“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather wait until I know you’re safely on your way.” He planted his feet about a foot apart, and I took it to mean he wasn’t moving—whether or not I cared.
I shrugged, bringing my arms up to hug myself as I swayed a little. “Suit yourself.”
“I will,” he said, the tiniest smirk tugging at the one corner of his delicious-looking lips.
Stop it. Damn it.
The cab pulled up in front of us and Jude reached out to get the door before I could.
“That’s just great,” I muttered. His reflexes didn’t seem to be at all impaired. Mine, on the other hand, were lagging.
“What was that?” he asked, his mouth quirking again.
“Nothing.” I skirted past him before I made a complete fool of myself, and sank onto the backseat.
Jude ducked his head in after mine, looking at the cabbie in the rearview mirror. “She’s at the Grand. Make sure you stay until she gets inside, okay?”
I fumbled with the seatbelt when I heard his words. Why was he instructing the driver to stay with me?
He leaned over suddenly and smiled at me. I couldn’t look away from him, my entire body freezing because of his proximity. He was so close I wondered if he was going to kiss me goodnight. Did they do that casually here? Because if he did, I hoped he knew he was going to get a big, sloppy French Kiss right back.
With tongue. Ha.
My rambling thoughts were cut off when he reached past me for the seatbelt and clicked it deftly into place. “There. Safe and sound.”
God, he smells good. What is that? I sniffed again, hoping I wasn’t being obvious. It’s so fresh. Ocean-y. How does he smell so good after such a long day?
It was becoming hard to breathe as he hovered there, seeming as uninterested in moving as I was in him doing it.
“That bartender takes a different girl home every night,” he said eventually, his lips tantalizingly close to my own as he swiped his tongue across them. “I didn’t want you to be another one of his conquests. Sorry if I overstepped.”
I forced my eyes away from his mouth and shook my head. “You didn’t.”
“Good.” He lingered for another second, then released a soft sigh before pulling away. He closed the door without another word, nodding when I met his gaze through the window.
As the taxi driver pulled away, I saw Jude staying put and watching as we disappeared out of view.
What the hell was all that about?
Chapter 12
JUDE
I woke up to the incessant ringing of my phone. It buzzed across my nightstand, each tiny clatter like the stab of a needle to my brain. As far as hangovers went, this one was pretty mild, though.
My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth as I rubbed sleep from my eyes. Swallowing back a groan when the phone started up again, I grabbed it without checking who it was.
“Hello?” I cleared my throat when I realized I sounded like there was a dwarf sleeping on my vocal cords. “This is Jude Hudson.”
The familiar sound of Shane’s laughter came through the line. “Of course, it’s you. I’m the one who called you, remember?”
“Yeah. Woke me up, too.” Fucker. “What do you want?”
The world around me slowly came into focus. Outside, the sky wasn’t too bright yet. Soft light still lit the cityscape outside my window and all seemed quiet. “Why the hell are you calling me this early?”
“It’s not that early,” he said. “I’m on my second cup of coffee. I’ve already done laundry and washed my breakfast dishes.”
“Good for you,” I grumbled, sitting up slowly. “Now that I’m awake, there’s no way I’m getting back to sleep, so I repeat, what do you want?”
“Oh.” I heard the faint sound of his fingers snapping. “I wanted to know you saw the new girl leave last night. I should have stayed to make sure she got back to her hotel safely, but I didn’t think about it until this morning.”
I fell back on the bed, regretting it immediately when it sent a fresh stab of pain through my head. “I put Oxford in a cab myself.”
“You did?” Surprise thickened his voice. “Really? If you’re joking, I’d rather get off the phone with you and give her a call.”
“Don’t you dare get off on the phone to me,” I joked. “It sure as shit wouldn’t be with me, either.”
He made a gagging sound. “That wasn’t what I said and you know it. Do I need to call her, or did you really make sure she got out of there safely?”
“I really made sure she got out of there safely,” I said dutifully, rolling my eyes and regretting that too. “I personally gave her cab driver the name of her hotel after dragging her away from Rees. I had to save her from him. He was putting all the moves on her. It didn’t seem fair to leave her there without backup.”
Shane chuckled. “That guy has a track record. That’s for sure. Not unlike some other people I know.”
“If you were here right now, I’d throw something at you.” I covered my eyes with the crook of my elbow. “Especially since you know my track record better than anyone, and it’s nowhere near as prolific as that guy’s.”
“It is if you ask the gossip rags,” he said cheerfully, seeming to take pleasure in the misery his jokes were causing me.
“I need some peace and quiet to nurse my head. Was there anything else you needed?”
“Why, yes. I’m so glad you asked. What are your plans for today? Nursing your head won’t take you longer than a shower. I was with you last night. I know it can’t be that bad.”
“It’s not, but I still don’t need to be putting up with your lame jokes at this time of the morning.” I sighed. “What else did you need, man? Last chance before you’re getting hung up on.”
“Luke is with Audrey this weekend, right?” he asked, but he already knew the answer.
I grunted. “I’m hanging up now.”
“No, wait. I had a thought this morning that I wanted to run by you.”
