Thank you so much for the reviews and your patience as I crafted this chapter. I hope that you are satisfied with our Viking. And I hope that you find his POV believable and honest.

Merick

Part 21

I kept every ugly thought, every suspicion that ate at my soul at bay as I laid her down on the coverlet of my bed. I wanted her to sense nothing from me but the passions I had for her, I didn't want her to see anything through the fledgling bond but the love I felt for her then, even if I couldn't say it out loud to her. I did want her to forget everything but me, and my body and the way my hands touched her, and my mouth kissed her. I wanted her whole universe to be me just then, because then I knew she would never leave me, or push me away. Selfish? Yes. But I was a narcissistic creature born of a thousand years of self-centered indulgence, give or take. Sometimes I liked just being that thing, that single purpose was so easy; it didn't hurt so much. I wasn't sure exactly when the Viking Prince had given way to this Eric that cared so much for the feelings of a mortal girl, probably the day she walked into my bar. 'Of all the gin joints in all the towns in the world, she walks into mine'. I didn't have the fedora, though I maybe had the suave of Bogart, but the line was just as apt. She'd walked into my life, well, more like imposed herself on my life, and I hadn't been able to look away since. I needed her.

The blue of her eyes sparkled in the half-light of my room. I'd lit candles all around the bed, on the dresser, in the wall sconces, on the bedside table. Like the real wood fireplace in the great room, the flames kept the memory of my human life alive, and while you might not think that a thousand year old link would really be important given everything I'd seen in the years since it ended, it was important to me. I'd spent the millennia looking for the thing that killed my family; they were as much a part of me now as they were then even with the quest completed. In fact, it had become more important to me since Russell's demise, to keep them alive in my immortal heart; it was the way of my people.

I looked down at her, and combed her long blond hair out into a halo around her head, I felt her fingers twine through my hair again and I could not help but smile at her. I could smell the warmth of the sun still on her, spiced with the salt of the anxious despair that had possessed her and it brought out such a powerful need in me to protect her, and to have her. She was still wearing the white sundress, the hint of her tan still kissing her skin, made all the more evident by the white eyelet fabric. It had a sweetheart neckline, which is to say that it plunged just modestly between her breasts, the fabric like the top of a heart shape covering the crowns, but leaving the medial swells exposed to me. If I could not have smelled her arousal beginning, or heard the beat of her heart quicken, just watching the rise and fall of her beautiful chest would have told me everything I needed to know about how much she truly wanted me.

With a careful hand I began to undo the buttons at the front of the dress, folding the soft fabric to the side with each inch exposed until her breasts were revealed to me. She wore nothing under the dress, she had no need, her body was young and firm, yet as pliant as I chose to make it, as I brushed my fingertips down her breastbone, and felt her quiver for me.

"I am so sorry my hands are cold." I whispered into her ear, nipping at the velvety lobe, and pulling it into my mouth to tease, without drawing her blood.

She moaned for me and pushed her skin against my hand even harder.

"I want to feel the weight of your body on mine Eric, I want to feel your blood inside me." Her hands reached for me, pulling me to her, driving her lips against mine. My fangs dropped and I drove them through my lower lip, not even feeling the winch of pain, only wanting to give her the blood. She took it as if it was life itself, tracing my mouth with her tongue, curling every drop into her throat as well as any Vampire would have. To watch her, and to hear her only made me that much more desperate for her, and I struggled out of my shirt so that I could lay out over her and feel her heaving chest against mine.

"I will make you hot." She spoke out between mouthfuls of my blood, and her hands reached down to take the swollen rod, straining against my pants. I roared for her, so barely able to keep control of my desires. Her hands were stronger than I had imagined they could be, fueled perhaps by my blood, and she had my pants undone, and pushed away from my hips in a very fluid movement. I pushed the skirt of her dress out of the way and tore the lacy underwear in my lust, plunging myself inside her with more force than I had ever dared use before. Her scream was absolute music, and the arms that encircled me, and forced my hips against her even harder was almost better than the scent of the blood between us.

