Keeping Ava: Young and Privileged of Washington, DC, #6

By Vivian Kohlman

Ava's got it all…amazing friends, an awesome boyfriend, and she just started her second semester at a fantastic college. She's finally in a place where she feels good—like, really good. Strong, confident, and happy. So much so that her ex, Miko, notices. And he wants her back. 

Miko's changed, too…he's gotten edgier and hotter. She can't resist the urge to toy with him, but Ava has no desire to revisit their relationship. A little flirting never hurt, right? 

But her flirting only encourages Miko. He's fixated on her, hates her boyfriend, and is consumed by the idea that he needs Ava back. His obsession wreaks havoc during the friends' springtime trip to the French Riviera…in the end, he doesn't take 'no' for an answer.

This book is for mature audiences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vivian Kohlman
• Release date: Nov 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393056287

Book preview

Keeping Ava

Ava’s Story, Part 3

Book 6 of the

Young and Privileged of Washington, DC

Series

By

Vivian Kohlman

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

This is a work of fiction. All names and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination, or a retelling of similar stories not to be taken as fact. Any resemblance of living or dead people, or incidences and events, is purely coincidental.

––––––––

Text Copyright © 2019

All Rights Reserved

Connect with the author!

Website: www.viviankohlman.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/viviankohlman

Instagram: www.instagram.com/viviankohlman

Chapter 1

M

y boyfriend and I decided to go to a cabin in the mountains for Valentine’s Day weekend. We wanted a few romantic days alone sipping hot cocoa in front of warm fires. That’s how it started. That simple plan blew up into a Destination Anti-Valentine Party Week with all of our friends.

Our friends included four girls I’ve been best friends with for most of my life: Victoria (Tori), Genevieve (Viv), Emelia, and Asli. We all came together in elementary school and have been the best of friends ever since.

But all of our friends also included the guys: Dylan (Tori’s boyfriend), Miko (my ex-boyfriend), Magnus, and Jude. Us girls met the guys during homecoming weekend a year and a half ago—a couple of months later, I started to date Miko...six months later, we broke up.

Even after Miko and I ended things—on July fifth last year—our group of friends stayed together. We all got along like family, and all had a great time together no matter what we were doing. Luckily, my current boyfriend easily blended in with our group of friends—he and Dylan had known each other already.

My boyfriend’s name is Knox, but everyone calls him King...and he’s the most amazing man I’ve ever known. He’s so gorgeous that it takes my breath away, and he’s also smart, and runs a multinational company with his sister. He’s a bit of an over-achiever.

King and I officially met while I was dating Miko, but I first saw King even before that. The first time I saw him, he was in gym shorts and nothing else, and his Khal Drogo-type stare captivated me. King and I did a lot of flirting before we ever got together.

Our group of friends was very intertwined and built strong bonds—and had a lot of history—in the couple of years we’d known each other. We also spanned a four-year age difference, but that didn’t matter one bit. So, all of our friends joined our anti-Valentine’s plans, minus Miko—he claimed to have too much studying to do.

Since King and I started dating, Dylan and King spent much more time together than before. And Dylan’s friends consider King one of their own. This was still pretty new...I’d only been officially dating King for about seven months. And while King was a working man with a company to run, the rest of us were still in college. My girls and I were freshmen while the rest of the guys were in their senior year.

Our Valentine’s plan changed from ‘romantic and quaint’ to ‘fun and partying’ rather quickly. King and I maintained our romantic trip idea by renting a separate cabin for just us two while the rest of our friends rented a larger one with six bedrooms just a few cabins away.

And our four-day mini excursion became eight days, plus we had dinners and activities planned for almost all of those days. I didn’t mind—with King and I staying at our own place, we’d have some time alone, and we could always opt out of any of the events that our friends wanted to do.

The day we left for the Valentine’s trip was a mild February day in DC—it was in the upper forties and sunny. We knew the temperature would be much colder in Aspen, though, so I packed a suitcase full of warm clothes.

Think you brought enough? King said, mocking my large suitcase that I rolled in front of him. He’d already loaded my other two suitcases into the trunk of his Range Rover.

We were about to leave the house—King and I lived together in his family home in Great Falls, Virginia. ‘Family’ consists of just him and his sister, Claudia. Their parents passed away years ago. We knew we were a little young to be living together, but in our world people grow up fast. And neither of us wanted to live apart from the other.

