with a glass of wine, and grabbed some dinner before he took me back home.
Our walks and talks had gotten lengthier, and my trust in Jax had grown over the last two weeks.
I saw Dr. Romero every single morning, and in addition to traditional therapy, she was also doing EMDR, which seemed to be helping me enormously. I’d been a little skeptical that anything could help reprocess any of my bad memories, much less desensitize me enough to not react to triggers. Fortunately, I’d discovered that all of my doubts had been unfounded. As Dr. Romero had hoped, those sessions had started working soon after I’d finished the second one. After that, I seemed to improve a little more every day.
My horrible nightmares had stopped, but I partly credited my new canine companion for that. I sometimes woke up startled at night, only to find that Molly was nudging me to wake up. I was completely convinced that the adorable little monster could actually sense when I was falling into a nightmare. I had no clue whether it was some kind of restlessness or noises I made when I was sleeping that tipped her off. All I knew was that it was easy to fall back to sleep since I didn’t wake up screaming and traumatized.
“I’m starting to get hungry,” Jax informed me from his lounger beside the pool.
His swims didn’t usually last all that long. Maybe because he was used to having this amazing pool available all the time. But me? I lingered in the water as long as possible. There was something magical about being in the infinity edge pool with sweeping, panoramic views of the bay, and watching the lights across the water as the city began to light up at dusk.
I rolled my eyes. “Is there ever a time when you’re not hungry?” I asked, amused. Jax could put away more food than any person I’d ever known.
“We just finished a tough workout, and then a swim. That works up my appetite,” he argued.
“You did a tough workout,” I reminded him. “I did a sissy workout that wouldn’t even qualify as exercise.”
Jax petted Tango, his golden retriever, as he answered, “It’s exactly what you need to heal that knee up completely. You can argue all you want about the easy workouts, but you’re not doing anything more than what’s necessary until you’re ready to push a little harder.”
I’d never be able to push myself like Jax did, even if my knee was just like new. The man was brutal when it came to physical fitness, which probably had a lot to do with his Special Forces background, and the fact that he was involved in Last Hope.
Yeah, I was previous military, and before the kidnapping, I’d kept active enough to stay in shape, but I hadn’t tortured myself like Jax did every single day.
“God, you’re so bossy it’s almost annoying,” I retorted as I floated on my back. “You’re lucky that I’m way too tired to argue with you right now.”
Okay, maybe he wasn’t always high-handed, but I’d gotten my first taste of Jax’s stubborn tendencies two weeks ago, and he could be a tyrant when he really wanted something.
He’d been pretty damn pushy about me meeting with him every single day, and he’d made it clear that he wouldn’t recommend that Marshall even consider the possibility of me being part of Last Hope unless I agreed. Oh, he hadn’t exactly threatened me if I didn’t meet with him every single day. Jaxton Montgomery could be extremely charming while he was getting his own way.
In the end, I’d agreed to four weeks of working with Jax every single day because I’d wanted to get better.
I’d also been aware that Jax was going to give up a lot of his valuable free time to try to help a woman he barely knew. He’d rearranged his work schedule by going in early so he could pick me up at a reasonable hour in the late afternoon. Really, how many men like Jax Montgomery were willing to rearrange their life to help one of their lower-level employees?
This entire advisor relationship is nothing like I thought it would be.
Every single day, I learned something new about Jax that touched me, and those discoveries made me realize that nearly every assumption I’d ever made about him was completely…wrong.
“I’d offer to cook, but that’s not exactly one of my many talents,” he said drily.