Page 56 of More Than Just Friends

‘Kayleigh!’ Adonis called out. ‘Come back! I did not get to finish. Ali?’ He put his hands together in a prayer sign, then gave me puppy dog eyes.

‘Are you serious?’ My pupils popped.

Was he honestly asking me to finish him off?

Nah. He couldn’t be.

‘You should put that away, mate.’ Noah pointed between Adonis’s legs. ‘You’re embarrassing yourself. Come on, Ali.’ He led me towards the steps. ‘They deserve each other. Let’s leave them to it.’

20

ALICIA

I walked back up to the deck in a trance.

Had that really just happened?

When I first walked in on them, I couldn’t decide what was most shocking: the fact that Adonis was so blasé about being caught fucking someone else or his complete lack of remorse.

But then the fact that he blamed me was equalling galling.

And don’t even get me started on him first suggesting I join in, then the completely off-the-scale certified crazy request to finish him off.

Bloody hell.

Any one of those things seemed completely unbelievable. But all of them together was insane.

The same could be said for Kayleigh’s claims about Noah being ‘obsessed’ with me. That was nuts. Like I’d explained, he was just protective, that was all.

‘You okay?’ Noah asked.

‘Yeah.’ I nodded, thinking that strangely I was. I thought I’d wanted to go to the toilet, but clearly the shock had scared my wee away.

Of course, no one wanted to walk in on their match fucking another woman. But it stung a lot less because I knew that I wasn’t into Adonis.

I didn’t feel that attraction or that pull.

Despite the sincerity that always seemed to be in his eyes, now I knew that he was fake. He told me what I wanted to hear. He was a good actor. He looked genuine, but the words he uttered were meaningless.

Something had suddenly shifted.

Before I would’ve felt grateful that a guy like Adonis would even look at me. And I would’ve felt rejected that he’d chosen Kayleigh instead of me.

But now I realised that his actions had nothing to do with my worth.

If I’d offered to let him fuck me on this boat, he would’ve agreed.

Yeah, he’d screwed Kayleigh because she was stunning. But my guess was that Adonis wasn’t the discerning type. He would’ve literally shagged anyone who opened their legs. To him, it was just sex and any hole from anyone would do.

So instead of feeling upset, I felt relieved, because I knew he wasn’t right for me. And I was glad that I came to that conclusion before I caught him in the act. Because it meant I’d made a proactive decision about my worth.

For once, I’d trusted my gut. And it was right.

Adonis was everything I thought I wanted.

But now I knew he wasn’t everything I needed.

‘And you?’ I said. ‘How do you feel?’