Chapter 60 – Only the Beginning
Last time:
She smirked at me, "you know, it's getting pretty late, at least by human standards…" She paused and let that statement just hang there for a moment. I raised my eyebrows at her, in question. She grinned at me wantonly, "I was just thinking that maybe… we might want to call it a night. At least in this location… Wedding receptions do often go on even after the bride and groom have departed." Well, alrighty then.
Now:
"What do we have left to do?" I asked her, equally anxious to move this evening along, even as much as I was enjoying myself.
"Well," she began, "I think we need to wait for Godric to return with the Marriage License and sign it. I want this marriage to be legal in all ways…" I nodded because I couldn't agree more. "Then, I think we need to each make a circuit around the room to thank all of our guests for being here…"
She thought for a moment. "I guess we should let Gran and those close to us know that we are leaving…" she hesitated.
"What?" I asked.
"Well, usually there's the rice/bird seed tossing tradition, but I didn't prepare anything for that, so I think we can forego that… Although…"
"Although, what?" I asked again.
"Are we going to be able to get out of here with that press fiasco outside?" she asked. "I mean, I guess we could stay in the penthouse, but I was really wanting to go to our home tonight."
"Then that is what we will do," I smiled at her and put a stray strand of hair behind her ear, "I think I have a solution for that." She raised her eyebrows to ask how. "The security team blocked all of the entrances to the property before the wedding except for the one directly in front of the ballroom which is why the entire 'press fiasco' seems to be located right there. I will just let the guards know that we are ready to leave, and they can 'unblock' one of the entrances in the back of the hotel for us."
She smiled, "that just might work!"
"Sounds like a plan, then. As soon as we sign the marriage document that Godric is bringing, we do our leave-taking, and then we go…" I said. I thought for a moment, "is there anything you need to retrieve from the penthouse?"
She smiled, "not really … I actually have my purse under the table here. Everything else is something I can pick up later."
I nodded, "actually, I can have my day man pick it up for you; it's what I pay him for."
"Awesome! As soon as Godric gets back, let's get this exodus underway!" she added cheerily.
"And speak of the devil," I said as Godric returned with document in hand.
He placed the license on the table that I currently had my back to. Sookie stood up from my lap, and I turned around in my seat. He even clicked the top of a ballpoint pen and handed it to me. Then he said, "hold on." He left for a moment, Sookie and I looked at each other a little bewildered, and when he returned he had Jason and Pam with him. He simply shrugged and said, "required legal witnesses." I then signed where he pointed, as did Sookie. He then passed the document to the legal witnesses who also signed.
"Congratulations, it is now official," he declared. "I will file this with the Caddo Parish Clerk tomorrow." Both Jason and Pam smiled at us. Sookie crossed around to the other side of our table and hugged them both.
I told them, "we are beginning to take our leave. So, you will now be in charge of maintaining the festivities. I want to thank both of you for being here for us tonight. I feel like Sookie and I both had so much family support and… love." I was proud when Pamela nodded in agreement.
Jason added, "hey bro, we are so doing Monday Night Football in the future! Especially if it features the Minnesota Vikings…" I nodded as I shook his hand.
Pam chimed in to Sookie, "and we are going to do that shopping trip to your friend's boutique we've talked about, and I have some great places in the area to show you as well…"
We both smiled at them and nodded. I looked at Sookie, "are there any more wedding rituals we need to observe?"
"Usually the bride tosses the bouquet, and sometimes the groom tosses the bride's garter, but I decided ahead of time to forego those as well." I raised my eyebrow at her in question. "Eric, I always hated being made to stand with all the 'single' gals to catch the bouquet… Oh, and also I didn't wear a garter for you to toss," she answered with a shrug.
"OK. Do you want to say our goodbyes together, or should we split up and each work our way around the room?"
"I've been thinking, let's just go over to the stage, and make an announcement from there," she suggested. "That'll be much quicker, don't you think?" she said with a wicked gleam in her eyes that I could tell was matched by her feelings.
