AN: Thank to everyone who left feedback, it is very thoughtful and appreciated. I'm sorry I don't have time to reply individually, but I am working on the next part. That's more important, right?

Enjoy!

III

Eric and I awoke at the same time the next day. We'd had a long night of talking, then sexing and I felt a pleasant ache in my muscles as I stretched. Eric leaned over me and grinned.

"Morning, lover."

"Good morning." I was grinning like a Cheshire cat. I felt light with relief and giddy with happiness. I felt like nothing could ruin my mood right now.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Mmm, I feel like I could fly."

He laughed. "Just don't go trying without me around."

I wound my arms around his neck. "Would you catch me?"

"That depends."

"Oh what?"

"How grateful you'd be."

"Oh, I'd be very, very grateful," I assured him, pulling his lips down to mine.

Unfortunately we had a meeting with Felipe and the hoteliers soon so we ended the kiss before it became too passionate. I wished we had longer before we had to leave. I could tell Eric was also in the mood for something a little more amorous as well.

I groaned. "I don't want to get up."

Eric's hands began wandering. "I can have you screaming with ecstasy in five minutes."

"Then prove it," I challenged.

He did. Twice.

We quickly showered together and quickly dressed for our meeting. Eric wore one of his suits so he would fit in. Unfortunately he looked so sexy in it that I wanted nothing more than to rip it off him, but I needed to restrain myself. We would have the rest of the night for that.

Before the meeting Felipe gave me a hand held data pad. I could write on it using a specialist pen and send it to Felipe's PDA. This was all a little above my head, but I thought I got how to use it. Bill would have loved this, he was a real gadget man these days. His skills came in very handy when I needed to use the timer on my video recorder.

The meeting was in Felipe's board room, next to his office. There were a lot more people today, eight with Felipe and six with Michael Vanson. Thanks to yesterday's meeting Felipe knew exactly what to ask, but he took his time and eased gently into the more difficult questions. I assumed he was putting them at ease.

Even as he asked about the odd transactions, his questions seemed like polite queries and his manner said he was sorry to even have to ask.

I was getting better and better at using my gift and now I could flip through sections of someone's mind rather than just reading specific thoughts. I could scan any memory close to their current thought. For example, if someone was thinking about their mother, I could also discover things about their father, siblings, children and grandparents but I wouldn't be able tell you about their work, car or favourite TV shows unless they thought about a topic related to those subjects.

Thanks to this, after only two questions I knew what was going on. I wrote "Fraud! Hotel chain is hugely overvalued," on my pad and sent it to Felipe's PDA.

Felipe looked down at the device as my message reached him but his face gave no indication that anything was wrong. After about another fifteen minutes Felipe called a coffee break and ushered Eric, me and two other people into his office.

"What did you discover?" he asked me, no messing around. And no fatherly attitude today. I made a note to ask Eric what yesterday had been about.

"There's a second division to the company, car hire," I began.

"Yes," he agreed. "It's not doing very well, it's heavily in debt, that's why we're not looking at buying that business."

"Actually it's doing very well. The hotels aren't. They want to offload the hotels and keep the car hire but the price they'd get for the hotel chain is minimal. What they've done is take out large loans on the car side which, first, makes that look unprofitable with all the repayments and second, gives them funds to put into the hotels. They've been giving the hotel managers a maintenance budget every month, from between 5 and 15 thousand dollars. What isn't used for maintenance, which is most of it, they told the managers to put through as profit, making them look much more profitable than they really are. Once you've bought the hotels they pay off the loans with that money, have a nice chunk of change left and the profitable business, leaving you with a lot of real estate and at best, a mediocre business."

Felipe absorbed all this then stepped away from me. Eric put his hand on my shoulder, silently telling me I'd done well.

Felipe looked at the other human he'd brought in. "Well?" he asked.

"We have him. This is highly illegal, we have the documentation to prove it now that we know where to look and there would be jail time involved. You can pretty much name your price in return for keeping silent."

