Chapter 35 Monroe
MONROE
Steven and Harriet Blume outing Brodan and me meant I finally got a taste of what Brodan’s life was like.
When he called to speak to his publicist, Annie, he put her on speaker and introduced us.
Annie was a bit surprised to hear I was Brodan’s girlfriend, but she moved past it with blunt professionalism.
She insisted that if Brodan wanted to take back some control from the tabloids, then he should post to his social media.
It was apparently harder to get readers to follow the clickbait if celebrities were already posting their personal lives to socials.
So that night, we went to the Gloaming, and Arran snapped a few candid photos of Bro and me cuddled in the pub booth. Brodan posted one of them to his socials with the caption, “It’s good to be home with my love.”
He told me his comment section went wild, but he wasn’t looking at them. Brodan closed the app as soon as he posted, and I was never more thankful that I didn’t have social media accounts.
The real problem, Annie had told us, was that once Brodan announced his retirement from acting, we had to prepare for the speculation that I was the reason.
Some of that speculation would turn negative, and fans might blame me.
The thought didn’t fill me with as much dread as I’d anticipated.
In fact, it reminded me I rarely cared what strangers thought of me.
All I cared about in the end was Brodan.
We were inundated with requests from chat shows and morning television for live interviews that Brodan had his people shut down immediately.
And before we could even get to dealing with the upcoming announcement of Brodan’s retirement, we had to endure the paparazzi that descended on Ardnoch.
Walker took leave from his position on the estate to be Brodan’s full-time bodyguard, and a security guard from the estate, who was ex-Special Forces, agreed to be my temporary bodyguard.
His name was Jock, and he was professional but a lot warmer than Walker.
It was scary leaving the cottage in the mornings to a crowd of paps, pushing their cameras in my face as Jock shoved them back.
When one of them grabbed at my arm hard enough to leave bruises, Brodan had enough.
We packed up some things and moved into his suite in the castle where they couldn’t get to us.
He and Lachlan were pretty certain it wouldn’t take long for the tabloids to grow bored and leave.
The village did protect the celebrities who stayed at Ardnoch Castle, and they were getting nowhere with our neighbors.
They were also unable to get into the castle or follow me into the school because Anita had asked for a police presence.
I’d felt awful creating such a stir, but I had the feeling Anita found it exciting, so I let my guilt go.
After a week of being hounded, however, a politician in London got caught on video snorting cocaine while a half-naked woman, who wasn’t his wife, draped herself over him.
Brodan and I were old news, and while it was nice to be catered to in the castle, I was glad to return to our cottage.
To not have to be tailed by Jock and Walker wherever we went.
Yet having my love life plastered all over the internet, all the speculation and gossip, and hounding by the media wasn’t even the worst moment during it all.
A few nights ago, while we were still staying in the castle, Brodan was showering and I was on the bed, creating online worksheets for the kids.
He’d left his phone beside me and, while he’d silenced all social media notifications, he’d kept his ringer and text notifications on.
His phone buzzed a few times, and every time I’d instinctually glance at the screen.
The third time it buzzed, I noted the name Lotte, and the first line of the text was visible on the notification screen.
Hey, sexy. So is the redhead why you didn’t take me up on …
Heart thumping in my chest, I desperately wanted to know what Brodan hadn’t taken her up on. Who was she? I racked my brain and then suddenly, it hit me.
Holy shit.
Lotte Fischer. Gorgeous German American actor who starred in a romantic thriller with Brodan a few years ago.
What was she doing texting Brodan?
The urge to read the rest of the text was real, but if Brodan invaded my privacy in that way, I’d be so disappointed that he didn’t trust me.
Still, I’d sat nauseated on the bed, unable to concentrate until he came out of the shower.
He was rubbing his hair dry with a towel as he stepped into the main bedroom, wearing nothing but boxer briefs and looking like something out of a Calvin Klein ad.
I didn’t want to be jealous of his previous relationships, but what the hell was Lotte Fischer doing texting him?
Whatever he saw in my expression made him pause. “What’s wrong?”
“Your phone buzzed a few times.” I couldn’t help my sullen tone.
“Okay?”
“I didn’t read your texts, but I can see part of them when they come up on the screen.”
Brodan tensed. “What is it?”
