Creed

Chapter Nineteen Worth Every Fuckin’ Minute

Present day…

I was showered and getting ready to check out of the hotel room, take off and discover what Phoenix had to offer when a knock came at the hotel door.

I walked to the door, looked out the peephole and stared at the beauty pageant beautiful, tall woman with dark arched brows and gleaming, straight brunette hair standing outside.

A woman who looked a lot like Kara Creed.

Shit.

Fuck.

Shit.

I sucked in breath, tamped down my irritation, arranged my features and pulled open the door.

She looked right into my eyes with her unusual light brown ones. The rest of her would make a less badass woman quail. She was built, all hips and tits and a tiny waist. Fashionable clothes, the fit, style and colors suiting her. Perfect skin that didn’t often get touched by the sun or she wore SPF makeup.

She was everything that was not me.

She said not a word. I didn’t either but she knew I met her daughter and I’d be all kinds of stupid not to see the resemblance so I decided not to play dumb.

We checked each other out for a while and finally, I spoke.

“Hey.”

Lame, yes, but what else did you say?

“You’re Sylvie,” she replied.

“And you’re Chelle,” I returned.

She lifted up her chin, exposing a long, slim, elegant neck.

I tipped my head to the side. “How did you find me?”

She didn’t hesitate to answer. “Only one nice hotel close to Tucker. He wouldn’t put you in anything but the best he could find. The best of the best isn’t close and he wouldn’t have you anywhere that wasn’t close.” She shrugged. “So here I am.”

She knew Creed. That wasn’t a surprise, they’d been married. She also knew how he felt about me. That, also, wasn’t a surprise, he’d told her.

But she called him Tucker.

Weird.

“And they gave you my room number?” I asked.

“For two hundred dollars,” she answered.

Seemed she paid Creed loads of attention and not just about me.

Time to move this on.

“Okay, Chelle, what can I do for you?” I asked.

“You can let me in,” she replied.

I shook my head but did it gently and dipped my voice low. “I don’t think –”

She lifted up a slim, elegant hand, slim, elegant gold bangles clanking as she did so and dipped her voice low too. “I’m not here to be ugly, Sylvie. I promise. I just want to talk.”

“About what?” I pressed.

“About things I’d rather not say in the hall.”

Goddamn it!

If I didn’t let her in, I’d seem bitchy. That said, I totally didn’t want to let her in.

I had no choice, really, and that sucked.

I stepped back, opening the door as I did and moved aside.

She walked in and it looked like swanning but I had the feeling that long-legged grace came naturally.

I closed the door, followed her and when I arrived in the bedroom area, I saw she’d stopped and was examining my zipped up, beat up, leather satchel.

I stopped well away and offered, “Do you want me to make some coffee? I’ve got one of those little pots and plenty of java.”

She looked to me and shook her head. “I’m good.”

I nodded and fell silent. She was here, I didn’t invite her. It was up to her to lead.

She regarded me closely. “I’m not what you expected,” she stated quietly.

“Nope,” I agreed, giving her no more.

I actually didn’t know what I expected, Creed was hot, successful and all man, he could get anyone, even someone as beautiful as Chelle. But she was way more polished and stylish than I would expect would turn the eye of a man like Creed.

She pulled in a delicate breath and asked, “He hasn’t spoken of me?”

Shit. I didn’t want to be doing this but I really didn’t want to get into this crap. So I had to put on the brakes before we even really started.

“Okay,” I threw out a hand, “I don’t want this to go bad. From what I know, you understand what’s happening, not a little bit of it, all of it. So I think you get I’m gonna be around as in around… a lot.”

She didn’t flinch but that didn’t mean I didn’t catch how much that cost her.

“So,” I went on, “I wanna be careful here, I don’t wanna create bad blood. You and Creed get on, so I’m gonna try not to fuck that up. So don’t take offense when I say this but, giving you the honesty, I’m not gonna talk to you about what Creed and I talk about. I’ll say this. I know a little bit about you. I know you both love your kids. I know you’ve made good ones. I know you got a new man. I know you know about me and I know the break with Creed wasn’t good for you. Can we leave it at that?”

She didn’t answer me.

Instead, she stated, “He wanted no memory of you.”

I didn’t get this so I asked, “What?”

She swept her hand up and down her front. “After you, he told me it took years but when he couldn’t bear it anymore, the nightmares, the anguish, the longing, in an attempt to bury it, he fucked everything that moved. After you, he told me, he did everything he could do to drown out the memory of you. After you, there were no blondes. After you, there were no women who were slim and little and looked like they needed protecting. After you, those women ceased to exist. He didn’t even look at them. He wanted no memory of you.”

