A/N Nothing new to say, other than thanks!
Disclaimer: Not mine.
SPOV
When I woke up on Sunday it was like the end of the world had happened. I was alone and the house was eerily quiet. I couldn't figure out for a minute where everyone was, and my headache wasn't helping. Surely if Eric had decided to run away in the middle of the night he wouldn't take my kids with him? No one's that dumb.
So I hauled myself out of bed and, after a quick trip to the bathroom, made it to the kitchen. Amelia and Eric were sitting at the table in the family room, engrossed in the new colouring in books we'd bought her on Friday. I went over to see what they were doing. When we were in The Warehouse I'd been so focussed on just getting Amelia to pick something that I hadn't really paid attention to the fact that in amongst the pile of Tinkerbell, and Barbie and My Little Pony books, she'd included a Hot Wheels one. But now I figured out why. She'd got one for Eric as well. I think she assumed I'd just brought him home to be a kind of playmate for her. No wonder she wasn't jealous of him taking my time, she thought he was hers.
"Morning" I said, going over to kiss Eric. "Oh", he said looking up from his colouring-in, "Hi. We were letting you sleep in."
"I can't believe they didn't wake me up."
"Yeah, you were pretty out to it."
"Mummy, you were snoring!" Amelia interjected. Eric just sniggered a bit, so I swatted his shoulder.
"There's coffee made" he said, so I headed to the kitchen to grab some. Felicia crawled past with a decidedly saggy bottom. "Um, did you change Felicia when you got her up?" I asked Eric.
"Her diaper?" he asked, I nodded. "Yup, I did". He looked really pleased with himself.
"Brilliant, thank you" I said, making a note to deal with it later on. I got some coffee, some water and some ibuprofen and put toast on. Going back over to the table I said "It looks like it's going to be a lovely day, so I was thinking…"
Eric cut me off. "If you're going to say you're going to do laundry, then please don't. You know it will rain in about an hour if you do."
"No, what I was going to say was, we should go to the beach!" I looked at Eric expectantly; he didn't look as thrilled with the idea as I'd thought he would be. "What? You don't like the beach? I thought you came from California?"
"Not the part with a beach."
"Well, it will be fun."
"Are we going to the beach?" Amelia asked.
"Yes" I said, looking at her and not Eric.
"Yay, I'm going to build a sandcastle" she was out of her chair and up the hall before I had a chance to say anything else.
Eric sighed. "I guess that means I'm building a sandcastle too then."
"Yep, you know it."
"So where are we going? Mission Bay? Piha?"
"Too busy and too far away. What beach should we try, ummm…?"
Eric looked at me. "How many beaches are there?"
"Oh, um, tons. We live on a strip of land between two harbours. There are beaches everywhere. Ummm…" Eric was looking at me expectantly as I was running through them all in my head, trying to find something that wasn't too far away or too busy. "Oh, I know. Milford. It's over the Shore, but it's not too far from the motorway, and it's nice and flat."
"Well, if you say so" said Eric, still not looking that enthused.
"Yup, I do. So I'm going for a shower, you can go and get your togs then."
"What togs?"
"Sorry, swimsuit."
"OK" he stood up and wandered off.
EPOV
Apparently going to the beach with Sookie required as much stuff and planning as a military campaign. I don't think we even packed this much to go to Piha. She actually had to make a list for fuck's sake, so she didn't forget anything.
I got the fucking thankless task of trying to fit it all in the trunk of Sookie's car. I walked back to the house and stuck my head in the door. "Can we take the stroller out?" I yelled at Sookie.
"No, Felicia needs somewhere to sleep."
"So, do we need an umbrella and this…beach shelter thing?"
"Yes."
I gave up after that and just tried to make it all fit so we wouldn't have to leave Felicia at home in order to take the cooler with us.
I got back inside to find Sookie applying sunblock to Amelia and Felicia who seemed to be dressed in swimsuits that would have last been in style in about 1900.
"Do you like my togs Eric? They've got flowers on them!" Amelia asked.
"Um, yeah. They're…great." I said. Fuck, I hoped Sookie wasn't going to be dressed like that.
