Bed of Shame
Ice & Firelight
Chapter 2
Bed of Shame
The first night, when Sookie meets her mysterious benefactor and learns the truth of what a vamp "saving" her house really means...
Rated M
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor have any rights to, True Blood or the Southern Vampire Mysteries.
Tied down to this bed of shame
You tried to move around the pain
But your soul is anchored
Sookie got home from work long before sunset. Without her fellow employees and demanding customers to distract her, all she had to think about was tonight.
Presently, she was trying to busy herself with preparations, but she wasn't quite sure what to do to prepare. Should she pick out sexy underwear? She wondered if he would even care, this mysterious vampire.
Maybe she would like him.
Sookie doubted it. Other than her ex-lover, she had really never liked any vampire she'd met. But this one was different; he wanted a child. So she guessed on some… strange level he wanted a family.
A decidedly human wish. Then again, she didn't know anything about his motivations. For all she knew, he was growing his very own human sacrifice. She tried not to dwell on that disturbing thought very long.
At the very least, Sookie knew she needed a shower. Although given the tension in her body, a bath seemed the better option. Sookie turned on the bath water and as she undressed, she went through a mental checklist. When was the last time she shaved her legs? Frowning, she scoffed at her own unfounded desire to please this total stranger. This wasn't love, or even a casual hook-up. This was contractual anonymous sex with a vampire. Bought and paid for. Ugh, it sounded even worse when she put it like that, even in her head. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad.
Maybe she would like him.
Only wouldn't that be worse?
He would be imposing, she told herself. He was a vampire after all. And he would be attractive, she would bet on that. But he was rich, so he would also be a smug bastard. And she wouldn't like that.
Sookie sighed as she cut off the water and sunk into a warm bath. She hummed happily as the heat sunk into her tired muscles. For a little while, her worries disappeared into the steamy bathroom. It was so important.
This house, her home, was the one thing holding her life together. It was a sanctuary that belonged only to her, where she could hide from the world in the warm glow of a hot bath whenever she wanted. And right now she definitely wanted. She stayed in the tub until the water started to turn cold and her fingers were threatening to turn pruney.
After her bath, Sookie sped up her routine. She'd spent enough time agonizing over how this was going to be. Now it was time to get it over with.
Wrapped in a towel and a fuzzy blue bathrobe, she set about to pick an outfit. Shuffling through her small collection of sundresses, her hands lingered over a lavender outfit that had been one of Bill's favorites. Shaking her head, she cursed her wardrobe for reminding her of unpleasant feelings. Each piece of clothing she inspected could be tied to a memory of him and she made a mental note to use a little bit of the money from this bargain to replace her clothing.
Sookie skipped past her usual attire to the back of the closet and yanked out a racy red number she and Tara had picked out on a particularly daring shopping trip. A dress that hugged her curves a little too tightly, of which her ex would never approve.
Sookie grabbed some random underthings and laid her whole outfit on the bed. She shrugged out of the bathrobe and absently threw it behind her. She was puzzled when she didn't hear it fall to the floor and turned. What she saw made her gasp and her eyes bug out all at once.
There was a handsome, impossibly tall blond vampire, who she could only assume was her business partner, casually standing in her bedroom like he owned the damn place. He was dressed - appropriately - in all black and fisting her blue robe tenderly as though he were trying to soak up her body heat.
"What the hell?" Sookie exclaimed, trying to pull the towel up further to cover her cleavage.
"It's such a strange sensation," he began in a deep, intimate voice as his eyes roamed up and down her body, "when the reality matches what you've pictured in your mind so precisely."
"How are you in here?" Sookie asked, incredulous. "I haven't invited you!"
"You don't own the house." He reached into his pocket and dangled two familiar silver keys playfully, his lips twisting up in a satisfied smirk "I do."
Imposing: check. Attractive: check. Smug bastard: oh, hell yes.
"My house is not for sale," Sookie proclaimed stiffly.
She was struggling to stay on the higher ground while somehow still preserving her modesty. She raised her chin defiantly while hugging the suddenly-too-small towel closer to her skin.
"Actually, the bank foreclosed on the property this morning," the vampire explained calmly.
