Hero For the Asking (Reed Sisters: Holding out for a Hero 2)

It was with mixed feelings that Spring accompanied Summer, Derek and Clay to a party in the home that Connie Anderson shared with Joel Tanner. She wasn't overly excited about attending a party where she knew only five other people, but it was another excuse to be with Clay. Summer had even stopped teasing her about seeing so much of Clay, and Derek, in his placid way, seemed to accept Clay's constant presence as inevitable while Spring was around. Spring was beginning to feel like one of a couple. She liked the feeling. She was going to miss it when it ended in five days.

Connie had moved in with Joel a month earlier, in February. They planned to be married in May, when Connie and Derek's parents returned from a leisurely, long-planned cruise, but they saw no need to wait that long to live together. This was Connie's first real party in her new home. It was cheerful, loud, eccentric. Good clean fun, Summer assured her sister.

"It's not Derek's and Joel's kind of thing, either, but they'll have a good time," she added as she helped Spring select a casual outfit consisting of a peach cotton blouse and comfortably full peach-and-cream plaid skirt.

"It's your kind of thing, though, isn't it?" Spring asked thoughtfully. "And Clay's."

"Sure, I love parties. So does Clay. He gets to perform."

"Perform?"

Summer only smiled mysteriously. "You'll see."

Yes, Spring thought glumly. She was afraid that she would see. She'd see, again, how very different she and Clay were. And, worse, he'd see the same thing. She wondered if any of his beautiful women would be there.

They were. From the moment Clay entered the room, Spring at his side, he was deluged by affectionate welcomes. Women—redheads, blondes, brunettes, all disgustingly beautiful—greeted him with kisses and hugs, teasing him about things that Spring didn't know about, illustrating so clearly how far apart their lives were. The women were dressed casually, for the most part, but with daring style that made Spring feel very provincial and unsophisticated next to them.

The music was loud, classic rock and roll mostly. Spring liked rock and roll, but it did make conversation rather difficult. She smiled a lot.

When Bob Seger's recorded voice burst out with "Old Time Rock 'n Roll," everyone laughed and tried to talk Clay into stripping down to his shirt and briefs and doing the lip-sync routine that Tom Cruise had made famous in the movie Risky Business. Clay declined with a laugh, but Spring got the impression that he wouldn't always have turned down the challenge. It seemed that he had done that particular routine at several other parties. He only laughed and shrugged when she turned a questioning glance on him.

Spring managed to have a good time at the party, despite her initial feeling that she was terribly out of place, until a striking brunette joined the party halfway through the evening. She was dressed in Chinese red, red silk blouse and matching slacks that looked as if she'd been poured into them, and she was on the arm of an attractive auburn-haired man everyone called Ace. Spring sensed immediately that Connie and Summer hadn't known the woman would be there as Ace's date. She caught the quick, startled glances the former roommates exchanged before greeting the woman with somewhat stilted politeness.

Clay hadn't known the woman would be at the party, either, Spring realized a few moments later. She just happened to be watching his face when he caught sight of the brunette. His eyes narrowed, and a muscle twitched in his jaw. His expression was hard to read, but Spring thought she detected chagrin. Then he glanced at her, caught her watching him and smiled, his face revealing nothing of his thoughts.

Who was she and what was she, or what had she been, to Clay? Spring asked herself the question with a fierce surge of jealousy that left her dismayed and wary. She couldn't allow herself to go on this way, she tried to tell herself sternly. She must not fall in love with Clay McEntire!

It was all she could do not to demand an explanation from Clay when he placed his arm lightly around her shoulders and asked if she wanted a drink from the bar. "A club soda sounds nice," she said, then wondered if she should have asked for something stronger. Though she rarely drank, this night might be a good time for it.

The woman cornered them before he could even reply. It was as if she'd homed in on Clay the moment she entered the room and had barely paused on her way to him. "Hello, Clay."

"Hello, Jessica," he returned, a hint of resignation in his voice. His arm tightened around Spring's shoulders, just a little, as if the movement had been nothing more than reflex.

"Surprised to see me here?"

"Yes, I am a bit. I thought you'd left San Francisco."

She nodded, her rather slanted green eyes sparkling with feminine amusement, deep red mouth quirked into a slightly feline smile. "I did. I'm back."

"So I see."

"I wasn't at all surprised to see you. I knew you'd be at this party since you used to take me to all of Connie and Summer's parties."

"How clever of you." He managed to sound amazed and sarcastic all at once.

Her long lashes flicking in apparent annoyance, she eyed him slowly, her gaze lingering intimately on the tight black pants below his blousy, full-sleeved white shirt. Spring felt her hands curling into claws even as the woman drawled, "What is this, your Errol Flynn look? Love those knee-high boots. Quite dashing."

"Thanks." As if he'd just remembered his manners, Clay tightened his arm around Spring again and glanced down at her with a vaguely apologetic smile. "Sorry, sweetheart. This is Jessica Dixon, an old friend. Jess, meet Spring Reed, Summer's sister."

Jessica hadn't liked being called an "old" friend any more than Spring had liked his familiar shortening of the other woman's name. "It's very nice to meet you. Spring," she said in a voice that said it wasn't really all that nice. She'd barely looked Spring's way before she turned back to Clay. "Clay, darling, you haven't even kissed me hello. Surely that's not too much to expect after all we've been to each other."

That did it. Spring decided she didn't need to stand around and let the woman rub her face in the fact that Jessica and Clay had been lovers. "Clay, I think Joel is signaling for you," she said firmly. "Don't you think we should go see what he wants?"

"Yes, Spring, I think we should do just that," he replied gravely, his eyes and voice ripe with amusement. "See you later, Jess."

They were all the way across the room—nowhere near Joel and making no pretense to find him—before Spring spoke to Clay. "Could I ask just one question?"

Warily he nodded. "Of course."