Thanks so much for the reviews! They really do motivate me to write! This particular chapter is dedicated to the hotness that comes in the form of Alexander Skarsgard. Thank you Alan Ball. Enjoy!


Eric opened the door to his shiny red corvette for me, and I slid in carefully trying not to pull a Britney. It was harder than you would think. I waited before speaking my mind until we had peeled out of the club's parking lot at an alarming speed. I pulled my seat belt extra tight just in case. Eric noticed this and gave a small smirk.

"Do you really think I would let anything happen to you lover?" He asked, while contradictorily speeding up. I gulped.

"Well you say that, but if we were to get into a wreck, guess who would come out as bits and pieces? Me. Not your vampire ass." He raised an eyebrow while considering this and slowed down exponentially. I breathed a sigh in relief.

"I see your point." He consented. I looked down and fiddled with my dress while trying to decide the best way to ask Eric what I was trying to formulate in my mind. He made it so hard sometimes. "Is something wrong Sookie?" He asked pointedly. I wrinkled my nose. Of course he would feel my anxiety through our blood bond. I took a deep breath and decided to plunge right in.

"Eric, I have so many questions for you, things we need to talk about. I meant to ask them before, but you caught me…off guard," His knuckled tightened visibly on the steering wheel, "I know you're not going to like it, but for my own peace of mind I need to know. Is Bill alive and okay?" I asked curiously. Eric frowned a bit.

"Yes…he is alive," He said hesitantly, "He has been recovering at Fangtasia, and been receiving blood from Thalia, Indira, and other vampires in my area. He is nearly completely recovered." I nodded and breathed a small sigh of relief. Though he had betrayed me countless times and broken my heart, he had nearly died saving me and trying to protect me. Its something I couldn't ignore.

"You seem awfully relieved to learn the traitor is recovering." He observed with an edge to his voice.

"Yes, of course I'm relieved. He used to be my boyfriend in case you have forgotten, and almost died because of me. I'm glad he is okay." I said crossing my arms over my chest. It was a few moments before Eric chose to respond.

"Sookie, none of this is your fault. Bill was in charge of his own actions; he nearly died because he chose to. You cannot blame yourself." I looked away.

"I'm not blaming myself. I know that." I said almost defensively. He smiled an all too knowing smile. It bugged me. But Eric had reminded me of another question I had for him, one I had been dreading asking him. "Eric, I have to ask. Why….why weren't you there? I thought you would have felt I was being under attack. You said you would explain." I reminded him. His eyes squeezed shut briefly as if he were in pain, and he suddenly looked so vulnerable and looked about 1,000 years old. Which he was of course.

"Sookie, lover, you must understand. I…regret. Yes, I regret so much, so much you cannot even begin to understand. Its true, I did feel your pain and fear, and you must believe me, I wanted nothing but to go to you and rescue you. I would have torn them limb by limb," He continued in a strained voice, "But I couldn't. And it nearly killed me. You cannot imagine the amount of….pain it put me in when I couldn't." He stopped suddenly as if struck by the pain he was remembering. I was getting nervous now.

"And…?" I prompted him.

"And…I was being held by Felipe Castro. The King of Nevada and now Louisiana." I nodded, I remembered our meeting all too well.

"What do you mean held? What for?" Eric stared straight ahead out the window as he drove.

" My services were required to deal with a certain business transaction the King insisted I had to do," He said bitterly, "I didn't dare tell the King I had to leave to go rescue my bonded. This would have brought his attention unnecessarily on you. Do you understand? If I had left, I would have been killed, and if I had explained my reasoning to leave, I would have had to mention you. The King wants you already; I couldn't risk bringing you back to his attention. Please tell me you understand." He said pleading with me, his eyes focused solely on me, a fact that made me kinda nervous considering he was supposed to be driving.

"Eric, I need a second to digest all of that." I said quietly. It was true, whatever I had thought was keeping him from saving me, wasn't anywhere close to that. And suddenly I was struck by the selflessness he had demonstrated. Sure I could be mad and rage a storm over him not being there, but it sounded like his…heart, well his mind at least, had been in the right place. I exhaled slowly. "I get it, I do. You were protecting me in your own way, no matter how high handed I think it was." I said giving him a little smile.

He didn't speak for a few moments.

"I was certain you would be angry with me. I thought you would think I didn't…care for you enough. That I had betrayed you in some way. I didn't want that." He sounded miffed. I reached my hand over, grasping his with my own. His cool slender fingers intertwined with my own warm ones.

