Maxed Steel by M.J. Fields
Family
Max
I watch her stop,her head and shoulders falling like she’s been defeated as she stands in front of the door and I yank my shorts up.
“Blue, I’m sorry, babe. But, straight-up, I had no clue you had company.”
“It’s fine,” she sighs out and turns around.
I do a quick nip check just to see if she is even slightly turned on by my entry and …. nope, not in the least.
As she turns to attempt to leave again, I walk over and turn her around, and she looks up. I expect her to be pissed, but when she looks up, she simply looks exhausted.
“Come on; let’s just chill, yeah?”
“You three want me to make popcorn, or do you wanna give them some privacy?” Dad says from somewhere on her bed.
She walks over with me and grabs the phone, handing it to me. “Your family called.”
“Yeah?” I ask, sitting on the bed and pulling her up with me.
No fight, no nothing, she sits right between my legs, and it feels really good to have her there.
Leaning back, I hold the phone up and look at the screen. In the background, I see Dad pull out the air popper and roll my eyes. “You three should think about enrolling. Dorm life is all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Don’t give them any ideas, Maximus,” Dad warns.
Worry is etched in my mom’s face as she says, “I didn’t want to hang up without apologizing. I’m sorry, Mila.” She looks up at me. “I’m sorry, Max.”
Voice shaking, Mila says, “I appreciate that, but I just want to make sure my aunt is okay. I know you all have a past, but she is a good person and, because of her, we weren’t dumped in the foster system, and I am able to go to college so that I can take care of my fami—”
The fuck?I think as I hug her a bit closer to me.
Dad pipes in, “If it wasn’t for your aunt, I wouldn’t have even seen pictures of my daughter for the first seven years of her life. Things were messed up back then. All of us have owned up to our ends. Legit laughed about it together over lunch this afternoon. We buried all that in the past. As a matter of fact, future’s looking good, kiddo. Bella even brought the kids to see her again. And—”
“Can I ask what the hell is going on?” I cut him off, finally having enough of being in the fucking dark.
Ten minutes later, I know all about Bella’s birth mother’s, Charlee, best friend, who is also Blue’s Aunt Pam, who, apparently, bonded over the shared pain of losing Charlee, then Dad used his dick to fuck information from Aunt Pam, and Aunt Pam kind of used Bella to get good dick.
Enter Carly and her magical smile, alluring clumsiness, naïveté, and that connection you feel when you found the one—that even two years later sticks with you—Dad not mentioning he had a kid because he thought she would think he was a d-bag for losing custody, and you get Jase and Carly’s story in a nut shell.
Bet Mom would read that. Hell, if it wasn’t my parents’ story, I would, too.
I mean, that’s not how the story was told, but pretty much sums it all up, if you leave out the angst. Being that I’m no fan of the angst, that’s exactly how I would summarize that shit.
But here and now, I gotta man up, protect my woman, and give out a bit of an ass chewing—okay, a nibble, because they’re ladies and all—and set some boundaries.
“Bella, not cool that you went to Mila without my permission. I’m a grown-ass man, doing grown-ass man things. And …”
I stop when Kiki starts laughing.
“Max is doing hot girl shit.”
“You may want to snap your trap, Kiki, because you’re next.”
“This is mild compared to the Thanksgiving dinner where Brand showed up and—”
Thankfully, Mom cuts her off, because Mila might not find the humor in the fact that she lied about banging half the town and didn’t know who she got knocked up by because she didn’t want Brand, who she thought was into Bella, to know it was his kid. And straight-up, I don’t want Mila looking at Brand like he was a two-pump chump, because it would inevitably come out in conversation that he only lasted thirty seconds.
That may make me sound like a good guy but, reality is, my picnic table game was way the fuck off, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t surpass Brand’s thirty seconds by much. Which was why I was needing that double header tonight, because I know my shit is magic, and Mila needs to know that, too.
“One word. Boundaries. You all got to make your way without me interfering, I expect you let us do the same.”
“Oh. Hell. No.” Bella shakes her head. “Any guy who ever came to the house was met by you and Dad giving them some kind of hell. Just because you’re a guy does not mean you skate.”
“Fine, I won’t come,” I say matter-of-factly.
“Oh, see? Now please don’t do that,” Mom says, sad as fuck.
I’m two seconds from giving in when Mila says, “I’ll be there, but maybe not when everyone else is.”
“Thank you, Mila.”
“Max.” Dad shakes his head, disapproving.
“I know, Dad, but she’s my Carly, so you know—”
“She’s our Mila,” Dad says, crossing his arms. “Right, kiddo?”
Mila sighs. “Yeah, I guess so.”
He leans toward the camera and scowls at her. “A little more enthusiasm next time. We don’t let bad shit happen to ours, you feel me?”
“Yeah.”
He winks at her, smirks, and then steps back. “We didn’t step too far over the line. Didn’t ask for an intro to Saylor. Yet. Want that from you. Oh, and heads-up, the little ones love me.”
