Her Hometown Hero

by Melody Anne

  “You’ve been moaning in your sleep and I want answers,” Grace said as she got comfortable.

  “I have not,” Sage replied, trying to be sneaky as she grabbed the ornaments Grace had just placed on the tree and repositioned them.

  “I saw that, Sage,” Grace said, making Sage turn to see the satisfied smirk on her friend’s face.

  “They looked fine. I just think those branches won’t hold them,” Sage said, not wanting to admit her need for perfection or hurt her friend’s feelings.

  “You know, if I didn’t love you so dang much, I might be offended that you think I’m a terrible decorator,” Grace said before taking a sip of coffee.

  “I don’t think you’re terrible, not at all. It’s just that I don’t want the branches to break,” she said on a sigh.

  “I’ll let you think that I believe that,” Grace said with a wink. “But I will admit that your compulsion to make everything perfect is just one of the many reasons I adore you.”

  “You know I love you, too, Grace.”

  “Now, back to why you were moaning in your sleep,” Grace said, not letting Sage off the hook.

  “I was not moaning in my sleep.”

  “Ha! I caught you,” Grace said, sitting up a little taller against the back of the couch. “There’s no way you’d be turning so red if there wasn’t something you were actually trying to hide. You’ve been my best friend since the first day of kindergarten. Why in the world wouldn’t you spill your guts to me? I’m hurt.”

  “Wait a minute! You want me to spill, but I spotted you in town with Camden yesterday and you haven’t said a word.” Now Grace was the one blushing, and Sage had the upper hand.

  “That was nothing. We were just . . . uh . . . talking. Besides, this is about you right now, not me.”

  “I’ll tell if you do, Grace, ’cause right now it looks as if we’ve both been holding back.”

  Sage had been having a nice lazy morning getting the tree decorated just the way she liked it—color coordinated and symmetrically appealing—drinking her coffee, and even contemplating reading the paper—not that Sterling had much of a paper. Grace, for once, also had a bit of time off, so it was supposed to be just a relaxing morning. But this was better.

  “Look, it’s not even Thanksgiving for a couple of days. The tree can wait. Come sit down with me and tell me all. I think my innocent ears may get singed if the ten different vases sitting on every available space in our apartment are any indication. Only a man who is incredibly pleased or incredibly guilt-ridden sends so many bouquets.”

  “No, I haven’t done anything for the flowers,” Sage said. And then she stopped, her turncoat face turning scarlet again and spilling the beans for her.

  “You have done something, Sage! You know I can always tell when you’re lying.”

  “Fine, then.” How was she going to speak about this? How could she not? She’d thought of little else since that night in his home last week.

  Taking a deep breath, she looked at Grace, her cheeks permanently red, her stomach tied in knots. “It was the night of that huge storm, when I couldn’t get home. Spence and I had a few kisses.” Okay, this was harder to say than she’d imagined. “Stop looking at me like that.”

  “And . . .” Grace was sitting on the edge of her seat now, not allowing Sage to look away.

  “Well, then we got into the hot tub . . .” She just couldn’t admit her humiliation to Grace. It was too horrid.

  “Tell me everything now, or I swear, Sage, we will no longer be besties.”

  “We started to make love and then he jetted off to another state practically before I even arrived back home,” Sage said hurriedly.

  “Wait! You started to make love? How far did you get? What exactly happened?”

  “We . . . um . . . went all the way—or sort of all the way—but he freaked when he found out I was a virgin, and neither of us had a happy ending,” Sage said, feeling the humiliation all over again. “He just stopped.”

  “What? You’re kidding, right?”

  “I wish I were. And he hasn’t spoken to me since. He went to Seattle the next day and he’s been gone all week.”

  “No phone calls, nothing, just flowers?”

  “Yeah,” Sage said, not even wanting to look at the freaking flowers.