He must be Felipe's lawyer.

Felipe grinned. It wasn't a pleasant sight. "Excellent!" he rubbed his hands together. "Excellent."

Felipe spent a few more minutes thinking, during which time Eric left the office and got me a coffee since I seemed unwilling to move. Though he was happy right now, Felipe had never scared me more. His thrill in his triumph removed all the carefully cultivated humanity from his features. He looked exactly like the monster he was and I was wary of him.

A few minutes later we all returned to the boardroom. Felipe's pleasant human look was back in place, but I wasn't fooled. I was about to see someone beaten into submission and I wasn't looking forward to it.

I realised that Michael Vanson had brought this on himself. Ripping anyone off was risky, trying to rip vampires off was akin to having a death wish. He'd done this to himself (albeit with my help).

As much as this business mauling was justified, that didn't mean I wanted to see it. Just like there were some murders so awful I thought the killer deserved the electric chair, that didn't mean I wanted to watch him die.

I knew I was needed though, I had to pass Vanson's thoughts to Felipe.

The meeting started civilly enough and when Felipe went in for the kill, it came so swiftly even I was taken by surprise.

Vanson was totally shocked and it took him a good five minutes before he processed the fact that his fraud had been discovered. Everyone waited patiently for him to make the next move and I relayed his (disjointed) thoughts to Felipe.

It turned out his next move was to run. Sweating profusely, finally realising the danger in what he'd done, Vanson headed to the doors. It was a stupid thing to do. Even if he got out of the room, his chances of getting out of the hotel were marginal. The doors were locked.

He turned back to the table. He had no real thoughts right now, just blind panic. Felipe (and everyone else) waited for him to calm down.

The fact that the king's people remained unruffled seemed to help and finally he returned to the table and sat down. A few moments later he finally spoke.

"What do you want?" he asked gruffly. Boy, he really did have a death wish.

Felipe named his price. Much lower than Michael Vanson had wanted but not as low as I thought he'd go. I thought he'd offer five dollars or something. The price was insulting, but liveable.

It took another thirty-five minutes for the agreement to be hatched out, contracts signed and reluctant handshakes exchanged. We were finally free to leave.

I felt exhausted. Vanson's panic was draining and when Eric asked what I wanted to do next I told him, "I want to try that massive hot tub in our room, then I want to curl up with a movie." I opened our suite door and began stripping my suit off.

Eric looked surprised. "Really? Our first day as a-"

I cut him off with a kiss. "Shh, you were right, I was making a big deal over nothing. So let's go and do nothing."

Eric raised an eyebrow. "Nothing? That's what we're calling it now?"

I shrugged, backing away towards the bathroom. "Well, nothing special."

His eyes blazed and I could have sworn he growled. The next thing I knew I was being dunked in the hot tub. I shrieked even though the water was warm. Although I didn't stand a chance of overpowering Eric, he let me pull him in after me.

"Do you have any idea how much this suit cost?" he asked, enjoying how see-through the water had made my shirt.

"No, but I can tell you it's probably worthless now." I began to strip him out of the formerly expensive suit.

III

It wasn't until nearly dawn when I remembered to ask Eric. "What was with Felipe's behaviour in his office last night?"

We were sitting on the sofa, my back to his chest, watching Terminator 2. Eric liked action films, quel surprise.

"I've been officially forbidden to tell you," he said. I was glad that my back was to him because I was sure the pain was visible on my face. I thought we were beyond secrets after last night but perhaps that was naive of me. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I almost didn't realise he was still speaking.

"… forget that or it'll be both our heads. Felipe is considering marrying the brunette vampire and that was a preliminary meeting."

It took me a moment to register that, though forbidden, he was telling me.

"Oh, so she's a queen?"

"Yes. Alice Firth, the Queen of California. It's a good union of two tourist states but it's in its early days. It could be another year or more before they make it official."

"Thank you for telling me."

"I would trust you with my life."

"Thank you." I turned to him and kissed him gently on the lips. "So why was he acting like that to me?"

