Cherish

It takes a few minutes to get Lucy and Zoe to leave me with Adam before they finally agree to leave. They leave with a warning to Adam that they’d be back in five minutes if I’m not back in the gym by then.

I cross my arms and meet his eyes when they’re back inside the gym. “What do you want?”

Adam looks around for a minute. “Can we talk over there?” He gestures to the end of the hallway. I roll my eyes and walk over to the lockers and lean against them.

“This is as far as I’m going. Talk.”

“I, uh, I wanted to apologize,” he says, looking at the floor. “I shouldn’t have talked to you the way I did.”

I raise a brow. “You needed to talk to me alone… to apologize?” I shake my head. “I’m not buying it. What do you want, Adam?”

“I want you back.”

I bark out a laugh. “Are you fucking kidding me right now? Why? Is this because I broke your nose?”

“It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with the fact that I miss yo–”

I cut him off with a shake of my head. “Try again.”

“I-I don’t like how the new guys watch you. You were mine first. You are mine,” he finally says.

I double-blink at him, my mouth open in shock. “You want me back,” I say slowly, “because you’re jealous?” I don’t believe this shit. I wave a hand in front of me dismissively. “Not happening, Adam. You fucked up when you cheated on me with Gloria. I’m not taking you back.”

“I won’t cheat on you again,” he swears, an almost desperate gleam in his eyes.

“Are you kidding? There’s no way in hell that there’s any guarantee that you won’t cheat on me again. We’re not getting back together. Get that through your head!”

I push off the lockers and stalk past him. He grabs my arm tightly and twirls me around to face him, his fingers biting into my skin hard enough that I know I’ll have bruises. I try to shake off his hand but can’t. Looking in his eyes, I swallow at the unadulterated rage I see there.

“Are you fucking them?” he spits. “Is that why you won’t come back to me?”

“I won’t come back to you because you’re a fucking asshole.” I wrench my arm away again, with no luck. “Let me go, Adam. You’re hurting me.”

He steps closer to me, pressing into my personal space and grabs my other arm, just as tightly as he has the other. He has me so close that I have no way of getting out of his grip without somehow losing my balance and hurting myself in the process. He shakes me violently. “It’s true! You’re fucking them! You’re such a goddamn whore, Cherish. How could you do that to me?”

I whimper as his grip tightens more. I didn’t think that was possible. “Adam. Please. You’re hurting me,” I whisper.

I can't believe this is happening right now. Adam's never hurt me before. He's never even come close to hurting me.

"You're mine, Cherish!" he growls a second before slamming his mouth against mine, painfully and punishingly. He bites my lip hard when I struggle to get out away from him.

"What are you doing?" The question Xander asks is delivered with a lethal tone that brings chills down my back.

Adam tears his mouth from mine, his nails start to dig into my flesh as he glares at Xander at my back. I wince, biting the inside of my cheek to hold in the whimper of pain.

"She's mine," Adam repeats his words from earlier. "She'll never be yours. Leave. Now."

A dark chuckle. "Let her go, you're hurting her," Andrei says, shocking me. I thought that it was just Xander out here. I turn my head to see that along with Xander and Andrei, Kade, Lucy, and Zoe are here too. They all look murderous.

Adam scoffs. "I'm not hurting her."

I glare at him. "I've already told you that you're hurting me, Adam. Please let me go," I ask again. Now that he's not close enough that I can't move my legs if he doesn't let me go, I can actually fight him off, but I'm giving him the chance to do the right thing.

Adam's eyes flare in anger, something else shimmers there, but it's gone before I realize what it is, and I hear Kade curse under his breath.

"I've asked you to let me go twice now," I say softly, my tone flat. "I will not ask again." That's the only warning I give him and when he doesn’t let me go after a few heartbeats, I bring my knee up and connect with his groin. Thank god this dress has that opening, I wouldn't have been able to do this in one of the dresses from the store I had tried on.

Instantly, his hands drop from my arms as he goes to cup himself before dropping to the floor. I feel someone's hands wrap around my waist and pull me back, so I'm plastered against a hard body. I peek up and see Xander holding me protectively against his body. Andrei and Kade move in front of us, stepping between Adam and me.

"You okay?" Xander asks softly.

I nod. "I'm okay. I'm going to have some wicked bruising though," I mutter, eyeing my arms where there's already bruises forming.

"Xander, Kade, take the girls back to the gym, I want a word with Adam," Andrei says quietly, his voice vibrating with anger.

I shake my head. "I uh, I just want to go home." I can't wrap my mind around the fact that Adam had actually hurt me. Tried forcing himself on me. No, he did force himself on me. I'm just lucky he didn't get farther.

"Then they'll take you home," Andrei says in a way that makes it so there's no way to argue.

Kade turns around and ushers Lucy and Zoe ahead of him while Xander walks with me, keeping a hand settled on my waist. Zoe hands Kade my keys, and we all pile in the car with Kade in the driver’s seat and me in the passenger seat, while the others go in the backseat.

"I can't believe Adam did that," Lucy hisses once we're on the road.

I rub my hands over the spots that'll be seriously bruised tomorrow. "I can't either," I say quietly. "It was almost like he wasn't himself. I've seen him angry, and he can be an asshole, but I've never known him to be so angry that he'd hurt a girl."

I notice Kade looking in the rear-view mirror and nodding his head slightly.

We're silent on the ride to Lucy's house except for Lucy giving directions. Since Zoe's car is at her house, we're dropping her off there, too.

"You okay, honey?" Zoe asks quietly before getting out of the car.

I turn and give her and Lucy a strained smile. "Yeah. I'll be fine. I'm just a little creeped. And pissed because I left my shoes at school," I mutter, mentally cursing myself for forgetting.

"They're right here," Lucy says, holding my shoes out to me, and I grin at her.

"You rock."

"Get some sleep and call us tomorrow," Zoe says with a reassuring smile. Probably reassuring me that it's not my fault our night got cut so short.

"Alright. Good night."

They get out, shouting good night. We watch as they both enter Lucy's house.

"Take me home, please," I whisper to Kade, wrapping my arms around myself.

"You got it," he says, putting the car in reverse. "Uh, where do you live?"

I laugh and give him directions to my house, and he gets there even quicker than I would have expected for someone who's never been to my house. It's not exactly the easiest to find in the dark.

"How will you guys be getting home?" I ask when we pull up in front of my house.

"We'll have Andrei pick us up, since we all came in his car anyways," Xander says from the backseat.

I nod, and we all get out of my car. I pause and bite my lip. "Did you guys want to come inside and wait?"

Kade shakes his head. "Nah, go on up and go to bed, sweetheart. We'll be fine out here."

I nod. "Okay, thank you guys, for helping me tonight."

Xander smiles. "It's our pleasure, Princess," he mutters.