Okay, I liked this and hated it, in equal measure.

“Do you know why that was?” I asked and she nodded but I went on, “If you really do, Chelle, you know that was more than being about me.”

“True. But we both know it was mostly about you.”

Okay, she was probably right about that.

I pulled in breath, opened my mouth to speak but she got there before me and when she spoke, she was whispering.

“I have never…” she swallowed, “not in my life, not in all the time with him, except when the kids were born, I have never, ever seen him the way he was at lunch on Friday.”

I shut my mouth.

She closed her eyes and I saw her draw in breath through her nose before she opened them again and continued whispering.

“Please, don’t hurt him.”

That was so unexpected I felt my body give a small jerk.

Then I started, “Chelle –”

She shook her head and raised her hand. “You’re everything to him.”

I shook my head too and returned, “I was. Now, I know he feels the way I feel about being back together, but he’s got your kids and he adores them.”

She nodded. “I know that. I know that, Sylvie, but we both know the love we have for a child is not the same as the love of a lifetime. I know he loves them. He’d do anything for them. That’s not what we’re talking about. That’s a different kind of everything. And if he’s told you even a little bit about me, you know I love him. I want the best for him. That will never change, he’s with me or he’s not. I know from what he told me, you’re the best for him. You were with him since the beginning, you came into his life just a year after his Dad died. So that girl before, that girl that became the woman he loved was everything to him. But time has passed. Now, I need to know you’re still the woman who will see to him, who will make him look like he looked at lunch even though he tried to hide it so he wouldn’t hurt me. Who made him look like I’ve only seen twice in my life and that was when Kara and Brand were new to this world and placed in his arms. Who made him look happy.”

Holy shit.

Creed was not wrong. She actually was happy he found me again.

“Okay, Chelle, gotta say you’re kinda freakin’ me out,” I admitted.

Her body gave a start then her lips twitched. “There it is, he didn’t tell you much about me.”

I grinned. “He did. I just didn’t believe him.”

Her lips tipped up but she didn’t commit fully to the smile before they untipped and she said softly, “You can believe him.”

I had to say, this was pretty cool and since it was, since she put it out there, since she paid two hundred dollars to do it and since she did really care a lot about Creed, I gave it to her.

“He’s my world. I’ve been lost for sixteen years without him. Lost, broken and lonely. Having him back makes me feel whole again. I’d die for him.”

“I hope you don’t have to but… good,” she replied.

I grinned at her. “I hope I don’t have to either. That would suck.”

She gave me a small grin back before she looked at my satchel then back at me. “Okay, well, I um… that’s kind of all I wanted to say or, uh… to hear. I don’t want to take up too much of your time so I’ll just head out.”

I nodded and stepped aside so she could pass. I followed her down the short hall and stopped away from the door where she stopped, hand on the handle, her head tipped down to look at it. She stood there a beat like that and didn’t move so I was about to call her name before her head snapped up and, not taking her hand from the handle, she turned to me.

“He didn’t tell you.”

Oh crap. This wasn’t good. Not only that she was clearly about to impart something on me that Creed had not gotten around to telling me but the look on her face that said not good things.

“Chelle, I don’t think –”

“It’s very him not to tell you,” she cut me off to say.

“If there’s something you’ve figured out he hasn’t told me, maybe we should let Creed tell me.”

“He might not and you should know. I know you don’t know already because you aren’t angry. You aren’t acting like a bitch.”

Okay, seriously did not like this.

“Again, how about we let Creed tell me.”

She ignored me. “He’s a good man. He feels guilt he shouldn’t feel. I did it to myself.”

“Chelle –”

“I deliberately got pregnant with Kara in order to trap him into marrying me.”

Holy shit!

I stared, mouth hanging open and everything.

Unfortunately, words kept coming through her lips.

“I knew he didn’t love me. I always knew he didn’t love me but I loved him. Too much. I did that to him and he loves Kara, Brand and when I got pregnant I knew something was wrong. He was battling with something in his past. He didn’t tell me what it was but I knew it was holding him back from living a full life. So I got pregnant, convinced him to try to get on with his life and he settled for me. I knew it the whole time, Sylvie. He’d never gotten over you, though I didn’t know the issue was you, and if I hadn’t done that to him, he’d still be alone. He could have come to you free and clear. You could have your own kids you’d named those names. It could have –”

“Please stop,” I interrupted her and before she could begin again I kept going. “I gotta say, it isn’t cool, doing that to a man, not deliberately. Shit happens, I get that but deliberately?” I shook my head. “And babe, I can tell you get that he feels shit for breaking your heart but there’s no going back now. There’s only forward and this is between you and Creed. You need to sit down with him and talk. It isn’t fair to any man to carry the load he’s carrying from breaking it off with you when the whole time you knew it was a possibility.”

