AN: Without giving too much away, I dipped into the True Blood world a bit in this chapter because there was just one character I loved too much to leave out. You might be surprised by who it is. Enjoy!
Within an hour I had found that I was able to isolate thoughts, drift from one brain to another like I was flipping pages in a book. I still wasn't thrilled with what I was hearing, so much of it sat on the edge of criminal, or at least immoral and it was difficult to tell what fantasies a person really wanted to act on. But I felt triumphant in my ability to sift through the information. I knew Eric would be impressed if I ever explained it to him.
Eric disappeared into the back every so often with another vampire, or human businessmen who looked uncomfortable and felt curious. The human men thought that if they met a woman here, she would do all of the things women had refused them before. The human women thought a vampire would not have to ask what felt good, would only deliver every desired sensation to them. To be fair, the women might have been right but they were sadly unaware of what that pleasure might cost them in most cases.
I texted Eric, who was reading emails in his office, to let him know that there was a group of under-age college students waiting in line outside. I was hitting 'send' when I felt the pressure in my mind. I focused on my phone, flipping through my contacts, 'Eric' and 'Pam' was all that had been entered, for the excuse to avoid looking up. The pressure was persistent and I realized it was coming from an empty spot that was approaching quickly. I opened another message box.
"What on earth is a creature as beautiful as you doing alone in this bar?" The voice was male, and strongly accented. A cross between english and southern, strangely.
"I belong to Eric Northman," I said, as I texted Eric a message. Persistent vampire, was all it said. I sent it as I saw out of the corner of my eye a pale white hand reaching toward my face. Alarm spread through my body and I leaned futilely away.
"Then he was a fool to walk away from you," the voice whispered, edged with both seduction and malice.
His fingertips were just brushing my chin when Eric spoke. "I never leave her for long."
He sounded cool as a cucumber and the hand retreated in a flash. I looked up, straight into Eric's face and felt embarrassingly grateful for his timing. His eyes were furious and his face was smiling calmly.
"Lover," he said and I took his hand and stood from the booth, smoothing my skirt as subtly as I could. "This is Franklin Mott."
Eric kept a possessive hand on my back and I studied Mott from underneath my lashes, as if I were shy and obedient. Really I just didn't want him locking gazes with me. He'd be an idiot, or insanely determined, to try and glamour me in front of Eric, but he'd already been stupid enough to try and touch me so I was keeping my guard up. He was only a few inches taller than me, and probably one of the least attractive vampires I had seen. His eyes were too big, his skin was pebbled, his nose bulbous and his hair uneven as if it had been cut by his own hand. He was downright diminutive compared to Eric but I got the feeling that that wasn't to say he was to be underestimated.
"Hello," I said. I could've been more gracious but considering the situation it didn't feel too necessary.
"She is delicious, where did you find her?"
"She found me," Eric said, his hand brushing gently against my back.
"She smells fresh."
Goddamnit, I thought. I was so sick of hearing that.
"She has had no other."
I tensed and flushed, and part of me hoped Franklin thought I was being bashful and the other part of me wondered if it would hurt Eric if I elbowed him in the junk.
"Lucky bastard," Mott said in a tone that might have worked if they were friends. I was pretty sure they were not. "I'm passing through. I thought I ought to check in."
"Yes," Eric said, as in 'Yes, those are the rules. Just like the rules are you can't touch my human.' "Sophie-Ann knows you are here?"
"Of course," Mott said and they smirked at each other. I translated this to mean, 'Of course, we both know she sent me.'
They both nodded and I froze as I caught a panicked thread of thought beyond the posturing vampires. I dug in as Eric and Mott spoke in uncomfortable code to one another. By the time they were winding down, I had pieced a dicey situation together.
"Would you excuse me?" I murmured and they both stilled at the interruption. Interrupting vampire business was a big no-no, good to know. "I need to use the little girl's room."
Even Eric frowned a little. Mott straight up grimaced. They both stepped away as if I were about to puddle straight on the floor. My eyeballs actually hurt from how hard I was trying not to roll them. I crossed the room like I was heading straight for the restrooms, and then paused as if surprised. I glanced briefly back at Eric who was studying me, now realizing that I was plotting. Mott was watching too. I looked around the room and then spoke to the man next to me, another undercover policeman.
