Page 28 of Undeniably Unexpected (Boston’s Irresistible Billionaires #6)

I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have kissed her. Because that kiss. That fucking kiss! It messed with my head.

I’ve kissed a lot of women. Both on and off screen. Most times I feel nothing. A kiss is simply a means to something more pleasurable. Not with Keegan. That kiss…

I want—no, I need more. The way she tastes and those delicate sounds and the feel of her soft breast in my hand and her legs wrapped around mine and the way she kissed me back.

I shouldn’t have kissed her because now I know what I’m missing.

I know what’s waiting for me and what that kiss would have turned into.

I could feel the heat sizzling between us.

The sparks of fire that would have ignited.

I shouldn’t have kissed her, but I had to fucking kiss her. I couldn’t stand the thought that she didn’t know how beautiful I think she is. That she didn’t know how much I want her and the lengths I’ve gone to not want her. It drove me mad. Past the point of rational, saner thought.

It made me react. And now I’m in trouble.

Sleeping with her in my arms last night was heaven.

It felt… right. Right in a way so few things in my life have been.

It was like all my scattered pieces were returned to me, and all I was doing was holding her body against mine and breathing in the sweet, clean scent of her.

That was it. It wasn’t some wild, life-defining moment, and yet I knew there was nowhere else I was meant to be than right there with her.

I never thought of myself as good for anyone, but what if I am with her? What if I could be for her?

Is that a risk I want to take when everything is in jeopardy?

I don’t know what to do. I only know that I want her, and I shouldn’t because I can’t have her. Keegan Fritz is a princess, and princesses deserve princes. They deserve courtly knights. They deserve love and devotion, and I’m not a man who engages in either.

Last night I knew what going into her room would mean, the temptation I’d be battling, but hearing her screams with the thunder and how powerful the storm was, I knew I had no choice.

All I wanted was to take away her fear and make her feel safe.

I wasn’t going to do anything. I was simply going to hold her and perhaps breathe in her hair and skin.

That was all, dammit, and now look what I’ve done.

I blow out a heated breath, my skin vibrating and my stupid cock still hard, and I force myself to get my shit together before I open the door to Fen’s bedroom.

“Dada! Hi!”

I chuckle, and a smile instantly springs to my lips.

“Morning, my little lad. All right? You sleep well?” I kiss Fen’s forehead as I pick him up and out of his crib.

“Did you have good dreams, or did the storm scare you?” We walk over to the changing table that’s on top of the dresser, and I set him down despite his ardent protests.

He hates having his nappy changed and never fails to kick and scream whenever I do this.

“Settle down, and whatever you do, don’t wee on me.

I know that’s one of your favorite hobbies, but try to refrain. ”

I continue to talk to him as I change him out of his pajamas and get him into a clean nappy. But now what? I’ve gone and mucked things up and made it awkward between me and Keegan.

“So much for not being a git,” I mumble to Fen.

I swing the door open and glance back toward her room. The corridor is dark and quiet with the exception of small rumbles of thunder and the pitter-patter of rain on the roof. It’s going to be a long day for us inside.

I take us into my room and quickly get dressed before we go downstairs, and I make all of us breakfast. I like that I can cook for her.

I know she struggles to do things with her brace and broken wrist and hand.

And when she comes down the stairs all smiles as if nothing happened between us this morning, my gut twists, and not in relief.

She pours herself a cup of coffee and goes over to play with Fen while I finish cooking, and I find myself wishing this were real.

Except she’s not my girlfriend. She’s in love with another man.

A man who texts her and calls her—like he is now since I can see the face of her phone as she goes to pick it up.

She rises and jogs back up the steps as she answers for him, and my jaw clenches until it aches, and my grip on the spatula nearly snaps it in two.

Fuck. I don’t want her talking to him.

This is what my mum was saying all those years ago. Feelings and attachments are dangerous.

At some point today, Vander is going to leak photos of me with Keegan and Fen, and on Friday, social services is coming to pay us a visit.

I have a movie to plan for, a script to learn, and a son to take care of.

Those are the only things I should be focused on.

I’m already breaking rules, and it has to stop.

Ten minutes later, I’m sitting with Fen on my lap, both of us eating from my plate because I’m too grouchy and lazy to put him in his highchair when Keegan comes back downstairs.

“Well, the pictures are out. They were leaked to Intertainment first, and now they’re everywhere.

“Must have made your bloke unhappy.”

“He’s not my bloke or whatever you call it. But no, he wasn’t happy.”

“Good.”

“Good?”

“Yes. Good. Wasn’t that the point of this? For him to think you’re mine and therefore not his anymore? Or were you busy reconciling just now?”

“Why are you being a jerk?”

Because I’m jealous. Isn’t it obvious? Because I kissed you and everything I thought I knew about myself has suddenly been flipped on its head.

Because I’m realizing with startling clarity that I want you to be mine.

For real. And I don’t know how to make heads or tails of that when I’m already balancing a hundred different things, and you want him and not me.

“Just answer me.”

“No. We didn’t reconcile. Now are you going to answer me ?”

I sigh and shift so I’m facing her while Fen shoves his mouth full of beans. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be short with you. I’m just out of sorts with everything.”

“It was just a kiss, Loomis.”

That pulls me up short. “What?”

“This morning. It was just a kiss. It didn’t mean anything. I know that. You can relax. I’m fine, and we both know it won’t happen again. Right?”

She just diced up my insides with a bloody machete. “Yeah. Sure.”

Relief dances through her eyes, and her smile kills me.

She goes about getting herself breakfast and more coffee in a new mug because that’s what she does sometimes, and I return to Fen, who is an absolute mess, and that’s that. We’re friends. Nothing more. She’s right for that. I know it, and I’ll stay with that course. She’s given me no choice.

