My Sweet Lord

by KissACookContest

What happens when Eric takes Sookie on a special trip, intending to show her the joys of making love under the stars and cooking on an open fire? Something as hot as the embers themselves!

The Kiss a Cook Contest

Title – My Sweet Lord

Characters – Sookie and Eric

Disclaimer – Charlaine Harris owns the ingredients but I wrote the recipe.

Sookie curled herself into Eric's side and sighed with deep contentment. Her body felt pleasantly heavy but boneless at the same time, the aftermath of Eric's epic exertions and the orgasms they had shared.

She raised her head until her chin was on his breastbone and looked up at him. He had his eyes lightly closed and he was rumbling deep in his chest; Sookie could both feel it and hear it. It translated to her, as 'I am happy and sated – for now'.

"Eric," his eyes opened, "if I tell you something, can you promise you won't laugh or make fun of me?"

He smiled and ran his fingertips along her arm, "How am I to promise this my love? The thing you wish to tell me could be extremely amusing." His tone told her he was teasing.

"It's not, trust me. Eric! Please just say you won't make fun of me at the very least."

He was becoming intrigued; this was clearly something his lover wanted to tell him but for some reason it made her nervous to say it.

"I was joking with you Sookie; please do tell me what is on your mind." He soothed.

She took a deep breath and caught his gaze, all seriousness; Eric loved her when she was so endearingly earnest.

"When we lie like this, content together after the most amazing sex," she chose to ignore his smirk, "I feel so-, it's hard to describe accurately, I feel such a part of you, I just want to crawl inside your skin, your soul even. It is a way we really would be physically one; I already feel this way about our minds. Because of the bond I guess."

Eric was quite taken aback, such a declaration was immense for Sookie, and even now, she had shared his home, their home and accepted their marriage she rarely allowed herself to express something so totally revealing of her feelings.

Eric stroked her hair.

"You give me such peace, as well as the contentment you mentioned, I should love for you to move into my body with me," he grinned hugely, "even though I already feel as close to you as is possible my lovely wife."

"You are so sweet. Don't worry; I won't tell anyone."

He laughed in response, "I doubt there are many that would believe you."

She huffed in agreement. "There is plenty of room in there for me but if I do move in are there any Northman house rules I would be expected to follow?"

Eric was enjoying this banter; he loved how in accord they were almost all the time now. "There are a few things I wouldn't allow you to touch and, of course, you would be prohibited from 'tidying up' of any kind."

'Tidying up' was said in such an outraged way, Sookie could not help but giggle.

"Would you be scared of all the terrible, big bad 'ole vampire things I would see?"

Eric considered this. It was rare for him to have anything truly shocking to do as part of his duties as Sheriff. These days all was quiet but he had experience of how easily that could change.

"I think, Lover, you would be far more bored than anything else."

Sookie ran her hand down Eric's chest, tracing the lean muscles beneath the cool skin and flirting with the golden hairs that curled there. Eric's fangs made a sharp click as they descended.

"Are you bored now?" She asked, in a soft voice.

"No, I am never bored in your company, how could I be? You enrich my life, am I not always telling you this?"

It was true, he thought, his undead life had become stale and stagnant – an endless repeat like the movie Jason liked called "Groundhog Day." When Sookie came into it, so many new pathways opened up. He had gone from wearily treading the same routes to setting off into the unknown with his little partner in the adventure.

"I feel wealthier now than I ever have." He told her honestly.

Sookie scrunched up her nose in a way he found adorable.

"Um, Eric? What's it like having so much money?"

He resisted saying it was her money too, was one thing he could guarantee would bring out her obstinate side.

"I suppose I am fortunate it is not something I think about very often. I have been very comfortably off for some several hundred years now but I well remember when all I owned was the clothes on my back and my weapons. That gives any man perspective. As for money, all it does is provide one with a choice, which is why vampires value wealth above almost anything else. In addition, it is why some of us strive to surround ourselves with luxury; it is just another rung on the power ladder. Of course, over the years it has become natural for me to have collected possessions; I care for the majority of them less than most of my kind and yet I do enjoy the best of everything."

His look took in the lavishly furnished bedroom but came straight back to Sookie and gave her a loving smile.

"Pam cares about all her stuff though," Sookie observed.

"Pam has been lucky. The first night she rose vampire was the last night she spent in the dirt. From then onwards I ensured a safe and comfortable place to rest, and anything else she has ever wanted. When I released her I gave her a large sum of money to set herself up, even now, although she is very well off in her own right, I still give her some of things she asks for. I think it must have become a habit."

"Her Daddy spoiled her then."

She was trying to get a reaction from Eric and he knew it.

"Pam had more material possessions than my human children, I grant you that, but they always knew how much there were loved. There is not much room for sentiment as a Maker."

"Lucky children, lucky Pam."

Sookie had not meant to sound bitter but the tone definitely accompanied the words before she could stop herself.

"Sookie, it bothers you because you lost your father when you were so young? I am sorry; I was insensitive." He did not think it prudent to point out he had three children and two of the three were under eight years old when Appius took the life of their father. Sookie rolled so she could tuck herself into his side, head on his chest. Sometimes she found it easier to confide in him when she couldn't see his face.

"After my parents died Gran really struggled to make ends meet, she hadn't expected to be bringing up elementary school aged kids when she was in her sixties, but she did it."

