by Emerson Rose
“Maybe you should stay here? We can make room, and it’s better than fighting the paparazzi. Right?” I say turning to my aunt. I hope I haven’t overstepped my bounds, but it’s silly for them to waste money on a hotel.
Heather has a dazed look on her face, and it’s aimed at Gage. “Yo, you won a Grammy?” she stutters.
Gage is peeking through the curtains and turns his head. “Yeah, five.”
She looks at me and points at Gage. “Five?” she whispers, and I giggle at her astonishment.
“Yeah, five, and a bunch of other awards, too. He had a record go platinum.”
“I had no idea.” She shakes her head. “I’ll go make up the guest room and have Mandy sleep with me so Adley can have her bed.” Her words trail off as she walks away stunned and mumbling under her breath.
Gage straightens from where he has been looking out the window. “They’re almost all gone, just one van left.”
“Oh good, maybe they’re all going to the hotel to head you off. Even more reason not to leave.”
“Thank you for that. I don’t know how much your aunt likes me.”
“Oh, I think she likes you a lot more now that she knows you’re not just some random musician taking advantage of her niece.”
“I would never take advantage of you.”
Her eyebrows pop up flirtatiously. “No?”
“Not the way she thinks, but the way you’re thinking, yes.” I lift one side of my mouth with a sexy smirk. I miss this. I miss the banter, the sense of being part of something bigger than just Adley and me. I don’t ever want to lose this beauty standing in front of me, and I know exactly how I’m going to keep her.
22
Clover
How did I go so long without this? The way he eats me alive with his sharp green eyes and turns me to jelly with the sexy, rough voice. I can’t live without him. I thought I could, but it’s impossible. He makes me feel things no man has made me feel, and there’s a sense of belonging I lost when my parents died that comes back when I’m with Gage and Adley.
“Wanna skip dinner out and have a picnic in the backyard with everybody? I think we ended up talking about what you came to talk about already. Not to mention going out now that you’ve talked to the press is going to be a circus.”
“Sure, we’ll talk later. Can I help with dinner?”
“You know how to grill, right?”
“I do, pretty good at it if I do say so myself.”
“Perfect, I’ll tell Heather you’re handling the grill, and we can do the rest.”
I love the idea of having them here with us, cooking, eating and sleeping under the same roof. I turn to head into the kitchen.
“Clover?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for asking us to stay. I know things have been rough for you since… well, you know. Your nose looks beautiful by the way, they did a great job to keep it the way it was.”
I touch my nose remembering how miserable I was while it healed. “Yeah, it was a mess, got infected, and I had to stay in the hospital longer than expected.”
“I heard, I’m sorry.”
“It’s over, no need to dwell on it now, or at least that’s what my therapist says anyway.”
“He’s right, forgetting is easier said than done. That reminds me, Adley has had a really hard time, too. Up until we got here today, she couldn’t even go to the bathroom without me. I think being away from the house is helping her a lot.”
This news breaks my heart. She’s a smart kid and so independent, and that she’s afraid to be alone is a tragedy. “I’m glad being here helps. Anything I can do, just say the word, Gage. I love that little girl like she’s mine.”
“I know you do, it’s one of the reasons I love you.”
Hold up, did he just say… love? “You do?”
“Love you? Hell, yes. I should have told you before now. I don’t know why I didn’t. Didn’t want to scare you off, I guess.”
“Saying I love you would have done the opposite.”
“Yeah? So, does that mean you want to try again?”
I don’t bother with words. I step into his space and stand on my tiptoes to kiss him. The kiss says I’ve missed you, I want you here with me now and forever, and most importantly, it says I love you.
His hands roam my body reacquainting himself with the curve of my ass and my breasts quickly before anyone catches us. I am doing the same except one of mine is in his hair, which, thank God, is still as long and luxurious as always. There’s no love lost between the beard and me, but his hair is another story. My other hand is on his chest skimming over his abs and pecs through his t-shirt. I wish we were alone, at his hotel, or hell, in the rental car. I don’t care. I need to feel him against me, his skin on mine, hot and potent with his scent. I want to bury my face in his hair when I come and bite his neck to claim his as my own.
“Ahem.” Heather clears her throat, and I pull away like a teenager caught kissing her boyfriend on the porch after a date.
“Sorry to break this up, but the kids are getting hungry, and I thought maybe we could eat a little earlier than we’d planned,” she says with a wry smile.
I push my hair away from my face and smooth the front of my shirt. “Of course, that sounds great. I’ll go start the potato salad, why don’t you show Gage the grill.”
“I’d be glad to, this way,” she says waving Gage toward the back door and smiling over her shoulder at me as she goes. She’s going to do some grilling of her own when she gets him out there alone, I’ll bet. Poor guy.
I set about boiling water for potatoes while they’re gone. I crane my neck to listen to Adley and Mandy on the patio. Mandy helped Adley take the Barbies out there so she could play while we barbeque. She’s a senior in high school this year, way past the age of playing with dolls. I’ll have to remember to thank her later for being so kind to Adley.