Shockingly enough, the two days between the kiss and when social services is coming fly by.

Probably because other than meals, Keegan and I haven’t seen much of each other.

The weather improved by the following morning, and Fen and I spent most of our time outdoors swimming and exploring and testing out the waves.

It exhausts him, and with that, he’s taken epic naps upward of two hours.

It gives me time for myself and time to work on the script.

Keegan has stayed in her room or at her favorite table, umbrella, and chair in the garden. She’s been working on whatever it is she’s doing with her laptop nearly around the clock, and other than a meal here or there, she’s kept her distance.

I’ve tried to convince myself it’s for the best and easier this way, but it’s been rubbing at me instead.

“You’ll be fine, Loomis,” Tinsley tells me.

She helped me work through a scene in the film even though she’s not in this one, but nerves about what today is have gotten the better of me and I can’t focus.

“There’s no reason they won’t love you. It’s a formality.

You’re essentially having to adopt your son since there’s no record of him, and with that, the state of Massachusetts, where you’re currently paying rent, is just being careful.

They’re in the public spotlight with this too. ”

Fen isn’t awake yet, and I woke before dawn thanks to the bastardly roosters who are more precise than an alarm clock.

“What if they decide to take him?”

“Why would they do that?”

“Because things have completely blown out of control.” Which they have.

In addition to the leaked pictures—the ones we leaked—there has been nonstop speculation about who Fen’s mum is and where I met her and what I did to her as if I offed her myself to get my son.

It hasn’t been flattering. Not even a bit.

Vander caught an online publication that was about to print my mug shot from when I was a punk twenty-year-old.

Thankfully, he stopped it, and it has somehow magically disappeared, but you can’t just go and remove someone’s prison sentence.

There are court documents and filings, so the fact that I was in prison for the possession and selling of drugs is out there, too.

It's been one thing after another, my worst nightmare and fears at the forefront while Keegan and I play a couple on the island. I heard her on the phone with her mum the other night, and I know she’s not happy that Keegan is here with me.

I’m living up to my reputation as Hollywood’s bad boy when that’s the last thing I want to be.

But because of that, I should go. I’m not helping Keegan.

I’m not sure she ever needed me for anything, and being associated with me isn’t good for her.

Tinsley exhales a heavy breath. “I know they have. But Fenric belongs with you, and you just have to make them see that. Things will settle down soon. They will. It’s been less than a week since all this began, and Vander, your PR people, and attorneys are all over it.”

“I know. I’ve weathered worse, and I can weather this.”

“Exactly. Plus, the studio is on board. Does Tommy Hardgrave know you’re away? You could call him to work on some of these scenes.”

“I don’t know him that well, and I don’t want to call him for that with all of this going on. We don’t have table reads for another few weeks, so as far as I’m concerned, I don’t have to bother him until then.”

“Fine. I’m happy to work on them with you. Now tell me how things are with you and Keegan. She doesn’t give much away in our group text.”

“I kissed her.”

“You what?”

I sit on the edge of my bed and stare out toward the balcony and the sparkling water beyond it. “I kissed her. The other morning. I slept in her room during the storm, and when we woke up, we started talking about how beautiful I think she is and she didn’t believe me, and, well, I kissed her.”

Tinsley starts laughing, which is not the reaction I was expecting.

“Freaking finally.”

“No. Not finally. She told me it didn’t mean anything and that we’re just friends.”

“Ouch. Is that true, though?”

I rub my jaw. “I like her. A lot.”

She snorts. “What are you, five? You more than like her a lot. You always have, even when you pretended you didn’t. It’s why you stayed distant and didn’t sleep with her when she went out to LA. If you didn’t have feelings for her, you would have screwed her and moved on as you always do.”

The way she says that hits me square in the chest. Is that why I didn’t sleep with Keegan? Because I’ve had feelings for her all this time and pushed them away? It rattles me in the worst of ways. “I can’t like her like this, Tins. I just can’t.”

“Because she could be right for you, or you’re afraid you’re wrong for her?”

Good question. One I’m not sure I have the answer to. One I’m not sure I want the answer to.

“Who the fuck knows at this point. Regardless, it doesn’t matter. Nothing can happen between us. I won’t let it.”

“Because you’re unwilling to act on your feelings or you’re afraid she won’t return them?”

I’m starting to sweat, and it’s far from hot in this room with the air conditioner blasting overhead. “Christ, you and the hard questions this morning. Like I won’t be getting enough of those later.”

“True. Fine. I’ll stop pestering you about Keegan. I won’t even tell you that when she went out to LA last fall, she had a massive thing for you.”

“Me or Loomis Powell?” I can’t help but ask.

“You, you douche. You know that. Yes, Keegan crushed on you as a celebrity and movie star, but she liked you as you.”

“Don’t tell me that.” I knew Keegan wanted something to happen.

I assumed it was a celebrity fling the way it is with all women and me since I knew she was headed back to Boston and, therefore, was aware nothing could happen beyond that.

I didn’t know it was more than that, and hearing Tinsley say it and then knowing Keegan fell in love with Alden shortly after I all but rejected her fucking stings.

I hated hearing about him then, and I hate hearing about him now.

“I didn’t say anything,” she deadpans. “Call me tonight so I know how it all went. I love you, and it’s going to be fine.”

“Thank you. I love you, too. Kiss Stone and his mangy cat for me.”

She laughs. “Will do. Kiss Keegan for me.”

“Ha-ha. You’re a laugh riot.”

“I know, but I’m also serious. Bye now.”

I slip my phone into my pocket and rise off the bed, ready to go wake up Fen so he has enough time to eat and then have a bath. My hands are already shaking. This is going to be the longest day of my life.