I am so so so so sorry for taking so long to update. I've been having a hard time at home at the moment. I promise no matter how long it takes to update, I still will continue writing this story until it is completed.

Thanks to you all for being so sweet.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts on this one, lovelies!

Chapter Fourteen

The instance we got inside, Eric fell straight to sleep. I guess the evening had been very stressful and tiring on him. I couldn't exactly blame him for crashing on the bed so quickly. I smiled down at him as he slept. He was lying diagonally across the bed, still clothed, stretched out like a cat. I bent down and attempted to unlace his shoes so he would be more comfortable. I managed to wriggle them off his long feet successfully without even waking him.

I guess his little teleporting antic and the ordeal with the police had him utterly drained.

Setting his shoes gently down on the floor, I went quietly over to my dresser and grabbed my hairbrush. I had a tangle in my hair and I fiddled around, attempting to get it free without pain. I felt a wave of exasperation as the bristles of my hairbrush snagged it painfully, yet I also felt a silent sense of comfort while hearing Eric making little funny noises in his sleep. I tied my hair up carefully into a loose pony-tail, and then I heard someone knock downstairs on the front door.

I frowned to myself. I usually didn't have visitors so late of an evening.

I wondered if it was Gran coming in to check and see how I was doing.

Then I wondered if it was my silly brother Jason. I slipped on my night robe and tied it up tightly around my body, then reached down to pat Eric gently on the backside with my hand, before I climbed downstairs to answer it. I really ought to have looked through the peephole to check and see who my visitor was beforehand, but I just wasn't thinking straight. I unlocked the front door, swung it open, and got the shock of my life by who I found standing around outside on the porch.

It was the very last person I was expecting to see.

It was my ex.

"Bill," I breathed anxiously in greeting. Then I wrapped my hands over my robe and stepped out onto the porch. I shut the front door on myself, so Eric didn't have a chance of overhearing. He really needed a good amount of sleep, and I wouldn't have anyone waking him. Especially not my ex, Bill Compton, of all people. "What are you doing here?" I asked, a little stiffly. "I thought you were working?"

Clearly, he had come straight from the airport to see me. He was dressed in his work suit. He even had his suitcase on the ground by the front steps. I knew what that meant, very well. He had hoped he could just pop back into my life unexpectedly, maybe even sleep over for the night. Well, it wasn't going to happen. Plus, I already had a new man in my life, and he was extraordinary in every aspect.

"I was working, but I have the weekend off. I decided to come and see you."

"Clearly," I muttered underneath my breath, far sharper than I had intended. He swiped one of his hands down his pant leg; A nervous gesture he tended to do.

"Would it be alright if I came inside and we talked?" he asked, sounding real hopeful we could.

"No, I don't think that would be a very great idea, Bill. Plus, it's very late."

"I have only just arrived after a three-hour flight in to see you," he said, and I knew he was hoping that would sway my judgement and make me take pity on him. It didn't. "Aren't you going to be kind and let me in, my darling?"

My darling. I found myself tired of that pet-name. After all, he had no right to call me that anymore. I wasn't his girlfriend anymore.

"Bill, I already have someone over."

"Ah, yes. A man?" He did not sound very pleased by that possibility.

"Yes, and his name is Eric."

His eyes flashed with recognition brightly over that. "Ah, yes. That fellow that was at your bar that time? Are you seeing him? Are you in a relationship with him?"

"I hardly believe that's any of your business, William. You have no right asking me that."

"Then since you won't let me inside, you've really forced me into doing this out here." I stared at him warily, unsure what he meant by that. But then,I thought I got it next, when he slid down on one knee against the floorboards of the porch. I was flabbergasted, when he slipped a hand into his jacket, searching around for something nervously. Was he going to do what I thought he was going to do? Yes, he was. His intentions became very clear when he produced a little satin blue box out from his pocket. He creaked it open with trembling fingers, and a diamond ring glinted at me from inside it.

He was proposing to me. I wasn't a very materialistic girl, but I knew by looking at the ring it must have been expensive. And it was beautiful, above and beyond all expectations.

I blinked down at him in shock when he took the ring out of the box with trembling fingers. Then he looked up at me, and his eyes were wide and spilling over with emotion. "Sookie Stackhouse. I know our relationship hasn't been smooth sailing. I know we have been separated by distance, and towns. But I love you, my darling, with all my heart. I've had a lot of time to think about it, and I decided I couldn't live my life without you having part in it. Will you marry me, and make me the happiest man alive?"

I couldn't seem to find my voice. A brutal tidal wave of various emotions hit me with full strength. I couldn't believe he was doing this, for the life of me. But then, I thought of the wonderful man sleeping safe and sound upstairs in my bedroom, and I had my answer.

"Bill Compton," I whispered hoarsely, trying to fight off the sob that shook my throat. "You know I love you, and I'm real flattered by your asking me to be your wife. But things have changed in a big way. My life has changed, and in meeting Eric..." I shook my head, unable to find the correct words to explain. Bill was upset by my decline, of course he would be. His hopeful face fell, and he sighed deeply before letting his hands fall. He stood, and stared down at me desperately. I felt bad for him, but at the same time, I knew my feelings. They just weren't for him anymore. "I don't even know where this idea came from you, but I know along with it, you would have asked me to move home from my family and the town that I love so much, and I just can't do that."

