Page 3 of Undeniably Unexpected (Boston’s Irresistible Billionaires #6)

“ H er what?” Alden barks like a rabid dog, and oh shit. What the bloody fuck have I done?

I’m supposed to be keeping a low profile. In fact, I wasn’t lying to Keegan when I told her no one knew I was in town. Because I’m supposed to be keeping the lowest of low profiles!

But her expression when she told me they broke up—that sad, heartbroken, disappointed expression—hit an ancient and familiar spot in me and thrust every protective instinct I have to the forefront.

Truth? I knew it was Keegan the moment she stepped out of the café. I was a half block away, and I still knew it was her. The long red hair, the petite frame with unstoppable curves, visible even beneath her coat. Her smile lit up the gloomy sky.

Seeing her made me pause, uncertainty about whether or not I should approach her warring within me, which is why I didn’t get to her in time when she started falling. I haven’t seen her in months, not since she came out to LA for some medical conference, and we spent time together.

I’ve always liked Keegan a little too much.

She’s sweet, smart, funny, and bloody gorgeous.

Plus, she has her life together, and it’s perfect.

I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s alluring if for no other reason than my life has always been anything but.

Since the moment I met her over a year and a half ago, I’ve been drawn to her in a way I never am with anyone.

It’s one of the many reasons why nothing could happen between us despite my wanting it to when she came out to LA.

Chaps like me with our poor, bad boy roots barely hidden beneath posh accents and easy smiles have no business touching princesses, and that’s precisely what Keegan Fritz is. She’s not the casual hookup sort despite her cool and casual bravado. Women like her expect to be girlfriends.

Case in point, the bloke standing before us.

I’d heard about this Alden. Tinsley loved to regale me with unwanted details about Keegan’s relationship with him because Tinsley was hoping it would spring me into action and I’d scale the wall of impossible relationships and make it to the summit with Keegan as mine.

Something Tinsley knew I not only didn’t have the time or desire for but had sworn off long before I ever made it as an actor. It wasn’t some there’s a million fish in the sea, or I’m famous now, so I have the right to be an arsehole and fuck around shamelessly doctrine.

No, my moratorium on love and relationships is one of the few good things to come from my childhood.

Regardless, Tinsley liked to press me because she knew I fancied Keegan, and with that, I came to the obvious conclusion that Alden was not only a twat but all wrong for her.

Clearly, I was right, and the idea of making him suffer a bit because he had her and was daft enough to let her go is too sweet to pass up.

“Her boyfriend?” the git continues when I don’t reply, and neither does Keegan, his pretty boy complexion growing sullen. “That’s impossible.”

I can feel Keegan’s what the fuck eyes on me, but I ignore them, refusing to back down since I already started this.

“It’s not, though. Have you ever heard the sayings you snooze, you lose , or the early bird catches the worm ?

Keegs and I have been friends for ages, but truth be told, I was biding my time until the opportunity to officially make her mine presented itself.

Lucky bastard that I am.” I wink arrogantly, and Alden sputters out a harsh breath.

Keegan chokes out a series of rapid-fire noises that would have me laughing if I weren’t trying to ward off her ex.

The guy is nonplussed.

“I’m sorry. And your name is?”

Isn’t that the tricky part?

“Alden, what are you even doing here?” Keegan jumps in, saving me.

He forgets me for a moment as he turns his focus to her, his features softening. “I wanted to see you. I need to talk to you.”

She shakes her head, holding her wrist closer to her chest. She has to be in pain, but she’s holding it in well. “We’re done. There’s nothing left to talk about.”

“There is,” he appeals emphatically. “Forget this guy. He’s nothing. Can we go somewhere and talk? Please.”

“No. No, you can’t,” I state plainly, beyond cross he called me nothing when I’ve been called that more times than I care to think about.

He grits his teeth at me and advances on her, but she holds her good hand out to stop him. “I don’t want you to touch me.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t push me away.” He puffs out a breath, white vapor pluming into the air as he holds out his hand for her. “Just come over to my place. I have things I need to tell you. Important things. For us.”

“She’s not your girlfriend anymore, mate. She’s mine, and you need to take a breath and step back.”

“You should mind your own business,” Alden snaps, fury staining his face despite the cold. “No way is she with you. It’s only been a week since we broke up, and she loves me. She told me so.”

An unexpected stinger fires through me at hearing that, but I quickly brush it aside.

“Yes, but that was last week, and this is now. Besides, the weather isn’t the best, and I’d like to get her home.” I don’t mention that Keegan fell and got hurt. That’ll glue him to her.

“How about you fuck off?”

“If that’s a question, the answer is no. Should I reverse it on you and change it to a statement?”

He goes for Keegan again, and I step between them.

“Don’t even try it. She asked you not to touch her, and you need to respect that.

” I hug her against me, and he steps back, more than frustrated with my constant interception.

He looks like he wants to hit me, and I give him a hard look.

One he doesn’t mistake. I may live in the land of Hollywood now, but I’m a street kid from the dodgy end of London, and if he presses me, he’ll regret it.

Alden’s jaw locks so tight I’m shocked he’s not cracking a molar. “I’m not going to hurt her. I just want to talk to my girlfriend. What kind of man do you think I am?”

“One who’s yelling at his ex -girlfriend on the street.”

“This isn’t yelling—” he yells.

“Hey,” Keegan interjects before this gets even more out of control. “Both of you quit it. Alden, I’m sorry, but this isn’t the time or place to discuss anything. Plus, I’m with… him now. So good night. Bye. Go.”

