RANE: A Rockstar Stepbrother Romance by Vivian Lux

I was finding that I couldn't stop watching Maddie bobbing in my pool.
    As friends. Fuck. I was having problems remembering what the fuck friends did with each other. Did they swim together? Because all I wanted to fucking do was be there in the same water, her nearly naked body maybe brushing past mine as we bobbed in the night. That didn't sound exactly friendly in my mind, but I couldn't summon another thought...besides, what would happen if the delicate emerald strap of her bikini slid down her freckled shoulder.
    The blood rushing to my cock made my decision for me. I needed a cold shower.
    Or maybe a jump into a cold pool.
    "Incoming!" I shouted. She paddled in a circle and stared at me in mute horror as I dove over her head.
    Too late, I realized I dove too shallowly. I hit the water with a resounding, boner-crushing splash.
    That fucking hurt.
    I surfaced, coughing, only to be submerged under a sheet of water. "You ass!" Maddie shrieked, wiping the water from her face with one hand while she pummeled the water with her other.
    "Sorry! Sorry!" I laughed, trying to fend off her watery assault. She flipped onto her back and scissor-kicked sheets of water into my face. "Okay! I give, I'm drowning!" I panted, swimming to the side.
    "You cannonballed me," she shrieked. "My hair..."
    "You're in a pool. You're supposed to get wet."
    "I look like a drowned rat."
    Sexiest rat I've ever seen. "Then that makes two of us." I wonder how her wet thighs would feel wrapped around mine.
    She splashed me again. "That was not nice!"
    "I'm not a nice guy." I could send everyone home, right now, and we could be alone.
    "Oh, is that right?"
    "Nah. Nice guys finish last." I slapped a small splash her way. "Though, I guess I am a pretty nice guy in bed." Subtle, Rane.
    "Gross," she complained, splashing me again.
    I don't know why I cared so much. But I felt like I kept wanting to work at her. Peel back another layer and let the real Maddie shine through again. I could see these glimmers through the cracks in her facade, and they fucking fascinated me. I wondered how long it would take for the real her to be finally revealed, polished and bright in the sun. And it was unnerving to realize that I wanted to be there the day that it happened.
    Which meant I wanted to stick around.
    Which meant I needed her to like me.
    And to stop fucking trying to drown me with sheets of water.
    When she aimed another splash at my head, I had enough. "You're in trouble," I sputtered, and dove underneath the water.
    In the silence, I could hear her yelling something. She was kicking her bare feet, trying to ward me off, but I’d spent enough time breaking into pools as a juvenile delinquent that I swam like a shark. I shot underneath her and emerged behind her, grabbing her flailing arms and pulling her tight against my chest.
    "Can't splash me from here, can you, Mads?"
    She struggled a little, but not much. Her chest was heaving and mine was too, and I was aware of the fact that we were both essentially naked. The little slip of a thing she called a swimsuit was nothing more than a wisp.
    "What are you doing, Rane?" Was that a groan? Or a moan? I wanted her to say my name again. This time scream it.
    "Rane!" she screamed as I pulled us both under.
    In the silence underwater, she slipped from my grasp and spun around. Her red hair, dark as blood in the water, fanned out from her face, swirling around her like some kind of mermaid.
    I almost fucking kissed her right there.
    She shot away from me as we surfaced.
    "Yo, Maddie!" Harlow shouted across the pool. "Your phone is buzzing like crazy."
    Maddie looked at me, floating there in front of me. I almost reached for her again.
    Then she spun around and swam to the ladder, heaving herself away from me as quickly as she could.

Chapter Sixteen
    Madeline
     
    I shivered, dripping water all over Rane's kitchen floor. The house was eerily silent once I closed the door on the cacophony outside, which meant I could hear