Chapter 14 – One, Two

<

 

“Oh, just give it back.”

 

Surprisingly, he switched it off and handed it back to her while she hastily tried to disguise its entire existence in the pocket of her bathrobe as if nothing had just occurred while he slipped on his pants and dirtied shirt, knowing nothing was going to salvage this night now, watching her grimace slightly at the wet stains on his shirt. Casually he spoke, “You should really read the portfolio of the company you now have a board seat to.”

 

“What?” she said in confusion, following him out to the front door.

 

“The vibrator, Thor,” he goaded, causing her to flush all over again. “I make it, well, we make it. Hate to break it to you, Ms. Prim and Proper, but you’ve been getting off on my not-so-tiny cock for years now.”

 

“Oh, get out!” she screamed, throwing the vibrator at his head for good measure. “And stick that where the sun don’t shine!”

 

His eyebrows merely rose up in amusement as she slammed the door on him, pocketing the vibrator with a grin as he went.

 

---

 

Eric was rather surprised to see Sookie’s name appear on his caller ID the next day. He’d assumed the first interaction they’d be having would be under circumstances she absolutely could not avoid, and he’d already been trying to convince Godric to celebrate his moving in with Adele somehow in the very near future, forcing them in the same room. Might even bring Thor.

 

“Sookie?” he questioned, despite the evidence he was sure she hadn’t meant to call him.

 

“I wanted to thank you for sending Alcide,” she spoke rather calmly, friendly almost, as if nothing had happened.

 

“Sorry about the damage, again,” Eric replied apologetically, hoping a little grovelling would further aid his attempt of bedding her again. He was so fucking close. Don’t mention Thor! “Is everything back in order now?”

 

“That too.”

 

Eric swore he could hear her grin on the other end of the line. “Too?”

 

“I was thanking you for sending Alcide,” she repeated, this time the slight lilt and laugh was clearly detectable in her voice.

 

Genuinely confused, he said, “I don’t understand.”

 

“I told you I had my ways. Far more satisfying than Thor ever was,” she informed with a giant grin, and for the first time in her life swiftly hung up the phone without a courtesy goodbye.

 

---

 

“YOU BASTARD!” Sookie screamed with complete abandon, storming into his office despite a secretary trying to hold her back, her anger continuing to rise high until the satisfying and resounding sound of a smack hitting a cheek, hard, was heard.

 

Eric merely raised his brows with an amused grin, adjusting his jaw for show while her hand burned with pain, greeting, “Your Highness.”

 

“I apologise,” she stammered, suddenly, not to Eric, the bastard, only then noticing the other people in the room regarding her with confusion. Weakly Sookie offered, pointing to the waiting area, “I’ll wait… out there?”

 

The frazzled secretary saw her out, offering drinks she continued to refuse while fidgeting on the uncomfortable sofa, the jitters of events past refusing to leave her nervous limbs. The charming bastard was jovial, as ever, laughing his appointment off fifteen minutes later before regarding the squirming faery waiting for him. A little high on the power of it all, regally he bowed, waving her into his office while she moved past him with a rather loud huff, chuckling after her as he did.

 

“I can’t believe you!” Sookie cried out as soon as the door closed on them. “You’ve gone too far!”

 

“The wolf?” he asked, stretching back leisurely in his oversized chair.

 

“YES!” she continued to fume. “Alcide! How could you!”

 

He shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re whining about. All we did was chat.”

 

“In a Were bar!” she exclaimed, as if he were particularly dense. “In front of his entire pack, and then some! You humiliated him, when you knew I was bullshitting!”

 

“Were you now?” he grinned all too knowingly, the picture of supreme satisfaction. The wolf had squealed all too quickly and easily after all. The filthy thing had wanted his paws all over Sookie but hadn’t even gotten close. Thankfully.

 

“Does it even matter? You just announced to the entire Supernatural world you’d kill them if they so much as look at me! Despite these ridiculous fang marks that refuse to heal, I’m not your property Eric Northman!”