She turned fully to me. “I’ve talked to him, he won’t listen.”

There it was. The reason she was telling me this.

She wanted me to intervene.

I had to put a stop to this and pronto.

“Right,” I began, “this is new, for you, him, me and we gotta feel this out as we go along but I can say at this juncture I’m uncomfortable with being a Creed, Chelle go between. If you’re here to corral me into helping you two work out your issues, just saying, again giving you the honesty, I got enough to deal with right now with Creed back in my life, things at home at the same time hoping your kids like me. I can’t be that for you and I’m not sure I ever want that role. If you want it, you gotta do it yourself. I’m not saying I don’t want to be involved in things as they crop up down the road. I’m going to be a member of this family and, babe, not to hurt you but Creed and I’ll be building our own. But I get there will always be a Creed and Chelle that raise two great kids and although you got your man and Creed has me, you two have to keep your shit together so you can do your best job raising those two kids and that doesn’t involve me. It doesn’t involve your man. It involves you and Creed. You with me?”

She studied me then replied quietly, “I’m with you, Sylvie.”

I nodded then continued, “We got a job, you, me, Creed and your man, to be cool always for your kids. You probably know Creed had a revolving door of father figures and my stepmom was a loser. No kid deserves that and I never wanna do that to a kid, especially not kids that are Creed’s. So let’s find ways to figure that out so they don’t feel this and just know they have a lot of love centered around two great parents who want the best for them.”

I saw her eyes warm before she told me, “I think we can do that job.”

“I know we can,” I returned.

She held my gaze then nodded before saying, “I’m glad you feel that way, Sylvie, because that’s the way I was hoping it would be. Every, uh… ex-wife who’s a Mom always fears when her ex finds another woman and what that will bring. I’m pleased it brought you.”

I grinned again and stated, “You trapped him or not, babe, he got you pregnant so he did choose you so let’s just say Tucker Creed has good taste.”

She grinned back. “Yeah, let’s say that.” At my nod, she finished, “I should get going.”

“Later, Chelle.”

“’Bye, Sylvie.”

She turned to go but I stopped her by calling her name and she turned back. “Just out of curiosity and if it’s personal between you two, you don’t have to tell me but why do you call him Tucker?”

Her brows drew together and she said, “I was wondering why you called him Creed. Only people on the job call him Creed.”

Strange.

I decided, since he hadn’t shared, I wouldn’t so I just said, “Throw back from the old days.”

“Ah,” she mumbled but I got the sense she either didn’t get it or didn’t believe me but she let it go with a, “Well, see you, Sylvie.”

“Yeah. See you, Chelle.”

She took off.

I waited for a bit before I left the room to check out. I wasn’t going to tell Creed about Chelle’s visit. Not yet. I didn’t know what his response would be and I didn’t want to piss him off or upset him when he had his kids. There would be plenty of time to tell him and not ruin the last hours he’d have with them for two weeks.

Instead, I shook it off and took on Phoenix.

“She calls you Tucker.”

Creed and I were back in Denver, at my place, in the back room and I’d just told Creed about Chelle’s visit. I was sitting on the couch, Creed was standing at the window staring out, partaking of one of his rare cigarettes (he was trying to quit, he was also trying to talk me into doing the same) and blowing the smoke out the screen.

I waited until we were not on the go or in a public place to share about Chelle. Once I’d shared, he’d gone to his bag, grabbed his smokes, came back and lapsed into brooding silence, staring out the window.

I let him have some time and did this studying him.

It had been a long time since I’d seen this Creed.

Back in the day, we both knew our clandestine time together was precious so we made the most of it. It didn’t happen often but he had a lot on his mind back then, us taking off, what would become of his mother when we were gone, what would become of us. So he could go quiet, retreat into his head, think thoughts he didn’t want to share. I knew this because I asked him to share and he didn’t, no matter how I tried to break through. Eventually I learned that I didn’t need to try. He would sort out what he needed to sort out and come back to me.

Watching him, it struck me that it might make me a freak but I missed this and I suspected he hadn’t changed. He’d sort it out without me prying, let me in when it was his time and I just needed to roll with it. So I didn’t change how I dealt with it and let him have his time.

Though, considering I wasn’t a patient woman and sitting in a silent room stroking my cat and watching a man smoke and stare out the window, no matter how hot he was or how much I loved him, was kinda boring.

Therefore, I quit giving him time and mentioned his ex calling him Tucker.

