Until Fountain Bridge: (InterMix) Read Online Free PDF Page B

it. Braden didn’t seem to mind. It surprised me that Braden was actually grateful to our father. I, on the other hand, thought he was an insensitive arsehole.
    As if he’d read my mind, Braden sighed. “Dad’s sorry he couldn’t be here, Ellie. I’m sorry too.”
    “Don’t apologize for him.” I turned my face away, and looked up at the ceiling to try to stop the tears. You would think after eighteen years of complete neglect I’d be over the hurt. Unfortunately, the hurt never went away. I just couldn’t understand what Douglas found so unlovable about me, or why he deliberately shunned me time and time again. It was my eighteenth birthday for God’s sake, and he couldn’t get up off his rich arse for half an hour to pop in and wish me a happy birthday.
    I heard Braden curse under his breath. He had a fairly good relationship with our dad, and I didn’t want to be the cause of any problems between them, so I gave him a squeeze and smiled at him. “I’m fine. I’m more than fine. I’m surrounded by friends and family who care about me, Braden. And that’s all
I
care about.”
    We shared a hug and the music changed to something more up-tempo again, and Mum and Clark descended on us.
    I had a dance with the two of them, giggling as they pulled out moves that hadn’t been seen in at least two decades.
    As the night continued on, I mingled with friends and family, but my eyes kept wandering through the crowd in an attempt to find Adam again. My stomach was a riot of butterflies, and I couldn’t get his voice out of my head.
    “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Els,”
    I was with Allie and Liam, watching them laughing away, but I had no idea what the conversation was about. My head was stuck in rewind.
    When the room began to feel too hot, I ordered a bottle of water from the bar and slipped out of the back of the room and found an exit. It was the fire door that led out to the back of the hotel where all the rubbish bins were stored. I stepped outside quietly, sucking in a huge gulp of air and enjoying the peace. It could give me a moment to wrap my head around what had happened—and if what I thought had happened had actually happened.
    I felt a giddy smile start to stretch my lips when a grunt followed by a moan made me freeze. The large bins were situated between me and an alcove of the building, and the sounds were coming from there. My heart picked up a little bit as I guessed what the sounds meant and what I’d stumbled upon. When another grunt sounded, I covered my mouth with my hand to keep in the giggle that was threatening to erupt.
    “Yes,” a female voice groaned. “Adam, oh, my God.”
    The giggle instantly died as blood rushed in my ears. I felt a burn in the bottom of my throat as some dark, masochistic thing inside of me made me tiptoe around the bins.
    All the hope I’d been feeling exploded and disintegrated all around me.
    As I watched Adam screw one of the female catering staff against a brick wall, I realized what an idiot I was. What a childish, naive idiot.
    And then the anger settled in. And the frustration. And the thought that somehow I wasn’t good enough—not good enough for Adam; not good enough for my father.
    My eyes narrowed. There was one person who thought I was good enough, so what was I holding out for? For flowers and sonnets and a man on bended knee? That wasn’t going to happen. This was reality. Sex was sex. There was nothing magical about it.
    Clearly.
    I wasn’t naturally an angry person, but the burn of jealousy coursed through my veins and I turned silently back to the hotel. As soon as I was inside, the image of Adam moving against the catering girl kept flashing before my eyes. I felt sick. Chugging back more water, I made a decision. I needed to wipe that image out of my brain.
    I found Clark talking to his brother in the ballroom. Thankfully, Mum wasn’t anywhere to be seen, because what I was going to ask she’d probably not be