“What is it?” Now that he’d mentioned a shower, I was desperate for one. “Make it quick.”
“Why don’t you step up to the plate and lend Rose a helping hand?” he suggested.
I frowned, instantly wide awake.
I doubted he knew where my mind had gone the second he’d said the words “helping hand,” but he didn’t need to. It was most definitely not what he was thinking about.
Now that I had, though, I felt a problem coming on. Dirty fantasies flew into my brain one after the other, and my cock was taking notice.
It was hardening rapidly until I heard his voice again. “She’s probably hungover as hell, all alone in her hotel room. It’s her first weekend in town, and she’s a million miles away from home. I’m sure she could use a familiar face.”
“A familiar face for what?” I asked, struggling to force the remnants of those thoughts from my mind.
“You know,” he said.
For a second, I thought maybe I did know. Fuck, if even Shane thought it would be okay for me to—
“She’d probably appreciate an escort to show her around Sydney,” he said. “She mentioned she hadn’t gotten around to doing much exploring yet. And you’re a local. Locals make for the best guides, don’t you think?”
I moaned softly. Of course, that was what he was talking about.
In the meantime, the only reason I didn’t already have my fist wrapped around my dick was because he was still on the phone.
Even I had standards. Jerking off while my best friend was on the line didn’t exactly turn me on. Rose, on the other hand, obviously did.
As evidenced by the tent in my sheets, I thought as I lowered my gaze down the length of my body. Not that the tent came as much of a surprise. The throbbing was enough to have alerted me to what was going on down there.
“Why don’t you take her out?” I snapped, closing my eyes and willing the most unsexy things I could think of to come to mind. Shane’s on the phone. Shane’s on
the phone. Shane’s on the phone.
That did the trick. I breathed out a silent sigh of relief.
“I’m not going to take her out,” he said. “You don’t pay me enough to give up my Saturday for your intern.”
“Bullshit.” I laughed, rolling over to get out of bed. If I stayed there until after he hung up the phone, bad things would happen.
“Come on, man. You already ran out on her the first hour in your office and then left her stranded for the rest of the day.”
“Yeah, but then I saved her from Rees and put her in a cab, so balance restored,” I argued as I crossed my bedroom to my en-suite bathroom.
“No, balance is not restored. She came all the way here for an internship with you, and you left her. Then you fed her shots and had to save her from the bartender as a result of having had those shots. No way would she have given him the time of day if she hadn’t been intoxicated. Have you heard his lines?”
“I have. They’re terrible. How do you know she wouldn’t have given him the time of day? She wasn’t very interested in leaving him when I went to get her.”
“Simple,” he said. “A girl like her doesn’t fall for lines like his without some social lubrication.”
My filthy fucking morning brain clung on to the word “lubrication.” I shook my head at myself as I turned on the shower, moving the handle all the way to the cold side. “Maybe.”
“No, not maybe. Look, it’s hard enough to be in a new city. Now she doesn’t feel well? Have a heart, man.”
“If she’s not feeling well, that’s her own doing.”
“You can’t blame her for trying to keep up with us.” He laughed. “She never could’ve known how much Aussies can actually drink.”
“True.” I brushed my palm against the back of my head. “Maybe I’ll do it. Right now, I need to shower. Later, Shane.”
I hung up before he could try arguing more about it. Tossing my phone down between the two sinks in my built-in counter, I cracked open the glass door of the shower and climbed in.
The droplets felt like shards of ice hitting my skin, still warm from having only left the bed a minute ago. Somehow, despite feeling like I was taking part in a polar-bear challenge, my cock took a while to deflate and my heart didn’t immediately slow its pace.
Slowly but surely, I turned up the temperature and lathered myself with soap. More than a few times, my thoughts slipped back to what her face might look like if I gave her the helping hand I’d had in mind. I considered doing something about the resultant ache every time but never did.
The woman would be working alongside me every day, in my office, for half a fucking year. If I didn’t get a handle on this, I’d end up jerking off more than I had just after I’d discovered it. That wouldn’t be productive for anyone.
When I’d eventually calmed myself down, I shut off the shower and got dressed, all the while debating whether I would take Shane’s suggestion. If I was being honest with myself, I wanted to do it. I wanted to show her around my city.
I loved this place, and I loved showing it off to any visitor. But this was more than that. It was clear as day to me how seriously she took this internship, which meant I’d have to get the fuck over how much I hadn’t wanted her here and get to it.
She was here now, not only to further her own career but to further mine. Shane told me she had also been told to gather information on the course Oxford wanted to develop on me. If I didn’t want the course to be as filled with bullshit as that goddamn “biography,” I had to play ball.
I might not care about making more money or about my reputation, but having a business course focused on my company was about more than those things. People could actually learn from me, which was pretty cool. It was about my legacy.
Eventually, it was that thought that convinced me. Grabbing my wallet and keys, I headed downstairs and heard my mother busy in the kitchen.
“Hey,” I called as I hit the bottom of the staircase. “Smells good in here. What are you making?”
“Some dinners for the week,” she replied. “Stuff we can freeze and just pop into the oven when we want it.”