"The sun's pretty harsh here so they have to be covered up" Sookie said "it's just a shame no one knew that when I was a kid, or I could have avoided having all these freckles", she gestured to her arms and chest. I kind of liked her freckles.
"So, do you want me to do you?" she asked, brandishing an aerosol can, which I guess was the sunblock.
"Sookie, you can do me anytime." I said.
She didn't say anything, but lifted my t-shirt and sprayed the sunblock onto my stomach.
"Fuck!" I yelled, jumping back. "That's freezing."
Sookie shrugged. "Yeah, for some reason it's supposed to be cooling. Although surely you only need that if you're already sunburnt, which kind of defeats the purpose. So come on, lose the shirt and we'll get this over with."
"Somehow knowing what you're going to do with that shit takes all the romance out of that statement" I grumbled.
Sookie just giggled, in a slightly fucking evil way. She was enjoying this way too much. She started spraying and I flinched again, causing more evil cackles. I steeled myself, just hoping this would be over with soon.
When Sookie was done I held my hand out for the can. "Your turn" I said.
"No, I've already put some on."
"Cheat." I said. Sookie just laughed.
"So are we ready to go?" I asked.
"Just about, I just need to make sure I've got everything…"
I left Sookie going over her list and put the kids in the car.
Finally we were ready to leave. Amelia was beyond excited by now and she managed to keep up the chatter as we drove out over the Harbour Bridge. I had to admit, if only to myself, that the weather was fantastic and the water looked pretty inviting in the sun.
When we reached our destination, it became clear we weren't the only ones with the idea of going to the beach today, but Sookie managed to find a carpark after a couple of minutes. Sookie took the kids off to find a spot, while I started trying to pull all the shit that I'd jammed in earlier back out of the car.
By the time we were all set up with picnic rug, beach shelter and umbrella we could have practically camped there if required. But apparently it was all necessary and important. I went back to the car to get another load of stuff, while Amelia shouted "I need my bucket and spade!" at me.
Once I had finally retrieved all the contents of the car, I helped Amelia with her building project. Sookie was trying to interest Felicia in the sand, but it wasn't any more popular than the grass.
Sookie was looking fucking good, although I was disappointed she wasn't wearing a bikini. I'd suggested it and been met with a lot of eye-rolling. She was in what was apparently a tankini. And shorts that weren't coming off because 'no one wants to see the tops of my thighs Eric!' Yeah, there was no good answer to comments like that, so I just shut up at that point.
It was getting warmer, so once Amelia and I had finished most of her castle, Sookie wanted to 'go for a paddle'. So we all trooped down to the water, Sookie carrying Felicia and my holding on to Amelia's hand.
Sookie walked straight in up to her knees, whereas I put one foot in and stopped. The water may have looked inviting, but it was fucking freezing.
Amelia looked up at me. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Sookie, who was crouching down to put poor Felicia's toes in the water, looked over. "Is it too cold for you?" she asked.
"No…I'm just making sure Amelia's OK."
Amelia looked at me and then sat down in the water with a splash, which was unpleasant. Sookie laughed at me, while dealing with Felicia who was trying to climb back up Sookie like she was a monkey. "Oh Eric" she said "Harden up for goodness' sake! This is quite warm!"
Felicia really had the right idea I thought. I took a step away from Amelia who was splashing with abandon now. Sookie waded over and handed me Felicia. "Here" she said "you take Felicia back to the shade and I'll stay here with Amelia."
I took Felicia out of her arms and headed back up the beach. I'm pretty sure Felicia looked grateful. Well, she wasn't crying at any rate, so that was a fucking good sign.
After a while Amelia and Sookie came back to join us and it was time for lunch. We had a sticky moment where I thought I'd left something behind because I had no fucking idea that the chilly bin Sookie was asking me about was the cooler that I had jammed in with everything else, but luckily Sookie's panic at not being able to feed everyone was only passing.
The beach was quite busy now. Lots of other family groups, all with the kids wearing various designs of the same neck to knee outfits Amelia and Felicia had on. There were a few young people here and there, and I could see one or two elderly couples walking up and down.
Sookie looked over at me "Who are you checking out?" she asked.
