Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I stood there completely frozen thinking I must have been Christ’s crucifier because surely that could be the only reason why God had it out for me so bad and from the looks Corbett was giving me, I had to assume he’d be willing to do Him a favor right about now with the whole ‘eye for an eye’ thing.

At least I didn’t see a hammer or nails in his hands.

“Eric…” Sookie whimpered into my ear. I was so busy having a stare down with her father that I’d temporarily forgotten she was attached to me, but I couldn’t very well continue where I’d left off with her father standing right there and, tipsy or not, there was no way I was going to chance telling him to go the fuck away out loud.

Of course Sookie couldn’t see him, so in her mind there was no reason for her to not continue dry humping my body and it seemed to temporarily blind Corbett since he smacked his fists into his eye sockets, yelling, “Ahhh!” I ignored him for the time being and was still trying to get my keys out of my pocket while hoping he wouldn’t follow us inside. Corbett had never visited me at home before, so I had to assume he was there for Jason’s sake, with news about Maudette’s murder, and couldn’t decide what was more important.

Clearing Jason’s name or seeing just how flexible Sookie really was?

Sookie’s persistent nibbles along my neck and her hand sliding down in between our bodies made the choice a simple one, but I knew Corbett wouldn’t have been there if he hadn’t wanted to tell me something important and I was at a loss as to how I could speak to him without making Sookie think I was batshit crazy. When I finally had my keys in my hand Sookie giggled, “Oh, thank God! While I’m dying to play Hungry Hungry Hippos with your cock, I really need to pee!”

I’ll never know how I managed to turn bright red since I could’ve sworn all of my blood was still south of my waist, but hearing Corbett yell, “For fuck’s sake! There goes another fond memory of my baby girl’s childhood down the fuckin’ drain,” seemed to do the trick.

Sookie continued her attack on my neck while I struggled to get the key into the lock and as soon as the door swung open, I gave Corbett a look telling him to stay the fuck where he was and carried Sookie inside. I didn’t think he’d stay out there forever, so as soon as I put her down on her feet in front of the bathroom door, I said, “Umm…I need to…uh…run out for a minute.”

“No you don’t,” she argued back while her hands dove for the button on my jeans. “I pee really quick! You’ll hardly notice I’m gone.”

Knowing Corbett was just outside the door, I hoped he didn’t have super stealth-like hearing and gave the only plausible reason I could come up with, saying, “I…uh…don’t have any condoms.” I hated lying to her because I actually had a brand new box. I blamed my high after coming back from our first date at her Gran’s house for the presumptuous purchase, but considering what was likely to happen tonight, I would guess my purchase was warranted.

When her eyes flicked down to her purse I wondered if she happened to be just as presumptuous as me and quickly forced away all thoughts of who else she might have purchased condoms for because the fact remained that she was here with me.

At least that was what I was chanting in my head.

I was coming up blank with any other excuses as to why I had to step out, but thankfully Sookie’s bottom lip pouted out as she said, “I don’t have any either.”

Presumptions aside, I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but I didn’t have time to think about it and just said, “The bathroom is through there,” I gestured to the door behind her and added, “I’ll only be gone for a few minutes. Just make yourself at home and I’ll be right back.”

Even if her command of, “You’d better,” wasn’t enough, the kiss she gave me right after that would’ve made me come back to her no matter where she was and once the bathroom door was closed behind her, I beat feet back out into the hallway where Corbett was still waiting and still glaring at me.

“What?” I whisper shouted. “Not once in the eight years I’ve known you have you ever stopped by my place and you had to go and pick tonight to drop in?”

“Well, excuse the fuck outta me! I’ve been caught up trying to prove my son isn’t a murderer while you’ve been busy trying to get into my daughter’s pants!” he yelled back.

I envied his ability to yell without having to worry about who would hear him and I didn’t think now was the time to point out that, technically speaking, it was Sookie that was trying to get into my pants, so I ignored his rant and started towards the stairs, saying, “Just tell me what you’ve got to say. You know I’ll do what I can to help Jason, but whatever happens between me and Sookie is between me and Sookie.”

Corbett stopped short of the stairwell, asking, “What are you intentions with my daughter?”

Presently? To fuck her until neither one of us can walk straight.