"Your grandmother was a remarkable woman; I regret never meeting her." He murmured. "She had two bereaved children to care for and her own grief to deal with. I am sure that is where you get your indomitable spirit, my love."

Sookie reached over and took his hand. "Is there anything about me that could be considered a fault?" she laughed.

"Of course, Sookie, far too much for me to list before dawn! If I may just throw in 'unable to accept a compliment gracefully' and 'as stubborn as any living creature I have encountered' - and bear in mind, I used to be in charge of the goats."

She prodded him in the side.

"Thank you for realizing the difficulties she found herself in. Gran had a widow's pension and a welfare check that was supposed to pay for our care, apart from that the only income we had was from the well on our land. I don't know what we would have done otherwise. I don't want to whine because she really did her best for us but it was hard for me too. With my ability I could 'hear' how scared she was when Jason developed a cough, more than normal worry, she was afraid he would get sick and need to see a doctor. Then she felt guilty for worrying about the bills as much as she worried about his health."

Eric pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head.

"It wasn't like we went hungry or anything, or dressed in rags!" her voice had raised in defiance, "more that we couldn't afford treats or extras like snack foods. Jason and I knew never to take anything from the kitchen without asking beforehand."

He nodded and she felt the movement. "When I was human, if the crops performed badly we would be near to starvation during the winter months; our stores would run out before the winter was over. Many spring-times came to find us nothing but skin and bone."

"You must think I am more spoiled than Pam, whining about not being given ice creams or soda when you didn't even have enough to eat! Your childhood was poorer than mine Eric!"

He raised his head, unable to hide his surprise.

"Sookie, my childhood was far from impoverished, my father was a kind of chieftain and his family enjoyed many benefits of his status. Poverty is relative to the era and the location, all we needed was shelter, food and water. If a member of our village became sick, he or she would die, more often than not. We valued our children greatly because so many were lost."

Her eyes shone with tears and Eric could smell them.

"I'm sorry Honey; I really hate to think of you in that situation, hungry and cold. I need to count my blessings, and to think I felt left out of things because Gran couldn't afford to send me and Jason to summer camp!"

"What is this camp?"

"Oh! Um, well, it's like an activity vacation, in the summer break from school. I only know what I heard and saw from the other kids but you sleep in wooden huts, or tents, or even out of doors sometimes, learn how to make fires and cook out over them, stuff like nature hikes and taking boats out on a lake or fishing."

Eric chuckled. "It sounds to me as though this was a training camp for small Vikings."

"I guess. I heard Gran thinking there was no way she could find one hundred and fifty dollars for each of us; I told Jason what I'd heard and we agreed to beg her not to send us there."

"That was very sweet of you, Sookie"

"Nah," she yawned hugely, "it was the least we could do after she took us in and raised us like her own babies."

Eric pulled her close and pulled the comforter over them both.

"You sleep now dear one. You will want for nothing ever again, especially love, although it sounds as though there was no shortage of in your childhood."

"Eric! I wanted to hear some more about when you were a little boy!"

"Lover, it was a long time ago."

Sookie scrunched up her face and he kissed her on the nose.

"Very well – if it would please you I will tell you more another night, but now you must sleep!" he swatted her delicious bottom; she giggled but yawned too.

"Great big bully!"

"Was this the name you called me an hour ago, shall I remind you? 'Oh Eric, you are a god.'"

"No fair to use what I say, y'know, during sex, against me," she was baby talking a little, something she occasionally did when she was tired, Eric secretly loved it.

She huffed and snuggled down next to him, using some of him as a pillow, "I'm going to sleep."

"Goodnight Lover," he purred.

"Yeah, good night my bully." She replied, sinking into her dreams.

XXX

Eric waited until she had entered a deep sleep, watching thoughts cross her pretty, little face; he crept carefully out of bed, turned off the light and left the room.

XXX

Sookie woke reasonably early the following day and rolled over to look at Eric, just about making out the lines and planes of his face in the reflected light from the bathroom. He looked peaceful and serene; it never spooked her out anymore he was technically, dead. She knew her vampire would never willingly harm her; in fact, he would go to his final death before he allowed anyone to do so. For what reason then should she be afraid of him? Someone who loved her so much, in such an encompassing way, especially at a time when he was even more vulnerable than she could ever be.

Hating to leave but needing to go to the bathroom and have something to eat, she moved out of bed. She also, no longer, tried to be quiet. She recalled from her experience in Rhodes the incredible amount of sheer panic it had taken to awaken him. The screaming in his ear whilst pulling his hair and slapping him and the psychic screaming in the bond was only just enough to get them out of there. Trying to walk quietly was stupid.

Once the door closed behind her and the lights were making her squint her eyes, she held one of Eric's famous notes (Sookie kept all the notes he wrote in a box at the bottom of her closet. Complete with the envelopes. If asked, she would say she didn't really know why this was, but the sight of her own name in his handwriting always made her feel more connected to him, made her importance in his life all the more real. There had been times when she had felt insignificant – her life was only ever going to be a drip in the waterfall of his own. Sookie couldn't voice this too well, she mainly thought about all the other actions those hands had made in a thousand years and how what fraction of that time had been spent writing those six letters on an envelope).

That was why she kept them.

