Chapter Seven

He must have heard me, his hearing was exquisite, even with the water running over his head. He knew I was there but he didn't turn and it gave me the chance to watch him, and then reach out for him. I let my fingertips trace the muscles on his back, even as my eyes took in every band, and tendon, and every scar. I felt his shoulders relax as my hands brushed down his skin, to come to rest on his hips as I pulled myself against him cautiously. Only then did he raise his head, rivulets of water dripping down his hair, which was growing out slowly from the short cut Pam had given him. He was a god there in my arms as I wrapped them around his front, to hold them, flat palms against his abdomen. I had never seen a man so beautiful, with a body that was so hard, and yet so yielding to me. His skin was warm from the water, and smooth, even over the scars, which I assumed must have been from his human life. I kissed his back and felt him start to slowly turn in my embrace. I tipped my head up to meet his eyes, and they glistened in the moisture of the small room. There was no cruelty there, no anger, no stone, they were the softened jewels that had haunted my dreams and I only hoped that my own could come close to matching his in emotion. I couldn't help it, looking up at him, I parted my lips, begging wordlessly for a kiss, which he forced on my willing body, grinding his mouth against mine, meeting my ferocity as if we two were pulling life itself from each others souls. Mouths and tongues searched for purchase as hands and arms encircled and painted strokes that drew our bodies together. There was no hiding my desperation for him then, he must have been able to feel the heart in my chest pounding for him, and feel the breath in my lungs, the gasps with each surfacing for air. His own needs were plain to me, pressed against my belly, our hips dancing. It was every dream, and it was glorious, and I could not bear taking my mouth from his skin as I kissed him over and over. Finally he pulled me to his chest, holding me there in an embrace, one hand wrapped around my waist, another around my head, as if hiding me from everything else within the circle of his arms. He kissed the top of my head, and rested his cheek there for a few moments.

Somehow, in the tangle of arms he managed to turn off the water, and a hand drew back the curtain. Strong arms lifted me by my waist out of the tub and set me down on the mat, and in a moment he was wrapping me in a white towel. I watched as he retrieved one for himself, trembling at the sight of his body, shimmering with water droplets, and I saw him as the Viking prince then, not knowing where that image had come from. The muscles on his chest matched the strength of the ones I had pawed in the shower, and he cut a 'v' from his shoulders down to his waist, with two chiseled channels running from there, inwards to his arousal. Even as he covered himself in a towel he was the most enchanting thing I had ever seen. His face was serene again, like the statue of a saint, it seemed, awash in bliss, and he reached out to pull the elastic from my hair, letting it fall in a damp curtain over my shoulders.

"Let me brush it for you?" He asked. I don't know how I managed to keep myself upright at his request, because I felt faint even at the thought of it. I nodded, and held out my hand, to lead him to my bedroom, where I had Gran's old vanity table set up with my brushes. He followed me, moving like a ballet dancer with precise steps and perfect tone. I could not take my eyes off him, and thanked God that Gran's vanity had three mirrors, so that even when I sat on the low stool in front of it, that I could watch him; when I was able to keep my eyes open, and when I was not overwhelmed by the ecstasy of his touch.

He took up one of my brushes, and carefully began to run it through my hair, and to my utter amazement he began to sing. It was quiet, almost as if it was an unconscious gesture on his part. I did not understand the language but I kept silent, and closed my eyes to simply enjoy the cadence. It was not a melody so much as a spoken story it seemed, one such as I imagined might have been told by a jongleur in a medieval court. Apparently I had retained a few things from school history classes, or was it English lit? It didn't matter. It was beautiful.

Only when he fell silent, did I dare ask him about it.

"My father would sing it to my mother." He told me, "sometimes he would brush her hair in the evenings, and I would sit at her feet and listen to the tale. Before the servants took me to my own bed, that was." I watched a wistful smile cross his face at the memory.

"What was the story about?"

"The tale of a hero, as so many of them were, who bested monsters and the gods to retrieve his love from death."

"It's beautiful." I told him, and I noticed my own voice had become a little hushed and reverent.

"Thank you."

He finished brushing my hair out, and bent his head to me as I watched him in the mirrors. He pushed the drying strands out of his way, as he kissed the back of my neck. I tensed, expecting the sting of his fangs, but felt nothing but the velvet of his lips. He had noticed my hesitance.

