Suddenly Last Summer (O'Neil Brothers 3)

“This isn’t about him. It’s about me. And you.” His gaze was steady. “I know I love you. And I think you love me.”

Oh, God. “I don’t! Of course I don’t.”

She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. That wasn’t going to happen to her ever again.

His eyes locked on hers. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I am sure! And what arrogance is this to assume I don’t know my own mind? You’re so used to being able to have your pick of women, you can’t imagine that one might not feel the same way about you as you do about her.” Her hands were shaking and she wrapped her arms around herself, wondering why she suddenly felt so cold.

Love? No way. No way was that eve

r going to happen to her again.

“Élise, you were so jealous when you thought I’d slept with that nurse you almost drowned me and knocked me unconscious.”

“Because I thought you’d let Sam down. I may have overreacted. Just a little. And if you’re really in love with me, which I doubt, then I’m sorry for it, but I never gave you reason to think this relationship would go anywhere.” She was talking so fast the words tumbled over each other. “For me it has only ever been a casual summer fling. I thought it was the same for you.”

“A casual summer fling? Sweetheart, we left casual behind weeks ago. In fact, if we’re honest, we left casual behind last summer when we spent the whole night together.”

“That was just sex.”

“Maybe it was, but what we have now is a hell of a lot more than that and you know it.”

“No, I don’t. To me, it isn’t more.” Her heart was pounding. Her mouth was dry.

“The best parts of this summer have been the time I spent with you.”

“Yes, because the sex is fantastic and it has blown your brain.” She backed away. “I think perhaps you should not operate for a few days. You are not yourself. Why are you saying all this? We are the same. Neither of us wanted this. It’s the reason we get on so well.”

“Has it occurred to you that the reason we get on so well is because we like each other? We make each other laugh. We can’t share the same space without wanting to rip each other’s clothes off.”

“That is just chemistry.”

“Just?” He lifted an eyebrow. “I think about you all the time.”

“That is very normal. Men think of sex every six seconds.”

“In that case I’m in trouble because I’m down to about two seconds. And I’m not talking about sex. I’m talking about you. I think about you every two seconds. The way you laugh, the way you talk, the way you walk. All of it.”

“So we will go indoors and have sex and then we will go to family night and you will forget it.”

“I’m not going to forget it, Élise. This isn’t going to go away. The way I feel isn’t going to change. I love being with you. I love who you are. I love your passion. I love that you’re so loyal and that you love my family so much. I even love the side of you that would push me in the lake.” He breathed. “I love you and I really do think you love me, too.”

“I don’t! I will never fall in love again, ever. I told you that. You knew that. I can’t.”

“I know you don’t want to and I understand that you’re scared.” His voice was gentle. “I know you went through hell and your life fell apart. I understand that has left you feeling vulnerable and determined to protect yourself, but are you really going to let Pascal ruin the rest of your life?”

“Ruin? My life is happy! I have never been happier!”

“So you’d rather live on the edges of my family than in the center of your own?”

A lump wedged itself in her throat. “I love your family.”

“And they love you. But every night you go home to your own house and sleep alone. You deserve to live life to the full, experience everything it has to offer, not hide away here so that you don’t get hurt.”

She couldn’t breathe.

She felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked from the air.