Killian was worried that he would be distracted throughout dinner, thinking about Emma and her promise for what would come next, but thankfully, that wasn't the case. After sending a few messages back and forth at the start of the night, she'd told him that she was planning to nap while he was busy with his family and friends. Killian had a strong suspicion that she probably wouldn't sleep at all, that she'd only said what she had to make sure he could enjoy his evening without her distractions, but he'd let her make the excuse. While he loved whatever it was they shared, he didn't want to pursue it at the expense of the friendships he'd already enjoyed for decades.

After bidding Emma a temporary goodnight, Killian slid his phone away and only checked it twice after that - when he was locked inside the bathroom. Emma hadn't sent anything else, but his first bathroom visit did present him with a wonderful opportunity to finally zoom in on the image she'd sent, and confirm the hint of color he had spotted was something yellow and lacy.

For the rest of the evening, Killian spent his time discussing his vacation with his friends, conveniently leaving out Emma and what they had been doing on his last day in France. Inevitably, towards the end of the night, the conversation began to shift towards politics and the upcoming elections he would be covering. Killian sat back silently for most of it, content to listen to his friends talk about tax policy and immigration issues.

When Mary-Margaret and David finally decided it was time to call it a night, Killian knew he'd soon be able to make his escape. He pressed a kiss to his good friend's cheek, promising that he'd carve out time to meet her for lunch later in the week, then shook David's hand.

Killian gave it another half an hour before he slapped his hands down on his thighs and declared, "I should be heading home now too. The first day back is always the longest one, and Lily's had far too much excitement already this weekend."

"You could always spend the night here, darling," Alice offered, and Killian rolled his eyes a little. It was the same offer she made every week, even though she always got the same answer.

"I know, mother, but I'm a grown man with things I need to do before work tomorrow. I'll stop by in the week for lunch, okay?"

"Okay," she reluctantly agreed, before lifting her head to allow him to press a kiss to her cheek. "Stay safe out there, and let someone know when you get home."

Killian rolled his eyes again behind his mother's back and nodded his head. "Yes, mother," he said, then turned his attention over to Jeff and August, who were laughing at something on August's phone. "See you guys soon," he called out, clapping a hand to his best friend's shoulder.

"Yeah, see you soon, buddy. Do you need a ride or anything?" August asked, only lifting his head for the briefest of moments before he dropped it back down to the screen.

"Nah, I'm good. I like the exercise, and it'll tire Lily out before we get into bed."

August nodded his head like he'd heard what was said, but he didn't acknowledge his friend's words, so Killian turned to Regina.

"See ya around soon, Gina."

"You too, Jones," she called out - her voice was always the loudest one in the room. "I'm hitting the tour bus next weekend, but maybe we can squeeze in lunch before I leave?"

"I look forward to it," he chuckled. He then patted his thigh and called out, "Lily, come on. It's time to go home."

The old girl lifted her head wearily but still trotted over to meet him nonetheless. After fixing her leash, Killian called out a final goodbye and stepped onto the elevator with Lily at his side. The instant the doors closed, he pulled out his phone to send Emma a message.

On my way home now.

Should be back in around 30 mins.

Emma's reply came through just as he was stepping out into the lobby of the building, and Killian cursed her for not being a fraction of a second faster.

I'm waiting…

The image she had attached this time was a shot taken down her body, showing off her flat tummy with the outline of the swan inked over her hip and a pair of yellow lace panties that were stretched across her most intimate area. For once, Killian's eyes didn't linger on the ink embedded in her skin because Emma had her free hand buried underneath that beautiful yellow lace.

"Fuck," he gasped out quietly, as he quickly cast a look around the space. The security guard was busy reading some sort of magazine behind his desk, and thankfully, nobody else was around.

That's an evil game to play with a man who's out in public.

He hit send on his reply, discreetly adjusted his jeans, then gave Lily's leash a firm tug to get her moving a little more quickly than usual.

"Have a good night, Mr. Jones," the security guard called out, and Killian didn't bother turning back to say, "You too," as he hurried out into the warm New York City evening.

Every step he took towards his apartment felt like torture. He could feel his phone vibrating inside his pocket every now and then. Whenever it did, it took every ounce of control he possessed to stop himself from breaking into a run to make it back faster while simultaneously resisting the urge to check his messages. He had a feeling that he would open them to find more provocative images, and the last thing he needed was to be caught out in public in an indecent manner after dark. That would definitely signal the end of his career.

The moment he'd gotten himself and Lily safely through his front door, Killian removed her leash and flicked the lock before falling back against it. He was panting a little, which probably meant that he'd made the journey at more of a jog than a walk, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to care. Lily trotted through to the kitchen where her water bowl was located, and Killian finally pulled his phone free from his jeans to find three messages waiting for him.

