Her mind caught up in the love story she was currently writing in her head, Merina waited for him to announce that he and Rhona were running off to the Bahamas to tie the knot.
“Bob called me while I was jogging and told me the board is not interested in any new candidates for CEO.”
The room went silent. Reese, in sweats and a T-shirt, leaned one hand against the counter, the other white-knuckling his coffee mug.
“Congratulations, son. They’re naming you next week.”
Next week.
“Well done. To both of you,” Alex added, dipping his chin in Merina’s direction and pairing it with a wink.
She blinked as she tried to sort the feelings rushing through her. Dread paired with a visual of sand running through an hourglass. She’d thought she and Reese had time, but now that he was being named CEO, did that mean things between them were…over?
“Nice fucking work.” Tag broke the silence first, clapping his brother hard on the back.
Reese didn’t say anything for a few seconds, eyes staring unseeing at the floor in front of him. Then he smiled. Genuine and unfettered, joy burst from him and encompassed the room.
Merina wanted to wrap her arms around him and share in the moment, but she didn’t quite fit in the huddle of Crane men. This was their celebration.
In a fatherly show of affection, Alex cupped Reese’s face and bumped his forehead with his own. Tag’s laughter followed. Reese absolutely beamed.
Before Merina started feeling shut out completely, Reese shot that beaming smile over to her and held her eyes for a very long time.
She returned it, feeling included and, despite the feeling of running out of time, proud.
Chapter 16
CRANE HOTELS NAMES REESE CRANE CEO.
The headline in the Tribune wasn’t as splashy as what the gossip rags had been writing about him, but that large black print may well have been a golden road leading straight to heaven.
The board had taken nearly as long to announce as it took them to reach the damn decision. It’d been two weeks since his father told him the news and the article appeared in the paper just today.
He’d been desperate when he’d concocted the idea of marrying Merina. Fully prepared to prove to the board he could settle down and be viewed as responsible enough to run the company he’d already been running at his father’s side for years. Six months, and he knew he could convince them.
But it didn’t take that long.
Because he and Merina delivered Oscar-worthy performances? Or because of something much scarier: They were no longer performing.
The article was full of encouraging phrases like Alex Crane’s eldest son was born for this and Naysayers will now be forced to take a backseat and watch, and Reese’s personal favorite, a unanimous decision by the board of directors. Still, the win felt bittersweet. Even paired with an ass-kissing quote by Frank and Lilith praising Reese’s hard work, which he couldn’t have imagined her saying unless she had a loaded gun to her head.
The bittersweet part was that he’d arrived at CEO sooner than expected, and it was the right thing to do to sign over the hotel to Merina and quietly divorce. The board may have taken their sweet time announcing who was CEO, and Reese knew why. They didn’t want a ripple of doubt on the surface of their decision. They were a careful and proud bunch, representing stockholders who were twitchy. A divorce, especially a quiet one, would not throw them into a search for Reese’s replacement. Hell, at this point, Reese doubted anything short of a scandal involving him and a few farm animals would threaten his position.
But he didn’t want a divorce. Not yet. He preferred to stick to the original plan—the six-month plan. His being appointed to CEO was accelerated, yes, but no reason to cut things short prematurely with Merina.
Because you aren’t ready to let her go.
He frowned down at the article that should have him popping champagne.
He didn’t like the feeling uncertain. Merina staying had never been permanent—not for her, not for him. He had everything he wanted…everything he needed.
His phone pinged, reminding him of a lunch with the president of Strategies, who wanted to upgrade every keycard entry in every Crane Hotel across the country. It was Reese’s first big decision as head of this company, and despite the potentially bland content—keycards didn’t exactly turn him on—he was jazzed.
This was it.
Everything he’d wanted for nearly a decade, here for the execution. He turned his focus to his upcoming meeting and mentally curbed thoughts of Merina and his marriage. This was his destiny. His legacy.
He was going to nail it.
* * *
“Mr. Crane, Mrs. Crane is here,” came Bobbie’s voice over the intercom.
Reese blinked up from the e-mail he was typing to check the time at the top of the screen. It was eight? At night? The day had flown and for much of it, he’d been in the zone. Busy, handling his current position as well as delegating work since they hadn’t yet found anyone to take over his former position as COO.
“You don’t have to announce she’s here, Bobbie. Just let her in.” Good Lord. That woman was a robot.
“Yes, sir.”
A few seconds later, Merina swept in looking fresh and beautiful in a deep purple dress and tall, tall shoes. Since he hadn’t dropped her at work this morning, he hadn’t seen what she was wearing. So infatuated with the cut of the dress and curve of her hips, he noticed belatedly, that she was carrying a very large frame.
“To what do I owe this honor?” He stood and came out from behind his desk.
“For your trophy room.” She flipped the frame around. It was the newspaper article. He grinned like an idiot.
“I don’t have a trophy room.” He accepted the frame, his eyes perusing the article there. The article he’d unabashedly read five times and stopped short of highlighting his favorite parts.
“Start one,” she said.
