Chapter 37

Getting To Know You, Getting To Know All About You

Sookie's POV

I was completely and totally enamored of Eric. We'd had a horrible fight a few nights ago, I had acted like a spoiled brat and he had acted like a domineering asshole. He'd sent me a gorgeous ring that had added fuel to the fire of my rage and I had ground the offending jewelry into near nothingness with my brother's garbage disposal. Not the smartest thing in the world but it had damn sure felt good at the time.

Now I found myself lying awake in the total darkness of Eric's underground safe place having awoken early. I could feel his weight in the bed next to me but I heard no breathing. My lover was undead and had no need for air. Sometimes the absence of hearing air flowing in and out of his lungs was disconcerting but was a minor detail when I looked at the big picture.

I marveled at how quickly I had forgiven him for the physical manhandling he had put on me the night I left. I had always told myself that any man who would put his hands on you once would do it again, but I knew in my soul that Eric wouldn't touch me out of anger anymore. I might sound like some stupid bumpkin who's making excuses for an abusive boyfriend, but it really wasn't like that. I was no ordinary woman and Eric was most definitely no ordinary man.

His ideas of manhood and the accepted roles that women played were of an ancient time. He was old school almost to the point of caveman mentality. See what you want and club it on the head until it belongs to you. I understood that deep down inside, he'd been so fearful of losing me and so frustrated with my refusal to listen to him that he had reacted in the way he thought would be most effective, he'd scared the shit out of me. It hadn't had the desired effect on me because he underestimated just how big Sookie Stackhouse's balls were. I'm stubborn and when I feel forced, I dig my heels in like an old mule would. Not one of my finer qualities for sure. But I had felt his sorrow and remorse as he had talked to me the night he had found me with Quinn at Merlotte's. There had been no need to make him say the words, I knew he was remorseful. Neither of us was perfect but somehow together, we worked. We both knew all too well our own shortcomings as well as each others.

I was becoming a new woman a little more everyday I was with him. Soon, I would turn my face away from the sun forever and join Eric as his mate, his equal in every way. Once upon a time Bill had asked me if I ever entertained the thought of him turning me and my answer had been a resounding no. The thought of never seeing sunlight or a blue sky again had left a ragged feeling in my chest. But I had never loved Bill as much as I love Eric. I hadn't seen the sun now for weeks with the exception of a few agonizing minutes where I had blistered, and I hadn't missed it one bit. If I wanted to see a blue sky, I could watch a video of it. I wouldn't die from saying goodbye to the daylight but Eric sure would if he said hello to it. Wasn't true love about sacrifice and doing your best to make your partner happy? There was only one thing I couldn't do without and that was Eric. Even as he lay here beside me, a mere few inches away, I ached because of that tiny distance between us. My need for him went beyond physical or mental, it was spiritual. He was as essential to my survival now as water or air.

We had decided that he would take me to ground after the trial was over. We'd both agreed and been proven correct by a phone call from Pam last night, that Bill would do his best to expedite the trial. We had only days now before we had to go to New Orleans. Even with all of Eric's assurances that things would be fine, I felt nervous. Bill was a jackass but he was also a sly survivor. And he didn't take losing very gracefully, so even if everything went favorably for us at the trial, who's to say that he wouldn't retaliate on his own? Looking over your shoulder for the next crazed killer to try and off you is no way to live, I should know!

I felt my lover stir beside me in the bed and I inched closer to him until my body curved into his. We fit together perfectly.

"I will never tire of feeling you beside me when I awaken, my love."

"Never is a long time, Eric. I hope you really mean that."

"I do not say things I do not mean, Sookie." I felt his hand start to snake it's way between my thighs and for an instant I started to open for him. But no, we had agreed to finally clean up the mess he had made of the place. I was tired of sidestepping broken glass and other hazards. Plus, the plumbers were coming tonight to install a toilet for me downstairs. I had told Eric it was pointless, soon I would have no more need of one than he did but he insisted that even if for a few days, my convenience was imperative.

"Eric, no, we have things to do and besides, I want one day where we use our mouths for talking, not for, well, other things."

"But, min alskarinna, you use that lovely mouth of yours so creatively!"

"As do you, my king, but a deal is a deal and I think we need to actually talk! There's so much about you I don't know. I think I need to fix that before I let you drain me dry and bury me for three days."

