Chapter 31
SMITH
Iwoke up Saturday alone in Riggs’s bed, the sound of the shower coming softly from the bathroom.
With a groan, I pillowed my arms together and rolled onto my stomach, resting my forehead against my wrist. My head was buzzing and my body ached in the most delicious way from the sex we’d had the night before.
My cheeks burned just thinking about it.
The shower cut off, and it wasn’t long before Riggs’s wet footfalls grew louder.
He groaned, dropped something on the floor, then climbed on the bed and laid his body out on top of mine.
He was still soaking wet, his long hair dripping against my shoulders, and he dropped a sloppy kiss against the side of my neck.
“Stay here all day,” he said, crawling off the bed and picking his towel back up.
I rolled onto my side to watch him, appreciating the unattached way he stroked the black terrycloth over his dick and balls. He wasn’t hard, but that hadn’t done anything to stop me from wanting him before and I doubted my body was going to start revolting now.
“That’s a long time to bed rot.”
He dried his hair next, wrapping it in the towel before grabbing a pair of black boxer briefs from the dresser and stepping into them.
“I’ll come feed and water you throughout the day,” he said, mouth quirking into a grin.
“Do you have a lot of appointments today?”
“Booked through from twelve to ten,” he answered.
I turned again, this time onto my back. Scooting up so I rested against the headboard, I folded my hands together in my lap, toying with the top edge of the sheets.
Riggs continued to get dressed, then he sat beside me.
He reached up and gently traced his fingertips over the angle of my jaw, and it took more strength than I would have anticipated to not melt right there.
“How are you feeling?” he asked. “After last night.”
“Good. Really good.”
That earned me another smile. “Are you sore?”
“Not in a bad way.”
“Good,” he said then. “If you’re up for it later, maybe we can go to Rapture?”
Going back to Rapture with Riggs was something we’d talked about, something I fantasized about, but knowing at least two of my brothers also frequented the place was enough to give me pause.
We were very open with each other about our lives, but there were some things best kept secret.
Marshall didn’t do a great job of that, and honestly… neither did Hunter.
Marshall couldn’t turn his dominance off if he tried, and ever since Hunter and Lincoln had started dating each other, he’d been pretty much on all the time too. Finn was the only one I couldn’t get a read on these days. Even though I knew he’d heard of the place, I didn’t know…
I didn’t want to know.
“Your face says no,” Riggs said, tapping my lower lip.
“My brothers go there is all.”
“We’ll have to avoid them. Did you want to wear a mask?” My stomach churned, from hunger, not arousal. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“It’s not a no.” I reached for him, grabbed his hand. “I mean, masks feel like a no, but Rapture isn’t a no. Just let me think about it.”
Riggs lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “Think about it today?”
I nodded. “I’m going to see what Finn is up to. Maybe call my friend Asha.”
“Do you want to come here after? Or do you want me to come to yours?”
I really loved Riggs’s apartment. I loved the nods to the original architecture, and I loved how much it reminded me of him. Not that my own place didn’t remind me of me, but it was different.
“What do you want to do?” I asked, hating how breathy the question sounded.
“You.” He leaned down and brushed a kiss across my forehead. “Anywhere.”
“Come pick me up after you’re cleaned up here,” I said before I could talk myself out of it. “I want to go to Rapture.”
Riggs huffed an amused breath into my hair. “That was a quick change of heart.”
“I feel like I’m myself with you. I don’t want to go back into hiding.”
He pulled away, eyes searching my face for….something.
“I love you,” he said simply.
I pulled my lower lip into my mouth, hating the way my cheeks burned at his confession.
“I love you.”
From the nightstand, Riggs’s phone chimed with an alert, and he made a very unhappy sound at the interruption.
“I need to get dressed,” he said regretfully. “One of the guys is already here.”
“Don’t let me keep you.”
“I just…really like being around you, I…” Riggs paused and glanced at the lamp on the nightstand. “I feel like myself with you too.”
“I’m glad.”
It was suddenly hard to breathe, so I shoved him against the outside of his arm until he crawled off the bed and finished getting dressed.
Riggs looked like a dream in torn black jeans, black leather boots, and a white V-neck t-shirt.
His hair was still wet, so he twisted it up into a bun before grabbing his phone and sliding it into his pocket.
