Sequel to An Understanding & Never Runs Smoothly (both can be found in my profile)
III
As I stepped off the plane I was met by a friendly young woman, dressed immaculately and carrying a briefcase.
I glanced down at my own outfit. It was okay, but after the flight, I felt decidedly rumpled and grubby. I resented her style.
Flying had been a treat when I'd first done it but I was beginning to see what so many people moaned about. I wanted nothing more than a long shower and a change of clothes.
The woman stepped forward, shook my hand enthusiastically and introduced herself as Mona Sharp. I was pleased to note she had a southern lilt to her voice, although it had been weakened by many years spent in the north.
She guided me over to a black town car and got in the back seat with me.
"We need to wait while your luggage is loaded, then we're off," she explained, opening her briefcase. She handed me a business card. "I'm one of Mr de Castro's Personal Assistant's and I'll be your and Mr Northman's contact here. If you need anything, call me."
"One of?" I questioned. She was very efficient and fast. I'd need to stay sharp to take in everything she said.
"There are three of us, two human, we take care of his office and his business during the day and there's one vampire, Leeta, she looks after him overnight."
"Okay," the luggage must have been loaded because the car began pulling away.
"Right," she handed me a printed time table, "this is your schedule for the next five days. The blank times are your own. The ones highlighted in green are business meetings, the ones highlighted in yellow are social events and the ones in red are meetings with Mr de Castro. Don't be late for those."
I saw that each event had the day and time, dress code, as well as the location and where necessary, floor and room number. This woman was Uber Secretary.
"There's a dinner tonight with Mr De Castro, he'll go over what he wants from you tomorrow," she went on. "It's in one of the hotel restaurants and I've listed the floor number but if you have problems finding it, just ask a staff member."
After she'd covered tonight and tomorrow's schedule she stopped and I took the chance to look at the scenery.
"It's not much during the day time," she admitted. "It's night when Vegas comes alive. I guess that's why the vamps love it. Oh, and if you want to see any shows while you're here, just call me."
"Won't they be fully booked?"
She laughed. "Not for Mr de Castro's guests. Your stay here is fully comped too, so they'll be free."
Wow. I'd been expecting … well I wasn't sure what to expect, but it wasn't being treated like this. I felt like royalty.
We pulled up at the hotel then and she led me inside. She marched straight to the lift and used a key card to call it. "This lift is for the executive suites only, you'll need to swipe this card to call it," she handed me the card. "Security here is tighter than Fort Knox after what happened in Rhodes. I'll leave you another key for Mr Northman, but please try not to lose them. Getting the codes changed is a nightmare."
The lift opened onto a very plush corridor. "These are the executive suites," she explained, "You're in the Roulette Suite."
She pointed at a sensor and I used my key card on it. The door popped open.
The room was massive, and this was just the living room. Mona pointed out that there were two bedrooms, a kitchen area and two bathrooms. She showed me how to use the TV, where the room service numbers and the menu were, where facilities like where the iron were kept (though she suggested I call reception to take care of any laundering needs and the iron looked like it had never been used).
She also showed me some new safety features, like vampire blankets. Apparently, in a daytime emergency you rolled your vampire up in them and fastened them with velcro. They were fire and light resistant and virtually indestructible, she explained. Definitely very useful.
Then she opened her briefcase again and brought out a brochure. She pointed out the shops in the hotel (everything from a book shop to a beauty salon to a clothing boutique) and explained that I should charge everything to the room. She firmly but nicely suggested I visit the salon before any meetings with Mr de Castro.
She glanced at her watch. "Mr Northman's transport should be here any minute," she told me. That was a polite way of saying coffin, I thought. I noticed while she had been showing me around that our luggage had been delivered and left inside the door.
Someone knocked at the open door and I turned to see a young man waiting there. He was almost as tall as Eric, a little stockier and dressed in slacks and a shirt.
"Great," Mona said, waving him in. "Sookie Stackhouse, this is Todd Oliver, he'll be your bodyguard during the day."
I numbly shook hands with him. A bodyguard? That felt weird. Okay, so I was in danger and the Fellowship wanted me dead, but the idea of being followed everywhere was very strange.
I supposed it felt nice that the king valued me enough to protect me, unfortunately I think he probably valued my gift rather than my sparkling personality.
