V.

It's surprising, sometimes, how just giving in can be kind of liberating. Lying there after we had just returned to the bed, I had the feeling of not having just thrown caution to the wind, but having probably set it on fire for good measure, right before tossing it aside. After ten minutes of more relaxed silence, during which I really fought the urge to fall asleep, Eric rolled over toward me and smiled mischievously, kissing my hand. With my other hand, I pulled my watch back out from under a pillow and noted that it was 4:03 am. Eric took the watch out of my hand and put it over on the nightstand. He nuzzled against my cheek and then his tongue licked a bit of salty perspiration away from my throat, down to the notch of my collarbone, and out onto my shoulder. I shivered and smiled. I had been bitten and made love to for the past two and a half hours. But he could still raise goose bumps.

"Are you sore?" he asked in a whisper near my left ear.

"Why do you need this information?" I countered in a playful whisper unable to keep myself from smiling.

"Because I'm not done with you yet, Agent Gordon," he said in husky whisper into my ear.

I pressed my face against his cool, dry shoulder and just said, "MmmmHmmm. Really?" still with a smile but shaking my head. He had to be kidding.

He took up my hand and demonstrated the need for his question. He was not kidding. As my hand kept busy, he bit his index finger and set to work. My breath became all shuddery. After a minute of what felt like I was living a Marvin Gaye song, Eric kissed me, and sat up, shifting me in order to put my legs around his waist. Then he entered me again. After a few minutes he pulled me up so that I was sitting in his lap. We rocked in a slow rhythm, and I rested my cheek and nose against his throat.

"Sookie, look at me," he said in a low whisper. "Look at me."

My eyes opened slowly and I leaned back to look up at him. Everything felt dreamlike, hypnotic. My eyes locked onto his for a moment. Then I leaned forward and kissed the spot on his throat where I'd nipped him earlier. But he rocked me back so that we could see each other again.

"Two things," he said softly. "I want you to stay with me. Now, during the day. I want to wake up next to you. And... before you go back to Virginia, I want to marry you according to Louisiana state law. I'm telling you straight out tonight so you have a good two weeks to get used to the idea. I want to marry you legally."

Between feeling more than a bit sleepy, and my overall present situation… which was highly distracting… it was very difficult to concentrate. But still… was I getting that right? Did he seriously just ask me to marry him? Marry him for real, as in legal marriage? After three years apart and seeing each other three times in the past five weeks? Before I went back home to Virginia? Even in my haze, I wondered what in God's name he was thinking. Was he crazy?

"Stay here today," he reiterated softly. "Stay with me."

My brain fog suddenly seemed to clear all at once. Well that one definitely wasn't possible, either. The other one was just plain crazy, but the first one? I couldn't do that, at least not today. I shook my head.

"No, I can't stay here, Eric. I need to go to my hotel. I have to be able to meet with Sara Weiss this morning. I promised my boss."

He stopped our rocking motion and looked down at me intently. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he was willing me to stay with him with that look.

"I want to wake up next to you," he said again, much more firmly this time, in the manner of someone totally used to getting whatever he wanted. I remembered how autocratic he had been as a Sheriff and saw things had not changed one bit. Given his present situation, I was guessing things might have gotten a bit worse, actually.

"Well, not today Eric. Not today. I'm sorry, I just can't. Manny will get totally freaked out if Sara can't connect with me in person. It's not safe to change the plan like that. He may not trust things are really okay until Sara's seen I'm fine. It's not safe for you and your people if Manny gets antsy. You have to remember that I'm a huge investment to them. The FBI doesn't have another telepath. This isn't a game to them, my being here. Manny may sound all light and nice, but if he gets concerned about my safety, it could be a serious problem for you and everyone living here."

"So call them and tell them you're staying here today. They can see you tonight. After sunset. I want you to stay here with me, Sookie."

I swear his eyes could have bored holes into sheet metal.

