45. Max
Chapter forty-five
T here is only one word to describe today. Amazing . Watching Mina run around the fair with everyone, with a smile on her face and no fear in her eyes, has been something all of us needed to get past the events of last week.
She was lucky to walk away with only a few bruises and, thankfully, no concussion. She processed her mother and brother dying remarkably well, which wasn’t all that surprising considering what they’d both put her through.
The cops did a DNA test on Simon and were able to pin dozens of murders on him. It’s a bit surreal that the case is finally closed. Not only had we been working on it for over five months, but Mina has never experienced life without a threat hanging over her.
We still have a lease on the house we’re renting until the end of next month, so we decided to take an actual vacation and relax. It’s giving us all time to get to know Mina better, and it’s giving her a chance to start healing. Yesterday, she asked Dom to set up an appointment with a therapist for her. I’m so proud of how far she’s come in such a short time.
“Max! Will you come on the Ferris wheel with me?” she asks, running up to me and grabbing my hand. I tilt my head down, smiling at her, and she presses up on her toes to kiss me. That was another thing I noticed lately, how free she was with her affection for all of us, no longer afraid or holding back.
“Doesn’t Atlas want to go with you?” I ask, turning my gaze to him with a smirk, knowing how much he despises heights.
Mina leans towards me while we walk towards the Ferris wheel as she whispers, “he said he would, but I saw how white his knuckles were on the roller coaster, I have a feeling he doesn’t like heights very much.”
I chuckle as I tell her. “He hates them, but he’d do anything for you.”
“Well, I feel the same way. I don’t need to subject him to something he doesn’t like when I have another boyfriend more than willing to go up with me, right?”
“Right you are, Sweetheart.” I help her climb into the seat and sit beside her while the attendant secures the door on our little pod, straightaway we start moving. She reaches out and grabs my hand, and when I look at her face, she’s watching out the side with a huge grin.
“Are you having fun today?”
“Yes!” she says excitedly, her eyes turning back to mine. “Today is the best day ever! Thanks for suggesting we come here.”
“I’m glad you like it.” I watch her as her eyes bounce around everywhere as we rise to the top of the wheel. “You know, there is a rite of passage for your first Ferris wheel ride with a boyfriend,” I say, unable to take my eyes off of her beautiful face.
“There is?” she asks, looking at me eagerly.
“Yep. As soon as you get to the top, you’re supposed to make out.” My hand comes around the back of her neck and my thumb strokes her pulse point. Her heart starts to beat faster.
“We’re almost at the top now,” she whispers, as her eyes fill with heat .
“Well, we better not waste another second then,” I say, pulling her lips to mine. I quickly thrust my tongue in and dominate her mouth. Her fingers grip my shirt and she moans against me. “Oh, baby. I love the noises you make.” I suck on her lower lip as my hand squeezes her breast through her shirt.
“Max,” she groans.
“How fast do you think I can make you come?” I ask, and she pulls back to see if I’m serious.
“What—Here?”
“Do you doubt my abilities, Sweetheart?”
“No, it’s just—”
“Tell me if you don’t want it, because I have a point to prove now.” I move both hands under her shirt, pushing her bra up as I go and pinching her nipples.
She gasps and presses herself closer to me. “You better be fast, I don’t want anyone to see,” she whispers around her moan.
Thankfully, she’s wearing stretchy yoga pants today, and I’m able to slide one hand down without exposing her. I circle her clit a couple of times before sinking two fingers straight into her tight pussy.
“Max!” she cries.
“Shhh, put your mouth against my shoulder if you need to,” I tell her. She bites me, making me groan as my cock jerks against my leg.
I make quick work of bringing her to her peak and when she muffles her scream into my neck, I almost come myself. Thankfully I don’t, because that would have been quite the mess to explain.
By the time we reach the bottom, she looks totally blissed out, so I scoop her up and carry her out to where the others are waiting nearby.
“Do we want to know?” Jasper asks, looking at her serine smile in my arms.
“You might be jealous if I told you,” I tell him with a wink, making Tucker laugh.
“Well, Princess. Are you ready to go home now? You look pretty tired,” Ben asks, moving forward to stroke a piece of hair from her face.
