Oh man, do these two do anything but make love? I ask you. Maybe Pam was right, a couple of little bunny rabbits. I promise if you can just get through these lemons I'll get back to the plot you have all been begging for. And girls, here's your bearskin rug.

;)

Part 16

"Have you ever slept with one of your customers Eric?"

The question blindsided me as we were putting ourselves to rights, still in my office, but aware of the late hour and the need to go home.

"No." I answered, without the hesitation I was probably entitled to.

"Funny how so many of them think about sleeping with you." She was so matter-of-fact I could hardly believe that we had so recently been intimate. I had forgotten that she was going to be practicing her telepathy in the bar that night. Damn but the sight of her made me absent-minded sometimes. Or perhaps I should have said single-minded. I had been so focused on what I had wanted to confess to her, that it had overridden most everything else in my thoughts.

"Do tell?" I plastered a smirk to my face as I finished tucking in my shirt again, wanting to be playful with her as I sensed she was doing with me. "Oh, and what happened to Diantha?"

"She got a call from her sister, said something really important had come up, and asked if I minded her leaving me with Arthur and Pam."

I had an idea what that might have been. Gladiola had been offended by the disturbed grave; quite odd for a demon I had thought at the time, and I wondered if she didn't mean to put it to rights with the help of her sister. Perhaps I wasn't being fair to demons, they most certainly had hearts and the same sense of justice that I prided myself in having.

"After she left I came back in here to start writing, the people around me were getting to me a bit. Some people can be so graphic in their fantasies."

She had me intrigued. Certainly, I had been offered the favors of many of my customers in the past, male and female alike. But for the sake of the business, and my own reputation I turned down every one. It wouldn't do to have the place raided as a brothel, or myself arrested when one partner had regrets the next morning.

"Really?" I don't know that I expected her to elaborate, but I didn't mind that she teased me back a little.

"Why yes Eric, I don't know if you can actually bend into some of those positions." She was pulling on her coat, pretending that she didn't find the whole conversation funny.

"Perhaps I might yet surprise you Sookie." I took her around the waist and kissed her firmly.

"And what about your staff?"

"What about my staff?"

"Do they have relations with the customers?"

"Not if they want to keep working for me they don't."

"Oh."

"And what does that mean Sookie?" I stopped in the process of setting the alarm at the back door and turned back to her.

"Probably nothing, just that some woman came by to see Arthur, I suppose she was probably a friend, and not a customer."

"What bothered you about her Sookie?" I felt an odd sense of warning bristle across my skin.

"She didn't look like she was dressed to go to a club. She kept her coat on the whole time, and gloves, even though it isn't cold out. And they were like dress gloves, not winter gloves."

"Did you hear what they were saying, or what she was thinking?"

"It was near the end of the night, I'm sorry, I was feeling pretty tired Eric. But I'm sure I caught flashes of them planning on meeting up later. I think she wanted to sleep with him, but I did get the impression they knew each other anyways. They seemed familiar to each other."

Interesting. I didn't know Arthur that well; Pam had hired him, as she hired most of the staff now since the trouble with Yvetta. I suppose he could have had a human lover, it was not that unusual. I filed that bit of information to ponder later. Something about it intrigued me. I finished setting the alarm and we set out for home.

The fireplace was stacked with wood, a habit I had made for myself upon moving in, so that I could light it immediately as I returned home. Another heathen custom that I am certain Pam would have said something about had I given her the chance too. I didn't mind that she tried to 'modernize' me at times, but I would never give up the warmth and aura of a wood fire, no matter how Neolithic Pam felt it was. The dry wood caught quickly as my match touched it and I set the screen in place so that no embers would spark from the hearth and set anything alight.

Sookie was coming out of the washroom, having cleaned the excess, in my opinion, makeup off her face, and brushed out the strands of blond so they gleamed. I stood, from where I had been kneeling on the skin rug just before the hearth, and waited for her to come to me.

"Can I help you untie your top?" Of course I had already taken my shirt off, the fire was warm, and I preferred being as close to its glow as I could.

"Thank you." She turned around slowly and pulled her hair away from her neck so that I could see the strings. I shuddered at the sight of her skin there; still aroused by the recent intimacy, and hungry for her. "It was kind of Diantha to bring me something nice to wear."

"You didn't need it to look beautiful Sookie." I took my time, playing my fingertips over her skin slowly, bringing my mouth to brush the back of her neck, gently blowing warm breath across her skin. I pulled at one of the bows as she clutched the fabric to her breasts and trembled. "You are beautiful just as you are." Then I slid my hands down and I pulled at the second bow at the small of her back. I let the strands fall as I brought my body close to hers and ran my arms around her front to undo the buttons of her skirt, which I pushed off her hips. She turned in my arms, still clutching the blue to cover herself.

"I think the most beautiful thing I have ever seen you wear, besides the body that nature gave you," I bent to nip at her ear and whisper to her, "was my shirt." She let the fabric fall and I crushed her into me.

We didn't make it to the bedroom, and that was fine with me, because I wanted her there, in front of the fire I had made, on the warmed fur of the bearskin rug that lay before it. I wanted her in my domain, and my fantasy just then, as if she had been a shield maiden or a princess of my own realm.

