A/N: Lyrics come from Halestorm's Love/Hate Heartbreak.

Unexpected Contact

"I see my demise from behind your eyes,"

"Nnnah… oh god…"

Regina felt her body curling without her consent, toes clenching, fingers sinking deeper into the soft sheets of her queen-sized bed. Her legs were parted, thighs stretched, to accommodate Emma's naked form between them, and Regina was unsure that she'd ever been more pleased with the other woman's contact than she was right at this moment.

With one warm hand cupping a breast, the other between Regina's thighs, Emma smirked into wet flesh beneath her mouth at the breathy cries coming from the top of the bed. Regina was always careful, during their rough and frequent tumbles beneath the sheets, to contain what little composure she could retain and grasp onto it with a steadfast hold until Emma managed to pry it from her with her climax. She felt a small victory, warming her in all the right places, whenever Regina cried out in wanton, unable to quiet her voice any longer.

These little slips were happening more and more frequently, Emma noted, but with her face buried between Regina's thighs, she really couldn't find it in herself to wonder what that meant exactly.

Clamping down on her bottom lip, sure she was going to pierce the tender skin there, Regina held back her cries and tightened her hold on the bed sheets. Her eyes - long since clamped shut - swam blindly beneath her eyelids and she knew, if she hadn't such a vice-like hold on it, her bottom lip would be quivering.

Regina was sure she had never felt like this before. Sex had always only ever been a physical act, either a means to an end or to simply pacify the unignorable needs her body craved to have satiated. King Leopold had been her first sexual partner, though she hardly thought his short-lived visits to her side of the bed intimate. Maleficent had been her real tutor in the art of physical pleasure, and Graham, and a few others in between, were her play things for experimental and exploratory desire.

What she had with Emma Swan was only ever supposed to be a quick conquer for her otherwise bruised ego. She had finally snapped one night and had decided to teach Emma a lesson.

It had been quick and painful, and as soon as she had started she thought it to be a mistake; she was still certain she had lost something that night, though whatever it was continued to elude her. But the first night had led to a second, and a second to a third, and before either of them truly realised it, the rough shoving and desperate surge for release had mutated into a frequent affair, where the often insufferable push-and-pull of their actions became altogether too soft and gentle - too tender - for Regina to stand.

Yet she found herself unable to keep her distance from Emma. And now, more than ever, that was bothering her immensely.

"This could be suicide, a kiss with these red knives,"

Regina could feel her head falling further into her pillows, neck straining towards the ceiling, and she finally lost the lip between her teeth, mouth contorting around a silent scream of paralysing pleasure.

This was all too much, she knew, even before her body began to tremble. Each thrust and circle over her tender flesh sent a wave of feeling over each and every inch of her body, blinding all sense and reason, all rational thought, and branding her flesh with a scarring kind of beauty.

The first gasp was just that; a sharp breath through her incoherent, hazy mind. The second was more of a breathy exhale, emptying her burning lungs and rendering her at the mercy of another deep breath in. The third was an unmistakable cry, and even as it left her lips, Regina wished she was able to fight to restrain it.

The first cry went unnoticed, Regina knew, as the ministrations over her lower half continued. The knowledge that she was finally breaking, that her perfectly sculpted mask was cracking and crumbling, provoked another cry, slightly louder, and then a third, a fourth…

Blinking in confusion, Emma lifted her head up to take in the picture before her. She wasn't sure when the mewling gasps became soft cries, but watching Regina now, witnessing the spilling of tears through clamped-shut eyes, a fresh worry grasped at her chest and she hurried to disentangle herself from her affections.

The ascent up Regina's body left Emma leaning over her, face hovering just over the other woman's, and a heated palm pressed into a slightly damp cheek. Her contact provoked a deep blush to colour the tanned flesh beneath her fingers, and Emma's brow only further wrinkled with a frown.

Shit, I broke her…

"Regina," She tried, softly, eyes wide and panicked.

When Regina refused to relent and, instead, merely brought up a limp arm to drape over her closed eyes, shaking and shuddering from her ragged breathing, Emma released a long breath and wondered what she had done.