XXX

But that was yesterday morning, the note had told her how much he loved her and how happy he felt. This morning there was another, Sookie saved it until she seated herself on the patio eating her cereal with fruit, in the midday sun.

My Dearest Sookie

I have planned a surprise with which to entertain the most wonderful wife in the world.

Please be ready to leave when I rise this night. Pack enough clothes for two or three days, nothing that would be considered elegant or even what Pam calls 'smart casual' – dress for comfort only.

Tonight we shall be very unusual visitors.

Yours,

E

Signed with the big flamboyant E that summed the man up – the man she adored.

Old Sookie would have fussed like a hog with a money problem, she'd want all the answers – this one ate her brunch and ran back upstairs.

In the large his and hers dressing room adjoining their bedroom she found the smaller travel bags already hidden just inside the closet, she hadn't noticed them earlier.

'He thinks of everything,' she thought, grinning ear to ear. As she tossed jeans, t-shirts and assorted shirts into her large duffel bag; her mind feverishly trying to see through his riddle.

"You'll never figure it out if that big 'ole sneak wants to keep it a surprise." She decided.

The weather was warm despite it still being spring so she elected to only bring a couple of sweatshirts. After less than half an hour she was done, all the clothes fit his instructions but she had become more creative with her underwear.

Come on, this is Eric and me after all.

The day dragged like an eternity. Humans, involved with vamps, from all over the world must do what I am doing right now, she thought; watching the angle of the sun in the sky. Very few were humans bonded and pledged to a Sheriff; she thought she might even be the only one.

Not one of them waited for a vampire as perfect as hers, she was sure of this beyond any doubt.

I bet none of them loves their vampires as much as I do mine, either!

Then she felt guilty for the thought, gloating because the others had less than they did.

"What would Gran say?"

"What would your Grandmother say about what, Lover?"

"Baby Jesus, Mary & Joseph, Eric! Don't scare me like that."

"The holy trinity have appeared here suddenly and scared you?" tilting his head to one side in amusement, "Only the other day Pam sent me an email showing Jesus depicted in fur around a..." he trailed off, "I believe this outstrips a dog's ass. I wonder if the cameras caught the holy three coming through the gates."

He looked at his monitor and studied it carefully as if he was pondering the likelihood of this.

Sookie stuck her tongue out him. As swiftly as a striking serpent, he lunged and caught it between his lips, securing her gently with his fangs, amazingly never breaking the skin, and held it.

Sookie looked into a pair of beautiful blue eyes, so close that blue was all she could see.

She took a breath and he released her.

"That could have hurt," she said, to cover how ruffled she was feeling.

"No. That would not have happened." He replied.

Did someone once say clothes maketh the man, or was that manners? Sookie wasn't sure, but whoever he or she was; they had never met Eric. At least not whilst being aware of it, she thought with amusement. Clad in soft old jeans with a hole in the backside that was every Shreveport fangbanger's friend and a faded blue t-shirt, his feet were bare but he had a penchant for flip-flops, much to Pam's disgust. To his many fans, and his bonded, he looked better than any GQ model. When he was on the cover of VQ the issue sold in hours, some stores even had a 'one per customer' policy.

She looked more closely at the shirt. Battered by age and many washes, a picture on the front of a cartoon Viking with an expression on his chubby face Sookie had seen before, when someone once mentioned percentages to her brother Jason. Above the picture and down on to the bottom were the words –

'Pillage Idiot'

"Pam?" Sookie asked, gesturing at it with her water.

"Pam." He confirmed, "She purchased it for me in the 1960s, on the West coast I believe. The time was all such a blur. Lover, she was most disappointed when I actually liked it very much." He smiled, "This is one advantage of the decision to reveal ourselves to the humans-"

He never calls in the 'Great Reveal' – and once I saw him hiss at Chow for saying 'out of the coffin'.

"I can wear quite distinctive items of clothing for many years and no one can have their memories triggered and become suspicious. In the past I have kept items for a considerable time, I do not sweat or often become dirty so vigorous washing is not required. Only if I was fighting or careless with my food did I ruin anything. Nowadays even my favorite wardrobe is destroyed by this young lady I have become enamoured of; she tears my shirts from my body!"

"I am choosing to ignore that, when I have to buy new underwear almost weekly," she retorted, "you have clothes older than I am!"

"Sookie I have clothes older than Pam, in storage. My child never throws anything away, she is not frugal, it is in case it returns to fashion."

"Gives a whole new perspective on retro, Eric."

"And puts the 'age' in vintage, Lover. I can never understand why actors and models like to spend thousands of dollars looking like they have commandeered a grandmother's wardrobe. What was the woman called, the one who dates the actor who faintly resembles me - Kate? She looked like a thrift shop explosion on an award show that Pam made me watch."

Sookie giggled at the thought of Pam forcing Eric to sit through some red carpet event, boring him with details of how everyone was dressed and who sleeps with whom. Personally, she thought Alexander Skarsgård was totally hot in a quiet kind of geeky way, but he was no Eric. They had the same hair and eyes but she could not see the swagger of the sexy vampire in that nice guy. He described this famous actor as looking like himself, wouldn't most people say they look like the celebrity rather than the other way around?

This is my Eric though...he's not 'most' anything...

They laughed together as he rinsed his empty bottle of True Blood out and put in the recycling box.

