A/N: Thank you, friends, for your follows, and your kind words and encouragement! This is the last update for "Teeth in the Grass"—I am about to become buried under a work landslide, so I can't keep up the pace anymore—but this has been a great first fanfic experience for me. In my field, I do a very different kind of writing, so it has been exciting and illuminating to remember how to play with words, to put them to different effect. Thanks for reminding me that writing can be such a pleasure! I hope you took some in it, too.

Chapter 4

"And when there's nothing to want
when we're all brilliant and fast
when all tomorrow's are gone
there will be teeth in the grass"

—Iron and Wine

I lay awake, tangled in the sheets. The end of the evening replayed countless times in my head—Eric's sensual admission, his confident hands on my body, his hot, wild eyes as he tasted me, and his sudden, restrained stillness. His control shocked me, almost as much as his excessive passion had. I admired it. I envied it. And most surprisingly, I realized I could trust it.

The first rays of sunshine filtered into my bedroom as I relived our final exchange. When Eric had pulled away, I remained motionless, gasping for air, desirous and unsteady. He gave me a long, hungry look before turning to leave. I managed to stammer out, "Will I see you tomorrow?"

"Lover," he answered back, his eyes fixed upon me, unwavering, "it is inevitable."

Remembering his assurance, a sense of calm swept over me, and my restlessness faded. My exhaustion made the truth undeniable: I wanted him, too. Completely.

I finally slept.

When I woke, it was late afternoon. My earlier sense of calm lingered, and instead of obsessively polishing my body or overanalyzing my wardrobe, I showered and dressed simply. I wandered into the backyard, beneath Eric's ancient tree. Though I expected it to seem out of place, it didn't. It, too, felt…inevitable.

Struck with a strange urge, I decided to climb it. I hadn't climbed a tree since I was a kid playing with Jason, but I remembered the fun of figuring one out like a puzzle. It wasn't long before I'd reach the upper branches. Breathless from my exertion, I settled in against the trunk.

For a long while I remained still, listening to the wind shimmer the leaves. But when the sun burned low on the horizon, sending orange streaks across the sky, I moved. Clambering out on the limb until I was over the roof, I dropped onto it and climbed to the highest point. I sat in silence, watching the sun go down.

As the last lingering flash of light fled the horizon, I felt a stab of anxiety return. Although I knew what I wanted, I had no plans; I had no expectations of how the evening would go. At the same time, a quiet inner voice whispered there was no need to work so hard—not if it was inevitable.

I felt Eric before I saw him. My entire body flushed as I sensed him land on the roof behind me. I remained still, though my blood was hammering so violently I was sure he could feel it.

"Caught you." I looked over my shoulder and found him: his charismatic stance, his dancing eyes, his irresistible smirk. Entirely overwhelming. I smiled in greeting. Nimbly, he picked his way across the roof to join me. He pulled his knees up, folded his arms against them, and watched quietly as the light faded from the sky.

"So…what's the plan?" I asked after a moment.

"My plan? After yesterday?" He feigned indignation at the question. "I'm a fast learner, Sookie. I know better than to presume."

"Oh, I take one evening away from you," I taunted back, "and now you can't be bothered with a little forethought?" He shrugged.

"I suppose I just assumed we could work something out. Find something we'd both like to do. Together." He arched his eyebrows in droll suggestion, but his gaze was so sexy and pointed I had to look away. "Why are you up here, by the way?" he finally asked.

"Well, I was climbing your tree—you know, communing with nature—" Eric snorted wryly. "—when I figured, why stop there? A little danger always spices up the day."

"I see." His eyes twinkled. "Seeking out a bit of the sublime, then?"

"Pardon?"

"The sublime—the edge of ecstasy and terror."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say sitting a couple stories up on my house is bringing me to the edge of ecstasy and terror…"

"Hmmm. I may be able to help you with that…" He was teasing me, I knew, but my heart stuttered out a very real answer. Eric heard it.

