Heart's Desire Ch 10

Chapter 10

“Hello, Beautiful.”

I just stood there unable to say another word, my mind trying to grasp what my eyes were seeing. The room had been transformed. The only light in the room was emitting from several candles scattered through out the space. Eric’s bed side table was covered by a white linen table cloth with two full place settings not unlike a table for two in any fine restaurant. Over in the corner a cook station had been set up complete with a chef and waiter, apparently busy preparing the meal.

Just as my faculties were returning, I spotted Eric sitting up in bed and I lost my ability to speak again. The Norse god was no longer wearing the usual hospital gown he had been sporting since his arms were finally free of the traction, but rather a blue dress shirt that almost matched the color of his eyes shade for shade. Even confined to a hospital bed, Eric had always looked good, but tonight he was perfection. He had never suffered from the hospital ‘bed head’ look that most patients get, but it was obvious tonight that his hair freshly cleaned and blown dry and his face was newly shaven. This boy makes hospitalization HOT!

“Eric, what’s going on here? What’s all this for?” Good girl, you’re using your words again.

“I just wanted to do something for you to say thank you. So um…thank you.” He responded with a sly grin.

“Don’t be silly, you say thank you every time I do something for you. You didn’t have to go through all this for me.”

“I know I say thank you, but I wanted to show you how grateful I was, so stop being difficult Stackhouse and sit down and enjoy dinner.”

“OK well…thank you.” I said while placing my things down in the guest chair along the wall. Someone had brought in another chair that was bar height and placed it beside the bed at the end of the bedside table. This made the height of the table perfect for both of us and if you could ignore the fact that he was lying in a bed with his legs extended, it was just like sitting at any other dinner table.

“So how many hospital rules and town ordinances are we in violation of here tonight?” I asked still feeling a little nervous and wanting to keep the mood light.

“Don’t worry, Amelia has agreed to run interference and keep anyone from bothering us for awhile.”

“Amelia huh? What happened to Ms. Broadway?” Eric had always been extremely formal when addressing the hospital staff by referring to them by their last names when possible.

“Let’s just say she and I bonded during this little endeavor. She’s got quite the list of connections in your little town here and I would not have been able to do this without her.”

I knew it wasn’t rational, but I couldn’t help but notice the slight twinge of envy when I heard him speak with such admiration of my roommate. It was true, Amelia was very well connected; her father’s business had exposed her to the finer things in life and had taught her how to get around the usual hurdles to make things happen. This was exactly what made her invaluable to the relief effort following Katrina and now to the hospital as a volunteer. In short, the girl could get things done. But hearing him tout her attributes like this frankly made me a little jealous.

Well that’s not very attractive Sook!

“Well maybe we should have her join us?” I said it sweetly and with a smile, but I knew I was being petty and I regretted it as soon as the words were out of my mouth.

“Nope. Tonight is all about you.” He grinned and but I was sure he had picked up on the presence of my little green monster and was reveling in it.

The waiter came over and served the salads and poured the tea.

“I’m sorry I can not offer you wine this evening. It was all I could do to get Amelia to go along with the candles, there was no way I could convince her that I would not drink the wine if she let me smuggle some in here.”

“Tea is fine. I’m not a real big on wine. I fine the ones that appeal to me are the ones most people deem to be inferior.” I shrugged. “What can I say, I like what I like.”

“That is one of the things I love about you, you know what you like and no one is going to change that.” He said with a chuckle.

LOVE???? Did he say love? I tried not to choke on the crouton that was in my mouth at the time. Get a hold of yourself Sookie unless you want someone to have to perform the Heimlich, I’m sure it did mean it like that.

We finished our salads and the waiter cleared the dishes and brought over our entrees.

“Lobster! Are you kidding me?”

“Do you not like lobster? Amelia said she thought you did. I’m sure I can arrange for something else for you.”

“No Eric, lobster’s great. I’m just shocked that you would go through all of this trouble just for me.”

“Well, I happen to think you’re worth it.” Damn, there was that smile again, add to that those sparkling blue eyes and I was amazed I could follow a coherent thought tonight.

We continued through our meal, each course better than the course before. When we finished dessert, the chef made a quick call on his cell phone while the waiter cleared the table and blew out the candles. Within 5 minutes two other guys arrived to pack up and remove everything, and in just moments the room had been completely returned back to its original state.

“Wow Northman, I’m impressed.”

“Well then …mission accomplished.” He smiled.

After we were finally alone, I walked over to the chair that’s usually by his bed to return it to its rightful place when Eric stopped me.

