He heard her before he saw her.

"Ruby, I know I need to get over him, but is a man-bashing night out where we get drunk, talk shit and flirt with bar cretins really the best idea?"

It was damn close to how he felt getting dragged along to another one of Will's embarrassingly juvenile Bros Before Hos outings now that his friend was single once more after three whole weeks of dating the same woman. Not that Killian Jones was above drinking, trash talking or flirting that on occasion turned into a one-night stand. But as he got older - closer to the ripe old age of 23 - the cycle of beer and broads was losing its luster.

His face brought plenty of attention; his charm and accent even more. He wasn't short on potential women, but he was short on patience watching even his closest friends play a game of cat and mouse week after week.

Killian turned toward the scoffing tone, but all he was able to catch a glimpse of in the crowd were blonde curls and a red dress being towed behind dark hair featuring crimson tips and a black miniskirt paired with dangerously high heels.

He heard her before he saw her.

Midnight karaoke brought all manner of musical taste and singing talent to the stage, fueled by liquid courage. Killian had already winced through a pack of carbon copy frat boys wearing polo shirts and Sperrys yell their way through Flo Rida's "My House," Will's rendition of Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up" as he made eyes at Miss Good Enough For Right Now in the front row, and some poor sap who was booed off the stage for trying to bust out with some Justin Bieber. He was just about ready to slap Robin on the shoulder and bid him a good night when the fourth performance was underway when the lyrics stopped him.

Am I gonna miss you?

Hell no!

Baby watch me up and go

Mama said that the boys like you

Never work out anyway

My girlfriends say are you gonna be sad

If he calls you up, you gonna take him back?

I said Hell no, oh Hell no!

Her voice was slightly off-key and just a touch too loud, tinged with alcohol and anger, but Jesus, that face. And that body. He tore his eyes away from her to survey the crowd. Her fellow scorned women held their cocktail glasses up in solidarity and almost every man in the place, whether they had a lady by their side or not, was giving her the once-over.

Not that he could blame them. He turned his attention back and let his eyeballs take their fill. The whole package was certainly nice – the hair and the tight dress that left little to the imagination. Toned arms, shapely calves and, as she turned to the side, an ass he wouldn't mind getting his hands on. But it was the smile that she shot her friends when the song was over and the way she threw her head back and laughed when the crowd cheered that had him wanting more.

He heard her before he saw her.

"Get the fuck away from me!"

Killian was outside the bar getting some air and waiting for his Uber. Robin and Will had offered to drop him off at the apartment they shared on their way to an after party with two girls they'd met. Neither in the mood to extend his night, nor be a third wheel, he told them he would get his own ride. He'd been outside for twenty minutes waiting on a driver who swore he'd only be ten when he heard the commotion.

"Emma, come on. I just want to talk."

Killian peeked around the corner of the alley and saw her standing by the side door with a man.

"I have nothing to say to you."

"I gathered that based on the fact that I've left you twenty voicemails and you can't be bothered to return my calls. Or my texts." The guy's voice was getting louder. "And now I find out that you're out with your friends at a bar, letting assholes buy you drinks. What – are you going to go home with one of them? Fuck around on me?"

Her laugh was loud and held no warmth or humor. "I'm fucking around? Me? When I caught you IN BED with your professor's teaching assistant?"

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" His fists were clenched, face red as he screamed, taking a step too close to her for Killian's liking. What sealed the deal was when she went to walk away and that fucker grabbed her arm and spun her to face him, grabbing her face. Hard.

"Hey!" Killian's voice boomed in the alleyway, but before he could make it even halfway to them to intervene, the guy was on the ground, wheezing and gagging with her standing over him.

"Listen, jackass. I don't know how your dick accidentally falls into a vagina that isn't attached to your girlfriend, but I'm not buying that or any other of your bullshit. I don't care if you walked in on me blowing a group of guys in the bar bathroom. What I do is none of your damn business because I broke up with your stupid ass. Got it? We are not together. Don't call me. Don't text me. And if you ever touch me again, you won't be choking because I punched you. You'll be choking because I ripped your balls off and shoved them down your throat."

The side door of the bar opened and her friends spilled out into the narrow space. They crowded around her, worry turning into oaths of relief when they saw the figure prone across the narrow space. As they ushered her inside, she turned back to him just for a split second.

