Protecting Clover Read online

  She tossed her head back and moaned while he dabbled kisses down her neck, heaving her full breast into his mouth. The room spun, and he became intoxicated by her rosy scent and her sweet nectar.

  He made sure not a single inch of her went untouched.

  Clutching at his head, she rolled her hips in unison with his mouth. She loved like no other woman he’d ever experienced. She gave herself completely and without reservation.

  Greedily, he took it all.

  Her climax erupted with the force of a twister, spinning his raw emotions until he’d lost all control.

  He lifted her into his arms and shut off the shower. Setting her feet on the fluffy white floormat, he turned her back toward him and stared at her in the mirror. Her gaze tore through him like a raging fire consuming the woods.

  His chest tightened, and he found it difficult to breathe as he slid himself inside.

  Her lids fluttered over her cool-blue eyes. Her hands gripped the sink as she rocked back and forth.

  Wrapping his arm around her middle, he rubbed her hard nub in a slow feathery motion. He wanted to bring her pleasure over and over again. He wanted her to feel desired. Sexy.

  Loved.

  His heart pumped harder and faster.

  “Wait,” she whispered.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing. I just want to face you.” She turned and jumped up on the sink. Wrapping her arms and legs around him, she drew him inside.

  His muscles went weak, and he had to grip the counter to keep from falling to his knees.

  “Yes,” she said with a breathy moan, her face buried in the side of his neck. Her stomach quivered against his like the waves of the ocean crashing into the shore.

  He gritted his teeth and held on for as long as he could. Taking her mouth with a passionate thrust of his tongue, he let himself go, shuddering his own release.

  The sounds of their groans mixed together like the powerful music of the opera, stirring up all his emotions and tossing them to the wind.

  Holding her tight, he smoothed her wet hair and kissed her exposed shoulder. He cupped her cheeks and searched her gaze for answers to questions he didn’t know he had.

  Her eyes twinkled under the LED lighting, and her smile sucker punched his ability to form any coherent thoughts, much less words.

  He cleared his throat. “That was unexpected.”

  The right side of her lips curved higher. “That’s all you got?”

  He chuckled. “Unexpectedly wicked.”

  “That’s a little better.” She patted his shoulder, slipping from his embrace and wrapping a towel loosely around her waist. “Eyes up here, sailor.”

  He growled. “If you cover them up, I might be able to look somewhere else.” He forced his gaze to her angelic face. His heart dropped to his gut. Not only had he had sex with Clover, but he’d done so like a wild animal in heat.

  She tossed him a towel. “I’m hungry and I want—”

  All the outside lights flashed, and the alarm screamed through the night air.

  “Fuck,” he mumbled. “Where are your clothes?”

  “In the bedroom,” she said, clutching her breasts.

  “Let’s get them on and go find out what’s happening.” Quickly, he hiked up his jeans, not bothering with anything else other than his weapon. “You ready?” he asked, stepping into the guest room just as she pulled a shirt over her chest. Her nipples puckered through the fabric. “You don’t have a bra?”

  “I do in my room.”

  “We don’t have time for that,” he mumbled, snagging his phone.

  One missed called.

  Four texts.

  All from Landon.

  Landon: Perimeter breach north side. Parker checking it out.

  Landon: Lock cut at side gate by pool.

  Landon: Parker on the move.

  Landon: If I don’t hear from you in two minutes, I’m coming in.

  Wyatt hit the call button.

  “It’s about time,” Landon said.

  “What’s going on out there?” he asked.

  “The neighbor, Joe Hickey, broke the fence, and we caught him spraying weed killer in all her bushes. He also has a package that he said a woman gave to him to leave by the pool.”

  “What’s in the box?”

  “A couple more doctored naked pictures with payback is a bitch written all over them.”

  “Call Keanu and the cops. We’ll be down in a minute.” He laced his fingers through Clover’s, giving her hand a good squeeze. “What other old boyfriends have you sent naked pictures to?”

  “Now you’re being an asshole.” She yanked her hand away.

  “Let me rephrase. Who else might know about the pictures in order to use them against you?”

  “No one that would use them to hurt me…except my mother,” she said with sarcasm dripping from every word.

  “You told her about what happened with Conrad?”

  “Conrad sent her a couple right before he tried to blackmail me. He thought she’d put them all over the internet.”

  “Shocker that she didn’t considering that might put her in the limelight.”

  “I’m forever grateful she didn’t.”

  “Did she ever give you a reason why she didn’t?”

  “Something to the effect of protecting my reputation, which is bullshit, but she wouldn’t gain anything long term from sending the photos to the media.”

  “Have you gotten in a fight with her lately? Anything weird happen between the two of you?” Wyatt asked. Trisha had been known to do some crazy things. A few of which her daughter hadn’t ever been told about, and for good reason. He tugged Clover toward the split staircase. While the siren had been turned off, all the lights around the house were still as bright as the sun.

  “As a matter of fact, I have.”

