SOOKIE AFTER DARK

CHAPTER ONE: Your Cheating Heart

SOOKIE

"If she were human I would take care of it myself," I said as I stood to show Eric to the door. However, he beat me to it, telling Pam and Chow to go on without him.

As I reached the doorway, Eric had already showed them out, and was turning to coming back in. After shutting the door, he emitted a low snarl and looked at me with heat in his eyes. He studied me wordlessly and then slowly started prowl my way. I started to feel like prey…but in a good way.

What am I thinking? This was Eric. The same vampire that tricked me into sucking a bullet out of his chest, who relentlessly pursued me sexually and who just this very evening, snuck into my home and crawled into my bed for some "cuddling." I needed to get a grip and quick or else my libido might just take over.

After all, it had been a while for me on the sex front. Bill had been so preoccupied with his stupid database that he hadn't laid a hand on me in well over two weeks, if not more. I know that doesn't seem like a long time but when you only lose your virginity at twenty-five (not by choice but because of my annoying telepathy) and your first boyfriend is a libidinous (word of the day) vampire who knows his way around a bedroom? Then two plus weeks can feel like two years. I have a lot to catching up to do.

So yeah, back to the issue, waking up earlier to find Eric spooning me was a little disorienting to say the least, cuddling, my ass. For one blissful and hopeful moment, I actually thought Bill was back from Seattle and once again desired me. The fly in the proverbial ointment, however, was that it was actually Eric, and with him came stunning revelations. One of them being that my beloved Bill had left me for another woman and he didn't even have the decency to tell me himself. Yes, he left that nasty bit of business to Eric and Pam. How kind of you Bill. Really. I guess he doesn't mind Eric being his sheriff now.

I have never felt so humiliated and believe me, that's sayin' something. I didn't even warrant a face-to-face dumping. This sure was a wake up call about my importance in Bill's life and now, I am being begged to go to Jackson and look for my cheating bastard of an ex-boyfriend who has subsequently been duped by the woman, Lorena, he left me for. Woman. Ha! More like vampire ho.

However, at the moment, I have more pressing issues to attend to and that would be the one thousand year old Viking vampire in my living room who is looking at me like he wants to eat me, or fuck me, or maybe both. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't sexually attracted to Eric. He is nothing short of a Viking god being all of six feet five inches of sheer presence. He might as well be ten feet tall because that's what being in his company sometimes felt like. He was just so…large and gorgeous to boot. Shoulder length wheat blond hair, which, seemed to be as expressive as the man himself, brilliant blue eyes and a face that looked like it was carved out of the finest stone. And his body? Well don't even get me started. If Calvin Klein ever met Eric Northman, his incredible ass would catapult underwear sales into the stratosphere. Marky Mark would be a distant memory.

As I'm being honest with myself at the moment, I admit there is something more than a little bothersome about the way I feel about Eric. Yes, he is gorgeous. Yes, he has the reputation for being the Holy Trinity in the sack. However, it's his personality that truly attracts me. Not only does he get my humor and seemingly has a similar temperament to myself in many ways, but mostly? I feel safe around him. I know that is probably the craziest thing I could ever think, considering what I know about vampires and Eric in particular. Forget his out-and-out strength, but when I think about the cunning it takes to survive for over a thousand years as a vampire? The mind boggles and yet... I am simply not afraid of him. Not down deep. I have no valid reason for this overwhelming sense of security nor for the fact that I know in my heart of hearts that he would never harm me. Well, not intentionally anyway.

As for Bill? He might as well have literally ripped my heart out and staked me in the gut while he was at it because this hurts more than any physical pain I could ever imagine having to endure. Right now I feel both furious and devastated, but for the moment, I am mostly furious. Thank the Lord because I am sure in the morning, as soon as my foot hits the floor, this pit currently churning in my stomach will make me so ill that I'll vomit before I even reach the bathroom. So for now, I appreciate the fury.

