“Baby, what’s wrong?” Reaching up, he wiped away a tear trailing down her cheek.
Tara turned her head to the side. “Nothing, I’m going home.”
“It’s damn well not nothing when you’re in tears,” he said. “Come with me.”
“Alex, no,” she complained as he grabbed her hand and pulled her along.
He entered Dylan’s office, locking the door behind them. He didn’t want any interruptions. Tara attempted to dodge around him. Grabbing her, he lifted her into his arms.
Sitting on the wide leather sofa, he placed her on his lap and held her as she tried to fight her way free.
“Tara, calm down.”
“Let me go.”
“I’m not going to let you go until you calm down and tell me what’s wrong. Now take a deep breath.”
She stared down at her clenched fists as she took a deep breath in.
“There, I’m all calm now, will you let me go?”
He didn’t want to. Not when he was enjoying the feel of her against him. Her softness, her scent surrounded him, intoxicating him.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” he demanded.
She turned her head away, sitting stiffly in his arms. “I told you, nothing. Let me go. I want to go home. Now.”
“There is a penalty for lying, sweet.”
Tara turned to glare at him. “What do you care?
I thought you’d be glad to see me go.”
“What are you talking about?”
She climbed off his lap. He stood as she paced across the room. Finally, she stopped in front of him and poked his chest with her finger.
“You may not like me, Alex, but that doesn’t mean you get to push me out of the club. My friends are here, I feel safe here. Just because you disapprove of me doesn’t mean I should feel forced to leave.”
He’d made her feel like she had to leave?
“Sweetheart, I never once wanted you to leave. And I do not dislike you.” He ran his hand through his hair. “God, I feel like shit for making you cry.”
“I get that you don’t want me, but did you have to tell her about it?”
Alex frowned. “What? Tell who what?”
“Carin. Why did you do it? Why tell her of all people that I embarrassed myself by asking you out and you turned me down?”
He suddenly realized what she was talking about and stared at her in surprise. “I never told Carin.” He recalled the smug look on the other woman’s face as she’d left the women’s changing rooms. “Did she tell you that? Is that why you’ve been crying?”
He reached up to brush her cheek and she flinched away. It hurt him that she didn’t want him touching her, but he couldn’t blame her.
“I would never have told her, sweetheart.”
She stared at him, her gaze full of hurt. “Then how did she know?” Tara rubbed her forehead. “Oh God, could she have overheard me telling Tilly? But I would have noticed her standing close by, wouldn’t I?”
“Actually, I think that the blame for this does lie partly with me,” he said grimly. “I told Roarke. In confidence. You know he would never betray that. But the door to his office was slightly ajar. When I came out, Carin was in the corridor.”