Prince Albert (A Step-Brother Romance #4)

"What are you doing?" I ask, swallowing hard as he pulls his shirt over his head. Once he's shirtless, his bare tattoo-covered chest covered right in front of my face, I can't help but look at it.

Gaige catches me obviously staring, and grins. "Come on, darlin'," he says. "Jump in."

"Put your clothes back on," I hiss. "Someone's going to see you."

Gaige shrugs. "So what?" he asks, unbuttoning his pants. I avert my eyes, focusing straight ahead. It seems somehow indecent to just stare at him, to watch him undress like he's some kind of stripper. "You think our parents are up and around in the house? This isn't the first time something like this has happened. My mother gets drunk, makes a scene. They go to their room and argue or whatever, who knows. Have makeup sex."

"Eew, Gaige, gross." I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. He's standing there in his boxer briefs. I'm not going to look at him, I tell myself. I'm not going to look at it. This is not what I had in mind when I asked him to come out to the pool. I was just going to talk to him, that's all.

"That's what every guy wants to hear when he's standing in front of a girl naked," he says.

"I was referring to our parents having sex. Wait. You're naked?" I look up, and he's still wearing his briefs.

He grins widely. "Made you look."

"Asshole."

"Cocktease," he says, and walks slowly over to the pool.

"Why am I a cocktease?" I yell after him, but he ignores me, so I stand up and follow him over to the pool.

"Water's nice," he says. His feet are in the water, and at least he's still got his boxers on. That's something. If he stripped off everything and got buck naked...

"I'm not a tease," I say.

"Then you're just a prude."

"I'm not a prude, either," I say. "You don't even know me."

"Then strip. I'll even keep my boxers on."

"How magnanimous of you."

"Come on, Delaney," he says. "You know you can't use big words like that around me. I'm a dumb biker."

"Hah." I laugh because that's bullshit. Gaige might be a biker, and maybe he's more mechanically than book inclined, but he's not stupid. "Fuck it. Fine."

"Did you just say fine, you'd fuck me?"

"Fuck it, I said. You heard me just fine. Fuck it. Fuck it." I pull my shirt over my head. "Keep your boxers on and I'll come in."

"Naked?"

"No, not naked, jackass." I unbutton my jeans and slide them down my legs. "You better be right about nobody coming out here."

He's already chest deep in the water, then leaning back, drifting toward the grotto. "Live a fucking little, Delaney," he says. "Your father and my mother aren't coming out here, and the staff left after the dining room drama, I'm sure. It's just you and me."

I kick my jeans off, shivering in the coolness of the evening air on my skin. But the chill isn't the only reason I'm shivering. I'm shivering because I know Gaige is looking at me. I tell myself to stop feeling self-conscious. It's not like Gaige hasn't seen a bra and panties on a million other girls, and besides, it'd be no different than if I'd have grabbed my bikini upstairs before we came down here. I'm glad I picked these boy shorts to wear under my jeans instead of the thongs I usually wear. "It's cold."

"Then you should get in," he says. "The pool is warm. Stop standing there shivering in your underwear and jump in already."

I slide into the water, sinking up to my neck, as if the water itself affords me some protection from Gaige's gaze. We float around lazily in silence for a long time, before coming to rest side by side, our arms on the edge of the pool inside the grotto.

"Do you think our parents are going to split up?" I ask. I don't know why I ask the question. I looked at my father tonight and saw how unhappy he was.

"Would it matter?" Gaige asks. I'm suddenly aware of how close we are to each other, side by side like this. The distance between us feels like nothing.

"No," I say. "Why would it?"

"We wouldn't be siblings anymore," he says.

"We aren't now, Gaige."

"Then it doesn't matter now." He's looking at me, in my eyes, and then down at my lips. I realize I'm holding my breath, waiting for something, I don't know what.

That's a lie. I know exactly what I'm waiting for.

Him to make a move.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN





GAIGE


I'm standing in the water, facing Delaney, looking at her under the soft lights that illuminate the darkness of the grotto area, the lights that bounce off the water and create this shimmery effect. Delaney's hair tumbles down her shoulders in waves, the ends floating in the water around her.

I consider kissing her, and the instant the thought crosses my mind, I'm as hard as a fucking rock, my cock standing at attention in the pool. Delaney opens her mouth like she's going to say something, and then closes it again.

"Don't," I warn.