“Sookie, come sit here.” He said while patting the spot on the bed beside him.

I walked over to his bed and had to suppress a smile when I noticed he wasn’t lying in the center of the bed like usual, but was further over to the side leaving a larger space on other. I crawled up on the bed beside him sitting somewhat ‘side saddle’ so I was facing him pleased that he seemed to wanted to be close to me as much as I wanted to be close to him.

Conversation came easy for the two of us; we sat there for a couple of hours bouncing between discussions about everything from the economy to more light hearted ribbing about our favorite cinematic vampire portrayal. It struck me just how relaxed we had become with each other in seemingly such a short period of time. At some point during the night I realized Eric had moved his arm across my legs and his hand was gently lying on my thigh. The move was so natural that it actually went without notice, but I could not hide my smile now that I realized it was there.

“What?” I asked when Eric abruptly stopped talking and stared.

“You really are beautiful you know?”

“Northman have you been jacking around with your pharmaceuticals?”

“Sookie, I’m serious. You really are beautiful.”

“Eric, I…” He put his finger to my lips and cut me off before I could finish my sentence.

“Shhhh.”

So much for being comfortable. I was sure he could hear my heart thumping from where he was sitting. He took his other hand and gently rubbed the back of his fingers down my cheek. Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod! I was certain by now he could not only hear my heart beating but also see it pounding in my chest. He slid his hand to the side of my face, cupping my cheek in his palm and gently pulling me forward with his fingers while the hand on my thigh made its way up to my waist. He pulled me to him slowly watching my lips as they got closer and closer to his and just when I anticipated them to touch he stopped and looked up into my eyes.

“May I?” He whispered.

“Please.” Hell yes!

He leaned forward while his hand cradled my face; his thumb tenderly stroked my cheek as he closed the distance between our lips. At first they just slightly grazed mine, barely making contact. I tried to stifle a whimper as I was almost insane with expectation. I placed my hands lightly on his chest, partially to keep my balance and partially because I could no longer keep my hands off of him. I needed to touch him. Slowly our lips opened together deepening the kiss. Holding it in was no longer an option and I moaned softly into his mouth. He took that as a cue and tightened his grip on my waist while his other hand moved to softly grasp my hair as he pulled me closer to him. Our lips moved feverishly against each other until we could no longer go without air and we finally broke the kiss to breathe.

“Sookie, you don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that.” He spoke softly.

I wanted to say something terribly sexy, I would have settled for adorable, endearing or even sweet, but the fates decided I could not be trusted with sentence construction so all I could muster was a monosyllabic grunt.

“Ugh.” Sookie. Really? Is now the time to channel your inner cavewoman?

Eric chuckled then pulled me in to his embrace. Whether it was the contentment I felt, the hectic pace I had kept lately or the ridiculously large meal I had eaten, I wasn’t sure, but I felt myself getting extremely tired. After the second yawn escaped my mouth, Eric spoke up.

“Love, you’re probably exhausted, the schedule you’ve been keeping is wearing you out. I should let you leave so you can go get some sleep.”

“I’m sorry Eric, I didn’t mean to be rude, I just couldn’t hold them in any longer.” I pulled away from him slightly so I could see his face while we were talking.

“Don’t apologize. It’s me that has been monopolizing your free time; I’m the one that should be apologizing.”

“No Eric, I enjoy every minute I spend here with you, I don’t feel like you are monopolizing my time, I’m where I want to be.”

“But you can’t spend so much time taking care of me that you fail to take care of you.” He said while gently rubbing his hand along my arm.

“I’m fine, just a little tired, that’s all.”

“Exactly, so were you planning to come tomorrow?”

“Yes, I have the dinner shift, so I was planning to come by early in the morning.”

“OK…well…don’t. I want you to take the day and sleep in and enjoy your morning before you have to go to work. OK?”

“But…” Again his fingers went to my mouth to effectively shush me.

“No, ‘buts’ Sookie, promise me you’ll do this, OK?”

“But…”

“Sookie!” He said a stern authoritative voice. “Promise me!”

“OK, I promise.”

“Good. Thank you. That makes me feel much better.”

“So what’s your schedule for the rest of the week?”

“Well that’s what I was trying to tell you when you kept shushing me. After tomorrow, I work 3 double shifts, so now I won’t be here for the next 4 days.”

I saw the flash of disappointment go across his face which I must admit made my insides flutter. Hopefully now he wouldn’t hold me to the agreement.

“So please don’t make me keep the promise. Please?” I begged.

