Just One Accident (Book 3 In The Just Once Series)

Chapter Two

Rhys' POV:

I can't look away from her. She's finally in my arms, in my bed, with me. Where she belongs. I tighten my hold a little, feeling possessive. Fearing it's a dream and it'll all crumble around me any second.

I've never felt like this about anyone before, sex had always been just sex. But what me and Summer just did, it was more. It's never felt so good, never made me feel so fucking happy.

I watch as she mumbles something in her sleep, curling closer, her hand resting on my chest, her leg thrown across mine, the sheet I'd pulled up draped over her waist and mine. The tips of her breasts pressed intimately against me skin.

Her long, wavy blond hair spilling out around her, the strands resting on me as well as the pillow. She's fucking beautiful, her soft, full lips kiss swollen, her creamy skin cooled now she's asleep, but the room is warm enough that I know she won't feel the cold.

I always higher the temperature in the house when she's over, knowing she feels the cold more easily than others.

I brush her cheekbone gently with my fingers, my heart fucking aching, knowing she's here with me, feels the same way for me.

"Rhys," she murmurs, her eyes fluttering slightly, still mostly asleep.

"Shh, go back asleep, sweetheart," I say softly, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. She smiles, mumbling something I can't hear as she goes back to sleep.

I love her. I've loved her for years. I want to cling to that, pull her closer, hold her tighter. My chest tightens, knowing I can't. Reality whispering around the edges the longer I lay here, holding her.

She isn't mine. Can never be mine. I don't care she's my step-niece. We never had that sort of relationship. I knew Summer for only a few years when we were younger, before her parents fell out with mine. Her mum not being able to accept my stepdad was remarrying, was adopting me. Was bringing us into the family fold.

Alex was always good to me, treated me and my mum kindly and after they died, he took me in, was a brother in every sense of the word. But Paige and Joseph Garcia, Summer's parents, their hatred just burnt hotter once my mum and stepdad died. They hated I was given the same share of the company, the same amount of money. The same amount of everything.

And the shocker was, I didn't want any of it. I wanted my parents back. I didn't give a shit about the money. Never had.

It was only after I lost my mum and dad, when I was living with Alex, that Summer reached out, against her parents' knowledge at first. She came to the funeral when her parents didn't. She was there, offering me friendship when I'd lost almost everything I'd ever known.

It wasn't until she was eighteen that I realised I was in love with her. I don't know when it happened, how it happened, but it did.

I don't want to lose her, don't want to let her go. I look down at her again, saving everything about her to memory. The way she feels against me, the way she smells, the way she screamed my name as she shattered around me as I made love to her. I don't want to ever forget, not a single second of it.

Because I have to let her go.

If I took her as mine, I'd be too controlling, too protective. I lost everyone I loved. Had no doubt in my mind that I'd have no filter when it came to protecting the woman I'd call my own.

I'd not be able to follow Cole's lead. He and Talin loved each other deeply and in my feelings for Summer I have no doubt I'd not love her the same, if not more, but whereas they can keep things low key, keep their relationship quiet out of necessity, I wouldn't be able to. I'd not hide my love for Summer, wouldn't pretend she wasn't anything but my heart.