I am raging because not only did Bill just unceremoniously discard me to be with The Vampire Ho-rena, but said ho-vamp has double-crossed him and I'm willin' to bet it's in order to get to his precious database which, incidentally, he left with me after having me vow to keep it safe and protected no matter what. Damn vow! Not only that, but I find out the person he's been working on it for is none other than Queen of Louisiana. Crap.

Crap, crap, crap. The reveals just keep on coming.

I would laugh at the poetic justice of it all except for that fact that ironically, it's me, Sookie Stackhouse, vampire sympathizer and lover who is being put upon to fix this huge mess so that no one else gets hurt by Bill's stupidity. That's because, according to Eric, if the Queen finds out Bill is gone, hellfire will reign down upon him and all the people under his care. Bet Bill didn't see all this coming. Asshole.

I am a second away from handing over that fucking database to Eric right now and letting Lorena have her way with Bill. The only reason why I'm not is because I gave Bill my word and Stackhouse's keep their word. Damn word! Plus, if we find him he can clean up his own damn mess. ARGH! I want to hurt him as badly as I am right now! I can actually feel the bile making it' way up in my throat at the thought of him making love... oh no, uh... fucking another woman. Then it hit me. Two can play at that game, Bill Compton. He left me, which means I'm a free agent, buddy. I may just need to scratch that certain itch I've had for a while now in the form of one Mr. Eric Northman.

These thoughts didn't actually take as long to form in my head, as they do to tell because before they actually form coherence (word of the day), Eric is stalking toward me with a look of pure hunger and I stand in my living room like a deer in headlights. Yet as he gets closer, the anger I feel toward Bill quickly morphs into something else entirely. I was suddenly filled with revenge and lust and who better to hurt Bill with than Eric.

Bill despises Eric for several reasons concerning me, as well as the simple fact that Eric was his sheriff and Bill had to obey him. If I chose to be with Eric of my own accord, there wasn't one damn thing Bill could do to stop either one of us. Ha! That just sealed the deal for me! I was tired of Bill's antics. For God's sakes we haven't even known each other long enough for all the crap I've already gone through with him! So if I have to risk my own neck in order to save that sell out, then I'm going to get something out of it for myself. After all, it was Bill who originally told me that he heard sex with Eric was unforgettable. Well, guess what? Newly deflowered little Sookie Stackhouse was about to find out for sure.

Eric was a mere five inches away from me when I launched myself at him and threw my arms around his neck. Not one to turn down a good thing, Eric just as quickly lifted me by my waist and wrapped my legs around his waist. He then gently kept pressed down on either side of my knees so they bent at an outward angle, practically parallel to the floor, Oh! Oh yes. I guess this little maneuver was so he could caress my thighs and caress them he did. His lips were greedy for mine and we kissed like there was no tomorrow and boyee, could he kiss! His lips were smooth and pliant and for being cold-blooded, his breath was hot and wet. Eric's fangs had come out and I twirled my tongue around them and stroked the undersides, which he seemed to like since it elicited a moan from deep in his chest.

Suddenly, Eric flipped us around so that my back was against the wall and pressed into me, rubbing his hands up and down the outside of my thighs while his thumbs ran firmly up and down my muscles and the hollow on the inside, getting as close to my groin as possible without ever touching. Then he moved his hands into my hair, grabbing it by fistful at the nape and pushing my face toward his. He deepened the kiss, yanked my head to the side and devoured my jaw and neck with a long, hot lick. At the juncture of my neck and shoulder he suckled my skin into his mouth, his fangs holding it like a cat subduing a kitten while he teased my artery with his tongue, making it plump. He growled. I purred. He was needy. I was putty. He was ravenous. I was desperate. He was everything. I was dying. Bill who?

It was then that Eric twisted up into me and notched his erection perfectly into my center and I felt exactly just what this Viking was packing and let me tell you, I got a little nervous as to if I could accommodate him. After all, I had only been with one man and judging from what was grinding into me at the moment, Bill was on the short end of the stick.

