A/N: Hey people! What a great vacation! I wish it never ended but it did and it's sad LOL. I should be doing work right now but instead I decided to write the next chapter before the start of the busy week. It's a little short again, but what can I do... can't stay up all night writing, though I wish that I could. Happy new year! That's weird about the dead birds falling from the sky in the states, like a bad omen or something. Just another one of my random thoughts lol.
Eric's POV:
I can only stare into Sookie's eyes as Marten and his maker stand beside her. She is clearly worried and frightened as Marten looks about ready to attack me. I sense that Pam is on the verge of attacking as well.
My anger increases tenfold as I watch Marius pull Sookie closer to him by putting his arm around her waist as though to protect her from me.
"Stand down Pam. I don't want to hurt you," Marten grumbles.
"Ha! You should be worrying about how I am going to hurt you. I know all of your second-rate combat tricks," she retorts. Although I have the utmost faith in Pam's skills to defend herself, she is no match for Marten.
"Pamela, step back," I tell her. I look around the room to see that everyone is staring at us and is silent.
"Eric you should leave," Sookie says quietly.
"No. I need to speak privately with you," I say firmly.
"Perhaps you should listen to her. Now is not the time to talk. I suggest that you leave now," Marius says, his arm still holding onto Sookie.
I take a step closer, viciously looking him in the eyes. "Do not try to order me around," I tell him in my most lethal tone. "She is still mine and no one will keep her from me."
His fangs come out and there is a slight hint of red forming in his pupils. My own fangs slide out and I begin to clench my fists. I try to figure out a way to strike him without hurting Sookie.
Sookie stares back and forth between us as her heart rate and breathing increases. "Please don't," she whispers looking up at him.
He flinches for a brief second and the hint of red in his eyes disappears.
"My, my, what do we have here?" a voice asks behind the crowd that had gathered watching us.
We break our staring contest and turn to see the crowd parting. De Castro and Victor Madden walk towards us.
"Eric," Madden says with a sneer on his face. "Causing trouble in the middle of Felipe's new club are we?"
"Stay out of my business Madden," I say sharply.
"The way you conduct yourself in my establishment becomes my business Northman," De Castro says.
"Don't you mean my establishment Felipe?" Marten says with a smirk on his face. "After all, your role is that of a shareholder if anything."
De Castro frowns but Marten only smiles back at him. It is only then that I notice Rosamund standing beside De Castro glaring at Sookie. She is glaring back.
"Perhaps we should all go into my office and let the party continue out here," Marten says. He glances at his maker and starts walking toward the stairs. We all follow. Marten turns around at the top of the stairs and addresses the crowd: "Pardon the short interruption folks, but to make amends, drinks are free for the rest of the night!" They all cheer for him and he takes a short bow.
We reach his office and he closes the door. He goes to stand beside Sookie and Marius.
For a few seconds we are all silent until De Castro speaks up. "Ahh Mizz Stackhouse I see that you are well. You had us all worried when you disappeared," he says, his accent thick. He looks her up and down settling on her breasts for too long.
Sookie appears uncomfortable with his gaze on her and she moves even closer to Marius. "Thank you for your concern, even though it was not needed," she says, her voice firm.
"Your scent has changed as well," he says. "She doesn't smell like you anymore Eric. Lost your woman to another vampire?" he leers, looking at me now. I suppress a growl.
"You have aligned yourself with another vampire," he says to Sookie still leering.
"This is my master," Marten says. "He is to be treated with the utmost respect." They all look at Marius including Rosamund, who stares at him with a mixture of curiosity and awe.
"Of course. I am Felipe De Castro, king of Nevada," De Castro smiles at Marius. "I have only heard fairy tale stories about you and your exploits. I hope that you will share more with me, perhaps as the evening progresses?"
Marius just blankly stares at De Castro for a moment then looks at Marten. He speaks to him in the familiar Old Norse dialect and takes Sookie's hand. He and Sookie walk past De Castro, blatantly snubbing him who does not look too pleased about it. Just as they get to the door, I step in front of them.
"She is not going anywhere," I growl.
"Get out of my way," he responds to me in my Old Norse dialect.
"It's okay Marius. I'll just talk to Eric for a few minutes then we will leave," she says looking up to him.
"Is there another office we can go to, Marten?" she says, turning her head.
"Down the hall, on the right," Marten responds.
I move out of the way to let them by, but Marius says, "After you."
"Eric, I hope you won't be too long. We have a lot to discuss, including issues that your wife has," De Castro says.
