Captivated (13 page)

Things had changed. But they’d be all right.

“A
h, Hannah, there you are.” Vincenz looked up from his console to catch sight of her returning to the main room.

She’d been meeting with Dr. Pesch in the afternoons now. Each day she was stronger. She still had her moments, but he rarely found her in a corner anymore when he wasn’t around.

“I don’t want to bother you.” Her smile was hesitant.

He went to her and pulled her into a hug. At first these hugs and kisses had been affectionate, to calm and soothe her. By that point though, he needed them too. Needed the sweet, calm assurance she filled him with when she hugged him back and smiled, blushing a little.

“No bother. In fact, Julian and I think you can be of some help to us as we plan our mission. Are you willing to be an honorary operative?”

Her eyes widened with pleasure and her smile widened. “Really?”

Julian came in and scooted his chair closer to hers, kissing her lips like he’d been doing it all along.

Vincenz shook his head, amused.

“Yes, really. Part of what we’re going to do, lovely Hannah, is to check out the foundation’s offices in Silesia.”

“We figure you know a lot about not only how the Imperialists do things but also the subject matter. Julian and I don’t know much about the science and medical stuff. We could upload their databases, and we will.” Vincenz narrowed his gaze, remembering having to do that and discovering Hannah in one of the locked cells. “We need a technical expert.”

Worry crossed her face, but she pushed it away, visibly sitting straighter in her seat. “What do you need from me?”

So brave. He wanted her to understand the danger but also that he and Julian would die before they’d let the Imperium take her again. “Julian and I will handle all the military aspects of the mission. This is non-negotiable.
We
will carry the weapons and
you
will be protected at all times.”

She turned to him. “It is impossible to protect anyone at all times. This will slow you down and put you in danger.”

Her delivery always loosened the knot he carried in his belly. Matter-of-fact. She had few filters, and he’d wondered if she was this way before her time in that cell.

“Vincenz is correct, Hannah. Consider us your personal guard.” Julian’s spine was ramrod straight and Hannah paused to study him.

“I should have a weapon too. Just in case.”

Vincenz sighed. He should have known she’d negotiate instead of just letting them make the decisions. Still, it wasn’t a bad idea, which is why Julian had already been so actively working on her physical training and strengthening.

“Don’t think I can’t see past your sneaky ways, Hannah,” Julian teased with a wink. “You’ve been at me for weapons training all this time. I think it’s a fine idea so we’ll start with that today.”

She hugged Julian, kissing his cheeks and returned her attention to Vincenz.

“How can I help now? What can I do? When do we leave? Will we take a big transport or a private one?”

T
hey’d been at it for hours. Vincenz and Julian were used to such hours, but Vincenz worried about Hannah, who’d already proven herself integral to their mission several times. Her language skills were top-notch. She worked at his side interpreting documents. Julian worked at pulling together all the documentation they’d need. Maps, tickets, travel documents. He coordinated with some of the other special teams and back with command back on Ravena.

Vincenz rolled his head on his shoulders, working out the kinks. “You should go to bed. We’ll be at this for another few hours, and you need your rest.”

She sniffed delicately. “Do you think medical doctors are unfamiliar with long hours?” A smile played at the edge of her mouth.

“You’re still recovering. Let your body do what it needs to.” Julian spoke without looking up from his screen.

“I’ve gained fourteen pounds. I’m not having as many nightmares. I had a nap today anyway. I’m not feeble.”

At that, Julian did look up. “No. Of all the words in all the ’Verses to describe you,
feeble
would never be one of them.”

“Every one of those pounds looks good on you.” And they did. She’d been thin and now she was softer, lusher. Her breasts,
seven hells
, they made his mouth water.

“Thank you, Vincenz. I’m spoiled now with all this delicious food. I’m not looking forward to the day when I have to worry over it again.” She pointed to the display. “Coding should be reversed here.”

He pushed the keyboard her way and watched as she clicked easily, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she did the work, replacing his string of code quickly.

“I should have known that.” It was logical after all, to have the code reflect how one culture or other communicated and broke down information.