Clearly you didn’t listen to me while I was packing. This one is full of clothes. That one, I said, pointing to one of the bags in the trunk, is full of boots, hats, another coat, scarves, etc. The other one has board games, my electronics and chargers, insulated mugs, gourmet marshmallows and hot cocoa, and other things that we’ll need. Don’t make fun of me; winter clothes are bulky, I said defiantly.

"You do know that Aspen has stores, right? You could have just picked up anything you needed there."

Or...I could just bring the things I like with me, and not have to waste time shopping, I defended.

I just hope you don’t weigh down the plane.

King gave me a smile, then pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head. I know he could care less if I brought a department store with me, he just liked to give me a hard time.

We boarded King’s company jet, along with all of our friends who were coming to Aspen with us. This is only the third time I’ve flown on his jet, but I’d already learned how much better it is to travel privately. Even first-class pales in comparison—when you travel on your own plane, you drive straight up to the tarmac and bring whatever you want. No long security lines, no baggage limits, and no getting to the airport an hour before your flight just to wait in a crowded terminal. It’s nice. And once inside, the bar was open—and stocked with whatever we want.

The flight to Aspen and the first couple of days there were so much fun. King and I were together the whole time, surrounded by our closest friends, in the snowy, chilly, and beautiful Colorado mountains. We skied or snowboarded most of the days, and painted the town red each night.

King and I, and Tori and Dylan—the only two couples in our group—decided to ignore Valentine’s Day itself. We were enjoying ourselves too much as a group and didn’t want to bother with it.

King and I actually spent most of our time at our friends’ house—it was so massive that we all had room to move around, and we were constantly playing board games, watching movies, or cooking together. But we spent every night in our own place so we had privacy, too.

On Valentine’s Day, I decided to get up a little early to make heart-shaped waffles. The rest of the day was already planned and this was the only alone time we would have for a while, so I thought I’d do something Valentine’s Day-ish for King first thing in the morning.

I snuck out of bed and headed downstairs to set up the cappuccino machine, planning to hold off on actually making them until he woke up. Then I made the waffle batter, adding in strawberries for both flavor and color. Luckily, I remembered to bring the heart-shaped waffle maker that I bought just for this purpose.

When it was all ready to go, I brewed a pot of regular drip and sat at the breakfast bar to sip on coffee. I enjoyed the silence in the cabin, and I watched the thick snow fall outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The rustic cabin we rented was very nice. It was large—a three bedroom designed for a family. I called it a cabin, only because it was made out of wooden logs, but it was huge with an open concept main floor.

One side of the entire house, including in our bedroom upstairs, was glass, with a view of evergreens and the ski slope. There were three fireplaces in this cabin, with staff who clean the place and restock the wood piles daily.

I sipped my coffee enjoying the serenity of the moment, until my phone vibrated. I picked it up, wondering who was texting me so early—it wasn’t even ten yet and we were all up until four in the morning last night.

On my screen was a picture of my ex-boyfriend and me, from when we were dating, in a heart-shaped frame with Your V Day present can’t be returned. I’m giving you my love written on the bottom of the picture.

This is the first I’d heard from Miko since I returned my birthday present a couple of weeks ago. He sent me a gorgeous diamond-encrusted necklace, but I just couldn’t accept it. I don’t know what he was thinking—I guess he hoped a nice gift would make me break up with King and date him again.

I never spoke to Miko about it, I just sent the necklace back with a messenger service the very next day. At least his latest gift was just a text—maybe he got the hint.

Good morning, King said as he wrapped his arms around me from behind and hugged me close. I didn’t even hear him approach, so I jumped a little and dropped my phone onto the counter. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.

That’s ok and good morning to you, handsome. Happy Valentine’s Day, I said, swiveling in my stool to face him and kiss him. I’m making us a Valentine’s breakfast.

Uh oh.

I giggled. I’m not one to cook and I’ve ruined more than one dish since I’ve known him.

How much can I mess up waffles that I made from pre-made waffle batter?

I don’t know. I guess we’ll see, he said, kissing my cheek before sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar next to me.

I got up to fulfill my duties on the other side of the counter, happy that I jumped out of bed early enough to prepare everything.

We talked about what was planned for the day while I started to make the cappuccinos and turned on the waffle iron to preheat it. We had a couple of hours before we planned to meet our friends at the ski lodge, so we had time to enjoy the morning without rushing.

