I want You Deeper

Heath was so busy, he didn’t even notice the exhibition hall was closing down around him until Vanessa returned. She was standing to the left of the person he’d been working with for the past twenty minutes. Together, he and his potential new client were drawing up a plan for a booth for an event happening in Silicon Valley in just a few weeks.

“Hi again,” Vanessa said when the man-owner of a startup providing online legal services to small businesses-noticed her standing there. The guy lit up at the sight of Vanessa.

There it was. That twinge of jealousy again. It was ridiculous. The goal was to turn his business around and get good publicity for Hardcastle Enterprises. It wasn’t to worry about the attention Vanessa Gilbert was getting from the men around here.

Heath and his maybe-new client set a date for a future meeting, then the guy wandered off, leaving Heath alone with Vanessa. It was only then that he realized the night stretched ahead of them.

But Vanessa had other plans for that night. “We have to be at the cocktail reception in ten minutes. No time to change. Let’s go.”

Heath didn’t budge. “Who said I was going to the cocktail reception?”

She stared at him as though trying to determine what species he was exactly. “I did. It’s good for…”

Her eyes told the rest of the story. She looked pointedly at the camera positioned not so discreetly to the left of her. It would be good for the show.

Heath knew what she was saying was right. And they were here for one reason: the show. It was just that he wasn’t used to being around people this much, especially not with a camera capturing it all. He could use a solid half hour in a closed room with nothing but his phone and laptop to keep him company.

“It’ll be fun. Trust me.”

With that, Vanessa reached out and took his hand, tugging him in the general direction of the exit. He looked around at the booth, quickly checking to make sure there wasn’t something he needed to put away. He assumed nobody would be wandering around in here, searching for something to steal, but it looked like there was nothing here for them to steal if they did.

“Should I change?” Heath rushed to keep up with Vanessa, who was walking at an incredibly quick pace. The guys with the cameras seemed to equally be having trouble, especially the one trying to walk backward.

Vanessa moved quickly when she was running late.

Without missing a single step, she looked over at him. “Change?”

“Clothes.” As if that wasn’t obvious. He looked down at what he was wearing-khaki pants and a golf shirt. His Mac Sutterfield uniform. “Typically, for a cocktail party-”

“Mac Sutterfield wouldn’t dress up for a cocktail party. Mac Sutterfield wouldn’t even think about it.”

Heath narrowed his eyes at her. Why was she referring to his alter ego like she knew him…and he didn’t?

“I’ve done an entire character profile on him.” Vanessa took a hallway to the right. Up ahead, there were some other people walking. As it looked like they might catch up to them, she slowed up a little. “It’s an acting thing. You flesh out as many details as you can on your character, even if those things are never mentioned in the work you do. It brings depth to your acting.”Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

The camera guy walking backward flipped around, lowering the camera. He took a deep breath before starting to capture footage of the view in front of them.

Yeah, Heath had just been thinking that Vanessa’s talk about acting had rendered this conversation unusable for the show. She wasn’t supposed to discuss the fact that they were playing roles here.

“You’ve done trade shows before,” Vanessa suddenly said. “This can’t be new to you.”

Her words threw him off a little. Yes, he’d spent a large part of the past few years traveling around to various trade shows. He’d certainly done his fair share of schmoozing over the years. It was just that, normally, he was booked solid by the time he arrived. He might meet up with a few colleagues at the cocktail party, but it would only be to have a drink or two before heading to dinner.

In other words, he and his colleagues didn’t typically network with the Mac Sutterfields of the world.

Instead of directly responding to what he’d said, Heath chose to turn it on her. “You’ve done this before? Cocktail parties at a trade show?”

“Networking events.” Even as she spoke, though, Vanessa’s attention was focused on the people ahead of them, who had formed a line outside the door. Someone was walking around, checking badges. As if anyone would try to sneak into an event where the discussion revolved around tech gadgets and apps.

“Well, I’ll follow your lead then,” he commented.

She looked at him, her face scrunched up in confusion. But someone opened all four doors at the front of the line, and it immediately started moving. He definitely had missed this part of things by showing up after everyone else flooded in. This looked like the gates had opened at a big football game.

Once inside, Vanessa began enthusiastically chatting with a guy standing off to the side by himself. Heath stood back, thinking about his alter ego. Yes, Heath Hardcastle would take charge of the situation, jumping right into the conversation at the first opening. Not Mac Sutterfield, though. Mac Sutterfield bided his time, watching Vanessa work and waiting for the chance to close the deal.

Okay, so maybe he and Mac Sutterfield weren’t all that different. They were both born salespeople. But Mac would lack Heath’s bold confidence. He’d be new to this, having come from a job selling tech somewhere else.

“This is my colleague, Mac Sutterfield.” Vanessa suddenly turned toward Heath, making him all too aware of the fact that he’d zoned out for a minute or two there. “We’re with Hardcastle Exhibits. Heard of them?”

“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I have. That’s the company with the owner who goes around ripping off other people’s hard work.”

Vanessa turned to look at Heath. At the same time, both cameras swiveled in his direction. Once again, all the attention was on him, waiting for his reaction. And his immediate impulse was to lash out at this guy who thought he knew it all.

Reel it in, buddy. Reel it in.

Heath took a deep breath and waited for his temper to cool a little. Mac Sutterfield. He was Mac Sutterfield. And Mac Sutterfield would defend his new boss, but he wouldn’t be nearly as passionate about it as Heath.

“Actually, that was this app development firm a bunch of tech companies used. Hardcastle Enterprises fired them and canceled the app as soon as they found out about it.”

“Really? I didn’t hear that. Are you sure?”