“Lotte thinks you’re sexy and wants to know if the redhead is the reason you didn’t take her up on …” I shrugged. “That’s all I saw on the screen, so who knows what you didn’t take her up on.”
He dropped the towel as a muscle ticked in his jaw.
Brodan rounded the bed to sit at my feet.
He held my gaze for a second before he reached for his phone and unlocked the screen.
His eyes moved over it and then back to me.
“She wants to know why I didn’t take her up on her invitation to join her in London on New Year’s. ”
Hurt I wasn’t sure I was allowed to feel made me draw my knees in. “So a woman asked you to spend New Year’s with her, and you didn’t tell me?”
Brodan studied me warily. “I didn’t think it mattered, since I had no intention of taking her up on it.”
“Is it Lotte Fischer?” I nodded at his phone.
“It is.”
“She was your …?”
“Fuck buddy,” he said bluntly. “Whenever she’s single and we’re in the same place, she calls me up.”
“You had a few of those, then?”
“Aye. I never hid that from you.”
“But you’re still texting with her. With the others? Have they been in contact recently?” Blood whooshed in my ears as I waited impatiently for him to respond.
Brodan sighed heavily. “A few have reached out, and I told them I wasn’t available anymore.”
“But you still text with them? They’re still on your phone?”
He glanced at his phone and uttered a slight huff. “Well … they’re still my friends.”
“Either they’re your fuck buddies or your friends, Brodan, but they can’t be both.”
“Of course they can.”
“Maybe before you were in a serious relationship.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You want to dictate who I can be friends with?”
That he couldn’t see how hurtful this was made me want to scream in his face.
Instead, I shoved my laptop aside and pushed off the bed with a scoff of bitter laughter.
Shoving my feet into my boots, I skewered him with a dark look.
“I’d like to see your reaction if my fuck buddies were still texting me. ”
“Roe …” He stood up.
I took hold of the door handle. “I’m going for a walk because if I stay, I might throw something at you.
But think on this, Brodan, while I’m gone …
what do you think it says to me you need to keep in contact with your fuck buddies?
If you can’t guess, let me tell you.” Tears burned my eyes, and I hated him for it.
“It tells me that deep down, you think you’ll need them again, and you don’t want to burn those bridges. ”
“Monroe—”
I slammed out of the room before he could respond because I wasn’t kidding when I said I might throw something at him.
As I hurried down the corridor, Angeline Potter, of all people, appeared around the corner, heading toward her suite.
“Monroe!” Brodan shouted behind me, and I glanced back to catch him practically falling out of the room as he pulled up his jeans and zipped them.
Ugh. I couldn’t even get space to run away from an argument.
“Trouble in paradise?” Angeline asked snidely as I passed.
“Oh, fuck off, Potter,” I snarled.
“Uh!” She squeaked in outrage behind me.
“Monroe!”
I turned the corner, almost running now as I tried to make my escape without Brodan seeing which way I’d gone. I fled toward the turret, the only place in the whole damn castle that ever seemed to be free of other humans.
But I’d barely made it into the circular room when I heard the door below me open and shut and footsteps thunder upward. Brodan appeared at the top, not even out of breath, bare of foot and chest.
“You chased after me in front of Angeline Potter half-naked, so now our spat will be all over the estate,” I snapped without preamble.
Brodan’s eyes gleamed as he prowled toward me. “I’m not the one who told her to fuck off.”
“You heard that?”
“No, she screeched it at me as I ran past her. Well done, by the way.”
I placed a hand in front of me to halt him.
He walked right into my palm. I felt his heartbeat thudding underneath the smooth, hot skin and dropped my hand as if he’d burned me. “Don’t run away from me in the middle of an argument. I can’t stand it,” he growled.
“Don’t be an arsehole, then.”
Brodan pulled his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans, tapped the screen, and held it up. Lotte’s name glared at me. Then he tapped the screen next to her name and deleted the contact.
I sucked in a breath as he scrolled through and deleted five other women’s names from it.
“That’s all of them. I need you to believe that.”
Adrenaline still rushed through me from my jealousy and hurt, but now relief loosened my shoulders.
“Do you believe me?”
Studying his panicked expression, I felt remorse. “I believe you.”