The CEO and Her Driver

Chapter 35

Laliana looped her arm through mine. "Don't stop. They love that. Just stick with me. It'll confuse them. Kindness is something they don't seem to get. Plus I'm hungry and pausing will just make me hangry and I wouldn't wish that on you. On them, sure. But not on you."

She turned and wiggled her eyebrows at me. "Now do your best not to look like you want to murder them. Just think about my ugly purse."

I let out a surprised laugh as we walked through the glass doors, impressed that she had purposefully brought her wild-looking purse to distract me from murder. I liked her.

Two bodyguards moved out of the shadows, flanking us on either side, keeping the paparazzi from getting too close to Laliana, and by extension, me. The paparazzi seemed speechless. Confused that we didn't bring a catfight out onto the sidewalk, but instead walked arm in arm, laughing at an ugly purse.

A bodyguard opened a car door and ushered us inside while the other stood before the cameras, blocking their view. "Thank you boys," Laliana called before the door closed, shutting out the cameras and gawking faces.

"Step one complete," Laliana said, looking pleased before sprawling out ungracefully in the back of the car.

"What's step two?"

She smiled, throwing her arms above her head in victory. "Lunch!" 

Laliana turned and offered me another grin. "Then I am going to fill you in on a few things. Because paparazzi suck and they've been extra mean to you." She glared at them through the window, even though they couldn't see her face. "Just because you are strong doesn't mean you should be painted as a villain. And I want to help fix that."

We pulled away from the curb, Laliana's kindness stunning me into silence.

...

Lunch wasn't at a restaurant, or at a hole-in-the-wall place, or at a place at all. Instead of going inside and being trapped by cameras watching our every move through glass, we had picked up a large pizza and taken it to an unoccupied lifeguard tower at the beach. Legs swinging off the side, feet covered in sand, and fingers greasy with the best pizza I had ever eaten. It was a slice of heaven... pun not intended. 

Laliana tilted her head back, catching the end of a melted string of cheese in her mouth before consuming another slice of pizza like a hungry gremlin. "I'm so glad you like pizza," Laliana said, attempting to catch another string of cheese. "Aiden doesn't like most unhealthy foods. So this is a real treat." 

I wrinkled my nose at the mention of her grumpy fiancé. It was hard to imagine Laliana picking someone like him. "Oh... I know that look," Laliana said past a mouth full of pizza. "Aiden isn't the best with first impressions." She wiped her hands on a napkin, her face thoughtful. "And he's very protective of Tate. I know he was a little... much when you met him." 

I resisted the urge to snort. Understatement.

"So... speaking of people being a bit much..." Laliana said with some hesitation. "I heard you've been spending time with Tate for the last few weeks." She eyed me over a can of soda as she took a long, pointed sip.

I eyed her carefully. "Yep. That tends to happen when you hire someone to drive you around."

She glanced over my shoulder, suddenly distracted away from the topic of Tate. "We have some company. But they won't get too close with Hank and Stewart around." A mischievous smile crossed her face. "Bodyguards tend to keep paparazzi wary of getting too close." 

Laliana put down her soda and wiped her hands on her knees. "Two things you need to know about those vultures with cameras. One, they will follow you anywhere. If they think there is something to know, they will sniff it out, or make it up in order to keep things interesting. And two, if you look even remotely irritated, you get the villain treatment."