"I'll do my best to be discrete and stay out of your way, Miss Stackhouse." His voice was warm, like hot chocolate on a cold day.
"Thank you."
"Right," Mona continued, "you have three hours until your dinner with Mr de Castro, and about an hour and a half before sunset." Finally she handed me two casino chips. "A gift from Mr de Castro," she explained. "You can't cash them, only exchange them for smaller chips to use in the casino, but any winnings you can of course cash out."
I looked at the chips. They were for five thousand dollars each!
She wished me a good time, told me to call if I needed anything at all and swept out of the suite. That whole thing hadn't taken more than fifteen minutes. Mona brought new meaning to the word efficient.
Todd left with her, assuring me he'd be in the hall if I needed him. I felt rude leaving him out there, but he was a stranger to me and I didn't feel comfortable with him in my room.
I wheeled our cases through to the bedroom and began to unpack them when there was a knock at the door. Eric was here. Two bellboys carried the coffin into the bedroom and set it down on a trellis. I tipped them and finished unpacking our things. It didn't take long, then I showered quickly and changed into clean clothes.
I had about an hour now before Eric awoke so I called down to the salon to see if they could fit me in. They assured me they could and I left the room, almost surprised to see Todd standing opposite my door. I supposed I would get used to it, and at least he knew where the salon was.
III
When I returned Eric was fresh from the shower, clad only in a little white towel. He smiled when he saw me, a glint in his eyes. I knew that glint and held my hand up as he advanced towards me. "You look good enough to eat," he purred seductively.
"Uh, uh. I have just had my hair done for tonight and you are not allowed to ruin it."
"You can't walk in looking like that and expect me to leave you in peace," Eric grinned and continued towards me. He reminded me of a predator and I felt a shiver of desire run through me.
"Eric," I warned. He didn't pay any attention so I ran. By this point I didn't really care if my hair ended up looking like a bird's nest, but I wasn't going to tell him that, it would spoil the game.
Of course he caught me before I'd gone five paces (I think he'd given me a head start) but my capture came so fast I shrieked.
Before I even had time to register that my feet were in longer on the floor, I realised I was sitting on the dining room table, Eric nestled between my legs while his lips did delightful things to my neck.
It stood to reason that Eric would know a way to have sex without messing up my hair, he'd had the time to test these things.
I gasped as his fangs grazed the sensitive skin above my collar bone. I quickly stripped him of his towel and soon had his hard length in my hands. It was a good job I'd worn a skirt as Eric was in the habit of tearing what was in his way. Thankfully only a pair of panties died this time and that was a small price to pay for the pleasure his fingers gave me.
I felt him pulling away from me so he could head lower down but I tangled my fingers in his hair and pulled his face towards my neck. All of which he let me do, obviously, there's no way I could ever overpower Eric.
I guided his penis to my entrance and he thrust in, his fangs grazing my neck.
"You're sure?" he asked, knowing I didn't usually like visible fang marks.
"Yes," I gasped. I wanted those marks tonight.
His fangs slid gently into my skin which pushed me over the edge and I cried out as I began floating on a cloud of pleasure.
We stood like that for a while, enjoying the after glow. As Eric licked at my wound I felt little waves of pleasure travel through my body.
"Do you want me to heal them?" he asked, meaning his fang marks.
I shook my head but didn't offer an explanation.
"Then we should get ready," he said, breaking me out of my happy place.
"No," I tightened my arms around his torso. Not exactly grown up, I know, but I didn't have to be grown up with Eric. My sexual experience wasn't vast and I had never had a playful relationship like this before. I rather liked it.
He enjoyed it too. I could feel the smile in his voice as he told me, "Come on, lover, time to pay the piper."
"I want to stay like this for ever. Or at least until dawn." I amended, noticing the very large windows that would surely burn Eric to a crisp. I turned my head and began nibbling his neck.
He gasped with pleasure but pulled out of me anyway, presumably before he could get too turned on. He then picked me up and carried me into the bedroom.
"You," he looked accusingly at me, "are a devil woman."
I laughed. "Then you shouldn't be so god damn fuckable."
His eyes narrowed. I rarely swore and I knew Eric found it a turn on. "You'll pay for that later," he promised, dumping me on the bed and retreating to the door so he wouldn't have to watch me change.
"I better!" I called after him.
His deep laugh resonated through the door.
