I want You Deeper

April had been working hard while they lounged after lunch.

She whipped through the boat, grabbing up all the linens that had been piling up in the bathrooms and tossing them into the washer. Then she’d started cleaning common areas, saving Derek’s suite until last.

“I’ll take care of my own cabin,” he said when he ran into her in the bathroom across from the master suite. “I’m weird about my space.”

If that wasn’t the understatement of the year, he didn’t know what was. He hadn’t even liked someone cleaning his house, finally settling on a crew that came highly recommended by one of his clients. They’d come in once a week, every week, for the past four years. He figured they were still coming in every week since he hadn’t been able to contact them before disappearing without a trace.

“Sure.” April, a true professional, kept a completely neutral expression as she returned to the bathroom, toilet scrubber still in hand.

“Private person, huh?”

Renee’s voice, coming from behind him, startled him. She had to stop making his heart race the way she was. He wasn’t used to having people around who kept him on his toes like this.

“I guess I am.” He stepped back in case she wanted to breeze by, but she didn’t move. She seemed to be studying him. “I know that’s rare these days, but that’s why it’s always been my dream to live off the grid.”

“On a boat without Wi-Fi. No better way to do it.”

Her comment made him frown. “You can’t connect to the Wi-Fi?”

Hey, at least he had the power to surprise her. It was good to know it worked both ways. Her expression went to complete shock, but soon enough it changed to understanding.

“I just assumed…” Now she was frowning. “So, this boat has Wi-Fi?”

He smiled. “Built into all our newer models.”

“But, how…?”

“Satellite. I could go into the intricate details, but I doubt you want to hear them.”

Even as the words came out of his mouth, he knew he was off base there. Something about her told him she actually did like to learn about things. But for some reason, she didn’t ask further questions. She just squinted, frowned, then shook her head as though having some sort of internal argument.

Finally, she came out with a response. “Then you aren’t off the grid, exactly.”

Oh, wait. Had he inadvertently given something away? He was supposed to be working right now, not living off the grid or hiding from the world. He had to quickly correct the course of the conversation.

He leaned against the wall, feeling odd having a conversation here, in the narrow hallway just outside his bedroom where the master bath was. “I said it’s my dream to go off the grid. Someday. Unfortunately, right now I have to communicate with work. Plus, we have a lot of smart devices around here. I’m sure Captain Jake could show you all the features when he wakes up.”

“He could!” April’s voice rang out from the bedroom, where there was plenty of splashing and flushing happening. As would be expected, she said those two words with the enthusiasm of someone who had a crush.

But Renee was still staring at Derek. “Why don’t you show me around? It could be practice for your potential clients.”

He started to ask why she’d think he’d need practice but getting defensive about it wouldn’t help hide his true identity. His alter ego hadn’t worked since the age of sixteen to build one of the most successful luxury watercraft businesses in the world. The Derek Hugheses of the world teed all that up, leaving it to the hired hands to do the rest.

He was one of those hired hands.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“Sounds like a great idea!” The enthusiasm in his voice took him by surprise, but Derek went with it. “Come on. I’ll give you the real behindthe-scenes tour.”

Truth was, there was so much of this boat he hadn’t taken the time to enjoy, primarily because when you were mostly alone, you tended to get stuck in your routines. He’d spend at least eight hours a day monitoring the boat’s course so Captain Jake could catch some sleep, but the great thing about a sailboat was that you didn’t have to babysit it twenty-four hours a day.

“Everything’s automated,” Derek explained as they made their way up the steps to the main deck. “We could go to sleep, technically, thanks to all the alerts we have, but Captain Jake likes to keep watch at night.” “Do we stop at night or keep going?” she asked.

“We could drop anchor and stay in one place, but Jake also has a thing about making good time.”

Renee laughed. “My dad is like that.”

“I’m kind of with him. Not that we’re in any hurry. I guess it’s drilled into us from a young age. Like it’s a race to see who can get from Point A to Point B the fastest. This is the gym.”

Renee gasped as he stepped into what he thought was a fairly small room. His gym at home had been double this size, with much more equipment, but he understood her astonishment at seeing a gym on a boat.

“This view.” She walked farther into the room, approaching one of the three treadmills pushed up to a window. Everything in this room overlooked the ocean. He’d spent far too much time in here since leaving home, mostly for a way to kill time between meals and naps.

“You do know you’re living the dream, don’t you?” She spun and looked at him, that question lingering in the air between them.

Living the dream. He knew she meant all the stuff he was surrounded by, and he supposed he could see why someone would see it that way. Few people seemed to realize how empty it could feel to be surrounded by things, not people.

“I’m selling the dream,” he countered. “When you look at our brochures, they’re packed with pictures of groups of people seated around, eating and drinking. Beautiful couples enjoying the sunset in the outdoor lounge. Not exactly some sales dude sitting by himself in the cockpit.”

Substitute “sales dude” with “billionaire,” and he’d given more away than he’d intended. Why was he telling her this? He had no idea.

He decided a quick change of subject was in order. “Come on. I’ll show you the bilge pump system.”

“The who what?”

He heard that question from her as he turned and headed below deck. As curious a nature as she seemed to have, he didn’t get the sense she enjoyed the technical details he was reviewing. When he glanced over at her, she always seemed to have that same glassy-eyed look. But for some reason, he felt safe going over everything that made this boat safer and stabler than others he’d built.

He took her through the engine room, discussing things like insulation and ventilation. But she was stuck on the practicalities.

“Why does a sailboat have an engine?” she asked. “Why not fire it up? Would we get there faster?”

“The motor’s mostly for docking. Hard to control things with the sail.

But out on the open sea, we let the wind carry us.”

“What if you hit an iceberg?”

That was a question he hadn’t expected. He even let out a little laugh.

She smirked. “I know there are no icebergs here, but your work will take you north eventually, right?”

“I don’t know.”

He was being honest about that. He turned and gestured toward the ladder, motioning for her to climb up first.

She stepped toward it and easily would have made it if the boat hadn’t made a sharp dip to the right. His first thought was that he needed to take some time to give Renee and April a primer on how unpredictable sailboats could be, even with all the extras built into this one to keep it stable. Something as simple as a drink cup left on a table-they were all plastic on this boat-could easily become a spill with one shift in the water around them.

But that thought was quickly replaced as the boat took an even sharper, more sudden dip. Renee reached for the ladder, but her arm wasn’t quite long enough. She toppled against Derek with a force that reminded him of his middle school football days. As lightweight as she was, it wasn’t like it was that harsh a blow. But his arms instinctively went around her, pulling her against him in a protective measure.

The ship didn’t steady itself for a while. It tilted in the other direction, then came back toward the center, only to shift to the other side. Renee put her arms around his waist and held on as he struggled to keep both of them upright.

He closed his eyes, savoring the feeling of her in his arms. There was something about this that was nothing at all like embracing any other woman. It felt like… Home.

Finally, the boat stilled, and she pulled back. She looked up at him without releasing her arms from around him. He could just lower his head slightly and kiss her. It would be so easy, as long as she was okay with it. Maybe he should move part of the way toward her and see if she moved toward him, as well. That would tell him she felt this pull between them.

“Sorry.”

It all happened at once-her apology, the release of her arms from around him, and her stepping away from him. Before he could even process what had happened, she was climbing up the ladder. It was like she couldn’t get away from him fast enough.