The Billionaire Bachelor (Billionaire Bad boys #1)(73)

Merina Crane, his mind corrected.

Right. His wife.

The outside world wasn't privy to their marital squabble, however. No, for the world they'd become actors. Merina played the part and so did he. It was the way he'd imagined things would be the day she'd signed the premarital agreement, but after all they'd been through, the distance felt wrong.

The day after the argument, Penelope had called an emergency meeting at Crane Hotel. Merina showed up, looking fresh and beautiful, and Reese sat there with a mouthful of apologies he'd had to swallow down. For the sake of business. For the sake of the future.

Pen made it clear them being seen together was paramount. "You can't let Gwyneth get any more mileage out of this. Keep doing what you're doing. Go places together. Let people see you kissing, holding hands, smiling."

Merina accepted the challenge gracefully. Head up, with a curt nod, her viciously dominant spirit in charge. She'd done a convincing job pretending to like him, which he assumed she didn't. How could she after what he'd said to her?

He made it a point to drop her off and pick her up at work, placing a kiss on her lips for the waiting paparazzi. The Spread was milking Gwyneth's tweet. Pen had sent him a text with a link to an article featuring him and Merina at dinner yesterday. In the photo, Merina was leaning on the table, breasts on display, tattoo bare, smiling at him.

He'd sat with his arm around her as she told him about her day and toyed with the knot of his tie. Her act was so genuine, he thought he was off the hook. He'd taken her hand, hell-bent on dragging her to the single bathroom to devour her, but then she'd mumbled under her breath, "Reporter at the bar."

That's when he'd realized it was all for show. The woman who had warmly touched him and showed off the tattoo she'd previously hidden was simply enduring him until they could call it quits.

It was frustrating and irritating…and exactly what she needed to do.

He was all for pretending when he was part of the game, but the game had changed. She'd closed off the part of her he'd grown used to. Not just the sex part. The genuine Merina part. Now he was left with…he didn't know. Some cardboard version of her.

The wife he'd spent the last week with was not the same woman who, drenched, had carried a doorknob into his office and called him a suited sewer rat. He smiled at the memory, but then his smile faded as pain lanced his chest. He missed her.

And had no idea how to fix it.

After their explosive argument, he assumed Merina felt something for him that was strictly unadvised. He'd thought for a terrifying minute that she'd fallen for him…or was about to. Fear hit him like a safe dropped from the top of a building. Being responsible for her heart…he couldn't. He'd fail. Miserably and completely. Even thinking of her vulnerability in his hands now made his chest constrict.

But things hadn't worked out that way after all. Merina soldiered on, respecting his boundaries. He would have thought he'd be thrilled when she stopped hassling him about his "feelings."

In general, he didn't like to share. He didn't want to talk about things. He was better living in the present. Step 1, Step 2, Step 3…and on and on until the goal was reached. Along the way, Merina pulled information out of him. No. He'd offered. He'd wanted her to know about him. She was in his life, in his house…

In my heart.

She had a way of making him less mechanical and more open. Which was one of the reasons he asked her to do this with him in the first place. She was great with the press, with people in general. If anyone would believe the cold heart of the playboy had been won, Merina could convince them.

So either he was a great actor, or she was really convincing, or…

Or nothing.

He sure as fuck wasn't going there.

There was a light tap at the door, followed by Bobbie's voice. "Mr. Crane."

His skull pulsed and he closed his eyes against in pain. He'd asked his assistant not to use the intercom given that his brains kept trying to bust out of his cranium.

She poked her head through a crack in the door. "Did you need a change of clothing for tonight? You're due at the Van Heusen in an hour, and I wasn't sure if you're planning on going home first."

An hour? This day had vanished. He looked over the papers spread on his desk and the many pink notes from Bobbie with phone calls he'd yet to return.

"Uh, no. I'm…I'll clean up here and head straight over."

"Very well, sir." Bobbie nodded, then pulled the door shut.

Dread covered him like a heavy blanket.

Merina's parents were celebrating their anniversary at the Van Heusen hotel.

"You have to be there," Penelope had told him when he mentioned he was going to skip it. He'd thought it best to let Merina go alone and tell everyone he was at a work meeting. Faking for the press was one thing, but her family…

He wasn't that good of an actor.

When he'd argued with Penelope, she'd again insisted he go. "You're her husband. This is her parents' anniversary. It's a no-miss, Reese."

She was right, of course. He was tired of the women in his life being right.

Reese shut down his computer, the pressure behind his eyes making his teeth ache. In an hour he'd be standing in the Van Heusen's ballroom with Merina's parents. Two people who were in love and had been for years.

Reese hadn't told Merina the whole truth of what he and Mark had shared at that cookout. Yes, Mark had asked about the hotel and Reese's plans, saying, "Merina loves it so very much," but he'd also asked Reese not to hurt her.

"I'm not sure what's going on with the two of you," Mark had said, "but you should know my daughter has a tenderness about her that has been taken advantage of before. Don't hurt her, Reese."

Reese wasn't planning on hurting her, but he could see the potential there. Hurting her was staying with her. Letting her believe in him, expecting him to change and be the man she needed. His telling her she was temporary was to honor her father's request.

So tonight. He'd do this for her. He'd endure a family gathering, one guaranteed to remind him of his own fractured family—of his mother's loss—and he'd make sure Mark and Jolie saw that no matter what, Merina's wholeness was his priority.