Free Novel Read

Come Down Under Page 16


  Her tone wasn’t suggestive or anything that was inappropriate for him to hear, but she’d still lowered her voice.

  In the humdrum of the lobby of one of the most popular hotels for both business and leisure travel downtown, I doubted he’d have heard her question. Matching my volume to hers, I shook my head.

  “We’ll just walk you up. I’m trying to model proper gentlemanly behavior for Luke.”

  “Right.” She nodded, but I didn’t miss the disappointed tilt to her mouth. “Are you sure you guys wouldn’t like to come in for a soda or some coffee?”

  “Nah, we’d love to, but it’s a school night.”

  “Ah, got you.” We let go of Luke’s hands as we climbed into the elevator and she pressed the button for her floor. “Are you looking forward to school tomorrow?”

  He glanced up at her, his teeth sinking into his lip as he shook his head. “No, not really.”

  My insides twisted at the defeated look in his eyes.

  Rose’s brow furrowed. “Why not?”

  “There’s a bully at my school,” he admitted. “He’s been targeting me.”

  “What?” She frowned deeply and lifted her gaze to mine. “Did you know about this?”

  “Yeah.” I sighed and took a deep breath. “It’s an issue I’ve been working on with the teachers and the parents of the other boy for two weeks now.”

  “Two weeks?” she asked. “And it’s still happening?

  I nodded. “It turns out you can have a boatload of policies and still not have a clue what to do when a situation spirals out of control.

  “That’s terrible,” she said.

  The elevator stopped on her floor and we walked out. Instead of heading down the corridor to her room, though, Rose stopped and crouched down in front of Luke.

  “Can I tell you something important, little dude?” She took his hands in hers and gave him her full attention, not sparing me so much as a glance.

  His head bounced once. I loved seeing him so enthralled at being the sole focus of her attention almost as much as I loved seeing her giving it to him.

  The sad reality was that Rose, who he’d only just met today, treated him better than his own mother did. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d seen Audrey communicate as effectively with Luke as Rose did.

  She tended to snap at him and order him around or try to find other things to keep him busy. It was almost like she didn’t know how to speak to him. She definitely didn’t understand him if she couldn’t see how much she hurt him as often as she did.

  Rose seemed to know exactly what she was doing. She’d spent the better part of the night speaking to Luke and it appeared like she understood him. He’d certainly opened up to her fast.

  “Luke,” she said. “Sometimes there are people in our schools or at work who try very hard to make us sad. And it hurts.”

  It sounded like she knew what she was talking about. I remembered that first night at the bar when she’d called me a bully. Was she thinking about that, too? Because if so, I was a bigger asshole than even I had realized, and that was saying something.

  I was about to ask her, but she was still focused on Luke. It didn’t feel like the right time to interrupt them.

  “It hurts. But it is so important that you stand your ground and you never behave like those people.”

  “Why?” he asked, and I heard the shakiness of his voice.

  It fucking killed me. I’d been trying to do the mature thing, to handle the situation in a mature way, but nothing was happening and it was slowly driving me insane.

  As I watched tears well in his eyes even as they were locked on Rose’s, I decided that it was time to change my approach. The system wasn’t fucking working and it was hurting the most important person in my life.

  Tomorrow, I was going to—

  “Why?” Rose asked, transferring both of his hands into one of hers to lift the other up and press it against his heart. “Because you’re a good kid. That’s why. You have a big heart.”

  “But that makes it hurt so much more,” he whispered, a tear finally welling over the edge of his eyelid and tracking down his cheek.

  “I know, but people don’t usually act that way for no reason. The next time that boy tries to pick on you, ask him why. Ask him if there’s something you can do to help him.”

  “Help him?” Luke asked. “He doesn’t need my help. He’d laugh at me.”

  Rose nodded. “Yep. Maybe, but maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he doesn’t have a happy home to go back to at the end of the school day. Maybe he has a good reason to be angry, but he just doesn’t know how to express it.”