Dinner is perfection. The food was delicious. Gage wasn’t lying about his grilling skills, I ate twice as much as usual. The conversation flowed from Gage’s days as a singer to Wes’s new girlfriend to Mandy’s college choices and ended on my dream of opening a summer camp. Heather asked Gage a million questions about his life, and he graciously answered without so much as an eye roll.
Heather insisted on cleaning up so Gage and I could put Adley to bed, and now we are in my childhood bedroom looking at photo albums of me when I was little. “That’s my mom, it was Christmas morning, and she had just gotten home from working the night shift. She looks tired.”
“She’s gorgeous, I see where you got your looks, beautiful.”
“I look like my dad, too, here…” I flip through the pages until I find a picture of him close up. “See?”
“Yeah, I see it a little.”
“You can take your shoes off, you know, get comfortable, stay awhile.” I nod my head toward his feet that are hanging off my full-size bed. He is stretched out on his side with his head propped in his hand, and I am sitting cross-legged next to him.
I feel like I’m back in high school sneaking my boyfriend in my bedroom at night. I wasn’t allowed to have boys in here unless the door was open like it is now. But we are adults, and even though Heather set up the guest room for Gage downstairs, I know he will be sleeping in here with me. How do I know this? Because Adley is in Mandy’s room right across the hall, and he hasn’t let her out of his sight for more than ten minutes since they arrived.
“I don’t know, do you think your aunt will think I’m an asshole? Sleeping in here when she made a bed downstairs for me?”
“No, I’ll tell her you needed to be close to Adley.”
“It wouldn’t be a lie. I have other reasons, too.”
“Like?”
“I want to fall asleep and wake up with you in my arms again. But, what I really want to do will have to wait.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mmm hmm. I don’t think your aunt would appreciate me stripping you bare and fucking you blind t
ied to your cute canopy bed.”
I slap his abs, and he laughs. “Stop it, you’re naughty.”
“Damn straight I am.”
“I like naughty,” I purr and look down at him with my best seductive, bedroom eyes.
“I know you do.” He slides his hand over my bare thigh and teases me through my shorts.
“I like naughty when we aren’t going to get caught by my aunt, one of two teenagers, and a six-year-old little girl.” I remove his hand and place it back on my pink and seafoam green comforter.
He chuckles. “Okay, got it. So, what have you been up to for the past month?”
“Besides fighting infection, going to therapy three times a week, and fighting nightmares?”
He lowers his gaze to the mattress. “I’m sorry, of course, you’ve been busy recovering. Adley has been going to therapy, too.”
“It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean to be insensitive. It’s just that’s all I’ve been doing, and it’s starting to make me bonkers. I need to get on with life, ya know?”
“I do. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Going on with life?”
“Going on with life with me, with us. Adley’s therapist says it’s not healthy for her to be living in the mountain house after what happened there. I thought I would give her some time to see if things got better, but they haven’t. She’s terrified there. All the time, everywhere she goes in that house or anywhere on our property, she’s in a heightened sense of awareness. She’s always looking over her shoulder and under the bed and behind doors. I’m going to sell the house.”
“Oh, Gage, really? You don’t think it will get any better?”
“I don’t know. Even if it does, I’ll always see Lenny’s dead body lying in my living room whenever I’m in there. That’s not going to go away.”
I’m quiet as I begin to fall back into my old ways of thinking, blaming myself for killing a man in their living room and forcing them to sell. But, if I hadn’t done what I did, they wouldn’t be here at all to sell the house and live somewhere else. Again, it’s my fault but not.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound like it’s your fault. We owe you everything, I owe you everything. If anything would have happened to Adley, I would have died. You saved all our lives that day.”
I accept his thanks and hold the feelings of guilt at bay like Dr. McGillicutty taught me. “So, what will you do then? After you sell, I mean.”
“Do you like living here in California?” he asks sitting up.
“I do, it’s not Colorado, but I think I’ll be able to find a nice place for the camp.”
“I want to move wherever you’re going to be. I want to buy a house, and I want you to live in it with us.”
My eyes water. “You do?”
“Yes, and I also want to give you this.” He slides off the bed and kneels on one knee taking my hand and placing a small silver box in it. “Clover, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
He opens the tiny box and inside is a not-so-tiny diamond engagement ring. The ring is a four-leaf clover with a large diamond in the center and smaller ones embedded on each leaf. The band has a feminine, scrolled design all the way around. It’s by far the most beautiful piece of jewelry I’ve ever laid eyes on. So much thought went into this ring to make it exactly right for me.
I blink and nod my head because words won’t come.
“You’re my lucky charm, my personal four-leaf clover, I love you.”
I sniff loudly, and he hands me a tissue from the box on my night table. After I’ve wiped my tears, I find my voice. “I love you, too. Yes, I’ll marry you. I’ll marry you a million times over.” I hurl myself into his arms, and we fall onto the floor in a heap, the ring box closing and tumbling to the side.
“I want to buy you a summer camp. I want to start singing again. I want to start writing and recording. I’m going to make you the happiest woman alive, Clover Washington.”
“Too late, you already have.”
