I want You Deeper

“Hungry? Thirsty?”

“I could go for some coffee,” Vanessa said thoughtfully.

“Maybe a bagel. No, scratch that. Lunch would be nice.

There’s a drive-thru taco place that’s really good just off the next exit.”

Heath looked at Vanessa. He was all too aware of the cameras rigged up in front of them on the windshield. While he liked the fact that they didn’t have to share the car with two camera guys and all their equipment, driving around in a rental SUV outfitted with production equipment was throwing him off, to say the least.

“Tacos?” he asked.

“Let me guess. You’re thinking something a little less messy.”

He shrugged. “This isn’t my car. Let’s mess it up.”

She looked down at her white dress, and he knew exactly what she was thinking. “Maybe a burger instead. Plain.”

He smiled. Good point, although he figured the two suitcases she’d crammed into the back of this vehicle had to have some replacement outfits if she messed this one up. All the clothes were on loan from Josea, who was meeting them at the hotel to do their hair and makeup every day before shooting started.

It was a strange, strange new reality he’d entered. He just had to keep reminding himself that this was for his business. After following him around for a couple of weeks, the producers would put together a show that demonstrated how much he cared about his company and the products he put out there. His reputation would be saved, and finally, people would be calling Hardcastle Enterprises to do business again, rather than him having to scramble to get people to agree to work with them.

They stopped for burgers and hit the highway again. “I guess I need to give you a full brief on our products,” he said while Vanessa slowly chewed a bite of her burger. Her eyes were closed as though she was fully savoring it. “We provide booths for businesses at trade shows.”

“I pretty much figured that part out.”

“Do you know what that means?”

Vanessa looked over at him, hamburger poised in front of her. “You put walls up in a big room?”

He laughed. “You haven’t been to a trade show in a while, I take it.” “I’ve never been to a trade show. I’ve seen them on TV, though. I think.

Maybe in a movie?”

“It’s not just walls. Some of these businesses construct entire rooms. There are two stories on some, food cases, bars with stools… You name it, we can do it.”

Vanessa wasn’t nearly as impressed as he would have expected. Maybe it was something she’d have to see to really grasp. She was still happily munching over there, not responding.

Finally, she wrapped an uneaten section of her burger up and tossed it down in the bag. “So, our job is…what?”

By then, he’d taken a bite of his own burger, and his bites were much larger than hers. That meant he had to chew and swallow before he could respond.

“Our job is to sell booths.”

Vanessa was staring at him again. “But they already have booths. It’s like going to a wedding to sell the bride and groom stuff for their wedding.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. A bride and groom don’t get married every few months. Well, they shouldn’t.”

Vanessa nodded. “Okay, so these people have crappy booths, I assume, and we go in and tell them what we can do for them.”

“Not exactly. It’s more about networking. There are people who have worked with us in the past, but they were pulled away by competitors after…well, what happened recently.”

“The scandal.”

Heath’s gaze immediately went to the camera that was pointed at him, even though that was against the rules. The scandal. He’d expected it to come down to this eventually, but he’d assumed it would come through an interview by the producers. Now that he thought about it, though, maybe it was better to talk to Vanessa about it.

“The funny thing was, I got a referral. So many people were using this same overseas firm for app development. They underbid everyone else, so I thought I was getting a deal. I had no idea they were ripping off other developers.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“So, why were you blamed? They should have been the ones punished, right?”

“Ben Eisenberg.”

“Ben Eisenberg?”

“He’s a business reporter. Big-name, nationally-known business reporter. He somehow got involved with Justin Travers of TravTech. TravTech’s app was the one the developers ripped off to make mine. So, Ben did it as this expose sort of thing, making me look like this bad guy who was trying to make money off an app I stole.”

“Nobody stopped to clarify that you didn’t do anything wrong?”

Heath had to choose his words carefully here. He didn’t want to badmouth Justin or Ben. They both had good intentions, and Justin was watching his own business tank as a result. In fact, he’d had to lay off many employees just before the scandal broke, so the whole thing had punched him when he was already down. He just wished Justin had issued some sort of public gesture of goodwill to help Heath save his own business.

“Justin was just relieved the whole thing was cleared up,” Heath finally said. “I don’t think he realized what it did to Hardcastle Enterprises.”

“Maybe if you explained, he could help you out. You know, founder to founder. Most of you guys have each other’s backs. That’s kind of what this town is all about.”

Heath glanced over at her. “Is that what people think?”

Vanessa looked over and their eyes met. Heath was grateful that he had to keep his attention on the road. It gave him a reason to look away. It wasn’t easy to take his eyes off her, he was finding.

“I don’t know what people think. That’s my observation.”

He had to admit, despite himself, he was drawn to her. And not just because she was beautiful. She was, but there was something about her that went far deeper than physical beauty. She had a sophistication and wisdom that seemed to be well beyond her years. He wanted to know everything about her, but he couldn’t afford to grow to like her like her. He didn’t have time for that right now, even if it wasn’t a bad idea for a fake boss to get involved with his pretend employee.

“That’s why I’m doing this,” Heath said, deliberately diverting the conversation away from the TravTech scandal. “I’m redirecting all my resources into my trade show booth business. This is where my heart really is. I want to show off what we can do.”

“It would make an interesting reality show in itself.” Vanessa placed her hands in front of her, palms out, as though visualizing it. “Extreme trade show booths. So fun.”

