Nadia's Salvation

by K. A Knight

  I’m so tangled in his web that I had no hope of getting out, even if he walked away from me. He sneaks up, slow and steady, his prey unaware, until it’s too late. He can consume me, kill me, whatever he wants. I will take it gladly. I will stay trapped in his web...so long as he stays here with me.

  “You say that now, but look what happened tonight.” He shakes his head and I see his armour building back into place. So I do the only thing I can, I kiss him.

  Our mouths meet in an explosion of pain, love, and hope. Our teeth clashing and cutting into each other like the barbs we throw. I pour everything into it, let him take it all, and then I pull away. “I know now and I swear I won’t turn away again,” I whisper against his lips. “Give us a chance, stop letting that fear control you. I need you, Keanu, and I think you need me too.”

  “I do,” he murmurs, his body shaking against mine. “But I can’t.”

  He goes to push me away, but at the last moment he pulls me closer, his lips crashing into mine again. Inevitable. That’s what we are.

  Prey and predator...only neither of us know which is which.

  “Why—” Kiss. “Can’t—” Kiss. “I—” Kiss. “Walk—” Kiss. “Away?”

  His hands grip my head, holding me to him—not like I would fight to get away. I’m where I want to be, where I’m supposed to be.

  “Because it’s wrong, you know it. We have both been fighting this, but we have so much else to fight for, let’s stop fighting each other,” I whisper and pull back, staring into his eyes. “All I’m asking for is a chance, for you to give us a go.”

  He licks his lips then, groaning. “And if it kills us both?”

  “Least we died trying,” I retort with a laugh.

  “You’ll be the death of me,” he whispers brokenly, his thumb coming up and swiping across my lips. “I knew it the moment I saw you, yet I couldn’t stay away. Even when I was cruel, you remained. I can never say no to you, Brat. You should know that by now. So yes, but when it’s twisted and broken and we’re both left in the massacre of whatever is left of our hearts...I hope it was worth it.”

  “It will be.” I grin and kiss him again.

  No more words, we don’t need them. We know where we stand. Instead, we show each other with our mouths how we feel. I taste the words he can never speak, the fears he won’t give life to, and in mine he tastes my hope, my dreams, and my stubbornness.

  Who said opposites attract? They were right.

  Chapter Twenty

  Keanu

  I can still taste her on my lips, feel her filling my hands so perfectly like she was made for me. Her words float around in my head. Are we really doing this? Am I really going to let another person close? But how could I deny her when my heart was screaming that it was everything I wanted?

  Fuck, please don’t let this get her killed...don’t let me be her death.

  Not that she cared, the crazy fucking woman. She fits into this world so well, and that’s what scares me, so when she freaked out earlier with the body, I used it as an excuse to try and get her to walk away, even if that’s not what I want. Only she called my bluff, she called me on my shit, and made me tell the truth, and before I knew it, we were kissing and confessing our secrets.

  I promised to protect her heart.

  That’s okay, she has mine.

  I will protect hers as much as I can, even from myself. I shake my head, bringing myself back to the present. I don’t have time to cross examine every word and wonder if I fucked up. The clean-up crew are here, and she’s leaning against the wall, watching it all go down. Only one of the cleaners looks at her, but when I step in his path and glare, he soon turns away. It’s better if no one sees her. Especially with me. She might want to be part of this world, but it comes with threats, so the less people who know about her the better.

  “I’ll have an ID to you within the hour,” one of the men tells me. I nod and turn away, leaving them to their job. They are good, they will collect any evidence that’s in the area as well as wipe it clean so we were never here.

  I swept the room myself before they got here and found nothing. If they were using this for a base or a safe house, it looks like they left in a hurry after she died. It could be a rotational system like our routine houses, but this doesn’t fit the pattern. Why torture that girl? They didn’t sell her, hell, I don’t think they even raped her. So who was she?

  And why did they want to know what she did?

  I grab Nadia’s hand, twining my fingers with hers, and then look down at our joined hands when I realised what I did. Shit, she’s getting to me already. She winks and I drag her from the room and down the stairs. When we get to the car, I open her door for her and, as she’s slipping past, she whispers in my ear.

