Heart's Desire Ch 25

Chapter 25

SPOV

He loved me?

He loved me!

I don’t think I heard anything else clearly after that. I vaguely registered Jason saying something in response to Eric’s comments, but honestly the conversation resembled the teacher from those Charlie Brown specials I watched growing up. All I heard was waa waa wa waa. I had to get away from there; I needed the noise to stop for just a minute.

“Well, I’m going to go in and start getting dinner together.” I said scurrying from the pool.

I rushed into the kitchen and started pulling the items we had prepared earlier from the fridge, placing them on the center island. Silently cursing myself for preparing everything in advance. I needed to chop something.

My head was spinning, my mind replaying the words over and over again, ‘the woman I love’, ‘the woman I love’. He said it as if it were common knowledge, like it had always been that way. My heart was pounding so hard; “this must be what a heart attack feels like” I thought. This absolutely beautiful, successful, ungodly rich man loved me! He did, right? I mean…that wasn’t just a moment of passion or a poor choice of words, was it? Ugh!...Can you not just be happy for a minute before you go all Debbie Downer?

The door opened and I knew it was him without even looking.

“Love, I’m …” Before he got any further, I threw my hand up to stop him.

“Did you mean it?” I could barely get the words out of my mouth.

“What?” Of course he didn’t mean it. He doesn’t even remember what he said.

“What you said, did you mean it?” I don’t know where my resolve came from, but I had to know. After a long pause he responded.

“Every word.”

“Say it again.”

“I love you Sookie.”

I turned around and the look on his face removed any doubt whether he was speaking the truth.

There is really no pretty way to describe what I did next…I jumped him. Wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, forgetting his rehab and recovery, I attacked his lips with everything I had. I could just see the headlines now...

Millionaire Businessman Eric Northman Suffers Re-injury At The Hands(And Lips) Of Woman Trusted With His Rehab

“Sookie, I’m sorry…” He said when we finally came up for air. I’m sure he was probably beating himself up over going off on one of my friends, but Malcolm had it coming, I was not upset.

“Are you apologizing for loving me?” I cut him off again.

“Never.”

“Then shut up.”

“Yes ma’am.” He said returning his lips to mine. Then abruptly he stopped kissing me.

“Come with me.” He said pulling me by the arm after setting me back on my feet.

“What are we doing in the pantry, Mr. Northman?” I asked as he closed the door behind me.

“Look, it was bad enough to wake up in bed alone this morning but then to add insult to injury I was forced to shower alone! I think I’ve gone long enough without touching you today.” It was not their intent but his words caused a twinge of guilt when I thought back on my near manic behavior for the last couple of days.

“As much as I love having my name stamped across your body and believe me I do, right now this shirt is preventing me from getting to what I want.” His voice was raspy with desire as he pulled the offending garment over my head.

His hands were everywhere all at once urgently becoming reacquainted with my body as if we had been apart for weeks. Quickly he pushed up the top of my suit causing my nipples instantly hardened at the exposure to the air.

“Sorry Love, no time for sweet and loving…this time it’s going to be hard and fast.” Eric growled.

Mrs. Hadley, please forgive us for the way we are about to defile your pantry…amen.

I moaned when his hand cupped my sex and responded by wrapping my fingers around the growing bulge in his shorts.

“Baby…so wet already.” He moaned between kisses while slipping a finger past the edge of my bikini bottoms and into my slit.

“Please Eric, don’t make me wait.” I responded, my own need making itself known.

“Ah…that’s my girl, as eager for me as I am for you.”

We didn’t even bother removing clothing. Eric pushed his shorts down to his knees as he reached down to pick me up to straddle his waist. Pushing the thin strip of fabric blocking my center over to the side he pushed deep inside with one stroke. I gasped at the sweet sensation of suddenly being filled so completely.

“Eric, your legs…you can’t hold me…like this. You’ll hurt yourself.” I stuttered between thrusts.

“Don’t worry Love, I won’t be able to hold out long enough for it to hurt me.” He panted.

He held me tight with one arm while bringing the other one around between us as he slipped his hand down to allow his thumb to circle my clit. I reached up on either side of his head to grab hold of the pantry shelf behind him to help support my weight and provide a little leverage.

“Come on baby, cum for me now.” I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold out long once his thumb touched my nub.

“Oh God…yes!”

I was still shivering from my climax as he slowly slipped from me. Eric carried me and sat me on the seat of the small step ladder over in the corner. Locating a stack of napkins, he set to tenderly cleaning me up, placing a sweet kiss at the top of my mound before repositioning my suit bottoms.