He turned his head, his eyes coming to me then he turned his body, took two steps, bent low and stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray on the coffee table.

When he straightened, eyes back to me, he answered, “No woman calls me Creed. Only men… and you.”

“Okay,” I replied, not getting it but also thinking his somber mood meant he wasn’t up to explaining it.

I was wrong because Creed kept talking.

“Tried to keep the name, found women calling me that reminded me that I’d never again hear you do it. It reminded me of that night in the woods when we were kids and I told you I was who I was going to be. It reminded me of how you were there for me. How you were always there for me and how I’d never have that again either. So I went back to Tucker. Men call me Creed ‘cause that’s what men do.”

I nodded then asked, “So Chelle doesn’t know you’re Creed?”

He shook his head. “No one in my life knows but you.”

Okay, it was dawning on me I was seriously a freak because I liked that, a lot. I liked having that all to myself. There was a day when Creed was all mine. Now, with our histories changing, his body was all mine but his love was shared. I didn’t mind that. Even back then, I knew when we started a family I’d have to share him. That didn’t mean I didn’t like us having a piece of our past that was unaltered, no one understood, it was all ours.

“That wasn’t cool.”

Creed’s words seemed to come out of nowhere and made me focus on him again.

“What?”

“It wasn’t Chelle. I’m surprised as fuck she pulled that shit on you and it wasn’t cool.”

I shook my head but said, “I didn’t like it at first either, babe, but it ended all right. She wasn’t there to be a bitch. She was there to –”

Creed moved to the wicker chair, sat in it and lifted his long legs to put his boots on the table while interrupting, “I know why she was there and why she was there wasn’t cool.” He flipped out a hand. “Don’t know, haven’t lived through this shit, never expected to have a woman in my life I gave a shit enough about to live through it, so I don’t know how it should go. How I’d have liked it to go is me introducing you to her. Me having control of the situation. Me being at your back. Not you enduring a sneak attack which, luckily, because you are who you are and Chelle is who she is, didn’t go south. One or the other of you was having a bad day, it could have.”

“I can handle shit like that, baby,” I said softly.

He shook his head but replied, “I get that. I get you can take care of yourself. What you need to get is that I’m me and you’re you and no matter you can handle yourself and a gun and you got a tough skin, that doesn’t mean I’m down with you going it alone. Not with this. Not with anything. We always had each other. We lost that. We both feel that deep. Now we have that back and Chelle doesn’t get to take that away from you. No one does.”

Seriously, could this guy get any better?

I stared at him and he held my gaze steady as I did.

No, he couldn’t get any better. Then again, he was always the best.

I decided to move us on and asked, “So what are you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna sleep on it, call her tomorrow and tell her how I feel about it,” Creed answered. “Then I’m gonna tell her not to do it again. Then I’m gonna tell her I want the kids to get to know you better and us to have more time to get settled before she and I sit down and figure out what’s next for our kids and while we take that time, she needs to back off. And last, I’m gonna tell her she never approaches you unless you invite it or there’s somethin’ necessary goin’ on with the kids and she has to do it.”

“You don’t have to go that far, Creed. I liked her,” I told him. “She gave no indication we wouldn’t get along. Honestly, it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

I watched as he took his boots off the coffee table, put them to the floor and leaned toward me, elbows to knees, his face turning from serious to “right now, pay some major fucking attention to me” serious.

“As I said,” he started quietly, “I get you can take care of yourself. When I said that five seconds ago and explained, you didn’t get me. So I’ll make it clear this time. I get you can take care of yourself, Sylvie. What you need to come to terms with is, no matter how badass you are, I’m gonna take care of you, too. You can spout a bunch of bullshit about your experience, your skills, your fearlessness but that will not mean shit to me. You’re not only my woman, you’re Sylvie. When I say I have your back, I don’t mean it in the way you’re used to with the guys you work with. I mean I have your back as your man, I look out for you in all ways I can do that, including emotionally. So, you liked Chelle. This is not a surprise. She’s likeable. But I control that fuckin’ situation so I can control any hurt or upset that might come to you and I mean control it as in stop it. Now are you with me?”

I held his eyes and realized I had a choice. I could hold onto my badass and make an issue of this or I could let Creed do what Creed felt he needed to do.

I knew I could take care of myself and his protection was unnecessary. He just told me he knew it but he needed to make his position clear anyway.

It meant more to him to take care of me as my man than it meant to me to retain my status of badass. I’d weathered a six year hurricane and didn’t come out unscathed. Through that, Creed had not been there to take care of me. For him, that struck deep. Further, I was his Sylvie as I was now and still the Sylvie I was to him way back then.