"True Blood? Did you not want a little snack before we leave for our mystery trip?" she gave him what she hoped was a sexy smile.

"Always my little fashionista, but do you not care to start our adventure?"

"Um, don't you ever think of just feeding from me like I have seen some others do? I saw one girl at a party, she was in the bathroom with her date and she just fed from the wrist, fixed her lipstick and then the both left."

Eric moved closer.

"There are those following the practice, almost like bringing what Ginger calls 'a bagged lunch'. I would find it an imposition if I were human, doing the work and not get paid," he raised an arrogant eyebrow, "I also find it comparable to a human going to an expensive restaurant and paying to have food thrown into their mouth in the parking lot."

"Okay, I guess. So you're saying you like to take more of an interest in your diet. Maybe savor your food and take your time dining?" she asked.

"Well, I do feel fully sated and the food feels it was part of my experience."

"Eric, are we still talking about food?"

He took her hand, planting small kisses across her palm and looking at her over his own; her pulse quickened when he took in the fragrance of her wrist and licked the tracery of veins in a tantalizing way. Their bodies had come together and she could easily feel a rod of hardness pressing into her stomach."

Oh Lord, can I ever have enough of him? Of this?

"I do not know, Lover, are we?" he licked her arm and breathed in deeply, "I do feel a pressing urgency but I don't want to delay your surprise either. There will be a gift for you before- mmm, very long."

Sookie was suffused with desire; he must have felt her ache through the bond, wishing she wore a skirt instead of jeans, fantasizing about taking control, grabbing him by the hair and forcing his head down, down between her thighs and forcing herself upon him.

Either we need to get out of here or I need to get him inside me.

"My gift? Would it have any, um, relationship to a gift I get quite often or something else entirely?"

"Both I would think, my love. We could leave now to get the adventure started and maybe stop somewhere along the way for the unwrapping?"

He pulled back slowly, Sookie's fantasy changing into Eric, she on the hood of his car, his head buried in her need, and sucking at the throbbing bundle of nerves he found there. She whimpered and he smiled softly.

"Come, my perfect ingénue, the night has many possibilities and there will be many after this one."

"Who are you and what have you done with my beautiful husband?"

His slow grin lit up the room, chasing back the dimness from the vanished sun.

"I hear he was a cold and heartless creature, you deserved better so I came as a replacement,"

"I don't know where you heard that sir, but you are wrong. My husband is a politician but he is the most romantic and adoring man; no one but me sees this. It makes it all the more special."

"I love you, Sookie Stackhouse."

XXX

Sookie had no idea why they had walked past the car to the end of the drive and climbed into Pam's minivan, which had magically appeared from nowhere.

"Eric, the van? Where the heck are we going for this vacation?"

"Not where Sookie, rather 'when'. You asked me to tell you stories of my human life and that led me to ponder what type of thing you would enjoy hearing." He fell silent and Sookie was wondering what was coming next. "We needed the van to go when not where."

"I actually like this van, the bench seat means I can sit right next to you while you drive – the 'Vette may be the sexier car but this is kind of cozy. I asked her why she bought such a staid car – you'd expect her to have a chick magnet sports car."

"What was her reply, Lover?"

"I can tell from the Cheshire Cat grin you know the answer. She said it suited her off duty wardrobe, there was plenty of room for body transportation, it was quicker than it looked and the bench seat is great for her 'dates'," she ticked the list off on her fingers.

"Usually in the employee parking lot right in view of the security camera, despite repeated warnings. She would have been all over YouTube if not for the fact I have considerable holdings in the company."

She stared at him, trying to figure out if he was joking but he looked back at her with a bland expression on his face. This is something I never will understand; how can he be involved in such a high profile business and get away with the anonymity of running a small bar in Shreveport Louisiana?

She knew what the fangbangers thought. The ones that realized how important he was wanted him for more than a fuck and bragging rights, thought Sookie herself was a gold digging whore who hit the right combination, somehow.

The others, the type only interested in being used and abused by him because he was a vampire and the most beautiful of the ones they knew, couldn't understand how someone so normal as Sookie snared the big prize. Neither group considered she loved him just because.

"Why is my wife so deep in thought?" he asked.

"No reason in particular – I was just thinking about the fangbangers.

"Why would you think of those miserable creatures?" he said in disbelief, "I try to forget their existence, except when they pay the bar bill. They are the main disadvantage of vampires being out in the open."

"Do any of them try to interest you in anything other than sex or paying their bills?"

"I am not sure what you mean or why you concern yourself with this Sookie..."

"Okay, it's not important anyway."

"Anything you tell me is important; continue please."

"The first time I saw you on your throne at Fangtasia," she raised her hand to stop the objection she knew was coming, "I know you don't call it that Eric but it was how I thought of it then, King Vampire surveying his kingdom. I didn't even know there were King Vampires back then!"

"You may have run screaming into the night, had you known," he joked.

"Nah," she stared out on to the dark, country road, "I wouldn't change the outcome Eric, not now...

As I was saying, I saw you and of course, I thought you were the hottest man, vampire, whatever, I ever saw; I am not blind after all. But I didn't feel actual desire for you; not like those girls who salivate over your boots."

His mouth was a moue of distaste, "I lost some vintage Chuck Taylors that way! I should hope you realize you are nothing like them," he paused and said in a small voice, "You did not find me sexually attractive?"