He put the frame on his desk and swept Merina into his arms. She slipped her hands around his neck and tilted her head, her blond hair sweeping off her face.
“We did it,” she said, her voice tender.
We. He and Merina had been a team, still were a team. This was what had been missing since he spotted the article this morning. He’d yet to share it with Merina.
Now he felt…whole.
“Yeah, we did.” He kissed her. Hard yet soft, loving the way she clung to him and pressed her body against his. Loving that she’d come down here, hefting a frame in those high-heeled shoes of hers, to deliver his gift. She didn’t have it sent. She hadn’t waited until he arrived home. She brought it up here with her own two hands.
Hands now resting on the back of his neck while he tasted her mouth. With a deep intake of breath, he slanted his head the other way and accepted her tongue, sliding his palms from her back to her front where he cupped a breast, then shaped her ribs and hips with his hands.
She hummed in the back of her throat and only then did he pull away to look her in the eyes.
“I guess you like it?” she asked. Her lips were slightly pink from sparring with his five o’clock shadow.
“You’re very hands-on.”
She slid those hands to his chest. “Which you have enjoyed many times.”
Not what he meant, but he let her have the innuendo. What he’d implied was that she cared. About her hotel. About her parents. About people in general. About his accomplishments. She cared…about him. He cupped her hands in one of his and trapped them against his heart.
He cared about her, too, but there wasn’t a safe place to lay those words. Nowhere to store them considering he and Merina were nearly at the finish line.
“Don’t go mushy on me, Crane.” Her smile shook at the edges, possibly concerned he might say some of the words she’d seen reflected in his eyes.
There was a safe space for them, and it started and ended with sex. He’d stick to the program, as requested. For both their sak
es.
“Not capable of mush,” he said, then further demonstrated by bending at the knees and sliding one hand beneath her skirt. “Tell me, Merina. Have you ever harbored a fantasy about having sex with the CEO of Crane Hotels in his office?”
She rolled her eyes but her face colored. If she hadn’t thought of it before, she was definitely thinking about it now. Better than her trying to guess what he’d been thinking—which was that regardless of a contract or a wedding band, he liked the idea of sharing things with her. Drinks, dinners, and sex were givens, but smiles and jokes and conversation had been added to the mix.
He liked them all. He molded his hands along her bare thigh and over the silky material of her panties. “Are they purple?” he asked with a groan.
She had a proclivity to match her underwear to her outfit.
“They are.” Her fingernails raked through his hair, and much as he hated to do it, he moved away from her to punch a button on his phone. “Bobbie, go home.”
“Yes, sir,” came her reply.
“I assumed we’d celebrate more formally, but this works too.” Merina’s eyebrows rose in challenge when he returned to her.
“We should do what we do best, don’t you think?”
“I do.” She reached behind her back and he listened to the snick-snick of the zipper as she slowly drew it down her back. He watched hungrily as the front of her dress loosened at her breasts. Seconds later, she was pulling it from her shoulders and dropping it to the floor. His eyes were glued to the purple bra shoving her breasts together, perfectly contrasting the bright orange and yellow flames licking the end of her arrow tattoo.
“Tell me,” she said, her voice a seductive purr. “Are you the one with the fantasy of having sex as CEO of Crane Hotels?” She took a bold step toward him.
“Definitely.” He caught her hips.
“I won’t ask if you’ve ever had sex in this office because I don’t want to know. I could still be your first as the man in charge, which counts for something.”
“It’s a first on both counts.” He could tell by her relaxed expression she liked being his first. “You’re a lot of firsts for me, Merina.” He unclasped her bra. “My first hostile takeover.” Her eyelids narrowed, so he added, “My first wife.” He dragged the bra off her arms, sliding his fingertips along her skin and watching as her nipples pebbled in the cool air. “My first—”
She caught his mouth to stop his words and he was glad, because he wasn’t sure what would have followed those words. Soon there was pulling and tugging, unbuttoning and unzipping. He closed his lips over her breast as she stroked him into a fevered frenzy.
Whatever happened between them, he’d forever have this memory. Pain shot through his heart. He didn’t like thinking of her as a memory. She was his for now, and that’s where he’d stay.
If they were creating a memory, he’d create one she wouldn’t soon forget. He spun her so she faced the windows. Mirrored, no one was seeing in, but she never brought it up. Either she trusted him or simply didn’t care if anyone looked. Both of those worked for him.
“Beautiful,” he murmured against her ear, watching as he cupped her breasts in the reflection. She arched seductively. “And mine.”
Her eyes opened and clashed with his. Night had fallen and dots of light from neighboring office windows created a faux sea of stars. They stood at his desk, bared completely.
He put a kiss on her shoulder, then bent to retrieve a condom from his wallet.
“Hurry,” came her plea.
“Moving as fast as I can, honey.” He felt her pain. He wasn’t drawing out the anticipation of any longer. They needed this—needed to celebrate how far they’d come.
Hell. He needed her, period.
