Hey everyone! Okay, I know it's been a couple of days, and I haven't been playing hard to get, I just have had a lot going on with the holidays. I am a terrible last minute shopper running around with my head cut off trying something to make it work.

So bear with me until these time consuming holidays are over. And don't forget to review or PM me because it does help to pump me up and update more often.

Chapter 18: Glory of Love –Bill Broonzy

Sookie

Sookie smiled at the adorable look on Eric's face.

"What did I say?" she asked, slightly embarrassed. "What?" she said in frustration when he didn't answer, stomping her foot.

He smiled and looked down at the floor, shaking his head marginally. "Sookie…," he said softly, looking back up at her with twinkling sapphire eyes.

He then darted forward and kissed her so tenderly and sweetly that she gasped in to his mouth. When she felt him smiling against her mouth as he kissed her, she could help but pull back and put both hands on her hips. "Okay, Eric Northman, if you ain't gonna tell me what has you smilin' I will rescind your invitation!"

He rushed to her and said, "Okay, okay. Well I had a…fantasy of you once. And you said that to me in the fantasy. About me smelling like the ocean in winter."

"Really?" she asked.

He nodded, "Yeah and you called me cowboy, and that you could smell my memories."

"Ohhh, cowboy, huh? I think I like that, Cowboy."

Eric growled in pleasure and she smiled widely at him. When he growled like that it caused vibrations in places that she hadn't entertained lately. Well, not since Eric had lived here.

Sookie pressed her legs together in attempt to squelch her desire and Eric smirked, noticing it.

"Lover, you have had a long night. Can I lay with you as you go to sleep?" he asked, almost bashfully.

Sookie smiled, despite her disappointment that they were only going to be sleeping. Sookie realized that she really had had a long night. And her body was exhausted.

Sookie held her hand out to Eric, but he took it and kissed the back of it before swinging her arm around his head to rest along his shoulders. He then picked her up and carried her up the stairs. She began to protest, but he kissed her to quiet her protests and she relaxed in his arms.

Once they reached her room, he set her on her feet and asked, "Where do you keep your night clothing?"

She walked around him to her dresser and opened a drawer that held her pajamas. She didn't have anything that could even be interpreted as alluring so she grabbed a pair of pinked cotton striped pajama bottoms and a pink tank top and headed to the bathroom, leaving Eric to wait for her.

Sookie brushed her teeth and washed her face and slowly began to remove her outfit that she now realized was a mess. As she reached around her to pull the zipper on her dress down, she realized exactly how sore all of her muscles were. The adrenaline from her earlier attack had worn off and she realized exactly how rough Quinn had actually been on her.

She wanted to take a shower or a bath, but she was too exhausted. She would probably fall asleep standing. So it would have to wait until the morning.

She brushed out her hair and grabbed the bottle of Ibuprofen and took two, before heading out of the bathroom. Eric was sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for her and she blushed when he smiled lustfully at her in the pajamas.

He held his hand out to her and she slowly walked to him and he wrapped his arms around her and rested his ear to her chest, right where her heart was. She held him and rubbed her hands through his hair as he held her and he pulled away slightly after few minutes.

He motioned for her to climb in the bed and she did. But when he made to lay with her fully dressed in jeans, t-shirt and black boots she stopped him.

"Eric, you need to get out of those clothes if you are lyin' with me."

He looked down at Sookie and then to his clothes and began pulling his shirt over his head. Sookie watched as his muscles danced with every movement and he smiled at her as he caught her staring. He then kicked his boots off and undid his jeans and slid them down.

He was wearing a pair of black boxer briefs and the scant amount of clothing on the Viking made Sookie's mouth water and something else entirely moisten. He inhaled slightly and looked at her devilishly.

"Sookie you are making it extremely hard for me to let you get some sleep tonight without taking you. You are also making something else hard, my beautiful girl."

