Chapter 61 –The New Normal?

Last time:

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…"

Now:

When we got down to our bedroom, we both decided that the marriage wouldn't be official until we made love in our own bed. And we were determined to be official. We were determined three times.

Afterward, Sookie was finally tired and fell asleep in my arms. I listened to the soft cadence of her breathing, and I looked down at my own Sleeping Beauty, even hearing the music from the ballet in my head. It was only then that I finally allowed a single tear to roll down my cheek. I'd read in some philosophy book somewhere that observing sublime beauty or experiencing truly sublime happiness was almost more than some people could bear. When I read that it didn't make any sense at the time, but I completely understood it now. I felt like my heart might explode. I just lay there looking at her and softly caressing her back for almost an hour.

I eased out of bed trying not to wake Sookie. I went to the bathroom and washed my face. I slipped on a pair of my black satin lounge pants (yes, I bought them in bulk) and crossed to my computer. I sent an email to my day man to pick up Sookie's things from the penthouse. I wanted them waiting for her here when she arose so she wouldn't have to give them a second thought.

I then went up to the kitchen on the first floor and memorized where various things were. I wanted to surprise my bride when she woke up. I then went to the wide windows in the den in the back and enjoyed the sunny morning – and thanked Freya once again for giving me the reason I could stand here. I remembered that Sookie had placed her necklace on the foyer table, so I went and put it in my safe. She probably had no idea that is cost more than half a million dollars.

Finally, I went back down to our bed chamber, climbed into bed, and pulled my wife into my arms just before I fell into a blissful and dreamless sleep.

When I woke, Sookie was still asleep, snuggled up to my side. Very good. I looked over at the clock, and it almost two in the afternoon. She's been asleep for almost eight hours; she must have been truly tired. But I thought she would be getting up soon. I went upstairs grabbed a bag of blood to start my day, and I started on my surprise. It wasn't quite as easy as I'd thought it would be, but I was just finishing up when I heard her walk into the kitchen.

"There you are," she greeted me, followed by silence. "What are you doing?" I turned around to hold up the freshly plated bacon, scrambled eggs, and biscuits and gravy. She gasped and clapped her hands to the sides of her face, "you are kidding me. You made this?"

"Yes, I did. Now if you will just have a seat here at the bar." She didn't move at first, perhaps a little stunned, and then climbed up onto a barstool. I set the plate on the placemat I had laid down beforehand, complete with napkin and silverware. She just stared at the plate for a moment. "But wait, there's more," I added and she giggled. "I've watched you make this in the past, so I hope I got it right as I handed her a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

"Well, it all looks great," she said somewhat apprehensively. She looked up at me, and she cracked up. "Eric, you look like you are waiting for a jury to return with a verdict." Then she picked up her fork and took a bite of the eggs. "Wow, this is really good!" she sounded surprised.

"I told you that I thought I could replicate what you made that day. Never underestimate vampire total recall," I smiled.

She put her fork down and put both of her hands over her mouth, and her eyes were wide. I looked at her in question. "How long can this last," she asked.

What? "What do you mean, my love?" I asked.

"That I will grow more in love with you every day," she responded with an unshed tear on one of her eyelids.

I tilted my head to the side, "Sookie, I just prepared your breakfast. I didn't find a cure for cancer." My statement was followed by a moment of silence while my face slid into a smirk, and then she laughed and started into her breakfast in earnest.

"Seriously, Eric, this is really good. Well done, you," she added. I felt like preening until she added, "could you pass me the salt?"

"Did I do something wrong?" I asked.

She smiled, "not at all, I just want a little more salt, that's all." She must have seen the puzzled look on my face because she added with a smile, "it's just something humans do, my Eric. Sometimes we want things a little more salty. It has nothing to do with the skill of the chef. People do it all the time at even the finest restaurants."