  “Care to enlighten me?” He paused in the middle of the staircase and held her gaze for a long moment.

  “She wanted me to help my stepsister break into the Nashville scene. I told her I’d introduce her to a few people, and I might even be able to get her a set at one of the bars on Broadway, but I couldn’t get her a record deal like she wanted.”

  “That would be more than enough to set off Trisha.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Is your stepsister any good?”

  “I have no idea. I’ve never heard her sing, and honestly, I couldn’t pick her out of a lineup if I tried. I haven’t seen any of them in like eight years.”

  “Your mom can be vindictive.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “She can be.”

  “You know how she went off half-cocked whenever she thought your father was having an affair. She even once slit his tires after following him to the Sans.”

  She poked Wyatt in the chest. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “You have to promise not to get mad at me. I was under strict orders to never tell you, and you were like only fourteen when it happened.”

  She cocked her head. “From fourteen to sixteen, I didn’t once go visit my mother. She would call crying, saying that my dad was keeping me from her, but my father said it was complicated and that my mom was going through some things. Since my mom was always having issues, I let it go. But from the look on your face, something happened.”

  “She threatened to kidnap you, and on more than one occasion, she showed up. Your father had her arrested once after she broke into the house.”

  “Are you talking about the time some whacko came in and stole my Barbies…oh shit. That was my mom?”

  “Holy fuck. I forgot she stole all your dolls.”

  “You don’t really think my mother would do this, do you?”

  “Do you remember your seventeenth birthday party and how late your father had been?” Wyatt hated doing this and not just because he was breaking a promise he’d made to her father, but because he knew it would mess with Clover’s psyche.

  “There had been a problem on the base, and it could
n’t be helped.”

  “But we all showed up on time,” he said with a raised brow.

  “Would you please just get to the point.”

  “Your mother showed up, demanding to come to your party. She said she wanted to start over with you, but he knew better and all she wanted was either the Sans, money, or both.”

  “Ever since Daddy died, she’s been on me constantly about the bar and how it should have been hers, among other things.”

  Wyatt kissed her forehead. “I think we found our stalker.”

  She shivered. “My own mother. I should have known.”

  Chapter 6

  Clover stared at her mother’s contact information blinking on her cell phone screen, almost daring her to hit the little phone icon. The last time she’d called her mother had been when her father had been killed. The conversation hadn’t gone well, not that she’d expected her mother to all of a sudden behave like a parent, but she hadn’t expected her to ask if her father had done the right thing and left her the restaurant. But what really hurt had been the words that followed.

  “Well, we can be business partners. It will be fun, and it will be good for your little sister. She wants a singing career too, so it will give her a place to try out her new songs.”

  Over Clover’s dead body would that happen, and she let her mother know it.

  That resulted in her mother calling her a few choice words and then hanging up on Clover.

  “How are you holding up?” Wyatt asked as he stepped into her bedroom. He closed the door and sauntered closer.

  “Not well,” she admitted, taking his hand as he joined her on the edge of the bed. “My mother might be a loon, but I’m struggling with this master plan to destroy me. I mean, she’s my mother. She’s supposed to lift me up, not bring me down.”

  “If I hadn’t been there when she planned on kidnapping you, I wouldn’t have believed any of this either, but it makes total sense.” Wyatt ran a finger across the side of her face and through her hair. “Do you remember when the first song you sold hit number one?”

  A smile tugged at her lips. “Of course I do. It was an amazing day, and you and Daddy made it even more special by throwing that impromptu party for me.”

  “Until your mother showed up and tried to ruin it,” Wyatt said. “I was horrified by how she tried to steal your thunder. And every time something magical happened in your life, if she wasn’t given credit publicly, she shit on you.”

  “She once went as far as to call a press conference to discuss my career. She actually said she helped me write my songs but wouldn’t dare take the acclaim since that’s what mothers do. I’ve learned to ignore her over the years.”

  “And that’s the problem. You live a humble life, and you don’t make a big deal over your success. So much so, you won’t even go to awards shows or be interviewed. You don’t allow yourself the fun of being recognized for your talent because your mother makes it ugly for you. But in turn, your ability to avoid the limelight makes your mom nuts. If she doesn’t know what you’re doing, or which songs are yours, she can’t use your gifts in order to get her fifteen minutes of fame.”

  “It’s hard to believe she would go to such lengths. I have to ask myself, what’s the end game? What’s she getting out of this?”

  “Have you called her? Asked her to come down and take care of you? Knowing her, I bet that’s what she’s looking for. It’s like that woman on one of the Real Housewives going along with a cancer scam because she wanted her friends to bring her a casserole.”

  “I’m terrified that not only did you reference a reality television show, but that you might have actually watched one.”

  “When I went to visit my sister last summer after her surgery, she made me binge-watch a season with her. Dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “And yet oddly, highly entertaining. But my point was that your mother will do anything for attention.”

  “This still seems over-the-top outrageous.”

  He took her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “We should have confirmation in the morning.”

