Author's note: Thank you sooo much to everyone who reviewed the first part. Your comments made my week. Seriously. :) I hope you enjoy the next instalment...

Blair hung up the phone and settled back in her seat with a sigh of relief, winding down the window to allow some air into the stiflingly hot car. Early on in their little road trip, she'd been forced to make the choice between having her hair blown around by the wind or sweating until she stuck to the leather seats; in the end, she'd opted for the breeze and invested in a selection of chic little silk headscarves. Combined with a pair of almond-shaped sunglasses and the selection of fitted summer dresses she had taken to wearing as her routine wardrobe, they gave her the look of a 1960s movie star.

It didn't hurt that Dan had confessed that he found her new look a bit of a turn-on; of course, he'd then followed it up by admitting that he found pretty much all of her looks to be a turn-on. She still wasn't quite used to these throwaway compliments he just tossed into the conversation every now and then, and they still had the power to make her stomach flutter with nervous excitement. The truth was that, for all her vanity and egotism, she'd never felt truly beautiful in her life until she started to see herself through Dan Humphrey's eyes. Maybe because with him she always sensed that he saw the surface she put on for the world as just decoration; it was the girl underneath that he really saw. And loved.

"You feel better now you've sorted things out with Serena?" said the man in question from the driver's seat as they pulled out of the parking lot of the small café where they'd stopped for lunch.

"Yes," she admitted. "Honestly, I've been kind of wondering this whole time how she'd react to me stealing you away from her."

"You didn't steal anything, Blair," Dan glanced over at her in reassurance. "Serena and I were over a long time ago and, frankly, she wouldn't have a leg to stand on trying to take the moral high ground on this. Remember what she did to you with Nate?"

"I know," Blair said. "I also remember how much it hurt, and I didn't even really love Nate. I loved the idea of him more than anything, but it still upset me that she went behind my back like that." She lowered her eyes, picking nervously at a loose thread on the seam of her skirt. "I just… never wanted to hurt her. What if she'd still been secretly hung up on you?"

"I think you overestimate my allure."

Blair glanced at him sideways, a flirtatious smile hovering on her lips. "You'd be surprised, Humphrey. Maybe you exude some sort of primitive pheromone that renders all Upper East Side women helpless slaves to your masculine appeal." She was openly grinning now.

"Now, see, you say that, but I don't think you really mean it." He gave her that look of exasperated amusement that she so often inspired.

"Well, there has to be some sort of explanation," she said mockingly. "I mean, we know for a fact it's not your charm. Or your singing voice."

"Oh, are we really going to go there, Ms Stand-By-Your-Man?"

Blair gave him a tight little smile. "For your information, Humphrey, I was very, very drunk on that occasion. I actually have a quite delightful mezzo-soprano voice when I'm not under the influence."

"I'll have to take your word for it." His tone clearly indicated that he didn't believe a word of it. Blair's hackles rose.

"Okay, you know what? Fine! Find us a town with a karaoke bar, Humphrey, and I'll prove it to you."

Dan shot her a disbelieving glance. "Really? Blair Waldorf… doing karaoke… in a small town in Connecticut? Man, where's a camcorder when you really need one?"

"There will be no filming!" Blair insisted vehemently. "We will not be having a repeat of my birthday party fiasco, I can assure you." She glared at him in remembered reproach. "And it's not Blair Waldorf any more, remember?"

"Fine!" He grinned over at her, his whole face lighting up. "Blair Waldorf-Humphrey. And, to be honest, that doesn't make the idea any less unbelievable." He reached a hand across to clasp hers and rubbed his thumb gently over her wedding band, a gesture that was quickly becoming a habit of his. She sighed shakily, still a little shocked that they'd actually gone through with the crazy idea that had gripped them both a few weeks before. He noticed her reaction and brought her hand to his lips for a gentle kiss before relinquishing it to grip the wheel again.

"Is it weird that it doesn't feel weird?" Blair mused, staring out the window at the passing scenery of western Connecticut.

"What? The married thing?" He frowned. "I don't know. It just feels…"

"Right," she said, rolling her head to the other side to stare at him, tracing his profile with her gaze before lingering on the strong forearms and those beautiful hands that were now intimately acquainted with every inch of her. She didn't think she'd ever tire of admiring the view.

His lips quirked up at the corners. "Very right. Natural, even. Sometimes I think we've been acting married for months, now."

Blair chuckled. "There is that. At least now, we won't have to sneak around any more. No more smuggling you out through the bathroom so Dorota won't catch us together."

"No more hiding you in my closet when Nate drops by unexpectedly."

"No more ducking into dark corners at parties because we can't wait another minute to make out."

They exchanged a glance. "Well, maybe we could still do that one," Dan suggested hopefully. "That one had a definite up-side."

Blair smirked and arched slightly in a languid stretch, watching his eyes flit momentarily to her chest. "Maybe you'll have to learn to display a little restraint, Humphrey."

"I'll have you know I display restraint all the time," he said, fingers gripping the wheel until his knuckles whitened. "I'm displaying it right now by not pulling off the road and kissing you senseless."

Blair's husky laugh made him shoot her a look eloquent with suppressed desire and she felt the breath catch in her throat. She coughed slightly. "I suppose that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing," she said casually. "Perhaps there's a private spot around here somewhere…"

"You know we still have to work out how to break the news to everyone back home," Dan pointed out that evening over dinner. (Blair had turned her nose up at the restaurant décor, the menu and the clientèle but, condescension successfully accomplished, was now tucking into Chicken Marsala and grilled summer vegetables with every appearance of enjoyment.) "They might have just about got used to the idea of us as a couple by now, but getting used to us as a married couple is a whole other level of bizarre."