"Huh. I wonder what those folks are doing in a place like this," I said conversationally. I was looking at a group of two men and a younger woman, nervous and jumpy in the crowd around them, their eyes fierce and spinning over faces.
"Excuse me?" He spoke to my breasts.
"Oh, you see, I'm from Monroe," I said. I nodded towards the small group. I whispered, "Everybody back home knows those three are drainers. Seems like a funny place for them to show up."
The policeman stiffened, as did many of the vampires in the room. "That is odd," he said, making up in his mind to arrest the drainers as quickly and quietly as possible.
"Yeah," I said and then shrugged as if it were someone else's problem. I finished my walk to the bathroom, texting Eric as I walked. Make sure your people cooperate with the officer I spoke to.
I listened to the drainer's panic as both Eric and the police officer, with his badge out, approached them. I was washing my hands when I received an answer.
You are magnificent. I have spent the evening imagining peeling away that dress and fucking you over my desk in those red heels.
I passed through the knotted crowd as the drainer's were handcuffed and led out the front door. Eric was conversing with the police. I didn't see Franklin Mott anywhere and I walked calmly down the hall towards Eric's office. I answered him as I walked. Then finish your business and come find me. Your imagination is the best I've heard all night.
I had just enough time to leave a sticky note on the door to Eric's office – it read for Boss's eyes only. –S. –and to squirm out of the dress. I didn't trust Eric not to tear it. Then I sat myself down in Eric's chair and crossed my heels on the top of his desk.
I felt Eric's black hole brain arrive at the door and then it opened and shut in a blur and I was pushed back from the desk, with Eric kneeling between my legs, my heels over his shoulders, my panties torn in his hand, and his face buried between my thighs.
I screamed and then laughed and then moaned long and low.
"This was not the plan," I panted as Eric made me clench the arms of his chair.
"Lover," he hummed against my aching flesh. "You should learn to be more flexible."
I turned my feet, digging the stilettos into his back and pulling him tighter against me. He chuckled and I whimpered.
"I'm very flexible," I hissed.
Eric sucked and I arched and gasped. Vampires can do incredible things with their tongues.
"I want you in me," I whined but then I was bursting apart.
Eric finished me, drew it out longer than I thought I could stand, and then lifted me up and spread me, face-down, over his desk. He held my feet apart with his own and I clenched the far edge of the desk, listening to click of his belt and the whistle of his zipper with itching anticipation. I rubbed myself against the surface and Eric clucked with disapproval, his hands cupping the fronts of my thighs and pulling me back so my clit was exposed to the cool air.
"Are you ready, Sookie?" Eric asked, velvet soft.
"Yes," I whispered. There was nothing, just his hands on my legs. "Please, Eric."
I was needy flesh and fevered, hungry thoughts and nothing else. I thought in that moment that I was, perhaps, what every other fangbanger in the bar was when they dreamt of Eric. Then Eric pushed gently into me, rolling his hips when he could no longer slide, until his hipbones touched the curve of my ass. He leaned forward and his chest lay against my back. His nose ran up the length of my neck, nuzzling loose strands of hair to the side so he could press a kiss behind my ear.
I sighed and leaned up on my elbows. It was Eric's response to my need that reminded me that what I wanted from him was what he had already given me; pleasure and trust and friendship.
"If it is too painful, pinch the back of my hand," Eric said and I wondered if I imagined the hoarseness of his voice. I nodded.
He began to pump, soft and shallow at first but it wasn't long until I was bucking back at him, whispering 'more, more, more.' With his hands keeping me from bumping into the edge of the desk and bruising myself, my body had nowhere to go when Eric thrust forward and could only accept the whole of him. I was sore, I couldn't not be, but with Eric's blood from days ago, and the tiny treatment from last night, the ache was elastic and only added to the sensations. I thought he would have me crumbling in minutes but every time I began to crest he would press in close and then hold still, licking away sweat from my back.
