He'd vowed to never take a woman to bed more than once after Gwyneth destroyed everything between them. He'd talked himself into the idea that Merina was just a long one-night stand. But he'd shared things with her he'd never shared with one-night stands.
They were in his childhood home, for God's sake.
"Hey." She put her finger on his chin to turn his face to hers. When their eyes locked, he had a premonition. It had claws. Fangs. It was one word with seven letters.
FOREVER.
Forever was a myth. Always wasn't real. His future was CEO and eighty-hour weeks and living on the same floor of his office at Crane Hotel. What he had with Merina was…
Ah, fuck. He couldn't categorize it and he wasn't sure if it was because he didn't want to or because he already knew and didn't want to admit it.
"I do like you," she murmured, interrupting his hectic thoughts. "A lot."
His heart rapped a hectic beat. Try as he might to ignore it, he couldn't escape the idea that in the last ten seconds things between them had changed irrevocably.
He liked her a lot too. A whole damn lot.
She shifted from his chest to her pillow, and side by side, they looked up at the ceiling.
"Good night, Crane."
"Good night, Merina."
They didn't speak after that, but neither of them slept, either.
* * *
Waking in a bed that wasn't hers, and without Reese next to her, Merina lay on her back for a few minutes and thought through last night.
But instead of enjoying fantastic memories of the shower, followed by more fantastic memories of them in bed, she found herself replaying the tape of her awkward admission.
I like you. A lot.
Because they were in high school.
She wasn't in love with him, but if she were being honest with herself, it wouldn't take more than a nudge to get her there.
What started out as a business agreement had morphed into sex as a perk but had since—dare she say it—grown. Reese had become more than a one-dimensional character.
He was a dedicated son, a loving brother. He was funny and had moments of kindness. She'd been too blind to see it—too angry to see it.
Reese worked hard and was even harder on himself. There was a boy inside the man who missed his mother, and seeing his sadness had flayed her. Together, they'd built a marriage on a bargain, but the life they'd built around it was starting to look very real.
Was starting to feel very real.
After years of living at home—and a brief stint with Corbin in that same house—Merina had never lived on her own. And Reese, a workaholic who lived at his hotel, had never bothered to make a home. But since Merina moved into the mansion, they had turned it into a home. Together.
And last night, in Alex Crane's home where he'd raised his three boys through their tumultuous teenage years without his wife, Merina saw that this family was more than the headlines gave them credit for. They were, at least for a little while, her family too.
The board was being picky about who would acquire the role of CEO. They were holding it over Reese's head, which was abhorrent, but on the bright side, their indecision gave her time. Time to show her husband that not all women were like Gwyneth. Merina was after his heart, not what he could give her.
If he gave them a chance, a real one, maybe they'd have a shot at something more. But she was getting ahead of herself. They had a few more months to figure things out. She threw the covers off and climbed out of bed, the thought comforting.
Twenty minutes later, she'd put on the jeans and shirt Magda had packed her, slipped her feet into her tennis shoes, and did a quickie makeup-and-hair session. Because she was reasonably sure no one heard her moans from last night, except for Reese who had earned them, Merina walked downstairs with her head held high. The long staircase led to a living room that opened to the kitchen…where she saw two people.
Tag and Taylor.
Awkward, party of three.
The second to last step she took was to back away, but Taylor already spotted her. So did Tag. Their smiles didn't waver. Especially Taylor's, which slipped only briefly to mouth the words "thank you" to Merina.
Tag meandered to the door with his hand on Taylor's back, his voice low and rumbly and sounding as if he was breaking unpleasant news to her in the gentlest way possible.
Merina hoped she hadn't caused the girl any kind of undue heartache. The front door shut and before she could decide whether or not to scamper upstairs and avoid a conversation with Tag, Reese came in from outside, an empty coffee mug in his hand.
"Not even going to feed her breakfast?" he asked his brother. Then his eyes landed on her and heated to a distracting degree. "Morning."
"She's all right," Tag answered. He slid a knowing glance first at Reese, then back to her. "Merina, you're looking…refreshed."
He grinned and her cheeks grew hot.
Reese didn't hide his own smile as he crossed the room, rounded the counter, and refilled his mug. He placed the coffee in front of her and she stepped forward to grasp the handle.
"And sharing a mug? You two are adorable," Tag said, getting himself a glass of water.
"How do you know she's all right?" Merina asked, desperate for a subject change. She hoped Tag hadn't overheard her and Reese last night. Then again, how could he have overheard anything but what he and Taylor had been doing? "What if she's feeling used?"
"Trust me, Sis." Tag leaned his elbows on the counter in front of her. "She's going back to Berkeley in a few weeks. She doesn't want anything more than I gave her."
"Which was what, an STD?" Merina asked with a sweet smile.
Reese choked on a laugh.
"Hey, I am squeaky clean." Tag straightened. "Which I assume you would assume given the way you practically threw Taylor into my arms last night." A hoisted golden-brown eyebrow suggested Tag knew how things had gone down. Which meant Taylor probably, definitely did not feel used. "But enough about me. You two seem to be taking your roles as husband and wife seriously."
"Don't." Reese's single-word command was paired with a murderous glare. One Merina supported. Mainly because what Tag had said was dangerously close to the truth. The "roles" of husband and wife weren't like roles. They were better at being a couple than she could have imagined.