I glower at them both and open the door. I walk down the hall and reach the other office; Sookie and Marius are behind me.
"I will speak to Sookie alone," I state firmly.
Not happy, he looks down at Sookie who gives him a small nod.
"Don't do anything that you may regret," he warns.
"I will be outside," he says putting his hand on her shoulder. He leaves the room closing the door behind him.
"What do you have to say now Eric?" Sookie says furiously. "I told you to leave me alone! Can't you get that through your thick skull!"
She moves a little closer to me. "What do I have to do to make you understand that I don't want you anymore! Just let me..." I don't give her the chance to finish her last sentence. I pull her to me and lay my lips on hers. She tries to move away from me but I hold her close, kissing her until she opens her mouth. That's when I dive my tongue in and put every ounce of passion into our kiss. She struggles against me for a few minutes until she gives in. This is glorious and oh how I have missed this! This feels so right. I missed the taste of her skin and lips. I can still smell that other vampire on her, but nonetheless, I enjoy having her in my arms again. I put her arms around my neck and run my hands down her back. She moans a little in my mouth. I run my hand down further until I reach her round, firm bottom, giving it a light squeeze. That's when she opens her eyes and fights me off again.
"Let go of me you jerk!" she says angrily. Not wanting to agitate her further, I let her go.
She takes a few steps back away from me. "What the hell Eric! How dare you do that!"
"It seems to me that you enjoyed that as much as I did," I smirk.
"No I didn't!" she yells, but I can see it in her eyes, she is lying.
She takes a few deep breaths and closes her eyes. "Just leave me alone Eric," she says calmly. "I have moved on; I suggest that you do the same."
"You know that is never going to happen Sookie, it will never be over between us," I tell her.
With saying anything, she looks at me one last time before turning around and heading to the door.
"Sookie," I say. She stops but doesn't turn around. "I will have you back and when I do, never again will I let you go." I tell her resolutely.
I can hear her gulp before she opens the door and leaves the room. I lean against the desk and smile to myself knowing that I effected her emotions. I spend some time pondering my next move until a few minutes later, Madden comes into the room.
He raises an eyebrow," The king and your queen are waiting for you."
My good mood is short-lived. I walk past him scowling, wondering what they both want this time.
Sookie's POV:
The limousine ride back to Marten's penthouse is filled with tension and silence. Marten opted to stay at the club with his date since it was his opening night after all. I didn't want to stay there any longer, not after what had occurred and with Eric's wife and Felipe there. Marius and I both stare out our windows not knowing what to say. I knew that he could probably smell Eric on me; he probably felt my emotions when Eric kissed me. I would be lying if I said his kiss didn't stir the emotions that I had thought were dead. I didn't know how I was going to explain that to Marius.
We reach the apartment and he leads me up to our floor still silent. We go into his room. I watch him as he walks into the closet and I sit on the bed waiting for him to emerge. He comes out wearing a plain white v-neck t-shirt and navy pyjama bottoms.
"It is late Sookie, you should rest now," he says. He starts to walk towards the door.
"Marius wait!" I plead, standing up from the bed.
He turns around and tries to give me one of his stoic expressions, but I could see the hurt that I caused him in his eyes. I felt awful. I did almost the same thing to him that Eric did to me which was hurting him in this manner. I felt like a hypocrite. True, it was Eric that kissed me, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it and I almost didn't want him to stop.
"What happened back there was a mistake and I'm sorry," I tell him. "I won't allow it to happen again."
He looks at me for a moment. "Sookie, you don't have to apologize for the way you feel. I have always known how you felt about him, how you still feel about him. I promised that I would wait for you until you are ready."
"But I am ready," I blurt out. Was I ready? Yes and no. My emotions were a mess as usual, but I knew that I didn't want him to leave doubting me.
He takes my hands into his. "No you are not," he says gently. "You do not have to say such things to please me."
"I'm not," I tell him. "I admit that I still love Eric but I don't want to be with him. Feel my emotions; you know that I'm not lying." I put his hand on my chest.
I look into his eyes. "Besides how will I ever know if I am ready unless I take the next step?"
He closes his eyes. "Sookie I do not want you to do anything that you might regret later."
"I won't," I whisper moving even closer to him. "If it was with any other man I would regret it, but never with you."
