Captivated (Talented Saga #3.5) (5 page)

Erik and I sat in the back seat,
holding hands, for the duration of the five minute journey to Mac’s
house. He traced small, slow circles on my palm, a calming gesture
that I appreciated immensely. My earlier anger with Mac was still
tingeing my emotions red. I tried to mask my resentment from Erik,
no point in giving him more reason to dislike the Direction. But
being more susceptible to my feelings than most, he still felt
it.

Gretchen stood framed in the
doorway, sunlight catching the white, blonde strands of hair that
had escaped her bun, when we pulled up the drive. She held a
dishtowel in her hands, wringing it obsessively out of nervous
habit. While she had been the biggest supporter of Erik’s visit,
she was uneasy about the four of us – Gretchen, Mac, Erik, and me –
being under the same roof for two days. Thankfully, Donovan had
suddenly remembered he had somewhere else to be for the weekend. I
wasn’t the only one relieved that we wouldn’t have the two boys’
antagonistic relationship to contend with, Mac had approved the
weekend away without interrogation.

When Mac brought the car to a stop
and turned off the engine, I gave Erik’s hand a reassuring squeeze
and offered him the most genuine smile I could muster. The nervous
energy rolling off of him was evident, he saw staying in the
McDonough’s home as a putting himself in the lion’s den. I didn’t
blame him. I’d lived with Mac and Gretchen for years, and I still
felt that way sometimes.

“Erik, welcome,” Gretchen said
warmly, holding out a hand to relieve him of the duffle
bag.

“Thank you for having me, Mrs.
McDonough,” Erik replied politely. He shook his head in response to
her offer to carry his bag, but did shake her hand.

“I have the guest room ready for
you, but my son is out of town for the weekend and his room is
closer to Talia’s if you would be more comfortable there?” Gretchen
moved aside and gestured for us to enter.

“He will be fine in the guest
room,” Mac interjected.

“The guest room is perfect,
ma’am,” Erik said quickly, though his easy compliance had nothing
to do with a need to please Mac. Erik found the thought of sleeping
in Donavon’s bed less appealing than torture.

Gretchen led the way through the
foyer, past the kitchen, and down a long hallway to the right – the
guest wing. Since Mac was the Director of Toxic and prominent
people frequently visited the School, the McDonough’s home had an
entire guest wing to accommodate said important people. I’d stayed
in one of the rooms with my parents when I was young. Or, at least,
I thought I had. The memory was a little hazy, but walking down the
hallway with its mahogany painted walls and portraits of past Toxic
Directors triggered something in my mind. It was the same feeling I
experienced every time I ventured down this corridor, which was
rare. Today, though, the sensation was stronger. I could imagine my
toddler-self sliding down the wooden floor on stocking
feet.

The guest room was actually a
suite, complete with a sitting room, bathroom, and tiny kitchenette
for morning coffee and late night cocktails. A brown leather sofa
and two matching arm chairs congregated around a wooden coffee
table with Toxic’s logo carved into the top made up the living
room. An enormous wall screen hung on one wall. Jealously caused my
stomach to seize when I realized it was at least three times the
size of the one in my own bedroom. Not that I watched my wall
screen very often, but still.

“There are fresh towels in the
powder room, which is through the bedroom,” Gretchen told Erik,
pointing towards a partially open door to the right. “Drea stocked
the cabinet with a selection of coffees and teas, and you are
welcome to help yourself to anything in the main
kitchen.”

Drea was the housekeeper from the
city who came in twice a week to help Gretchen do whatever it was
Gretchen did all day. Secretly, I thought Drea’s real purpose was
companionship. With Mac gone so much, and Donavon and me down at
the School, Gretchen was lonely.

“Thank you,” Erik said.

“Our bedroom is between the guest wing and Natalia’s
room, just so you know,” Mac said pointedly.

My face flushed to an impressive
shade of crimson at Mac’s unnecessary comment. He’d already made it
crystal clear that Erik and I were not allowed to sleep in the same
room, be alone in the house, or pretty much be without a chaperone
at any point during the visit.

Gretchen shot her husband a
chastising glare, one that she normally reserved for Donavon when
he cursed in her presence. “Dear, don’t you have a video conference
with Senator Paulski that you need to prepare for?”

Mac’s expression morphed from
steely disapproval to surprise at the not so gentle suggestion.
“Yes, I do. I need to get to my office, but I will be back in time
for dinner.” With one last warning glare at Erik, Mac was gone,
taking with him the frigid air in the room.

“I have some things I need to
attend to as well,” Gretchen told Erik and me. “Will you kids be
joining us for supper?”

Since our only other option was to
eat at the School’s cafeteria, whose menu choices were even more
limited than usual because school was not currently in session, my
agreement was on the tip of my tongue.

“I had something special planned
for Talia and me if that is okay?” Erik replied, interrupting me
before I had the chance to acquiesce.

“Of course.” Gretchen smiled that
warm motherly smile of hers. “I am so glad you were able to take
time off to be with Talia right now. My husband doesn’t mean
anything by his comments. He is just very overprotective with
everything that has happened.”

Yeah, right,
I thought bitterly. Gretchen could sugarcoat the situation
all she liked. The truth was simple, Mac disliked Erik immensely.
And what was more, he didn’t trust him. You didn’t need to be a
mind reader to pick up on that fact.

After giving Erik the grand tour of the bedroom and
bathroom, Gretchen finally departed to go do whatever it was
Gretchen did.

“So what is the something special
you have planned?”
I asked Erik once we
were alone.

Despite Mac’s rules and warnings,
we were lying on the couch in the sitting room. Erik was on his
back and I was curled up next to him with my head resting on his
shoulder. He played with the long pieces of hair that I’d
painstakingly straightened only to have the humidity make them
curly again.

