Chapter 8

Sookie didn't get up until late the next morning. She drank her coffee and ate some toast and did the few chores that needed doing and then decided to take the rest of the day off. She wished it was warm enough that she could lie out in her skimpiest bikini on the chaise lounge all afternoon. Somehow that felt less lazy than lying on the couch watching television. Like she was accomplishing something. But the tv was what she had to work with.

It generally kept her company most nights that she didn't work. She had rarely seen Sam on her days off after she'd broken up with him. Basically, she had rarely seen anyone on her days off, unless she had some errands to run. And at work, she had only really had Sam. Holly was ok, but they were a long way from good friends. Arlene hadn't really spoken to her since Rene had gone to jail. Lafayette was dead. The new girls were just out of high school and cliquey. Sookie liked chatting some with her customers, but she had been trying not to notice how lonely she'd been for a long time.

But not any longer. Now she just had to pass a little bit of time watching tv until she saw her vampire again. She was afraid that she was almost in love with him three nights after they'd met.

And she was afraid that she was lying to herself about the almost.

There was a police procedural marathon on one of the cable channels and she decided to watch that. She liked to solve the forty-two-minute mysteries. She thought that she was pretty good at it, too. She almost always figured it out before the end.

Sunset came early the first week of January and Eric had made no noise coming down the stairs from the attic. She was in the kitchen cutting up the frozen pizza that had just come out of the oven. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. He inhaled deeply.

"Mmm… You smell delicious."

She smiled and wrinkled her nose. "I don't know why. I haven't had a shower since the one we had together last night, and Lord knows I got lots of exercise. I think you're just smelling the pizza."

He laughed into her neck and then kissed it again. "Its scent is pleasing, but human food does not smell remotely appetizing. But you…"

He moved his nose up to her hair and sniffed again. "You smell like sweetness and sunshine."

"Sunshine? I haven't left the house except to hang a load of clothes on the line and then bring them in."

He nuzzled into the crook of her neck again and she giggled. It tickled a little. He held her tighter around her middle and tickled her some more with his nose. She tried to bunch up her shoulder and pull away, laughing harder.

"Cut it out!"

He did and let her turn around in his arms. She put hers around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. She forgot all about the pizza and just wanted to taste him. After just a couple of minutes, he pulled away and smiled.

"Eat. I will have some synthetic blood with you, but I would love to have just a taste of yours when we make love." He couldn't help but sniff her again. "Delicious."

She put a couple of pieces of pizza on a plate and got herself a bottle of coke out of the fridge. Eric heated some True Blood and followed her into the living room. He sat down on the couch and she snuggled up next to him after she put a video tape in the VCR. He put his arm around her shoulders and she looked up at him and smiled.

"It's season one of Buffy. I think you'll like it."

He did. He thought it was hilarious. She just enjoyed watching him enjoy himself and she spent a lot of the evening looking up at him. Sometime during the second episode, he glanced down and caught her. He smiled and it made her heart ache. He was so beautiful. His smile was so wide and sweet and pure. He was looking at her the same way that she was sure that she was looking at him.

She paused the show and turned around and knelt on the couch facing him. She leaned forward and kissed him gently.

"I'm going to have to go to sleep earlier tonight. I have to be at work in the morning and I'm already tired. Will you take me to bed and make love to me?"

He smiled that dazzling pure smile that almost looked innocent and her heart skipped a beat. He was standing with her in his arms so fast that she got a little dizzy. He carried her into her room and laid her on the bed and peeled off her clothes. He was only wearing the expensive jeans he'd been wearing on New Year's Eve, slung low on his hips. He slid them down and they pooled around his ankles and kicked them off. He climbed onto the bed and kissed her, and they kissed for a long time before they made love and then made love again.

After, she lay in his arms, snuggled against his side with her head pillowed on his shoulder. Eric smiled. He could feel that she was in love with him, or very close to it. He felt the same way about her. He rolled over so that they were face to face. Her left leg was now bent over his right hip instead of thrown over his thighs. He closed his eyes and kissed her slowly with soft lips that were only slightly parted. The kiss lingered. It was a lover's kiss, for after the fire had been dampened. At least for a little while.

He pulled away and they got lost in each other's eyes a little bit. She smiled first and he smiled back, reaching up and tucking her hair behind her ear and stroking down her cheek with the backs of his knuckles. He leaned forward and kissed her again.

