Page 36 of Undeniably Unexpected (Boston’s Irresistible Billionaires #6)

M orning stirs with a smile, an idea, and a hard cock.

And heaven. Heaven that is Keegan snugly pressed against me.

It’s been a week of us together like this.

A week of sex and fun and swimming and laughing.

A week of isolation and domestic bliss. A week since I convinced her to let me sleep in her bed.

She didn’t want to.

She wants to keep boundaries and use me as her plaything.

While typically that would be my exact brand of tea, right now it’s not.

I’m not allowing myself to think too deeply about it either.

The sex is too good. The feel of her in my arms is too good.

The way she makes me laugh and adores my son is too good.

Too good to be true? Maybe.

I hope not.

Right now we’re perfect. I don’t know if it’s the island air or how it went with Child and Family Services or what, but I’m riding a high with her I never want to let go of.

Does it scare me? Without a doubt. Every time I start to imagine this being real, I break out into a cold sweat of panic, which is why I’m not thinking about it.

I’m in the moment where she is, and since she doesn’t seem to be racing full steam ahead—quite the opposite, really—I’ll take it as it comes.

“Keegan. Keegs. Wake up, my darling,” I whisper-hiss, barely able to contain my mischief and excitement. What I’m plotting is bloody stupid, all things considered, but I’m starting to go stir-crazy. It’s the city boy in me.

“Mmm. What?” she groans, rolling over so her face is tucked against my chest, and her body wiggles closer.

I wrap my arms around her, keeping her in place.

Our morning rooster wake-up hasn’t happened yet.

It will any second. It’s nearing dawn, but I’ve been awake, my mind too busy to slow.

Not to mention, I’m not used to sleeping beside someone, and between my childhood and now being a father, I sleep lighter than ever.

“What time is it?” she rasps, her voice thick with sleep.

“Adventure o’clock.”

She makes a small snorty sound. She does those a lot, and they’re so cute.

“You didn’t actually just say that, did you?”

“No. I’d never say something so corny. But it doesn’t change the fact that I want to do a day trip to the mainland today.”

She yawns and flops onto her back, blinking and squinting up at me as she tries to see through the darkness. “You’re serious?”

“Absolutely. It’ll be fun. We’ll be tourists.”

“And draw eyes that come with photographs and video. Even if the press doesn’t know we’re down here or how to find us, that could tip them off.”

“Isn’t that good though? Don’t we want images of our domestic bliss?”

“Why are you smiling like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like the Joker.”

“Because I want to go into town with you and Fen. We’ll get lunch and take in the sights. Come on. I’m going mad. I love it here, but I need more solid ground beneath my feet, if you know what I mean.”

She thinks about this, her mind working overtime, and finally, as she opens her mouth to respond, Reginald and his pack of cronies sound their alarm.

She grunts. “Just one morning without you and your thugs would be nice, Reggie! I could do with sleeping in.” Her forearms fly over her face, and her brace hits her on the forehead with a thud. “Ow. Ugh.”

“Would it sweeten the deal if I got us a hotel room in Key West with no rooster wake-up?”

“Maybe, but aren’t there roosters there too? And what happens if people see us, and we’re followed?”

“You’re not very good at shutting off your big brain and living in the moment, are you?”

“I’ve been trying, but no. Not usually. I have a very active imagination, and it doesn’t always paint the prettiest picture.”

“Try with me.” I run my fingers along the lines of her face, staring down at the woman I am losing my heart to. “Try all of it.”

“What does that mean? All of it.”

The uncertainty in her eyes challenges my own. I swallow, my heart pumping a warning signal of adrenaline through my blood. Don’t fight. Run , it’s screaming. I don’t know why I said that or where the words even came from. They sounded almost… desperate. Like a plea.

Before I can answer her, I hear Fen whining from the other room. And thank God for that, right?

I start to pull away and slide out of bed, forcing myself not to watch her reaction as I do. I don’t want to see relief, and I don’t want to see disappointment. I slip on shorts and grab my phone from the nightstand.

“What time were you thinking we’d brave this adventure?” she asks, and I release the breath I was holding. At least she sounds normal.

“Few hours?” I call back as I reach the door. “I thought we’d get lunch there, but I’m liking the idea of a holiday from our island for the night.”

“Sounds good.”

And with that, I hear her get out of bed and the bathroom door shut.

Buggar. Do I ever know how not to fuck something up?

My chest tightens with the need to go after her, but I push it down and go for my son instead.