I put my hands on his neck to bring him down to me as I lean up to meet him with my lips. He kisses me back with fervour. I tug on his shirt and he breaks away briefly to take it off. We continue to kiss, our hands all over each other. I can feel his hands on my back unzipping my dress all the way down and unhooking my bra. They both fall to the floor. He picks me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. He takes us to the bed and he lays me on top of it gently as he hovers over me. We gaze into each other's eyes tenderly and he brushes some of my strands of hair from my face.
"I love you Sookie. You are the third person that I have ever loved in this world," he says softly. Tears well up in my eyes and I put my hand on his face.
"I love you too," I confess. It was only then that I realized I felt the same way. Somewhere along the way I fell in love with him. Did it happen at the cabin? Or when he rescued me from those two vampires? I didn't know but at that moment I didn't care. The only thing that I wanted to think and feel was him touching me and his lips against mine. Probably thinking the same thing, he leans down to kiss me more. He runs his hand down my body and brings my leg up. He caresses my thigh, my nether region getting even more hotter.
All of a sudden he gets up and off the bed. He walks toward the door.
"Where are you going?" I ask breathlessly.
He grins back at me, when he reaches the door he locks it and dims the lights. "We don't need any interruptions from anyone do we?" he replies. I smile back at him.
He comes back to the bed and removes my black heels. He lies beside me, looking down at me. He runs his hand lightly against my collarbone, then over my breast, tweaking my nipple without ever moving his eyes from mine. Eventually his hand moves down to my stomach until he reaches my wet panties. He rubs me through my panties and I struggle trying to suppress my moan and the closing of my eyes. He moves his hand underneath me to my ass and caresses it for a moment before tugging down my panties. I lift my butt a little to help him. He pulls down my underwear and I am now completely naked for him. Not guessing what his next move was he leans down on me and begins kissing my neck before settling on my breasts. He swirls his tongue around my nipple and sucks without breaking my skin. I can't help but moan as I run my hands through his hair trying to hold his head to where it was at the moment. His fingers are caressing my folds but he doesn't penetrate me with them. He makes his way back to my mouth and kisses me tenderly. I move my hands down to his hips trying to push down his underwear and pyjama bottoms.
He breaks away from our kiss and smiles down at me. "Are you sure?" he asks me.
I smile and lean up to nibble at his earlobe, "Yes," I say to him against his ear.
A second later his boxer briefs and pyjamas are off his body and he lies on top of me, his elbows on either side over my shoulders so that not all of his weight was on me. I can feel his hardness against me and I raise my knees to his hips. I reach in between us to feel him. He is definitely hard and ready. I stroke him a little to get used to the feeling of him. This time he moans and closes his eyes. He feels large, but not Eric-size large. I don't think there is another man on the planet that was Eric-sized. I quickly erase those thoughts from my mind and focus again on what was happening. I place him at my entrance and he pushes in before abruptly stopping. He looks down at me with a curious expression on his face.
"What's wrong?" I ask, a little irritated that he stopped.
"I feel something," he replies. "It seems that my blood not only healed your scars but your hymen as well. I can feel the barrier."
I look at him with shock then I burst out laughing. "Are you serious?"
He nods and chuckles with me.
"Well I know that I am not a virgin, but I guess that this is the closest thing to me being one again," I smile up at him.
"I guess so," he says, "Are you sure that you want me to continue?"
I respond by squeezing his perfect ass and pulling him towards me.
"This will hurt for a second," he says.
I flinch at the pain as he breaks past my barrier.
"You feel so good Sookie," he groans. He stops for a moment and rubs my nub. He thrusts in me a little to get me used to the feeling. Soon the pain is gone and I can only feel pleasure. He continues to rub my clit while he increases his thrusts. Eventually he moves his hand from my clit and places both hands on my hips. He raises me a little so that his penis was rubbing against my g-spot. I breathe and moan at the sensations he was creating within me.
I put my arms around his neck as he continues to thrust in me. "I want you to bite me!" I yell in a lustful haze.
I can hear his fangs click. He kisses my shoulder before finding a spot on my neck. He breaks through my skin with his fangs and sucks on the wound drawing blood and my orgasm. I let out a scream as I feel him swelling up and releasing inside me, groaning.
I am still on an orgasm high as he licks the wound closed.
"Wow," I say breathlessly. I give him a lazy smile and he kisses me on the lips.
"That was worth the wait. I have never tasted anything so good," he says huskily. He is still inside me and hard.
He rolls us over so that I was now on top of him.
He places his hands on my hips again and I writhe against him. "How much longer till dawn?" I ask in a dreamy voice.
He glances at the clock. "There is no rush," he answers. He smirks at me before lifting me up and down on him.