 

“Shame,” he shrugged, offering with a leer, “Would make this a lot more fun now, wouldn’t it? If I remember right you were the one insisting you’d keep those marks.”

 

“You don’t get it, do you?” she cried out in anger, her arms shaking by her side, nails digging into her palms with the frustration of it all. “I just had to pop away from a jealous ex Were bitch named Debbie Pelt who was about to shove a shotgun full of iron in my face!”

 

Eric was in front of her instantly, looking her over for any damage with genuine worry. “Are you okay?” he asked, voice full of concern while she desperately tried not to burst into tears then and there, adamantly refusing to allow the threat of it all to impact her, even if it already had.

 

“I don’t know what would have happened if Niall wasn’t there,” she whispered, teeth firmly clenched on her bottom lip in an effort to keep it still.

 

“I’ll kill her,” he growled. “No one touches you!”

 

“Great-Granddaddy’s ahead of you again,” she apologised, melting into his embrace and keeping him firmly glued to his spot, despite wanting to rip furs from bodies one excruciating inch at a time. Sookie was genuinely surprised by the amount of comfort he was able to offer when his arms came to embrace her. “Sorry.”

 

His hand trailed through her hair, urging her to calm while tempering his own rage, desire to call Niall and demand at least a bloody limb to beat the Were bitch’s entire pack with, and bring hell down on that stupid co-op board that had refused the security measures he had insisted on when it was still his home. It was all their fucking fault!

 

Her wet eyes looked up at him when his hand seemed stuck in off-mode, hovering midway in the air, “Eric, what exactly are we doing?”

 

His brow seemed stuck in askew when he answered with the same tone of hesitance, “You tell me, it’s not like I do this on a regular basis.”

 

“This has to stop,” she replied with a shake of her head, as if gathering her thoughts. “Other people are getting hurt, and if I hadn’t talked some sense into Niall we might be anticipating a Were war.”

 

“What do you propose?” he asked carefully, fearful of the answer.

 

She surprised him instead, kissing him ever so gently, pulling away only to stare at his wondrous eyes full of hope, and whispering sadly, “This has to be goodbye.” With an audible pop, his office was suddenly surprisingly empty. He didn’t like it one bit. Pam was getting herself a new fur coat tonight!

 

---

 

“You like him, don’t you?” Claudine enquired over a cup of tea.

 

It had been days later, but the nerves over the Debbie Pelt incident had yet to leave Sookie despite her best efforts. “What?” she managed to stammer out without her own tea flying out at projectile speeds.

 

“Mr. Northman,” Claudine clarified with a rarefied smile. “Don’t act dumb now.”

 

“I’m not!” Sookie insisted feebly. Claudine merely raised her brows in response. “Ok, maybe I do. Not that I can do anything about it now, we both screwed up royally.”

 

“You had a false start, that’s all,” Claudine dismissed. “Look at you; new job, new home, new city. Why not add a new guy to that lineup, at least that part would be of your choosing? He certainly seems interested enough.”

 

“Maybe,” she sighed with a small smile.

 

---

 

“Do you do this often?” she asked while opening the newly replaced sliding door to the balcony for him. “You look very strange, just hovering out there.”

 

“Didn’t mean to come in. Just wanted to make sure you were safe,” he explained. “You’re a magnet for trouble after all.”

 

“I thought I told you goodbye the other day,” she said when it didn’t appear that he’d move much beyond the two feet over the threshold. “I meant it.”

 

“Vampires don’t say goodbye, things are never final with us,” he shrugged. “Well, a true death is. Never say goodbye then either, never really enough time. You’re stuck with me, deal with it.”

 

“What can I do for you, Eric?” she asked with a polite smile, curling up on the sofa and indicating he find himself a seat already.

 

“I think I may have found a use for your telepathy,” he started. “There’s been some errors in the accounting department, money’s missing-”

 

“Really?” she posed disbelievingly, causing him to look slightly offended. “You’re not a bad liar, but I can still tell.”