"It's really hard to explain! I thought you were drop, dead gorgeous – no pun intended, but not like I could actually ever get you, y'know. Like Jason thinks if he met Angelina Jolie, even once, she would leave Brad and all those sweet kids and come cook for him in Bon Temps!"

Eric privately thought Ms. Jolie was such a wannabe. Even before she knew vampires walked amongst the humans she carried a silly snack around her neck, Sookie's moronic brother and his Fae charm could indeed be enough to buy her 'favors'."

"I do not see her appeal; she is far too 'try hard'."

"Eric," Sookie laughed, "you sound just like Pam! Although three hundred years-"

"Do not say it, Sookie! She has not 'rubbed off' on me. Carry on please, we near our destination."

"Alright, maybe a bad example. You and I didn't feel realistic, I felt like you were unattainable, even when you did I was wondering why you would ever look at me. When I visited with you that night I realized I had more than a small chance with you but by then I had also told myself you were an arrogant jerk. As much as I thought you were sexy, I would have fought myself for wanting you because I hated your attitude. I guess I thought a rejection would bring you down a peg or two but I would have hated for you to stop trying." She blushed at the admission.

"Something changed Lover, what was it?"

She snuggled closer to him, thanking Pam for being a homicidal slut, "Of course it did! I got to know you, you silly vampire...I got to know you and realized the jerk thing was mainly an act. Even before the curse, on the night of the pink spandex, you kidded around with me as if we were old pals, pretending to be my girlfriend and joking about our matching hair. It seemed to me then being Sheriff took more than just doing the job."

"You are as astute as you are delicious, dear one. Of course I cannot seem like a snuggling vampire to the underlings, what appears arrogant to you would seem confident to one of our kind. Everything has a tendency to be overplayed. I will say this; although I was already different underneath to a certain extent, you have shown me the advantages to change; you took the difference and nurtured it. I am completely free to be the real me when I am alone with you."

Sookie didn't know how much she bought of that; he had spent millennia learning to be this person. Surely, a human girl couldn't even begin to tear it down in less than two years? He wanted change, for some reason he couldn't admit it, not yet.

"And I love you can, Eric. I'm just glad I saw past the false advertising." He laughed and stroked her leg.

"As am I, Lover. Fangtasia has always been a storefront for the office of the Sheriff. I didn't open a bigger place for that reason, I needed to be visible but without needing all the security some of the other Sheriffs surround themselves with." He thought, sneeringly, of the coward Victor Madden.

"Not only a storefront, it was a place where I could find a meal and an outlet for my sexual needs. You are aware feeding and sex are linked and you mentioned feeding earlier. Sookie, you cannot underestimate what it means, emotionally as well as physically, for you to be the sole source of my nutrition. Not only do I love you with my life – you are my life. It is a very complex thing, deep in the psyche and racial memory of the vampire race but to me you are all and everything. I love and care for you like no other but you are the one that feeds me. There can be no more complete care than this."

She stared. "I never thought of it that way! So, it's kind of like a normal wife...she would have her husband's dinner ready for him; in our case I am the dinner."

He sighed inwardly at the over simplification but understood these were profound ideas. His Sookie was not stupid, just not vampire...

"It's still like me looking after my man. Y'know, many women feel bad about wanting to do that these days. They feel looking after him and the family is their responsibility but I guess it isn't very feminist is it, Eric?"

"It is a very complex idea too, all I know is there was no feminism when I was a human, such a thing would seem ludicrous to men of my generation. In the 10th century women in Scandinavia were revered, any man could endure hardship but it was a disgrace to allow your woman to do so, if you could possibly avoid it. The woman who would care for me and raise my children would be placed above all material things, even my own family, although it was customary for my parents to accept a son's wife as their daughter. My family would have done so with you."

Sookie thought about this, her heart swelling.

Before she could think of how to reply, the van was bumping down a dark, track between the trees. It came to a stop.

"We are here Lover."

"Er...Eric? Where is here?"

XXX

Sookie was reeling, the only word that could be used for her emotions and thoughts. Less than two hours ago, they had arrived in this dark clearing in some thick woodland. The clearing was grass floored and standing at the side of a small creek that had formed into a pond.

At first, she had been more than bemused. This was the vacation he had planned? If she had wanted woodland, there was plenty of it to be found around her home in Bon Temps.

I guess I should be grateful it's too early for too many bugs!

In the time since their arrival Eric has buzzed around, not even travelling at vampire speed, making what he was calling, 'Camp Sookie'.

So here she was, seated on a bench made from the bough of a fallen tree. The fire burned at her feet in a specially constructed hearth Eric called a hov. At her back stood a shelter Eric had made in the lee of the fallen trunk, using the massive piece of wood as both a support for the roof and a side of the shelter. He had lined the floor with foliage and further used leaves stuffed into a pocket of thick linen to make something like a mattress pad.

She could see all this because the other side of the structure was a type of thick canvas for the first three feet it raised from the ground. This was currently rolled and secured with leather braids. Eric explained the idea was to allow the heat of the fire to warm the sleeping platform.

She was very excited about climbing into there with him later...

"Eric," she stopped him as he was striding back from the nearby van with a huge box under one equally huge arm, "tell me why there is a travel coffin and a bed in there again."

