Page 17 of My Hottest Obsession

“Are you trying to ditch me? Because I’m not giving up,” Adrien calls.

“Hold your horses, Boss Man!”

I check my reflection one last time in the hallway mirror before I take a deep breath and open the door.

“Whoa,” Adrien whispers, his dark blue eyes widening. “You look… stunning.”

His eyes meet mine, and the emotion in his eyes has me rocking back on my heels. I blink, looking away and trying to forget about how he’s staring at me as if I’m his whole world.

“Ready to go?” I ask as I step out and lock the front door behind me.

“Yes,” he says as he takes my hand in his and leads me over to the elevator.

It’s a short ride down to the first floor, and Adrien keeps my hand in his the entire time. His car is parked right out front, and he leads me over to it, opening the passenger door and helping me inside.

As soon as he’s behind the wheel, I turn to him.

“Where are we going?” I ask him, and he reaches over, grabbing my hand again.

“It’s a surprise.”

Traffic is terrible, as always, and I try to think of a neutral topic to talk about with him.

“How was your meeting this afternoon?”

“Good, but let’s not talk about work. I want to learn more about you.”

“Great,” I mumble.

“You grew up around here, right?”

“Yeah, in a suburb on the outskirts of Los Angeles. What about you?”

“Iowa, in this tiny little town. I came to school out here and fell in love with the weather and area so I stayed here after I graduated. There wasn’t a lot left for me in Iowa.”

“No family?” I ask him.

“Just some aunts and uncles, but we’re not close. My dad died when I was twenty-four, almost twenty-five, and my mom passed away a year later, right before you started working for me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks. They were good parents. They would have loved you,” he says, his thumb rubbing back and forth over the back of my hand.

“What about you? Are your parents still alive?”

“Yeah, unfortunately. Well, I think they are. I haven’t talked to my mom in a few years, and I never knew who my dad was. Just a drunken mistake, I guess.”

I hate talking about my parents, and Adrien must pick up on that because he changes the subject.

“You lived close to Lottie growing up, right?”

“Yeah, she and Rhett lived in the next place over. Anson was just down the block too. I’ve known them most of my life.”

“I’m glad you and your found family are still close.”

“Me too,” I say, turning to look out the window.

Adrien hits his blinker and turns into a parking lot.

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