“Stay still,” he ordered. “Why didn’t you use your safe word?”
Tara shook her head. “It wasn’t the spanking. Well, it was. I just…I don’t know…”
He turned her, arranging her so she straddled him. Tara kept her gaze on her lap.
“Look at me.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Tara,” he said warningly.
She raised her gaze up to his.
“What is going on?”
“It’s just been a crazy couple of weeks, you know?” Make that months, years. She was so tired. Tired of being so strong, of trying to do everything herself. When was the last time she’d allowed someone to help her? Alex was the first person she’d truly leaned on in years.
It would be so easy just to let go and tell him everything. But they didn’t have that sort of relationship. No emotional entanglements. She was sure he didn’t want to hear about her cold father and having to raise her younger brother. Alex shared very little of himself and he’d never asked her about her past so she figured he wasn’t all that interested.
After all, they weren’t dating. Just fucking.
“Yeah, I guess it has. The mugging, losing your job, getting evicted. Hell, that’s enough to make anyone cry.”
“And there’s the break-in as well.”
He grew stiff beneath her. “What break-in?”
Whoops. “Oh, umm, I meant to tell you before. My apartment was broken into.”
“What? When? Why didn’t the manager tell me?”
“Why would he…oh, not here,” she explained. “My old apartment.”
“Explain.” His voice was clipped.
“The other day I arrived home to find my apartment had been broken into.”
“When was this exactly?”
“Umm, the same day I was evicted.”
“What did they take?”
Tara gazed up at him to find his eyes had grown cold; his face could have been carved from a slab of marble.
“Tara?” His voice was calm, controlled. She wasn’t fooled. He expected answers. Immediately.
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “That’s what is weird. There is nothing at my place to take. You’ve seen it.”
“Why am I only hearing about this now?”
“I was going to tell you, but the right moment never came up.”
“Then you make a moment,” he told her. “Wait, this happened the day after you were mugged?”
“Yeah. It must have been the mugger because they used a key. It was a really bad week.”
“How did they get your address?”