The Billionaire Bachelor (Billionaire Bad boys #1)(76)

Merina blinked once. Then twice. Last thing in the world she expected him to say. "What?"

"She came to see if I'd take her back."

Merina couldn't feel her face. Or her limbs. It was like her soul had snapped free and was floating overhead.

"What did you tell her?" she whispered.

"I said 'fuck you.'"

"Good answer."

Reese hadn't let her go, and his eyes hadn't left hers. She wanted to ask why he was giving up on them. Why he was determined to go through with the divorce. Why he'd ignored her admission and changed the subject. But even as she thought those questions, she could guess his answers.

He'd say his new position as CEO was demanding. That he didn't have time for a relationship. That he'd vowed years ago never to get hurt again. Or maybe he'd go the "contract" route and remind her again that she was temporary.

In other words, he was going to lie.

"Do you want me to go?" She was as afraid of his answer as she was not to ask. If they were ending things, she wasn't going to leave without first showing him what he was losing.

"No." The truth. Finally. "I just want you."

"Then have me."

* * *

Reese rerouted Merina's hands to the back of his neck. She put her fingers in his hair and gazed up at him with so much want and hope that his heart threatened to cave in.

He'd tried. God help him, he'd tried to get her to think something had happened between him and Gwyneth. Selfishly, he wanted Merina to leave angry and make things easier for him to end. But where she was concerned, he was weak. Her invitation that he could have her was far too tempting to pass up.

One last time.

Anticipation made his arms shake as he lowered his mouth to hers. Merina tasted like heaven. He'd been missing her taste for far too long. When he saw her standing at the door of his suite, he couldn't remember ever being devastated and glad to see someone at the same time.

Gwyneth had come to his suite earlier and he had just stumbled from the bathroom after about an hour of sleep last night. At first, he thought he was hallucinating. Then he wondered if she was. What she was asking was certifiable. He'd never in a million years take her back. He couldn't believe she'd come here to ask. Even if he hadn't been second place to Hayes all those years ago, it was too much to ask. Gwyneth tearfully shared that Hayes was cheating on her, which served her right. She wanted to know if Reese had seen her tweeted photo, and then she let him know she meant the "love of her life" thing.

"Yes, I did," was his response, followed by that colorful FU he'd told Merina about.

That interaction had left him pissed and Gwyneth in tears. Seeing Merina had hit him like a blast of cool air on overheated skin. He missed her. Two damn days apart had left him lonely and lost.

Hadn't he put her through enough loops on this marital roller coaster? The divorce papers were drawn up. They sat on the desk behind Merina, but now that Merina was in his arms, he wasn't inclined to point them out.

Now that he was kissing her, he couldn't stop. She loved him. Even after he'd lied. And left. After she'd seen Gwyneth leave his suite. Could he do nothing to deter her?

A million excuses tumbled through his head but not a single one left his mouth. There was no way he'd deny them this moment. No way he'd let her leave without taking her in every way possible.

Scent.

Touch.

Smell.

He lifted her shirt over her head. Beneath his T-shirt, she explored his torso with her hands, showing no signs of hurry. He grabbed his shirt by the neck and pulled it off, adding it to a pile of clothes in the corner. Life had been hell without her. If forty-eight hours had reduced him to a pitiful slob who couldn't say no, what would the next forty-eight hours bring? Or forty-eight days?

He wouldn't think about that either. He buried those fears the same way he buried his hands in her hair, slanting his mouth over hers and taking what he needed. But he wouldn't rush. He refused to rush.

Slowly, intentionally, his hands went to work on the clasp of her bra.

Then lower, to the zipper at the side of her skirt.

Panties were peeled down her legs, his lips following as he placed kisses on her thighs, the insides of her knees. High heels were slipped off and kisses delivered to her ankles. To the arch of one foot.

Once Merina was nude, she started on him. Smoothing her hands over his chest, cupping his manhood over his jeans and giving him a gentle squeeze. She went to work on the fly, the zipper, pulled the denim down his legs. When her hand wrapped around his cock, Reese's mind blanked.

No woman could replace her, and he hated that he had to let her go. But he didn't dwell in that unpleasant future.

Not when she kissed him deeply and commanded, "Take these off."

He stripped off his clothes, but when her hands came to his chest to shove him onto the bed, he stopped her. With a shake of his head, he lifted her into his arms and placed her on the blankets gently. So delicately. She never took her eyes off his.

He started at her tattoo, kissing the flames, and then moving his mouth between her breasts. One irresistible kiss to each peach-pink nipple, he ran a hand down her ribs, over her hip, and lifted one leg.

"So perfect," he mumbled against the silken skin of her stomach.

"I want it hard," she said.

"You'll get it slow." He lifted his head to make sure she saw he was serious.

Her head moved back and forth into a slight shake. "Reese."

It was a plea. A plea for him to take her at a feverishly fast pace and give them the release she was begging for. If this was his last time with her, he refused to let her leave without knowing—on some level—what she'd come to mean to him over these last few months.

"You owe me, Crane."

"What happened to 'Reese'?" he grunted when she gripped his erection.

The expression on her face melted into one of sadness. What did happen to him? it seemed to ask.

Fuck if he knew.

Rather than answer that unspoken question, he gripped one of her hips and slid in to the hilt. The moment he lost himself in the heat of her, in the sounds she made in his ear, time stopped.

His eyes rolled back, his lids closing.

His mind splintered. His chest cracked open.