Love on the Malecon (15 page)

She could see the edge of the pool and part
of the bar. In between, there was one of those oversized chess
boards where each person would have to lug the pieces around in
between moves. She loved chess. She admittedly hadn’t played in
years, but thought that it must be like riding a bike.

Just at that moment, Derek came up and put
his arms on either side of her, grabbing the railing around her to
lean in close. He kissed the back of her neck and they stood there
watching the view together.

“Wanna play chess?” she asked him.

“Sure. I warn you that I’m pretty good,” he
teased.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve played, but I’ll
put up a good fight,” she turned around to face him and kissed his
lips.

“Let’s go before we never leave this room.”
He grabbed her hand and they walked back inside.
“
I love
that dress on you. I’ll have to ask Maria where she bought it and
we’ll do some more shopping.”

Normally she would fight him on that idea,
but she was beginning to realize that a shopping spree probably
wouldn’t put a dent in his wallet. She grabbed her little purse and
they headed for the lobby. The huge chess board was set up close to
some tables. They settled down in one of them and a waiter came
over to bring some menus. He knew Derek and after they said their
hellos, he introduced her again as
“mi amor
, Nicole.” She
loved hearing him say that.

They ordered a variety of appetizers to munch
on while they played. As they waited for their drinks Nicole looked
around. The hotel was beautiful. There were palm trees everywhere
and an enormous pool wound all around the large patio. Everywhere
she looked, there was a different section. She saw a kid’s area
that had the feel of a splash pad and large waterfalls with coves
underneath for couples to steal kisses. There was a swim-up bar
with groups of people on barstools, laughing and taking shots while
they splashed in the water. Her favorite part may have been the bar
along the patio with swings attached at the overhang that served as
bar seats. She definitely wanted to try those out.

Their drinks arrived. Derek stuck with a beer
while she had a house cocktail that was a mixture of different
liquors and juices in a glass big enough to be a fishbowl. He
laughed at her attempts to pick it up and take a drink. Eventually,
she opted to lean over and leave it right where the waiter had set
it on the table.

They each chose a side on the oversized chess
board. It never occurred to Nicole that seeing the entire board
from above was a much better vantage point for the game. She
realized it was much harder to play from such a different angle and
she began to worry about her abilities. Luckily, she moved her
first pawn and realized they were much lighter than expected. The
pawns came up to about her knees and the larger pieces reached her
thighs. Of course, Derek was a shrewd chess player; he knew how to
assemble his players to keep her from advancing at all. Rather
quickly, it became clear that her only chance was to play
defense.

They laughed and talked while they played,
enjoying the appetizers between turns. The waiter had brought out
some quesadillas, little fish tacos, stuff jalapenos, and chips
with salsa and guacamole. Everything tasted marvelous. She
suggested they go for a run on the beach in the morning after all
of the fabulous food. At some point, Derek’s phone rang and she
could tell by the look on his face that it had to be Gael. They
both sat down at the table and he held her hand while he
answered.

Nicole tried not to eavesdrop on the short
conversation, even though it did concern her. She knew that he’d
fill her in afterwards. Smiling at him, she stood up to walk over
get a better view of the beach, where the hotel staff were setting
up for a wedding. She smiled, thinking about her writing. Back in
college, she never would have thought that she’d be writing for a
local magazine in the bridal section. But it turned out that she
loved writing about weddings. As she watched them set up the altar
and the chairs on the sand, she wondered what she would write about
this one.

There was a little woman adjusting all of the
bows tied to the back of the chairs and a tall, thin man that was
arranging the flowers along the altar. She wondered who was getting
married and what their love story was. Nicole always interviewed
the bride and groom along with some of the wedding party to get a
better feel for the couple. She could tell immediately if there was
an overbearing mother of the bride or if the families didn’t get
along. Of course those were never mentioned in her stories. With
all the drama of wedding planning, they should always be looked
back upon with wonderful memories. She remembered learning that
weddings are never perfect, but it could be considered a perfect
wedding if the bride and guests were never aware of the issues.

She wasn’t sure how long she had been
watching the scene set below her when she felt Derek’s arms curl
around her waist. She leaned her head back against his chest. After
only a week, she already knew his smell and the feeling of his
body.

“What did he say?” she asked blankly.

“Gael was able to interview the man. It was
Silvia’s cousin. He gave them any information possible to try and
stay out of jail. I will make sure that doesn’t happen,” he said
and kissed her head.

“What did he tell Gael?”

“She worked the night shift the other night
and when she figured we weren’t coming back to your room, she
realized that I took you to my place. She never liked that I
wouldn’t take her there.” He took a deep breath.
“
So she
called her cousin and paid him to wait for you. He told Gael that
she said to ‘scare you and rough you up a little bit.’ He obviously
thought he’d take it a step further.” He felt her head where it had
hit the wall.
“
It’s still swollen a bit. Does it hurt?”

“A little but it will heal,” she touched the
side of her face when she spoke.
“
This is tender.”

He turned her toward him and kissed it very
lightly.
“
I will make sure he doesn’t get off for this. I
don’t know if he’s done this before, but I’m worried he has a taste
for it now. Gael said that she was most likely hiding at her
friend’s house. He is going to continue tracking her down.” He saw
that she had been watching the set up for the wedding.
“
The
Samba does quite a few weddings, two or three a month.” She looked
up and saw that he had a concentrated look on his face. Like he was
trying to see specific details below that he couldn’t quite get
into focus.

“Maybe we’ll have a beach wedding one day,”
he said, almost as if he wasn’t talking to her, but rather
accidentally said it out loud what was in his head. She didn’t
respond, just squeezed him tight.

