The pillow couldn't muffle Sookie's roar of laughter as she buried her face and clutched at the tangled sheets around her. She kicked her leg against the bed in glee and shook her head from side to side. She felt his hands trail up her body, tracing the curve of her hip to tickle her bare rip cage and she shrieked and turned to face him.

He was propped up on his elbow, grinning at her, and her laughter finally quelled as she took in his naked form and rumpled hair.

"Well," she said, sitting up and crossing her legs, feeling strangely unselfconscious about her vulnerable exposure. "If you don't approve of that power, how about flight?"

Eric crinkled his nose critically. "Flight's not a superpower."

"Yes it is," Sookie protested and pushed against his shoulder. "I would be a superhero if I could fly!"

"I could fly," he said wryly. "Does that make me a superhero?"

"You also had super speed, strength, and eternal life," she teased. "So Superman, what would you pick if you could have any power?"

He tapped his chin thoughtfully and she snorted. "How about," he grinned wickedly at her. "X-ray vision?"

"Mmhm. That way you can see all your dayman Bobby has to offer when you're around him. Hot stuff." She wiggled her eyebrows and he laughed.

"How about telepathy then? That would be useful for me."

"More like a curse."

"A curse?" He stroked her leg absently.

"That's what it's been for me. Imagine going through your whole life hearing everything other people were thinking about you. Even if you think you're perfect," she tugged at his hand playfully. "There are bound to be other people who don't. They'll think about how you're stupid or ugly or crazy and it will eat away at you until you're not sure where their thoughts end and yours begin. Or you'll hear the awful, dirty things they want to do to you," her voice was soft and her eyes unfocused. "Or to someone else and you never know if they're really going to try these sick things or not. People's minds are scary, private places where they think things that are too depraved to say aloud. Telepathy lets you hear everything you'd never want to and what you find out, it will haunt you in your dreams."

Eric's fingers twined with hers. "I am sorry that you've suffered so."

She smiled at an attempt of indifference. "You get used to it."

His eyes studied her for another moment, taking in her sadness. "You could try reading my mind again," he suggested, watching her face for any hint of a smile. "I promise I don't think bad thoughts about you, or at least not bad in a bad way."

Sookie laughed and sprawled out next to him. She traced her fingertip across his stomach, feeling the muscles jump and contract at her ministrations. "Your thoughts are different," she said finally.

"Different?" He brushed her hair off her shoulder. "Different how?"

"Well," she responded slowly. "Usually they're like everyone else's. Like now, if I lower my guards I can hear what you're thinking," she grinned at him as she read his mind and he grinned back. "But," she continued, wiggling away from his suggestive touch. "When you get passionate about something, when you have a lot of emotions, I can see them."

"See what?"

"You're emotions. I can literally see them, Eric. It's not like anything I've ever experienced. It's like your feelings consume you and they reach out to me, I can feel them. It's…it's amazing."

Eric was silent for a minute and then asked, "They don't hurt you? Overwhelm you?"

"No," she said quickly. "Well maybe a little overwhelming, but in a good way. In a, 'there's no need for rational thought right now' way." She smiled shyly at him. "I like it."

They sat quietly and held each other for a while, the quiet and still of the atmosphere settling comfortably over them. After a while, Sookie said, "we should get up. We've been in bed for way too long."

She reached over to her nightstand to grasp at her clock and knocked over a book that she had been reading. She contorted her body to half slide off the bed and reach for it. Eric watched her appreciatively and she did an exaggerated bow when she righted herself.

"Okay," she said. "Ready to get up?"

"What's this?" He took the book from her hand as an obvious attempt to distract her. "Is this the book you were reading yesterday?"

"Yes," she sighed.

"What's it about?"

"Oh, you know, it's pretty typical. This man, Tristan, is in love with Esmeralda, but Esmeralda is bound by family ties to another man." Sookie's voice sped up as she recounted the tale. "You see, Tristan is the better man, but he doesn't have money like the Duke, that's the man Esmeralda is promised to, and so her father won't allow her to be with Tristan, even though she really adores him. But then, this evil man kidnaps Esmeralda for himself and the Duke isn't brave enough to go after her! So Tristan, he takes this journey across a desert to find her and save her even though he knows he can never be with her. He ends up killing the man who took her, but he dies in the process."

Eric blinked at her. "That is the most ridiculous plot I have ever heard."

"What? No, it's romantic!"

Eric tossed the book back onto the table. "It sounds stupid and illogical."

Sookie laughed. "Oh, Eric. Love makes you do stupid things." She patted his arm and made a move to stand. "Now come on."

"No," Eric protested and wrapped a firm hand around her waist. "We haven't been here long enough. Stay with me."

"But I'm hungry!" She picked up each one of his fingers on her skin individually. "We have to eat. We can't just stay in bed forever. Aren't you hungry?"

"Yes," he pouted then smiled. "But for something sweet."

"Sweet?"

"Yes, like fruit or," his eyes lit up. "Ice cream!"

"Ice cream?" Sookie snorted. "We can't have ice cream for breakfast." He stared at her unblinkingly and her eyes widened. "We can't," she insisted again. "It's too…naughty."

"After everything we've done together, I would think you'd have a much more advanced concept of what being naughty really looks like." She blushed. "Come on, Sookie. Live a little." He rose from the bed and walked naked to the door while Sookie unabashedly enjoyed the view. "I'll be right back," he turned to face her in the doorway and smirked. "Don't you go anywhere."

He returned with some strawberries and a pint of ice cream tucked under his arm. "Out of the carton," Sookie squeaked and Eric wiggled his eyebrows at her and climbed back onto the bed.

"Time to walk on the wild side, Sookie." He handed her a spoon and watched while she gleefully dug in. She closed her eyes in pure bliss.