“Yeah, my feet are pretty sore, and I need a nap. Is it really only three o’clock?”
“Yeah, but we’ve been here for almost five hours and you’ve been on your feet the whole time. I’m not surprised you’re tired,” Jasper says with a smile.
“I wish we could do group stuff like this every day.”
“Give her here,” Atlas says, holding his arms out for her, and I pass her over as we head for the exit. “Malishka, how would you like to go camping?”
“Camping? Like in a tent in the woods?”
“Yeah, I wanted to take you for a date and the others decided they wanted to come, so we thought we’d make it a group date, we could go next week, if you like?”
“I’ve never been camping, it sounds fun!”
“Just wait until you try the s’mores! Oh! And hot dogs on a stick! De-licious!” I tell her, rubbing my belly for emphasis.
“I can’t wait,” she says around a yawn.
“Sleep now, Malishka, I’ve got you.”
“No! Wait! We can’t leave yet!” she cries, trying to sit up in Atlas’s arms.
“Why not? ”
“We need a group picture first! I need a framed photo of you guys in these shirts!” she says with a huge smile.
I knew the matching shirts were going to be a big success. I had expected some arguments from some of the others, but when I presented them each with a different colored shirt that all said ‘hers’ on the front, they stripped off right there to put them on. Of course I got her one that says ‘theirs’ and she squealed when she saw us all dressed in ours.
Ben grabs a random woman to take a photo for us. Atlas holds Mina in the middle, and I kneel in front as the others all move around them. The woman gives us a funny look as she passes Ben his phone back, but the look on Mina’s face when she’s see’s the photo makes me quickly forget. Who cares what anybody else thinks of our relationship? As long as my girl is happy, so am I.
As we resume our walk to the SUV, someone’s phone rings, but when nobody reaches to answer it, we stop, pulling out our phones, trying to figure out whose is ringing.
“Malishka, I think it’s yours,” Atlas says, gently setting her on her feet.
“Oh! It must be my dad,” she says, pulling her phone from her pocket and answering it.
They’ve been talking every day, and I was glad she was able to connect with him again. Although he was becoming really good at becoming the classic overprotective father. He has to go back to California soon for his job and keeps trying to get Mina to move there. He then suggested he stays here, to be closer to her, but when she explained our job would have us moving around, he conceded.
“Tomorrow? Let me ask, hold on—” She frowns before speaking again. “No. Dad, no, of course not. I just need to see if we have any plans.” She turns her back to us and takes a step away, listening to what he says before responding. “That’s not what’s going on, dad. He’s the head of our family and—” Her shoulders drop and she sighs. “Yeah, I know.”
“Enough of this,” Dom grumbles as he walks over and stands in front of her, holding his hand out, palm up. Mina doesn’t hesitate to give him her phone.
“Hello, Paul. What seems to be the problem?” His eyes never leave Mina’s face as he listens to whatever it is her dad has to say. “I can assure you we have not been keeping her from you, and I don’t appreciate you accusing us of that. If she wants to see you tomorrow, we will make it happen, but we are not going to push her into it before she’s ready.” He nods his head before responding. “I will. Have a good evening, Paul.”
He hangs up the phone and passes it to her, before putting an arm around her shoulder and pulling into his side as we continue across the parking lot.
“He wants to see you tomorrow, and I told him you would let him know. If he gets pushy again, you tell me, okay?”
“It’s okay, Dom. I think he just wants to make up for lost time.”
“It doesn’t matter, he has no right to push you before you’re ready.”
“He has fifteen years of overprotective dad to make up for, I guess. And besides, I think I’m ready. To see him, I mean.”
“If you’re sure?” Dom asks, looking down at her.
She nods her head, a determined look on her face. “Yes. He killed Simon to save me, the least I can do is have a coffee with him.”
“Well, we have to go in for the debrief with the police chief tomorrow. There is a coffee shop right across the street, so you can grab that drink while we do that.”
“Okay! I’ll text him now,” she says excitedly .
I haven’t seen her smile as much in the past two months as she’s done today. The same goes for all my brothers. Every time they look at her, it seems to ease something in them, just as it does in me. Like our missing piece has finally come home, and now, our puzzles complete.