Day One of EC Week 5! David is the one with the lion tattoo. Enjoy! I could potentially write a second chapter for this...but that is up to you guys :) enjoy!
The tensions had been incredibly high between them. Unsurprising, given all she had put him through. What with her hunting him and Snow White for so many years, forcing him to give up his daughter, cursing him to a new world where he laid in a coma for twenty eight years, and then indirectly being the cause of him losing his wife and daughter to a wraith and a hat not even twelve hours after being woken up.
But so help her if he didn't keep taking it upon himself to barge in to her home at every inconvenience he came across.
"Regina!"
His voice furiously bellowing through her home instantly had her skin crawling and her lip curling in to a snarl as her hand dropped down on to the kitchen counter from her chin as her head turned toward the front door. He was so arrogant and inconsiderate and she wanted nothing more than to set a fire at his feet and watch him burn alive.
If it weren't for Henry and her finicky magic, that was exactly what she would have done. But instead, she stood in silence and tried with every ounce of effort to keep herself in check and not kill the boy's grandfather. But oh how she so dreamed to.
"Regina!" He called again, his temper flaring when she didn't make her presence known to him, insufferable little witch," he bit under his breath. She was too proud for her own good.
With a deep breath and an endless string of curse words and insults spinning silently in her mind, Regina stood tall and walked through her kitchen until she stood at the end of her dining room table and held the eye of the shepherd standing in the middle of her foyer. "And what does the intolerable shepherd wish to accuse me of this afternoon?" She pressed smoothly, her voice like velvet and her eyes like daggers as she folded her arms over her chest and the shepherd scoffed a single bitter laugh.
"You are impossible," he snarled and she didn't move, didn't so much as blink. Simply stood there with a stone cold expression that made him want to shake her, "there is magic bordering the town, Regina, no one can leave the town limits! Why?!"
"You think that that is my doing?"
"Well it is your curse, is it not?"
"In case you haven't noticed, Charming, the curse is broken," she snarked and his grin was all malice as he shook his head in irritation.
"I have no patience for your tongue."
"Well if you don't want stupid answers, shepherd, perhaps you shouldn't ask such stupid questions," she sneered as she stepped closer to him and he followed suit and stepped in to her space.
"Tell me why the town line cannot be crossed," he gritted furiously but she didn't bat an eye.
"I don't know why."
"Stop playing games with me!" He bellowed in her face but she only rose up to the challenge and yelled right back at him.
"I am not playing games, you thick-!"
"You built this town!"
"Sure! But I am not the one who brought magic in to a world without!" She argued and he had to pause to truly process her words. And then her voice dipped in to its regular volume as she lifted her chin, a vaguely aggressive gesture of superiority as she purred with a subtle shake of her head, "oh how that pin dropping must echo in the walls of that empty skull you carry."
Her constant arrogance and snark made his blood boil and there was a beat of silence as a mildly amused curve started to pull at her lips. And then the next thing he knew, his hand was around her throat and he had slammed her back against the nearest wall and pinned her there, his face mere inches from hers as she snarled furiously. "I wish I could kill you," he growled as his grip tightened around her fragile little neck.
"I promise you the feeling is mutual," she hissed and dared not give him the satisfaction of letting it show how difficult his grip was making it to breathe.
"I don't know what Henry sees in you," he shook his head and she didn't say a word. Merely watched him through those incredibly dark eyes. "Wretched woman," he bit as he let go of her neck in one sharp movement that knocked her head back against the wall one final time.
He didn't put his hand down though and instead started to back away from her with it poised to strangle her at the very slightest provocation. Ordinarily she wouldn't have paid any mind to it. But there was something that pulled her gaze away from his piercing blue eyes. Something dark and distracting on the wrist of his raised right hand.
A tattoo she had not seen or thought of in over thirty years. A crest of a lion.
It was reflex. Pure reflex as she stepped from the wall and snatched his forearm in an iron clad grip and stared at the ink with wide eyes and a churning stomach.
"What the hell, Regina!"
"Is this some sort of sick joke?!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
"This isn't fucking funny, shepherd!" She roared at him as her nails dug deeper in to his skin.
"Let go of me, you-!"
"Where the hell did you get this!?"
"Get what?!"
