Snow dressed in the morning in a cream colored dress and still wearing the emerald pendant Regina had given her. She found the Queen attending to her apple tree in the garden with a set of hand sheers. "Thank you, Regina. For the necklace."
Regina turned and for a moment Snow thought she smiled. "It's a good color on you. Did you satisfy yourself that you could come and go as you wished yesterday?" Regina turned her back again returning to her work.
Snow fidgeted with her hands. "I did. Thank you for that. And... for saving Belle's people. Even if I'm not sure I like the idea of taking her away from her family for my benefit."
"Her father was going to keep her locked in tower anyway. At least in my castle she'll see more of the world." Regina said dismissively.
Snow nodded at that, she hadn't thought about it that way, and doubted Belle or her family would either. But it wasn't without truth. She moved around so that she was on the other side of the tree and in Regina's eye line. "I saw that my wanted posters are still up."
"You are still not officially back in my good graces. And still guilty of crimes against the crown."
"You know those charges are lies, Regina."
There was fire in her eyes and Snow wondered if she'd finally said the wrong thing, "A Queen gets to make her own truth."
"I ... was ... I was thinking about the way we've been..." Snow made a vague gesture.
"Having sex."
"Yes." Snow said inhaling to gain some confidence. "It's ... incredible but also worrying me. None of the romantic stories ever talk about it the way it is between us."
The pain mixed in. The restraints from the previous night. The way that each time it seemed to get more intense.
"Those stories are told as means of control. Of keeping pretty little princess' in line and unprepared for what their prince charming will or will not be like." She looked over at Snow. "Or were you expecting to follow your trail of pixie dust to an easy escape?"
Snow managed a little smile, "I wasn't expecting where it lead. But I'm starting to like it."
Regina raised an eyebrow. "Finding a bit of darkness to your taste in the bedroom?"
Snow shrugged and didn't want to answer. "It depends on how far it goes."
Regina looked at her directly, "It will go as far as I choose to take it. You have failed to understand that every inch of you is mine. To kill or to fuck." Her voice was quiet. "And you are still a bandit because you have not yet submitted to me."
"I can swear an oath."
"No. The oath will come after you have submitted."
"And if I don't want to submit?"
"You can leave when you wish until the day I decide to kill you. Which is not today, but I won't promise won't be tomorrow." Regina tilted her head, "Besides, I think you do want to submit Snow." Regina put her pruning tool down and walked around the tree to lean in to her ear. "I want every part of your body and soul. And I know you. You just need an excuse to give them to me."
Regina ran a finger along her jaw line.
Snow shivered but something in her knew it to be true. "How would I even know what you mean by submission."
"When you are ready you'll know what it means."
Regina turned her back on Snow picking up the clippers again and Snow knew the conversation was over. She was quiet through dinner with Belle who asked a few delicate questions. The other woman didn't know what was going on between the Queen and the Princess but it was certainly not innocent.
"Are you afraid that she might kill you?" Belle asked finally. "Tonight I mean. You've been nervous since we got back from the ride."
Snow raised an eyebrow, "Of course I'm worried she might kill me. She's killed hundreds of people just to get to me. Everything about this situation is a red flag and a warning sign and there are ones you aren't even seeing."
Like how much Snow wanted to know what this magical submission was. And not so she could avoid it.
"You could leave."
Snow whispered quietly. "I don't want to."
Belle raised an eyebrow. "This is ... more complicated than I'm understanding?"
"That might be the biggest understatement in the realm."
Belle nodded again. "You know you can talk to me." She looked around, "You are obviously in love with her. I don't understand it but I can recognize it."
"I ... I'm not sure it's love." She inhaled. "That's a lie. I do know it's love. But she doesn't love me back. I don't think she's capable of it. This ... it feels weird."
Belle smiled, "I think love usually feels weird. And you can't know if she can love you unless you take a risk. Is it more dangerous to do that or to hide from the answer?"
Snow nodded, and excused herself from dinner.
Regina didn't summon her this time, though she probably expected her, the Queen always made her feel awkward and wrong footed. Snow was waiting in her rooms.
"What are you doing here?"
"Taking a chance." She quickly kissed Regina on the mouth in an aggressively sexual way. "Regina would you allow me ..."
Snow froze midsentence. Regina smiled, "You don't have to voice it dear. You just have to do it." Snow swallowed and lowered herself to one knee and then the other. She started to try push up Regina's heavy skirt but the Queen laughed.
"That we can skip."
A flourish of her hands and purple smoke left Regina naked. Even without the imposing wardrobe towering over Snow she still felt like a queen. She licked her lips and pressed her face into Regina's mound, using her tongue to find her clit. She felt Regina's hands grip her head, her fingers intertwining with her hair and holding her there.
"Very good my dear..." whatever witty comment Regina intended to make was cut off by a gasp as Snow awkwardly found the way to use her tongue to stimulate the Queen. Each time she felt Regina shift her balance or a new sound she knew that this was what she wanted to do.
The orgasm that came from Regina was powerful, much more so than she expected, and Regina held her head into her so hard she was worried for a moment she wouldn't be able to breathe. When she finally let go and took a step back looking down at Snow in surprise Snow smiled.
It was rare in the bedroom thus far that she had surprised Regina. "You said I'd know submission when I felt it."
But Regina's face was quickly a mask again and she smiled. "Oh that was very close my dear." She ran a finger along Snow's chin. "Very close."
She took Snow's hand and almost in a courtly gesture helped her up and lead her to the bed. With clear simple orders she got Snow to lay down.
"More restraints?"
"Only if you want them, my dear, but they aren't strictly necessary for this." She stroked her hair. "You want me to be your Queen again?"
She nodded. Regina grinned widely and there was something cold in her eyes.
"What ..."
"Every Queen needs a magnificent throne, my little princess."
Regina crawled on top of Snow, kissing her before placing both knees on the side of her head and using her calves to keep her arms pinned. Snow was now understanding what 'not strictly necessary' meant as she looked up at Regina and she lowered herself onto Snow's face.
"This my dear, is a much better position for your submission." Regina balanced herself carefully so that Snow could still breath and her weight wasn't on her face, but there was very little choice in the position for Snow to do anything but pleasure her. She started again with her tongue along her clitoris, and experimented with her lips, and flickering her tongue inside her. Each thing that worked brought praise from the Queen above her. Each thing that didn't a mild squeeze to lessen her air for a moment.
She wasn't show how long she did that, but until Regina couldn't hold herself up anymore and climbed off her laying down in the bed with a grin that seemed impossibly big. "That was very good my princess. Mine. Do you understand now?"
Snow just nodded.
She knew submission when she felt it.