  “If I’m bad, will you punish me again?”

  Christ.

  She slides in and I slam the door behind her, discreetly rearranging my hard cock as I get into the driver’s seat and turn on the engine, all without looking at her, unsure what to say now that we have this…relationship? Fuck, does she know I’ve never been in one? That I don’t know how to do that? Shit, this is awkward.

  “So, what’s the next step?” she asks, taking mercy on me. Work, that’s good, I can handle work, I know what to do there.

  “We find the girl’s ID. Something wasn’t right, I need to figure out why and it’s too late to check out any of the clubs, so we go back to mine and do research. I have some addresses to comb through for the man in the video you captured as well.”

  “Sounds good, I’ll help.” She grins and I look at her. “You ain’t getting rid of me that easily, now drive.”

  “Brat,” I mutter.

  “You know it,” she teases.

  I’m busy typing away, but something is clearly bugging Nadia. She’s biting down on her lip and keeps opening and closing her mouth like she can’t decide whether to speak or not. We have fought enough tonight—hell, enough for a lifetime—but something is obviously bothering her.

  “Just say whatever you’re dying to, you look like a fish,” I tease and grin over at her, before leaning back in my chair and watching her, giving her my full attention. Her eyes widen before she blows out a breath, climbs to her feet, and heads over.

  She kicks my chair back farther, making my lips quirk before she drops herself in my lap. I hesitate for a moment, unsure what to do, but then I decide to go with it and wrap my arms around her, securing her as she drapes her legs on either side of mine and looks at me. I can feel a goofy smile curling up my lips, but it soon dashes away when she opens her mouth, that wall inside of me slamming shut before I breathe out and try and pry it open.

  For her.

  “What happened to your parents? You say you watched them die…” She trails off.

  I recoil, dark memories fighting the light in my head, but I slowly turn away from them, focusing on her eyes, her beautiful face, the sweep of her hair, the feel of her touch. Using it to anchor me to the here and now. Only when they aren’t blocking my vision do I relax. She deserves to know, they are the reason I pushed her away, after all...but will bringing it up do nothing more than hurt me? I don’t speak of it, I know Donald knows only because he looked it up and was part of it...but no one else does.

  If I tell her this, am I giving her power over me...more than she already has? But her eyes are begging for me to trust her, to open up, and how can I deny that? How can I deny her anything? I would give her the world—fuck, I would kill for her. I would die for her...the thought hits me out of nowhere and I ignore that too, not wanting to analyse the strength of my feelings for the woman in my arms.

  I’m still not sure she plans to stick around, that she won’t break my heart or die on me, but maybe she’s right. Maybe I need to take a leap of faith and trust. After all, it’s a double-edged knife, and I’ll only be cut when she is. If she breaks my heart, she breaks hers too. I wonder what will be left when we’re done?

  “I did.” Licking my lips, I
grip her hips tighter, needing to feel her. To keep me here as I dive into my past, into my darkest secrets...ones so painful, I lock them up and pretend I can’t feel their echoing screams. “I was young, only ten years old, we were out. Going to a movie, it was my birthday...I was so excited. They were good parents, but they worked a lot, so we didn’t get a lot of family time together and we weren’t the richest, so going out was a treat.” She watches me, those eyes not leaving room for lies, giving me her support to help me heal. “They were killed. I hid while it happened. My dad must have known something was wrong, he shoved me in the car. Not two minutes later…” I shake my head. “There was blood everywhere, and when I got out to check on them, I slipped in it. Landing next to my mum, her eyes unseeing and dead. My dad’s head had exploded, and I still remember being sick as I saw all the brain and shards spread everywhere. The blood seemed to stain me. I couldn’t get it off for days. I didn’t even realise I was screaming until someone arrived. I didn’t speak for almost a year after that. I couldn’t, God, it felt like if I opened my mouth...it felt like that agony, that grief, would pour out of me and never stop.”

