I want You Deeper

Jeremy had a heck of a lot of soul-searching to do.

Mostly, it revolved around his apology. It had taken him back to that night that seemed like so long ago, even though it had only been six years. It was before his parents’ death, and everything before that event had been like a different lifetime.

That was what was bothering him so much as he exited his sister’s apartment and returned to his empty condo. He tried to sleep, but he mostly tossed and turned, finally drifting off as the sun began to rise. His alarm woke him a couple of hours later, reminding him he had a business to run.

And that business gave him a handy excuse to stay busy.

Jeremy skipped the coffee shop and went straight to work, for the first time not lured there by the promise of seeing Alyssa. He wasn’t avoiding her. They’d had a great time last night, laughing, eating, and watching mindless TV with his sister. But as the night had progressed, his thoughts had caught up with him.

Alyssa’s prom had been during his wild phase. He’d been determined to rebel against their father’s strict rules, and being away at college had helped with that. He’d gone so far off the rails, his grades had suffered, and his father had threatened to cut him off. In an ultimate act of rebellion, Jeremy told his father, over the phone, that he was dropping out of school, so he could just keep that tuition money.

Those had been the last words he’d ever spoken to his father. Four days later, his sister had called, sobbing, telling him their parents had been in a car accident on their way back from a weekend ski vacation. They were both gone.

“You’re a hard man to track down.”

Jeremy was so inside his head as he entered the lobby of his building, that he didn’t realize someone was speaking to him at first. He spun around to see that TV reporter from the cafe standing there. Renee, he believed her name was.

“Hi.” Jeremy looked around. No sign of a cameraperson. “You’re trying to track me down?”

His first thought was that this was about the cafe. Maybe she’d decided to do a follow-up story or something. But without a cameraperson, he wasn’t sure how she’d accomplish that.

She stepped toward him. “Yes. Can we go somewhere to talk?”

That was a strange request. Did she want to confide in him or something? Or was she…

“Sure,” he said, eager to get her out of the lobby as quickly as possible. “Let’s go up to my office.”

Data Industries didn’t have a conference room like TravTech’s, where everyone passing by could see in. But they did have a huge open-plan work area. He intended to keep her out there, where everyone could see. Mostly because the last thing he wanted was for it to get back to Alyssa that he’d been in his office alone with a woman who had gone to the trouble of tracking him down.

Jeremy made small talk while they waited for the elevator. “Thank you for the story on my sister’s cafe.”

Renee looked up at him, flashing a big smile. “Seems like it did well for her. We’ve been getting a lot of mentions on social media about it.”

“Yes, business has been pretty intense.”

He couldn’t give her full credit for that. After all, a certain Silicon Valley business owner had been bringing customers in before Renee showed up. But they’d stepped into the elevator by then, accompanied by a rapidly growing crowd of people. Talking business would keep rumors from spreading, he hoped.

“I have an idea for a series, and I was hoping you could help with that.”

Renee’s words took him by surprise. He looked over at her. She was facing forward as the numbers on the digital panel above the door ticked upward. He felt like a complete creep for thinking, even for a second, that she might be hitting on him. There was no denying she was a flirt-that had been clear at the cafe when she was officially working. But that didn’t mean she wanted anything more from him than help with whatever story she was planning. He breathed a sigh of relief.

They stepped out of the elevator and Renee followed him to the main door of Data Industries. Once he’d scanned in, he gestured toward a four-person workspace in the far corner. They could talk there without worrying about disturbing the people scattered around the various workspaces across the big, open room.

“Coffee?” he asked as she sat down.

“No, thanks.”

He really could go for another cup, but he didn’t want to make a big deal out of this whole thing. Maybe he could just push through and get her out of there so he could start work.

Before he’d even sat down, she jumped right into her pitch. “I want to do a feature on Silicon Valley billionaires. You can be the first one. But it means following you around for a few days. Do you own a yacht?”

They were venturing into uncomfortable territory here. He hated talking about money, and he certainly didn’t want some reporter putting him on display to the world.

“No.”

She looked surprised at that. “What about planes? Do you fly commercial?”

“Yep. Usually coach.” He didn’t mention that he’d flown first class on his return home to get the privacy he wanted. He usually flew coach.

“What about your house? Is it fairly opulent?”

That question threw him off. Opulent. He’d heard the word, and he was pretty sure he knew what she meant.

“I live in a condo close to here.” He shrugged. “I’m not home much.”

That seemed to perk her up a little. “You’re more of a traveler?”

“Not really. I spend a lot of time at my sister’s place, helping out at the cafe and such.”

He thought about working Alyssa into the conversation somehow but stopped himself. She was a reporter, and Alyssa worked for his sister. It would seem unprofessional if he mentioned they were dating.

Besides, were they dating? They’d kissed and had even been to a romantic restaurant together. He wanted to think they were dating, but Alyssa might not be on board with that.

He wanted to think they were dating.

The thought was a revelation to Jeremy. He’d known, deep down, that he was developing feelings for her that were romantic to the thousandth degree. But he hadn’t allowed himself to dwell there.

Until now.

“Are you single?”

Renee’s question yanked him from his thoughts, pulling him into the present moment. This time, he knew better than to assume she was about to hit on him. It was all too clear now that she was in this for professional gain only.

“Not really.”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

Her eyebrows rose. “Not really? What does that mean?”

“I’m not on the market,” he said, forcing a neutral expression to his face. “We’ll just leave it at that.”

“I was thinking maybe an ‘eligible billionaires of Silicon Valley’ series might be better. But that leaves you out, I guess. If you’re sure you’re not single.”

“I can give you some names.”

Even as he said the words, he was racking his brain for someone he could throw under the bus. Justin Travers seemed to be somewhat involved with Brooke, so he was out of the question.

He didn’t have to think too hard. Derek Hughes. He was successful and single, and women seemed to fall under a weird spell when he walked into the room. He was the very kind of billionaire Renee wanted.

“Have you ever heard of Derek Hughes?” Jeremy pulled his phone from his pocket and pulled up the web browser. A quick web search pulled up the name of Derek’s company. He held up his phone so Renee could see the business name on his screen.

“He’s not in tech?” Renee asked.

Yeah, he knew what the reporter was thinking. If she was doing a series on Silicon Valley billionaires, a guy who made his billions building superyachts probably wasn’t the best choice. But Derek would seriously make great TV. He could take her for a ride on his private jet, show her around his fifty-room mansion, or whatever else it was people with too much money did.

Renee pulled up the information on her phone, and then ooked up at looked “Thanks, but are you sure you don’t want to participate? It would be good publicity for your business.”

He shook his head, trying not to be as adamant about it as he was feeling. No way would being portrayed as the hottie of the month on some program help his business. That wasn’t his thing. He wasn’t sure it was even Derek’s thing, but as far as Jeremy was concerned, he didn’t fit anyway.

“I’m no longer an eligible bachelor.”

There. It was out. It was official. He’d never been surer of anything in his life. He was waiting this thing out to see where it went. There was no way he could even look at another woman right now. Somehow, seemingly overnight, he’d gone from not being interested in a relationship to being unable to think about anything but this incredible woman who had come back into his life.

He’d asked for Alyssa’s forgiveness for being such a jerk in the months before his parents’ accident. Now he just had to work on forgiving himself.