because she thought you had more faith in her ability to take care of herself. Yeah, maybe she needed somebody to take care of her for a short period of time when she couldn’t do it herself, but she’s highly intelligent, educated, and perfectly capable of running her own life.”
“I know that,” I growled. “I see how smart and together she is every single day. I’ve never seen somebody who has been held hostage bounce back as fast as she has, and to tell you the truth, it scares the hell out of me.” I wasn’t about to share the fact that Taylor had been forced into allowing the rebel leader to use her body every damn night. I was fairly certain Jax knew about that anyway since Harlow had mentioned it, but he didn’t need to know the details. I couldn’t say I had any specifics to share anyway. That was the one thing Taylor hadn’t discussed a whole lot with me.
“It was a short duration, Hudson. Her body is almost healed, and if she had her head straight in the first place, maybe she is okay. I’m not saying that going through something like that isn’t going to cause some lingering issues, but hell, don’t we all have some of those?”
“Maybe,” I said noncommittally, not ready to admit all the shortcomings I had.
Not to Jax, anyway. We were too damn much alike having come from the same background, so that would be kind of like telling him he was a hot mess, too.
“I will tell you one thing,” I offered.
“What’s that?”
“There’s not a single choice for me in this situation,” I admitted, referring back to the conversation we’d had on the way to Lania. “If I could have talked myself out of wanting Taylor, I would have done it by now.”
Jax snorted. “I kind of figured that out already.”
I intentionally shifted the conversation away from me, and into the rest of our business.
After thirty minutes or so, we were done catching up for the day when Jax asked, “What do you want me to do about Harlow?”
“Nothing,” I said flatly. “She needs time to grieve and get her head on straight. As her employers, we owe it to her to give her all the time and support she needs. I’m not accepting her resignation, even if some supervisor or department head did. As far as I’m concerned, she’s going to be on an extended leave of absence, a paid leave. You on board with that?”
“Definitely,” Jax said emphatically. “I’ll handle payroll and the lab chief. What about Taylor?”
“She stays a paid employee, too. The woman already gets a ridiculously low wage for her education, intern or not. I think that’s something we need to look at in the future. Her internship isn’t over until the beginning of September, and by that time, she damn well better accept my job offer and get her ass into a permanent position with us,” I said unhappily.
“Doesn’t think she has the experience to work for us,” I replied.
“With an average person, that’s probably true,” Jax considered. “But it’s not totally unheard of to see an intern go into a permanent position with us if they’re really exceptional. It’s happened before. It just doesn’t occur frequently, but I’d more than agree that Taylor is one of those exceptions. She’s one of those rare interns I’d rather not lose to another company. Anyone who has the brains to kick my ass in chess is somebody who’s dangerous on the outside,” Jax said, sounding like he was only partially joking. “I’ll have a word with her at the barbeque, let her know what I think. Maybe she assumes you’re doing her a favor or something. Just try not to slug me because I’m talking to her at Riley’s place,” he requested.
“I already told you I regret the way I acted,” I answered. I’d mentioned it at the very beginning of our conversation. “No winking, no flirting, no charming, and I’ll be fine.”
“We’ll see,” Jax said, drawing those two words out longer than needed.
Much to my annoyance, I could have sworn I heard the bastard laughing right before he ended the entire conversation.
Taylor
“I think it’s time for us to get a few things straight,” Hudson said ominously from his lounger.
I shuddered. Usually, that growly tone didn’t bother me at all, but things had been incredibly tense since our disagreement last night.