"Had this happened a few months ago, maybe I would have. But I feel like I've grown up a lot lately, and believe it or not, I can see your reasoning. Maybe it's the blood bond, who knows." He was silent for a few moments, and I peeked at his face to see his expression. The surprised look never failed to surprise me. Until our…relationship had begun, I had hardly seen that emotion across his face. It seemed like I was going to keep seeing it, the way things were going. Eric spoke slowly,

"It isn't the blood bond, lover. I could technically control you through it, make you have feelings for me, but I would never. I would rather meet the sun than change anything about you." This particular speech took me by surprise for a change. I smiled.

"Well, thanks. But I'm not ready to jump into a marriage, a legal one anyway," I said cautiously, "But I feel that we might be able to make this thing work." I said smiling at him. He gave one in return.

"We are here." He said, abruptly making a sharp right. He pulled up to a gate with the emblem "EN" covering the front, and rolled down the window the punch in the code. At once the gates swung open and Eric drove up the long winding path. I looked out the window the see small lights illuminating the winding driveway. When we came to a stop in front of the house (if you could call it that), I was sure my jaw dropped.

It was a mansion. A colossal, envying, jaw-dropping mansion. It was gothic in style, out of character for the Shreveport area, but not so out of character for my former Viking vampire. It was made of stone, in different shades, and had countless spiraling towers, balconies, and other architecturally appealing aspects. Not that I knew a whole lot about architecture, but I could tell this was a bona fide European style mansion, complete with lots of dark wood trimmings. Startling me out of my scrutiny, Eric opened the door for me, but instead of simply helping me out, he swung me up into his arms to carry me into the house. Over the threshold if you will.

In his excitement, human speed was too slow for him, so the glimpses I caught of the house as we rushed by proved to be just at luxurious and ornate as I imagined. We were suddenly in his room as he let me down gently, closing the heavy oak door behind him, his eyes on my face as I looked around.

The bed was the first thing I noticed of course. Not that I couldn't help it, the thing was huge and took up most of the room. It was a four-poster larger-than-king sized bed facing a fireplace lined with stone. My eyes drifted northward to see an absolutely huge oil painting of Eric, in what I assumed to be an outtake from the calendar. He was lying in a bed propped on his side, gazing into the camera with one leg bent and a white fur blanket draped over his knee. The sight of that painting alone made me weak with lust.

With great difficulty I turned away from the magnificent painting back to Eric. He was simply standing there, his hands relaxed at his side, his face giving me a questioning look.

"What do you think?" He asked in that deliciously deep voice. I shivered, but it had nothing to do with the temperature. I lifted one leg up to pull the shoe off my foot slowly as I answered,

"I think…" I mused, dropping both the shoes on the floor, "Its you." He seemed pleased by my answer.

"What, no carrying on about the size? No inspecting the silver to see how much its worth? " He asked tilting his head at me. But before I gave a biting remark about how I wasn't that sort of woman, I saw the slight smirk to his face, and knew he was kidding. Eric really has changed. I shrugged, lifting my hands slowly to my hair messing it up slowly, feeling the burning heat of his gaze cover my body as I did so.

"Oh I'm sure its fine," I said breezily, "There are other things I would like to inspect first…" I trailed off while backing up slowly. Eric mirrored my actions.

"Yes, Miss Stackhouse what could that be?" He said softly, the intensity of his gaze making me feel hot all over. I continued backing up until the backs of my knees grazed the edge of the colossal bed. I scooted backwards onto it, purposefully spreading my legs just a bit, enough for him to catch a glimpse.

"Oh I don't know…the softness of this bed for one thing. It looks awfully…pleasurable." I said seductively. The hungry look in his face proved it was working. His fangs had come out and he licked his top lip in a seductively hungry way. Right now he was looking at me as if I were the delectably plump gazelle, and he were the starving lion. It gave my body chills.

"Shall we test it together?" He asked, almost to the bed now. I held his gaze for a moment before deliberately biting my bottom lip and flicking my eyes back towards his. That did the trick. He crawled onto the bed until he was in between my legs, raised up over me. "The things you make me…feel…" He whispered in my ear before descending on my mouth in a frenzy. I responded back eagerly, wrapping my legs around his waist, pulling the lower part of his body closer to me while simultaneously pulling his head down to mine.

I gripped his hair with both fists and pulled him even more to my mouth, desperate to be drowning in him. I disengaged our mouths a bit only to slowly and deliberately bite his bottom lip while staring him in the eye. His eyes widened slightly and I saw his nostrils flare with arousal. Before I could say 'Bubba,' he flipped us over, adjusting under me to where I was straddling him.

"Lift your arms, lover." He said urgently. I did as he commanded and with a woosh he pulled the dress up over my head with one quick movement. Too impatient to bother unhooking it, Eric ripped my bra into two pieces and threw them somewhere in that huge room of his. "I'll buy you a new one." He murmured softly before eagerly sucking on my breast, making hungry noises. I arched my back reveling in the pleasure I was experiencing from that and the feeling of his pants straining against me from under us. The clothes seemed to be a problem for him too. But as he raised a hand to pull his shirt off I stopped him with a seductive,

"Let me."

