He went around the front of the Mercedes and opened the driver’s door, sliding in. After fastening his seatbelt and checking to make sure she was buckled, he started the car with a push of the ignition button. The car was very comfortable with its heated leather seats.
“So, you never said, where are we going?” she asked.
Samuel glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and smiled. “Well, I thought we could go back to the park. I packed a picnic lunch. I do hope that is alright with you?” He raised a brow and smiled again.
Camila thought that was actually quite a romantic thing to do. “It is,” she murmured, her cheeks feeling warm under his approving gaze.
They reached the park in no time. After Samuel parked the car, he walked around to her side and opened the door, helping her out. It was a kind and gentlemanly thing to do and Camila found herself enjoying it. It made her feel cherished. Something no other guy had ever accomplished. He opened the back door and pulled out a thick red and black checkered blanket, a large woven basket, and a paper grocery bag with handles.
“Do you need me to carry anything?” Camilla asked watching him settle everything in his arms.
“I think I’ve got it,” he commented and then held his elbow out for her to take.
Camila threaded her arm through his elbow and they walked from the parking lot out to the grassy area. They stopped once they reached a nice sunny spot away from everyone. Samuel set the bag and basket down, removed the blanket from his arm and spread it over the ground. He took her hand and helped her to sit, and then sat down himself. He pulled the basket and bag over to them and began pulling things out.
“I brought several things, because I wasn’t sure what you would like.” He smiled as he opened the basket and began to bring out different food items. “We’ve got turkey, roast beef, chicken, and ham. I brought several different toppings as well.”
Camila’s eyes widened. He really had brought just about everything she could possibly want. She noticed one bottle that seemed homemade. “What’s that?” she asked.
Samuel picked it up and smiled. “It’s basil and olive oil. It’s one of my favorite sandwich toppings.” He handed her the bottle. “Have you ever had it?”
Camila shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.” She opened the bottle and smelled it. “It does smell good. Maybe I’ll try it.” She looked up at him, softly smiling.
“If you don’t like it, there is plenty to make you something else,” he said as he pulled out two loaves of bread, white and wheat, as well as some brioche buns. “Alright, so what will it be?”
Camila looked over all the choices, amazed at how thoughtful it was for him to bring such a variety, especially since he didn’t know what she liked. “Um, well, one of the brioche buns, with lettuce, tomato, white cheddar and turkey, is that okay?” she said anxiously.
“Of course, and you want to try the basil and olive oil?” Samuel met her gaze.
She could tell he was really trying hard to please her and make this a wonderful day. “Yes, I do.”
With a nod, he began making the two sandwiches. He made the same for himself as he did for her, except he went with provolone cheese. He set each sandwich on a paper plate and handed one to her. Before he ate, he waited for her to take a bite.
Camila bit into the soft buttery bun. The crunch of the lettuce, with the tomato, turkey and cheese mixed with the flavor of the basil and olive oil was exquisite. She’d never had such a scrumptious sandwich. “Mmmm. This is delicious,” she commented, smiling up at him.
Samuel grinned and then took his time devouring his own sandwich.
As they ate, Camila asked, “So, you mentioned you have a sister. Does she live with you too? I never saw her when I was at the house. Or has she married and moved on with her own family?”
“No, Brianna is younger than Adrien and me. She’s only nineteen. She’s a real sweetheart, but she doesn’t exactly like meeting new people. She keeps mostly to herself.” Samuel looked a little uncomfortable and Camila wondered why.
“That’s kind of sad,” she murmured. “Didn’t she go to school? Make friends?”
“My parents were extremely protective over her after—” he stopped, his voice sort of broken. “After the accident. She grew up with a tutor. When our parents were here, she would join in some of the festivities, but never for very long.” He took a breath and then smiled. “Sorry, it’s hard to speak about. She is the main reason I left the military when my parents died. I couldn’t leave her with Adrien. He’s… not a caring brother.”
Camila nodded. She knew that all too well. How his parents had managed to raise such different men, well it was beyond her understanding. She frowned into her cup of soda.
“I’m sorry. I did not mean to bring the conversation down. Would you like dessert?” He turned and pulled out individual slices of different cakes and pies from the basket. "What would you like?”
Camilla grinned. “The chocolate of course.”
“Of course.” Samuel chuckled and handed her the decadent death by chocolate cake. “Would you… would you like to meet Brianna?” he asked a few minutes later.
Camila had just taken a huge bite of the cake, so she nodded and wiped her mouth off with a napkin. “Yes, definitely.”
He nodded. “I think you’ll be good for her. I mean I think that she will like you.”
Camila blushed. “I hope she’ll like me.”
“I like you.” Samuel put his hand over hers for a moment and smiled. With a contented sigh, he began putting things away. “This has been fun. I don’t get to do this very often.”
“What? You mean to tell me you don’t do picnics in the park every day?” Camila said, a merry sparkle in her eye. “I’m crushed to find that out.”