"Because you're famous among our kind, love. He wanted to show that you are his and that he is close to you but he knows I would never allow him to claim a more intimate relationship."

Oh, well that sort of made sense. "What do you mean, I'm famous?"

Eric smiled. "Word spreads among our kind. You are well respected by the Texas vampires, your rescue of Bill from Russell's own home is almost legendary, Sophie Anne spoke very highly of you and of course you saved many lives in Rhodes."

I'd always figured you had to be on TV to be famous.

"So why did he want you there?" I hoped that wasn't insensitive.

Eric didn't seem to think so. "He needed someone to represent Louisiana and I was already here. My only job was to make Felipe look good. And," he hesitated slightly, "if the wedding goes ahead, he will want me there so that you will be there."

"So I can read the humans thoughts?" I said sullenly. My job at Merlotte's was suddenly looking even more like a distant memory.

"Yes."

"But I'm not allowed to know?" This was strange.

"Not yet. Only those in the room are permitted to know of the possibility. To everyone else she is here on business."

"Will they be at the party tomorrow?" We'd heard that Felipe was throwing a party to celebrate his success today.

"She will. I think half the point of the celebration is to show off for her."

"Then I'll just say I heard about it from her companion's thoughts. Who, by the way, thought you were major league hot." I said. Her thoughts had been blatant, though she was there as the Queen's lover.

"I know," he smirked. "But humans don't really appeal to me."

I gasped and swatted his shoulder playfully. "Fine, I'll remember that next time you get horny."

"Aah, but you are more than human, and you know it," he crooned.

"Sweet talker." I looked out of the windows, the sky was just a shade or two lighter than night. "Do you think we have time?" I asked.

Eric nodded. "Dawn is about fifteen minutes away."

"Wow, you could do it three times by then," I teased.

I really should learn not to tease Eric. While he wasn't up to three climaxes he proved that he could in fact bring me to three mind blowing orgasms in that time leaving me sated, exhausted and not a little bit sore.

III

Since business had been completed last night, Mona had slipped a new itinerary under the door for me. The only things left were the celebration party and a few good times to meet with the ghost writer.

I was still very tender after last night and had opted to sate Eric's lust slightly differently when we awoke. He then made me take some of his blood (only a mouthful or two) because he didn't like me being "out of action" as he so tactfully put it. He was a charmer, my Eric. Truthfully, he had been half teasing and I didn't like being out of action either.

"Let's go shopping," Eric said, after we emerged from the shower. The party wasn't until 10pm, giving us another four hours.

"Okay. Here?" I asked.

Eric nodded. "We'll try the hotel boutique first and hope there's something equal to your beauty there."

We neither of us mentioned that I had been followed last night when I went out alone. I didn't want to spoil the evening.

The boutique did have a huge range, and they also offered to collect dresses from other designer stores around the city if we didn't find anything to our liking.

As it happened the sales girl found me a beautiful dress. They kept a few in the back for 'select' clients and one of these was perfect for me, she said. How she knew if we were select or not I didn't ask.

The dress was dark red silk with a full skirt, ruffled collar that draped over my breasts and tiny spaghetti straps. It came with a matching shawl and evening bag. It was simple but beautifully cut to cling in all the right places.

As I emerged from the changing room Eric's eyes blazed with excitement. "You look both edible and fuckable," he told me.

"Maybe not the best thing for a vampire ball, then."

"Don't be sarcastic," he chided. "It's stunning and you are having it."

"Ay ay, sir," I saluted and grinned. I changed and emerged with the dress over my arm, looking for its price tag.

Eric's hand stilled my own and I looked up into his eyes. "Let me."

My first instinct was to say no, that I wasn't a kept woman and I would buy it myself. Instead I smiled and told him, "Thank you," as he took the dress from me.

After we left the boutique I went to the salon while Eric headed to the casino floor. The salon painted my nails to match the dress and then styled my hair. They pulled the front back from my forehead, leaving a few tendrils loose, then pinned the rest up off my neck leaving it cascading down my back. I really should learn how to do my hair on my own since it looked so nice whenever I bothered to have it done.

