by Vivian Lux
She looked down at her fingers. "That's what snapped her out of it. Seeing me decline like that. She woke up and swore to me that she'd never go away like that again."
Maddie swallowed and smiled. "She kept her promise. From that moment on, she was there. She thought maybe performing would be something that would bring us together, get me out of my shell. And it worked... for a bit. I loved hamming it up in front of the camera, all of those people telling me how special I was, how cute I was. It helped a part of me that was still hurting over my daddy. And my mother was nearly bursting with pride over the success I had. She quit her job and lost herself in the world of stage moms, though she somehow managed not to turn completely awful."
I walked around the Jeep and opened the door for her. She took my hand stepping out...and then didn't let go. "How old were you when you landed Princess Parker?" I knew, but I wanted to hear her keep talking.
She inhaled. "Ten. I was ten years old. Just turned, actually. I beat out older girls, more experienced girls. I was so proud, Rane. And my mom, she nearly lost her mind. You would have thought I cured cancer and landed on the moon, all at once."
We skirted around the boulders that marked off the parking area and started up the dirt path, Maddie immediately falling behind. That pretty little dress of hers seemed like it shortened her stride. I tried to slow my natural fast pace to match her slower one.
The smell of the ocean hung in the air, and the noise of it swished in the distance, but we couldn't see anything yet.
I nodded. "My dad was proud, too. I picked up guitar like it was an extension of me, and Keir had a surprisingly good voice. I think it was from screaming bloody murder every time I pinned him in wrestling. We liked music that sounded like our lives, fast and loud as hell. Dad would sit in the garage with toilet paper stuffed in his ears, listening to us rehearse."
"It's starting to grow on me," Maddie said, picking her way carefully along a rocky stretch of trail. I held out my hand, and she slipped hers into mine with a grateful look on her face. I slowed my stride further, keeping next to her, and I noticed again that she didn't drop my hand. "So, you just started a band and that was that?"
I nodded. "Pretty much." Striding along the trail, the sun baking down on my shoulders with this gorgeous girl at my side was making me downright fucking chatty. "We recruited Balzac and Twitch from school and Twitch brought along his twin sister..."
"They're twins?"
"I know, right? Couldn't be more different. Anyway, he told us, 'Mom said I couldn't come unless I brought her,' so that's how we added keyboards. Somehow, I had the best grades out of all of us, which was sad, so I was nominated for songwriting. We played across New York State for a few years, crashing on couches and getting in fights, until we got to New York City and played a three-night appearance at a club there. Keith? Our manager?" She nodded. "He was in the audience that night. From there, I have no idea what the fuck happened. I signed a few papers, drank a few bottles and ended up in fucking LA."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
She twisted her lips and dropped back a step. "You walk too fast," she complained.
"Here, look over there. Sit on that log right there, catch your breath."
"I'm out of shape."
"Yeah, I don't know why you'd be out of breath. I'm the one doing all of the talking."
She shot me a look and smoothed her hand over the fallen tree. "Ow, fuck me."
"I'm not assuming that's an invitation."
"My finger, dipshit."
"You've got a splinter?"
"Yeah, and no tweezers. Damn, that hurts."
"Hang on, we'll just back that out again. Breathe out."
"Is there anything you're not good at?" She pouted grumpily.
"Singing," I said immediately.
"No shit?"
"Yes, shit. You know my laugh? The one you so eloquently described as a donkey fucking a bullfrog?"
"Hey, it's accurate."
"Well, imagine their offspring."
She snorted.
"I couldn't carry a tune if it had a handle."
"But you're so good at guitar."
"Different instrument."
"I'm going to get you to sing for me one of these days."
"Never going to happen. You'd lose all respect for me."
"I never had any to begin with."
"Nice thing to say to a guy who's sucking the splinter out of your finger." I lifted her hand and she caught her breath, staring at me all the while.
"There."