"Because Lover, I do not wish to go to ground like some baby vampire and I am not happy to allow my wife to be unprotected in an open shelter. I shall put you into the bed and then get into the travel coffin as dawn approaches. You can use the van to rest tomorrow too. Although I ask that, you do not wander out of sight of the vehicle. This is for my protection. I have a rifle and a hand gun loaded with silver tipped bullets in case of an attack by Weres."

He did not mention he had two members of the Long Tooth Pack stationed in the woods from dawn, each with a full view of the van and campsite. Herveaux himself had handpicked them and Eric considered him trustworthy.

"Just be vigilant Sookie, it is all I ask."

That was a clever move. She won't venture more than twenty feet from where I lie.

"Now," he rubbed his hands together, "you must be hungry. It is time for me to fulfil my husbandly duties and bring food back to our hov."

"How do you propose to do this?" She looked around, "we are a long way from all those beautiful restaurants you take me to. What goes for dinner at Camp Sookie?

He looked superior. "I would be a poor mate indeed if I could not provide for you without someone to cook and prepare for me! I shall do what I did when I was human, hunt."

Sookie looked out on with interest as he wrapped a bundle of tools and implements – odd things such as twine and pieces of wood – plus the more recognisable knives and a small spear.

"Can I come too?" she asked.

"I fear not Lover. I do not intend to make use of vampire speeds to catch your dinner but I will have to use some of the methods I learnt as a child. You could not move quietly enough or remain still in such a way as to not warn the prey of the danger. If you do not mind me saying so, your scent is also particularly beguiling, certainly nothing one would ever find in these woods, your position would be given away instantly.

"Huh." She said, not bothering to hide her huffy feelings. "Better let the warrior go them and I can deal with the wifely things!"

If Eric saw this for the complaint it was he did not rise to it. After asking her to ensure the fire was hot but somewhat burnt down and showing her the wooden bowls and platters in the box; he melted into the darkness at the perimeter of the fire.

Before Sookie even had chance to worry, he was back, carrying a skinned carcass about the size of a small cat (Sookie was suddenly glad Bubba wasn't around), and a goose dangling from his other hand.

"Wow Eric! You did just great honey! What is it?" she asked, pointing at the mystery ingredient.

"Ekorre," he laughed at her puzzled expression, "Squirrel to you Lover. We ate these animals often when I was human. We would stew or bake them with vegetables or fruits. The other is gås; you can see it is a wild goose. Do you know how to pluck one?"

"I should hope so Eric! Gran was a great cook, not just her pies and cakes, she made good Southern food, the kind that 'fills a body up and makes them strong'."

He smiled at her imitation of the Southern drawl and idioms.

"She sounds like my Modir, her name was Ulla. She would not do the actual cooking, her status meant she had a trell, or slave, to do it for her, but she would plan and inspect all the food to be served. She would tell us she did not want us growing up weak." He fell quiet for an instant and Sookie felt a sense of nostalgia in the bond when he thought of his mother.

They chatted happily like this as Sookie plucked the bird and then Eric prepared both items for cooking. He had brought along some selected vegetables, he had stated quite reasonably that he did not have access to a garden to ensure authenticity. Sookie assured him she really did not mind.

The gås was braised on a flat stone set at the edge of the fire, the ekorre cut into pieces and stewed with some water, wild onions, herbs and vegetables. It all smelled wonderful as it cooked and she told him so. He beamed proudly and poured her a small glass of some kind of light beer; he explained this was close to a recipe used by his people.

"It would be wrong of you to think only women knew how to cook Sookie, if a raiding party was off in viking we would have to make ourselves quick and healthy meals with anything that came to hand. Sailing our ships took much energy as did travelling from the shore to a settlement and possibly fighting when we arrived.

"What did you eat? A lot of meat and bread like you see in the movies?"

He chuckled. "What I could do for those deluded people! If a family ate a lot of meat, they would be consider themselves unsuccessful as farmers. Bread did not have anywhere near the popularity it enjoys today. We kept livestock and made full use of the milk to create dairy products, my village made excellent cheeses."

Sookie was curious, "Why would meat imply that honey? I would have assumed the opposite..."

"All spring, summer and autumn we stocked up on food for ourselves and our animals, anything that could be used was. If you could not do this successfully something would not eat, of course this would mean that beasts would need to be slaughtered. Yes, the farmer would have the meat but he would then have to replace the beast and this cost quite a lot. Slaughter was considered a last resort"

"This is so interesting! I had no idea about all this; do you realise what a historian would give to speak with you as we are now?" She paused. "I know you would hate to be examined though and have all attention on you."

"It depends on who would be doing the examining." He wiggled his eyebrows and a look that made her mouth water far more than the food she was eating, delicious as it was.

The goose was succulent with pure white meat and a seasoned and roasted, golden skin. The heat had caramelised the sugars in the meat so some was browned and crisp; the rest sweet and juicy. Sookie could have eaten this for dinner every night.

"Yum," she said, trying the stew, "the flavour comes from everything but the gravy doesn't drown any of them out. You are some chef, husband."

"I am most pleased I can satisfy you," the double meaning was apparent, they both knew he wasn't talking about the tender meat and perfectly cooked accompaniments.

"It's nearly time for you to have your dinner isn't it?" she looked into his eyes and pushed her empty plate to one side. "Oh! I didn't think! Do we have to worry about bears out here?"

