A/N: I had this written a while ago, but forgot about it. Oops. Here it is for all of the Tara/Franklin lovers! This is meant to be mostly humorous.

Enjoy!~

Red Wine for My Lady

Tara hoped that Franklin was joking about taking her to Shoney's for dinner.

He wasn't.

"Have you been to Shoney's before?" Franklin asked as he pulled into the parking lot. He looked real proud of himself for bringing Tara to such a nice restaurant that everyone in Mississippi seemed to love.

She glanced sadly at the entrance. The air around the restaurant reeked of greasy, fried food. "Uh, once or twice when I was younger." Franklin mentioned coming here to celebrate. Who in their right mind comes to a Shoney's to celebrate?

"Did you like it?" Franklin's eyes were wide with anticipation as he studied Tara. He had her in a clingy red dress that slid over her body effortlessly and still kept her wrists tied together with the red and gold curtain rope.

"Uh, yeah. Sure," Tara lied. She'd never decided to go to Shoney's; it would be like signing up to get food poisoning. "Are you going to keep me tied up in there?"

"Of course," Franklin said with a curious expression. "What if the vampires chase us here? I need to keep you protected." He ran a hand through her small, tight braids.

Tara honestly did not know how keeping her tied up protected her from vampires. She would have thought that if a vampire attacked her, that her hands should be free in case she needed to grab a stake. But Tara didn't complain; her stomach gave a huge growl and the only thing she could think about was food.

Franklin got out of the car and sped to the other side to open the door for Tara. He grabbed hold of her arm and helped her up. "Shall we?" he asked with a wide smile and led Tara to the the entrance. Franklin was the perfect gentleman except for his whole sadistic side-he opened the door for her, guided her in with a small hand on her back, and held her hand as best he could without untying the rope. It was almost romantic, in a sick sort of way.

"Hi! Welcome to Shoney's," the hostess said excitedly as she reached for a couple of menus. "How many?"

Franklin peered down at the hostess. She smelled nice, but not nearly as nice as his Tara. She'd probably give up her blood to him willingly, too, and where was the fun in that? "Two, please, and may we have your most romantic table?"

The hostess gave Franklin the strangest of looks, but quickly caught herself being rude to a customer and replaced it with a smile. "Right this way!"

Apparently, according to Shoney's standards, a romantic table was one near a window and a fake potted plant. Franklin thought nothing of it; he pulled out Tara's seat, guided her to it, and pushed her in. He made sure that her hands were concealed beneath the table. "Isn't this lovely?"

Before Tara could answer, their waitress approached their table with a little bounce in her step. "Hey there! I'm Tammy and I'll be taking care of you tonight. What can I get y'all to drink?" she asked with a wide smile and raised brows when she noticed how nicely they were dressed. Tammy figured they probably just came back from a wedding or something.

"Do you have Tru Blood here?" Franklin asked without taking his eyes off of Tara.

Tammy's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. "Um, we've only got A positive and negative." They didn't get many vampires at Shoney's.

"I will have A negative," Franklin said. "And a glass of red wine for my lady, please." He reached over the small table and caressed Tara's cheek gently.

"Um, this is a Shoney's sir. We don't have red wine."

Franklin looked up at Tammy, but then flipped through the menu. "Fruit Punch, then."

Tammy wrote down their drinks on a little pad of paper, and told them that they could get food from the buffet whenever they wanted. Once she was gone, Tara asked, "Why red wine and Fruit Punch?" She didn't mind either, but they wouldn't have been her first choices.

"They're both red," Franklin explained in a low voice. When Tara didn't seem to catch on, he added, "They're the only drinks that resemble blood." He would love nothing more than to see her swallow fresh blood, but she wasn't a vampire yet, so red drinks would have to do for now.

One more night, Franklin reminded himself. And then she is mine forever.

Tara looked like she'd been punched in her gut, and was not happy to see Tammy return with his Tru Blood and her Fruit Punch.

"Please drink," Franklin said as he picked up Tara's glass and directed it to her lips. He slid the straw into her mouth and she sucked up the bright drink. Franklin's eyes were dark and lustful. "Oh, Tara," he said in a low voice as his other hand caressed her wrists where they were loosely bound. "You are so..." he breathed in the scent of her blood and his eyes glossed over. "Delicious."

"Are you going to untie me so I can get some food?" Tara asked when she was finished taking a sip.

"I've got a better idea." Franklin sat up from his chair and offered his hand out for Tara's arm. "I will get your food for you. Just tell me what you want, and I will put it on your plate."

Tara didn't look too happy about that, she'd rather be untied, but she was so hungry that she couldn't even bother complaining. She allowed Franklin to guide her to the gigantic buffet. When her eyes spotted the meat, she immediately declared, "I'd like a steak." The steak looked iffy-like it had been sitting out for a while-but it had been a long time since Tara last had steak and it smelled good enough. "And a baked potato with butter and cheese." Tara's mouth was watering at all the food. "Some macaroni and can you put some corn on top?"