"Mm. Now this is breakfast." Her eyes focused on him as he nibbled a strawberry. "To think, you're a novice at this whole human thing and you already have this figured out."

He chuckled and let a scoop of ice cream melt on his tongue. "What can I say? I'm good at being bad."

Feeling overcome by the delicious combination of ice cream and his company, Sookie leaned over and kissed him lightly on the mouth. Eric dropped his spoon in the container so that he could weave his hand through her hair and deepen the kiss. Her tongue was cold against his and he moaned into the embrace. 'So perfect.' Hearing his thought, Sookie pulled away self-consciously.

"What's wrong?" He was panting slightly.

"Nothing, it's just," she put the ice cream and bowl of strawberries onto her nightstand. A glob of milk ran down the side of the container and spilled onto her book. "I know that you've been with hundreds of women. Thousands maybe." She twisted her hands. "I know I can't possibly compare." Embarrassment reddened her cheeks.

Her confession hung heavy in the air and she looked down in shame.

"Sookie," very gently, he lifted her chin. His eyes, more green than blue at the moment, regarded her tenderly. "You are perfect. I could not imagine there ever existing anyone greater than you. Anyone that could make me feel half as good." He kissed her then, softly and delicately, as if she were a fragile treasure he was afraid to break.

"Eric," she whispered and her throat was tight. She buried her head in his neck and wrapped her arms around him.

His lips were pressed against her ear and his heartbeat thumped against her cheek. Yearning to feel more of him, she shifted and touched her lips to his, their tongues dancing with each other. One of Eric's hands cradled the back of her head and neck and the other slipped down her side as the pressure of his body dipped her back. He hovered over her when she made contact with the mattress and she smiled against his lips as he took control.

He sucked her bottom lip and she arched herself against him as his teeth scraped with just enough pressure to sting. His mouth seemed to be everywhere as he kissed along her neck and down to her breasts.

"Eric," she said again as his tongue dipped around her belly button. He took the time to worship every inch of her until she was whimpering and writhing beneath him, then he grazed her lips one more time and slid down her body.

He nudged her thighs open and she gasped when he put his mouth on her. Her fingers tugged on his hair and he placed a hand on her wriggling hips to steady her.

"Oh," she panted. "Oh, please… don't… don't stop."

His tongue lapped at her honey and when she looked down at him, his eyes were on her, dark with desire, watching her come undone. She felt she had never seen something so erotic.

He moved his mouth to her clit, swirling around the sensitive nub as he slid a finger into her dripping sex.

"Oh, God." His mind was open to her again, the colors charging the space around her: a deep pink, the edges tinged with lavender and streaked with yellow. She felt as though his emotions were lifting her from the bed, nuzzling her and wrapping themselves around her.

"Ugh," she threw her head back at the sensations consuming her. "I can feel you," she sobbed. "Eric, I can feel you!"

His fingers curled deep within her and his teeth skimmed over her tender flesh. She fell apart, wailing and clutching at anything within reach, her hips rising off the bed with her spasms.

Her senses tingled as she began to recover from her high, and he soothingly caressed her oversensitive body until her breathing began to slow. He trailed soft kisses up her body until he was pressed against her.

"So beautiful," he purred and when his lips met hers, she could taste herself on his tongue. A guttural moan escaped her lips and she marveled at the fact that such a wanton noise could emerge from within her.

She was ready for him, and he slid into her with a groan of his own. He remained still within her, her walls clinging to him like a glove. He withdrew and thrust back in and a chill swept through her body at his cry.

"So beautiful," he repeated in a husky voice. "So perfect."

After another moment, he began to find a rhythm and Sookie clung to him as if he were her lifeline. The way he continuously murmured her name and gazed at her set her aflame and she felt herself rapidly losing control.

Her walls began to clench around him and he cried out in a language she didn't know and shuddered against her. She rubbed his trembling back and whispered in his ear as he rested against her.

He regained his breath and rested next to her. She lay on her stomach and placed an arm on his abdomen.

"What?" She asked when he muttered something.

"Nothing, I was just…I was just thinking about Shakespeare again."

"Again," she smiled and rested her chin on her arm. "I never realized you were such a fan."

"I wasn't really," he looked down at her as she lounged on his abs. "But I think I'm beginning to understand him better." She gave him a questioning look and he continued, "Swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circled orb," his voice held a hint of a time and place far away and she watched him in awe. "Juliet is Romeo's sun," he caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. "Just as you are mine."

Sookie placed her cheek against his hot skin and let herself be lulled into a dreamy state as her head rose and fell with the rhythm of his breathing. She reflected on the fact that a few months ago she would have been in bed with Bill, refusing to go anywhere near Eric romantically. Despite her attraction to the blond vampire, she had been so certain that he was evil that she convinced herself not to trust him. Bile had risen in the back of her throat at the thought of him.

Now look at them. She couldn't remember ever feeling so content with another man. Being able to truly be herself with someone and feel loved and accepted in return for her honesty. This was a gift that few people ever got the opportunity to experience.

She flirted with the idea of bringing all of this up to Eric; laughing with him over their previous tiffs and her avoidance of him. She wondered if she should mention his choice to become vampire again. Now that things had obviously changed between them, they should at least figure out what was going to be happening to them, prepare themselves for what was to come, discuss options. She wanted to know where she would fit in his world, whether it was a human or a vampire life.

Eric picked up her hand and she turned to look up at him as he slowly kissed each pad of her fingers. The tenderness of his actions swelled inside her chest and in that moment she decided not to say anything to him, at least not now. She would allow them at least one perfect day together; they both deserved that.

She snuggled against his chest and he kissed the palm of her hand one last time before tucking it against his chest, their hands intertwined right over his beating heart.