III
The dress I had brought for dinner was a simple black cocktail dress. Nothing special but enough to pass in most social situations. I'd dressed it up a little with my grandmother's pearls and a pair of pearl earrings and a bracelet Eric had bought me to match them.
The dinner was in a private room off the best restaurant in the hotel. One restaurant wasn't good enough, you see, so there were in fact five if you included the coffee shop.
There were six people present including Eric and me. The king and his vampire assistant, Leeta and two humans, his business advisor, Rick Masters and his accountant, Len Goodman.
While we humans ate and drank wine (very little wine in my case) the vampires drank True Blood and the whole situation was laid out for me.
Vanson Hotels was a chain of hotels and motels, mostly mid range but with a few four star flagships in large cities. The chain was in trouble and Felipe de Castro was very seriously considering buying it to add to his already large empire.
The fly in this ointment was a few accounting oddities. No money appeared to be missing, no fraud seemed to have taken place, but these procedures, the transfer of monies from head office to hotels, were very unusual and very complex and so before the king proceeded, he wanted to use my skills to make sure everything was on the up and up.
Tomorrow I had the first meeting with the accountants. I would be posing as Len's assistant. He would be asking probing questions of the companies finance director, I was to let Len know if he was lying.
There were other meetings in case the trouble didn't actually lie in the accounting department but with other company officials, but for now we concentrated on tomorrow. I was to meet Len and Rick at 3pm for a more thorough debriefing, then we were meeting with the company at 4pm. The meeting could last hours or maybe only minutes. I supposed that depended on how quickly I picked up any fraud. The sooner I found it, the sooner the meeting would end.
Felipe was courteous towards me, always respectful and pleasant, but I didn't like him. I couldn't trust him because of the way he had acquired power over both me and my state and that made it hard to like him. Also, very occasionally, when he thought I wasn't watching, I would catch a glimpse of something on his face as he looked at me.
I didn't know if it was lust for my body, embarrassment or chagrin over my saving his life, or simply how he looked at human women. Regardless, it made me uneasy around him.
I tried to be friendly though, and I think I succeeded. Eric was upset that he couldn't accompany me to the day time meetings (overprotective should be his middle name) but he was eventually reassured that I would never be in any danger.
Those Teenage Mutant Ninja Accountants are lethal, don't you know.
Truthfully he did have good reason to fear for me since the Fellowship's militant arm wanted me dead. They had already tried to kill me twice.
After dinner the other two humans were dismissed and Felipe turned the discussion towards the Fellowship and my idea for using a media campaign to discredit them.
"I have discussed your idea with many people," he told me. "The heads of state will vote next week but I believe most will agree with us."
"That's good," I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I would play my part. The poor little blonde girl, harassed, threatened and nearly killed because she fell in love with a vampire.
"Your story is so involved that I think a book is your best option," he told me. "I have a writer coming to speak with you while you're here, she will go over the options for the book with you."
"Who?" asked Eric.
"Janice Morrino."
I'd heard of her, she was a very well known vampire author. She would know what events needed to be glossed over or left out.
I was worried the king would claim the rest of our evening but he didn't and Eric took me down to the casino.
He explained the games to me and I watched as vast sums of money were won and lost (mostly lost) with each play.
When we got to the blackjack table, Eric decided to cash in his five thousand chip and play. I declined. Maybe after I'd seen a bit more, I might have a go.
Eric was good, he won a few, lost a few, but always seemed to break even. By gambling standards, that's probably not counted as a win but by barmaid standards, it was.
Finally Eric placed a much larger bet and won three thousand on one hand. To my surprise, he then cashed out.
"Why didn't you carry on?" I asked.
"Quit while you're ahead," he told me. "If I'd carried on I would probably have lost the three thousand, and possibly some of the original five. Better to celebrate in our room, alone, don't you think?"
"I like the way your mind works."
III
The next day I got up around noon and showered. A breakfast cart had been left in the room and I enjoyed the coffee. It wasn't as hot as I would have liked but it was good quality. I picked at some fruit while looked over the free paper and watched some TV.
Finally I got dressed in one of the business suits I'd brought and left Eric his goodbye note (today it was a lipstick imprint on his ass).
As I left the suite I saw Todd waiting again and I jumped slightly. He smiled. "Sorry."
