“I know, kind of,” I semi-agreed. “But do you see where I’m coming from?”

Creed rolled, disengaging us, so I was on my back and his body was pressed into my side and partially over me.

“No kind of,” he growled. “That was all Bissenette, what he did to you and what he did to me. These nightmares you’re havin’, don’t let them take hold. You bear no responsibility for what happened to me.”

I felt my body begin to shake and my voice was fragile and so totally not me it felt like it came from some other me when I reminded him, “You wanted to leave that night. I made you –”

His big hand covered my mouth and his head dipped so he was all I could see. “He and his assholes tortured me. He sold you, his fuckin’ daughter, to pay off a goddamned debt for fuckin’ blow. Even if you weren’t his daughter, Sylvie, that… shit… is… whacked. Who does that?” he asked and he didn’t wait for an answer even though he pulled his hand from my mouth and wrapped it around my jaw. “No one but people who are serious as shit fucked in the head. You could have no fuckin’ clue when you left me that night what would happen to us the next fuckin’ day. Where we were, what we knew, you made the right decision, Sylvie. You were a good person, a good daughter, tryin’ to do right and you made the right decision. It was him, baby. All fuckin’ him. Do not take that shit on. You do, it’ll fuck with you forever.”

I stared in his eyes and I did this a long time. Long enough for the shakes to subside and I took in a deep breath.

“Okay,” I whispered.

His body relaxed at my side. “Okay.”

“So,” I started to recap, “I give you Phoenix and living in an oven for a few months out of the year. You give me a fab pad with a pool but the rest, can we agree to wing it? See how it goes.”

He waited a beat before he muttered, “I can live with that.”

I grinned at him and muttered back, “Good.”

I saw his return grin before he bent his neck and touched his mouth to mine.

He lifted his head and whispered, “Gotta get rid of this condom, baby. Be back.”

I nodded against the pillows. He bent his neck again to touch his lips to my throat before he started to roll off the bed.

But he stopped and looked back at me.

“Just to say,” he began, “this house and all it is, all that’s in it, it’s about me, it’s about givin’ good to my kids. Absolutely. But make no mistake, Sylvie, no way in the back of my head while I was buildin’ all this, buildin’ my life, I didn’t think I wished I was giving it to you.”

After he dropped that bomb, he finished rolling away from me.

I had no retort, mostly because I’d stopped breathing.

I took in a deep breath in order to jumpstart my oxygen intake and rolled three times to the other side of his massive bed. I swung my hips around, put my feet to the floor and got out, reaching down. I pulled on my panties and cami and wandered to the windows.

Seriously, his view was fucking fantastic.

I felt him enter the room, heard his bare feet padding on the floor then I felt his arms wrap around me from behind.

I relaxed into him.

Then I asked what I’d wanted to ask since I got there.

“How’d it go with Chelle and the kids?”

His body grew tight for a second, as did his arms before he sighed and relaxed.

I did not take this as a good sign.

“Head’s up, Kara is gonna like you, probably rabidly. She’s determined to like you. She’s thrilled past anything healthy I got a woman in my life.” This was surprising news so I turned in his arms while he was still talking, curled mine around him and looked up at him as his chin dipped so he could look at me. “Mostly, this is to stick it to her mother. I do not get what’s goin’ down between those two but I figure what she fakes for you in order to hurt her Mom will eventually become genuine and not a way to fuck with Chelle. It’s just that, now, that’s where she’s at.”

“Oh… kay,” I agreed slowly, not getting this either. Then again, my stepmonster mostly ignored me and I returned the favor. We existed in the same house. She gave an effort that was all show when she thought she’d get something from my father in return. Usually, even when I was really young, she went her way and I went mine.

My Mom called her a scheming, greedy gold digger which was what she was seeing as she was Daddy’s secretary before he divorced my mother to make her his wife. And I liked my Mom as best I could, seeing as my Dad devoted his life to all things fucked up including doing everything within his formidable power to make my mother’s life miserable and that included keeping me away from her. He did this until she gave up the fight and took off to California. Before that, no way I’d use the stepmonster to screw with precious time with my Mom. No way in hell.

But, whatever. Kara Creed was not me. I was just going to have to deal.

“Brand’s Brand,” he went on, taking me from my thoughts. “He likes everyone. His response to me tellin’ them about you was, ’Awesome cool, Dad’.” Creed said the last with a smile and kept talking. “He likes people. He’s social. Talkative. Even when he was a baby, he met people’s eyes and smiled at them. Just like my Dad. Dad could and did talk to anybody. He never went anywhere where he didn’t have a friend, mostly because he made friends if there wasn’t one there already. Brand’s just like that.”

That sounded better so I gave him a smile and a squeeze.

His expression grew thoughtful and his gaze drifted over my head as he murmured, “Chelle’s happy for me.”

I blinked up at him. “Say again?”

He looked down at me. “She didn’t do cartwheels but yeah, you heard me. She was happy.”

“You’re kidding,” I whispered, not having a good feeling about this.

“Baby, your name is inked on my back and she loves me no matter I dicked her over. You don’t know her, we haven’t gotten deep about her but I told you she’s a good woman. When I say that I mean, she’s a really fuckin’ good woman. Funny, loving, smart, sweet. In a fucked up drunken speech, I gave it all to her. She knows about the lake, the pier, the necklaces, the promises, all our history. You’re inked on my skin. I named her kids your names. That shit, our shit, our history, our connection was and is extreme. She gets that better than anyone but you and me and she loves me. She can’t have me but she can be happy that I have what I need.”

Okay, he was a man so he didn’t get this shit but women so did not work that way.

Ever.

“Okay,” I said but even I could hear I was full of shit.

