Rating the Book Boyfriend (Book Boyfriend Builders)

6. Riggs

CHAPTER 6

Riggs

A fter leaving the ice cream shop and dropping Libby off at her house, I dial Lucinda. I didn’t get to see her when I arrived back in Florida last night because she goes to bed early.

“Hey, Lu,” I say when she answers.

“Riggs, hi.”

“Did you miss me?” I ask in a teasing tone.

“Sure.” A less than warm response, but I’m used to it.

“I thought I’d swing by since I haven’t seen you since last Wednesday.”

“Okay, will you bring me a coffee, pretty please?”

“Of course.”

“Do you remember my order?”

“Venti iced skinny hazelnut macchiato with sugar-free syrup, light ice, and no whip,” I recite.

“Make sure the syrup is sugar-free,” she reminds me.

A small ache throbs in my left temple, and I massage it with my thumb as I head to the local Starbucks.

Lucinda opens the door to her condo, and I lean in for her lips, but she turns her face slightly, offering her cheek, so I press a soft kiss there.

She takes her coffee, and I follow her into the living room. As always, I’m struck with a burst of minimalistic white. The lush rugs, the walls, the furniture. Everything is white, and my eyeballs beg for a splash of color.

As soon as she sets her drink down on the coffee table, I wrap my arms around her waist and lift her off her feet.

“Riggs! What are you doing?” she asks, and I kiss her along her jawline.

“I’m kissing my girlfriend.” My nose nuzzles at her neck. She smells flowery and expensive, as always.

“Well stop. I’m mad at you for going to that stupid convention,” she retorts, and my mood plummets.

Lucinda is surprisingly supportive of my side career as a book cover model. I think she likes bragging to her friends about it because they think it’s cool. She still acts annoyed when I travel, even though I only go to a few book conventions a year.

“I only signed up for this one because you had that trip planned with your friends. And you know you’re always welcome to go with me, Lucinda. I invite you every time.”

She shoves against my shoulders in annoyance, and I set her on her feet. “Hanging out with book nerds isn’t really my thing,” she announces before easing gracefully onto her pristine white couch and picking up her coffee.

I sit beside her and push her dark-brown hair back over one shoulder, trying to preserve the day. Lucinda really is a beautiful woman. She’s petite and has pretty brown eyes, but the scowl on her face mars her beauty.

“Let’s not argue about that again, babe. Maybe we can talk about more pleasant things.” My lips drop to the side of her neck at the same time my hand slides up her toned thigh and beneath her white tennis skirt.

But her hand grips my wrist and halts my progress. “Riggs, stop it. I feel like all you want me for is sex.”

Huffing out a harsh breath, I flop against the back of the couch and stare at the ceiling, calculating how long it’s been since Lucinda and I slept together. It was… let’s see… August?

“That doesn’t even make sense, Lucinda. I could see it if we actually had sex at any point in the past two months, but you keep saying you’re not in the mood.”

“My choice,” she retorts, leaving me with absolutely no response to that. Nothing I could say out loud anyway. I’m sure she doesn’t want to hear about me jerking off in the shower morning after morning after a long string of lonely nights.

But I suck up all my frustration and force my head around to look at Lucinda. She’s scrolling through her phone, obviously unworried about my irritating predicament.

“Would you like to go out somewhere Saturday? We can go to that seafood place you like.”

“No, I’m going to Chicago to see Elizabeth this weekend.” She glances up and shoots me a sly smile. “Liz is the one who told me about that thing I signed you up for.”

I scruff my hand through my hair, mussing it up as I ask the question that’s been burning through me since she sent me that text. “What exactly are you looking for with this book-boyfriend service, Lucinda? What am I doing wrong?”

She shrugs and turns back to her phone. “Liz said it’s supposed to make your boyfriend swoonier. She’s totally jelly that I could sign you up, but she can’t do the same for Ethan because they don’t offer that service in Illinois.”

