I’d left the light on in the bathroom, so she didn’t wake up scared because the room was completely dark.
I can’t do this. Jax was right. I shouldn’t be getting this attached to a rescue, even if she is my employee.
I could see her face because of the light from the bathroom, and when she flinched, like she was terrified of whoever she was dreaming about, I finally gave up my internal war.
Nobody ever had to know, not even her. I’d leave before she ever woke up.
I crawled into the bed from the opposite side, and shifted my body close to hers. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I spooned in behind her, and said quietly, “You’re okay, Taylor. I’m here. Sleep. No more bad dreams.”
“Hudson,” she whispered, sounding relieved as she melted into my body with an enormous sigh.
That one little word, my name on her lips, her instinct to trust me—was like a knife to my damn heart. I tightened my arms a little around her defenseless body.
Taylor had been through so damn much in rebel hands that it was a miracle the woman could trust anyone right now.
Part of me said that she was a fool to trust a guy like me, then again, maybe she wasn’t.
Yeah, I could be an asshole sometimes, but I knew that I was going to do everything in my power to make sure nobody would ever hurt this woman again.
Just the thought of anybody putting a hand on her made me see red right now.
So maybe I was the best person for the job as her temporary protector at the moment.
I stayed with Taylor for a couple of hours—a hell of a lot longer than I needed to—before I finally left her sleeping peacefully, and got into my own bed where I belonged.
Taylor
“Dinner was fantastic, Hudson. Thank you,” I said as I put my hand on my distended belly. I’d eaten way more than my share of the scrumptious chicken and noodle casserole he’d fixed for dinner.
I sighed in contentment from my place in one of his outdoor loungers, feeling incredibly lazy and totally spoiled.
Tomorrow, it would be two weeks since Hudson had brought me home from the hospital, and he’d been feeding me almost continually since the moment we’d arrived at his ridiculously large, luxurious home on the beach in Del Mar.
We’d gotten here on a Sunday, and on Monday morning, the parade of professionals had started to march in and out of Hudson’s place, and had kept right on coming every weekday after that.
Physical therapists.
Physicians.
Psychologists.
Personal assistants who had brought my clothes and my vehicle from Harlow’s apartment to Hudson’s home.
To tell the truth, it had been an exhausting few weeks, but at least I was on my feet with the help of my physical therapist, and getting my head together with a very good psychologist who specialized in trauma.
Yeah, I still had a few nightmares about my experience in Lania, but the constant flashes of memory every time I heard or saw a trigger were beginning to slow down.
I had no idea how to thank the man sitting next to me, and if I did try to thank Hudson, he’d just blow it off. I’d tried many times with very little success. It wasn’t all because of the support people he’d brought in, either. My gratitude was more about him being a constant companion and confidante.
If I was having a bad day…he was there.
If I was having a good day…he was there.
If I just wanted to talk…he was there, too.
Honestly, he’d been the biggest support system I could have asked for after what had happened, and because he’d been so understanding, there wasn’t much I couldn’t tell him.
Okay, so maybe I hadn’t mentioned much about the nightly sexual assaults, and he didn’t know much about my past, but we’d talked a lot about how it felt to be a hostage in general.
Hudson shrugged from the lounger next to mine. “Dinner was nothing fancy, but I do have several containers of ice cream for later. You did mention that you really liked cookie dough ice cream.”
I groaned. “You have to stop feeding me.”
“Why?” he asked, sounding confused. “You have some weight to gain back.”
I laughed. “But I don’t have to gain it all in less than two weeks.”
I had lost a lot of weight, more than I’d even anticipated. Some of those pounds had returned once I was well-hydrated, and well-nourished. I’d packed on plenty of pounds