Well, alrighty then. I smiled and took her hand after she grabbed her purse from under the table. I whispered into her ear as we walked to the stage, "and here I thought I was going to be the horny one…" She giggled at that while I spoke quietly for a moment to one of the near-by guards to orchestrate our exit.
She just shrugged and smirked in return, "what can I say? You look so darn fine tonight…" She looked coyly up at me as we walked, "and you are MINE!"
She was right, we were tremendously in sync with each other. I nodded, "yes, I am."
We arrived at the stage, the DJ came over to us, and we told him that we wanted to make an announcement as soon as the song that was playing was over. He said he would take care of everything. Sookie put her arms around me, and we just sort of swayed together by the side of the stage to the rest of the song while we waited for it to finish.
Finally, the song ended, and I took Sookie's hand to walk onto the stage. The DJ handed me a microphone. I looked at Sookie to see if she wanted to speak, but she shook her head to indicate that I should do the talking. I turned to face our guests who were looking up at me in anticipation of what I had to say. I took a moment to gather my thoughts.
"Good evening, again, everyone. I'd like to thank you all for sharing in our celebration. I, for one, have had an excellent evening. I know it means a lot to both of us that you were here." I saw Sookie smiling and nodding out of the corner of my eye. I continued, "I am told by my bride that the reception often continues after the departure of the bride and groom. I'm sure you are aware of the army of media people just across the street from the hotel, so Sookie and I are going to try to make a clandestine get-away to avoid them. But we want you to continue with the party if that is your wish. We hope you have a lot of fun, and thanks again for joining us tonight. If you feel that you shouldn't be driving, I checked with the concierge earlier, and we do have rooms available for you, so be safe." There was a short round of applause.
I looked at Sookie to see if she had anything to add, and again she shook her head. I started to hand the microphone back to the DJ, but I had one more thought strike me. "One last thing," I looked at Sookie and sent her a wave of playful wickedness through our bond. I smirked at her surprised expression. "I want the record to reflect that I was perfectly willing to partake of this glorious party until morning, but it seems my bride just can't wait to have her way with me…" Sookie buried her face in her hands, and the crowd laughed riotously, and in addition to applause, there were also whoops and cheers.
Fintan and Adele walked forward, and Sookie hugged them goodbye. I shook Fintan's hand, and Adele grabbed me and hugged me, which I was only too happy to return. I then took Sookie's hand, we walked to the back door of the ballroom, and turned to wave goodbye to everyone before we left. As we were walking toward the back hotel entrance I heard Sookie let out a long sigh.
"Are you now sad to be leaving?" I asked.
"No, I'm just relieved that no big mishap occurred during our wedding," she smiled up at me. "Plus, I'm really ready to be alone with you, so let's head on home!"
"Your wish is my command, my love," I smiled back at her. We got to the back door, and my car was not yet there. As we stood inside waiting, I bent down and kissed her very passionately. When we stopped, the car was waiting for us, and I said, "shall we, Mrs. Stackhouse-Northman?"
She sighed again and then laughed, "we shall, Mr. Northman." She then put her hand into the awaiting crook of my elbow, and we walked out and got into my car. I saw two of the guards standing by the still blocked entrance in distance, and I drove in their direction. By the time we arrived they had just finished moving the last sawhorse out of the way. We drove right through on toward our home. I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed the guards re-blocking that entrance. Very good.
I held Sookie's hand the whole drive there, pulling it up for a kiss periodically. I could feel her passion ratcheting up during the drive as well. Every time it did, I felt myself get just that much harder. If we didn't get home soon, I just might have my first orgasm of the evening sitting here driving. A large involuntary sigh came from me this time.
"What is it, Eric?" Sookie asked.
"I feel your rising passion, my Sookie, and we need to get home like ten minutes ago before I embarrass myself," I confessed.
She nodded, "I don't know what it is, but I am so on fire for you, my Eric." I thought back to her dance with Niall and wondered if his glowing hand on her back might have something to do with this amped-up desire.
