Chapter 29

SPOV

Not only were my lips still tingling as we made our way downstairs, but it felt like my whole body was on fire. Even though the evidence was there we’d had sex on that night, I couldn’t remember it so being locked in such a passionate embrace was wreaking havoc on my insides. I never knew lips could be so soft and yet so forceful; a kiss could be so sweet yet so demanding. Even the fact that he tasted like the cherry cookies he’d eaten couldn’t make me pull away and the feel of his arousal rubbing against my center, providing the friction my body desperately craved, only made me more wanton.

“Sookie we need to stop if you want to take things slow,” he murmured against my skin while his hips ground against mine.

We both moaned with the contact, much like the night before over dinner, and even though I agreed with his statement out loud, my body wanted nothing to do with separating from him and my legs wrapped around his lower half with my hips intent on ignoring my spoken words. I’d seen him naked, the memory forever seared into my mind, but feeling him on top of me, pressing against every bit of me, forced all rational thought to leave my brain. I wanted him, needed him, in ways I’d never imagined or felt with my one and only other lover. My hands danced across his back feeling his muscles stretch and contract with each movement he made. The heat of his body burned straight through to my soul and points farther south while our mouths clashed together as he stole the air from my lungs. I would willingly give him all of it if only he’d never take his lips from mine again.

As my hands decided all on their own to begin removing his shirt, the pain from his grasp at my hips brought with it a yelp from my lips and my body silently cried out feeling the pain of losing his warmth as Eric pulled away apologizing. I wouldn’t accept his apology, now knowing how wonderful a minutes long make out session with him could be, and I had no doubt I enjoyed earning each and every one of the bruises on my skin. I could see his erection straining the front of his jeans and another bolt of fire shot through my body, but before I could give in to my desires my body betrayed me again with my stomach growling out loud. He leaned in to give me one last kiss with my lips chasing after his as he pulled away, pulling me to my feet, and the lust was barely clearing my brain when he warned he’d be having me for dinner if we didn’t leave the room. Rationally, soberly, I knew it was too soon; we hardly knew each other, and yet if he hadn’t started pulling me to the door I would have gladly changed the dinner menu for both of us.

Before I knew it we were standing in the kitchen without me remembering taking the path that led us there. Less than 10 minutes had passed since my initial moment of being an ass that led to our fight, so our dinner was still warm and I made up a plate for myself before sitting down next to Eric to eat. We lapsed into a comfortable silence filled with stolen glances at each other as we ate and I waited until we were nearly finished to ask, “So why did you hit Quinn?”

Eric’s fork stilled in midair and I could see his mind chewing over my question more than his mouth was chewing on his dinner before he finally looked over at me and said, “He said something derogatory about you and I took offense.” My eyes indicated he should keep talking so he sighed as he blurted out, “He said I was getting his sloppy seconds.”

“What?” I screeched, nearly choking on the piece of steak in my mouth. “Why in the hell would he say that? I mean I know why, but what would possess him to be such a prick? Do you two even know each other?”

Quinn had never mentioned Eric’s name to me, much less having met him, but then again he’d never mentioned a lot of things so I wasn’t all that surprised when Eric answered, “We sort of know each other, but it was the first time we’d actually spoken to one another.”

I could tell Eric was hesitant to say any more which only made me ask, “What is it you aren’t telling me?”

He chewed on the corner of his lip before asking, “Are you sure you want to know? I’m pretty sure you won’t like what I have to say.”

I smiled and rolled my eyes saying, “Haven’t we established answering a question with another question is rude? I’m pretty sure we have and I’d rather know the truth over living in the dark.” I put my fork down and turned my body to face him, bracing myself for the worst and saying, “Come on, out with it.”

