"Well this is really nice. Mary Margaret definitely went out of her way with this one; didn't she, babe?"
Halting on her tracks and feeling how the corner of her upper lip curled in annoyance, Regina's eyes immediately landed on the form of her assistant turned fake husband and sent him an icy cold glance.
Sure, she wanted to tell him a thing or two instead of just sending him a look to kill, especially after he mockingly called her babe again; but instead of voicing how much she disliked being called like that she decided to bite her tongue and keep her silence.
It was better that way because the bellboy that has taken the task of transporting their luggage from the lobby of the hotel to their room was still in there and truth be told she didn't want to risk it.
What if he was one of her stepdaughter's little spies? What if she replied to Robin's imprudent pet name with one of her snarky comments and he went running to Mary Margaret to tell her how the newlyweds were everything in the book but a loving couple?
That would be extremely counterproductive for her cause so no, the best she could do was say nothing, pretend she didn't even hear him and just take a look around.
Now, as Robin pointed out, it was a nice room but she wouldn't go out of her way and say that she was impressed. Yes, the view was really astounding as it overlooked the coastline, but the room per se was pretty average.
It was also inconveniently equipped with only one bed and just because of that she couldn't be completely pleased. The math for their accommodations just didn't add up in her mind but there was not much to do about it, as it would raise suspicions if she went to the front desk and demanded another bed.
But that was something they would figure out along the way, for now she noticed that at least there was a desk she could use to work and that at least was a plus.
"And look at this, champagne."
Lifting her head up and sending him a sideway glance as she walked past him and out to the balcony, Regina exhaled. It was only when the bellboy went away and it was just her and Robin that she decided to speak.
"The room is a little small. It doesn't even have a sofa so I hope you enjoy sleeping in the floor."
"Are you serious? That bed is huge, I'm pretty sure we can both fit in there without even having to make contact."
Swirling on her heels a bit dramatically so that she could take a look at him, Regina eyed him critically. "It would first have to snow in hell before I even consider sharing a bed with you."
At her words, Robin arched an eyebrow. He has already taken off his suit jacket and was by then lifting the sleeves of his dress shirt all the way to his elbows. It was only then that she noticed the man had a black inked tattoo on his forearm.
It was something she has never noticed before but since their relationship was essentially a work related one it wasn't like she should have seen it. He worked after all always with long sleeves.
"You are really making this harder than what it really has to be. I didn't ask to come here, I was dragged along because of your bizarre family drama so the last thing you should do is making me be the one who has to sacrifice."
Clicking her tongue to the roof of her mouth, Regina sat in one of the chairs in the balcony so that she could take her shoes off. "Well, Robin… considering what you are gaining with this deal, sleeping in the floor for a couple of days shouldn't even come as a sacrifice."
It would be just until Monday anyway, because that was the day they were going to leave to work on the Milan deal. Then when they went back home he could have his own bed and his space and they wouldn't even have to interact with each other that much if it wasn't for work.
"And considering what you could loose if it wasn't because I'm cooperating, being a little less conceited shouldn't be such a big deal either."
Rolling her eyes, she showed him her teeth and not necessarily with a smile. She was not going to share the bed and that was final, so with that in mind and not even bothering to reply to what he just said, Regina got to her feet and headed straight towards one of her suitcases.
She wanted to change, as she didn't think it was necessary to keep wearing the wedding dress anymore. She needed to be comfortable, because she was planning on spending the rest of the day working and doing it in high heels and intricate clothing would just make her feel crabby.
"Order something to eat, I have a lot of work to do and I can't do it on an empty stomach."
Mimicking the sound she made earlier on by clicking his tongue as well, Robin shook his head no. "I signed up for fake husband, not to be your personal slave."
"It's not slavery if I pay you for it." She said absentmindedly, grabbing for a change of clothes out of her luggage. "And trust me, I pay you more than enough so stop complaining."
"Maybe you're right, but… today's Saturday and I don't work weekends. I mean it's in the contract that you can't monopolize my time on my days off so sorry." With that said, Robin walked right past her to got into the bathroom and before she could say a word about how she was going to use the facilities he closed the door on her face.
Gasping in disbelief, Regina fought against the urge of kicking the door. It took a lot of effort from her part to control the impulse and after repeating the mental mantra that she needed to be in good terms with Robin if she meant to go through with everything she had planned , she took in a deep breath and then blew it out before walking away.