I still found that questionable, but I handed her the salt shaker and watched as she shook it over the eggs and the gravy over the biscuits. When she put the shaker down I just looked at it wondering about this particular cooking ingredient. After a minute I picked it up and put a little into the palm of my hand. I looked at the miniscule crystals in my palm. I touched my index finger to them in my palm, and when I looked at that finger there were only a few of the crystals on the tip. My curiosity got the best of me, and I touched that fingertip to my tongue. Huh… I thought trying to calculate what that added to human food. I looked up and saw Sookie smiling at me.

"So, should I add more of this to your food in the future?" I asked.

She answered in a tone that I recognized as humoring me, "no, my Eric. What you prepared for me was just how I like it. Even when Gran cooks meals for me, sometimes I just want a little more salt," she paused, "shoot, sometimes when I cook for myself, I add more salt afterward. I don't know why… But it has no bearing on your monumental achievement with this excellent breakfast." She looked at me with such love in her eyes, then she scrunched up her nose, "also, it's really easy to put too much salt and make the food practically inedible, so don't change a thing. I can't believe that you did this for me!"

I smiled because I realized that I wasn't in any way lying to Freyda last night when I said that Sookie was what I now lived for. I looked at my goddess, and I realized that any man, especially any supernatural man, would covet this woman. And she was MINE. Utterly and completely. Without knowing it or even thinking about preventing it, I let out a contented sigh.

She smiled back at me while chewing her food. When she finished her chewing, she said, "that's cool."

"What?" I asked.

"That… that feeling of… I don't know how to describe it... mellow satisfaction, I guess..." she shared.

I chuckled internally, because that was exactly how I would have described contentedness, which was exactly what I was feeling.

Suddenly Sookie did a topic change, "Did you get any rest today, my Eric?" And she seemed quite concerned.

Again, I smiled at her, "yes, my love. I had a peaceful and dreamless rest. I just happened to arise before you, and I seized the opportunity to make you breakfast."

"Uhm… do you need breakfast?" she asked.

I threw my head back and laughed, "my beautiful bride, we are not living in a… tit for tat situation. I had my breakfast when I first arose." She looked down and shook her head. And when she looked up at me again she was smiling. I went on, "Sookie, I love you more than anything, I think you know that by now. This was just my 'morning after' gift to you." I turned and looked at the clock on the stove, "even though it's well into the afternoon." I leaned down with my forearms on the bar opposite her, "what's on the agenda for today?"

"Well, we leave for Washington tomorrow, so I'm going to figure out what I'm taking, and pack. Do you know how long we'll be there? What we'll be doing?"

"Be right back," I answered, then vamp-sped to my computer, printed out the information that I'd been sent, and came back. "According to this, we leave Shreveport at 8:45 p.m. and arrive in Washington at 1:29 a.m."

"It takes that long to fly there?" she asked. "Oh yeah, they're an hour ahead of us…"

"I didn't want to travel in a coffin, so they arranged this after-dark flight," I shrugged. "OK, besides packing for our trip, what do you want to do?"

"Hmmm… we haven't played our board games for a while… Maybe we could go out to a restaurant for dinner later?" she suggested. "What do you want to do?"

"Both of those sound great to me. I don't really have any other plans, either."

She chuckled, "I guess we put so much energy into making it through the wedding that it feels kind of strange just to have it behind us." I raised my eyebrows and nodded in agreement.

"I agree, my love, but our lives have also been in almost constant turmoil since we met. It seems strange, even to me, to finally have a worry-free day," I told her.

"So, where do you think we should go for dinner?" she asked.

I thought for a moment, "why don't we go to an Italian restaurant, in honor of our upcoming honeymoon? In fact, I know just the place…"

"Let me guess, it's a supe-owned restaurant you've invested in…" she smiled.

"That's why I know it's the best," I smiled. She looked to the side pondering something. "What is it, Sookie?"

She shook her head, "I thought you were just constantly on the lookout for investments for profits, but that is just a side-effect for you. You obviously don't need the money. In reality, you are helping people, supes in particular, become a success. Right?"

I mulled over my answer, "I guess so… I am the Sheriff of Area 5, and it's my responsibility to be the caretaker of this area. But I'm not completely altruistic, Sookie. I only invest in businesses that I truly believe have a chance for success."

