for it get out, either, so it hasn’t been difficult to keep things quiet.”
“I’m sure as shit not going to tell anyone, and apparently Riley already knows,” Seth commented. “Taylor looks incredible for being not quite a month out from that incident. It must have been hell for her.”
“It was,” I agreed. “I dealt with Lanian rebels when I was in Special Forces, and they aren’t exactly known for their humane treatment of hostages. Taylor is doing incredibly well.”
I gave Seth as much information as I could about the kidnapping, how she’d tried to escape, and the state Taylor had been in after she’d been rescued.
“So was she helped by the Lanian government?” Seth asked curiously.
“You could say that,” I answered evasively. It wasn’t exactly a lie. Prince Nick had brought the doctor and supplies. I knew Seth was talking about her initial recovery, but if he wanted to think some Lanian covert team got Taylor to safety, I was fine with that. “I sent my jet to transport her back to the U.S. and I ended up offering her a place to stay while she recovered.”
Not exactly a lie.
“No wonder you’re crazy about her,” Seth answered. “You’d never even know something like that happened to her. She’s so damn friendly and sweet to everybody.”
“Who said I’m crazy about her?” I sent him a stare that would intimidate most people.
But not Seth. He stared right back at me, and raised an eyebrow as he said, “Cut the bullshit, Hudson. Like I said, I know the signs. There’s nothing wrong with being enamored with a woman like Taylor. She’s pretty, resilient, highly intelligent, and she appears to look at you the same way you look at her.”
“I like her. Probably have since the moment we met, but I liked her a hell of a lot more once she kicked Jax’s ass at chess,” I joked.
Seth’s eyes widened. “How in the hell did that happen?”
“She was taught by Mac Tanaka, a legendary chess Grand Master, and Jax got way too cocky,” I told him.
Seth snorted. “I would have given at least a million bucks to see that. Riley said that Taylor is a Tai Chi master, too. A woman of many talents, which makes her very intriguing.”
“She’s real, dammit! She isn’t impressed by the Montgomery name, or my money, and she’s not the least bit intimidated by any of that, or me. When she looks at me, she just sees…me, and she’s pretty damn tolerant about every single one of my goddamn faults. If you really want to know how I feel about her, yeah, I’m crazy about her. I didn’t mean for that to happen, but I couldn’t very well stop it once it started. Are you happy, now?” I sent Seth a disgruntled look.
He swallowed a mouthful of beer before he answered, “The question is…are you happy, Hudson? It really doesn’t matter how anyone else feels. But just for the record, yeah, I’m pretty damn thrilled that you met a woman like Taylor. You deserve someone who cares about you, and not your money or the Montgomery name. So what are you going to do about it now?”
I shrugged. “What can I do? Taylor is still recovering. I’m hoping I can talk her into a permanent position at Montgomery Mining, but she’s been resistant about that so far because she doesn’t feel like she has the experience to be part of the Montgomery lab team. I think she feels like I’m doing her a favor, which I’m not. She’d be an amazing asset to our lab and research center. She’s definitely sweet, but the woman is stubborn as hell sometimes.”
I watched as Jax strolled over to where Maya and Taylor were sitting, and exchanged a couple of words with the two of them.
Maya got up with an enormous smile, and ran toward the house.
My guess was that Jax had given Maya a fun errand to run so he could chat with Taylor for a few minutes.
“Looks like Jax is making some kind of move,” Seth said in a thoughtful voice. “Does he already know…”
“He knows,” I assured Seth. “He’s going to try to talk her into taking a permanent position with Montgomery, too. He wants her to stay. She’s too damn intelligent to let go of without a fight to keep her with us.”
“I think you need to fight just as hard to keep her with you, Hudson,” Seth suggested.
I continued to watch Jax and Taylor. They seemed like they