Love on the Malecon (6 page)

He slipped off her underwear, lingering
slowly down her legs as he pulled them off. When he came back to
kiss her again, he was completely on top of her. She wrapped her
legs around his back, ready to take him all in. He thrust slowly
inside of her and kept the rhythm at a passionate pace. She grabbed
onto each of his biceps and her mind went completely blank. She had
never felt this much chemistry with someone, especially the first
time.

He knew exactly what to do to please her.
When he increased the speed, it didn’t take long to take her over
the edge. Every muscle in her body contracted and released and she
felt pleasure over her entire body as she reached orgasm. Just as
it began to subside, he knew what to do in order to make it happen
again. Over and over, he pushed her body to the limit. Finally, he
pulled out, making sure not to cum inside of her. She was glad to
be on birth control, realizing just then that they hadn’t even
talked about it.

Derek reached for the shirt he had been
wearing and quickly cleaned them both up. He laid back down and
cradled her head in the crook of his arm. They rested quietly for a
few minutes, enjoying the moment. He traced his finger up and down
her body and she stretched her fingers in the hair on his chest.
She felt more peaceful than she ever had before. All in an instant
she didn’t want to think about leaving him in two weeks. She closed
her eyes and hoped that, for now, he would stay the night.

When he woke up, Derek realized that he and Nicole
had barely moved the entire night. She was still curled up with her
head resting on his shoulder. Her leg had crept higher up on top of
him and his hand was holding her thigh. It was early. He craned his
neck to see the watch on the wrist that was underneath Nicole-
6:30am. He had a breakfast meeting with Gael, who had flown to
Chicago the day before. He knew from the call last night that the
trip had gone well and he was looking forward to hearing about the
details.

He looked down at Nicole’s body sprawled over
him. He couldn’t imagine her not being there every morning. Having
a connection to Chicago was important to him now. He wouldn’t push
through this deal unless it was perfect for all involved, but he
realized he was considering buying a place there if it didn’t. This
would be the first time he’d have a residence in the States since
he was twenty-five. Nicole was worth it.

She stirred when Derek slid himself from the
bed.

“Good morning,” she yawned to him as he
wandered into the bathroom.

“Good morning, love,” he called back to her
from the bathroom.

“Are you leaving?” she asked in the cutest
voice he had ever heard.

He realized he was at a crossroads with
himself. He had never told a woman about his company. Silvia didn’t
even know the extent of it. She just thought he had ownership in
some hotels in Puerto and Nuevo Vallarta. She didn’t know about his
international business. Derek knew he didn’t want to lie to Nicole,
but wasn’t sure he was ready to open up about this either. He
decided the best thing to do was to explain who Gael was without
going into detail about his business.

“I have a meeting this morning. The man on
the phone last night is here as well and we need to meet for
breakfast.” That was honest, he thought.

“Oh, I assumed you were on vacation. Are you
here for work?” She wasn’t dumb, that he had already figured out.
He knew he had to give her more and he was okay with that.

He walked back into the room and sat next to
her on the bed.
“
I am originally from Detroit. But, my
company does business in different areas. A few are here. I spend
time in all of the locations and have been here for the past few
months.” That would do. Trying to keep it light, he added,
“
You don’t think a guy from Detroit could have a tan like
this if he hadn’t been here awhile, did you?” He winked, leaning
over to kiss her.

“Must be nice,” she laughed. Then she flung
her arms around him and pulled him back into bed.
“
Do you
really have to go?” she asked and kissed him deeply. Somehow she
didn’t sound desperate. He figured maybe it was because he’d ask
her the same question if it were her getting ready to leave.

“I do. Would you like to meet me on the
Malecon afterwards?”

“Sure, I’ll go for a run first,” she said,
“
And I need to call my best friend and tell her where I am.”
She looked nervous. He wondered if she was thinking about the Maybe
Boyfriend as well. He’d love to get him on the phone and tell him
about his amazing time with Nicole last night. His blood began to
boil just thinking about this other guy. This was going to need to
get figured out soon. He knew he had a protective side, but this
was hovering dangerously close to insane jealously.