"But some of these businesses wouldn't have succeeded without your help, right?" I shrugged. "Oh my God, like I said before, just when I think I can't possibly love you anymore than I already do, I discover something even more wonderful about you!" And then she started laughing… really, really laughing.

After about a minute I began to become concerned, "Sookie, are you OK?"

She started calming down a little, "My God, Eric. The world already thinks you're a hero, but they don't know the half of it, do they?" And she was off laughing again. I couldn't quite figure out why this was so funny. She must have deciphered my confusion through the bond, and I could feel her trying unsuccessfully to calm down more. "Don't you see, Eric? You saved America, literally, but that was just the broad stroke, wasn't it? You also help sick children and the environment, and you make investments, wise ones or not, in people. Your investments have ripple effects. You put braces on their kids' teeth and… and… and," and now she was starting to get emotional in an entirely different direction, but she continued, "you saved Rasul long ago, and you saved Francois." By now she had tears rolling down her cheeks. "You even saved me when you didn't have to. If your curiosity hadn't made you look into what the queen was after, where would I even be right now?" And now she was sobbing.

I raced around the bar and grabbed her to me. I just said, shhhhhhh, as I hugged and gently rocked while trying to send love, calm, and happiness through the bond. She began to calm down, but I continued to hug and sway with her.

Soon she calmed enough to let out a little chuckle. With her face against my chest, she said, "I can feel when you do that, you know…" She pulled her tear-streaked face back and looked up at me. "The first time you did it was last night during our farewell at the wedding, right?"

I smiled, "actually, yes. It hadn't even occurred to me to try it before. But when I saw your reaction to my attempt last night I figured out that I could 'send' emotions to you."

"And that's fine, for the most part," Sookie said with a huge amount of equivocation. "It will be great in situations like this, when I'm feeling distraught, and yes, yes, yes I know we've been through a whole heck-of-a-lot recently, so my little melt-down is kind of understandable, BUT I wanted you to know that I can feel when you do that…"

"OK?" I responded.

"So… don't ever, and I mean ever abuse that ability. Got it?" she smiled.

I looked at her for a moment assessing her feelings, and then I smiled, "yes, ma'am."

"Though, I appreciate your efforts to calm me down right now," she sighed. "I guess the bottom line of this entire discussion is that you are even more magnificent than I thought you were before, you silly doofus."

I chuckled, "as always, my love, your terms of endearment are ever surprising." At that we both totally cracked up. "What do you say that we play a board game until we need to, you know, do more? And then we move on out to the pool. There's something about being in the water with you that is just so enticing."

She chuckled merrily, "you'd think that I was a water fae with our love of our pool…"I had to chuckle at that statement as well.

We moved into the den and pulled out Scrabble. The rules were, whenever either of us had either a triple word or triple letter score, the other had to remove an article of clothing. I think this was my favorite of our games. I fancied myself that I had a pretty good English vocabulary. However, so did my Sookie.

It was a good game, and I ended up naked, not that I was complaining. Ah well… Kind of a win/win, if you ask me. Then we moved it out to the pool in the late afternoon sun, where we did make love, but mostly we just frolicked, which was also just fine by me.

Later we went to Luigi's which I knew to serve the best Italian food in Shreveport. As we were heading out the front door to my car, we noticed that our wedding clothes were still in the living room and dining room. "Oh my, I didn't even think about these still being up here," Sookie said.

"Don't worry about it now. We can pick them up when we get back," and we were off to dinner. I chuckled as we pulled into the parking lot as I wondered how many cities in America, or in the world for that matter, had an Italian restaurant named Luigi's. Anyway… I pulled up to the valet parking and there was a line outside waiting to request a table, and the valet went to Sookie's door as I climbed out of the driver's seat. Immediately the people in line, as well as the valet staff recognized us. I walked around the front of my car and extended my hand to Sookie. She took it as they all started shouting.