"We're a little more than fifteen minutes away now; I sure hope we can make it," I chuckled, and she joined me. I noted our exact location, and I realized that Fangtasia was off of the next exit. Could we go there? Then I remembered that reporters had been camped out there before, and I didn't want to risk it. Home it was. I may have lowered my foot on the accelerator a bit.
Instead of taking fifteen more minutes to get home, it only took seven and a half. So… more than 'a bit' on the accelerator, I guess. If Sookie had noticed, she didn't say anything. Luckily, there were no cops around to stop us. That might have proven tragic… for them. Instead of pulling into the garage, I parked at the top of our circular drive next to the front door of the house. Before Sookie had finished grabbing her purse off of the floorboard, I had her out of the car, in my arms, and through the front door.
I vaguely heard her purse drop to the floor as I was kissing the hell out of her. I had pushed her up off the floor against the inside of the front door. I kissed down her neck wondering how attached she was to this dress, when I heard her say, "Do. Not. Rip. My. Wedding Gown!" I leaned my cheek against hers, looked down, and noticed that she had pulled her skirt up to her waist, and she continued, "my underwear, however, is totally replaceable."
Almost before she finished the sentence, my pants were down around my ankles, her underwear was history, and I was beautifully, blissfully inside her. We both let out fairly loud collective sighs, resting our foreheads against each other's shoulders. I faintly smiled when I thought that I was 'home' in more ways than one. I wanted to say something romantic, but I didn't think that, at the moment, I was capable of coherent speech.
Instead, I just started moving in and out of her. I would pull slowly back as far as I could and then push quickly back in. Over and over. As worked up as I had felt in the car, I was somewhat surprised that I was able to prolong this as long as I already had. I continued my thrusting as I pulled back to look at her face. Her eyes were closed, and every time I quickly pushed back in she would let out a little 'uh' sound and the space between her eyebrows would wrinkle a little. That between-the-eyebrow space would relax on the slow withdrawal, then crinkle again at the quick thrust back in. It was beautifully mesmerizing.
As beautiful as it was to watch, I knew I wouldn't last much longer. Sookie started breathing very heavily, and soon I was, too. Just a few minutes longer, and we were both loudly exclaiming as we reached our first release of the evening. I hoped. No, I knew. Afterward, we were both panting and just hugging each other tightly.
Sookie turned her face toward my neck and kissed me there. Then she asked, although her voice was somewhat muffled against my skin, "did that feel different for you? You know, being married and all?"
I thought for a moment and took stock of my feelings, "you know… it kind of did. How about you?"
She threw her head back against the door, "Eric, I don't know what happened to me at the end of the reception, but suddenly I had to be with you. This way. It was almost as if I couldn't stand it. This was just so much more than before."
Should I tell her about my suspicions about Niall and his glowing hand? Unexpectedly, she put her hand over her mouth, "oh my gosh, I can't believe I forgot..."
"Forgot what, my love?" I asked.
"My great-grandfather told me at the beginning of the reception that he had a present to give me later, but we left before he gave it to me. I hope he's not mad," she responded. I shook my head at how strangely in tune with our thinking we seemed to be.
"I have a theory about that, but first, why don't we move the wedding night celebration out to the pool?" I asked with a smirk.
She looked down and noticed that we were both still mostly dressed and slammed up against our front door. She giggled, "I think that would be a good idea. Can you help me out of my dress? WITHOUT ripping it?" I joined her laughter.
I reluctantly withdrew from her, and she slid down the door to the floor. She released her hold on her skirt and turned around. There were several hook-like fastenings that I undid for her then I pulled a long zipper down. She pulled the top of her dress off of her shoulders and let it fall to the ground. Hmmm… the dress must have had a bra built in, because all she had on when she let the dress go were her shoes, veil, and her necklace, since I'd already obliterated her underwear. As she walked her dress over to put across the back of a chair in the living room and removed her tiara/veil combination along with her shoes, while returning to me and placing her necklace on the foyer table, I removed the rest of my clothes, and since it was my tux, I walked into the dining room to put it on a chair in there.
