MINE!

22: A Future Donna's Resolve

Dante's POV

My grandfather officially announced that he would be arriving in five days.

Luckily, I've been training Mari and she has surprisingly caught on extremely fast, almost as if she's done it before. When I asked her about it she simply told me that since her dad was so overprotective growing up, he made her and her siblings learn how to fight so they would always be able to take care of themselves.

Right now, I'm getting packed for a three-day business trip as Mari begs me to take her with me.

"Danteee, please?!" She whines for the umpteenth time tugging on my hand while she deliberately sits on top of my suitcase.

"No Mari. I'm sorry and I wish I could take you with me but it's too dangerous," I explain once again.

"But D, you've been training me," she says. "Ooh! And-and I pinned you yesterday"

I'd be lying if I said that a part of me didn't wish that I could say that I let her pin me but the truth is, she's a lot stronger than most would think. But despite all of that her safety comes first and the people that I'm going to meet aren't people she will ever need to meet.

"And that was very impressive, sweetheart," I credit kissing her on her forehead. "But this just isn't the meeting you need to go to. There are going to be very dangerous and bigotted men there that won't be able to stop themselves from saying any stupid s*** that comes to their minds. And then I won't be able to hold myself back from killing them."

"Dante, I'm brown babe. I've been having people say slick s*** at me my whole life, I can handle it and myself," She replies while linking her arms around my neck. "As much as I know you'd like to, you can't protect me from everything D," she finishes.

And she's right but I will do everything in my power to make sure that I do, especially in situations like these, where it's avoidable.

And this is avoidable, Mariana-Leilani Jacobson is staying home where she'll be safe and sound, and if she thinks otherwise then she is sadly mistaken.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mari's POV

I smile lovingly at the side of Dante's head as we begin to get ready for our departure.

I know Dante has this whole dominant macho man thing he has goin' on but it's 'bout time that he's realized that I only allow him to be the dominant one in this relationship.

I know he cares about me and just wants to make sure that I'm always safe, but whether he realizes or comes to terms with it or not, my days of always being safe went out the window the moment we met.

And now that I've decided to be with him, he can't just hide me away from his world. It would be different if he was just a guard, but he's the boss which is why as his woman, I need to make sure that everyone he knows and that knows about him, knows that I'm not going to be some trophy wife that hangs on his arm during events or that sits silently at the table nodding along to any and everything.

I will be networking and mingle right beside him when we go to events and I will be giving my opinion and helping to guide him in his decision-making when I see fit at every meeting I'm a part of. If I'm going to be in this life then I'm going to fully be in this life.

And that starts with this meeting tomorrow morning.

But Dante isn't tryin' to hear all that right now. In his mind, I'm just being unnecessarily defiant.

In an effort to get him off of his laptop and brighten up his mood, I lightly lay my hand on his leg about a couple inches above his knee while looking out of the window. And knowing about how crazy his sweet spot right on the inside of his thigh drives him when I rub it, I let my hand slip down from on top of his thigh to the inside of it. I'm drawing lazy circles into it and can't help but smirk at my reflection in the window at feeling how his leg immediately jerked at the sensation.

After around thirty more seconds of me doing this and getting no verbal acknowledgment from him, I make sure I've got the puppy dog eyes locked and loaded, and turn to him with a sigh.

"Baby," I cringed at the word, "are you trying to make me feel bad or something?"

"Why do you say that sweetheart?" He asks nonchalantly while still typing away at his screen.

Why do you say that sweetheart? Oh PUH- lease

Like if he would've been working at any other moment in time, I would've let him be to finish his work so he could relax once we'd landed, but now he's doin' the absolute most!

He called this upon himself.

A/N: I hate this part of updating but hey y'all, yess I'm unfortunately doing my usual, every blue moon update. I could go into a big apology as usual but i'm trying to get in the habit of not apologizing for things i had no control of, my phone stopped working on me so ive been without a phone & I just got a job at kfc like almost 3 months now & ive been working on all my non-church days & they're typically around, 6-8 hr shifts every mon, tues, thurs (today in like a few hrs so i really pushed thru to get this out yall) & sat & im a senior this yr which comes with a lot more responsibilities, student council wise & stuff, not to mention ya girl is apart of the national society of high school scholars! It took a lot of work to get here but its not for naught. & ik this chp is on the shorter side but that's bc it's a pt. 2 & the 2nd one is much longer. & ion really know if imma be able to release those chps of juvenile this summer like planned bc its already school time for me & work is gettin more hectic the better i get at my job & im lowkey feelin a lil burnt out but imma make it, just pray for me yall!!