A/N Thanks to everyone for the lovely reviews! Lots of you were very excited that Eric was about to surprise Sookie in the shower at the end of the last chapter, let's hope she feels the same way!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

SPOV

As I felt someone get into the shower with me, I shrieked. Of course as I was shrieking I figured out who it was, but Alfred Hitchcock has a lot to answer for.

"Shit, Eric. You scared me."

"Sorry" he said, looking sheepish.

"What are you doing, anyway?"

"Showering."

"No, I'm showering. You're…you're gatecrashing." I loved my showers; if I got up early enough it was a little bit of time all to myself. I guess Eric didn't have that problem.

I looked at Eric. He looked hurt. "Fine, you can stay then seeing you're already in here." He perked up. One bit of him was obviously very perky and poking me in the side. "But I'm not having sex with you in the shower. There's not enough room. And I've got my period. And there's no condoms. So...just, no." There was barely enough room for the two of us just to stand there. I sighed. "Come on, switch places then and you can get under the water."

EPOV

The shower had seemed like a really good idea in my head, but now that I was squeezed in here with some sort of shelf sticking into my back and a very annoyed Sookie, I thought that maybe it wasn't going as well as I'd hoped. Sookie just kept sighing a lot and telling me she wasn't having sex with me. I was doing my best to keep my cock under control, but really, when she was right there, all naked and wet, what the fuck did she expect?

She did begrudgingly let me wash her, but she just really seemed uptight about the whole thing. I guessed we wouldn't be doing this again in a hurry. So I decided that I would make the most of this opportunity and I was happily soaping her boobs for the second or perhaps third time. I stepped closer to kiss her which meant that my cock was pressed up against her stomach. When I broke the kiss, Sookie gestured to my cock and said "I'm still not having sex with you."

I was getting a bit annoyed now. "OK, Sookie" I hissed "I get the fucking message. I can't fucking help it though if I find you attractive."

She just looked at me. I braced, expecting her to start yelling at me. But instead Sookie just grabbed my neck and pulled me down for a kiss. Oh.

And then she started stroking my cock, which was even better. She broke off the kiss and looked up at me. She had a look in her eyes which I hadn't seen since the night in my hotel room. Oh fuck, I thought, this is going to be fun.

Sookie brought her other hand up and started using that as well. This was really fucking great. I'd been so desperate for any kind of sexual contact from Sookie that I really wasn't going to last long at all. She was looking down, concentrating intently on her task. I was pretty mesmerised as well, it was hard to know where to look. Watching her hands work me was pretty hot, but the way she was holding her arms in front was pressing her boobs together and the action was making them bounce up and down. And there was water dripping off them. Fuck, that was really hot. I groaned, and then exploded all over us.

I looked at Sookie; she was smiling and seemed to be holding back the giggles. "Feeling better?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Fuck yes, but I'd rather be feeling you." I pressed her against the wall of the shower and buried my head in her neck, kissing and licking. As I kissed my way across the spray of freckles on her collar bone, I slipped my hand between her legs. She ground into my palm. I wasn't sure what the rules were at the moment, but I felt sure this was allowed. Sookie moaned. Yeah, it was OK if I did that.

I started to move my whole hand just slightly, rubbing her clit. Sookie moved her hips and pressed against me. I could hear her breathing getting heavier. I looked at her breasts. Yeah, they were heaving now. Fuck, the water just made everything better. I took a nipple in my mouth. Sookie was really riding my palm now, one leg braced on the wall of the shower, her arms around my neck, my mouth on her breast. She moaned and then sighed out "Ohhh, and she came. I removed my hand and she pressed her whole body against mine.

"See? I knew we could have a good time. You just have to trust me with this stuff." Sookie laughed and slapped me on the butt.

"Yeah, yeah, but we better get out now before the hot water runs out. Come on." With that she moved past me and stepped out of the shower. I didn't want it to end, but I guess there was always tomorrow. I just wished I knew what it was that flicked the switch to turn her into a sex-goddess.

SPOV

I really had to stop molesting Eric every time I felt flattered he was attracted to me. I wasn't sure what it said about my self-esteem, but I couldn't help myself. He's just so gorgeous, and knowing he wanted me was a huge turn-on.

Judging by the smirk Eric had on his face as we were drying off, I guessed I had a new shower-buddy. I didn't know quite how that was going to work the next time I had to shave my legs, because there was sod-all room in there for the both of us.

It was a good thing we got through the shower when we did as Amelia was starting to stomp around, Felicia was yelling for attention and the van with the painters in it was pulling up the driveway.

