instead and let the hot water brush against me as I slid down and sat on the floor of the tub. With my legs pulled up to my chest, I finally allowed myself to cry, the sound hidden by the pounding of the water.
Adrian glared at me coldly.
"Please, please," I whimpered. "Stop. Please."
"Shut up."
"You don't have to do this. I won't say anything if you let me go. Please."
"Shut. Up."
He walked towards me and I scrambled backward, pressing myself against the wall.
"Please," I begged. "Please!"
I felt the pain of the slap against my cheek before I even registered that his hand had moved.
"Shut the fuck up, whore," he snarled. "You're mine and always mine."
The sound of a fist hitting wood pulled me out of the memory.
"Roza, are you okay? You've been in there for almost an hour," Dimitri called through the door. "You can take all the time you need, but I need to know that you're okay."
I reached forward to shut off the water, which, while still warm, wasn't as scalding as before. I could see that my feet were pink from the heat and as I stood, my legs almost buckled under my weight. Keeping them pulled up to my chest had left them still and mostly asleep. Pins and needles raced through my feet and legs as I stepped out of the shower.
"Roza?"
I took baby steps to the door, trying to reduce the pain of the pins and needles that were still shooting through my legs with every step. I cracked open the bathroom door, and instantly met Dimitri's worried gaze.
"I'm okay," I whispered, my voice hoarse. "Will you grab pajamas from my suitcase and bring them here? The black ones with the rainbows?"
"Of course," he said.
He disappeared for a moment before returning and holding out the pajamas. I took them quickly before shutting the bathroom door again. I tossed my wet bikini bottoms into the bathtub and turned my back to the mirror as I slid on a clean pair of underwear, the long pajama bottoms, and the short sleeve top. Once I was covered, I turned and faced my reflection in the mirror.
My hair was a tangled mess where it hung around my face, damp from the shower now instead of from when we fell in the water at Capri. My eyes were puffy and bloodshot, and I wiped away the wetness on my cheeks. I could faintly see a hickey on my neck, and I was glad that I had put my shirt on before facing the reflection since I knew that there were more littering my body.
I tore my gaze away from the mirror and walked back over to the bathroom door where I knew that Dimitri would still be waiting on the other side. I flipped off the light in the bathroom and opened the door. My gaze met Dimitri's again, and I immediately fell into his arms, crying again.
"Roza," he murmured.
He held me for a moment before leading me back to the bed. There was no sign of our earlier activities, and Dimitri flipped back the covers for me before climbing in on his side. He pulled me back into his arms the moment I climbed into the bed and kissed my forehead. My sobs eventually faded, and we laid there in silence for a moment.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked softly. "And before you say sorry, there is nothing to apologize for. You can't control your reactions to certain stimuli."
"I know I can't control it, but that doesn't make me any less sorry," I said, sitting up. Dimitri propped himself up on his elbow and waited for me to continue. "And I am sorry. I know it must not be comfortable being left like…that."
Dimitri almost smiled. "Roza, I'd rather have blue balls the rest of my life than have you in any pain or have you be uncomfortable. Plus, the second I saw the fear on your face, everything disappeared except the need to help you."
I nodded and pulled the blankets closer to me even though it felt like it was a hundred degrees in the room.
"Adrian would call me that sometimes," I whispered. "Especially at the beginning. The second time, I had begged him to let me go, promised that I wouldn't say anything, and he slapped me, told me to shut the fuck up, and called me a whore."
"I wish that I would have beat the living shit out of him when I had the opportunity," Dimitri said, a fierce look in his eyes.
"I would say don't dwell on the past, but that's what I've been doing this entire time," I said, laughing weakly.
"That's different. You have PTSD; you can't control your triggers. We'll just have to work around them and I don't care how much work it takes; I'll always be here to help you."
"I don't deserve you," I whisper, laying back down and letting myself get comfortable wrapped in his arms.
"You deserve the entire fucking world," he said fiercely. "And for as long as I live, I will strive to give you exactly that. I love you, Roza."
"I love you too," I said, tilting my head up to kiss him.
"Get some sleep," he murmured. "We have a long day tomorrow."
I adjusted my pillow and fell into a dreamless sleep, never once moving out of Dimitri's protective embrace.