Maxed Steel by M.J. Fields

High Tide

Mila

I left Cia with strict instructions and threats … lots and lots and lots of threats not to leave the apartment as I watched Max pace back and forth on the beach, talking to someone.

As soon as I hang up, I get a message from … a bazillion different numbers that I have no idea who any of them are, except Bella. The group name, however, gives it away—Steel Babes. All with congratulations on the engagement and saying how they cannot wait to meet Saylor. Some inquire who the hell is Saylor. Some give explanation as to who I am … with pictures. Old ass picture. Acne and twenty pounds extra fucking pictures.

Bella: She’s even prettier than she was then. And Saylor! A perfect mix of her and Max.

I secretly pray that she doesn’t mention the DNA test, not only because it’s embarrassing, but also because Marc and Tris were once a thing, and I do not want things to be any more awkward than they already are.

A picture pops up, and another, and another. They are great pictures; the action shots, especially. All of the park that day, and none posed, because I didn’t have a clue she was taking them.

A message pops up

Bella: I should totally be a PI … which is my way of saying, yeah, I got issues.

Me: Don’t we all.

Bella: Shouldn’t you and Max be celebrating … naked? is what I want to ask, but also I really need a “She said yes” picture, in front of your house. Oh, and one of just your house for a before and after.

I laugh as I read over it and cringe at the thought of my blotchy face in a picture right now.

Bella: One more thing. Thanks for not blowing my spot with Max and the DNA test.

Me: I can keep a secret.

Bella: Burn. Got it.

Me: Wasn’t meant to be, but now that you mention it … Nah, never mind. I’m going to go grab Max and … stuff.

Bella: A picture pops up of a girl riding a horse. Get to it. And catch up. I have three and … (this is a secret. I’m trusting you. Tags is the only one who knows) another on the way.

Me: Congrats! No worries. Secret’s safe.

Standing up, I hold up my phone, just to get a look at the mess I am as I walk down the steps and toward him, wiping my face, which makes no sense because it does nothing for the blotchiness.

When he sees me coming, he holds his hand over his heart. “Blue, I’m sorry, babe. Please don’t cry anymore.”

I hold my phone up. “I’m not crying. I have picture requests from … well, I’m not sure, but the group chat’s name is Steel Babes, so—”

“I fucked up with Cia, yeah?” Two steps, and he’s got me in his arms.

Shaking my head, I tell him, “She’s been told to stay inside, and there isn’t much else I can do until—”

“She needs the fuck out of there, Blue.” He sets me on my feet. “She needs to be safe.”

“Right now, that’s not an option.”

“We always got options.”

The glint in his eyes is much the same as it was when we pulled into the parking lot.

“I’m gonna sell this place, because I don’t want us living in a place that ups—”

“A place where the man I love proposed with the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen on a surfboard? Where the heaviest burden I have carried was lifted? The place where I found out that my biggest prayer in the world was answered? No, Max, there is nowhere else. This is now my happy place.”

“Yeah?” he asks before kissing me sweetly.

“Yeah,” I say before kissing him back, not so sweetly, allowing my hand to travel down his body.

When I shove them down his gray sweatpants, he groans and bends down for a kiss. I step aside, my hand still around his quickly hardening cock, and start walking toward a house that will one day be our home.

“Where are you taking my cock, Blue?” He laughs.

“To pick a bedroom.”

“Mind if I come, too?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

We walk into the bedroom on the left side of the beautiful open room with the balcony that overlooks the living space, where I imagine a Christmas tree so tall it nearly touches the ceiling. I imagine Cia and Saylor falling asleep in their own bedrooms, with their doors open, looking at the twinkling lights like they are magical, and Max and I making love with our door shut, looking at each other in much the same way.

“This one?” he asks, his voice thick and raspy.

“Yeah.” I turn around, and he grips the hem of my shirt, yanking it over my head.

“Gotta let go of my dick so I can get this shirt off you.”

“What if I don’t want to?” I ask as he unsnaps the front closure of my still wet bra and cups my breasts.

“I’ll make it work.” He leans down and takes one in his mouth, sucking and tugging on my nipples, as he rubs the other between his fingers. “Mmm …”

I whimper and grip his cock in my hand, stroking it back and forth.

He moves to the other breast and runs his hands down my belly, which is wildly aflutter. He pushes beneath my waistband then splits me with one of his thick fingers before he begins to rub slowly up and down my sensitive skin.

Burning inside, I grab his hair and pull it back so he’s looking up at me, and I kiss him. We kiss like we may never again, alternating from his lips, his neck, his shoulder.

My back now against the wall, he lifts one of my legs around his hips, and grinds against me. My head falls back, and his mouth again finds my tits as I pull my leg from his grip and start pushing them down, one handed, while still stroking him.

Together, Max and I quickly remove my pants, and even quicker, he shoves down his own.

As he brings my leg back up, I rub his cock against my now soaked core as I wrap my arm around his shoulders, wrap the other around him, and he thrusts inside all while still sucking and biting my tips.

Looking up at me, my nipple between gleaming white teeth, he growls, “Move your hand, Blue. I need all the way in.”

* * *

Standing in front of my dorm room, he kisses my cheek. “Gotta make a couple calls. Gonna miss the hell out of you.”

“I need to tell Lindsey she’ll need a new roommate next semester.”

“She can come crash with us anytime, Mila.”

I nod. “I know. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

“I’m thinking she will be.” He kisses my cheek then my lips that feel a bit bruised.

