Apparently Dr. Phil here had nothing further to offer. Whatever. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Stackhouse is off her Zoloft.

I kept trying to calm down, steady my breathing, but I was finding that increasingly difficult with a norse god holding on to me the way Eric was. I chanced a glance at him. I didn't need telepathy to know he was thinking I was crazier than bat shit. Exhausted, I slumped against his body. I've had one rough night.

Once the doors opened, I began rummaging in my purse for the key card. Upon approach, I laid my forehead against the hotel room's door and hesitated. With a loud sigh I slid the card in the slot and walked in. I tossed my purse into the chair and shrugged out of my blazer. As I sat to pull off my boots, I noticed Eric leaning against the door frame, arms crossed and looking bemused. "Aside from the blatantly obvious, is there a problem?"

"Not at all. I'm growing accustomed to leaning against your room's door frame. Some day, I hope to be invited in."

"Oh, shit, Eric. Sorry. Come on in." He looked triumphant as he crossed the threshold and sat down on the bed next to me. Jeeze. At least he left room for the Holy Spirit. Boundaries much? With a final yank, my last boot was off. I got up to rummage through my suitcase and pulled my pajamas out. Ordinarily, I wouldn't be caught dead in front of one of my subjects in anything but business attire. Tonight was special. I'd lost my damn mind and I am not proceeding any further in anything short of comfort. And that means vickie secret velour pants and a tank top. The end.

Without a word, I looked to Eric and pointed to the bathroom door as I approached it. He nodded. The less I open my mouth tonight, apparently, the better. I shut the door and stared at myself in the mirror. I gave myself dirty looks, pointed my own finger at my reflection, rolled my eyes and silently chastised myself. Dear god in heaven, I hope he doesn't have x-ray vision too. I don't hear any laughter, so I think he might not. Then again, he could be dialing the number to the funny farm right now. Good. Maybe I need a visit. I ran my fingers through my hair and pulled it into a knot on my head. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and resisted the urge to emerge with my face covered in a clay mask just for shits and giggles. Once I had changed into my pajamas, I opened the door and deposited my clothing into the suitcase. I tried to ignore Eric checking out my butt as I bent over, but couldn't resist. "Northman, you want to pull out your phone and take a picture, or do you prefer I maintain the pose?"

"Do. Over."

"Right. Sorry." With resignation, I plopped my ass on the bed, stole the pillows from behind Eric and added them to my pile. Relaxing against the mountain of fluff, I finally tried to relax. Eric turned and looked at me expectantly. What am I missing? I cocked an eyebrow up and gave him a "what did I do now?" expression.

"Initially, I wanted to discuss our ground rules and finish our conversation from my office in general. Now that you flipped out in my car and committed a felony on the valet, I was hoping an explanation might be forthcoming."

"What, specifically, did you want me to explain, Eric?" Narrow it down, man. I haz a lot of `splainin to do.

"You want me to go in chronological order, order of importance to my curiosity or in order of the varied levels of crazy?"

"I'm still hopped up on adrenaline, Northman. Watch the references to crazy."

"Why did you ask for us to start over?" Ouch.

"Do you have any easy ones to get out of the way? A more gentle approach?"

"That kid downstairs is likely still wearing your boot print on his groin and you want gentle? Why did you go after the valet?" Yikes.

"I felt like I didn't give you a chance. From the onset, I wanted to dislike you. You're a vampire for crying out loud. I had this vision of a blood sucking fiend from beyond the grave, and then you walked into the bar that night. Immediately, I found you attractive. Well, you know that. But that made it worse to me. I was anticipating meeting a monster and instead I get you. You're smart, you have some morals and you look like a viking god." His eyes sparkled with intensity. "Don't get all excited over there. Your arrogance gave me a lot to work with when it came to thinking you were an asshole. Anyway, watching you interact with other people tonight made me realize that I was wrong."

He was puzzled. "Why did you say those things to Pam?"

"She pegged my feelings and it pissed me off. I wanted to deflect her." Eric choked and turned his face away from me. He brought his fisted hand up to his lips and began to shake slightly. Is he crying? What the hell? As I sat up to look around to his face, he burst at the seams and began laughing. Laughing very hard. "Why are you laughing at me?"

"Because you tried to deflect Pam. I don't know what is funnier, the fact that you tried or that you thought it was possible."

"Yea, I get that now. Ha ha."

"I don't understand how watching me walk a bar somehow changed your resolve." I blushed. Yep, I could feel the tingling in my scalp and my face burn from my chin to my forehead. And he noticed. "Type O Negative fan?" Shit.

"Am now." Still blushing here. I looked down at my lap, trying to hide my red skin. Eric wasn't having it. He leaned in to my space. I pretended I couldn't tell. When I felt his cool finger tuck a rogue strand of hair out of my face, I shivered. When I looked up, our lips ghosted across one another's. Eric slid his hand behind my neck and gently pulled me closer. I gasped and anticipated his kiss. A slight cramp of arousal twitched in my abdomen. My skin tingled. But he didn't kiss me. He moved his lips around my face, barely touching my skin. I held my breath. Slightly, he tugged at my hair, moved his lips to my ear and whispered, "I pretended I was dancing with you."

"Really?" My response a whisper on the air I'd forgotten I was holding in.

EPOV

"Yes, really." Did she really not get it? I've never wanted someone so much in all of my years. I didn't want to fuck her, I wanted to worship her. I wanted to see how far that blush spreads beneath her clothes. I wanted to have her in rapture. I wanted to hold her in my arms and talk for hours of nothing and everything. How could she not see?

I slid my nose along her jaw line, her ear and down her throat to her shoulder. She smelled divine. I could feel the light peach fuzz on her skin prickle and stand at alert as my skin slid down hers. She was quivering beneath me.

"Eric, this isn't what I meant when I agreed to let you in." I smiled against her soft shoulder, leaned back and pulled her along side me with her cheek against my chest.

"Lover, I think you misunderstand my intentions."

"You just called me Lover, so how off the mark can I be?"

I couldn't help but laugh. She was too much. Her snark bittersweet. "Not tonight, Sookie. But soon."

"Can we go back to ground rules now?" She stiffened a bit.

"Can we continue like this?"

"Maybe." She yawned. I pulled out my phone and saw the time. It was quite late. I tried shifting out from under her so I could make my leave. She put her hand on my chest in an effort to still me. "Stay with me?"

I laid back down and pulled her closer to me. "Until dawn."