Mind you, this style was probably a little over the top for Merlotte's.

I headed back to the room then, ordered a snack from room service, applied a little more makeup and put the dress on before I joined Eric on the casino floor. He was playing blackjack again. His eyes lit up as he saw me approach and he smiled approvingly. I sat next to him and cashed in my chip, I thought I'd seen enough the other night to know how to play. That didn't mean I'd be any good, of course, but it wasn't my money I was gambling.

I wasn't bad for a beginner. Eric didn't try and offer me advice, but sometimes I'd look at him before deciding to take another card or not. He nodded or shook his head, and I listened.

It was strange, we never said two words to each other the whole time we sat there, but that was okay. We didn't need emotional embraces or in-depth conversations. The pleasure I got from just sitting beside him, sharing a new experience with him was enough for me. Every now and again he would touch my shoulder, or stroke the back of his hand over my cheek. Those brief touches said more than a thousand words ever could.

When I was five hundred dollars down I cashed out, wanting to try some other games. Eric cashed out with me.

"Roulette," I decided and we headed for the table.

"Bad odds," he told me.

I shrugged. "Not my money. It might be nice to lose a fortune, as long as it isn't mine."

I played numbers to begin with, and lost three times in a row. Then I decided to go red (for my dress) and put five hundred dollars down. I lost.

I'd just lost eight hundred dollars! Thirteen hundred if you counted blackjack as well. It didn't feel better that I was losing someone else's money, not at all.

"I'm not cut out for this," I moaned, leaning my head on Eric's shoulder.

He laughed. "Maybe another game. How about poker? Or craps?"

"I'd just get snakes eyes. I think slot machines are more me," I pouted. I gave him the rest of my chips. "You choose, I'll be your mascot or something."

His voice was warm as he told me. "I've never had a lucky charm before."

Now I laughed. "Me? Lucky? How many bullets have you taken on my behalf now?"

Eric laughed too. "True but you forget, love, I enjoy battle."

"Not the pain, surely."

"No, but it's unavoidable." His long arm snaked around my shoulders. "And I'd better get changed for this wretched party."

As we headed to the lift a random thought occurred to me. "Which hurts less, being shot or stabbed?"

"Stabbed," he didn't even hesitate. "The wound is cleaner whereas a bullet tears."

We were getting some odd looks from an older couple sharing the lift with us. "Line of duty," I told them and they relaxed, assuming Eric was a police officer, or maybe in the military. It still amazed me that some people couldn't tell a vampire from a human.

III

Eric and I were separated for most of the party and I spent most of my time talking to Janice Morrino, the author.

She'd been an amateur writer when she was human but her novels had never been bought. When vampires finally revealed themselves, she had spotted an opportunity and found someone to turn her.

Since then she'd written five best sellers. The first about her change, the second about coping with vampire life and the last three about well known vampires. All were, of course, heavily edited to remove the more unsavoury aspects of vampirism.

"I see this as a collection of stories with a little social commentary thrown in," she told me. "Yours will probably be the biggest, but there are lots of others out there too. The King of South Dakota's partner still receives daily death threats, she's been beaten up, had her car smashed up, her family has had to move and live in secrecy. And another poor girl from a religious family in Utah fell for a vampire and they stoned her to death!"

She looked outraged. I guessed she had led a rather sheltered life, much like I used to. It was a sad statement on my life that this girl's death didn't affect me more.

Janice went on to explain that I would need to record my memories and email them to her. She would be giving me cheat sheets asking detailed questions about events to jog my memory but tomorrow night she would come and talk me through the procedure and show me how to operate the digital recorder and download the data.

Of all the vampires I'd met, Janice seemed the most human. I wondered if it was because she was so young and as she got older she would lose her humanity. I hoped not, she had a wicked sense of humour.