I lift him out of his crib and get him into a dry nappy and a clean outfit when my phone rings with a video chat.

“Ah, it’s Granny.” I sit in the chair with him on my lap and hit accept on FaceTime, and my mother’s face comes into view.

I can see she’s out in the park near her house, the bare trees, winding path, and high, ancient gate are a dead giveaway.

After my first big blockbuster and payday, I bought my mum a house in London near this park and put the twins through university.

Buying her that home was, I think, the happiest moment of my life.

The moment Fen sees her, he starts to smile and wiggle around in my arms, babbling and saying hi.

“Hello there, you both. Oh, look at you, Fenric. You’re getting so big, lad. No longer such a wee thing, are you?”

“No,” I agree. “He’s been eating nonstop and growing faster than a weed.”

“Like you. How’s it going on the island? Any updates on anything?”

“Good. Everything is good. And no updates. As of right now, everyone seems to be waiting for me to return to Boston, and since no one knows where we are, there haven’t been any press stalking us here. It’s only been speculation in the tabloids and news, but that’s it.”

“Still no word on who turned you into the press in the first place, though?”

“No. But whoever it was doesn’t have an inside scoop on us being here, which is a relief.”

I don’t want to think it’s Fen’s mum lurking in the shadows somewhere and trying to hurt me. The fact that she’s a total mystery to us is troubling. I don’t like to imagine that his mum would want to hurt him. I like to think she gave him to me because she had no other choice.

I just wish she had told me about him from the start. I may never know why she didn’t. My attorney is working with UK courts since that’s the country of my citizenship to get Fen a proper birth certificate and a National Insurance Number, and then we’ll work on a passport for him as well.

But since I have a working visa in the US and will be in Boston for the next few months, their Child and Family Services has to be involved too, and my US attorneys are handling that side of it.

“And the girl you’re with? What’s her name again? Keelan?”

I snicker. She can never get Keegan’s name right, though it’s an Irish name, and Mum was born in Ireland. “Keegan, Mum. Her name is Keegan. And she’s good too.”

Her gray eyes flash with something like recognition. “There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?”

“How’s that?”

“Of course you’re shagging the poor girl.”

I roll my eyes, especially as she refers to Keegan as a poor girl for shagging me. “Didn’t you ring to talk to your grandson?”

She blows past that. “I’d ask if it were serious, but I know with you it never is.”

“Stop it. Serious isn’t what either of us is after. In case you missed it, my life is a bit hectic at the moment.”

“And yet you’re keen on her.”

I shift uncomfortably in my chair. It’s frustrating how quickly my mother picked up on that. All I did was say her name. Am I that bad off with this?

Yes , springs instantly through my mind, though I shove that down.

I look at my timepiece. “And Bob’s your uncle, look at the time. Well, it was lovely chatting, but?—”

“Enough of that.”

I sigh. “How about you talk to Fen and lay off me?” Hearing his name, he smacks the phone and tries to bring it to his mouth. I battle it away much to his dismay.

“But it’s what mothers do. It’s in our job description. If I didn’t tell it to you like it is, who would?”

“No one, and my life would be better for it.”

“Cor. You’d be lost without me.” She pauses and tilts her head. “If you’re this keen on her the way you clearly are, why do you look so scared? Does she not feel the same way back? Are you not going to try with her?”

I roll my eyes derisively. “That’s rich coming from the woman who told me to avoid crushing heartache, never fall in love. And if I do, always love myself more.”

“What?” she barks sharply. “I said no such thing.”

“Yes, Mum, you did. You said it a year after Dad left. I was only ten, but I remember it perfectly. You were emphatic.”

Her face turns into a statue. “I did that?”

“Yes. Why do you look so shocked?”

Her eyes immediately fill with tears. “Loomis, for a while after your father left, I wasn’t… well, I wasn’t in a good place mentally.”

I scrunch my brow. “I know.”

“No. You don’t. Because I was young and heartbroken and overwhelmed and suffering from enormous depression.

I wasn’t even thirty and suddenly had three young boys to raise alone after the man I loved left me.

I had no education, no real job experience, and any jobs I found weren’t enough to feed you boys and keep us in a safe home.

So if I said things like that, they came from a dark place in my soul.

That was heartache speaking, not reality. ”

“Mum…” I trail off, not knowing how to respond.

“Oh, Loomis. I did so many things wrong with you boys and failed you in so many ways.”