Ah, now I see. This whole thing has less to do with me and more to do with one-upping her friend. Or maybe frenemies is the better term to describe Lucinda and Elizabeth. They’ve been like this for as long as I can remember.

“Maybe you’ll find this swoony,” I say, going for a teasing tone that falls a little flat. I pull out the small box from my pants pocket and hand it over. It’s wrapped in Lucinda’s favorite color, white, with a silver bow.

She tears off the paper and opens the box to reveal a pair of elegant diamond earrings. Each has a huge central stone with smaller diamonds encircling it.

Lucinda’s eyes light up. “These are beautiful, Riggs.” She quickly takes the jewelry from the box and puts them in her earlobes before using her phone as a mirror to admire them.

“They were made by a Colorado jeweler,” I explain. “I found his shop when I was walking around downtown, and I thought you’d like these.”

“I love them.”

To my surprise, she presses her lips to mine, and I lift my hand to cup her cheek. Hmmm, maybe she’s changed her mind about… Before I can deepen the kiss, I hear a click and realize Lucinda has taken a picture of us. She pulls away and looks at the pic.

“Hmm, your hand is covering my earring. Let’s try again.”

Dutifully, I move my hand down to the side of her neck when she kisses me again. Chastely. “There. That’s better,” she says after taking another photo. “I’m posting this and tagging Elizabeth. She’s going to be so jealous.”

“Glad I could be of service,” I say dryly.

“All done.” Lucinda turns the screen toward me, and I read the caption: My boo bought me new earrings. He loves me so much.

Though we’ve dated for a year now, Lucinda and I have yet to say we loved each other, but she’s always posting about our “love” on her social media accounts. That irritates me. I don’t want to say those words until I mean them, and I’m fully aware I’m not in love with Lucinda. I want to be, but I just don’t feel it yet.

She looks up at me and tilts her head, a smile playing across her lips. “Thank you, Riggs.” Sliding across my lap, she seats her ass right on my dick, and the lonely fucker perks up and takes notice. Lucinda leans forward, and I think she’s about to kiss me for real when the doorbell rings.

Lucinda pulls away and stands, leaving me with a rock-hard dick. “That’s Mother. We’re going to play tennis at the club.”

Fuck.

As she goes to answer the door, I adjust myself in my pants to try and camouflage the obvious erection pulsing in my shorts. I stand as Bianca Farina sweeps into the room, looking not much older than her daughter, thanks to the talents of her plastic surgeon.

“Riggs,” she purrs, “I didn’t know you would be here, darling.” She kisses me on both cheeks like we’re European royalty and then pats my face.

“Mother, look at the earrings Riggs brought me from Colorado.” Lucinda swivels her head from side to side, and the light glistens off the several carats adorning her ears.

“Ohhh, they’re beautiful. Such a thoughtful young man.” Bianca beams at me. “What are your plans for today, Riggs?”

I thought maybe I was going to get laid, Bianca. Alas, it’s not to be.

“I’m going to pick up Ace from my sister’s house and then go visit with Joe for a while.”

Mother and daughter share a disapproving look, whether from the mention of my big, goofy black lab or of Joe, I’m not sure. Probably both.

“Isn’t that nice,” Bianca says with a fake-ass smile that tells me she doesn’t think it’s nice at all. “We’ll let you get to it. My daughter and I have some tennis balls to smash.”

“Okay, you ladies have fun.” I kiss Bianca’s cheek, and then take Lucinda’s hand and lead her to the door. Her mother wanders to the kitchen, presumably to give us some privacy.

“Thanks again for the earrings,” Lucinda says, and I cup both her cheeks, brushing my lips across hers.

“You’re welcome. Do you want to come over tonight, sweetheart?” I ask, but I instantly know the answer when she scrunches her nose.

“Your dog will be there?”

“Not in my bedroom,” I say suggestively. “You know he has his own bed.” Actually my spoiled mutt has his own room.

“Oh, well, I’m going out with Eleanor and Stella. Girls’ night, you know?”

“You could come over after,” I say, trying to keep the edge of begging from my tone.

