Dead Tired: Resurrection

Chapter 2

The Beginning

**

January 1^st

*Sookie’s POV*

It was nearly 3 o’clock when I woke up. I stayed put for a few minutes, enjoying the idea that I had the night off and didn’t need to start getting ready for anything in particular. I grabbed my phone to check for messages and didn’t find any surprises… just the usual texts from the usual people…

I rolled over, considering going out and who I’d call to invite. I didn’t figure Alcide would be up to clubbing after driving back from his visit with Janice… He’d only texted me about getting on the road about an hour before. Amelia was still in New Orleans so that scratched her and Pam off the list of possible company…

Rolling over is how I found the note. When I saw it I blinked to make sure that my mind wasn’t just playing tricks on me again. When it was still there, I snatched it from the pillow like I was afraid it would try to escape.

“Lover,
I’m relieved to say that it seems new management is through with their audit. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could go without you. I hope that you’re free to let me take you out on a date tonight. 7:00? Dancing maybe.
Yours, E”

Never mind that he’d really been there and I thought that I imagined it! I could deal with that later.

I shot out of my bed to throw on the first clothes I found, making a mental list of what I needed to do to get ready for the date I was starting to think would never happen.

Within 10 minutes of reading the note I was in my car and on the way to get my nails done and to find a new dress. My first stop was Tara’s. We caught up while I tried things on, but my heart wasn’t in the small talk. It had only been a week since I’d seen her and all I could think about was Eric. For that matter, the salon took longer than I’d hoped too, but it was worth it. By the time they were done, it was hard for me to tell that I washed my hands about a million times in a shift. The shoe store was easy, thank God. Somehow I lucked out and found the perfect shoes and matching purse.

Honestly, I was stressing out. Even though there wasn’t any traffic, I caught my knee bouncing as I drove from one place to another… I had butterflies in my stomach until I stopped at Sonic, then I just felt queasy. I was flipping out over a date. It was just a date… Sure it was a date with someone I’d been dying to see, but I knew him. It wasn’t a blind date. I was going out with a vampire I shared a bond with and had known for more than a year… and I was acting like I had a schoolgirl crush.

**

Even if I could laugh at myself for being so out of sorts, I still wanted to be perfect. Well, as perfect as I could be. I wasn’t the only one who’d been waiting and I didn’t want to disappoint Eric. I’d made his life difficult enough.

It was after 5 when I got home and if Gran was still alive, she probably would’ve laughed at me and said that I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Tidying up, showering, grooming, blow drying, then regrooming when I found a few stray hairs that I missed shaving my legs. I was irritated at first, but then I remembered that Eric had teased me once about ‘new’ grooming habits. The memory of the amused yet puzzled look on his face when he mentioned ‘silly women, shaving their body hair’ made me giggle enough to relax.

I laid my short, dark gray dress out on the bed and stared at it for a while before I decided that I wanted to wear my hair up… With my hair twisted and gathered and my makeup done, I was sliding my feet into my turquoise pumps when the doorbell rang 15 minutes early.

I grabbed my new purse and trenchcoat on my way to the door, thinking that Eric was lucky I was so anxious because he’d have been stuck waiting for me to get ready otherwise.

When I opened the door, my heart sank. I should’ve learned my lesson. The same thing had happened before, but in reverse. It wasn’t so long ago that I’d been expecting to greet Quinn when Eric was there instead.

Why me?

Quinn smiled even though I was pretty sure I looked like I was going to be sick. “Hey babe. Looking good.” He scanned my body, making me want to get back into the shower.

“I’m not your ‘babe’. My name is Sookie. What are you doing here?” I didn’t have time for his games. I needed him to leave so that I wouldn’t end up arguing with Eric about posturing or, God forbid, violence instead of enjoying our date.

“Well, I came out here hoping you’d let me in so we could talk, but now I have other things on my mind.” He couldn’t have been serious.

“It looks like you’re in for a lot of disappointment tonight.”

“Then who’s the lucky stiff?” He was ignoring the fact that the ‘lucky stiff’ was on his way up the driveway behind him, let alone that he knew damn good and well who I was going out with.

“Whatever… Quinn, you need to leave.”

“I’m not scared of the dead guy. Why should I leave?” Quinn’s eyes never left me as Eric approached, brushing past Quinn calmly and stopped to stand next to me.

I cleared my throat. “Because you aren’t welcome here, tiger. You mean nothing to me.”

