The Billionaire Bachelor (Billionaire Bad boys #1)(12)

"I don't know how brilliant it was since I walked back freezing and soaked to the bone." Merina yawned, then drank the coffee she needed more than her next breath. It'd been a sleepless, stressful couple of nights. On a good night, she slept a few hours. This week she was lucky if she'd accumulated a few hours' sleep since Monday.

Lorelei swiped moisture from her inky lashes—and not inky because they were coated in mascara. Inky because they were naturally coal black, like her smoothed-to-perfection shoulder-length hair.

"You look amazing," Merina blurted. Because her best friend did, in fact, look amazing. Her cocoa skin was glowing, her cheeks highlighted with a dab of bronzer, her eyes bright and sparkling. Merina, on the other hand, looked like a hobo brought in to be given a hot meal. "Oh my God," she said, her lazy synapses finally firing. "Did you get laid last night? Are you and Malcolm back togeth—"

"What? No! Neither of those things." Lorelei turned her chin down to examine the printed papers in front of her. "And we're not talking about me. We're talking about you, future Mrs. Crane."

Since Merina's parents were at the hotel, she'd taken advantage of the rare bit of privacy at home to have Lorelei over. They sat at the breakfast nook, baked-from-a-box blueberry muffins on a plate between them. Merina had filled Lorelei in on the phone at six this morning, which was about two minutes after Reese e-mailed her a prenuptial agreement, from his personal e-mail no less, that stated, Need your answer by tomorrow. This is a draft and not finalized.

"Romantic, right?" Merina grumbled into her coffee.

The night he'd stopped by the VH, she'd slept fitfully, grabbing twenty minutes here, five minutes there. She'd stumbled through the next few days on autopilot trying to figure out a way around what Reese was asking. He'd told her she couldn't tell anyone, but the prenup's arrival in her inbox required a lawyer's expertise. Her lawyer also happened to be her very best friend. She'd debated for about thirty seconds before giving in and calling her lawyer bestie.

Lorelei had promised to read over the document and arrive at Merina's house within the hour. Now she flipped through the pages casually while Merina waited and watched her facial expressions for any clue as to what she might say.

"So?" Merina prompted. "How badly am I getting screwed here?" Obviously, Reese Crane had more to gain or he never would have come up with the plan. There was something she wasn't seeing; she was sure of it.

"Honestly?" Lorelei straightened the papers, then folded her hands neatly on top of the stack. "I think you're sitting pretty if you take the deal."

Knife hovering over the butter dish, Merina blinked at her friend. She abandoned the utensil, muffin forgotten. "I'm sorry, I swore I thought I heard you imply this is a good idea?"

Lorelei picked a hunk off the edge of her muffin and popped it into her mouth, then gestured around Merina's living quarters. "Beautiful as your parents' house is, I know you're ready to leave."

Merina sighed. She was past ready. Whenever she and Lorelei had lunch or drinks—sadly, it wasn't that often since Lorelei had made partner at her firm—Merina moaned and complained about living with her parents. At age twenty-nine, it wasn't exactly charming to be shacked up with Mom and Dad. She'd made due because the three-story house had a completely private upstairs, and save for the kitchen, she was able to feel as if she were in her own apartment. She now knew (after her mother's reluctant revelation about their finances) that the rent Merina insisted on paying and grocery trips she made every other week had been helping.

Over the last few years, she'd spent so much time at work, she couldn't see the point in moving out until she had a reason. And then she found one. A beautiful apartment close to the Van Heusen in an artsy building near the museum. She'd put down a deposit, intending to move after the holidays, but by last Thanksgiving her father's heart attack had happened and her parents needed her more than ever. Also, the three of them were home together more than ever.

"I can move out without Reese Crane," Merina grunted, buttering the muffin after all.

"This is true." Lorelei nodded as she polished off the end of her muffin. "But if you with this ring, I thee wed, you can move out sooner, keep the Van Heusen, and you'll be in charge of everyone's jobs, including your own. This arrangement takes care of all your problems. Plus"—she dusted her hands, sending crumbs onto the napkin in front of her—"this would be a great test run for getting back on the horse."

Merina's entire face screwed to the side. "I think I'm about to be offended."

"I'm your best friend," Lore stated, resting a comforting palm over Merina's hand. "I know you've been avoiding getting serious since Corbin. Reese Crane isn't Corbin."

Corbin. At the mention of her ex-boyfriend, Merina closed her eyes. Lorelei's reassuring touch wasn't reassuring at all. Corbin marked the one time in Merina's life she wished she could rewind, erase, then fast-forward back to today.

She'd met him at a mixer at the Van Heusen's former assistant manager's house. She went to Liza's because she was invited and she wanted to be friendly. She had no idea it was a setup until Liza shoved her brother, Corbin, in Merina's face and left them suspiciously alone on the back porch. To her surprise, she liked him. A lot. He was fun and carefree…seemed less high-strung than the business sorts she'd dated in the past. Not that the list was long. It was mainly comprised of a few longish-term boyfriends during her college years, and then Corbin. Six years of semi-serious dating that had not resulted in marriage or even living together and had tied up what she now recalled fondly as her best dating years.

The evening at Liza's led to exchanged phone numbers and from there turned into a few fun dates at Liza's apartment where Corbin lived as her couch-crashing roommate. The third date ended in Merina's bedroom, and she was grateful she had parents who were modern enough not to pry when she had a man over.

The beginning of the end came when Liza announced she was moving to Colorado to care for hers and Corbin's aging mother. Corbin asked to stay with Merina for the short-term and she hesitantly said yes. When a few weeks turned into a few months, Merina started paying extra on her rent and saying it was from Corbin. It wasn't. He was unemployed, and she quickly learned that his lifestyle was so "carefree" because he essentially mooched off whomever was handy.