  She blinks, and there are tears in her eyes…for me? I catch one and kiss it away as she leans closer. Now that I’m talking, it’s like I can’t stop.

  “I was sent to live with my grandfather, and when I finally started talking, God, Brat. They didn’t believe me, they thought I was crazy, that the trauma had warped my mind. He was a mean bastard and tried to beat it out of me. I still wear the scars from his belt. He didn’t want anyone he was related to labelled as insane. I was obsessed and he made sure I never spoke of it again, but not even his tender care could stop me. I had this need, this urge to find out what happened. I knew it wasn’t an accident or an act of random violence. It was skilled, planned, and a perfect fucking hit. I needed to know, Nadia, so I joined up at seventeen, but they saw something in me. I still don’t know what, they recruited me for special ops and I never looked back.”

  I stroke her arm, watching my scarred fingers against her perfect skin.

  “I had skills with a computer and they only enhanced that. I was good, Brat. Really fucking good, I excelled. I was the perfect fucking killer. I didn’t fear anything, hell, I didn’t feel at all. It was just numbness, I didn’t realise until much later that I didn’t fear...because I didn’t care if I lived or died. Anyway, they scrubbed my records and faked my death, all to make me a better agent, a better spy for them. They called me the assassin’s assassin, I was who took out the best of the best if they went dark or rogue and I was good at it.

  “So fucking good, I realised I had the skills to track what had happened to my parents, only it wasn’t what I was expecting. I hunted the killers down for years, they were ghosts, but when I reached them...Donald found me.” I sigh then and she tilts my chin up with her fingers, encouraging me to go on.

  “The men, they were Donald’s, two of his best, and I had killed them like they were nothing. It didn’t stop that hate inside of me though, or the need for revenge. So we made a deal. He would give me the person, the money behind the hit, something he would never do. It would break his reputation if it got out, and in exchange…”

  “In exchange?” she prompts softly, almost huskily.

  “I became his, his man. That was five years ago,” I finish, but she frowns.

  “Did he give you the man behind the hit?” she questions.

  “Yes.” I grin, probably not a pleasant one. “I made him suffer for it, seemed that my dad was simply at the wrong place, wrong time. He had overheard some information on some embezzling for the company he worked for. They couldn’t let that get out, and they weren’t sure he hadn’t told my mum, so they had them both killed, they didn’t think anyone would care about two low income parents from the wrong side of town. They were wrong.”

  “Did it make you feel better?” she inquires, daring me to tell her the truth.

  “Partly, it felt fucking good. Hearing him scream...knowing he wouldn’t hurt anyone else like that, that he could be dealt justice. But it didn’t bring them back, it didn’t reverse what had happened. So yes and no, it made me who I am,” I answer, and then pull her closer, our lips nearly touching, and she gasps.

  “You see, Brat, I know what you’re feeling. The need to do something, to make it count, for justice. For anything, just to feel. To make you believe this world isn’t totally shit, to make the most of the time you have left. I know that need, that urge, I see it in your eyes, the same one I used to see in mine for years, and I don’t want this same darkness in you that’s in me. I see evil every day, I live in it—hell, I am it. I can pull a trigger without blinking, without feeling anything. I don’t want that for you, you’re too vibrant...too fucking alive. I think it’s what drew me to you. I was stuck in the dark and there you were. This crazy fucking girl with a wild heart...I couldn’t help but fall for you. Like the shadows swallowing the light, I wanted to consume you, devour you. Taste that happiness, that feeling until there was nothing left...still do,” I whisper, as she sucks in a breath, sharing air with me now.

  “Keanu,” she murmurs, my name on her lips filling me with need, a need so strong it overflows until I can’t help myself.

  I have to know what that wildness tastes like, feels like wrapped around me. Make it mine until there is nothing left.

  Our lips crash together, two inevitable people thrown together by fate and loss.

  She grips my hair, dragging me closer as I yank her body against me, dragging her where I need her, my hands rough, but it only spurs her on. She moans into my mouth. She tastes sweet, wild...like her, and I’m addicted. I need more.

