Page 76 of In the Danger Zone
“No. Never.”
I giggled at the feeling of Evan’s soft lips on my cheek. PDA wasn’t really my thing. Well, I had never really had the opportunity to partake in PDA prior to Evan – but I always thought that it would be something that I’d hate. But Evan brought something out in me that I never knew was there.
“I can’t pick you up after this, babe,” Evan said. “I gotta get over to my afternoon class, and then I have to head on over to the rink right after. Me and the guys need to get there a little early today. Murph’s out of state and the assistant coach wants to go over everything for tonight.”
“What happened to M-Murph?”
“His daughter just had a baby, so he’s gone back to New York to visit her for a bit. But I’ll see you at the game? And we can grab some dinner after or something.”
“Sounds great. I’ll b-be there.”
“Perfect.” Evan pecked my lips. “Promise me you’ll wear my jersey?”
I smiled at him. “I wouldn’t wanna wear anything else.”
“That’s my girl.”
We shared a soft, gentle kiss. Evan was far too good at distracting me, because for a few good seconds I had totally forgotten about where we were. Until I heard someone clear their throat behind us, and I turned around to see Professor Fletcher raising an eyebrow at me. He pointed a thumb at the door and I blushed, quickly turning to Evan when my professor disappeared back into the room.
“You’re gonna get m-me into so m-much trouble one day,” I mumbled.
Evan just chuckled. “My bad, babe. I gotta go, but I’ll be looking for you in the crowd tonight, okay?”
I nodded. “You’ll find m-me there.”
Evan winked at me, pecked my lips one last time, and spun around. I watched him walk away, his tall form so easy to spot amongst the large group of students.
Nerves were filling me up as I thought about tonight. Would Evan forgive me for all of my stupid lies? And was I even worthy of that forgiveness to begin with?
***
Professor Fletcher was big on getting his students to read just about every article he had ever stumbled upon. I was mentally preparing myself for the next week since I’d have a lot of readings to do. But at least my last class for the day was finally over. My plan was to get back to my dorm, get changed, and head on over to the rink so I’d be on time for Evan’s game.
My eyes were casted down, my clumsy hands finally shoving the last of my textbooks back into my bag.
But that was when I felt a hand yank at me. I was pulled to the side, away from the hallway and forced into some small room that appeared to be kept for storage and stationery. My eyes had been shut during the encounter, and when I finally opened them up, I came face to face with my old, childhood nightmare.
It wasn’t a nightmare, though. It wasn’t in my head. Asher was looking right into my eyes, and I was positive I had never seen him look so damn enraged. Not even onthatday.
He was breathing heavy, his eyes narrowed. All I saw was pure hatred on his bruised face. There was a cut on his bottom lip and a bigger one above his eyebrow. Those guys got him good the other night.
My first thought was to run. I took a step to the side. My quick escape wasn’t quick enough, because Asher quickly wrapped a big hand right around my throat. I was up against the wall, my head banging against it. I whimpered. Pain quickly met me, the back of my head aching. I was used to it. But it had been so long since I felt it.
“A-Asher…” I let out, shaking my head at him. It was hard to get the words out with his fingers squeezing at my throat.
“Do you know what you’ve fucking done?” He spat at me. “You just couldn’t keep your fucking mouth shut, could you?”
“I… I d-don’t know what…” My hand reached up, trying to pull his off of me. But he was so much stronger than me that there wasn’t even a point in trying to pry his fingers away.
“Who the fuck did you tell?”
“I d-don’t know—”
“About what I did to you!”
My head shook. “N-N-Nobody,” I lied.
“You’re a bad fucking liar, Daisy,” Asher said with gritted teeth. “I should have killed you that day. I should have kicked you in the head again and again instead of just once. My bad fucking luck that I was too nice to you and then you go and fuck me over.”
