PS01 - Tall, Dark & Lonely (40 page)

Every time he thought of sucking up his pride and apologizing and begging for her forgiveness she would say the phrase that

broke him, “I hate you.” She didn’t mean it. He knew that, but those three little words were enough to keep him at bay. They

hurt more than anything.

He’d heard those words hundreds of times before, probably thousands of times if he was being completely honest with himself.

While his brother was alive he’d been a cold bastard to only the women who shared his bed. Shared was too generous of a

word. They only spread for him so he could give them pleasure. Once that was done he left. He’d never slept with any of them.

That was too personal. It made him feel weak and scared to give that trust to anyone.

After Marc died he turned into the cold bastard Caroline came to know. He didn’t care about anyone or anything except what

he wanted, company from his own kind. He didn’t care if it was a human child he created or another Pyte he just didn’t want to

be alone anymore.

The only person who could manage to handle him and put him in his place was Eleanor Buckman. She’d seen through his

bullshit the first day and let him know it. She never quivered away from his temper. Her stubborn brown eyes would set with

her fists propped on her hips while she would wait for his little tirades to finish then without a word she would reach up and

slap him upside the head. Was it any wonder that her granddaughter would be the only other woman able to manage him?

“Madison, you have tree pitch on your back from yesterday,” he lied. He wanted to touch her, needed to touch her without

giving into her demands. If they were going to settle this it was going to be on equal terms. He wasn’t about to spend eternity

whipped. Well, anymore whipped than he already was. A man had to draw a line.

Her hands shot back, trying to find the phantom sap. “Where?”

He ran his finger in the middle of her shoulders where he knew she wouldn’t be able to reach. She knew it too. “Here let me.”

“Fine,” she said evenly.

Ephraim had to work on not grinning like an idiot while he soaped up his hands. He was going to touch her again, on his terms.

She looked back over her shoulder. “Just the tree sap, nothing else.”

“Nothing else,” he repeated in a bored tone. She studied his face a moment longer before turning around.

His fingers itched to grab her, caress her, and squeeze her, but he had to behave. He started by gently rubbing a circle over the

area. “Is it coming off?” she asked.

“Nope.” He was going to drag this out until he got his fill of touching her. Three weeks was too much.

He spread his hands over her back so he could use his thumbs to caress the area. Her breath caught. Damn, it felt good to touch

her. After a few minutes he decided this was not enough. “Oh, I missed some.”

“Huh?” she said in a daze.

“Hold on, I’ll get it.” He gently ran his hands over her back, caressing every bit of skin. Madison’s breathing sped up as his

hand moved down to caress her bottom. Before she could register the touch his hands moved back up. Then he slowly reached

around until he was caressing her stomach in a circular motion.

She could feel his hot breath on her nape. “Better make sure there’s no sap over the baby,” he whispered against her ear.

She could only nod, it made sense, she thought. Better to be safe than sorry. There was nothing worse than sticky sap on skin.

He was just helping her out that was all.

His hands moved up and cupped her breasts. Her nipples were already hard from his attentions. He rubbed her nipples

between his fingers pinching and teasing them as his mouth found her neck.

He sucked and licked her skin slowly, sensually. Madison licked her lips and dropped her head back against his shoulder.

“What are you doing, Ephraim?” Her voice sounded dreamy.

“There’s some sap on your neck. I’m cleaning it.” He used his hold on her breasts to pull her firmly against him. “I think there’s

one other spot that I’ve neglected.”

She gulped nervously. “There is?”

“Mmhmmm.”

He kept one breast firmly in hand as his other hand smoothly made its way between her legs. Ephraim used his foot to push her

legs open for his intrusion. A long finger ran across her slit teasing her until she moved her legs further apart to give him more

room. He slid his finger in, teasing her little swollen nub.

Madison moaned softly as he ran his finger over the nub, teasing it until it was swollen almost painfully. She gasped as his

finger slid inside of her, slowly. His tongue traced a line to her earlobe and then flicked it making her groan and move against

him.

As he worked a second finger into her, Madison reached up and grabbed his hair yanking his mouth down to hers. He eagerly

took it. While their tongues wrestled for control his fingers thrust inside of her, hard. Ephraim ground his erection against her

ass, forcing her to move against his fingers.

The sensation of his hand on her breast, tongue in her mouth, fingers inside of her and his large hard shaft sliding against her

bottom was too much. Madison screamed into his mouth as her body gripped his fingers. He moaned along with her.

“That’s it, baby, come for me,” he whispered against her mouth. She screamed again as another orgasm hit her harder than the

last one. “Tell me you miss me…tell me that you love me….”

“No,” her voice cracked.

“Tell me!” He began thrusting harder against her, sending her towards another orgasm.

Her pride found its way to the surface. She was not going to give in no matter what he did. He’d been wrong not her. This was

not the way this was going to end. Even as he had her on the verge of another mind blowing orgasm she set her heels into the

ground. “No! I hate you!”

She stumbled forward and had to put her hands out to stop from falling. Confusion set in. The absence of his touch from her

body was so sudden. She looked back, expecting to see him ready for another argument, but he was gone. The bathroom door

slammed shut making her jump. Dread filled her.

*******

corner, never relenting in his fast stride.

Chris was in the hallway wrestling with Joshua. He stood up with Joshua hanging over his bare shoulder and whirled around.

Joshua laughed gleefully. “I’m getting dizzy!”

“Body slam!” Chris roared playfully.

Joshua yelped in alarm. “No!”

