So, in case you're not a Night Huntress junkie, Bones is, well, he's amazing. But you don't have to know that to enjoy this story. But you should read Night Huntress, stat. The new book is due out this month I believe, and believe me, I adore Eric, but it's a tough competition for top vampire when you read Bones. They're both so different, but equally wonderful. Anyone that's read the books would likely agree!

Thanks so much for reading, and your awesome comments! It makes me so happy that a year later, people still remember the stories enough to pick up where they left off!

Eric

The first day of classes was quiet. I knew enough French to know that the students thought I was hot, and that I had a weird accent. I wondered if I'd always be hot to students, even as I got older.

I figured I would be. Professor hot was a whole different kind of hot, according to Sookie. Men that would never be hot in any other job were professor hot, because professors were so distinguished and smart. Or at least they were able to make themselves seem like that anyway.

I'd taught this material a million times. It was old hat. Like every year though, the students were engaged with my frank language about sex and sexuality. At the end, as usual, I got mobbed by questions, only this time they were in broken English.

It was two weeks before I ran into Victor, Appius' contact at The Sorbonne. His eyes lit up when he saw me, and he practically chased me down. This was odd, because I had no idea why a rat-like man in a tattered tweed blazer was chasing me. It kind of freaked me out.

"You're Eric Northman," he exclaimed.

"I am." I raised my eyebrows, and looked at him, slightly confused at his enthusiasm, since he obviously wasn't a student.

He extended his hand. "Victor Madden. I was Appius' grad student ten years ago. It's an honour to be able to do the two of you a favour."

I shook it. He had a limp noodle handshake. I wasn't surprised. "Well, it was more of a favour for him." I wanted that straight from the beginning. "I'd rather be back with my family in New York."

Victor nodded knowingly. "Families are often a burden. Yours was unable to accompany you?"

I shrugged, ignoring his burden comment. "Well my wife has a career. She's very senior at the press that publishes my textbook. I believe it's been converted into French. It's kind of the standard text in the US."

"I have heard of it. It's kind of conservative for France though." He smiled. "You're a very handsome man."

I looked at him critically. "I'm not sure why that's important."

He blinked at me. "Looks are of the utmost importance. I'm sure it's a large contributor to your success."

I looked at him deadpan. "I don't think so. If anything, it's been a hindrance, because people don't always take me seriously. I'm not one to be underestimated, however."

Victor shrugged. "We aren't expecting much from you in a semester."

And the psychobabble began. "It doesn't matter what expectations you have for me. I have high expectation for myself, which I will meet here."

He smiled, like the cat that had swallowed the canary. "Of course. Well, I hope you and your wife have a strong marriage. Paris is full of temptation."

I narrowed my eyes at him."I don't think that's any of your business. I'm just here to teach for the semester and go back to NYU."

He inclined his head towards me. "You feel safe in New York. That's unusual, because it's a very tempestuous city as well. I believe in twenty years, our outdated idea of marriage will change anyway, and be more of a partnership, than a vehicle for fidelity."

I externally rolled my eyes at him. "Perhaps we'll meet in twenty years and have this discussion then. If you're right, I'll buy you a drink. I'm sorry, I have a class to prepare for."

I kept walking, and he scampered along behind me. "I have a teaching assistant for you. She's one of our brightest PhD students. Dawn has been kind enough to lend her to you for the semester."

I kept walking. "Fine."

"Indira will meet you after class, and you can let her know what assistance you need. She'll be at your disposal." He wheezed, trying to keep up with my stride.

"Poor her," I said, as I finally reached my classroom door. "Now is that all?" I didn't have to pander to this idiot. Dawn had the same level of seniority as him. They shared the chair role. "I'll go through Dawn for any future requests. We have a history."

His eyes lit up. "Excellent. We all so want you to feel comfortable here."

"Great. Good day." I slammed the door behind him, walking into the huge auditorium.

After class, as expected, a curvy brunette with a perfect, almost Sookie-like bustline met me after class.