"The tattoo!" She screamed, furious that he was so dense, that he would dare play with her in such a manner.
"The tattoo?!"
"Who told you about this?!"
"Regina! What in the hell!"
"Who?!"
"You aren't making any sense, you infuriating woman!" He shouted and tried to snatch his arm free but her grip would not give.
"How long have you known?! How long have you had this?! How long have you been waiting for me to notice it, you sick bastard!"
"How long have I known what?! Let go of me!" He roared at the top of his lungs but her voice boomed even louder.
"Answer me!"
"I don't know what you're talking about! It's just a tattoo! I've had it since I was seventeen!"
"Bullshit!" She shouted as tears sprung to her eyes, "that is bullshit!"
"It is not bullshit, Regina! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"If you have had it that long, I would have seen it!" She shouted at him and he showed her his wrist while her nails dug in deeper.
"Why?! We were never close in the Enchanted Forest and it wasn't there during the curse! It came back as soon as it was broken! Maybe the ink is imbued with magic! I don't know!"
"Well isn't that just incredibly convenient for you!"
"I haven't exactly had a moment to look in to it, Regina! What the hell does it matter anyway?!"
"Because it cant be you!" She screamed at him and he shook his head in wild confusion. It only made her more angry and she threw his arm back at him with tears in her eyes as she yelled once more, "it can't be you!"
"You are not making any sense!" He shouted furiously and was baffled by the tears in her eyes, "What the hell is wrong with you!?" He shouted as he threw his arms toward her and stepped in to her space. He was answered with a hard slap across his face that sent him sidestepping away from her to catch his balance. It surprised him almost more than it stung but she had held nothing back and the pain still lingered as he brought his fingers to his cheek and looked back at her furious and dumbstruck. She was all gnashing teeth, watery tears, and vibrating anger and he couldn't make sense of why.
"What in the hell was that for?!" He yelled back incredulously and she simply shouted back at him the very same thing as before.
"It can't be you!"
"Regina-!"
"It can't be you!" She insisted at the top of her lungs as she lunged at him and he stood his ground. "You bastard shepherd! Entitled, arrogant, insufferable shepherd! Thinking you can just waltz in to my home as if you own it, as if you own me, as if you own this town!"
"Hey-!"
"And then you have the audacity to show me that!" She bellowed as she swung her hand toward his wrist. She was furious, outraged, beyond upset. For this idiot could not be her soulmate. This infuriating ass could not be meant for her. He was married to Snow White, his kind words, his gentle hands, his selfless heart, they belonged to Snow White. He could not be hers. Even if she wanted him, he could not be hers. But she supposed it was only fitting that Snow White had taken away one more thing that was supposed to be hers and hers alone.
But how could the world be so cruel.
To remind her of such a doorway in her life only to cage it away from her just out of arm's reach.
And how could he, the self righteous air-headed shepherd, be meant for her. Even if she had found herself envious of Snow over him from time to time, it didn't mean she needed him, it didn't mean she loved him, she didn't even like him.
"God damn it, Regina, didn't show you anything! The tattoo has always been there! What is this even about?! You are pissing me off!"
"I don't believe you!" She shouted, furious and confused as she stepped toward him so she was right in his space, his own expression pulled in to a raging snarl with his teeth bared.
"What is this about, woman!?" He bellowed, loud and low and in her face as he loomed over her. She didn't say anything in reply. Just stared at him with dark teary eyes darting back and forth between his. She was rattled and angry and for the life of him he did not know why, he couldn't make any sense of it. He didn't truly care either, only to the extent of wanting to contain her rage before she let loose on the town or something of that nature. She had to be handled and that was all.
She wanted to wring his neck. She wanted to cut out his heart while he was still breathing. She wanted to kill him right then and there, right where he stood. But she also wondered if it could be true. Wondered if by some miracle he could love her. She hated the thought, despised it with all her being, she didn't want it, she had other things to think about. But love was always her weakness, always had been and undoubtedly always would be. No matter how hard she tried she could not silence her heart's whispered 'but what if?'.
