I want You Deeper

A loud noise pulled Vanessa from a much-needed eight hours of sleep. She reached over to the right and realized it was her phone alarm going off. Time to get up and go downstairs.

Sighing, she stopped the alarm and briefly thought about snoozing. But then she remembered what the day had in store, and no way could she sleep.

This was it. Her big chance.

She’d been more than happy to lock herself in the room last night, order room service, and go to bed. But not before calling her mom to tell her the big news. She was going to be on a reality show. Her mom, of course, didn’t answer, so she’d left her announcement on voicemail, wondering if she should’ve texted it instead. The chances her mom would even check voicemail with her own busy schedule were pretty darn slim these days.

In the end, Vanessa had decided her parents could just find out when it aired. No telling when that would be. These things could take up six months or longer, depending on the television schedule. Maybe she’d tag them on social media. Her mom seemed to have plenty of time to show off for her friends on there.

A knock on the door reminded her she wasn’t being left to get ready alone. Josea was here to do her makeup. Vanessa was going first so Heath could sleep a little later. Her plan was to use the extra time at the exhibit hall, familiarizing herself with things before the cameras showed up.

But when she looked through the peephole, Vanessa had to immediately change those plans. It wasn’t Josea. It was Heath.

She opened the door, suddenly all too aware of her messed-up hair and total lack of makeup. But that was how she was supposed to show up for an early call. It was the professional way to do things.

“What are you doing here?” Vanessa leaned out and looked down the hall. She also realized she only wore a sleep shirt. Luckily, it came to midthigh, but she ducked back behind the door, nonetheless.

Heath adjusted his pink cap before answering. “Thought you might want to get your makeup done in my room.”

That was when it hit her that his makeup was done already. She wasn’t talking to Heath. She was talking to Mac.

“Down here’s fine,” she said. “I’m not dressed.”

“Get dressed. I’ll wait.”

Was he listening? She was fine.

“We have breakfast. A big selection of pastries. And gourmet coffee. Trust me, you’re going to like it.”

Gourmet coffee. That was tempting. But the food and beverage options weren’t as tempting as the way he was looking at her. Those green eyes always seemed to go straight to her heart, as cheesy as it seemed. It was hard to concentrate when he looked at her like that.

She sighed. “I’ll get dressed and head that way. What’s your room number?”

“That’s why I have to wait. You can’t access my floor without a key.”

He held up a white card that looked identical to her room key. Why wouldn’t she be able to access his floor unless-?

“Did they upgrade you?” she asked. It was weird. She’d been standing beside him when the clerk had issued his room key, and she couldn’t remember any mention of him being on one of the private upper floors where all the suites usually were.

“I asked for an upgrade last night.” He shrugged. “I’m paying for it out of pocket. By the time accounting figures out what’s going on, we’ll already have revealed who Mac Sutterfield really is, so no big deal.”

He’d upgraded to a suite. She could imagine exactly what happened. He’d gotten to his room, which was nice but standard. Just two beds, a desk, and a window overlooking the city. It was all she needed, but she’d grown up with parents who demanded to be moved, whether it was an average room in an expensive hotel or a table in the wrong place in a restaurant. She knew the type.

“Just a second.” Vanessa pushed the door closed, glad to put some space between herself and those piercing green eyes. Yeah, distance was exactly what she needed at this point.

On the way out of town, Heath had stopped by her apartment so she could run upstairs and pack a quick overnight bag to go with the two dressfilled suitcases that Josea had sent along. But she clearly hadn’t been thinking things through when she’d packed the bag. It was stuffed with Tshirts and one pair of jeans…and that was it. No shorts, no yoga pants, nothing. She wondered if she could make a quick shopping trip for some casual clothes to get her through situations like this.

Shoving her jeans on, along with a bra, she quickly grabbed one of the dresses from the suitcase and rushed back to the door, pulling her hair into a messy bun as she walked. She assumed Josea would do her hair, too, but she didn’t have her brush or her makeup here since she’d gone on the assumption the production crew would take care of all of that.

“Ready,” she said, pulling the door open and tucking her keycard and phone into her back pocket. She’d have to come back here to get dressed. She’d grab her purse then.

“That won’t work. Tell that new guy to take care of it. I’m tied up right now.”

Heath was on the phone. Vanessa blew right past him and kept going toward the elevator. He could follow if he wanted. If not, she’d wait for him by the elevator. She wasn’t going to stand around and watch him bark orders into the phone.