Fair's fair, Jones! After all, you were the one who kept me waiting in France.

He snorted out a small laugh at what she'd written, but the rest of his humor died on his suddenly-dry tongue as he scrolled down to the last two images she'd sent.

The first was a picture of herself taken from a slight distance, showing her body stretched out over the hotel bed. Her hair was tousled, and there was a slight flush to her cheeks. She had her eyes closed and her lips slightly parted as that hand remained under the yellow lace of her panties, which was a perfect match to the lace wrapped around her breasts.

The second image was a close-up of her face. Emma's head was thrown back against the pillows as she arched her neck, and even without seeing anything else, Killian knew exactly what she'd sent him a picture of.

He fumbled with the buckle on his belt as he pushed himself away from the door and attempted to type out his reply one-handed.

Are you trying to kill me?

Emma's response came just as he was struggling to kick his jeans off his legs.

Where would be the fun in that?

Flying solo isn't quite as satisfying when you know there's someone else you could be enjoying your time with.

Do you use Skype?

He tripped ever so slightly as he attempted to finish freeing his left leg from the denim and caught himself on the arm of the sofa just before he could do any real damage. When he was vertical once more, Killian frowned down at the last of Emma's messages, confused by the sudden change of tone.

Yeah. For work. Why?

It's hands-free!

Will they record/monitor your account?

Killian swallowed hard at the implication of her words and cast a hasty look around his home for his laptop. He didn't know if management monitored his account, but he wasn't willing to risk it. He'd create a new one, just to be safe. He finally spotted the device on the kitchen counter and sprinted over to snatch it up before making his way through to the master bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him. He usually left it open for Lily to come and go as she pleased, but he wasn't really in the mood for her company that evening.

Killian dropped the laptop onto his bed and pulled up the screen before shrugging out of his jacket and wrestling his shirt over his head. While he waited for everything to load, he took a seat on the edge of his bed and fired back a quick message for Emma.

I don't know – so I'm making a new one.

Don't wanna take any chances.

Yeah, being caught having long-distance sex with a female friend half your age probably won't be good for your reputation.

Fuck my reputation!

I'm more worried about someone seeing YOU like THAT!

It took him a lot longer than he would have liked to create a new and private Skype account. Especially with Emma sending him more provocative pictures of herself, along with the message;

What? Like this?

Finally, after what felt like hours but had actually been no more than ten minutes, he was able to send his new details over to her.

Then came the wait.

Killian hesitated for a moment beside his bed before he decided to remove his briefs and slip under the covers as he waited for her call. The instant it came through, he pounced on the mousepad, hitting accept perhaps a little too enthusiastically, given the noise his laptop made.

"Hey, handsome."

"Hi," he greeted, relaxing against his headboard as his eyes drank in her form once more.

Emma was stretched out on her side with her head propped up in her hand and her hair flowing around her shoulders in soft waves. Even though it was late, she looked wide awake and happy to see him. Killian's heart clenched painfully as he considered just how long it would be before he could touch her again.

She hummed thoughtfully as her own gaze roved over the screen and gave a decisive nod of her head. "Yep," she said, almost like she was replying to a question nobody had asked. "You should definitely present the news like that every now and then."

"What, naked or in bed?" he chuckled.

"Yeah," was all Emma said, as her eyes continued moving up and down what she could see of his bare chest.

"That wasn't a yes or no question, Emmy."

"Wasn't it?" she challenged.

Killian allowed all of his protests to die on his lips as she finally raised her head to meet his eyes, and he saw the fire burning behind her gaze. He swallowed hard as he felt that familiar buzz of desire begin forming in his gut.

God, she was so painfully beautiful!

He wanted to tell her just how breathtakingly stunning she was, but at that moment, the words wouldn't come to him. Killian had never found himself in this position before. As much as he'd been looking forward to the promise of their call all evening, now he was faced with the reality of it, he didn't know where to begin.

Thankfully, Emma either sensed his hesitation, or she knew him well enough to understand she would need to take the lead. The look behind her eyes softened, and after a moment of shifting around, she pulled back from the camera to give him a better view of herself.

Without hesitation, she dropped her right hand down her body to begin drawing circles around the lace covering her breast. "Have you ever done this before?" she asked casually, like she wasn't laying across a bed in only her underwear, playing with herself.

"N – no," Killian stuttered out.

"Have you ever fantasied about what you'd do with a woman when you were apart?"

Killian thought back over the last three hours, and the images that had randomly presented themselves to him while he'd been at his mother's place.

"Yes."