Corbett’s expression didn’t change so I knew I’d never again have to wonder if he could read my mind, but I omitted my immediate plans for his daughter and just said, “I like her. A lot. Isn’t that the exact fucking thing you’ve been telling me would happen for years? I seem to make her happy and she sure as fuck does that for me, so if you’ve had a change of heart, then too fucking bad. I’m not going to fuck it up and I’m not giving her up, even if it means we won’t be friends anymore.”

I would miss him. He was well and truly my closest friend, but I already knew I would miss Sookie more, so this would have to be his call. My decision was already made.

He stared back at me for a moment or two when he finally smiled a little and sighed out, “Well, you better not break her heart or else I’ll haunt you ’til your dying day.”

“Well hell,” I chuckled. “Aren’t you doing that already?”

“Yeah,” he agreed and then smiled wider, saying, “but I’ll bring Maxine Fortenberry with me next time.”

I’d rather be crucified…

“Deal,” I shuddered. “Now, did you actually have something you wanted to tell me or did you just want to fuck up my date with Sookie?”

“Naw,” he laughed. “That was just a bonus!” His face turned serious when he told me, “I found Maudette.” He shivered, adding, “She’s a ghost.”

I stared back at him waiting for something I didn’t already know and finally said, “Umm…duh? Just what in the fuck do you think you are?” I smiled feeling like I was Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense and told my pseudo Bruce Willis, “I hate to be the one to break it to you, but Corbett…you’re dead. You’re a ghost too.”

“Not like me ya shithead! She’s like one a them other ghosts. The ones that are milky shadows and don’t know they’re dead. I found her at the Grab It Kwik going about her nightly routine and from the looks of it, whoever did it came up behind her because she was actin’ normal when all of a sudden her eyes bugged out and she was clutchin’ at her neck. Even if she was like me, I doubt she woulda seen who done it and couldn’t of told us anything anyway.”

Well shit. I really thought we were onto something that could help out Jason, but given what he’d found, it was a dead end.

No pun intended.

“What about Maxine?” I asked. “She seemed to be up in everybody’s faces tonight. Maybe she might hear something?”

Corbett looked at me like I was an idiot and said, “First off, I doubt whoever did it is dumb enough to go talking about it in public and second, she don’t leave Hoyt’s side. Poor guy…” he added shaking his head.

“I can sympathize,” I answered dryly. He just smiled back at me completely unrepentant, so I offered, “Well, if something else comes up with Jason, let me know.” I stared at him hard, adding, “At work.”

Sookie had been alone for close to fifteen minutes by then, so rather than run out and buy another box of condoms to keep up my charade, I would just tell her that I remembered I had some when I got to the store and turned the car back around. As I started walking back towards my apartment, I looked back at Corbett who was eying me warily, so I asked, “You’re not…uh…planning on just coming in, are you?”

“Why?” he asked smiling. “Are you inviting me into your home?”

“No!” I whisper shouted. “Seriously Corbett! I really like Sookie and if you’re there I’m going to act weird and then she’s going to figure out something is wrong with me. I don’t want to scare her away, so stay the fuck out!” When he didn’t answer me and I got tired of trying to read his blank expression, I pleaded, “Promise me!”

“Oh, hey! There you two are!”

Officer Prior turned into the hallway from the stairwell and I sighed exasperatedly, mimicking Corbett’s words from earlier, “For fuck’s sake!” adding, “How did you know where I live?”

I’d never been so fucking popular in my life.

He shrugged, answering, “I didn’t, but I knew where Hoyt lives.” He tapped his head, adding, “I pay attention.”

“That’s nice,” I said not so nicely. “Well, you two have a good night doing whatever it is you do. I’m going inside now.” I looked at Corbett in particular as I clarified, “Alone.”

“That’s what you think” he mocked.

“God damn it Corbett! Promise me!” One way or another it seemed I wouldn’t be spending the night with Sookie because I’d either end up standing in the hallway all night long or Corbett would be following me in and making me have to turn Sookie down when she tried to resume what we’d started because there was no way I would be doing that with him there.

And he KNEW it.

Officer Prior watched our silent stare off with a grin on his face until he finally broke in, asking, “Promise you what?”

