Madly Yours (Nora Reed) novel Chapter 445

The morning strategy meeting dragged on from eight-thirty until ten o'clock. When it finally concluded, Hudson pinched the bridge of his nose and took a long sip of water from the glass on the table.

"Hudson, do you have plans for the rest of the morning?"

Hudson turned to Professor Douglas Campbell. "No. Why?"

"Northampton University brought a group of their top students over for a tour. There's a Q&A session coming up. Why don't you go up there and give them a little talk?"

Hudson frowned slightly. "Have Jude do it. He's better at this sort of thing."

Jude Winslow smiled smoothly, shaking his head. "Not a chance. You're the Professor's prized pupil. This glorious burden falls entirely on you."

Hudson shot him a look. "Are you just afraid of embarrassing yourself in front of your juniors?"

"Your reverse psychology won't work on me," Jude leaned back in his chair, his smile as warm as ever. "I genuinely think you're a better speaker. Your last lecture at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music was phenomenal. Even the Professor couldn't stop praising it."

"Then it's settled," Douglas Campbell patted Hudson on the shoulder. "Get yourself ready. Head down to the auditorium now."

"..."

Cornered by the two of them, Hudson had no choice but to nod in agreement.

The lecture was held in the Institute's main auditorium, which seated over three hundred people and was already packed to the brim. The audience consisted of Northampton University's brightest minds—undergrads and grad students alike—all sitting ramrod straight, their eyes burning with youthful eagerness and ambition.

Hudson offered a faint, restrained smile, yet it instantly earned a ripple of cheerful laughter from the crowd. That single opening remark bridged the gap, instantly making the intimidating, suited billionaire feel remarkably approachable to the college students.

For a moment, every gaze in the vast hall was fixed squarely on the stage.

Hudson let out a soft chuckle, his eyes sweeping casually across the auditorium, until they unexpectedly landed on a slender, familiar silhouette standing in the back.

Nora?

His breath hitched. His first instinct was that he was hallucinating. But when he saw her beaming and waving enthusiastically at him, the corners of his mouth twitched upward uncontrollably. Something turbulent surged in the depths of his dark eyes—like a violent undercurrent beneath a sheet of ice, restrained yet incredibly fierce.