Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I didn’t get much sleep that night, but the only thing I could attribute it to was finally realizing I’d fallen in love with Sookie and the fact that she was actually in my arms. I tried to pick apart my feelings to see if maybe it was the post-sex high that made me think it was love I felt instead of just the endorphins flooding through my system, but the more time that passed by, it didn’t seem to lessen at all. I had nothing else to compare it to, but I couldn’t think of what else it could possibly be either and eventually stopped trying to overanalyze it and just enjoyed it instead.

Sleep seemed like a waste of time when I’d much rather be looking at her, so that’s what I did while trying to figure out how I would tell her about my curse. I wanted something so much more with her than to just be her boyfriend and while that was all well and good for now, I knew it would be unfair to keep my secret from her if we were ever going to be something more in the long term. In my mind it would be the same thing as lying to her, but I was terrified of what she would say or how she would react to it all.

I was also terrified of us actually living together knowing Corbett would be able to walk in whenever he damn well pleased.

Maybe he’d still be unable to enter if the lease or deed was only in my name?

Officer Prior’s full explanation of their ghostly rules replayed through my mind and, from what he’d said, they could go into anywhere their family lived, so I knew it was just wishful thinking however if Sookie knew about my curse, maybe she could convince him to stay out even if she couldn’t actually see him. Hopefully that wasn’t wishful thinking too; that Sookie would not only believe me but would stay with me too when I finally worked up the nerve to tell her, her dead father had been my best friend for the last eight years and we’d never met until his autopsy.

In keeping with my wishful thinking, my eyes glanced out the window hoping to see a shooting star go by I could wish on, but I couldn’t see any stars at all. In fact, the sky was lightening and a look at my clock told me she’d have to get up soon to get ready for work. I wouldn’t need to go in until later, but Sookie would probably have to leave extra early to go back to her place for a change of clothes and I was already longing for her at just the thought of not being able to spend the day together. However I wasn’t worried anymore about whether or not I’d see her again.

Because she was my girlfriend. Of course I would see her again.

Of course I could also see her right now and the fact she was still naked and now my official girlfriend made me think she wouldn’t mind me waking her up.

With my tongue. Since I was her official boyfriend and all.

I’d been semi-hard all night long thanks to having her at my side, but now I was raging hard at the thought of what I wanted and would do to her, so I reached over, grabbing one of the condoms I’d thrown onto the nightstand in my haste to get one on the night before, and quietly ripped it open before rolling it on. Sookie had barely stirred all night long and remained attached to the side of my body with her head still on my chest, so I held onto her and slowly rolled my body which made her roll over onto her back with me on top of her. My eyes had remained glued to her face to see if I’d woken her and my grin only got wider seeing I hadn’t, but I couldn’t stop myself from taking a quick taste of her pouty lower lip before pulling away.

The creaminess of her skin had taken on a more golden hue in the early morning light and I thrilled at watching the goose bumps rise up on her skin underneath the path my tongue was slowly trailing down her body. Her breasts were true masterpieces and I watched intently as they rose up and down with every breath of air she took into her lungs until I couldn’t take it anymore and captured one in my mouth. My eyes went back to her face upon hearing her soft gasp and seconds later her hands slid up to hold the back of my head in place all while her eyes were still closed, but seeing her lips forming a small ‘O’ followed by my name had me growling and biting down on her skin a little more forcefully.

Her eyes opened up right afterward and her lips formed into a smirk as she whispered, “I’m not dreaming…”

My only answer was to nip at her skin again and her answering moan told me she accepted that she wasn’t in fact dreaming, so I continued mapping out every part of her body with my lips before flipping her over and doing it all over again on her back. Her breasts might be masterpieces, but her ass was true perfection and in my appreciation I bit down harder than I’d intended to and unintentionally caused Sookie to groan in approval.

Time really wasn’t on our side, but then neither was my willpower and seeing the wetness coating the skin in between her thighs made me decide we’d had enough foreplay. My limited sexual experience included only ever having sex in either the missionary position or, rarely, with the woman on top of me, but seeing Sookie lying there with her ass arched up in the air, my caveman instincts took over and I pulled her up onto her knees while I slid through her folds, coating myself in the process, before placing myself at her entrance. I paused, not really waiting for some sort of approval since she seemed to be on board, but it made no difference anyway because Sookie thrust herself backwards and impaled herself on me while my eyes rolled back into my head and I growled, “Fuuuck…”

“Yep,” she panted in agreement, but I couldn’t be sure if she was about to add anything else onto that because, dare I say, I fucked the thoughts right out of her. There was something about seeing her like that, submissively prone underneath me, and feeling myself bottoming out against her ass that had me literally turning into an animal driven purely on instinct with nothing more eloquent to say than sporadic growls and groans. Sookie seemed to be just as far gone as me and when I let one hand trail down her spine from her neck down, I surprised us both when I ended up giving her a light smack on her ass.