"Thank you." She exhaled, still staring at me. I felt like someone had trained a spotlight on me. On us both. Like we were standing in a sunbeam meant just for us. She looked at me like I was her focal point. If she had any idea how that made me feel, would she stop? How much would I frighten her if I just blurted out that I wanted to be just that? I wanted to fold her in on myself and shelter her and be the strength she needed.
But she already had that, inside of herself, and just didn't know it yet.
And that's why I was falling in love with her.
Oh.
Goddammit.
Oh.
Chapter Thirty-One
Madeline
Rane let go of my finger. His hands dropped to his sides, and he stared at me like I had suddenly appeared there for the first time. Like he hadn't been happily chatting away for the past hour.
"Everything okay?" I asked him.
He nodded. "It's just up ahead," he said tightly.
Confused, I got up from the log and followed him up the dusty trail. We were gaining elevation fairly quickly. I hitched my skirt up higher along my knees, wincing at the sharp rocks underneath my thin sandals. "This had better be worth it," I grumbled.
He stopped and turned around. Then he swept his hand out like a magician. "I don't know. You tell me."
I stepped forward and gasped. There, framed by a break in the trees, was the Pacific, glinting in the late morning sunlight. We were atop a sheer cliff that led straight down several hundred feet to the beach below. Scrubby brush clung to the cliff in patches here and there, and atop it all was a buff covered overhang, lighter than the darker red earth around us. "It's worth it," I breathed.
Rane reached out his hand, helping me pick my way carefully out onto the outcropping. I swooned slightly with vertigo and sat down heavily, feeling the sun-warmed rock through the thin fabric of my dress. Rane settled down next to me, and for a moment we were just quiet, listening to the sound of the water crash onto the beach below. "How did you find this place?" I asked him after a while.
"When I first moved here, I missed all the outdoor shit I used to do back in New York. Started looking for the best places to hike and this quickly became my favorite." He turned to me and grinned. "Low effort, high reward. It's kind of my thing."
I snorted and looked back out towards the ocean. "I've lived here my whole life," I told him. "Maybe I'll try this hiking thing more often."
"There's a whole bunch of things I can show you if you let me."
There was a whole lot of meaning hanging in his seemingly meaningless words. "Rane…"
"I know. I know… The wedding… Our parents… What if I told you I didn't give a shit?"
I shook my head. "If word got out…"
"What if I told you I didn't give a shit about that either?" he growled, turning and clutching my upper arm. "What if I told you I didn't give a shit about anything except being with you, Maddie?" He slowly maneuvered himself over me. "These last few days..." He growled in frustration. "Fuck, I write goddamned lyrics for a living and I'm a loss for words. Do you understand that, Maddie? Don't you see that I'm gone for you?"
I swallowed hard.
"Stop that. Don't try to pull yourself together. Don't be sensible or rational or whatever the fuck. Just say what you feel, Maddie." His hand disappeared underneath my skirt, his fingers delving into my thighs, spreading them wider as he lay me back. "I know you feel som
ething, you have to. Look at you look at me...fuck..." He looked away for a second, seemingly unable to hold eye contact anymore, and I took that moment to breathe for the first time. "You have to know how I feel about you. Because if you don't, I'm going to show you. Right now."
He lifted my dress higher, gathering it in a knot at my tummy. The sun-warmed stone bit gently into my skin as the cool breeze raised goose bumps along my thighs. He sat up and looked down at my naked legs, raking his fingertips up the sensitive skin. "I love the way your skin gets all rosy when I look at you," he murmured, almost to himself. "Like your whole body is on fire inside."
He knelt down and kissed the red mark he had etched into my skin. "If anyone is down on the beach, they're going to see you, Princess," Rane growled. His breath against my thighs was almost as hot as the blood that beat in my ears.
I somehow gathered my thoughts enough to say, "I know."
"See all of this." He blew gently against my exposed flesh.
"I don't think they could see that," I protested. "Your head's in the way."