She went to her knees still pressed to my body as I followed, gently guiding her all the way to the floor; holding the back of her head, cradling her carefully, keeping my eyes locked with hers. I took the time to comb her hair out around her face like a halo, my fingers flowing through the silken strands as if they were water. All the words from her journal continued to spin in my head, and the feelings behind what she had written were overwhelming to me; and always would be. I wanted to be the person she had written about, and I wanted to make love to her as Eric Northman.

I took a long kiss from her mouth and then began to trace my fingers down her body, alternating caresses from them with those from my mouth when I desperately needed to taste her. And I was desperate for her. She tried to reciprocate but I gently pushed her hands away and cooed at her,

"Let me please you Sookie."

She moaned as I let my fang scratch her neck, and I lapped up the blood that welled, letting its power flow through me.

Energized I returned my mouth to the skin of her abdomen, kissing and nipping at her as I worked my way downwards. I dragged my hands down her sides, holding her tightly enough that I could feel the way her muscles tensed, but not so tight that I would cause her discomfort.

I could smell her; rather I could smell the scents of our mixed arousals, still clinging to her body from when she had taken me in the club. It made me so hungry for her and so desperate to give her the same pleasure she had given me. I couldn't resist her any longer. So much about being a vampire is based on the senses of taste and smell. It is our source of pleasure beyond most anything else; at least in a primal sort of way. She was driving me to the edge of my control.

I let my hands brush down her hips as I planted a kiss on the mound of flesh just above the final point of my mouth's questing. She mewled as my hands curved inwards and parted her legs for me so that I could bring my mouth down over her, drinking in the scent. I drew my tongue along the source and felt her squirm under my tightening grasp. The taste of her, the taste of us made me desperate for more and I lit on her, teasing the center of her, circling my tongue over her, listening to her cries increase in volume as I felt the muscles tense under my hands, but I would not let her move.

My actions became as frantic as hers, my tongue driving over her and into her, feeling her body yield to me, and yet try to resist me. And then she called out my name, gods I loved to hear her say my name.

"Eric!"

I felt the convulsions begin, and the flood of tastes and heat over me and I could not help myself but to drive my teeth into her soft inner thigh, needing the blood mixed with her orgasm. Her cry was delicious and I drank everything she gave me, feeling her hands begin to twine in my hair, holding my mouth in place, forcing her body against my mouth, begging me to keep drinking.

I felt the fatigue in her body as I held her pressed to my chest, as we lay beside each other, still on the fur rug, still before the fire. I was kissing her neck and face softly when she drew my attention to her; though I thought she might have been close to sleep.

"I want to taste you again Eric." She whispered between indrawn breaths. The words made me shudder, and temporarily lose my focus on my own ministrations to her. The pause must have left her wondering as I tried to recapture my thoughts, all the while, remaining still at her neck, feeling the pulse point underneath my lips.

"Eric, please?"

"Gods yes my beauty." I stabbed my first finger on my fang, hardly feeling the sting, lost in the anticipation of her next action.

I presented my hand to her, palm up, the pearl of blood on my finger shimmering like ruby mercury in the glow of the flame, dancing with the subtle trembling of my body. Tiny hands took my wrist and stroked my palm, pulling the fingertip to her mouth where her glistening tongue darted out to sweep the bead away. I couldn't help but moan to watch her, and it made her smile. She pulled the fingertip into her mouth, and did as I had done before, coaxing the wound with her tongue, pulling more and more of my blood into her mouth. I could not have been more aroused if she had taken my, well, I don't really need to go there.

She dragged my fingertips across her bottom teeth, taking another drop before my system healed the small tear and I pulled my fingers from her hungry mouth, very slowly.

"Why don't I get high from your blood, like the people who take V?" She asked, in the same deep voice.

"I don't know Sookie. Maybe because of your fairy blood, maybe because we have exchanged blood." I smiled at her and took a kiss from her mouth, "maybe you do get high, and maybe we both do, just in our own way."

"I want some more."

"If we share blood so frequently there is the chance that we will become bonded Sookie." I had previously considered the idea in daytime fantasies as I had lain awake, agonizing over her, but it flooded into the forefront of my thoughts just then.

"What is that Eric?"

"We will be able to sense each other's thoughts and feelings Sookie. There will be a connection between us that cannot be broken." Her response was hesitant.

"Did I have this connection with Bill?" That thought gave me pause, I had no idea if they had bonded, and if they had, did my blood have enough strength to break it? It was a selfish wave that struck me. I didn't want her bonded with him, she was my lover, and I did not want her to have thoughts of any other man, especially Bill Compton.

"Have you had dreams of him?" I asked, hoping for honesty, but hoping she had not.

"I don't even know what he looks like Eric." That statement gave me some comfort. It could be that they had never exchanged blood with the frequency required, or it could be that the amnesia had broken the bond, at least while her memories were gone. I became nervous. Would restoring her memories restore that intimate connection with him? It set a sick feeling in my gut.

"I don't know that you did Sookie." I tried to make my voice sound strong and convincing, as much for myself as for her. Bill had never thrown that in my face, and I had little doubt that he would have had he managed it. "But is that something you might wish to have with me?" I hung on her answer, feeling as if it might break me if she said no and the pause was torture.

"Let me drink Eric." She touched my face; she was so warm from the flames. "If you will have me."

If I would have her? A ridiculous question; not that I told her that. Months of fantasies, taking her as my lover, taking her as my true partner, taking her as mine assaulted me. I dropped my fangs and slashed my wrist ferociously, and curling my opposite arm under her shoulders I pressed the wound to her lips, and closed my eyes as she drank from me.