Her nose wrinkles again. “No, we planned to stay at El’s house.”

A voice comes from the kitchen. “Lucinda, we’re going to miss our court time!”

“Gotta go,” Lucinda says, pressing a chaste kiss to my cheek and herding me out the door.

Out in the hallway, part of the throb that was in my left temple migrates to the right, so now both sides of my head ache, though the previous throbbing in my groin is noticeably absent now.

“Hey, sis! How was Ace this weekend?” I greet Silvia when she opens the door.

Hearing his name, my boy abandons his chew toy and literally hops across the wood floor toward me. I squat and receive all the doggy loving he sees fit to bestow upon me, including lots of licks and nuzzles.

“Hi, buddy,” I say, rubbing my hands up and down the sides of his neck, which is his favorite thing in the world. “Were you a good boy for Aunt Silvia?”

He does a full-body wiggle, followed by an affirming bark.

“He didn’t eat any of my shoes,” my sister reports, kissing my cheek when I stand.

“I’ve been working with him on that. Having lots of chew toys available seems to help.”

Closing the door behind me, I step into Silvia’s living room, which manages to be extremely bright and modern without losing that homey feel. Ace trots back to my sister’s red-and-yellow throw rug and continues gnawing on his toy.

“I see you bought Instagram Barbie some new jewelry,” Silvia says, rolling her eyes and shaking her phone at me.

I suppress a laugh. My sister is not a fan of my girlfriend.

“I always bring her a souvenir when I travel.”

“A souvenir,” she states flatly.

“Lucinda isn’t exactly a T-shirt and shot glass kind of girl. My sister, on the other hand…” I pull a small bag from behind my back, and Silvia’s eyes zoom in on it.

“Oooh, gimme gimme.” She holds her hand out, and I let out a laugh as I pass it over. Silvia collects shot glasses, and I always try to find the most outrageous ones to bring to her.

My sister tears open the bubble wrap and immediately starts giggling at the shot glass with a cartoon hippo on it.

“Hippo-twat-amus? Where the hell do you find these?” Then her blue eyes widen when she looks inside. “Riggsy! What did you do?”

“Couldn’t leave my best girl out,” I say when she tips the earrings into her palm. These are different from Lucinda’s but no less beautiful, with a large emerald in the center because it’s Silvia’s favorite stone.

She crashes into me and squeezes me hard enough to break my ribs. “I can’t believe you did this, you big idiot.”

I kiss the top of her head, and Ace hops up and trots over, nosing between us so he doesn’t miss any excitement. “I hope you like them.”

“I do though I’d have been happy with just the shot glass.”

And that, folks, is why I love my sister so much. Though our family has money, she’s the least pretentious person I know.

Unlike my girlfriend.

“Why are you frowning?” Silvia’s voice breaks through my thoughts, and I realize my eyebrows are lowered over my eyes.

“Just a bit of a headache,” I say honestly.

Silvia pats me on the chest and retreats to the kitchen, returning a minute later with a bottle of water and two ibuprofens. “Do you realize you always have a headache when you leave Instagram Barbie’s place?”

I down the painkillers with a long swallow of water. She’s not wrong, so I don’t even bother to argue.

“When are you going to do something about this whole situation?”

Throwing a hand up, I let it fall in frustration. “What exactly do you expect me to do? Disappoint everyone in the family, including Nana?”

“So you’d rather disappoint yourself? When are you going to put yourself first?”

I pretend to think about it, though she already knows the answer. “Probably a week from never.” Ruffling her dark hair, I fake a smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

Silvia encloses me in her arms and rests her head on my chest. “You deserve better than fine, Riggsy. You deserve laughter and fun and super-hot sex every day.”

“Well, now you just made it weird,” I reply, and my sister laughs before turning serious again.

“You’re the best man I know, Riggs Romero. I just want you to find a woman who will appreciate you like you damn well deserve.”

I pull her closer and kiss the top of her head.

If only, little sister.