This Savage Love: A Bad Boy Romance Boxed Set

by Kathryn Thomas

  Chapter Nineteen

  Kristina

  Kristina was hoping to see Keith when she walked into the kitchen the next morning, but it was only Emma who stood there. She was standing by the stove, spooning sausages into one plate and eggs into another. There was already a platter of crispy bacon on the table, next to bagels, butter, and orange juice.

  “You shouldn’t have made so much, Emma,” Kristina said as she sat down at the table. “I don’t think I can eat.”

  “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Emma said with finality. “You’ll eat something.”

  Kristina smiled. “You sound like my grandmother.”

  Emma joined her at the table. “Your mother didn’t say the same thing?”

  “Well, not really,” Kristina said, as she accepted the plate that Emma passed to her. “I never really saw my mother much. She was a surgeon, and she worked crazy hours.”

  “Who raised you?” Emma asked.

  “My grandmother mostly,” Kristina replied. “After she died, I had a string of babysitters.”

  “That must have been hard.”

  Kristina shrugged. “It was only for a short time,” she said. “Then I was old enough not to need anyone anymore.”

  “I found that it doesn’t matter how old we get,” Emma said quietly, “we always need someone.”

  Kristina looked down at her plate and bit off a piece of crispy bacon. It tasted so delicious that she savored the taste on her tongue before she spoke. “I can’t remember the time when I last had a home cooked meal.”

  “You don’t go home often?” Emma asked.

  Kristina smiled, but she didn’t begrudge Emma her curiosity. Everyone was usually curious about other people and their lives. “I haven’t been recently,” she answered. “Like I said, my mom’s a surgeon and my dad’s a lawyer. They both have really busy lives, so even if I were to drop in at home, I wouldn’t see too much of them.”

  “Won’t they be coming for your graduation?” Emma asked.

  “They will,” Kristina nodded. “It’ll be nice to see them after so long.”

  “You haven’t mentioned any siblings?”

  “I don’t have any,” Kristina replied. “My parents only ever wanted the one kid.”

  Emma smiled. “I always wanted another child,” she said. “But… I just didn’t think it was fair.”

  “Fair?”

  “Well… Keith’s father… was not the best man, and I didn’t really know that until after I got pregnant with Keith. I just didn’t feel it would be fair to have more children with a man like that.”

  Kristina nodded with understanding as her own curiosity rose up to meet Emma’s past. “Can I ask you a personal question?” she asked cautiously.

  “You can ask,” Emma nodded, though she seemed a little nervous.

  “You don’t have to answer me if you don’t want to… I just wanted to know… if you ever thought of just… leaving him?”

  “Ah,” Emma said with a sad smile. “I must have thought of it at least a hundred times a day… I just never had the courage to actually do it. You see, I didn’t have very good parents… I had no college degree and no one to help me. Plus… I was terrified of him. He promised to kill Keith and me if I ever tried to leave him, and I believed that he would. So I stayed.”

  “How… how did you get away from… that?” Kristina asked, wondering if she would go too far with her questions.

  “It was Keith,” Emma said slowly, as a smile transformed her face. “He was the one who saved me. He saved the both of us.”

  “How?”

  “He found the Iron Dragons,” Emma explained. “He was about fifteen when he met Ezekiel for the first time.”

  “Ezekiel?”

  “Ezekiel Seton,” Emma replied. “He was Miles’s father and the founder of the Iron Dragons. He took Keith under his wing, and he became a father figure in Keith’s eyes. When he died, Miles started the auto shop as a front, and he brought Keith in on the business and the gang. Slowly… the boy I knew transformed into a man… a man who wasn’t afraid of anything. He’s always believed that it was the Dragons that gave him the courage to stand up to his father… but he was wrong. He always had it in him… he just lacked the capacity to believe in himself.”

  “He came home one day and Arnold beating on me as usual. I saw the look in his eyes as he came forward. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. He had transformed; I could see it; and I knew immediately that this was it. Either he would end up dead… or my husband would.”

  “He didn’t…?” Kristina interrupted.

  “No,” Emma shook her head quickly. “He didn’t kill his father… but he came close. I managed to get him to stop in time.”

  “And then what happened?”

  “He told Arnold to pack up his things and leave,” Emma went on. “Keith told him that if he ever came back… he would finish what he started and kill him.”

  “And he left?” Kristina asked in shock. “Just like that?”

  “The thing about bullies is they can dish it out, but they can very rarely take it,” Emma said. “At the end of the day, Arnold was a typical bully, just a coward at heart.”

  “Wow,” Kristina breathed. “That must have been hard on both of you.”

  “We survived it,” Emma said simply.

  Kristina was prevented from asking any more questions by Keith’s arrival. He was wearing dark jeans and the usual sleeveless t-shirt. Kristina could see part of his ‘Natalie’ tattoo peeking out at her from behind one sleeve.