His shoulders slumped as he shoved another piece of steak into his mouth to buy extra time and I slid his plate out of his reach before he could prolong the suspense. Finally he admitted, “We used to compete over women at the gym. Actually, it wasn’t really a competition because I walked away with the girl every time.” My jealous streak rose up, but I willed it back down knowing I couldn’t hold it against Eric since we didn’t even know each other back then. I felt absolutely no jealousy towards Quinn’s actions and when I didn’t say anything he continued, “Tray had mentioned Quinn’s dislike of me not long after I joined the gym along with his pastime of chasing women.” Both his voice and eyes softened when he said, “Even though he was with you at the time.”

I knew he was gauging my reaction to the news, but it was nothing I didn’t already know. Quinn had definitely left scars on my heart with Eric having paid the price of my damaged psyche only thirty minutes earlier because a part of me now expected to be betrayed. Eric’s reputation certainly didn’t help ease my mind, but I was sure I would have been on guard no matter who I ended up being in a relationship with.

I guess my lack of emotion threw him off so I smiled letting him know I was okay and he smiled back adding, “I actually enjoy being an ass sometimes so whenever I saw him trying to pick up another woman I’d swoop in for the kill just to piss him off.”

I pushed my unreasonable jealousy aside and laughed saying, “Yes, I recall that side of you very well.” Both personality wise and physically, his ass was spectacular.

“So you’re not upset about it at all?”

I shrugged my shoulders replying, “No. It is what it is and it’s why he and I aren’t together anymore.” Eric didn’t seem convinced and I wondered if my earlier jealousy had shone through so I slid his plate back in front of him hoping to distract him with food. When he didn’t even look down at it I chose a different method and said, “I don’t know whether to thank you or be mad at you.” His expression said it was what he’d been waiting for so I cocked my eyebrow saying, “I should thank you for making it more difficult for him, but I want to be mad at you interfering. Who knows? If you hadn’t I might have found out he was a cheating bastard that much sooner.” I ended with a smile letting him know I wasn’t really upset, but when his expression still didn’t change I got desperate and said, “I guess I’ll just say thank you for sticking up for me, so thank you.”

I leaned in intending to give him nothing more than a peck on the lips now that the initial barrier between us had been dropped, but Eric was having none of that. He softly growled as soon as our lips made contact and his hand gripped the back of my head at the same time his tongue swept into my mouth. I could no longer remember what we’d been talking about with my brain switching to Eric mode, also known as ‘shameless hussy’ mode. No wonder he’d been with so many women, who in the hell would turn him down when he had me halfway to climaxing from nothing more than a kiss? Instead of feeling jealous at the thought I felt proud and a little smug knowing he was all mine for the foreseeable future.

I didn’t realize we’d moved until I heard his plate clatter to the floor and my ass hit the cold hard granite of the countertop. It was the perfect height for Eric to rub his denim clad erection against my center and he kissed and licked his way across my collarbone from ear to ear mumbling something, but the sex haze surrounding my brain also clogged my ears. He could have told me he was a thousand year old vampire for all I knew and I wouldn’t have cared one bit, so long as he didn’t stop what he was doing.

My hands reached the hem of his t-shirt during their trek across his back and seconds later I was facing Eric’s naked chest thanks to their overzealous glee in being released from the servitude of any higher brain function. I couldn’t spare my runaway hands any thoughts since his chest was so much better up close and I wasted no time mapping out everything I could reach with my mouth as Eric’s hands did a little exploring of their own before claiming my lips with his once more. My harlot hands ran in between our bodies stroking his length through his jeans and he hissed into my mouth, thrusting forward, as I internally readjusted his even more impressive measurements. My hands, now dubbed ‘wicked’ and ‘immoral’, were teetering over the button of his jeans hell bent on releasing the Kraken when the smell hit me and it was only when we both pulled away to cough did I see the smoke.

“Holy shit!” we said in unison as Eric ran over and removed his smoking t-shirt from the stove and throwing it into the sink. I jumped down from the counter hurrying to turn off the broiler I’d left on as Eric ran water over his now ruined shirt while I said for the third time that night, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” he asked smiling, completely nonplussed about me almost setting his kitchen on fire.