"Have you been here all morning?" I asked as he followed me to the lift. Following the information Mona left me on the timetable, we headed down seven floors to the office floor.
"Since day break. When there are no vampires awake, that's when I'm on duty."
He was wearing a business suit today. "You're going into this meeting with us?" I asked.
"Where you go, I go." He was a man of few words, I gathered.
For the next hour Len and Rick took me through the questions they were going to ask today and what I should be looking out for. I was there as Len's assistant, Todd would be posing as Rick's assistant.
I asked for a copy of the accounts and explained that if I picked up anything interesting, I'd write on the accounts and show the page to Len. It was more discrete than passing notes.
Fully briefed, we all headed to the boardroom where the meeting was taking place. Three people were already there waiting for us and behind them was a huge wall of boxes.
Todd and I sat together in the middle, Len and Rick on either side of us. If the hotel executives thought it was strange that the assistants sat together leaving our bosses on the outside they didn't mention it.
From this point on, it was a mass of information that meant very little to me. I understood most of what was being said, but I wasn't really interested. Len queried various things in the accounts, the Vanson guys looked through the boxes and found the receipts, order forms, authorisation etc to explain the transaction. Slow and tedious work.
Even worse, these guys seemed totally innocent. The finance director had suspicions about some of the transactions himself, but he wasn't part of any conspiracy.
I told Len which transactions he was suspicious about and Len asked for more documentation on those.
Four hours later, we were finished. It was dark already and Eric would be waiting. That thought made me impatient as everyone took their time saying goodbye.
Todd and I headed for Felipe's office while Len and Rick went to write up their report for Felipe. They would email it so he could read it at his leisure.
Although we'd been told to go in, as we entered Felipe's office we saw he'd been in the middle of a meeting. Eric was there along with four other vampires and one human, none of whom I knew. Eric flashed me a discrete smile.
"Dear child," said Felipe, rising from his chair to greet me. It seemed to me his actions were almost fatherly, but I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. "Everyone, this is Sookie Stackhouse, who I've been telling you so much about." I noticed he didn't introduce them to me.
He kissed me lightly on the cheek then guided me to one of the spare seats, sitting opposite me and holding my hand. I think he was trying to be reassuring. "Now, what have you learned?" he asked, hanging on my every word.
I told him what little I'd learned, trying to ignore everyone's eyes on me. I noticed Todd was staying with me, which I didn't understand. I expected him to say farewell now that I was with vampires.
"Excellent!" Felipe exclaimed when I finished. "I have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with the chairman, Michael Vanson and a few others, perhaps with a few well aimed questions we can finally get to the bottom of this mystery."
"I hope so, sir." I said. His behaviour was unsettling me.
"Good. Now, we have a few more matters to discuss here so I have asked Mr Oliver to escort you to dinner."
I looked to Eric. His face was carefully guarded, revealing no emotion at all.
"Don't worry, I'll return Eric to you shortly."
"Okay." Before I knew it I was ushered out of the office. No one had mentioned Eric having any meetings while we were here, but maybe that was egotistical of me. Eric was very important in his own right, he wasn't my chaperone. Or at least he didn't need to be my chaperone, he only chose to because he had a hard time trusting my safety to others (something he'd always had a hard time with. Even when I was with Bill, Eric often seemed to be there too).
"Would you like to change first?" Todd asked. I nodded.
III
We ate in the dinner restaurant since it was the least fancy of them. I was dressed fairly casually, slacks and a red sweater, so I fit right in. I'd asked Todd if he knew what the meeting was about but he didn't, he only knew he had been asked to work a little longer tonight.
I hoped nothing serious was about to happen.
We both ordered burgers and he told me a little about his wife and son, just making small talk really, until he asked, "So, how'd you end up with a vampire?"
I took a peek into his mind to see if he was hostile towards vampires (or me) but he was just curious. I explained, very briefly, how Eric and I met and how vampires were silent to me, which made them so appealing.
"But what about kids?" he asked.
I'd been glancing at a family with two young children, Todd must have picked up on that. I shrugged.
"I don't mean to pry," he continued, definitely meaning to pry, "but you seem to want kids and I'd say you'd make a good mom."
I sighed. This was a little too close to the bone for my tastes. "Yes, I do want children, I want a family, but shit happens and life isn't fair. Human men just aren't… I couldn't live with someone knowing every little thought they had about me, good or bad. Life isn't a fairytale and we don't get everything we want. Eric loves me, I love him. In my book that counts for a lot."
