Captivated (Talented Saga #3.5) by Sophie Davis Read Free Book Online Page B

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.
    It took two hands to hoist my hurt
leg over the edge of the bed, a feat made harder by my swollen –
likely broken – fingers. The physical torture had pretty much ended
several days ago, but I would be sporting the affects for days, if
not weeks, to come. Director McDonough had finally realized that
beating Talia’s whereabouts out of me wasn’t going to happen. That
didn’t stop him from kicking my bad knee or grinding his elbow into
my injured fingers or even smacking me across the face when he
thought I was being a smartass. While it was actually happening, I
barely registered the physical pain anymore. From the moment the
guards pulled me from my cell to the moment they shut me back in, I
plastered on the best smug smile that I could muster. Sure, I knew
it irritated McDonough that was why I did it. With few ways to
rebel at my