"No, I can't. I said no. I really meant no. I have to be able to connect with her easily tomorrow in a place she's going to feel comfortable going to. She's not going to feel comfortable making sure I'm fine by coming here. Especially since that wasn't the plan I gave Manny. How about I promise I'll stay with you tonight and tomorrow during the day, okay? Today is totally non-negotiable."

His face now looked like a mask of tightly controlled calm. It wasn't fooling me one bit since I could feel just how not happy he was that I wouldn't do what he wanted. He really wasn't happy hearing 'no'. It did not look like he had heard 'no' often in recent times. At least not from someone he wasn't going to eventually force into doing what he wanted anyway. But he looked like he was taking my refusal. For now. Of course, part of me couldn't believe that after making it seem like he was accepting that I was going to stay in a hotel, he was now still trying to get me to stay with him. Really, it was classic Eric. Always determined to get his way. I should have known, I thought to myself.

Finally he said softly,

"You heard the other part, right?" His eyes looked calmer now.

"Yes, I'm and I'm not dealing with that one at all right now…" I sighed as I rocked my hips forward against him. "Right now I'm on vacation, remember. I'm really enjoying my vacation. It's spectacular so far. I'm busy with other things. Very, very busy," I said in a playful tone.

I smiled up at him and then leaned forward and rubbed my cheek on his neck and kissed his collarbone. Even with the disagreement about where I was spending the day, I still very happy. This was all even better than I remembered. Much better.

He rocked me back away from his chest and then held my face firmly, pulling my lips almost roughly to his, kissing me passionately. Then he shifted so us that he was back on top of me, pinning my hands with his. He thrust into me while staring down at me, his eyes glowing. His hair was hanging partly loose now, a mess and all tangled. I just looked up at him. I freed my hand to stroke his cheek and pull the band from his hair to completely loosen it. I just looked at him. He was really quite beautiful.

Eric paused and looked at me as if he was puzzled.

"Are you too tired? Upset? You are so quiet. I'm not hurting you?"

I shook my head. In the flickering candlelight, looking up at the soft glow in his eyes, I felt a swell in my heart. In that one moment, in spite of the many things that had gone so wrong in my former life, I felt that he was one thing that had been so right. And I'd simply turned my back and walked away from him. And now? I really felt happy being here with him. I knew in my heart it wasn't any bond or blood or vampire magic. It was really just… him. My eyes suddenly just welled with tears. How hard would it be to remember that feeling later, I wondered? The feeling that it was so right? I knew I could lose hold of that feeling in the blink of an eye. Because I just didn't trust it.

He released my other hand and held my face in his hands just as the tears overflowed. He just looked at me silently, not even asking. I closed my eyes.

"I love you," I whispered. Just saying it felt overwhelming. What am I doing? I thought to myself. Here I am, on a total collision course with a fucking emotional disaster...

"Look at me," he commanded. I opened my eyes again. He looked down at me with his jaw clenched. "I love you back," he finally said, somewhat hoarsely, after a minute. "And you had better be back here at sunset, Lover. No disappearing, no running away. I am done with losing you."

I met his eyes but felt puzzled by what I felt from him, which was so intense and complex. I couldn't begin to unravel it. I just nodded and kissed him. He looked as if he was restraining himself from saying more. I understood part of why he was insistent on the business of my staying with him. No freaking out and running away was what he meant. I guess he could feel how overwhelmed I'd felt only moments before? Or maybe even that I'd felt that way since I had finally admitted what he wanted to hear? I wanted to just stop thinking. He shifted us onto our sides and we moved slowly, just looking into each other's eyes. Finally, I closed my eyes and pressed my face into his shoulder, drifting away on a wave of pleasure.

Afterwards, I dressed wearily, and glanced at my watch after retrieving it from the bed. 4:58 am. From checking online in the afternoon I knew that sunrise was around 6:00 am here, about 15 minutes later than at home in Alexandria. I put my holster back on and then my jacket. I shifted my ankle and rotated my foot several times to get the knives into a more comfortable position before slipping back into my heels.

