The Billionaire Bachelor (Billionaire Bad boys #1)(78)

Cell phone in hand, he squinted at the screen, fumbling through the menu to make sure the ringer was off.

"Click the button on the side," a woman's voice cut into the air.

"Thanks." He flipped it with his thumb and the screen showed it was on mute.

Wait. That voice wasn't Bobbie or the maid. He turned his head to find a slim redhead standing at the window, arms crossed over a pale pink suit.

"You missed the board of directors meeting today," Gwyneth said, taking a few steps toward the bed. When she reached his side, she sat on the edge of the mattress. "I told them you had the flu." Her nose wrinkled. "You smell awful. When is the last time you showered?"

"I don't know. What's today?"

She gave him a small smile.

"What are you doing here?" After she'd begged him back post-Twitterpocalypse and he had dropped the F-bomb and made her cry, he'd been certain he'd never see her again.

"Bobbie called me. She couldn't reach Tag or Alex," she said.

"Remind me to fire her." He slipped a second pillow behind his back and shoved a hand through his hair. "I was asking why you are here."

"I know what you meant. That love of my life thing?" she said, referring to the hashtag heard 'round the world. "That was an exaggeration. I was lonely. I was also mad because Hayes slept with his twenty-two-year-old assistant, Candi with an i. In retrospect, I should've taken a little time to myself before I sought you out."

"You think?"

"Then I saw Merina," she continued. "Everything I should have felt for you was reflected in her eyes." Her smile faded quickly. "Only my feelings were more about myself." Gwyneth shook her head softly, but not out of animosity, more like she was having a really late epiphany. Her eyes snapped over to him. "She loves you."

"Loved. Past tense." He pointed to his desk where an unopened envelope sat. "Divorce papers."

He hadn't opened the envelope yet. Why bother? Bobbie had brought them in three days ago…maybe four days at this point. Merina's lawyer-slash-best-friend had dropped them off. He was glad he didn't have to face Lorelei. She no doubt had an opinion about what he could do to himself using which body part, and he didn't want her to demonstrate.

"You must have really hurt her if she signed them." Gwyneth stood and moved to the kitchenette. She returned with a mug and Reese frowned.

"That had better be scotch." Steam curled from the mug, so probably not.

"You won't sleep tonight anyway. Drink it." Once again, she sat on the edge of the bed.

It smelled good, which was why he accepted the mug and took a sip.

"Still waiting to find out why you're really here," he said. "You aren't the most magnanimous person I know."

A wry smile lifted half her mouth. Gwyneth had been out of his life so long, everything about her felt foreign. Her face, her voice…that she cared enough about him to intervene so he wasn't fired.

"You mean am I here to try and convince you to take me back again?"

"Are you?"

"No." To her credit, she didn't look the least bit upset about the prospect of being turned down.

As miserable and heartbroken as he was, he still wouldn't say yes to Gwyneth. Once a cheater always a cheater. As Hayes had recently proven to her. At that thought, he couldn't help but offer his condolences.

"I'm sorry he hurt you. It sucks to be lied to." He didn't hate her. He didn't like her, but he didn't hate her. He'd take that as progress.

"Thanks." She sent a glance around his hotel room. "You know…I could see that Merina loved you when I saw her at your father's retirement party. What I didn't know until I arrived here to your pigsty was that you loved her back. This isn't like you."

True. He'd handled heartbreak in the past by staying busy. Losing Merina made his heartbreak over Gwyneth look insignificant. He opted not to be petty and point that out. More progress.

"The night I met her, I figured the marriage was a stunt. You needed to clean up your reputation to land CEO and she's such a fantastic businesswoman. The perfect candidate for a wife."

"It was a stunt." No need to hide it now. "Or…it was supposed to be a stunt."

"I should have known. You'd never choose someone like her without a purpose. Then you fell for her," Gwyneth added with a pitying shake of her head. "Since we split, your dates were temporary and easy to blow off. Merina is neither of those things."

"She was supposed to be both of those things," he said, remembering the moment of genius when he'd hatched his plan.

"Well." Gwyneth stood. "You're an idiot."

"On that, you and Merina see eye to eye."

"Take a shower." She stood and took his coffee. "I'm leaving."

"That's it? You came here to dole out your unsolicited advice and now you're leaving?"

"Make sure you shave. Women don't like too much scruff." She gestured to his face and he scowled.

"Merina does." He ran his fingers over his bristled jaw, remembering all the times she'd done the same. She once commented how she liked the scrape of his chin over the inside of her thighs. He smiled to himself.

Goddamn. He loved her so much even that smile hurt.

Gwyneth rinsed his mug in the sink as he stood and half hobbled across the room. She wasn't kidding. He needed a shower. He paused, hand on the bathroom door. "Hey."

She looked up.

"Hayes is a dick," he said. And because he would be downing scotch by the mouthful right now if Gwyneth hadn't barged in, he added, "Thank you."

A small nod. "You're welcome."

He took a fast but thorough shower, emerging into his suite with a towel around his waist and scrubbing his hair with another. Gwyneth was gone, his coffee mug upside down, drying on a dishtowel.

His lips quirked when he saw one of his dress shirts tossed over his desk. A Post-it note stuck to the collar read, "you faced your past, now go get your future." He slipped the shirt on, his smile falling the moment he spotted what was on his bed. The divorce papers.