Being so young (and therefore weak) and not having much in the way of money or power, Janice wasn't respected among vampires, but she was well liked. She introduced me to a lot of the people there and they all, without exception, had good things to say about her.

I thought I would like working with her and, though I still had major reservations, I thought I would actually enjoy the process of telling my story.

"It's very cathartic," she assured me. "Like shedding an old dry skin and emerging new and invigorated."

"It's not the telling of my story that I mind, so much," I explained. "It's the publicity afterwards I'm dreading."

Janice smiled kindly. "I understand but you've got a lot going for you. You live in small town, I don't see locals suddenly mobbing you, do you?" she winked. "And fame these days is very short lived. People will talk about you for a week or two, but then you'll be old news. It'll be uncomfortable but it won't last long."

"You're right. I should look on the bright side, getting rid of the Fellowship and this AEA is the priority."

"And the other bright side, you'll earn a share of the book profits and TV and newspapers will pay you for your time. You'll get a nice little nest egg from this."

I smiled wryly to myself, I was finally getting a nest egg at the time in my life when I would least need it. Don't ya just love irony?

Eric and I shared looks sometimes and I could feel his pleasure, his contentment. It wasn't just the party, everything in his life seemed to be falling into place and he was happy. I was glad to be a part of that happiness.

I met the queen of California and shook hands with her human companion. Although I didn't let on that I knew of the possibility of marriage, if I ever should slip up I could now claim I'd plucked the knowledge from the human's head.

I wondered sadly if this human would end up turned, like Hadley had been. Though who was I to judge, maybe that was what she wanted.

As the party drew to a close, Felipe asked if he could borrow Eric for a private card game he was organising. I considered asking to watch but decided against it.

"As long as it isn't strip poker, he's all yours."

The king roared with laughter. It wasn't that good of a joke. "I assure you, Sookie, I shall return him to you unmolested."

"I'll keep you to that."

I took that as a good time to leave, found Eric and told him to enjoy his game. His look told me that he'd much rather be playing with me and I guessed he was only doing it because he didn't want to offend the king. I kissed him on the cheek and told him, "Win big. You've got responsibilities now."

His eyes shone with pleasure and he assured me he'd be back long before dawn.

At a loose end I decided to browse the hotel shops. I knew I looked out of place in my evening gown but so did a lot of other people too.

The book shop was my first stop and I found a few interesting reads. Then I visited the gift shop and amused myself with the rubbish on display there. I seriously considered buying an Elvis bust for Bubba, but I worried it might offend him.

The art gallery had some fascinating glass sculptures caused by lightning hitting sand. They were beautiful. I didn't know much about the paintings but they had some very pretty ones.

I passed by the makeup counters, the pharmacy and the electronics shop but decided to stop at the flower shop. Eric might think it silly, but I doubted anyone had given him flowers in a long time, if ever.

I wandered looking at the arrangements and buckets of individual flowers. I realised I had no idea what to get. Would red roses be too clichéd? What did other colours mean? Finally I asked the assistant if she could tell me some meanings.

"Sure, we have a list somewhere." She ducked down behind the counter and began rummaging. "Oh, here we go." She handed me a computer print out of flower names/colours and what they symbolised. I smiled and looked through it.

Finally I decided on an arrangement of Baby's Breath for ever lasting love, acorn flowers, which were the Nordic symbol of life and immortality, tiger lilies meaning pride, maidenhair fern for secret bonds of love, magenta zinnias for lasting affection and finally, spider flowers.

The assistant told me they would have to order some of the flowers but they could have it ready by noon tomorrow. I told her I wouldn't need it delivered until after dark.

I worried the arrangement would look strange with all the different things I had asked for but I was assured that the end product would be beautiful.

As my feet were aching I decided to return to the room and start one of my books. I could tell that Eric was feeling a little anxious, I guessed he didn't have very good hand. He soon relaxed but I didn't think he was winning big.

About an hour later, he returned.

"I've seen so little of you lately, I'm beginning to doubt I'm yours anymore," I admonished lightly.