  “Do you really think so?” he asked, and I heard the hope creeping into his tone.

  “I do. Does that make sense to you? Why he would be treating other kids badly if he’s hurting.”

  “I think so,” he said. “I was wondering why he would do it, and I think you might be right. He never smiles.”

  Luke grinned, leaned in, and kissed Rose’s cheek. My blackened heart leaped and melted at the same time. This is what my mother’s been going on about.

  Just like Luke, I’d just had an epiphany. It’d never made sense to me why Mom kept saying Luke needed another woman who truly cared for him in his life, but I understood it now. Rose had known about the problem for minutes, and she’d already done more to help him than I had in all that time.

  My brain just wasn’t wired to go around asking bullies what I could do to help them, but almost as soon as she’d said the words, I’d recognized that she might well be onto something. I also hadn’t seen the kid smile, and his parents were throwing up roadblocks to delay the proper processes to be followed.

  Whenever I asked the principal why they allowed these people to abuse the system, he just told me to be patient. I’d thought it was bullshit, but now? Maybe he knew something I didn’t.

  Rose smiled when Luke stepped back and straightened up, placing a palm on his cheek. “You’ll let me know how it goes, right?”

  “Right,” he said, but then he tugged on my shirt. “You should kiss her cheek, too.”

  She flushed bright red. Meanwhile, I stared down at my son like a deer caught in headlights. “What?”

  “I said you should kiss her cheek, too,” he repeated, his tone insistent.

  My gaze snagged on hers and I chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck. “I don’t think so, buddy.”

  Fuck knows I’d like to, but after how she ran away from me…

  “We’re not at work,” she said.

  My head jerked and I searched her eyes.

  What the fuck? I thought it couldn’t happen?

  Her lips lifted into the briefest, smallest smile and her chin lowered as she tapped the opposite cheek to the one Luke had just kissed. “Chop, chop.”

  Exhaling a quiet but shallow sharp breath, I leaned in and kissed her damn cheek. Feeling her skin under my lips sent something like an electric shock through my system.

  It was only the barest brush of a kiss, but I swore I felt it throughout my entire body. Her lips were so close that I could feel her soft breaths on my ear and ghosting across my jaw, but I couldn’t move my mouth to hers—no matter how badly I wanted to.

  As I kissed her, she leaned into my chest for a moment that was gone too soon. I wanted to fold my arms around her, to hug her as tightly as I had this morning when she’d been trying to comfort me. I wanted to kiss her until she was breathless and do so much more.

  But I did none of those things.

  When we pulled apart, Luke took off running to the elevators on the opposite side of the hall for some reason, yelling goodbye to Rose. “See you soon!”

  “See you soon,” she said softly, her eyes glued to mine.

  “Yeah,” I breathed. “Soon.”

  Chapter 25

  ROSE

  A month and a half after arriving in Australia, I had my routine down pat and it was starting to feel like everything before this had been nothing but a dream. Worki
ng with Jude was still challenging at times, and there was definitely still tension there, but I was happy, and I was confident he was too.

  Stretching my arms out above my head, I opened my eyes and smiled at the pristine white ceiling of my hotel room. It was Sunday morning, and judging by the bright light shining in through a crack in my curtains, I’d slept a little later than usual.

  But even that was part of my routine. I didn’t have many plans for today anyway. The only thing on my schedule was a bit of pampering later on.

  The hotel I called home was luxurious, and I’d grown to enjoy the amenities it offered. Shane had told me that they’d booked an all-inclusive package for my stay, and it seemed a waste not to make use of it.

  In my attempt to play my part in getting them some bang for their buck, I’d booked a massage and a facial for this afternoon. I hadn’t gotten either of those treatments in ages, and I was really looking forward to relaxing and decompressing. I needed it like a camel needed water after fourteen days in the desert.

