Love on the Malecon (4 page)

Derek had been looking into ideas in South
Beach, San Diego, Chicago, and Houston. His gut kept taking him
back to Chicago but he had to admit that he was concerned that
Nicole might be affecting his thinking right now. The hotel concept
was a spa getaway style. The idea seemed initially far-fetched in
Cancun but that’s exactly what made it work. It was the only one of
its kind in the area. Derek was able to drop South Beach and San
Diego off the list rather quickly by following the same formula.
With it narrowed down to Chicago and Houston, there were still many
things to consider. He stayed focused on reviewing land and
building options in both cities until his stomach wouldn’t let him
concentrate any longer. Work never failed him and it didn’t seem
long before he had made it through the entire morning.

Derek rummaged through his kitchen, looking
for something to eat, and came up empty. It was a gorgeous day
outside, so he decided to walk down to one of his favorite
restaurants. As he walked along the main road through the Romantic
Zone in Vallarta, he kept catching himself noticing all the dresses
in the endless store windows on the way. He could picture each one
on Nicole. Derek realized that he was already noticing which color
and style would suit her best.

He stopped at the restaurant and grabbed a
table outside. Since he was a regular, the hostess came out with
his usual beer and chips and took his order. She was a cute little
thing, always extra friendly with Derek. Today he didn’t even take
a second glance other than to say hello.

He munched on his chips and tried to think
about work until his phone rang. Gael again. There was an
opportunity in Chicago that seemed to magically pop up. A hotel in
a great location was coming up for sale, extremely hush-hush. Derek
had initially made the bulk of his money buying land and sitting on
it for at least a year. He’d sell for a nice profit when a hotel
company was looking for the right site. Over the years he began
working with some of those same companies to find locations when
they wanted to expand. He charged a rather large finder’s fee and
would still negotiate in the same
“
living quarters and
percentage of revenue” deal.

Derek had been concerned all morning that his
gut was telling him Chicago purely because of Nicole, but this had
to be a sign.
“
Barring any unforeseen issues,” he told Gael,
“
Chicago it is.”

“Should I gas up the jet?” Gael inquired.

With only thoughts of Nicole in his head,
Derek replied,
“
For yourself. I want you to handle the
initial meeting.” There was a momentary silence, so he continued,
“
You can handle this.” It was the first time in their career
together that Derek would take a step back and let Gael take the
reins. He wasn’t about to lose a minute in Vallarta with
Nicole.

“I appreciate the faith,” Gael responded,
“
I won’t let you down.”

“I’ll be there with you in a few weeks to
finalize everything.” Derek smiled, thinking of a chance to see
Nicole again.
“
I have someone I’d like to visit while I’m
there.”

Just as he ended the call he heard,
“
What has you smiling?” in a voice he would recognize for
the rest of his life. He looked up and Nicole was sitting down at
his table.

“A business opportunity. In Chicago of all
places,” Derek admitted. He was a bit worried that she would think
he went looking for a meeting in her city, so he added,
“
I’m
sending my second-in-command there in the next few days to start
some negotiations.”

“How great would it be if you’d get to have
some business trips there?” she said, with genuine excitement in
her voice.

“I’d bet I could find some reasons to stay
longer,” he teased, raising his eyebrow at her.

She smiled at him while she imagined him in
her apartment. Not sure how to react she changed the subject.

“I walked out of that store next door and saw
you sitting here.”

“Well, I’m glad you came over. Would you like
some food? The fish tacos here are excellent. They should be here
any minute.” he offered.

“Sounds perfect! Are you done with work for
the day?”

“For you, love, of course I am.” He wanted to
make the most of his short time with her and figured playing hard
to get wouldn’t be the smart move.

Nicole blushed a bit, but it was covered up
by the waiter arriving with their lunch. She asked him to bring her
what Derek was drinking and picked up a taco. Derek loved how
comfortable they already felt together. As he watched her, flashes
of his dreams from the past two nights flooded his mind. He hoped
their dinner would go well and that he’d be invited back to her
room afterwards. He could even picture her in his apartment,
something he had never done with any other woman. As crazily as he
had been thinking, he was still going to try to keep that rule in
place. He wasn’t entirely sure why that was so important to him.
But it was a rule he had never broken before.

God, he loved her laugh. He was telling her a
random story and the more she laughed, the more he realized that he
wanted to take her to a comedy club the first chance he got. He
wasn’t quite sure there was one in Puerto Vallarta. He planned to
know by the end of the day.

When they finished their beers, Derek asked
if she’d like to continue shopping.

“Do you want to come with me? I have a few on
my list that my dad told me about, but I’m sure you know some great
new places.” It was just what he wanted to hear. Derek was hoping
he could get her to try on a few of those dresses he had seen. He
was prepared to buy her entire stores if it made her smile.

They wandered into the first place they came
to. It was packed to the rim with Mexican glassware. Luckily, the
aisles were tiny and he enjoyed the excuse to move in extra close
to her. He stood behind her and she fit perfectly in his chest as
they looked at different trinkets. All of a sudden, she gasped.

“Look at these!” she picked up one of the
glasses from a set of tequila bottle and shot glasses. It was thick
and swirled with gorgeous blues and greens. As she examined it, she
mused,
“
It would always remind me of our first drink
together- shots of tequila.”

As she smiled at him, Derek looked at the
store clerk,
“
Wrap this up for us,
por favor
.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” she
protested.

“You’re right, it’s the perfect reminder of
our first drink. Who knows, maybe we’ll have a shot from it on all
of our anniversaries.” Wait, what was he saying? Anniversaries?
Nicole just smiled at him and kept looking at the glass. He
couldn’t figure out what was going through her mind. That was a
ridiculous thing to say and she didn’t seem freaked out at all. Was
she going just as crazy as he was? At least they’d be in good
company together.