He needed this. I didn’t need to make a point that might be valid but, considering his emotion, however valid, it was unnecessary.

Not to mention, it felt seriously fucking good to have that part of Creed back too, the one who looked out for me, protected me. I’d proved I could carry the burden but that didn’t mean it didn’t feel great to share the load and be back in the position to return the favor.

So I made my choice and answered, “I get you. I also love you, Creed.”

His face relaxed before he replied, “Right back at ‘cha, beautiful.”

I closed my eyes, hearing those words, feeling them warm my skin, loving every syllable.

It was a mistake. I barely had them closed before Gun suddenly scattered. This was because I felt a shoulder in my belly and I was up in the air. I rallied quickly but not quickly enough before I was falling backward toward the floor, Creed coming with me and automatically my arms circled him. One of his hands cupped the back of my head before I hit floor then both of his hands went to my shoulders. As his body held the rest of mine down, his hands put on pressure, pinning my shoulders to the floor.

“Pinned,” he whispered and I felt my eyes narrow as his lips smiled. “I win.”

“I wasn’t ready,” I pointed out the obvious.

“I told you we’d play out the challenge tonight. You had fair warning but doesn’t matter, you should always be ready.”

He was not wrong and that sucked.

I scowled up into his face as his eyes roamed mine then he rolled so I was on top.

He lifted a hand and pulled the hair away from one side of my face as he said, “You’re not ready, baby, we’ll do something else.”

“Can I tie you to the bed and do whatever I want to you?” I tried.

He grinned and my nipples tingled but he answered, “No. You gotta win that.”

Shit.

His other hand came up to pull back the hair on the other side of my face and he repeated, “If you’re not ready, we won’t do it.”

I wasn’t a squelcher but I didn’t know if that sucked or if I was in for the experience of a lifetime. What I did know was that I trusted Creed either to make it not only good, but phenomenal or to back off if it wasn’t working.

To communicate all this, I stated, “I don’t renege on a deal.”

His head tilted slightly to the side and he asked softly, “You ready?”

“You gonna make me ready?” I asked back and got another grin, this one way different.

“Oh yeah.”

That got another nipple tingle but this one didn’t stop at my nipples. It traveled south.

Therefore my, “Then… yeah. I’m ready,” came out breathy.

His hands fisted in my hair, his face hardened with something that was seriously hot and his lips ordered, “Then up, get to the living room and get naked.”

I was right.

Seriously hot.

“The living room?” I asked.

“Baby, what’d I say?” Creed asked in return.

I stared down at him still feeling the tingle.

Then I did as Creed said.

I was naked on my knees on the back of the couch. Creed was standing in front of me wearing nothing but jeans. I had my legs spread and Creed had his hand between them, toying with my clit. I had my hand flat against his hard crotch and I was rubbing. Through this, we were kissing hard, wet and hot as we had been for a good long time.

He was toying, taking his time, giving me nothing, hints, whispered caresses, making me go for it and taking it away, which made me happy for the scraps he was giving me at the same time desperate to have everything. He’d been doing this for a long time, too.

Needless to say, I was primed. I had his tongue in my mouth and his hand between my legs but I wanted his fingers or other parts of his anatomy inside me and I was at a point where I didn’t care where he put them.

Before I could tear my mouth from his and inform him of this fact, he tore his from mine and suddenly I wasn’t on my knees facing him. I was turned, my knees at the back edge of the couch and I had Creed’s hand between my shoulder blades, pushing down until I was face to the cushions, ass in the air. It was not a position I’d ever been in but, albeit somewhat acrobatic, it wasn’t uncomfortable.

“Stay that way, baby. Do not move. I’ll be back,” his rough growl came at me and I did a full body shiver.

I didn’t like bossy. I didn’t like to be ordered around. I didn’t like to be controlled.

That was to say, I didn’t like it from anyone, not anyone, but Creed.

So this was hot. Phoenix hot. Remember for the rest of your life that time you did it in the living room hot.

I did as he said and felt Creed leave the room then I felt him come back and position behind me. A second later I heard a soft “funf” of something hitting the couch then his hands were on me, oiled, slippery, warm, amazing.

Oh yeah. I was right. This was hot.

His hands traveled the skin of my waist, up my back, down my sides then they disappeared. I heard a cap pop, another soft “funf and his hands were back, slicker, warmer, roaming everywhere, oiling my entire back, my sides, ribs, waist and around where he rubbed the oil into my breasts, thumbs circling my nipples making me squirm. Back to the bottle and more oil, over my hips, down the outsides of my thighs.

Those thighs started trembling.

Back to the bottle, another “funf” then more oil over the insides of my thighs and up over the cheeks of my ass.

