Chapter 653: Boundaries

𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝟏𝟖+

Ian rolled off Mina and laid flat on his back, closing his eyes as he caught his breath. It had only been two days since he had acquired the rights to mine within two hundred miles of a residential neighborhood, but he was already stressed because of the relocations Mina had made him commit to. It was burdensome to find another large area of woodlands to set up solar powered homes without first clearing a sizable portion of trees, which Ian also needed clearance for.

Feeling Mina's soft fingertips lightly brush along his jawline, Ian reached up to hold her hand, still working to catch his breath with his eyes shut.

"You seem tired," the woman said.

"Exhausted," Ian replied, letting out a large breath after he spoke.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she questioned, and Ian smiled before answering.

"You could try being on top." Mina withdrew her hand from his and Ian chuckled, keeping his eyes closed as he relished in the comfort of being in his bed with someone he genuinely cared for.

"I'm serious," Mina added, studying the man's face as he laid beside her, clearly too tired to open his eyes.

"Would you happen to have any idea how to make buying a forest pay for itself?" He asked in mock sarcasm, and Mina chuckled at the joke that had come courtesy of Miss Luna, who had not known she was being overheard.

"I have this," Mina replied, and Ian felt her leave his bed and come back. He cracked open an eye to see that she was tapping the screen of her phone and then she handed her device to him.

Ian took the phone in his hands, reading the words written on it before he sat up in shock. He looked over at the woman beside him, completely baffled by how she managed to stay poor when she was so good with managing money. He looked back down at the phone, picking up his own to call Cam, while Mina quietly watched him wearing a warm smile. She had made the relocation of the people who lived at the mining site pay for itself by writing it off as community outreach.

Mina had checked and double checked several times; there was nothing that said that relocating people for personal gain could not fall under charitable contributions. Every home, every battery, every solar panel; even the food was tax deductible, and while it was not yet time to file, by the time it was, she was confident that the Lee group would not be penalized for doing the right thing.

Ian ended the call with his cousin, who said he would get someone certified to investigate what Mina had done, but he knew within himself that her work was solid. She was good at robbing the government, so good that Cameron still considered her a threat, even when she was helping them. The man did not trust Mina at all, and had it not been for the fact that she had specifically asked him not to say anything, Ian would have long ago told his cousin that Mina was finally his, and no longer an outsider.

"I'm sorry Mina, I just had to confirm, but you know that I trust you, right?" Mina nodded and made herself comfortable in President Lee's bed, finally feeling sleepy. The man laid next to her, holding her hand as he kissed her knuckles. "How do you feel?" He asked, and Mina, thinking he was talking about her physical state of being answered accordingly. Ian sighed, feeling as though Mina would never open up to him and he was afraid to speak first because he felt she would become frightened by his confession.

"Is something wrong?" Mina asked, sitting up on an elbow as she held the blankets close to her bare chest.

"Nothing," Ian lied.

----

Mina was surprised to see Willow at work, and as soon as they were out of sight, they embraced one another tightly. She was excited to see her friend, but she was scared for the woman. Mina knew Willow had purposefully been avoiding anything that had to do with her, and she, like everyone else, got most of her updates about her wellbeing from Mills.

"What are you doing here?" Mina whispered. Although they were in a back room, she was still worried someone might hear or see them together. Mina was still under the impression that her friends were in danger because of her, and with Willow getting married soon, she did not want anything bad to happen.

"My contact came through," Willow said. She handed Mina a stack of documents, and Mina looked through them feeling conflicted.

"I don't think I need these anymore," she said, taking Willow aback.

"Mina, please tell me you aren't falling for that man." Mina stayed quiet. She did not know what she felt for President Lee, she just knew she did not want to let it go yet. She listened to Willow rant before the woman finally gave her an opening to speak. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that for the first time in a long time, I am happy, and I was thinking that the people I care about would be happy for me." Willow put her hand over her chest, realizing for the first time that her friend was putting herself first, but in her opinion, it was the worst situation for her to become selfish in.

"And what will you do if this is all just a game for him? What happens then?"

"If that happens, I expect my friends to be there for me, just like I would have been there for you with Jeremy, Oric or whoever else may have hurt you." Willow stayed quiet, studying her friend's expression before shaking her head in surrender.

"And you're happy?"

"Very," Mina replied. "And if things change, I can always go back to where we left off." Willow pulled her friend into a hug, not allowing herself to react harshly.

