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I understood all of that.
And because of that, I had to let it go and let Quinton off the hook so he didn’t spend the rest of his life beating himself up about it.
Quinton and I shared a love for one another that was oftentimes very prickly and antagonistic, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Tyson Alexander might have been my best friend in the whole world, but his uncle was very much my person.
I opened my eyes, looked up, and sucked in a sharp breath. “Quinton,” I choked out in a tortured whisper.
Marcus Cole was standing on his balcony. He had a cup of coffee in his hands, and he wasn’t even pretending not to be watching Quinton and me.
How long had he been standing there? Did he just watch Quinton and me have pool sex for the first time like some creepy perverted Peeping Tom?
“I’ll kill him,” Quinton muttered under his breath.
I made a noise of agreement. If Marcus had just watched the show we’d put on, then I wouldn’t try to stop Quinton for once.
“We need a fence.” Why was he still watching us like that?
“No, Ariel, what we need is to have no neighbors. Marcus has got to go. His time has run out.”
Well now, I didn’t like the sound of that at all. It wasn’t like we could simply ask the man to move and expect him to go along with it. That was crazy.
“You stay here. Whatever you do, do not get out of this pool until that motherfucker is gone and isn’t going to get an eyeful of you. Thankfully I don’t think he’s been able to see all of you from that angle.”
No, just the top half of my body.
Marcus Cole had clearly seen my tits.
I wanted to cry.
Quinton kissed my shoulder sweetly, and I felt him move away from me. I wanted to ask him to come back as soon as he was gone. I didn’t want Marcus to look at Quinton naked either and see what was mine.
And why the fuck was he still staring? Obviously we’d seen him, so why wouldn’t he look away?
A shadow blocked my view, and a hand appeared before me. When I didn’t grab hold of the hand, someone grabbed my biceps, and I was plucked right out of the water. I didn’t fight. The silver swirl of tattoos on the arms told me one of my loyal bodyguards had once again come to my rescue.
A big, fluffy towel was wrapped around me, covering me from my shoulders all the way down to my knees. I felt like a child whose parent had just declared bath time was over. I half expected him to carry me up the stairs, put me into my pajamas, and tuck me into bed.
I looked up into the beautiful eyes of Trenton. There was no judgment there, only concern for me. Yeah, I definitely had feelings for the man, and he had feelings for me.
“Come on, let’s get you inside.”
I noticed there was no towel for Quinton, but I kept my mouth shut as I allowed Trenton to usher me up the deck stairs.
Simon was standing on the deck, but he didn’t look at me. His sole focus was on Marcus Cole whostillhad not taken his eyes off of me.
I had a feeling things were about to get far more complicated than they already were.
Out of all the people in my life, I had never expected Marcus to be someone who’d turn on me. Not that he had yet, but it certainly felt like that was the way the wind was blowing.
And now I wanted to cry again. I should have known better. All the men who’d picked Vivian as a lover never turned out to be good people.
Had Marcus just been pretending this whole time?
The first tear slid silently down my cheek. It was the first of many that I ignored while Trenton escorted me safely up to my room. He didn’t come inside with me, but I had a feeling he didn’t go far either.
12
Ithought I was in shock. I was definitely numb.
