Come Down Under Read online

  Strangely, I couldn’t get a read on her. I’d seen that one tremor, but that had been it.

  Playing poker with her would be interesting. The thought almost made me grin and rub my hands together as I issued a challenge, but I didn’t even know if she knew how to play poker yet.

  Not to mention, I probably had to give professionalism a try. “So, Oxford, huh?”

  I got one short, sharp nod in response. “Yes, sir. It’s been my dream school ever since I was a girl. My parents worked very hard to make sure I had the opportunity to—”

  What the fuck makes her think I care about her parents? If she was about to get into her life story, we were going to be late for the update and Shane would demand my balls on a platter. I’d already missed the previous two.

  It wasn’t even strictly necessary for me to be there, but he thought it looked good. Plus, I really wasn’t interested in hearing how she’d ended up here.

  “Your professor speaks highly of you,” I said, interrupting her without remorse. I’d skimmed through some of the information Shane had sent me about her, and my meeting with her professor had been like a fucking praise-fest.

  For the briefest second, a frown appeared between her brows. Then it was gone.

  She’s good. I have to give her that.

  “I… thank you, sir.”

  Quick recovery. Well done. I nodded as I linked my fingers together and laid them down across my stomach. “Call me Jude. If we’re going to be spending so much time together, let’s drop the extreme formality.”

  She nodded. “Call me Rose.”

  “I hope you have thorns, Rose.” I grinned. “These six months won’t be easy.”

  She licked her lips and sat up even straighter, looking me right in the eyes when she replied. “I’m tougher than I look.”

  My grin widened. This really was going to be fun. “Welcome to the company, Rose. Let’s get started.”

  Chapter 9

  ROSE

  Well, that settles it. Jude Hudson is an ass. I should have known. Correction. I had known.

  I just hadn’t expected him to come out of the gate so abrasive and demeaning.

  I hope you have thorns? What the hell? Who said stuff like that in real life? I’ll show you thorns, you obnoxious prick.

  I was glad for it, though. Those pictures hadn’t done him justice, and combined with that lovely dream I’d had just this morning, I needed him to keep acting exactly the way he was.

  If he kept behaving like said obnoxious prick, maybe I’d be able to actually look into his eyes without being at risk of swooning. People did not have eyes like that. Contacts were made in that color, not actual irises.

  They were such a luminous, dazzling green that it was difficult to look directly into them. Almost like the sun.

  As if that wasn’t enough, he also had this magnetic intensity about him that made me want to look directly at him. It was confusing as hell and wouldn’t be good for my brain functions.

  While I was having my little freak-out, I did my very best to keep a straight face. Jude Hudson was studying me like there would be a test later, and I couldn’t help feeling like I was coming up short.

  He’d barely blinked since I’d entered his office, never mind actually taking that sharp gaze of his off of me. It was like he was playing a game of chicken and had neglected to tell me.

  Bastard.

  There was a smug grin that seemed to be permanently etched onto his features. It spread as he watched me, finally sitting up to ask me a question. “What makes you want to work here at Hudson Technologies, Rose?”

  “Um.” I swiped at my lips again. This wasn’t an interview, but that question sure made it feel like one. “I’m excited to learn about your strategies in business, how you develop them, and to learn from you how to implement them.”

  He inclined his head, causing just a few of his dark brown hairs to sweep across the top of his forehead. “Good answer. Why do you want to learn them from here?”

  “Here,” I put emphasis on the word as I frowned at my mentor, “was chosen by my university. Even so, I’m very excited to be here.”

  “So you’ve said.” He brushed the hair off his face, still looking at me with eyes blazing with… something. “What are you hoping to learn from me specifically?”

  I raised my chin just a fraction of an inch. He had to know he wasn’t going to win this game of chicken against me, even if he hadn’t told me we were playing. “You’ve achieved an immense level of success. I’d like to learn how you did it. I’ve studied the strategies you reportedly use, but I don’t know how you continuously manage to replicate your initial successes, even though you use them in a variety of industries.”

  “So you want to build up a company in competition with mine?” Humor sparked in his eyes, making them seem even more vibrant than before.

  Seriously, with those eyes and a body like that, it was a wonder he worked at all. He could probably have started a video channel on the internet and people would have paid to just look at him going about his day.

  Ha. Maybe that’ll be the billion-dollar idea I come up with.

  I shook my head at him. “Not in competition with yours, but I wouldn’t mind eventually starting my own firm.”

  “Is that so?” The corners of his lips pressed in. “That takes a lot. Do you have what it takes?”

  “I think so, but I guess that’s what I’m here to find out.”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, maybe. We’ll see.”

  “It’s not a maybe, Jude,” I reminded him gently. “This isn’t an interview. I’ve already been awarded the internship. I was hand-selected from a class of hundreds to sit in this seat.”

  “Hundreds, huh?”

  I nodded. “I can assure you that I’m more than qualified to be in this position. You don’t need to do any investigative work about me or my motivations for being here. Unless of course you don’t think Oxford University produces well-educated alumni.”

