“Sweetheart, you have to let the past go so you can live in the future. You wouldn’t be the first who overlooked the obvious.”
“I care for you, Creed. I don’t think I ever stopped, but you don’t know everything about me—” She lowered her face.
He hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face, catching her gaze in his. “Listen, Mindy. I like you just the way you are. Neither one of us is free of baggage, kid. If this is too much for you—”
“No.” She sat up, palming his cheek, feeling the whiskers scrape her skin. “That’s not the path I wanted this to head. I just, well, I just…I don’t know. I’m sorry that things went as they did when we were eighteen. If I could go back and fix some things I would. I need you to understand that.”
“Listen, I regret the past too, but maturity tells me that maybe things happened for a reason. I was a kid, immature, and needed to do some growing. If you’d ask Mel, I’m sure she’d tell you that I wasn’t an award-winning husband. Was it because I was with her? Or because I was still too wrapped up in myself? Livvy taught me a lot about caring for someone other than myself. I’m not saying I didn’t care for you, I told you that I loved you, but life rotated around me. What if we would have married and you started hating me because I was an idiot? Hell, maybe you were the only one who could have kicked me into shape. Problem is, we’ll never know, will we? All we can do is head into the future with an open mind.”
Why did the valiancy in his gaze make her want to cry? To cuddle up in his arms and confess all her sins? “It appears since I’ve been gone you’ve grown compassion.”
He swept a piece of her hair off her cheek. “If it helps, I wasn’t unscathed when you left. You were the one and only woman who ever got close enough to break my heart. I don’t think all the cracks ever did fill in.”
A powerful man like Creed admitting weakness touched her deeply. He could come across as a tough guy, but he’d always been caring.
She’d always had an emptiness within her—a void inside her heart. Slowly that vast emptiness was being crammed with love. Things weren’t that easy though. They had children. And she had a secret. Would he ever understand why she moved on?
“Will you ever forgive me for being stupid? For not chasing after you?” The emotion in his voice sent tears rolling down her cheeks.
He used the callused pad of his thumb to swipe the moisture away. So gentle. So powerful. So Creed. He’d always wiped her tears away, her hurt, and been the shoulder she’d leaned on when she didn’t even know how much she needed him. “I forgave you a long time ago. I just now acknowledged it.”
“I still love you, Mindy. Not the girl you were, but the person you are now. I see how kind, loving, caring and beautiful, inside and out, that you are.”
Lifting herself, she kissed him lightly on the lips, his cheeks, his eyelids, then pulled back slightly. His eyes reflected an emotion she’d never witnessed before. “I like you a little.” She held up her fingers with an inch between them.
“Is that so?” He tickled her, causing her to erupt into giggles.
When the laughter faded, his lips were back on hers, soft, inviting, amazing. He dragged her in close, pressing their bodies together, igniting more internal flames. This wasn’t your run of the mill kiss shared between two horny people, but a kiss filled with emotion, desire and appreciation. He flicked his tongue inside, then tugged and nipped with his teeth…so gentle and yet so needful. She didn’t have the desire to fight the all-consuming feeling any longer. She sunk against his chest in an invitation to take her.
She crawled into his lap, her knees on either side of his hips, the apex of her moist thighs pressed against the proof of his desire, and yet he didn’t move too fast.
He tangled his fingers in her hair, deepening the kiss, while a deep moan escaped his throat. She rocked against him, gyrating her hips against his, turning the simmer to boiling point. They spent the next few moments kissing and re-learning each other.
Creed lowered his hands, wrapping his arms tight around her, pressing his cheek against hers. “There’s something wrong with this picture,” the gruffness of his voice made her body tremble.
“Yeah?”
“You’ve had too much to drink.”
“I’m not drunk.” He narrowed his gaze accusingly. “Okay. Maybe I am, but the whiskey hasn’t lessened or changed my desire for you.”
“I want that. Damn do I want that, but I’m afraid to move too fast. Afraid to screw up things between us again. I want you to trust me. I certainly don’t want to take you when you’ve had too much to drink and then you regret it.”
She pulled back, looking down at him with a narrowed eye. “You don’t want me?” Rejection filled her chest.
“No, sweetheart—I mean, yes, I want you more than my life.” He kissed her chin. “Yet, wanting you isn’t enough. I need to prove to you that I’m more than a hard dick. You deserve more.”
“Uh…have you noticed that I’m not complaining?” She lifted a brow. “Or are you playing hard to get?”
He chuckled and she felt the rumble low in his chest. “No.” He brushed the backs of his knuckles down her cheek. “When it happens it’s going to be amazing. Monumental. There will be no doubts left in us.”
“You have doubts?” Mindy swallowed hard.
“Sorry, sweetheart. Yes. Not in you. But doubts in the fact that sex complicates