"Then you know exactly what to do," she reassured him. "So tell me, Killian Jones, have you been thinking about me since we said goodbye?"

"Every day," he admitted quietly, because there was something so intimate about the moment they were sharing, even though they were thousands of miles apart.

"Me too," she whispered, offering him a small smile. "Tell me about it. Tell me what you've been thinking about. What would you be doing right now if I was lying on that bed beside you? Where would you start?"

"By kissing you," he croaked out. His eyes closed briefly as he remembered the last time they had shared a kiss; how warm and soft her lips had been as they moved with his own. How she'd let him control the pace of their encounter, but the little impatient flicks of her tongue had told him when to speed up and where.

"Here?" she asked, running the tip of her index finger on her free hand over her lips.

Killian nodded his head in agreement.

"Where else?"

"Across your jawline," he said, shifting a little on the bed as he suddenly became painfully aware of how hard he was. "Over to that spot below your ear that makes you squirm."

Emma's fingers drifted softly across her skin the way he'd described, tracing the line of her jaw before they came to rest just below her left ear.

"Where now?" she whispered.

Killian was so enamored with the way her left hand was tracing the path of every move he described that he almost missed her right hand drifting lower to tease the skin just below the band of her bra.

"Down your neck," he told her, growing more confident with each word he spoke. "And then across your collarbone. You like it when I nip the skin there with my teeth then soothe the sting with my tongue - and I like the little mark it leaves behind."

"Yes," Emma breathed out, her hips rising obscenely from the bed as her free hand fell to the mattress to fist the comforter beside her hip.

Killian didn't want to pull his eyes away from what was happening on the screen, but he was growing painfully hard with every move she made, and it was becoming difficult to comfortably balance his laptop on his thighs. He lifted it up as her fingers trailed down the side of her neck, just like he'd told her, down to her collarbone. As she drew her fingertips slowly over the skin there, Killian reached down with his free hand and wrapped it around himself.

"Show me," Emma begged, her eyes darkening as she kept them focused on the rise and fall of the sheets over his lap.

Killian took a moment to arrange the pillows on the other side of his bed, giving Emma a slightly elevated view, then set down his laptop so it would show her everything that was happening from his thighs up. He peeled back the sheets covering him and tried to relax into the bed.

"My biggest regret about my time spent in France was that I didn't get the chance to suck your cock," Emma said, and Killian groaned obscenely as he reached out to wrap his fingers tightly around the appendage in question once again. "The next time I see you, it'll be the first thing I do," she promised, her hand drifting back and forth along the skin just under her collarbone.

"Fuck," he moaned. His hand had started moving too, pumping up and down in time with each of her labored breaths.

"What comes next?" Emma asked.

It took a very long moment for her words to penetrate Killian's consciousness.

"Your breasts," he gasped out. "I'd kiss every single inch of the flesh there through your bra, ignoring your nipples completely because I know it'll drive you crazy."

Emma's hips thrust up from the bed again as she dropped her left hand down her chest to begin teasing the mounds of her breasts, drawing her fingers back and forth over the lace and flesh while making sure to avoid her nipples.

Killian's vision was beginning to blur at the edges as he watched her fingers move, imagining his own hands taking the same path, his lips and tongue following close behind.

"Down your stomach now," he told her, and Emma's breathing started coming faster.

He thought that there would be a biting remark on the tip of her tongue when he ordered her hands away just before she could give herself that touch she needed most. But Emma seemed to swallow it down and followed his command, gliding her fingers over the bare skin of her tummy, drifting them back and forth until she met the lace of her panties.

"Take them off," he croaked out. "I want to see you."

Emma pushed her pelvis off the mattress, hooked her thumbs into her panties, then pushed them down her legs and over her knees. With a flourish of her ankle, she kicked them off the bed.

"The bra?" she asked, bringing her hands up to tease around the lace covering her breasts.

Killian hesitated for a moment before he nodded his head. He loved the way the soft, yellow lace framed her breasts. It wasn't overtly sexy like something red or black would have been, but it didn't seem entirely innocent to him either.

This time, Emma's back bowed off the bed as she reached behind her to open the clasp. Killian knew the moment she'd done it because the straps that had been stretched perfectly taught over her shoulders suddenly slackened. Emma slipped each arm free then pulled the lace away, leaving herself bared completely to his greedy eyes.

"What now?" she asked, staring into those eyes through her camera.

"The tops of your thighs. I'd tease the tops of your thighs until you were begging me for more."

Emma balled her right hand into the sheet by her side as she allowed her left to drift slowly down her tummy, tickling back and forth until she reached that sensitive place at the very top of her thighs. As her fingers moved inward, Killian watched her hips twitch slightly, and he did his best to file away that information for when they were reunited.