There was only one way to find out. One way to learn if there was anything there, any merit to the pixie dust's prophecy. And perhaps if she hadn't been so completely blindsided over the knowledge, if she hadn't been so overwhelmed with anger, heartbreak, and defeat, if she could have snuffed out the smallest flickering flame of hope that had been sparked within her, perhaps she wouldn't have done it. But if she hadn't, she would have spent the rest of her days wondering what would have happened if she had.
It was David's turn to be shocked senseless for one moment they were screaming at one another and the very next, she had jumped to her toes and kissed him with his face caught between her hands. She hadn't given him so much as a chance to duck away from her. She was too quick and and it was the last thing he expected as he sucked in a sharp breath through his nose.
But when he tried to push her off, he found he simply couldn't. He had lifted his hands to do so but the moment he touched her, the very second his hands were on her, he couldn't seem to follow through. So his hands were left to rest on her elbow and shoulder as she pulled herself even closer in to him and he couldn't decide which was more shocking. The fact that she had kissed him or the fact that there was something within him that couldn't push her away. That his mind shouted 'no' but his heart and soul had never been more deeply soothed.
So he stood dumb as she kissed him and his mind whirred in confusion. And when she parted from the kiss, it was slow and soft and she stayed close to him. Her body had softened against his, his face held and caressed by her deadly hands, her nose resting alongside his, and her breaths softly passing through her parted lips hovering his. He was confused and utterly baffled by what was happening and simply could not make any sense of how suddenly there was something pulling him to be close to her, to kiss her again, to never let her go.
And then, for reasons he could not pinpoint, his fingers softened their touch and curled around her elbow and spread over the back of her shoulder, curving a path up to the back of her neck as they breathed the very same air. And when she let him, when she sunk deeper in to him, he fell under the mercy of his heart's wishes and he kissed her again.
He kissed her again and was met with the softest lips and the most pliant jaw, opening and closing with his without resistance or hesitation. He started slow and unsure but then his fingers were buried in her silken hair and his others were spread over the small of her back and she was following his every touch, moulding herself against him and moaning ever so softly against his mouth and it quickly stoked the fire within him that burned only for her.
Then he was pulling her to him and she was dropping her hands from his face so she could wrap her arms around his shoulders and down around the middle of his back, her hands taking fistfuls of his shirt as he kissed her harder. Their breaths were lost to them as they pushed each other further and urged each other closer, the pair of them at a complete loss as to how it came so easy and felt so right.
The next thing he knew, he was walking her backwards and when she followed his direction and let him turn her and pin her to the archway between her foyer and dining room, his desire for her shot through ever cell in his body. He kissed her with a passion he didn't know he held, not for any woman, and especially not for the queen. He kissed her for all she was worth and she kissed him back in the way you would expect such a woman to. How you would expect and then more.
The Evil Queen. Proud and strong and seductive, cunning and manipulative, beautiful and powerful. Her kiss was everything any man could hope for from such a twisted and stunning woman. And then it was more. The way her body moved in to his, the way her hands heavily wandered his body, her nails scratching in to him, her voice catching on moans and whimpers, her passion fuelling his.
She was gorgeous, she was seductive, but that did not account for the burning addiction he suddenly had for her. He could not get enough of her. Every touch, ever sound, every moment had his entire being screaming 'yes'.
And before he even knew what he was doing, he was pulling her from the wall and pushing her backward until she gracelessly hit the dining room table. She kicked the chair out of her way and clambered on top of it in a moment, the pair never breaking their fervent kiss as her fingers raked through his hair and his pulled her closer to him by her hips. Her legs hooked over his hip and around the back of his thigh, her teeth sharply nipping at his lips while he yanked at the blazer she wore until she helped him toss it away.
Then his hands could feel every part of her through only the thinnest layer of silk. Her muscles moving with him, her slim figure, the clasp of her bra, the dip of her spine, the curve of her breasts. She flooded his mind in an instant and there was no pulling him back for air. With every inch of her he touched, his body demanded more. With every kiss there was something bone deep in his soul that urged him to keep going, to kiss her harder, to get her closer, something carnal, something utterly primal.
He needed her like he needed air and he didn't know why. He just couldn't stop. It felt as though right there between her legs was where he had needed to be his whole life. It didn't make any sense but as her hot breaths panted against his lips, he truly didn't have the capacity to think on such a thing.