By the time he got out, she was sitting by the desk, furiously typing on her iPad. He didn't say anything to her and she didn't even look at him, but by the scent that was suddenly impregnating the air, he was obviously fresh out of a shower.
"I ordered food, but just so you know I'll also be looking for a new assistant first thing when we get back home."
"Good luck with that one, because slavery was abolished in England more than two centuries ago so I doubt you'll find what you're looking for."
Snarling her lips, Regina scoffed. "Raise crows and they'll gouge your eyes out. Tsk." Hissing the words, she got to her feet before heading into the bathroom as well to also take a shower.
She needed to lower down her revolutions and even though still a bit mad about Robin making things more difficult for her, she at least managed to ease the discomfort that being in the wedding dress was provoking on her.
When she was done and finally walked out of the bathroom, freshen up, her face clean of any makeup and her hair recently washed, the first thing Regina noticed was that Robin has taken the opportunity of her absence to grab her iPad and was now working from it.
"What do you think you're doing?"
As soon as she said the words, Robin looked up; he did it while opening his mouth as if to say something, but as soon as his eyes went to her he frowned and clasped his mouth shut.
Caught off guard by how his eyes quickly roamed through her frame, the black haired woman dropped her hand from where it was been running through her damp hair and placed it over her hip. "What?"
She has changed into a pink v-neck strappy top and black skinny jeans so it wasn't like she was underdressed, but somehow she now felt like it.
There was after all a huge difference from the more high maintenance look and perhaps a bit more sophisticated way she used to work, so she guessed that was why he was looking at her so funny.
Settling his blue orbs into the chocolate warm of her eyes, Robin just shrugged. "You look like a whole new person. You even look shorter."
Not wanting to add anything else to the subject, Regina rolled her eyes and walking to him, she snatched the tablet from his hands to take a look at what he was doing.
Apparently he has been working on the presentation for the Milan deal and as she quickly scanned what he did, she hummed in appreciation.
Who would have though, but what he added up was actually not that bad so she took a seat next to him and got into full working mode.
For the next few hours, they worked, eating their meal while brainstorming; and it wasn't until the afternoon turned into an early evening that a knock came to their door, interrupting them and taking them out of their little world.
Without having to be told, Robin went to answer the knock and when he came back he did it by flashing her one of his infamous dimple smiles. He was also showing her what appeared to be an invitation.
"It looks like Mary Margaret set us up for dinner into one of the most exclusives restaurants around here."
Groaning at the thought of the girl manipulating her around with her little set ups, Regina rested her forehead into her open palms and closed her eyes. "I swear she only does this to piss me off."
"I don't know, this place and the restaurant, it's a lot of money spent just to piss you off."
Regina snorted, looking at him through half closed eyes. "And where do you think she get's all this money?" She snapped, pointing at her to indicate where did Mary Margaret's bank account came from. "Yes, you guessed it right, all the money she gets to travel around and to buy her little cute pinky stuff comes out of the company I run."
Not impressed, Robin ran a hand down his jaw. "It was her father's company so of course she's going to get her share."
Her lips snarled. "If I would have let things as her daddy left them she would be living in the streets right now. Besides-" She started to say before turning around so that her back was to him. "My father was also cofounder of the company, so I have double the rights over her."
"Really? I didn't know about that. I thought this was all Leopold's and that you inherited as his widow."
Regina shrugged, her face contorting into a grimace of disgust at the mention of the man's name. "Of course you didn't know, because… Leopold erased my father's trace from the company. Can't blame him over that one, my father is a good man, the best you'll ever meet but he doesn't have a good head for business and well, he listens to everything my mother ever tells him and that makes him nothing but a fool."
And fools and weak men rarely ever made history.
"You know… what you just said is actually the kind of thing that can drag us down in this charade. How will we play husband and wife if we don't really know about each other's lives. I mean yes, I know how you like your coffee and all the other basics, but the rest is just a blank page."
Sighing out loud because her personal life was a subject she didn't like touching and she already talked too much, Regina turned off the tablet and got to her feet.
"You don't need to know more than what you already know. It's not like we are going to get into a trivia game to prove how deeply in love we are supposed to be so relax."
Blinking a couple of times as he bit into the corner of his lips, Robin scanned her face. "Why are you like this? I mean what can possibly make someone be so cold and detached?"
