Captivated (Talented Saga #3.5) (6 page)

“You should freshen up, dear. You
need to leave in a couple of minutes.” Gretchen’s eyes sparkled
with excitement. I tried to read her mind, but found the barriers
were up and firmly in place. I considered knocking them down, but
lacked the energy. There was the fact that Erik had obviously put a
lot of effort into whatever he’d planned and reading Gretchen’s
mind would ruin the surprise.

I padded to my bathroom to
“freshen up”, dreading the mirror over the sink since Gretchen had
felt the need to comment on my appearance. My reflection was as bad
as I’d feared. Instead of the few stubborn pieces of hair that had
refused to stay straight, my head was covered in curls once again.
My eyes were bloodshot from the crying stint when Erik first
arrived, and no makeup remained, save several smudges of mascara
under my bottom lashes.

With a groan, I quickly washed my
face, brushed my teeth, and piled the unruly mess of hair into a
bun. When I emerged from the bathroom, I found a strapless,
lavender sundress lying on my bed with a white cardigan displayed
next to it. The dress was one I recognized from my closet, but not
one I’d ever worn. I quickly traded the wrinkled sundress I
currently wore for the freshly pressed one Gretchen had selected,
and wrapped the cardigan around my shoulders for good measure. The
sweater was unnecessary, but I hated for Gretchen to think I was
ignoring her warning about the breeze.

My sitting room was empty, so I
wound my way through the McDonough’s house until I finally found
Gretchen waiting in the foyer. She still wore a bright smile, and
now had car keys and a long strip of black cloth in one hand. The
cloth gave me pause.

“What is
that
?” I asked, pointing at what
appeared to be a blindfold.

Gretchen’s grin turned maniacal,
matching the one her son often wore when he was up to no good.
“It’s for you, dear. Come here so I can put it on.”

I hesitated. Surprises were bad
enough; blindfolds were where I drew the line. Nothing good ever
came of being blindfolded.

“Natalia,” Gretchen began in an inpatient tone,
“relax, sweetheart.”

After several more moments of deliberation, I
finally walked over to her and allowed her to tie the blindfold
around my eyes.

“You do realize that this is
pointless,” I told her once she guided me to the backseat of her
car. “I can just look into your head to see where we are
going.”

This was only partially true since
Gretchen was doing everything in power to keep me from doing just
that. For most people, that task would have been monumental, if not
impossible. Gretchen, though, was a Mind Manipulator, same as me.
Her ability to block my intrusions was better than most.

“I know, dear. But don’t you want
to be surprised?”

I said nothing. No, I didn’t want
to be surprised. When you are a mind reader and always know what
others are thinking and feeling, you fear the unknown.

Ten minutes later, Gretchen
stopped the car and opened her door. I fumbled with my seatbelt and
then felt along the side of the door for the handle. Before I
located it, the door swung open, and I nearly fell out. Long
fingers encircled my upper arm, catching me before I got a face
full of gavel. Instantly, I knew the fingers belonged to Erik. His
touch was so familiar, firm and soft at the same time. He took my
other hand and helped me from the back seat.

“Thank you, Mrs. McDonough,” Erik
called to Gretchen. Then the sound of tires on gravel signaled her
departure.

“Was the blindfold really
necessary?” I asked Erik. Since he refused to let me into his mind,
I refused to communicate with him mentally.

“Yes,” Erik replied. He kept hold
of one of my hands while placing the other on the small of my back
to guide me. “I like you this way, all damsel-in-distress, in need
of prince charming to help you.”

I knew he was teasing, so I smiled
in his general direction. But his comment bothered me. Lately, I
was helpless. Without Gretchen, Mac, and even Donavon, I barely
functioned. Gretchen hadn’t helped me get ready for Erik’s arrival
simply because she was excited for me, her pseudo-daughter, and my
big weekend with my boyfriend. She’d gone through all the trouble
because I was incapable of doing it myself. The effort of making
myself presentable, applying makeup, doing my hair, even getting
dressed in anything more elaborate than pajamas, was too much. Even
my doctors came to the house since I was frequently too tired to go
to them.