We met back in the foyer, and I couldn't help but notice the little vertical stripes on her skin around her rib cage caused by the boning in the corset of her dress. She looked down and noticed them as well, and I could feel embarrassment rise in her. She threw her arms around herself.
"No, Sookie. You look beautiful. And truth be told, those little stripes make me feel oddly… nostalgic," I grinned. She looked at me for a moment before she cracked up.
"Well, I guess you've seen this… phenomenon before then… In times past?" she asked with a smile. My own grin widened into a smile, and I nodded. "Well, duh, of course you have," she laughed.
I swooped over to her, lifted her in my arms bridal style – amazingly appropriate under the circumstances – began kissing her, lifted us up, and flew us to the pool. I hovered over the water for a moment before I slowly lowered us down. Neither of us broke the kiss until we were submerged up to our necks. I let go of the bridal hold and when her body lowered, I brought her down onto my waiting erection.
She threw back her head again and practically shouted, "yes!" With her hands on my shoulders and mine on her hips we worked together toward another amazing orgasm. Afterward, we were just cuddling by the side of the pool, when she asked, "so… your theory about Niall's gift?'
"Ah, yes," I responded. "When you were dancing with him tonight, I noticed that his hand was glowing against your back."
"What?" she asked.
"I have no idea what that glow meant, but I suspect it may have been your wedding gift from him," I paused. "Maybe he's gifting you with some power?"
She pulled back to look at me, "his hand was glowing while we were dancing? Did anyone else notice?"
"That's what I wondered. But when I looked around, no one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary," I shrugged. "I have no idea why I could see it if no one else could."
She thought for a moment, "maybe only supernaturals could see it. I mean, maybe other vampires could see it, but none of the humans could…"
"I have no idea. I didn't ask any other vampires if they could see it, but when I looked around to see who might be seeing his glowing hand, no one – and I mean NO ONE, not even another vampire, was reacting," I shrugged again.
"Well… what do you think it means?" she asked.
"I have no idea, my love. But he did say he had a gift. So I would guess that it isn't anything to worry about," I paused. "To tell you the truth, when you were so – shall we say – horny earlier, I thought it might be related to Niall's glowing hand." She seemed to mull that over for a moment or two. I knew that brilliantly calculating brain was trying to solve this riddle.
After a moment, she tilted her head to the side in that fairy way. "Well, we didn't know what that blast of light from our orgasms was doing, and it turned out to give you day-walking abilities. So I can only surmise that any gift from Niall will be equally glorious… or maybe even better."
I liked the way she thought. I pulled her to me and hugged her again. After we had consummated our marriage a few more times, she asked me, "Eric, can we get out of the pool now?"
I looked at her, "why is that, my Sookie?"
"Well… I already had corset marks on my body, and now my fingers are starting to wrinkle and prune from the water… I guess I don't want to totally shrink into a troll on my wedding night…"
I threw back my head and laughed, "well, we can't have that, can we?" I stepped out of the pool and offered my hand to help her out. I noticed she was shivering, and I used vamp speed to get towels from the outdoor cupboard.
When she was dried and wrapped in towels, we went into the den at the back of the house. Sookie asked, "what coverage of the wedding do you think made it onto the news?"
I smiled, "let's check…" I grabbed the remote off of the coffee table and activated the TV system, then tuned to CNN. They were in the midst of covering some civil rights protests in various cities in not only the United States, but also the world. Sadly, even though the Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964 in the US, somehow the full implementation of those rights had yet to occur. It kind of put the late-arriving vampire push for equality into sharp relief. Ah well…
Then I switched to Fox News. And there it was… The Bonne Chance was in the background. We picked up the local correspondent in the middle of the broadcast, "… in the background. We have been able to ascertain that there was in fact a wedding in the hotel tonight, and since this hotel is owned by Eric Northman – in conjunction with the fact that the adjacent casino was closed for the evening – losing possibly as much as a million dollars for the night – we can only suppose that the wedding was Mr. Northman's…"
Sookie grabbed the remote and hit the mute button, "you lost a million dollars tonight?!" She seemed very upset by that fact. I was puzzled at her reaction. Why did she care? She'd made it clear earlier that she didn't care about my finances, at least as far as they impacted her. I could only deduce that she was somehow worried about me. I just looked at her with my eyebrows raised in question. "Eric, did you?" she persisted.
