Page 61 of Exactly What I Needed
He shook his head in disbelief. “Cosi, you’re not defending this band right now, too, are you?” He gasped. I simply smirked. “No. I won’t take that. Some dude with earrings and tattoos doesn’t get to grind up on you and touch you without consequences.” His hand shot forward, and he wrapped his fingers around my arm.
“Let go,” I snapped, attempting to pull it out of his grip.
“No. You’re coming with me, and we are finding your parents before leaving this dumpster fire of a party.” He jerked me into his body.
I shoved my free hand against his chest. “Let me go!” I shouted. “And this dumpster fire party is my birthday, you jackass! One I’m actually enjoying!”
“Stop fighting,” he hissed, squeezing my wrist tighter and dragging me away.
“Stop!” I fought with all my might, even if it was useless against his size and strength. “Get your hands off of me.”
He suddenly whipped around, wrapping his other arm around my body and shoving me against him again. “I thought you liked it like this. Rough.”
I glared at him, squirming and fighting. I tried to knee him, but he simply stepped out of the way.
“Should I bite you too? Would that knock some sense into you? Whore,” he snarled. My eyes widened in shock.
“Wh-wh-what’d you just call me?” I gasped, freezing.
“You heard me. Now let’s go.” He dropped the arm from around my body, squeezed my wrist tighter, jerking me forward, and started walking away.
How was it possible that in this massive crowd of people, no one was helping? No one even seemed to notice what was going on as he dragged me behind him. A small sweat stain ran down the middle of his back, his shoulders set with anger. He’d never hurt me like this before.
Turning a corner, he squeezed so tightly, my fingers tingled.
“Ow. That hurts!” I cried out. “Danny, I said let go!”
“She said, ‘Let go,’” a voice snarled in front of Danny, and a fist slammed into his jaw. Immediately, he dropped my wrist, and I clutched it, stepping sideways. Asher stood face to face with Danny; though he wasn’t quite as big as my ex, he didn’t seem an ounce afraid. There was a deathly rage in Asher’s eyes.
Danny snarled and lunged toward Asher, tackling him into a table. Gasps and screams rippled away from them as people finally noticed and a crowd gathered.
“Danny!” I shouted, racing forward to pull him off Asher. Danny cocked his fist, and his elbow rammed into my nose just before he threw his punch. Blood spurted from my nostrils as I staggered backward and Danny’s fist…
Missed.
He missed. Cupping my nose, I stared as Asher managed to block the punch and rammed his elbow into Danny’s face. An audible crunch sounded as his head jerked backward, and Asher scrambled out from under my ex.
Danny’s hand shot forward, but Asher simply raised his knee, smashing it into his face again and throwing Danny onto his back. He lay there, sprawled out and unmoving as blood poured from his nose, the same as mine.
Asher glared at him, his chest rising and falling rapidly, waiting for him to move. Danny merely groaned, his head flopping to the side as he blinked through two rapidly swelling eyes. My ex spat some blood from his mouth, wine red staining his teeth, and he chuckled.
“This ain’t over.” He hissed as several large security men rushed toward the writhing figure on the ground.
Asher smiled wickedly. “Take all the time you need, motherfucker. I’ll be waiting.” Standing over him, Danny rolled sideways and slowly pushed himself off the ground. He attempted to take a step toward Asher, but his security team blocked the way. My ex’s eyes darted toward Asher as someone shoved a napkin toward me, helping me stop up the blood that was still dripping from my nose.
I watched Danny stumble backward and then through the crowd, disappearing into the darkness. Where were my parents? Had they seen what had just happened? What Danny had done?
“Let me see that, Princess,” Asher spoke quietly, suddenly standing directly in front of me. The bleeding was beginning to slow as I kept my head tipped backwards.
“It’s okay.” I forgot that there was still a crowd around us—though his security team blocked us from their view.
He chuckled, and a soft smile spread across his face, though his eyes were still pained.
“Asher,” I whispered, and he shivered.
“Let’s get that taken care of,” he said, keeping things above board.
“Oh my gosh, Cosi!” Sydney suddenly crashed against my side. “Let’s have my dad take a look!” She grabbed my elbow and tugged. Asher gave a subtle nod and shoved his hands in his pockets, telling me silently to go with her. I didn’t want to, but I guess I really didn’t have much of a choice now, did I?