Did you receive any presents yet? King asked, clearly referring to my newly fixated ex-boyfriend, Miko. I thought it best to sidetrack his line of questioning.

"Why? Do you have something for me?" I joked.

I do. But that’s not what I mean. Has he contacted you? he asked, slightly more seriously.

That’s not fair! We agreed: no gifts, I complained.

Has he contacted you? he repeated, even more serious than before.

I’m so transparent, he must be able to tell I’m trying to hide something. I sighed and rolled my eyes. I unlocked my phone and opened the text before handing it to him.

Miko had flirted or blatantly come on to me more than a few times lately. I had no idea why, but he started pursuing me again—as if our relationship didn’t suck.

He broke up with me last summer and seemed fine that we were over, until we all met up in Vegas over New Years. That week made something in him change, though for the life of me, I don’t know what it was.

He and King have actually gotten into disputes, and I’ve done my best to stop them from actually fighting. Because of all of that—and all the other drama that nearly tore us apart in Vegas—King asked that I tell him everything Miko does and that we both stay open and honest with each other. More so than we already were, that is.

King looked at the text, then locked my phone and put it on the counter. I waited for him to say something, to see how much this upset him. But he said nothing and had no discernible expression on his face. He just picked up his phone and continued to check email.

King? I nudged.

Yeah, babe?

What do you think about the text? I hate it when he’s silent. It means his mind is going a mile a minute...planning for Miko’s demise, no doubt.

I don’t think much about it. It’s bullshit. He’s trying to play on nostalgia. Did you respond?

No.

Are you going to?

No. I think it’s best to just ignore his attempts to communicate, for now. I don’t want to encourage him.

The espresso machine was whistling from pressure, so I focused on making our cappuccinos, then slid King’s over to him while he continue to stare at his phone. He slowly stirred some cane sugar into the frothy mug...giving it time to dissolve as he placed his phone back on the counter, deep in thought.

Something was going on in his mind, I knew it. But his face looked completely unconcerned. He’s so good at that—his poker face could win him millions.

I poured the batter into the waffle iron, then watched him closely. He was so absorbed in thought that he didn’t even notice I was staring. I couldn’t blame him for being bothered by this—it’s another attempt by my ex-boyfriend to get in between us.

As much as he tried to pretend that the text was nothing, I know it bugged him. So, when I saw his jaw clench, I knew I should pull him back to the present before his anger grew too much.

So, wanna tell me what’s going on in that gorgeous head of yours?

Gorgeous? Have you seen these cauliflower ears? he joked, flicking at one of his ears—they were both disfigured from his many years of martial arts training. As if that tiny detail could make him any less beautiful.

Don’t deflect, King. Talk to me.

I have a man—quite a good guy, actually—pining away for my girlfriend and making overt passes at her. Over, and fucking over again. And my girlfriend stops me whenever I try to  set him straight, he said, picking his phone back up. I’m going to be completely honest with you: he has crossed the line. The necklace he tried to give you for your birthday was over the top. That was him trying to prove a point to me. And now this. I can’t make you any promises about not going after him—whether it’s at the fight he’s planning in the gym, or on a street corner in DC. The next time I see him, he’s getting his fucking ass kicked.

I turned back to the counter and checked the waffle iron to be sure our breakfast wasn’t burning. The fight King referred to was the mixed martial arts fight that Miko planned for the two of them, and is just a handful of months away. I didn’t like to think about them fighting, and really hoped this whole idea would just go away, but the likelihood of that seemed pretty minimal.

I turned back to face King and leaned back on the counter behind me, placing my elbows down on the counter...it was an unintentionally sexy stance. He noticed, finally moving his eyes from his phone to me, and setting the phone on the breakfast bar.

I know, I said, surprising King. I know this is too much. I really don’t know what he’s thinking...

He’s thinking he wants an ass whooping. And that’s exactly what he’s gonna get. Even if he changes his mind about the gym and goes back to the underground circuit idea, I don’t give a shit, I’m going to fight him.

I rolled my eyes. Please, he’s all talk about that. Could you really see Miko fighting at one of those places? I can’t even see him fighting at all. I mean, not a guy like you.

"You’ve been saying that a lot lately, guy like you. Why is that?"

Because the more I get to know you, the more amazing and unique you are. Every guy who isn’t your friend or work associate, is scared of you. And I know for a fact that all of your one-night stands are still craving you. You’re just the kind of guy that a girl misses until her death, even if she knew it was temporary to begin with. I hope I never end up pining away for you, like all the other girls undoubtedly do.