“You haven’t even seen what it’s like yet.”

“You explained it.” Vanessa shrugged. “I have a good imagination.

Anyway, it reminds me of this dollhouse I had as a kid.”

Okay, now she had his attention. “Did you just compare my business to a dollhouse?”

“I had these dolls I could dress up, and my parents bought a dollhouse for me. It was so elaborate. It had a pool, three stories, a fake elevator… No lazy river, though. That’s what it was missing.”

She looked over at him, a teasing smile on her face. Okay, he would let that one go.

“And you think we build dollhouses for businesses.”

“They’re temporary, right? That’s kind of what my dollhouse was. It wasn’t sturdy like a house, but it was good enough for me to create these pretend worlds. That’s what your clients are doing. They set up a pretend world for a few days, and you-we-help with that. I can sell this. No problem.”

Heath shook his head. “We have six hours. Settle in. I’m about to brief you on everything we offer.”

To his surprise, she did exactly that. She sipped her soda through a straw, stared out the windshield, and sat quietly while he went into excruciating detail about lightboxes and canopies and monitor mounts. He was waiting, at any point, to discover she’d zoned out and hadn’t processed a word of it, but she occasionally stopped him to ask questions. She even pulled out her phone and began looking through his website, asking questions about what she saw there.

He breathed a sigh of relief. At least he didn’t have to worry about her not grasping this. He had a feeling she’d do a better job than some of the salespeople who’d dedicated their entire careers to this stuff.

It was well past dinnertime when they pulled up to the valet outside their assigned hotel. He might not have been able to drive his own vehicle for this, but he was going to indulge in a few of the luxuries he enjoyed in his everyday life.

“I’ll just need the name the room is under.”

The front desk clerk’s comment threw him off. He’d given his company name, which was what he always did when he traveled. But he hadn’t stopped to consider the fact that the production crew had nothing to do with this hotel reservation. It had been handled one hundred percent by Hardcastle Enterprises.

“Mac Sutterfield.”

He had to get comfortable using that name. It would just take one slipup to blow his cover. And there were no second or third takes with the people who weren’t in on the fact that he was undercover.

“Okay, sir. I see your company is paying for the room. I’ll just need to see your I. D. and a credit card for any incidentals.” I. D.

Heath looked over at Vanessa, his eyes wide. How did he handle this? The camera crew wasn’t around, so he couldn’t get them to explain the situation.

Shrugging, he pulled out his wallet, then handed over both his ID and his credit card. With any luck, she’d compare the picture, hand it back, and swipe his credit card without noticing the discrepancy in names.

“Who is Heath Hardcastle?”

The clerk’s question, asked very loudly, caused him to wince. He looked around. He and Vanessa were the only two customers right now, fortunately. He could just picture someone from the trade show-or, worse, someone from Hardcastle Enterprises-standing behind him during all this.

“That’s me.”

The clerk squinted at him. Yeah, he got it. She couldn’t figure out what the game was. “Sir, I’m going to need an I. D. and card that matches the name on the room.”

“I’m Heath Hardcastle,” he said. “Mac Sutterfield is my alias.”

Celebrities did it all the time. Everyone knew that. They reserved hotel rooms under assumed names so fans couldn’t track them down.

But the clerk wasn’t budging. “There’s nothing noted about an alias in the system. We can’t rent a room to anyone but the person named on the room.”

“Do you have a Vanessa Gilbert?” Vanessa asked.

Heath looked over at her. Really? She was going to just look out for herself here? What was the plan? Check in and head up to the room, leaving him here to work things out?

The clerk flashed an uncertain look at Vanessa. He could almost hear the gears in the clerk’s mind moving as she tried to figure out what this scam actually was.

But finally, the clerk began tap-tapping away on the keys. The sound seemed to fill the spacious, overly ornate lobby.

“Yes, here you are,” the clerk said. “May I see your I. D.?”

Vanessa withdrew her driver’s license and a credit card, handing them over. “I’m Mr. Hardcastle’s assistant. It’s my fault. I called in under his alias and forgot to mention that it wasn’t his real name.”

The clerk stared at her a moment before turning back to the computer to begin typing again. Meanwhile, Vanessa was looking for something on her phone.

Finally, Vanessa held up her phone. “Here’s a picture. See? Same guy.”

The clerk stopped typing. Heath was afraid to look. The clerk stared at the screen, then looked at Heath, her mouth tightening as she studied.

“Heath Hardcastle runs one of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley,” Vanessa continued. “He’s been all over the news lately. He just wanted some anonymity. That’s why he’s in disguise.”

Still staring at Heath, the clerk began to slowly nod. She seemed to decide, yes, this was legit.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Hardcastle. If I could borrow your credit card for a moment, I’ll get you checked in.”

While the clerk worked, Heath flashed a questioning look at Vanessa. She shrugged, then handed him her phone. Still dreading what he was about to see-but figuring he already knew-he looked down at the screen and saw the picture Vanessa had just shown the clerk. It was a photo his sister had shared of him on social media while he was visiting. He wore a pair of swim trunks and a baseball cap-black, not pink-and he’d just come inside from being out on the lake all day. He had a full-on five o’clock shadow and looked like he’d just awoken from a long nap. In other words, the worst picture ever taken of him.

And that had been the photo that resembled him most right now.