She approached my desk, a rather flirty smile on her face. "Dr. Northman?"

"Of course I'm Dr. Northman. Who else would I be?" I said bluntly, unimpressed with her attempt to be coy.

She held out her hand. "Indira. I'll be your assistant."

I nodded towards a pile of the weekly assignments I was giving my upper-year class, in which they discussed their sexuality, in terms of the norms discussed in class that week. If they weren't comfortable discussing their own norms, they were allowed to pick an anonymous family member or a celebrity. "You'll be taking those home. Don't grade like you're making a point, or have something to prove. I hate grad students that think that will impress anyone. If the marks are too harsh in my opinion, you'll have to grade them again. The grading rubric is on the top of the pile. I'll need them for next week's class, along with a sheet containing each mark."

She gathered them up. "Of course."

I raised an eyebrow at her, as she stood there, waiting for something that wasn't going to happen. "That will be all."

She stared at me for a minute, before taking off up the stairs.

I was not going to be taken with some grad student. Whoever thought that would effectively manipulate me into doing anything stupid obviously didn't know me very well.

I wondered what Appius' game was, sending me here under rather false pretenses. If I didn't get the chair position when I got back, I was applying at Columbia. I wasn't putting up with this bullshit for one minute once I was stateside. I knew he saw me as a threat; most people who were in positions of authority over me did, because I was so driven.

I was hard to touch though, because of tenure and my years and years of flawless teaching evaluations. However, destroying my marriage would be a good way to bring me down a few notches for a for a number of reasons. Firstly, it would mean I'd probably work more, having little in my life besides my career. Secondly, it would make me appear as a less stable addition to the department, because the chance that I might decide to leave New York if things got ugly would always be there, and thirdly, my professional relationship with Sookie was a big deal. That book was important to my reputation, and each edition that said I resided at NYU was a huge selling feature when it came to attracting talent that used that book in their first human sexuality course. If things went downhill with the book, then that was a serious chink in my armour.

So, in the eyes of someone without a serious understanding of how my marriage worked, interfering in that would make me work harder, look weak in the eyes of my peers, and make me less of an influence in the eyes of the department. That sounded like a win for Appius.

Too bad it wasn't going to happen. I was going to burst the hell out of his bubble come December.

I called Sookie at work when I got home. She answered after a few rings, and it was obvious that she'd been busting a gut laughing.

"Oh, hi Eric," she gasped. "Sorry, Bones was just doing this impression of Sam that almost killed me."

Bones. I didn't know Bones, but I knew that my wife thought quite highly of him. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I trusted her implicitly though. "I think I was given a teaching assistant to fuck."

She snorted, covering the phone with her hand, as she told Bones she'd see him later. I heard her office door click shut a minute later. "What?"

I poured myself a glass of wine. "I met the infamous Victor, and he went on this whole rant about how stupid marriage was, and then gave me a beautiful teaching assistant with breasts like yours." I wasn't concerned about her being mad. She knew my stance on grad students.

"Asshole," she spat. "He's the one that Appius knows?"

I'd almost forgotten about that. "Get this. He was his grad student."

She snorted."So they used to fuck, is what you're saying. Gross."

I shrugged. "I guess it could be deduced that they did, from what I know of Appius."

"Sam went off on me today, in a meeting. I would have probably cried, if I didn't know that he only had a week or so left here, it was that bad."

Fucking Sam. If I ever saw that asshole again, I doubted I'd be able to control myself from saying something. "What did he say to you?"

She sighed. "He basically said that I got ahead here on your name, in front of all the directors. Niall asked me to sit in, well because I'll be a part of those meetings, and Sam was not impressed."

Everyone knew that wasn't true. Sookie had signed a lot of books, some bigger than mine. "Asshole."

She laughed. "Niall chided him in the meeting in front of everyone. Like I said, if I didn't know what was going on, I would have been far more upset. It's been a long week with him here, trying to make himself look like he's doing a good job."

