LOGINRoman(Past)“He won’t give up unless we give him something,” Marcus said. “He wants every potential threat eliminated. He won’t stop hunting until he believes the heiress is dead.”“Then give him something. A body.”“I’ll make arrangements and see if we can find a dead girl who shares the heiress’s features. That should convince him to call off the hunt.”“Good.”Erica reappeared a moment later, this time carrying her luggage.“I need this sorted once and for all before the weekend,” I said, ending the call with Marcus. I finally turned to face her fully.“Where’s Raven?”“I put her to sleep,” she answered, her hand tightening around the handle of her suitcase.“And where are you going with that?” I asked, my gaze lifting from the luggage to her face.“I can’t stay here anymore. I don’t want any part of this. I swear I’ll disappear. You’ll never see me again. I’ll never tell anyone. Just… please let me go.”“You signed a contract,” I reminded her.“I’ll pay you back. I promise.” She
RavenRoman 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
RavenI catch up with Roman before he reaches the car.“Roman.”He keeps walking.“Roman.” I grab his arm and he stops, turning to look at me with that particular patience that means he’s already decided how this ends. “You can’t keep doing this. Showing up wherever I am like you own the place.
Roman“Tell me.”“The image isn’t perfectly clear, but we matched a partial off the footage. A college kid. Twenty, twenty one.” A pause. “We picked him up an hour ago. He’s not talking yet but he will.”“Where is he.”“Body shop on Halloran. The back room.”I drive myself to the location at a
RomanShe wants to talk.I set the glass down.I look at her standing in the middle of my office and I already know whatever is coming is not going to be easy. I can read Raven the way I read a room before a deal goes bad. Something in the set of her jaw. The way she folded her arms when she walked
RavenI can barely walk to the bathroom.Every muscle between my hips feels wrung out, swollen, used all night in the best and most thorough way possible.I run a warm bath instead of a shower. Ease myself in slowly, wincing, and let the warmth work into the soreness.I’m massaging gently between