Chris pretended to break the giggling child over his leg. The boys noticed Ephraim’s presence and sobered immediately.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” Chris placed Joshua gently on his feet. Joshua staggered drunkenly around until Chris placed a hand on

his head and held him still. The little boy’s thin bare chest was heaving from exertion. The men of the house seemed to go

around half naked all the time now. He never could have pulled it off when Eleanor owned the house, but now that his name

was on the deed she didn’t say a word. Soon Chris and Joshua joined him. The only time Eleanor put her foot down was at the

table. The boys were expected to come to meals fully dressed.

“Nothing, do you feel like a work out?” He was full of rage and needed to work it out.

“Er, normally yes I would love to, but you look like you’re ready to tear something apart and no offense, Dad, but I don’t want

to be the rag doll.”

Nothing was going his way today. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want a workout.”

“I’ll workout with you, Ephraim!” Joshua said cheerfully. They let him come down to the basement just to appease him now

and then so he would feel like one of the guys, but he was not allowed down there during serious workouts.

“I don’t know, little man. You’re brutal. I’m afraid you’d hurt me.” Ephraim cowered back from the boy.

Joshua grinned hugely and charged at him. Ephraim caught him around the waist and hung him upside down. He swung him

gently from side to side like a pendulum. “If I take most of it out on the weights and bag first will you come down for a

workout?” he asked Chris.

Chris tapped his chin thoughtfully. “You know what I’m thinking, don’t you?”

He was almost afraid to ask. “What?”

“If I had some tattoos I could go down there and not have to worry about any bruises showing from the ass whooping you’re

bound to give me.”

“So, you’re willing to go one on one right now if I bring you to get a tattoo?” he asked, chuckling.

“It does seem fair.”

“You know what else sounds fair?”

“No, what?” Chris asked warily.

“That we stick to the original deal and I take you next November when you turn seventeen. I’ll even pay for the tats.”

Chris seemed to think it over. “Can I get two?”

“If you don’t cry like a girl after the first one you can have a second one. That will be your birthday gift.” Chris was turning

seventeen and would need a car, especially for patrol. “Well, one of your gifts anyway.”

“Okay.” He nodded his agreement.

“Ephraim, can I get a tattoo, too?” Joshua asked between giggles.

“When you’re seventeen.”

“Oh man! That’s like seven years away!”

“If Chris doesn’t mind, you can come with us, but you can’t tell any of the women, okay?”

“I won’t tell, but you just did,” Chris said.

Madison’s scent drifted towards him. He turned around to see Madison watching them with an amused expression. “Why don’t

you boys go downstairs and get a snack. I need to talk to Ephraim.”

“Come here, squirt.” Chris took Joshua by the ankles and carried him down the stairs that way. They could hear Joshua giggling

and pleading with Chris to put him down all the way to the kitchen.

“Eph-“

He held up his hand, still listening. “It sounds like the boys have just found your stash of candy bars.”

She waved the comment off. “I don’t care about th- they’re touching my chocolate?” She was momentarily distracted. She’d

been looking forward to her collection of Mounds bars and peanut butter cups.

He pointed to his ear indicating that she should listen. “You hear that?”

“Yes, those little punks. They should know better than to come between a woman and her chocolate.”

“I’ll buy you more.”

She stomped her foot. “I don’t care about the chocolate. I want to talk to you!”

He turned his back on her and headed down the stairs. “So you can tell me you hate me again? I can never get enough of that,”

he said dryly.

“Would you please stop?”

“No, just say what you need to say and get it over with. I’m warning you I will snap if you tell me you hate me one more time.”

Madison slammed into his back when he stopped suddenly at the bottom of the stairs. He turned around to steady her. “Are you

okay?”

She didn’t hear him. Her brows pulled together. “What is that sound?”

Chapter 27

“Crying and by the sound of it somebody’s doing a piss poor job of faking it.” He knew who it was of course. The scent of

cheap perfume that tainted the air told him.

He beelined for the closed parlor doors and yanked them open. Eleanor sat on the love seat looking at a loss while she

watched Candy sob theatrically into her hands.

“Mama, I need to come back just for a little while. I promise. Things just went a little badly.”

“Emma, things didn’t go badly for you. It’s all over town that he found you in bed with another man,” she said in a strained

voice.

“But what did he expect?” Candy wailed. “He left me alone every day and I got lonely.”

“Work, Emma. It’s called work. That’s where he went. If you had kept your job then you wouldn’t have been so bored.”

She sniffed. “They fired me.”

“Please tell me you didn’t get caught stealing again.”

Emma sat up, wiping at her eyes. “Just a misunderstanding. They simply miscounted.”

“I really don’t know what you expect from me, Emma,” Eleanor said, sounding exhausted.

“Well, I was hoping to come back here for a little while. I just need time for myself to refocus and find myself, you know? I

just really need to get in touch with who I am so I can get on the right path and do something with my life.”

“You really expect to come here after you left your children high and dry? You didn’t even care where their next meal came

from. For all you knew these last five months they could have been on the streets scrounging for food.”

“Oh mama, you’re being so ridiculous. I knew you would never let them go hungry.”

“I’m sure you did,” Eleanor said tightly.

Emma stood up, smiling and probably thinking she'd won. “I’ll just go get my stuff. Since those people moved out I’ll take a

room at the other end of the house, you know so I can have some privacy.”

“I wouldn’t bother getting your things.” Ephraim’s deep voice echoed in the small room.

Both women turned to look at him. Eleanor looked embarrassed while Emma’s eyes ran over his naked chest, hungrily. Neither

woman could see Madison. She was in the foyer, leaning against the wall and trying to reign in her temper. Her eyes were

squeezed tight and her tongue ran over her fangs, trying to send them back the way Ephraim showed her. It wasn’t working.

With each word that left Candy’s mouth her temper flared.

“Hey, Ephraim, looking good,” Candy purred. The red in Eleanor’s face deepened.

“As I’m sure you’re well aware, I purchased the house off your mother months ago so you can stop badgering her.”