Chapter 46
Parker
“Parker whatever the fuck your middle name is Ashcroft!” a sweet voice rang out as the door to my office opened.
I glanced up from my paperwork and Clover entered my office with a frown. She was unhappy with me, which was pretty par for the course at this point. I’d really been trying to make things right, and for the life of me, I couldn’t place what my latest mistake might be.
“What did I do?”
I was still learning Clover, so the options were endless. If the last few months had taught me anything, it was that I was very good at upsetting our beautiful omega.
Clover glared at me.
I sighed, thoroughly abandoning the paperwork, and met her eyes, my stomach sinking. “How much do I need to grovel in apology?”
The corner of Clover’s mouth turned up as she slunk toward me, poking me in the chest with surprising force. Her glare had a playful edge to it now that she was close, and my brow furrowed. So, she was only partly upset? That was good, wasn’t it?
“Why didn’t you tell me”—she poked me again—“that you paid off my fathers’ mortgage?”
Ah. So she’d found out about that.
I knew she would eventually, but her fathers had seemed almost embarrassed to accept my help, so I’d incorrectly assumed they would keep the information to themselves. I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Clover was good at finding out about everything going on in our lives.
“I wanted to make things easier on them.” I shrugged, knowing I had no other motivation behind it.
They were important to Clover, which meant they had to be important to me.
We were paying Logan’s horrible family a monthly stipend to leave him alone, so literally the least I could do for actually loving relatives was make sure they were comfortable and without financial worry.
Clover had taught me that you help people in your life when you can.
Plain and simple. At least I was finally learning something.
“It’s not a big deal. This way, they can come to visit you a lot more, and they aren’t so stressed. ”
Clover teared up, and a bolt of panic hit me. Had I done something else wrong? Dammit. Maybe I’d overstepped? She and her dads were independent, and I didn’t want her to take this as an offense.
“That’s…”
“I didn’t do it because I wanted to throw my money around. I did it because I love you, Clover, and I wa—”
She planted her fingertips against my lips, halting my words and sending desire like lightning through me.
“You what?”
Fuck. That was probably an unhinged thing to say after everything. But…it was true.
I tugged down her hands and planted them on my chest. “When I was faced with the potential of losing you, it all hit me at once. No one else challenges me like you do. No one has ever swept me into their thrall and kept me there.” Here I was, practically salivating for a scrap of her attention, and somehow I was okay with that.
“You’re a firebrand, and if laying myself bare for you to destroy at will is how I get to keep you, then I’ll do it.
“I love you. I’m learning what you need and how I can provide it while also keeping a leash on all the bullshit I need to unlearn.
I don’t expect you to forgive me. Frankly, I don’t deserve it, and I’ll admit I’m not perfect, even though I tried my whole life to be…
” I sucked in a deep, desperate breath. “But you make me want to try, and I’ll spend my whole life making sure I never make you feel the way you did when I gave you that fucking contract. ”
Clover curled her fingers into my shirt. “Parker…that’s really sweet. I—”
“You don’t have to say it back. I wouldn’t if I were in your shoes,” I said with a nervous laugh. “I made your life more difficult, and I’ll do anything I can to make it easier going forward. Whether that’s a life with me or not, you won’t have to worry about money ever again.”
She slid closer, tucking her head beneath my chin and locking her arms around me. My arms moved automatically to hold her.
“You’re not mad at me?” I asked uncertainly.
A beautiful laugh escaped Clover. “Why would I be mad at you? I swear it’s like you’ve turned into an entirely different person in the last few weeks, and you’ve saved my dads so much stress.”
I shrugged again, my face heating. “Have I turned into a better person?”
Clover fell silent, and time hung in a delicate balance where all I could do was wait. Nervous energy swelled up in my chest. I had no idea what was running through her head right now.
“Feels like better.” She stepped back and cupped my face. “I’m definitely falling for the new version of Parker you’ve shown me. We do well together when you’re not a dumbass.”
“You’re falling for me?”
“Hard not to when you’re being a reasonable human.
” She laughed. “The real Parker—the one who has a little faith—is generous, sweet, and thoughtful. I’m going to trust you to trust me, okay?
I believe we can have a good life together if you let us, and I can see that you’re trying. For that, I love you.”
My heart skipped a beat, then started pounding furiously as her words truly hit me.
She loved me? How in the hell had I managed that?
After everything I’d done wrong, I was beginning to think that I’d be lucky if she tolerated me, and then that would only be because she was in love with the others.
Still, I wanted to believe her more than anything.
I forced myself to look into her beautiful blue eyes. I wanted nothing more than to pull her closer, but for some reason, I hesitated.
Clover slammed forward, her arms locking around me like bands of steel. She filled my arms as nothing else could, and when she smiled up at me, I wanted to give her the whole damn world just to see her do that every day.
Her gaze dropped to my neck. I cocked a brow, unsure what she was studying on me, and then my beautiful, maddening omega snatched my forearm with both hands and sank her teeth into it.
“Clover!” I yelled, astounded. She had bitten me.
My shock didn’t last long. Every drop of blood in my body rushed south. It felt too good, too powerful, and everything inside me was telling me to claim Clover in return.
Right the fuck now.
Yanking her back against me, I surrendered to what she offered.
Our lips crashed together as I hoisted her up to plant her ass on my desk.
She tasted otherworldly good—my wild omega—and she could always throw me for a loop.
I threaded my fingers through her golden hair.
My tongue swept over the seam of her lips, and she let me in.
She took fistfuls of my shirt, her nails scraping over my skin, my omega humming against my mouth. The sound went straight to my cock. My brain continued short-circuiting, and I pulled down the straps of her dress.