“But babe, we had a lot of fun together. I thought we could hook up again, for now, while I’m in town.”

I scoffed, “You are a silly kitty if you call what we had ‘a lot of fun’. I’m with Eric…” I turned to Eric and smiled, deciding to surprise him with a new skill I’d picked up. Swedish. “Jag har saknat dig. Du ser underbar ut ikväll.” His 3 piece suit was the same shade of gray as my dress and, like everything else he wore, it made him look amazing.

Eric chuckled and took my coat to hold it for me,. “Jag har saknat dig också och du ser verkligen läcker ut. När började du prata svenska?” He started leading me to the door, doing a much better job at ignoring Quinn’s presence than Quinn was doing at ignoring him.

I shrugged, continuing to exclude Quinn from the conversation. “När slog det mig att han skulle bli paranoid och tro att vi pratade om honom.” He gave me an evil smirk and let a little pride slip into our bond.

Quinn was less than amused by our banter and growled as we walked by him. I stopped and turned around to look him directly in his snarled face. “You need a hobby other than harassing taken women. You’re going to get yourself neutered, or better.”

**

Eric held my door for me and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when he actually lowered himself into his seat instead of going to confront Quinn…

He was quiet until we were close to the end of my driveway and then he started laughing.

“What are you laughing at?”

“You.” He took my hand into his and pulled it to his mouth to kiss the back of my fingers. “You’re as elegant as you are brazen. I’m very lucky that you allow my affection.” Jerk. He was teasing me.

“I’m definitely getting sick of the nonsense. I almost kicked two asses last night.”

“Two?”

“My new year’s kiss last night was from Bill. I intended to give him a smooch; his tongue had other ideas. Then Sam and I argued, well I yelled, after he molested my face.”

“I knew about Sam. I was going to surprise you when you left work. I tried to give you time to calm down afterwards. I was too encouraged by what you said to stay away. I needed to be close to you.”

“Yeah, about that… I should be pretty angry at you.”

“I’m sorry. Sometimes I can’t help myself.”

“I’m not angry about you being there. I thought I was dreaming. If had known you were really there I wouldn’t have… wait. ‘Sometimes’? You’ve done that before?” He answered me with a smile. “Damn it, Eric.”

“You are angry.”

“No. Bitter. It’s not fair. You have no idea what I would’ve done to be able to see you. It was all the control I could muster to not go to Fangtasia just to sit on your lap!”

“It’s over now. We can spend all of our time together if we want. In fact, I told Pam to only expect me on weekends for a while.” I gave his hand a squeeze. I couldn’t have been happier to hear that our date wasn’t an isolated incident.

In spite of the impossible interior of Eric’s car, I leaned over to rest my head on his shoulder.

Happy to be close to him.

Happy to hear I’d finally be able to see him without sneaking around.

Just happy.

**

When we arrived at Wine & Song, the valet opened the door and offered his hand. He was a tall good looking young Were named Tobin according to his name plaque. Even though he recognized me and ‘knew’ I was dating his Packmaster, he stared straight into my cleavage. As I slinked out of the car, he growled so I whispered a warning. “Thanks. I try, but you’re half way between moons, so you have no excuse. Watch it.” He smiled back and gave me a deep nod while he wondered why I was with a vampire and if Alcide knew.

The hostess led us to a large quiet corner booth and handed out our breed specific menus. Eric ordered our drinks and even though everything on the menu looked good, I was too excited to do any real eating. I was still regretting the burger I’d eaten earlier anyway and ended up ordering an appetizer.

Once the waitress left, he asked, “Did you already eat?” It was sweet that he’d notice since he shouldn’t know an appetizer from a banquet.

I smiled at him. “No, I just don’t want to be too full to enjoy dancing.” I took my drink and slid around to sit close enough that our legs were touching. I leaned against him a little, hoping he would make some kind reciprocation. Normally, he was a lot more handsy… Nothing. “Eric, is something wrong?”

He eyed me for a moment before answering. “I don’t like not knowing what to expect.” I turned slightly to face him, placing my hand on his knee.

“Do you expect trouble?”

“No trouble. The questionable expectations involve us.” I immediately felt bad for all the trouble I’d given him. It was written all over his face that he wanted to have our much needed discussion, but my track record for avoiding the talk and him in general had him wondering about my reaction.