Did he say that thing about their beach wedding out
loud? He was pretty sure that he had but Nicole didn’t say
anything. He silently prayed to God that he hadn’t. He wanted to
think for a bit and he wanted Nicole to be able to relax.

“I scheduled you a massage,” he said to her
and kissed her head again.

She turned around to look at him.
“
But
you haven’t completely annihilated me in chess yet,” she smiled,
“
A massage sounds fabulous right now though.”

“Perfect. I’ll show you the spa. Get whatever
you’d like. You should become very familiar with the place. It’ll
be their job from now on to pamper you whenever you’d like it.”

“Do you enjoy spoiling me?” she teased
him.

“It’s becoming one of my favorite things.”
With one last kiss, he took her hand and they wandered toward the
spa.

He was hesitant to let her out of his sight.
Luckily, he hadn’t dated any of the women in the spa so that made
him feel better. A tall, slender woman named Irma took Nicole back
for her massage, assuring Derek that she would be in good hands.
The spa was the one place that he was not familiar with. Since he
never brought women to his hotels, he hadn’t had a reason to visit
the area. He preferred to run for relaxation, he never got into
massages for himself.

Derek paced the hallway outside of the spa
for the first ten minutes or so. He wanted to have his eyes on
Nicole or at least know that no suspicious-looking person was
wandering into the area. But he needed to get a grip, so he decided
to schedule their dinner for the night. The hotel usually only had
beachside candlelight dinners on the weekends, but he thought they
may make an exception for him. He called and talked with the
manager and got everything set.

Ultimately, Derek wanted Nicole to live like
he did, on the hotel properties with him. He knew that wasn’t fair
for him to ask for that, especially this early on. However, he was
ready to talk with her about the Maybe Boyfriend. Something had to
be done about him. This relationship was getting far too serious,
he hoped on both sides, to have someone waiting at home. From what
he could gather, Maybe Boyfriend hadn’t tried to contact her. Maybe
that meant they were already broken up in his head, but maybe
wasn’t good enough. A man would be crazy to want to break things
off with a woman like Nicole.

It took everything in him not to call Gael
again and ask for an update on the Silvia situation. The woman was
causing all kinds of problems. Derek knew that Gael should be
focused on the Chicago deal for their client and instead he was
tracking down this Little Bitch. (He laughed, remembering Nicole’s
name for her.) What new developments could have arisen in the past
hour or so? What if he couldn’t find her today? Should they stay in
Nuevo Vallarta? He needed to come up with a plan to keep Nicole
safe.

This Chicago deal was Gael’s thing but Derek
would still get an apartment out of it. If it weren’t for Nicole,
he may not ever visit the location. He really had had no urge to
return to the States before. Now, he thought he might spend a good
amount of time there.

For now, one idea would be to take her to
Cancun if he needed to give Gael a few days to track Silvia down.
He wasn’t ready to take Nicole back to the Paraíso with Sylvia
still out there. If the hotel company in Cancun ended up choosing
Chicago to expand, he thought Nicole should see the type of
property where she’d hopefully spend a lot of their time when he
was up there.

She already lived and worked downtown and he
hoped that she was planning on moving out on her own. Ideally, the
property would be up and running rather quickly and she could live
there indefinitely. He’d rent her a condo in the nicest building
until it was ready. He wasn’t sure she’d accept the offer, but he’d
figure out a way to make it happen. He would love for her to travel
with him until the Chicago location was open, but he knew she’d
worry about her job. Maybe she could take a leave of absence?

Another thought had crossed his mind while
watching the setup for the wedding with Nicole. He wanted to
discuss the idea with Gael first. He needed someone to tell him if
he’d lost his mind before he brought it up to her. For now, he knew
it was only fair to only ask for small changes in her life.

He sat down in a chair in the hallway and
decided to open his emails on his phone. He was normally more
focused on work than he had been in the past week. It dawned on him
that maybe he went looking for work every day to fill the time. He
had set everything up so that his money worked for him now. With
very few living expenses, his personal wealth grew with each year.
He was thinking about all twenty-seven locations that Stone
Hospitality had helped acquire and running through rough
calculations in his head. Most of his apartments could be rented as
either suites or super suites. If he put those back into rotation
at most of the properties, that would bring in quite a bit of
revenue.

Derek couldn’t believe how much he was ready
to change his lifestyle. He had always requested that his
apartments not be rented when he wasn’t there. He had personal
items in each one so that he never had to travel with a suitcase,
which didn’t allow for the space to be rented while he was away. He
wondered if he should keep a handful at his disposal. If he wanted
to travel to any of the properties with Nicole in the future, then
he could technically
“
rent” them as other guests did. It
would bring in far more revenue for those companies and he did get
a small percentage of that revenue.

Once this Silvia thing was figured out, he
wanted to schedule a meeting with Gael to talk about his interest
in Derek’s ideas for the company. Derek didn’t want to assume that
Gael would like a larger role than he had now. Maybe he would like
some of the property apartments as well. There was a lot to figure
out and decide.

Finally, Nicole walked out of the spa,
looking relaxed beyond belief. Her long, wavy hair was slicked back
from the oils used to massage her head. She came up and sat down on
his lap, throwing her arms around his neck.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him,
“
That
was so relaxing.”

“You can get a massage any time you’d like
one,” he told her sincerely,
“
I made us reservations on the
beach for dinner. What would you like to do before then? We have a
few hours.”

“Let’s sit on those swings by the bar. I’ve
always loved swings!”

He lifted her from his lap and they walked
out to the lobby of the hotel. There were a few guests sitting on
the lobby side of the bar and most of the bar seats were full on
the pool side. Luckily, the swings were open. Nicole ran over and
hopped on one like a little girl. She looked at him with a huge
smile and pushed herself off of the side of the bar so that she
could swing back.
“
This is awesome!” she laughed.