The Wrong Bride: Ares and Raven’s Story (The Windsors)

“This is not so bad, right?” she whispers eventually. “That night you told me that you’d never want me, and I know that. I know I’ll never be Hannah, but…”

“Don’t,” I cut her off. “Don’t mention her in our bed, Rave.”

She looks at me with so much sorrow in her eyes. “Moment of honesty? This bed doesn’t feel like ours. Every single night, I feel like I’m sleeping in her bed.”

Raven turns away from me, but I lean over her and force her to face me. “Then we’ll throw the whole damn bed out, Raven.” Her eyes widen, and I cup her cheek gently. “Let’s just order a new one.”

She nods and hesitantly reaches for the collar of my pajamas. “Can we throw these out too, then?”

I glance down in confusion. They’re plain blue checkered pajamas.

“I know Hannah and you have matching pajamas, and maybe it’s petty and immature, but I…”

I sit up in bed and pull her up with me until we’re both sitting on our knees. “So take it off, wife.”

The sheets bunch around her waist as she lifts a trembling hand to my chest. Her eyes meet mine, and she hesitates for a moment before she undoes my top button. I watch her beautiful face as more and more of my chest comes into view, taking note of the way she blushes, the way her breathing accelerates. She undoes the last button, letting it fall open as she grabs the collars.

Raven looks at me, her gaze heated as she pushes my shirt off my shoulders, her fingers moving slowly as she takes her time, letting them trail over my skin, until my chest is left bare.

I raise my hips and tilt my head, provoking her. Raven hesitates, so I grab her hands and place them at the top of my pants. “You said you wanted it off, baby. So take it all off.”

She bites down on her lip and curls her fingers around the waistband before she pulls them down slowly.

Her breath hitches as she exposes the V lines on my lower stomach, and I can’t help the way my cock hardens. Having her hands on me when she’s got such a gorgeous blush on her face, her lips slightly parted. Fuck.

She pulls my trousers down until my thighs, and I smirk at her. “Good girl,” I whisper, and she looks up at me, clear desire in her eyes. This is how she looked at me the night I had her in my lap, and her expression has haunted my dreams ever since.

I smile to myself as I take off my pants, leaving me in nothing but my boxer shorts, my erection obvious. Raven stares at it and sucks down on her lower lip, her hard nipples betraying her desire.

“I’ve always hated sleeping in pajamas,” I admit, my voice soft, almost as though I’m subconsciously scared to break the moment. “I just didn’t want to make you uncomfortable by being half naked.”

She shakes her head and drags her eyes back up to mine. “I’m not uncomfortable at all. I see male models dressed in little to nothing all the time, remember?”

Annoyance washes over me at the thought of her doing intimate shoots with other men. I need to find a way to get her to move to my company. I don’t trust her manager either. Raven doesn’t seem to realize just how beautiful she is. It’s like she separates her model persona and her true self, and somehow, in her mind, the latter is lacking. I never understood why, but I’m determined to fix it.

“Oh, I remember,” I tell her, my voice terse. I lean in and gently tuck a strand of her behind her ear. “Remind me, that recent underwear campaign you did… it was something like this, wasn’t it?”

I pull her against me and thread one hand in her hair before tipping her head back to expose her neck. She gasps when I lower my lips to her ear, my teeth grazing over her earlobe. “This is how you posed with Tom Foster, wasn’t it? Tell me, my love, was he as hard as I am when he held you like this?”

I kiss her neck, my teeth grazing over her skin for a moment before I suck down, leaving a small mark. Raven’s breath hitches, and the way she pushes her chest against mine makes me fucking feral. Her hands thread through my hair, her grip tight.

“No,” she says, her voice far too fucking alluring. “He’s very professional. The shoots aren’t as intimate as they look, I promise. There are so many people around, and we move from one position to another very quickly.”

I move my lips to her throat and kiss her there. “Good,” I tell her. “Good for him. He’ll get to produce co2 for another day, then.”

She giggles, and the sound goes straight to my heart, filling me with a longing that’s far deeper than my physical need for her. “I never realized you were so possessive,” she whispers.