Rush Too Far (Rosemary Beach #4)(56)

“Test me,” I said, leveling my furious glare on her so she knew not to go there with me. I turned back to Blaire. “You’re coming with me,” I told her.

I glanced back to see Bethy standing there, ready to take Laney down right in front of everyone. “I have her, Bethy She’s OK. Go on back to Jace,” I said. Then I turned back to Blaire. “Watch out for the snails; they’re slippery.” I had to get her out of here. Safely. She had gotten hurt. I hadn’t protected her again. I should have been here with her. I f**ked up. This was my fault. I always failed her.

When we stepped out of the ballroom and into the dark hallway that led back to the kitchen and offices, Blaire broke free from my hold and moved away from me. She crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive move. She was upset. I had let this happen.

“Blaire, I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting something like that to happen. I didn’t even know she had issues with you. I’m going to talk to Nan about this. I have a feeling she had something to do with it—”

“The redhead hates me because of Woods’s interest in me. Nan had nothing to do with it, and neither did you.”

That didn’t make sense. Why was Laney pissed over Woods? “Is Woods still hitting on you?” Blaire’s eyes went wide, and she spun around and started to leave. I reached out and grabbed her arm. That was the wrong thing to say. Damn jealousy. I had to get a grip on that. “Blaire, wait. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. That isn’t the issue right now. I wanted to make sure you were OK and help get you cleaned up.” It sounded like I was begging, which I was, to an extent.

She let out a sigh, and her shoulders slumped. “I’m fine. I need to go to the kitchen and see if I even still have a job. I was warned by Woods this morning that something like this might happen and it would be my fault. So right now, I have bigger problems than you suddenly feeling the need to be possessive of me. Which is ridiculous. Because you were doing your best to ignore me until this incident happened. You either know me or you don’t, Rush. Pick a team.” She jerked her hand from mine and started toward the kitchen again. She was mad because I had ignored her? I had watched her every move, dammit.

“You were working. What did you want me to do?” I asked her. She stopped, and I took my chance to defend my actions. “Acknowledging you would have given Nan reason to attack you. I was protecting you.”

Blaire’s shoulders sagged. “You’re right, Rush. You ignoring me would keep Nan from attacking me. I’m just the girl you f**ked the past two nights. All things considered, I’m not that special. I’m one of many.” Then she ran from me.

I stood there, frozen, so damn confused. The sound of the doors slamming echoed down the hallway. She was hurt. I had been doing what I thought she wanted me to do, and I’d hurt her.

Did she really think she was just some girl I f**ked? God, how could she not see what she meant to me? I was so completely obsessed with her that she controlled every decision I made. What the hell did she expect from me? I loved her, dammit!

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Nan came stalking out of the ballroom. Her eyes found me standing there alone, and the fury I knew was boiling under the surface exploded. “How could you do this to me?” she demanded. “This was my night. I just needed you to ignore her for one night, and you couldn’t do it. Not even for an hour!”

“Just stop,” I said, holding my hand up. I wasn’t ready for this. I had to find Blaire.

“Don’t tell me to stop. You humiliated me in there. You threatened my friend, a member of this club, because a server was clumsy!”

I took a step toward Nan. “Laney dumped that tray on her. You know it. Paris saw it. Bethy saw it. Do not correct me.”

Footsteps interrupted me before I could say anything more. I turned to see Blaire, still covered in that crap, looking like she wanted to crawl into the nearest hole. She hurried away toward the door leading outside.

“Blaire, wait,” I called after her. I had to talk to her.

“Let her go, Rush,” Nan demanded.

“I can’t,” I replied, and took off running after Blaire.

The door closed behind Blaire, but I shoved it open and followed her out.

“Blaire, please wait. Talk to me,” I begged.

She stopped walking, and I caught up to her. She was giving me a chance.

“I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. I didn’t ignore you in there. Go ask anyone. My eyes never left you. If there was any question in anyone’s mind how I felt about you, the fact that I couldn’t look away from you while you walked around that room should have answered it.” I had to say this right. I couldn’t f**k this up. I needed her to understand how I felt. “Then I saw the look on your face when you saw Bethy with Jace. Something inside me was ripped open. I didn’t know what you were thinking, but I knew you had realized the wrongness of tonight. You should have never been there serving anyone. You should have been by my side. I wanted you beside me. I was strung so damn tight waiting for anyone to make a wrong move toward you that I forgot to breathe most of the time.”

My gaze fell to her clenched fists at her sides. I hated seeing her like this. I ran my finger over her hand.

“If you can forgive me, I promise this will never happen again. I love Nan. But I’m done trying to please her. She’s my sister, but she has some issues she needs to work out. I’ve told her that I’m going to talk to you about everything. There are some things you need to know.” I hadn’t meant to say that, but I had to. I was going to lose her if I didn’t tell her now. I would tell her I loved her first. I wanted her to know that. “I’m dealing with the fact that you may walk away from me once you know them and never look back. It scares the hell out of me. I don’t know what this is that is going on between us, but from the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew you were going to change my world. I was terrified. The more I watched you, the more you drew me in. I couldn’t get close enough.”