Come Down Under Page 17

  Jude dropped into the seat across from me, his knees bumping against mine as he settled in. The table between us was so narrow that his knee slid between mine and stayed there, but it wasn’t the time to focus on the things that did to me.

  I smiled, wishing I could reach for his hands or squeeze him or something. “Hey.”

  The smirk gave way to a tight but genuine smile, and his eyes softened when they met mine. “Hey, Rose. I’m glad you called.”

  So was I. Now all I had to do was hope I could keep my mind on being the friend he needed and not the growing need to hump his knee.

  It was right freaking there. It would be so easy.

  Cool it, tiger. Deep breaths. Be. His. Friend. No matter what. You can do it.

  Chapter 26

  JUDE

  Rose’s phone call had been the best thing to happen to me all day. I’d spent the entire morning worrying about how things would go in court this week, and I needed a fucking break.

  Mom was out and about with Luke, keeping him preoccupied. I was more than grateful to her for it, but it had also meant the penthouse had been too quiet after I’d gotten off the phone with my lawyer.

  We were as prepped as we were going to be for court. Now I just needed to breathe. If I didn’t, I was going to blow a fucking gasket. I didn’t know what would happen if I did, but it probably wouldn’t be good.

  Considering that any slip-up right now could cost me my son, I just needed to get my shit together and keep it that way.

  The woman sitting across from me was the only person in the world capable of helping me do that today. In less than two short months, Rose had become something of a fixture in my life. She was a constant, always there, always patient, always surprising me with her wit or intellect.

  She was also still always tempting, even in the modest black top she was wearing today. It clung to her breasts but didn’t reveal anything, which I was both sad and happy about.

  Yeah, my feelings about her are super confusing.

  “How are you?” she asked in that same soft voice she’d used earlier. Somehow, it didn’t annoy me when she spoke to me like that. With any other person, I’d have been up in arms about being treated with kid gloves.

  With her, I felt cared for.

  “I’m okay,” I said. “I just want to get this over with.”

  “Lunch?” She gasped and clamped one hand over her mouth while the other flew to that damn chest I was trying not to stare at. An amused sparkle lit her eyes and the apples of her cheeks lifted as she fought a grin. “It’s not very nice to tell the person who invited you that you just want to get it over with.”

  I shook my head, struggling to keep the corners of my own lips under control. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

  She winked one of her big brown eyes and grinned. “I was just trying to lighten the mood. Did it work?”

  I shrugged. Truthfully, just being here with her had already lifted my mood. “Maybe. How was your morning?”

  “Oh, you know.” She waved her hand in the air dismissively. “It was fine. Probably not nearly as exhausting as yours.”

  “What makes you think I had an exhausting morning?” I asked, folding my arms as I caught her gaze. God, what I wouldn’t give to see those eyes first thing in the morning, hazy with sleep but soft and happy.

  I was well aware that my thoughts about her no longer even vaguely resembled the ones I used to have about women, but I’d also given up trying to fight my own fucking brain.

  Rose lifted one of her shoulders, and her hair shifted off it to expose the graceful curve of her neck. I only just managed not to groan as I imagined nipping her there. Why does she have to be so goddamn tempting all the time?

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Possibly because your ex is trying to take your son away from you and you’ve spent all morning on the phone to your lawyer.”

  I frowned, searching the chocolaty depths of her eyes. “Okay, seriously. How do you know that?”

  She lifted her shoulder again. “I know because I think I’ve gotten to know you a little in the time we’ve spent together.”

  “I think you probably know me better than anyone but Shane by now,” I joked, but it was also true. “I can’t remember the last time I spent as much time with anyone as we’re spending together.”

  “Same.” The bottoms of her front teeth appeared as she bit into her lower lip. I had to yank my eyes forcibly away from her mouth, but the worry I suddenly saw in her gaze had me forgetting how badly I wanted to taste those damn lips again. “Is it okay that I invited you today? I don’t want to force my company on you if you need a break from me.”

  “I don’t need a break from you.” What I needed was more of her, not less. “Did you get your report turned in?”

  “Yep.” She smiled. “I think my professor will be happy with it.”

  “I’m sure he will be. Your work is solid, Rose. You wouldn’t have turned it in if you didn’t think it was ready.”

  “Looks like I’m not the only one who’s gotten to know the other a little,” she said, her tone teasing but a flush spreading across her cheeks. “Speaking about getting to know people, how’s Luke doing at school? Is that other boy still giving him a hard time?

  I shook my head. “No, it’s been better. Sorry, I meant to tell you about it. What you said to him seemed to help a lot. I’ve just had my mind on other things. That’s why I forgot to mention it to you.”

  “I understand,” she said, leaning forward just enough that if I did too, our faces would be only inches apart. “What did Luke end up doing?”

  “He did what you said and asked the boy if he could help him. Can you believe that?” I raked a hand through my hair and sat back, my chest swelling with pride when I thought back to the talk I’d had with my son. “He’s only seven years old, but he’s already wiser than his dad. I’d have tried to solve things by punching that kid in the nose.”

  Rose laughed. “Why am I not surprised?”