"Your tattoo," he croaked out, continuing to pump his fist up and down his length. "Use your other hand to trace the pattern."

"You like the tattoos," she teased breathily.

"Love them," he gasped out, because it was true. He hadn't worked up the courage to get his own yet, but Killian had always been fascinated by the idea of them. While he'd appreciated the occasional design he'd seen on other people in the past, he'd never been quite as obsessed with seeing the dark ink on another person's skin the way he was with Emma.

"Maybe I should get another," she suggested, dropping her eyes to trace the lines etched over her right hip.

"Fuck, yeah."

Emma chuckled before biting down on her bottom lip as her left hand moved a little too far in, and her hips rocked off the bed.

"You know what to do," Killian panted out, keeping his eyes focused on her image on his screen.

Emma chewed her lip for a couple of seconds that felt like an absolute eternity before she finally said, "Please!"

"Please – what?" he grunted out, fighting down every instinct inside his body currently telling him to move faster.

"Please!" Emma whined. "Please let me."

"Let you what?" he asked, finding a sudden courage inside himself that he hadn't known existed before. There was just something so heady about the way she'd given him full control of the night that was adding to the passion of the moment.

"I need it," she whined. "Please let me touch myself."

Killian allowed his eyes to rake down over her form for a moment longer, taking in the way her breasts were heaving with each of her labored breaths, the way her hips were already pushing up, seeking something she didn't have, and how her legs were twisted in the sheets. He'd never seen anything as glorious as she was at that moment.

"Yes," he finally whispered, and Emma's eyes fluttered shut as she brought her right hand up to gently squeeze her breast while her left drifted down between her thighs.

From the angle of the camera, he couldn't see the exact movements her fingers were making, but it didn't matter. The small, breathy moans falling from Emma's lips between little sighs and gasps were doing more for him than any graphic porn had ever done before.

Killian pushed up harder and faster into his hand, suddenly unable to resist that urge to chase his own orgasm when he knew Emma was doing the same.

"God, Emmy!" he panted out, as he fought the urge to screw his eyes shut against the oncoming surge of pleasure building within him.

"Yes, Killian," she whined, and that was all it took to shatter his self-control.

He was vaguely aware of the sounds Emma made as she brought herself to climax just moments after his own hit, but Killian was too far gone to see it happen for himself. He'd never felt anything like that from his own hand before, and now that he had, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to live without it again.

When he finally managed to pull himself back together and had cleaned up the mess he'd made of himself, he turned his head to look at Emma and found her frame empty.

"Emmy?" he called out, a little worried that he'd offended her, and she'd left the call.

"Just cleaning up," came a voice in the distance, and Killian relaxed back against the bed at the sound of it.

While she was gone, he pulled on a pair of briefs and opened his door to allow Lily into the room before he climbed into his bed and propped himself up against the headboard.

Lily made her entrance not long after, dropping down on her side of the bed with a huff as she turned her back on him.

"What are you smiling at?"

Emma's voice pulled his attention over to their conversation, and Killian turned the laptop slightly to show her the dog curled up beside him.

"She's angry with me for shutting her out of the room," he explained.

"As she should be," Emma chuckled, pulling her legs up onto the bed before she moved her laptop, presumably to sit against the mattress. She'd changed into a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt, and with her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, she looked much more innocent than the goddess he'd been greeted with at the start of their call – but she was no less stunning.

"Nice pajamas," Killian teased, watching her lounge against the plush headboard.

"Thanks. They're not quite as comfy as your t-shirt was, though."

"Maybe I should send you some."

"Maybe you should," she told him, and even though she offered a beautiful smile with her words, Killian knew she wasn't teasing him.

For a long moment, a comfortable silence settled between the two of them. Normally, it was times like these that Killian would find himself itching to turn off the camera and end the call. But that night, with Emma, he certainly wasn't feeling that way. At least, not until he caught sight of the clock in the top corner of his screen.

"What time is it for you, Emmy?" he worried, because he knew she had a busy morning planned for the following day.

"Late. It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does," he told her. "You should get some sleep before your big meeting tomorrow. I don't wanna ruin that for you."

"You won't," she assured him.

"Get some sleep, Emmy," he repeated, because now that she was closer to her camera, he could see the dark circles beginning to form under her eyes. "We can talk more tomorrow."

"I'm holding you to that," she warned.

"Trust me - I wouldn't have it any other way."

Emma hesitated for a long moment, just staring into the camera before she finally nodded her head and said, "Good night, Killian."

"Good night, Emmy. Sweet dreams."

Thanks for reading and reviewing.