Sookie gulped and gave him a guilty expression. He laughed and climbed under the covers with her and opened his arms out for her to snuggle into, which she did. When she was comfortable, she sighed in relief and even happiness.

The night had taken many turns and somehow it had led her and Eric to be here now. She laid on her side with her arms around him and she now put her leg over his. He held her tightly to him and he began to hum something softly to her in his rich, deep voice.

It was a mattered of seconds before her eyes began closing despite her attempts to keep them open. She inhaled in Eric's scent again and her last thought was that she felt so warm and safe. Sleep took Sookie, and she had the deepest sleep she had since…well, since Eric had been with her in bed last.

Eric

Eric had only been holding Sookie a few moments when she fell asleep. She was completely zonked out he gloried in her relaxed weight on him. His nose seemed to take comfort in the smell of her hair and he buried it in her curls, inhaling deeply.

With every breath Sookie took, his heart seemed to expand more and more with the happiness and joy he felt. She loved him. Knowing that, nothing else that they had been through mattered to him. And now he held her and his world seemed to make sense again, pacing itself with her heartbeat.

Eric heard his phone vibrate in his pants pocket and he hated to move. He looked down at Sookie and eased himself out from her, immediately wanting to return to her. He grabbed his pants and his phone out of his pocket, checking the caller ID.

Pam.

"Pam, I am here," he whispered, walking out into the hallway. He kept the door open a crack to keep an eye on Sookie as he spoke.

"Eric, are you returning before sunrise?" she asked slight concern in her voice.

"No, I will be staying here with Sookie."

"Did you fuck her?" Pam asked in a bored tone.

"No, Pamela. Speak respectfully," he said.

She snorted in the phone. "So, you have the bond completely turned off. Are you happy?"

Instead of telling her, he amped up the bond almost fully and she gasped. "What the fuck was that?"

"That is me teaching you how happiness can fill you."

"Holy shit, I hope I never fall in love," she said angrily.

He chuckled in to the phone, but then his acute hearing picked up something outside the house. He snarled lightly.

"Pam, someone is here. I have to go," clicking the phone off.

He stalked down the stairs and out the front door, his eyes constantly sweeping the area. He inhaled and growled when he smelled Bill. His eyes then found the civil war veteran, standing on the far side of the lawn, right on the tree line of the woods that surrounded Sookie's property.

Eric strode up to Bill and gave a slight nod of his head. "A little underdressed Sheriff, aren't we?" Bill asked with an edge to his voice.

"Your majesty, to what do we owe the pleasure?" he asked, clearly establishing that Bill's being here was now his business.

"Stopping by to check on Sookie."

"My human is fine. Thank you for your concern."

"Your human? Well, sheriff I was under the impression that Sookie was, in fact, her own. She belonged to no one."

"You would be wrong."

"Ah, well as your king, perhaps you will loan your human to me…well for my own reasons. As you reminded me last year, I could simply take her," he smirked at him.

Eric growled. Technically, he was right. But Eric would rather kill him and ascend the throne before he let him take Sookie. There was another way though, and although he had not discussed it with Sookie, he felt this was the only way, "You would be right if she was simply my pet, however she is my bonded. As you know, no vampire can interfere between a bonded pair."

Bill's eyebrows shot up in surprise and his lip curled up, "Bonded?"

Eric gave a simple nod.

Bill looked at him, clearly trying to work out if he should believe Eric now.

But really he had no choice but to accept what Eric said, according to vampire law.

"And Bill, if you fuck with my bonded, there will not be a force in this world that will stop me from killing you. And it will be slow. And it will look like nothing compared to Lorena's treatment of you while at Russell's. You may be king, but I am older and more powerful. Remember that Billy," he finished.

With that he turned on a furious Bill and went back to Sookie. It was almost sunlight. He needed to lie with her for as long as he could so he could comfortably go to his day rest knowing it hadn't been a dream.

Do you think Bill will take Eric's threat to heart? Thanks for reading and please leave me a thought or two by reviewing!