23
Gage
Her mouth covers mine, and I roll over to straddle her on the floor next to her bed. In the back of my mind, I know her bedroom door is open, and Adley is sleeping straight across the hall, but I can’t halt her advance. She just told me she would marry me for God’s sake, and it’s been a month since I’ve been inside her.
As weird as it is being in her childhood bedroom, I try to block it out and make it work. I push my cock against her belly, and she wraps her legs around my waist arching up against me with a gasp.
“Door,” she whispers into my ear when I start a trail of kisses down her neck. She’s right, I need to do something about the gaping door, but it’s so hard pulling away from her.
“Okay.” I stand and offer her a hand bending my knees to kiss her hard and fast one more time before closing the door. “Pick that up, I want it on your finger before I have my way with you.” I point to the silver box on the floor next to her foot, and she bends to pick it up, and I slide the ring on her finger. It’s a perfect fit.
I planned on asking her to marry me the second I decided to come to California. I was going to ask even if she didn’t seem receptive to the idea. I wanted her to know how serious and committed I am either way. If she had said no and sent me away, it would have broken my heart into a million pieces, but at least I would know I tried everything I could.
I saw the ring the week we met at a jewelry shop in town when Adley and I were looking for something to give to Clover as a thank you for being our nanny. Being a clover, it caught my eye immediately, and I knew it was hers. Even then, I felt how special she was, how different, and how well we fit together in so many ways.
I glance across the hall and see that Adley is sleeping in Mandy’s bed. A pang of guilt hits me square in the chest when I close the door and lock it breaking a vow that I made to her never to do that. I’ll unlock it the second we are done and dressed again. She’s more relaxed here thousands of miles away from the house where Lenny died right in front of her eyes. I tell myself trying to rationalize my decision. It’ll be fine, I need this, I need Clover.
When I turn around, Clover is pulling back the comforter on her bed, bare except for her engagement ring, a vision of perfection. I pull my t-shirt off by the back of my collar and toss it on the floor shoving my jeans and boxer briefs down and kicking them off. My rock-hard cock bobs up and down as I cross the room. She is in the process of turning to face me when I reach her and turn her back around.
Pulling her back against my front, I cup her breasts and pinch her pebbled nipples. Her arms go up, and she grabs my hair pulling my face down and turning her own to kiss me. I moan and slide my hand down to her slick mound and circle her clit with my middle finger while pushing my cock against her back. “Bend over and grab a pillow to scream into. I’m about to worship you from behind,” I growl into her open mouth.
She whimpers and does as I ask dropping to the mattress and burying her beautiful face into a pillow. I take a second to look at her long, black straight hair fanning out over her back and sides, flawless, glowing cocoa skin, round ass in the air so ripe and ready, I almost lose it.
I kneel next to the bed and tug her closer to me before burying my face in her crease. She tastes exactly like I remember, sweet, almost like butterscotch but with a touch of tang. I’ve been craving it for weeks.
I lick her from clit to the pucker of her ass again and again until her hands are gripping the sheets, and she’s trembling on the verge of orgasm. I’m so lost in her, I don’t notice she’s coming until I hear her yelling my name into the pillow. I suck on her clit, and she convulses around me until it’s over. I kiss each of her smooth, round ass cheeks and stand, push her up the bed, and flip her over in one quick motion.
She flops on her back, arms splayed on either side, sated and limp. “Good?” I ask already knowing the answer but wanting to hear her say it out loud.
“Fucking amazing,” she pants.
“More?”
“You have to ask?”
“No, I just thought I would be a gentleman.”
“You’ve never been a gentleman before, don’t screw it up by starting now.”
I chuckle. “Touché, beautiful.”
I kneel on the bed nudging her knees apart with my own and settle against her warm body. “I love you so fucking much.” I pick up her hand and kiss the ring on her finger. “Thank you for agreeing to spend your life with me.”
“You’re welcome, I love you, and at the risk of making this an awkward moment, I love Adley, too.”
“Not awkward at all. I’m glad you love her. Constance would approve of you as her mother.”
“You think?”
“I’m sure, you’re everything she wanted to be.” A tear slips from her eye, and I wipe it away with my thumb. “None of that, this is a happy time.
“Okay.” She sniffles, and I kiss her soft mouth until her legs wrap around me and I slide inside her hot, wet core.
“God, I’ve missed this. You feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven. I’m serious, if you’d said no to my marriage proposal, I don’t know what I would have done. I can’t live the rest of my life without you wrapped around me and writhing under me.”
“Good thing you’ll never have to find out,” she says on an inward thrust where she clenches my cock with her walls and squeezes tight. I moan and begin to move faster alternating straight-on plunges with circular motions until I’m ready to explode.
“Quiet,” she pants out, and I grind my teeth together so hard it’s a miracle they don’t break. We come together, my favorite way, and it’s not all that quiet. A loud grunt escapes me at climax, and her hand comes to my mouth. Her face twists in pleasure, eyes rolling back, mouth open, head tilted back in that way she does. I wish I could have a picture of her like this, but if I did, I’d never get a damn thing done. I would sit around looking at it stroking myself until they put me into an asylum.
I collapse on top of her and roll us to our sides still connected.