His arms gave me a squeeze and his face dropped closer to mine. “You’ll meet her and you’ll see. She is not like other women. She’s just Chelle.”

“Mm-hmm,” I mumbled and still sounded unconvincing.

He studied me then his mouth curled before he muttered, “Nothin’ to do but wait and let you experience it yourself.”

Something not to look forward to. Chelle Whatever-her-name-was-now was so not happy Creed had found me.

Shit.

I decided not to make any noise at all since even my mumbles were lame.

Creed gave me a squeeze as he said quietly, “Kids sleep late but told them we were going to Wet ‘n’ Wild tomorrow so they got wound up. That means tomorrow is a Disneyland day where they’ll be up early, rarin’ to go. We gotta hit the sack so we can get up earlier than them, get you back to the hotel then you can come back”

“Right,” I whispered and started to move away but his arms got tight again and stayed that way so I looked back up at him.

“This shit, hotel, us separated, you comin’ in under the radar, out early, thanks for doin’ that for my kids, baby,” he said quietly and I tipped my head, pressed deep and held on tight right back.

“Anything, Creed.”

I meant it.

Creed knew it.

I knew this because his face changed. His head moved. His mouth took mine and he kissed me deep and sweet.

After he lifted his head, he let me go but took my hand and moved us to the bed where we both moved in then he tucked me close.

“Love you, Sylvie,” he muttered into the top of my hair.

“Love you back, Creed,” I muttered to the skin over his collarbone.

His arms gave me another squeeze and, luckily, shortly after, tucked close to Creed, I fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Creed

Creed’s eyes opened and he saw the dawning sun but felt Sylvie in his arms, in his bed, in his home.

He pulled in a deep breath, his chest expanding, pressing into his woman’s soft skin, soft body and he let that cut through him, leaving beauty in its wake.

Taking long moments of quiet, alone in the weak light of dawn, holding his Sylvie, finally, his eyes moved to the alarm clock on his nightstand.

Then he shifted carefully, moving slightly away to stare down at her. Her thick, long hair a tangle on his pillow, her profile relaxed in sleep.

Creed watched her.

Since having her back, this was not the first time he’d done this. In fact, he did it every day.

Every single day.

Because lying beside a still asleep Sylvie, he had her back. His little, sweet, funny, loving Sylvie who had no idea how beautiful she was. His Sylvie who had hope and love written all over her face. There she was, asleep right beside him. Those sharp edges sheathed, she was all soft, all beauty, all the memory of his Sylvie.

She told him that the old Sylvie was gone. He didn’t tell her she was wrong and he’d never tell her. He had the new Sylvie and, in these moments before her eyes opened and the day started, he had the old one too.

And down the hall, his kids slept in his house on a hill far away from fucking Kentucky and the memories buried there.

Therefore, Creed had it all.

Everything.

He lifted a hand to cup her cheek then slid her hair away from her face. He watched her features shift, her eyes flutter. She moved to her back, he saw the green gemstone twinkle at her neck and he felt the beauty of that in his gut.

“Is it time to get up already?” she asked, her voice soft and husky with sleep.

Creed shifted his fingers through her hair, pulling it down her chest then he curved his hand around her ribs under her breast as he nodded.

“Damn,” she muttered, arching her back in a little stretch.

He glided his hand up between her breasts, up her chest to the chain at her neck where he stopped and twisted it around his forefinger.

“You did it again,” he murmured and she blinked.

“Did what?” she asked.

“Wakin’ up beside me, in my bed, in my house, you did it again.” When her brows drew together he finished, “My Sylvie, the dreamweaver, makin’ dreams come true.”

Her face went soft, hope and happiness flashed in her eyes and there he had it again. In those moments, he had her back. His Sylvie, both of them, right there in his bed.

Yes, he had it all.

Everything.

Or he would when he had her mouth.

So he went about taking it, dipping his head even as he tugged gently on the chain to pull her to him.

Sylvie lifted up and met him halfway and there it was.

Tucker Creed had everything.

Absolutely everything.

Fucking finally.

* * *

Sylvie

“Shit, I’m nervous,” I whispered.

It was early. I was standing at the front door in Creed’s arms and he’d just finished kissing me a kind of good-bye, the kind of part being that I was returning in less than two hours.

“Don’t be,” he whispered back.

“Kids like me,” I kept whispering. “But what if they’re, like, the only two kids I’ve ever met who think I’m a loser?”

Creed grinned and his arms gave me a squeeze. “They’ll love you, Sylvie. Honest to God. Don’t worry.”

Being back in Creed’s arms always felt good. It made me feel safe in a way I hadn’t since I lost him.

It just wasn’t working then.

“Creed –”

He suddenly let me go and his hands came up to cup either side of my head and his face, already close, came to a breath away.

“My kids are not dumb,” he announced and I stared into his eyes.

“I didn’t say they were.” You guessed it. I was still whispering.

“Baby, they’ve seen my tat.”

I pulled in breath.

He kept talking.

“It was not lost on them I was fakin’ it with their Mom and not just because we got divorced. Kids sense that shit. Trust me. It was not lost on them that things didn’t get a whole lot better for me when she and I were done and it will not be lost on them that you got the name inked on my skin and I’m finally fuckin’ happy. One day, when they’re older, when they know you better, when they can deal with the part of the story we’ll share with them, we’ll share it with them. They’ll get it and be happy for both of us. That’s what love is, Sylvie. That’s family. I didn’t know it because I didn’t grow up with it. You didn’t either. But havin’ my kids, I get it. The change might take some gettin’ used to and I’m not sayin’ the road won’t turn rocky along the way. I just know my kids love me and they’ll see me happy, so they’ll love you at the very least for makin’ me happy.”