“It may hurt, beautiful,” he warned. “I’ll try to –”
My hands slid up his back into his hair and I curled them around the back of his head as I lifted mine, my lips to his and I urged, “Creed, baby, it’s okay. I want it. I’ve been waiting forever for you to make me really your Sylvie. So, please, please make me your Sylvie.”
I heard, just as I felt, his deep groan.
Yes.
Yes.
Utterly perfect.
Then, at the end of our pier, surrounded by our lake, my Creed set about making me really his Sylvie.
And he really became my Creed.
*
“We should just leave.”
That was Creed.
We were at the end of the pier. I had my legs curled under me, my bikini bottoms back on, Creed’s tee covering the rest of me. He was wearing his jeans, rolled up, his legs over the side, feet in the water. I was resting against him, my arms around his middle, my cheek to his chest. He had his arm curled tight around me and we were studying the lake.
“Just leave?” I asked the water.
“Get in my truck,” he answered. “Go.”
I closed my eyes and drew in a breath.
Then I reminded him, “I’ve got a bikini, Creed, shorts, a tank, flip-flops. That’s it.”
“That’s all you need. That and me.”
He was right.
But what he wanted to do was wrong.
I pulled my head away from his chest and tipped it back. As I did, his arm tightened around me, pulling me closer and his chin dipped down so he could study my face in the moonlight.
“The plan is, we meet here, eight thirty tomorrow after I tell Daddy I’m leaving,” I reminded him.
“We should change the plan.”
“Creed –”
His arm got super tight as he pulled me and twisted me so my bottom was in his lap.
Then he stated, “You don’t owe him that, beautiful. You don’t owe him shit.”
“He’s my father.”
“He’s no father.”
This was true.
Darn.
To buy time, I watched as I slid a hand up his chest, the skin warm and smooth, the muscle underneath hard and defined. I loved every inch. So I memorized the feel, knowing I’d be able to call that up anytime, always, for the rest of my life and remember it. Remember tonight. Remember every second. Every single second of my first time on the pier, by our lake, making love with Creed.
I pulled in a deep breath before I replied, “It wouldn’t feel right.”
“Too good of a girl,” Creed muttered and I looked up at him to see his eyes on the lake.
“He doesn’t deserve it but I’m not what my mother said. I’m not like him. I couldn’t live with myself if I just up and left. Didn’t tell him I was going. Didn’t tell him I wasn’t coming back. He’s not much of a father, Creed, but maybe somewhere in there, somewhere deep, he’d worry and I’d worry about that. At least, if he knows, I won’t have that worry.”
I heard and felt Creed heave a deep sigh but he didn’t speak.
I snuggled closer. “I’m all packed. First thing, I’ll tell him and then I’ll meet you here.”
His hand slid up my back and into my damp hair before he murmured, “You’re mine now, beautiful, in all the ways you can be. What we just shared, I loved it, it was right. Being here, our place, it was perfect. I want more. I want it all. I’m tired of waiting.”
I was too.
Still.
“Just a few more hours,” I whispered.
Creed’s hand cupped the back of my head so he could shove my face in his chest as he replied, “This proves it, baby. Nothin’ I won’t do for my Sylvie.”
I grinned against his chest and my arms around him gave him a squeeze.
I turned my head and pressed my cheek against his skin before I called it down.
“So, your friend has power of attorney to sign the papers to sell your house next week. I’m packed. I’ll tell Daddy, come here,” I gave him another squeeze, “you’ll give me my necklace, we’ll eat frozen Snickers bars for breakfast and then we’re gone.”
“Gotta find somethin’ different for you,” he muttered. “I’m thinkin’ I don’t like you knowin’ what you’re gonna get for your birthday for forever.”
My head jerked back and my eyes honed in on his face. “If you ever, ever get me anything but my peridot pendant, Creed, I… I… well, I don’t know what I’ll do but I’ll be super, extra pissy.”
I saw the white flash of his teeth. “Wouldn’t wanna make you super, extra pissy.”
“Don’t joke. I’m serious. Those necklaces are the only things I own that mean a thing to me.”
I saw the white flash of his teeth disappear right before I heard the guttural tone of his, “Jesus, Sylvie.”
“And they always will be,” I finished.
Both his arms closed around me tight, my head tipped back, his dipped down and he kissed me, hard, wet and long. A new kind of kiss. An unrestrained kiss.
Pure beauty.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last forever like I’d like it too. Creed broke it.
Then he murmured, “Let’s get you dressed and home. Our life starts in about four hours. Don’t want you nodding off when it does.”