  Our teeth clash in our haste, biting at each other, tongues tangling as we fight. Not with words this time, but with our bodies. When she has to come up for air, she yanks her mouth away and turns her head to the side, panting heavily, but I can’t stop. I kiss down her throat, leaving a trail of open-mouthed kisses and nudging aside her shirt with my nose so I can kiss across her shoulder as she starts to rock against me.

  “Please,” she implores breathlessly, her head tilting to the side to give me better access.

  “Please, what?” I rumble against her neck before I pull away. Grabbing her chin, I twist her head towards me. Her eyes are blown wide with lust, her lips bruised and red from our kiss, her cheeks heated. She looks as wild as she feels and I groan.

  “Remember the last time...when I was bent over your desk,” she whispers and leans closer, licking my lips before she bites down and then kisses the sting away. “Your hands on me, touching me, you tasted me,” she murmurs, kissing down my chin and neck until she reaches my shirt. She rolls her eyes up to me as she starts to undo the buttons, baring my chest.

  She stops to place a kiss over the army tattoo I have before she rips the rest away, buttons flying everywhere. I don’t fucking care, she could rip all of my shirts and I would willingly let her. I can’t stop her, eager to see what she will do next. She blows across my nipple with the bar, making me shiver, and she smirks.

  “Then, in your car, when I tasted you,” she continues softly, tonguing the bar, playing with it until it pulls, making me hiss, the pain mixing with my rising need, my cock so hard it feels like it will rip free from my pants, jerking against the zipper. Constrained.

  “Brat,” I warn, my voice husky.

  “I’m tired of tasting, I want to feel you,” she purrs and sits back, reaching between us and cupping my cock through my pants. “I want you to fuck me, right here. I want you to throw me over your desk. I want it hard and rough. I want to feel all of you.”

  Fucking hell, my cock jerks in my pants as I restrain the need to throw her over the desk and hammer inside her like she said…then my eyes light up. I forgot my girl likes it rough, I don’t need to hold back.

  I stand up and she grins at me, letting her feet dangle as I toss her towards the desk. She catches herself and spins, kicking off her jeans in the process. I watch, licking my
lips as I take in her curves, and those fucking long legs I can’t wait to have wrapped around me. Her tight, pert ass just begging for my hands and cock.

  I grab my knife from my ankle holster, and while she struggles to get her shirt off, I simply grab it, cut up the back, and toss it aside before doing the same to her bra. “Hey!” she protests, so I slap her with the blade edge across her ass, leaving a pink line.

  “Shut up, Brat, I’m giving you what you wanted. Unless you want me to fill that filthy fucking mouth of yours instead?” I growl, and she shakes her head, craning her neck back to try and see me as I stand behind her and begin to massage her ass. She pushes back with a whimper. I part her cheeks and trace my finger down her pussy, feeling how wet she already is for me.

  “Always so fucking wet,” I murmur, and then crouch down and follow the same path my finger just took with my tongue, making us both groan as her sweetness hits my taste buds. I could survive on eating nothing but her pussy alone, but she’s right. This will be hard and fast. I need her too much. All of her teasing, all of my restraint, and it’s nearly gone. I unbuckle my belt, throw it away, then slip off my trousers and fling away the rest of my ripped shirt, and then I’m naked behind her. I bend over her and let her feel my breath along the back of her neck. “Are you going to scream again for me, Brat? I want that pretty voice sore.”

  “Better make me then,” she taunts. “If you can.”

  Oh, my little wild thing, I’m going to destroy you for anyone else. You will crave me, beg for me, your body and heart mine for all times.

  Instead of words, I show her. I push her forward, making her grunt, and line up and slam inside her without warning. She yells, jerking with the force of my thrust, and then I still, letting her stretch around my cock, her pussy forced to accommodate me. She whimpers and then finally pushes back into me, begging me for more.

  “Yesss,” she groans, as I pull back and slam inside her, my grip on her hips bruising, but she loves it. She loves riding the line of pain and pleasure, so I force her hot little body to accept what I’m going to do to her.