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I look away, surprised. What’s going on with him? He’s never this open.
He leaps into the pool, suddenly, in his boxer briefs and water splashes all over my face. I sputter and dog-paddle, trying to stay afloat.
Derek comes up for air, laughing, his blond hair, sprinkled with silver, slicked back.
“Sorry,” he says, but he doesn’t seem sorry at all, swimming over to the middle of the pool where I am.
“I’ll get out of your hair,” I murmur, kicking my legs to swim backward toward the steps, but Derek catches me by one ankle, floating me back over toward him.
“Stay,” he says in a low, commanding voice, and now, wild horses couldn’t drag me away.
“You're certainly in a mood tonight,” I muse, and Derek smiles, tilting his head back so that I can see the line of his throat, his Adam’s apple. He looks up at the sunset.
“You told me to relax, and that’s what I’m doing,” he says. “So, stay in the pool with me and relax, Ms. Lodge.”
“You don’t have to call me that,” I say.
“Kenna,” he amends, his voice a low rumble in his chest, and he’s staring at me so intensely I’m not quite sure what to do.
What I want to do is wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him, but something tells me that’s not what he had in mind tonight.
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I blurt out, and Derek freezes for a moment before continuing to tread water.
“I thought you were seeing—”
“I wasn’t seeing anyone,” I admit, my cheeks burning. “I went out with my female best friend andherboyfriend picked us up because we got too drunk.”
Derek’s face looks blank and then he breaks up, laughing. “Really?”
“Really,” I confess miserably. “I guess I just...wanted you to think I had more of a social life.”
“Wanted to make me jealous?” he asks, and my eyes shoot to his.
“Did it work?” I ask, surprised at my own boldness.
Derek stares at me for a moment longer.
“Yeah,” he says finally in a low tone. “Yeah, it did.”
“I’m just the nanny,” I murmur.
“Kenna,” Derek says, almost like he’s scolding me. “You know you’re more than that.”
“Am I?”
He’s looking into my eyes. Derek isn’t the best with words. I’ve been aware of this since I started working for him.
“You must know,” he finally says. “You must know that I...”
I swim closer to him, bold enough to wrap my arms around his neck. “Know that you what?”
“How I feel,” he starts. “That I’m...attracted to you.”
“Is that as far as it goes?” I ask, expecting him not to answer, and in a way, he doesn’t. He just shakes his head, biting his bottom lip.
It’s me who kisses him, this time, and I can’t help myself. I delve my tongue into his mouth. Derek was my first everything. I find myself glad that I had no experience before because I’m sure nothing could have ever topped this feeling.
Derek groans into my mouth, taking my legs and wrapping them around his waist as he continues to tread water.
