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.