"I have no reports of them and would be more than able to defend us against one if we found ourselves attacked. It would, however, annoy me if I had to break off from my dinner to do so, If you would like to get ready to retire I shall transport everything away from Camp Sookie." He stood and began picking things up. "There is a chilled box in the van with water, food and other drinks, should you require anything."

He flashed into the trees leaving Sookie's hair blowing in his wake. She laughed and picked her way back to the van to brush her teeth in some bottled water and grab something to sleep in.

When she returned to the fire she was startled by the sight of Eric already stretched out in the shelter. With the tousled, long, blond hair and the fire dancing on his skin and in his eyes. He looked so beautiful the sight took Sookie aback.

He looks just as he would back then.

It certainly helped hat he was covered with the black pelt, the fur gleaming in the fire light.

When he saw her watching him, he held back the cover revealing he was lying on another of a different color and provenance. She could see enough to know he was naked. The way the shadows deepened further under the skins and the thought of what hid in those shadows had her dropping the night shirt she held and toeing off her boots...

XXX

"Looks like I better tuck in whilst it is hot, Lover." He said as I moved closer to him, drawn by those eyes and the lust flowing through the bond.

I slipped between the furs to join him, oh God that feels so good. They slid under me and across my bare skin as I moved as close to my vampire as I could.

I came up against his chest; his skin was warmed by the heat coming from the fire – so much so, he felt almost human. He reached past me and released the canvas flap. We were inside the shelter, still lit by the glow of the logs but was warm and comfortable as any bed.

We pressed together as hard as we could, not wanting any space between us where we could have contact, I knew he felt as I did, desperation to be touched and to touch in return. This all felt so new but with a sense of antiquity that came from the meal I had eaten and the place we rested. We could be a couple from the beginning of the last millennia.

His hands went straight to my bottom, kneading and grasping the flesh; he often told me how much he enjoyed what he called my 'bounteous curves'. I knew I wasn't stick thin but I loved it that he enjoyed the plumpness of my body. My hands went to his neck and his shoulders, hard planes and strong muscles I, in turn, loved to feel move under the skin. Desire had taken on a whole new meaning when I was first confronted by his naked body.

"Oh Eric, this is amazing. I feel like we could be in any time period in history. Please, my love, show me what this was like for you."

His soft lips slid to my neck, leaving a trail of cool, open mouth kisses, his stubble scraping the skin and making me shudder. He sought out the one place he knew would elicit the most response, the area of fragile skin immediately behind my ear. It should have felt predictable but instead it felt like a well-learned dance of love, that only partners who knew what the other craved could perform truly well. I groaned and tilted my head, desperate to give him the most access. My hands sought his hardness but he pushed them gently away.

"Sookie, dear one, wait." He murmured against my neck in his deep voice that reminded me somehow of wood-smoke and purple twilight.

"Lover, would you care to play a love game with me?"

I nodded my assent and stroked his hair back from his forehead.

His voice was so soft I had to concentrate on his lips and perfect white teeth to make sense of the words.

"When I was a young man, inexperienced with women, I would dream of the first time I would pleasure a partner and learn what it was my older brothers talked about with such hushed reverence. I had a very definite idea of how I wanted it to be. I saw a place just like this, where I would be alone with a pretty young maid, virgin and fair but also voracious and wanting." He smiled, amused at his own words.

"I was just a boy, I did not know the first time would not end in the gods congratulating me on my prowess and this luscious maid telling the entire village I was a god myself. In my dreams it always did you see." He bought my hand to his lips.

"Would you be my maid, Sookie? Pretend to be my first time? Everything here is as close as it could be to perfection and you are way beyond it."

He waited expectantly, the bond held anxiety and longing. Did he really think I would deny him, or worse still, laugh at his request?

"Please Eric, pleasure me, and show me what it is to be claimed."

His eyes widened and the pupils seemed as though they filled the whole iris. In keeping with the role he played, he began to breathe... At first I found it strange, I liked it though, it was so sexy watching his chest rise and fall and his lips part as he exhaled.

"Sookie, trust me and I will make this wonderful for you, for us both. Please get up onto your knees with your legs together and your bottom on your heels. Your body is so lush; I want to bury myself in your fragrance. I am not going to bite you just now, Lover, I want to do this just as it should be done. Raise this gorgeous ass into the air and bow your back. I want to see what you have to offer me Sookie. Show me where you would like to be touched."

I was displayed completely to him. My legs pressed together and my ass high in the air. I imagined what he would be seeing right now and I became moist.

"This is my dream. I would never see the girl's face only the hitherto unknown beauty of her womanhood. I had no real idea of how it would truly look and I was astounded by the perfection of it, of you. I could never have imagined that the organ of a woman's pleasure would be so attractive to a man. I knew I loved breasts and had fondled them whenever the chance presented itself. I would have known how to suckle your juicy little nipples until they were hard and aching. Nevertheless, I look at this and I think,' what should I touch'? What will give my Sookie most pleasure?"

He seemed to be incorporating me into the dream and the lull of his words made it feel all the more real. I was mesmerized by his voice, his accent had deepened and the trancelike state was akin to dreaming.

"What should I touch first?"

Silence, dragging on for what seemed like hours.

"Your delicate little slit?"

