DAC, Ch 12

Cool, firm hands circled her waist and drew her back into a large, hard body. Smooth lips trailed down the side of her neck placing open kisses here and there as that large, hard body pressed into her, trapping her between him and the sink. His hips rocked slowly into the small of her back, his desire extremely obvious and larger than life.

His large hands slowly glided down to her hips as he pulled her more firmly into his body before sliding his fingers up to graze the sides of her breasts. Sookie gasped as he tested the weight of her breasts in the palms of his hands before sliding his thumbs back and forth over her hard nipples.

She moaned and tilted her head to the side as his teeth and fangs lightly scraped up and down the side of her neck. His hips thrust harder and faster against her backside as he gently pinched and rolled her nipple between his thumb and finger with one hand while the other slipped down to rub her center.

Sookie tensed, her pleasure soaring as she felt his fangs smoothly penetrate her neck…and then the phone beside her bed rang. Startled awake, she flopped over onto her back, highly irate that her dream was so rudely interrupted. The lay there fuming and plotting murder as she listened to a mechanical voice advise her answering machine that, for a limited time only, she now qualified for a low-interest loan she didn’t need to consolidate the credit cards she didn’t have. When the condition of her full bladder rudely decided to make itself known, she reluctantly rose and started her morning routine.

As she waited for her coffee to brew, she realized that while she never saw her “mystery lover’s” face, it had to be Eric Northman in her dreams. And after the stunt he’d pulled while she was on the phone with Preston last night, it wasn’t even surprising that she’d dream about him. She fully admitted that she found him attractive, damn near irresistible, if she were honest. Alas, this was only a dream.

When two cups of coffee didn’t provide enough incentive to remain awake, she sat the alarm on her phone and willingly dozed off on the sofa, curled up under her Gran’s old afghan.

Sometime later she woke up to someone trying to pound down her front door yet again, but at least this time she was well rested and fully dressed. And she couldn’t even complain since a quick glance at the clock told her it was just after two in the afternoon.

As she padded to the door, she read the mental signature of the person knocking and wondered what someone from the largest office supply store in Shreveport was doing at her house.

“Sookie Stackhouse?” the young man asked her T-shirt covered chest.

“Eyes up here, and yes, I am.” She’d gotten sick of the entire “talking to the boobs” routine in high school. She glanced behind him and noticed another person and the open back of a small van.

He blushed, cleared his throat, and then finally found her eyes. “Ma’am, I’m Curtis LaCunaire from Shreveport Office Supplies, and I have a delivery and installation for you. If you’ll just sign right here,” he handed her an electronic signature pad, “we can begin unloading and setting up your new equipment.”

“Who is “we” and what equipment are you talking about?” She suspected a tall, gorgeous Viking was behind all this, but in this day and age it never hurt to know exactly who you were letting into your house, particularly if you were a woman living alone with no close neighbors. She would definitely read his mind as he spoke his words.

Momentarily flustered by her questions, especially since he knew the size of the order and the name of the huge vampire behind it, Curtis scanned through the order as he answered her question.

“I could get into specifics, but the simplest way to answer is this: a fully-loaded laptop and tablet, completely wireless of course, a wireless fax machine separate from the computer, wireless printer/scanner, cases of paper and ink…”

Sookie tuned out when he got to the part about the cable and the wifi set-up and some sort of accessories and…docks? Trust Eric to notice that she wasn’t quite caught up to the computerized version of the 21st Century in the short amount of time he was here.

“And you have someone to set this all up,” she asked when he finally wound down.

“Yes, Anita LeFleur, our branch manager, is highly qualified to set up your office environment.”

Sookie snorted at the thought of an “office environment” since all that stuff was going to be living on an end table in a corner of the living room. “Office environment”…yeah, right.

An hour and a half later Sookie gladly ushered Shreveport Office Supplies’ finest out of her home as she wondered if she was going to have to get used to Eric sending her daytime deliveries. His attention to details fascinated her, as did his seeming willingness to spend what was to her huge amounts of money at the drop of a hat.

She spent the next couple of hours familiarizing herself with her new laptop and tablet, and fought hard against the urge to send Eric a test fax. Then, suddenly, it was almost time to down some supper and get dressed for work. She might even be a bit early for a change.

Fangtasia was already in full swing when she arrived and parked in her Eric-appointed spot. She smiled to herself when she realized that everything about her was new. She was dressed in a new cobalt blue skirt and new white blouse, both from Tara’s Togs, with her new tablet in tow. Her legs were nicely tanned from her previous yard session, so she didn’t bother with hosiery, but her underwear was new, and so were her shoes. Even the vehicle she drove was new. As she entered the club via the employee entrance, she briefly wondered if she carried that “new car-clothes-electronics-shoes smell”.