She looked up at me, and I could hear, in spite of the shouting, the clicks of cell phones taking pictures. We both smiled and waved at them as we walked up to the front door and let ourselves into the restaurant.

Once inside the restaurant, we went straight to the hostess station, bypassing all of those who were waiting in line to put their names in for a table. Luckily, I had called ahead to let them know we were coming. I thought it only prudent on a Saturday night with one of the most popular restaurants in Shreveport.

The hostess was Luigi's wife Caitlyn, hardly an Italian name – since she was a native of Shreveport – and she looked up at me and smiled. "Mr. and Mrs. Northman, we've been expecting you." I smiled when I heard Sookie sigh happily at her greeting. Truth be told, I also enjoyed hearing the Mr. and Mrs. greeting. Everyone standing in the line turned to look in our direction. Again, I heard the soft clicks of cell phone cameras. Caitlyn then walked from behind the hostess stand, "follow me, please." She led us to a table next to a wall mural of Venetian canals. Perfect. She then handed us the two differently sized menus. "Someone will be with you in a moment." Then she turned and walked away.

Sookie perused her menu for a few moments and then closed it and set it down. "Did you decide on what you want?" I asked.

"I did," she declared. She looked up at the mural next to us and smiled, "I'm really looking forward to Venice, my Eric. Thank you for bringing me here. I especially want to go on a late-night gondola ride with you."

"Then you shall, my Sookie," I smiled. "Maybe more than once…" She beamed back at me.

Just then the waiter arrived, "buona sera, my name is Chip, and I will be you're server tonight. What can I bring you to drink?" I kept a straight face in spite of how hilarious that introduction was.

I could feel that Sookie was equally amused, but she also maintained a straight face. "I'll have the Ruffino Chianti Reserve, please."

"Bottle or glass?" he asked.

"Uhmmm… bring the bottle, why don't you?" she answered with a smile. He left to get the wine. "Don't you find it kind of, I don't know, weird that all those people were checking us out?"

I nodded, "well, we were in the news a lot before, and I'll bet news of our wedding repeated on television throughout the day…" I shrugged as I reached across the table to take her hand.

She shook her head, "I'm trying to think of a time when I was this interested in someone else's life… and I'm coming up blank…"

I chuckled, "my Sookie, that is what separates you from the rest. You aren't obsessed with 'fame' – yours or anyone else's. I confess that I don't fully understand it myself, but it seems that a lot of people in the world today are."

Chip returned with the wine, opened it, and poured a glass for Sookie. "Are you ready to order?" he asked. We both nodded.

"I'll have the Chicken della Casa, please," Sookie said.

"Excellent choice. What pasta would you like with that, fettuccine, spaghetti, or angel hair?"

"Angel hair, I think," she responded. He wrote it down.

"Soup or salad?"

"House salad with ranch dressing."

"Very good, and for you?" he asked looking at me.

"Royalty blended, please."

"With the salad or the entrée?" he asked. He seemed very direct and to the point.

"With the salad," I answered.

"Very well. I'll be right back with the salad and your drink." And then he was gone.

"He's a little nervous; he knows who you are," Sookie observed. "But, so far, he's doing a good job."

"What is the chicken of the house?" I asked having mentally translated 'della casa'.

"Well, I imagine it is different for every Italian restaurant, but this one is chicken, sautéed mushrooms, and spinach in a white wine and cream sauce…" she smiled. "You know, there may come a day when I have to change my eating habits to reduce calories or carbs or whatever, but between the physicality of working at The Enchanted Forest, and our… uhm… conjugal activities, I don't see that being necessary anytime soon."

I just looked at her for a moment, absorbing her comment, and then I just cracked up laughing. "Conjugal, eh?" I smirked and she giggled.

Just then Chip arrived with her salad and my Royalty blended.

She must have been hungry because she practically attacked her salad. A thought occurred to me, "what exactly is 'spinach'," I asked.

