Creed spoke then.

And he did it to say in a cracked, parched, weak voice, “Never.”

* * * * *

I shot up to sitting in bed, the room dark, Creed’s strong arm along my stomach and I was breathing heavily.

The dream still had me.

I threw the covers aside and started to catapult myself from the bed but Creed’s arm tightened. Instead of jumping one way, I found myself flying the other. I landed in the bed on my back then Creed’s weight was on me.

“It was a dream, baby,” he whispered through the dark. “Just a dream. It’s over.”

It wasn’t a dream. It was real. He told me. He told me all about it. Even the new stuff.

Now I knew everything.

I thought I was ready.

I’d never be ready.

It hit me I was shaking so I did the only thing I could to get rid of the shakes. I wrapped my arms around his solid, warm bulk, lifted my head and shoved it in his neck taking in his scent, letting everything that was him envelope me.

“These dreams are kicking my ass,” I whispered back.

“Just hold on,” he murmured.

I sucked in breath, tightened my arms and held on.

The shaking left me and I found my mouth saying, “I don’t want you to go.”

It was early morning Friday, three days after the shit went down with Drake Nair. Outside of the three girls who got targeted needing a lot of TLC, things seemed settled. Creed and I were working my jobs as well as keeping an eye on Knight’s business but it seemed Nair had worked alone. Creed didn’t trust it, not yet, he wanted to do more digging and he wanted to be around in case something went down. So he spoke to Knight, Knight agreed and we were still nosing.

But the weekend was upon us and it was Creed’s weekend with his kids. He was flying back to Phoenix. He got them Friday afternoon and took them back to Chelle Sunday evening.

We’d discussed this and decided that this visit, Creed would tell them about me and he’d take some time to tell Chelle. He didn’t want her blindsided by the information coming from one of the kids that a woman named Sylvie was in his life. I thought that was cool of him to do but I didn’t envy him that conversation.

He wanted me to come with him but I talked him into going alone. His kids stayed with him and he was okay with me staying with all of them, telling me his kids were good kids, they’d adjust, they loved their Dad, sense his happiness and be cool with it.

He obviously knew his kids better than me but I disagreed. I thought they should get a head’s up and not be confronted with me on their turf until they had time to prepare. Creed didn’t like it but he agreed. I had a feeling he agreed more because he thought I needed time to prepare to meet his kids, not the other way around, but whatever. He’d agreed. So he was leaving that day and wouldn’t be home until late Sunday.

Now that the hour was nearly on us for him to leave, I didn’t like it.

Not at all.

I didn’t want him away from me.

Shit.

“Sylvie –”

I interrupted him, “Forget I said that. I didn’t say that.”

His hands came up to frame my face before he whispered, “Come with me.”

God, it would be so easy to say yes.

“I don’t want your kids –” I started.

He cut me off. “They’ll love you.”

I nodded against the pillows and I gave his body a squeeze.

“Yeah, they will,” I agreed. “I’m good with kids but this is different. This is about our future, all of our futures and it should be handled with care.”

“Baby, you don’t think I got my kids’ best interests at heart?” he asked.

“I’m not saying that,” I replied quickly. “I just think we should finesse this. Give them time. Take it slow.”

“Right,” he muttered then rolled, taking me with him so I was on top. He reached out a long arm and I blinked when the lights came on. When my eyes adjusted, I saw his on me. “Hotel,” he stated.

“What?” I asked.

“We fly there together. Get you a rental car, a hotel where you can hang but not sleep. I go get the kids and talk to Chelle. I spend time with them Friday, tell them about you. Friday night, late, when they’re in bed, you come to me, sleep with me, leave before they get up. Saturday, we do somethin’ together. Maybe a water park. Somethin’ fun. Somethin’ they’ll like. Somethin’ not on their home turf. You take off, come back when they’re asleep, leave again before they get up and we fly back together.”

Had I said before that Creed was genius?

Creed was genius.

“That would work,” I told him quietly and watched him grin.

“Will you be able to keep yourself occupied?” he asked.

I grinned back. “Totally.”

“Then it’s decided,” he muttered, his eyes on my mouth.

“It’s decided,” I agreed, getting the words out about two seconds before his mouth hit mine and he kissed me, deep and sweet.

When he lifted his head, he was not grinning. His gaze was intent and I’d since learned from seeing that look before to brace. So I did.

“Beauty,” he whispered.

“What?” I asked.

“Beauty. It’s pure beauty you don’t wanna be away from me. I don’t like that, baby. I love it.”

My hand slid up his chest to his neck where my fingers curled around. Once they reached their destination, they moved and slid up further into his hair. Then they put pressure on to bring his mouth back to me so I could kiss him.

When my tongue slid in his mouth, I planted a foot in the bed and rolled him.

Then I kissed other parts of him.

Suffice it to say, it took us a while to get back to sleep.

When we did, we both slept easy.

* * * * *

“I’m walking up to your house now,” I said into my phone, hitching up the strap of the bag on my shoulder and got a, “Gotcha. I’ll be at the door,” back from Creed.

Just an FYI, Phoenix in July was hot. Not your normal brand of hot. Hotter than the hinges of hell kind of hot. I’d never been in hot that hot. I didn’t even know hot that hot existed. It was eleven thirty at night and the heat had not left the day.

Not good.

After we flew in and rented the car, I followed Creed to a nice hotel close to his house. We checked in, got the lay of the land and he took off to meet Chelle for lunch prior to picking up Kara and Brand. I got changed directly into my bikini and made an appointment for a mani/pedi and facial for later that afternoon at the hotel spa. Then I hit the pool because, everyone knew, if you went to a place with palm trees, even if only for the weekend, you came back with a tan, including kickass bitches like me.