"I think Appius is trying to destroy our marriage."

She giggled. "No shit. Sending you six hours away isn't really a sign that he's supportive."

I guess that was kind of obvious. "But I think he's really trying. I think he's trying to plant seeds. He's not been in touch with you, has he?"

"No. I wouldn't talk to that old pervert anyway." She was quiet for a minute. "Sam wants to meet with me. He just sent an email."

"Make sure you forward that to Niall."

I didn't have to see her to know she was rolling her eyes at me. "Thanks. I've got this under control. I'll turn the tape recorder on my phone on."

I smiled to myself. "Good girl. I'll call you later?"

"You better. I got the underwear you sent me," she practically purred at me.

I had to admit, watching Sookie masturbate a couple of times a week wasn't so bad. It wasn't as good as fucking her, but it wasn't so bad.

I smiled. "My Fleshlight came."

"I don't want to watch you fuck a can, Eric. I mean, do what you want, but your big hands do more for me than a can would." She giggled. "On that note, I should go talk paper with Sam."

"Tell him to go and fuck himself for me, will you?"

She snorted. "We'll see how the conversation goes. Maybe. Love you."

"You too."

Sookie

I walked into Sam's office, confidently sitting across from him. "Yes?"

He leaned back in his chair and looked at me expectantly. "Anything you want to tell me?"

I shook my head. "I think I've told you all I want to. Now, is this about a project?"

He looked at me with utter disdain. "Your husband's book is over length."

I shrugged. "Lafayette will edit it down. It's always over length." Eric fell in love with his own words. He had a hard time cutting, especially since we'd been doing new editions.

He shook his head. "Not this time. It's going to take a long time. We'll have to freelance it and take it out of his royalties."

I crossed my arms. "I don't think so. That's not in his contract."

Sam crossed his in return. "I think it's a bit of a conflict, you negotiating his contract."

I sighed. "You weren't complaining a year ago, when we did the contract. Your John Hancock is on there too."

He stared at me intensely. "You're a bit big for your britches lately."

"I think I'm going to go back to my office, if you're done here." I stood up. "Have a good afternoon."

He spoke again, as my hand went to the doorknob. "We're not done."

I put my hands on my hips, happy my recorder was on. "What else is there to say, Sam? Do you have some problem with my job performance, because you've been more critical this week than you have been in my seven years working for you."

"Your most valuable attribute has always been your ability to do your job as you were told to do it, and you're failing at that miserably this week. That's my issue."

I rolled my eyes at him. I was so done. "Take it up with Niall."

"I will!" He shouted, as I slammed the door to his office.

Bones was waiting by my office when I finished with Sam. "Niall sent me down." He handed me a note. "And he gave me his company card to take you out to lunch, Lu...Sookie." He grinned broadly. "Sorry, old habit. He wants you out of the office when he deals with Sam after his little outburst earlier."

"I'll break you of it." I smiled back, grabbing my purse. "And I want sushi. Good sushi."

Bones held my office door open for me. "He said to spare no expense."

We ended up at Tomoe, which was cheap and amazing. Bones kind of turned his nose up as we walked in. "Well this wasn't what I was expecting."

"Wait till you try the tuna rolls. Don't let the atmosphere throw you off."

He shrugged, and after twenty minutes, we were finally seated. For two in the afternoon, it was still crazy busy. It was Tomoe, after all.

Bones sipped his tea like I imagined a proper Englishman would. "So that Sam's a real prick, huh?"

"He never used to be, but yea, he is. I started recording all my conversations."

"Good call, Luv."

I laughed. "Sookie. It's funny, because my husband calls me Lover. It's weird to hear another love related nickname from anyone but him."

Bones nodded, a wicked smile on his face. "I'm stepping on his toes a bit then. He's away Niall said?"

I nodded. "In Paris until December. He's guest lecturing at the Sorbonne."

