She actually snores herself awake, grunting and gasping for air in the most hideous and unladylike manner.
Shit.
She leaps up from the bed, tangled curls sticking out in every which way as her frightened eyes scan the dark room engulfing her. Her head snaps from right to left, but she finds herself alone.
Shit.
She scrambles from the bed, a familiar ache between her legs demanding that she remembers the events from the previous night, which only causes her body to break out into a sweat.
Shit. Shit.
The bedroom, where she did things that her parents would disown her for, is completely empty. So now, is her perfect opportunity to sneak out of the house and pretend the entire thing didn't happen. No awkward conversation desperately seeking for small talk, no fake promises for a non-existent future, she can make a clean break for it.
She finds her dress, crinkled at the foot of the bed, so she swoops down and quickly shimmies back into it. She discovers her underwear just below and wiggles back into them before stuffing her feet back into her heels. She dashes to the door, but hesitates for a moment, straining her ears for any voices. When she hears nothing in return, she creeks open the door and tiptoes into the hall.
She still doesn't hear a thing, so she scurries across the living room floor, quickly peeking behind her to make sure nobody is watching her break free from the kitchen.
"Oooffff!"
Warm, firm hands steady her balance by her biceps and she comes face to face, no, more like face to chest really, Graham's chest to be exact. Graham's gorgeous, strong, perfectly chiseled chest.
"Hey, sneaking out so soon?"
He has no shirt on.
"Uh..."
His skin is damp.
"I made pancakes."
He's only wearing a pair of joggers that shows the complete definition of his best friend.
And oh god, he's leaning in to kiss her on the mouth.
"Wait," she exclaims, pulling back immediately, "what are you doing?" She accusingly barks at him, provoking his grey eyes to double in size and his hands to fling up in surrender.
"Uh, I was going to offer you a good morning kiss," he replies, but his voice is scaling high like he's not really sure what he's saying or doing anymore.
"Why? Where's Regina? Shouldn't she be here if you're going to do that?" She snaps a little too aggressively, inspiring him to take a dramatic step backwards, still with his hands up in surrender.
"Regina has a meeting this morning. And didn't she explain the rules to you?" He curiously questions, his brown eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Yeah, no activity without your spouse present," she firmly demands, eyeing him wearily, because she will rip off his balls right here and now if he's cheating on that beautiful woman.
"Well, yeah, but once we sleep with someone, indulging in some kissing is alright." She squints at him. "Ask Regina!" He hastily defends while she continues to murderously glare at him. "We always want to make sure the couple or the person feels appreciated and not neglected or uncomfortable." She's still leering at him like she's about to rip out his throat. "Talk to Regina about the rules again and until then my lips will remain at a safe three feet distance. Unless you don't want to talk about the rules...or see us again...then at least five feet apart, at all times, right?"
Blonde brows pinch together, and they both are staring at each other until finally Emma snorts and Graham chuckles, dropping his hands to his sides.
"I'm still talking to Regina, no matter what."
"I wouldn't expect it any other way. So, where are we on the pancakes?" He kindly asks, padding his bare feet across the hardwood floors.
"I'm really sorry, but my parents are going to kill me if they find out I didn't come home last night, so I would like to sneak back before they wake up."
"Well, good luck with that, it's ten in the morning."
"Fuck," she groans and takes off hysterically toward her house across the street.
XXXX
"Graham, honey? I'm home," Regina shouts through the entryway, kicking off her shoes and shutting the door behind her.
"I'm right here," he announces, peeking his head over the back of the couch. "How was the meeting?" He asks as his head disappears again and Regina pads across the foyer into their living room.
She rounds the couch, peering down to find her husband stretched out with a book in hand, and wearing nothing but a pair of joggers. She sighs, and slowly crawls on top of him, resting her head against his warm, bare chest. She listens to the way his heart pounds against his sternum while his fingers come to massage her scalp.
"The meeting went well," she exhales, so he palms the back of her head and kisses the crown to ease her worries.
"But..."
"I guess, I'm just nervous. There's nothing as exhilarating as when I sell my paintings, but I'm worried that a contract will just add too much pressure and take away the joy and authenticity of the artwork," she explains, slowly dragging her nails against his chest as a form of comfort for herself.
"I completely understand. So, can't you just deny the contract and still continue to sell paintings to that gallery?"
"I could," she mumbles, but her tone expresses her true anguish about the situation. "I don't know what to do."
"There's no need to rush the decision." He sets down his book and wraps his other arm around her, holding her close and vowing his support. "Take your time, really think about it."
"I know." She presses a kiss to his beating heart and cuddles further into his safety. "When did Emma leave?"