“How long have you been here?” She got up and began to knead the muscles in his neck.

“Eleven standard years.”

“Did you also do this sort of technical writing when you were next in line to run the Imperium?”

“I’ve always excelled at mathematics. But my training was not focused there.”

“You learned it here?”

“One of the first jobs Ellis gave me was to comb through thousands of documents to look for information. Instead, I created an
algorithm to find certain terms and phrases because it took up all my time the long way.”

She laughed and it wasn’t so rusty anymore. “He must have been delighted.”

“Surprised I think. They suspected me as a plant for a very long time.” He’d understood it, but it had hurt nonetheless.

A long pause as she looked him over. “It must have been very lonely for you. To be so misunderstood. To have done such an amazing, selfless thing and have people believe the worst of you.”

He spun and pulled her into his lap, hugging her tight, burying his face in her hair.

She left him exposed because she saw right to the heart of him. And didn’t flinch.

She held on tight. Her arms encircled his shoulders as her breathing slowed and she melted into his body. Those moments when it was as if she gave herself over to him raged through his memory, urging him on. Urging him to claim. To take and delight.

He dragged his eyelids up and met Julian’s gaze. Julian licked his lips and stood, and it was as if time slowed with each step he took until he reached them both.

Vincenz stood and put her on her feet, swaying with her.

He looked into her eyes, so glossy and dazed. She was as affected as he was. Thank the gods above and below.

Moving to stand behind Vincenz, Julian took one of her hands and turned it palm up. When he pressed his lips there she gulped and made a sound. A low, needy moan dragged from her lips as if she was as surprised by it as he was.

Her taste. He needed more.

Cuffing her wrist, Julian didn’t fail to notice the way her eyes widened and her pupils grew. Her lips parted, sweet and slick.

And he kissed that mouth.

He tried to take it slow, but there was no slow with her. Nothing halfway.

Surprised, she gasped and then breathed a sigh of pleasure into his mouth and he swallowed it, greedy for her.

Julian nipped her bottom lip the way he’d wanted to every day for weeks, maybe longer. Her fingers at his shoulder dug into the muscle there as she clung to him.

Moremoremoremore
. Need was a drumbeat in his head, a throbbing bass in his gut, throttling through his veins like wildfire.

She tasted like spice and sweetness. Like something dark and forbidden and altogether precious and he needed her like he needed to breathe.

He kept Vincenz between them because he wanted to tear the clothes from her body to bare all that skin. He wanted to toss her on the table and bury his face in her cunt. She made him simultaneously want to dominate and cherish in a way that stripped all pretense away. Stripped him to his barest, basest urges.

He began to pull away from the kiss when she sucked his tongue and suddenly he couldn’t think why it was a bad thing to claim this woman who’d come into their lives in the most unexpected kind of way and had turned everything on its ear.

Forehead to forehead they stood, leaning on Vincenz, who rested his weight against Julian as Hannah’s hand remained clutched in the front of Vincenz’s shirt.

“Why me?’ she whispered.

“Because it’s you.”

Vincenz had said it as if he’d plucked it from Julian’s brain.

“But … you two are already …”

Julian grinned. “Oh, yes. A great deal.”

“But … I … how? I don’t want to come between you.”

Julian had to pause to gulp at the sight of Vincenz sliding a palm
up her belly, between her breasts, up to collar her throat. Her eyes went half-mast and she blew out a gust of sound. A ragged sort of moan laced with entreaty.

“Looks like this time it’s my turn to be in between you.” Vin pulled her close enough to kiss. This time there was no soft or tentative brush of lips over hers. This was the kind of kiss that routinely turned Julian’s knees to rubber.

When he broke the kiss she pursed her lips and then rolled them against her tongue.

“There’s no
between us
in the sense you mean.”

Julian knew she was fragile. He knew she’d been through a lot. But all that fell away when she slid the hand clutched at Vincenz’s chest up around his neck and into his hair.

“Bed.” Julian wanted the room to do all he wanted to them both.

Vincenz’s dazed look sharpened as he turned his head to meet Julian’s gaze.