 

“Is that so?” he spoke in amusement. If any other person had told him this he’d be severely offended, but the fact that it was Sookie somehow made it just fine.

 

“No human is stupid enough to steal from you. I heard it from their minds, they love working for you! I wish I had benefits like that when I worked for Sam. The Weres are scared shitless, so that leaves a bunch of vampires as your prime subjects for which I’m useless. I figured you’d show up here sooner or later with some flimsy excuse.”

 

“Ah,” he grinned. “I forgot how perceptive you are.”

 

“And I forgot how obtuse you can be sometimes,” she laughed, only proving the statement with his look of total confusion. “Get over here and kiss me.”

 

“Why would I do that?” he teased, his lips hovering achingly close over hers.

 

“I’m demanding my benefits, Mr. Northman.”

 

“I do hope these aren’t the benefits you were hoping for with the shifter,” he replied with a growl.

 

She pulled him to her, hands satisfyingly embedding themselves in the thick leather of his jacket, “Just shut up and kiss me already!”

 

Eric didn’t need to be told twice. Sookie certainly came more than once, not a sock, pink or otherwise, in sight.

 

---

 

“No! Absolutely not!”

 

“Eric, I’m your Maker, you cannot refuse me this!”

 

“You lost your ability to command me a long time ago. I’m saying no.”

 

“Eric!”

 

“No!” he yelled back, disconnecting and shutting off the phone in quick succession.

 

“What was that about?” Sookie asked, failing to meet his eyes and leaving Eric perplexed as to why she was suddenly so shy.

 

She should have known it was all a dream, on account of the missing socks. A missing Thor once awake hadn’t helped ease the ache the dream caused either. Now she was here in his office at Niall’s insistence, of course, to help out with some blackmailing witch while desperately not trying to remember those moving lips all over her body that had been nothing more than a figment of her imagination.

 

Eric had been politely distant after the Debbie Pelt incident. Sookie hadn’t dared ask for specific details, but she had heard rumours of a V-addiction and a rival pack of Alcide’s had been taken out in the process. Strangely Alcide had been quite happy with how events had unfolded when she called to apologise. In fact he’d tried to ask her out, though flattered as she was, she politely declined.

 

“Godric wants me to produce a musical,” he answered, turning back to her while leaning against his desk, without a leer or a flirting glance in the process. Sookie hated to admit that she kind of missed it and the banter they usually engaged in. This weird standstill was highly disconcerting. “It’s not happening.”

 

“Why not?” she protested “This town is all about musicals! I love musicals!”

 

“Of course you do,” he growled with a roll of his eyes, flopping down next to her in exasperation. Again with the respectable distance, Eric Northman and respectable really didn’t belong in the same room, especially not after all he did to her in last night’s dream. “It’s a musical based on Adele’s book. Rick and Flannele can go fuck on someone else’s stage.”

 

“Oh that’s just all sorts of wrong!” she agreed with horror, instantly cured of all occupying sexual thoughts about the vampire before her. “Where do they come up with this stuff?”

 

“Where else?” he shrugged. “Pam, Jason, and their chorus line inspired them.”

 

“Figures,” Sookie sighed, gulping down her water in an attempt to cool her heated self. “So Great-Granddaddy said you needed help with a witch?”

 

“That’s why you’re here?” he asked, sounding almost… disappointed? Eric had perked up substantially when she saw her name come up in his appointment roster, unsure quite what to expect. Hope proved idle after all. “I don’t need your help with that.”

 

“He was rather insistent.”

 

“I’ll take care of it,” he warned in a clipped tone.

 

“No!” she protested. “If Niall wants me here then he has good cause! What does that witch want anyway?”

 

“What everyone else wants,” he dismissed. “A piece of the Eric Northman pie.”

 

“She wants her grubby little mitts all over you?” Sookie spat out after catching up with his exact meaning with distaste thanks to a demonstrative waggle of his brows. The hint of jealousy that laced her tone feeding his ego far more than it should.

 

“That,” he grinned, “or a piece of the company.”

