Ephraim chuckled as he passed her. Damn it! The man was irritating as hell! In another week that smug grin would be wiped off his face and he would give in. This surely was a battle of wills at this point. Neither was talking to the other more than what was absolutely necessary and they seemed to be doing their best to aggravate and tease each other. It was really pissing her off. This was a game and she was not going to lose. She hated to lose so she would start doing what any sane woman in this situation would do, cheat.

She would have him on his knees in a week begging for her forgiveness. He’d already apologized and in the back of her mind she understood and even appreciated what he’d done for her and their son, but she was still hurt by his methods. He really scared her that night. It could have been done so differently. That was what hurt the most. The fear and the bitter loneliness she felt while he was doing it.

Madison loved him. Hell, she adored him, but he had to learn that he couldn’t treat her like that ever again. She wasn’t some child to be handled. He hurt her. He was the one man she trusted above everyone else, the only man she ever trusted, and he did this to her without her permission. She would forgive him, but only on her terms.

Ephraim was busy relieving himself when she put the first part of her plan into motion. He had a routine that he never faltered from. He woke up, drank two pints of blood, relieved himself and took his shower before he did anything else. Nothing came between him and his shower.

Last week when the city had to shut the water off to fix the main he sat on the bathroom counter for four hours, waiting for the water to be turned on. It seemed to be his weakness, well one of his weaknesses. With a coy smile Madison stripped out of her tee shirt and pajama pants and stepped into the shower. She turned on the water and smiled. He was going to be rip roaring mad. She looked forward to it.

“Pass the soap?” his asked from behind her.

She shrieked and jumped. How did he do that? She had super sensitive hearing thanks to him and he kept sneaking up on her. After she was done being mad at him and he sufficiently groveled she would have to ask him to show her how he did that.

“Stop doing that!” she snapped. It was hell on her nerves. It really was.

He yawned loudly. “Sorry,” he muttered. He reached past her for the soap, brushing his stomach and other things against her. Then he stepped back as if it was nothing. Her body on the other hand was on fire now.

“Ephraim, what are you doing in here?” she asked, making sure to sound put out.

“A shower. What does it look like? You know I always take a shower first thing in the morning.”

“But I’m in here,” she pointed out irritated.

“Hmm, so you are. How about that?” he said in an amused tone.

She looked over her shoulder, giving him her best scowl. “Get out.”

“Of course, how rude of me.”

“I agree. Now get out.”

“I’m leaving….right after my shower,” he said with a straight face.

She groaned. “You can’t be in here. I’m naked!”

His eyebrows pulled together as his eyes ran down her body, slowly. “Look at that you are. Hmm, imagine that.”

He lowered his head over her to wet his hair. When he straightened again he wiped the excess water off his face. Since he was no longer looking at her she decided to give up glaring at him and finish her shower. This match was lost.

Ephraim watched as the water ran down her smooth darkly tanned skin. Her skin reminded him of mocha, it was only a touch darker than his own, but he liked it nonetheless. Toasty, that’s what he thought of when he saw her skin. It looked warm and inviting and in fact was. He missed holding her at night. He longed to hold her in his arms with her bare back warming his stomach while her very delicious bottom kept his pelvis snuggled in heat.

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 h*ps 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 br**sts. Her ni**les were already hard from his attentions. He rubbed her ni**les between his fingers pinching and teasing them as his mouth found her neck.