Eric tossed her robe aside, presenting the court documents, which should have been served to the home's owner, from his back pocket.
"Normally, your house would be put on the market for 30 days, but we had an agreement and your signature on the contract combined with my bid was very convincing to the proper authorities." He pocketed the documents again quickly. An action that made Sookie wonder about their legality.
"We agreed that you would pay me so I could keep the house," Sookie reminded him. "Not that you would buy it."
Eric scoffed at the woman's foolish pride. "You would only have three days to make up your delinquent payments until the house was seized. This way I can come and go as I please while we… conduct our business, and you can't suddenly change your mind by rescinding an invitation."
"Why here?" Sookie asked cautiously, a little afraid of what the answer might be. "I was coming to you at the bar tonight."
"Fangtasia is a very public place. Here we can meet discreetly," Eric clarified. Then added mindfully, "I thought you would be more comfortable here, in a place you knew, rather than around strange humans and vampires."
"Oh," was all Sookie could think to respond. She never expected him to think about her comfort in their strange, sordid situation. Then again, the more she thought about it, she found it hard to believe his concern was genuine - though she guessed it would be dangerous to call him on it. Still, her Southern manners almost leaped ahead of her brain to thank him for his apparent concern; a naïve impulse that was currently warring with the part of her that wanted to bite his head off for stealing Gran's house.
After a moment of thick awkward silence, Sookie decided to change the subject. "Can you please turn around so I can get dressed?"
"You won't be needing clothing tonight," Eric noted quietly, already letting his eyes travel the uncovered areas of her skin.
"I know," she said quickly. "But it would make me more comfortable. And seeing as how you're all worried about my comfort..."
Sookie saw him roll his eyes at her insistence on propriety in light of what they were about to do, but she was happy when he complied with her request. He turned his back to her without moving closer to her - or further way, she noticed grimly.
"Thank you," she said gratefully. Stepping out from under his scrutinizing gaze calmed her nerves for the first time since he had unexpectedly shown up at her house. This was not how she expected they would meet and definitely not how she expected this evening to pan out.
Sookie quickly turned to the bed and slipped the dress over her head, not bothering with underwear. It seemed irrelevant at this point. Still nervous, she felt one hundred times better wearing real clothing in front of him. She turned and was pleasantly surprised to find he still had his back to her. Despite herself, she smiled at the respectful gesture. Not knowing what else to say, she just told him, "Okay, I'm done."
He turned back to her slowly and purred appreciatively at her choice of attire. The heated look on his face made all the confidence she had gained by donning the dress fly out the window.
"What do I call you?" Sookie wondered suddenly. She knew there would be no proper introductions between them, but Southern manners flared up in her again and at least demanded a name, even if it was falsified.
"My, my. Already wondering what name you're going to be screaming very soon?" He advanced on her with a predatory gleam in his eye that said he was ready to get down to business. Now.
Sookie retreated toward the wall, trying vainly to cover more of her chest with her arms. "Don't talk nasty. This is just a business deal and you know that."
The vampire straightened to his full height and slowly wiped his face of its hungry expression. If she wanted to be prudish and take no desire from this then so be it. The end result would be the same regardless.
"Very well, Miss Stackhouse," he said, his voice cold and even. "You may call me Eric."
Sookie almost laughed. Bill, Eric, Pam - where were the old, romantic names from the storybooks: Armand, Jean-Claude, Alexander, Selene, Bianca, Claudia?
"Eric," she started experimentally, testing the name with her voice. "I think we need to set up some ground rules. First of all, no biting. Biting wasn't a part of the deal."
"Not all vampires play with their food," he stated cryptically.
Sookie blinked at him, her face going blank. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means sex and feeding do not always go hand-in-hand. A better vampire can disassociate the two," he paused, adding, "If he must."
"That's good," Sookie said, both assuming and hoping he counted himself among the better vampires. "So we agree, then? No biting?"
Eric smiled ambiguously, "I promise not to bite you unless you ask me."
Yeah, because that was going to happen, Sookie thought.
"Do you have any other stipulations?"
