I want You Deeper

Vanessa found it amusing that Heath was so antsy to get back to the booth. That was the problem, though. He was giving off an energy that wasn’t good for his reality persona. Her goal was to inject a

little bit of Heath in with all that Mac.

“Where are we going?” he asked as he rushed to fall into step beside her, forcing the poor camera guy to pretty much run sideways to capture footage of them. Finally, he gave up and shot the footage from behind, staying in their wake as they entered the main lobby.

“Where’s the fitness center?” she asked the woman at the front desk.

“Second floor, take a left when you step out of the elevators.”

Without giving Heath a chance to ask questions, Vanessa headed straight for the elevators. The lobby was mostly empty, with a few people drifting through here and there on their way to the exhibit hall or breakfast or wherever. She saw that as a good thing, considering they only had one camera on them.

“Where are we going?” he asked again as they waited for the elevator.

Before she could answer, the doors opened, and people spilled out. She took the opportunity to squeeze through the crowd and step in, deftly avoiding his question.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Unfortunately, the doors closed all too soon. That meant they were in the elevator alone together. Well, alone with a guy holding a camera pointed directly at them.

“You need to expend some energy,” she said.

It was something she’d learned years ago when she was nervous about an audition or performance. In fact, she routinely got up before sunrise to go for a long run, just to clear her head and free up some creative space. But even a quick five-minute run could put her in a place where she was more relaxed when she auditioned.

She couldn’t have arranged it more perfectly if she’d tried. The fitness center was empty. Just the two of them. Well, the two of them plus one cameraperson, but she was getting better at forgetting that existed.

“So, we’re working out?” He looked around, then turned to her.

Something about that pink cap and fake beard suddenly amused her. It was a little strange how much that had blended into the background. He really looked nothing like himself, if she had to be honest, but she felt just as attracted to him as she had before Josea had worked his magic.

“We’re running off some of that nervous energy. Let’s go!”

She headed straight for one of the four treadmills set up in the corner. In her experience, there was always at least one treadmill in these hotel rooms that didn’t work right, so she took a chance on one of the two in the middle. Her logic was that the one farthest from the door was probably the most used.

Heath headed straight for the one farthest from the door.

Vanessa fired up the treadmill and started running, hoping nobody would come in here and tell her she couldn’t run in a skirt and ballet flats. She was pretty sure there was a rule against using the equipment without proper clothing and footwear, and it was probably posted on a sign somewhere. But they wouldn’t be here long enough to worry about rules.

That was her logic, anyway.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Heath punched buttons on the treadmill and started running alongside her. He was being such a good sport about this, it surprised her. He could have just as easily refused to join her on the treadmills, making her look bad in front of the camera.

After exactly five minutes, Vanessa pushed the minus button to gradually step down the treadmill until it came to a full stop. She stood, breathing deeply in and out with her eyes closed to calm her pounding heart. Then she turned to face Heath, who was still running.

“What?” he asked, not even sounding out of breath. “Why did you stop?”

She smiled. “You can stop, too. Five minutes is all you’ll need.”

His gaze dropped to the display. He pressed one button, and the treadmill immediately began slowing to a stop. No minus button for him.

“All I need for what?” He turned to look at her, not showing any signs of fatigue whatsoever. “Do you mind telling me what we’re doing?”

“You were wound up. This helps you relax.”

He frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t think I feel any more relaxed.”

“Okay, well, it helps me relax. And you aren’t giving off the same nervous energy you were before we started. That’s the point. It’s all about playing it cool.”

“Playing it cool?”

“Yeah. You want to sell, right? People will see your nervousness as desperation and be scared away. You have to seem like it doesn’t make any difference whether you close the deal or not, right?”

She held her breath as she awaited his answer. This could go in a variety of directions, including anger. If he saw her as trying to tell him how to do his job, she really wouldn’t blame him for telling her to mind her own business.

But it didn’t go that way. Instead, he stepped off the treadmill and headed straight for the weight bench. While she watched, he removed the pink cap, tossed it on the ground as though he’d been waiting to do just that, and sat down. He then scooted and laid back, reaching up to put both hands on the barbell above him.

“What are you doing?” As she voiced the question, she realized it was an echo of the same thing he’d asked her repeatedly on their way from the exhibit hall to here. How annoying, not knowing what was happening.

“Letting off some steam.” He pushed the barbell up, making not a single sound. But she could see in his extreme grimace that he was struggling.

Vanessa stepped off the treadmill and rushed to stand next to him. She’d never lifted weights, but she’d spent enough time in the gym to know that people usually needed someone standing behind them during the process.

He lifted five times, with her watching, before finally placing the barbell in its rack. She stood, watching, mesmerized by what she was seeing. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, so his biceps were fully visible with every movement. It was clear this was a normal thing for him.

He sat up and looked up at her. “You’re right. I feel better.”

Suddenly, it was like something came over her. A part of her that was far more courageous than she actually felt. She walked around until she was standing in front of him and leaned over, pausing with her face just inches from his.

This was his chance to meet her halfway. Far less than halfway, actually. If he looked at her with a what-are-you-doing? sort of expression, she’d back away and probably go bury herself under her covers for the rest of the day. But he didn’t have that expression on his face as he returned her stare. Instead, his entire body language seemed to change as he tried to catch his breath, then realized what was happening.

He stood, putting a hand on each of her arms. This was it. This was the moment he was going to reject her. The entire world seemed to completely melt away in the seconds that followed as she waited for him to give her some sort of we-can’t-do-this speech.

Instead, she found him looking down at her with heat in his eyes. It wasn’t her imagination. There was something between them. That was clearly communicated in that one look.

He took it from there. Gently, he tugged her toward him, lowering his mouth to hers. At first, his lips gently brushed hers, as if testing to see if she was okay with this. She took that as a sign she needed to push things to the next level, wrapping her hands around his waist and pulling him toward her to deepen the kiss.

There had never been a kiss that had gone through her the way this one did. It spread warmth through her body, making her forget everything else. She sighed as she rose on tiptoe to get closer to him, completely forgetting everything else.

If he hadn’t pulled away, she didn’t know if she ever would have voluntarily ended the kiss. In fact, she didn’t need to eat, breathe, or sleep if she could just stay here, in this fitness room, in his arms. But the first thing he did when he stepped back was to look to his left, at the lens that was only inches from them.

Seriously? Had this guy never heard of a zoom button?

Clearing his throat, Heath stepped back and looked at her. “Sorry about that.”

She smiled. “I’m not.”

Yeah, she was taking a risk in responding that way. He could very well regret what he’d just done, and she’d made it clear she didn’t. But the chance she was taking was that he was saying that for the cameras, not because he really regretted it. If so, she wanted to make it clear-on camera -that she was one hundred percent on board with what had just happened.

“Okay, I’m not, either.”

Now he was smiling, too, and her heart did a little leap at the sight. That was exactly what she needed to hear right now. But she also needed to get him out of here before they looked like they were in here making out instead of working.

“I’d better get back to the booth.”

He said the words, not her, which was the perfect way for it to go. She nodded and stepped back, already missing the feel of his arms around her. She was pretty sure that was all she’d be thinking about until they returned home.