Page 14 of Beyond the Red Carpet

Her fingers brushed against her lower lip. That kiss in the alley… It had awakened something she thought long dormant. Something that had nothing to do with rehabbing her image.

Vanessa had done her best to act like she’d been unaffected by their kisses last night when they’d come back here, that it had been just another performance for her, but she’d hardly slept last night, knowing that that wasn’t true.

She couldn’t dismiss the way Kate’s touch had set her skin ablaze, or the way her heart had thundered in her chest when their lips met.

Vanessa sighed, running a hand through her hair. This was not part of the plan. She had agreed to this charade to salvageher reputation, to regain control of the headlines. But now, with Kate just upstairs, Vanessa found herself grappling with feelings she had no right to entertain.

She needed to get a handle on this, to remember why she had agreed to this in the first place. Yet, even as Vanessa tried to convince herself that their plan was working, she couldn’t shake the memory of Kate’s fingers tracing the line of her jaw, or the way her breath had caught in her throat when Vanessa had pulled her closer.

Vanessa closed her eyes, willing the images to fade. This was not the time to get lost in the whirlwind of her own emotions. She had a reputation to salvage, a career to protect. Anything else was a distraction she couldn’t afford.

She opened the security app on her phone, glad to see that the photographer hadn’t come back. At some point between one and four o’clock this morning he’d left. But now, she watched as Elliot’s black Mercedes pulled up to her gate and punched in the code. Her agent never showed up unannounced, not in more than twenty years of working together.

“Here we go,” she whispered, placing her mug on the counter.

The security monitor on the wall displayed Elliot parking behind her car. He wore an impeccably tailored navy suit, his silver hair catching the morning light.

Vanessa glanced down at her black silk robe and bare feet. There was no time to change. The sound of Elliot’s car door echoed through the quiet morning. She padded to her front door and reached for the handle just as Elliot raised his hand to knock.

“You’re here early.” She opened the door wide, studying his expression.

Elliot stood on her doorstep, newspapers and magazines tucked under one arm and his phone in his other hand. Hisperfectly groomed eyebrows arched high on his forehead, a gleam in his eyes that she recognized from countless publicity campaigns over the years.

“Darling, have you seen the headlines?” He stepped past her into the foyer, his designer shoes clicking against the floor.

Vanessa followed Elliot into her kitchen, where he laid out an array of tabloids and magazines across her pristine marble counter. The glossy pages captured every moment of last night in vivid detail.

She forgot to breathe as she took in the first image. There she was, with pressing Kate her against the wall. The streetlight had cast a golden glow across Kate’s face, her lips parted, eyes half-closed. The raw intimacy of the moment struck her.

“These are absolutely perfect.” Elliot spread out more tabloids. “The lighting, the composition, the chemistry-”

Vanessa barely heard him. Her fingers hovered over another shot. This one showed Kate pulling her closer, their bodies melding together. The image transported her back to that moment, to the heat of Kate’s breath against her neck, the softness of her lips.

“Look at this one,” Elliot tapped a close-up. “The way she’s looking at you...”

Vanessa’s stomach tightened. In the photo, Kate gazed at her with such open vulnerability it made her chest ache. She remembered that exact moment. That was when the line between performance and reality had blurred beyond recognition for her.

The headlines screamed across the pages: “VANESSA’S NEW LOVE,” “HOLLYWOOD’S HOTTEST NEW COUPLE,” “PRESCOTT MOVES ON.” But these words felt hollow compared to the truth captured in those images. The passion. The hunger.

“Vanessa?” Elliot’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Are you alright?”

She pulled her gaze away from the photos, forcing herself to look at her agent. “Yes, I just...” Her voice trailed off as her eyes drifted back to the images spread before her.

Footsteps on the stairs pulled Vanessa’s attention from the photographs. Kate descended, wearing the same white pants and teal blouse from last night, her hair tousled from sleep.

Kate paused at the kitchen entrance, her eyes widening at the sight of Elliot. “Oh, hi.”

Vanessa’s throat went dry. The tabloids scattered across her counter told one story, but the reality of their night apart in separate rooms painted another. She caught the slight darkening of Elliot’s expression as his gaze darted between them, his lips curling into a knowing smile.

Kate’s gaze drifted across Vanessa’s silk robe, lingering at the exposed skin of her collarbone.

Vanessa’s breath caught in her throat. The air between them crackled with an electric tension. Kate’s eyes traveled up, meeting Vanessa’s with an intensity that transported her back to the alley, to passionate kisses and desperate touches.

“Well, well.” Elliot straightened his tie. “I see our little plan worked better than expected.”

“It’s not-” Vanessa started, but the words died in her throat as Kate stepped closer, her presence magnetic, and Vanessa’s mind flashed to their heated kisses with her back against the wall in that alley.

Elliot’s eyebrows rose higher as he observed their loaded silence. His assumption was written across his face, that the passion captured in those photographs had led to something more, that Kate’s presence this morning meant exactly what it appeared to mean.

---