I finally looked away from Corbett, answering, “Sookie’s inside and I don’t want him to follow me in there.”

“Oh,” he grinned wider while Corbett’s eyes shot to Officer Prior. Corbett attempted to shush him, but he ignored him, saying, “Well…did you know Corbett when he was alive? Did he ever stop by your place before?”

“No,” I answered, wondering what that had to do with anything.

Corbett muttered, “Shut the fuck up Kevin,” but he continued to ignore him and instead, asked, “Well, have you ever invited him over before? As he is now, you know, dead and all?”

“No,” I repeated, still just as confused.

“Oh!” he exclaimed. “Well then you should be fine. Watch.”

I watched Officer Prior walk over to my door and when he tried to step through it, he bounced right back and he looked at me and smiled, explaining, “We don’t know why, but we can’t go into folks’ homes if we’ve never been there before. You know, like when we were still alive. We can go into any public places and it doesn’t seem to apply to any of our family members. We can go into their homes no matter where they move to, but not other folks. See?” He walked across the hall and put his hand through Hoyt’s front door all the way to his shoulder before pulling it back and saying, “I stopped in to visit him once not long after he moved in, but if Hoyt were to move to a new place, well then I wouldn’t be able to go inside and I couldn’t go in there anymore either once someone new moved in unless they were my family.”

Halleluiah!

I grinned at the sounds of angels singing that only I could hear while Corbett looked pissed, but Officer Prior seemed nonplussed and kept rambling on, laughing out, “It’s like we’re still real live cops or somethin’ needin’ a search warrant to enter the premises. We always wondered if we could get in if we were actually invited, but how could we get anyone to ask us?”

I stared back triumphantly at Corbett and told them both, “Well, you two have a wonderful night. I know I will.”

“Invite me in Eric,” Corbett growled.

“Not on your life,” I answered and then laughed, “Well, you know what I mean.”

“Hey, why are you handcuffed?” Officer Prior asked when I lifted my arm to open the door.

I’d forgotten all about it and as I opened the door, I looked back at Corbett with a grin, answering, “You really don’t want to know,” and shut the door behind me. I stared at it waiting to see if Corbett would come storming in, but when all I heard was him yelling at Officer Prior for telling me their spirit secrets, I figured it was true.

And made a mental note that Sookie and I would NEVER be having sex at her place.

She wasn’t in the living room or kitchen and the bathroom door was open with the light off, so as I walked down the hallway, knowing she could only be in the bedroom, I couldn’t help grinning as I quietly called out, “Sookie? I’m back. When I got to the store I remembered that I…” The words died in my throat when I reached the doorway seeing she was asleep in my bed and while I was disappointed, I was still ridiculously happy seeing her there. She’d stripped out of her clothes and seemed to have pulled on one of my t-shirts, leaving her in nothing else but a pair of panties.

Red lace panties.

It was a tossup on what I wanted to do more; go into the bathroom and take care of my problem or climb into bed with her. Seeing her lying there hugging my pillow, I decided I’d rather be beside her than without her for another second and stripped down to my boxers, tussling my shirt over the still attached handcuff, and climbed in next to her. As soon as I was in the bed, her body shuffled backwards until her back was pressed against my front and I wrapped my arm around her and buried my face into her hair, no longer disappointed at all.

Sleeping with Sookie Stackhouse was absolute perfection, even if all we did was sleep.

At first, I wasn’t quite sure if I was awake or dreaming, but when I tried to rub my eyes, the previous night came back to me pretty quickly because I couldn’t.

Both of my hands were cuffed to the headboard above my head.

“Sookie?” I asked, opening my eyes slowly only for them to roll back into my head as I moaned, “Sookie…” My eyes quickly righted themselves and I saw her mirth filled gaze staring back at me, but it was the wet heat of her mouth on my cock and her humming out, “Good morning,” that had me moaning again. Fuck she was perfect and if I could’ve formed a coherent thought, I would’ve told her so, but as it was all I could do was lay there and let her blow me to death.

But apparently I’d need to visit her place at least once before I died so I could visit her again in the afterlife.