“Take as long as you want before you leave,” he said. “I like you being here.”
I nodded, fighting a smile as he left the apartment and headed down to the shop.
Once the door was closed, I flopped back into my front and screamed into the pillow.
How had this happened? How had I found this man?
How had I fallen in love with him so readily and so easily?
My heart ached to leave my chest and follow him, but I swallowed hard enough to make sure it stayed in place.
I reached out blindly for the nightstand, grabbing my phone and swiping the screen awake.
It wasn’t early, but even if it was, I wouldn’t care. I typed out a message to my brother.
Plans?
He was quick to reply.
Finn
Nothing sticking.
Lunch?
Is this an intervention?
Why? Do you need one?
No. I don’t know. Here or out?
I was about to tell Finn whatever he wanted was fine, but I found I did have a preference.
There.
Make me a tuna melt.
Tinned fish is an abomination.
Pizza.
Okay.
Coming over soon from Silverlake.
You live in Hollywood.
I said what I said.
Finn sent me one last message with a slew of eggplant and splashing water emojis, which I ignored.
Before getting out of Riggs’s bed, I sent a quick message to Asha, reminding her I loved her even if I didn’t see her.
She replied with a wink and an eggplant, and that was enough dick icons in one day for me to abandon the idea of checking in with Lincoln.
He was probably still in bed with Hunter, happily getting boned out of his mind. Or the other way around.
Fuck, I didn’t want to think about that.
Finally ready to get up, I stretched until the tips of my toes hung off the bed, then I set to getting myself ready to start the day.
I took a shower, brushed my teeth with a spare toothbrush that had magically appeared on the counter still in the package, then I made Riggs’s bed, poured myself some coffee into a tumbler that had magically been left out on the counter beside the pot.
The hoodie I’d accidentally stolen from him the day I got tattooed sat neatly folded on the edge of the counter, and I wondered if it was meant for me to take too.
I wagered the answer was yes, so I tugged it over my head and then headed down to the shop.
I was worried about judgmental looks from whoever was downstairs, but none came. Both of the new artists Riggs had hired were there. One of them, Merrick, looked up when the stairs creaked, taking a break to wipe some ink off the wrist of his client.
“Good morning,” he greeted me, sounding like sunshine incarnate.
The other artist, Holden, looked up and said nothing. His stare wasn’t judgmental, but it was curious and it was heavy. I swallowed past my own discomfort and returned Merrick’s hello.
“You heading out?” Riggs asked, stretching some cling film over a rolling steel tray. “I see you found the hoodie. You look good in it.”
Heat burned my cheeks.
“And coffee,” he said before I could reply.
I raised the mug in his direction and finally found the will to speak. “Thank you.”
“And the toothbrush?”
Behind me, Merrick choked, and the sound of his tattoo machine filled the air. I cleared my throat, smiling at Riggs.
“Got it all, thank you.”
“So I’ll see you tonight then?”
“I’ll be ready,” I said.
His nostrils flared, and I realized too late how many different meanings the statement could have.
“I can’t wait.”
Riggs’s stare drifted down my body, lingering on my cock before slowly skating back up to my face. For a man who could take or leave sex, he was certainly dripping with it most of the time.
“Bye,” I blurted awkwardly, slipping out beneath the pass in the counter and bolting out the front door.
The sound of Merrick’s machine followed me out the door, and I scrubbed a hand down my face as the cool morning air hit me on the sidewalk.
I didn’t stop, powerwalking to my car and heading to Finn’s on autopilot.
The front door was cracked open when I arrived, and I took it for the invitation I knew it to be. In the foyer, I toed off my shoes and closed the door behind me. I dropped my things into the bowl on the side table, on top of Finn’s wallet and keys, then I headed into the house to find him.
Finn was in the kitchen, wearing sweatpants and a weathered t-shirt from a college he de hadn’t attended.
His hair stuck up in every direction like he either just woke up or someone had been tugging at it.
I didn’t want to know which. When he heard me, he looked up and smiled, and I realized—with some regret—it was the first time he’d looked himself in weeks.
He and I weren’t the closest. He’d always been attached to Hunter, but I felt like a horrible brother, not realizing something had been wrong with him until I saw him acting right again.
“You look well rested,” he said in lieu of a greeting.
“You don’t.”