Thanks to bunnychica9 for your reviews thus far. I very much appreciate you for them :)
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Tyra's POV
"Ohhhhhh…mmmm." That's the sound of me, lying back against a large stack of pillows with Eric's head between my legs, his tongue pleasuring and soothing me greatly in equal measures. For the last eight hours we've had so much sex I can barely move, hence why he's down there presently licking and kissing everything better. He used the blood from a punctured finger to help with the immediate pain I felt internally.
"Better now?" he asks me, kissing his way back up my body slowly as I recover from a sudden and intense orgasm, shaking gently and panting softly as I close my eyes. When I open them again, his face is level with mine.
"Much, and I hate to be a bore but I think I might need to go to sleep now." I tell him, figuring he'll need to rest soon anyway since it just turned 7am. He usually goes to sleep at six.
"You aren't alone there. Sleep well, Mrs Northman." He tells me, kissing my check softly and pulling the covers up over us. When I said it felt good to hear other people refer to me as Mrs Northman, none of it compares to hearing those words leave his mouth. His arm slides around me and his hand rests on my stomach, and that's the last time I feel him move at all. He's lovely to sleep next to, so still and he doesn't snore either of course. Personally, I'm out like a light about twenty seconds after my head hits the pillow. When I awake again at just gone 5.30pm, the first things I see are the gorgeous blue eyes of my vampire looking down at me as he strokes my arm.
"Hello, my darling wife" he tells me, kissing my head and then resting his down on my chest as I wrap my arms around him.
"Hello, gorgeous husband," I reply, stroking his soft blonde hair. We lay like this together comfortably, sharing comfortable silence like only we can.
"I hate to burst this nice bubble, but we should be leaving for the club soon. Reality has to creep back in at some point I suppose," he tells me after ten silent minutes.
"I know, I suppose it must too. I was thinking to myself last night, it's kinda funny how we got the wedding and the honeymoon all the wrong way around," I reply, of course referencing we've just returned from a three month vacation.
"I did see the humour in that too." he tells me, kissing the side of my breast before reluctantly flinging himself out of bed, and then picking me up in his arms. "I didn't carry you over the threshold as I should have last night, so I'll just carry you to the shower instead." He adds as he walks us into the bathroom and kicks the door closed with his foot. We shower together and dress, and then leave the hotel at close to a quarter to seven, Eric stopping so I can get something to eat on the way back to the club. Once we get there, it's back to business as usual.
Eric immediately goes to conference with Pam over anything he might have missed last night after we left, while I head to the office to sink my head into the remaining ten accounts I have to get done by tomorrow afternoon. This is going to task me and then some. I slip back into it easily though, I'm one of these strange people who actually misses their work when I take a break from it. I've always been industrious though. About two hours into my work I'm disturbed by a little tap at the door, Mai Ling entering shortly after.
"Pam told me you were working away down here, and since I had to come in and give you my new bank account number anyway I thought I'd bring you this," the tiny little Japanese girl tells me as she places a large takeout coffee down on the desk.
"Thank you, that's kind of you," I tell her, reaching out for my coffee but having my hand intercepted as Mai Ling gasps.
"Oh my lord, you can't have been wearing my glasses when I saw you yesterday, because I would have noticed a rock that big! Wow! Congratulations to you both, Pam told me you and Eric had married out in Australia," she tells me, holding my hand delicately as she looks at my engagement ring. Of course Pam glamoured her and Ginger to believe that Eric and I had arrived back in the country as a married couple.
"Again, thank you. Right, do you have that account number so I can get your new account debit set up?" I ask her, pulling up the staff payroll files and entering the spread sheet named 'Mai Ling Donald'. I think it's amusing how she has a Japanese forename, and a very normal and western surname. Her grandfather was from Rhode Island and so her father only half Japanese, her mother full. She hails from Brooklyn, and she's very typical of a tough little Brooklyn girl. She passes me the information she's written on a slip of paper, and once I've entered the data I destroy the paper her details were written on and she heads back off to the bar. The only time after that I'm disturbed is around forty minutes later, when one of the vampire dancers throws himself through the office door.
"Ginger told me you were good with a needle and thread, please help! The whole fucking club just got a flash of my junk," Mark says to me almost desperately, holding a roll of black thread in one hand, and keeping the two sides of the broken PVC g string together with his other. He doesn't look bashful over the fact he accidentally flashed his dick though, more put out that he's had to leave the floor. Vampires are seldom shy.
"Come on, get that muscular butt of yours up on this desk." I tell him, giving the desk in front of me a loud double slap with my hand, and wheeling myself back in the chair to allow Mark to sit in front of me while I sew his underwear back together. Oh, the hardship of having to sew the g string of a vampire who will eternally look like a Calvin Klein model. Once I'm done playing seamstress Mark hops off the desk and heads back out to gyrate for his money on a podium, leaving me to work in peace on account number three of ten. I'm almost halfway through after only two hours, well done me. Although I have stuck to the smaller business files to start with, pacing myself at a gentle rate before I tackle the biggies.
