A/N: Just a little drabble that has been bouncing around in my head since the perfect finale. Enjoy! ;)
"It won't be on long," she told herself, making a face at her reflection in the mirror, wincing as she tried to draw a breath and cursing the laces of the abominable creation she was wearing. "Abominable creation?" she snorted at herself for having had the thought. "Definitely been spending too much time with him ... "
But there was another thing about her reflection, beyond the silken stocking and lacy garters, beyond the laces and boning of the red and black corset she wore, beyond the way she'd perfectly arranged the waves of her golden hair about her shoulders ... beyond all that, there was a light in her eyes that she'd never seen there before, and her lips seemed to be permanently twitched upward these days. She felt like she was glowing.
Happy was the word that came to mind. She was happy.
She turned when she heard the sound of a knock at the door - a pounding really, and she smiled to herself. He still hadn't perfected the art of not sounding like he was gonna break the damn thing down, but she sort of loved that about him. How he was always in such a hurry to be back with her, how he couldn't stand to be away from her for too long ...
She sort of loved a lot of things about him. That was why she'd abandoned a little bit of her stubbornness and decided to do something nice for him ... to show how much she appreciated him, because she didn't feel like she could ever say it enough.
"It's open!" she called out, rolling her eyes a little when he pounded on the door again. He never did just barge in, even though she'd told him that he was more than welcome to. The new apartment was as much his home now as it was hers and Henry's, though he still kept a room at the inn.
But tonight Henry was with Regina, and it would only be the two of them. The idea of being alone with him, even after everything they'd been through, still gave her butterflies. Maybe even moreso now than it had before, because now she knew ... she knew how he moved, what sounds he made, what his face looked like when he took her. She knew all these little secret things about him now, and he about her, and yet she knew there was still so much more for them to discover.
As she heard him turning the knob on the door, she moved out into the little foyer, wanting to be the first thing he saw when he opened the door. "It's starting to rain," he was saying as he pushed open the door, and Emma couldn't help but smile a bit as he gave himself a little shake - like a damned puppy - as he stepped inside, before he finally raised his gorgeous blue gaze to her.
"Bloody hell," he said on an exhale as he took in the sight of her, his expression that same awestruck one she'd seen from him time and time again, as if he simply couldn't believe she was real, and suddenly, Emma wasn't concerned about not being able to breathe any more.
She arched a brow at him, trying not to let her amusement show as he stood, seemingly frozen in the doorway. "Okay, well, if you don't come in and shut the door, the neighbors across the hall are gonna get quite the eyeful," she told him wryly, and that was all it took for him to kick the door shut behind him, and then he was moving at her, a predatory glint in his eyes that sent shivers right down her spine, all the way to her toes.
Instead of reaching for her, as she'd thought he would, he stopped a few feet shy of her, giving her an appraising once-over that had heat flooding through her, and a blush to rival the red of the corset rising to her cheeks. "What are you doing?" she asked him, her voice coming out a lot huskier than she'd intended. There was something about just having his eyes on her that made her burn.
"Looking," he told her, his expression saying it ought to be obvious. "But you are a vision in red, Swan," he said then, a smirk forming on his lips as he moved, circling around her. Emma turned her head to watch him, looking at him over her shoulder with an almost shy smile on her face.
"So I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you like?" she asked him teasingly when he was behind her.
"Oh, I definitely like," he said lowly, and Emma inhaled sharply, realizing he had stepped right up behind her, his lips now brushing the shell of her ear. She heard his amused chuckle, low and deep and dark and sinful, and felt the tip of his hook, running along the laces at her back.
She swallowed thickly, wanting to turn around and face him, but also enjoying the feel of him pressed against her from behind, where she could feel all the hard angles of his body pressed against her curves in all the right ways. "So are you gonna do something about it?" she finally asked, reaching behind her, fingertips tracing over him through the leather of his trousers, feeling smug over how effected he was by all of this.
She heard his sharp intake of breath, the low growl that formed in the back of his throat then "And what is it you want me to do?" he asked lowly, teeth grazing at her earlobe, sending a jolt of desire straight through her.
"You're supposed to want to get me out of this thing," Emma whispered, already far too effected by his mere presence to even try and play coy with him right now.
"And miss out on the chance to have you while you're wearing this?"
"But I can't breathe," Emma said with a little pout, jutting out her lower lip.
He gave another one of those dark laughs at her ear and Emma moaned a little as she felt his fingers winding in her blonde tresses, pulling gently to tip her head back so he could lean over her shoulder just so and catch her lips in a hungry and needy kiss, the kind that let her know that it didn't matter what she was wearing.
If he was around, she was going to be breathless, either way.