Underneath The Surface Chapter 11
Crashing Waves
**Author's note: At long last, we have some magic and some intimacy. If you don't like that sort of thing, look away now, because there's a butt-ton of passion and touching and more in this chapter. If that is your thing, then sing it with me...SwanQueen all the way! I hope the wait is worth it. Please review and let me know what you think. Hang on folks, we're nowhere near done yet!**
Emma found her way back to the kitchen to put her cup in the dishwasher. Patty turned from the sink and said, "I've never had guests do that before. In fact, I've never had guests like either of you before. Thank you."
"We owe you our thanks, Patty, but I'm sure it'll all work out in the end,"
Patty nodded, then asked, "So we'll see you for dinner then?"
"Oh, I'll be back to grab a shower and pick up Regina for our lunch date." Emma smiled widely. "Maybe over supper we could talk about what kinds of repairs and renos you want done. If you can make a list this afternoon, it might be easier."
Patty nodded. "I'll do that. Be careful with that axe of Charlie's."
Emma nodded and pushed off the counter she'd been leaning on. "I will. See you later."
Even on the short walk to the diner, Emma found herself pondering Regina's purple eyes.
If magic is rooted in emotion, and Regina's emotions were running high with that jackhole, then magic must work here. But will it work with any high emotion, or just anger? I don't want to have to get Regina angry at me just so we can go home!
Emma sighed heavily.
On the other hand, it's worth it to get back to Henry and my parents. So far, it's not too bad here either.
Emma sighed again and pushed the door to the diner open.
There were a few people seated in vinyl covered booths along the left wall, and only two stools along the counter were taken. Emma slid onto one relatively in the middle. Charlie came to her carrying a steaming cup of coffee. "One to get you going, Emma?"
"Thanks, Charlie. I'll have this and then get on that pile of wood. It's out back?"
Charlie nodded and pointed toward the back of the diner. "See that short hallway? The left door takes you outside and the right takes you to the washrooms. When you finish your coffee, no rush, you go on out and you'll find an axe, a sharpening stone and a mess of wood. You'll see where my nephew started piling it. Just carry on like he started I guess. While you're working on that wood, you eat and drink all you want, on the house. Any questions?"
Emma shook her head.
"Okay, if you do, come find me."
From the corner of her eye, the former bounty hunter watched the other patrons. One or two were actively staring, while some of the others were trying to watch without looking like they were. A few had dismissed her completely, which suited her fine. As she drank her coffee, she could pick out bits of conversation here and there. Complaints about the postal system, griping about the weather, not enough rain, someone's bees were dying off and someone else was bemoaning the lack of tractor parts. All in all, a standard mix of conversation for any diner in any small town. Emma turned her thoughts back to their current predicament. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had a niggling suspicion that the ferocity of the portal was tied in to the fact that Regina had been touching her when the portal formed. If that was the case, then her feelings for Regina would have to be explored and dealt with before she tried magic again. Emma drank the remainder of her coffee and headed out back.
It was a massive heap of wood. It looked as though a giant had just tossed it and left. Behind and off to the right, she could see a small house with the beginnings of a properly stacked woodpile. The house was one-storey with white siding and a red metal roof. It had a low-slung screened in porch with hanging flower pots and a couple more on either side of the screen door. Emma decided that must be Charlie's house and turned back to the woodpile. She spent some time sharpening the axe before she did anything else, knowing that a dull axe was an accident waiting to happen.
Once she deemed it sharp enough, Emma set the axe aside and pondered the haphazard mountain of wood. She would have to select the first few pieces carefully so the whole mess didn't come down on her. When she spied a broad, short stump, she decided it would be her base. Wrestling it to the spot she'd picked out was work enough, and she wondered briefly what Charlie's nephew had accomplished with no base and a dull axe.
Shortly after Emma had left the house, Regina came inside. She stopped just inside the kitchen door and crossed her arms as she watched Patty load the dishwasher. "Do you have time to talk about the gardening this morning?"
"I do, in fact. Do you have some time now?"
Regina smiled. "I would enjoy that. Do you have paper and a pencil?"
"Why don't you pour us some more coffee and I'll get those."
When the two women had settled down at the table, Regina took the paper and pencil. "All right, first, what kinds of edible things do you want to grow?"
Patty thought for a moment. "Peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes. I'd like my own berry bushes, but we're surrounded by blueberries."
"Have you ever thought about growing sugar plums? It might take a few years to get fruit, but they make wonderful jam."
Patty nodded. "I had them when I was a girl. I enjoyed them."
Regina nodded and started the list with sugar plums. "How many hours of sunlight do you think you get in the backyard per day?"
"Depending on the weather, up to 12 during a good summer."
Regina wrote that down as well. "I suggest we put in more than one bed. Tomatoes and potatoes both belong to the same sub-family of nightshades. Peppers are also nightshades. So you'll want at least three different garden beds. It will also be easier to protect them against frost, and extend your growing season."
