Chapter Four
In the morning, Emma woke to the sound of water running. She groaned softly as she strained her eyes against the light of the sun streaming in the large window. She rolled over and the bed was empty. She blinked and sat up, looking across the room, to where she saw Regina, now in a silk black bathrobe, filling the Jacuzzi tub that lay just behind the half wall partition on the other side of the bed.
She pulled the bed sheet up over her chest as she continued to watch Regina add some sort of oil to the running water. Never in her life had she met someone so enchanting as Regina, and she couldn't take her eyes off of her.
For her part, Regina felt herself being watched, and she looked up at Emma. She smiled at the sight of her tousled blonde locks and wide green eyes.
"Care to join me?" Regina asked, as she slipped off the robe and sank down into the tub.
Emma's heart was pounding again, so fast, and so loud she was sure that Regina could hear it from across the room. Emma couldn't see her from behind the partition, so she scrambled up quickly and made her way over.
Regina looked her naked body up and down, causing Emma to blush, before she lifted one hand from the bubbly water and held it up to Emma. Emma took it, and stepped into the tub, where Regina directed her body in between her own legs. Emma slid forward a bit, so the small of her back was at the apex of Regina's thighs, and leaned back so her head rested on Regina's chest, her forehead tipped in against the left side of Regina's neck.
"I don't do things like this," Regina said, as she reached to push Emma's hair away from her face.
"Sorry, my hair's not normally this wild," Emma assured her.
"Sex hair," Regina commented, "I like it."
"You don't do things like this? Like what?" Emma asked.
"Sleep with the same person twice," Regina said, "or let them stay over. Or join me in the bath."
"So why are you doing it now? With me?" Emma asked, her voice timid.
"Well, you owed me. I didn't get off last time, if you recall," Regina reminded her.
"Get off?" Emma laughed, "I wouldn't expect you to talk like that."
"I learned it from young people I met in bars," Regina said.
"Young people," Emma repeated, with a small smile. "It was a felony, by the way."
"Hmm?" Regina asked.
"Last time you said you wanted to know if you were committing a felony. I'm seventeen. You were."
"I know how old you are," Regina replied. How could she forget? "But it's not a felony, it's a misdemeanor. Were you planning on calling the police?"
"No," Emma laughed.
"Good. Then what it is, is a non-issue."
"Why do you want me to know you sleep around?" Emma asked, suddenly confused as to why Regina had alluded to it twice, in one conversation.
"Because I want to make sure you know that that's all this is. Sex. That's it," Regina replied. "Just because it happened twice, doesn't mean it means anything."
"Okay," Emma agreed. How could it mean anything? She hadn't forgotten Regina lived on the other side of the country. "So then why the other stuff? Why do you let me sleep over, and join you in the bath."
"Because I like your body," Regina replied, running hand lightly over one of Emma's breasts, and drawing circles around her nipple with her fingers. Emma bit her lip and inhaled sharply at the touch.
"So does that mean this won't happen again?" she asked, quietly.
"I didn't say that. You've got a hold on me, Miss Swan, that I can't figure out. But I'd like to keep fucking you until I do." Regina's voice was low and raspy, and Emma could feel her pulse racing again.
"But it's just sex," Emma said, to clarify. This was feeling like a whole lot more than just anything to her right now.
"Mm-hmm," Regina nodded slightly, before leaning forward to kiss Emma again. Her hand moved to Emma's throat, in a non-threatening way, and she held her there as she kissed along her jawline.
Emma moaned as Regina nipped down on her neck, and she closed her eyes as she lifted her hand up to Regina's cheek, gently pushing her closer to her neck.
"Don't," Regina whispered, releasing Emma's throat and using her hand to push Emma's away.
"What?" Emma asked, confused as to what she had done wrong.
"I don't like to be touched like that," Regina said, her voice more timid than Emma was used to.
"Like what?" The question was sincere, as it seemed like Regina didn't like anything that involved Emma's hands on her.
Before Regina could respond, she heard the alarm on her phone going off.
"Up!" she said, motioning for Emma to get out of the tub, "I have another meeting this morning." Regina watched Emma now-glistening wet body as she climbed out of the tub. "There's a bathrobe on the door," Regina pointed out, as she got up herself.
Emma wrapped herself in the soft, white terrycloth robe with the hotel logo on it, and watched as Regina stood, and dried herself off with a towel, before putting her own silk robe back on.
Regina walked over to Emma and grabbed on to the collar of her white robe, pulling her close and kissing her mouth again, pushing her tongue in with a demanding force Emma was starting to get used to from the older woman. Regina moved her hands up to cup Emma's face, and Emma kept her hands to herself.
When Regina finally broke off the kiss, she still held Emma's face in her hands. "What are the chances you have a phone number now?"
"No," Emma admitted.
"Do you have to work today?"