He kissed her one more time and pulled
himself from the bed.
“
I’ve gotta stop by my place and
change clothes. Good thing it’s acceptable to walk around shirtless
here.” He wouldn’t be putting his shirt back on after last night.
Nicole laughed as she remembered Derek using it to clean them
both.

“Where are you staying?” she asked.

Without even thinking he answered,
“
The Paraíso, next door.” In the past, he avoided the
question or had even lied about where he stayed. He knew he didn’t
want to take that route with Nicole; there wasn’t any harm in her
knowing.

“Oh good, you don’t have to go far shirtless.
I don’t want you making too many women faint from those pecs,” she
teased. God, he loved her personality. Not only was she gorgeous
and great in bed, she was smart, interesting, and funny. This woman
was the entire package. Once the Maybe Boyfriend was taken care of,
at least.

“They’ll survive,” he said as put his pants
on,
“
Meet me at 11:00am at the beach bar from yesterday.
Wear a bathing suit.” and he headed for the door.

He closed the door behind him and headed for
the staircase. As he came back into the lobby, he could see that
the office door was open. He made eye contact with Silvia.
“
Shit,” he whispered. She looked pissed. Of course the fact
that he was shirtless wasn’t going to help the situation. He hoped
she’d stay in the office and fester about it rather than come out
and make a scene in front of the entire hotel. But she stood up, so
he cracked his neck and braced for the latter.

Silvia was small but she was tough. He had
seen her temper on occasion. She stormed over to him and hit his
arm.
“
What do you think you’re doing?”

“Silvia, this isn’t the place.”

“I don’t care,
pendejo
!” He lifted an
eyebrow at her, knowing she had just called him an asshole.
“
It was that blond bitch, wasn’t it? I heard you two hung
out for hours the other day, even after I left. Didn’t waste any
time, did you?”

He realized this was going to be a mess. He
couldn’t care less what she said to him. But was she stupid enough
to say something to Nicole? She was still a paying customer. He
hadn’t thought to tell Nicole about Silvia and now he wished he
had. What would Nicole think if Silvia found her before he had a
chance to explain? He contemplated going back up to the room
immediately, then figured he’d try to talk to Silvia first.

“We aren’t together anymore,” he told her,
“
I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“I know about your little rule, you
idiota
,” she yelled.

“Well, I broke it,” was all he could think to
say. He didn’t have time for this shit. He needed to get changed to
meet Gael, so he took his phone out of his pocket and called the
general manager. He could hear Silvia going on in a mixture of
English and Spanish, but did his best to tune her out.

“Hi, Victor, it’s Derek…There is a guest
here. I want to make sure that Silvia has absolutely no contact
with her. Her job depends on it. Yes, she’s the one…yes, I know you
told me this would happen…
gracias
.”

He shoved the phone back in his pocket. He
looked down at Silvia, trying to show her that he was not kidding.
“
You leave her alone. You do not speak to her. Your job
depends on it,” he repeated. He waited for a response, but she just
turned around, stomped back into the office, and slammed the door
like a child throwing a fit.

Derek looked around and the girls behind the
counter were trying to pretend like they hadn’t seen the whole
thing. Derek glanced at the rest of the lobby; luckily it was too
early for any guests to be at the bar or tables. Maybe if guests
had been around, she wouldn’t have caused such a scene. He’d have
to remember to stay later from now on. That made him smile, in
spite of everything that just went down. Victor had warned him that
this would happen if he ever hooked up with a guest and Silvia
found out about it. He rubbed his head as he headed out to the
street. He hated the idea of causing any problems for Victor. He
should have never gone out with an employee.

He walked into his apartment and started the
shower before wandering back into the bedroom, stripping off his
remaining clothes. He laid back on the bed with his feet still
touching the floor. He stayed there for a few minutes, naked,
thinking about everything.