  “Well, that sucks. What kind of man doesn’t even call? Hell, I remember when we were in middle school and you doodled his name all over your notebook: Sage and Spence forever,” Grace said with an indignant scowl.

  “I guess we didn’t choose too wisely, because I recall that on your notebook it said Grace plus Camden equals forever.”

  “Yeah, we were supposed to marry the devastatingly handsome brothers and be related for life. Heck, we’d even have our children at the same time so they’d grow up together and be best friends just like us.”

  “Don’t you wish life worked out so easily?”

  “Yeah. But the real world never goes the way we want it to. Enough of that. I want to know how you feel. You lost your virginity. Was it good? Bad? Did he suck? I want details, lots of details.”

  Sage spent the next fifteen minutes filling Grace in on exactly what had occurred at Spence’s house. Even speaking about it again had her hot and bothered. How could an experience that had been so good for her, have been exactly the opposite for him? She felt shamed and humiliated and didn’t ever want to see him again.

  “You have to talk to him, you know,” Grace told her. “You have to figure out what in the world he is thinking. He had to have been shocked. Most women don’t make it to your age with the V card still intact. Give him a chance to explain himself.”

  “He hasn’t even tried,” Sage said with a frustrated sigh.

  “Then corner the man and make him speak.”

  “I can’t even think about this anymore. Please, please, please tell me what is up with you and Camden, and let’s not talk about me. You were having lunch together at the diner and your heads were bent together awfully close.”

  “It’s not what you think.”

  “Sure, sure.”

  “No, really, Sage. We’re just working together on something, or he’s trying to work with me on something, but I don’t want his help, but the man is a pain in the ass and won’t take no for an answer.”

  “There’s no way you are getting away with being so vague, Grace.” Sage had lost all interest in decorating the tree.

  “There’s really nothing to tell,” she said, probably hoping that would satisfy her best friend.

  Not by a long shot.

  “Grace, I know that look in your eyes and I know when you’re hiding something from me. I will get it out of you!”

  “Look, it’s really nothing, but Cam seems to think it’s something. I just can’t talk about him right now. The man infuriates me.”

  Sage sat there, looked at the pain on Grace’s face, and knew she needed to give her friend a break. Just like Sage didn’t want to speak about Spence right now, it was more than obvious that speaking about Camden was too hard for Grace. They would talk to each other when they were ready, Sage had no doubt about that.

  “Grace—” Just then the doorbell rang.

  “I got it,” Grace said hastily, acting as if there was a fire and she was going to be the first out of the building.

  “You can run, but you can’t hide,” Sage called out after her friend.

  “We’ll see about that,” Grace called back before Sage heard the door open.

  “My, my, my, looky what the cat just dragged to our doorstep.”

  Sage had a sinking feeling . . .

  “I come bearing treats.”

  Great. Spence’s voice first thing in the morning was almost as sexy as late at night. Of course, thinking of night and Spence’s deep voice made her think of beds and . . . Nope, not gonna go there.

  “What kind of treats?” she heard Grace ask.

  “Fresh hot coffee and pastries from the new bakery down the street.”
>
  “New bakery? I didn’t know it was open yet,” Grace said with suspicion.

  “You got me—these are a few hours old. I picked them up before I flew out of Seattle. The coffee did come from the café, though. It was the good barista.” He was obviously wearing a seductive smile, and he spoke with his most come-hither voice.

  “You may enter,” Grace said.

  Sage scrambled to her feet. She was wearing pajamas—with little elves on them, for goodness’ sake. Bad, bad, bad. No, she didn’t want to seduce him, not after being rejected, but elves?

  “Sage, we have company,” Grace yelled two seconds before they entered the living room.

  Sage’s eyes connected with Spence’s and her stomach sank. A week apart from him had done nothing for her libido. And he was clearly still feeling something as well, at least if the smoldering in his eyes was any indication.