“Step up, tree root,” Erik was
saying. I was so lost in self-pity that I didn’t comprehend his
words fast enough to react. The toe of my flip-flop caught on the
tree root, and I pitched forward.

“Can I please take this off now?” I grumbled as Erik
righted me.

“No.” Erik laughed, finding my
predicament entirely too funny.

Erik rambled on about his latest
mission, Henri, and a bunch of other stuff that I paid little
attention to. Determined to bulldozer through his mental
barricades, I focused all of my energy on that task. Unfortunately,
one thought kept playing over and over again in Erik’s mind: Talia,
get out of my head. Smartass.

After a walk that left me winded,
sweaty, and second-guessing the decision to wear flip-flops – I
thought my big toe might be bleeding – Erik stopped. He released my
hand and moved to stand behind me, resting his palms lightly on my
shoulders. I figured he was finally going to remove the blindfold,
but the next thing I knew his lips were on my neck, trailing kisses
along the nape and up behind my ear. Every kiss sent tingles
through my entire body and my stomach tightened.

“I love you,” he whispered when
his mouth was right next to my ear, his lips brushed the lobe as he
spoke. A shiver ran down my spine and suddenly I was glad for the
cardigan. Not that Gretchen knew I’d need the garment because
Erik’s touch had this type of effect on me, but still.

Erik’s hands moved down my arms
while his mouth moved across my shoulder. That was about the time I
reconsider my earlier stance on blindfolds. Being able to
concentrate solely on the feel of Erik’s skin on mine was
intoxicating, amplified by the fact that he still refused to open
his mind. I inhaled. The scent of fresh flowers and damp leaves
mingled with Erik’s natural musk. He rarely wore cologne or
aftershave, he didn’t need to. The pheromones he gave off were
better than any scent that came in a bottle.

His arms circled my waist, pulling
me flush against him. The sharp point of his chin rested in the
crook of my neck when he softly kissed my cheek.

“Ready to take the blindfold off?” he murmured
against my skin.

I nodded, though I was actually
enjoying being devoid of sight now that I’d grown accustomed to the
sensation. Blocking off one of my senses cut the fog in my head
even more, making me feel more like my old self.

In one swift motion, Erik’s arms
were gone, and the blindfold fell away. I blinked several times to
get my bearings. From the smell of trees and flowers, I already
knew we were in the woods, but I didn’t immediately recognize the
area. But I wouldn’t have, not with the way it was
decorated.

Strings of white lights were woven
through the tree limbs overhead, the dirt path in front of us was
lined with red and white rose petals, a trail leading to a round
table set for two. A bouquet of flowers in varying shades of purple
sat in a vase in the center. Two china place settings complete with
crystal water goblets, and gold utensils were on either side of the
vase. A cart with three tiers of covered dishes was several feet
off to one side.

Beyond the table was a metal
fence, a large section of which had been cut away. The rose petals
continued through the hole and out onto a ledge. That was when I
realized where we were. Erik had taken me here several weeks
before, after Festivis. We’d sat on that ledge and gazed at the
stars, then he’d held me while I had a seizure.

The memory was bittersweet. I’d
been so scared that Erik would run the instant he realized how bad
my condition was. But he hadn’t. And he wasn’t going to now.
Bringing me here was his way of telling me that he really was in
this for the long haul, for better or worse.

“So, what do you think?” Erik
asked shyly.

He was nervous, I realized. It was
so out of character for him. Everything Erik did, he did with
purpose, without hesitation, without regret. Preparing an overly
romantic evening for his girlfriend apparently didn’t rank high on
the list of things he was confident about.

“I love it,” I breathed. “I love
you.”

I turned and placed each of my
palms on his cheeks, stood on my tip-toes, and brought my lips to
his.
“I’m sorry,”
I sent as I kissed him.

“Sorry? For what?”

“For being such a pain in the ass while you were
planning this.”