I didn't know what else to say on the matter, but I knew if I stood around with for too long, I'd start feeling all guilty and bad for him. I smiled at him sadly, and went to step back inside. His hand on my shoulder stopped me, and I felt him lean in from behind me.

"You think he loves you more than I do?" he whispered in my ear, and I could tell he had his defences up. "No, he doesn't. No one ever will love you as much as I do, my darling. Other men will always be about sex, and your body. But with me, it's always different. What we had been was real, and you'd be a fool not to accept my offer."

I took a deep breath before turning back to face him. I had the shakes real badly.

"And maybe you're right," I agreed quietly. "But I know my feelings, Bill. They've changed for you."

He grabbed me by the upper arms, and moved closer to give me a peck down on the cheek. I uneasily tilted my chin towards him to let him do it. And then I heard footsteps from inside, and the door opening.

"Sookie?" Eric's tired and gentle voice was right behind us.

Instant relief filled my body when Bill released me quickly, and stepped away a few footsteps, embarrassed.

"I hope you have a nice time with your new fella," he said to me, icily polite. "Don't be a stranger now, Sookie. Come see me sometime. I'll always care about you, maybe more than you'll ever know."

"Bye, Bill. Take care now." It was all I could think of saying.

He reached down to grab his suit case, and he gave me a small smile, before turning his back on me and retreating off the porch to where his car was waiting in the drive. I sighed, and curled my arms over my stomach. What a crazy night it had been. Bill's proposal just pretty much added the cherry to the cake. My Fairy man slipped his arm around my shoulder, and pulled me into his side. We watched Bill's car disappear from the long driveway without a single word to each other. I felt mortified for some reason; Guilty, as though Eric had caught us doing something that was unfaithful to him.

But Bill was old news now. And maybe, he had always been, ever since I ended things with him.

Whipping around to face him, I placed my hand on his shirt and leaned up to trail my lips gently from the base of his ear, down to his throat. He shuddered against me delightfully, and I caught him grinning. "I want you," I whispered.

"Where?"

"Hell, everywhere."

"Even here?" He untied my night-robe and pulled it open.

"Even here," I laughed.

Bending down, he started putting soft, sweet kisses around my neck. I was already panting, and needing him. It was an act of ridding Bill from my mind, and moving on to greater things to come, with this fairy man. Without knowing where I'm going, I staggered backwards into the wall, and he grabbed the back of my legs and made me jump on him. I squealed in surprise, and laughed, when he held me effortlessly. He kissed me hard, and blindly we went; Him panting and kissing while carrying me back inside and me with my hands and legs wrapped around him so I wouldn't take an unpleasant fall. I didn't know where he was taking me, but honestly, I didn't seem to care. I realized he was trying to take me upstairs to the bedroom, only we didn't get that far. Since we were too preoccupied with kissing each other's faces all over, we had reached the first step before he slipped on it and we fell. I thought it was more painful for me, since my back hit the steps and he landed straight on top of me. But after a second the throbbing in my lower back didn't seem to matter, and we were laughing like two overgrown, careless kids. I knew I would no doubt get a bruise sooner or later, but even that didn't matter when he was pulling off his shirt and that glorious body was right before my eyes again.

"Make love to me," I moaned desperately, running my hands all over his chest.

"I am," he said, breathing all over me. "I will."

"Then please hurry." Impatient definitely was me when it came to sex with this man. I pulled up my night-gown past my thighs, and he willingly took my panties off in a hurry.

"Kiss you first," he breathed eagerly, and kiss me, he sure did. He went down to his knees on the floor, and then he was off, kissing me and unleashing his tongue. I moaned loudly, unable to help it, and reached down to run my hands gently through the strands of his thick hair. I quite liked oral, as embarrassing as that was to admit. Eric was all for it, it seemed. He didn't care. It took me a little while to realize the door was still hanging wipe open, and I was facing it. I was half a second away from blowing up into a huge orgasm, when it occurred to me belatedly that an unfamiliar man was standing there, watching us, wide-eyed and shocked.

"Eric," I breathed, half-moan, half panicked-talk voicing. I guess he just assumed I was calling his name for sexual reasons. I had to grab him by the face roughly and pull him out of my legs to make him cease and desist.

"What?" he moaned indifferently, licking his lips. I tilted my chin towards the poor man standing in the middle of the doorway. Eric turned and peered behind his shoulder, then luckily for me, he yanked my nightgown back down considerately over my legs. He didn't bother with my panties, though, and I was in a muddy haze of frustration over the lack of completion to orgasm.

The man took a step into the house, and I saw him more clearly then. What I saw, made my heart drop. It was like looking at Eric's identical twin, for how similar they looked. Similar eyes, similar nose. Similar everything. The only difference was that the man looked slightly older and weathered, and he had grey streaks in his hair. He was also holding a funny walking stick that looked made of carved oak.

This was Eric's fairy father. And displeased did he definitely look.

Heck, in hindsight, I think I would be unhappy too if I spotted my child with his head buried between a person of the opposite sex's legs.