Chapter 26: Caught

 

Shit.

“Uh… hey girls…” Sookie and I were still wrapped around each other. There was no denying it now. The kiss was different than the other kisses we’d shared in the past. Something was changing between us.

“Ju… Ummm Josh’s doctor wants to talk to Sookie,” Madi said.

“Oh, right. Thanks.” Sookie stood up and walked out, leaving me alone with girls.

“You guys can stop looking at me like that,” I said. They were giving me that cat that ate the canary look.

“Soooo… You guys make out, huh?” Madi grinned.

“Not normally, no.” Normally we just ripped each other’s clothes off. “It’s a very emotional time…” That was my story and I was sticking to it. “And you two don’t need to tell anyone what you just saw.”

“Us?” Gracie dramatically asked.

“Who would we tell?” Tweedle Dee finished for her.

“Josh, for starters,” I said, glaring at my daughter. “It was something that happened, that isn’t going to happen again.” Maybe… who was I kidding? As soon as we were alone again it was probably going to pick right back up.

The twins shared one of their looks, and the resulting giggle left no question what they were thinking.

“I’m serious.” All my protest did was make them giggle harder. “I don’t know why I even talk to you two sometimes,” I chuckled humorlessly.

“At least she’s nice,” Gracie said.

“We like her,” Madi added.

“Good. I like her too,” I said quietly. “I think I’ve liked her for a long time.” If I couldn’t tell my kids, who could I tell? “It’s not weird for you, Madi?”

“I think it might be weirder for Josh,” she answered. “As far as girlfriends go, you could do a lot worse than Sookie.”

“I don’t know if she’s going to be my girlfriend. You’ve seen how she looks at me,” I chuckled. It was clear when she looked at me I wasn’t her favorite person. “It was probably just an emotional response, like I said.”

“Dad and Sookie sittin’ in a tree..” the two of them sang.

My kids were assholes.

“You can stop that right now. Shouldn’t you be in bed, Madi?”

“I’m waiting for the doctors to finish talking to Josh so I can say goodnight. I’m still going to spend the night at home with Grace,” she told me.

“Do you think Sookie will be mad we took Opie with us?” Gracie asked.

“No, she’s not mad. I already told her. I’m sure she’s going to spend most of her time here until Josh is out. At our place Opie will have someone to feed him and cuddle him,” I said. Opie was a good dog. I knew seeing Opie and Thor together made Gracie want a second dog.

“Good,” Gracie said.

“I have an appointment tomorrow with my doctor,” Madi said.

“Good. I know you had a real scare. It’ll be good to have her checked out. Grace, are you going with her?”

“Of course. Madi’s almost too big to get behind the wheel,” she teased, earning her an elbow in the arm from her twin.

“Bitch,” Madi scoffed.

“Well you are, but it’s okay. It means we’ll have a cute little chubberoo.”

“That’s true.” I couldn’t wait to see who Audrey looked like. The girls looked just like their mother with my lips and eye color. “Thanks for taking your sister. I’ll probably swing by the shop before I come to check on Sookie tomorrow.” That earned me another look and a giggle.

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” they sang.

I clamped my hands over their mouths, making them laugh.

“Enough,” I chuckled. It wasn’t like I could lie about it anymore and say it didn’t happen. I knew they’d suspected something for a while.

Sookie came back into the room a few minutes later, earning a giggle from my girls.

“What did the doctor say?” I asked, ignoring the twins.

“Josh is doing well so far. He’s going to be here a few more days until it’s safe to remove the chest tube,” Sookie replied. “He’s going to need a few weeks of recovery time before he can get back to his regular routine, but he should be in much better shape by the time the baby comes. He wants to say goodnight to Madi, and then he ordered all of us to go home. The doctor’s giving him more pain medication so he’ll be knocked out anyway until morning.”

“I’m glad he’s doing well. I know that’s a huge weight off your shoulders. You know you’re welcome to come home with us,” I offered without thinking.

“Thanks, but I’ll go home. I need to get things in order in case we’re going to have a wheelchair coming through for a while. Crutches and a collapsed lung don’t mix.”

“Alright. Let me know if you need me to do anything.” I wanted to be helpful. Not just for Madi, but for Josh and Sookie too.

I could have sworn one of the twins made kissy noises as Sookie left the room, not that Sookie seemed fazed by it.

“Stop it, you two,” I said quietly. All that did was earn more giggles. It was nice that they were in a good mood.

I turned to watch Sookie leave. I wasn’t sure what that kiss was but I liked it. It felt… right. I wasn’t embarrassed that I was caught by my kids, not that I ever would have been. It was different, though and I had a feeling the rest of the kisses after that were going to be just as different.