  I shrugged. “As you pointed out, you have gotten to know me.”

  “Your conflict-management style does leave something to be desired, but whatever works for you. It probably just wouldn’t be the best idea for a kid.”

  “No, it wouldn’t have been.”

  A waiter came up to our table and interrupted us for a minute. We ordered without looking at the menu, mostly because it seemed Rose liked to come here often. I just copied her order and waited until he left us alone again.

  “Thanks for giving him advice,” I said. “You’re really good with kids.”

  “Kids are easy,” she said. “And clever. They suck up everything that you tell or show them, even when you’re not paying attention. When you do pay attention, it’s not always difficult to know what to say. You just have to remember that kids are kids, just like we used to be.”

  “I couldn’t agree more, even if I have a tendency of forgetting Luke is only seven sometimes.”

  “He’s a great kid,” she said. “I can see why you’d forget. He acts like a small adult more often than not.”

  “Yeah.” Reality came crashing back into my head as I thought about Luke, and I sighed. “That’s part of the problem. Audrey doesn’t even realize how perceptive he is. She thinks she can just do whatever the fuck she wants and he wouldn’t know the difference.”

  Rose dipped her head to the side, her fingers twitching on the table between us like she was dying to reach for me. Since I wanted the same thing, I reached out and threaded her fingers between mine.

  She took them immediately, giving me a slight squeeze but not acknowledging our contact otherwise. “I didn’t know how to bring it up or if you wanted to talk about it, but let’s get down to the nitty-gritty then. What’s happening between you and Audrey in court?”

  I sucked in a sharp breath when she said the C-word. I fucking hated hearing that word right now. I’d heard it more in the last few weeks than I had in the year before it.

 
; As painful as it was, though, I wanted to tell Rose about it. Maybe talking to her and saying everything out loud would help me make sense of it.

  I didn’t really know where to begin, but I figured I’d start at the crux of the problem, as my lawyer had explained it. “I’m not sure if you know this, but Audrey and I never got married.”

  “Okay.” She frowned. “Does that matter to the case?”

  “In our situation, it seems to matter.” Fuck. I’d never thought it would turn out this way. “Our relationship was already suffering by the time she got pregnant. I just hadn’t wanted to admit it. I thought she was it for me.”

  I made air quotes around the word “it,” shaking my head at how stupid I’d been. “Needless to say, she wasn’t. I proposed after we found out about Luke, but she turned me down.”

  Rose’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

  “As a heart attack. The problem is that since we never got married, we also never had to get a divorce. If we had, I suppose custody and all that would’ve been settled at the time, but it wasn’t.”

  “So she wants to settle it now?”

  “Nope, I don’t think that’s it.” I ran my thumb across her knuckles absently, trying to make sense of things while I spoke. “She left to start her life over after he was born. Luke stayed with me. We didn’t even have a conversation about it. Everything just fell in place that way.”

  “Why change it now then?” she asked, confusion and disbelief clouding her eyes. “If that’s the way it’s always been, why not just leave it be?”

  “Fuck knows.” I shoved a hand in my hair and gripped at the nape of my neck. “She thinks she can just steal him away from me, and she assumes that’s what he wants.”

  Frustration had turned my voice into an almost growl. I took a deep breath and tightened my grip on her hand, willing some of her calmness into me.

  It didn’t work. “The most frustrating fucking part of all is that he doesn’t want to go with her, but she won’t listen. She’s screaming from the rooftops to anyone who will listen that her little boy would just love to live with her.”

  “That sucks.” Rose’s fingers entwined more fully with mine. “I wish he wasn’t in this position.”

  “Yeah, me too.” She had no idea how much. “Audrey just won’t listen to either of us. She thinks I’m influencing him, but I swear I’m not. If he wanted to go, I’d have packed him up and driven him over there myself.”

  “I believe you,” she said.

  Hearing those words from someone other than my mother and seeing that Rose actually meant them made all the pent-up grief and pain come pouring out of me like a geyser.

  “I don’t understand why she’s doing this,” I said. “If I did, I’d give her whatever the fuck it was she wants from me. If it’s the penthouse, she can have it. Cars? Fucking take them. Just leave our son where he’s happy and taken care of.”

  Rose listened while I vented for the next twenty minutes. I told her the whole story behind Audrey leaving and how she was a perpetual disappointment as a mother. By the time I was done, we’d eaten our salads, and I was feeling better than I had all week.

  “Sorry about that,” I said as I took a long sip of my lemonade. “I shouldn’t have gone off on you.”

  “I’m glad you did,” she replied, a soft smile tugging at the edges of her lips. “We all need to let it out sometimes. I’m glad I could be here for you to do it. My only question is why wait until now?”

  “What do you mean? Why did Audrey wait until now?”

  “No. Why didn’t you tell me about any of this?” She stroked my fingers, holding me captive with the burning intensity of her gaze. “Why have you been pretending like everything was normal all this time?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve never been good at separating my business life from my personal life. If I brought it into the office with me, we’d never have gotten any work done.”