  Now she was confused, very confused. He could have made love to her all night, but he’d pulled away with no explanation, disappeared, and now was in her home bearing gifts and acting like no time had passed. What in the world was the man thinking? The real question was, did she really want to know?

  It had been only a week. That was nothing. He’d been in surgeries that had lasted that long. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but still, he’d been through weeks that felt like mere days, but for some reason, this week had felt like a month.

  Maybe it was the guilt for not speaking to her after their disastrous night at his place, or maybe it was because he couldn’t get her from his mind.

  Whatever it was, he knew their story was only beginning. He’d been shocked to find out she was a virgin. Of course he was. Most women didn’t make it to twenty-one with their virginity intact, let alone twenty-six. He’d thought he was doing the right thing by stopping, but from the expression in her eyes, he had a feeling he’d taken major steps backward.

  It was okay, though. He was confident he could win her back. After all, the two of them shared a powerful connection, and he wasn’t going away until he explored exactly what that connection was and where it would lead.

  Sage was standing in front of him in what should have been completely unflattering pajamas with freaking elves on them, and he was still ready to toss her over his shoulder and haul her to the nearest bed. He was losing his mind.

  Her curves were hidden, though not invisible, in the soft flannel top, but hallelujah for the revealing flannel shorts. Her toned thighs were a thing of beauty, sparking the most inappropriate thoughts of kissing them . . . all the way up to her . . .

  Oops. Time to halt that thought. He’d never found such childish pajamas a turn-on before, but they were sexier at this moment than the skimpiest piece of lingerie he’d ever seen. For once, he was seeing Sage’s normally tame red hair piled messily on top of her head, and without a trace of makeup she looked fresh, young, and . . . innocent. Dammit. Too innocent for him—they’d already established that a week ago. If he was a good man, he’d turn and walk away before he could corrupt her further than he already had.

  Yeah, right. He wasn’t strong enough to do that yet. Obviously—he was here, wasn’t he? Spence’s eyes raked over her delicious body, a body he had felt naked, and he knew he was right where he belonged.

  Shaking his head, he jettisoned such mushy thoughts from his brain. This was about conquest, about attraction, about simple animal lust.

  He was overthinking this. Time to give her the goodies he’d picked up on a whim, do some light flirting, see if there was a chance of getting her into his bed to complete what they’d begun, and then getting the hell away from her apartment.

  “Are you going to stand there all day,” Grace asked, “or actually show us what’s in the box?”

  Feeling as if he was emerging from a deep sleep, Spence pasted on his winning smile again for Grace’s benefit. He wasn’t a stupid man—he knew that if he wanted to learn all of Sage’s secrets, it would help a lot to have her best friend on his side.

  “I hope you ladies like chocolate.” He opened the lid and showed Grace the fresh-baked goods.

  “Ooh, a man after my heart. Are you single, sugar?” Grace reached in and pulled out a chocolate-drizzled pastry.

  “Hopefully not for long,” he said, and his eyes roamed over Sage again. Her blush summoned images of how she’d appeared as he’d entered her. Squirming in pants that were suddenly too tight, he turned his attention back to Grace. That seemed much safer for his libido.

  “Well, take a seat, Romeo,” Grace said. “It seems my best friend has forgotten how to speak.” She led him to the couch that Sage had just vacated, then gave her a wink. Sage looked as if she wanted to smack her friend, but she remained silent and moved over to the coffee table, where a number of ornaments were lined up. Spence took a closer look and had to grin when he noticed they were separated into groups by color and size. Sage picked one up carefully, walked over to the tree, and stood there in deep contemplation.

  “Are you getting ready to perform surgery on the tree?” he asked, then fished out a doughnut and took a bite.

  She turned and looked at him. “What?”

  “You seem quite focused on ornament placement,” he said after he swallowed.

  “I like the tree to be decorated according to fixed aesthetic principles,” she said defensively. She turned her back to him again and slid the ornament onto the perfect branch.

