I lifted my head an inch from the turf and whispered fiercely, “This is the most right thing in the world.”

My words were true. I knew it. I knew it.

“You’re beautiful,” he told me. “You’re beautiful, Sylvie. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen but you’re too young, baby. This is not right. You gotta let go.”

“I’m never letting go.”

“You gotta let go.”

My arms tightened hard around his neck. “Creed, I’m never letting go.”

I watched him close his eyes tight, his head dropped, mine went back to the grass and he rested his forehead against mine.

Then he bit out, “Goddamn it,” and jerked up but not away from me. He pulled me up with him until he was sitting again, back against the tree, me in his lap and his arms, facing him.

His arms left me, his hands shoved my hair back away from my face and he held me there, one hand on each side.

“This was not supposed to happen now,” he told me.

“It happened,” I shot back.

“Fuck,” he hissed, banging his head back against the tree and looking skyward. “What the f**k do I do now?” he asked the branches of the tree.

I lifted a hand to his face and brushed away the thick hank of hair that fell over his eye and his head righted so he could look at me.

Then he said the five most precious words I ever heard in my whole life.

“I wanna make you mine.”

I closed my eyes as joy and relief swept through me.

Finally!

Then I opened them, looked at him and lifted my hand to touch the peridot resting at the base of my neck.

“Too late. I already am.”

His arms closed around me, one hand coming up to the back of my head again and shoving my face in his neck.

“Shit,” he muttered before he pulled me back and looked down at me. “You sure?”

I nodded. “Absolutely.”

He closed his eyes tight and dropped his forehead to mine again. “God, Sylvie.”

I slid my head down to the side and pressed my face in his neck, my arms stealing around him, holding him tight.

He bent his neck and put his lips to my ear. “I wanna see you.”

Those were the four second most precious words I ever heard in my whole life.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Regularly.”

“Okay,” I agreed quickly.

“We gotta be careful.”

“We always did, Creed. It’ll be okay. We’ve had tons of practice.”

His arms gave me a squeeze.

“No one can know,” he told me quietly.

“I know.”

“This is us. You and me. Special. We do this, we take it slow, we do it smart. We don’t f**k it up.”

I didn’t get that entirely but still, I nodded. “Okay.”

He knew me and gently pulled me back so I’d look at him.

When I caught his eyes, he explained softly, “I guide this, Sylvie, you follow my lead. Nothing changes between us except everything. You gotta understand, in the eyes of the law, I’m too old for you. In the eyes of God, I’m too old for you. And, bottom line, I’m too old for you. We can be together and we can do things but we’re taking it slow until I’m not too old for you. Do you understand me?”

I bit my lip, feeling my face get pink but I nodded. I understood. He wasn’t going to do it with me.

Not yet.

Then I whispered, “Can we kiss again?”

He grinned. “Fuck yeah.”

I grinned back. “Good, that was really nice.”

He started chuckling then he pulled me close and held me there for a long time.

He broke the moment by saying, “When we go pick up Bootsie, leave your parents a note. Say you’re at a movie. You won’t be home ‘til late. Then you can have dinner and hang at my place with me. We’ll watch a movie.”

My first date with Creed.

It sounded perfect.

Except, of course, the part about Bootsie.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Let me see your face, Sylvie.”

I pulled it out of the side of his neck, tipped it back and looked at him.

His hand came up and curved around my jaw, tipping my head back further, his dipped down and he brushed his mouth against mine.

It seemed I’d been waiting for years to be just like this with Creed.

And having it…

It was divine.

He moved back half an inch and, eyes locked with mine, he whispered, “My Sylvie.”

I smiled and felt warm through and through and not just from the Kentucky sun beating into me.

His hand slid back into my hair, tipped my head forward, he kissed the top of my hair and murmured there, “Let’s take care of Bootsie.”

Then he kissed me, got to his feet taking me with him in his arms and when he was up, he put me on my feet.

Hand in hand, we walked to his truck.

Hand in hand, me and Creed, the way I knew down deep in my heart we were always meant to be.

Finally.

Chapter Fifteen

Give Me That

Present day…

“She’s with Dixon.”

Creed lay there, his sky blue eyes just staring. Not at the bacon sandwich he could smell which was set just out of reach but at Daddy.

He didn’t believe it. He’d lost track of time. He’d been there days, maybe weeks but he didn’t believe. His Sylvie wouldn’t do that. Not in a few days. Not in a few weeks. Not ever.

“She’s with Dixon,” Daddy went on. “Right now. It didn’t take her long with you being gone to realize she’s better than you. She’s a Bissenette. You may have your Daddy’s blood but you’ve got more of Winona in you. I know this. I know it because you’d set your sights on a teenage girl. Fuck with her head. Take her virginity. You’re trash, Tucker Creed. You were trash before that whore shoved you out. You’re trash now. Jason Dixon isn’t trash. Jason will give her everything you can’t, never could, never will. Jason will hand her the moon.”

Creed said not a word. He just lay there, staring.

Daddy got impatient and bent deep, leaning close.

“Promise to let her go, leave, never return, let her have the life she should have and we’ll feed you, we’ll unchain you, get you medical attention for that cut. I’ll give you ten thousand dollars and you can set up somewhere else. Promise to let her go, leave and never come back, never enter her life again, never phone her, never see her and this will be over.”