It wasn’t something I’d ever done before, but feeling her inner muscles clench around me and hearing her say, “Again,” was whittling away at what little self control I still had. I gave her another smack, a little harder than the first one, and her muscles clenched down again as she cried out. I was close, too close to losing it to keep up with our little game, so instead of giving her another tap I slid my hand around her front and worked her clit with my fingers until she finally yelled out with her release and I gratefully let go and followed along behind her.

We were definitely doing it in that position again.

I would swear to fucking Christ himself that I saw stars swirling in front of my eyes and I’d somehow managed to fall to her side, but it didn’t take Sookie long before she rolled over and crawled on top of me, saying with a smile, “Well, good morning to you too.”

My arms automatically wrapped around her and I pulled her into a bone crushing hug, answering, “It’s a great morning.”

Really fucking great which was why I scowled, even though I knew it was coming, when she said, “I need to get going so I can go home and change before my shift.”

“Nooo,” I playfully pouted and hugged her tighter which earned me a string of giggles and had me readying for a round two that we didn’t have time for.

“Well, I’d consider wearing your clothes to work if they wouldn’t fall off of me,” she chuckled and only burrowed herself deeper into my chest.

I liked the idea of her wearing my clothes so everyone would know she was mine. I attributed it to my newly released caveman persona, but I knew that wasn’t really an option and suggested, “Well, why don’t you bring a few extra things with you next time so you won’t have to worry about it. There’s plenty of room in my closet.”

A few extra things, in my mind, did not constitute her living with me and therefore Corbett still wouldn’t be able to come inside.

Win fucking win.

“Oh, next time, huh?” she asked. “Who says there’ll be a next time?”

I’d heard her cries and felt her cum so hard that I could almost still feel her clenching around my shaft, but I wasn’t worried and thought my newfound confidence truly came from just knowing she was mine now. I wasn’t concerned anymore on where I stood with her or how she felt about me, which was why I felt confident enough to grab her by her hair and bring her lips to mine so I could kiss the argument right out of her. When I finally let her pull away she was panting with her lips forming into a grin, admitting, “Yeah…there’ll be lots of next times.”

That’s what I thought…

Regrettably, I let go of her before next time was right fucking now and knowing there wasn’t any time for it, with my scowl only deepening with every article of clothing she put on, so instead I tried to focus on the reasons that had been keeping us apart to begin with and asked, “What’s going on with Jason.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes, answering, “Well, he did leave with Dawn, but I guess he was so drunk, he passed out when they got back to his place before anything could happen. Hoyt showed up not long after because he didn’t want to drive all the way back here and saw an angry Dawn leaving his house because my brother was too shitfaced to perform. Thank God for a longneck bottle limp dick!”

I snorted out my relief and she giggled, adding, “But we still went and got him an attorney and Gran came home in a tizzy, understandably, so now he’s grounded. She’s making him stay with her until the killer is caught or he kills himself from the forced celibacy. He’s only allowed to go to work and then straight back home.”

I wondered over the capacity to actually ground a man of his age, but remembering what Sookie’s Gran was like, I was just thankful she hadn’t saw fit to issue any decrees to me.

I wasn’t THAT confident.

Sookie and I made plans to meet up for dinner, work permitting, since I worked the swing shift, but the smile on my face I strolled into work with took a hit when I saw a scowling Corbett waiting on me.

“You’re lookin’ awfully fuckin’ chipper,” he snarled.

Knowing this had the potential to possibly ruin whatever friendship we had and figuring he still needed a little more time accepting the fact his baby girl was a grown woman, I deflected and asked, “Did you know the waitress from Merlotte’s, Dawn, was murdered on the same night we were there?”

I knew the answer by his expression alone before he said, “No! Christ! They don’t think Jason did it, do they?”

“No.”

I went on to explain everything that happened and when I was finally through, he said, “Well hell, maybe Kevin and I can find her. If she ain’t like Maudette then maybe she saw who did it and can tell us and then we can clear Jason. You gonna be here all day?”