"Don't be afraid of me. I will never take your blood without your permission." He practically purred it in my ear. I felt my insides quiver even more than they had been doing previously. Then he kissed me again.

What the hell was I doing? Probably a question I should have asked myself before I climbed into the shower with him. A lost look crossed my face, reflected three times for him to see. He dropped to his knees beside me, which still put him at eye level with me; damn he was tall and gorgeous, still only half wrapped in a white terry cloth bath towel.

"Is this not what you want Sookie?" He took my hand, and turning it palm side up, ran the tip of his tongue the length of it. Oh God, I felt like I could hardly think straight.

"A month ago." I started to say, as I looked into the ice blue, Nordic depths of his eyes. I stammered as he smiled at me. I began again.

"A month ago if anyone had asked me to describe you Eric, I would have painted you as a self-serving narcissist. Only concerned with other people to the extent that they could further your ambitions."

"Yes?" he didn't deny it, or offer an objection.

"Then I spent four weeks without you, and I found this terrible emptiness in me, thinking that you would never return."

"I am sorry for that Sookie, for the way I had to leave you. But I had to go, and I couldn't risk exposing myself if I was to succeed in destroying Russell. You understand that, don't you?" He stroked my hair, and unconsciously I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch. "I never meant to hurt you."

"I know." I really didn't, I don't think I was understanding much of anything right then, but I wanted to believe it so desperately, and I wanted to continue listening to his voice, and feeling his touch, but I couldn't leave it be, such a big part of me had been hurt by Bill, and as much as I wanted to leave all that behind, the ache tainted me and I was afraid, and so I continued to speak.

"In that four weeks Eric I built up this fantasy about you." I could hardly believe I was saying it out loud to anyone, let alone him. It was like exposing my chest to his blade, daring him to cut me.

"You dreamed of me?" His face said he was intrigued, even flattered. I had to let the statement hang.

"All predicated on that kiss Eric. And now I am scared. Was it all too fast or to naïve?"

"Sookie. Perhaps you think that for someone who has lived a thousand years, that four weeks might seem inconsequential, in fact, it is quite the opposite." His serene smile was back, like a Buddha importing the wisdom of the ages to me.

"You learn," he continued, "after living for this long that every moment is precious, perhaps because you see how the passage of time changes things, or erodes them from memory. You embrace every moment because you do not know when you will lose something precious to you, and because you live to see the ramifications of your choices and actions. You make every moment count."

"You are so different than I ever imagined Eric, before." I wanted to say before you went away, before you kissed me, but it came out awkwardly.

"I hope so. While I cannot deny that at the first it may have seemed as if I treated you terribly, it was not without cause."

All the while he had been speaking to me he had continued to touch me, stroking my hair, or my face, down my neck and shoulders. He might not have been able to glamour me, but his actions had a similar effect.

"How could I not try to send you away upon first seeing you?" I was confused, but I listened. "I knew from my first glimpse of you that you were special."

"The fairy blood." I knew my voice had sounded dejected just then. I was so tired of that genetic curse and the way it had drawn the vampires to me, maybe even the weres as well, what did I know.

"Not that, I had not tasted your blood then, I did not know any of that then. You were intriguing, a mystery. You were a human who could not be glamoured, and one with a burgeoning self-confidence, and so beautiful and innocent. But I couldn't tell you any of that then."

"Why not?" I was so naïve.

"You arrived in my bar, in the company of a vampire who worked for my queen. He resided in my area, and as such, might have been subject to me, but for his attachment to Sophie-Ann. I could not simply announce that I wished to have you as mine Sookie. You made it clear that you were with Bill. I doubted that you knew the full truth of his intentions, but you were quite insistent as I recall." He grinned at me. I remembered back to how rude I had been to him, the terrible things I had said to him, and I was ashamed of myself.

"Besides all that, my queen had an interest in you, and I could not interfere. So I ordered you from my sight because it pained me to see you. Not that it stopped you from returning I might add. You may not have understood, or appreciated the way I treated you, but trust me that everything I did was ultimately to protect you. I granted your requests in my own fashion, which infuriated you, and I made overt advances to you, and I tricked you into taking my blood all so that you might come to think more openly about your situation. I hoped that even a passing thought of me might give you pause."

"It did," But perhaps not soon enough.

"You came to the truth in a hard way Sookie, one I wish I could have spared you from."

"But I wouldn't have believed you then. I had to see for myself."

"And now you have, and you have a choice to make."