"Whatever you wish, Sookie. I want you to be sure this is what you want." He sat up in bed and kissed my hand like a gentleman. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and as I got an eyeful of his spectacular ass, I almost said to hell with it and lured him back. But I had a million things I wanted to ask and there was a LOT of mess to clean. I heard his quiet laugh as I sighed wistfully.

I got dressed and put my hair up in a ponytail. Eric stood with a broom in his hand, wielding it like a sword, poking at the destruction with the handle.

"Sweet baby Jesus, Eric! Do you not know how to use a broom?"

"When would someone such as me have needed to know this? I have been the hunter of food, gatherer of wealth and power, dealer of death and destruction! Not the sweeper of broken glass or maker of beds!."

"Well, mister high and mighty, let me show you how to operate this heavy machinery." And with that we got to work. I found that I was okay with delegating things that would not be easily classified as menial to Eric and he seemed not too awful upset about taking direction from a human woman. We worked on picking up and removing all the dangerous debris first. It took me a while to get the nerve to ask my first question.

"Were you ever in love or married when you were human?" He answered without hesitation.

"In love? No. Married? Yes. He name was Eyja and she was my older brothers wife. When he died in battle, she was passed to me. She bore me one son who died in infancy and she followed. I never loved her but I was bound by family honor and tradition to care for her."

"How awful for both of you."

"Yes. Especially for me. She was a very homely woman with huge drooping breasts and only two teeth left in her warted head. It took much mead to make me ready to mate with her. After I made her with child the first time, my duty was done and I was free to skruven whomever I chose." Well, I knew Eric wasn't one to mince words. As a woman, I knew I should have been offended but I couldn't bring myself to feel outraged.

"You do realize that aside from with me, your skruven days are over, right?"

"Alskarinna, I see every other woman as an Eyja, you are the only true beauty my eyes behold."

That made me feel infinitely better. Although, I wondered if he would be open to including someone we both knew and loved at least once before I was turned. So much for keeping this thought to myself. The damn blood bond was worse than a CIA mole.

"I know of whom you are thinking, love and honestly, we may not have a choice. To quote the one in question herself, we will owe her big time for something she has planned."

"Well, we time to discuss that later." I went back to hanging pictures that were salvageable back on the wall.

"May I ask questions as well?"

"Well of course you can."

"Were you at all attracted to me before the night of the sex party?"

"Yes and no. You scared me to death, but I was definitely drawn to you. I felt loyalty to Bill and I thought I loved him but you fascinated me. I just chucked it up to the whole surly, bad boy vibe that gets all the girls."

"Did you ever think about me and pleasure yourself?" he had stopped cleaning and was staring at me with one brow raised.

"Well, yeah." Was I actually embarrassed to answer this question after all the things he and I had done to and with each other? "I mean, you're obviously gorgeous and...."

"And what?"

"Dangerous." There, I said it and now he might think I'm a freak.

"So my dangerous side turns you on?" He was walking, no strike that, stalking towards me with a very serious look on his face.

"Yes." I half whispered. My heart was beating a million times a minute. I could feel my knees actually shaking.

"What is it about danger that does this to you? Is it the fact that should I decide to, I could take whatever I wanted whether you were willing or not?" He was closer now. "Is it the fact that I have killed men before and will most definitely do so again?" Closer still. "Or is the fact that soon, you will be like me, enhanced by immortality with heightened strength and senses and you know that even then, you will be no match for me physically." He was right in front of me now, looking down at me fiercely.

"It's all those things, Eric. But it's also knowing that even though you're capable of total ruthlessness and domination, you love me enough to not be that way with me. Unless I asked you to. And I do think that I will ask you to."

He shoved me roughly against the wall and lifted me up to waist heighth while shredding my shortie shorts and underwear in one motion. I felt him enter me and his growl of satisfaction was so damn hot I came within seconds. I loved his mouth on me, nipping and sucking at my exposed skin, the feel of his thrusts pushing me into the wall and up. I loved how my body seemed to just absorb him. I loved the feel of his hardness in contrast to my soft inner walls, the way he filled me up in width and depth. He was saying my name, chanting it in a sort of rapture. I was close to climaxing again but I wanted to wait for him. It was becoming impossible to hold out.

"Tell me Sookie."

"What do you need to hear?" I was panting with my effort to control my impending orgasm.

"Tell me you love me!"

"Eric, ohmygod! Eric I love you!" I couldn't hold back any longer and was pleased to feel his release in sync with mine.

"As I love you, Sookie." Luckily we collapsed into a tangle of arms and legs in an area that had been cleared of debris.

Well, so much for a no-sex night.