  “I would love to be the one to confront her. Or at least be in the room to hear her excuses.” Her mother had a slew of reasons why she’d been a horrible mother, most of which were bullshit and only meant to take the focus off her mother and put it on someone else. God forbid her mother ever take responsibility for her own actions.

  “It’s best we let the cops handle this.” He raised her hand and kissed the back side.

  “What if we’re wrong and it’s not her?” She fell back on the bed and stared at the skylight. Big puffy clouds floated across the star-speckled sky. The white moon glowed in the black night. “What if I do have some crazy psycho stalker who wants to chop up my body, put it in a plastic bag, attach a cement block to it, and toss it into the ocean.”

  “The only person who is going to do anything to your body is me.” Wyatt positioned himself on top of her.

  She accepted his weight and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Lifting her head off the pillow, she puckered her lips and brushed them over his soft mouth. She had no shame in his arms. “I might let you have your way with me.”

  He groaned, burying his face in her neck. “This is such a bad idea.”

  “It doesn’t feel too horrible to me.” She rolled her hips, feeling his hardness press against her body, sending heat waves drizzling all over her skin like molten lava. “Actually, it feels spectacular.”

  “You know that’s not what I mean,” he whispered as he rolled to his side, splaying his large hand over her tight midsection. “I shouldn’t be doing this.” He palmed her breast, pinching her hard nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

  “And yet, you are,” she panted out in short breaths. Her chest heaved up and down, increasing the pressure from his hand. “Just admit that you care about me.”

  “I never said I didn’t, but soon, my team will be deployed, and I will be gone for God only knows how long. You’re young and have so much ahead of you, including a family and children, but I can’t give you those things.”

  “When are you going to realize that you’re only hurting yourself by keeping that wall built up around your heart?”

  “That has nothing to do with your future.” He flopped to his back and tossed his arm over his eyes. “Besides, I don’t have a wall,” he said softly. “My heart is open and exposed. But I won’t put myself or anyone I love through that hell again.”

  She pried his arm from his face. “Not every child dies of cancer, just like not every SEAL is a cheater. Don’t you see that you’re not living and that existence without substance is nothing more than a shell of a life? I’m not asking for the moon and the stars. I’m asking for you to give us a shot.”

  He cupped her face and drew her in for a deep, passionate kiss, but he broke it off the second she tried to slip her hands under his shirt. “I can give you friendship. I can even give you sex. However, there is no us, and there never will be. I’m sorry, but my heart doesn’t have any love left in it. Not to give, much less to accept.”

  With as much grace as she could manage, she stood and smoothed down the front of her nightgown. “You’re a fool,” she said.

  “Probably.”

  “You can tell yourself that the love train has left the station, but you know deep down that you’re too afraid to open your heart and let it happen. You’re a coward.” She turned on her heels, but he grabbed her by the arm and twisted her around. “Let go of me.”

  “I’m not a coward,” he said behind gritted teeth. “How dare you belittle my feelings like that.”

  “No one is putting down your pain. I held your hand during Michael’s treatments. I was there for you the day he passed. I stood next to you and Gwen at the funeral, and I held you when you cried after Gwen left. I know the kind of man you are, and the kind of love you have to give.” She pressed her hand firmly in the center of his chest. “This aches to feel something again, but you won’t let it bec
ause you’re scared it might hurt. Well, guess what? Life is messy. It’s ugly, and it’s full of sorrow. But it’s also wonderous and packed full with new adventures, and I’m not talking deployments.”

  He pushed her hand away. “It’s best I walk out of this room right now. I’m sorry I hurt you.”

  “I knew what I was doing when I stepped into that shower, so don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay because I know if you aren’t going to come around and admit how much you care about me and want to be with me, then there is someone else out there who will. You see, my heart is open to love, as well as the pain that love might bring.”

  His lips parted, but no words came out.

  She padded across the bedroom and opened the door. “Good night, Wyatt.”

  “Good night,” he mumbled and marched out into the hallway.

  Careful not to slam the door, she eased it closed and slid to the floor, covering her eyes. The tears came quick and hot.

  But she would get over Wyatt because she was a fighter, a survivor, and her father’s daughter.

  Clover sat on the steps to the beach and blew into her steaming mug of coffee. The sky turned a light blueish-orange color as the sun started to peek out over the ocean.

  By the time she’d gone to bed, it had been two in the morning. She had no idea where Wyatt had slept. She told herself she didn’t care but having some young hot SEAL on Wyatt’s squad give her a message that Wyatt had left the building. Tears pool in the corners of her eyes.

  Wonderful.

  Landon jogged up the beach, making his way toward the deck. “How are you holding up?” he asked.

  “I’ll be better once someone confirms my mother is the one fucking with me.”

  “That’s rough.” Landon leaned against the railing. “Wyatt went to go chat with some chick they believe is the girl who has been giving everyone these boxes to deliver. He’s hoping that will help confirm or not that your mother was the culprit.”