Jude is definitely not old. He’s a few years older than me, but that just makes him a bit more mature. And a lot more sexy.

I give him a small smile. “I don’t know. Hanging out with my family and watching movies doesn’t sound so bad.”

Jude’s eyes darken, and it looks like he’s scenting the air. Dear god, am I releasing some kind of lusty odor?

Jude stares at me for a few seconds longer before seeming to shake out of it. “Yeah, well, we should probably get to it.” He projects the staging website on the wall-mounted monitor and opens up the punch list of items we need to complete. “As you can see, I added a bunch of stuff last night. Obviously, you don’t have to do it all immediately. I’ll just keep adding to the list as I find things that I need, and you can work through the list at your own pace.”

At first glance, the list is intimidating. And long. But this is a great learning opportunity for me, so I’m excited to be given such a big responsibility. “You got it. I’m ready to roll.”

For the next few hours, we work in companionable silence. Every now and then, I have a question for Jude, and he’s always quick to answer. But there are so many other things I want to ask him about. Like how he got involved in this business and if he likes owning his own company or has ever worked as an in-house designer.

It’s ten minutes to noon when I finally work up the courage to ask Jude if he has lunch plans, and just when I’m about to open my mouth, Matt pokes his head through the conference room door. “Hey, Dude. I heard you were back today. You want to grab lunch?”

I keep my head down, pretending to be so lost in concentration that I don’t notice the invitation hasn’t been extended to me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jude tilt his head in my direction. God, I hate being a pity guest.

“Yeah, Andy, right?” Matt asks, pointing at me. I’m surprised he knows my name. We haven’t been formally introduced but Chris pointed him out to me on my first day.

I look up as if I’m just noticing that he’s standing there. “Yeah, hi.”

“Would you like to join us for lunch down in the café? They have some decent sandwiches.”

“Wow, is it noon already?” I glance at my watch and feign surprise. “Thanks for the invite, but I need to run a few errands at lunch.”

Matt nods his head, looking almost relieved by my answer. “No worries. Maybe next time.” He turns to Jude. “So, you in?”

I make the mistake of glancing in Jude’s direction, and his narrowed eyes are locked on me. He knows I’m lying, but I’m grateful that he doesn’t try to call me out on it. After keeping his eyes on me for a few seconds longer than appropriate, he turns back to Matt. “Yeah, sounds good. You ready now?”

“You know I’m always ready to eat. Let’s go.”

I keep my head down and continue working until they both leave the room. After waiting a good ten minutes to give them a head start, I shut down my computer and head to the back stairwell to go grab something to eat. There’s a deli across the street that I’ve been meaning to check out, so that’s the obvious choice. The line is long so I take that as a good sign of what’s to come and peruse the wall menu while I wait for my turn.

“Hey, you work over at Matco Electronics, right?”

I glance up and realize the guy standing in front of me is talking to me. He’s obviously an alpha, but he doesn’t have the traditional body type. He’s only an inch or so taller than my five foot eight frame, and although it looks like he has thick muscles, they aren’t wide or bulging like Matt’s and Jude’s are. “Yeah, just started a few days ago.”

“Cool, welcome. I work there too. I am Xander.”

“Nice to meet you, Xander. I’m Andy.” I hold out my hand to shake, and when he does, his hold lingers for a second longer than is customary for a business associate.

Interesting.

He asks me what department I work for and tells me about some projects he’s working on, but whatever he’s talking about doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. He’s an engineer, and I’m not familiar with most of the terms he’s using. But Xander seems like a nice guy, so when he places his order and asks if I’d like to join him for lunch, I don’t hesitate. I don’t know very many people at the company yet, and it never hurts to have a friend around when you’re the new guy.

The service at this place isn’t particularly fast, so by the time we get our food and eat it, my lunch hour is almost over. I don’t want to be rude to Xander, but I also don’t want to be late getting back. So soon as there’s a brief pause in the conversation, I crumple up my trash in the sandwich wrapper then stand up. “Thanks for letting me crash your lunch today. I don’t know very many people yet, so I had planned to just eat alone.”

“Nonsense. A cool guy like you should never eat alone.” He winks as he stands up and glances at his watch. “Shit, I didn’t realize it was so late. Sorry about that.”

“No worries. I’ll just stay a little late this evening if I need to.” To my surprise, Xander falls into step beside me as we head back across the street.

“Which floor are you on?” he asks as we enter the building.

“I usually work on the sixth floor, but for the next few weeks, I’ll probably be camped out in a conference room on seven.”

“Good, you’re close by. I’m up on eight, so I’ll walk you back then take the stairs to my floor.” He pats his flat belly. “Got to get those steps in, you know.”

My eyes unconsciously drift down his torso to his trim waist. He must have an amazing metabolism if he has a body like that from climbing one flight of stairs per day.

Despite my insistence that it’s not necessary for him to walk me back, Xander follows me all the way to the conference room, telling me about the different amenities found in the building as we go. Matco Electronics only takes up the fifth through ninth floors, but we’re in a fifteen-story building with lots of other companies renting space here.

“There’s even a physical therapist on the second floor who does amazing massage.” We turn into the conference room, and I see Jude already set up at his laptop. His eyes hone in on Xander instantly. If Xander notices Jude, it’s hard to tell because he doesn’t acknowledge the man at all, continuing to ramble. “So if your muscles are ever feeling tight, and you need a good rub down, I can give you his number. I try to get in to see him at least once a week.”

“Thanks, but I don’t know if my insurance covers chiropractor visits. But I’ll keep that in mind.”

Jude clears his throat, forcing us both to look his way. Jude stands up and extends his arm to Xander from across the table. “Hi, I’m Jude. And you are?”

I don’t know if I’m imagining it, but it seems like there’s a hint of hostility in Jude’s voice. Hostility I’ve never heard from him before—not even when I was accusing him of those horrible things.

If Xander heard it, he has an excellent poker face because he just flashes a charming grin and shakes Jude’s hand. “Xander Masters. Head of R&D.”

“Good to meet you, Xander,” Jude says curtly, barely masking the disdain he obviously feels toward this man he just met ten seconds ago.

Xander smirks, and I begin to wonder if maybe Jude’s disdain isn’t well masked after all.

“Same.” Xander turns back to me and reaches for my shoulder, giving me a gentle squeeze. “Lunch was fun, Andy. Let’s do it again, yeah?”

I smile and give him a quick nod. “Yeah, that would be great.”