“Are we having our talk? Are you worried about arguing? Why don’t you tell me what you want and expect and we can start the negotiation there. Frankly, you have the advantage of my good mood. I’m quite happy just to be here, with you.” That seemed to warm him up a bit, even if he was surprised that I was being cooperative.

“Are you sure that you want to do this now?”

“Well, we need to do it, right? We might as well get it out of the way.” He smiled when I winked at him and rested against the back of the seat so I snuggled into him. “At your will, sir.”

“I really do want to marry you. Take care of you. Live with you and hold you while you sleep every night. Even in my mental oblivion I recognized how perfect you are for me.”

“Right to business, huh?” He gave a slight chuckle. “What are the political ramifications of attaching yourself to me?”

“Look who’s all business. I don’t care what anyone thinks.”

“That’s not what I mean. Do you think we’ll be a bigger target? That kind of thing. What effect will it have on us as a couple?”

“In my estimation, it won’t make much difference. Those who wish us ill will do so with or without nuptials since our bond is already a matter of public record.”

“Ok. Good to know. What else?”

He laughed a little. “What I want is to be with you, what else is there?”

“Oh, I don’t know. My home, my job, my friends- specifically the males and Weres, my family, my behavior… you know the stuff that we’ve managed to disagree about in the past and that no one thinks about when they get blinded by the idea of the happily ever after.”

After a thoughtful pause, “I’ll rest wherever you tell me to; if that means your Gran’s house, I need you to allow me to renovate for obvious reasons. Your job irritates me because I’m selfish and want you with me and I think you’re too special to be a waitress, but it’s an irritation I’m willing to ignore as long as it’s not problematic. Your friends are my friends, I’ll do my best to get along with them for your sake just as you put up with my associates with grace. That includes the ‘manimals’ that fawn over you. I’ll behave when that’s what you ask of me. Your family is a non-point and you should know better than to have included them… When it comes to your behavior, you’ve always done your best to accustom yourself with the finer points of vampire social standards and you do so very well; all I ask is that if I publicly upset you, tell me privately. Arguing with my wife would make me look weak. That isn’t posturing; it’s an issue of safety.” Wow. I might’ve stopped breathing while he’d been answering me. He made it all sound so much like a real marriage… It wasn’t that I didn’t believe him… I was just… Eric never really made a practice of being honest out loud… He was always so quiet about things, but to be fair, the look on his face kind of made me think he was surprised at himself…

“You have an answer for everything, huh?”

“Lover, I have no answers. I know that we’ll have to compromise with one another to make it work but we love each other and owe it to ourselves to be together.” I could’ve cried. Really. The man I fell in love with, the one that disappeared when Eric’s amnesia was cured, he was back. He wasn’t weakened by confusion or lost and dependent… He knew who he was and his place in the world and he was saying that he loved me and being pragmatic at the same time. I was getting to see the man inside the vampire again… and if I spent too much time thinking about it, my makeup wasn’t going to hold up.

I had to force myself to stay on track, stay in my head instead of melting. “Do you want to turn me?” I braced myself.

“Yes. I’ll do it right now if you ask me to. But I wouldn’t do it unless you wanted it. I’d rather enjoy your love within your lifetime than to have you hate me forever… I know what you would give up just by choosing me…”

“What do you mean, ‘give up’?”

“For instance, a lot of daylight hours, maternity, peace and quiet.” I shrugged, I’d thought of all of that, but only ever fleetingly. The motherhood bit was the only thing that I ever spent any time really thinking about. But it was something I didn’t ever think was in the cards for me anyway because of the telepathy.

“I can still enjoy the daylight, and peace and quiet doesn’t exist long for anyone. Everyone has drama.”

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around my shoulders to pull me closer, “And there are other ways for you to experience motherhood.”

I drew away from him and realized that my mouth was hanging open. “Oh, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t do that… this, our lives to a child. I can’t think of a reason why a child’s best interest would be with us. Think about how many people we knew who’ve died since we met. I’d be too scared for a child to be able to enjoy being their mom.”

“I’ll give you that. But know that if you change your mind, I’m open.” He pulled me back to him and I let him, realizing that he wasn’t insisting… just offering. It was very sweet. “Now it’s your turn. What do you expect?”

I waited to answer so that our waitress, who had very strong feelings about my date and what she would like to do with him, could deliver my food and fresh drink and offer Eric another blood which he refused. When she was gone I stated plainly, “You. Your time. Your honesty.”