"Want me to move?" He pressed his palms into my thighs, spreading me wider. Exposing me to the whole beach below.
"Don't you dare," I croaked.
"Why, because you don't want anyone to see us? You don't want anyone to know that I make you feel this way?" He bit at my thigh, sending little currents of heat radiating outward.
A moan wiggled free from my throat. "No, because I don't want you to stop what you're doing." The things he was doing with his mouth and fingers were making it hard to finish sentences. "You're terrible."
"I'm incredible and you know it. You just need to admit it. Admit you feel how I feel."
I froze and looked down at him. "How do you feel?"
He buried his face against me, shoving my panties aside and flicking his tongue along my clit. He hummed out a sigh of contentment as I clamped my thighs against his head, pulling him against me. I wanted to hear what he was going to say but I also wanted him to stay quiet. If he would just stay quiet, this could still be a mistake, a bad decision, something reckless that Mad Maddie was doing to sabotage herself. If he would just not say what I knew he was going to say, I could keep acting like this was nothing to me, that we were nothing, that I was just his friend, his colleague...his fucking stepsister.
"I love you, Madeline," he growled against my skin. He slipped a finger inside of me and I heard the jingle of his belt buckle as he undid his jeans. "I'm in love with you." Another. I writhed underneath him, shaking my head no, no, no, even as he kept saying it. "I love you. I love your sounds, your laughs." He slid his jeans down his hips. "I love the way you try so fucking hard not to love me back and you fail, Maddie. You fail every time. I love you and you love me and now I want to watch you come for me. Do it. Do it now."
He knelt upward and positioned his cock at my entrance. He raised an eyebrow, still swirling his thumb against my clit. I bit my lip, then nodded.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Rane
Right at the moment I slipped inside of her, I felt her start to fall all around me. From the inside out, her whole body tensed. Her eyes, which had been half-closed, flew open and her jaw tensed.
She was holding back.
"No fucking way," I growled. She wasn't getting away with this poised, ice queen shit. Not while I was the one inside of her. Not after what I had just told her.
I bent forward, rolling my hips until I found that place and pressed against it. The tiny flutter of her eyelashes let me know that this, this was the right place. She whipped her head from side to side, frantically fighting her way back from the edge. And that only made me want to push harder.
"Maddie," I growled. "Look at me."
She closed her wide eyes again. "Look at me," I growled. "Open your eyes."
She shivered and opened those autumn-sky eyes. She needed something to look at, something to hold on to so she didn't feel like she was falling. "Let go, Maddie," I ordered her. "It's okay."
The way her chest rose, flushed and heaving, was the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I pressed into her, harder now, concentrating every single movement of my hips against that place inside of her. "Let go," I urged her, cajoled her, fuck...begged her. I needed to see her fall again. I was drunk off the sight of her falling to pieces, the icy sheen shattering to release the fire underneath. I was craving that moment when she gave up, let go and let me take her to that wild, uninhibited place. I knew on instinct that I was the only one who could get her there. And suddenly, I needed to say it.
"Let go, and I'll catch you, Maddie. You know I will, right? I love you. I'll catch you every time."
She nodded mutely, biting her lip. A small moan escaped around the edge. Fuck, I didn't know I could get any harder than I already was. I slowed my strokes, concentrating on the wet slide, losing myself in the softness for a moment. "Tell me I'm the only one who makes you feel this way." What the fuck kind of desperate shit was this? And yet, I needed to know, needed her to promise me that this was it for her. The thought of anyone else seeing her this way—undone and quivering—made me want to punch something and go hide her away in a cave while I stood in the entrance like an animal guarding its territory. "Tell me," I demanded, no longer caring that I sounded like some kind of possessive prick. I thrust harder, losing control. I wasn't being careful with her anymore, and those little yelps she was making were urging me to go harder, faster, deeper.
