Unwanted Heat

“We’re meeting Mr. Parker and Carter. I promise you are not in danger. Mr. Parker has arranged… something… he wanted it to be a surprise.”

“I’m supposed to be at work; my shift started nine minutes ago.”

“You actually aren’t scheduled to work today at all, Ms. Rose. Mr. Parker had requested your supervisor’s assistance in scheduling this trip so you would be surprised. She agreed to put you on the schedule for a couple of hours even though she didn’t need you to work.”

“He could have just told me about all of this!”

“It’s none of my business, but I don’t believe you two have exactly been talking this week.”

I slowly begin to relax. I feel a little more at ease knowing that I’m going to meet Nicholas and Carter. I can’t remember the last time I had a panic attack but the fact that I almost had one a few minutes ago is very frightening. I don’t like feeling out of control and I especially don’t like feeling unsafe. In the back of my mind I knew Hunter wouldn’t have hurt me yet that was immediately where my mind went when I realized we were unexpectedly heading in the opposite direction of the bakery.

“We’re here, Ms. Rose,” Hunter alerts me to the fact that the car is stopped a few minutes later. I look out the window but all I see is a parking lot which doesn’t help me figure out where we are. He comes around, opens my door and I step out into the bright sunlight.

“Kenzie,” Nicholas’s familiar voice erases the last bit of tension in my body. “Thank you for coming.”

“I don’t think I had much of a choice,” I say sarcastically trying to hide any signs of the panic attack that was creeping up.

“You did… you always have a choice. But thank you for coming. If you’re ready, I’d like to start our day.”

“I guess. I didn’t bring anything with me-”

“I have everything you need, don’t worry.”

Nicholas leads over to a set of stairs and the view before me absolutely stunning. We are at a marina: dozens of bobbing boats in each direction and beyond them is the open water.

“We’re…?”

“I’m taking you out for a day on my boat, that is if you want to.”

“Wow… I mean, yes of course!”

We walk down the steps to the dock, past several smaller boats until we reach the largest boat in the row. The boat itself is big… bigger than most boats in the marina from what I can tell. Nicholas helps me step onto the deck, before having a few words with Carter.

“Ready to take off, Kenzie?” Nicholas asks.

“Yes!”

“We have to go slow until we get further away from the Marina, it’s the ‘No Wake’ rule, but then we’ll speed up. If you want to walk around, just hold onto the railing because it can be tricky on a moving boat until you get used to it.”

With that Nicholas climbs up to what I think is called the bridge and starts the motor. As Nicholas said we would, we move slowly through the marina but I don’t mind because it gives me a chance to take everything in. We pass by dozens of all different sized boats, and then the water just seems to open up. Nicholas accelerates and we start moving through the water much faster. As we go out further, we begin to pass by large, beautiful houses that are clearly designed to take in the view of the water. They are the types of houses that you can only dream of living in but not the type you will probably ever be able to afford. As we move further away from the coast, the houses slowly fade away and looking around, the only things that

I can see are a few boats and the open water.

Feeling rather silly while he does all the work, I decide to go off and find Nicholas. I stand up and immediately feel a little unsteady on my feet but quickly gain my confidence as I walk further into the boat. I glance down a set of stairs and see what could only be described as a small living room: the area is set up with couches and a few small tables. I carefully head towards the back of the boat where I find Nicholas holding the wheel as he gazes out the window at the endless water in front of us. He seems very relaxed, more so than I ever think I’ve seen him. I can see why he said he finds it so relaxing; it’s almost as if no one else in the world exists. He looks so different than the man I first met to discuss a business contract, yet he also looks different from the man I spent time with over the weekend. He looks like someone who doesn’t have a care in the world.

“It’s beautiful out here,” I say.

“Oh! You startled me; I didn’t hear you. Would you like to try steering it?”

“No! I’ll crash into something or break it!”

“Kenzie, look around. There’s nothing for miles. There’s a boat all the way over there,” he points to the left of us. “You won’t crash into anything, I promise. C’mon, take the wheel.”

He puts his arm out, indicating I should step in front of him to take control of the steering wheel that sort of resembles one that you would find in a car. I cautiously step in front of him, still worried that I’m going to somehow break the boat. He steps closer to me and brings my hands onto the wheel. He is standing so close to me right now that I swear I can feel his breath on my neck… I can feel the heat coming off his body. I can’t help but think about how good it felt to fall asleep with his arms around me last Saturday night. I slept so soundly after the nightmare, unlike most nights when I have nightmares where if I even try to go back to sleep I end up having another nightmare.

“I’ll be right back, just hold the wheel steady,” Nicholas lets go of the wheel and walks away from me.

“What?!?! Where are you going?”

He doesn’t answer me but disappears down a set of steps just to my right that I hadn’t noticed before. While he’s gone I concentrate on holding the steering wheel straight, which isn’t really that difficult. I constantly scan the horizon for boats or big rocks or land or anything else I might crash into while Nicholas is gone. A few minutes later Nicholas comes back up the stairs carrying two glasses of orange juice and a bowl of fruit. He sets everything down on a table near a couple of lounge chairs.