“I love you Sookie Stackhouse.” He whispered as his kissed my lips softly.

“I lo…” I started when we heard someone shout from the other room.

“Where are you Sook?” Malcolm called from the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes at Eric, frustrated by the interruption.

“Just a minute Malcolm, she’ll be right there.” Eric said through a smirk, no doubt speaking up to make his presence known.

“I guess I should go see what he wants.” I whispered to while planting a kiss on his pursed lips.

“Here…put this back on.” He said handing me back his shirt I had been wearing.

I raised my eyebrow letting him know that I knew what he was trying to do. He responded by raising his own eyebrow letting me know he didn’t care that I knew.

I grabbed the shirt and put it on with a small huff but deep down inside I was smiling at him staking his claim.

“What’s up Malcolm?” I asked following Eric out of the pantry.

Malcolm looked a little startled by our appearance and for a brief second it looked as if he was going to say something about it but decided better.

“Can I speak with you for a minute Sookie?” He asked looking at both me and Eric as if to ask permission from both of us.

I looked at Eric and he nodded.

“I’ll just take these things out to the bar and get the grill fired up.” Eric said while grabbing the tray of steaks and vegetables and placing a kiss on my temple.

“I’ll be out in just a few minutes.” I assured him then turned to Malcolm. “What did you need to speak with me about Malcolm?”

“First let me start by apologizing to you, I never meant to hurt you.” Hurt me? “I guess in some way I always felt you and I would somehow wind up together and that the teasing and picking on one another was just how we communicated. I mean I know you’ve always turned down my requests for dates, but I always thought that you were just playing hard to get and some day we would find our way to each other.” He stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and continued. “But Sookie, I can’t compete with all this.” He said while making a sweeping motion with his arm. “And if this is what you’re looking for, then I guess you and I will probably never happen.” Probably??

I couldn’t remain quiet any longer.

“Malcolm we’ve known each other for a lot of years but you’re right, we will never happen. Because if you really knew me you would realize that all this,” I said while mimicking his previous sweeping motion, “has nothing to do with why I’m with Eric. But I do appreciate your apology and I hope maybe now you can move on and find someone of your own.” I gave him a quick friendly hug before continuing. “I think we should join the others now, whatta ya say?”

We made our way out to the grill area with the remaining food. Eric gave me a questioning look and I offered a small reassuring nod.

“Hey Sook, Eric says if it’s okay with you, we can try out this club we heard about in town.” Jason asked while I halfway waited for him to add, ‘can we, huh? Huh? Can we?’ like he used to when he would ask mom and dad to go somewhere when we were kids.

I flashed a questioning look at Eric who just nodded and shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, I really didn’t pack ‘clubbin’ clothes.” I regretting that I sounded less that enthused with the suggestion.

Then Amelia spoke up. “No worries Sook, I took the liberty of bringing you a few more things from your closet and I’m sure I included a couple of things that would be suitable. If not, you can borrow something of mine or we can sneak away tomorrow for a quick shopping trip.” She said with a wink.

I walked over to Eric’s side. I needed to make sure he felt like he was up for this and not just going along because it was what everyone else wanted to do.

“Are you sure you’re ok with this? I don’t want you to do something you’re not up to. We could always just let those that want to go out, go and we could stay here.” I whispered.

“Love it will be fine. I know I won’t be able to dance the night away but there’s no reason why we can’t join everyone else, I’ll know when to sit down and take it easy.” He put his arm around me and gave me a reassuring squeeze.

“OK, then. I guess we are going out tomorrow night.” I announced as everyone cheered.

“So what time do I need to have Clancy pick us up?” Eric asked while dialing his cell phone. I flashed him a disapproving look while everyone else responded with their suggestions.

“10:00 it is.” Eric said settling the dispute.

We ate and drank and laughed until sometime after midnight when everyone decided to call it a night opting to get up early the next morning to eat breakfast together before taking to the lake.

I was exhausted by the time Eric and I made it to the bedroom. Everyone had pitched in getting everything all cleaned up but it was still a lot of work. And Eric couldn’t help but amusingly remind me that if I hadn’t sent the help home, someone else would be doing the cleaning. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We were lying in bed talking about the day and the plans for the next day when an idea came to me.

“Eric, would it be inappropriate or awkward for you if I invited Selah to join us tomorrow night?” I almost giggled when I saw his reaction to my question.

“Why do you want to invite Selah?” The shocked expression on his face not dissipating.

“I really think she and Hoyt would get along well together.”

“What about Malcolm, are you going to try to set him up with someone?” I tried not to read anything in to his motivation for the question.