The mood changed immediately as his expression filled with hopeful, guarded anticipation. He tilted his head. I shrugged my shoulders. He held my gaze intently, waiting for my consent. I finally nodded, grinning helplessly at him—light, buoyant, free.

"Now that is a plan I can get behind."

In an instant, he grabbed me to him, and shot us straight into the air. I clung to him wildly, unable to process how fast we were moving, where we were, what position my body was in—any of it. A deep growl rumbled through his chest as he sensed my fear and exhilaration. His firm hands locked around me, intimate and secure. He was enjoying this. It excited me beyond measure.

We continued like that for some time, soaring at a near-blinding speed as the night sky dissolved into blackness. Countless lights blinked on and blurred beneath us, creating an atmosphere that felt uncanny, ethereal, otherworldly. It took me a while to discover he was playing with height and velocity, skimming us low over dark water, surging us high into the milk white vapor of clouds. A laugh tore through me, and I clutched him closer.

"Feel free to look down," Eric shouted to me with open joy. "There is nothing quite like it." The wind rushed around us impossibly fast. When I turned my face to his, though, I found I didn't want to. And not out of fear. I simply realized there wasn't anything more beautiful or necessary to look at.

After a few minutes, he became aware of my gaze. His youthful exhilaration faded and a different, smoldering spark flared in his eyes.

"Do you want to return?" he asked. I nodded my head against him. Eric smiled. "Had enough of the sublime?"

I paused before answering. Fully aware of my action, knowing exactly how he would interpret it, I slowly shook my head. He understood instantly, inhaling sharply. A profound savagery pulsed through him into me.

"Oh lover," he breathed, and shot us even faster through the night sky toward home.

We reached the house sooner than I expected, and my mind buzzed with a hundred questions, desires, and anxieties. But when Eric swooped us through my bedroom window and stood towering above me, his hands at my waist, his mouth on mine, everything hot and urgent and inevitable, I felt my senses take over. Brilliant, nameless fragments of images, tastes, and sounds shot through me at the feel of him, the size of him, and my desire bloomed strong and insistent. I wondered if Eric felt that way all the time.

Hard or soft, slow or fast—it didn't matter to me. I wanted as much Eric as possible. My hands ran up his body, slipping under his shirt, feeling his smooth, hard skin. I pressed myself into him to absorb as much of his feel as I could. He smiled down at me with wicked, controlled confidence, reveling in my desire for him.

I had a sudden impulse to shock him, to challenge him, to see if I could draw out his primal urges. I backed away from him and pulled my shirt off, watching as his fangs slid down. Still, Eric waited, drinking me in. Taking his hand, I walked him slowly to the bed and pushed him down onto the edge. I brought my hand up to his face and stroked my fingers softly against his lips. Instinctively they parted for me. He brushed his nose against my fingers, inhaling. Very carefully, I ran my thumb over an exposed fang.

The blood instantly welled to the surface. Eric's body seized sharply. I waited to see would he would do.

Again, he stunned me with his control. Instead of mindlessly sucking me into his mouth, he licked the line slowly, savoring the flavor. Even more impossibly, with the tiniest nick of his tongue, I realized he was healing me with the same action. My skin knit back together under his gentle, fervent caress. Though my desire was fierce before, it was nothing compared to the new, riotous arousal that consumed me.

And then Eric moved.

Slowly, placing one hand on my chest and coiling the other behind me, he lowered me back onto the bed. His eyes burned with restrained desire. Seductively, deliberately, he took my arm in his hand, and slid his fang up the side of it. A long, stunning trail of crimson appeared. I gasped. He repeated his action from before, licking the length of it, tasting me and healing me in one sensual motion. I was so aroused I could barely function. He continued the dark, decadent exploration of my skin with his fangs and tongue, opening and closing, rupturing and soothing, heating and cooling, up the length of my arms, against my neck, across my breasts. I may have started the action, but my God was he finishing it.