He heard her before he saw her.

"Thanks for trying to help back there."

The curls were now up in a ponytail, eye liner and mascara a little worse for the wear.

"I heard the commotion from the street. It looks like you had things pretty well handled."

She leaned against the wall, blowing out a breath. "Yeah, I'm used to taking care of myself. Kind of a 'nobody saves me but me' thing."

"I can see that. Quite impressive, actually."

She shrugged. "Comes with the territory."

She didn't elaborate and it made his blood boil to think that lout still wheezing in the alley had put his hands on her before, even if she could handle herself.

"Do you often just barely miss the opportunity to be someone's knight in shining armor or do you often lurk in the dark?"

Killian scratched behind his ear. "Uh, no. I'm afraid I was stood up by my Uber driver." He took out his phone and checked his notifications. "Neal with the 4.6 rating was supposed to be here 15 minutes ago."

"Oh, shit. I'm so sorry."

He looked up, confused as to why she'd be apologizing.

She gestured to the alley. "I kind of kicked your driver's ass. Although now it makes sense how he found me here. He must have seen my car parked in the lot. Come on, I'll give you a ride."

Killian started to follow, then stopped. "I don't mean to, um – thank you, but you were just accosted by someone in a dark alley. Shouldn't your stranger danger level be on high alert?"

She turned to face him. Her heels were so high they were eye-to-eye, blue to green. She stuck out her hand.

"Emma Swan. You're Something Jones."

He cocked an eyebrow, surprised, as he took her hand and shook it. "Killian. I'm certain if we'd met before, I would have remembered, lass."

Emma jutted her chin in the direction of the parking lot and started walking again. "Your friend Will enjoyed a weekend at my apartment once."

"Excuse me?" He felt like a puppy trotting after her.

"My friend Ruby hooked up with him last winter. You came to pick him up at our apartment and introduced yourself to her." She gestured to a yellow VW Beetle. "This is me."

She unlocked his door, then walked around to get in the driver's seat. Heels were unceremoniously kicked off and tossed over her shoulder into the back seat as he gave her directions to his apartment.

"How did you know it was me?" The thought that he'd been a few feet away from Emma Swan months ago was both intriguing and maddening.

"The accent. Not a whole lot of English roses transplanted into a depressingly small college town outside of Boston." She turned the car on and checked her side mirror, pulling out into traffic. "And your ass."

"What?" He turned to look at her. She was grinning, eyes on the road but illuminated by the reflection of headlights in the rearview.

"What do you mean, what? The accent is hot. I may or may not have peeped out the window to see if the face matched, but all I caught was you walking away."

He caught the flirty tone in her voice and looked her face over carefully to avoid being the second idiot whose ass she kicked in the wee hours of the morning.

"Is that so? Well, now you've had a look at the goods, darling. Like what you see?"

She pulled her eyes from the road for a split second, made a show of looking him over and didn't say anything for a moment. It was unnerving and he rubbed suddenly sweaty palms on his thighs.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The way she said it made it sound both intriguing and like a challenge.

Killian looked out the window as she pulled up to his building, wishing he lived four towns over just to be able to spend more time in her presence. Looking back at her, he cocked his head.

"Perhaps I would." He unfolded himself from the confines of her car and leaned back in the door. "Thanks for the ride."

Emma gave him a little wave.

He closed the door and headed up the walkway to the lobby door, willing himself to keep cool and not turn back around to watch longingly as she drove away.

He heard her before he saw her.

"Buy me a drink, sailor?"

A veritable hurricane of blonde, boots and red leather hurled itself onto the bar stool next to him.

Killian leaned over and dropped a kiss on her cheek, humming when she turned his head and pressed her lips to him. The kiss went from chaste to filth, ending all too soon for his liking.

"Easy, tiger. We have all night for that." She signaled to the bartender, ordering a rum and Coke – his influence – and turned toward him, sliding her knees against his as she took over the footrest on his bar stool. When her drink came, she raised her glass to him. "Happy anniversary."

Killian chuckled, clinking his own glass against hers.

"To many more."

As she drank, he slid his hand over the small velvet box in his pocket. To many, many more.