He’s not wrong. The littles think he’s the shit, especially the girls.
“Love ya, kids.” He leans in, finger up to end the call, and then steps back, pulls Mom, who looks betrayed as fuck in front of him, and they all say, “Goodnight.”
Mila looks up and over her shoulder at me. I lean down to press a kiss to her lips, and she swerves.
“You wanna call her back, don’t you?”
“Fuck, Blue, I do, but—”
“Call your mom.”
“I promised you a round two.”
“If you think I want you inside me when you’re thinking about your mom, you have—”
“Oh, hell no, you did not just—”
Laughing, she climbs over me and says, “Such a momma’s boy.”
“Fuck, I am.” Total lie, I am absolutely a momma’s boy, but I set the phone on the nightstand and settle back.
“Mmhmm. Make the call, Max.” She giggles softly. “Make the call.”
“Makes me more a man that I love and respect the woman who gave birth to me,” I explain.
“Mmhmm.”
“In a bathtub with no drugs, I might add.”
“Max, just call your mom.” She yawns.
“And not like at some clinic or birthing center, or some shit like that, not Carly Steel. She did that like a fucking wilderness woman, on a damn farm.”
The bed shakes from her silent laughter.
“I’m not shitting you, Mila. She’s badass like that.”
I grab my phone and realize it’s not mine.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, still laughing. “Need your mommy to find your phone?”
“Fed me from her body for a damn year. That’s some hardcore momming right there. Probably bit those things, too, ’cause I know I had teeth before I was one.”
When Mila laughs, and then I hear a whole lot more laughter coming from that side of her bed, I grab her and flip her onto her back, and she drops the phone on her waist as she covers her mouth, still laughing.
“Who the hell did you call?” I ask, picking up the phone.
I see Mom, and she’s smiling so damn big as they all laugh.
“No shame in my game.” I shake my head and laugh. “Love you, Mom. Love you, Dad. Sisters.”
“Just tell them you love them, too, because God knows, if you don’t, you’ll be on a tangent about that next.”
“Love you, meddlers.” I blow them a kiss, end the call, then look down at Mila. “Love you, Blue.”
She doesn’t say it back, again. That’s fine, I think as I get up.
Her smile wobbles, and she whispers, “Are you mad at me?”
“About that phone call? No. It was funny as hell. Made Mom happy, too. Thank you.”
She pushes up to a seated position. “I’m scared, Max.”
“Yeah? Want me to check under the bed before I leave?”
“I’m scared that, if I say the words back, then you will—”
“I don’t want you to say the words until you really mean it.”
She looks down at her hands, all knotted together, and shakes her head.
“Seeing you laugh just a beat ago, that’s the most chill and at ease as you’ve been since the party at Oakley’s, Blue. Don’t get all twisted up about this, yeah?”
“You’re not understanding me.” Still looking at her hands, she shakes her head. “Please don’t look at me like you’re disappointed, because that hurts worse. Knowing that, when the test results come back, if they don’t read how I so desperately want them to, I’ll see that again. It makes it even harder to look at you, Max.”
She looks up. “I’ve lived so long thinking I don’t deserve good things. My dad was so mean, and when I say mean, I don’t mean normal mean. He was physically and verbally …” She swallows hard and looks back down.
“Baby.” I sit next to her and take her hand. “No one should put their fucking hands on any woman.”
Eyes glassed over, she continues, “I begged her to leave, and she was so beaten down that she simply said to me, ‘be thankful we have a roof over our head, and food in our bellies.’”
“I’m sorry you’ve been through all that.”
“Even when Aunt Pam got sick, it was better than living with him. And I hate that I feel resentment toward her for not leaving him, but I do. When it was just us, life was so good. I focus on that hard. Cia will never carry those scars, either. And when I had Saylor, I wasn’t scared of this tiny, not even five-pound, little baby. I knew that I would make sure she would never, ever, ever live like that or believe that having food in her belly and a roof over her head was enough. Even living where we do, we can live a good life.
“Tonight, when I came back, I cried so freaking hard, and Lindsey reminded me that I need to stop fighting the good that comes into my life.” She smiles at me, fucking smiles so beautifully, and continues, “Just because I’m scared to say those words, or admit that I have hated on you for the whole Stanford thing, lied to myself that it was because they had family housing, and you screwed it up for me, I hated so hard I seriously believed it was you, that doesn’t mean that, two years ago, I wasn’t falling in love with you, and it doesn’t mean that stopped because you stood me up or fucked half of Seashore after you ghosted me. And now, right now, I’m still falling, and here you are, so freaking beautiful and confident. Jesus, Max, you are seriously confident. Do they sell that shit at the Black Card only store?”
“Confidence comes from being raised by strong people, Blue. Look at Saylor; you did that.”