I wanted to beg and I wanted to show him how strong I was, how far I could keep up with him. My voice strangled in my throat as I tried to catch my breath between the bouts of his eager pace that made me vibrate with pleasure.
"Lover," purred Eric. "How much more can you take?"
Bitch, I thought, but I smiled. "How much have you got, big guy?" My voice was comical at best, it sounded like I'd been running a marathon against hurricane level winds, but I got the words out.
Eric's chest rumbled with laughter and then he showed me exactly how much; which was something I had only seen fangbangers imagining, and something that my body couldn't have taken for very long. Luckily it didn't have to. Eric went vampire speed into me and I screamed his name in a long delighted cry as stars burst behind my eyes. I lost control of my hands and feet and they shook and spasmed as my chest fell to the desk. My back curved and Eric hit a new angle and I shuddered and lost my breath as a second orgasm rolled over the first, the two sitting over each other; one violent and bright and the other a deep wave through my muscles. I closed my eyes and smiled like an insane person as Eric thrust once and then bellowed, his hands in a vice grip against my legs.
He pulled us back, dragging me across the desk and slipping out from me, sitting into his chair with me sprawled over his lap. I was still limp and I think I must have been holding my breath because Eric rearranged me slightly so I was curled and then he lifted my chin to meet his gaze.
"Breathe, Sookie," he said.
I took a deep breath and then closed my eyes as my body shuddered again in thanks. Eric chuckled and tucked my head under his chin. When I could feel my hands again – they were on Eric's shoulders – I let them grip and used them to lift myself up just enough to rest my lips against Eric's jaw in an open kiss. This time he shuddered.
"I think I'm getting better," I observed.
Eric stilled and a stab of disappointment gutted me. Then he said, "You have always been the best, Lover. But yes, you learn quickly."
Even if I had a hard time believing him – he had a millennium of sex to compare me to for crissake – I still glowed with the pleasure of the compliment.
"Where is the red dress?" Eric asked.
I realized then that I was in my bra, without any underwear. Where was that t-shirt Eric promised me? "I hid it," I said.
"That was smart of you," he said. "Now you can wear it on another occasion and then I will tear it off."
"It wouldn't be right. Lafayette paid for that."
"I kept the tag, I will pay him back." I stiffened and Eric shifted, asking, "Talking about money makes you uncomfortable?"
"No," I said slowly.
"Talking about my money makes you uncomfortable."
"Talking about your money spent on my clothes, or my phone or… just me in general. That makes me uncomfortable, yes."
"Why?" He wasn't defensive, just curious.
"Men, human men, who keep mistresses do things like that. Pay for clothes and houses and stuff. And it's not because it's nice or traditional, it's because the men are with the women for sex and the women are with the men for money. And I don't want that, or the appearance of that, between us," I said after I had gathered my thoughts.
"In a traditional relationship then, there must be no gift exchanges," Eric said and I opened my mouth to explain when I realized that he was playing dumb.
"Okay, fine," I said. "Sure, there are, but…"
"But you question my motivations for being with you. You think that if I am not allowed to spend money on you then that means I am not paying you for sex that we share," Eric said, his tone even but flat. I couldn't tell if he was angry, or was just trying to prove how reasonable he was being. It gutted me because it was painfully true. I didn't meet his eyes. "Sookie, there is sex between us, and blood, and business. But that is not all."
I blinked and looked up at him. He was frowning faintly, his eyes searching my face like he was waiting for me to read his mind.
"Oh," I said. I wanted to ask him what else there was, but I couldn't get the words out and then Eric was kissing me and it didn't seem to matter.
He stilled and pulled away, lifting his shirt off and then slipping it right over my head. He pulled my arms through the sleeves as I sat in confusion. "Pam is coming."
I turned beet red and tucked my legs underneath me, tugging the shirt down to cover my knees, as Eric zipped his pants closed. He was chuckling at my embarrassment and if I wasn't so wonderfully sated I probably would've given him shit for it. Or maybe I kept quiet because at that moment the door was opening and Pam was strutting in with her fingers pinched over her nose.