"It should be easier for my family," Blair shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. "They were expecting me to get married anyway. They'd probably already adjusted to the idea."

"Blair, they'd adjusted to the idea of you marrying a French prince, not a penniless writer from Brooklyn," Dan argued. "I can't see them being all that pleased with the trade-in."

"Don't put yourself down, darling," Blair said sweetly. "You're not penniless. Just very, very poor."

"Gee, thanks!"

"Anyway," she said, waving a hand airily in dismissal of his concern, "at the end of the day, my parents just want me to be happy and it's not as if I don't have enough money for the both of us."

"So, basically, what you're saying is… I've married up."

She smiled sunnily at him, enjoying the look of bemused irritation on his face. "Exactly!" She gave an exaggerated gasp and opened her eyes wide. "It's like the Humphrey family tradition!"

"That's very funny. No, seriously. You should make that joke when we tell my Dad and Lily," Dan deadpanned.

Blair ignored him, tilting her head to one side in feigned consideration. "Ooh, maybe I should warn Nate! Just in case Little J has her sights set on landing a Vanderbilt…"

"Yeah, yeah… I'm cracking up over here." He shook his head in exasperation.

Blair collapsed in giggles and returned to her meal.

They'd nearly finished their main course before she revisited one of his comments. "My parents like you, you know, Dan. I'm sure it will be fine. I'm much more worried about how your parents are going to react when they find out we got married. I don't think Rufus likes me very much." She bit her lip nervously after she said it, and Dan realised how much it must have cost her to make that admission. He decided to set her mind at ease a little.

"Actually, my Dad was sort of the one who told me to crash the wedding," he admitted, remembering how shocked he'd been when Rufus had said that. He'd pretty much resigned himself to losing Blair for good at that point, and had just been looking for someone to pour out his troubles to over a bottle of bourbon. But then his Dad had started talking about how much he wished he'd stuck around and fought for Lily way back when, instead of giving her up so easily. He'd warned him not to make a mistake he couldn't live with for the rest of his life.

"You told him about us?" Blair was the only woman he knew who could yell sotto voce. He winced at her reaction. "Humphrey! You weren't supposed to tell anyone! What part of 'secret affair' did you not understand?"

"I'm sorry!" he said, glancing round to make sure they weren't creating too much of a scene. "The woman I loved was about to marry a French prince! Forgive me if I wasn't thinking too clearly. Dad found me with a glass in one hand and a bottle in the other at 9am in the morning and pretty much dragged the whole thing out of me."

"So what did he say?" Blair fiddled with the stem of her wine glass. "When you told him you loved me?"

Dan smiled at her and reached a hand out to capture hers. "Actually, he said you remind him a lot of Lily."

Blair's face lit up. "Really? But she's so…" She shrugged helplessly. "I mean, I always looked up to her when Serena and I were growing up. She was so perfect, so immaculate. If Audrey was my cinematic idol, Lily was my real-life one. I just…" She pressed her other hand over her heart. "I can't believe he said that."

"Then," Dan added, "he said that I shouldn't be as stupid as he was. That if I really cared about you so much that the thought of you being married to someone else was enough to drive me to drink, I probably ought to do something about that."

"Well, you certainly did that," Blair said, glancing up at him coquettishly from under her eyelashes. "Dorota still hasn't recovered from that sweeping romantic gesture of yours, by the way. I don't think she's even capable of mentioning your name without sighing." She smirked at his embarrassment. "And to think, she didn't like you at all when we first became involved."

Dan let go of her hand and leaned back, feeling suddenly offended. "She didn't like me? What did I ever do to Dorota?"

"Oh, nothing," Blair hedged, not making eye contact. "I mean, it's possible that my vehement criticisms of you over the years may have had some sort of… seepage effect."

"Seepage effect?" Dan laughed in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?"

Blair leaned one elbow on the table and twirled a silky brunette curl around one slender finger. "So, I may have inadvertently brainwashed my maid into thinking you were beneath my notice…"

"Inadvertently? Believe me, Blair, that was as advertently as it gets."

"Advertently?" Blair narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure you're a writer?"

Dan sighed and rolled his eyes. "Let it go."

"I mean, it's obviously a concern. Oh, no! Perhaps you've just been pretending all this time, and I've unknowingly married a professional cater-waiter." Blair pulled a face of mock horror and he couldn't resist smiling at her. She was just so freaking adorable sometimes. Usually when teasing him mercilessly, now that he thought about it. Maybe that said something about his psyche…

"So, did you tell her we got hitched?"

Blair grimaced. "Ugh, I wish you wouldn't call it that. It sounds so common. And, no… as it happens, I haven't told Dorota yet. Telling Dorota would be roughly equivalent to telling Gossip Girl. It would be all over the Upper East Side within twenty-four hours."

He couldn't really argue with that. "So, we need to come up with a plan of how to tell everyone, then."

"Please, Humphrey, don't tax yourself. Planning isn't your strong suit, remember?" She smiled at him teasingly. "I'll come up with a plan and you can just follow my lead. Again."

"Why do I have this horrible sense that that is going to be the story of my life?" Dan said, giving her a quizzical look and wondering why the idea of it was strangely appealing.

"Because it is," she said chirpily. "Too late to back out now, Humphrey. You're stuck with me. Now, pass me that menu, I'm in the mood for dessert."