I want You Deeper

Derek was missing.

Not just from Silicon Valley, where people were still speculating about his whereabouts, but from breakfast and lunch. April had taken his food to him, and Renee had let her. If he didn’t want to be around her, she certainly wasn’t going to push it.

“What happened last night?” April asked when she returned with the empty plate she’d gathered.

“We checked out the movie theater.” Renee shrugged. “Nothing eventful.”

Aside from coming this close to kissing. This time, she was sure of it. He’d looked down at her and the desire in his eyes had been impossible to miss. And she would have been perfectly fine with it…

Until today. The next day. She knew she would have regretted it. She had to keep herself emotionally removed from him. Otherwise, she’d lose sight of why she was here in the first place-to get the story.

“Where is he?”

Even as the question came out of her mouth, Renee knew she was fooling herself by saying she didn’t care. She wanted to know exactly where he’d been, and she wanted to know why he’d been there. Not that it was any of her business, of course. He was staying away because of something that had happened last night. Aside from her leaving suddenly after he’d made it clear he made lots of money, she wasn’t sure why that would be.

If April thought anything of Renee’s question, though, she didn’t show it. “He’s in the cockpit. Took over for Captain Jake when he went to bed. He just seems kind of grumpy.”

The comment took Renee by surprise. April had been nothing but Little Miss Sunshine since she’d met her. She seemed to always have a smile on her face. But as she mentioned Derek’s not-so-positive disposition, her expression changed to a frown.

“I called him a salesperson,” Renee said. “Maybe he’s mad about that.”

April sidled in next to Renee at the sink to start drying off the nonstick pans Renee was washing. “Why would he be mad about that? Isn’t that what he is?”

“He’s a sales executive,” Renee said, smiling.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess I could see that. I always hate it when someone calls me a waitress.”

“My bad. But now that I know, I won’t do it again.”

“You know.” April paused, looking behind her as though making sure no one had snuck in when they weren’t looking. “I don’t think it’s about the title itself. It’s the fact that you called him that.”

“What do you mean?”

Renee feared, even as she asked the question, that she knew exactly what April meant. But she wanted to hear the words. She didn’t want to want to hear the words, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

April leaned closer, speaking lowly so only Renee could hear. “I mean that he likes you. It’s pretty obvious. The way he looks at you… Well, let’s just say I hope someone looks at me like that someday.”

Despite her will to keep this professional, Renee found herself lighting up at the thought that Derek might be looking at her a certain way. But she couldn’t let April know that.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“So, you’re saying that he cares what I think of him,” Renee said. “I don’t think it’s romantic, but I guess I can see a guy wanting the people working for him to know his status.”

“Sure. Whatever you have to tell yourself.” April smiled as she set the pan on top of the towel, then turned to face Renee. Suddenly, Renee felt like she was being watched-studied, even. Was that how she looked at Derek?

If so, no wonder he wanted to escape to his movie theater.

“So, what’s the verdict?” April finally asked.

Wetting a washrag and adding a little soap, Renee shut the faucet off before beginning to scrub down the counters. She remembered enough from her days working in a restaurant kitchen to know safe food practices.

“On what?” Renee asked. She really didn’t want to discuss her love life right now. Maybe she should tell April she had a boyfriend back home or something.

“Are you taking the job?”

Relieved this wasn’t about Derek, Renee looked up at her. “I don’t know.”

“Because if you are, we have to take a test and get a license and it’s a whole thing. I thought maybe we could start studying. You know, in our free time after lunch every day.”

Renee couldn’t help but notice April wasn’t offering up her evenings. Captain Jake slept in the morning and afternoon, which gave April plenty of spare time. If she committed her after-dinner hours, though, she might be giving up some time she could spend following Jake around the boat.

“I’m just not sure yet,” Renee admitted.

Not that she wouldn’t want to learn a little more about what someone had to go through to be a chef on a superyacht. She was actually a little curious about that. But researching something for a story and spending hours studying to prepare for a licensing exam were two totally different time commitments.

And right now, her time had to be committed to putting together a story on Derek Hughes, missing billionaire.

“I’ll go get Derek’s dishes,” Renee announced suddenly, obviously catching April by surprise. Renee returned the dishcloth to the sink, neatly folded it across the ledge, then began walking toward the door.

“I would have done that,” April called out to Renee as she retreated.

