"That's what you call it? Is that what we do, pal around?"
I reached over and poked him in the arm, which was like pressing on wood. "You," I said.
"Maybe he just wanted to walk on the wild side," Bill said. "After all, it's hard for Sam to find someone who can accept his true nature." Bill paused significantly.
"Well, that can be hard to do," I said. I recalled Bill coming back in the mansion in Dallas, all rosy, and I gulped. "But people in love are hard to pry apart." I thought of how I'd felt when I'd heard he'd been seeing Portia, and I thought of how I'd reacted when I'd seen him at the football game. I stretched my hand over to rest on his thigh and I gave it a gentle squeeze.
With his eyes on the road, he smiled. His fangs ran out a little.
"Did you get everything settled with the shapeshifters in Dallas?" I asked after a moment.
"I settled it in an hour, or rather Stan did. He offered them his ranch for the nights of the full moon, for the next four months."
"Oh, that was nice of him."
"Well, it doesn't cost him anything exactly. And he doesn't hunt, so the deer need culling anyway, as he pointed out."
"Oh," I said in acknowledgment, and then after a second, "ooooh."
"They hunt."
"Right. Gotcha."
When we got back to my house, it didn't lack much till dawn. Eric would just make it to Shreveport, I figured. While Bill showered, I ate some peanut butter and jelly, since I hadn't had anything for more hours than I could add up. Then I went and brushed my teeth.
At least he didn't have to rush off. Bill had spent several nights the month before creating a place for himself at my house. He'd cut out the bottom of the closet in my old bedroom, the one I'd used for years before my grandmother died and I'd started using hers. He'd made the whole closet floor into a trapdoor, so he could open it, climb in, and pull it shut after him, and no one would be the wiser but me. If I was still up when he went to earth, I put an old suitcase in the closet and a couple of pairs of shoes to make it look more natural. Bill kept a box in the crawl space to sleep in, because it was mighty nasty down there. He didn't often stay there, but it had come in handy from time to time.
"Sookie," Bill called from my bathroom. "Come, I have time to scrub you."
"But if you scrub me, I'll have a hard time getting to sleep."
"Why?"
"Because I'll be frustrated."
"Frustrated?"
"Because I'll be clean but... unloved."
"It is close to dawn," Bill admitted, his head poking around the shower curtain. "But we'll have our time tomorrow night."
"If Eric doesn't make us go somewhere else," I muttered, when his head was safely under the cascade of water. As usual, he was using up most of my hot. I wriggled out of the damn shorts and resolved to throw them away tomorrow. I pulled the tee shirt over my head and stretched out on my bed to wait for Bill. At least my new bra was intact. I turned on one side, and closed my eyes against the light coming from the half-closed bathroom door.
"Darling?"
"You out of the shower?" I asked drowsily.
"Yes, twelve hours ago."
"What?" My eyes flew open. I looked at the windows. They were not pitch black, but very dark.
"You fell asleep."
I had a blanket over me, and I was still wearing the steel blue bra and panty set. I felt like moldy bread. I looked at Bill. He was wearing nothing at all.
"Hold that thought," I said and paid a visit to the bathroom. When I came back, Bill was waiting for me on the bed, propped on one elbow.
"Did you notice the outfit you got me?" I rotated to give him the full benefit of his generosity.
"It's lovely, but you may be slightly overdressed for the occasion."
"What occasion would that be?"
"The best sex of your life."
I felt a lurch of sheer lust down low. But I kept my face still. "And can you be sure it will be the best?"
"Oh, yes," he said, his voice becoming so smooth and cold it was like running water over stones. "I can be sure, and so can you."
"Prove it," I said, smiling very slightly.
His eyes were in the shadows, but I could see the curve of his lips as he smiled back. "Gladly," he said.
Some time later, I was trying to recover my strength, and he was draped over me, an arm across my stomach, a leg across mine. My mouth was so tired it could barely pucker to kiss his shoulder. Bill's tongue was gently licking the tiny puncture marks on my shoulder.
"You know what we need to do?" I said, feeling too lazy to move ever again.
"Um?"
"We need to get the newspaper."
After a long pause, Bill slowly unwrapped himself from me and strolled to the front door. My paperwoman pulls up my driveway and tosses it in the general direction of the porch because I pay her a great big tip on that understanding.
"Look," said Bill, and I opened my eyes. He was holding a foil-wrapped plate. The paper was tucked under his arm.
I rolled off the bed and we went automatically to the kitchen. I pulled on my pink robe as I padded after Bill. He was still natural, and I admired the effect.
"There's a message on the answering machine," I said, as I put on some coffee. The most important thing done, I rolled back the aluminum foil and saw a two-layer cake with chocolate icing, studded with pecans in a star pattern on the top.
"That's old Mrs. Bellefleur's chocolate cake," I said, awe in my voice.
"You can tell whose it is by looking?"
"Oh, this is a famous cake. It's a legend. Nothing is as good as Mrs. Bellefleur's cake. If she enters it in the county fair, the ribbon's as good as won. And she brings it when someone dies. Jason said it was worth someone dying, just to get a piece of Mrs. Bellefleur's cake."
"What a wonderful smell," Bill said, to my amazement. He bent down and sniffed. Bill doesn't breathe, so I haven't exactly figured out how he smells, but he does. "If you could wear that as a perfume, I would eat you up."
"You already did."
"I would do it a second time."
"I don't think I could stand it." I poured myself a cup of coffee. I stared at the cake, full of wonderment. "I didn't even know she knew where I live."
Bill pressed the message button on my answering machine. "Miss Stackhouse," said the voice of a very old, very Southern, aristocrat. "I knocked on your door, but you must have been busy. I left a chocolate cake for you, since I didn't know what else to do to thank you for what Portia tells me you've done for my grandson Andrew. Some people have been kind enough to tell me that the cake is good. I hope you enjoy it. If I can ever be of service to you, just give me a call."