Free Captivated by Lauren Dane Page B

still. The thing they hadn’t stolen from her.
    Her anger had lessened and now she was sort of titillated by what she’d seen. The difference in how these two things felt was enough to give her pause. The memories of her life before had begun to flitaround her brain and she hoped they’d settle in so she could figure out whatever it was they did to her and why.
    No matter how much she’d wanted to stay in the tub and ignore the other two, the scent on the air as Julian began to cook set her system to rebel against her dumb ideas. Her stomach growled enough to make her sigh and go about the business of getting clean.

Chapter 6
    I t had been over two months since she’d come to live in Mirage with Julian and Vincenz. Six weeks of the treatment. Pesch had eased it back to twice a day from three times.
    She’d expected the transition to be easier and found herself frustrated that it in fact had not been.
    “My head is a jumble.” She narrowed her gaze at him when she’d come out of treatment to find him at their kitchen table.
    “You’ll adjust in a day or two. Your system was used to three times a day and you’ve just given it less. I told you it would be difficult at first but then easier.” He sipped his kava and she felt the irrational need to smack it out of his hands.
    Julian came in through the front door. He’d been gone four days on some mission somewhere. Vincenz had been gone for two of those four days and she’d been there with Pesch, who had left her alone when she’d wanted it. She hadn’t needed a babysitter, but she’dappreciated not being alone in the middle of the night when she woke up from a bad dream.
    “I’m home and I have a present for you, beautiful Hannah.” He handed her a bright blue package and she sat at the table to unwrap it. First the silky ribbon it was tied with, which she set to the side carefully.
    He watched patiently, never urging her to just rip it open as many would have.
    “It has two sides.” Delighted, she discovered the bright blue outside had a sunset orange inside. “Like fruit.”
    “When you cut into it,” Julian said to Dr. Pesch, who nodded, understanding Hannah’s comment.
    Inside the little box lay nestled a pair of earrings. Red glass with threads of silver all shot through it.
    “I thought they would catch the light.”
    She smiled at him. “Thank you.” She put them on and tried not to hurry from the room so she could look at them in the mirror in her bedchamber.
    They did catch the light beautifully when she wore her hair away from her face. He thought he was so sneaky, that man. She laughed to herself. He liked her hair back and so he enticed her to do it. It was so adorable she pretended she didn’t know what he was up to.
    She could do that. In their home with one of them there. She caught some back from each side of her face and clipped it back with the combs he’d brought her only a week or two before.
    He grinned when she returned. “They look beautiful on you.”
    She sat back at the table trying not to get caught inhaling him. The sun had left an imprint on his skin, he smelled warm and strong. “Thank you again.”
    “Dr. Pesch says Vincenz has been gone this week as well? I’m sorry to have left you without one of us.”
    “I’m fine. You have a job to do.” She was so pleased to see him she had to give herself a stern mental talking-to not to rub herself against him. “I went to two treatments a day.”
    He squeezed her hand and pushed a slice of cake in her direction.
    “Cake!”
    Julian laughed then and kissed her quickly. “I’m glad you’re pleased.”
    “Pleased is a mild word for what I feel.” She leaned forward and then turned to him a little. “Having my hair back is a good thing so I won’t get frosting in it.”
    He received those words like the gift they were and enjoyed himself watching her breathe in the chocolate in her cake. A weakness for sweets, had their Hannah. It pleased him unbelievably to