Regina glanced up from the paper to find Patty staring at her. "Was it something I said?"
Patty shook her head slightly. "May I ask you a question? If it's too personal, I'll understand."
"Go ahead."
"How is it that you came to be Mayor of wherever you're from?"
Regina took a drink of coffee as she pondered how best to answer the question. Obviously she wasn't about to tell this woman about her past as an evil, malicious queen bent on ruining her subjects' happy endings. When she had put the cup down, she said, "It's something you might say I just fell into. I'm on sabbatical now. Did you say you wanted to grow a few herbs as well?"
Patty accepted the change in subject and turned her attention back to gardening.
Two hours later, Emma had split an impressive pile of wood. She had settled into an easy rhythm with the axe, but her back was beginning to object to the unfamiliar repetitiveness. She stood and stretched her muscles out, shaking the pins and needles out of her hands. The back screen door squeaked as it opened, and she turned to see Charlie coming toward her with a tall glass.
"You look more than ready for a break." The older woman held out the glass and Emma smiled. The water was cool and tasted a little different than what she was used to, but she drank it all without stopping.
When she handed the empty glass back to Charlie, the other woman raised one eyebrow and said, "I guess I was right."
Emma merely shrugged.
"Why don't you just stack what you've split today and then bring Regina over for lunch? The wood isn't going anywhere, and as long as you're working for me, you eat and drink free, so take advantage of it. Take your time."
Emma nodded and agreed, and Charlie left her alone.
As she carried the wood splits and piled them on top of what Charlie's nephew had started, she wondered if they had been missed back in Storybrooke. Then she wondered if time even worked the same between worlds. She thought back to a story she had read once where fairies had kidnapped a human child. When the child was returned seven years later, his parents swore only a month had passed. If Regina's theory was correct and they were in a world that paralleled their own, did time turn differently here? Emma's heart began to race when she thought of spending years away from Henry and her parents. She was grateful for the breeze that picked up, cooling her as she stacked wood. She let her mind wander to all the times she had wanted to run back to Boston and she felt her stomach tighten and wrench. Working as she was, she didn't notice the dark clouds begin to form overhead. It wasn't until a bout of nausea gripped her that she stopped to take a deep breath. If August had just stayed away from Neil ... a wave of anger tore through her and she hurled a piece of wood. Lightning cracked overhead and Emma jumped.
She stood there with the hair on her arms standing up, breathing fast and shallow. She looked up and watched the clouds disperse as her breathing settled down. As the sky changed from angry dark grey to pleasantly blue once more, she sat on the stump to catch her breath and pondered the association between her emotions and the weather oddities. Once her heart had resumed it's natural beat, Emma finished stacking the wood she had split, carried the axe and sharpening stone to the steps of the house and went back to the B&B to collect Regina.
When Emma entered the big house, she spotted Callie just coming down the hall. "Callie, have you seen Regina?"
The teen nodded. "I saw her an hour ago. She said she was going to read upstairs."
"Thanks!" Emma flashed a smile and headed up the wooden staircase. The door to their room was unlocked, but the room itself was dim. It took Emma's eyes a minute to adjust, and she soon found her lying on her side on the bed, fast asleep.
Emma smiled slightly and advanced on the bed. She circled around and laid down on the other side, facing the woman who had made her life hell for so many months. None of that mattered now. Emma curled her right arm under her head and was content to simply watch Regina sleep for another couple of minutes. Finally, she reached out and tenderly stroked one dark eyebrow. She brushed an errant dark hair out of the way and lightly brushed the back of her fingers across Regina's cheek. Her skin was as warm and soft and as smooth as Emma had suspected it was. Feeling daring, Emma let her fingers trail down the side of Regina's neck, over the curve of her shoulder and along her arm. How could she not have seen how beautiful this woman was all this time?
"This is the nicest way I've been woken in a long time." Regina's voice was husky, and yet soft.
Emma felt the urge to pull her hand away, but the urge to rest her hand on Regina's hip was greater. "We wasted so much time fighting. You really are beautiful, you know."
Regina smiled softly. "I'd say you were a charmer, but neither of us wants to have that discussion.
Emma made a face. "I'd rather leave my parents out of this conversation and just enjoy how you feel under my fingers, thank you."
Regina hummed in agreement. "I think I rather like being woken up this way."
"As much as I enjoy being the waker?" Emma smiled.
"Even more."
Regina reached out a hand and tucked a blonde hair behind Emma's ear. "Tell me again why it took us so long?"
"Because we were both stubborn, proud and too caught up in head games?"
"That sounds about right. So what are we going to do about it now?"
"I know what I want to do..."
"Does it involve food?"
"Maybe later. But right now it involves lips and ears, and more lips..."
"More showing, Sheriff Swan, less talking."
Emma sat up and walked on her knees across the bed closer to Regina, who had rolled on to her back. The blonde threw one leg over and suddenly she was straddling the woman who had tried to kill her. But all that was forgotten now as she took a well manicured hand in each of her own and held them on either side of the pillow. She leaned slowly forward and brushed a ghost of a kiss across lips she had admired for months.
