Tall, Dark & Lonely (Pyte/Sentinel #1)(15)

The bathroom door flew open, banging loudly against the wall. Madison was so surprised that she stumbled back and fell over a box. She quickly scrambled to her feet just as the light was turned on.

There in the doorway of the bathroom stood a very pissed off Ephraim. His eyes narrowed on hers before moving down to take in her outfit. He seemed pleased by something and then walked into her room, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs. No hello or what is that? He walked in like he owned the place. The music stopped suddenly.

“Good,” she sighed with relief.

He shot her an irritated look.

“I’m sorry if that woke you. I have no idea what that was.” The words rushed out of her mouth. This man intimidated her. He was big, very muscular from what she could see now and handsome, too handsome. She never dealt well with handsome men. She preferred to deal with average looking men. It made her feel safe. This man made her feel anything but safe.

She didn’t care if he was a cop. He was dangerous. She felt it. Everything in her body screamed for her to be careful. Of course her mother was going to set her sights on him. She loved dangerous men. Her sister was already making plans. She walked in on her sister and mother talking about birth control. It seems her sister didn’t like the feel of condoms.

That was a nice way to twist her heart and shatter it. Her sister somehow in the last week managed to lose her virginity and her mother knew about it. Candy smiled sweetly up at Madison and winked. This was just a game to her. Madison had been too upset to talk to Jill at that moment. She walked out of the room and made her way back to hers where she cried for a good hour. Then she forced herself to focus on the task at hand, she was starting a new job tomorrow.

Using the text book and notes the school sent over she spent the next five hours creating a lesson plan. Finally, she finished plans for the next two months and had the following week’s lectures created. Then she took a shower, a long hot shower. She heard Ephraim pace his room the entire time muttering something.

The rap music started again. Ephraim threw her another irritated look. She looked even more unattractive with that ridiculous knit hat pulled all the way to her eyebrows and down around her ears, ending around her cheeks. Her skin was tan and clean, but that’s all he saw. Her scent hit him hard. He needed to shut off that annoying music and get the hell out of her room.

Now.

He focused on the sound and ignored her overwhelming scent. The damn music was coming from a box buried in the back. He moved quickly towards it, throwing boxes and bags roughly out of his way.

“Hey!”

He ignored her. He found a box with a large pink heart drawn on it. He ripped it open and found the offending object on top, a cell phone. “A ‘Carl’ is calling for you,” he said evenly.

For the moment she forgot that she was mad at him for throwing her things around and took the phone. “This isn’t my phone.”

“Don’t care. Tell Carl to f**k off or I will,” he snapped.

She seemed not to hear him or care what he said. “He’s a friend of Candy's.” Friend was putting it mildly. He was one of the guys her mother managed to screw in the short two weeks since she was home. He was in New Mexico and it was one in the morning there. More importantly it was Jill’s phone and Carl was thirty-five years old.

When Madison opened the phone her finger accidentally hit the speaker button. “About time you answered, baby.”

“Carl?” Madison answered, confused. “Why are you calling this phone?”

“Stop f**king around, baby. I’m horny. Come on over, I could go for one of your special blowjobs.”

Every muscle in Ephraim’s body froze. This woman was a virgin, he was sure of it. Some other unknown emotion ripped through him as well. It was weird. He wanted to reach through the phone and rip this guy’s head off. It unnerved him.

Madison’s jaw clenched. Was she embarrassed? “Carl, why are you calling this phone?”

“Jill baby, don’t f**k around. I’m coming to pick you up. Sneak out your window and meet me by the tree same as last week.”

She took a deep breath and spoke evenly. “Carl, listen to me very carefully and don’t hang up before I’m done or I will have the police at your door in fifteen minutes.”
“Oh shit…..Madison?”

“Yes, my sister is fifteen years old. Fifteen, do you understand what that makes you?”

“I..I…”

“You are a child molester.”

“Hey, whoa! She came onto me. It wasn’t my idea anyway. Your mother asked me to do her a favor. Your mother and Jill told me that she was eighteen. I swear to god I wouldn’t have touched her if I knew. I swear to god, Madison. I am so sorry…I…oh my god, she’s a kid…” They heard gagging sounds. “I’m going to be sick.” Vomiting sounds followed.

Ephraim snatched the phone from her hands. “Carl, surely you knew she was a kid. One look and you can’t miss.”

“I…they said she just looked young. I asked. They showed me an id. I swear. Please! It was in a pink wallet. They showed me!” he pleaded desperately.

Madison shoved Ephraim aside none too gently and made her way to the box. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, fighting for control. This woman, a tomboy from the looks of things, was going to be the end of him. If he didn’t leave this room soon he was going to drain her. He hadn’t drained anyone in nearly fifty years. He took only what he needed. There was no way he would be able to that with her. The smell of her blood was too powerful. His hands began to tremble.