Widening her eyes in surprise to such a question, Regina shrugged. "I was born like this. I mean isn't that what you people say, that I was born and bred in the pits of hell."
Because yes, she has heard the kind of things people said about her. That she was a cold bitch and Satan's own mistress were just among the many other adjectives stamped on her.
"I've never said such a thing. I mean there's a huge difference between coming straight from hell and being cold. You are only the second one and people are not born that way."
Shifting the entire weight of her body to her left foot, Regina tilted her head up. "I'm going to change for this dinner thing. It'll be good to show our face just for a little while, you know, just in case. You just… put something nice."
With that said, she put an end to the subject and went to prepare herself.
Much later, already seated at the restaurant and watching as a waitress poured a second glass of wine for her, Robin surprised her once again with another one of his questions.
"Is this how you usually dine in a table for two, in silence?"
Arching both her eyebrows as one of her hands reached for the glass of wine, Regina eyed him over. He was staring right back at her expectantly, the soft light of the outdoor lamps making his eyes shine brighter.
She could tell him right there that she rarely did dinner for two but that was something he probably knew; after all the man ran her schedule and well, she has never been known for being socially active.
She wasn't good at small talk either as he apparently was because Gosh, did he ever shut up? This was the longest he has gone without at least throwing a comment here and there and she was already missing the quiet.
"Silence is a gift that should only be broken if it's going to be improved. Are you going to improve it with more than idle talk?"
Showing her half a smile, Robin took a sip of his wine as well. "Anything will improve this, trust me. But it's alright, I get you don't do conversation like the rest of us humans so let's just talk strategy. What's your plan for the rest of this honeymoon? Are we going to spend it indoors and out of sight or are we going out to play pretend?"
Twisting her lips because she didn't know what was the plan yet, the brown eyed woman shrugged. The presentation was pretty much done and that gave them a full day with nothing to do but did she really want to spend it in the room with Robin?
Sure, it was safe to stay confined because nobody would find it strange that two newlyweds would spend the first few days as a married couple locked in… but could she stand that?
"We can go out a while, I guess."
"And after that, when we get back home, do you really think we can fool people into believing this if we can't even keep a conversation going like two civilized beings or if we don't know each other that well?"
"Oh God, here we go again." She motioned the waitress for more wine because she felt like she needed it, when it was served Robin went on.
"You can roll your eyes all you want and quirk your lips as much as you feel like you need to, but you know I'm right. I have people that are very close to me, family that will never believe I married without telling them, and when they met you they will believe it even less."
Doing a double take, Regina chuckled. "Meet me, and why would they have to meet me?"
Leaning back against his chair before lifting his hands up in the air to then drop them to his lap, Robin sucked his lips into his mouth. "I don't know. Because not everybody evades their family at all cost? I mean there are some of us who still keep contact with our own family. I know, shocking, right? And unfortunately for you I am one of them."
Squinting her eyes, she bit her tongue to keep herself from asking why the hell didn't he mention that before.
Fooling Mary Margaret and people at work was one thing, but his family? "How often do you see them?"
"I'll see them Friday. And actually, I usually stay the whole weekend because they are not located in London but a bit farther away."
"Okay. Well, you go and do that. I'm definitely not going to whatever hole you came out from."
He snorted. "Trust me, nothing will make me happier than not bringing you alone and evading having to lie to them all at once, but is that the image you want us to portray, newlyweds that spend the first week of their marriage apart?"
Rolling her eyes because he was right, Regina blew out a breath before going ahead and drinking the last of her wine, but then, before she could reply her eye caught a familiar face sitting at the other side of the restaurant and instead of gracefully placing the glass over the table as she has meant to, she slammed it.
The harsh movement made Robin's own wine spill a little and he definitely startled.
"Son of a…" Leaving the sentence there and moving her eyes to Robin, she opened her mouth as if in surprise. "Oh I'm going to kill her, I swear I will."
"Hey, take a chill pill here, what's going on?"
Clenching her jaw and closing her eyes so that she could gather some self-control, Regina drew in a deep breath.
She was having one of those moments when her ire would just flash brightly behind her eyes and menaced to burst in imaginable ways and she knew she needed to take a moment for it to pass before going ahead to do something stupid.
