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“I’m sorry…” but before I could finish, Henri cut me off.
“I just don’t want you to get hurt, Peaches.” Henri shrugged his shoulders and looked away from me. His face looked deflated, and he was staring at the ground, clearly not entirely sure what to say next. It’s as if he was weighing his options, trying to decide what to tell me.
“I know what I’m doing.”
“Do you?” he responded dryly. “This is Luca Rossi, F1’s biggest playboy. A new girl in his bed each race. And here you are, being one ofthosegirls.” I stilled for a moment, leaning back, a look of disgust on my face.
“Excuse me, I am not one ofthosegirls – whatever that means.”
Henri sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. “I didn’t mean it like that… I’m just worried he’s using you to get back at me.”
Henri definitely meant what he said about me being ‘one of those girls,’ but I decided to let it slide, curious as to why Luca would be trying to get revenge back on Henri. Henri was a bit of a drama queen, but his face told me he felt very serious about this accusation.
“Back in Monaco, I asked him to stop leading you on. And before you say anything,” he added quickly, clearly anticipating my response, “I see the way you look at him, Peaches, don’t deny it. You’ve never been good at hiding your feelings, and you’ve never been someone to have casual sex. I just… I asked him not to hurt you.
But, of course, Luca was pissed at me, I could tell, and I’m worried he’s doing these things to show me he can do what he wants when it comes to you. He’s never been a serious dater. He’s said multiple times he doesn’t want to settle down until he’s almost retired from F1. I just don’t want to see you hurt.”
I took a deep breath and looked out towards the sunrise, which had almost completely risen by this point. The sky was a deep pink and blue and yellow, utterly beautiful. I felt like the opposite of the sunrise, dark and dreary. What if what Henri had said was true? Was Luca just having fun and trying to score points over Henri because Henri had told him to back off?
‘You’re the only person I wanted to go home with tonight.’ He’d said those words when we were back at Monza. It was hard to reconcile what Henri was saying to me with the words that Luca kept whispering in my ears.
“Look, Henri, I’m just having some fun, okay? I’m fine.” I wanted the words to sound more confident, but they didn’t. I knew they fell flat, much like my heart, which now felt deflated. The more I thought about it, the more disappointment started to creep in, and I hated myself for it. This was Luca Rossi; of course, he just wanted casual sex, and if it got back at Henri, that was probably an added bonus for Luca. But also, it was hard to be mad at Luca because we weren’tactuallytogether. I was the one who initiated the sex last night, and I didn’t have a right to be angry at him.
Why would he say no to me coming into his shower?
And yet, I was feeling angry and stupid. I was feeling disappointed if I was being more truthful, and that disappointment was leading to anger. I’d said it over and over again – I wasn’t his type. What did I expect to happen? Henri was right; part of me was starting to fall for Luca, and that had to stop now.
After a few more moments of awkward silence, our quiet time was interrupted by laughter coming back from the hallway. Edward and Lauren appeared, and as Edward came up the stairs to the front deck, he walked over and gave me the biggest high-five, clearly unaware of the tense conversation that my brother and I had just exchanged. Lauren just gave him a shove and told him to knock it off, but based on the mischief in Edward’s eyes, I could see that he had no plans to stop his antics anytime soon.
“Want to go grab some more coffee?” Lauren asked, pointing in the direction of the kitchen. I nodded in response, and we both got up, leaving the boys to sit and chat a bit longer. However, I could tell from Henri's conversation that he had no tolerance for Edward or his jokes today.
“So, have a good night last night?” Lauren asked, wiggling her eyebrows at me with anticipation of the juicy gossip. I chuckled slightly and started up the coffee maker.
“So, did the entire boat hear?”
Lauren chuckled darkly and took the cup of coffee from my outstretched hands, motioning for us to sit down at the breakfast table.
“I’m just glad you took what I said to heart. Maybe we can go on a double date when we get back to Monaco!”
“Whoa, getting ahead of yourself there. It was just sex, nothing more.”
“Oh, come on, Georgie, there’s no way it was just sex. The way you two loo-“
“Lauren, good grief, there’s nothing between me and Luca. We’re barely friends. We had sex because it was convenient, that’s it,” I lied. Lauren looked a little taken aback by my words, which came out much more forcefully than I wanted, but I was frustrated –and angry. Angry that she and Edward kept feeding me these lies about Luca when it was clear he just wanted an easy fuck, and he couldn’t get it anywhere else.
We were both silent for a moment, but she nodded in response. “Well, I hope it was at least fun,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. I chuckled and nodded in agreement, giving her a knowing, sly smile. We continued to chat a bit more, changing the subject to the Maison de Klotho clothing spread I had been emailed yesterday.
* * *
Luca
After Georgia and I had slept together in Majorca, I felt like I was on cloud nine. The sex had been incredible, and I had even convinced her to stay the night and cuddle. Typically, the girls left after thirty minutes or so, but when Georgia fell asleep in my arms, I was stoked. I did everything in my power to stay still, too afraid I would wake her up, and then she would leave and head back to her room.
I felt a little guilty that her brothers had probably heard us. Edward informed me –fairly quickly– that he and Lauren had heard some noises coming from our room. That morning, after I finished getting ready, I made my way to the breakfast room only to hear her and Lauren chatting. I knew I shouldn’t listen in, but my ego got the best of me. Iwantedto hear her bragging about the amazing sex we had.
What I heard couldn’t have been more different. Instead, I heard Georgia say that the sex had meant nothing, that we were barely friends. I felt my heart drop in my stomach after that. It had meant something to me, but clearly, I was alone with those feelings. For some reason, I felt used, which I knew was ridiculous.
How many times had I had meaningless sex with women? More than was good for me.