Todd looked suitably chastened. "I'm sorry."
I looked at the family again. The girl, maybe she was six, was smiling about something. Both her front teeth were missing, but that didn't stop her beaming.
I swallowed down my yearning. The truth was, if I could have children I probably wouldn't feel ready. It was the fact that I couldn't that made me long for them.
Hey, I never said it was logical.
I charged the meal to my room and told Todd I was going for a walk.
"I have to follow," he told me.
I nodded. "I know, just be discrete, please."
"What about Mr Northman?"
I smiled, "He'll find me, no matter how far I get."
Todd didn't seem to know that because we had exchanged blood, Eric could track me, and I wasn't about to inform him. Nevertheless, he accepted what I said at face value.
I wandered aimlessly and found a shopping avenue but my eyes were drawn to families, not the shops.
Then, just to make things perfect, I remembered Sam's face as I asked for yet more time off. I wouldn't last much longer at Merlotte's. Sam hadn't said anything but I was making it nearly impossible for him to keep me on. He'd been very good about giving me time to recover after the Fellowship attacked me, but now I'd asked for another week off. Not to mention the fact that my very presence put the bar in danger. Until the fellowship was defeated, I would endanger anyone I hung around with.
This time off was Felipe's fault, and the danger was the Fellowship's fault because of my association with vampires, so though I couldn't blame Eric directly, I held him partly responsible as a fellow vampire. Not logical, and I wasn't pleased with myself but that was how I felt.
I was wallowing and I knew it. I wasn't proud but I took a little comfort in the fact that at least Eric wasn't here to witness it.
I continued wandering, trying to understand why these feelings were suddenly overwhelming me. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, I assumed Todd Oliver was still behind me, he would probably know the way back.
I looked up to see the Little White Chapel and smiled at the tacky little building. I didn't mind that people got married here, but the thought was amusing. In fact, if I ever got married, I would probably choose a Vegas wedding over a traditional one. I just didn't like the idea of being the centre of attention. A wedding was supposed to be about the bride but after a lifetime of hiding, I really wouldn't like all those eyes on me. Not that anyone had asked me, mind you.
Then my smile faltered. It was true that no one had said "will you marry me" but someone had said that he wanted to marry me when I was ready. I stopped and turned back to look at the chapel.
Suddenly I understood my feelings. I was afraid. So many changes were waiting for me, things that could alter my life considerably, and I was scared that I didn't want those changes, scared of the unknown.
This PR campaign was going to invade my privacy. I didn't want to be famous, that was my idea of hell. I knew I had agreed and that the whole thing was my idea, but I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of appearing on TV and in press articles.
Plus Eric wanted to marry me. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this year, but it would happen and I didn't see him waiting very long. And I wanted to marry him too, but I was also afraid of what would happen then.
Who would live with whom? It was doubtful he would come live with me in Bon Temps, he would prefer I moved in with him in Shreveport. That would take me away from my friends, or at least make it harder to see them. I would also have a commute every day. Of course, that was always assuming I kept my job at Merlotte's.
I knew I couldn't work there forever. My supernatural life and my human life were becoming intertwined and they didn't mix well when it came to my job. If Sam didn't let me go I would have to quit eventually, because bringing my problems into his bar just wasn't fair to him. Then, of course, I would need a new job. What would it be? Who else wanted crazy Sookie Stackhouse?
Eric, of course. He'd either insist on my not working or he'd employ me more at Fangtasia.
I sighed. As much as I love Eric, he has a very forceful personality (understatement) and I was worried that somewhere along the way, my wishes would get lost and I would become an extension of Eric.
Did all brides feel like this to some extent? Was this what they called 'cold feet'?
Suddenly the pain of losing my grandmother hit me harder than it had in a long while. This was something she would know about, Gran would have some advice or words of wisdom for me, and I would trust her judgement because Gran was a wise woman. There was no one else I could talk to. It needed to be a woman, because our view of the world was slightly different to a man's, and it needed to be a relative or a very close friend, someone I could trust with all my fears knowing that those worries would never go any further. I had no one who fit the bill.
Amelia was a good friend but she had never been married and I also wasn't sure I could trust her with such intimate feelings yet. Octavia had been married, so she might be able to help, but I didn't really know her well enough to talk about this stuff with her.