The tall, blond Viking was nowhere to be seen, so she sought out Pam to discuss her duties for that night.

“Here,” Pam said with abject boredom as she handed over a sealed envelope. “This was left for you.”

Sookie put her purse in Eric’s office and followed Pam to Eric’s booth before opening the envelope.

My dear Miss Stackhouse,

At this time your most important duty is the use of your particular talent. Should you discover anything of importance, let Pamela know immediately.

Soon,

Eric

She admired his neat, precise handwriting for a moment, then slipped the folded note into the pocket of her skirt. She looked across the booth’s table as Pam sat down. At her quirked brow, Sookie whispered quietly, “I’m just supposed to listen and let you know if I hear anything important.”

Pam nodded. She would have seriously wondered what was wrong with her Maker if he hadn’t wanted to use the blonde’s telepathy, especially with the way things were starting to look. He was already paying her for her services, so why not get some use out of her? At least she was good for something more than causing his odd “mood swings”. She mentally rolled her eyes at his strange obsession with the human.

She was pretty enough, and did have a delicious scent, and she was actually rather nice, but… Oh, well, at least she didn’t have that weird gas problem so many humans had these days.

After ordering and receiving their drinks from the hovering waitress, Pam slipped into a light version of downtime while Sookie pretended to toy with her tablet as she listened into an endless sea of boring fangbanger thoughts.

Sadly she wasn’t surprised that “increasingly drunken desperation” warred with “unrelenting desire” for the primary focus of the night’s thoughts. She was highly relieved when she would find the occasional mind that was simply glad to be out clubbing rather than having a reverse feed and fuck fixation. The telepath would take a brief break and focus on those happier minds for a few minutes before diving back into the seething mass of the pathetic and the pitiful.

It took her a little while to notice a difference in the unflatteringly gothic clientele’s thoughts of that night and the thoughts she’d previously read. Before, a surprising number of fangbangers had memories that often centered on their past feed and fuck exploits with Eric, but now not nearly as many of them were remembering such sessions with “the Master”.

But…a pattern was emerging. Fangbangers that she knew for a fact he had been with weren’t simply no longer thinking about it; they also had a new mental pattern that was very slightly odd yet barely discernable – one she hadn’t noticed in them .

She mentally shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t like that uncomfortable twinge of irrational jealousy which refused to fade like it should. It wasn’t like they were a couple or even dating, so it was none of her business who he had sex with or fed from, just like it was none of his business who she dated…even if his actions the night before last, and last night, too, potentially belied that theory.

Relationships were too damn complicated…she’d ponder it all tomorrow, she decided, then turned her attention back to her job. She would admit only under duress that she enjoyed mentally snarking back to the thoughts she’d overhear.

“…late again…she’s never on time…”

Maybe you need better friends…

“…hope I don’t get caught…we paid good money for these fake IDs…”

She caught Pam’s attention and showed her the quickly typed note on her tablet pointing out the under-agers, and Pam quickly left to dispose of the problem.

“…where’s the Master? I hope he comes in tonight, I need him to…what was I thinking about…”

Um-hum, interesting…

“…damn these pleather pants itch…shoulda used baby powder…”

Ha ha ha…gross…

“…if The Master will show tonight, he’s so fucktastic…I bet he’s huge…”

Why, yes, I do believe he is… Is it hot in here? Whoo…next thought, please…

“…I’m going to miss Letterman for this? I’m never wearing fake lashes again…”

Go on home to your Letterman then… Fake eyelashes? What’s the point?

“…bite me…bite me…bite me…”

Pathetic…

“…watered-down over-priced drinks…should be studying for that chem test tomorrow…”

Huh, maybe I’ll listen in a bit to check his age…nope, he’s fine…

“…hope I get at least one vampire’s attention tonight…need so bad for one to bite me…”

Pathetic…generic drug addict in the worst possible shade of hair dye…

“…tomatoes, celery, onions, red peppers, boudin, cayenne…”

Damn. Thanks, now I’m hungry…

“…information, heart and soul, a whisper, a word…fucking ear worm…”

Gee, thanks lady…now I’m hungry and have ear worm…

“…getting late…must not be going to show up tonight, should I call the boss…he’ll be pissed…”

Sookie tensed when she heard the last snippet, and glanced around for Pam. A moment later the blonde vampire appeared by her side.

“What?” She could tell by the set of her shoulders and the look on her face that the telepath had news.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s good.”

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