"No," Emma repeated. She decided against telling Regina she had booked the day off from the diner, just in case she had invited her to spend the night again. She assumed these were things that weren't done in in preparation of a casual hook-up.
"Good. My meeting will run until eleven. Be here when I get back. You can order room service, whatever you want, I don't care," Regina said, as she turned to start getting ready to leave.
Emma sat back down on the bed and watched her as she got dressed, and did her hair and make-up. It amazed her how quickly she went from soaking wet in the tub to classy as hell, when Emma herself could barely co-ordinate a matching outfit.
"Don't leave," Regina reminded her, as she planted a kiss on Emma's forehead, before turning and heading out the door.
Emma wasted no time in ordering up breakfast from room service the moment Regina had left the room. It occurred to her how in any other situation, with any other person, she could rob them blind right now and leave without a second thought. Regina had taken her purse, but all the clothes and jewelry she left in the room were worth a small fortune, as far as Emma could tell.
But this was different. Maybe to Regina it was just sex, but it felt like something more to Emma, and it was something that was too important to screw up. So she ate breakfast. And then she waited.
Eleven o'clock came, and she waited.
Noon came and went, and she waited.
By quarter to one, Emma decided to get dressed. She hung the bathrobe back up and collected her clothes from the floor. After she got dressed she made the bed, and sat back down to wait.
By one thirty she wondered if she should leave, or stay and order up more room service. She was in the midst of her mental debate when the door flew open.
She turned and saw Regina, who momentarily looked worried, but grinned when she realized Emma had stayed.
"I'm so glad you're still here," Regina said, as she entered the room with a bag in her hand. "The hot-headed bureaucrats in this city don't seem to understand that some of us have better things to do than sit in a meeting two hours after the scheduled end time."
Regina leaned down and gave Emma a kiss on the lips, that seemed more familiar than sexual, and Emma couldn't help but think she was sending mixed signals all over the place.
"Did you get any… thing… done?" Emma asked, realizing half-way through the sentence that she had no actual idea what went on in a business meeting.
Regina laughed. "Not really. But now I'm so far behind, and I have to catch my flight soon."
"You have to go," Emma nodded, the disappointment in her voice evident.
"Yes, but I got you something," Regina said, handing her the black shopping bag in her hand.
Emma took it and pulled out the small box inside. "A cell phone? Really?"
Regina smiled. "Mm-hmm. It's pay-as-you-go, so you need to buy minutes, but it's fairly cheap. I got you a couple cards," Regina said, handing her about six phone cards.
"Why? I mean, I appreciate it, but really, why?" Emma stammered. She wasn't used to gifts.
"Because next time I'm in Portland, I'd like to be able to get a hold of you," Regina shrugged, "and now I have your number."
Suddenly booking a day off work didn't seem like such an extreme measure for a casual hook-up as it had before.
"Thank you," Emma said, finally smiling. "Really. Thank you."
Regina smiled and kissed her again. "You're welcome. Just make sure you keep minutes on it, okay? I honestly don't know when I'll be back again. But I really have to pack up so I can go, my car's already waiting outside. Do you want me to call you a cab?"
"No, no, it's okay. Remember, I don't live far. Thank you," Emma said, standing.
Regina cupped her face in her hands once more, and planted one final kiss on her mouth. "Ok. I'll try to get back here as soon as I can, okay?"
"Okay," Emma smiled. As she headed out the door, she couldn't help but feel disappointment sinking in her stomach. She had really hoped for more from this day with Regina, or at least a promise of a specific day she might return. She knew she shouldn't let herself get so hung up on this woman, but she couldn't help but feel like she was falling harder than she ever had before, for anyone. Not that that was hard, however, given her admittedly limited experience.
It's just sex, she tried to remind herself. But it wasn't even about that. Emma liked the dinner, and the cuddling and the bath. She liked the intimacy. All the things that she was sure weren't supposed to be a part of casual sex.
She looked down at the cell phone box in her hand as she headed up the stairs of her third floor walk-up apartment – this time she was telling the truth about having a place to live, though it wasn't as close as she had lead Regina to believe. It occurred to her then that perhaps she should have gotten Regina's number, but it was too late for that now.
She pushed open the door to her one-room unit. It was tiny, but it didn't matter, she barely owned anything anyway. She had a bed – well, a futon – and a roof over her head, and that was more than she had been used to for the past year, anyway.
Emma pulled the black Nokia phone out of the box and turned it on. The welcome message in black against the green screen simply said "Mwah!", and Emma figured that Regina must have programmed that – there was no way that was the phone's default setting. She clicked on the contacts button, just to see, and sure enough there was one contact listed: Regina.
Emma smiled. She might not know exactly where Regina lived, or when she was coming back, or even her last name, for that matter, but now she at least had her number, and that was enough… for now.