Eric had changed into jeans and a t-shirt. After making sure all of the bite wounds were healed up and completely gone, then hooking my bra, he'd watched me dress, leaning against the bare wall near the door. But only after he'd sniffed at it mischievously with a playful, knowing look. When I was finished dressing he blew out the candles and then took my hand and led me out of the room, and out of his library room. I carried the book in my other hand. As we walked in the hall to the stairs he said in a low voice,

"Don't be bothered by any reactions you get about being upstairs with me. There may be a lot of curiosity."

I gave him a puzzled look. He stroked my hand with his thumb.

"I really wasn't kidding when I say I don't take anyone to my houses, my rooms, anyplace private that's mine. Even Pam may be surprised."

"She won't be upset will she? I mean, she won't be jealous or anything, right?" I asked in a slightly worried tone, slowing down as we walked.

He paused before we started down the stairs and kissed my forehead.

"She'll be fine, Lover. She'll probably be totally unbearable, in fact" he said with a chuckle.

We went downstairs to the sitting room area where five vampires, including Rasul and Stefan, were lounging around watching a really gross vampire porno movie. All five rose immediately when Eric entered. I turned away, thinking I'd really seen enough in the millisecond that I'd just seen. There are certain places fangs just don't belong, in my opinion. And you'd think that guys would think so even more than I did.

"Rasul, Stefan, you will see Miss Gordon safely back to her hotel. Rasul, check her room thoroughly."

Then he turned back to me and said, "Your daytime security is provided by Bennett Tucker. He's a Were police sergeant with the New Orleans Police Department. He will contact you tomorrow morning, and give you a list of people you may see watching you." He handed me a card with Sgt. Tucker's name and contact info.

I stared up at him in utter disbelief. In a low tone of voice, leaning toward him with my back turned to the five vampires in the room, I said,

"Eric, I'm an armed federal agent. Are you kidding me? And I'm going to be under surveillance by Sara's crew without question, as soon as I meet up with Sara tomorrow morning, maybe even before. I won't be able to turn on a dime without someone knowing it. Why are you going to have the police watching me, too?"

He looked down at me coolly with his hands clasped behind his back. He worked his jaw a bit before practically hissing in a low voice, "Because I wish it." His eyes looked really angry however, and what I felt flash across the bond matched what I saw in his eyes. He was angry that I was resisting him in public. Very angry. I'd already pushed his buttons earlier with refusing to stay. Clearly, questioning him in front of anyone else, other than maybe Pam, was a serious no-no. I blushed and said no more.

Rasul and Stefan were ready and waiting. I just waited for Eric to 'dismiss' us, which he did promptly, waving us toward the stairs. I checked my watch and saw that it was 5:11 am so I guessed we really should get moving so that Rasul and Stefan would be back with time to spare. Eric walked with us to the second floor landing with his hand heavy on my shoulder. As we got ready to descend he stroked his fingers down my back as if to soothe the earlier situation. I turned back up to look at him to nod good night. He still didn't look happy with me but the feeling I had was more that he didn't want me to be leaving at all not that he was still angry about the other bit. I felt bad but there was nothing I could really do about it. When we got to the landing halfway to the ground floor, he was still standing there looking down at me. My heart felt an odd twist as we descended out of his sight.

After bypassing Pradep, who met us at the side entryway after Stefan had called down to him, we walked briskly down St. Ann and turned onto Dauphine, toward the southwest side of the Quarter and Iberville. There were still people milling around in the streets at this hour as we cut cross the Quarter, avoiding Bourbon St. In contrast to the cordial way that Rasul had greeted me at the start of the evening, he didn't offer me his arm; in fact he seemed eager to leave a bit of distance between us. I wondered if it was because Stefan was there. Since it was drawing closer to dawn, I tried to move as quickly as I could, though I figured that they could certainly make it back to the compound much more quickly than they were moving with me at present. We got to the hotel in less than ten minutes. We went up to the 4th floor and I handed Rasul my keycard so he could go into the room and check it out, as per Eric's instructions. He entered and after a few minutes came back out and handed me the card with a smile.

"Good night, … Sasha."

