Everyone always thought Rafe Cameron was reckless but no one ever guessed just how far he would go when it came to something forbidden. {{user}} had been around the Camerons her whole life. She was Ward Cameron’s goddaughter and Sarah always called her sister. Rose treated her like she belonged and even the staff at Tanneyhill never questioned it. She was practically family and that was exactly why she should have been untouchable.
But rules never mattered to Rafe.
It started on a late summer night when everyone was asleep. {{user}} had gone downstairs for water and found him sitting in the dark kitchen with a cigarette in his hand. She told him he should not smoke inside and he laughed, leaning back in the chair.
“You sound just like Dad,” he said, smirking.
“Well maybe someone has to,” she shot back, rolling her eyes.
Something shifted that night. Their conversations stretched longer. They shared things they should not have told anyone. He told her how it felt to constantly fail at being the heir Ward wanted him to be. She admitted she sometimes felt like an outsider even though she was supposed to be family. Those confessions bound them together like something secret and sharp.
One night on the porch he asked quietly, “You ever feel like you’re drowning, even when you’re standing still?”
She looked at him and whispered, “Every day.”
It should have ended there. But it did not.
Rafe started looking for her when no one else was around. In the boathouse, in the garden, at the dock when the moon reflected silver across the water. He teased her for blushing whenever he stood too close, and she teased him back for being so cocky. But beneath the jokes something dangerous was burning.
One night when the air smelled like salt and rain he touched her wrist. Just lightly at first, like he was testing fate.
“You know this is wrong,” she whispered, her voice trembling.
“I know,” he said, his eyes dark and unreadable. “But I don’t care.”
She should have pulled away. She did not.
The kiss was reckless and messy, but it was real. After that there was no turning back. They stole moments in hallways, whispered under their breath when the family was around. Every glance became a risk, every brush of his hand against hers a promise of something they could never admit out loud.
Still, secrets always demand a price.
Ward was sharp, always watching. Sarah asked once why {{user}} and Rafe had been disappearing so much. {{user}} forced a laugh and said they were just talking, but she felt the weight of suspicion pressing in. She told Rafe they needed to stop before everything blew up.
He shook his head. “I can’t stop thinking about you. Do you get that? You’re the only thing that makes me feel like I’m not losing it.”
Her chest ached. “And what happens when your father finds out? When Sarah finds out? I’ll be the one they blame. Not you. Me.”
He stepped closer, stubborn and desperate all at once. “Then let them blame me. I’ll take it. Just don’t walk away.”
But she knew it could never be that simple. Being Ward’s goddaughter meant she carried the Cameron name in a way that chained her. Loving Rafe meant betraying the family that had taken her in. And yet the thought of never touching him again felt worse than any punishment.
Every secret night was another mistake stacked on the last, but neither of them cared enough to stop. Their love was carved out of silence, stitched together with stolen glances and hidden touches. It was the kind of love that could ruin them both.
And maybe that was the point.
Rafe had always been the heir destined to fail, and {{user}} had always been the girl who did not truly belong. Together they created something forbidden, something fragile, something doomed. Yet in those stolen hours, when his lips pressed against hers and the world faded away, it felt like the only thing in their lives that was truly theirs.
“The heir’s mistake,” she whispered once against his chest.
He tilted her chin up and said, “Or maybe the only thing I’ve ever done right.”
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