  Loving my internship didn’t mean I wasn’t exhausted. It was a good kind of exhausted where my brain was busy and my body was somehow still wired, but I was still exhausted. Spa treatments were just what the doctor ordered.

  Still smiling when I finally decided it was time to get my lazy ass out of bed, I rubbed my eyes and padded over to my small kitchenette. It had been really useful to have, even if I couldn’t exactly cook my meals in it. But that was okay, since food was also part of that all-inclusive package. Spoiled was an understatement for how I felt staying in this hotel.

  What am I even going to do when I can’t call room service for breakfast anymore?

  I let out a very unladylike snort at my inner snob and shook my head as I flicked on the coffeemaker. Make your own damn food, Rose. That’s what you’re going to do. Just like you’ve been doing all your life.

  I sighed, looking around my room on my way to the shower. I’m really going to miss this place when the internship is done.

  It wasn’t just about the hotel and room service either. Australia had really grown on me, as had some of its citizens.

  But I refused to think about leaving just yet. I still had four and a half more months here, and I was determined to enjoy every last minute of it.

  When I got into the bathroom, I turned on the faucet to warm up the water before I got in the shower and tried not to think of one particular citizen who had really grown on me. Every time Jude popped into my head, which was pretty much constantly, it was a struggle to get him to leave.

  Thinking about him while I was naked and soapy hadn’t been a good idea in the past, and it wasn’t one now. It only made me fantasize about things I couldn’t have.

  As I climbed in under the hot spray, my brain insisted on clinging to the lingering flashes of fantasies I’d had about him before. Well, fantasies and the memory of that hot-as-hell kiss.

  If his kiss had affected me that badly, it was impossible not to think about what doing more with him would do to me. Ruin me for life probably.

  My lady bits started coming to life at the naughty thoughts running through my head, but I shut them down by turning the water to ice cold. Take that, traitors.

  Finishing up as fast as I could before my brain ran away with me—again—I climbed out of the shower and covered up my naked body so it wouldn’t be so easy to do things to it anymore. Being around Jude five or sometimes six days a week had turned my brain into something out of a porno movie whenever I had a minute to myself.

  As much as I loved Australia, I would really have to find a way to shut down the sex center of my brain if I wanted to survive the intense amount of frustration I had to deal with on a daily basis.

  I dragged my mind kicking and screaming out of the gutter, dressed in a pair of jeans and a black tank top, and pulled my wet hair into a bun. There was a knock at my door. Another smile spread on my face. Room service.

  My daily bowl of fresh fruit had arrived. It came later on Sundays because even the staff here had figured out I liked to sleep in. Bless them for being so observant.

  “Thanks, Geoff,” I said to the maroon-suited waiter, who grinned and handed over my treat.

  “We added some cream for you this morning,” he said. “Enjoy.”

  “You guys are spoiling me,” I said, then chatted to him for another minute before carrying my breakfast inside.

  After grabbing the fresh cup of coffee waiting for me, I tucked my feet in underneath me as I lowered myself onto the couch in my sitting area. With my fruit in my lap, I got comfortable and picked up the TV remote.

  The screen blinked to life, a brief welcome message flashing across it before the local news came on. When it did, my heart skipped a beat, and I felt my cheeks grow cold as all the blood drained from my face. The plump strawberry I had speared hung from my fork, suspended halfway to my mouth as my jaw slackened.

  “Australia’s most eligible bachelor is going to court this week,” a prim news anchor was saying as a tabloid picture of Jude went up in the window beside her head. “Jude Hudson is fighting for custody of his son and it’s going to be quite the battle. Sources say Mum and Dad are both determined to be appointed as the sole caregiver of little Luke, who has been media-shy since birth but is said to be a little charmer just like his daddy.”

  My fork clattered back to the bowl. How had I not known this was happening? I worked in the man’s office, for God’s sake. But he’d somehow managed to keep it all under wraps from even me.

  I have to call him.