The shuddering body was warm beneath her own, but Emma did not miss the sudden wave of goosebumps that spread across Regina's ribs and breasts. Trying again, she smoothed the pad of her thumb through the trickled track of tears across Regina's temple and, hovering above her over her elbows, brought her other hand up to brush her fingers through Regina's mussed hair.

"Regina, what's wrong?" She asked, heart thrumming.

Internally chiding herself for her momentary slip, Regina attempted to reign in her shuddering breaths, only all too aware of whose eyes were watching each and every one of her movements, scrutinising her weakness. She rubbed her wrist against her eyes, hoping to threaten her tear ducts into behaving.

When she thought herself composed enough to speak - for even she doubted she had the energy to throw Emma off her and bolt from her own bedroom, like she wanted to - Regina cautiously removed her arm from her face and was instantly engulfed by a concerned gaze. The greeting only made her chest pound harder with the burden of her unidentified feelings.

Emma's hands stilled - one caught in dark hair and the other pressed lightly into a rosy cheek - as she peered down into the watery eyes beneath her. The sudden openness there shocked her into silence for a startling moment before her concerns and curiosities finally provoked her into asking, "What happened?" Her voice was soft and quiet, but the sentiment behind her words only further stripped Regina of her strength.

When she failed to answer - Regina really wasn't sure she could - Emma probed again, "Regina, please… what's wrong?"

Blinking through slippery lashes, Regina sucked her bottom lip into her mouth in trepidation. When she thought she might scold under Emma's unmoving stare, she finally attempted to answer, voice wavering, "I've never…"

She paused to clear her throat, and her eyes shifted uneasily from the piercing stare above her, but Regina doubted she'd be able to stop now. In her weakened state, she continued, "It wasn't supposed to feel that good…"

Emma blinked. "You're crying because it was good?" She was downright certain that she would never come to understand Regina Mills.

Regina's own brow matched Emma's in her frown as she elaborated, words quiet but tense, "I was never supposed to enjoy it this much."

Emma's sigh hit her face mere seconds later, the cool air against damp tracks causing a shiver.

Chewing on the inside of her lip, Emma waited a moment before she finally said, "I know…" Her thumb cautiously continued its earlier affections, soothing over the still damp flesh by Regina's temple.

"I don't think either of us really planned on this going on as far as it has."

What she wanted to say, what she desperately feared Regina's reaction towards, was that neither of them had planned for the thick vines of feeling to bind their affair.

Regina shook her head softly in agreement, her fingers clenching into fists around the bed sheets.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked, and once Regina nodded, small but sure, she couldn't help the small smile that tugged at her lips.

She was yet to be thrown from the bed, whether because Regina wanted to keep her there or she just couldn't muster the strength to shove her away, but she felt grateful none the less.

"Bet you never thought you'd be unable to resist my charms," she grinned.

Regina sighed and rolled her eyes, secretly thankful for the change in atmosphere. She did not hesitate to inform the other woman, "You're impossible."

Emma smirked in agreement and asked, half joking, "Would you still want me if I wasn't?"

Regina frowned against the screaming 'YES' her mind provided her with and her fingers finally unclenched, arms raising to drape languidly across Emma's warm back. When Emma saw the panic filling those large, dark eyes once again, however, the smile dropped from her face and she hurried to reassure the other woman.

"Hey, it's okay," she smiled, words soft, and then proceeded to wrap her arms around Regina and gently lower herself over her front, face pressing into her perfumed neck.

Regina's arms tightened around Emma as if on their own accord, and she attempted to slow her erratically beating heart as her chin came to rest over a pale shoulder, enjoying the weight above her. With her eyes closing, Regina pushed all thought from her mind and merely revelled in the warmth surrounding her.

And then it hit her, hard enough to spike fresh tears from widening eyes, the reason why this time had been different to all others. Regina Mills had never before been made love to.

"Between love, between hate, shake the silence back but it's too late,
and it haunts you, and it haunts you, it's a love/hate heartbreak…"