“So you’re just going to strip me in your office? What if I’m not in the mood?” Clover asked, her tone full of sass.
“I can smell how much of a lie that is, trouble.” I dropped my nose to her shoulder, breathing in that heady sugared peony scent of hers and enjoying how thick with arousal it was.
I flipped her over so her knees were on the desk, showing off the roundness of her ass while leaving room for her belly. Clover peeked back at me, sitting up to bring her back to my chest.
The need to respond to her claim, to bite her in return, pulsed in my blood.
“You started this. I want you to keep that in your pretty head, knowing that you poked the bear when you bit me.”
Clover’s scent flared again, and my cock throbbed as she let her head fall back, finally allowing those lids to shut. “The bear should get a move on.”
“Parker…” Clover’s words were breathy, her eyelids fluttering as she fought to keep them open.
I let my hands wander over her lush curves.
Slick covered my sweet omega’s thighs, her rounded belly carrying the pack’s child.
She was utterly perfect, and I needed her like a man possessed.
Hunger drilled through me, the lingering sting of her bite on my forearm launching me to the heights of arousal.
She lifted one knee, then the other when I tugged down her panties, helping me remove them easily.
My cock was hard as a diamond as I freed it, precum leaking from the tip.
“My, oh my. You’re being rather forward.” Clover wiggled her hips, encouraging me closer until my erection brushed over her slippery folds. “Keep that up, and I might think you like me or something.”
Every instinct screamed at me to bite her. To claim her. I’d almost lost her to my own obstinance, and I desperately wanted to keep her.
“More than that.” I rocked my hips against her, trying to keep my wits about me. “You’re a phantom haunting every breath, and I think I might suffocate if I didn’t have you with me now. Tell me you’ll have no regrets.”
“Zero regrets.” She threw me a saucy smirk, and that was signal enough—let alone her words—to fuck deep into her cunt. She let out a precious little squeak as our hips met.
God, she felt utterly magnificent. Another growl tore free, and I yanked her closer, beginning a punishing rhythm. I needed to be knot-deep when I sank my teeth into her.
I prided myself on my control, but Clover had shattered any illusion on who held the power here.
“Parker! Fuck, I forgot how good that piercing feels.” Clover’s nails dug into my arms where I braced on either side of her. It was euphoric, the frenzy of alpha and omega becoming one overtaking me as I fucked my sweet omega like the deity she was.
We moved as one, back and forth, giving and receiving, chasing the release barreling toward us.
The squeak of the desk skidding across the floor mingled with the incredible sounds Clover sang out in appreciation.
More rumbles and growls and delirious groans melted from me; the feeling of Clover’s pussy sliding over my cock was so damn good.
“Knot me, Parker.” Clover whimpered. “Do it. Fuck, oh god…do it now.”
As she looked over her shoulder, our stares locking, I said, “You’re all mine right now, trouble. All fucking mine.”
I thrust in, losing myself to the way Clover shuddered and stretched around my rapidly swelling knot.
“Fuuuuck.” I breathed hard, my omega pulsing around me, her climax wringing my shaft, demanding I fall apart with her. I was damn close.
I rested my teeth on the curve of her shoulder. “Still no regrets?”
“Parker, for fuck’s sake. Bite me. Prove you want to keep me.”
I laid my claim on her skin, and ecstasy rebounded, the hum of the bond flaring brightly to life. I shot my release into her sweet cunt as she came again, her incredible body pulling every drop out of me, as hungry and desperate as I was.
Clover melted into me when I wrapped my arms around her, letting us ride the waves of pleasure together until we could finally catch our breath. Clover looked utterly gorgeous like this, all mussed and freshly fucked, and I marveled at her as she purred, her skin glowing.
I wanted to stay right here forever.
Forever wasn’t quite possible, but I’d at least get until my knot went down. I dragged her onto my lap and sank back into my desk chair with her cradled close.
“Shirt off,” she demanded, already tugging at her dress.
I shucked my shirt and tossed it overhead before helping her, my omega purring up a storm when she got to have more skin-to-skin contact with me.
I teased her slowly for the simple pleasure of making her squirm.
Clover’s nipples peaked behind her bra cups, and I growled low in my throat, marveling at the swell of her pregnant belly.
“I wasn’t expecting to do that when I came in here,” Clover whispered.
“Me either. I thought you came in to yell at me.”
Chuckling, Clover trailed her fingers over the back of my head to rest gently against my neck. “Well, I was going to yell, but not at you—more like because of you.”
We both laughed softly at that, and I rested my temple against Clover’s head. “I most definitely prefer this type of yelling.”
“I think a good mix of the two is in our future.”
My pack trampled into my office. I felt the vague brush of their emotions—mostly concern, amusement, and shock—in the shared bond. Clover was brighter in there, a glowing ball of warmth and contentment.
“Holy shit.” Avery laughed. “Welcome to the bond, I guess? How the fuck did that happen?”
Logan swept over and dropped to his knees to get eye level with Clover. She was purring away as she tugged him in for a gentle kiss.
“You’re okay?” he asked softly.
“More than.”
“What brought this on?”
Clover settled back against me. “Got overwhelmed by Parker being honest. I want this pack to keep me, and for once, we were on the same wavelength. Maybe a bit hasty, but it felt like the best way for us to grow together. Plus, he’s really cute, has a great butt, and comes with accessories. Gotta lock that shit down.”
“Oh, and by the way, if you ever need to yell it in the future, my middle name is Montgomery.”
Her laugh was sweet. “I fucking love that.”
My cheeks warmed.
Was she chaos personified? Yes.
Would I regret a lifetime bathed in her light? Absolutely the fuck not. I couldn’t wait for it.