Her Superhero Lover: A BWWM BBW Billionaire Superhero Romance (2 page)

"I can understand that," Renee said. She watched as the
Asian girl stood stone faced in the director's wrath, and shook her
head. "I hope to God that our half goes better."

"Me too."

Just then, Grady Voelker walked up, his arms crossed over his
powerful chest. Up close, he was even more impressive, and Renee felt
her throat go dry. It'd been a long time since a guy had made her
feel so nervous. "Is it like this on all film sets?" he
whispered, his face concerned. "I didn't expect this at all."

"Depends on the set, Mr. Voelker," Renee replied, finding
her voice. "I did one shoot with a guy who was an extra on a
Michael Bay movie, he said it could be even worse. He said Bay had
people in tears almost constantly. On the other hand, I've heard that
Tarantino is actually really cool to work with."

Voelker nodded, and touched his lips. "Okay. Hold on just a
minute then." He walked over to the director, tapping her on the
shoulder and leading her away. Their conversation was short and
quiet, until the director's face broke, and she walked out of the
bank branch, trying to control her tears. Grady went over to one of
the cameramen, spoke to him quietly again, and smiled, patting the
man on the shoulder. He came back to Renee and Kristy, a satisfied
smile on his face. "Thanks. By the way, call me Grady. My dad
was Mr. Voelker."

He turned to the assembled group. "Okay, everyone, can I have
your attention?" he called, his voice easily carrying through
the group. "If you guys don't know, I'm Grady Voelker, and I
guess I'm the guy paying for all of this today. Anyway, I made a
decision, and our director has been replaced. I'm putting the
lighting director and lead cameraman in charge. Guys, raise your
hands please?"

The two did, and Grady nodded. "Thanks. All right, I'm going to
admit I don't know a lot about how to run a photo shoot or a
commercial shoot. But I know a bit about business, and I don't
tolerate abusive treatment of my employees or my customers. So even
if it takes some extra time, I'd rather we get this done without
screaming or yelling. Anyone have questions about filming or stuff
like that, talk to our new directors. Anyone has questions about the
money side of things, talk to me."

Renee could see as the crew relaxed visibly, their stress gone with
the departure of the director. The lighting director took over pretty
well, and another take was soon prepped. Grady sat down in a
director's chair next to Renee, which brought him to only a few
inches taller than her. "Thanks again. So what's your name?"

"Renee," she replied, still a bit stunned. "Renee
Williams. And I really didn't do too much."

"So you say. How long have you been doing commercials, Renee?"

Renee shook her head. "This is only my third TV commercial. I
do mostly print work, eyeglasses and stuff like that. But I get most
of my work in DJ'ing."

"Really? I'm surprised," Grady said. "I'd taken you
for an industry expert."

"Well, I did my first makeup shoot six years ago, so I've been
in the local scene a while. Like I said though, it's mostly part-time
nowadays."

"I understand. I'd pick music over modeling myself too, if I
had any sort of artistic talent. What sort of stuff do you play?"
Grady asked, giving her a dazzling smile. Was he actually interested
in her?

"Well, like a lot of DJ's I have a pretty big selection of
stuff I can work with. I've done some mariachi stuff, rock, old beach
music for the Baby Boomers, and of course pop, hip hop and what I
guess we could just call urban. Lots of remixes too, although I've
yet to play any of the big electronic raves. I'd like too though,
they are a lot easier than a hip-hop festival."

Grady nodded, conceding the point. "Any good stories from the
turntables, or do DJ's even use those any more?"

Renee laughed quietly, making sure not to interrupt the shooting
taking place. "I do, but I don't use it a lot. Nowadays it's
easier to load up a high quality audio file of the play list, then
drag and drop stuff out as we need it. During the song, I use
electronic manipulators to tweak and rework the sounds. I can
actually make it sound just like an old school DJ scratching the
record if I want."

Their conversation was interrupted as the lighting director came
over, telling them that the first half of the commercial was wrapped
up, and they were ready for the second scene. Renee sat as the loan
officer, while Kristy and the man (she never did get his name) were
supposed to be the customers. After a few still shots with them
posing over loan documents from various angles, it was time for the
video portion, in which Grady would speak. She glanced at him while a
makeup artist touched up his forehead, and saw he looked nervous.
"Just remember, there are a lot scarier things out there,"
she whispered when he came back over.