He licked his lips as a sexy grin crossed them. “Lover, since you’ve had me for a while, I believe we’ve reached an accord. It seems our ‘negotiations’ have come to a close. Can we begin our date?” Post haste.

I nodded, wanting to kick my own ass for avoiding the conversation for so long when it went so smoothly. “Absolutely. Is there something wrong with your drink?”

He nodded towards the bottle, “It cooled while we talked.”

In an attempt to matter-of-factly bring up the subject, I took a deep breath and touched my finger to the bottle. “Try it now.” He didn’t even think about it before he touched the bottle. He got a thoughtful look and stared at me while he took a sip.

“A new ability? How strong?”

I cringed. “Very and not the only one.” He looked as worried as I was when they first started to pop up.

“What can you show me?”

I forced a grin, worried that my new abilities would change things. While I munched, I discretely made our table leave the ground slowly a couple of inches. I froze the water in my goblet and boiled the water in his. Since he’d leaned forward with his curiosity, I gently pushed him back without touching him…

I stared at him and sent a mental message “Can you hear me?” His eyes widened drastically and he nodded. “Try to fight the hold.” He couldn’t until I released him. I had a lot of explaining to do. “I was doing some research and realized that telepathy is an unusual ‘gift’. We already knew that but, the unusual part is that it usually comes with extra abilities. So I tried to move a chair across the kitchen and it worked… It seemed like everything I tried worked. Then I researched that too. It’s called Omnipathy.”

He sent: “Can you hear my thoughts?”

“I can right now because you’re engaged. But when you aren’t, I can’t. I’ve tested myself. I still can’t hear vampires.” I took a sip of my drink and moved our conversation to the audible. “Freaked out?”

“Concerned.” He was lying. Without my extras, I’d have known that. Freaked out was exactly what he was and he was trying to spare my feelings, buy time to think, figure out how much of a problem it was.

“Since we haven’t seen each other in a while, the update includes working out and going to the gun range too. Alcide sent me to someone he knows. I’m getting really strong and I’m an excellent shot.”

“You have been busy.” It seemed like that was the best he could come up with at the time so I went back to eating and let the poor man try to get his head around what I’d become.

**

By the time I pushed my plate back, he seemed to be less worried.

“How was your food?”

“Very good. Thanks.” I leaned over to give him a kiss and then ‘forgot’ to pull away.

“Tonight is already more than I hoped for.” He’d been hoping that I wouldn’t have a hissy fit and storm out before we had the chance to talk.

I giggled despite the guilt I was feeling for causing his low expectations. “I’m happy to hear it. I’m going to run to the ladies and check my face. Then we’re going dancing, right?”

He nodded and put his hand on my neck, bringing me over to him for another kiss.

A longer kiss… that one sent chills up my spine. Even when I was pissed at him, his kisses got me every time.

And it was so much better than I remembered. I felt the flush take over my face first, spreading down my neck to my chest in spite of his cool hands…

I pulled my knees up to lift me to his height… slowly moving my hand from his knee to his thigh as his hand had found its way up under my bottom, pulling slowly until I was in his lap…

I didn’t want to be anywhere else. With anyone else… Eric made sure of it.

We both growled when our waitress cleared her throat.

I was bitchy about telling her to bring the check, but I’d never interrupted a kiss when I waited tables unless I had to…

I kissed Eric’s neck, straightened my dress and went to the bathroom to catch my breath…

We both needed to calm down a bit.

*Eric’s POV*

I watched Sookie sway between tables on her way to the bathroom, feeling a bit overwhelmed. If I’d been a gambler, I’d have bet that our evening would’ve been far more innocent, possibly ending in an argument over whether we should discuss deeper matters…

Even though I’d needed to make Madden and de Castro believe that she was my property and nothing more so that they wouldn’t make a game out of what she meant to me, I had been far from steadfast in keeping a distance. I’d sat through meeting after meeting, far from focused on the subject at hand because I was thinking of her. Sookie Stackhouse: petite, bright, exotic. She was resilient and courageous and perfect for me. She was stubborn enough to have blamed our bond for her attraction to me and her distant Fae heritage for my attraction to her.

I had done very well to stay away from her and push her to the edge of my thoughts, even pushing the bond back… for all of a week. I’d officially started stalking her after that. Since Pam’s role in my life had nothing to do with the takeover, she’d been checking on Sookie for me; taking her out, calling, spending extra time with her witch lover as an excuse to be at Sookie’s house. My updates ranged from vague to unsettling.