She just looked at me for a moment. "Seriously?" she asked. I nodded wondering why she seemed so surprised by the question. "Well, it is a green, leafy vegetable, kind of like lettuce but not. Spinacia oleracea. It was originally native to central and western Asia." I raised my eyebrows to her at her explanation. "Remember, Eric, I have a degree in botany."

I smiled as I nodded, "yes, you do, my love"

She continued, "to be honest, most kids hate spinach, but I love it, always have. It's a very healthy food." OK, I thought. I guess I'd wait until her meal arrived to see what it looked like, so I just nodded. A few minutes later her entrée arrived. She took a deep 'whiff' of her meal and smiled.

She pointed to one of the green strips in her bowl, and said, "this is the spinach, Eric. It has been cooked down, normally it is very leafy…"

I didn't even know why it mattered, but I was glad that she had shared this information with me. I guess I just wanted to understand human nutritional requirements because my love needed to be healthy. I looked up and she was smiling at me.

"Eric, I am very nutrition-conscious. So, just relax, my love…"

I smiled and nodded at her, and again I wondered how she seemed to read my mind. All I wanted was for her to be healthy and happy. I smiled as I watched her enjoy her meal. I was especially fascinated at how she twirled and twirled the pasta onto her fork. I slowly sipped my Royalty Blended to try and match her human eating pace. It occurred to me that, in spite of our wedding festivities, we hadn't exchanged blood in several days, and I was beginning to wonder why I had turned it down when she offered this afternoon. That realization increased my desire for it, which suddenly became inconvenient, given our current circumstances. I looked up at her, and I could tell she was feeling the dilemma.

"Are you OK, my Eric?" She looked at me for a moment then smirked, "that Royalty Blended isn't doing it for you, is it?"

I shook my head, "how do you do that?" I asked in wonder.

She thought for a moment, "hmm, well, we were talking about nutrition… you're watching me take every bite… we haven't done an exchange in a while, and I can feel this… need… arising in you." She shrugged.

She was so damn smart. "Maybe later you can help me fill my… need?"

"I thought you'd never ask," she smiled and winked. Well, alrighty then.

As much as I usually enjoyed watching Sookie eat, especially when she was making her sexy yummy noises – which she was doing in abundance – tonight she seemed to be eating more slowly than usual. I smiled internally as I realized just how much I was craving her – she must be my own personal version of 'chocolate'. I wondered, "Sookie, is chocolate your favorite food?"

That question also took her by surprise, but then her deductive mind must have put together my train of thought, and she smiled, "well, it certainly is one of my favorites. Well, as you already know I love crawfish etouffee, and I also love cinnamon, I love buttered warm freshly baked bread, a really good cheeseburger, and… well a few other things as well," she paused before continuing without looking up at me, "I would really miss all of these things if I could no longer eat them."

Her meaning was not lost on me, and I nodded in understanding. My heart must have felt a little sad at the revelation because she reached across the table and put her hand on mine.

"I'm not saying never, my Eric," was all she said for a moment. Then she added, "just not right now, OK?"

I smiled at her, "we have a lot of time, my love." We were silent for a moment, and then a thought struck me, "Sookie, if something were to happen – an accident or something that put you prematurely on death's door, so to speak, would you forgive me if I changed you then?"

She mulled that over, "of course, I would forgive you. I don't want to die – as you say, prematurely – however," she paused and looked at me pointedly, "death better be pretty flippin' imminent before you make that choice for me, though."

In spite of her stern look of warning, I breathed an internal sigh of relief and nodded. I didn't want to tell her how many times I'd dreamed, imagined, or just thought of death taking her away from me, pre-maturely or otherwise.

After a few moments of silence, she added, "come to think of it, now that I know that my death will lead to yours, I want you to change me in that scenario… I don't want anything to happen to you either, my Eric." I was somewhat surprised that the fact of my subsequent death had not even figured into my thinking, but it was certainly an important consideration.