Samuel let out a deep laugh which flowed over Camila and made her shiver at the delicious sound. Once he had everything packed back up in the basket and their trash in the paper bag, he helped her to her feet and then lifted the blanket and folded it back up. He once again offered his arm as they walked back to the car. Being the gentleman that he was, Samuel opened her door and saw her settled before climbing in the driver’s seat.
As they drove, Camila realized where they were headed and suddenly got leery. “Um, Samuel?”
“Hmmm?” He looked over at her and noticing the look of worry on her face, signaled the car to pull over to the side of the road. He put the car in park and put the hazard lights on. “What’s the matter? Do you feel sick?”
“No, it’s not that. Um, are we going to your house?”
“Well, you said you wanted to meet Brianna, so I thought—” he stopped and must have realized why she was worried. “I understand. Adrien isn’t there. He’s leased an apartment in town, I believe. At least that is what my team tells me. He hasn’t been to the house since the day you walked out.”
“Oh,” Camila murmured, blushing. “I didn’t know.”
“You couldn’t have known. I should have said,” Samuel acknowledged, smiling at her. “If you don’t want to go today, we can do it another day.”
Camila looked up at him and smiled. “No, it’s fine. I do want to meet her.”
With a nod, Samuel turned off the hazard lights, put the car in drive and signaled to get back on the road. Camila had noticed that not only was he a gentleman, he was also a very courteous driver and it made her like him even more.
They arrived at his home a few minutes later and once he helped her from the car, he escorted her into the house, his hand gentle on her back. They went into the living room and he settled her on the couch before excusing himself.
“I’ll be right back, do you need anything?” he asked.
“No, I’m fine, thank you.” Camila blushed. Her heart raced a little bit being back in his house, but this time the situation was so different. She didn’t feel as though she didn’t belong. Instead, she felt like an honored guest. So different from every time she’d been there with Adrien.
She waited patiently
and a few minutes later, Samuel returned, holding hands with a fragile looking girl. She was only four years younger than Camila herself. Brianna Kane was small, pale and thin-faced, with enormous green eyes and slightly lank waist-length black hair. She looked haunted, even though it was hidden behind other emotions.
“Brianna, I’d like you to meet Camila Blake.” Samuel drew the girl forward.
She looked up at him and then back to Camila. She smiled and gave Camila a nod.
“Hi, Brianna, it’s so nice to meet you.” Camila gave her a wide smile. “Your brother said he thought we might get along well. I hope you don’t mind me asking him to introduce us.”
Brianna shook her head, but didn’t say anything, just smiled.
Camila looked up at Samuel, giving him a questioning look.
Gesturing for them all to sit, he said, “Brianna has a medical condition. She suffers from elective mutism.”
“Oh, I didn’t know, I’m sorry, Brianna.” Camila hadn't gotten the details as to why, but from Samuel’s hinting, she assumed it was from the incident that happened while she was young.
Brianna shrugged her shoulders and smiled, she appeared to laugh, but didn’t make a sound.
“Bri, I was thinking of inviting Camila to dinner here later this week, would you like to join us?”
“Oh, that would be fun, please say yes,” Camila agreed, looking at her brightly.
Brianna nodded.
“Excellent, we’ll make a whole evening of it, dinner and a movie, Bri will you and Camilla choose the movie?” he asked, encouraging her to engage with them.
Brianna looked at Camila shyly and nodded. She stood and held her hand out to Camila.
Camila took her hand and Brianna began to pull her toward the stairs. She looked over her shoulder at Samuel, but he just nodded and smiled.
When Brianna pulled her through a door, Camila asked, “Oh, is this your room?”
Brianna nodded and drew her over to a cabinet filled with movies.
“You have some of my favorites,” she commented looking over the stash.
Brianna pointed at a couple and after a few minutes, they’d chosen two. Disney’s Frozen and Must Love Dogs.
By the time Samuel dropped her off at home, she was already excited for their next date.
“Thank you for today, it was lovely.” Camila smiled up at him before standing on her toes and kissing his cheek. When she came back down on her feet, she was blushing.
“I had a wonderful time too. I think Brianna really likes you.” He squeezed her hands in his, smiling down at her. “I have to work tomorrow, but I’ll text you, is that alright?”
Camila nodded. “Yes, of course.”
Samuel squeezed her hands again and then brushed a strand of hair from her face. “Sleep well,” he murmured, a gentle smile on his lips as the back of his fingers stroked her cheek. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” Camila turned and opened her door.
She looked at Samuel as he descended the stairs and then turned back to her and waved. She waited until he was back in his car before going through the door and up to her apartment. It had been one of the best days she could ever remember.
Chapter Fourteen
For the first time in a long while, Camila was stuck sitting at the office. One of the other guys had an emergency and someone needed to fill in for him for the day. She was the only one currently without a project and reachable, so she was called in. The most annoying part of it though, was that she wasn’t even really qualified to do what they wanted.
“Here you go, Camila,” one of her colleagues said, handing her some documents. “Go through those as quickly as you can, all right? The article should be five hundred words. Don’t worry if it’s not good, we’ll be checking it before it goes up, but at least include all the important info from here, okay?”
“All right,” she said, taking the documents.