So close to that mouth, Julian was helpless to do anything but kiss him. He tasted of Hannah, which only drove him madder for them both.

Julian nipped his bottom lip and then went back for hers. Surprising them both, she laughed, dispelling any last doubts he might have had that she wasn’t on board with what was happening.

Vincenz flicked a few switches. “May as well let this do our work while we’re busy.”

Hannah had always believed herself a ’Verse-wide traveler. She was well read. Loved all sorts of new and exciting experiences. But this … well, this was something she’d never even really imagined. Aside from those moments in the shower earlier and a few fleeting wishes that they’d touch her the way they touched each other, she’d never thought it was actually something that she’d do.

They moved as a unit, these two men. That hadn’t changed. She’d
watched the way they moved from the very start. They knew each other so well they had a rhythm she found ridiculously masculine and sexy. But she’d had to sneak in those moments when she watched like a voyeur. And now she was more—a participant. She couldn’t begin to fathom it.

She did know how grateful she was that she was able to appreciate it. That she was free and getting better and that neither of them considered her some sort of freak for what she’d endured.

Vincenz pulled his shirt off as they entered the bedchamber. She loved his body. Long and lean. Tight muscle lay over his body, bunching and flexing as he walked or moved.

Both men had slept in shirts and loose pants while she had been in the bed with them. But this …

Her gaze snagged on his belt where he paused to unbuckle and unzip his pants. Julian moved to stand behind her. “He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?”

She nodded, her breath catching as Vincenz pushed his trousers and shorts down and stepped from them. Totally, magnificently naked.

Without thinking she fanned her face and Vincenz caught the movement, swooping in and kissing her quickly. “That’s a fine compliment.”

Julian’s hand, palm flat against her belly, held her in place against the swell of his cock at her ass.

She gulped. Totally out of her element but wanting this more than she’d wanted anything. Ever.

Vincenz reached for her, but Julian spun her and she tipped her chin up to see his features better. And then he ripped her shirt down the front, sending the little metal buttons pinging against the wall and floor.

“Oh!”

He shoved her shirt down to her wrists and twisted the material to hold her there.

Her clit swelled, hardening as her cunt slicked. The next sound she made was gut deep.

He kissed her collarbone, and when his hands were back to pop her bra open, spilling her breasts into his waiting palms, she knew somewhere in her head that Vincenz now held her hands captive.

She drowned in the sensation.

Julian dragged his thumbs back and forth over her nipples as she looked down her body to watch. As if it were happening to someone else. Someone very lucky.

“I saw those when you stripped the other day. You were so vexed at us that you gave no thought to me standing there in the bathroom. I’d dreamed of them, of the dark pink of your nipples when I’d catch their shadow through the material of your nightdress.” Vincenz kissed her ear, sending her into overdrive.

“Tits like these make a man grateful each day woman was created.” Julian underlined that with a pinch and tug of her nipples.

“I thought I was imagining it.”

Julian paused and raised a brow. “Imagining how amazing your breasts are?”

She managed to find the humor in that statement. “No, silly. The way Vincenz looked at me. I thought I was projecting.” And she’d given herself a talking-to about how she needed to realize they were kind to her like a sister, nothing else.

“At first it was … paternal perhaps? You were hurt and we wanted to protect you. And then it changed. Changed as you got stronger, as we got to know you, as Hannah the woman began to show herself. Then it became harder and harder to resist your beauty.” Julian kissed her again, and she sighed wistfully when he pulled back.

She was glad they lost their willpower to resist. There was something
incredibly empowering about their desire. Knowing they were so protective, it meant they judged her strong and healthy or they’d never have allowed themselves this with her.

“Why is she wearing pants?” Vincenz asked Julian, looking over her shoulder. Julian stretched and met Vincenz with a kiss. A kiss so very close to her face. If they hadn’t been pressed against her, holding her wrists, keeping her in place she might have simply floated away at how ridiculously sexy it was to have them do this. She heard everything—the scratch of beard against beard, the sounds, oh, gods, the sound of lips meeting lips, of tongue sliding against mouth and tongue, the soft huff of a groan when the kiss broke.