His eyebrows went up at my cheek. "You didn't tell me you were going to become a nag."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why you-" his lips cut me off before I could deliver some witty retort. He then proceeded to show me exactly what it meant to be his.

Thoroughly sated we laid in each others arms until dawn, idly talking about everything and nothing.

III

We'd been up about fifteen minutes when Eric answered the door to the florist. He scowled for a moment, probably thinking someone else was sending me flowers. How dare they!

He relaxed as he saw his name on the card, though he did look confused. "You sent me flowers?" he almost laughed.

"Yes. Every flower has a meaning."

"Oh?"

My smile was probably a little too smug. "You'll just have to look it up yourself. It'll give you something to do on the nights we're apart."

"I'll ask Pam," he seemed confident she would know.

"Pam!" I laughed. "I don't see Pam being an authority on flowers."

Eric ran a hand through his hair. "How does one find out what a flower is called?"

Oh dear. Eric Northman, the fearless, dread master vampire couldn't figure out how to identify flowers. It was nice to remember he wasn't infallible.

Putting his problem aside for now, he came over to me and kissed my cheek. "Thank you. They're… very nice."

Janice was coming by tonight to talk me through recording my memories, but we had a few hours until then.

"Is there anything you'd still like to do while we're here?" Eric asked me. "Any shows you'd like to see?"

"We'd have to leave the hotel," and we'd be followed.

"We can take a car directly from the garage again. I would make sure you were safe."

"I wish I knew if they meant me harm. I would have liked a look into the thoughts of whoever followed us," I mused. "Let's just pack and enjoy our last night together. Alone."

"You do have some very good ideas, have I ever told you that?"

"But you have a lot more creativity," I countered.

"Then we make a perfect team."

III

I stopped in the doorway and looked back at our bedroom. We had made some spectacular memories in there.

Eric stepped up behind me and put his arms around my waist.

"Ready to go home, Mrs Northman?"

"No." I leaned back into him. "I know this wasn't planned and was work as well as pleasure, but this has been the best honeymoon I could have imagined. Thank you."

"No regrets?"

"Not so far," I smiled. "Do you mind keeping it to ourselves for now?"

"I'm itching to shout it from the rooftops but I will tell only when you are ready."

I groaned. "You know, keeping this from Pam is going to be impossible."

"You think I am not up to it?"

"I think she's very determined but I think you're better. Me on the other hand…"

"Don't be coy, Sookie, you are a very practiced liar when you choose." There was no air of reproach in his voice, if anything there might have been a trace of pride.

There was a knock on the door.

"You'd better get in your coffin," I reminded him, giving him one last kiss. "I'll see you in Louisiana."

"Are you working tonight?"

I nodded. I'd catch a couple of hours of sleep on the plane, which should see me through work.

"Shall I come over afterwards?"

I wanted him too. These five days had been wonderful and I didn't want them to stop. But reality was about to come crashing down on us. "You'll have a lot to catch up on," I reminded him, sadly.

He nodded. "I'll call you."

With one final kiss I went to let the Anubis men in to collect Eric's coffin.

The flight home was only a couple of hours. I didn't think I'd get the sleep I needed as I worried about what we'd done.

We'd eloped. I was married. To a vampire!

Everyone would be furious that I hadn't told them.

I was suddenly very nervous. Neither of us had made plans for this, we were just going to carry on as normal until I felt ready. I doubted Eric would pressure me but I felt myself wanting to be pressured. A part of me wanted to wake up with him every day, to share his home and life with him.

A part of me wanted to tell everyone that someone loved me enough to marry me.

I wanted to show Jason what a real marriage was like but that thought made me feel like a fake, because I hadn't fully committed to this marriage. I hadn't given up or compromised on anything yet.

Still, Eric Northman was my husband.

I was Mrs Eric Northman!

But despite all my little niggling worries, doubts and fears, a part of me felt giddy whenever I thought of it.

In spite of everything facing me, I drifted off to sleep, content.