“Spread wide, baby, give me all you got,” Creed murmured, his voice rough.

I slid my legs wide without hesitation.

I moaned into the cushions as his slick hand slid between the cleft of my ass, through my wet and over my pulsing clit. His finger rolled, gentle, soft, mind-boggling and my hands slid out so my fingers could curl around the edge of the couch cushion to hold on.

“You can get a hand up here, Sylvie, I want your finger here. Soft, sweet, like this,” he kept touching me, showing me what he wanted. “You make yourself come, baby, I won’t be pleased.”

This was another challenge that I was willing to accept but wasn’t so sure I could best it. Still, I was going to try. So I braced my torso on the couch and put my hand between my legs. Creed’s fingers gave mine access but they didn’t go away. Covering mine, he felt as I touched myself and I knew he liked it when he growled and pressed his hard, jeans covered cock against my thigh.

“My Sylvie,” he murmured, his other slippery hand roaming my slick skin, “so beautiful, so sweet, so fuckin’ hot.”

Shivers drifted up my spine, my hard, throbbing nipples brushed the upholstery of the couch making them throb harder and Creed’s hand drifted back through the wet then away. He went back to the bottle and I felt the oil dripping directly onto my skin, sliding down my spine, between the cheeks of my ass, drenching me. I felt more shivers and it took everything not to press harder, deeper, roll my hips into my hand, strain them to him.

I was coated in oil, so were his hands as they moved over me, pressing in, circling, fingers curling so his knuckles could dig deep into my muscles, turning me on and relaxing me at the same time. A sexy massage. An erotic rubdown.

So when it happened, I was ready to take him as his slippery fingertip slid inside my ass.

My body tensed except the muscles of my legs quivered, my ass reflexively tipped up, pushed out to get more and his finger slid in a little deeper.

Another moan into the couch.

Oh God, that was good.

Oh God, how was that good?

“You want more?” Creed’s thick voice came at me.

“Yes,” I breathed into the couch.

“Say please, Sylvie.”

Oh God, that was even hotter.

I took too long, enjoying how hot it was and I knew this because his finger slid out.

Crazy, insane but I wanted it back.

“Please,” I gasped, tipping my ass up, an invitation.

His hand slid across my cheek, cupping it, the pads of his fingers digging in and his voice was husky when he muttered, “Good, beautiful. Now take your hand away, hold onto the couch. I’m gonna work you and when you want my cock, you ask for it and you do it nice. Yeah?”

As I said, I didn’t mind this bossy Creed. No way. No fucking way.

“Yeah,” I replied immediately.

“Stop touching yourself, Sylvie.”

Okay, shit. I didn’t want to do that but I did it.

It was the right thing to do. I was rewarded immediately. When my hand slid away, his hand slid in and he finger fucked my pussy as I felt a finger slide slightly inside my ass.

“You want more, say please,” Creed ordered, fucking me hard between my legs with his fingers.

“Please,” I begged, moving my hips with his hand and he gave me more.

God, shit, he was right. This was awesome. Amazing. Fantastic. So good, it felt like I was going to come out of my skin.

“More?” he asked.

Oh yeah. More. Definitely more.

“More,” I gasped, holding onto the edge of the couch, the fabric torture against my hard nipples, my legs trembling so hard they were shivering.

“What do you say?” Creed prompted.

“Please,” I whimpered and he didn’t delay, he gave me more.

He kept doing it without me asking and I was on the edge, so close, so fucking close and he pulled out, tweaked my clit then his fingers wrapped around the outsides of my thighs.

“You don’t come like this, baby,” he growled. “You come with me inside you.”

“Take my ass,” I replied instantly.

“Ask nice,” he ordered just as quickly.

“Take my ass, Creed, please.”

I felt his hands clench my flesh before he demanded, “Finger to your clit, baby. Make yourself come while I fuck your ass.”

I nearly slid off the front of the couch as I hurried to do what I was told and my whole body was quaking, ready, fevered. I felt the sleek, oil-slickened head of his cock prod, push, slow, firm, back, then more, gentle, careful until he pushed through with the tip then he slid slowly all the way in and he had me. Every bit of me. The one last part he didn’t have yet was now Creed’s.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful everywhere,” he groaned as he started fucking my ass. “Harder baby. Take yourself there.”

I pressed harder, deeper, rolled, bucked, reared into his smooth, deep strokes, his hands curled around my hips pulling me to him, pushing me away at the same time holding me steady on the couch.

It built and, God, it was too much. It was too huge. I couldn’t take it. It was burning through me. It was going to consume me.