“You doing okay?” he asks.

“I haven’t crashed us yet.”

“No, you haven’t,” he chuckles in agreement. “I was thinking we would cut the motor and drop the anchor up ahead to the right. What do you think?”

“Uh… sure. Whatever you want to do is fine.”

“Think you can steer us over there?”

“No.”

“Sure you can. It’s just like a driving car; don’t jerk the wheel to hard in one direction. Slowly ease the wheel in the direction you want to move… Yup that’s it; hold it steady just like that.”

He is right behind me again; one of his hands is on a control that seems to be decreasing the speed of the boat. With Nicholas this close to me, it’s hard to think of anything other than the night I slept in his arms. It felt so good to have someone hold me again, to have someone’s arms wrapped around me. I can’t remember the last time someone did that. If we weren’t under contract with Bridget, I would turn around right now and throw my hands around his neck, pressing my body against his, just so I could feel him against me again. I could just imagine his arms wrapping around my waist as he pulled me even closer to him, his lips would slowly come down to reach mine-

“This looks like a good spot… How about this?” he pulls me from my thoughts. My face heats up in the realization that I was just thinking about him kissing me while he was standing right behind me.

“Sure, sounds good,” I try to hide the embarrassment from my voice.

Nicholas hits a button and the motor immediately silences.

“I thought we could have some fruit? I can get something else if you’re hungry?”Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

“No, fruit is fine. I had breakfast not that long ago.”

He leads me to an area with several lounge chairs and tables where we sit, the fruit bowl and drinks on a small table between us.

“If you get too warm, I brought a change of clothes for you, as well as a bathing suit if you want to swim.”

“You did?” Wow, I’m shocked that Nicholas came this prepared for the trip. While the breeze is cool now, I could see it heating up in the next hour or so when the sun is higher in the sky.

“We also have a packed lunch, bottles of water, wine, suntan lotion, towels and probably anything else we might need. I wasn’t sure how long you would want to be out here so I planned as if we were going to spend the day on the water.”

“Thank you… you really didn’t have to go to all this trouble,

Nicholas.”

“I did,” he takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out. He looks very conflicted, as if he is trying to figure out what to say next. “I fucked up, Kenzie… I’m not proud of my behavior towards you on Sunday. I sounded ungrateful and as if I didn’t care that you gave your entire weekend up to take care of me-”

“No, that-”

“Please, Kenzie. Don’t downplay how I acted. I realize now that I was treated you as if you were an employee rather than as a… friend. I can’t imagine how badly I hurt you that day and I’m sorry my stupidity caused that. I realize now that you spent the weekend with me without expecting something in return, without wanting something for yourself. While it doesn’t excuse my behavior, you need to understand that having someone like you in my life is a true rarity. Every day I’m surrounded by people who want something from me or are trying to use me to better themselves.”

“Nicholas, I would never-”

“I know you wouldn’t, I realize that now. At the time though, I couldn’t see why you would agree to cancel your cooking classes, rearrange your schedule and practically move in with me for a weekend without expecting something in return. I assumed initially that you did it because you expected payment for the weekend which would be a rather large amount-”

“Nicholas, I never thought that!” I quickly interrupt, immediately pissed off that he would think that was the reason I agreed to stay with him.

“I know that now. I knew it the moment you walked out of my apartment. I know now that you stayed with me last weekend because that’s just the type of person you are-that you wanted nothing more than to help me the way I helped you after you nightmare.”

“I never expected you to pay me for staying with you Nicholas. The thought never even entered my mind. I could see why you jumped to that though… your mind immediately went to our contract. This is a business arrangement after all,” I shrug my shoulders and look out to the water.

“Kenzie, I’ve been telling myself the same thing. This is a business arrangement and nothing more,” he takes another deep breath and I find myself waiting for him to tell me that the contract is over. That he needs to terminate the contract because we’ve crossed too many lines, that-

“The truth is though, this has become more than a business arrangement for me.”

“It is?” Okay, not what I was expecting at all.

“I hope you realize it, too. I think this weekend, or maybe even before this weekend, we’ve begun to become friends. I enjoy spending time with you and I felt like we got to know each other more. I realize now that you stayed with me not because of our contract but because that’s who you are. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been able to trust a woman; when I feel threatened I immediately go into business mode. It’s what I do when things start to spin out of control either professionally or personally. It helps me take control back.”

“You felt threatened?”

“Not by you… no that’s not true. I guess I did feel threatened by you.”

“Nicholas, I don’t understand. How could I threaten you? Did I do something-”

“No! You didn’t do anything. Unfortunately I got burned a long time ago by someone I trusted very much-”

“Who was she?”

“Her name was,” he takes another deep breath, running his hands through his hair which I’ve learned he does when he is stressed.

“Harper… and at one time I thought I loved her.”