“It’s a surprise,”
Erik sent back. His eyes were closed, a blissful
expression on his face. I hadn’t seen him so calm, serene even,
since we’d first met. That fact should have relaxed me. The mental
barriers he’d erected, blocking me from reaching his innermost
thoughts, kept me on edge.

“I think I’ve had enough surprises
to last a lifetime,”
I grumbled, the
aggravation evident in my mental voice.

“This one you’ll like,”
Erik promised, skirting my reference to the
discovery that my best friend was a spy for the person responsible
for killing my parents.

With Gretchen in the same house,
our mental communications were not safe. While I doubted she would
tell Mac that Erik and I were disregarding his words about keeping
the physical contact to a minimum so I wouldn’t become
overstimulated – if one more person told me not to overstimulate
myself, I would scream – I also doubted that her unspoken vow of
confidentially extended to conversations regarding Penny and her
betrayal. Between Dr. Wythe, Mac, and Dr. Thistler, there was no
shortage of people trying to convince me that what Penny showed me
in the courtroom was fake.

“This weekend is about you and
me,”
Erik sent, reading the thoughts about
Penny right from my mind.

Apparently I needed to put up
stronger barricades. He was desperate to talk about everything that
had happened after Mac ordered him back to headquarters, but now
was not the time.
“Why don’t you go rest
in your room? There is some stuff I need to take care
of.”

“You just got here!”
I protested.

Erik brought the hand resting
behind his head down to stroke my cheek, brushing back the stray
hairs peppering my face. He brought his lips to my forehead,
placing a soft kiss right in the center.

“Do you trust me?”
he asked.

Odd question,
I thought. He knew I trusted him implicitly.

“Of course,”
I sent back.

“Then go rest for a while and let me work my
magic.”

“Fine,”
I
said grudgingly.
“When will you be done
with your secret project?”

Erik chucked softly.
“Can’t a guy do something nice for his girlfriend
without getting the third degree?”

“I just want to spend time with you.”

“I know. And I want to spend time
with you. Give me two hours and then I am all yours. For the rest
of the weekend, you won’t be able to get rid of me.”

I craned my neck to meet his gaze.
His eyes were open now, mischief and amusement causing them to
twinkle. It was nice to see him this way; it had been too long. I’d
nearly forgotten that it wasn’t Erik’s strength or even his perfect
features that I’d fallen in love with. It was his caring nature,
the one he hid beneath all that bravado, that had reeled me in. He
rarely showed that side of himself to the rest of the world,
reserving his secret for those closest to him.

I felt guilty for giving him such
a hard time. I had to be the most ungrateful girlfriend in the
world. What were two hours apart when we had an entire weekend
together?

“Deal. But I am holding you to
that promise.”

Erik repositioned himself so that
we were face-to-face. He kept his eyes open as he brought his lips
to mine. The kiss started off just as gentle as the one at the
hangar, but just as that one had, the intensity increased quickly.
Soon, my hands were tangled in his hair, his body pinned me to the
couch. The fingertips of his left hand trailed lightly from my
wrist, up the length of my arm, across my collarbone, and finally
to cup the side of my neck. His thumb massaged my pounding pulse,
gauging how off-the-charts my heartbeat was becoming.

When I reached for the buttons of
his shirt, Erik stilled. Gently, he took hold of one of my wrists
and guided it away.
“Not a good idea, Tal.
If clothes start coming off, I will never leave this
couch.”

“So?”
I
sent back. How could he possibly think that was a bad
thing?

Erik rolled off of me, well as
much as he could considering we were wedged on a sofa that was
smaller than a twin-sized bed.
“So? So, I
don’t want the Director coming back, finding me on top of you, and
shooting me.”

“No way, Mac is too busy to be
bothered with having to dispose of your body,”
I teased.
“He is way too practical
to shoot you.”

Feeling like a tremendous weight
had been lifted off of my shoulders, I retreated to my own bedroom
to rest. Erik’s mere presence had done wonders for my psyche. The
fog that had invaded my mind after Penny’s sentencing, and refused
to leave in the days afterwards, finally started to dissipate. I
felt less like a zombie, a shell of my former self devoid of any
real emotion, and more like the person I’d been before my life took
a nose dive.

Unfortunately, Erik wasn’t a shot
of adrenaline and even the short make-out session left me fatigued.
He’d said I had two hours to rest while he prepared my surprise, so
I curled up in my own bed and slept. Thanks to the increased dosage
of my medication, I had no dreams.

A short while later I awoke to
someone gently shaking my shoulder. When I opened my eyes,
Gretchen’s smiling face and cornflower blue eyes stared back at
me.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.
It was the same question Gretchen always asked me the instant I
woke up, before my brain was fully functioning. And I gave her the
same answer now that I did the previous fifty-two times – I kept a
mental tally.

“Better.”

“You might want to throw on a
sweater before you go out,” she told me. “There is a slight breeze
tonight.”

Always such a mother, I thought
with a twinge of longing for my own parents. Even with a breeze in
the air, the night was likely too warm to necessitate a sweater;
summers in Maryland were disgustingly humid.

Gretchen stood and offered me help
out of bed. Despite feeling like a child, I accepted her hand and
swung my legs over the side of the mattress. I glanced down at my
dress, now wrinkled from having been slept in. Then I decided that
I should probably change before going out. Wait, where was I
going?

“Gretchen?” I asked. “Where am I
going that I need a sweater?”

Gretchen’s smiled stretched wider,
giddy anticipation emanating off of her in waves. “It’s a surprise,
sweetheart.”

I added the word “surprise” to the
mental list of words that I hoped never to hear again, right below
“protocol” and “overstimulation.”

I narrowed my gaze suspiciously.
“Do you know what Erik has planned?”