No biting, No bloodletting, No permanent injuries, No bondage. Would it be too "Pretty Woman" to say no kissing? Sookie was glad at this moment that vampires could not read her mind.
"No kinky stuff," Sookie said assertively. "This is just business."
"As you wish," he agreed impatiently, growing tired of her stalling. "Are you prepared now? Or do you have more trivial conditions?"
She frowned. Sookie's rules didn't seem trivial to her. But she supposed it was a human problem, worrying about feelings and regrets. "No, that's all. I'm ready now," she muttered dismally.
Sookie turned and shut off the light without seeking his opinion. Asking forgiveness was easier than asking permission. She lifted the dress over her head and dropped it unceremoniously on the floor. Eric growled in pure animal attraction and she was abruptly reminded that his sight was not obscured by the dark.
She stepped back hesitantly until her legs hit the bed. She then scooted up on the soft comforter and waited for him to disrobe. Instead, he closed in on her. Roaming hands reaching out and moving up her sides. She trembled, somewhere between aversion and admiration, as Eric's hands continued their journey over her hips and down between her legs. At the first brush against her most intimate place, she jumped away from him as though he'd burned her.
"You don't have to do that," Sookie clipped quickly, brushing his hand away. She didn't want to confuse this for something it wasn't. A soft caress, a lingering kiss - these were the things that would tempt her imagination to run wild.
Eric tightened his jaw and glared down at her with sharp icy eyes that dared her to challenge him. Before he could speak his mind, however, his attention was deflected and his eyes darted to the front of the house. "Someone is at your door," he informed her plainly.
She stared at him for a moment to see if this was some kind of distraction to get her to let her guard down. When she saw his concentration was still on the front door, she wiggled out from underneath him, scrambling across the bed. "I'll go see who it is," she told him. Then quickly added, "Don't come down."
Sookie snatched her fuzzy robe and threw it around her as she padded quickly down the hallway. Sure enough, Jason had already let himself in and was now calling her name from the living room.
"Jason!" she yelled, exasperated by her brother's bad timing. She finished pulling the sash around her waist into a tight bow and fixed her hands upon her hips. "Why are you here? It's the middle of the night!"
"I just got off my patrol," he answered, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to show up to her house unannounced at this hour. He was indeed still wearing his uniform. "Rosie said she heard some men was here at the house today. You in some kind of trouble?"
Ladies and gentleman, the pride of the Bon Temps Police Department, following up a "lead" based on idle gossip. Sookie reasoned it must have been the lawyers trying to deliver the court documents. She didn't want to go into this with Jason right now, not when a vampire was waiting in her bedroom.
"I'm not in any kind of trouble, Jason," she told him assuredly, and oh, how she wished that was true. "I wasn't even here. They were probably Jehovah's Witnesses or something. Is that all? 'Cause I'm kind of busy."
"Busy?" Jason asked skeptically. He eyed her robe and looked around the dark, empty house in an exaggerated fashion.
"It was a long day at work," she reasoned, throwing in a yawn for good measure. "I was about to take a bath."
She secretly hoped her hair didn't show any signs of dampness from the bath she'd already taken. If it did, either the darkness or Jason's general oblivious nature hid it, because he seemed to accept her words.Bless his tiny little brain, Sookie thought, and didn't feel as badly as a sister probably should.
"Well, all right," Jason said with a newfound confidence that had surfaced since he donned the uniform. "But you know I'm the law now and I can't have my sister gettin' into any trouble."
"I know," Sookie agreed, and caught herself smiling. Chide as she might, she was glad her brother had found a purpose that seemed to make him happy.
He regarded her a little suspiciously as she watched him go, adding a tense, deliberate wave good-bye.
Convinced he was gone, Sookie trudged up the stairs slowly, preparing to face the music. The vampire she left hunched over on her bed was now standing next to it, waiting almost politely.
"I'm sorry, Eric," she blurted without thinking. She didn't think she was in the wrong, but the look he had given her before Jason's interruption made her feel she needed to smooth things over. Another time, another place, she might have fought him, stubbornly arguing her point of view and reminding him she was her own woman. But she had agreed to this. She signed her name to the contract, and tonight she was just so tired.