First he tried with Silvia and now he was
enamored with Nicole. Was he really tired of living this life?
Maybe he was looking for a little bit of normalcy and thought
having a girlfriend would help make that happen. So were his
feelings for Nicole genuine? Or did they come on so quickly because
of this new need to be with someone? That question scared the shit
out of him. He needed to figure it out quickly. He didn’t want to
hurt her.

“Fuck!” he yelled out to the empty apartment.
He stood up, wondering if he should go back up to explain
everything to Nicole. Gael could wait. He stood in the shower,
letting the hot water hit his face and run down his body as the
bathroom filled with steam. Last night was perfect; he didn’t want
to taint it so soon. Luckily, he had already explained to her that
he had been in Vallarta for a few months. This potential problem
wouldn’t come quite so out of left field now.

What would they do for the rest of her trip?
They wouldn’t be able to avoid Silvia. He wasn’t even going to try.
But he didn’t want their time together to be marred by Sylvia
either though. He couldn’t believe that the idea of them staying at
the Paraíso even entered his head, yet it did. However, with his
new worry about the root of his intense feelings for Nicole, he
didn’t think that was a good idea. Sure, he was already planning
trips to Chicago in his head. But they had only spent two days
together. He couldn’t get ahead of himself. He couldn’t believe how
many times he had said that to himself since he met Nicole. He had
protected his personal life this long and wasn’t prepared to share
that with her yet. But she was here for two weeks and every day got
closer to her getting on a plane back to Chicago.

He turned off the water and wrapped a towel
around his waist. He quickly grabbed some board shorts and a
t-shirt. He didn’t need to worry about what Gael thought. He was
only thinking of his time with Nicole on the beach. He threw on
sunglasses and flip-flops and grabbed his wallet and phone on the
way out the door.

Nicole stayed in bed for a while after Derek left,
thinking about the night before. Even in her wildest fantasies, she
had never experienced anything as sensual as making love to Derek
Stone. She could still smell him in the room and on her skin, could
still feel his hands all over her. Even when he wasn’t with her, he
was still haunting her. She remembered his eyes, such a dark brown
that the iris almost flowed right into the pupils, an amazing
combination of kindness and mystery.

There was some serious depth behind those
eyes. She couldn’t put her finger on it. She wasn’t worried about
baggage, but she felt there was a story there. Maybe it was the
writer in her. Through the years, she had interview hundreds of
people for her column and she had learned that some people were
very two-dimensional- what you see is what you get. It wasn’t that
they were boring or bad people, there just wasn’t much to dig up.
Derek, on the other hand, his eyes were like deep pools filled with
so much to uncover, layers of stories to discover what had turned
him into the man who made love to her. There was a connection
between them that she couldn’t deny. She couldn’t wait to get him
back in bed, a feeling she hadn’t had about Andrew maybe ever.

She knew she wanted to think about Andrew on
her run, so she turned her thoughts to her best friend Kate. She
had been in Mexico for three nights now and hadn’t even turned on
her phone. She just couldn’t do it before. She needed some time
away from it all. Depending on how concerned or angry Andrew was,
he may have called Kate to see if she knew anything. A dilemma
presented itself. Should she keep her phone off and give her friend
plausible deniability? No, Kate would go crazy with worry. She may
have already.
What the hell
, she thought.

Nicole leaned over the bed and reached for
her purse, practically falling to the ground before snatching it at
the last second. She pulled out her phone and turned it on, closing
her eyes as she waited to see how many voicemails she had. When she
finally heard the dings, she looked at her screen- seven voicemails
and ten text messages. Not as bad as she had expected. She looked
at the text messages first. There was one from her boss and one
from a coworker, both sending her well wishes. She also had two
more from friends checking on how she was doing.

The final six were from Kate, sounding more
concerned as the messages went on. She thought Nicole was just
ignoring her. The last one simply read
“
Call me PLEASE!!”
Even though Nicole had the voicemails to listen to, it didn’t
appear that Andrew had called Kate. She had complicated feelings
about that. She wasn’t too upset. Really, it was somewhat of a
relief. But she was irritated that Andrew didn’t seem concerned
about her.