Translator's note: O.K. as promised, here it is chapter 23. As soon as I get 200 reviews I will post another five chapters' marathon, so keep reviewing.

Chapter 23

As you can imagine, I ended making the cookies… naked. Eric took all the dresses to the barn when he went out to get milk, and he did it between laughs, the son of a bitch. We ate breakfast in bed (I'm angry, but not enough to not accept a good bowl of milk with sugar and breadcrumbs, cozy and warm in bed). After breakfast I tried to get a robe back, but it only managed to may my Viking have more fun. Very outraged I went down the stairs, I did my best to cover myself with some furs from the bed. However, as I began to organize all the kitchen utensils I would need to make the cookies I realized I couldn't maneuver well. So to Eric's delight, I dropped the furs and started pounding almonds, naked. I figured at the bottom of my wooden mortar was my lover's stupid face, smiling at me as he didn't take his eyes away from my tits, that waved rhythmically with my movements.

"Beautiful" he commented "just beautiful" And took a long swig from a jug of diluted mead. I threw him a handful of oatmeal to his idiot face and he looked as white as my vampire. He coughed and there was my turn to laugh "Is it funny?"

"A lot"

"Luckily I don't care. I love the way they move when you laugh" I threw another handful that fell into his hair, I protested and calm me down pulling me from the bench to the bearskin rug that was beneath, laughing. His mouth had the sweet taste of honey.

Eric helped me prepare the flour I would need for the cookies. I asked why he didn't use an animal-drawn mill for grinding grain and he said that in this way it was easier to maintain and it could be used as a top seed.

I sent him to get the eggs, sugar and butter to the cooler room and he said he would have to go to Sven's farm, a dairy farm, to get more butter. In the village there were some farms that had cows and bulls, but cattle needed grazing, so the dairy farm was a bit away from the village. Eric often changed grains or wool to get butter and sometimes, cheese.

I did the cookies mix and Eric ate a lot of uncooked dough (despite my warnings that it might make him sick). I prepared a clay tray, I rubbed the butter and started to form the cookies for my kids. For Audr I made a flower-shaped and in the center I marked a large A; for Leif and Erik I made two sword-shaped cookies and marked the initials of their names in each one. I prepared a big heart for Eric and I marked an E and finally, I kneaded a normal, rounded shape and marked a S. I had some extra dough, so I made another batch of cookies with more or less defined shapes. I asked Eric if he could put firewood in the hearth because I needed a strong fire for the oven and put the cookies inside.

"Mmmm, it smells almost as good as you" Eric said after a while, when the cookies started to perfume the house. I looked at him, smiled like a fool, and with his piercing gaze and wicked thoughts, I rose colors.

"What do you want to eat today? Peas with ham? Beans with pork? Braised rabbit?"

"I don't care. Everything sounds great. What is the fast thing you can prepare, the one that takes less time, I want you to be with me in my bed" I smiled and decided to peel a few peas and use the remaining butter. Meanwhile, Eric was cleaning the front yard, windows and the roof of heavy snow. He came in when the meal was almost done and the cookies were cooling by a window. He looked like a drunkard: white skin and cheeks and the tip of the nose flushed from the cold. I served the meal while he warmed himself at the fire.

Eric gave me a piece of loaf and I watched him tore a piece of bread and then put into his mouth a spoonful of peas. I giggled and he looked at me raising an eyebrow and half-open mouth, trying not to burn his tongue.

"Whaft arfs you lofsking?"

"What?"

"What you looking at?" I laughed and he ate another spoonful of peas.

"I like to watch you while you're eating"

"Later I'll eat something I like much more" He watched me with a leer that I thought I was talking to the vampire. "And I'm sure that you are going to enjoy it."

"Eric!" I choked, suffocated and he burst out laughing as I tried to cover my colors.

"By the way, I want you to throw all those horrible dresses that you have."

"What?"

"I don't want you to wear them anymore"

"I can't be naked all day, Eric!" he laughed.

"Although I wouldn't mind, that's not it. In those two trunks there are clothes for you. It's over that of dressing like a slave."

"Oh" I stared at the third trunk.

"Also there, there are some. I got them in the southern lands, but would have cold with them. You can wear them for me, if you want, I bit my lip wondering what kind of fabrics and garments would have inside."

After lunch I took a look at my new clothes. Some were really beautiful: green, red, maroon, and even one of a deep blue. I was trying them and with the exception of the blue, to which I would have to cut a few inches, the others fit like gloves.

"What do you think?" I walked around with the maroon dress. It had embroidered designs in golden and white threads and knit cuffs with another color.

"Not bad. But you look better without clothes" I clicked my tongue and kept adorning myself and trying garments.

Eric was all the time skulking around me while I placed the cookies in a basket, left the children's beds as decorated as Christmas trees and prepared the table with honey and bowls that would be filled later with milk. Eric grab me by the waist, while I was setting the table, he pulled me to him and began canoodling my neck. Vampire or not, was tireless.