"It's been a long day," Sookie continued wearily. "I worked a double shift on only four hours of sleep last night. Can we just… "
"You want to postpone?" he assumed. She was feeling physically exhausted. That explained her irrational behavior.
"No," Sookie answered firmly. "Just - no more interruptions. Let's do this so I can go to sleep."
As a show of good faith that this was really happening tonight, she tossed her robe to the floor and laid down on the bed, planting her feet firmly on the mattress and spreading her knees just wide enough to give him access, but not in an open display of desire. Even in the darkness, she felt his eyes on her every move. She didn't look up as she heard the sounds of his undressing, or as he climbed above her on the bed.
The phrase "lie back and think of England" came to Sookie's mind, only this time it was "just lie back and remember why you're doing this." She steeled herself against the threat of pain, but Eric - as it turned out - was being surprisingly gentle. As he opened her legs further to accommodate his powerful frame, he stroked her thighs in just the right way, distracting her overactive mind and willing her body to just go-with-the-flow.
For Eric, this was all very strange, so unlike the overeager fang-bangers at the bar. Eric was not one to be refused. Most women threw themselves at him, pathetic and desperate for his attention. He was not used to being gentle with a woman. He hadn't the need for centuries, but he would meet the challenge for the sake of his goal.
Despite her earlier scolding, his skillful fingers danced along her thighs and fluttered around her stomach longer than was necessary. Just when she was about to scream at him to justgetonwithit, Eric gripped her hips and invaded the final boundary between them.
Sookie had made sure to avert her eyes from his naked form in an attempt at propriety. Which seemed so meaningless now that she could feel, if not see, every detail of his anatomy against her skin and inside of her. She winced at being stretched and filled. Not out of pain, but out of the impersonal act of taking in someone so unfamiliar.
She turned her head to the side, squeezing her eyes shut and holding her breath. She did not want to look at him, but was still afraid - despite his vow - that he would take advantage of her exposed neck now bared to him like an open invitation.
Eric was admittedly a bit disappointed in her refusal to participate, but for now he was content just to lower his head to her shoulder and nestle his face against her neck, inhaling her delicious scent - an intoxicating mixture of fairy, human, and some indefinable flavor that was uniquely Sookie.
The overpowering smell of a full-blooded fairy flooded the senses and was alarming in its ability to bewitch even the strongest vampire. A fairy's scent was thick and fiery, saccharine and dripping with sex. In earlier decades, when animation was new, Eric had caught glimpses of cartoon characters lifted into the air by a seductive cloud of aroma and floating uncontrollably toward an apple pie cooling on the windowsill. So it was for vampire and fairy.
Sookie's fragrance was different; subtly sweet and warm like sunshine beaming down on flowers. Her perfume was not smothering like her ancestors'; it was delicate and refined, as though she embodied the perfect mixture of both races. It was enough to push him further toward the edge despite her stony stillness.
Sookie tried to distance herself from what was happening, but her body betrayed her. There was no mistaking when Eric's practiced movements made her come undone. She bit down on her thumb and tried to stifle the sound of her cry.
There was no mistaking when the cracking of her apathetic facade was Eric's undoing. His looming body went rigid above her and he buried his head against her neck, muttering quietly in a foreign language that seemed ancient and far away. Thankfully he didn't bite.
Sookie blinked and tears pricked at the corner of her eyes. She was not a complicated girl. To her, sex and love just went together. And try as she might to separate the two concepts in her mind, it just seemed wrong to have the first without the latter. She did not love this man - she didn't even know him.
Eric stayed immobile above her and for a few agonizing moments she was afraid she might actually have to ask him to leave. Sookie was relieved when he withdrew from her and silently dressed in the darkness.
"I will come again tomorrow," he told her firmly.
Sookie covered her face with her hands. What a poor choice of words. He made no move to leave without her understanding, so she nodded her agreement through threaded fingers.
Eric was nearly silent as he left so she could never really be sure he was gone. She counted the seconds alone in the darkness of her bedroom, now forever tainted with the memory of their act. Overcome by exhaustion, Sookie fell asleep before she could cry.