But this wasn’t about the dishes. Derek could bring his own dishes back. If not, she could go retrieve them before dinner. It wasn’t like there weren’t a few hours to kill between now and then. But she wanted to kill those hours making progress on her story. Right now, she was at a loss about what to write.

Thanks to the maps posted all around this ship, Renee quickly tracked down the cockpit. She expected to find the typical type of area where captains hung out, with a big wheel and a bunch of gadgets that looked like an oversized car dashboard. But instead, she saw a long bank of computer monitors and no sign of a wheel, but that was through the glass behind where Derek sat. Once she was in the room, she saw that the wheel was down low, and he wasn’t even touching it.

“Hi,” she said as the door clicked closed behind her. The goal was to keep from startling him, but he still jumped a little before turning his chair around to face her. She’d braced herself for an expression of annoyance as he realized she was pestering him, but he didn’t look bothered at all. In fact, he smiled.

“Hi.”

Well, that was a good sign. Maybe it meant she didn’t have to apologize for whatever she’d done that had him hiding out in here all day.

“We were starting to worry about you,” she said.

That was the best way to test the waters. If something was bothering him, he’d either say it outright or shut down again.

“Why’s that?” he asked.

She hadn’t expected that question. She just shrugged. “You didn’t show up for breakfast or dinner. I thought we might have to put out a missing person report on you.”

That could have been the wrong thing to say. Again, she braced herself for a not-so-positive reaction. But again, he surprised her.

Smiling, he gestured behind him. “Have to keep an eye on things.”

“You sit here all day?”

“Why not? I enjoy it.”

“I thought sailboats sailed themselves.”

“They do, pretty much.” He turned and looked out the front window. Was it called a windshield on a boat? She had no idea. “We have to watch for things. Other boats, debris-”

“Icebergs.”

That was a joke. He seemed to get it, although he stalled for a second, looking around, before his smile returned.

“Icebergs. I suppose that would be an obstacle, yes.”

“I could keep an eye out for things if you need a break,” she offered.

Even as she made the offer, though, she wasn’t excited about the idea of sitting here, staring out a window. It seemed…extra dull. She wondered if she could bring her phone in here and work on her story while on lookout.

“There’s radar. I can step away.” He pointed to a screen that had a bunch of text and a graphic of a boat on it. “I just feel a little better keeping an eye out.”

She narrowed her eyes. He was lying. She could tell. He had radar keeping an eye on things so he didn’t have to sit here all day. He hadn’t come up here at all yesterday. Hadn’t even seem stressed about what lurked in the water ahead. Whatever technology he had on this boat, it kept lookout for him.

He just wanted to get away from her.

“I wanted to apologize for last night.”

The apology wasn’t planned, but she felt like she needed to clear the air. If calling him a salesperson bothered him that much, she wanted to get it out there that she really regretted it and it would never, ever happen again.

But the expression on his face told her she was off base. This had nothing to do with what she’d called him. He wasn’t offended by that, and if he was staying away, it was for another reason altogether.

She couldn’t believe how foolish she’d been. The moment they’d shared in his theater-the almost-kiss-that had been what had spooked him. It should have occurred to her before now. But maybe it wasn’t the almostkiss. Maybe it was her abrupt exit, which had nothing to do with her own issues with the kiss. It had everything to do with the way the conversation had derailed to him bragging about how much money fake-him made as a sales executive.

So, yeah. It was all just a big mess.

“Lunch was delicious,” Derek commented, and it was so out of place, it took her a few seconds to catch up. She’d served chicken salad with a side of cut-up fruit. Not exactly gourmet, but she’d accented it with slivers of orange. With fine dining, it was all in the presentation. A good chef, she’d learned from her research, could make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches look impressive.

“Thank you.”

Oh, wait. Was he dismissing her? He’d resumed looking out the window, and his empty lunch plate was sitting on the floor next to her feet. He’d set it down there like he was in a hotel and a staff member would just come by and pick it up.

To him, she was staff. That was it. She’d felt a bond with him, maybe because they’d met on the island before she technically worked for him. But it was a stark reminder of her position.

She’d be offended, but she needed that reminder, as well. He was the subject of a story she planned to write. Writing that story required getting to know him until she figured out her angle. But getting close to him for personal reasons was a bad, bad idea.

“See you at dinner,” she said.

Her tone was terse, professional, just as it should be. She picked up the plates and exited the room without another word.