I cried out as he drew one finger along the place my pussy lips joined. I was bare there, between my legs and the sensations drew delicious goose bumps along the line.

"Mmm yes, now I think... the soft folds."

The finger sank deeper, stirring my flesh and the quiver became a shudder.

Oh! Oh yes...that's, oh.

"I do love this skin here; I confess I do not know its name, only that it lies between the wetness at the front and the tight entrance behind it. I wish to touch you there."

One of the most sensitive places on a body that was already a bowstring of taut expectation.

"Or this most beautiful pussy, in any era, is a place I desire to explore further."

My back dipped more fully as his finger plunged into me without preamble. I was already as wet as I could be so it slipped and was almost dragged in by my body."

"I think it likes it, Sookie." His tone had not changed from inquisitive and overloaded with desire. Just how I imagined he would have been. Even totally inexperienced he wanted his lover to feel spectacular pleasure.

"Puh, please Eric, there, please!"

"There is somewhere left, Lover, where can it be?"

His finger withdrew slowly despite my best efforts to follow it. I heard the sound of him licking it; followed by a rumble of appreciation. "I think I like this game, Sookie."

He began to stroke me from front to back, every time he passed over my swollen and aching clit, I tried to push down and make him touch it.

"I think I may have found something." I felt his cool breath on me, "here, amongst the petals of your rose. What looks to me like a sweet little pearl, trapped in the folds."

He gave my clit a sudden flick and I screamed.

"Eric, I need you, please, anything..."

The bed platform moved as he lowered himself down next to me, lying on his side with his head supported by his hand.

What is he doing? I'll die if he doesn't give me something, the arousal is too much!

"Stay still and look at me Sookie, let us see what gives a woman the most pleasure. Educate me."

His hand slid down over my ass, squeezing my flesh and kneading once more. His fingers fluttered against me, slipping between my cheeks and fingering my other entrance. My face burned but I could not look away, he was staring at me to gauge my reactions.

"Yes, it's is so good; I love you, so, so, good."

Stroking so slowly as to be barely moving from my bottom to my mound, he played with the curls there before making the return journey. He tickled and probed until I was frantic and had lost all control.

"You have to! Please! You have to..." I sobbed, my voice dying in my throat.

"What is it you want from me, girl?" his voice held no hint of an American accent now and the way he called me 'girl' had my arousal screaming through my whole body. It felt as though my nipples, my clit and pussy would be sparking with the force of it.

"Girl!" his tone was deep and sexy.

I grabbed his hand and pressed it to my aching lips. "Kiss me, oh please, lick me until I come."

"As you wish my lady."

He was behind me in a flash and the fur rose up to caress my neglected nipples, from that alone I almost came. His kissed my bottom and then he tongue darted between my cheeks to make me howl in pleasure.

His tongue stroked me from clit to ass in a slow relentless rhythm – I could hear him groaning against me turning his head this way and that, trying to penetrate me with his wet tongue. I cried out, a wordless ululation, with his name in among the sounds.

The pleasure built and built until was pushing back, mashing my pussy against him, feeling his teeth against my lips and his stubble grazing me where I most sensitive. At almost the last moment, he seemed to decide he could not get close enough, seized my thighs in his huge hands, and pulled.

As I began to fall forward and down he flipped onto his back and was waiting underneath me, his mouth already open to suck on me, draw my orgasm out with each purse of his lips.

"C..E-ic, coming!"

I felt a bolt of triumph through the bond and his fingers thrusting so fast into me. His tongue was jabbing my clit so hard it was a shock with the sudden pleasure and pain. I swear my vision blipped in and out again before I was falling and the orgasm was upon me.

Waves and waves of contractions from my womb to my bottom, hard, bursting slaps of pleasure that left me with two fists wound into the fur, sobbing into it.

"Wait, let me-"but he was not listening to anything anymore, his face, when I caught sight of it briefly was the impassioned warrior mixed with the feral predator.

The vampire was back and he wanted to play.

"Inside, oh inside me now!"

"Yes my Sookie, yes."

I hoped it did feel as new for him as it did for me. He pressed his long, thick erection into me, making me writhe with sensation and anticipation once again.

Then he began to rock against me, forcing me face down into the fur. His fangs slid noiselessly across my back and he said "I am going to come inside you Sookie, deep inside you. You will feel all I have for you and love it."

I was wild and screaming in my lust, as though the last orgasm had been days ago. I had thought I would not be able to come again for several hours but here it was - the familiar tightening and ache. I loved the difference between the orgasms I reached on his lips and tongue and the ones from his cock. The first was more intense and could make me almost black out. It was the other I craved now, the one that made my pussy throb and my womb contract, dragging every drop of his orgasm from him.

Casting aside all my upbringing, I became his Viking bride. I concentrated on my pleasure and that of my warrior. This sex god was indoctrinating both of us into the ways of love.

"Sookie, oh my Sookie."

I felt his hand go between us, the motion telling me that he was rubbing hard at his balls and stroking the part of his erection that was not always inside. The thought of his huge hand pulling and fondling at himself made me scream at the top of my voice.

I wished it were real, in some ways at least. Maybe somewhere, he was my new husband and this was our marriage bed, we would grow old together. A simple life of love and family, nurture and nourishment.

We came together; he roared like a lion, I yelled his name, screaming out the wrenching of our ending.

Fin.