“No. If I know Malcolm, he’ll find some bimbo to hook up with, but Hoyt won’t. It took him six weeks to get up the nerve to ask Jessica out and seeing how well that turned out, he’s not likely to try again anytime soon.” I defended.

“Well, I’m not a real fan of the idea, but I’m not completely opposed to it. Are you sure you want to spend an evening with Selah?”

He was skeptical and I couldn’t blame him but I honestly felt like under different circumstances Selah and I could have been friends. Besides in light of the Debbie Pelt’s in Eric’s world, taking up Selah’s offer as an ally may not be such a bad idea.

“I think it will be fine. I’m not expecting her and Hoyt to marry and have kids, but I think they could have a good time together.”

“Well, if you want to, go ahead. But let the record show that this was your idea, not mine.” I giggled at him using my words against me.

“Duly noted, now go to sleep.”

oOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The next morning everyone made their way to the kitchen, each one doing their part to prepare the meal and when it was over, much to Mrs. Hadley’s delight, everyone pitched in again to clean.

Before heading down to the lake, I made a quick call to Selah who was thrilled by the invitation but she had a cousin visiting from out of town. I explained the Hoyt and Malcolm situation and she asked if she could extend the invitation to her cousin. I agreed but gave her my disclaimer about Malcolm, and she in turn offered one for her cousin.

After a couple of hours down on the lake, the girls decided to go back up to the pool, I hadn’t had any real girl time in awhile, so we were happy to leave the men with the jet skis

“Sookie, I don’t believe I have ever seen you so happy.” Tara said while pouring a glass of tea as it was still a little too early for anything stronger.

“I am guys. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this about anyone before in my life.”

“Well, I think the feeling is mutual. That boy looks at you with such love and devotion; it’s almost voyeuristic to watch. I feel like I’m intruding.” Tara grinned.

“I agree Sook, that boy loves you.” Amelia added. “I don’t know how you’re going to be able to leave here at the end of next week.”

Hearing her words made me feel as if someone had punched me in the stomach. As much as I missed my friends and home in Bon Temps, I felt pretty sure the pain of leaving Eric was going to be worse.

“Yeah, I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet.” I responded somewhat sheepishly. I wasn’t in the habit of keeping secrets from these two, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to talk about everything just yet either.

“What do you mean ‘what you’re going to do’? Are you thinking about staying?” Tara asked.

“Yes, Eric has asked me to stay.”

“What about your job? What will Sam say about you staying longer?” Tara seemed to have all the questions while the look on Amelia’s face would lead you to believe she already knew all the answers.

“Well Eric has offered me a job with his company. As a matter of fact I’m doing some work for him now with his charitable donations, and he wants to expand the position.” I could help but sound a little excited telling them about my work with Northman Inc., I was proud of it damn it!

“Sookie you know this is a decision only you can make, but you owe it to yourself to explore all your options and take advantage of every opportunity afforded to you. You are a smart girl and capable of great things, may be now is the time to get started on some of those things.” I loved Amelia, her non-judgmental way of offering encouragement was always appreciated.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the water and each other’s company until it was time to get cleaned up and ready to go out.

“Jason, what’s the name of this club you want to try out tonight?” I asked after we were all in the limo on our way to pick up Selah and her cousin.

“After Dark.” I felt Eric stiffen at the name. “Several people back home have talked about it so I wanted to check it out.” Jason sounded like a kid on his way to the circus.

“Do you know that club, Eric?” JB asked before I had the chance to.

“I’m familiar with it.” Eric answered rather cryptically before passing on our destination along to Clancy.

We picked up Selah and her cousin, made our introductions and within a few minutes we were on our way.

When we pulled up to the club, Selah turned to Eric and smiled.

“After Dark huh? Why am I not surprised?” She smirked and again I felt Eric stiffen.

We got out of the car and although there was a long line of people waiting to get in, Eric led the group right to the door.

“Good evening Eric.” The big burly man covering the door greeted. “It’s good to see you again. Welcome back.”

Eric nodded his head, indicated that we were all with him and we walked through doors without having to pay a cover. I was a little surprised by the VIP treatment, but apparently the guy had some connections.

After walking inside we were greeted with a steady stream of “Good evening Eric”, “Nice to see you again Eric” and “we sure have missed you Eric” and I was completely confused. But when I heard the first “Eric…Selah, so good to see the two of you again” I was pissed.

Never really had time to socialize, huh? Never dated Selah, huh? Eric must have picked up on my sudden change in demeanor because he took my arm and guided me over along the wall out of the flow of traffic and away from our party.

“I think we need to talk.” He said.

Ya think?

TBC