Erik smiled against my mouth
before deepening the kiss.
“Actually, I
was just thinking how easy going you were about letting me sneak
away. I expected a bigger fight when I told you to go
rest.”

Erik ended the kiss too soon,
leaving me breathless and dizzy. “Let’s eat before the food gets
cold,” he said, gesturing towards the cart of covered
dishes.

Overwhelmed by what he’d done for
me, tears prickled at the backs of my eyes. I blinked to keep them
from falling. Erik offered me his hand; I threaded my fingers with
his, keeping my eyes downcast. The petals guiding me towards the
table began to swim as the tears pooled in my eyes, the reds and
whites swirling together until the ground looked like a giant piece
of abstract artwork.

“Tal? What’s wrong?”
Erik asked, alarmed by how quiet and distant I’d
become.

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s perfect.
This is perfect.”
I pointed to the table,
the cart, and finally the ledge, which I now realized was blanketed
with the same rose petals that lined the pathway.

“Then why are you crying?”

“It’s just,”
I started to say, but then didn’t know how to finish the
thought. I wasn’t actually sure why I was crying. The thought of
Erik doing something so ridiculously sentimental for me sent my
fragile emotions over the edge.

For the past several days, not
only had I been living in a haze, but I’d also been hollow inside.
The pain of Penny’s betrayal was too great, so I’d severed ties
with the part of my brain that registered emotion. All I wanted was
to be numb, but planning a night with flowers and dinner and
twinkling lights was so out of character for Erik that it thawed
the chamber of my heart where I’d frozen all the hurt that I wasn’t
ready to deal with.

“It’s just that this is exactly
what I needed. It’s like you can read my mind or something,”
I joked.

Erik pulled out one of the chairs,
and I sat, still stubbornly refusing to meet his eyes, which seemed
silly considering he already knew I was crying. He knelt down next
to the chair, totally disregarding the tiny rocks that littered the
dirt floor.

“You don’t need to be brave for
me, Tal. I know how strong you are, being upset or confused or
whatever, doesn’t change that. If you want to spend the entire
weekend crying, then you can.” Erik paused, placed one finger under
my chin, and forced me to raise my head. “Of course, when I go back
to headquarters and tell my friends about how we spent the
weekend,” he shrugged, “the story will involve less clothing and
the only crying will be my name when you are so overcome with
passion that you can’t contain yourself.”

I laughed through the tears. “So
you’d ruin my virtuous reputation to protect your badass playboy
one?”

“What type of badass playboy would I be if spent two
whole days with my girlfriend fully clothed?”

Erik’s mental shields were no
longer up since his big surprise had been revealed. The empathy was
only overshadowed by his love and the overwhelming desire to
protect me from both physical and emotional pain. But he had no
intention of disobeying Mac’s rules, Erik agreed that
overstimulation – which was now edging out protocol for my least
favorite word of all time – was not what I needed. Much to my
dismay and relief, Erik did plan to spend the weekend fully
clothed.

“The kind that cares about his girlfriend’s
well-being,” I said quietly.

“No,” Erik shook his head, “the kind that is madly
in love with his girlfriend.”

Erik

The heavy cell door slammed shut
with a loud clang. I counted to ten, summoned every ounce of my
remaining strength, and tried to stand. The jolt of pain that shot
through my right knee made the task damn near impossible. I gritted
my teeth and swore under my breath. If I ever got out of
Tramblewood, I was going to kill Danbury “Mac” McDonough. That
wasn’t an idle threat, not a figure of speech. I fully intended to
end his life with my bare hands if I had to.

I crawled to the stone wall,
dragging my injured leg behind me. My fingers shook as I grabbed
hold of a stone and pulled myself upright. Crawling all the way to
the bed in the back corner of the cell was too humiliating. I would
rather endure the pain than give my captors the satisfaction of
seeing me reduced to that. Even using the wall for support, the ten
feet that separated the door and bed took forever. When I finally
collapsed on the thin mattress, I was as exhausted as if I’d run
ten miles.