"Make sure that you stay in control of the relationship. If he makes you feel uncomfortable, tell him, and as for sex, I don't want to assume, but…" Willow went into detail, telling Mina that time, location and even the number of times were all things she should pay attention to. She told Mina that when men get bored, they want to experiment. While she meant her words to be helpful, Mina could not help but to think of President Lee's request to try new things that morning. "You know I wouldn't tell you this if I didn't have cause for concern. If it's just companionship that you want, Oric can marry us both." Mina chuckled, knowing that Willow was trying to lighten the mood, but it was a bad joke.

"Nothing has changed. I still want to fall in love and get married. It's just that right now, President Lee makes me feel…" Mina could not find the word she wanted to use, so she let her sentence drop.

"You don't have to explain. I understand that feeling well. I just want you to be sure that it's real because I also know what it's like to find out that it's not."

----

Mina could not get Willow's words out of her mind, and when President Lee picked her up from work, she found herself counting the seconds before he touched her in an intimate manner. Aside from a kiss as a greeting, the man had a habit of rubbing her breast and kissing her neck, something that Mina enjoyed until she started to wonder if that was all that he saw her for.

"Do you remember your promise?" he asked, and Mina nodded. She had told the man that she would try something new with him, and while she had not been afraid before, she was now scared that it meant he was getting bored with her, just as she was growing comfortable with him.

By the time they arrived at President Lee's home, Mina could tell that the man was not going to give her a second to rest or change her mind. He removed her clothing in a way that was not aggressive, but left no room for negotiation, and when he pressed her down into his bed, he immediately flipped her onto her stomach, so he could focus on planting kisses on her back.

Mina closed her eyes as President Lee massaged her glutes, and while it was embarrassing at first, she soon found herself panting with the contact. The man was being gentle with her, so there was no reason to stop him, and when the sensations that were flowing through her became overwhelmingly pleasant, she found herself lifting her bottom toward the man, who she just knew was wearing a smirk.

Mina heard the plastic wrapper being opened, relieved that she did not have to deny President Lee the freedom he was looking for a third time in a row. When he lifted her hips off the bed and she was bent in the crawling position, the man used his fingertips to caress her spine, causing her back to arch downward, and he pushed himself inside of her with the reaction. Mina's body thrust forward, but President Lee was holding her hips tightly, so she did not move as the man stilled.

"Are you okay?" he asked, rubbing her back and sides.

Embarrassed by the position she was in; Mina did not respond. Instead, she buried her face into the mattress, and President Lee chuckled before beginning to move again. As his motions became rougher, Mina's body flattened into the bed and the man nibbled on the tips of her ear, pushing into her in a way that made erotic sounds of skin slapping skin fill the room. It felt like hours had passed before he was finally done, but Mina stayed unmoving in his bed, wanting to see what he would do.

Tired, Ian closed his eyes for a second, but sleep overtook him, and when he next opened his eyes, Mina was gone. He panicked, jumping out of the bed, and running into the women's room where he could hear her shower running. Ian knocked at the door, and the shower cut before the woman opened it wrapped in a towel.

"Are you okay?" Mina asked, and President Lee pressed her against the wall, kissing her more passionately than he had ever done. He had a nightmare that she left him, and when he opened his eyes to an empty bed, it was almost too much for him to process. Ian lifted Mina up and took her back into his room, where he continued to kiss her until she whimpered in pain.

"What's wrong?" he asked, scanning his eyes over her body.

"I'm sore," she admitted, and Ian nodded before falling beside her and spooning his body around hers.

"I'm sorry. I should have been gentler with you."

"It's not that," Mina admitted, still not understanding what possessed the man to carry her away from her shower and back into his bed.

"Then what hurts?" the man asked, turning Mina onto her back so he could look at her face.

"It's my chest. I think the way we…" Mina turned red and rephrased her sentence to leave out the mention of the new position they tried. "I think I put too much pressure on it." Ian could feel his heart race. He had been asking Mina to go without protection almost every night, and she told him she was not ready. He felt like he would soon be forced to tell her the truth, but he was not ready to give her up.

"Mina, can we try it without protection?" He asked abruptly, and Mina's mind went straight to Willow's words.

"President Lee, I don't want to do that," she said, wanting to set her boundaries.

"But why?" Ian questioned.