“I’m a good mom, Max, and until you walked onto campus, I didn’t care what one person thought of me. I am here for a purpose, and that purpose is to make sure Saylor doesn’t ever have to dumpster dive for coupons so she doesn’t run out of shampoo.”
“Not gonna lie, we need to teach her that, because it blew my mind seeing all those people that a single mom, full-time college student, and full-time goddess was helping.”
“I will always do this, so you need to know that you have a girlfriend, one who wants to be yours”—she closes her eyes and smiles—“who does love you, Max Steel, and would give you a dozen babies, because she believes who you are and what you say, who will always be clipping coupons and helping people to get by so that they might break a cycle and not just be happy they have a roof over their head and food in their belly, because everyone deserves more.”
“Could have easily gotten lost after closing my eyes. I love you, Mila, but just so you know, I heard every fucking word you said, and I see who you are and where you wanna be. I’m here for all of it.”
She opens her eyes.
“Now tell me what I wanna hear.”
She climbs up on my lap, straddles me, takes my fucking face in her hands like she’s got it like that—and FYI, she fucking does—and says, “I love you, Max, and I want to be yours.”
“Always have been, Blue, always will be.”
She kisses me. Her mouth tastes like sugar, and her still damp hair smells like strawberries and cream.
Tongues stroking tongues, unhurried and exploring. I immediately move my hands to her hips, rocking her slowly against me, my cock hardening immediately.
She groans into my mouth and moves to my cheek, down my jawline, my neck. Her hands lead the charge, sliding down my shoulders, my biceps, then across my chest as she kisses back up my neck, my cheek, and traces her tongue across my lips while continuing to touch every muscle appreciatively. I make a promise to myself that I will never stop working out just so she touches me like she is now.
She skates her hands down my abs, and then she grips the hem of my shirt. She lifts it up, leans back, and licks her lips as she looks me over in a way I have never been looked at before, making me feel like I’m a ten-course meal and not just a snack.
“Not gonna lie, Max; you were always hot, but now … now you’re fire.”
I wrap my arm around her to flip her on her back, and she pushes me away.
“You had this afternoon.”
“Take what’s yours, Blue.” I lift my arms, and she pulls my shirt up over my head then tosses it to the floor.
“I plan on it.”
Her lips start on the base of my neck as she moves to all fours, backing that ass up as she moves down my body, kissing, licking, nipping her way lower and lower.
She grabs my waistband, and I don’t play cute or coy, and I don’t even try to act hard to get; I lift my ass up and help her remove my shorts.
One hand wrapped part way around my cock, lowering herself to her elbows, she cups my balls with the other as she looks up at me, black lashes like a veil over gray eyes, as she takes one end of the barbell in her mouth and gives it a tug.
“That’s all you, Blue,” I groan.
She circles her tongue around my crown, right before she takes me so deep, so fast, that her lips are almost framing the root.
“Fuuuuck,” I nearly cry when she sucks all the way back to the tip, her tongue flat on the underside of my cock, and I swear I do shed a tear when she goes back down.
I fist her hair as if it’s grounding me, stopping me from levitating off the bed as she sucks, licks almost deep throats my cock, looking up at me as if she’s starving.
When I’m about ready to come, I do the gentlemanly thing and warn her.
She licks a circle around my head and tugs at my barbell again, and then she begins stroking me faster, squeezing my balls a little harder as she says. “I want every drop.”
She slides her hot, wet mouth down my cock, and I do all I can do not to deliver. I’m not ready yet. No, I’m not a fucking boy; I’m a man and unashamed that I only last another … thirty fucking seconds, at best.
I swear to God above, I black out for a few seconds, and when I open my eyes, she’s climbing across me and sliding under her covers.
“Not done yet,” I say, tossing them back.
She yawns. “I have to work at the gym in five hours. I love you, Max. I want you but, right now, I need to get some sleep.”
I lie on my side, lean in, and kiss the back of her neck. “Love you, Mila, so fucking much.”
She yawns again. “Can you make sure to take the sock off the door so Lindsey doesn’t think we’re having sex in here and can come in to get some sleep?”
“Yeah, of course.” I kiss the back of her head. Then I throw on my clothes and head to the door. There, I look down where Lindsey is circled up on the floor, using a towel as a pillow.
I squat down and say, “Hey, Red, the coast is clear.”
She wakes up slowly, and when she does, she asks, “You two good?”
“Damn right, we are. I’m gonna wife that girl.”
She pushes herself up as I stand and hold out my hand, pulling her up.
“I’m so glad.”
I lean down and whisper, “Might need your help with a plan I have tomorrow, to surprise her.”
“I would love to help,” she says as she walks into her room.
I walk over to say goodnight to Mila, but she is already out cold.
I laugh and look back at Lindsey. “You wanna tell her I said goodnight?”
“Sure,” she yawns and gets into bed.
“Sleep well, Red.”
“You, too.” She lies down and fluffs her pillow, and I leave.
And yeah, that sucks.