Franklin brought her back to the table and set her plate down in front of her. He dropped a napkin in Tara's lap and gave her an expectant look. "What would you like first?"

"Steak, please."

He cut off a piece of steak and stabbed it with her fork. "Open up," he said with a smile and directed it into Tara's warm, ready mouth. Franklin watched as she pulled the steak off the fork with her teeth and chewed, savoring the taste of real food – something she hadn't had in a while. He loved the way her mouth moved and how her throat swallowed down the steak. His cool hand reached up to stroke Tara's coarsely braided hair. "Is it good?"

After not having food for what seemed like forever, the steak was delicious, even for Shoney's. The meat was warm, cooked to her liking, and quite juicy. She didn't even need ketchup or steak sauce to add flavoring. "It is. May I have more?"

"As if you have to ask," Franklin said happily, cutting off some more bite size pieces and feeding them into Tara's ready mouth. It wasn't long till the whole steak was gone, and Tara was left licking the meaty flavor off her lips. Franklin wiped off the residue on the fork from the steak with a napkin, and held it above the food, ready to feed Tara more. "What next, my lover?"

"Baked potato, and can you please mix the butter and the cheese in?" Tara asked, her eyes wide and her tongue poked out from anticipation to taste the savory, warm potato.

Franklin smashed the potato up with the fork just the way Tara asked, and pulled up a forkful. The butter dripped down from the fork, and a string of cheese pulled up from the potato. Franklin pulled the fork further from the potato, and the cheesy string eventually broke, falling back to the warm potato. Tara opened her mouth without him asking, and Franklin put the fork gently into her mouth, holding it there until she got off all the potato.

Tara moaned lowly from the taste as she chewed the potato and swallowed it. The cheese and butter could have melted in a bit more into the potato, but she didn't care. It felt warm in her mouth and down her throat. "May I have a sip, please?"

"Of course," Franklin said, grabbing the glass and putting it up to Tara's mouth. He watched carefully as she drank down the red drink, and as he imaged it were blood, his fangs immediately popped down with a small click. "You'll look so sexy when you're finally drinking blood."

Tara pulled her mouth away and spat out some of the Fruit Punch in her mouth at what Franklin said. Her eyes were wide when she saw that the red drink from her mouth was all over Franklin's face, dripping down freely to his shirt. "Oh shit, Franklin! I am sorry!"

Franklin grabbed the napkin. Tara was certain that he'd wipe off his own face first, but he dabbed off Tara's mouth instead. "It's okay, my lover. I know you're excited." He brought the same napkin to his own face and wiped off the sticky liquid. Franklin dropped the reddish, damp napkin and grabbed a new one. "All better."

"Um, can you mix the corn with the macaroni?" Tara asked once she was bored with the potato. Franklin did as she requested and brought up a huge bite to her mouth. The macaroni was really cheesy, and the corn mixed in was a nice, sweet touch. It reminded her of her childhood, how she would mix macaroni with canned corn. She hated vegetables when she was a child, but when she mixed them with other foods, it was like she was fooling herself into eating them. Now, every time she ate macaroni, it was always with some corn.

Franklin snaked his other free hand up Tara's red dress and touched her warm skin—he didn't dress her with underthings because they were inconvenient and unnecessary in his opinion. Tara was doe-eyed when she looked at Franklin. "What are you doing?"

"Just enjoy your macaroni while I enjoy you," Franklin said, bringing another forkful up to Tara's mouth.

"But we're in public, Franklin!" Tara spat, not putting her mouth around the fork just yet. "I don't want to do this in public."

"Oh, Tara. Where's your sense of adventure?" he asked, wiggling the fork in front of her face as his finger wiggled down her heated flesh, separating her folds. "Besides, we're in a corner with no one around us. No one will see."

"Franklin-"

"Yes, say my name." His finger found her opening and plunged inside.

"Please don't," Tara breathed through a moan.

Franklin's finger stilled. "Let me do this if you want any dessert," he said pointedly as he pushed the fork of macaroni and corn into Tara's open mouth.

Tara gave him a hard look. She knew that Franklin would do this to her whether she agreed to it or not. She might as well try to not put up a fight; it'd probably only cause a scene anyway. "I want the biggest banana split you can find," Tara said stubbornly as she nodded for Franklin to continue.

"Your wish is my command," Franklin told her softly against the shell of her ear as his finger started to move inside of her again. He watched her throat work up a low moan before he fed her another forkful and added another finger into her heat, curling and twisting against her hungry, moist walls. He thrust his fingers into her harshly, her wetness making sweet sloppy noises that were only loud enough to him to hear.

When the rough pad of his thumb flicked over her small bundle of nerves, she came with macaroni in her mouth and a breathy whimper on her lips, her hips bucked up, dangerously tilting the table. Franklin watched her with hungry eyes the whole time, and held the table down with his strong hand so that it wouldn't tip over. As soon as Tara's eyes fluttered opened, he asked, "Was that good for you?"

"Which part?" Tara asked coyly.

When the waitress came over to wonder what all the noise was about, Franklin quickly made the excuse that Tara just loved the food at Shoney's.

-fin