The women had stayed out so long - and could all hold their liquor so well - that they weren't nearly as hammered as Emma had expected them to be by the time when they crossed the threshold into the former mayor's mansion.
Some wine for all, it was decided, and Regina pulled Emma into the kitchen after taking Ruby and Belle's light jackets, gesturing the women to the couch and winking at them to make themselves comfortable. She pulled Emma slightly by the tie before strutting into the kitchen, the dazed and happy blonde following her, wondering with distant sadness what her lover would have been like for all these years if she had had friends all this time.
Left alone, Belle and Ruby turned to each other, excitement lighting both of their faces. "Well, what do you think?" Ruby asked. Belle was friends with Emma, but had never gotten the chance to socialize this much with her, and she'd clearly never exactly had a social call with Regina.
"I'm having the time of my life, if that's what you're asking," Belle responded, contentedly looking around. She idly picked up the book that Emma had dropped earlier: Alice Walker. She smiled softly, and Ruby admired the effect that having a book in her hands had on Belle's already flawless features.
"It's difficult to imagine," Belle began slowly, still looking down at Regina's book, "how such monstrous things can be done by someone who is now so clearly a changed woman, a better woman. Isn't it?"
She looked to her girlfriend for help sorting it all out. Ruby placed her hands on Belle's lightly. "You're talking to a woman who becomes a monster every month, sweetie," she answered sadly. "Makes me wonder what you'd want with either of us, me or Regina."
"Ruby - Red - if love were quite so superficial as to exclude those of us who have our moments as monsters, no one would ever give or receive it. I don't know about you, but I don't want to imagine that world. And anyway, your wolf isn't a monster: she is a beautiful part of who you are."
Ruby blinked tears away from her eyes and smiled into her girlfriend's soft kiss. "You wouldn't know anything about being a monster, Belle," she whispered into her mouth.
"I wouldn't be quite so sure about that... Oh, the stories I'll tell you one day," Belle breathed back as Red's smile - and their kiss - deepened.
"I look forward to it," Red murmured before sliding her tongue into her groaning girlfriend's mouth.
Moments - minutes, hours, days? - of breathless kissing and handsy exploration of territory that was at once known and new, Belle broke their kiss gently. "Where are those two? Come on, let's help them with drinks, I feel awful letting Regina do all the work in her own house." She stood and held her hand out to a still hazy Ruby.
"But Regina told us to make ourselves comfortable. And anyway, Emma's helping her," she murmured as she tried to coax Belle back onto the couch.
Belle furrowed her brow playfully at Red's last statement. Ruby considered the clumsiness of the blonde in her head, remembering the spilt hot chocolate and how much she'd wanted to lick it off her stomach.
"Touche," she answered, accepting Belle's hand and allowing herself to be led into the kitchen.
"Regina, Emma, we wanted to see if you needed help with the - drinks." Belle finished her offer breathlessly as she stumbled slightly on her 5-inch stilettos at the image that greeted her and her girlfriend as they turned into the kitchen.
Emma was pinned with her stomach against the counter, her triceps flexing through rolled-up sleeves with the pressure she was exerting, steeling herself against Regina's hands. The Queen's body was flush against the Princess' as the latter ground her ass back into the former and one of the brunette's hands disappeared into the front of the blonde's jeans, her other hand groping her breast as she bit into Emma's completely exposed throat.
"I am... so sorry," Belle whispered gently, having seen and felt plenty of the women's affections at the club but finding this to be intimately intrusive. The engaged women turned to look towards her voice as blood rushed to color her face and she tried to push Red, whose mouth was open and her eyes alight with amused lust, back out of the kitchen.
Emma twisted her neck to look at Regina, and they effectively read each others' thoughts. Emma winked at her lover, kissing her lightly and smiling assuringly at her. Regina turned her face towards Belle. "Not at all, dear," she crooned, her voice heavy with lust. "In fact, if you've no objections, why don't you both join us? You'd be more than welcome."
Belle's blush deepened as quickly as her pulse skyrocketed. She turned to face her girlfriend, who was already looking at her questioningly.
"No pressure from me, baby," she whispered, touching Belle's arm.
"But you... want it?" Belle asked, unsure if Ruby - who the previous day hadn't been so hot on the idea of even socializing with Regina, who had a deep friendship with Emma that she didn't want to risk messing up for a night of fun, and who was best friends with Snow White, for crying out loud - would want to do this.
"Hey, you know me, I'm always up for anything, especially sexy fun things, but I'd be happy if I never fucked another person in my life, if that's what makes you feel the most loved and wanted. Because you are, Belle. Truly." There was a deep sincerity in Ruby's voice that Emma had only heard a few times, usually during their late night talks when Emma needed some stiff drinks and Ruby was closing up shop.
Emma melted into Regina's arms, feeling Red's words shuttle between them, an unspoken understanding that that's how they felt about each other, as well.
Belle considered the depth in her girlfriend's eyes and smiled seductively, quickly kissing her nose before turning on her heels and marching, hips swaying sexily, towards Regina, locking eyes with her and refusing to blink.
Regina's lips were slightly parted and Emma could feel the increasing pace of her breathing. Belle's heels clicked across the floor, crackling through the room's silence, joining rhythmically with the melodies of the two couples' anticipation.
The formerly kept woman brought her lips down to the former mayors neck, but resisted touching her.
"Do you want this?" her accented voice breathed heavily into Regina's ear.
Regina's answer was cool, calm, collected. "I wouldn't have invited you to join us otherwise, dear."
Despite her genuinely positive excitement about the night that lay ahead, Emma silently thrilled over Regina's utter sense of collectedness: Emma reveled in being the only one capable of shattering the woman's control with a single glance, a single touch, a single word.
She was shaken lightly out of her introspection as Regina's hand, having blinding reached out for Emma's body, implored her closer as her tongue slid out from behind perfectly white teeth and perfectly red lips to reach for Belle's moist pink mouth.
Belle backed away slightly, a wicked smile dancing in her eyes. "I was locked up for twenty-eight years because of you, Regina," Belle murmured, and for a moment, Regina's heart shattered and Emma's fired with betrayal and anger. Belle leaned closer and slid her tongue across Regina's lips briefly. She shifted her mouth to pause just next to the Queen's ear again, as she whispered, softly but loud enough for all to hear, "Do you want me to show you what that feels like?"
Emma and Regina realized at once that Belle wasn't being accusatory, but erotic, and both women found themselves wishing that more Storybrooke residents would be so quick to forgive (and would process their remaining anger in such a mutually fun way).
A small noise, somewhere between a squeak and a groan, sounded from the back of Ruby's throat as Regina nodded quickly. "Upstairs," she breathed, running her fingernails down Emma's arm seductively.
"Not another word," Belle whispered as she spun abruptly on one heel and set off for Regina's bedroom. She snapped her finger over her shoulders in an uncannily erotic and accurate imitation of Queen Regina.
"Bring her," she said with finality, and Red could hear the excited grin on her face.
A shot of heat tore through Regina's core as Emma murmured to Ruby, "Your girlfriend's, uh... quite the kinkster," a twisted grin rising on her face, reflected perfectly in Regina's.
"Indeed," the former Queen seconded, her voice hitched with pleased anticipation.
"I know, right? Isn't it the best?" Ruby shot them both a devilish smile and a wink, taking Regina by the upper arm and gesturing her up the stairs.