“Creed,” I panted into the couch, panic rising as the pleasure swelled. Wild, uninhibited pleasure that felt like it was going to destroy me and I lifted up onto a hand in the couch, arm straight.

“Work yourself, Sylvie,” Creed grunted, going faster, getting impatient, one hand slid around my hip to cover mine between my legs, he pushed in, rolled then twitched our fingers as he kept at my ass and it overwhelmed me.

My head shot back, my muscles seized and my cry pierced the room as I experienced the most intense, overpowering, extraordinary orgasm I’d ever had in my life.

It kept hold of me as Creed kept fucking me, his fingers kept at my clit and one orgasm rolled into another. I was on my third when Creed’s other arm sliced around the front of my hips, pulling me to him, burying himself inside me and I heard his deep, rumbling groan.

I kept still, staring unseeing at the couch, feeling him around me, inside me, never thinking this would be good, never thinking I’d allow this, not again, not ever and there it was. Like everything with Creed, I gave him my trust, he gave me beauty.

Slowly and carefully, he slid out then I was up and turned, knees back in the back of the couch, facing Creed. I barely got my head tipped back to look up at him before the fingers of both his hands drove into the sides of my hair and back, fisting and his face dipped close so his nose nearly brushed mine and he was all I could see.

“Now I have all of you. I own every inch of you. Every centimeter. You gave it to me when you were six and it took me twenty-eight years to claim all of it but now it’s mine, Sylvie. Every…” his fingers gave my hair a gentle tug, “single…” another tug and his eyes burned into mine, “inch.”

Holy shit. How could he be turning me on mere minutes after I had the hugest multiple orgasm in the history of time?

“I take it you really like ass play,” I noted softly and watched his eyes flare.

Then his head shifted back, his hands slid down to the sides of my neck and he announced, “I’m gonna go deal with this condom. You’re gonna go to bed. Take the oil with you. We are far from done.”

Excellent.

That gave me a full body shiver.

I grinned before I reached up, grabbed his head, pulled it down to me and laid a hot, wet, long one on him.

I let him go, jumped to my feet on the couch, jumped from the couch to the floor, snatched up the oil and dashed out of the room, my hair flying out behind me, knowing, every second, Creed’s eyes watched.

“Oh my God. Oh my God!” I cried as my sixth orgasm of the night tore through me, my fingers clenched in Creed’s hair as his mouth devoured me.

Seriously, my man was the master of giving head.

Seriously.

As I came down, I felt him nuzzling my belly with his nose and lips. I lifted up on my elbows and saw while I was still in the throes of my climax, he’d swung my legs off his shoulders and now he had his forearms in the bed on either side of me but my hands were still clenched in his hair.

I tugged gently and his head came up.

I drank him in.

Scar and all, he was beautiful.

To tell him this I slid the fingers of one of my hands to his face, running the tips along his cheekbone, down his nose to trail the path of the line of his lower lip. I trailed them over the scar on his upper lip then up again over the scar on his cheekbone, his temple and through the white streak in his hair. Once I’d accomplished this, my other hand slid the hank of hair that had fallen to his forehead to the side and, as expected, it fell right back to its original position.

I didn’t get to try again as Creed’s big body shifted up over me, settling in, covering me.

He pressed one hand under me so he was braced on one forearm in the bed but still holding me while his other hand curved against the side of my head, thumb sweeping out over my cheekbone and he spoke.

“To respond to your earlier comment, beautiful, yeah, like I mentioned before, I like ass play. But it’s not what you think. It’s tight, it feels good, absolutely, but that’s not it. It’s about trust. It’s about sharing. It’s about giving. For most people it’s about losing your inhibitions and opening yourself up to the next level of intimacy. And with you,” his face dipped closer as his voice dipped lower, “it’s about me giving back what was taken from you and you trusting me to do it. That wasn’t huge. That was something so big, there isn’t a word for it but the closest I can come to it is that it’s beautiful.”

He was not wrong so I agreed, “It was beautiful, baby.” My arms slid around him and held him tight. “And so are you.”

Creed’s eyes, already warm, warmed more, warming straight through me before he grinned and stated, “Glad you didn’t renege on your part of losin’ the challenge.”

I grinned back. “Me too.”

His thumb moved over my face, my cheekbone, down to my jaw and over my lips as his eyes watched and his grin faded.

Then his gaze came back to me.

“That month I was following you, watchin’ you, seein’ how you lived, dressed, what you did, I knew somethin’ had gone wrong. I didn’t know what. I thought you were with Dixon and he cheated on you, didn’t treat you right. The only thing I knew, your Daddy lied, you weren’t happy.”