As our make out session intensified, Eric pulled away and mumbled hoarsely, "Bed."

All I could manage at the moment was a breathy nod of my head toward the hall. Eric wasted no time getting us to my room. He flung me on my back onto the bed and stood back to look at me for a moment. Too many moments obviously, because he cocked his head to the side, arched his eyebrow and proceeded to ask the most unexpected (and possibly stupidest) thing I have ever heard.

"Sookie, why are you doing this?"

My jaw dropped. I was at a loss for words. Had this man not pursued me for months for just this very thing? I had no delusions of grandeur that I meant anything more to Eric than a conquest, another notch on his belt or better yet, a jab at Bill. So what the hell was his problem? I said the first thing that came to mind.

"What's the problem, Eric? Are you trying to say you don't want me?"

"Oh, I want you. I want you more than I have wanted any woman in an uncommonly long time, though I am not really sure why that is. It's just that I want you to want me as well and I don't want you to regret this in the morning…"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. Yeah, right. He continued. I guess he had a point to make.

"… and I certainly don't want to be used as some act of retaliation against Bill. "

Now both his eyebrow were all up in his hairline and that fucking head of his was still cocked like I was some sort of lab experiment gone wrong.

"Oh. My. God. I can't believe this," I muttered through my clenched jaw. "Wasn't it just three or so weeks ago you were asking me to 'yield' to you on the hood of your Corvette and now here I am! Laid out for you, ripe for the picking and you have suddenly grown a conscience? You know what? Just forget it! Get out. I can't take any more rejection tonight. This was a huge mistake. You were right to stop it."

"Sookie," he chastised softly, "that isn't what I meant. What you have offered me tonight is unprecedented and I know I will be kicking myself tomorrow for questioning you at this," Eric quirked that eyebrow again … "pivotal moment."

"It is just that I know you are not the type of woman who jumps into...what is the colloquialism you humans use? Ah, the sack? You are not the type of girl who readily jumps into the sack with a man under normal circumstances. I am magnanimous enough to realize that you are upset and conflicted."

He finished his little speech with an air of superior solemnity while also looking supremely pleased with himself. Amazing.

I rolled my eyes. Typical Eric. It must be nice to always find a way to pat yourself on the back.

He continued, "You think that if you slept with me it would settle the score between you and Bill and while I am all for being next in your bed," he waggled his eyebrows, "I think it best if you contemplate on it all for a while. After all my….after all Sookie, I prefer not to be your rebound man."

Dumbfounded, I sat up on my elbows with my shirt pulled out of my jeans and the top buttons undone and with as much dignity as I could muster in my rumpled state I said, "Whatever, Eric. I'll go to Jackson and look for Bill because I gave you my word that I would help but after that, I'm done. You hear me? I. Am. Done. I'm done with all of you. I want to go back to my normal mundane life, with my normal mundane job and possibly have a normal mundane boyfriend!"

I finished this tirade by placing my arms across my chest and heaving out a huff that made the hair hanging in my face fly off to the side.

Eric, with his own shirt askew and a very obvious hard-on bulging in his jeans, God that looked painful, took all of this in silence as he observed me. I'm assuming he's contemplating my sincerity.

The emotion on his face was one of deep concentration and he looked like he was struggling with something and then it was gone. His face had shut down and he nodded to me curtly and said so softly I strained to hear, "There is no normal for you," and with vampire speed, he was out of my house before I could blink.

Well, if this wasn't a clusterfuck of an evening, I don't know what is.


Your Cheating Heart by Patsy Cline

Your cheatin' heart will make you weep,
You'll cry and cry and try to sleep.
But sleep won't come the whole night through,
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you.

When tears come down like fallin' rain.
You'll toss around and call my name.
You'll walk the floor the way I do,
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you.

Your cheatin' heart will pine some day
And crave the love you threw away.
The time will come when you'll be blue,
Your cheatin' heart will tell on you.