Those would be the casino account landed by Cobie, and the GMC dealership account I managed to aquire after the vampire accountant who did run it was, well, liquidised. I thank the vampire Cassius for throwing that bone in my direction and giving me the contact information for the dealership after he told them 'I know a top notch accountant, I'll put her in touch'. After a very chaotic twenty four hours life has gone back to normal again. It is as I look down at my wedding and engagement rings sparkling away on my finger that I make a mental note to run on human time tomorrow, so I can do the necessaries I need to do in order to legally change my surname from Boden to Northman. I got what I wished for while I was away on vacation, but as I've said I never expected it to be this quick.
Speaking of my very recent nuptials, Eric pokes his head around the door at 11pm to tell me he's going to be out on business for the next four hours, also informing me Pam and I are in charge in his absence. Other than that my night here slaving over a hot computer remains uninterrupted, and I finish my work at just after 2pm. That's ten files in seven hours, which is good going even for me.
"I wonder, is it their blind faith or their stupidity that makes them think what they're chanting actually has any meaning to us?" I ask Pam as I arrive by her side. I then add 'mine, bitch' and put my arm around my friend when a typical fang banger stands admiring her for slightly too long, holding up the line of people and vampires waiting to enter. I like to piss them off at any chance I get, I'm mean like that. The woman looks put out and pouts, and Pam puts her arm around me in return and laughs before replying.
"The numbers are thinning as each night passes. I'd like to hope the boredom is setting in, but I doubt it. It's hard, having to be on your best behaviour at all times so you don't add fuel to the fire," she observes, looking out at the protestors from the Fellowship of the Sun with distain.
"Tell me about it. Don't divulge this to Eric, but yesterday that mousey looking girl at the front with the big nose threw a large stone at the back of my head. I verbally chewed her out, but it took everything I had not to pick her up by her ponytail and throw her under the nearest oncoming car," I reply, while Pam makes a hissing sound with her laughter.
"Ooooh, that's cold! I like it," she says eventually her eyes sharply fixing on the girl as I hear the snap of her fangs popping out in accompaniment to the visual.
"Well, little miss cold is going to haul her ass over to the twenty four hour grocer across the way there and hunt for something vaguely healthy to eat, see you in a sec." I then tell her, before turning and walking out of the front door and straight down towards the protestors. As I aim to walk around them, one of the men steps forward, frowning. He opens his mouth to speak, and that's as far as he gets.
"Back off!" I roar at him as loudly as I can, watching him jump two feet backwards. I can still hear Pam cackling raucously from the club door even when I'm all the way across the road.
"Hey Ranji, is the microwave working yet?" I ask the friendly Indian store owner as I enter the twenty four hour grocery store just two minutes from Fangtasia.
"All good to go, Tyra, I brought a new one." He calls back from behind the counter, looking up from the copy of Playboy he's unashamedly reading. I head straight for the chill cabinet and pick up a microwavable baked potato, remove the pot of tuna mayonnaise and take it to the microwave. Okay, admittedly not as healthy as I'd intended, but I pick up a bag of mixed salad and a box of white grapes to eat back in the office to make up for the calorie laden potato. There's one hell of a lot of cheese on it too, which I top with the tuna mayo. Paying and leaving I stand outside the club and talk to Pam from a little distance as I eat, not wanting to inflict my food fumes on her.
It's only when I turn to take my empty packaging to the litter bin just to the side of the club that I notice a very large Hummer limousine pulling up in front. A Japanese vampire, still wearing sunglasses even in the pitch black gets out and walks around the other side of the vehicle and opens the passenger side door. The vampire he reveals is the new king of Louisiana.
"Mrs Northman, just the lady I was looking for," he says charmingly as he approaches me. I paused a few yards from the bin when I saw the Hummer roll up.
"Good evening, Aiko," I reply courteously. He nods in acceptance, looking pleased I remembered to address him by his first name rather than his title, as he insisted I do.
"I have an invitation for yourself , Eric and Pamela. I am throwing a celebratory gathering, a party if you will for my gaining regency of your fair home state at my new residence. I cannot live at the palace where my dear Sophie Anne died, as many expected I would," he tells me as he hands me a gilded envelope. I look up at him again and see a big crease dent his forehead.
"I am sorry for your loss, for you to be widowed so soon after you were married," I offer in condolence, my mind turning over the fact that of course this show of grief could be an elaborate act. If Eric doesn't put murdering Sophie Anne to seize control of her state past him, then neither do I.
"So am I, she was a remarkable woman. I was a lucky vampire, if only for a short time. The burial of her remains takes place tomorrow, and then I fly back to New York. I am returning in two weeks for the celebration, it will be a large and splendid occasion I hope to receive yours and your husband's RSVP to." He replies, giving me a curt little nod and turning to leave. Just as I'm walking back towards the entrance of the club, Eric lands out of the air neatly onto his feet and turns to face me.
"Looks like we've got to dress up fancily all over again soon, we're invited to a party. One thrown by the king who just dropped by to personally invite us," I tell him quietly when I've walked the short distance between us. He takes the envelope I hand him and opens it to read the invitation within.