I shrugged noncommittally and was unable to keep my lips from curving upwards, answering, “Should be, but I might go out for dinner later.”

Detective Doodlebug didn’t miss much because his eyes narrowed back at me, asking, “Oh yeah? Alone?”

Any other time it would’ve been a ridiculous question because of course I would be fucking alone, but I figured now was as good a time as any to get it out of the way and said, “No. At least I don’t think so, but Sookie might be busy working so we’ll just have to wait and see.” My eyes finally met his suspicious ones as I confirmed, “It’s official. She’s my girlfriend.”

I couldn’t stop my chest from swelling with pride or the grin from widening on my lips, but I was truly caught off guard when his grimace turned into a full on smile right before he laughed heartily, saying, “Oh boy, you got it baaaddd.”

Yes, Detective Doodlebug didn’t miss much.

There was no denying it, not that I wanted to, so he continued to bellow like a crazy person before snorting out, “You know, if you all move in together, then I’m in like Flynn.”

I tried to keep the fact that that thought truly did terrify me from my face as I grinned back, saying, “You know the old saying ‘be careful what you wish for’? Because you might just be traumatized if you walk in unannounced.” Considering the levels of debauchery we’d explored in the span of five hours, it was a likely conclusion, but knowing he could only really announce himself to me made me remember that I wanted to figure out a way to tell Sookie about my curse, so I added, “You’ve always said that you didn’t think Sookie would shun me for my…abnormalities, but why? Do you really think if I tell her I hang out with her pain in the ass dead father on a regular basis, she’s not going to go running for the hills?”

I’d tried to inject some levity into my voice, but, like I said, Detective Doodlebug didn’t miss much and he could tell how scared I was of that happening, so his expression softened as he said, “No, I don’t think she’ll take off. You’ve met her momma and I can tell you that, if anything, she’ll be disappointed finding out that Michelle can’t really see me. That’s the reason why they moved her over to where she is now. I’ve heard some of her conversations with Jason and momma, so I know a part of Sookie wants to believe that her mother isn’t ill and she’s happier believing that we had such a strong connection in life, even my death couldn’t sever it. I’m still hanging around, so I can’t say that she’s wrong.”

Well shit…

While a part of me was still worried that Sookie would think I was batshit crazy, the other part was now worried about hurting her knowing I would have to tell her the truth that her mother couldn’t really see Corbett if she actually believed me. Corbett must have read it on my face because he said, “Don’t worry about it. She got over finding out Santa Claus wasn’t real and she’ll get over this too.”

That was easy for him to say. A jolly fat guy in a red suit was nothing compared to taking away the comfort in thinking her mother wasn’t alone in her illness and it was still on my mind hours after Corbett had left when Sookie called asking me to meet her at a diner I usually stopped in at, halfway in between the police station and the coroner’s office. My smile returned seeing her face light up when I walked through the door and she leaned over the table giving me a kiss as I took a seat across from her.

“So,” she began after the waitress took our orders, “I got my first collar today.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, happy for her. “Who?”

“The good reverend’s wife,” she smiled. “We finally got to interview her today back at her house and you’ll never guess what I saw sitting up on the mantel next to their wedding photo.”

“What?” I asked even though I already knew the answer and effectively killed the first real opportunity I’d had in divulging my secret. I might have taken it if I wasn’t worried about the backlash I hadn’t known existed until I’d spoken to Corbett earlier that day.

“The rock,” she answered, “or should I say, the murder weapon. Would you believe it was a souvenir from their honeymoon? The crime lab guys confirmed there was blood on it even though she’d washed it off and it didn’t take long to get her to spill her guts.”

Would you believe I already knew that?

I felt so torn, wanting to tell her but not wanting to destroy the little fantasy she’d built up in order to deal with her mother’s illness, so like a chicken shit I remained silent. Thankfully Sookie didn’t seem to notice my internal dilemma and happily chatted all through our meal, telling me how they’d gotten the woman to confess. I was proud of her for doing her job well, but before I could say anything, I suddenly felt something other than pride.

It was her shoeless foot sliding up my leg underneath the table.

“Sookie,” I warned, but she ignored me and continued to chatter about who the fuck knows what because all of my attention was focused on her foot sliding over my now straining crotch.

“Aww jeez..”

I jumped in my seat hearing Corbett’s voice next to our booth, but Sookie giggled probably thinking it was due to her wandering foot and I shifted my body further down in my seat to try and hide both her foot and the effect it was having on me.