The man had the audacity to look like he didn’t believe Heath. Heath, who knew more about this than anyone except maybe Justin Travers. But Travers was Silicon Valley’s golden boy at the moment, which meant everyone was rushing to paint Heath Hardcastle as the bad guy, even if they didn’t fully understand why.

“Look it up.” Heath shrugged, hoping that by doing so he would give the impression he was indifferent. “They’re still in business, so if you ever outsource any of your development work, you’ll need to be careful yourself.”

The man laughed. “I thoroughly vet every person who works for me. No way am I getting bamboozled by some scam artist.”

In saying that, the guy was implying that Hardcastle Enterprises-and every other company that had fallen victim to the scammers-was somehow lesser than him. Heath did not like this guy.

Control.

Heath breathed in deeply, doing his best to slow his heart rate. He had to focus on what was important here, and it wasn’t getting the better of this person, whoever he was. The cameras were on Heath, and the guys behind those cameras were no doubt waiting for him to start a scene. But this reality show was about fixing his reputation.

“You know what? I’d love to talk to you about that.” Heath smiled, doing his best to look like the newbie who had stars in his eyes about meeting someone successful. “I hope to start my own business someday, and it would be great to get some of your thoughts about how to protect myself in these situations. Maybe we could meet up and discuss it after all this is over?”

Truth be told, he had no idea how the offer would go over with this guy. For all he knew, the guy would be offended that Heath was still trying to sell him. But instead, his face lit up and he started nodding.

“Sounds good. Here’s my card.” The guy reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a business card, and handed it over. “You have a good one here. She deserves a raise.”

That last part was directed at Vanessa, who was still standing there, watching everything without comment. Heath had done all the talking, but somehow, Vanessa was the star of this show. Even when she didn’t talk, she was a better salesperson than he was, apparently.

“That guy had some nerve,” Vanessa commented as they walked farther into the room.

Heath looked over at her, eyes wide. “What do you mean?”

“Talking about Hardcastle Enterprises like that to one of their employees? Who does that? Seriously.”

Someone was on his side. It had been a while since he’d felt that. Sure, his management team had taken his side, but that was no surprise. They were paid to do that.

He frowned at that thought. Vanessa was on the payroll, too, technically. Not his payroll, but the show was paying her for her work in helping him out. So why did her support feel so different?

Because he legitimately felt as though she was on his side.

“Crud!” Vanessa skidded to an abrupt halt, jerking Heath from his thoughts. She was staring at something up ahead. He followed her gaze and saw an attractive redhead standing just a few feet away.

She wasn’t a few feet away for long, though. Vanessa had kicked it into reverse, leaving Heath standing there alone, staring at some redhead who was looking around like she was just waiting for a friendly face. He quickly turned, before she could catch him trying to puzzle out what was happening here, and searched the immediate area for Vanessa.

The good news was, she hadn’t made it very far. She was maneuvering through the crowd, catching stares from pretty much everyone she passed. He hurried to catch up with her, struggling to make it seem as though he wasn’t in any sort of hurry. Both cameras were rushing to keep up with him. “Hold up!” Heath called out as Vanessa pushed through a side door that led straight outside. “What’s going on here?”

The exit dumped them right out onto a patio that had heaters set up all around. It was obviously designed for partiers who wanted to bring the celebration outside, but there was a chill in the air that no doubt scared everyone off. That meant they had the entire patio alone. Well, aside from the two men holding cameras who were all up in their business. “TravTech. TravTech was in there.” What? How had Heath missed that?

“Where? You saw Justin Travers?”

Vanessa shook her head. “I’m talking about the woman who’s handling his booth. She’s…she’s my roommate.”

Whoa. He struggled to piece together what she was saying. This could make sense. Maybe her roommate was a promotional model for real, and she was helping with the TravTech booth. If so, though, why would Vanessa run away when she saw her?

“She doesn’t know I’m helping you.” Vanessa paced back and forth, her skirt billowing as she walked. “I haven’t told her yet.”

Heath shrugged. “No big deal. What? You think she’ll be mad that you’re working with me?”

That brought a look to her face that told him, without a doubt, there was more to the story. Whatever it was, she wasn’t eager to tell him about it.

He took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s hear it.”

“My roommate is dating Justin Travers.”

Heath frowned, not sure what to make of this news. How long had Vanessa been aware of this? Had she been deceiving him all along?

“The redhead is your roommate, I assume,” he finally said.

Vanessa’s eyes widened. “You saw her?”

“You took off. I was curious what the big deal was. So that redhead is Justin Travers’s girlfriend?”

“Yep. It’s pretty serious. I don’t know much about him, businesswise. She just talks about the personal stuff. I didn’t realize you and Justin had an issue until I’d already agreed to do the show.”

He could tell she was sincere. She really hadn’t known.

Heath crossed his arms over his chest. “You were hired to play a role. It’s not like you’re personally cheering me on or anything. You don’t even work for my company. You’re being paid by the production crew.”

She was staring off to the side, seemingly lost in thought. He wondered if that meant this was making sense.

“I don’t know why I’m hesitant to let her know, to be honest.” Vanessa looked up at him then, and he felt a tug at his heart when he saw the earnest, worried look on her face. “I guess I don’t have many friends in town. Okay, I have zero friends besides Brooke and my new roommate, Alyssa. She gave me a place to stay and a shoulder when I needed it. This just…well, it feels like a betrayal.”

The cameras were capturing every second of this, and Heath suddenly wanted them to go away. This was a private moment. She was opening up to him. He had a feeling she’d forgotten all about the fact that every second of this could end up on a national TV show.

After a quick glance around, Heath leaned over and whispered so only she could hear, “Come on.”

“What?” Vanessa looked around, startled, even glancing directly at the cameraman behind her.

But Heath didn’t wait. He reached out and grabbed her hand, then ran back toward the building, opening the door and staying at a run all the way back to the elevators.