“Mmhmm,” I say against his.

Breaking the kiss, he steps back. “Check in on your sister, yeah?”

I nod, and he runs a hand through his sexy mess of thick hair.

“How do you feel about adoption?” he asks.

“I feel like you’re jumping the gun. We’ve only had sex twice; I think we’re probably okay.”

He shoves his hands in the pockets of his pants and kicks at the floor. “I’m talking about Cia.”

“Aunt Pam will sign over legal guardianship whenever I—”

He shakes his head. “I’m talking when you and Saylor have my name, so does she.”

“You would do that?”

“Not just would, Blue, I want that for her.”

My eyes mist over immediately. “Have I told you how much I love you?”

“Please do not cry. I can’t handle—”

“I love you. I love you so much I may break the no sleeping in mine and Lindsey’s room rule.”

“Yeah?” He smiles.

“Most definitely.”

“Good to know. But not tonight.”

“You have a headache?”

“Funny.” He leans forward and kisses me. “Chat later.”

I watch him walk away, and that is when I notice people peeking out of their rooms.

Pissed, I tell them, “That’s all mine.” Then I open the door and yell back, “Move along.”

“Get in here!” Lindsey squeals as she walks out of the bathroom, holding a sparkling blue dress. “We haven’t much time.”

“Time for what?” I ask, seriously thinking I missed something.

“To try on this dress, fix your hair, and cover up those blotches,” she says, all sorts of flustered.

“What the hell is going on?”

“Don’t ask questions. Just go with it.”

“Lindsey, I need to show you something.” I hold out my hand.

She covers her mouth with both her hands, seemingly having forgotten that she was holding a dress. “He did it! He asked you to marry him!”

“He did.”

“And you said yes!” She lunges at me and hugs me. “Of course you did.”

“And the test came back. He’s Saylor’s father.”

She steps back. “You deserve this. You totally do, and I think he’s never going to become a Chet or Chip, but he’ll have the Chet and Chip money. I am totally jealous. But also grateful.” She picks up the dress. “So, did you love the house?”

“What? How did you know—”

“Don’t ask questions; just get naked.” Then … she pants me. “Like now.”

Ten minutes later, Lindsey flops back on the bed. “I used to want to be Cinderella’s fairy godmother, but I am totally rethinking that now.” She sits back up. “Unless magic wands are real. Do you think they are?”

“The one in your nightstand drawer is,” I say, looking down at the navy, form-fitted, sequined dress.

“It totally is.” She laughs as she hops off the bed, opens the drawer, and says, “Come with us.”

“If you think I’m following you anywhere carrying that thing, you are out of your damn mind.”

A minute later, I am following Lindsey to the elevator, and only because she swore she would keep that thing in her pocket. I have no idea where she is dragging me, but I have a pretty good idea it has something to do with Max.

In front of the lobby door, Lindsey takes my shoulders. “You look amazing, you make this fairy godmother job so worth it, so stay right here, and I will be back.”

Before I can say anything, she opens the door and slides out.

I hear a loud whistle and turn around. Boone is walking out of the elevator, and Max …

“Fuuuck.”

Max steps out from behind him in a freaking tux, and he looks … disgustingly handsome.

“Not yet, Blue, but I love the way you think.”

“And that, ladies, is the sound ovaries make when they burst.” Boone chuckles.

“Only one set of ovaries I care about,” Max says, stepping in front of me and looking me up and down. “When I passed that first dirty note to you in high school, my heart was racing. And when you looked at me with disgust, I knew you were something special.”

Everyone who has gathered in the lobby laughs.

He continues, “I charmed my way into your—”

“Panties!” someone yells.

Shaking his head, he says, “Graces and eventually lured you onto a boat, trying to show you I was a badass, telling you that I didn’t know whose it was.” He leans forward. “That was a lie. It was my uncle’s, but it worked like a charm.”

I laugh as I stay focused on his incredibly handsome face so I don’t freak out about being in the spotlight.

“And then”—he drops his voice an octave—“we got it on.”

I palm my face as the lobby, that is now getting more and more packed, erupts in laughter. Someone whistles.

“I begged you for weeks to go to a dance with me, the Winter Ball, but the night before that, I was in an unfortunate accident.”

“DUI.” Several people laugh like it’s funny, and I tear my eyes from him to glare around the room.

He takes my face in his hand and turns me to face him. “Actually, that’s what the rumor was. The truth? I got roofied, and my fragile male ego hid that shit. Because of my ego, you wouldn’t talk to me. You moved seats in shared classes, and I dated a lot.”

“Whoop, whoop, whoop,” some in the crowd cheer.

“It’s true that many have had parts of me, but no one in the world has owned my heart, except you.”

“Wife her,” someone calls out.

“Less than a week ago, I saw you again for the first time in years, and it was still here.” He holds his hand over his heart. “But again, you acted disgusted with me, even more so than before. A few days ago, I found out why. You were protecting something, something you love and something else I never will stop loving. She’s two, and she has her mommy’s eyes and—”

“Her daddy’s smile.”

“Today, I asked you to marry me”—he holds up my hand—“and she said yes.”

The crowded lounge erupts in cheers.

“But there is one promise I made to you before all that that I want to unbreak. Mila Miller, will you go to the dance with me?”

The front doors open, and I see Lindsey with her vibrator raised in the air, standing there, smiling from ear to ear, with a crown on her head. She waves it around, yelling out, “Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.”

I start laughing, as does everyone else, and then … it starts to snow.