"Sookie, your scent is making the vampire patrons hungry," Pam sang as she sat across from us. "Not to mention what damage that finale did to the foundations of this building. I think Eric might have set off a minor earthquake."
"Enough, Pamela," Eric hummed against the hot skin of my neck. "What of our guest, Mr. Mott?"
"He left with one of our new waitresses shortly before Sookie's second orgasm."
"There had to have been a better way to put that," I grumbled.
Pam touched a pale finger to her chin and pretended to think for a moment. "Hmm… No, there wasn't."
"How much information could she give him?" Eric asked.
Pam shrugged. "Not much. Ginger and Belinda were glamoured to forget Sookie and Longshadow is gone."
"You're worried the waitress will talk about me?" I asked.
"If she's worth what we pay her, any information given would be done so unwillingly," Eric growled.
"If she comes back, I will fire her," Pam said.
"Hey!" I sat up and pulled away from Eric's nuzzles. "You can't just fire some poor waitress cause she got glamoured by a rival vampire. That's not fair."
"Lover, if Franklin Mott is willing to try and manipulate you while my scent is fresh on your skin then he is certainly willing to glamour 'some poor waitress' to do this bar, myself, or even you harm. She will be a liability."
"A well-pensioned liability," Pam added which was enough to get my hackles down.
"He was from the Queen?" I asked. Pam's eyes widened but she didn't criticize Eric's choice to share that much with me. He nodded. "Geez. Now what?"
Eric leaned back as if to consider but it didn't take him much time to come up with answers. "Bill Compton was quite young for a vampire, although good at his job. Franklin Mott, however, has been around for centuries. Since the middle ages. His fealty, when given, is short lived and usually arranged for one job at a time."
"Like a mercenary," I said.
Eric's eyes flickered with surprise but lucky for him, they didn't stay that way. I may have been a small town waitress without a college degree but that didn't make me uneducated.
"Exactly," Eric said with pride. "He is a warrior, not a charmer like Compton. It's possible the Queen suspected you of being protected, or at least capable of protecting yourself. Soon she will know that you are mine."
I bit my lip and watched as Eric and Pam exchanged a long, silent look heavy with meaning.
"She's your Queen," I whispered. "She can order you to-"
"She can try," Eric snarled.
It was a nice thought. "-Order you to give me up."
Eric stilled. "No. Not entirely. We have the contract and that would give even her best lawyer a run for his money given that he was the one to write it. Also, we have the beginning of a blood bond."
"A what?"
"Our exchange of blood," Eric said, his eyes turning electric and liquid, a sure sign he was losing interest in business and gaining interest in me. "The stronger it grows, the more respected our connection will be by other vampires. Even the Queen will be forced to take pause."
Pause was not stop, but I didn't say that. Maybe when you lived forever, there wasn't much of an understanding of a stop, a permanent halt.
"I guess I got kinda lucky that the Rattrays killed Bill, huh?"
"We both did," Eric said, and there was something in his voice that I almost wanted to mistake for tenderness, but then I remembered we were talking about people dying, undead or not.
"We could kill Mott," Pam suggested lightly.
"Not yet," Eric said, all the warmth gone from his voice. "He has not directly threatened Sookie. And now that he's reported to me, the Queen will never believe that he simply went missing."
"We just act normal?" I asked.
Eric pursed his lips and Pam huffed and rolled her eyes.
"Sookie, what Eric is not saying is that you should move into one of his safe houses and exchange more blood. Tonight."
I gaped at her and then turned to look at Eric. He was tense but he wasn't denying anything. "I can't! I've got the house and… and Gran's funeral is in two days and I'm not… I can't just. We said we'd wait and see if your blood affected me too much.
Eric brushed his palm up and down over my spine. "Lover, I know of your objections-"
"He knows if he makes you do it, you will not feed or fuck him."
"Pam!" Eric and I both shouted.
She shrugged and inspected her fingernails.
"Sookie, I will drive you home, to your house," he added as I opened my mouth. "We will discuss what to do next without my child's interference," he said with a warning glare over my shoulder. He looked pretty stern, but only by human comparison so I figured Pam was getting off easy.