Seeing him standing there in my peripheral, hiding his eyes behind his hand, made me snicker too thinking if he couldn’t handle seeing that, he might just rip his eyes out of their sockets seeing some of the other things his daughter did to me.

“So,” he said while still shielding his eyes, “Dawn ain’t at her place, or Jason’s, or Merlotte’s, but Kevin’s goin’ back and forth between them all to see if she shows up. He said her car was found about an hour ago back in the woods halfway between Jason’s and her apartment and the back tire was flat, but there’s no way of knowin’ if that happened while she’d been driving it or if it happened when whoever drove it back there to hide it. Now, I’m gonna go before I find out if I can still vomit even though I ain’t eaten anything in eight years.”

At the same time he’d been speaking, Sookie was distracted by her ringing cell phone and answered it, jokingly saying, “Dog boy! What can I do for you?” Knowing what I did, thanks to Corbett’s untimely update, and who the lead detective was on Dawn’s murder, I had a pretty good idea of who ‘Dog Boy’ was, so I wasn’t surprised when she hung up a few minutes later, saying, “That was Herveaux. With everything that’s going on with Jason and the fact that I sorta knew Dawn, I asked him to keep me informed on any new leads they got in the case. They found her car back in the woods in Bon Temps and are dusting it for prints, but there were some footprints left behind in the mud right outside of the car that couldn’t have been from Dawn based on the size. It looks like they might actually have a clue.”

At least someone did because I still didn’t have a clue on how I was going to tell Sookie about my curse.

She was nothing if not a multi-tasker because as she continued to torment me with her foot job, her face screwed up in thought as she said, “It’s just too coincidental that two women in Bon Temps of all places were murdered within days of each other and both happened to have been seen with Jason just before.”

Thinking about the murders was easier than thinking about my dilemmas, both revealing my secret as well as what her foot was doing to my control, so I asked, “Well, can you think of anyone that might want to paint him as a murder suspect?”

He was such an easygoing guy, I couldn’t imagine him having very many enemies, but then Sookie seemed to read my mind right as I recalled all of her dark haired suitors and said, “Well from what he said the other night, I guess there’s holier-than-thou Rene, which is pretty rich considering what I’m sure him and Arlene are gettin’ up to. And then there’s always Bill.”

If Rene was so holy then one would think he wouldn’t go around killing women, but then there wasn’t always a valid reason for just plain old crazy. For all I knew he could think he was ridding the world of evil, but then you’d think he’d go after Jason too so it didn’t really make sense to me. Bill, on the other hand, interested me much more, but only because Sookie had said that he’d been after her for a date for years, so I asked, “Why don’t him and Bill get along? Does it have something to do with him wanting to date you?”

I remembered Jason’s snide comments about Sookie being the only woman he couldn’t entice away from Bill, so I paid attention when she answered, “That goes back to high school. They were in the same grade and Bill was always a know it all type, always serious and I guess he was jealous of Jason being so popular. He embarrassed Jason one day in class when Jason didn’t know the answer to whatever question the teacher had posed, so emulating the asshole my brother was born with, he took that as a personal affront and made it his mission in life to use what skills he had going for him and went after any girl Bill showed the slightest interest in. School dances, proms, football games. If Bill so much as looked at another girl and Jason saw it, he’d turn on the charm and whisk the girl away whether he wanted her or not. Ten years later and he still hasn’t let up.”

She shook her head at her brother’s antics, but it still seemed like a weak excuse to go on a serial killing spree, so I asked, “Do you think he’s that warped in the head to start killing innocent women though? Why not just go after Jason if that’s who he has the problem with?”

She shrugged, answering, “I don’t really know Bill well enough to judge his mental state, but he always gave me the heebie jeebies and my instincts have never steered me wrong before.” She punctuated her statement with an arched brow and another deliberate rub of her foot on my crotch, before adding, “As for going after Jason, puh leez. Jason would put a whoopin’ on him he’d be lucky to live through.”

I tried to concentrate, despite what her foot was doing to me, and thought about how if someone really was out to try and make Jason look like a murderer, then anyone he was with could be in danger of being the next target. Considering who the two victims were so far, it seemed any woman he’d been seen with were at risk.

But would they have to be his bed partners as well?

I felt the fear slowly creeping up my spine and I stilled Sookie’s still wandering foot as I looked across the table at her, asking, “Sookie? What about your Gran?”