Slowly, a smile spread across my face. "Sookie, I've tried to tell you many, many times that I have almost inexhaustible wealth… but I'm starting to believe that you didn't understand the… magnitude of such wealth. To put it plainly, I could lose a million dollars a day for a thousand days, and still be wealthy. Yes, I closed the casino tonight, and yes, it lost money. But it's a good thing I did. Otherwise, we would have had to let all those obnoxious press people onto the property to intrude on our wedding. This was a night that was too important to both of us." I looked at her innocently, because, in fact, I was innocent of any wrongdoing.
I could see her doing the math. "Wow, a million dollars a day for a thousand days equals a billion, right?" I nodded. "Holy God," she said. "And you'd still be wealthy?" I nodded again with a smile. And just like when she recognized the Da Vinci painting in the dining room, she started breathing heavily.
"Are you going to be all right, my love?" I asked.
"You have more than a billion dollars?" she panted. I nodded in answer to her question. "Holy God," she repeated panting very heavily.
"Sookie, look at me," I said as I held the side of her face. "Nothing has changed except your understanding of knowledge I've tried to tell you before. I am a very wealthy vampire. I have been on earth for more than a thousand years. If I had not accumulated wealth, I would be kind of a major slacker, now wouldn't I? This changes nothing in our lives…"
She looked at me for a very, very long moment. Then she shook her head. "Eric, growing up we were raised very humbly. That is what my Gran wanted. I mean, we could have gone to Fae, and been raised as royalty, but Gran didn't want that. She wanted us to appreciate what we could accomplish for ourselves in this realm. And I think that was very wise on her part. So you'll have to excuse me if I'm just a little freaked out about the amount of money, I just apparently married into."
I threw my head back, again, and laughed. "Well, at least I know you didn't marry me for my money…" I continued my chuckling.
At that, she cracked up as well. "Absolutely not. If I had totally understood about all that, I might have stupidly run in the opposite direction."
"OK then. I'm glad I didn't explain it all to you before," I winked.
She giggled merrily, but maybe with a little more edge than normal. "Huh…" she said. "I guess I married well, as they say…" And then she just cracked up laughing again. I could sense from her feelings in the bond – I guess the only word I could use to describe her feelings was 'frenetic" – that she was in kind of a state of shock. She continued, "so that ten thousand dollar donation at the charity ball was just kind of like pocket change for you, right?" I shrugged and nodded. "Wow, just, wow…"
I smiled at her, "let's turn the news back on, OK?"
Her breathing was evening out, "OK," she said.'
I switched the channel back to CNN. I looked at the clock and it was about five minutes to four in the morning. I looked over at Sookie, and she didn't show any signs of tiring. The news on CNN was just wrap-ups from other news stories reported earlier in the evening. I knew the broadcast would 'renew' at the top of the hour, so I pulled Sookie to me and enfolded her in my arms. She leaned her head back against my shoulder as I held her to me.
"Eric," she said.
"Yes, my love," I responded.
"If I forget to later, I wanted to thank you for an excellent wedding," she answered. I recalled her similar statement from our first date to the ballet. I couldn't help the laughter that escaped me.
"You are most welcome, my Sookie," I replied with a smile not only on my face, but also in my voice. She hugged me from my side on the den sofa. I picked up the remote and turned the TV sound on once again. Since it was now at the 'top' of the hour, we would get the latest news.