I nearly smirk at that but hold it in.

Alden opens his mouth to say something but quickly shuts it, and without another word, storms off into the frozen night.

I blow out a breath. “Well, that was interesting.”

Keegan turns on me, her eyebrows at her hairline. “My boyfriend?”

I chuckle. “Might not have been the cleverest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Ya think?” She laughs. “What on earth made you do that?”

Because the thought of him trying to worm his way back in sat like curdled milk in my gut and I reacted. But I can’t say that, so I go with…

“I didn’t mean to step in like that, or call you my girlfriend, for that matter, but I didn’t like the way he was speaking to you.” Or him in general. I didn’t like him. “The way you spoke about him made me think he hurt you, and I didn’t want him to do it again.”

“You didn’t have to do that. I can take care of myself.”

“I know that. But I got protective.”

Silence falls between us as my eyes rove over her face. I don’t know why I just said that other than my mouth has a mind of its own tonight.

“Are you cross with me? Should I have let him talk to you?”

She sighs. “I’m not mad, and I’m not ready to talk to him, so it’s fine. Except now that he thinks I have a new boyfriend, I fear he’ll be more motivated to seek me out.”

I grimace. “He might do, yeah. I’m sorry.”

She shrugs. “Maybe a little jealousy will be good for him.”

I don’t like the idea of her wanting to make him jealous. It bothers me, but I’d do right to let it go. “I need to get going,” I say quietly, my eyes still on her. The moment lingers, charged with a current that shouldn’t be there.

“Same.”

I trail my fingers along her cheek, her skin like silk beneath my touch, before I force my hand to fall. “Are you sure I can’t convince you to go to the hospital?”

“Absolutely not. I’ll take care of it. I promise.”

I frown, hating how I’m not in a position to demand she go. Or take her myself. I’m already on borrowed time.

“Right then. I’ll let you get to it since I’m late, and I know you are too. Cheers. I’ll ring you later to check on your wrist, yeah?”

“Sure.”

I smirk at her whatever expression. “You’re blowing me off?

Are you already breaking up with me and I’m too blind to see it?

We just got together.” I hold a wounded hand to my chest. I’m very late and I have to go, but for some reason, I don’t want to leave her.

I don’t want to stop talking to her or looking at her.

I’ve missed her, I realize, and for that reason alone, I should go, yet I’m still here, grinning like a loon.

She smiles, the glow of the street lamps dancing in her pretty green eyes. “I’m definitely breaking up with you. I don’t even know who you are, let alone what your name is.”

I belt out a laugh. “True. I can’t argue that. Ironically, that was the longest relationship of my life.”

“That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I doubt that.” I check my watch again. “Buggar. Which way are you headed?”

She points to my right.

“I’m going this way.” I point straight ahead.

I step forward and wrap my arms around her, and for a moment, I allow myself to breathe in the sweet scent of her hair. To appreciate how perfect she feels in my arms. But I don’t allow myself to linger.

My cold hand cups her cheek. “It was really good to see you, Keegan.”

She gives me a half smile. “You too.”

“Dada! Dada!” a small voice calls out, and my head flies up just as Fenric, all bundled up with red cheeks staining his face, comes barreling down the slippery sidewalk headed straight for me. And running behind him is Tinsley. Crap.

“Dada?” Keegan questions, her head flipping back and forth like a ping-pong ball between the two of us as I make a quick adjustment and catch my little boy at full speed, swooping him up into my arms and kissing his cold, runny nose. “Did he just call you, Dada?”

Fear grips my lungs, and I hold him closer to me before I meet her shocked green eyes and answer, “Yes.”

I watch her closely, a myriad of emotions and questions flickering over her face. What Keegan doesn’t know is that her LA trip was more than just her coming for a visit and me resisting her in the name of friendship and doing the right thing.

It was when I got the call about Fenric.

And with it, the trajectory of my life has veered drastically off course.

In the blink of an eye, one phone call, all these months later, and still nothing is settled.

Nothing is calm. Everything is a clusterfuck of Jesus Christ, how is this my life , and how can I hold on just a little longer and what the absolute fuck am I going to do now ?

I wasn’t lying when I told her my life was a mess.

A mess is an understatement.

It’s almost a laughable term.

My life is a runaway train barreling down the tracks headed straight for a building loaded with TNT, like in those old cartoons I used to watch as a kid.

I glance over at Tinsley, who is staring apologetically at me, and back over to Keegan, who is completely flummoxed. She looks as though she’s attempting to solve quadratic equations and coming up short. It’d be adorable if the situation wasn’t so fucked up.

“Hey, Keegs.” Tinsley greets her nervously, but Keegan doesn’t even hear her.

“He’s your son? You have a son?” she asks, disbelief heavy in her tone. “How is that even possible?”

“There’s quite a long story with it,” I tell her, not wanting to do this out here.

It’s just us for the most part, people coming and going, but Tinsley Monroe, world-famous pop star and actress that she is, will draw eyes and attention as she always does, and I don’t want anyone to figure out it’s me in this disguise.

Not a stretch since Tinsley and I are best friends and all but inseparable.

It’s a good disguise, but nothing someone couldn’t see beneath if they really tried.

“Wait. I’m so confused. How did I not know this? You know about it.”

“Yes. I know about it.” Tinsley turns to me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see Keegan until he was already out of my arms and running for you.”

I wave that off as I tuck my little lad tighter against me.

“Didn’t see me?” Keegan sputters. “As in, you don’t want people to know. So you’re hiding it?”