I frowned. "No one." I wasn't, there wasn't anyone else here half as hot as Sookie. Most of the other mothers seemed to have given up and retreated into middle age, but Sookie, well, Sookie looked fucking amazing.
"Yeah, yeah. Of course you're not." Sookie winked at me, which just really made me pissed. Why would I be checking out other women if I was with her?
"No, I'm really not." I was getting a bit louder now, but I didn't care.
Sookie held her hands up in surrender. "Fine, you're not then." She looked over at Amelia who'd gone back to the sandcastle. Unfortunately she'd just been eating watermelon and if she kept on going, there was going to be more sand stuck to her than there was on the beach.
"Come on Amelia, let's go and rinse you off in the sea" Sookie said. She kicked off her flip-flops and took Amelia's off, but they'd only taken a few steps before Amelia yelled "Ow, it's really hot!"
"OK then" said Sookie, "we'll have to run" and they took off down the beach.
Sookie running down the beach was quite a good look, but I wasn't the only one who noticed. Some guy with his two kids who was sitting just down from us was staring at Sookie as she disappeared down the beach. Fucker. His wife was right there too, I bet she was fucking thrilled with him acting as though he was getting his own personal live-action Baywatch.
Sookie and Amelia ran back while I was still staring at him. "What's wrong?" Sookie asked, towelling Amelia down.
"Nothing. Just some total douche staring at you."
Sookie turned around, but of course he was now talking to his wife. "No, he's not" she said.
"Well not now. But he was." Sookie gave me a funny look. "What? He fucking was."
"Eric!" Sookie said, nodding at Amelia.
"Yeah, OK. But he was staring at you as if you were there for his own personal entertainment."
Sookie sighed and sat down. She gave me a look which suggested she thought I was making all this shit up.
"I don't know why you're so prepared to think that I might be looking at anything with boobs, and you can't accept that some other fucking loser is looking at you. You're hot, and you were running on the beach in a swimsuit. What did you fucking expect?"
Sookie started to say something else, but then stopped and just bit her lip. She looked over the other guy quickly, and then looked back at me. "Really? He was looking?" she asked.
"Yes" I said, thankful that I was finally getting through to her.
"Huh" she smiled slightly. OK that wasn't the reaction I wanted. Where was her righteous indignation? Shouldn't she come over all feminist or shit like that?
She looked at me. "Of course I really only want you to watch me when I run up the beach" she said, and she kissed me. I didn't really believe that for a fucking second, but it was a fucking hot kiss, so I'd let it slide. She pulled back, "just don't do anything stupid Eric; you were looking murderous when I got back here."
"Mmm-hmm" I said, mostly listening but watching her cleavage at the same time.
It was time to replenish the sunblock apparently, and the cooling stuff was no less unpleasant now that I was hotter from sitting outside. Still, I finally got my chance to put some on Sookie and I made the most of rubbing the bits of skin she'd let me touch, she wasn't buying the idea that her boobs probably needed sunblock as well.
After everyone had been re-covered, Sookie took Felicia off in the stroller for a walk to put her to sleep and I went back to helping Amelia. Sookie was back pretty shortly and parked the stroller under the trees in the shade so Felicia could snooze in peace. I was feeling pretty tired myself and left Amelia to finish filling the castle's moat and I lay down on the rug. Sookie lay down at right angles to me, with her head on my stomach, watching Amelia run back and forth from the water, which was getting closer now the tide was coming in.
The next thing I knew Sookie was sitting next to me, with Felicia on her lap, nudging me in the side. "Wake up!" she said brightly.
"Not asleep" I mumbled.
"I think we need to talk about your definition of asleep" she said. I opened an eye and looked at her. "So do you want to go and take Amelia to buy an ice cream at the dairy?"
I looked over at Amelia, who was hovering expectantly. "Yeah, OK" I said, and we set off. The sun was beating down now and by the time we walked back to Sookie and Felicia, at the snail's pace that Amelia walked, most of her ice cream had melted all over her. She didn't seem to mind though, and it just meant that she got another dip in the sea to clean off. Sookie asked if I wanted to go too, but I pointed to Felicia and said I'd better stay with her. It just seemed mean to put a baby in all that cold water.