They wandered in and out of different stores
on their way towards the Malecon. She let him buy her a few summer
dresses. As they passed the flea market, the store attendants
became more and more aggressive for their patronage. Derek began
holding Nicole’s hand and by the fourth or fifth stall, he had his
arm protectively around her. Though he had always found the
salesmen’s incessant hounding rather annoying, this was the first
time it bordered on harassment. When one man grabbed Nicole’s arm
to stop her, Derek almost ripped it off. She seemed a bit surprised
by his reaction, but thankful. He could tell that she didn’t want
the man touching her either.

“Thanks,” she said as they walked off to the
sound of the man yelling at them in Spanish.

“Anytime, love. No one should ever touch a
woman without her consent even if it was just to get you to shop in
his store.”

He gave her quick squeeze and he loved how
she leaned her head against his shoulder as they continued walking.
Giving her a quick kiss on the head, he led them toward a makeshift
bar just off the street. It was a little outdoor restaurant he
loved, with tables that led all the way up into the sand and
stopped just as the beach chairs began. He could tell Nicole liked
it by the way her face lit up when she realized where they were
going.

“This place is great,” she said,
“
Are
we stopping for a beer?”

“It’s one of my favorites,” he told her,
“
It may have been one of your father’s as well. It’s been
here forever, though the name has changed a few dozen times as
different families run it.”

“I would bet Dad liked it,” she responded,
“
Look at that amazing view of the water.” The sky was
painted with a beautiful mixture of colors. And as the sun crept
closer to the ocean, it sparkled as if a layer of diamonds had
settled on top of the water. The people on the beach were black
silhouettes as they lounged after a day in the sun.

He sat down on a barstool and, without
another thought, decided this could be the perfect place for a
first kiss. He lightly pulled her body between his legs and put his
hands on her hips. She freely leaned her body in, dangerously
close, and his heart practically leapt from his chest.
“
What
are we doing?” she questioned, but he knew she was asking herself
more than him.

“Doing something I’ve wanted to since the
second I saw you,” was all he could say before he leaned his head
in the final few inches and took her mouth in his. He was too far
gone to test the waters with a soft kiss. So he grabbed the back of
her neck and parted her lips to explore her mouth. Her eagerness
met his as her arms came around him to deepen the kiss. He could
feel the weight of her body on him, her breasts pressed hard
against his chest. Neither of them could seem to get enough. Right
there in a sleepy little bar on the beach, they were exploring each
other with an intensity that could easily grow out of control. With
that realization, he forced himself to slow his pace. He savored
one last sweet taste and leaned back to look at her.

“Wow,” she said, breathless.

“Wow, as in…as good as the quesadillas?” he
raised his eyebrow and smirked.

“Hmm, that’s quite a toss-up,” she joked
before adding,
“
It was far better than I had imagined.”

“I’m glad you were imagining me, love. You
had better have a seat or we may be skipping dinner all together.”
She laughed as she stepped away and sat down next to him. The
bartender, who had seemed to be giving them a bit of privacy, came
over to offer them some drinks.

Stopping for a quick shot or beer and quickly
moving on was one of his favorite ways to spend time. They each
took their shot of tequila and swung back some beer.
“
Tell
me something about your father,” he said to Nicole as she looked
out over the ocean.

“He was amazing. I’m sure taking care of a
daughter all by himself must have been hard, but I never heard him
complain. He put his career goals on hold until I was old enough
and he could travel again.”

“What did he do?”

“He ended up practically running a company
that did the computer systems for hotels and resorts.”

Derek was taken a bit by surprise. He never
worked closely with that part of the business, but it was still the
same industry. He knew enough to be dangerous when it came to the
computer systems in the hotels. He could run reports and luckily
there were only a few major companies that seemed to have a
majority of the business worldwide. What if her father had worked
for one of them? What if he had been visiting one of Derek’s
properties and their paths had crossed? So many scenarios flooded
his head. Trying to seem casual, he asked,
“
What company did
he work for?”

“POS International,” she replied. He knew
exactly who they were, but he wasn’t sure how to tell her that just
yet. He was trying to stay present in the conversation and think
over the past decade of people he may have met. He was pretty good
with names. Bill James, though, wasn’t ringing any bells at the
moment.

Luckily, Nicole went on,
“
He oversaw
the installation and training departments for the entire company.
Once I was out of college, he felt comfortable traveling and shot
right to the top of his company. He spent most of his time
traveling around to different resorts and doing quality control
visits. He was really smart, though you couldn’t always tell by
looking at him. He’d show up to meetings in jeans and a t-shirt and
no one would take him seriously. They soon learned to though.”

She was proud of him. He could see it in her
eyes. He remembered from their first conversation that she was a
writer for a magazine, but not much more than that. What was the
name of the magazine again?
“
Tell me more about what you
write,” he suggested. Normally he asked few questions about what a
woman did so that it didn’t lead more into his work. He had the
means to spoil each and every woman on the beach in Puerto
Vallarta, yet he had always been too guarded to do that. He kept
his success hidden. He had created so much for himself, but had
never really been able to share it with someone. His company owned
a private jet and his only travel companion so far was Gael.

“Oh,
Chicago Home Magazine
?” Nicole
said, rather unenthusiastically,
“
I write for a column about
weddings, the who’s who of Chicago mostly.”

“You don’t like it?”

“I love weddings honestly, that part is
great. Weddings, planning especially, can be hectic and horrible. I
get to write about the beautiful result of all that suffering. It’s
the magazine itself I’m getting sick of. My boss is kind of a jerk
and I’m over it. But bills gotta get paid, right?” She winked at
him and took another drink of her beer.