And there was something just so completely intoxicating about the slight whine entering her voice that revealed her need for him. The Evil Queen whimpering for more under his attention. It had him kissing her harder, longer, grabbing at her body as one hand pulled at the hair at the back of his head and the other slid down past his hip and pulled him closer to her with her hand on his ass, a couple fingers sliding in to his back pocket.
It had his stomach lurching with heat and lust and he bent over her further, tipping her backward as she rocked her hips in to his and swivelled her head to kiss him again. And then his open mouth moved to her neck and without a moment to waste, she let her head loll backward to give him more skin to cover. But her hand never left his hair.
He bit and he sucked between wet kisses, revelling in in her rapid pulse beneath his lips as her breaths came out hot and heavy. And as his mouth travelled lower, a long hum resonated low in her throat and his hand slid back up the side of her body. Leaving her hip and going up over her ribs, pausing over her breast, and then up to her neck as his mouth left her collarbone so he could look at her.
His hand stretched over her throat, her head still tipped back, her whole body ready and willing to be taken. Then he kissed her throat once again, wet and lingering, and then nipped lightly at her chin as she lifted her head back up and put them face to face. She didn't look him in the eye, nor did he her. His gaze was focused on her mouth, her smudged lipstick as his thumb rubbed over her bottom lip. Soft and full and calling him back to them as her panted breaths warmed his jaw. She was beautiful and he had never felt anything so right as being right there with her.
Nothing had ever felt more true. Nothing had ever felt so good. Nothing had ever felt so right. Right in the very deepest parts of him, right down to his soul, he was at home in her care. But it couldn't be. She couldn't be true, she couldn't be good, she couldn't be right, she couldn't be home. He was married, she was the Evil Queen, she couldn't be any of those things. But he felt as though she was, and was so more potent than anything or anyone he had ever felt.
It didn't make any sense. It was confusing and upsetting and he pulled away from her. But she followed and he stopped. He stood straight once more and she sat up on the table with her legs still hooked around his thighs. Her hands settled at the small of his back and between his shoulder blades. Gentle and tender hands as her nose and parted lips rested gently against his throat and his laid alongside her temple.
She didn't want him to leave. It was the most infuriating feeling for she was supposed to loathe this shepherd as much as she did Snow White and while she never truly had, there was no way she could ever hate him now. She had not expected to feel so much. She had been counting on feeling nothing at all.
But with just that kiss she knew he could be her whole world.
Could have been.
But he was lost to her. He belonged to Snow White and as they stayed so close, she wanted nothing more than for everything to be different. If only she had walked in to that tavern, if only she had this all to herself. It brought tears to her eyes once more and her hands moved over his body. The hand on her back sliding to the side of his waist while the hand between his shoulders moved to cradle the side of his face. But before she could settle there, he walked away from her.
It was abrupt and without warning and she could not open her eyes to watch him leave but she could hear the jog in his steps as he fled her home and slammed the door behind him without a word. Far more quickly than she would ever care for, the silence and loneliness filled her house once more and she stood from the table with her fingertips on her lips. Tears blurred her vision as she opened her eyes to look around her dining room and away from the door David left through.
Her life was such a wreck she could almost laugh. Her curse broken, her son gone, her magic uncooperative, her town out to kill her, and her dearest enemy's loving husband panned out to be her predestined soulmate. She could almost laugh.
But instead she screamed. She shouted furiously at the very top of her lungs to break the silence in her house and as her arms shot forward, her magic flew out stronger than ever and sent her dining room chairs flying to the far end of the room and knocked everything off the walls and sent it all crashing to the floor.
Then she looked at her hands in surprise and confusion and could only connect the sudden burst of power to the way David had left her touched by him. It angered her further but she was just so tired of the world working against her, she simply sunk herself to the floor in a corner and cried quietly to herself and swore she would never let him touch her again.
But she knew that given even the smallest chance, she would let that sworn promise break without hesitation. There was no fooling herself in to believing otherwise.
For love was her weakness and for the first time in decades, she had felt like she had a home in that shepherd's hands. But it was just a taste, and could never be. With an exhausted and quiet cry, she let her head tip back against the wall in exhaustion and defeat. The curse was supposed give her everything. And yet there she sat on her dining room floor with even less than what she started with.
An impossible feat one might say.
Unless you were an evil queen.