One of her hands was caressing my balls while the other trailed lightly over the V at my hips and it took all of my willpower to lie still and fight the urge to thrust up into her mouth. With every pass she took me deeper and her tongue swirled over my tip before she would dive down again. The steel cuffs were cutting into my wrists from me pulling on them and I didn’t give a single fuck if I ended up breaking the bed because I’d be willing to buy a new bed every day if I woke up to this every morning, but when she started humming an all too familiar tune as she blew me is when I knew I’d never let her go.

Sookie was sucking me off while humming the theme song to Star Wars.

I didn’t have the brain power to wonder if she’d noticed my Lego Death Star model out in the living room because she’d hit the climax of the song and so did I. My whole body arched upwards and convulsed as I came down her throat with a yell and a light sheen of sweat glistened over my skin. Shivers ran up my spine as she continued to lick me clean before she finally released me from her mouth and grinned up at me, saying, “I didn’t know how you felt about Hungry Hungry Hippos, but I noticed your Star Wars collection last night, so I figured you wouldn’t mind me playing with your light saber.”

She mimicked the sound of a light saber and ran her tongue across my dick while I started making plans; plans to propose; plans to get married; plans to have a bunch of kids or dogs or whatever would make her happy because she made me happy and I sure as fuck would never ever let her go, but then she sat up and every thought fell out of my head.

Sookie was naked. Completely. Naked.

I heard the bed creak as the handcuffs strained against them and while I heard the growl rumble through the room, I didn’t realize I was the one that made the sound until Sookie smiled, saying, “Oooh…I like that sound. Do it again.”

“Sookie,” I growled hoarsely. “Un-cuff me.”

She slowly crawled up my body, running her hardened nipples across my skin, and purred, “What? You don’t like being my prisoner?”

My torso was much longer than hers, but when she was finally high up enough and straddling my body, I sat up as far as I could and took one of those perfect pink nipples into my mouth, running my tongue across it and making her hips buck against me as she moaned out my name. My tongue blazed a trail across her chest where I paid equal attention to the other one before biting down lightly and with the unmistakable command in my voice, I said, “Un-cuff me.”

“God, you’re so fucking sexy when you talk like that,” she breathed out and did as I’d ordered. As soon as my hands were free I jerked her head to mine by her hair with my tongue diving into her mouth and my free hand raking down her back, running over every inch of her skin that I could. She moaned even louder when I pulled her head back, still by her hair, and grazed my teeth down her neck. I’d never been like that before; I’d never felt such a passionate and powerful need like I did with her. I felt like I needed to consume her; every inch of her; cover her in everything that was nothing but me so all would know that she was fucking mine and I flipped her over so she was underneath me on the mattress making her giggle and moan at the same time.

Her giggle pissed me off so I bit down her shoulder to mark her as mine and to remind her who the fucking alpha was now. Not the Brawny bastard or any of the others in the squadron of brunettes beating down her door. It was fucking me and before the day was through she would know it.

If not, I could always handcuff her to my bed.

“Fuuuck…” she panted with her body arching up into my bite and her hands holding my head to her neck. She’d left her own telltale signs of arousal when she’d slid up my body and my hand slowly started sliding down hers, anticipating the wetness I knew I would find there, when my cell phone rang.

“Fuuuck…” she panted in an entirely different way. I would’ve ignored it, but I could tell by the ringtone that it was the office and I was on call. Because Chow had switched shifts with me, I was covering for him today, so I had to answer it.

“I’m sorry, it’s the office. I have to answer it,” I apologized to the breast that was in front of me, hoping Sookie would be as understanding as it seemed to be.

“It’s okay,” she said as she ran her fingers through my hair and making it even more difficult for me to extract myself from her. “I know what it’s like to be on call.”

When I finally lifted my head and saw her smiling down at me, I knew she was telling me the truth and it only made her even more perfect in my eyes which, after my wakeup call, was saying a lot.

She fucking hummed Star Wars while blowing me!

I grabbed the phone from the bedside table before it could go to voicemail and growled into the phone, “What?”

I missed everything that was being said through the receiver because Sookie purred out, “God, I love it when you get all growly. I hope that’s your fucking voice,” and she licked my chest which, unbeknownst to me, was the exact spot to cause my light saber to power up and my hips to thrust into hers.

Another inch to the left and the Empire would’ve been defeated.