  “Morning,” he said gruffly without a smile.

  Kristina replied the same way, and both avoided each other’s gaze.

  “Breakfast, Keith?” Emma asked, pushing some bacon towards him.

  Keith reached out without a word and took some bacon without bothering with a plate. “It’s good,” he said after chewing on it a bit.

  Kristina noticed that Emma was glancing between the two of them, seeming to notice the tension that hung in the air. “I’m going to the supermarket,” she said after a moment. “Anything you kids want?”

  “Nothing for me,” Kristina said. “Thanks, Emma.”

  Keith just shook his head and helped himself to more bacon. “Alright then,” Emma said. “I might be a few hours. I’ll see you both when I get back.”

  She waved goodbye to them, and within minutes, she had left the house and it was just Kristina and Keith sitting by the table. The silence was stiff with tension and despite the fact that Kristina wanted desperately to break it; she didn’t want to make the first move.

  “I’m sorry about last night,” Keith said unexpectedly.

  Kristina looked up, surprised that he had broken the silence. She felt herself soften immediately. “That’s ok,” she said. “I probably overreacted.”

  “I just need you to understand how serious this is,” Keith said softly. “That note you got wasn’t just a threat, Kristina… it was a promise. And trust me when I tell you that when it comes to promises like this, men like Kovic keep their word.”

  “Ok,” Kristina nodded. “I’m listening… but I don’t want some random guy trailing me through classes.”

  “I understand it will be—”

  “If someone has to keep an eye on me,” Kristina said, interrupting him, “I’d rather it were you.”

  Keith stopped short and looked her in the eye. She saw a spark of something flash through his eyes, but it was too fast for her to try and decipher the meaning. “Ok,” Keith said unexpectedly, without putting up the fight that Kristina had anticipated.

  “Ok?” Kristina asked.

  “Ok,” Keith nodded.

  Kristina smiled slowly. “Well, then that’s settled.”

  “I hope this is not a mistake,” Keith said under his breath, but Kristina caught the words. She felt the need to say something, but at the last minute she stopped herself. She could not make any assurances, mainly because she didn’t know how this would all
play out.

  She stretched out her hand and placed it on Keith’s arm. “Don’t look so defeated,” she said. “This isn’t over yet. I’m going to be fine.”

  “You can’t know that,” Keith reminded her. “You’ve never been in the middle of a gang war before.”

  Kristina smiled unconsciously, and she saw Keith’s expression grow still with surprise at her reaction. “Is there something I missed?” he asked.

  “Sorry,” Kristina said quickly. “I just… I was thinking of the irony of life.”

  “I did miss something.”

  “Before we met… I was floundering a little you could say,” Kristina tried to explain. “I felt as though I hadn’t really lived… I felt as though I had wasted the last few years of life. I wanted… adventure, I suppose. It might seem cliché, but that was what I craved. And now…”

  “You got more adventure than you bargained for?” Keith finished for her.

  Kristina shrugged. “Nothing ever turns out the way you imagined it in your head. Adventure… is a very complicated word.”

  Keith nodded. “I never should have gotten you into this.”

  “You didn’t,” Kristina said adamantly. “This was my decision.”

  “You didn’t know better,” Keith said. “I did.”

  Kristina felt her defensiveness rise. She got up from the table and looked Keith directly in the eye. “I hate when people think that I was never in control of my own choices. I’m here because I choose to be… not because you led me here.”

  Keith smiled. “You go right ahead and believe that.”

  Kristina turned from him in a huff and left the kitchen for her room. She heard Keith get up and follow her. “Hey,” he called. “Come back here, I was only joking.”

  “I’ve known you awhile now, Keith,” Kristina snapped. “And you decide this is the moment to make your first joke?”

  She tried to close the door on him, but he managed to block the attempt and enter the room anyway. Knowing she would never be able to win that battle, she released her hold on the door and backed off.

  “Sorry,” Keith said with a sheepish smile. “I just…”

  “That wasn’t a joke,” Kristina said heatedly, feeling her passions rise with her frustration. “You meant it.”

  Keith sighed. “This is my baggage, Kristina… and it’s difficult to explain.”

  “Fine,” Kristina said, annoyed by how amazing Keith looked in his sleeveless t-shirt, and by how—despite her annoyance—that didn’t escape her notice. “Then don’t explain it to me. Don’t explain anything to me. In fact, let’s not talk at all.”

  In a sudden fit of reckless passion, Kristina all but jumped on Keith and kissed him hard on the lips. She could tell he was surprised because he stumbled back and it took a moment before he responded to her kiss. She sensed hesitation on his tongue, but for once, she didn’t care. She wanted him, and she—for one moment in her life—wanted to be the kind of girl who took what she wanted when she wanted it.

