Read Captivated (Talented Saga #3.5) for Free Online

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