Graham laughs at this while his fingers sneak beneath her shirt and lightly scratch the soft flesh below. "Around ten. She was all frazzled and panicked, especially about her parents." Regina chuckles, her eyes falling closed to recall the wonderful memories from the night before. "Hey," he suddenly says in a serious tone to gather her full attention. She slowly opens her eyes and cranes her neck to meet his concerned gaze. "Didn't you talk to her about the rules?"
"Briefly, why?"
"Briefly? Come on, Regina, you know better than that. Everyone needs to go in with a complete understanding," he sternly states and she winces, feeling guilty that she may have mislead Emma in any way.
"I know, I'm sorry. I explained all the important details, but she was growing impatient and I was so caught up in the moment...why, what happened?"
"Nothing, really. I went to kiss her this morning and she rejected and then glared at me like she was about to rip my balls off." Regina desperately tries to contain her giggles, but she develops the actual giggles. "Not funny," he demands, but he's grinning and attacking her ribs to pull more of that rare sound to the surface.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So, what did you do? Did you scare her away completely?" She questions as her laughter fades and he moves to hold her once again.
"No, I told her to talk to you about the rules and that I'll keep my lips at least three feet away from her until you two talk."
"Good. I'll speak with her, unless last night was just a one time thing..." the words die on her tongue as her chest constricts because the idea of never touching or tasting that woman again is sickening.
"I don't know, she seemed to enjoy herself and you, you were something else last night," he insinuates, thrusting his hips up for some delightful friction, persuading a soft moan to break from her lips. "I don't think you've ever come so fast while we are with someone else."
Regina hums to herself, remembering just how exquisite that woman tasted and all those delectable moans that came while she was buried deep between her legs. She shivers from just the memory alone.
"That was really..." she trails off, but Graham is already diving in to capture her lips and steals the words right off her tongue.
"I know," he groans against her lips before she breaks apart and slithers down his body.
XXXX
If she has to hear her mother shriek one more time, she's going to absolutely lose it, like pick up her medical terminology book and chuck it at her mother's face, lose it.
"Emma!"
She clenches her fists until the sting of her nails becomes too much and then slams her book closed.
"What?! What?! We can't keep going around in circles. I'm twenty-two mom, if I want to stay out all night at a party, then I will."
"No, no you will not. I forbid it," Mary Margaret bellows, stomping her foot against the kitchen tile floor and folding her arms like a defiant child and not at all like a mother.
"You forbid it?" Emma growls, standing to her full height and shoving her kitchen chair away. "What are you going to do? Ground me?"
"Alright, alright! Enough!" Her father yells as he storms into the kitchen to end the chaos that's been wreaking havoc on their home for the past two hours now. "Enough is enough. You two have been going at it all morning. Mary Margaret, she is not a child anymore, it's time to loosen the leash," he says lightly, rolling his eyes at her while she grunts in response. "And as for you, Emma, you are living here this summer and the least you can do is show us some respect. We aren't asking you to work and we are happy supporting you while you focus on school, but at least have the decency to come home at a reasonable hour or call and say you aren't coming home, so your mother and I can sleep and not worry that you're dead in a ditch somewhere, okay?" He yells and he never yells, so she nods quickly to his terms. He nods to her and then turns back on his wife. "Okay?"
"Okay," she softly murmurs, her arms falling to her sides in defeat.
"Okay. Now, Emma how drunk were you that you couldn't stumble across the street?" He so naively questions, with a hint of humor in his tone while his wife scoffs in annoyance.
Emma, against her will, blushes profusely, and even more so when an image of Regina between her legs and Graham behind his wife comes to play in her mind. She quickly drops to her seat and buries her face in her textbook.
"Not that drunk," she mumbles to herself. "I was just enjoying the laughter and the people in the pool and then...I don't know...Regina put on a movie in the living room and I must have passed out."
"David," she hears her mother hiss under her breath, but she avoids eye contact at all cost.
"Mary Margaret," is all that she hears her father say because she refuses to even glance in their direction.
"No, no, no. I can't just-"
"Honey, I think you were mistaken," he says gently and Emma stiffens immediately with a thousand different conclusions whipping through her mind.
"No," her mother firmly demands one more time before roughly pulling out the chair next to Emma and sliding down to steal her attention way from the book. "Emma, honey, I overheard some...things, last night and I just think it would be best if you keep a safe distance from that house."
Green eyes expand as wide as saucers behind her thick glasses. She clenches her fists again and cools herself down before turning to her mother. "Regina is really sweet and fun to hang out with," she defends, hoping her tone comes off neutral.
"Yes, baby, I know, but-"
"Mary Margaret," David firmly states, but his wife ignores him completely.
"I heard some stories last night at the party, that's why I wanted to leave so early."