Chapter 2
Bed of Shame
The first night, when Sookie meets her mysterious benefactor and learns the truth of what a vamp "saving" her house really means...
Rated M
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor have any rights to, True Blood or the Southern Vampire Mysteries.
Tied down to this bed of shame
You tried to move around the pain
But your soul is anchored
Sookie got home from work long before sunset. Without her fellow employees and demanding customers to distract her, all she had to think about was tonight.
Presently, she was trying to busy herself with preparations, but she wasn't quite sure what to do to prepare. Should she pick out sexy underwear? She wondered if he would even care, this mysterious vampire.
Maybe she would like him.
Sookie doubted it. Other than her ex-lover, she had really never liked any vampire she'd met. But this one was different; he wanted a child. So she guessed on some… strange level he wanted a family.
A decidedly human wish. Then again, she didn't know anything about his motivations. For all she knew, he was growing his very own human sacrifice. She tried not to dwell on that disturbing thought very long.
At the very least, Sookie knew she needed a shower. Although given the tension in her body, a bath seemed the better option. Sookie turned on the bath water and as she undressed, she went through a mental checklist. When was the last time she shaved her legs? Frowning, she scoffed at her own unfounded desire to please this total stranger. This wasn't love, or even a casual hook-up. This was contractual anonymous sex with a vampire. Bought and paid for. Ugh, it sounded even worse when she put it like that, even in her head. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad.
Maybe she would like him.
Only wouldn't that be worse?
He would be imposing, she told herself. He was a vampire after all. And he would be attractive, she would bet on that. But he was rich, so he would also be a smug bastard. And she wouldn't like that.
Sookie sighed as she cut off the water and sunk into a warm bath. She hummed happily as the heat sunk into her tired muscles. For a little while, her worries disappeared into the steamy bathroom. It was so important.
This house, her home, was the one thing holding her life together. It was a sanctuary that belonged only to her, where she could hide from the world in the warm glow of a hot bath whenever she wanted. And right now she definitely wanted. She stayed in the tub until the water started to turn cold and her fingers were threatening to turn pruney.
After her bath, Sookie sped up her routine. She'd spent enough time agonizing over how this was going to be. Now it was time to get it over with.
Wrapped in a towel and a fuzzy blue bathrobe, she set about to pick an outfit. Shuffling through her small collection of sundresses, her hands lingered over a lavender outfit that had been one of Bill's favorites. Shaking her head, she cursed her wardrobe for reminding her of unpleasant feelings. Each piece of clothing she inspected could be tied to a memory of him and she made a mental note to use a little bit of the money from this bargain to replace her clothing.
Sookie skipped past her usual attire to the back of the closet and yanked out a racy red number she and Tara had picked out on a particularly daring shopping trip. A dress that hugged her curves a little too tightly, of which her ex would never approve.
Sookie grabbed some random underthings and laid her whole outfit on the bed. She shrugged out of the bathrobe and absently threw it behind her. She was puzzled when she didn't hear it fall to the floor and turned. What she saw made her gasp and her eyes bug out all at once.
There was a handsome, impossibly tall blond vampire, who she could only assume was her business partner, casually standing in her bedroom like he owned the damn place. He was dressed - appropriately - in all black and fisting her blue robe tenderly as though he were trying to soak up her body heat.
"What the hell?" Sookie exclaimed, trying to pull the towel up further to cover her cleavage.
"It's such a strange sensation," he began in a deep, intimate voice as his eyes roamed up and down her body, "when the reality matches what you've pictured in your mind so precisely."
"How are you in here?" Sookie asked, incredulous. "I haven't invited you!"
"You don't own the house." He reached into his pocket and dangled two familiar silver keys playfully, his lips twisting up in a satisfied smirk "I do."
Imposing: check. Attractive: check. Smug bastard: oh, hell yes.
"My house is not for sale," Sookie proclaimed stiffly.
She was struggling to stay on the higher ground while somehow still preserving her modesty. She raised her chin defiantly while hugging the suddenly-too-small towel closer to her skin.
"Actually, the bank foreclosed on the property this morning," the vampire explained calmly.