"Shukran, Rasul. Thank you, Stefan." I nodded to them both.

Rasul said "Tasħarrafnaa," and bowed deeply to me, even staying down for a moment.

I blanched. I was caught very off-guard by his formal response in Arabic, which usually just meant nice to meet you, but in its strict interpretation meant they were both honored, further suggested by his bowing so dramatically to me. Stefan then also bowed, though perhaps not as grandly as Rasul and then they waited for me to close and lock my door. I seriously wondered what Pam had told them, because their manner was now totally different with me. It definitely wasn't the manner that I'd learned to expect from a vampire to a human. Could she have told them that Eric was kind of married to me? It would certainly explain Rasul's being more distant. And their deference. I felt embarrassed by it, actually. I had to find a nice way to tell them to cut it out.

I got undressed, washed my face, took out my contact lenses and took a quick warm shower. After toweling myself off, I looked at myself in the full length mirror and saw that Eric hadn't left so much as a mark on me. It was almost 6 am when I crawled into the bed. I left my cell phone charging on the nightstand with the volume way up so that if Sara Weiss called me, I'd be sure to wake. After turning out the light in the room I noticed how much light there was in the hotel room compared to Eric's room when it was dark. Eric had walked as sure-footedly through the darkness as if he had a headlight on. I felt a sudden crashing wave of missing him. It was dawn and I was sure he was in his bed. I turned onto my side and hugged a pillow. It was cool against my cheek. It only made my longing worse. This was the downside of visiting Eric. I would end up missing Eric. In spite of the acuteness of that thought, it didn't take long for me to fall asleep. I was utterly spent physically and emotionally.

I tried to talk myself into being sorry about my late night when Sara Weiss called me at 7:30 am. But I couldn't.

I sleepily answered the phone.

"Good Morning, Sasha."

"Sara? Good morning, how are you?"

"Fine, thank you. Sasha, Manny Diaz asked me to contact you. I'm sorry to call a bit early, I know you're on vacation. Manny says that he would like me to meet with you. Would 9 am be alright with you?"

I rolled onto my back after disconnecting the phone from the charger. Ugh, I thought to myself. 9 am would likely find me still wholly incapacitated.

"Sara, honestly, I got in shortly before 6 am. I'm totally toasted. If you want to come to my hotel room at 9 am, I'd be more than happy to let you visit me here. But for going out, into the streets where I have to be alert, no way. Maybe noon."

I was kind of ticked because I knew that if Manny had given her my GPS info, she probably knew that I hadn't gotten back to the hotel until close to 6 am because they'd probably been tracking me ever since Manny spoke to me last night and all the data was probably being archived.

"Well, alright. I'll let you sleep. Where would you like to meet at noon? Café du Monde?"

I paused before responding. So they had been tracking me well before Manny even called me to ask why I was in the compound then… This was her quiet way of letting me know they had been tracking me ever since I arrived. And probably her reason for calling me so early. She wanted to be clear that they had been watching my every move and would continue to do so. Wow, I thought to myself. How had Manny managed to go all day, and two hours of waiting while I stayed put in the compound before calling? Talk about forebearance…

I tried to do a quick assessment of how I felt. In spite of several little doses of Eric's blood, I could honestly say I ached all over everywhere. Between the lingering effects of my all-out nervous tension about the entire visit itself, the emotional revelations involved and not having had sex in more than three years, it was not a pretty picture. Eric was, after all, extremely... energetic. Even another four hours of sleep was not going to make me energetic. Had I actually thought the previous day about working out in a gym on this trip? I didn't even want to walk all the way down to the Decatur Street riverfront at present. I tried to think of places closer to my hotel that I knew from previous trips to New Orleans.

"Did Brennan's reopen?" I asked, hopefully.

"You mean after Katrina? Sure. They're right there, same place on Royal. A few blocks from where you're staying. You want to meet there?"

"Yeah, that would be better. So noon then, right?"

She agreed. I reconnected the phone to the charger and I set my phone's alarm for 11:30 am. I went back to sleep in short order and slept like the dead.