Regina paced her study, a short tumbler of cider held loosely by her fingertips. She was on edge and restless; she had been since Emma Swan had shown up on her porch with Henry in tow after her son had gone looking for his birth mother. Like the proverbial thorn in her side, everything about Emma from the way she talked to the way she walked needled and irritated her. Her constant presence in Storybrooke, in Henry's life, and hers by extension, was an aggravation she didn't want or need.
Before Emma's arrival the people of Storybrooke had a healthy fear of her, just enough so that no one questioned her outside of her own son's pre-teen testing of her authority and she was able to rule the town as she saw fit. Now though, now she heard the whispers and she could no longer ignore those brave enough to give her fast dirty looks, two things that wouldn't have happened even a month prior to that damn yellow bug driving into town.
Emma's arrival set a chain of events in motion that thus far had culminated in the loss of Graham's life. Regina missed him, not because she loved him, she didn't love anyone outside of her son. Romantic love led to loss and she'd suffered enough of that in her lifetime, but she missed the utter uncomplicated nature of her relationship with Graham. He was gone though. Gone because of Emma. Gone because she was the supposed Savior. Regina couldn't allow him to live with his recovered memories and there was only one way she could be certain he wouldn't ruin her happy ending.
Taking his life had been a necessary sacrifice, one she hadn't regretted until the last week or so when she realized she also sacrificed the only person that she could stomach allowing to service her sexually. Her choice of bedmates in the small Maine town of her creation was severely lacking in options. Neglecting to provide herself a choice of lovers was one of her regrets about casting the curse.
Regina downed the remaining cider in the tumbler. It wasn't as if she were incapable of handling things herself but even if she'd never allow herself to get emotionally close to anyone else she did still crave a physical connection with another human being from time to time. It had been twenty-one days and twenty-one lonelier nights since she'd felt the touch of another's hand. She was lonely because of Emma Swan and loneliness was like love. It was for the weak and she was anything but. Anger welled up in her chest and she welcomed the warmth as it bloomed.
Anger was safer; anger was the emotion she could wear like a cloak. It kept her on guard and kept other, unwelcome emotions at bay. Anger was strength. Anger didn't get banished. There was only one other emotion that could push her anger to the side even momentarily. Desire. And that was only because anger and desire were emotions that were typically intertwined for her.
She'd been summoning Graham to her bed more frequently since finding out that Emma was Henry's birthmother and the blonde's announcement that she had no intention of leaving Storybrooke no matter how difficult Regina had tried to make her life. With a start she realized that she'd been using sex to blunt the anxiety she'd felt since learning of Emma's existence. Everything about the woman threatened to make her weak and that was unacceptable. The Savior needed to go.
Regina let the anger grow, using it to fuel a plan that she hoped would drive the annoying blonde out of town. An evil grin tugged at her lips as she grabbed Emma's personnel file and carried it into her office. In moments she'd fired up her laptop, found the electronic version of the employment contract for the sheriff's position and made a key revision. The original page was slipped into the shredder and replaced in the version Emma had signed after winning the election. She shoved the contract into her bag and made her way to the front door of the mansion.
Henry was in a session with Archie, his third of the week, and that meant she had time to make certain the newly elected Sheriff understood each and every one of her responsibilities before she met Henry at Granny's for a post-session treat. If she had her way, the additional language in the contract would be more than enough to get Emma to resign her position once she understood what was expected of her and without any other job prospects, Regina hoped it would be enough to get Emma to leave town forever.
The drive was to the station was short, but not so brief that Regina didn't wish to still have the ability appear wherever she wanted in a matter of a second, surrounded by a whirl of purple smoke. The door to the sheriff's office slammed open to announce her arrival and the startled yelp it garnered from the blonde wearing the badge was the most satisfaction she'd had in ages.
"Ms. Swan." Her voice was all business, her tone clipped.
"Damnit, Regina! Why do you always come in here like your hair is on fire?" she asked testily, her heart still hammering hard in her chest.
"Because I can, dear," she answered coolly, her high heels clicking against the cheap tile in the station. "You and I need to have a little chat as it seems your presence here will be on-going."
Emma turned in her chair to fully face the mayor. "Yeah, it is. I'm glad to hear that you've finally accepted it."
"For the time being, Ms. Swan." She closed the remaining distance between them and perched on the edge of Emma's desk, her skirt rising to reveal firm calves. She wasn't certain if she saw rather than imagined Emma's gaze immediately dropping and caressing her legs like a touch before snapping up to meet her brown eyes. Either way she easily kept her expression schooled. "It's easy enough to accept it when I have no doubt that eventually you'll give into your nature and run away."
Emma pushed her chair away from the desk and stood, unwilling to give Regina the advantage of literally looking down at her from her own desk. "I have no intention of going anywhere so stop trying to find ways to run me out of town," she said harshly.
