Love Island's Zara McDermott dropped a huge hint about her romance with Adam Collard, after he revealed his true feelings towards her for the first time since leaving the villa.

The lovebirds, who were split when Zara was voted off the show last week, have reunited for a second secret date after Adam jetted straight in to Essex after he was brutally dumped from the villa.

Rather than heading back to his native Newcastle, Adam made a beeline for Zara's hometown and took her out for a meal on Friday, which is set to be shown in tonight's Love Island: Aftersun.

Adam and Zara were very flirty in the villa (Image: Supplied by WENN)

And they've taken their romance off-camera (Image: Supplied by WENN)

But Mirror Online can reveal the new couple secretly met for a second date the very next day - and Adam has already met some of Zara's mates.

She shared a Boomerang video of herself with her best friend out at a club on Saturday night - and across the table from them was none other than Adam himself.

He could be identified by the tattoos on his hand - inkling an inking of a life-like eye, stylised leaves and the crown, crescent moon, diamond and interlocked triangles on his knuckles.

Adam's hand could be seen top-right (Image: adamandzara /Instagram)

He joined Zara and her friends for a night out in Essex (Image: adamandzara /Instagram)

They were joined by another male friend and clinked glasses together while music blared out in the background.

Zara and Adam, who didn't have sex in the villa because Zara was worried for her job as a government advisor, weren't shy about being spotted together, indicating their relationship is going full steam ahead.

It came after Adam revealed she was the "best prize" he could have got from Love Island, despite being knocked out of the competition and therefore forfeiting his chance of getting the actual £50,000 prize.

Adam said getting Zara was his priority (Image: Supplied by WENN)

He described her as the 'best prize' (Image: Supplied by WENN)

"So I'm out of the villa!" he wrote on Instagram yesterday.

"The hard part about it, is leaving all of the my friends. Everyone of those islanders in there are amazing and I really have made friends for life."

He then thanked all his supporters, saying: "My friends, family, the people behind the scenes for giving me this opportunity, the public, and a certain special girl that’s brought out a different side to me that I didn't even know I ever had."

Adam added: "I would be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to go home as anybody around me in those last few days knew that I wasn't myself and my head was elsewhere.

Zara was heartbroken when she left the villa (Image: Supplied by WENN)

Adam stayed in just a few more days after Zara was dumped (Image: Supplied by WENN)

"My time in this villa was amazing but I'm just as excited to see what’s around the corner. But my first and only real intention is to go chase a special girl from Upminster as I’d already won the best prize in Love island the moment she walked in..."

Zara had faced wide-spread mockery last week when she insisted she'd "wait" for Adam after she was dumped from the villa, only to see her on-screen lover immediately move on to new girl Darylle Sargeant.

But Adam seemed to lose interested in her early on, then confessed to her he still had Zara on his mind.

*Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2, followed by Love Island: Aftersun at 10pm