When they got back Sookie took Amelia's swimsuit off and dressed her, then did the same for Felicia. I guess it was nearly time to go home. Sookie then turned to me and said "I'm just going for a proper swim, can you watch these two?"
"Oh, OK." So the three of us sat on the rug and Sookie ran back down to the water. She must have been feeling more confident because she'd even taken off the shorts that weren't supposed to have come off at all. I looked over. Yeah, the same fucker was watching her again, along with a younger guy who'd arrived not long ago with his girlfriend.
Realising I couldn't get caught looking I went back to watching Sookie. At first I couldn't spot her, which was a fucking worry. I really didn't think my life-saving skills were going to be up to scratch if she was drowning out there. But then I spotted her out past the waves, swimming parallel to the beach.
Amelia sighed "Will Mum be much longer?" she asked.
"Probably not" I said. Yeah, I was feeling hot and tired too.
Not too much longer I watched Sookie swimming in towards the shore. She looked like some kind of exotic mermaid or something as she emerged from the water, dripping wet, and then ran up the beach. I decided I didn't even want to fucking count the audience she had for the front view of that.
She grabbed her towel and started drying off. "Wow, that feels so much better" she said.
"Yeah…you're a really good swimmer" I blurted out.
She shrugged. "I come from an island in the South Pacific, it probably pays to be."
"But your parents?" I asked, before realising it might be a question she didn't want to answer, but she didn't seem bothered.
"Well Dad could swim, but Mum, not really. She never wanted to get her hair wet. So probably that didn't help, he would have been trying to save her. Jason and I had lessons though so we're not bad. And we had a swimming pool at home as kids. At the very least, I know I float. Right, I'll dry in the car, let's get everybody packed up."
Amelia and Felicia fell asleep on the way home, hot and tired as they were. Sookie sighed, "I should wake them up so they'll sleep tonight, but it feels mean" she said.
I snorted. "You wake me up though!"
"Yeah, well. I let you sleep for a bit. Honestly you're worse than Bob at falling asleep in the sun!"
When we got home Sookie woke everyone up and there were tears from Felicia and general grumpiness from Amelia. I unpacked the trunk and dragged Sookie's stuff into the house.
Sookie was putting stuff away in the kitchen, still in her swimsuit with a towel around her hips, when Amelia said "Can Eric do my bath tonight?"
Sookie looked at me, "Do you mind?" she asked, looking at me. "I could finish here and then get us a quick dinner if you take the pair of them off for a bath?" I looked from Sookie to Amelia; both of them were looking at me expectantly.
"Yeah, no problem" I said. "Come on, Amelia", I picked Felicia up.
"Thanks heaps" said Sookie, "I'll bring their clean pjs in to you. Just make sure Amelia doesn't try to drown Felicia, some of her cuddles get a bit enthusiastic."
Thankfully Felicia seemed to like the bath a lot more than the sea and she was soon splashing away, which just encouraged Amelia to do the same. When Sookie brought their stuff in, she took one look at how wet I was and just shook her head as she retreated.
Dinner was grilled cheese sandwiches which Sookie had made while I was in the bathroom and both kids were rubbing their eyes by this time, even though it was earlier than their normal bedtime. "It's all that sea air" said Sookie "gets them every time. Well, that and the late night last night I guess."
Once they were tucked away Sookie looked at me. "I feel sticky and sandy and salty and gross, I'm going to take a shower."
"You know I think I do too."
"Fine, come on then."
The shower was still cramped for the two of us, but Sookie didn't complain as much as she used to. She especially didn't complain that much about my cock poking her, which was a fucking good thing as I'd been teased all day by the sight of her in swimwear and it had been a fucking mammoth effort not to get too worked up on the beach. Now I didn't have to worry, so I just concentrated on touching as much of her wet, naked skin as I could.
I was busy washing her when I noticed the red patches on her back. "You should have let me put your sunblock on" I said "you missed some bits of your back."
"Ow, yeah. It feels like it. I never do manage to escape sunburn completely. Maybe I need one of those suits like the kids?"
"No you fucking don't" I said, and kissed her.
"Well I guess maybe you'll have to rub some lotion on it for me before bed."