Finally, she had finished her meal, I'd paid, and we were walking out of the restaurant. In addition to patrons waiting to get in, there was now also a small squad of paparazzi with their flashing cameras. "Good grief," I heard Sookie whisper through a rather forced smile. Fortunately, I had given Chip my valet parking ticket when I'd paid for the meal so we were able to just walk to the car and get in. However, the paparazzi decided to stand in front of the car and block our exit. Well, that was new. "What are we going to do, Eric?" Sookie asked as I began to feel a little fear ratchet up inside her when she noticed that several were behind the car as well. "Is this even legal?" she asked.

"Probably not… Hold on," I told her pulling my phone out of my jacket. I didn't have to wait long for an answer, "Caitlyn, this is Eric Northman. We have a little problem out here in front of your restaurant…" I looked toward the restaurant and could see her walking, phone in hand, to the door. "OK, thank you, and my compliments to Luigi for an excellent meal."

Sookie asked, "so what did she say?"

I smiled at her, "one of the advantages of investing in supe businesses… You'll see…" We didn't have to wait long until four very large Weres came out the front door followed by a mountain of a man in a chef's uniform, and in very short order they had removed the paparazzi in front of my car by quietly lifting each one of them by the back of their shirts or jackets and out of the way. Nothing violent, just removal by people who were simply bigger and stronger. I gave a nod to the big man before we drove away.

"Wow, that guy was really big! I think he'd make even you look small," Sookie said in wonder.

I chuckled, "yes, he would. That, my dear, was Luigi himself. He's an Italian werebear. They are usually much bigger in their human form as well," I informed her.

"Do you think they might write something bad about us because we just had those guys … moved?" she asked.

"That is the reason I didn't want to try to handle it myself. In this case it was the restaurant employees who simply dealt with a problem in their parking lot." I looked at her, "plus, these guys weren't legitimate reporters. They were strictly paparazzi who hope to make a few bucks by selling our pictures to scandal sheets and gossip rags."

"Gossip rags?" she giggled.

"Oh yes, my Sookie. Do not be surprised if you pick up one of those 'rags' some day and read something about yourself like, I don't know… entering the Bette Ford Clinic to deal with some addiction rehabilitation."

"WHAT?" she asked.

"It happens to celebrities all the time," I explained.

There was a long pause. "But… I'm not really a celebrity…" she finally said.

"You are now, Sookie. Hopefully, things will die down, but I'm beginning to doubt that," I answered. I looked over at her, "the Internet has a way of perpetuating fame, I've noticed."

She finally looked out of the car window, "Uhmm, Eric? Where are we? Where are we going?"

I let out a sigh, "I was hoping you wouldn't notice, but when we pulled out of the restaurant parking lot, I saw several cars pull out after us. So until I lose them all, we are just going on a little tour of Shreveport. I would rather not show them where we live."

"Oh my God!" she replied, and again I could feel a little fear ratchet up inside her.

I grabbed her hand and kissed it, "do not be afraid. I've got this." I smiled over at her. Since the cat was out of the bag, I started darting onto side streets over and over. Then back onto a main artery, and I checked my rear view mirrors. There were still a of the couple cars following. I turned at the last minute onto another side street, then again onto another before either of the cars behind us had turned onto the first, then another turn so they wouldn't see us as they passed the intersection.

Sookie let out a little giggle, "you are enjoying this aren't you?"

I smirked, "I confess that I am. Doesn't this car handle beautifully?"

"Uhmmm, ok, Bullitt," she laughed.

"I LOVE that movie," I told her, which only made her laugh harder. "I'm a little surprised that you know it, though. It was released at least fifty years ago."

"Jason… he loved car chase movies when we were growing up… so I saw it a few times on television with him," she responded.

I looked in the rear view mirrors again, "it looks like we have lost them all, so now we can head home."

She nodded, and then a thought must have occurred to her, "Eric, what do I do if they show up at The Enchanted Forest and try to follow me home?"

Good thinking. "I'll think of a plan that we can work out with Clovache if we need to," I told her. "Since we know she can drive, perhaps it will be as simple as popping you home and then returning later to retrieve your truck… I don't think they would follow her if you weren't in the vehicle."