You’re not one of them and you know it. Speaking of, I’ll be right back, he said as he got off his stool and went upstairs.

Not a day went by that King didn’t show me or tell me how special I was to him. When we first met, we shared our histories and I learned that he never had a girlfriend, just one-night stands or friends with benefits. He never connected with anyone, and never had romantic feelings, until we met. It was all lust and one-night stands before then.

I placed the first batch of waffles on the plate, noting that I cooked them a little too long. And maybe I shouldn’t have put so many strawberries in the batter—they ended up a little soggy in a few spots. I took a spoon and removed some of the larger chunks of strawberries from the batter, hoping to make future batches better.

I put another pat of butter in the waffle iron, moving it around to coat all of the crevices. I learned how to make waffles from my mom, but this is the first time I’ve ever made them completely by myself. Well, to be honest, using a mix instead of making the batter from scratch is a huge copout—my mom would never do that. But this is as close to home-made as I was comfortable with.

Before I had the chance to finish the second batch, King was back in the kitchen with a pretty package in his hands. He put the box on the breakfast bar and nodded toward it.

We said no gifts, remember? I asked, feeling guilty.

It’s not a Valentine’s Day gift, it’s...

Red, with a pink bow. You can’t get more Valentine than that.

I didn’t wrap it.

Of course you didn’t, I said, rolling my eyes dramatically. Wrapping gifts didn’t seem like King’s thing.

Open it. I’ll take care of the waffles. Maybe we’ll get some that are edible, he said, looking at me with a smile pulling up one side of his plump lips.

Don’t make fun of my culinary skills, I complained, not offended at all. I know I can’t cook, but it’s the thought that counts.

I sat on a stool at the breakfast bar and slid the present in front of me. I really wanted to open it, but I hesitated.

I feel guilty. I should have known you’d get something for me.

No, you shouldn’t have. It’s not a Valentine’s gift, I promise. It’s...compensation.

For what?

For the birthday gift you returned to Miko.

You didn’t have to give me something just because I sent his necklace back. That was the right thing to do.

And so is this, he said, gesturing to the box. Just open it.

I pulled off the pink bow and removed the wrapping paper. When I flipped open the lid of the flat medium-sized box, my jaw dropped and I caught my breath.

It’s the gold, mother-of-pearl and diamond, Van Cleef and Arpels long necklace I’d adored for years. I never got it for myself because I just couldn’t imagine spending that much money on something that I couldn’t live in or use to get me from point A to point B.

King, this is too much.

Whoa...don’t tell me you’re going to return my gift too? he joked.

Oh, hell no! I exclaimed, taking the necklace out of the box to examine it closely. "I absolutely love this necklace! I just can’t believe you got it for me. I know how much this amazing piece of jewelry costs. I’ve been coveting it for years."

Yes, I know. A little birdie told me about it. I had to get you something that would top the necklace Miko got for you. It’s a guy thing. And to be honest, I like giving you things.

My independent streak started to rise up, but I stamped it down. King knows I could buy this for myself, if I was willing to spend that kind of money on a trinket, but he wanted to buy it for me. It’s just another example of how I’ve been pretty well-off my whole life, but King’s wealth sometimes makes me feel like a pauper.

I smiled at him. You out-did yourself, babe. I thought this ring was over the top, I said holding up my hand to display the eternity band he gave me last fall. Coincidentally, when my hand was lifted a diamond on the ring caught a ray from the LED overhead light and reflected the light into King’s eyes, making him squint a little. Perfect timing. But this necklace, too? You’re going to turn me into a spoiled brat.

Nah, I won’t let that happen. I’ll keep you in check, trust me, he said with a confident smile on his face.

"Oh, you will? Really? You do know I’m a force to be reckoned with, right?"

I do.

Yet you’re still confident. I shook my head. Guys like you...

Here we go with that again! Here, take this, he said, putting a plate of better cooked waffles on the counter. You must be hungry. Have some waffles.

He gathered forks and knives from a drawer while I place my new necklace in the box and admired it once more. I couldn’t believe I owned this necklace. And I couldn’t believe the most amazing man on earth gave it to me.

King sat on the stool next to me, and I put my hand on his arm to pull him into a kiss.

"Thank you for this beautiful gift. I have wanted this necklace for years,