The unsettling news:

I’d been informed that Herveaux had been spending too much time with her. He’d been taking her on weekend trips and they’d been seen together too much for my taste. I was still unsure of how I’d handle that since he supposedly had a girlfriend and Pam hadn’t found anything damning. Their first little vacation was what spurred my initial lapse that put me in Bon Temps… I could smell him everywhere in Sookie’s house, but the fact that he was still alive hinged on the fact that I never smelled anything more than his presence. If they’d been anything but platonic, they’d been masterfully careful to hide it. I had to believe that the time they were spending together had to do with their friendship and her status with the Longtooth Pack. Since Sookie had just mentioned that she’d been working out and was armed, I was still inclined to trust the relationship was more protective.

But while I tried to fight off the surprise of Sookie having new abilities, my mind started to race with the ‘vague’ news:

Pam’s updates included rubbish about Sookie’s hours at Merlotte’s and Jason’s justified separation from his whoring wife… I was remembering more of the way she told me things though… She’d told me more than a few times in recent weeks that Sookie was ‘different’, that she’d changed, she was more grown up… At the time I thought that Pam was tiring of the task I’d given her and was just blathering.

I’d noticed a change in her body immediately. When I’d followed the girls on their night out and had the chance to touch her, she was harder. Still deliciously curvaceous, but sturdier, stronger. It was explained by the fact that she was exercising though…

Even though I’d seen Sookie dancing with her friend Tara, I was still surprised that she was dancing with Pam that way. Sookie had always been prudish. Straight laced. Reserved as far as physical matters were concerned. Pam had returned to Fangtasia a few times, smelling so much like Sookie after dancing with her that I couldn’t focus… It was a guaranteed way for Pam to get the rest of the night to herself, but even she mentioned that it was unlike Sookie to be so publicly flirtatious.

More… the most subtle of the changes, a change only those who knew her most intimately would notice was her eyes… there was an unidentifiable newness to them. Depth. Understanding. For a moment I thought that she was just looking at me differently, that I’d gotten too used to the sadness in her eyes, that she was regarding me differently… But that wasn’t it. Her naiveté was gone and it was a sudden change. If she were going to lose it, it would be a safe bet that it would’ve gone missing somewhere between New Orleans and Rhodes.

As I ruminated, waiting for the tab, I scanned the timeline we’d dealt with… between the Were coup which wouldn’t have affected her and Nevada’s coup something had happened…

The only things I could imagine might be responsible were that she’d recently met Niall and that her asinine Witch roommate might’ve been toying with her spell book again.

I had no faith whatsoever that Amelia would be able to cast a spell strong enough to gift powers to anyone.

Leaving Niall…

I should’ve known something would come of introducing Sookie to that shady prick. I didn’t assume that there would be any way of guessing what his motives were at the time… but since I had Sookie, I decided to take things as they came to us…

**

I waited for Sookie by the hostess’s station, anxious to continue our date and feeling more positive than usual because we’d gotten through our talk without any conniptions with the added bonus of feeling how honestly happy Sookie was.

When she came from the rear of the restaurant, she smiled at me so brightly, it felt like sunshine until someone caught her attention and her mood darkened instantly. It took less than a second for me to realize that it was Compton and I was trying to untangle her anger from mine in the bond as I watched him approach her. She put her hand up like a traffic sign and his advance stopped. She made no bones of telling him she was with me before she left him standing there rejected and angry, deservedly so.

She only started to calm down from his interruption once we were in my car again, discussing where we’d be tending to the dancing portion of our date…

I could feel her childlike excitement growing as we pulled into the parking lot…

As we walked towards the door, the Sookie I’d seen in battle, drenched in the blood of those who tried to hurt her or the ones she loved, bounced onto my back like an exuberant kid. I felt a smile take over the usual stoic expression I try to wear. I was enthusiastic by proxy.

When we entered I set her down and took her hand, giving her the chance to scan her surroundings and reinforce her shields. I led her over to the coat check and moved behind her to untie her coat and slide my hands along the opening of her jacket. I was greedy when I stole a caress of her bare skin as I slid my hands up to pull the coat from her shoulder, but she didn’t seem to mind that I was having a hard time behaving myself.