  I was already up and halfway to my nightstand where my phone was still charging when I realized a call might be inappropriate. This was his private business. It had nothing to do with me.

  And yet, I knew it had to be killing him. Just thinking back to that day he’d told me about his ex made my heart bleed for him. The expression on his face when he’d been told she might sue for custody had been so tortured that it haunted me to this day.

  I knew he had his mother, but I didn’t know what kind of support system he had around him. For all I knew, Jude’s mother thought it would be a good thing if Luke went to live with his mom.

  I gnawed at the back of my lips when I reached for my phone. Punching in the unlock code, I scrolled to Jude’s name and stared at his contact details. To call or not to call.

  That was the question, and it wasn’t an easy one to answer.

  It’s Sunday morning, Rose. He’s your boss, not your friend. A custody battle is personal, not business.

  Despite that, and no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise, I wanted to speak to him. I needed to check in and make sure he was okay.

  Before I could talk myself out of it, I hit the green telephone icon and pressed my phone to my ear.

  Damn it all.

  I cared about him. I wasn’t going to keep him at a distance when I knew he had to be going through a tough time.

  He answered surprisingly fast for a Sunday morning. “Good morning, Rose. This is a surprise.”

  His tone was cool but not clipped. I had to hand it to him. He’d really stuck to his guns about keeping things professional between us after the kiss.

  And the moment we’d had after he and Luke had walked me up that night after dinner. And okay, a thousand tiny moments between us since.

  Mostly professional, I mentally corrected myself. Knowing that we’d skated really close to that line so many times before made me feel better for calling him about this, though. It wouldn’t be the first time lines had gotten blurry between us.

  “I just saw the news,” I said softly, staring at the untouched bowl of fruit sitting beside me.

  “Oh.”

  I ran my finger along the edge of it, closing my eyes as I tried to imagine what he had to be going through. “Are you okay?”

  The line went quiet for a minute, but he was still there. I knew he was. It was like I could feel his energy even through the darn phone.

  “She’s not going to win,�
�� he said finally.

  “That’s not what I asked.” When I opened my eyes, I could still see the haunted expression on his face that day. It was seared into my brain and it made my heart ache for him all over again.

  “I’m fine,” he replied after another beat.

  I sighed, shaking my head even though I knew he couldn’t see me. “I have a report I need to turn in to my professor and cancel my spa appointment. Then I’m free for the afternoon. Would you care to have lunch with me?”

  My breath caught in my lungs. That was way across the line.

  Jude paused, too. For a second, I thought he was about to call me out on being unprofessional or remind me that he was my boss and nothing more.

  “Sure, I’d love to.”

  That breath I’d been holding slipped out as a quiet sigh of relief. “Great. There’s a cafe just down the street from my hotel. Melanie’s. Do you know it?”

  “Yeah. I’ll meet you there at noon.”

  “I’ll be there,” I promised before hanging up.

  The report I had to send to Professor McDonald was just an interim update on my progress with the internship so far. I had to send one every month, but I worked on them throughout, and I only had finishing touches left to do on this one.

  My stomach was in knots, so I abandoned my fruit and went to get my laptop. Once the report was done, I sent a few emails, and before I knew it, it was time to go.

  I got to the cafe before Jude and found a booth in the courtyard. It was quieter here than out on the street or in the main dining room, but I thought he might appreciate some privacy. I doubted he wanted to be bombarded by fans today.

  As soon as I saw him making his way toward me, I could tell the upcoming hearing was weighing heavily on him. He looked as good as he always did in a pair of dark jeans and a white button-down shirt with the top button undone. His dark hair fell neatly across his forehead, his eyes were as dazzlingly green as ever, and that sexy, devil-may-care smirk was on his lips.

  But his shoulders were slightly slumped, and the smirk seemed forced. There was also a furrow to his brow that wasn’t usually there, and the skin around those dazzling eyes was tight.