  He actually looked like I might just have surprised him there, but then he started laughing. And what a freaking laugh it is.

  “I never said that,” he managed to get out between breaths.

  I arched an eyebrow at the insufferable man. “You implied it.”

  “I suppose it might have sounded that way,” he conceded, still seeming thoroughly amused. “Should we discuss—”

  The ringing of his phone distracted him. He glanced down at the sleek black device skittering across his desk as it vibrated, suddenly tense.

  Without bothering to excuse himself from our conversation, he snapped the phone up and pressed it to his ear. “What is it?”

  He listened intently, his mood visibly darkening even though he didn’t say another word. He made a bunch of humming noises, hung up, and stood up. “I have to go. We’ll have to continue this another time. Excuse me please.”

  With hardly another thought for me, he rushed out of the office. Leaving me to see myself out would have been much more awkward if it didn’t also stress me out. I was supposed to be learning from him as of today, but he’d just dismissed me as if I was something he could simply reschedule.

  Refusing to wallow in it, though, I got up and slung my purse over my shoulder. I had no idea where to go or what to do, but I figured I could check in with the receptionist. If all else failed, I’d just wait there for Jude to get back.

  As I was turning back after closing the door to his office, I bumped into someone.

  “Hey,” a familiar voice said. I looked up to find myself looking into Shane’s eyes. I’d thought they were piercing before, but now that I’d met Jude, that word had lost its meaning when being applied to anybody else. “Where are you off to?”

  I lifted a shoulder, shaking my head at him. “I’m Jude’s intern. According to my professor, I’m supposed to be glued to the man. But I can’t do that when he walks away from me.”

  Shane’s brow crumpled in a frown, but he smoothed it out. “Okay, how about this? I
have some time. Why don’t I give you a tour of the main floor of the office? You a coffee drinker?”

  “Coffee is life,” I said, holding my hand to my heart like I was swearing an oath. “Are you sure you have time to give me a tour? I don’t mind looking around by myself. I was actually on my way to ask the receptionist if I could do just that.”

  “Now you don’t have to do it by yourself.” He grinned, lifting a hand to run it through his unruly but soft-looking curls. “Let me take you under my wing for today. We can talk and I’ll answer any questions you might have.”

  “That sounds good,” I said, relieved. “Especially if there’s going to be coffee involved.”

  Shane jerked his head to the side. “Follow me. We’ll start in one of the pause areas. There are sublime coffee machines in there.”

  “Pause areas?” I asked as I followed him around for the second time that morning.

  He chuckled. “Break room, pause area. Same thing. Jude just preferred pause area to break room.”

  “Ah, I get it.” I didn’t get it, but I nodded anyway. “So is everything here exactly what he wants then?”

  “Well, yeah. He’s the boss.” Shane stepped to the side when we reached the end of one long walkway hovering above the floor below it. “After you.”

  “Thank you.” My gaze traveled past him when I turned to ask him another question, landing on the drop below the glass-bridge-like thing we’d just walked across to get here. “I guess you can’t be afraid of heights if you like coffee around here, huh?”

  He chuckled again. I got the feeling it was something he did often. He sure was a lot more easygoing and less intense than our illustrious boss.

  “There are other pause areas. Coffee bars too. But yeah, working in this building if you’re not a fan of heights would suck.”

  Shane introduced me to people as we entered the break area, but I doubted I’d remember any of their names. There were just too many. They were all happy, smiley people, though. I wondered if they knew they worked for a cocky asshole.

  The pause area itself was just as impressive as I’d come to expect from this building. It was broken into different sections, but Shane just kept heading for what appeared to be a bar standing in the middle of the wing.

  I saw why calling it a break room wouldn’t have worked. It really was more of a wing than a room. From what I could see, there was a spot off on the far side with nap pods in it. Another section contained a gaming area with electronic and arcade types of games available.

  The middle section around the bar was decked out like a lounge with comfy couches and footstools. People hung around there, drinking their coffee and laughing together.

  It was almost too much to take in. How could a guy like Jude provide an area like this for his employees? It certainly didn’t fit with the impression I’d gotten of him.

  “This is going to change your life,” Shane said, interrupting my thoughts. He waved his hand at a machine standing on the counter. “Seriously, you’ll never want a different latte again once you’ve tasted these.”

  “Great. Thank you for ruining me then.”

  He flashed me a grin over his shoulder as he collected the glass mugs from a cabinet underneath the machine. “I didn’t buy the machine. Jude did. If you’re ruined for other lattes, it’s his fault. Just don’t ever tell him that. He’ll never let you forget it.”

  I watched his expression carefully as he mentioned our boss. His face and his tone made it seem like he thought of Jude as more of a friend than a boss. I’d thought the same thing back in his office, even if he had called him sir.

  “What’s it like working for him?” I asked, unable to keep my curiosity to myself anymore. “Everyone around here seems so relaxed and happy, but he’s so…”

  “Not?” Shane offered, and I nodded. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he gave me an understanding smile. “It just takes a little while to get to know him. I don’t know what he did or said to you in your meeting, but he’s a good guy.”