***

Later that night after the girls went to sleep I left them a note to let the know I’d be at Sookie’s. She sent me a text asking if I could come by. I knew there was a lot to talk about. That kiss was pretty intense on both of our parts.

When I pulled up in front of her house I could see the light on. I parked in the driveway, letting Opie out first. I was going to leave him with the girls but I was sure Sookie wanted to see him. I knocked lightly on the front door. Opie was sitting at my feet, wagging his tail.

The door opened and Opie jumped up on Sookie to greet her.

“Hi, buddy,” she said, kneeling down to cuddle him.

“I can take him back with me so he’s not alone all day tomorrow,” I offered. He was a good dog. I liked having someone for Thor to play with.

“That would be great, if you don’t mind.” Sookie stood up. “Come in.”

I stepped inside when she moved back. Everything felt different around her since the kiss in the waiting room.

“The girls like you,” I chuckled, closing the door behind me.

“Oh, well, that’s good, right?”

“That’s real good. I uh… they spent ten minutes teasing me after you left the room,” I chuckled.

“So they took it easy on you.”

“Pretty much,” I smiled. “And Madi made an appointment for the morning. I wanted her to get Audrey checked out with everything going on.”

“Yeah, she told me. That was a good idea,” Sookie agreed. She locked the door before we headed to the living room.

I took a seat on the couch toward the end. “So… what was that in the waiting room?”

“I think it’s what most people would call a kiss,” she said.

“We’ve shared a lot of kisses,” I smiled. “That kiss was different. That kiss had me feeling things… I can’t even put a name to how that made me feel.”

“It had me feeling things too,” Sookie admitted. “Here’s the deal, Eric, and I don’t think I’m tellin’ you anything you don’t know when I say I can be a real pain in the ass. I’m not very experienced at relationships and I’m really not good at depending on anyone but me. I don’t know what kind of girlfriend I’d be.”

“I know you’re a pain in the ass. I kinda like that about you,” I chuckled. “I don’t know what kind of boyfriend I would be at this point either, but I’m willing to try, Sookie. I know what the kiss felt like and it felt real. The kind of real I haven’t felt in a long, long time. I’m not sure I want to give that up.”

“Even with my hot and cold ass?”

“I have to believe if we made this more official you wouldn’t be so hot and cold. But when you’re cold, it’s like foreplay,” I reminded her.

“Maybe that was the tip of the iceberg,” she smirked.

“Then I’m a sinking ship, aren’t I?” I smirked right back. “I’ve had talks with your son about you. Mostly information that he’s offered up. I know things have been rough for you in the past. I know how shitty things were with Ben. I’m pretty sure you already know I’m not that kind of man. I make a commitment to someone and I keep that commitment until we mutually agree to break it. I feel like you’re worth the commitment, even with all the icy hot that comes with it.”

“It’s the sex, right?” I could tell she was teasing.

“The sex and everything else,” I smirked.

“The chicken crack,” she giggled.

“I’d agree to that but you’re not the one that makes it,” I chuckled. “You have a beautiful laugh, you know that?”

“Thank you, but who do you think that recipe came from? That was my grandmother’s recipe, I’ll have you know.”

“Then I’m barking up the wrong tree,” I said. “Unless your grandmother has passed… then I guess you’ll do.” I hoped she knew I was joking.

“There’s Michelle…”

“I see why you two get along so well.” Michelle was a fucking nutter.

“She’s a delight, isn’t she?”

“I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted to hit a woman as much as I wanted to hit her,” I sighed. I reached over to grab Sookie’s foot so I could pull her closer. “I’m sorry you have to deal with all that crazy.”

“Sadly, I’m used to it,” she sighed. “Ben is in jail again too.”

“That’s a better place for him. Your brother told me earlier at the hospital,” I confessed. I lifted Sookie’s foot so I could massage it.

“I don’t know what I ever saw in him. All I can say is he wasn’t always such a shit.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t. I’ve never met him so I can’t say anything one way or another. I know if he decides to show up once the baby is born I’m going to watch his ass like a hawk. If he does anything to hurt Madi or Josh, or even you again he’ll be on my list. That’s not a very fun place to be.”

“I don’t think he knows about the baby. I never told him,” she admitted.

“It’ll get around to him eventually.”

“I’m sure it will.”

I lifted Sookie’s foot to kiss her ankle. I set it back down on my lap to continue to massage her foot. It wasn’t my job to save her from Ben, and I didn’t intend to. If we were going to make this real between us it was my job to show her how a real man treated a woman. It was something I’d been trying to show her all along.

