Clever and popular mastermind embracing love (9)
I believe the answer is:
ingenious
'clever' is the definition.
('ingenious' can be a synonym of 'clever')
'popular mastermind embracing love' is the wordplay.
'popular' becomes 'in'.
'mastermind' becomes 'genius' ('genius' can be a synonym of 'mastermind'**).
'embracing' indicates putting letters inside.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'genius' going around 'o' is 'genious'.
'in'+'genious'='INGENIOUS'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for ingenious that I've seen before include "Showing inventiveness" , "Creative" , "Displaying art" , "Clever, inventive" , "Resourceful" .)