The kiss turned deep and passionate and the flames roared back to life. He pushed into her. He couldn't go very deep in this position — facing each other, side by side — but that was just fine with Sookie. This was just right. The sex was slow and leisurely and… meaningful. Powerful, even, as gentle as it was. When they weren't kissing, they were staring into each other's eyes.

Her orgasm came on slowly, building and building until she finally fell over the edge. He wasn't quite done, though, and he bit her a couple of minutes later. She came again and so did he.

He rolled onto his back and she snuggled up against his side again. They just held each other for a time. A few minutes later, she said, "Eric, is it true that vampires can heal humans with their blood?" She sounded a little tentative.

"Yes. It can be taken internally or applied topically. It is much more powerful when it is consumed, but it also creates a connection between the human and vampire."

She thought for a moment. "What kind of connection?"

"The vampire can feel what you are feeling and can follow his blood to find you."

She played with the hair on his chest for a bit, thinking about their first night together. None of his kisses had tasted so salty and sweet since, but she just wasn't sure. "I don't think I'd be ready for something like that."

He smiled a little, in the dark. Ready or not, she'd had his blood — and he'd had some of hers — on that very first night when they'd kissed and he had healed her tongue.

After another minute or two, she said, "I hate to ask, but will you heal the bites on my neck? People at work would find it really out of character for me and they would talk. A lot. Merlotte's is busy and Bon Temps is small, and it would be all over the parish in a day and a half. I'm afraid that the wrong person might hear and think of you and connect it all together."

He had been a little insulted at first, but what she'd said made sense. He wanted to keep their secret, too. He pressed his hand against the bite on the inside of her thigh and then ran it up her body to cup her breast, stroking the bite there with his thumb.

"These, too?"

She bit her lip and shook her head. Her eyes burned for him. He smiled and kissed her and then bit his tongue and slowly licked the bites, first on one side of her neck and then the other. She moaned. Soon, they were making love again.

The next day at work wasn't quite as bad as the one before. She kept her purse in her car and stuck her coat in the stockroom first thing. Andy was a jerk, but she just tried to avoid him and not to let it bother her. It wasn't even that hard; she was sort of floating around from place to place.

But by one o'clock, she was actually looking forward to being sent to go and do something menial. Unfortunately, it was busy and she was needed on the floor. People had noticed the dreamy look on her face and had made some assumptions. She'd heard lots of theories about who she was sleeping with and had seen far too many dirty thoughts about her, naked, with some nameless faceless man. Or worse, with someone she knew.

There was a lull around three, after the lunch crowd left and before the after work crowd arrived, and Sookie took her lunch break. Tack cooked her up a chicken basket and she ate it at a table in the corner.

Andy walked into the bar from his office in back. He saw something out of the corner of his eye and then whipped his head around to focus on it. A piece of paper had been thumbtacked onto the bulletin board. He walked over and ripped it off. His face was bright red.

"And just what in the hell is this? I told those assholes yesterday that they weren't allowed to hang this shit up in my bar."

Holly dropped her head and said, "Sorry, Andy. I didn't know. I'm taking my break now."

She untied her apron and walked down the hall to the employee entrance. Andy crumpled the paper into a ball and glared at Sookie.

"Your break is over. Go and get me a case of Budweiser."

Sookie looked at the clock and then at her lunch that was only half eaten. She still had more than ten minutes left, but she got up and brushed her hands against her thighs, sweeping the salt and crumbs off of her fingers. She carried the dirty dishes into the kitchen and headed for the big beer cooler in back.

Fetching the Bud was the last chore that Andy had her do. Holly didn't come back and Sookie was soon swamped. The seven-to-three shift from Norcross started pouring in and she was crazy busy until she handed her tables off to Arlene at just past five. At least she'd gotten some decent tips.

Sookie smiled as she headed down Hummingbird Road. Eric would rise soon after she got home and she couldn't wait to see him. The sex was absolutely incredible, but it wasn't why her stomach felt like it was full of hummingbirds, their wings flapping fifty times a second. She knew that she had it bad.

She walked through the living room on her way to get a shower and eyed the couch. Even if it had been a better shift than the one before, it had still been unpleasant, and she was really tired. She propped some cushions behind her back, leaning against the arm of the couch, and turned the tv on. She thought that she could wait and get a shower with her vampire instead. Maybe after he rubbed her feet.