  Both of my eyebrows lifted. “A good guy? Really?”

  He laughed, shrugging his large shoulders. “He’s more complicated than you might think and he’s balancing a lot of things at once. Just give him some time.”

  “Some time until what?” The machine whirred quietly, and both of the mugs filled from different dispensers. I watched the creamy liquid pouring into them with trepidation filling me. “How much time? I’m not here indefinitely. I only have so much time with him.”

  “He’ll come around soon enough,” Shane promised as he handed over my latte. “When he does, you’ll see who he really is.”

  I doubted it, but I didn’t say anything. As he led me around the room, his gaze rested on a group of people entering before he glanced down at me. “Hey, I have an idea.”

  I sipped the foam off my latte. “Oh?”

  “Why don’t you come out with us tonight? Jude takes his office staff out every Friday for drinks and fun, and it would be a good chance for you to get to know people.”

  I stared at him, then looked around the room again. “He takes all of them out every week?”

  That was a lot of people. It must cost him a fortune, and where would you even find a place big enough to accommodate them all on a weekly basis? My mind immediately jumped into the possible strategies behind it, but I came up empty.

  “It’s an open invitation, but not everyone shows up every week,” he said. “There are a handful of regulars, though. They’re all nice people. It’ll give you a head start on making friends around here.”

  I didn’t tell him the same thing I had Anna. I wasn’t here to make friends, but I also didn’t want to be rude. As curious as I was about how Jude conducted his business, I failed to see how this would assist me in my goal. “That doesn’t sound very professional.”

  Shane laughed, reaching up to pat me gently on the shoulder. “Oxford, you’re going to have to loosen up a bit if you want to survive here.”

  Chapter 10

  JUDE

  “Why is she even here?” I asked Shane as I eyed the new intern sitting at the other end of our table.

  We were at the same bar down the block from the office that we started at every Friday night. It wasn’t as ritzy as the clubs I usually went to, but the food was fried, and the beer was on tap. They also had a two-for-one tequila special, which helped.

  Bringing the guys from the office here every week wasn’t smart business. I knew that, but I still did it. It was a tradition and one I knew my employees valued. It kept morale up, and that was a good enough excuse for me.

  Our table was a long one that stretched down the side of the bar. Above our heads was a low-hanging industrial-looking chandelier. The lightbulbs were at least three times the size of normal ones, but they weren’t too bright. They cast a warm glow over us, making it feel more like a family dinner than a work thing.

  Platters of bar food had been placed down the middle of the distressed-wood tabletop and a multitude of glasses in all sizes were scattered around them. My people talked and laughed, slammed back shots, and enjoyed their drinks.

  I sat back with a satisfied smile on my face, but then I glanced down the table again and sighed. Shane frowned in his seat beside me. “She’s here because I invited her. What’s up with you? It’s an open invitation, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, usually, but she’s being a buzzkill.”

  He leaned forward to peer at her. “Is that lemon water?”

  “I think so.” I shrugged. “Maybe it’s got vodka in it, but I doubt it. In case you were wondering, the only food I’ve seen her eating are the fried zucchini sticks.”

  “Aren’t those the garnish?” he asked, shooting a look at the circular platter in front of us. “I always thought it was.”

  “That’s because it is. I honestly think they only put it on there to get rid of the zucchini when it comes with other vegetables in a bulk order from the market.”

  Shane tipped his head. “Maybe,
but she seems to like them.”

  “Yeah.” She took another delicate bite, sitting back in her chair and observing those around her as she chewed. “Why do you think she came if she wasn’t planning on talking to anyone?”

  “I think she’s shy,” he said. “She’s out of her element and in an unfamiliar country. Take it easy on her, will you?”

  I tossed a chicken nugget into my mouth and took my time chewing it. Once I’d swallowed the tender meat, I drained what was left of my beer and kept an eye on her, barely registering the conversation going on around me.

  If I was going to mentor this woman, I needed to draw her out of her shell. An uptight student hanging around my office for that length of time wasn’t going to work for me. “Call her down here.”

  Shane blinked at me but then sighed and did as I asked. Instead of just calling out to her like he might have anyone else around the table, he got up off his stool and went to stand next to her. A tentative smile spread across her lips when she saw him, but he gestured toward me and her face dropped.

  What the hell?

  Surely, she couldn’t be pissed off that I’d run out of our meeting earlier. My senior developer had needed me. I couldn’t be expected to baby an intern when our latest release was in danger of tanking.

  Shane said something else, and I saw her shoulders rise and fall on a deep breath as she nodded. He flashed her a wide grin before offering his elbow like a real gentleman. He wasn’t, but out of the two of us, I supposed he was her best bet for that kind of treatment.

  They made their way through the people standing around between tables until they reached me. Rose smiled, but it was tight and didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “Hello, Jude,” she said, following it up with a small wave.

  “Have a seat.” I motioned for the empty one beside me. It had belonged to Shane, but use it or lose it was a well-known refrain at these gatherings.

  He didn’t even bat an eye before smiling and nodding. “What he means to say is ‘please join us.’”