Play It Right

9. Rated R

They were loudly dancing around in the living area, dramatic Turkish songs blaring when she reached home that evening.

Mishti did everything she could, practically racing against time so that she didn't miss dinner and luckily, by gods grace, she made it in time.

She walked in to find the intimidating man chopping up some onions, overlooking the kids as they ran around trying to get their energy out.

Each child was in costume, two dressed head to toe in pirate outfits and one in a frilly pink princess dress.

Dropping her bags on the floor, her arms opened up wide as her loud exclamation poured out. "Is that my babies! Oh, I missed you guys so much."

"Mama!" They shouted over each other, ripping their heads around to run face-first into their mother's arms.

The boys let their sister go in the middle, careful not to squish her too much whilst Mishti peppered kisses all over their faces.

She gave all three of them a look when she pulled away, raising a brow. Each one of them had a dramatic compression bandage somewhere, Ayaz had one around his ankle, Zeki on his arm and Ayla had a significant amount around her head.

She wanted to be stunned, though she couldn't say she was. This was their newest obsession, she hoped it was just a weird phase.

"Boys, really?" She muttered, leaning in to peel the wrap off her daughter's clueless head. "Why must you go so extreme with sissy's injury every time?"

"Uh, Mommy, didn't you know, a gigantorsaurus shark bit her head off! She had to get her bandage there otherwise her brains will fall out." He said in a serious tone, eyes filling with feigned fright.

Looking over at Ayaz, she shook her head in amusement and squeezed his tiny nose. "Gigantic, baby. There's no such thing as whatever you just said."

"Is so."

"Is not." She teased the five-year-old back who gave up immediately and took a look at his brother.

"Zeki, let's go. There's too many big fat butts here."

Mishti wanted to explain to the boys that calling her butt fat was far from an insult, however, she decided to be a mature parent and let it go.

Walking over to the little kitchen, she watched him stare at her in that empty, bleak way.

He looked handsome to say truthfully, a white tank that revealed his big arms, all of his arm and hand tattoos on show and a pair of grey lounging cotton bottoms on. A five o'clock was peppering his jaw and she noticed that his dark hair was in a curly state. It did that whenever he came out of the shower, and if he didn't put product in it to hold it back.

There was a blinding diamond stud was in his ear and a Cuban chain around his neck, and his fingers were decorated in a few chunky rings.

She knew the one on his index finger was his most prized, it was his father's ring after all. The same one that told everyone his position in the dangerous clan.

Boss.

Nearing him until she was standing directly in front of him, they both let out an annoyed sounding sigh.

Since they were innocent little kids, they wanted to uphold the image of Mom and Dad being very much in love and so with a lot of force, Emir ducked his head down low to place a fleeting kiss on her lips.

"Hi."

"Hi."

Short and not sweet, but rather forced. Nonetheless, those naive brains couldn't record that.