Eric tossed her robe aside, presenting the court documents, which should have been served to the home's owner, from his back pocket.
"Normally, your house would be put on the market for 30 days, but we had an agreement and your signature on the contract combined with my bid was very convincing to the proper authorities." He pocketed the documents again quickly. An action that made Sookie wonder about their legality.
"We agreed that you would pay me so I could keep the house," Sookie reminded him. "Not that you would buy it."
Eric scoffed at the woman's foolish pride. "You would only have three days to make up your delinquent payments until the house was seized. This way I can come and go as I please while we… conduct our business, and you can't suddenly change your mind by rescinding an invitation."
"Why here?" Sookie asked cautiously, a little afraid of what the answer might be. "I was coming to you at the bar tonight."
"Fangtasia is a very public place. Here we can meet discreetly," Eric clarified. Then added mindfully, "I thought you would be more comfortable here, in a place you knew, rather than around strange humans and vampires."
"Oh," was all Sookie could think to respond. She never expected him to think about her comfort in their strange, sordid situation. Then again, the more she thought about it, she found it hard to believe his concern was genuine - though she guessed it would be dangerous to call him on it. Still, her Southern manners almost leaped ahead of her brain to thank him for his apparent concern; a naïve impulse that was currently warring with the part of her that wanted to bite his head off for stealing Gran's house.
After a moment of thick awkward silence, Sookie decided to change the subject. "Can you please turn around so I can get dressed?"
"You won't be needing clothing tonight," Eric noted quietly, already letting his eyes travel the uncovered areas of her skin.
"I know," she said quickly. "But it would make me more comfortable. And seeing as how you're all worried about my comfort..."
Sookie saw him roll his eyes at her insistence on propriety in light of what they were about to do, but she was happy when he complied with her request. He turned his back to her without moving closer to her - or further way, she noticed grimly.
"Thank you," she said gratefully. Stepping out from under his scrutinizing gaze calmed her nerves for the first time since he had unexpectedly shown up at her house. This was not how she expected they would meet and definitely not how she expected this evening to pan out.
Sookie quickly turned to the bed and slipped the dress over her head, not bothering with underwear. It seemed irrelevant at this point. Still nervous, she felt one hundred times better wearing real clothing in front of him. She turned and was pleasantly surprised to find he still had his back to her. Despite herself, she smiled at the respectful gesture. Not knowing what else to say, she just told him, "Okay, I'm done."
He turned back to her slowly and purred appreciatively at her choice of attire. The heated look on his face made all the confidence she had gained by donning the dress fly out the window.
"What do I call you?" Sookie wondered suddenly. She knew there would be no proper introductions between them, but Southern manners flared up in her again and at least demanded a name, even if it was falsified.
"My, my. Already wondering what name you're going to be screaming very soon?" He advanced on her with a predatory gleam in his eye that said he was ready to get down to business. Now.
Sookie retreated toward the wall, trying vainly to cover more of her chest with her arms. "Don't talk nasty. This is just a business deal and you know that."
The vampire straightened to his full height and slowly wiped his face of its hungry expression. If she wanted to be prudish and take no desire from this then so be it. The end result would be the same regardless.
"Very well, Miss Stackhouse," he said, his voice cold and even. "You may call me Eric."
Sookie almost laughed. Bill, Eric, Pam - where were the old, romantic names from the storybooks: Armand, Jean-Claude, Alexander, Selene, Bianca, Claudia?
"Eric," she started experimentally, testing the name with her voice. "I think we need to set up some ground rules. First of all, no biting. Biting wasn't a part of the deal."
"Not all vampires play with their food," he stated cryptically.
Sookie blinked at him, her face going blank. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means sex and feeding do not always go hand-in-hand. A better vampire can disassociate the two," he paused, adding, "If he must."
"That's good," Sookie said, both assuming and hoping he counted himself among the better vampires. "So we agree, then? No biting?"
Eric smiled ambiguously, "I promise not to bite you unless you ask me."
Yeah, because that was going to happen, Sookie thought.
"Do you have any other stipulations?"