Tara had been married but there was no chance of J.B. du Rone, her husband, ever having the upper hand in that relationship. J.B. was the most laid back man I had ever met.
I suddenly felt very alone.
"You okay?" Todd was now standing beside me. "You've been staring at that building for about five minutes." He explained.
"Just… thinking."
Todd was the wrong sex and almost a stranger but maybe I could talk to a stranger. Somehow revealing my feelings to someone I would probably never see again wasn't so bad. He had no vested interest in my situation so his advice would be completely impartial. Maybe he would be a good choice.
Before I had a chance to decide, Todd shocked me out of my thoughts by telling me, "Someone's following you."
I made to turn my head but he admonished me not to look.
"Who?" I asked him, keeping my gaze firmly fixed on the chapel.
"Better you don't know or you'll make him suspicious. We need to go back to the hotel, you'll be much safer there." He began guiding me back along the street. His arm went around my shoulder and he stood slightly behind me, I assumed whoever was watching us was behind me also. I somehow resisted slipping into Todd's head for the information I wanted but I did begin searching surrounding brains for signs of danger.
"How far are we?" I felt like I'd walked miles since we left the hotel.
"Not far. You sort of looped around so we're only about ten minutes away."
I couldn't find the thoughts of whoever was following us, there were just too many people around for me to filter one unfamiliar 'voice' out from the crowd.
We walked as fast as we could without appearing to rush but I was more than relieved when I felt that familiar contentment settle in my stomach. Seconds later Eric was in front of me.
"Sookie?" he asked, looking concerned.
Todd answered for me. "She's being followed."
Eric nodded, took my hand and both he and Todd ushered me towards the hotel. I felt much safer with Eric beside me but it wasn't until we swept into the hotel lobby that I really relaxed. Eric dismissed Todd and in minutes we were back in our hotel suite.
"Why did you leave the hotel?" Eric asked, kindly.
"I just needed some air."
Eric raised an eyebrow. He knew me so well he didn't have to actually ask the question.
I flopped on the sofa. "I just had some things to think about, I wanted to get out for a while."
"Were you angry because I was working?" he asked, sitting beside me.
"Surprised, not angry." Perhaps a little hurt but it was unreasonable of me to expect Eric's life to revolve around mine. Besides, I preferred him to be my boyfriend rather than my bodyguard. I didn't want him trailing around after me everywhere and I knew the role as my keeper would be hard for him to fulfil full time. Eric was used to being the most important vampire in Northern Louisiana; he wasn't used to playing second fiddle to a human.
"What were you thinking about?"
"Lot's of things. I had a bit of a pity party, then…" I realized that the one person I hadn't even considered sharing my fears with was the only one I should. Eric. I took a deep breath. "I feel like my life is changing and I have no control over it and I'm worried about what's going to happen." I explained it all, my job, Sam, marriage, losing touch with my life.
To his credit, Eric didn't yawn or laugh or even interrupt me. "That's a lot to handle," he agreed. "I wish you'd shared this with me earlier."
"I'm sorry, but I didn't even realise how I felt until now."
He held me for a few moments and I relaxed. I had no solutions yet, but just admitting my fears to another person eased some internal pressure.
"So… what do you think?" I asked.
"I think you are worrying too much, love. Your job may change, but I would not have you working at Fangtasia. You are too… wholesome for my bar. Seeing you there occasionally is exciting but having you work there every night would be wrong." He kissed the top of my head. "As for marrying me, it needn't change anything. We could get married tonight. Think about it, if you married me now, what would be different tomorrow? Would it change who either of us are, would it change how you feel about me?"
"We're away now, when we went home, things would change." I insisted.
"Why? We needn't even tell anyone."
I hadn't thought of that. "To me marriage has always been this huge, life altering thing. One day you're single, the next you're married, moving house, you're a couple not a singleton, decisions are all shared, people look at you differently."
"Dear one, we aren't a conventional couple, why must we have a conventional marriage?"
"You wouldn't want me to move in with you?" I asked.
"I hope you will but not until you are ready. Our lives are very different, Sookie, our marriage must also be different if it is to survive."
He'd given me a lot to think about and I got lost in my thoughts for a while.
"Come," he said, standing and taking my hand. "I will prove it to you."