I tried to get off Eric's lap without flashing Pam but Eric just lifted me to his hip with one arm like I was a toddler. Nothing makes you feel like your diet is working like having a vampire boyfriend.
"My dress-"
"It will keep," Eric said with a smile as we exited out the backdoor. I looked back as we crossed the parking lot and saw Pam standing, backlit by the light from Eric's office.
"She's worried about you," I said.
Eric raised an eyebrow. "She is my concern, not the other way around."
"Are you saying I didn't have the right to worry about Gran?" I asked.
Eric laughed at my comparing him to an eighty some year old lady with a sugar problem and then tucked me into the passenger seat of my car. He zipped around and was next to me in the driver's seat within a blink of my eyes. It took my car a few tries to set up and Eric was growling in annoyance by the time we were rattling onto the road.
"If I made a list of things I would like to pay for, would you promise to allow me to gift you at least two of them?" Eric asked.
"Definitely not."
"One?"
"I don't think so."
"You haven't even heard the list."
"This could make me angry, Eric."
"You're already angry, lover, I can feel it."
I glared at him out of the corner my eye and saw the corner of his mouth fighting not to lift. "Okay," I said slowly. "Let's hear the list and then I'll tell you whether or not I'm feeling receptive. Or will you just know because you can feel it?"
Eric didn't waste any time. "A new car." I snorted. "A new driveway. A state of the art security system for the farmhouse, vampire proof. A wardrobe of tight red dresses. An indoor resting place for me… wait, did I get somewhere? You will let me buy you the dresses?"
"I am not your Barbie, Eric. You're too old for them anyways," I said. But he wasn't wrong; I was curious about one thing. "What did you mean resting place?"
"Oh." He actually looked a little uncomfortable. "It is nothing."
"Tell me."
"It is only… if there were a light tight space, perhaps underground, I would not need to sleep in the cemetery."
I blinked. I hadn't really thought about the fact that Eric had spent the past two nights sleeping in the dirt. Gran would've been ashamed of me for the lack of hospitality, although to be fair, there wasn't anywhere in the house he could sleep safely.
"Sookie?" He was shifting in his seat, which was not a vampire thing. He must have been nervous. What was surprising was that he was letting me know that.
"Is that like the vampire equivalent of asking if you can move in?"
Eric frowned. "I would not be there every night. But when I was-"
"I'll think about it," I said. "It'll have to be after the funeral though. I don't want to explain construction to a bunch of guests."
Eric was quiet for a few minutes. Then, "Why?"
I turned away from the window to look at him. "Why what?"
"Why are you agreeing to think about that item on the list? If I can understand your reasoning I may be able to apply it to the others."
I laughed. "I'm not a science project, Eric."
"I just want to-"
"Here, I'll explain," I said. "This is a bad example cause you're hardly handicapped but if I were dating someone who needed a ramp to come into my house, I would want to build one for them. So they knew they were welcome."
"The idea was not for you to build the space, Sookie," Eric said, still puzzled.
"I know. And I'm sure it'll be much more complicated than just putting up a ramp. So if you want to do it, then I'll think about it. If you can give me an idea of how it might change the house, I'd like to know that much. We don't have a basement so maybe it's not a bad idea."
"You are considering this because it is… for my comfort?"
"Well, yeah."
"I offered you a new car. A fortune's worth of clothes."
"Ugh. Don't remind me."
Eric shook his head. "Sookie Stackhouse, you are very rare."
"Oh please. Cause I'm so untouched, and unspoiled and I smell sooOOoo good. Okay, I get it."
Eric grinned. "You smell even better when I am inside you."
"Eric!" I screeched, reaching out to smack him, but he caught my hand in his and brushed my knuckles against his lips. I don't know if he was waiting for me to let go, or if I was waiting for him, but either way my hand stayed in his till he had gotten us back to the house.
AN: Please, please, please with a cherry on top, review! This might be one of my favorite chapters in this story, and not just for the lemons. I like writing Eric and Sookie dialogue, as I'm sure you can tell.