“So we’re going to do this? Us?” I wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

“I think today, in its own way, was a message to me too to think about what’s important. Hadley’s been trying to tell me for months that I need to slow down and take care of myself for a change. Of course I thought she was crazy, but I think now I understand what she meant. I’m not afraid of being on my own, but there’s a big difference between choosing to be alone and being afraid of taking a chance on someone. Sookie Stackhouse doesn’t let fear push her around,” she answered. “That was a yes, by the way.”

I chuckled and said, “I figured as much. You and I have been at each other’s throats for so long. It’s going to be weird for our friends to reconcile it. The girls are on-board, but we all think Josh is going to have a bigger issue with it. He told me things with you and Tray are on the rocks…”

“Tray can eat a dick,” she said without hesitation. She was obviously still pissed at him.

“Josh is worried you’ll lose the shop if you and Tray don’t make up,” I warned.

“That’s a possibility,” Sookie said. “The thing is, he would be a fucking idiot to dissolve our partnership because of my personal life. I’m not trafficking children or running a meth lab. He’s acting like a butthurt little bitch because he doesn’t approve of who I slept with? Fuck him.”

“No thanks, I’ll keep the fucking to you,” I winked. “I’m sure you two will work it out. Stan and I have been through some serious shit and made it through. He hated Aude when I first started dating her. He didn’t like that she was taking me away from him. Even the best of friendships endure this kind of shit.”

“It’s up to him,” Sookie replied.

It was going to be up to him. Sookie and I dating each other wasn’t going to harm our prospective businesses. I didn’t know how the conversation between them went, but I was sure he was just taken by surprise.

“I hope things work out. I would hate for you to lose everything you worked so hard for because he’s being a bitch.”

“I’ll still have the restaurant,” she replied. “Maybe I’d even let you hire me.”

“You would be an incredible asset to the team,” I smiled. I was pretty good at negotiation but Sookie was far better. She had to be. I never wanted to admit that, but a woman in the car world had to be better than good to make it.

“And I’ll have a grandbaby to charm buyers with.”

“The same way you used Josh?” I kissed her ankle again. “It’ll work out either way. My dad is going to give me a big fat ‘I told you so’ when I tell him you and I are dating.”

“Hey, you find what works, and you stick with it,” she said. “The tits help.”

“The tits are amazing,” I agreed. It had been a long day and it was clear it was wearing on both of us. “Would it be wildly inappropriate if I stayed the night with you tonight?”

“Only if you spent it snuggling with Opie.”

“I plan on snuggling with you,” I assured her. “I’m sure Opie is a great snuggler, but I like your tits.”

“So does he. He’ll lay on my chest like a seventy pound baby.”

“Thor does the same thing. You ready to head to bed?” I asked.

“Yeah, I think so. I have to stop by the garage before I go to the hospital,” she said.

I stood up from my seat and held out my hand to help her up. As soon as she was standing I wrapped my arms around her. It had been a long, emotional day for both of us. I was glad Josh was okay. It would have been even longer if he wasn’t. I was also glad he kicked his mom out of the room. I’d been in the situation when I refused to leave the hospital. It wasn’t any good for anyone.

Sookie went around to turn off the lights. She only left a dim light on in the kitchen before moving on to her bedroom off of the living room. Opie followed her in there. I followed behind Opie, pulling my T-shirt off when I walked through the door. I unzipped my shorts and dropped them so I was standing there in my boxers. I picked up my clothes so I could fold them and rest them over the chair in Sookie’s room.

I walked over to the bed and stretched out on the left side. I wasn’t sure where Sookie slept but her alarm clock was on the right so I made an assumption. I quickly learned watching Sookie move around her room, getting ready for bed was one of my favorite things..

“Do you snore?” Sookie asked as she wiggled out of her dress.

“Not that I know of. The girls would tell me if I did. Do you?” Her tits wiggled and jiggled nicely.

“Only if I’m drunk.”

“What kind of drunk are you?” I watched as she reached for a nightgown. I preferred her naked.

“I’m a flirt,” she laughed.

“I can’t imagine you flirting. You’ve always flirted with me with insults,” I snorted.

“You inspired me to try new methods,” she snickered, and got rid of her bra. “Plus you’ve never seen me drunk.”

“I’d like to see it one day. You also don’t need to put that nightgown on if you don’t want to,” I grinned.

“Don’t get fancy on your account, huh?” Sookie set the nightgown on her dresser top. She kept her back to me as she removed her panties.

“That’s a sight I could get used to,” I purred. She had a wonderful ass. She had gorgeous everything.

“Oh yeah?” She walked toward the bed, pausing to turn off the lights on her way. Freaking Opie jumped up on the bed.

