Page 94 of Guarding My Love

She’d never seen any violence like that in person before.

Ever!

But she wasn’t so much upset over that as she was that Foster might have just made more trouble for himself.

“He’s not stalking me,” she said. “He’s being a jerk.”

He put his hands up. “Are you afraid of me?”

“No,” she said, moving toward him. “I’m not. I don’t know what I’m feeling. I’ve never seen someone attacked before, but I’m not afraid of you.”

“Come here,” he said, reaching for her.

She went into his arms, thinking he was going to hug her.

Instead he picked her arm up and looked at the bruising that was left from Landon’s fingers. “That’s what he did to you. You’ve told him a number of times to leave you alone. That you were done. To stop reaching out and he shows up again. And he touched you. He bruised you. Maybe I should show you some self-defense moves like Laken and Talia know.”

If Foster hadn’t said that, she wouldn’t have burst into tears.

“You’d teach me to stand up for myself?” she asked.

He pulled her into his arms this time. “I’m not always going to be around,” he said. “You need to know how to do that. Jesus, I’m fucking shaking right now.”

She could feel it on him and was glad to know she wasn’t alone.

“Adrenaline,” she said.

“Yeah. Are you sure you’re not afraid of me? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You did some. But it’s more because I know him. He’s going to cause trouble now. He said you assaulted him. He’s liable to press charges.”

“I don’t care,” he said. “I’m more concerned about you. And if you want, you should go do it first.”

“It will get too messy,” she said. “I’ve got his text messages that I’ve told him to leave. Can we just forget it? Marco, relax.”

Her dog was barking and jumping and trying to get free.

“He would have protected you,” he said. “If he was loose.”

“I was thinking I needed a fence here for him to run around. That might have helped.”

Foster moved out of her arms and went to pet and calm her dog. “It’s okay, Marco. Good boy.”

Her dog settled down just as quickly as she had when she was in Foster’s arms.

“How did you know he was here?”

“I was mowing the lawn,” he said. “I turned the corner to come up the property on the tractor and got off it and started to walk up when I noticed his car.”

“Which would explain why I didn’t hear it close.”

“When I saw him getting closer to you I started to run and then he grabbed your arm and I just launched myself.”

“It all happened so fast,” she said. “I was getting ready to tell him to leave, but the next thing I know I’m being pulled to the ground.”

Foster turned his head to look at her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. He let go of me and I just stumbled. You’ve got dirt on you though.”

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