When the news returned after the commercials that preceded the top of the hour news, the anchor in the studio looked straight into the camera, "good morning. At the top of this morning's news, American Vampire hero Eric Northman and his love, potential kidnap victim Sookie Stackhouse have gotten married." He turned to face the other camera in the studio, "we have news tonight from Bossier City, Louisiana that Eric Northman and Sookie Stackhouse got married tonight in a secret ceremony in the ballroom of The Bonne Chance Hotel and Casino owned by Mr. Northman. The wedding and reception were attended by only family and friends."
They cut to the exterior of the hotel, where you could see a fairly empty parking lot with only the cars from those attending the wedding along with unrelated hotel guests. Then the camera backed up to reveal the blocked entrances, then it panned around to capture the many reporters who had shown up to cover the story, but were blocked from entry onto the property.
"The attempt to keep the media out of the hotel was successful. However, local Shreveport reporter and CNN special correspondent, Cecile Peveto, was granted exclusive rights to cover this event. We go to her now, as she reports on location. Cecile?" The view switched to Cecile in front of the hotel.
"Thank you, Phil. I am here in front of The Bonne Chance Hotel and Casino in Bossier City where earlier this evening I was invited to attend the wedding of Eric Northman and Sookie Stackhouse. It is a little after four a.m. here, and the reception has just wound down, although the happy couple actually departed a few hours ago."
Her image was replaced with a montage of photos from the ballet and the charity ball, followed by several she had apparently taken during the ceremony and reception. She continued her narration in a voice over, "here we have several pictures of the couple before the wedding, attending the ballet and the charity ball for the local children's hospital. I used my cell phone to capture the other images from the wedding and reception. The bride wore a beautiful white chiffon gown embroidered around the midriff with small pale pink roses. The wedding party was unconventional to say the least as the bride's brother Jason Stackhouse stood with her instead of a maid-of-honor, and the groom's child Pamela Ravenscroft stood with him instead of a best man. Other attendants included Lafayette Reynolds, manager of The Enchanted Forest – the business owned by the Stackhouse siblings, and Louisiana Vampire Liaison Officer Rasul al Basir. One of the highlights of the evening occurred when the president of the United States sent his congratulations to the happy couple live via closed circuit television broadcast." An image of the president on a television on the wall of the ballroom was displayed.
"These next images are of the bride and groom's first dance at the reception, where Mr. Northman took his new bride for a magical flight around the dance floor." There followed a series of pictures of Sookie and me both on and above the dance floor.
"Wow," Sookie whispered, "that looks pretty cool…" It did indeed.
Cecile continued, "and I captured this as the bride and groom were making their farewell, and I need to warn you that this was recorded with a cell phone and not the usual camera equipment, but I think it captures the couple's personalities quite well…"
She must have a very good cell phone, because the broadcast then cut to a recording of us on stage, where I had almost handed the microphone back to the DJ, but instead I began to speak, "One last thing… I want the record to reflect that I was perfectly willing to partake of this glorious party until morning, but it seems my bride just can't wait to have her way with me…" The video then showed Sookie's embarrassment as she buried her face in her hands, followed by the crowd laughing riotously, with the accompanying applause, whoops, and cheers.
"Oh my God, I can't believe they showed that!" Sookie almost squealed, face-palming again, but I could only laugh.
The news camera returned to a smiling Cecile, "aren't they adorable? Back to you, Phil."
The broadcast returned to the anchor in the studio, who was also smiling, "thank you Cecile, they are indeed. And on behalf of everyone at CNN, I want to wish the happy couple many happy returns on their wedding. Next up…" I hit the power off button, and I was still chuckling.
I shook my head, "I've been called a lot of things in my long life, but I doubt 'adorable' was ever one of them…"
That made Sookie chuckle, "well, my adorable husband, let's go to bed, shall we?"
I smiled at her, "we shall, my adorable wife…"
AN: Thank you so much to all who reviewed since the last time, as of 9/28/20: Vikings Succubus (who submitted review number 1400 – woo hoo!), Lbot1979, Valconwing, Asami's clown, EricFan71 Duckbutt, April4evr, FanFicGirl 5000, VAlady, Perfecta999, princessspot5, bttrflybelle