I set her coat down on the counter and then removed mine while we waited for the coat check girl. I needed to check the coats; I was going to be a force to be reckoned with if our date didn’t go smoothly. I stood there and hid my impatience from Sookie and watched her reach into my jacket. It had me wondering until she pulled my wallet out and playfully shook it. I had been too distracted to think of moving it. I couldn’t fight smiling at her as she slid it into the pocket inside my vest.

I was on the verge of going to the bar to complain when my Sookie surprised me yet again. I watched her put her back to the pass and lift herself, swinging her legs around to the other side and grabbing our garments. She helped herself to a ticket sassily after hanging our coats.

When she lifted herself again she spun around, pushing herself to meet me and sat with her knees on either side of my legs. I was starting to doubt the genius of bringing her out to dance. I wasn’t sure how long I could control myself when our bodies started touching… she was gazing up at me biting her bottom lip, I was starting to worry about her safety. In spite of myself, I accepted the invitation to kiss her again. It felt so good that it caused an ache. I was so hard I was throbbing and I wanted to leave with her, take her out to the parking lot and have my way with her but I knew she’d have no parts of that. She was far too inhibited for such a public display.

I had just resigned myself to looking at the situation as the glass being half full. I’d take that kiss. Her kisses were amazing by themselves. They could stand alone. Each one was soft and accepting. Each one was more than just a moderate affection. A kiss from Sookie was like having life breathed into me… maybe repairing parts of me that had been long since given up on.

**

I almost wanted to drain the delinquent coat check girl when she shooed us away calling us, me, horny kids. I only laughed because I didn’t want Sookie to fully realize how furious I was as I took her to the bar to buy her drink.

I wasn’t at all disappointed to see there weren’t two barstools together… It gave me an excuse to wedge myself closer to her.

When she looked up at me I forgot myself. “Jag vill knulla dig så mycket att det gör ont.”

She smiled up at me and I heard her voice in my mind. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.” I was lucky.

“I asked what you wanted to drink.”

“No you didn’t. But I’ll have a ‘Vegas Wedding’” She winked; an annoyance usually, but it was starting to grow on me when she did it.

I ordered her drink and pushed a ringlet behind her ear. “Are you accusing me of something? And what is a Vegas wedding?”

“Not yet and roll up your sleeve, you’ll see.” I did what she asked as the waitress brought over an assortment of items that Sookie started to move around.

“It looks like you’re lining up body shots.” I’d owned a bar for years so I definitely knew what a body shot was, I’d just never heard them called a ‘Vegas Wedding’… Vegas was the last thing I wanted to think about when I was with her.

“It’s pretty much the same idea.”

She took my arm by the wrist and pulled it up to her mouth to slowly drag her hot, wet tongue over my arm and sprinkle sugar over the dampness. I was growling when she started to explain.

“Sugar, shot, lime, sugar, shot, lemon, sugar, shot, orange. Normally finished with a cherry from your mouth, but I’ll improvise. Ready?”

How could I not have been? My libido did the nodding for me.

I was stiff within seconds. She slowly licked… quickly drank… quickly used her teeth to pull the fruit from its rind… again… then again.

With each lick I could feel my pants getting tighter. When the orange was gone, she looked up at me and curled her finger so that I’d bend over… when I did… she latched her mouth onto my neck right under my ear.

I wasn’t thinking when I pulled her against me. I needed to hold onto her to keep my knees from giving way.

If that was a tease then my Sookie had become cruel.

If that was a tease then Pam was going to have to deal with me when I returned to Shreveport.

When she was done with my love bite she whispered, knowing I’d hear her. “I thought we were gonna dance.”

**

She was teasing me… She couldn’t be so naïve to not know that she was torturing me… Weakened as it was from our time apart, we did still have the bond.

We stayed on the dance floor for 8 songs of lustfully, erotically, strenuous dancing until she said that she needed a break. She needed a break.

We found a couch and sat down where I started to focus on the most hideous humans in the crowd to try and stamp down the misery below my waist instead of the way Sookie was panting, glistening with sweat, adjusting her dress…

She fanned herself with one hand and took mine with the other. Her thoughts entered my mind, “You’re quiet, even for you. Everything ok?”

“Distracted.”

“Can I ask?”

“I’m trying to behave.”

“Why?”  Seriously? I couldn’t believe she’d just asked ‘why?’ There was no way she hadn’t felt ‘why’ pressed against her for the past half an hour. “What are you worried about?” Without warning, Sookie was on my lap facing me. I felt like a child looking through a toy store window.