"Why do you think they're taking so long?"

"Mmm?"

"The children, Eric" I tried to push him away from me "Why do you think they're taking so long?"

"The women are the ones that are paddling" he said, held my face and kissed me.

"O.K., O.K., but... it's getting late, soon it would be night"

"We can use the darkness and loneliness" I rolled my eyes, but he began to kiss my neck, behind my ear, my collarbone, he began to whisper nonsenses and sigh against my skin and I ended up drifting.

Of course, an hour later, I was very stressed again. Eric couldn't understand that women were able to keep a cool head on him in certain matters when all I could think about was now at rest and re-loading as soon as he could. Did not understand how it was that even with all the anti-stress remedy he gave to me, I continue being so tense. He was so relaxed, and he was the father of creatures. Fortunately, with the centuries has acquired a little common sense.

I heard the horn sound and jumped as if they had put a firecracker in the seat. I looked at Eric and he smiled at me. I had to drag him up the street because Eric said that it was not worth even down to port, because since the ships are spotted until they arriving in port it will be a while. However, I would rather wait at the dock. I jogged all the way to the cliff, and Eric kept me from falling down a couple of times, holding me by the elbow gently.

We arrived at the port, ad it was so cold that my eye stung and my lungs hurt when I breathed.

"There!" The lookout shouted. And indeed, there they were.

"Ahhh! Leif, Leif! Erik!" I shouted "I don't see them, do you see them?

"Sookie! Hello, Sookie!" Erik greeted me from the deck, about forty yards from the harbor.

"Hi, honey! Be careful or you'll fall!" I laughed and waited for them kneeling with open arms. Leif and Erik ran down the catwalk, and almost throw a woman into the water in their race. They hugged me so hard and so suddenly that they almost made me fell down.

"Hey, Sookie, hello" Erik told me.

"Hi, honey. Are you okay?"

"Yes" Both of them answered at once.

"Are you okay?" Leif asked.

"I am."

"I was so worried about you."

"So was I about you, my love" I told him "About both of you" I stroked their face and hair and they returned the gesture.

"Did you missed me, Sookie?" Erik questioned.

"Very much."

"Really? How much?"

"From here to the moon."

"Yeah? Well, I've missed you from here to Black Harbor. "

"The moon is farther away, you silly" Leif said.

"How can it be farther if I can see it from here, you idiot?" Erik answered him.

"Come on, don't fight."

"You know what, Sookie?" I smiled and he continued "We saw whales."

"Yeap!" Leif confirmed.

"Oh.."

"I threw a hook and it licked it... I almost fish it."

"You almost fall into the water, which is different."

"Shut up, you fool."

"If you don't stop fighting I'll get mad" They looked at me and I smiled at them "Where is Audr?"

"She's with Grandma."

"Yes, it has been lightheaded" Erik said.

"Oh, god" Helga came down with the help of another woman, with Audr in her arms. Eric and Halvar received her; the first, removing the child from her arms and allowing the couple meet and greet properly. Audr pulled away from his father's arms and she made me a sign to me to hold her "Are you dizzy?" she nodded "You'll get better" I kissed her "Ok, let's go home, huh?"

"Give her to me" Eric said after hugging the boys.

"No, it's ok, I got her."

"She's too heavy for you, and the slope is hard. Give her to me" I gave him the girl, who snuggled against him. I greeted Helga and with Erik and Leif by the hand, we climbed to the village. Audr made me a sign to hold her in my arms as soon as we set foot on level ground, I grabbed her and held her against my chest.

"I'll do a little bit of honey water, so you recover. And then you can eat the cookies that I have made for you."

"¿¡You have made cookies?!" Erik shouted. He and Leif began running, jostling to get to the cookies first, but Eric gave them a shout and they finally came home like civilized people. I removed all the dirty and wet clothes from Audr while Leif and Erik took off their clothes at lightning speed.

"Smells so good!" Leif said.

"Can I eat the one you made for Audr?" Eric glanced at him "But she's sick..." I ruffle his hair and kissed him.

"There's plenty for everyone. Get warm on the fire. Meanwhile, I'll warm milk with honey." Audr was getting much better as she drank a couple of sips of fresh water, but the smell of cookies and milk do better than any energy drink would have done, because the girl recovered quickly and came to sit the table, on my lap "Soak them in milk."

"Oh, Sookie, how much I've missed you" Leif said.

"I missed you more! I missed you so much, much, much more than him" Erik shouted.

"You both are kinda cheeky" Eric commented "You have missed the food and how much Sookie spoil you."

"I do, have missed you both" I stirred their hair and kissed them both in the forehead. Eric looked at me and raised an eyebrow wondering with his look if I really had missed them so much as I said "It is true" I said and laughed.

"Well I haven't missed you at all."

"Eric!"

"Me neither?" Little Audr asked with sadness.

"To you, yes I have" Eric said with a smile "Sookie sings very badly" he whispered. Eric tickled her in the belly and the girl bended giggling.