Hot and Bothered - Erika Wilde Page 0,72

surprise. Now that Noah had the technician’s attention, he released him.

“Where’s the woman?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

The man hooked a finger toward the adjoining room. “She’s in the kitchen with the police.”

“Thank you,” he muttered, and strode into the kitchen, instantly finding her sitting at the table in the corner nook with two police officers taking her statement. Relief at seeing her alive mingled with a stabbing pain in the vicinity of Noah’s heart as he took in her disheveled hair, puffy eyes, and the dried tears streaking her cheeks. Her shirt was torn, and she was holding it together with one hand.

Guilt swamped him, making him weak in the knees. She’d been attacked, and he hadn’t been there to protect her, even though he’d set the house alarm. The realization hit him like a swift punch to his gut. He knew what Chad was capable of and had sworn to keep Natalie safe, yet he’d left her alone and vulnerable to the other man.

Would she ever forgive him for being so careless with her life?

Natalie glanced beyond the police officers in front of her, her eyes widening when she saw him standing there. Both men followed her line of vision, and perceiving Noah as a threat, they placed a hand on their holstered weapons and narrowed their shrewd gazes on him.

“Who are you?” one of the blue-uniformed men asked.

Noah raised his hands, making sure that the officers saw that he was carrying a revolver beneath his untucked shirt so it didn’t come as a surprise to them later. “I’m the owner of the house, and Natalie is my fiancée.”

“Are you licensed to carry a concealed weapon?” the other officer demanded.

“Yes, sir.” Very slowly, Noah withdrew his wallet, showing the men his identification and his PI badge. “Can I have a few moments alone with her, please?”

Still skeptical, one of the officers asked Natalie, “Do you know him, ma’am?”

She nodded jerkily, apparently still in shock from all that had happened. “Yes, I do. I’ll be fine with him.”

As soon as the two men exited the kitchen, Noah pulled Natalie up from the chair and wrapped her in his arms. He felt the steady beat of her heart against his chest and absorbed the warmth of her body, the scent of her skin. Then he pulled back and searched her face, needing confirmation that she was unharmed, despite the harrowing way things looked.

“Did Chad hurt you in any way?” he asked, his muscles tensing at the possibility.

“Mostly, he just scared me,” she said softly, and managed a slight smile, though her body language was too guarded with him compared to her open, candid personality of the past week.

She sat back down and smoothed her tousled hair away from her face. “Did you happen to get a look at Chad?” she asked, a teasing inflection in her tone. “He’s in worse shape than I am.”

He heard the pride in her voice, that she’d fought Chad and won the battle. But where did that leave them? The emotional distance he felt growing between them frustrated Noah, and he hoped her reserve was because of the recent trauma she’d suffered, and not because she was withdrawing from him.

“Yeah, I saw Chad.” He took the chair next to hers. Desperate for some kind of connection to her, he reached for her hand and pressed it between his palms. “Can you tell me what happened?” He needed to know what she’d gone through, if she was truly all right—mentally, emotionally, and physically.

She inhaled a deep breath, but didn’t back down from reliving the nightmare she’d just endured. “He broke in right after you left and tried to attack me,” she began, and filled him in on all the details, right up to the point where Chad had pinned her to the living room floor with the intention of raping her. “When I saw your bronze statue on the coffee table, I knew it was my last chance, so I used it to knock him out cold.”

Noah grinned as he kissed the tips of her fingers, amazed at her tenacity. “You are so incredibly brave, and I’m so proud of you.”

Her chin lifted stubbornly, her internal strength shining through. “I wasn’t about to let him get away with terrorizing me this time.”

“This time?” he echoed, catching her deliberate choice of words. “You remember your past with him?”

“Bits and pieces came back to me,” she said, and shuddered delicately. “Enough for me to recall that he’d had