Chapter 9
CLEO
Waking up wrapped in Rigby’s arms in his killer apartment about eleven billion times bigger than my dorm room was surreal.
It was hard to wrap my head around how much had changed in such a short amount of time.
Only twenty-four hours ago, I thought I’d never get him to even talk to me again…
and now he’d taken my virginity. Bare. And didn’t seem the slightest bit worried that I could end up pregnant since I wasn’t on birth control.
I wasn’t sure what to think about the possibility of having a baby before I finished my degree, but a part of me was excited by the idea of starting a family with Rigby.
The chemistry between us must have addled my brain because it was too soon for me to think anything like that.
Although he’d touched and tasted every inch of my skin last night, we still had so much to learn about each other.
“Are you up?” he rasped, rubbing the scruff on his chin against my shoulder.
Twisting my neck, I beamed him a sleepy smile. “That depends. Are you going to bring me breakfast in bed before I have to leave for school if I’m not?”
“Doesn’t matter how awake you are. If that’s what you want, it’s what you’re gonna get.”
I squinted my eyes at him. “Man, reporters get all sorts of things wrong. And not just the ones who write trash for the gossip columns like those stories about me. The sports broadcasters talk about how grumpy you are, but you’ve been so darn sweet to me now that we’ve worked everything out.”
His nostrils flared as he slid his palm up my spine and pulled me closer. “Don’t wanna hear about that bullshit again.”
“Too soon to tease you about anything to do with the media?” I asked.
“Only because it fucking sucked to think that you belonged to someone else when you were supposed to be mine, even if you cleared everything up for me in less than a day,” he growled.
“See?” I brushed my lips over his and whispered, “There you go being all sweet again. You’ll have to tone that down if you don’t want everyone to talk about what a marshmallow you are on the inside.”
He shook his head with a deep chuckle. “Only with you, baby.”
My heart melted at his gruff confession, but then my stomach growled and ruined the moment. Rigby flashed me a sexy grin that would have drenched my panties if I wore any. “Stay right here, and I’ll get to work on that breakfast in bed.”
“Mmm, I like the sound of that.” I stared as he climbed off the mattress, taking in all of his bunching muscles and black ink on tanned skin before my gaze dropped to his dick—which was almost as hard as it had been when he took me last night.
I pressed my thighs together, reminding me I was still a mess from our mixed releases.
“But I really should get up and take a shower so I’m not all dirty. ”
“Or I could dirty you up in there again before you get clean.” His gaze heated as it drifted down my body.
I tugged the sheet up to my chest before he could tempt me to take him up on his suggestion. “That’s going to happen sometime soon, but I have a feeling I’ll lose all track of time with your sexiness in the shower with me. Then I’d miss class, and you wouldn’t make it to practice.”
“I suppose you have a point.” He bent down and grabbed his shorts off the floor and tugged them on, reminding me of an important detail that I hadn’t considered until now.
“Oh no.”
“What’s wrong?” he growled, stalking back to the side of the bed.
I pressed my lips together as I wiggled the sheet. “I don’t have any clean clothes to wear to school. My skirt and top have been lying somewhere in a heap on your floor all night, so they’re probably all wrinkled. And as hot as it was when you tore off my panties, they’re ruined.”
“You can wear one of my shirts and a pair of my boxers with your skirt.” He smirked. “I like the idea of you in my clothes.”
“There’s just one problem.” I quirked a brow and pointed back and forth between us. “You’re like twice my size. I’d end up swimming in anything of yours.”
“Give me a second.” He strode into his walk-in closet and returned with a hunter-green dress shirt. “You can tie the ends of the bottom of this together and roll up the sleeves. Trust me, you’ll look hot as fuck in it.”
“That just might work,” I agreed, staring at his butt as he left the room.
When I padded into the kitchen after my shower, Rigby’s eyes widened. He raked his fingers through his hair and grumbled, “I was right about how good you’d look in my shirt. Too fucking hot to be on a college campus with a bunch of assholes who’ll try to stare at your tits all day.”
“It’s a good thing you’re the only asshole I see,” I quipped with a grin.
“I better be,” he grunted.
My stomach let out a loud growl when the scent of bacon hit my nostrils, and Rigby dished the food out for us. I wasn’t normally a big breakfast eater, but we’d worked off dinner in the bedroom, and I’d only munched on some snacks while I waited for him yesterday.
“Mmm, delicious,” I murmured as I pushed my empty plate away after devouring the scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast, and bacon he’d made.
“Glad you enjoyed it.” Rigby got to his feet and started collecting the dishes to bring them over to the sink.
I followed with our glasses. Once everything was cleaned up, we headed to his truck so he could drive me to campus.
“Do you need anything from your dorm for your class?” he asked when we were a block away from Tisch.
“Nope.” I lifted my purse and jiggled it. “Luckily, I have my drawing tablet, and my textbook is accessible on my phone, so I’ll be fine for today.”
He pulled up at the curb in front of the building and put the truck in park. Before he could climb out to open my door, I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. “I’m good. No need to get out and risk having a cop pull up, wanting to give you a ticket or something.”
“Okay, baby.” He fisted my hair at the back of my head and claimed my mouth in a deep kiss that left me breathless. “Have a good class. See you tonight.”
“Uh-huh,” I breathed before stumbling out of the vehicle in a sensual fog.
Three girls I was friendly with—but not super close to—waited for me on the sidewalk after Rigby’s truck pulled away. Maria stepped forward, her lips curved into a smirk. “Please tell me you’re a sneaky bitch who’s been dating Gustavo Duarte all this time without telling us.”
Ana’s nose wrinkled as she shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve watched every episode of Dias de Amor no Rio, and that guy looked way too big to be Gustavo.”
Stephanie nodded. “Yeah, and I’ve always pictured him driving something slicker than that, like a sports car of some kind. But maybe he’s just different in real life from the character he plays on the show.”
I rolled my eyes with a deep sigh. “You can’t believe even half of what you read online.”
“Except it wasn’t just on the internet,” Maria retorted. Slinging her backpack off her shoulder, she unzipped it to pull out a copy of the New York Post. “Your picture made it into Page Six, too.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” My fingers itched to yank the paper out of her hands and rip it to shreds after all the trouble those photos caused between Rigby and me. “Whoever wrote that article didn’t bother to do any fact checking because I was just a seat filler at the event.”
Ana crossed her arms over her ample chest. “Then who was that guy? You’ve never talked about dating anyone before, and suddenly some dude is dropping you off on campus right after all this is happening.”
“It’s kind of hard to believe that’s just a coincidence,” Stephanie agreed.
“There is a guy in my life, but it’s not Gustavo,” I reluctantly admitted. “And that’s all I have to say right now because it’s very new. I don’t want to mess things up with him just as they’ve gotten started.”
All three of them still looked skeptical, but I didn’t owe them—or anyone else—an explanation about what was going on. My private life wasn’t their business…no matter how many inaccurate articles were written about me.