The Billionaire Bachelor (Billionaire Bad boys #1)(69)

"Oh God, Reese. Yes." Eyes on his. "Yes, Reese. Yes."

Because he liked hearing that, and seeing her come apart beneath him, he held on until he was fairly certain he'd given her two—maybe three—more, before letting himself go. When he let go, he pressed his mouth over hers and drank her in, even as he lost himself in her body, his mind a tapestry of pleasure.

* * *

Merina was chewing on the side of her finger, eyes on her computer, mind turning over the image on the screen. What she'd meant to do was peek at the article, close the website, then shrug it off as no big deal. For she was a strong, independent woman who was very much in charge of her faculties.

Instead, she was staring at an image of Reese that was seven or eight years old and feeling a sharp pain in the center of her chest. Like now, in the photo he was devastatingly attractive. He was bare-chested, possibly naked, and lying on a pile of stark white bedding. His grin was infectious and achingly happy, his eyes bright in the sunlight streaming in from behind him. Seeing it—knowing where it came from—was just plain heartbreaking.

Penelope Brand had texted her this morning and let her know "so that you're prepared" that Gwyneth Sutton Lerner had hopped onto Twitter the night before and posted the photo with Reese's infamous hashtag (thankfully, that particular part of his anatomy was not featured), as well as one of her own choosing: #Loveofmylife.

By lunch, the tweet had been deleted, and Penelope had guessed that Gwyneth was drunk when she posted it, or at the very least pissed off at Hayes for whatever reason and seeking revenge. But nothing on the Internet ever truly went away, even after the delete button was pushed.

It made Merina think back to Alex's retirement party when Gwyneth had scuttled over to Reese and Merina had wanted nothing more than to go pry them apart.

The Spread had snagged a snapshot of the tweet and splashed it onto their column. Penelope's phone call had also included some additional unpleasant news: the television show Inside Edition had called for an official comment, which Penelope had denied them. Which meant she expected the photo, paired with a whooshing sound effect, to be featured alongside Gwyneth's tweets tonight.

Understanding that this was yet another of Reese's conquests who had a thorn in her side—one who'd lobotomized her brain since tweeting an old intimate photo was the height of stupidity—Merina fully expected to continue with her day like nothing happened.

That was twenty minutes ago.

Initially, she did scoff and close the window, but working was impossible when she kept seeing that photo on the screen of her distracted mind. So she found it and opened it again in her phone. Then she opened it on her computer screen so she could see it bigger.

The part carving out a tiny piece of her soul was the expression on Reese's face. So light, happy, carefree. A good five minutes into staring at the smile lines bracketing his mouth—the mouth she'd kissed repeatedly—she finally put her finger on what was bothering her.

Reese had let someone into his heart, and that person had been Gwyneth. The woman he'd played off like she was no big deal, when clearly, the look on his face in this picture had BIG DEAL written all over it.

When she'd asked if Gwyneth had been the one responsible for him sleeping with all of Chicago, she'd been joking. Now she couldn't bring herself to laugh. The look on his face—that was a man in love. Which meant Gwyneth had meant something to him and had left him heartbroken.

At his parents' house, at his office when she'd taken him the framed article, Merina had thought she'd seen him open up. There had been a few moments of stark connection, where she could swear she'd seen in his eyes how much she'd come to mean to him.

Things had been so, so good. Reese coming home from work, practically skipping because of his newfound position. Merina couldn't be anything less than happy for him, because she thought she'd understood. She thought she'd finally uncovered the man who had hidden from her—peeled back one of his final layers.

Gwyneth's photo of Reese proved Merina hadn't scratched the surface. Because she was obsessed, she went to the Spread's blog (after swearing for months she wouldn't read that garbage) and read every word of what they reported. Including something that made her feel even worse about the current state of affairs.

As far as the Spread can tell, this picture of Reese (sans rocket, boo-hoo!) was taken when he was at the ripe and sexy age of twenty-four. We had to dig through the archives, but our sleuths here uncovered a few early photos of this couple. It seems their four-year affair ended suddenly (even scandalously!) since Gwyneth was photographed with Hayes shortly after her and Reese's appearance at an art show in downtown Chicago. We reached out to Gwyneth Sutton Lerner as well as Reese Crane for comment but haven't heard back yet. We'll let you know as soon as we do!

Four years.

Four.

Years.

It was the only thing Merina could focus on. She'd asked Reese how long he and Gwyneth had dated and he'd brushed it off with an evasive "a handful of months." It wasn't that she was upset he'd lied to her. It was why he'd lied to her.

Why hadn't he told her the truth? Why did he lie, play Gwyneth down? Was he trying to protect Merina from the truth…or worse? Trying to hide how much he still loved Gwyneth Sutton Lerner…

Her heart hit her throat and she swallowed around it, choking back the urge to burst into tears.

After all Merina and Reese been through together, he hadn't trusted her with the truth. After she'd put herself—her heart—on the line, he'd lied to her.

This had happened once before—with Corbin. Lorelei had insisted that Reese was not Corbin. In many cases, he wasn't. But that chickenshit move to dodge instead of manning up and telling her the truth had proven one thing.

Reese had kept his distance, while she'd been trying to erase it.

* * *

Today wasn't going smoothly. Pure adrenaline paired with excitement over his new position last week led to an overwhelming need to put his fist through a wall this week. Work was busy, which he enjoyed, but the level of stupidity he was currently wrangling bordered on criminal.

After handling a board of directors meeting without his father or Tag, Reese realized his biggest challenge with them would be keeping from hurling one of them down the elevator shaft. Which wasn't a good idea, though it would make him feel better.