I had no idea how Eric had found these guys, but they seemed to know what they were doing. Eric hung around and watched them for a while as they set about prepping the room; applying masking tape to the edges, removing the light switch and wall socket covers, sanding the surfaces. Yeah, they knew a lot more about this stuff than Eric did. I was pretty convinced this was the only room he'd ever attempted to paint.

I got everyone breakfast and Amelia ready for pre-school. I suggested to Eric that we take Felicia to Cornwall Park for the morning so we weren't hanging around with the paint fumes, so after we dropped Amelia off I drove us out there. It was nice, although Felicia couldn't be persuaded to crawl on the grass, she'd reach the end of the picnic rug then burst into tears.

I thought we could take her to see the sheep. I'm not sure what Eric was expecting when I said that, maybe a petting zoo? Anyway, we walked through the gate to one of the fields with me carrying Felicia and I said to him "Watch out for the sheep poo."

"What do you mean, sheep poo?"

"Sheep poo. There, see on the ground. All over it. The sheep must be around here somewhere."

"We're in the field with the sheep?"

"Yeah. I said we were going to see them."

"But we're in the same field."

"Well, they're not going to eat us. They're sheep." Honestly, did Eric really think I was going to feed him to wild animals? Sheep I could handle. Cows, however, were a different matter. We were viewing them over a fence if I had any say in the matter.

Eric still seemed confused. "It's a farm Eric. This part of the park is a real farm." I could tell from the look on his face that he couldn't figure out why there was a farm in a park in the middle of the city. He didn't say anything else though, but went back to picking his way carefully through all the sheep poo.

Eventually we found the sheep. It wasn't that hard, it's not like they can open gates and go up to McDonalds or anything. "Look, Felicia! Sheep!"

Felicia looked, then looked at me, then burst into tears. Eric was eyeing them distastefully. "Oh for goodness sake" I said "they're just sheep everyone. Cute fluffy sheep."

Eric pointed. "That one's quite big."

"Yes, but I don't think she's exactly going to come over and try to tackle you." I sighed. "Come on then, let's head back."

We trudged back through the field. I'd thought going to see the sheep was a great idea; obviously I should have brought Amelia with me because these two were a dead loss. I probably shouldn't have been secretly pleased when Eric's shout of "Fuck!" alerted me to the fact that he had managed to step in sheep poo.

EPOV

Mostly Sookie's outings were OK, but every now and again she got odd ideas about going to see fucking wildlife. First it was those feral swans, now it was sheep. I couldn't see the point in sheep, they were just…sheep. They stood around and ate grass. And pooped like there was no fucking tomorrow.

Felicia wasn't impressed with the sheep either, but at least she was being carried by Sookie. I was stuck trying to pick my through the field and of course stepped in sheep poop. There was so much of it that it was pretty impossible to avoid; most of the clear patches of ground weren't big enough for me to actually put my feet down.

Sookie laughed her ass off. I glared at her, trying to wipe my shoe on the grass once we were out of the sheep's field.

"Oh, Eric! Get over yourself. It is pretty funny."

I just glared at her. She came over to me and nudged me with her hip. "Come on, cheer up. We can go and get lunch at the restaurant if you like. I'm sure they're used to having customers who smell vaguely of sheep poo."

"Yeah, OK." Actually lunch did sound good.

SPOV

Eric cheered up over lunch and forgot his encounter with the sheep. I did make him leave his shoes outside though when we got home, I'd have to hose them down later. The painters were just packing up when we got there. They'd done a good job so far and would be back in the morning to do the second coat. Of course they told all of this to Eric and ignored me completely. Maybe it was because he had booked them, but I don't know. I'd forgotten how easy it was slip into the background when you had a man around.

Still, despite the morning's encounter with the sheep I was still in a good mood from dealing with Lorena. And possibly a tiny bit from the shower. So I put Felicia down for her nap and went into the kitchen to put the jug on. And then I said, in my best attempt at a Yorkshire accent, gleaned from years of watching Coronation Street with my mum, "Cup'o tea, love?"

But as soon as the words were out of my mouth I realised what I'd done. That was my thing with Bill, he was the tea drinker. Eric just sort of looked at me and frowned "What?" he asked. I was a bit flustered. "Oh, yeah, um, just did you want a drink? Coffee maybe?"

"No, I'm alright" he said. He was still looking at me oddly. I looked away and went about making myself some tea to cover up what I'd said. I guess it was bound to happen sometime, and it could have been worse. I could have called him Bill or something.