 

“She can just go buy herself a ‘Thor’ like the rest of us,” she huffed petulantly, adding under her breath, “Spoiled ass bitch.” Eric sensibly refrained from commenting, watching her with quiet amusement instead, and causing Sookie to exclaim, “What?”

 

“Nothing,” he mumbled. “Shall I see you out?”

 

“We’re not done here, buddy!” Sookie exclaimed. “If she wants a piece of the Eric Northman pie, that nasty little witch is going to have to go through me!” She coloured a little red at the sight of his satisfied grin, forcing her to amend, “It’s my company too now, you know!”

 

“Well, I was just going to have sex with the bitch and be done with it,” he replied with a waggle of his brow. “But since you insist…”

 

“You’re as likely to sleep with her as I was with Alcide!” she ground out, arms crossed defensively under her chest. The smug bastard, who hadn’t changed after all, had been letting his eyes linger again. Squeezing them up and together would surely keep them there…

 

“Regardless, it’s too dangerous,” he pointed out. “I’ll call you if I have need of you.”

 

“No! Niall-”

 

“Will surely voice the same objections as soon as I explain the dangers this can pose to his most precious great-granddaughter only just recovering from a car accident,” he finished for her in a grating patronising tone. Holding up his phone he taunted, “Shall I call him right now?”

 

“No,” she whined, defeat slumping her shoulders. “I still think you’re making a mistake. Let me know everything went okay after?”

 

“It almost sounds like you care,” he grinned.

 

“Of course I care!” she exclaimed, hastily adding, “About the company, of course! I’m a board member after all!”

 

“Sure,” he chuckled, getting up and pulling a file from his desk along with a non-descript postage box. “Speaking of, since you seem to be an expert user I’d like you to look over these proposed designs. Just pop your thoughts in the margins.”

 

She regarded him curiously, accepting the sealed box and file, and taking a quick glance at the contents. Her face instantly became red again, though Eric was quite unsure whether it was anger or embarrassment, not that he cared, the colour suited her either way. It was his favourite colour after all.

 

“Bastard!”

 

The term was getting a little old, he was already considering naming the newly modelled Thor that resided in the box Bastard instead, but he couldn’t help laugh when she dramatically exited with another pop and a rather audible huff. Normally he’d mourn that she was suddenly gone, but interestingly enough, so was the box full of toys.

 

---

 

Sookie screamed out with fright. She’d woken hazily, but with sheer terror, after another dream about Eric, of course. She and her seriously twisted subconscious needed to have a conversation about that sometime soon. The dream, perfectly nice as it had been, hadn’t been the source of the sudden outcry though.

 

“Who are you and what are you doing in my home?”

 

“Eric?” she cried out, scrambling for the light to see the sudden presence match the voice that had invaded her bed. The worst of her nerves waned with the knowledge that she hadn’t just been woken by a complete stranger intending God knows what, though he seemed to be regarding her with the same amount of confusion that she was feeling. “Your home? This hasn’t been your home for weeks now! Did you gulp down on some other faery?!”

 

“If only,” he grinned, eyeing her lasciviously, eyes stuck on her breasts for far too long, naturally, “So when can I move back in then? The florals will have to go, of course. Did Pam arrange all this? She really is such a good Childe.”

 

“What the hell is wrong with you, Eric Northman? You act like you don’t know me!”

 

“I don’t,” he purred, hovering far too close for comfort. “How about we set that right, right now?”

 

 

   

>

 

---

A/N: In my defence… I was perfectly fine with ending the entire story with the no socks in sight comment, never to look back on this again… it was all musey pants’ fault for saying “But wouldn’t it be more fun if…” so, yeah blame her/him/it (I’m not really sure exactly what it is, just that it’s annoying). So yeah pout all you want at me but it means there’s more of this story left, which is good, right?

 

Much thanks to msbuffy (who I also blame since she was all with the encouraging of Sookie having dreams!)

 

Tune in next time to see just how much I enjoy the old amnesia trope 😉 See the comment thingy/like buttons below… yada, yada, yada… you all know what to do 🙂