Grady grinned and looked down at her, giving her a wink. "So
when do you play your next gig?" he asked while the set crew ran
around getting last minute adjustments done.

"Thursday, I'm playing at Bang Bang," Renee said. "I'm
doing a mix of Asian and hip-hop."

"Nice deal. I've got some work to do late on Thursday, but I'll
do my best to stop by. What time are you on?"

"Ten until two, in three sets. The ten to eleven, eleven
fifteen to twelve forty five, and one to two."

"What's the extra half hour for?"

Renee smiled and tapped her fingers on the desk. "Got some new
stuff, straight from Korea. The club owner is letting me work it into
the last set, but that means a long second set to make sure the crowd
is hot for the night."

"I gotcha. Well, I'll see what I can do."

The director came over, checking if they were ready, and their
conversation stopped. The shoot went quickly, and by the time the
clock reached four in the afternoon, the entire shot was wrapped up.
Renee was impressed, she had expected it to go until dark like a lot
of shoots she'd been on. Grady's decision to fire the director had
paid off. As everyone was wrapping up, she pulled off her wig. Grady,
who was approaching, paused as he saw the red streak in her hair.
"Whoa. So is red your thing?'

Renee laughed and ran her fingers through the long extension. "Well,
it is this week. Bang Bang is going with a red motif, and they're my
highest paying gig. Besides, it coordinates with my outfit."

"Really? I'd enjoy seeing that."

"Come on by Thursday and you'll get a chance." She was
about to say something else when Grady's cell phone rang, and he
pulled it out of his suit coat pocket. He talked to the caller for a
minute, then hung up, shrugging his shoulders. "Business?"

"Always. Anyway, it was a pleasure meeting you, Renee. And I
promise, I'll do my best to come by Bang Bang on Thursday."

Renee watched him walk out of the bank, shaking hands and thanking
most of the crew, disappearing into the warm San Diego afternoon to
climb into a Lotus sports car. Kristy, who had changed out of her
commercial shoot clothes and into a jeans and a t-shirt that said
"USNA" on it, jogged her elbow. "He's cute. And he
looked into you."

Renee shook her head and lightly guffawed. "You must be crazy.
That man has enough money and looks to get anyone he wanted. There's
no way he's interested in a girl from the Heights like me. I just
wonder if he'll actually come by my set, or if he was just being
nice. I'll count it as a win if he comes by."

"You never know," Kristy replied. "You never can
tell."

Renee took a deep breath and blew it out, emptying her stomach as
much as she could. "All right Lin, ratchet it."

"You sure?" Lin, one of the staff at Bang Bang asked. "You
going to be able to do three sets with it cinched like this?"

"I'm sure. Besides, it looks tighter than it is, the fabric's
got some give to it."

"Okay, if you say so." The pretty brunette pulled, and the
laces on the back of Renee's corset pulled more. There was a moment
when the pressure was almost too much, but Renee held out, knowing
that the knot Lin used would slip a bit as she tied it down. When the
slip came, and then Lin finished the bow knot, she took a shallow
breath, fighting the urge to gulp down air. "Okay, that's all
set."

The key to breathing in her DJ gear, Renee had learned, was slow,
calm breaths. The tight black satin and vinyl bustier and corset over
her stomach served two purposes. First, the leatherish dominatrix
look played well with her forte, and gave her a unique appearance
that blended steampunk with dystopian science fiction well. Secondly,
and in her opinion more importantly, she looked great in it, her body
having an hourglass look, she rarely had a chance to feel like it had
in real life. When the black corset was matched with the blood red
tight pants she was wearing tonight, a waist length wide lapeled
jacket and her trademark goggles (tonight rocking ruby red lenses to
reflect the motif), she felt transformed, from normal everyday Renee
Williams into Litezout, her stage name. Feeling her heart slow down
from the effort of holding her breath, she turned to Lin, who was
shaking her head and grinning. "Thanks Lin. I know you think I'm
nuts."