The rest of the afternoon was OK, but I was a bit on edge after that episode. I kept worrying it would happen again. Eric kept looking at me but didn't say anything.

The longer it went without me saying anything else though, the more I started to relax a bit. Surely it was just a one-off thing and I'd be fine?

We picked up Amelia and any chance I had of getting a word in edgewise rapidly disappeared anyway. She wanted to bake, so we made some chocolate chip biscuits while Eric watched Felicia. He wandered into the kitchen when I brought them out of the oven. "Oooh, cookies!" he said.

"You can't eat them yet, Eric, they have to cool down" Amelia lectured. With that she took off to her room.

"Just one?" Eric asked. God, he was worse than Amelia.

"Just wait a bit" I said. So he hovered for a while until I gave in. "Fine, but just don't burn yourself."

So he picked up a biscuit and bit into it, sending a shower of crumbs all over me. Some of them landed in my cleavage. Eric noticed and decided he was going after them. With his mouth.

Just then Amelia walked back in saying "Mummy, can you put this dress on my Barbie." Eric jumped off me like I'd burned him. Amelia just handed me the doll so I could put the dress on.

She didn't say anything else until I handed it back to her, then she looked at Eric. "Mummy used to do that with Felicia, when she came out of her tummy. She had big nipples. Ooh, can I have a biscuit now?"

"Um, yeah, sure" I said. She took one and left again.

I couldn't look at Eric. I just wanted to be out of there, so I left the kitchen and headed to my room.

"Sookie!" Eric called after me, but I didn't turn around. He followed me anyway, and was in the bedroom just seconds after I got there. "Don't be upset" he said.

I was fighting back tears. "I don't want to be upset, but it's just hard. I have this whole other life before you, I have kids that I've breastfed and pushed out of…places, and, I don't know, it's separate to you. It's separate to what I do with you. I just…I just…" I trailed off; I didn't know how to say what I felt.

"You just what, Sookie?"

"I don't know." I shrugged and hoped that was case closed.

"No, you've been odd all afternoon. Ever since that tea comment. This has just added to it. Tell me, please? Otherwise I'll think you'll mad with me again." He smiled at me.

"Oh, Eric. It's just really hard to explain. I just want you to think I'm attractive, not some person with leaky boobs and stitches. That's not what our relationship is about, you know?"

"Not really, you were grumpy with me for finding you attractive in the shower this morning."

"It's just complicated. I have this whole…history, I guess you'd say. Being a mother is a part of that, but my life with Bill is another bit. The tea thing, that was him by the way, well it was what I used to say to him. And up until now, I've been keeping it all pretty separate. But the longer you're here the harder it is. And it freaks me out. Because I worry…I worry…" Now I was crying, properly crying. Eric put his arm around me and didn't say anything. I stopped sobbing and pressed on "I worry that…I'll scare you off or something…" I started sobbing again. If anything was going to scare him off it was probably me crying, but I couldn't stop.

Eric just held me to his chest and let me cry for a while. Eventually I ran out of tears and reached for a tissue, blowing my nose rather noisily. I really wasn't doing myself any favours here.

I glanced at Eric. He smiled at me. "Feeling better now?" he asked. I shrugged. I felt a bit better. A good cry can be cathartic. And being held by Eric was intensely comforting.

"I'm not going anywhere you know" he said. I didn't say anything. "Honestly, if you can't scare me off with, I don't know, dead rats and sheep poop then I don't know what you'd have to use. Plus, who will help you eat all those cookies? I can't leave them all for Amelia. So come on, don't be sad. I fucking hate it when you're sad."

"Yeah, OK. Sadness over. Time to start dinner I guess."

"That's better. What is for dinner by the way?"

"If I stopped feeding you would you leave?"

"Nah, I'd probably just bring you rats until you started again."

I snorted. "Like you'd go near a rat."

"I might. Or maybe I'd just pay Bob in cat biscuits to get one for me."

I laughed. That sounded a lot more plausible. I kissed Eric. "Thank you" I said "Thank you for not being weird when I was."

"No problem" said Eric. With that I headed back to the kitchen to find something for dinner.

So for those who don't know Coronation Street is an English soap set in Manchester. It is amazingly popular in New Zealand for some reason. Oh, and I meant to say at the end of the last chapter, but the Paul Holmes that Sookie mentions to Lorena is a well-known broadcaster who's daughter has battled P (meth) and he's spoken out against it. So Lorena would be aware of how much coverage there'd been of that.

And the sheep poo at Cornwall Park is pretty dire.

Thanks for reading!