"My lips are yours, but I need my hands free." Regina whispered.
Emma had seen the panic flicker through those warm brown eyes, and she knew there was more to the complex woman than what she let the world see. But she let go willingly and leaned in for another kiss.
Regina certainly knew how to kiss a woman. She was gentle, and yet demanding, all at once. When Emma pulled back to take a deep breath, Regina rose up slightly and nibbled at the base of her neck.
Emma groaned. "You're killing me in the best way..."
In answer, Regina flipped them both and it was she that was straddling the blonde woman. Then she captured those lips beneath hers and left no doubt who was now in charge.
"Miss Swan..."
"It never sounded so sexy when you said it before." Emma quipped with a smile.
"Sexy, is it? Then I shall have to say it more often." Regina took Emma's right hand in her own and kissed the knuckles that had so recently gripped an axe. "I adore your hands, did you know that?"
Emma only shook her head slightly, fascinated by this new side of the former mayor.
"It's true." Regina put that hand beside the pillow, her own fingers woven between Emma's. "I always thought you had the sexiest fingers. Long and powerful and I'm sure very capable." She took the sheriff's left hand and kissed the back of it before holding it beside the pillow as well. "Any problems, so far, my dear?"
"None, my Queen." Emma flashed an adorable smile to show it was meant as a term of endearment.
Regina purred in satisfaction and want. "I never told you that being addressed in that manner had ... an effect on me." She wriggled her hips ever so slightly to demonstrate.
Emma's eyes slowly fluttered as she felt her abdomen tighten in anticipation. "So just what does my queen plan to do with me now?"
"Oh, I plan to do a little of this..." Regina found her blonde captive's pulse point and kissed it, suckled it and kissed it again.
Emma knew she was being marked but she couldn't care less as her heat grew and blossomed. She felt Regina's hands leave hers to skip and tease down her sides, only to slip under the hem of her shirt.
"You're wearing far too many clothes for your queen to ravish you properly, my dear. Up, and remove it." Regina plucked at Emma's shirt.
Emma sat up, pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor.
Regina pushed gently at her shoulders until Emma resumed her reclining position.
Regal fingers skipped lightly down pale, muscular sides, barely touching the skin. Emma arched her back, reaching for more. Regina tenderly kissed a path from her neck down to the space between her breasts. While her right hand palmed and tweaked a responsive nipple, she lowered her head and took the other between her lips.
"Reg...oh God!"
Regina chuckled around the nipple that she was currently sucking. She was long-skilled at the seduction of women, but Emma was the first woman she had genuinely wanted to pleasure. The first she had allowed herself to feel something for. She pushed the thoughts from her mind and focused on the task at hand.
The seduction of Emma Swan.
Her teeth scraped gently as she pulled back to admire the pert nipple now standing at attention. She chuckled. "I have never had anyone call me that before, but I am glad that it was you first. Did you enjoy that?"
Emma only whimpered and writhed beneath her.
Regina chuckled again and rose to her knees. "Do as your Queen wishes, Emma, don't move, and you'll be rewarded. Do you understand?"
Emma nodded.
Regina slowly unbuttoned her own shirt, never taking her eyes from Emma's. She chuckled again as Emma's eyes widened as the dark purple lace came into view. She felt her own desire build as the other woman's breath hitched. But instead of giving in, she shimmied off the bed and slowly peeled her jeans from her body. She knew she was driving Emma crazy, the pale skin was flushed with want. She knew she wanted this as well, and suddenly she was glad all she could get was dark purple, lacy intimates. It was worth it to watch Emma's reactions.
"I'll need the rest of your clothes off as well, Emma." She spoke quietly, dropping her voice just a little as she spoke Emma's name, her first name that she had so rarely used thus far, and the one she knew the other woman craved to hear her speak.
Emma shed her remaining clothes and laid down again.
Regina lowered herself over the blonde's hips and stretched her entire length, laying on the other woman. She let her lips graze and kiss and suckle wherever they touched, while her hands stroked and palmed and danced over skin that was hot with desire. When she slid lower, she heard Emma whimper above. Regina's hands slid lower and slipped around to cup Emma's ass, and the blonde woman gasped.
Regina lowered her head to place a well-aimed kiss to a very flushed bundle of nerves just as she stroked her thumbs across tight cheeks.
"Oh...Regina..." Emma gasped and wove her fingers into Regina's hair. "I need..."
"Shh, I know. Shh."
Regina wasted no more time but continued to suckle and lap at Emma's most sensitive spot until she knew the blonde was ready. She carefully but swiftly slid two fingers deep into Emma. Choreographing her suckling with her thrusts, she felt Emma grip her fingers deep inside and knew her orgasm was coming.
Emma felt it slam into her with the force of a tsunami, crashing through her until all she could do was ride out the high of her climax and try not to scream Regina's name to the ceiling.