The tear on my lip healed quickly without her insistent mouth pulling on it, and so I slashed it anew, forcing the blood against her again, hearing the rivulets as they flowed from her ruby lips, and down the side of her throat to puddle against the bed sheets. I continued to force myself against her and inside her, stealing the cries into my own throat as they escaped hers. Fingernails dug into my back, opening further scratches making the air heavy with the scent of our blood, mingled with the beeswax of the candles that continued to sputter as flame met impurities in the tapers.

"Gods Eric!" Her cry was my own, I had never heard her refer to my pantheon before with such abject familiarity as in that cry, and I felt her release in my mind even before I felt the convulsions that drew me deeper still, milking the essence from me as I gave myself to her with a roar, stifled only when I sank my teeth into the crown of her breast and pulled a mouthful of sweet blood into my throat.

The sheets were covered with blood, as were we, as I held her in my arms, feeling her panting chest against my skin as her heart finally began to slow. I envied her, having that refraction, those purely physical moments to regain her composure, because it was denied me. There was no racing heart, and no breath to catch, and at times like that I actually regretted that one lost part of my humanity. Lying in the arms of one's lover, trading careful caresses as the bliss brought you to sleep was not something I was used to sharing with a partner, but of course, I had never had a partner like Sookie, one that I wanted to still be wrapped around when the moon rose. With careful fingers I wiped the blood from her face, and that, which had dried, I cleaned with long drawn out strokes of my tongue, tracing down her beautiful neck. She moaned quietly.

Not to give myself undue credit, but the wound on her chest was small, despite my ardor, and though she flinched as I touched it, it too was quickly soothed by a few drops of my blood from a pricked finger. She had enough of my blood in her that it would have healed on its own given a few more minutes, but where was the fun in that?

And speaking of fun, and sadly, a little bit of discomfort, I brought my mouth down to her thighs intending to continue my ministrations on skin that was tinted with a pinkish hue from the blood my passionate thrusts had torn from her. When I touched her there, I thought most tenderly, her moan was one of pain.

"Sookie? I am so sorry." Bless her; she tried to shrug off the obvious discomfort, which I could hear both in her voice, and in my mind.

"Never apologize for your passions Eric." She stroked my hair.

"I never meant to hurt you my Beauty."

"I will be fine Eric."

"I can help, if you will trust me."

"With my life Eric." It made me tremble just to hear her words.

I took her hand and held it tightly as I carefully, even more carefully than before, brought my mouth to the inside of her thighs and tenderly washed the blood from her skin. The scent of both of us was heavy in my nostrils as I again scratched a finger with the point of a fang, and coaxed my own blood from it. Gingerly I drew the ruby paint between her legs, at first she tensed, I could feel the muscles turning to knots. But as the blood flowed, and I traced it over her she began to relax. I whispered her name as I slid the finger into her depths, turning it slowly to let the blood touch each part of her, where I had hurt her. She moaned for me and I pushed harder against the muscular walls.

With feather light movements I brushed my thumb over the bundle of nerves at her entrance, and let my finger massage against her harder. Her muscles relaxed to me. My name fell from her lips; I loved it when she said my name.

"Gods, Eric."

I slide my body up hers, my hand still stroking her, to take a gentle kiss from her mouth before she came for me again. It was so peaceful, and I felt her exhaustion in my mind as her body finally collapsed, well spent into the sheets and her eyes closed.

"Sleep my beauty." I kissed her again and she managed a weak smile for me.

"Thank you for bringing me home Eric."

"You will always have a home with me Sookie." I kissed her forehead and drew a sheet over her body. It didn't matter that it was stained with blood, not that she could see it, I liked my sheets black, and silk. To my eyes it made the perfect picture. My lover, curled into the finery like her skin, golden hair, and the remnants of blood around her as much as the sex. If I could have painted that would have been the scene to create, but as it was I committed it to memory, not knowing how much comfort that image would bring me in the days to come.

I leaned in to kiss her again, and I whispered to her,

"I love you Sookie." Her response to me was only gentle breathing, as my lover had fallen to sleep finally. I left her in peace.

Sooo,….