  She reached across the table and took my other hand, too. “We’re friends, Jude. You don’t have to separate anything with me. I’m here for you. I’d have stayed late and gotten the work done myself if that was what you needed.”

  While she’d been speaking, I’d inadvertently been drawn in. I’d made the mistake I’d been trying to avoid earlier, and now her lips were only inches away from mine. I was holding both her hands and the fire in her eyes was so fucking hot.

  Rose was beautiful, but when she got all passionate? It was a fraction away from impossible for me to resist her. What made it even more difficult this time was that she was getting this passionate about me.

  Kiss her, Jude. Stop being a pussy about it and just kiss her.

  But I couldn’t, despite what the devil in my head was saying. I promised her I’d keep it professional.

  So I pulled away.

  My hands, leg, face. All of it.

  The movement was abrupt but necessary if I wanted to keep my promise to her.

  “Did I say something wrong?” she asked, drawing her hands slowly back to her side of the table.

  “It’s not that.” I shook my head. “What you said was right.” That’s the fucking problem.

  “What is it then?” Hurt flashed in her eyes as she glanced down at my hands. It was followed quickly by worry.

  It dawned on me then what had to be going through her mind.

  “No, look, it’s really not that,” I said, but she still didn’t look convinced. “I promise, Rose. It’s not you. It’s me.”

  “What?” She frowned, her head jerking back. “Why does it sound like you’re doing a really bad job of trying to break up with me?”

  “Obviously, I’m not.” Aggravation filled my tone, and her eyebrows went up. Yeah, I need to stop digging this hole.

  It was confession time. Fuck being a professional.

  I wouldn’t hurt the girl because I was too much of a coward to tell her what was really going on.

  “It’s because I can’t stop thinking about you. Ever since our kiss and that night at the pier, you’ve been on my mind like a memory playing on repeat.” Since it was out there now, I didn’t see any reason to stop. “It’s driving me mad, Roselyn. I pulled away because if I hadn’t, I would have kissed you again. That’s the problem. See? Me. Not you.”

  Chapter 27

  ROSE

  He’s been thinking about me? All the time? So much that it’s driving him crazy?

  My head started to spin. That really wasn’t what I expected him to say when he suddenly dropped my hands like hot potatoes.

  I’d been thinking about him, too. Obviously.

  Dangerous amounts of thinking about him.

  But before I could tell him that, he sighed and slumped back in his seat.

  “I’m sorry. I know we promised to keep things professional, but there’s something about you…” He trailed off, his eyes roaming all over me as if he just couldn’t help himself now that he’d said what he had.

  I felt like I was burning up under his gaze. His eyes were like twin flames setting fire to my inhibitions and making them disappear in a puff of smoke.

  Jude cleared his throat. “I should go before I do something I might regret.”

  I caught his wrist when he put his palms on the table to push himself up. Our eyes met again and the intensity of the need I saw in his knocked the breath out of me. “Please stay.”

  My voice came out as a whisper, but at least it had come out.

  Jude frowned, confusion flashing in his eyes as he slowly sat back down. Our gazes remained locked as we stared at each other silently. Apparently, he was as speechless about all this as I was right now.

  Because talking isn’t what either of you want to be doing.

  Suddenly, we were both on our feet as if we’d both had the same thought at the same time. The next thing I knew, one of his large hands was on my face and the other snaked around my waist.

  He yanked me to him just as I wound my arms around his neck and my fingers burrowed into his hair. My head dropp
ed back at the exact moment that his came down, and then we were kissing.

  In the middle of a restaurant

  In. Broad. Daylight.

  And I didn’t give a damn.

  Having Jude’s lips back on mine was all that mattered. After all these weeks of staying away from him, of fantasizing in secret and lusting after him from afar, he was finally kissing me again, and I’d be damned if I was going to stop him.

  The hand on my cheek disappeared. For one terrifying second, I was afraid I wouldn’t have to stop him because he was going to do it for me, but then I felt his fingers digging into his pocket and I opened my eyes in time to see him drop some cash on the table.

  “Your place or mine?” he demanded between furious kisses, already dragging me from the restaurant. His grip was like iron on mine, but he wasn’t hurting me.

  Instead, everything about him like this turned me on even more. I didn’t think it would be possible for Jude to turn me on more than he already did, but that was before.

  It was like some switch had flipped in him and I loved every second of it. I’d never been with a dominant guy before, but I had a feeling that was about to change.

  “Mine,” I whispered. “It’s closer.”

  His jaw was tight as he nodded, readjusting his grip on mine when we hit the street. He didn’t look at me once on the way to my hotel, but something told me it was because he didn’t want to make a public spectacle of us.

  Besides, if he kissed me again, I wouldn’t put it past myself to climb onto him right here on the sidewalk. Jude marched like his life depended on it, but I kind of felt the same way. There was a sense of urgency that was only becoming greater the closer we got to the hotel.

  Another couple tried to get on the elevator with us, but Jude stopped them with nothing but a piercing glare. They shrank away from the doors and he jabbed the button to shut them.

  As soon as they slid closed, he was on me again. He walked us backward until my back smacked into the mirrored side of the elevator, but I almost didn’t even notice it.