“He’s going to try to worm his way between us, isn’t he?”

“Well in his defense, you’re in his spot. Opie, get down,” she said.

“I could always go sleep on the couch if you’d rather cuddle with him…”

“I can’t say since I don’t know who is the better cuddler.” Sookie climbed up on her bed, but rather than stretching out next to me, she straddled my hips.

“I like to think I’m a pretty damn good cuddler.” I ran my hands up her sides, starting at her hips and ending at her ribs, just under her tits. Even in the dim moonlight they looked glorious.

“Well here’s your shot, Romeo.”

“Should I wear you out with orgasms first?” I rocked my hips up so she could feel what she was doing to me. I just had to move my boxers out of the way and I could slide right in.

“If you have to ask that I think I’m doing something wrong already.” Her hips rocked to add to the friction.

“It’s right so far.” I helped her lift up long enough for me to push my boxers down. When she sat down again I was able to feel how warm and wet she was getting. As she rocked I slid one hand down her stomach so I could rub her clit with my thumb. I didn’t care if we had sex, I just wanted to make her feel good.

“Definitely right,” Sookie agreed. She leaned forward to brush her lips against mine. Rather than kissing me, her mouth moved over my jaw and down to my neck. I felt the slight graze of her lips before the wetness of her soft tongue swirling just right on my skin.

I loved that feeling. I moved my hands around her hips and reached down to grip her ass. I was positioned perfectly for the head of my cock to rub over her clit when I rocked. It wasn’t the normal fevered fucking we did. It was sensual and deliberate. She felt good on top of me. It was a feeling I wanted to get used to. I’d finally met a woman my girls would approve of.

Sookie was confident enough to be able to shift her body when she was ready so I just had to thrust up to fill her. She moaned against my neck, and moved with me to keep our bodies joined. I kept my thrusts slow, sliding in and out, going as deep as possible. The soft, sweet moans coming from her made my cock twitch inside of her.

I reached up with one hand to run my fingers through her hair, gently massaging her head. Her lips made goosebumps rise all over my neck where they skimmed. Finally they made their way back to my mouth. Sookie licked my bottom lip, teasing me into chasing her a little. She moaned a little louder when I caught her in a deep kiss. Her hips ground against me, getting a little extra friction on her clit, making her walls pulse around my cock.

I wasn’t going to last very long if she kept doing things like that. As with the kiss, the sex felt different too. She felt warmer, wetter, more… I couldn’t find the word for it. I felt like for the first time I was able to claim her as my own. I knew Sookie wasn’t the type to be claimed by a man, but I suddenly got the urge. I rolled us over so she was below me. My lips never left hers during the move. My fingers threaded through her hair as the kiss deepened. I started to swivel my hips, driving in deeper and deeper on each thrust until she was crying out in ecstasy. It was the loudest I’d ever heard her get. Sookie’s fingers dug into my back, spurring me on. I took long, slow, deliberate strokes, allowing her to feel every inch I had to give.

“Ohgodohgodohgodohgod!” Sookie chanted, which she had never done before either. Her heels dug into my lower back in an attempt to keep me buried deep inside her.

I gave her what she wanted, rocking and grinding my hips so the base of my cock rubbed over her clit. I could tell by the way her walls were fluttering it wasn’t going to take much longer for her to explode. Sookie’s orgasm was going to drag mine out of me, I already knew that much.

“Mine,” I growled unexpected when her orgasm rocked her gorgeous little body.

If she heard me – and I was sure she did – she didn’t correct me. Her body shuddered under mine as she came, milking me of my orgasm.

“Cum in me,” she panted.

I’d already planned on it. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull out if I wanted to. Her fluttering walls did their job and ripped my release from me. I filled Sookie completely, my hips jerking with each strong burst.

“Jesus fucking Christ, woman,” I breathed. I dipped my head down to kiss the side of her neck.  

“That was good stuff, Northman,” she agreed. Her silky walls clenched with aftershocks.

“You’re welcome to it whenever you want it,” I promised. I didn’t want to pull out.

“Whenever I want?”

“I am a man of my word,” I smiled.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

I kissed her one more time before I rolled off of her. I was sure there was going to be a little mess on the bed below her but she didn’t seem to mind when she rolled onto her side to face me and snuggled into my chest. I wrapped my arm around Sookie’s back, resting my hand on her hip, rubbing slowly.

For the first time in a long time everything felt right in the world. Sure, Josh was all banged up but he would heal. He also learned a very valuable lesson about overworking himself. I had a sexy girl in my arms that I never thought would be there of her own choosing. It was good and right. I was a happy man and things were finally heading to a place I didn’t even know I wanted to go.