“If you can handle a man like Warren Colchester, I’m sure you can do this. Let’s go. It’s time for the roundtables.”
Jude strode down the hall, hearing Mason scramble to follow. While he didn’t like being a shit, it seemed the only way to keep the necessary distance between them.
Chapter Six
Having Deirdre to talk to about working for Jude took Mason’s stress level down a few notches. She was able to give him a little more insight into Jude, both as a person and a boss.
“Don’t let his growl put you off,” Deirdre said when Mason sat across from her. “Jude is the sweetest, but he’s got this hard outer shell he hides under.”
“So what you’re telling me is he’s a tortoise. Or, considering who we’re talking about, more likely a hermit crab.”
Deirdre’s laughter rang out, and she clapped her hand over her mouth. “I shouldn’t laugh, but oh my God, that’s the funniest thing.” She pointed her finger at him. “You’re going to knock him off his feet. I think the two of you will be perfect together. He needs someone like you.”
Mason recalled the heavy thickness of Jude’s cock breaching him and fought his body’s rising excitement. God knew, he’d needed him that night. The slide of all that fullness thrusting in and out of him as they tangled arms and legs to bring each other close…closer, kept Mason up half the night. They were compatible sexually, that was for sure.
He cleared his throat. “I don’t know. He doesn’t think so, but with you leaving so precipitously, he doesn’t have much of a choice. I have a month to prove I can handle the job. I mean,Iknow I can do it. I ran Warren Colchester’s business and personal calendar for him for several years with no problem. But Jude…there’s always been this disconnect between us. A wall, more like it.”
“You’ve known him a long time. How much younger than Doug are you?”
“Four years. And Jude remembers me as the pain-in-the-ass kid brother who got caught smoking pot or sneaking home drunk after a party. I got into a lot of scrapes, and I wasn’t exactly the best student. I had a habit of starting things but leaving them half-completed.” He eyed Deirdre. “He thought of me as a fuckup.”
“Was he right?”
He valued her directness. “Yeah. I can admit I was. But that’s the thing. I’ve outgrown that person, but when Jude looks at me, he doesn’t see a grown man. I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to separate the seventeen-year-old Mason who always got in trouble from the man I am today.”
“Well”—she flipped her long, wavy hair over her shoulders—“that’s all part of it. If you do your job, you’ll show him you aren’t that same old Mason. If you don’t?” She shrugged. “You’ve proved him right.”
Blunt, practical advice. Exactly what he needed. Do the job, and the old Mason would fade away.
“Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m sorry you’re leaving.”
“Here, take my number.” She scribbled it on a sticky pad on the desk. “Anything you need to chat about, feel free.” She grimaced. “I’ll be on bed rest for months, so I’ll be doing nothing but getting big and trying to keep myself from eating. I’ll need anything that can break up the boredom.”
He grinned. “Will do. Any office gossip I should know about? Not Jude—I know he has no social life.”
Her mouth pulled down in a frown. “You’ve got him pegged. I swear I don’t understand that man. He’s gorgeous, kind…he’d make someone a perfect partner.”
“Oh?” Mason hoped she’d continue. He wanted nothing more than to get any bit of insight into what made Jude tick besides work and his sister. “I never thought of Jude as the type to want someone in his life. He’s so closed off.”
“The only people Jude has allowed to see the real him are his sister and Doug, and, to an extent, me. And even then…” Her hair flowed over her shoulders as she shook her head in frustration.
“Yeah. Even then.” Mason thought back to the other night. The shock of Jude’s hands gliding over his skin, his hot mouth and lips seeking Mason’s in desperate kisses. Who was that Jude?
It had to be the tequila.
“Everyone at The Company is very friendly and willing to help everyone else. Doug and Jude have always tried to keep it small and family-like. Except…well…I don’t like to bad-mouth people, but…” She chewed her lip for a second. “Just be careful of Pryce Lipton.”
“Jude’s main man?”
Deirdre snorted. “Pryce wishes. And I don’t mean work-wise either. He’s been trying to cozy up to Jude since day one, but Jude wasn’t having it.”
“You mean personally?” A bubble of anger hit him. “Hell no, Jude wouldn’t. Even I know Jude would never mix business with pleasure.”
“I don’t know why I’m saying this, because Pryce always does his work and is pleasant, but still…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. You’ll make your own observations and come to your own conclusions.”
An hour later, after Jude had introduced him to the team, Mason sat in the conference room, listening to Pryce make his speech about his handling of the Mojo account. Mason took copious notes, but unlike the other people on the team, wasn’t overly impressed. Pryce used a lot of words to explain what he was doing, but the essence of his pitch was a simple campaign, something Mason knew didn’t take much time or effort to plan. Jude never took his eyes off Pryce while he spoke, but his face remained impassive.
Pryce finished to applause, and flushed with the praise, he sat and took a drink of cold water from the pitcher on the table.
