LOGINRavenRoman pushes inside me inch by inch and the stretch of him pulls a long broken moan out of me that I don’t try to stop.I’m tender from everything the red room did to me early hours of today. But I’m so wet, so embarrassingly, obscenely wet, that my body takes him anyway, my slick running freely, easing him in despite the ache, and my fingers find his shoulders and hold on.“Babygirl.” His voice comes out rough against my temple, strained in a way I feel in my stomach. “I can’t stop fucking this pussy.” A low grunt. “Feel how good you take me. Every single time.”“Don’t stop.” The words fall out of me without permission. “I mean it. Don’t ever stop. Use me however you want. I’m yours. All of me.”The sound that leaves him is heavy and deep and I feel it vibrate from his chest straight into mine and heat floods through me so suddenly I clench hard around him and feel myself leak down his length and onto his thighs.He grips my hips and starts to move.Just lifting me and
RomanThe water runs hot and I let it.I stand under it with my hands braced against the tile and let the steam fill the room and think about Van Davis sitting across from me three days ago in a restaurant he chose because he thought neutral ground meant something.He’d come to me.That was the part I still turned over. Van Davis, who had more pride than sense and a public profile he protected like a second income, had called my office and asked for a meeting. I almost didn’t take it.I’m glad I did.He sat down across from me and didn’t waste time. Told me the child was his. That he and Vivienne had seen each other a couple of times, that she’d come back to him a year into my engagement and he’d been stupid enough to let her.“That woman means nothing to me,” he’d said flatly. “She thought she could crawl back after everything and I’d want her. I didn’t. But she was there and I was stupid.” He leaned back in his chair. “I’m not letting another man raise my child. That’s the on
Raven‘What are you up to, Roman Bellerie?’ I think to myself as I drain the last of the wine in my glass.Everyone looks shocked at Roman’s accusations, waiting for Vivienne to defend herself.She doesn’t break the way people would expect someone in her shoes to.That’s the thing about Vivienne. Even cornered, even with the room turned against her, she finds something to hold onto.“Disgracing me at our wedding wasn’t enough for you?” Her voice comes out steadier than it has any right to. She pulls herself up off the floor, straightening the dress, lifting her chin. “Not showing up, leaving me standing there in front of everyone wasn’t enough? Now you want to stand here and deny your own child? In front of my father?” Her eyes fill, and even now they’re performing. “How cruel can one person be, Roman? What did I ever do to deserve this from you?”“You’re still choosing to do this the hard way,” Roman says.“I’m not doing anything. I’m telling the truth.”“Last chance, Vivienn
RomanThe office is quiet on a Saturday.That’s why I like it.No calls routed through the main line, no assistants moving through the corridor, no scheduled meetings pulling my attention in six directions at once. Just the work, stripped of everything performative.I was here by seven.My phone has been lighting up since nine.I’ve been letting it.I finish reading through the Diamond Club correspondence, make two notes in the margin, close the file. Pour a second coffee. Open the next document.My phone buzzes again. This time I pick up.“Dave, tell me,” I say.“You need to come home.” His voice is tight in a way Dave rarely allows himself. “Right now, Roman. Vivienne has lost her mind completely. She’s broken two vases, a mirror, and Gerald is standing in your living room threatening to dismantle everything you’ve built before Monday morning.”As expected. She’d rather bark like a wounded animal than walk away with whatever dignity she has left.“Is anyone hurt?”“Not
RavenThe church is full by the time I arrive.I take my seat near the back, my hands folded in my lap, and I have made my peace with what I’m about to watch. I told myself I’d be brave. I told myself I’d hold my head up. I didn’t tell myself it would be easy.The minutes tick past.Then more minutes.Someone whispers, “Where is the groom?”Another answers, “Roman Bellerie has never been late a day in his life.”Vivienne laughs a little too brightly. “He must have been caught in traffic.”No one laughs with her. Vivienne keeps glancing toward the entrance, and her smile gets a little tighter each time. The murmuring starts low, a ripple through the pews, people checking watches, leaning toward each other.The priest finally steps forward.“Miss Cole.”Vivienne turns to him hopefully.“I can allow another twenty minutes.”A heavy silence settles over the church.“If the groom has not arrived by then…” He pauses, almost reluctantly. “…I will have no choice but to cancel today’s ceremon
Raven (Present) I wake alone. The room is quiet, the kind of quiet that tells you the person who was here left a while ago without bothering to wake you. I lie there for a moment, disoriented, before I reach for my dress and pull myself together piece by piece. I check the time on my phone. Six in the morning. Two hours until Roman’s wedding. Of course he’s gone. He’s getting ready, probably has been for an hour already, probably never even thought about whether I’d wake up alone in that room or how that would feel. I push through the door into the main house and stop. The living room is full. Family I recognize, people I don’t, all of them moving through the early stages of wedding preparation with the kind of bright, busy energy that makes my stomach turn. Dave spots me first. “Where have you been?” He crosses to me immediately, real worry in his face. “I looked for you all night. Your phone kept going to voicemail.” “I was at a friend’s. I needed t
Raven“You should care.”“No I don’t. I don’t give a fuck.”His expression darkens into something raw. His eyes drop to my mouth and stay there for a second too long before he moves.He walks me backward until my back meets the side of the truck and the cold metal against my spine makes me gasp
RavenThe bar Roman finds is nothing like I expected.No pounding music rattling the walls. No sticky floors or groups of college students doing shots and falling over each other. Just warm amber lighting, low jazz threading through the air, and couples tucked into curved booths with good wine an
RavenRoman and I sit across from a young doctor. Younger than I expected.He speaks careful English with a soft Italian accent, his hands steady as he reviews the results in front of him.Roman sits beside me, still slightly damp from the pool, the sleeves of his black shirt rolled up carelessl
RavenI changed into the only swimsuit I packed. A simple black one-piece that I threw in at the last minute.When I get down to the pool, Roman is already there.He’s in the water, only his shoulders and head visible above the surface.The late afternoon sun catches the water, making it sparkle.“