  Slowly, almost nervously, she felt his hands encircle her until he was crushing her against his body. His breathing was coming slowly, but Kristina could hear the beat of his heart under her own. She realized after a moment that her feet weren’t even touching the ground. Keith had her locked in an airborne embrace.

  “We shouldn’t be doing this,” Keith said, breaking apart for a moment.

  “What the fuck does it matter what we should be doing?” Kristina demanded. “What do you want to be doing?”

  She saw the same spark blaze in his eyes for a moment, and then he pushed her down on the bed and removed his shirt to reveal rock hard abs that had Kristina taking another calming breath. He bent down over her and started kissing her neck while his hands starting teasing up her blouse.

  “This doesn’t have a happy ending,” he said, as he continued kissing her.

  “I know that,” Kristina told him with her eyes closed and her senses heightened. “But let’s enjoy it while it lasts.”

  Keith’s response to that was to pull down her jeans with her panties so that she was naked and pliant from the waist down. He grabbed her by the hips and pulled her down so that he was kneeling between her legs. Then he pulled off her shirt and bra and came down over her gently. Kristina could feel his penis against her thigh, and she felt her body shiver in anticipation. Keith didn’t seem to be in a hurry however. He kept kissing her breasts before he took her nipple into his mouth and started sucking on her with abandon.

  Kristina was starting to feel the heat rise on her body when suddenly Keith jerked her upright and pushed her around so that her back was to him. It was sudden, but Kristina felt a whirl of excitement hit her as she was reminded that this was not the type of man she was used to. This man was different… he was used to having things his way, at least in the bedroom. She bent over and let him take the lead. She could feel his hands on her back and in her hair, and she reveled in his touch. She wanted him to treat her roughly; she wanted him to dominate her. For once, she didn’t want to have things planned out in one straight and sensible line. She wanted reckless danger, and nothing smelled of danger so much as sex with Keith.

  She was so wet that on any other day it might have embarrassed her, but at that moment, Kristina didn’t care one iota. She was thrilled to be so willing, so ready, and the feel of him slipping inside her roughly made her cry out in pleasure. He had been inside her twice before, but she still felt the excitement of a first encounter. It felt so completely different that she was taken aback by how quickly her body was responding to him.

  He didn’t start slow; there was nothing slow about the way he fucked her. He pummeled into her as though he had nothing to lose. Kristina could hear the pounding of flesh on flesh, and the sound turned her on even further. When she thought she was going to lose control, Keith collected her hair into a tight ponytail and used it to distract her from the building wave that was about to crash inside her.

  He pulled her upwards so that she was nestled in the crooks of his body, with his lips at her ears and his breath hot on her face. Still, he didn’t slow his pace. He tied her to his body with his arms and fucked her from behind as though he were in some kind of manic marathon. Kristina knew she was screaming, but like before, she didn’t care. She didn’t care if Emma heard them; she didn’t care if anyone did. All she wanted was to commit this feeling to memory so that when she was an old woman who had led a boring and sensible life, she could look back on this moment and know that—for at least a few minutes in her youth,—she had lived.

  Kristina could feel Keith’s breathing quicken, and she knew that he was on the verge of coming. Seized by her newfound recklessness and the fear that she might never have this again, she pulled herself free of him and turned around to face him.

  “Come on my face,” she said to him, as she lay down so that his glistening penis was hanging right over her.

  If he was surprised by her request, he didn’t show it. Instead, with one hand on her breast and the other hand stroking his cock, he came on her with a moan of pleasure. Kristina braced herself against the sweet smell of cum, as it fell on her, and she felt a deep well of satisfaction engulf her.

  It was more than just about the animalistic pleasure of sex. It was more than just about the smell and feel of Keith. Kristina knew that this was the moment; this was her moment to grab life by the horns and ride it through…no matter where it may lead her.

  Chapter Twenty

  Keith

  There was a moment when he woke up, that Keith actually mistook the woman who lay beside him. For a moment Natalie’s name was on his lips and then realization dawned and Keith felt her name dry on his tongue. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked down at Kristina sleeping.

  They looked nothing alike. Kristina was shorter and curvier; she had dark hair and light eyes. In some ways Natalie was her physical opposite. She had been taller, thinner, with white blonde hair and brown eyes. It wasn’t about their looks at all; it w
as about the feeling that both of them left him with. Kristina’s bare back was to Keith, and her eyes were closed in deep sleep. Keith leaned in and rubbed his fingers back and forth along her back. She trembled under his touch, but she didn’t wake.

  She felt different in his arms. She moved differently when he fucked her. She even moaned differently when he made her come. Those were not the things that made him think of Natalie. In fact, he found it impossible to think of Natalie at all when he was with Kristina in those moments. Immediately after, he felt a sense of guilt, as though he had betrayed Natalie in some way, but he knew those were his own issues. Natalie had been gone a long time and she would never begrudge him the right to move on.