Matt held her by the shoulders before she could catch her breath again. “Are you okay?” Black fire blazed from his eyes.
“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” Piper said and shakily pulled her jacket around herself. “The blood is his.”
Matt pulled a silk handkerchief from his inside jacket pocket. “I’ll call a doctor to check you out.”
“No really, I’m just shaken up, he didn’t get a chance to…to actually do anything.”
Matt pushed the front door shut with one finger. “I knew he’d be trouble. You should’ve let me come back with you. Let’s lock up here and I’ll run you down to the hospital so you can get checked over.”
“Seriously, no, I don’t want that. I’m okay.” Piper leaned weakly on a chair back and just stared at him for a few moments. He was still looking like the ultimate socialite in his black suit but for a few stray hairs after that undignified scuffle. He still made her heart beat faster, maybe even more so after saving her. But maybe she was just in a state of shock.
“If you’re sure…”
“I am.” She rubbed the back of her hand over her neck where she’d been held. “How did you know? How did you get in?”
Matt bent to pick up a strip of plastic from the floor. “One two-liter soda bottle and thirty seconds is all it takes with a crappy front door like yours. You need a deadbolt fitted. And that security chain won’t work unless you actually secure it from the inside when you get in.”
“You did that? You broke in with a plastic bottle?”
“Not me. Frank.” He nodded his dark head toward the cheap door. “The big guy who’s about to throw your ex, the jerk off, into the garbage dumpster, unless you want me to stop him and call the police instead? Or arrange for something more permanent?”
Maybe she should call the police. “No, no, the dumpster is fine.”
“I knew you’d say that.” He shook his head. “Anyone would think he still had you wrapped around his little finger the way you protect him.”
“I’m not protecting him.” She felt indignation rising as her heart rate slowed. “But there’s nothing much they can do now. You and your ‘friend’ did a much more effective job, I’m sure. He won’t be back now, not after being humiliated twice in one night.”
“Are you 100 percent sure of that? Because there are two witnesses now who saw what he was doing to you, and I’m pretty sure we all know what he was about to do before he got his butt kicked.” He frowned. “He’s dangerous, Piper.”
“He’s also a coward,” she said. “I know him, he won’t be back.”
“You can’t be sure of that. And what about your sister and your cat? Who knows what that maniac is capable of? Promise me you’ll talk to the police in the morning—I’ll come and drive you to the station. Or we could do it now.”
She shook her head. “In the morning, I promise, but on my own. I don’t need my hand held.”
“Okay, have it your way.” He sighed and brushed her tightly clenched fist with his knuckles. “You can’t stay here on your own now, it’s not safe. Let me stay with you if you won’t leave with me.”
He had a point, but she had to dust herself off and face reality at some point after all this, and she still had an unanswered question. “Why did you come over when I asked you not to?”
“Do you wish I hadn’t?”
“Of course not, but no meant no. It really did.”
He sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Okay, I sent Frank over to keep an eye on things after you were dropped off this evening. Just in case.”
Her jaw dropped open. “You had me under surveillance? Spying on me?”
“Just looking after your welfare,” he said quietly, but had the grace to look awkward. “If it hadn’t been necessary to intervene, you would never have known.”
“So that makes it all right?” She crossed her arms over her chest to stop herself from shaking. Shock over what had just happened was setting in. “I’m beginning to wonder what your real motive was. Control freaks do this kind of thing, Matt. Is that what you are? A control freak?”
He shrugged and looked around him. “You’re right, I didn’t get where I am today without needing to be in control. And total control at that, so maybe I deserve that label.” He nudged the toe of his shoe thoughtfully against the leg of the coffee table. “My name is Matt DeLeo and I’m a control freak.”
Was history just about to repeat itself? Could she even consider letting a man take control of her life again? “It’s not that funny from where I’m standing. Stanley’s a control freak, and I don’t want to be around guys like that anymore.”
His face darkened. “I might just have saved your life a second time if that counts for anything at all. And I’m sure as hell not another dickwad like Stanley.”
Matt was right and now, as well as feeling revulsion at being assaulted by her ex, she felt miserable for not even saying thank you. Great. “I get that, and I’m grateful. Thank you.”
“Thank you, but good-bye?”
She needed some time alone, some space and silence to work through the sickening events of the last half hour. To heal, like a wounded animal. “Sophie’s at my parents’ house. We had a heart-to-heart a few days ago about her staying here because it wasn’t working out. She doesn’t live here anymore, and we’re both fine with that.” She gave him a weak smile. “I’ll be fine here on my own now, Matt, and when you go, I’ll put the chain on properly just to make sure, okay? I usually do, but Aspen enjoys playing with it dangling there. Makes one hell of a noise, it’s a miracle the neighbors haven’t complained.”
“You could come back to my place.”
“And which ‘your place’ would this be? One of your cabins? A studio over a burger bar? Some prime office space?”
“Actually it’s a five-star penthouse suite at the Crowne Embassy a few blocks away. For a few days. There’s a gym and you get breakfast made for you—”
“Matt, it’s a place, not your place. It’s not your home. I don’t know how you can stand it, moving around all the time.”
“I don’t have to worry about cleaning,” he said wryly as he looked around her living room. “Or clutter.”