"That sounds good."
Sookie stepped out of the shower and, after getting the worst of the water off herself, went into the bedroom, still wearing just her towel. When I joined her she was lying on the bed on her stomach holding up a bottle of lotion. "There you go" she said.
I took it from her and poured some into my hands. I thought about just putting it on her cold, but I didn't want to ruin the mood so I rubbed it between my hands before rubbing it into her shoulders and back.
"Mmmm" she murmured "that's very good". I moved down to her ass and spent some time rubbing there as well. Sookie shifted a bit, rubbing her thighs together. I started placing kisses where my hands had been.
"Turn over" I whispered into her ear, and she did. I took more lotion and set to work on her front, even though it had completely escaped sunburn. Her freckles were more pronounced though and I kissed the trail of them along her collar bone, before moving my mouth down to her nipples, taking over from the hands I'd been using to massage her breasts. She sighed and arched her back.
I kissed down her stomach, but instead of parting her legs for me, Sookie sat up on her elbows. I looked up at her. "Your turn" she said, picking up the lotion.
She eyed my erection. "Um, maybe sit on the edge of the bed and I'll do your back." I did as I was asked and she rubbed lotion across my back. I may not have been sunburnt, but it still felt good on my skin. "Stand up" Sookie commanded, and I did. She rubbed my butt, while pressing her breasts into my lower back. Fuck. I wasn't sure how much longer I could last.
"Right, let's do your front" she said. I lay back down and Sookie worked lotion over my chest and arms, then down my thighs, finally placing her hand around my cock and stroking me. I reached over to get a condom out of the drawer and Sookie took it out of my hand before rolling it on. It felt so much better when she did it.
She lay back on the bed and I rolled on top of her, lying between her legs. "Oh, Eric" she moaned, "I'm so ready." Yeah, I was pretty fucking ready too. Between the shower and the massages I was almost ready to explode there and then. I entered her and lay there, still, for a moment. Sookie, however, started moving under me.
"Fuck, Sookie. No fair trying to milk me." She giggled, but stopped, thank fuck, as I didn't think she'd appreciate me being quite that quick.
I started to move and Sookie joined in, with her feet placed flat on the bed and her hips grinding up against me. A few strokes in she was clamping down on me and moaning as she came. I stilled until she opened her eyes to look at me, and then I began moving again. "You" I said "are so fucking hot Sookie. You have no idea what the sight of you in that swimsuit was doing to me on the beach."
"You're not so bad yourself" she said, breathlessly.
"So hot. So fucking hot" I repeated. Sookie just panted, and then she started to moan again as another orgasm hit her. This time I didn't stop, but just kept thrusting as she gripped my shoulders and squeezed my hips with her thighs. I used one hand to grab her fantastic ass and I came, hard. "Fuck" I groaned, resting my forehead against Sookie's for a moment, before pulling out and going to get rid of the condom.
When I got back Sookie was getting into bed, naked, which was a real fucking treat. I joined her and she stretched out. "I don't know what it is" she said "but something about the sand, and the water always turns me on, and just makes me want to be naked."
I propped up on one elbow to look at her "Really?" I asked.
"Yup, makes me feel all tingly."
I lay back down behind her, and ran my hand along her hip. "Fuck, we should go to the beach more often."
"Yeah, maybe."
Sookie drifted off, but I lay there awake. I trailed my hand up from her hip to cup her breast. I looked at the clock, it was still quite early. I was pretty sure if I let her doze for a bit while I recovered there might be more sex on offer tonight. I was just bummed I had to go to work this week; otherwise I might have been taking Sookie back to the beach. Several times. Fuck, I didn't think it was possible but I thought that maybe Sookie just got hotter. Who the fuck knew scratchy sand and freezing cold water could be an aphrodisiac?
Sookie stirred and rolled over onto her back. Right, I thought as my hand trailed down her stomach, time to try for round two.
A/N So here we use togs exclusively for swimwear and rarely say anything else. So if the SVM books were set in New Zealand, Tara would be selling bikinis exclusively. Which might please Sookie, but probably isn't going to have a huge clientele in Bon Temps.
Thanks for reading!