No biting, No bloodletting, No permanent injuries, No bondage. Would it be too "Pretty Woman" to say no kissing? Sookie was glad at this moment that vampires could not read her mind.
"No kinky stuff," Sookie said assertively. "This is just business."
"As you wish," he agreed impatiently, growing tired of her stalling. "Are you prepared now? Or do you have more trivial conditions?"
She frowned. Sookie's rules didn't seem trivial to her. But she supposed it was a human problem, worrying about feelings and regrets. "No, that's all. I'm ready now," she muttered dismally.
Sookie turned and shut off the light without seeking his opinion. Asking forgiveness was easier than asking permission. She lifted the dress over her head and dropped it unceremoniously on the floor. Eric growled in pure animal attraction and she was abruptly reminded that his sight was not obscured by the dark.
She stepped back hesitantly until her legs hit the bed. She then scooted up on the soft comforter and waited for him to disrobe. Instead, he closed in on her. Roaming hands reaching out and moving up her sides. She trembled, somewhere between aversion and admiration, as Eric's hands continued their journey over her hips and down between her legs. At the first brush against her most intimate place, she jumped away from him as though he'd burned her.
"You don't have to do that," Sookie clipped quickly, brushing his hand away. She didn't want to confuse this for something it wasn't. A soft caress, a lingering kiss - these were the things that would tempt her imagination to run wild.
Eric tightened his jaw and glared down at her with sharp icy eyes that dared her to challenge him. Before he could speak his mind, however, his attention was deflected and his eyes darted to the front of the house. "Someone is at your door," he informed her plainly.
She stared at him for a moment to see if this was some kind of distraction to get her to let her guard down. When she saw his concentration was still on the front door, she wiggled out from underneath him, scrambling across the bed. "I'll go see who it is," she told him. Then quickly added, "Don't come down."
Sookie snatched her fuzzy robe and threw it around her as she padded quickly down the hallway. Sure enough, Jason had already let himself in and was now calling her name from the living room.
"Jason!" she yelled, exasperated by her brother's bad timing. She finished pulling the sash around her waist into a tight bow and fixed her hands upon her hips. "Why are you here? It's the middle of the night!"
"I just got off my patrol," he answered, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to show up to her house unannounced at this hour. He was indeed still wearing his uniform. "Rosie said she heard some men was here at the house today. You in some kind of trouble?"
Ladies and gentleman, the pride of the Bon Temps Police Department, following up a "lead" based on idle gossip. Sookie reasoned it must have been the lawyers trying to deliver the court documents. She didn't want to go into this with Jason right now, not when a vampire was waiting in her bedroom.
"I'm not in any kind of trouble, Jason," she told him assuredly, and oh, how she wished that was true. "I wasn't even here. They were probably Jehovah's Witnesses or something. Is that all? 'Cause I'm kind of busy."
"Busy?" Jason asked skeptically. He eyed her robe and looked around the dark, empty house in an exaggerated fashion.
"It was a long day at work," she reasoned, throwing in a yawn for good measure. "I was about to take a bath."
She secretly hoped her hair didn't show any signs of dampness from the bath she'd already taken. If it did, either the darkness or Jason's general oblivious nature hid it, because he seemed to accept her words.Bless his tiny little brain, Sookie thought, and didn't feel as badly as a sister probably should.
"Well, all right," Jason said with a newfound confidence that had surfaced since he donned the uniform. "But you know I'm the law now and I can't have my sister gettin' into any trouble."
"I know," Sookie agreed, and caught herself smiling. Chide as she might, she was glad her brother had found a purpose that seemed to make him happy.
He regarded her a little suspiciously as she watched him go, adding a tense, deliberate wave good-bye.
Convinced he was gone, Sookie trudged up the stairs slowly, preparing to face the music. The vampire she left hunched over on her bed was now standing next to it, waiting almost politely.
"I'm sorry, Eric," she blurted without thinking. She didn't think she was in the wrong, but the look he had given her before Jason's interruption made her feel she needed to smooth things over. Another time, another place, she might have fought him, stubbornly arguing her point of view and reminding him she was her own woman. But she had agreed to this. She signed her name to the contract, and tonight she was just so tired.