She bent, hands on top of his desk, ass in the air. He reached for her hips, the tip of his cock stroking her slick folds. She was wet and ready.
He traced the delicate line of her back with his fingertips. Her hair fell over smooth shoulders when she lifted her chin. He memorized her like this—eyes closed, elbows on the desk, breasts full. She opened her eyes and her smoky, fuzzy twin had matching lust in her eyes.
Tilting his hips, he entered her and a sharp shout of “yes” left her lips.
“Tell me what you need.” He gripped her tightly, unwilling to let her give him more before taking what she came for.
“This,” she said. He slid into her again. “You.”
He repeated the movement, hands wrapped around her hips as he drove her back against his thighs again.
“You,” she gasped.
She needed him. Those words wound around and tickled a part of him he was desperately trying to ignore. The part of him that knew he wasn’t what Merina should need.
She grasped his hand when he slowed down, and issued another command.
“Harder, Reese.” Her reflection smiled. “I need you to give it to me harder.”
That, he could oblige. Holding her, he pounded them both into oblivion, his mind buried under the sensation of her tight warmth and the sweet sounds of her release. She was shouting now, his name, the word yes and oh God and a please thrown in for good measure. If he could have gotten his tongue to work, he’d have shouted with her.
Merina knocked a stapler and the contents of his inbox to the floor, throwing her head to the side in a gorgeous display of ecstasy. One that accompanied her inner muscles spasming. Reese was caught, trapped there within her. As she took her orgasm, she drew his from him.
He came hard, so hard he had to bend over her to rest a hand on the desk, the other cupping her ass as he finished with a few final pumps. Chin on her back, he lightly scraped her flesh with his teeth.
She sighed, contented.
For several minutes the only sound in the room was hectic breathing. Until Merina cut in with that droll, joking tone of hers. “Remind me to bring you gifts more often.”
He drew out of her, slowly, and discarded the condom in the wastebasket under his desk. That ought to be fun for the cleaning staff. Merina began collecting her clothes from the floor.
“Going somewhere?” He took the panties and bra from her hands and threw them on his desk.
“I was going to get dressed so we could go home.”
“Soon.” He lifted her into his arms, his own words curling around his heart like smoke. Just as delicate. Just as impermanent.
He carried her to the leather couch on the opposite side of the room and pulled her onto his lap.
“What’s this?” She sat prettily across his legs, her arms looped around his neck.
He stroked the shape of her tattoo and watched goose bumps light her skin. So sensitive. So soft. So strong. Because it took a powerful person to be this soft yet assert herself as Merina had. And she was coming home with him.
A man who hadn’t gone home in years.
He held her breast, stroking her nipple lightly with one thumb. When she shuddered, he kissed her. Softly, slowly, silently thanking her for bringing him to this point. Then he said it aloud.
“Thank you.”
A bemused expression, then, “You’re thanking me for sex?”
“No, smart-ass,” he said, and that earned him the cocksure tilt of her mouth. “I’m being sincere. For a change.” Her smile turned to a cute laugh. He gave her a brief kiss. “Thank you for doing this…whole thing.”
“Oh.” Her fingers twined in his hair.
“I held the VH over your head because I needed this,” he admitted. “I needed you…” His throat grew tight when those words came out, and he had to swallow and force the rest. “I needed you, Merina. I’ve wanted CEO for as long as I can remember. Crane Hotels is in my blood. This company is my lifeline, my legacy. If Crane Hotels had gone to someone else…” He shook his head. “It’s my worst nightmare.”
His admission had left him feeling bare, ironic considering he was wearing zero articles of clothing. Merina gave his words room to linger, not speaking for a few moments.
“
I used to see Crane Hotels as big and impersonal. Cold without personality. Like you.”
“Ouch.” He winced.
“I was wrong about you. About this hotel.” Her lips pursed in humility as she glanced around the room. “You love this place the way I love the Van Heusen. It shows in the way you traded your life to live here. To oversee every part. To put yourself on the line and do whatever it took for CEO.” She stroked his hair again. “You weren’t going to let it go without a fight.”
Just like she’d done for her hotel. Another thing they had in common.
She palmed his cheek. “And you’re welcome.”
He accepted another kiss and sank down onto the couch, comfortable with her on top of him.
“Was it all it was cracked up to be?” he asked as her hands wandered over his chest and down his torso.
“Sex with the CEO?” She palmed his erection and his mouth fell open. “Better than I imagined.”
Like everything with her. Merina was better than he’d ever imagined. Better at handling his ex. Better at taking things in stride. Better at knowing what he needed—knowing when to forgive him.
Soon, her kisses turned hungry and his hands wandered to the space between her legs. Minutes after that, she was under him and he driving into her once again.
Her eyes on his, he lost himself in their amber depths, thanking her with more than just his words. With nothing to prove and nothing between them but a thin layer of latex, Reese took his time. Her orgasm came in gentle waves, her eyebrows pinching over her nose and her swollen mouth open and saying his name.
“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.
The Billionaire Bachelor (Billionaire Bad Boys Book 1) Page 24