"My, my… I think I hit a nerve." Regina smirked knowing it would get another rise out of the blonde.
Emma refused to back down and took a step forward and crossed her arms over her chest. "You said you needed to talk to me. Talk."
"Tsk, tsk…so impatient. I think you're picking up some bad habits from your roommate Ms. Blanchard."
"Look. Talk or get out. I've got a ton of paperwork to get through as you well know." She was convinced Regina had piled it on in an effort to get drive her out of town with dead trees alone.
"Fine." Regina pushed a pile of paper away from her legs, her eyebrow hiked up under her hair. "I was curious. Did you read your employment contract before you signed it?"
"Why?" she asked uneasily as she studied Regina's face.
"Why doesn't matter. Did you read it?" Her tone was even and from the set of Emma's jaw, Regina was certain that she was infuriating Henry's birthmother.
Emma's eyes narrowed. "No," she answered honestly. "Why does it matter?"
Regina smiled and slid gracefully off the desk. Emma didn't step back and they ended up nearly nose to nose. Regina could feel the tension rolling off the blonde and smiled. She pulled Emma's personnel file from her bag and flipped to the back pages before handing it to her. "Read the fine print, dear." Without another word, she left the sheriff's office as suddenly as she'd arrived just a few moments before.
She resisted the desire to stay to see Emma's reaction to the paragraph she'd pointed to and was rewarded when she heard Emma's, "holy shit," echo through the hall before the door to the office could fully shut.
Emma followed Regina's Mercedes through town, lights flashing and siren wailing. She didn't kill either until she pulled into the mayor's driveway, her squad car coming to a stop inches behind Regina's car. "Regina!" she shouted as she threw the door open and chased after her.
"Regina!" she shouted again even as she grabbed at the brunette's elbow and pulled her to a stop.
"Take your hands off of me, Ms. Swan."
"That's ironic considering what I just read." Emma shot back, though she released Regina immediately. She shoved her employment contract back into Regina's hands. "Do you want to explain this?"
"It seems to me that the time for questions was before you signed the contract," she said with a not so sweet smile. "It's hardly my fault that you signed it blindly. If you are unwilling or unable to do the job in its entirety, then resign."
Emma's green eyes narrowed and she moved closer to her nemesis. "You think this will make me quit, that's why you added it to the contract."
"You think I had it added to your contract specifically? Don't flatter yourself dear." Regina lied, quickly turning to open the door to her home, not surprised in the slightest when Emma followed her inside without an invitation.
"You're telling me that's why Graham…" Emma shook her head unwilling to finish the thought that he was somehow forced to do things against his will and even more unwilling to think that Regina would be a part of something like that.
"No." Regina had known that on some level Graham had actually cared for her and for her son. She continued to move deeper into her home and found herself back in front of the fireplace in her study, a tumbler of cider in her hand. "No, Graham was a willing participant."
She handed Emma the tumbler, then poured another for herself. The silence between them was full of the tension of unasked and unanswered questions. Regina sat, perching on the edge of a chair and looking up at Emma. "What is it that you find so troubling about what is being asked of you?" Regina asked, her brown eyes dancing with delight as Emma squirmed under her gaze.
Emma's face flushed hotly. "You seriously want me to …" she gestured oddly with her hands, the ice tinkling loudly in her glass, "have sex with you?"
In a flash Regina was up and stepped into Emma's personal space. "Don't pretend that you haven't thought about it. I've seen the way you look at me. Why just minutes ago you looked at my legs like you wanted to wrap them around your waist and carry me straight to the cot in one of the holding cells." She moved so close, their breasts brushed together. "You don't have the market cornered on being able to see the truth in someone else, Ms. Swan."
Heat flooded her body at Regina's all-too-accurate assessment and she took a shaky step back, the need to create a little space between greater than her need to breathe in that moment. She didn't step back far enough, a fact realized too late when she did take a breath and Regina's perfume and the scent of apples seemed to envelope her.
Regina gripped the tumbler a little tighter, her lips curling up into a sexy smile. Emma reaction was more than she could have hoped for. It was somewhere between fear and desire, two emotions Regina wanted to elicit in others more than any others. "Ms. Swan, you have a choice. Don't pretend otherwise."
The satisfied tone of Regina's voice was enough to snap Emma out of the stupefied haze she'd found herself in. "I'm not sleeping with you," she blurted a little too quickly.
"No?" Regina stepped close to her again. "Is that because you don't want to or is it because you want to more than you think you should?" she taunted her.
"You don't even like me, Regina. All you've done since I've been here is try to get me to leave. Why would you want me in your bed?" Emma countered, unwilling to back down and let Regina push her buttons.
"It's simple dear…because you want me."