I kissed him slowly this time, licking his bottom lip as I pulled away. I then placed my mouth over what I knew to be a soft spot on his neck as I sucked and nipped. He shuddered below me with pleasure. I then trailed my lips southward as I pulled his shirt up over his head and throwing it across the room. Once again I descended down his perfectly sculpted chest planting kisses as I went, until I reached his belt. Within a few seconds I had his belt unbuckled and I slid his jeans down off of him, leaving a trail of kisses as I worked my way back to his mouth, being sure to give a little extra kiss to his special friend. I felt his own hands grasp my buttocks as he ripped the thong off of me. Finally we were both naked.

He rolled over again to where I was pinned under him, his gracious plenty madly pressed against my slick nub, his chest pressed against my breasts. It made me whimper with anticipation as he deliberately slid back and forth inching in bit by bit. We locked eyes as he suddenly plunged in taking my breath away with pleasure. I wrapped my legs around him as tight as I could, as he pounded and thrust. My back arched in primal lust as I cried out with each thrust. His mouth found mine again, and was contrastingly sweet with the rough and raw lovemaking we were experiencing. I let out a guttural sound as he gave a particular thrust, driving me crazy. I grabbed his hair in my hands and yanked his head back, and was satisfied to see the desired effect. He thrust more wildly, as I struggled to keep up.

"Watch." He groaned as he turned his fangs towards my breast. As he bit and sucked I felt the intense pressure within me, and as I had my wild release I let loose what mostly resembled a hysterical scream of pleasure. Just a moment after, he had his own release yelling something in a raw voice. He collapsed on top of me, still inside me.

We lay like that for a few moments until he gently removed himself, lying next to me. He pulled me to where I was sprawled across his chest, our legs intertwined as close as possible. He kissed the top of my hair softly, then did so again. We didn't speak for a few minutes until Eric broke the silence.

"You really are the best you know." He said in a tight voice, as if he were straining not to sound too emotional. I smiled and lifted my head up resting my chin on his chest as I met his gaze.

"You can't mean that…" I trailed off, finally voicing my disbelief at his statement. He sat up straighter lifting my chin with his finger and pulling me to where I was unconventionally sitting in his lap, his arm tightly wrapped around my waist.

"Oh, yes. You must believe this. I wouldn't say so if I didn't mean it." I mulled this over. That was certainly true. Though Eric may have at times kept things from me, he never lied to me. Not that I knew of anyways, a small part of my mind said. I ignored it, trying to focus on the happy moment between us.

"That's true." I agreed kissing his jaw line softly. I felt his hands trailing upwards until he found my breasts and began squeezing them, pinching my nipples purposefully. I looked at him with a small smile. "Already?" He looked down at me with a serious face.

"Oh yes. And this time, I will make you scream my name." He threatened as he scooted us back where he was propped up against the pillows and I was straddling him. Already I felt that low and intense throbbing, and was surprised at my own readiness as well. He gently lifted my hips and sank me slowly down on him. I cried out as I felt that delicious sensation. I began moving my hips, my arms locked around his neck, my mouth on his. This was a different kind of lovemaking. It was soft and tender, but no less pleasureable in its own way.

He guided my hips as the moved, both of us enjoying the increasing friction. I picked his wrist up and bit hard, sucking out a small amount of blood, since we were close to the amount I could take from him. He groaned loudly, his thrusts beneath me causing me to rise and fall with an increased and frenzied pace. I leaned backwards, my hands gripping the fur covers on either side of his thighs. I moved faster, feeling him bucking from underneath me. I was moving wildly now, overtaken by the waves of pleasure crashing down all around me. I felt him grip my hips hard and yank me towards him. That was it for me.

True to his promise, I breathily screamed his name over and over, almost sobbing as orgasms rocketed out from within me. As he exploded he hoarsely yelled my name loudly before clasping me to his chest as we both fell back into the fur and sheets. From a table next to him, he leaned over and grabbed a remote. Pressing a button the room was filled with a soft music that consisted mainly of drums. It relaxed me completely. We stayed like that for an immeasurable amount of time, me lying in his arms, the both of us lost in our own worlds of thought. But like anything good thing in my life it had to come to an end. And that came in the form of a series of loud knocks on the bedroom door.


A/N: I don't own anything, Charlaine Harris does. Lucky lady. Hope you enjoyed it, please leave some love and review. Next chapter soon depending on how many reviews I get, wink wink =) I wonder who could be at the door? Hehe, I can't wait.