Unbelievably, I was the one who finally stopped it, who couldn't take it anymore. Almost insensible, I willed myself to action and grabbed a fistful of his hair. His head jerked upward at once, a trickle of blood smeared in the stubble near his mouth, his eyes almost feral in the dimly lit room. Overcome with want, I dragged him to me and plunged my tongue into his mouth.

I felt a change in him, as if he was roaring at me, though I heard nothing audible. He grasped my hip in his hand, and crushed his erection against me, showing me how difficult his gentle display had been, how massive his arousal actually was. In that instant, I needed him, all of him, on display, against me, around me, in me. I tore at his clothes with both hands until he was naked.

Was I prepared for how beautiful he would be? Perhaps. But not for how it would affect me. In the moment, I needed him more than air, water, food—anything. Eric seemed to understand my urgency, and quickly stripped the rest of my clothes off. The sight of me bare and pulsing left him insatiable as well, and he fell upon my body fervently, stroking, tonguing, and teasing. He was everywhere—my hair, the backs of my knees, the side of my ribcage, my toes—feeding my lust. His body vibrated with pleasure, and I opened to him in every way I could.

When the pain of being without him almost overwhelmed the pleasure of his attention, Eric pushed into me, hard and heavy and full. I arched against him in wordless elation, accepting him deeply. He felt strong and new but also familiar, as though he had been there before, perhaps all along.

I expected him to continue his sensual onslaught, but he did not. He stilled in me and pulled back. Gazing into my eyes with frightening, raw possession, he pierced his own thumb on his fang, drawing an orb of blood to the tip. My mouth opened hungrily to take him in, but he brought it to my lips slowly, with import.

"Now I want you to taste me," he murmured. The air crackled with intensity. My senses were on fire, but my mind was sure and calm. I stared up at him and licked the droplet away. My world exploded. Through the multitude of colors and images, smells and tastes that swirled around me, I was vaguely aware of his distant growl of pleasure. He thrust into me once, hard and fast.

"Tell me what you sense," he whispered.

If I could have, I would have laughed at the insanity of his request. It was nearly impossible to articulate anything while he filled me so completely. With the steady, electric pull of his body and the overwhelming rush of his blood, I felt he was breaking into my sense of self and scattering my feelings in an impossible outward spray. He pushed into me again. I cried out and tried.

"Whiskey. Birchwood. Fire," I gasped, breathless. Though utter nonsense, it seemed to drive Eric out of his mind. He thrust into me in earnest, bringing me higher and closer with his heated pace. More sensations flooded me, and I watched him unhinge at my words: "Ice, terror, blackness. Heat. Wisdom. Earth, life, light." My words dissolved into helpless screams as he rocked into me harder, his eyes feverish, shockingly aware. He moaned and rolled us until I was astride him. He filled me completely.

"There is no one like you," he strained against me. "There is no one else." His admission sent me over the edge. I cried out, long and loud and unembarrassed, shattering around him, falling through space and time, awash in the unimaginable, singular, ecstatic experience of Eric.

When my eyes finally fluttered open again, I saw his grin of pleasure, his raw satisfaction, and his continued need. I beamed back at him, warm, aroused. He raised his eyebrows, as though asking permission, and I couldn't help myself from smiling, nodding, pulling him back up into me. He growled aggressively, and I bit back a shriek as he flipped us again, pounding into me faster and fuller than I thought possible. When he finally came, it was without sound, just a sharp exhalation of breath and a wild look of abandon as he pulsed in relief. I'd never seen anything so beautiful in my life.

A few moments later, Eric settled back onto the bed facing me. We smiled at each other in silence.

"That was a good fucking plan," I said, finally.

"Blindingly good," he answered immediately. We laughed together, breathless, before silence swallowed us again. Moonlight streamed in through the window. His profile glowed.

"Eric…"

"Yes, lover?"

"Are we…are we really doing this?" I asked in a small voice. He stroked a lock of hair away from my face, and pressed a deep kiss into my temple. My heart swelled in my chest.

"It's already done."