I took a deep breath to try and clear my head while keeping my other one clear of Sookie, repeating much more calmly, “What?”

Once they’d relayed the message, I ended the call and dropped my head back down onto her chest, saying, “I’ve gotta go. There’s a dead body near the interstate ramp just inside of the city limits.” If it had been another hundred yards out, it wouldn’t have been my problem, but when I looked up into Sookie’s understanding eyes, I mentally said, ‘Fuck it.’

I wasn’t going to leave her hanging for a second time.

“Eric?” she asked as I shimmied down her body. “Don’t you have to go?”

When I was settled in between her legs, I parted her folds with my tongue, making her gasp out loud and clutch my head with her hands, as I answered in that growly voice she claimed to love so much, “Yes, but first I’m going to make you cum and then you’re going to wait here for me to come back and make you cum again.”

“Yes!” she cried out, either in agreement with my orders or what my tongue was now doing to her, but either way it was all good to me. I didn’t have much experience doing this either, but by Sookie’s reactions, she seemed to like it which only fueled my desire. I’d happily stay there for hours if I could and I explored every part of her I could reach with my tongue before concentrating on her clit when that seemed to really get her going. Her hips were bucking up against my face while she chanted out my name and when I slid two fingers inside of her, I knew she was cumming before she screamed out that she was cumming.

When the vice like grip of her thighs eased and her legs fell to the side, I figured it was safe to emerge and I sat up, licking my fingers clean while staring down at her. She had her own light sheen of sweat across her still panting body and her hair was all over the place and her lips were swollen.

God, she was fucking gorgeous.

I gave her another quick kiss before I regrettably got out of bed and walked into the bathroom to freshen up before coming back out and pulling some clothes on. Sookie was still lying on the bed in a daze, but when I sat down at her side her gaze was drawn up to mine and a smile stretched across her face. I leaned down and kissed her, hoping she would understand how I felt about her even though I couldn’t yet find the words and when she finally pulled back, I nipped her bottom lip with my teeth, and growled, “Stay,” before softening my voice again and adding, “I shouldn’t be gone for very long. I just need to get the body back to the morgue and then I can do the autopsy tomorrow.”

She bit her bottom lip which made me worry for a split second before an even bigger smile stretched across her face as she agreed, “Okay, but only if you tell me you have coffee here.”

I kissed her again and smiled saying, “It’s in the cabinet above the coffeepot,” but before I could stand up, she pulled me back down on top of her for another kiss which made me forget I was planning on leaving at all, until she said, “And when you get back, we’re playing Hungry Hungry Hippos.”

Well that was nothing but a win/win idea and I finally forced myself to get up and leave, telling Sookie that I’d call her when I was on my way back and walked out of the room, down the hallway, and out my front door; backwards, but I did leave and I smiled like a lunatic all the way to the crime scene. I smiled even wider when I got out of the van and saw the Brawny bastard waiting on me, but I squashed the urge to tell him what I’d left to be there. I didn’t want to share any part of Sookie with anyone, aside from her family, so I kept quiet on that front and just asked, “What’ve we got?”

“Dead female. No ID. Looks to be in her early twenties and from the looks of it she was strangled,” he replied.

I walked closer to the group surrounding the body and climbed down into the drainage ditch to get a better look. Her clothing didn’t register right away, but as I turned her over, I knew immediately who she was. The white t-shirt with the green Merlotte’s logo would’ve clued me in anyway and I heard Herveaux say from behind me, “I wonder where that place is at. Merlotte’s.”

Even if Sookie hadn’t gone off on him at naked Zack Galifianakis’ crime scene, the fact he didn’t know Merlotte’s was in Bon Temps was enough of a clue that Sookie had at the very least never taken him home. There was no missing the place on the way to her Gran’s house, but knowing who our waitress may have gone home with made me keep quiet. I didn’t want to keep it from Sookie though, so as soon as I could, I walked further away from everyone and called her cell phone.

“Hey!” she answered happily. “Are you already on your way back? Because I’ve got the tinfoil bikini made, but I only have half of my hair done up a la Princess Leah.”

“Sookie,” I said, while trying not to picture everything she was telling me. “The dead body I had to go and collect. It’s our waitress Dawn from yesterday. The one that was all over Jason when we left.”