“For almost burning your house down? For forgetting to turn off the broiler? For tossing your t-shirt on the stove?” It was weird feeling contrite while my girly bits throbbed and I remained that way for another two seconds as I felt my shorts fall from my hips, catching them as they hit my knees. It seemed Eric’s hands had been much quicker and stealthier than my own and I hastily righted them before shooting a look at Eric.

I had no idea of what my look conveyed since I was both amused and a little embarrassed, but Eric merely smiled back completely unrepentant as he said, “Sorry?” I was very glad my shorts were back in place since I was sure my panties vanished seeing his pearly whites attempting to dazzle me into debauchery.

It was working.

In a feeble attempt to keep me from stripping him completely naked where he stood, I turned and started cleaning up the broken plate and food that had been strewn across the floor becoming a casualty of our impromptu foray of frisky fingers. As I threw it all into the trash I remembered the dish I’d broken the night before and turned saying, “At this rate we’ll be eating out of the pots and pans by the end of the week.”

“Well worth it,” Eric smirked.

I’d forgotten about my inability to think clearly when he wasn’t wearing a shirt and I turned to start clearing the remaining dishes from the counter to avoid looking at him when my eyes fell onto the poker table. There was plenty of room in the den for it so I thought I’d make another attempt at getting it moved. I remembered clearly how Eric spoke of and stroked it the night before as if it were a living entity so I gestured towards it and asked, “Can we please move him? Her? It? Into another room?”

Eric strode forward and dropped down into one of the surrounding seats sprawling his upper half across the table top and gripping the cushioned sides saying, “Don’t listen to her my precious. She doesn’t mean it. Once she gets to know you she’ll love you like I do.”

I pressed my thighs together feeling the tiny gush of moisture seeing his bare back on display just begging to be licked and instead let out a very unladylike snort saying, “‘My Precious’, huh? You do realize Gollum, Smeagol, whoever you are that the precious was pure evil don’t you?” Amelia had gone through an Orlando Bloom phase and made us watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in a one day marathon while she made snarky comments on his skeletal girlfriend at the time.

Eric gasped in mock outrage and continued petting the table while whispering sweet nothings into its brass cup holders.

I wished he would put on a shirt because I was sure I could come up with a convincing argument, but my mind simply turned to mush whenever he had that much skin on display. It dawned on me then all of the other times I’d been blindsided by his bare body and while I couldn’t be sure he’d been doing it on purpose, the fact he’d suggested swimming for our talk about Quinn before dinner set off alarm bells. He was lucky I enjoyed the view too much to complain, but thought turnabout was fair play. My t-shirt wasn’t tight, but it was fitted and the v-neck style was just what I needed. Since Eric was facing away from me I quickly gave the girls a little boost while I pulled the hem of my shirt down and walked around the table until I was in Eric’s line of sight. I bent at the waist and practically purred, “There’s plenty of room in the den. Wouldn’t it be nice to sit at an actual table for our meals?”

His eyes never strayed from my cleavage which was nearly spilling out of my bra and I was sure one good sneeze would do me in. I wanted to laugh seeing the faraway glazed over look in his eyes, but kept it to myself asking again, “Wouldn’t that be nice Eric?” as I nodded my head.

While his eyes never left my breasts he must have subconsciously seen my head nodding and his head mimicked my own with his cheek rubbing against the light chocolate colored cloth covering the center of the table since he was still laying flat across the top. I started swaying my body very slowly hoping to keep him hypnotized and asked while nodding again, “So we can move the table into the den?”

His cheek kept rubbing against the cloth as his eyes swayed with my chest and I quickly said, “That’s great! I’ll look for a dinette tomorrow,” and gave him a quick peck on the top of his head in thanks before I went back to cleaning up the rest of the dishes while I tried to convince myself I hadn’t just felt his tongue dart in to lick my cleavage when I leaned in.

If only I could convince my libido.