Page 48 of Rating the Book Boyfriend

We’re so close our elbows are pressed together, and though it isn’t exactly an intimate part of our bodies, someone forgot to inform my vagina of that fact. Because she’s all fucking in with the whole elbow cuddling thing we’ve got going on. Oh yes, my needy little downstairs neighbor is slick with need, like Riggs has his face between my legs instead of some innocuous elbow touching.

And now I’m thinking of his face between my legs. How his broad shoulders would spread my thighs impossibly wide so he could get all up in there. How those full, pink lips would feel kissing every inch of me. How he would lose control and use his teeth because he was so fucking hungry for me.

“Say,yes, Riggs,” his deep voice commands.

“Yes, Riggs.” I don’t mean for it to, but that totally comes out in a sort of Marilyn Monroe voice, all breathy and wanton.And what was the question again?

“So no more brat talk,” he confirms, and I nod, remembering what we were talking about before the elbow-inspired porn that took off in my brain.

“Yes, sir,” I agree, and his nostrils flare a little bit as his eyes drop to my mouth.

After a very long moment, they rise slowly to meet mine, and I see regret there. “I wish…” he starts, and I wait for him to finish, but he closes his lips.

“You wish what?”

“A lot of things.”

We’re so close, I can smell the sweetness of the wine on his breath, and while most of his face is in shadow, those blue eyes shine like beacons. If I was writing a book about this moment, I would say those beacons were guiding my soul home, but this is reality, not fiction. There’s absolutely no eyeball soul guiding here, and I’d be obtuse to think otherwise.

I mean, the man is madly in love with his girlfriend. He puts so much effort into trying to make her happy that he’s going along with the whole boyfriend building thing, even though I know he thought it was silly at first. Hell, maybe he still does, and he’s just doing it to please Lucinda.

But when Riggs Romero looks at me, covered by the depths of the sky, it seems like the big world has shrunk until we’re the only two people in existence. We lie like that in the dark for what could have been ten minutes or ten hours.

“What’s the one thing you wish for most?” I finally whisper.

“For my life to be my own,” he whispers back. The anguish on his face forces the next words from my mouth.

“Then do it.”

His answer is immediate. “I can’t disappoint anyone.”

“What about yourself?”

Riggs searches my face with those azure eyes. “That’s not what’s important.”

“As a self-imposed people pleaser, I think I can say with certainty that never pleasing yourself will lead you down a slippery slope that’s difficult to reclimb.”

A smirk crosses his lips, and he says, “I never said I don’t please myself.”

I giggle and shove at his shoulder until he falls onto his back. “Ugh, you’re such a guy.”

Riggs shifts his eyes toward me, and he’s so fucking beautiful it gives me a full-body shiver, earning me a frown. He obviously mistakes my tremble for something weather related.

“Shit, I’m sorry, Libby. It’s getting cold out here.” Pushing gracefully to his feet in one swift movement, he reaches out a hand to pull me up.

“Sorry our conversation got heavy,” I say as he shakes out the blanket and folds it over one arm. “It was such a great day, and I hope I didn’t spoil it.”

“Not at all,” he assures me. “I’m glad you felt comfortable enough to tell me.”

Without another word, I pick up the empty bottles and glasses, and we head up the path to the house. I don’t trust myself to talk because I’m afraid I might blurt out exactly how comfortable Riggs Romero makes me.

“Thanks for coming over today,” he tells me once we’re inside. “I’m actually enjoying my lessons with Coach Libby.”

“I’m going for Coach of the Year,” I joke, and he grins.

“You have my vote. You definitely give me lots to think about.” Looping my bag over his shoulder, he says, “I’ll walk you out.”

I know better than to argue that I can carry my own bag. I’m learning that Riggs is very chivalrous, but he does it without being condescending.

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