"Well, whatever you heard is just silly. Nothing happened," she casually rebuttals, shrugging her shoulder to seem unaffected and at ease even though her stomach just reproduced a swarm of ecstatic butterflies.
"No, it wasn't silly," her mother insists before leaning in and lowering her voice like all the neighbors might hear. "I heard some people talking about...well..." she drops her voice lower and whispers, "swapping spouses for the evening."
Emma's lips quiver, as much as tries to stop the action, and it could be because she's utterly mortified at the moment and wants to burst into tears or maybe she wants to burst into laughter by the horrified look on her mother's face. She has no idea.
"Okay," Emma whispers, mimicking her mother's tone, "but I don't have a spouse, so I can't swap."
Her father actually laughs at this, and her mother snaps her head back with an even more comical and bewildered expression than before.
"Emma, that is horrible, that is not something you should be joking about. Regina is a bad influence."
"Oh please mom, Regina is not a bad influence. I'm twenty-two years old and I will do whatever I want, I don't need someone's influence," she practically laughs in her mother's face while rolling her eyes.
"Emma, are you saying that if you had a spouse, you would...swap," she whispers the last word like it's forbidden and the police might show up and arrest her at any moment.
"No," she quickly barks out, "that's not, ugh...we are getting off topic here," she groans, sliding the glasses away from her face to rub her tired eyes. "All I'm saying is I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions."
"But I heard Susan from down the street talking to Janet about how she needs to loosen up and just 'try it', and that Regina and Graham are the best for first timers and really know how to make the other couple comfortable," her mother hisses in disdain.
"I don't know, mom, it sounds to me like you're trying to persuade me to find a husband and test this theory out."
"Emma!"
"Mary Margaret leave her alone. She's a bright girl. She won't get herself into anything that she can't handle."
XXXX
"Regina?" Mary Margaret's shock is evident in her tone alone. "What are you doing here? And isn't that a bit...revealing, for the public?" She interrogates in a hushed whisper, even though it sounds like she's yelling at her.
Regina glances down at her own body, her eyes taking in her short, spandex, running shorts that accentuate her round bottom and show off her toned legs. She smirks to herself, especially at the black sports bra that leaves her tight abdominal muscles on full display.
"I'm going running and it's eighty degrees outside," she flippantly answers, ignoring the perplexity contorting painfully into the other woman's face. "Is Emma here? She left her headband and I just wanted to return it."
"Oh, I can give it to her-"
"I would like to return it and speak with her for just a moment, make sure she thoroughly enjoyed herself last night," she purrs, insinuating so much more than whatever Mary Margaret is assuming happened the night before.
"Really, Regina, I can-"
"Regina?" Emma squawks as she stops dead in her tracks from shuffling toward the living room. She snaps her book closed and moves toward the front door. "What are you doing here?" She investigates, her eyes frantically shifting between Regina and her mother.
"I stopped by to return this," she says in her most sticky-sweet voice, extending the headband.
"Oh..." Emma trails off and Regina thinks she detects a hint of disappointment.
"Also," green eyes flick to attention with hope beating like little hearts. "I wanted to make sure you enjoyed your evening." She reaches out, squeezing Emma's forearm and ignoring the murderous glare from the woman's mother.
"Oh, yeah, um..." Emma turns her attention onto her mother. "I'm good, you can go back inside now."
"But I," her mother really doesn't have an excuse, so she swallows her pride, thrusts her chin in the air and heads back inside, purposely not closing the door.
Emma leans back and shuts the door firmly. "What are you really doing here?" She whispers, encouraging a sparkle of amusement to twinkle in big brown eyes. "And dressed like that after, you know, last night."
"Ah, so you do remember last night?" She ecstatically concludes with far too much smugness.
"What? Of course, I do. Did you think I was hit by a car on my way home and was struck with amnesia," she deadpans, only inspiring Regina's evil little smirk to grow.
"Well, I thought I would come by to see how you are? And maybe we should talk about everything. Graham said this morning you seemed a bit confused and-"
"Can we not have this conversation out here in public?" Emma questions with embarrassment coloring her cheeks a deep red wine color and kick starting Regina's heart once again.
"Oh, of course. I'm just going for my run now, if you would like to come by in an hour or so, then we can discuss this further," she shamelessly proposes without a care in the world as to who maybe listening.
"Okay, okay." Frightened green eyes flick from left to right to ensure nobody is around and eavesdropping. "I'll see you later."
"Take a moment to cool down before you head back inside, your face is a dead giveaway," Regina taunts before she briskly spins around and jogs away, allowing Emma a clear view of her tight bottom in those skin-tight shorts.
Which only heightens Emma's state of arousal and further deepens the shade painting her cheeks, forcing her to stand awkwardly on the porch for quite sometime before she is calm enough to face her mother.