  “What if the tree’s branches aren’t evenly spaced?”

  “I always get a beautiful tree.”

  “Oh, you must be a lot of fun to Christmas tree shop with.”

  Sage turned and glared at him before walking back to her table and selecting another ornament. “I happen to think I’m an asset when shopping for a tree. I can gauge the area it will take up, and it won’t look too big or too small in its appointed place. I also know which ones will last for the season, and which ones are close to dying.”

  Spence laughed out loud at her earnestness. He’d never met someone who had a formula for Christmas tree shopping. She was a real treat. He sat back and enjoyed the show when she bent down to pick up a fallen bulb. “Then it’s a good thing I haven’t bought my tree yet. I appreciate your offering to help.”

  “I made no such offer.” Sage didn’t bother to look at him this time.

  “Yes, you did. Didn’t you hear her offer, Grace?”

  Grace gave a gigantic smile and put down her pastry. “It sounded like an offer to me.”

  “Traitor,” Sage mumbled beneath her breath, and sent Grace a stern look.

  “I’d love to hang around the both of you and watch the bickering continue, but I have to get dressed and head in to work,” Grace said, practically skipping by as she went down the hallway.

  “I think you chased her away—and just when all the fun was beginning,” Spence said, picking up an ornament and approaching the tree.

  Sage didn’t tell him he had to unhand the delicate glass elf in his hand; she just stood there watching, waiting. He suspected that this was some sort of test, and he felt the pressure to get it right. Damn. Since when did getting a girl to go out with him depend on his expertise at hanging ornaments?

  Since now, apparently.

  He placed the little elf in a bare spot and found himself holding his breath as he waited for the verdict. He turned around to pick up his coffee, then turned back to find that the ornament had moved a few inches.

  Well, he’d come close. Victory!

  He suddenly started laughing. “Let me help you finish up the tree, Sage.” And he knew exactly what she was about to say.

  “That’s all right. I’m going to finish later.”

  “Come on, I’m really good at it—I’m good at just about everything,” he said, waggling his brows at her.

  “Obviously not,” she muttered as she pivoted back to her tree, studying it the way she would a patient.

  “I was thrown for a loop last week and not up to my best performance level, but I’ve had plenty of time t
o think, and I have ways of making it up to you. Now, I’m going to apologize in advance for any violations against you.”

  Before she could speak, Spence turned her toward him and drew her into his arms in one swift movement, savoring for a brief moment the feel of her feminine body pressed against his with the negligible barrier of her pajamas and his sweater.

  When he saw the whisper of desire flit across her eyes, he knew she wanted him, knew it wouldn’t be long until he had his chance to make up to her for his shock at finding she was a virgin. What surprised him was the warming in his gut, the extra beat to his heart.

  “Sage Banks, you have gotten under my skin and you aren’t letting me go,” he whispered before his lips brushed across hers in the barest of touches.

  “I’m not doing anything,” she said, her voice husky, the sound rumbling through him.

  “Ah, you do plenty. I love the concentration on your face when you’re focused, the way your lips so easily turn up to comfort a patient, how eager you are to learn new things, and how willing you are to help others. And I love the way you taste,” he said, brushing his lips across hers again, hunger ripping through him. No longer denying the kiss he really wanted, he brought their lips together, throwing away rational thought and restraint.

  After sliding his fingers through the glorious tangle of her fire-red hair, he held her head tight, angling it so he could deepen the kiss and take full advantage of the gasp she was releasing into his mouth.

  She tasted of sweet coffee and a hint of mint toothpaste, making him think of long summer days and cool spring-fed creeks, and the two of them bare in the sun. He could be content doing nothing but lazing all day and night with this woman in his arms.

  She was his—for this moment, she was all his, and he could take her to the highest reaches of heaven. Her seductive groan let him know she had no thoughts of fighting him, so his hand moved down her back, landing on the soft curve of her sweet derrière as he pulled her tightly against him.