I could tell by the look on his face he was reconsidering the situation, we’ve not been away from each other for more than a day or two since we first met and 4 days might as well be a year.

“No,” he said after releasing a big sigh, “that’s all the more reason. As hard as it will be for me not to see you, you need your rest. I will find other ways to occupy my time for the next few days. You need a break.”

I gave up trying to fight him and just nodded hoping he would change the subject to a happier one.

He did.

“In the meantime, let’s make the memory of tonight hold us for the next 4 days.” He said and with that he pulled me into another mind blowing kiss.

EPOV

FUCK!

Four days? That’s too damn long! It was all I could do to not scream, “oh hell no” when she said she was going to be working doubles for the next 3 days. What kind of hell have I just agreed to endure not seeing my own personal Florence Nightingale for the next 4 days?

I felt alive for the first time in weeks, no scratch that, months. It had been a lifetime since I had ‘looked forward’ to anything. Nothing excited me anymore, my life had become void of any form of anticipation and I had not realized its value until today. Planning dinner for Sookie had reawakened something in me. I wasn’t sure what, but something had definitely changed.

There was no denying the emptiness I felt when she left tonight, and knowing she was not going to be back for 4 days made it even more apparent. But she needed a break. She had spent virtually all of her free time with me here, taking no time for herself and as much as I enjoyed that, it wasn’t fair to her. I was no longer dependent on her physically, but I was beginning to wonder if I was dependent on her in other ways now.

I was going to have to find something to occupy my time for the next few days or I would go batshit. Maybe it was time to start easing myself back in to running the company. I was no longer on any narcotics for pain, so decision impairment was no longer a risk. It was way too early to resume my full role of leadership, but maybe it would be a good time to find out what’s been going on since I’ve been gone.

I called my assistant.

SPOV

I slept so good last night. Images of those kisses had afforded me the best night of sleep I had experienced in recent memory. But I awoke with an ache.

I couldn’t stand it. Promise or no promise I was going to see Eric today. He would just have to get over me breaking a promise. Our time together was too limited, soon he would be discharged from the hospital and be returning to Shreveport and I will be damned if I was going to waste any of that time sleeping!

I got up and got dressed as fast as I could and sped to the hospital. When I got to his hall, I met Amelia coming off the elevators with a huge ass grin on her face.

“Hey Roomie, how was dinner last night?”

“It was great Amelia, thank you for all your help setting that up with Eric.” I wanted her to know I was grateful, but I still felt the need to down play any feelings I had for him.

“Good, I’m glad you enjoyed it and that I didn’t get fired. By the way, they’ve taken Eric to xray, he should be back in a few minutes.”

“No problem. I’ll just wait in his room. See ya.” She waved as I walked in to Eric’s room.

After a few minutes, I looked up when I heard someone entering the room, for a second I was excited thinking Eric was already back, but then it registered I was hearing heels clicking on the hospital floors. Hospital employees don’t wear heels. Who the hell?

“Knock, knock” she said while entering the room.

Obviously she was lost so I stood up to greet her. “Can I help you?”

“Uh, yes thank you. I’m looking for Eric Northman; can you tell me if this is his room?”

“Yes. He is in radiology right now he should be back any minute now.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, who are you?” I don’t mind you asking, it’s the shitty attitude I mind. In the interest of saving time this morning, I wore my work uniform to the hospital, which due to the weather today consisted of a small pair of shorts and tank top. So of course today would be the day Corporate Barbie decided to visit.

“I’m Sookie Stackhouse, a friend of Eric’s, and you are?” I asked trying to keep an air of confidence in my voice.

“I’m Selah Pumphrey, and I guess you could say I’m Eric’s girlfriend.” What the fuck?

Before I had time to form a response I heard them wheeling Eric back in the room. The aids had barely gotten him in the room when Selah squealed and launched herself at Eric.

“Eric, I have missed you terribly. I was so glad when you called last night and said you wanted to see me.” Selah said while hugging Eric.

“Selah, it’s good to see you too, I’m glad you came.” Eric responded. He hadn’t yet noticed I was in the room. But soon Selah took care of that by making my presence known.

“Sookie, Eric and I have some things we need to discuss, would you excuse us please.” Eric turned his head and looked shocked to see me standing there.

“Sure. No problem. I’m not supposed to be here anyway, I’ll leave you two to talk.” I said as I was gathering up my things. My legs could not move fast enough to get me out of that room. I rushed past Eric and Selah, never looking at either of them again before leaving the room.

“Sookie wait!” I heard Eric yell as I entered the stairwell.

TBC