My mouth watered. There really was nothing like my mother’s cooking. But then I noticed the sunlight filling the main room. It had grown much brighter than it had been when I’d woken up.
Did it really take me that long to get a fucking grip? Or more accurately, not to take a grip?
I frowned but wiped my face clean as I walked into the kitchen. Mom was dressed in an orange and yellow skirt and had feathered earrings dangling almost to her shoulders.
A fond smile spread on my lips and all my other thoughts got shelved. “You’re looking good. Hot date?”
She rolled her eyes at me, propping a hand on her hip as she arched an eyebrow. “I’m not the one who should be lining up hot dates, darling. You are.”
“Why not you?” My mother hadn’t dated anyone since my father left us. That’d been when I was three. “It’s about time you get back on the horse.”
“Says you.” She scoffed. “I don’t need any more men in my life. You and Luke are more than enough for me.”
“Well, I don’t need any woman other than you,” I said as I whipped two mugs off the shelf. “We’ve talked about this. I’m not settling down again. Chicks be crazy.”
A dishrag hit my arm and fell harmlessly to the floor. When I met my mother’s gaze, she scowled at me. “Women are not poultry. We’ve talked about that, too.”
“Sorry, Mom.” I meant it, too. “All I’m saying is that Luke and I are fine.”
“No, Luke needs a tight-knit family to feel secure,” she repeated the words I’d heard her say hundreds of times. It seemed she thought if she said them enough, I might finally realize she was right. “Besides, I’m getting older. I’m doing what I can for him right now, but I’d love to be able to fall back into a grandmother’s role instead of caregiver.”
“Mom, I’ve told you—”
She slashed a hand through the air to cut me off, shaking her head at me. “I’m not complaining, Jude. I love that boy more than anything in the world and I want to be there for him. Until you find a girl who loves him like his mother should, I’ll be here. If that never happens, that’s fine. But I will never stop hoping, and I will never be offended if I have to get back in the grandmother seat.”
We shared a long look, both sighing when we realized we wouldn’t get any further with this today. Each of us knew how the other felt about this matter. Rehashing it wasn’t going to bring us any closer to resolving it.
Mom remained a hopeless romantic, while I was determined never to be hopeless or romantic again. A fuck every now and again—though not nearly as often as the world seemed to think—was as far as I wanted to go.
If something ever happened naturally, I’d give a relationship a go. But seven years had passed since Audrey and I had broken up, and I’d never even gotten close to a relationship with anyone again.
Either way, Mom and I didn’t see eye to eye on this and that wasn’t changing today. It was better to leave before I upset her.
I grabbed an apple out of the basket on the counter and took a bite out of it before heading to the door, brushing a kiss to her cheek when I passed her. “I have to go, Mom. Try to get out a bit later, okay? It’s a beautiful day.”
“Sure is.” She gave me a soft smile. “Have a good day, darling.”
“You too,” I said, lifting my hand in a wave as I walked out of the kitchen.
It was time to show my new intern around town. At least that would distract me from the knowledge that, no matter what I did today, it would be breaking another part of my mother’s heart.
Because come what may, all she wanted me to do when I wasn’t with Luke or working was to fall in love. And that sure as fuck wasn’t on the agenda for my hungover ass today.
Chapter 13
ROSE
Stupid, thy name is Rose.
I couldn’t believe I’d drank as mu
ch as I had at a work gathering. It was absurd. No matter what Jude had said about it not being a work function, the post-party guilt was eating me up inside. Those people should have gotten to know me before I became known as the drunken intern.
To add insult to injury, I felt like death warmed up this morning. The only upside was that my memory was intact and I was pretty convinced I hadn’t done anything to make a complete ass of myself.
“If you can remember everything, you were fine,” Anna said over the phone.
I had showered but I’d gotten back into bed for my weekly phone call with my former roommate.
My curtains were drawn, but the ambient light in here was still far too much for my fragile head to handle. “I wasn’t fine. I drank tequila. Lots of it. Do you know when the last time I drank tequila was?”
“I do, in fact.” She giggled, and I could practically see her toying with whatever chunky necklace she had on. “Boat-race party. Three years ago. What an eventful night that was.”
“Eventful?” I shook my head, then winced at the stab of pain I got as a reward. “If by eventful you mean me ending up on my ass between the prized rose bushes, you’re right. If not, however, just go ahead and call it disastrous.”
“In that case, did you end up on your ass in any rose bushes last night?” she asked, her accent already seeming more clipped, even though it’d been less than a week since I’d last seen her.
Already, it felt like it’d been too long. Heaven only knew how much I’d miss her by the time September rolled around and I finally got to see her again.
“No,” I said, blinking back tears of homesickness—or Oxford-sickness. It had become my home in the years I’d been there, and I was feeling pretty damn lonely on my own on the other side of the world. “No rose bushes were hurt in the making of this embarrassment.”
“If it was only a Rose’s ego that was hurt, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she said. “They were all drinking, weren’t they? It’s not like you were the only one and everyone’s going to be talking about your excessive habits.”
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