"Impressive. That'll look good in the preface of the next edition of his book. He's quite into the sex, yes?"

I giggled. "You think? Sex is his life."

"You must be a very lucky woman, then." He smirked at me.

"He's a wonderful father and husband. I'm very lucky." I smirked back. "So Crispin Philip Arthur Russell the Third, tell me about yourself. How does a man such as yourself pick up and leave his motherland on a whim?"

He chuckled, leaning back in his chair. "Oh, that's a long story."

I shrugged. "We have time."

He looked up at the ceiling, a small smile on his face. "You ever heard of a cougar?"

I scrunched my my nose. I had no idea what he was talking about. "We have panthers in Louisiana. You left home over a cat?"

His eyes twinkled mischievously. "Different kind of pussy."

I narrowed my eyes. "What?" And then I realized what he was getting at. "Oh, a woman?"

He chuckled. "A cougar is an older woman that dates younger men. I tired of being a boytoy. Needed a change."

"Oh. So you just left her?"

"Without so much as a phone call. I sent her an email last week. She's none too pleased, but she can bugger off."

"That's not very nice." I thought back to my own blindside experience. "Not nice at all. She's probably missing you terribly. Did you tell her what she did wrong? Why you left?"

"She was a spiteful harpy. Isn't that enough?" He cocked his head at me. "Old broad launched a lamp at my head." He lifted his arm to display a huge, faded, yellowing bruise. "Clocked me with a frying pan. I'm nearly forty. I don't need to tolerate that kind of abuse."

Well that was certainly surprising. Bones was nearly the size of Eric, although a few inches shorter. I couldn't imagine him tolerating some woman beating on him. "Was it the first time?"

He shook his head. "No, Luv. Annette and me, we were quite passionate in most ways, some good, some bad. Shagging older women has its advantages. They know what they like, and they aren't afraid to tell you. They've also got skills. However, they're also quick to tell you what they don't like as well."

I shook my head, realizing that this lunch conversation had gotten out of control. "Alright then. Well, I hope you're happy here. I don't want to train anyone else if you decide she's what you want."

He smiled at me brightly. "Oh, I sold my flat. I'm here for the long term. It's a bit lonely, but birds do love this accent. I think I'll do alright." He leaned over, eying my California roll. "Can we swap a couple? I fancy what you have I think."

I shrugged. "Sure."

We did an even swap, Hamachi for California. "So, this husband of yours. Does he run off often?"

I rolled my eyes. "He did not run off. He was ordered more or less. And this is the first time, and it's only until December."

He nodded, picking at the avocado that fell out of his roll."You've got little ones though. That's why you're out at a normal time most nights."

"Yes. We have a boy and a girl. Three and seven. We all miss him a lot. Especially our son." Max had been doing better though since we'd been crossing the days off. We had Thanksgiving circled in big red ink. He'd even asked to call Eric a few times, and ordered me out of the room so they could talk about 'man stuff' as he so kindly informed me. Eric seemed less stressed about things when they talked too, so that was a relief.

"Sounds rough." He smiled, his teeth gleaming at me. He was very handsome, and he'd been a good sounding board when it came to Sam over the past week. I almost heard Eric tense up when I talked about the new, funny Brit that was working under me though, so I curbed my Bones talk when we spoke. There was no reason to have him concerned about something that was a non-issue. "So, first order of business when Sam's gone?"

"Get my ass in that sweet office and clean the crumbs off his desk. You wouldn't believe the crumbs Bones. It's unreal. I noticed more today. I just cleaned them before he came back. The man is a pig. Then? Everyone on recycled paper, and then e-books."

He nodded. "I've got a bit of experience with the e-book business. We were digitizing everything at my old press. We'll chat more about that."

E-books. The bane of mine, and every other editor's existence. But I wasn't an editor anymore, at least I wouldn't be, after next week. "You know what Bones? You're in charge of e-books. Your first order of business is to write me an e-book business plan."

I was going to like this boss business after all.