It only occurred to her as she reached the elevator that he’d been on a business call. Was he playing Heath by phone and Mac in person? And the “new guy” he referenced-was that Mac? Which was technically himself? This could get confusing.

“Sorry about that,” she heard Heath say at the same time the elevator doors slid open. He rounded the corner and she realized he was talking to her, not someone on the other end of a phone call.

“No problem. Were you just telling your people to tell you to take care of something?” “Yep.”

She couldn’t help but smile. Okay, it was a little bit amusing. But Heath wasn’t smiling. “TravTech is here.”

He stepped into the elevator, and after a brief delay, she followed. “What does that mean?”

“It means they purchased a booth setup from one of our competitors, and apparently, it’s getting some buzz.” Uh-oh. That couldn’t be good.

Vanessa immediately thought back to the day before. She’d been pretty bold, getting him to open up about his scandal right in front of the cameras. As ashamed as she was to admit it, she’d brought up the subject knowing that the discussion would be guaranteed to air. The key to getting time on a reality show was to be part of the scenes that were sure to make the final cut. She’d heard too many stories about aspiring entertainers who put in weeks of work on some reality show, only to get just a few minutes of airtime, if that.

That would not be her fate.

Vanessa kept her eyes on the indicator above the elevator doors, mostly as an excuse to keep from looking at him. “Sounds like a challenge to me.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “Their booth is getting buzz. So, you need to come up with a booth that will show them up. Sell it to one of their competitors. At the next conference, guess who will be getting buzz?”

It didn’t escape her attention that he was staring at her as the elevator made that ding sound, then the doors slid open. She stepped out ahead of him and headed directly into the beam of two cameras.

They were waiting outside the elevator, like a team of paparazzi. Although they weren’t nearly as aggressive as paparazzi, she was one hundred percent without makeup, and the last thing she wanted was to be photographed right now.

Note to self: Tomorrow, wear sunglasses to the morning makeup appointment.

Vanessa’s solution to the immediate problem was to head very quickly toward Heath’s suite. But there was one big problem with that. She had no idea where his suite was. There were two rooms next to the elevator, along with a hallway leading in either direction.

“This way.” Heath breezed past her, heading straight toward one of the two doors in front of her. The words “Presidential Suite” were on a sign above it. Did that mean the President stayed here when he visited Vegas?

Did the President even visit Vegas?

She decided to keep those questions to herself as she followed Heath into the suite. It was a big, open room that appeared to have been repurposed as some sort of staging area. Josea, standing in the center of it all, clapped and jumped up in the air a little when he saw Vanessa.

It was like coming home after being away for a while. And Vanessa was someone who was still figuring out where her “home” actually was. But Josea was the one person in this entire scenario who seemed to be on her side. She needed that right now.

She’d needed that her entire life, actually.

“These cameras are following me,” Vanessa whispered to Josea as he rushed forward to give her a big hug. “I need makeup. Now!”

“Have a seat and I’ll hook you up.”

Josea did just that, with cameras capturing every second of it. Heath, meanwhile, paced the room, typing things onto his phone screen and intermittently taking phone calls. He did pause his work long enough to bring her a cup of coffee and muffin when she requested, but it took four trips because he didn’t listen when she asked for creamer for her coffee. Plus, he brought her some sort of strange lemon muffin when she wanted blueberry.

Yeah, small things, but they just confirmed her suspicion that he wasn’t all that different from her parents. Work-and money-always came first.

“We ready yet?” Heath asked after Vanessa had emerged from behind the privacy partition Josea had set up. She wore the dress she’d pulled from her suitcase earlier. She was twirling around, showing off her look, when Heath’s question pushed the smile from her face.

“Two seconds,” Josea said, much to her surprise. He stepped up and fluffed her curls, then clapped his hands. “Done!”

She walked over to the mirror on Josea’s makeup table and caught her reflection. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

Amazing. She’d had her makeup done professionally before, including by Josea before their meeting yesterday. But she’d never looked like this. He’d managed to make her eyes look wider, her cheekbones more defined, and her lips fuller-all while somehow giving the appearance that she wasn’t even wearing makeup.

But if she’d expected a reaction from Heath, she would have been very disappointed. He just looked at her, nodded, and turned to walk to the door.All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

Vanessa and Josea exchanged a look. “I guess I’d better go,” she said.

“I guess so.”