Jill laughed. “Yes, I don’t think hiding helps.”
Madison straightened up from behind the clothes rack. “It couldn’t hurt,” she mumbled, kicking herself inwardly for her choice of escape tonight. She came here to walk around just to get out of the house. It wasn't as if she had any money to buy something. Damn it, she should have just hidden in her room, again.
“Well, apparently it couldn’t help, because he’s coming over now.” Jill grinned wickedly. “I think I’ll go see who’s hanging out at the food court now.”
“Jill! Don’t you dare….Jill? Get back here! Traitor!” Madison hissed at Jill’s back. She would get her back one way or another.
Ephraim stopped two feet in front of her. His jaw was set, his eyes were cold. “You’ve been avoiding me,” he blurted out.
She looked away pretending to look at a dress. “No, I haven’t.”
“Yes, you have.”
“You’re imagining things,” she said in a condescending tone.
“Am I?” He stepped closer, she retreated. “That’s what I thought.”
“What? I’m shopping,” she said in an innocent tone as she turned her back on him. He looked so good. He was wearing a blue shirt, black tie and his trousers made him look hot. His gun made him look dangerous.
“No, you’re avoiding me.”
She scoffed. “Someone thinks highly of himself.”
“It’s not that. For the past month you ran every time you saw me or ducked behind something.” He gestured to the clothes rack. “You hide in your room, you ignore my knocks, and you leave an hour early in the morning or wait until I leave just to avoid me. You started eating in your room when I started coming down during dinner time, and you haven’t used our bathroom in three weeks.”
Madison casually walked to another section. This close proximity was messing with her head. She needed some distance just to think clearly. He had this affect on her. He was the only one. It would be so much easier for her if she feared him.
“You’re doing it again!” he said, walking after her.
She chuckled weakly. “I am not I’m looking at…at….” she stammered. What the hell was she looking at? Ha! She was still in the woman’s section, although the clothes seemed to be a bit bigger here.
“So, when’s the bundle of joy arriving? I assume we’re talking Immaculate Conception.”
Her face turned red. He was an awful, awful man. “I’m looking for a friend,” she lied.
“How kind of you,” he said dryly. “I thought women bought for the baby.”
She shrugged and decided to go with the lie. “There’s no law that says I can’t buy something nice for my friend.”
“Of course not. So what’s this friend’s name?”
“Uh…Betty?”
“Betty is very fortunate to have a friend like you,” he said casually.
“At least she’s not stalking me.”
“Who’s stalking you?” he asked as he thumbed through shirts.
She turned on him, fists on h*ps and hissed. “You are!”
He threw his head back and laughed.
“Stop that!”
Still chuckling he said. “I’m sorry but-“
“As you should be.”
“I came here to find some new shirts. I didn’t know that you were here and I’m not following you. You’re just paranoid,” he lied, partially. He did need new shirts. When Joshua told him where she was that need became urgent.
Her eyes narrowed. “So, you’re saying that you’re not stalking me?”
He did his best to look innocent. “Of course not.”
She pointedly looked at his empty hands. “Then where are your shirts?”
Damn. “I saw you before I found any.”
“Which entrance did you come in?”
“What is this, the Spanish Inquisition?”
“Just answer the question.”
“Fine, the front entrance.”
“Ha!” A woman with a small child walking by jumped and hurried away.
He chuckled. “Easy now, you’re scaring the natives.”
She gestured calmly towards the front of the store. “If you truly came in through the front exit you would have come across your shirts and you wouldn’t have seen me.”
Damn it. “I didn’t have to see you, Madison.” He leaned in, placing his mouth next to her ear. “Your scent calls me. It screams for me.”
She swallowed. “It…it could be anyone.”
He exhaled, bathing her skin in his hot breath. It sent goose bumps down her spine. “No darling, no one else, nothing else calls me the way you do. You’re my siren calling me to shore. My beacon. You’re the only thing I desire.”
“I don’t understand. It’s just blood,” she whispered.
He sighed heavily, sending another rush of warm air against her skin. “No, I see you don’t.” He ran his lips over her nape. She smelled so good.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she said firmly.
The scent of female arousal hit him hard. He groaned against her skin. “No, you’re definitely not afraid of me.” He pressed a kiss to her neck. “I don’t want you to be afraid of me.” He pressed another one.
“Because you want my blood,” she gasped.
His kisses made her squirm. He felt so good. She liked everything about him. It was driving her crazy. She didn’t want to feel this way about any man. She didn’t want to be her mother who fell for every guy that looked her way and made her life all about a man. She couldn’t lose herself like that and with Ephraim she was very afraid that she would. “Ephraim if you want some of my blood I could donate it. That should solve your problem.”
He shook his head slightly against the crook of her neck running his lips over her skin in a more delicious manner. “It would never be enough.”
“I could do it once a week,” she added, sounding hopeful.
His hands took hers, entwining their fingers. “It would never be enough for me.” He kissed her neck greedily.
She closed her eyes and her head dropped back of its own accord. “When,” she licked her lips. “When will it be enough?”
“When you’re mine,” he growled against her skin.
She gasped as cool air hit her neck. She looked around in a daze. He was gone.