"Renee, the patrons come in and pay to listen to your mixes and
dance their asses off, not to ogle you. You're behind the table for
all except thirty seconds each time. Why the hell do you put yourself
through this each time?"

Renee thought about it for a moment, then answered honestly. "Up
there Lin, it's really weird. I'm both the center of attention and
totally anonymous. But because of that, I can be that sexy girl that
I just don't feel like when I go down to the beach or out to the
mall. I think I told you, the last guy to take me out was to the Del
Mar Fair, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. I felt like I was
going to the fair with a buddy, not a guy who wanted me. We weren't
even on the second ride and I felt like I was in the friend zone."

"That's what you get for dating just black guys. I keep telling
you, find yourself a good Latino like I got, and they'll be all over
you. They know how to appreciate a woman with some meat on her
bones." The manager called from the back, and Lin turned her
head. "Okay, gotta go. Good luck on the set tonight, hope it all
goes down well."

Renee fixed the rest of her outfit, making sure her boots were
comfortably tied before heading out to the main floor of Bang Bang's,
which was dominated by the huge disco ball that hung overhead. Going
up on the stage, she double checked her equipment, making sure every
bit of it was fully connected and ready to go. Tapping away at the
keyboard of her old Macbook that powered all of it, she was barely
aware when the manager came up to talk to her. "You ready to
go?"

"Yeah, looking good," Renee said. "How's the lighting
and everything tonight?"

"Good. Standard controls, you can set it based off your BPM's
if you want. We just got a call, there's some VIP's expected tonight.
Seems they heard about your act, and wanted to catch what you've got.
Just wanted to pass that along as a congrats."

"You get a name?" Renee asked, thinking back to Grady
Voelker and his comment three days ago. "Just for curiosity's
sake."

"None at all. Just that some VIP's might be by. Don't even know
when they might be coming in, so keep your eyes open. If the door
staff can, they'll send a runner up here with a head's up."

"Thanks."

The manager went off, and Renee did her final checks. The doors
opened, and for about the first hour things were relatively quiet.
Bang Bang, in addition to being a popular nightclub, also sported
some pretty good food, and caught a lot of the late dinner crowd. She
relaxed for most of the time, playing some light dance music with no
remixing to let those who wanted to groove after visiting the gastro
pub work off their oysters on the half shell.

Starting at ten though, the lights dropped, and Litezout took over.
The giant disco ball started rotating, and red lasers bounced off the
surface, with the club getting more and more packed. Renee launched
into her first set, starting off with electronic heavy dance before
progressing into heavier bass mixes. If it had been a Friday or if
she had been in a club more known for their hip hop, she would have
nixed some of her selections, but she was glad to work at Bang Bang.
Despite Lin's comment about only dating black guys, Renee felt like
she was anything but the stereotypical "black girl." Her
music tastes ranged from Wu-Tang to Swedish House Mafia, and she even
sometimes mixed in stuff from before she was born. She'd had great
response a few years back to when she had remixed Rick Astley's
"Never Gonna Give You Up" during the whole "Rick Roll"
fad.

It was around ten thirty that she saw Grady Voelker make his way
through the crowd, and she stumbled for just a second. Hitting the
wrong button, her reverb shot way up for a second before she
readjusted. The crowd didn't seem to mind however, they were pretty
hot for a Thursday night. Recovering quickly, she kept on with her
set, although she kept one eye on Grady the whole time.

He was easily the most handsome man in the room, and he was dressed
perfectly for the scene, not too trendy so as to come off as a party
freak, but not so conservatively as to be a stiff poser. Instead, he
carried himself with an easy confidence and gait that could have made
him look good if he had come in wearing sweat pants and a Chargers
t-shirt. It was the personality that carried with it a natural
magnetism, and Renee felt more than a little bit of jealousy as every
beautiful single woman in the room seemed to make their way over to
him. It reminded her of an anecdotal story she had heard from a
friend of a friend in the DJ business about Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo
had walked into a trendy club in Miami, and less than a half hour
later walked out with twenty five girls for a private party. It had
caused quite a few laughs over the phone line when she'd first heard
the story.