The blog alone wasn’t the only source of income the company had. Aside from the main blog, that could be updated anywhere from two to five times a month, there were smaller sites that needed posts a lot faster than that. Some of them had content posted daily, so there was plenty of menial work to do at the office. Camila mostly got out of it since she was mainly a photographer and sometimes an interviewer, but rarely a writer. Her work in that department wasn’t as good, but they were desperate today.
She got down to work, reading quickly over the documents and typing up an article. It took her an hour, then she sent it where it was needed. She sat down to wait and see if there would be more. She’d already done four today, but there might still be more. Unlike when she could hand in her part of an article a week, or after two weeks, this was certainly different.
Her phone vibrated on top of the desk, and she perked up. She checked, and sure enough, it was from Samuel. Suddenly she was all smiles, even feeling the urge to giggle as she replied to his message.
“Oh?” Sandra, one of her colleagues said from behind her, making her look around. “What’s this? Camila, are you dating again? I had no idea.”
“Yeah, it’s something pretty new,” she said nonchalantly, trying to hide her excitement from before.
“Well, I’m happy for you. I hope he’s better than the last guy.”
“He is way better than Jordan,” Camila said with confidence, no one at work had been aware of Adrien, so she didn’t bother mentioning him.
Sandra handed her more papers. “You know what to do by now, right? Don’t worry. A couple more articles and you can finally leave, all right?”
Camila took the papers, ready to get down to work, though her mind was still on Samuel.
Another date on the weekend, she thought happily.
It had been a few weeks since they started going out, and she had to say things were going pretty well. She and Samuel got together a few times a week. Considering Samuel’s job, it was more time than she’d thought they’d be able to be together. She looked forward to every moment she got to be with him. He hadn’t so much as kissed her on the lips once, but a few times on the temple. It was gentle and caring, and made her feel cherished as they took their time in the relationship. Occasionally he would touch her hand, sending shivers of excitement through her as they chatted over coffee, or he’d place his hand on her back as he guided her through a door. They’d walk around the city with their arms linked often. Camila was really happy with every single moment they’d spent together so far.
Especially since she was dating a sane and normal guy, and it was a relief after putting up with Jordan’s and Adrien’s bullshit. Samuel was also nothing like Jordan, who only ever thought of sex when he wasn’t even that great at it. She’d forgotten what it could be like, dating a good guy. Or maybe she’d never known because she’d never really dated someone like Samuel before. Was that why she’d fallen for Adrien’s bullshit time and time again? She’d gotten so used to being treated badly that she hadn’t known better?
But Samuel was so considerate. He opened car doors for her. He offered her his coat last week when they went for a walk and it was chilly out. He sent her flowers with handwritten notes that showed he’d actually gone to the florist himself and not just sent his assistant.
They texted on and off throughout the day. Funny texts. Sweet texts. This morning she’d woken up to one that read: Did you sleep well, beautiful? I dreamed of you all night. Can’t wait to see you later.
As she left work, bouncing a bit with her hands in her pockets, she felt her phone vibrate again. She grinned to herself as she pulled her phone out and opened up the message. Only, she didn’t check to see who it was from first because she was in the street, so she was taken aback to read the message.
At first, the words didn’t register to her. But then she gasped, her eyes widening as she reread the message, her other hand flying up to cover her mouth.
The text was from Adrien.
He had been texting her ever since she stopped picking up his calls, but she usually igno
red them. She didn’t even open them to delete them, just in case she might glance at something and read it. Now that she had, though, she regretted not doing so before.
What the hell…
She swiped the screen to go up the length of the chat to the first message. The messages above were sweet, because it was around the time they were getting together and dating. The first time he pissed her off, he didn’t try to text or call her, just showed up physically, so there was a gap in between the messages. They turned sweet again, then apologetic.
Then, the words got angry because apparently he was furious at her for ignoring him. Camila read on with growing horror as the messages actually started to become threatening. And scary. In one message, he even stated clearly that he knew where she worked, where she lived, and where she went, so she couldn’t hide from him.
Wait a second…
The gears turned and finally it all clicked into place—this was what had been niggling at the edge of her mind for ages. When she’d worried about seeing him outside her house and office building… How had he known where she lived? And worked? When they were together, they only ever met outside and nowhere near where her home or work place, or the places she frequented were. But somehow, he knew to appear across from the building her office was at. He also knew to appear across from the grocery store she always went to, that was only a block away from her house.
How exactly did he know how to find her?
“Shit,” she muttered, her breathing and heart beat picking up. “Shit!”
In a panic, she looked around wildly. Was he around right now? Could he see her and she couldn’t see him? Was he having her followed? Different scenarios rushed through her mind in a short moment, all of them frightening.
She slammed through the front door, almost stumbling to the floor, then rounded and shoved the door closed, breathing heavily as she locked it, her whole body trembling.
“What the hell is with the racket!” her mom’s voice came muffled from behind her, growing clearer as she left her room. “Camila? What the hell happened?”
Buried Obsession: Book 1 of the Obsession Trilogy Page 11