I contradicted him gently, “Actually, I was happy, Creed.”

“Not the way you deserve to be happy,” he returned immediately.

I didn’t have a reply to that mostly because it didn’t need one. He was right.

He continued to hold my gaze and I knew he read what lay behind it when he whispered, “I’m glad you’re happy, my Sylvie.”

He gave it to me, kept giving it to me, open, honest, putting it right out there so I licked my lips and gave it back to him. “I have the only thing I ever wanted lying on top of me, so thanks for making me happy, Tucker Creed.”

Creed, being Creed, kept right on giving.

“Right back at ‘cha, baby.”

Okay, shit, God, shit!

I loved this man. I knew it but way back when, being young, I didn’t understand.

Now I did.

I so did.

It was time to steer us into waters that didn’t include me possibly bursting into tears and blubbering like a big girl.

“So, you’re the boss tonight, what’s the plan? Are we gonna sleep all oiled up or are we gonna shower before we go to sleep?”

“Sheets are fucked up. We shower, we gotta change them or we’ll get oiled right back up again.”

This was true, so I gave him the info he needed to make his decision, “I know one thing, I’m not changing sheets tonight.”

Creed smiled. “Then we sleep oiled up.”

That worked for me.

He rolled to his light, I rolled to mine and I barely had it out before I was hauled back to the middle of the bed, tucked close to Creed.

My body, tired out, relaxed, loose, felt sleepy. My mind didn’t.

I was thinking of him following me for a month and wondering, if the roles were reversed and it was me who found him again, how I’d feel. What I’d do. How difficult it would be to stay remote and not approach, especially if I discovered he hadn’t left me of his own free will but had been coerced into it.

“How’d you do it?” I asked his throat in the dark.

“Do what?” Creed asked back.

“Follow me, watch me, go through my shit and keep distant? If it was me –”

His voice held a hint of humor and a hint of hardness when he cut me off. “You would have shot me.”

I tipped my head back and grinned at his shadowy face. “Yeah. But if I figured it out, if I learned it was as it was, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”

His arms around me pulled me deeper into his warm, hard body as he replied quietly, “If it was you, except for the scar, I haven’t changed. Got older but not changed. There wouldn’t be a reason to delay approach. You…” he trailed off and didn’t speak again.

“I changed and that freaked you out?” I guessed.

“You did and you didn’t but the way you did meant my approach needed to be cautious. That tough skin, those sharp edges, both of them you had in a way a man could work a lifetime and not break through, proceed with caution and still get sliced to shreds. I wanted you back and I needed to find the right way to finesse that. When I went through your house, I saw you’d kept my necklaces so I had hope but I knew I couldn’t go gung ho. I had to understand what forced the change in you and I had to get that from you so I could form a plan.” His hands slid up my still slick back. “Which is what I did.”

And I was glad he did.

I pressed closer and said softly, “It killed.”

His hands stopped moving so his arms could wrap around tight. “Yeah, watchin’ you. Followin’ you. Goin’ through your stuff. Knowin’ your life didn’t go as I was promised it would but something went down that was not good, yeah. It fuckin’ killed.”

I closed my eyes and shoved my face in his throat.

“It’s also over,” he went on.

“It’s over,” I agreed, holding him close.

“And bottom line, it meant you weren’t in Kentucky livin’ a good life without me but open for an approach. It might have sucked for a while but now we got the future we both didn’t think we would ever have, so it was worth every fuckin’ minute.”

I didn’t experience what he did, watching me, following me but I suspected he was right about that too.

“Yeah,” I replied quietly.

“Yeah,” he repeated, gathering me even closer.

I lay in his arms and knew I’d been giving. I knew I’d let him in. I knew he understood this and it was making him happy.

But I didn’t know if he understood it all.

So I gave it to him.

“Creed?” I called.

“Right here, baby,” he whispered.

Yeah he was. Right there. Now and forever.

Now and forever.

I tipped my head so the bridge of my nose rested along his jaw and whispered back, “No matter what’s in our future, no matter if our luck stays good or turns back to shit, from this moment to your last on this earth, know down to your fucking soul I love you. I trust you. You make me happy. There’s been no one but you and there never will be. Okay?”

I felt him lift his head then I felt him move so he could bury his face in my neck and his voice was gruff when he murmured into my skin, “Okay, my Sylvie.”

I drew in breath then reached with my lips to brush them against the skin of his neck.

He settled back, kept me close and ordered gently, “Sleep, baby.”

“Right, Creed.”

In Creed’s arms, sated by his lovemaking, knowing I’d wake up to him tomorrow, my mind cleared and as I’d been doing all night, I did as ordered and slept.