Page 59 of Almost Had You

He clears his throat. “The trick to going all night is lots of tongue in between. It helps.” He pulls me up to sit in his lap, my back against his front. “Clover, I love you something mad. Do you know that?” He kisses my shoulder.

My breathing finally eases back into something normal. “I love you. Thank you for tonight. For everything, really. You showed me how to be me without shoving it down my throat.”

He pulls us down and under the covers. I roll to face him and trace the planes of his face with my fingers. “You set me free and captured me at the same time,” I say, wrinkling my nose. “I don’t even know how to explain that.”

Mercer bites the tip of my finger and holds it between his teeth before sucking it. I feel it in my core. I take his free hand and put it between my legs. “And you know exactly how to work my body so I’d appreciate it if you’d just do that as much as possible right now.”

“I didn’t capture you. You merely fell in love with a Southern boy.” Mercer winks before he dips a finger inside me eliciting a quiet moan. His tongue parts my lips and I lose myself again.

Which I’ve come to realize is okay, because Mercer Ballentine will always find me.

Epilogue

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Mercer

“COUNT THE STARS,”Clover says, pointing to the sky. We’re at our almost beach in Cape Cod. We watched the light fade into night, but we weren’t ready to go after. We still had more champagne and she said her bucket wasn’t full yet. Her love bucket, that is. I lean over and kiss her cheek. She’s so beautiful, the moon is glowing on her creamy skin.

“That’s an impossibility,” I say. “There are one hundred billion stars in the Milky Way. There aren’t enough hours in a day to count all of the stars.”

She turns to look at me. “How ‘bout I count the ones I see in your eyes?” Her smile is bright and white. Almost as big as it was on our wedding day last year when I finally got the girl forever. There was no almost about it. There was a finality to our vows that brought me relief. This woman was my missing piece and I didn’t realize how unfulfilled I was until I was able to call her my wife. My partner in everything and anything.

“How many in my eyes then?” I counter, humoring her.

Clover furrows her brows in deep thought. “I only see myself,” she admits. “No stars. Zero.”

“Or infinity, you are my only star,” I joke, winking at her.

Clover takes a ragged breath. “Why are you impossibly perfect?”

“’Cause I got a good woman by my side.”

Clover casts her eyes back at the sky. “I never thanked you. You’ve been so supportive while we opened the new salon. I didn’t think it would be this much work.” Goldie and Clover expanded, and they are co-owners of an even more successful salon in a ritzy part of town.

I fold my arms behind my head. “No thanks needed, darlin’. You deal with a heaping of mess with my job.”

There are still a lot of training trips, but since the war ended and the multi-country agreement was signed, I haven’t deployed. It’s the most peaceful my life has ever been. We will spend a month in Greenton later this year because we both miss home, but we have carved out a life for ourselves in Cape Cod. The Harbour Point SEAL Base is where I belong. Clover is merely squaring up her dreams to match mine, and I can’t discredit how much she has changed and given to make us successful. Her daddy has more time on his hands and is a much happier person because of it. Her parents came to visit us in my house after we got married and all the scores were settled. We are a family now. In every way. There isn’t bad blood.

They support Clover and help in any way they can. It’s hard to keep up with her as she always has several things going on at the same time, and I’m just lucky that I’m the one thing that is always in the forefront of her mind. The love she has for me is something I didn’t know was real—or even possible. She loves my flaws as fiercely as she loves my good parts. I guess the only reason I am able to understand was because I feel the same way about her.

Clover sits up and grabs the champagne flute. She has a drink and then looks down at me. “Listen, I know I have the salon, and the quilting club, the volunteer hours at the shelter, the remodel of the house, and uh, you know training for the marathon, but I was thinking,” she says, sipping once more. “Maybe we could try for a baby. What do you think?”

I sit up. “Are you serious?”

Her eyes light up. She nods, a line forming between her eyes. “Look at how obsessed with you, I am. I’m ready to bring more obsession into this. Or we can at least have fun trying at the very least?”

Emotion clogs my throat. I clear it. “I think it’s a great idea. There’s nothing I love doing more than trying to make a baby with you.”

“You just have to like, come inside me instead of pulling out. That’s the plan, then.” She says it so matter-of-factly that I have to laugh. “What?” Clover whines.

I lick my lips and drag my hand over my mouth. “How about you let me worry about how babies are made and you just worry about having fun while we do it?” She folds her arms and tilts her head. “You have a lot going on. I’m just taking something off your plate.” I grin and hold out my hand. When she doesn’t take it, I say, “I’d love to come in you, Clover Wellsley. Putting a baby inside you will be my greatest accomplishment and I will take the responsibility very seriously.” I lay a hand over my heart. Her cold front breaks and she giggles, laying her hand on my arm.

She tells me the positions she was told to help her chances of getting pregnant and my cock stiffens. I have to change the subject because sand will end up places it shouldn’t be if she keeps talking technical about baby-making.

“Do you have everything buttoned up for Tannie’s bachelorette party?” I ask, grabbing the bottle to refill her glass.

Clover takes it and sips a few times. “I do. I know I’ve said it a thousand times before, but I’m so happy she met a great guy. Did I tell you Joe called her last week begging for another chance when he read her engagement announcement in the paper? Classic Joe. A day late and a dollar short.”

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