"Oh god, Rane..." Her ragged whisper tore through me. I snaked my hands under her luscious, creamy ass and lifted her. She clung to my shoulders as I fucked her standing because I needed to feel every inch of her against my skin. "Rane...fuck...."
"Tell me, Maddie." I was begging her even as I felt the tight hot bloom begin to unfurl in my chest.
Her breath was hot and quick against my ear. "You're the only fucking one," she gasped. "I love you."
And then we both came at once.
She screamed and it was the only sound in the world, deafening my own ragged cries. I felt her coming, and it felt better than my own orgasm ever could. She tensed, clinging to me like a life raft in a storm, and I let her. I let her claw my back, bite my shoulder, scream in my ear. Because she was falling for me, because of me, because she loved me. I got her there and fuck if I wasn't already lost.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Madeline
"Princess?"
I heard him. But I didn't want to do what he was asking.
Princess?" He shifted his arm. The arm that was cradling my head. The shoulder that I had buried my face into, inhaling him as our naked bodies lay entwined in the sunlight. I could smell him on me, and me on him, and the sun on both of our skin. I was warm and drowsy and safe. I pretended I didn't hear him.
"Madeline, I love you. But I can't feel my hand."
I groaned and shifted, making him laugh, then he groaned as he fished his arm out from underneath my head and tried to rub life back into his forearm. "Did you fall asleep?" he teased.
"No," I mumbled. Truth be told, I wasn't really sure I wasn't asleep right now. This all felt like a dream.
He sat up and stretched, leaning forward. I admired the way the muscles of his back shifted under his skin, bringing the tattoos to life. I lifted my hand and traced the bumps of his spine curving down to the small of his back. There was a fine patch of light hair just at the base. I wanted to bury my face in it.
"Mmm, keep doing that," he murmured, cradling his big head in his hand in his arms.
I sat up and stretched my body along the length of his back. I rubbed my fingers up his neck, intertwining them in the too-long strands of his hair and kissing a trail from the base of his skull to where his neck met his shoulder. Then I sighed and rested my chin there, and we watched the waves rolling below us in silence.
"This is an incredible view," I said.
He shifted and turned around, looking at me. "I don't know. View's better in this direction if you ask me." He grinned, brushing my lips wit
h a quick kiss. Then he stood up and extended his hand to me. "Actually, there is a place higher up from here, where the view's even better. You can see the lighthouse, just over the horizon.
I looked up at him. "Should we put some clothes on first?" I asked him.
He made a face like he was considering. "Eh, okay fine. But let me look at you just one more time."
I stood in front of him, feeling shy but beautiful, as he stepped back and took me in. I could feel his eyes; every place that they touched on my skin seemed to light a match where they landed. "God. Damn," he murmured, more to himself than me.
I had never felt more beautiful.
I was also a little cold.
I shivered dramatically. "Aren't you cold?" I demanded.
He looked pointedly down at his cock, which was already stiffening as he looked at me. "No shrinkage problems here, baby."
I slapped him playfully on the arm. "Give me a second to recover, cowboy. I'm going to have trouble walking as it is."
He grinned triumphantly. "That is literally the best thing you could have told me right now. Now I know why I fell in love with you."
Hearing it spoken out loud, casually, almost as an afterthought, made me pause. Rane dressed himself, humming slightly, a look of eager, open anticipation on his face. This didn't seem to worry him. Of course it didn't, he never took anything seriously. Stepsiblings falling in love two days before their parents wedding? Of course it didn't bother him.
But it bothered me.
As my dress slid over all the places he had just touched, I shivered again for a different reason. Telling myself to pull it together wasn't working right now. It was one thing to have a quick, drunken fuck underneath the stage. It was quite another thing to make love sober... in broad daylight... and exchange I love yous as the surf crashed below us.
"Come on, it's up here!" Rane said, extending his hand.
I didn't want him to know about the doubts swirling in my brain. Not while he looked so happy to share something with me. I couldn't hurt him like that...