“Sookie… That is a very pretty dress. I’d hate for something to happen to it”. That was a lie. I wanted to rip it off of her…

She put her hands on either side of my face and she kissed me again. It was deliberately lustful and it almost escaped me that she was grinding on my lap like she wasn’t in such a crowded place.

“Thanks for the warning,” The tease started all over as she lifted herself and walked away. “I guess I should take it off then.” There was no way that I heard her correctly.

I got up, feeling ridiculous as I followed her across the club as though I were a well trained pet. Who was I kidding? I was her pet. She had me.

I watched her lift herself and spin to enter the coat check area just as she did before. When she got to the rack where our coats were, she brought her small, nimble fingers up to her zipper and lowered it, letting gravity remove the dress I had wanted to relieve her of when I first laid eyes on it. She made a show of turning and slowly bending to pick it up and when she put her coat on, she left it open. She had her dress and my coat in her hand when she met my body the same way she had before.

“Now what?” If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought that she was daring me.

She all but confirmed that she was when she wrapped her arms and legs around me and I couldn’t help but be sucked into her game. I slid my hands under her ass and started carrying her to the car.

Once we had cleared the din coming from the club she relaxed all the more and put her mouth to my neck again… chewing… nibbling… tickling.

“Sookie, I have to ask. Are you teasing me?”

“Eric, false hope isn’t on the menu tonight.” That was it. My thoughts were flooded with everything I’d remembered and fantasized about for weeks… I put her in the car and squealed my tires as we left. I thought about taking her to my house since we were only 5 minutes away, but Sookie had always been territorial so I thought she’d be more comfortable at her house. It was 45 agonizing minutes away and by the time she said anything, we were almost halfway there already.

“Eric, where are we going?”

“Back to Bon Temps.”

“Why not somewhere closer?”

“I didn’t think you’d be comfortable.”

“Fuck comfortable. Comfortable is for people who haven’t been cock blocked for months! Here is fine for God sake!”

I was amused despite my hard on… She was cursing and willing to have sex in the open? She had done a lot of changing, shedding some of the more orthodox restraints that humans tend to burden themselves with. If I wasn’t so distracted with the idea of finally claiming my prize, I’d have thought to say a prayer of thanks to whoever might’ve been listening.

**

Lust hit our bond like a semi truck when I pulled onto a little gravel access road and I remembered just how hard that car was to have any fun in. The car had barely stopped rolling when I threw it into park and sped around to her side. I hunched over, unable to wait for her to get out so that I could taste her sweet lips again.

She must have come to the same conclusion about the shortage of space.

“Why would you, of all people, pay this much for a car you can’t fuck in?” I couldn’t help but laugh at our shared frustration.

“I’ll drive my truck for our next date.”

She had trouble getting out of the car because my reserve was failing me. Once she was out, she made her way around to the back of the car and sat on the trunk, kicking off her shoes and yanking off her coat and bra. As soon as her bra was out of the way, I felt my hold slip a little further and my mouth drifted onto her perfect breasts. I lingered at her chest trying to remember if they’d always been so faultless.

“Eric? What are you waiting for?”

I stopped what I was doing long enough to look at her and confirm that she was goading me. Another surprise. I lowered myself to rid her of her menacing panties…

Enjoying the flavor that I had been craving since the time she took me in…

My fingers even seemed to miss the feeling of being inside of her.

It almost seemed too easy to make her cum, but the taste of that sweetness on my tongue triggered another need…

Nipping my way to her inner thigh…

Her heels on my shoulders pulling me closer…

Encouraging me…

Piercing her porcelain skin…

She tasted better than I’d remembered…

Kissing my bloodied lips as soon as I’d taken my fill…

Moaning into my mouth…

Yanking my belt to get my pants out of the way…

Clutching to me like she was afraid I’d leave until I carried her to the hood…

She was finally yielding to me…

Moaning, gasping, panting my name…

Clinging to me…

Pushing me…

Trembling…

Clawing…

Until she breathed into my ear that she loved me…

And I lost what little bit of control I had left, sinking my teeth into her neck…

The more I took, the more I wanted…

The more I took, the harder she came…

The way she rattled against me…

Cumming so hard it hurt…

Perfect…

And as soon as I sat down, I regretted what I’d just done.