"Looks like we're going to be celebrating then," he says before putting the invitation into his jacket pocket and taking my hand to lead me back downstairs.
"Boo. I arrived and no one was here. Pam said I could wait down here," Fabien says as soon as we enter the apartment.
"The purpose of your visit is?" Eric asks expectantly, taking his jacket off and removing the invitation from his pocket to drop onto the table between the couches.
"Oh, I got one of those," Fabien says after noticing it. Both Eric and I look at him inquiringly, while I walk over to sit and join them.
"You have no status to warrant attending such a function, why does he want you there?" Eric asks him a little snobbishly. Fabien takes him in his stride as ever.
"He's heard of my skills and wants me to work for him. Which is what brings me here; you'll never guess what he wants me to investigate for him first. The details of your marriage are what," he replies, smiling and then laughing loudly. After a few moments, Eric and I join in too. Well, how very interesting.
"He works quickly, but unluckily for him I work quicker," Eric states triumphantly after we've all composed ourselves.
"You do have six hundred years on him," I say, looking at him with pride.
"There is that," Fabien says before standing again. "Anyway I just came by to inform you of that since I've been in the nearby area this evening," he then adds.
"Over in Bon Temps stalking Sookie Stackhouse after she left work, were you?" I ask him with amused tones.
"Stalking is too much of a strong word. I prefer keenly pursuing. I'll leave you both to it." He replies, before leaving at lightning speed.
"With that, I'm going to hit the computer for another few hours, see if I can't get a few more accounts done by the time the sun comes up," I reply, picking up the bag of food items I brought and standing up again.
"I'll join you shortly." Eric tells me. Shortly is what he means too, since he enters the office roughly three minutes after I have. He sits down on the opposite side and clears himself a space, putting down the large sketch pad, pencil and eraser he carried with him and then beginning to draw. Looking over at what he's drawing in regular intervals over the next hour, I see it starting to come together I realise he's drawing a picture of my house. He then stops and pulls a face, and smiles at me when he notices I'm looking at him.
"How much of the land surrounding your property do you own?" he asks me with interest, his scribbling coming to a stop.
"I own the frontage right on up to the edge of the lake, and the land that stretches about a quarter of the way up the one side of the lake too. When I purchased the property my realtor told me that if no one from the family of the man who previously owned the land, but had since died made a claim to it in the following five years it'd go to whoever owned the house. I have eight months left to wait and see, and then I can put in a claim for it with the parish council," I explain, watching him nod and make a few sweeping lines across the paper in front of him.
"As you heard me say to your father last night, I would like it if we could extend your house and live out there. I was originally thinking of getting an upstairs built onto it, but instead it could be lengthened so the house curves around the top half of the lake like this," he replies, turning the sketch pad around and showing me what he's drawn. "Fuck eight months. If no one has staked a claim to the land thus far then they aren't going to and if anyone does, then they have me to argue with. So that means the house can extend right around like that, see?" he then says, pointing at the drawing with his pencil. I wish I could draw. He's tried to teach me but I'm so terrible. Lamer than lame, my efforts are.
"Eric, this is literally four times the size of my house!" I exclaim, looking at the drawing intently.
"Five actually, since I was thinking we could have it built out a little too. We could make it even bigger than that still," he replies, circling the area at the back of my house that is all just trees and creeper weeds. When you live in virtual woodland, you can't really garden. Hoyt Fortenberry comes by every once in a while and cuts down any dangerous or intruding branches and vines for me. He insists on no money, so I always pay him for his time in beer.
"So I'd live here while it was being remodelled then?" I ask, making him laugh quietly and look at me a little incredulously.
"No, I shall make you sleep in your car," he replies with sarcasm, while I just smile and note that what I said was utterly stupid. He was right to poke fun.
"We should talk about this more tomorrow. I need to get a few more files finished and then head to bed," I tell him, watching him raise his eyebrows.
"No, you look tired. Enough work tonight." He tells me, switching off the computer monitor and giving me a 'don't argue' look. I smile, look at my watch and see its 4am and decide he's right. Taking my leftover litter from the salad bag, the remnants of my bunch of grapes and hard drive I switch off the computer and leave the office with Eric gladly. After we get downstairs I pour myself a glass of wine and run a bath, which I did intend to take alone. As usual I end up with a visitor, a big, naked vampire visitor who comes and lies behind me and talks with me about more of his ideas to extend my house.
He really has put a lot of thought into it, but tells me that ultimately he trusts my taste and wants me to choose the decoration for the entire abode. Well, I guess sitting here smiling at him and feeling excitement means I've said 'yes, you can rip my house to bits and build a bigger, better one'. It is at this moment, as I lean forward and feel Eric rubbing a bar of soap across my back that I think what stark contrast the scene is from this time last year. This time last year we were in a no strings sexual relationship that was as rocky as the famous mountain range. Now we're married and discussing our future home. It scarcely feels real still, but I love every minute of it all the same.hapter Six