She shrugged, "I guess that could work." She was not happy about it though.

"This won't last forever, Sookie. Even if we somehow remain in the public eye longer, I don't think this frenzy will last much longer," I answered and then thought about it. "Actually, with the award presentation in Washington day after tomorrow, it might actually get worse for a little while, but then it will start to die down."

"I sure hope so," she replied. I silently agreed.

Finally, we pulled into the garage at our house. We both let out a sigh of relief, and then turned and laughed together.

Sookie shook her head, "I don't know what I'd do without at least one adventure every day…" I put my arm around her shoulder as we entered the house through the kitchen. She went to the living room and picked up her tiara/veil combination, separating them. She held the tiara out to me, "do you think you can put this into your safe as well? My granddaddy gave it to me as a gift especially for my wedding."

I took it from her examining it closely. I had thought it was just a rhinestone tiara, such as one that you could purchase at a bridal shop, but upon closer inspection I could tell that it was worth at least as much as her necklace, if not more. "If I had known how valuable this is, I would have put it away with the necklace early this morning."

She shrugged, "how were you to know? I think it was really sweet for him to give it to me. Apparently it's been in the Brigant family for a very long time."

So, it was definitely worth more than the necklace. I just loved how my Sookie merely thought of this gift as 'sweet'. It didn't diminish how much she valued it, but she wasn't the type to be overly-impressed just by the cost of things. She picked up her wedding gown and walked over to the neat pile of her possessions that my day man had placed on the sofa and opened a large vinyl garment bag that the dress had obviously come in. She placed it on the padded hanger, into the bag, and zipped it up. There was also a box for the veil. I placed my tux over my arm and picked up the rest of Sookie's things from the penthouse, and then we went downstairs and hung them carefully in the closet. But then I had a different idea, "Sookie, do you want to get your dress cleaned before we store it away? I can have my day man handle that as well. I'm going to get my tux cleaned."

"Good idea," she said as she handed me the dress bag. I ran the items to an upstairs closet that Bruce could access during the day.

When I came back out to the ground floor, Sookie was waiting for me, and she took my hand and led me out to the pool. I reached down and kissed her while she began undressing, as did I. Soon we were in the water together, and I once again brought her down onto my waiting erection. We both closed our eyes in bliss, and just stayed still and connected for a while. Then she reached behind me to pull something from her clothes, and I was a little surprised when I saw it was the ornate knife I kept in the drawer by our bed. She was smiling wickedly. Gods, but I loved her. I took the knife from her, and we made love until we were very close to our orgasms, and only then did I make a slice in my neck. Sookie latched on quickly, and I gently sank my fangs into her neck and the taste of her had my eyes rolling back in my head. We continued moving while we both drank, and soon we were both shouting with our releases, along with the blast of light which seemed even bigger than it had ever been.

Afterward we just lay our heads on each other's shoulders, panting. "I love you, my Eric," she finally said in a breathless voice.

At first all I could do was nod in agreement. Then I found my voice, "I love you so fucking much, my Sookie." I kissed her temple, her cheek, her lips. I put my hands on either side of her face and looked her in the eyes, "so fucking much." I laid my forehead against hers, and we just stayed that way for a long time.

AN: I've got to say that my muse has returned with a happy vengeance. My brain is just exploding with so many ideas for continuing this story now, and I'm in such a better living situation than I was before. I'm just trying to figure out how I want to continue. I say this fully realizing that my 2+ year hiatus may have lost a lot of readers. Currently, I'm leaning toward bringing The Enchanted Forest to a close (mainly because typing 'Complete' really appeals to me) and following with a sequel. What do you think?

Thank you to all who have reviewed since the last chapter posted, you guys make me so, so happy, as of 10/03/20: Asami's clown, Duckbutt, FanFicGirl5000, Nicolle 1977, VAlady, kristenbk33, Perfecta999, jackie69, ciasteczko, MaryAnnieValentine, AmandaKate92, Valconwing, Vikings Succubus, bttrflybelle, Barb, msbuffi