"Regina…"
Inhaling, she opened her eyes and focused on him. He looked puzzled as his eyes danced along her face, but looking at him was better than having another glimpse of the other man.
"She sent the damn dwarf."
"What?"
"Mary Margaret send the damn dwarf to spy on me. The little bitch didn't even try to be subtle. I'm going to tell him off, you'll see."
Getting to her feet even though she knew doing that was a mistake, Regina bit on the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw a bit of blood; but before she could take a step in the direction of the man she felt Robin grabbing her hand and pulling her to their left.
"Great idea, let's dance."
Looking at him as if he has grown two heads, Regina tried to pull away. "What, I don't want to dance." Hell, she didn't even danced.
"You don't want to make a scene either, I think. Come on."
Blinking a couple of times in confusion as Robin lead them far from the man that once served as Leopold's chauffer, Regina tensed, especially when Robin chose a spot among the other couples dancing and faced her in full dancing position, a hand on her back and his whole body too damn close.
"Now tell me, what's going on?" He grabbed one of her hands to lift it up and she had no choice than to place the other one on his shoulder.
"I told you she was doing this because she wanted to spy on me, and she sent Grumpy… or whatever his name is." Only that she knew the name, it was Leroy and he along with Mary Margaret were part of the reason why her life was so miserable.
"Did he see you watching him?" Robin asked, making her sway with the slow song that was playing.
She followed along, trying very hard not to pull away from Robin and go straight towards Leroy. She just couldn't believe the nerve of them.
"He didn't see me."
"Well, then don't ruin this perfect opportunity to play them along. They want to prove you are faking this marriage? I say you shouldn't give them the satisfaction of showing the world they were right."
Thinking that he was not wrong, she tried to loosen up a little. It was hard because she was so mad, but she managed and when the song ended and the other started, she was somehow feeling more in control.
"You know this song?" Robin asked and her face lifted to his. "The woman I grew up with put this on an old record player she had every single Saturday morning and made us start our chores listening to it. We hated it because it was so bloody slow. Frankie Valli, of all great the records there were in the house she always started with him and this specific song."
"It's a classic." She said for lack of anything else to say. She has listened to the song before, but she didn't think she has ever stopped to listen to the lyrics as she was doing now.
'Pardon the way that I stare
There's nothing else to compare
The sight of you leaves me weak
There are no words left to speak
But if you feel like I feel
Please let me know that is real
You're just too good to be true
I can't take my eyes off you.'
"We later found out she liked it so much because it was the first song she ever danced with her late husband so we started to make these silly dances around the house just to make her feel better."
Watching how he smiled in a way that showed his dimples, Regina hummed. "Was this woman your mother?"
Lowering his eyes to hers, Robin shook his head no. "I grew up in a house with a bunch of other lousy lads, all under the care of the woman I'm talking about. That's my family right there."
"Oh okay." She said, almost cringing at how she called the place he grew up in as a hole earlier on.
"There, I told you a thing you didn't know about me. Your turn."
"Yeah right, I would need more of that wine before engaging into that kind of dynamics with you while Grumpy spies on us." Her tone came out more laid back than how she has meant to and he chuckled, his hand sliding lower on her back.
"You know I'm taking mental notes on this, right? More wine and no Grumpy."
"Well you can try, but it still won't happen."
For a few seconds he said nothing, as if he was considering what to say with extreme care. "You know what? I was wrong about you, you are not simply cold, you are actually ice and fire. At times you act as the Ice Queen herself and then other times you are a spitfire and that combination is going to somehow get you in trouble one of these days."
Biting the edge of her lips, she arched an eyebrow. "And what makes you think it hasn't already?"
Robin hummed, the smile forming on his lips more curious than amused. Add that to how they were dancing so close, how his eyes delved deep into hers and she was suddenly at a loss.
That's why she cleared her throat and lowered her gaze.
"We should get back."
"Yeah." Robin said, letting go of her hand and pulling away the slightest bit.
They made their way back into the room in silence, each one deep into their own thoughts, and when she went to sleep at night it wasn't with Grumpy or Mary Margaret on her mind.
No, she went to sleep wondering why couldn't she tell the man sleeping on the floor that yes, that they could share the bed and that she was going to go with him to his family thing…
TBC?
Alright so I'm trying to do more or less some kind of slow burn with these two and I know that can throw some people off. So yay, nay? What do you think?