"It's been a long day," Sookie continued wearily. "I worked a double shift on only four hours of sleep last night. Can we just… "
"You want to postpone?" he assumed. She was feeling physically exhausted. That explained her irrational behavior.
"No," Sookie answered firmly. "Just - no more interruptions. Let's do this so I can go to sleep."
As a show of good faith that this was really happening tonight, she tossed her robe to the floor and laid down on the bed, planting her feet firmly on the mattress and spreading her knees just wide enough to give him access, but not in an open display of desire. Even in the darkness, she felt his eyes on her every move. She didn't look up as she heard the sounds of his undressing, or as he climbed above her on the bed.
The phrase "lie back and think of England" came to Sookie's mind, only this time it was "just lie back and remember why you're doing this." She steeled herself against the threat of pain, but Eric - as it turned out - was being surprisingly gentle. As he opened her legs further to accommodate his powerful frame, he stroked her thighs in just the right way, distracting her overactive mind and willing her body to just go-with-the-flow.
For Eric, this was all very strange, so unlike the overeager fang-bangers at the bar. Eric was not one to be refused. Most women threw themselves at him, pathetic and desperate for his attention. He was not used to being gentle with a woman. He hadn't the need for centuries, but he would meet the challenge for the sake of his goal.
Despite her earlier scolding, his skillful fingers danced along her thighs and fluttered around her stomach longer than was necessary. Just when she was about to scream at him to justgetonwithit, Eric gripped her hips and invaded the final boundary between them.
Sookie had made sure to avert her eyes from his naked form in an attempt at propriety. Which seemed so meaningless now that she could feel, if not see, every detail of his anatomy against her skin and inside of her. She winced at being stretched and filled. Not out of pain, but out of the impersonal act of taking in someone so unfamiliar.
She turned her head to the side, squeezing her eyes shut and holding her breath. She did not want to look at him, but was still afraid - despite his vow - that he would take advantage of her exposed neck now bared to him like an open invitation.
Eric was admittedly a bit disappointed in her refusal to participate, but for now he was content just to lower his head to her shoulder and nestle his face against her neck, inhaling her delicious scent - an intoxicating mixture of fairy, human, and some indefinable flavor that was uniquely Sookie.
The overpowering smell of a full-blooded fairy flooded the senses and was alarming in its ability to bewitch even the strongest vampire. A fairy's scent was thick and fiery, saccharine and dripping with sex. In earlier decades, when animation was new, Eric had caught glimpses of cartoon characters lifted into the air by a seductive cloud of aroma and floating uncontrollably toward an apple pie cooling on the windowsill. So it was for vampire and fairy.
Sookie's fragrance was different; subtly sweet and warm like sunshine beaming down on flowers. Her perfume was not smothering like her ancestors'; it was delicate and refined, as though she embodied the perfect mixture of both races. It was enough to push him further toward the edge despite her stony stillness.
Sookie tried to distance herself from what was happening, but her body betrayed her. There was no mistaking when Eric's practiced movements made her come undone. She bit down on her thumb and tried to stifle the sound of her cry.
There was no mistaking when the cracking of her apathetic facade was Eric's undoing. His looming body went rigid above her and he buried his head against her neck, muttering quietly in a foreign language that seemed ancient and far away. Thankfully he didn't bite.
Sookie blinked and tears pricked at the corner of her eyes. She was not a complicated girl. To her, sex and love just went together. And try as she might to separate the two concepts in her mind, it just seemed wrong to have the first without the latter. She did not love this man - she didn't even know him.
Eric stayed immobile above her and for a few agonizing moments she was afraid she might actually have to ask him to leave. Sookie was relieved when he withdrew from her and silently dressed in the darkness.
"I will come again tomorrow," he told her firmly.
Sookie covered her face with her hands. What a poor choice of words. He made no move to leave without her understanding, so she nodded her agreement through threaded fingers.
Eric was nearly silent as he left so she could never really be sure he was gone. She counted the seconds alone in the darkness of her bedroom, now forever tainted with the memory of their act. Overcome by exhaustion, Sookie fell asleep before she could cry.