Okay, a little secret: when I get hardcore writer's block, it's very often because I'm trying not to write smut. But then writing smut gets me out of it. So it's a problem. I apologize profusely for the long-ass wait, but I think I know where I want to go now (for real), so should life slow down in the next month or so, I should be getting chapters up a bit more frequently.

Also, if you have ideas for where you want this to go, you can always feel free to tell me to give me a nudge. Prompts are super helpful because even if I don't choose to go that direction, it helps me filter out what I don't want to do. So yeah, enjoy this chapter and let me know your thoughts :)

Regina didn't sleep that night. The conversation she'd had with her father-in-law left her stomach in knots. Now she and David weren't just in danger of embarrassment; there was a chance of death.

She turned her head to where her husband was sleeping, his back to her. The guilt she felt was awful. In another life, perhaps they would have been friends. She could have enjoyed his company and not shared his bed. But here she had no such luck. She was bound to the King.

Til death do us part.

She bolted upright at the thought that flitted through her head. "Regina?" Daniel groaned, rolling over and looking up at her. "Are you alright?"

She slowed her breathing and nodded. "Yes, I'm fine," Regina said, turning to look at him. "Go back to sleep, dear." She stroked his arm as he rolled back over, his breathing quickly regulating, giving her evidence he'd fallen back asleep.

Regina then stole from the bed and put on her robe before leaving the room.

She padded around the castle in her bare feet, ending up outside at her tree. "Rumplestiltskin," she whispered.

"Don't you think it's a bit dangerous to meet out in the open like this?" He asked.

She shook her head, never looking away from the tree. "You and I both know that no one else can see you," she said. Until Rumplestiltskin chose to make his presence known to someone, he was invisible.

"What is it, dearie?"

"My mother's shapeshifting spell," the Queen said, reaching up and picking an apple. "Can you teach me?"

He laughed out loud. "It took your mother months to learn that spell," he said.

"Well then what about just changing my clothes?" She reasoned.

He eyed her. He hadn't shared with the Queen that he knew the future. That he knew what was to come. So he pretended not to know why she needed a disguise. "And why would you need to do that?"

She took a breath. She hated when Rumple constantly asked questions. He never refused to teach her, but for some reason he constantly asked why she needed to learn. "Because I need to make my self unrecognizable in the town square."

"Ahh," he said, feigning realization. "You're going to meet your shepherd."

She clenched her jaw. "Yes."

"That's all I needed to know."

David walked about the town square as he waited for Regina. He really hated being there; malicious words regarding the Queen were thrown about as if she wasn't even a human being. All he wanted to do was show them how wonderful she was, to shout it loudly through the square. He wanted even more for Regina to not hear the lies spoken of her.

The shepherd felt a delicate hand on his bicep and turned to see a cloaked woman. He furrowed his brow until she looked up at him, that gorgeous smile directed at him. She didn't say a word, only turned to walk away, silently urging him to follow. Remaining several paces behind, he followed her out of the square and into the forest.

She led him through the forest, and for a while, David wondered if she knew where she was going or if she was really Regina. They arrived in a particularly dense bit of forest, and she stopped removing her hood. She lay it out on the ground beside her, and if his gaze hadn't been fixed on her, he would have noticed it was much larger than he thought.

Wide smiles were exchanged and he slowly walked toward her. "Hi," he said.

She laughed slightly. "Hi."

The moments as he walked toward her were agonizingly long, the tension between them undeniable. His eyes raked over her body. She was dressed in clothing he'd never expect her to wear. They weren't fit for a Queen by any stretch of the imagination. Her dress was thin and brown, slightly dirty, and one of her boots had a hole in the toe. But he didn't care. She could be dirty and grimy and he would still love her as much as he always had. When they were finally toe-to-toe, he brought one hand to caress her cheek, running his fingers through her dark hair and leaning in, fluttering light kisses down her jaw, her mouth opened as she let out a sigh, wanting nothing more than for him to take her right there.

He kissed down her neck and then back up, avoiding her lips as Regina's hands grasped at his shirt. He could feel her need. It radiated off of her like sunbeams, and she moaned his name quietly, "David, please."

He pulled back and looked into the brown pools of her eyes. Her pupils were blown wide, as he was sure his were, too. Regina's breathing had become heavier with her arousal. David leaned in slowly, his breath hitching just before their lips finally touched. She whimpered slightly as his other hand paralleled the one already on the side of her neck, his thumbs tracing her jawline as he pulled her deeper into the kiss. Regina's hands clutched the fabric of his shirt. They'd shared kisses the night before, but now she knew they were safe, as she had cast a protection spell on the area before they'd arrived.

Regina's hands released his shirt, instead crawling beneath it to feel his heated skin. He shivered a bit as her fingers graced his abdomen and they both chuckled lightly, their foreheads resting together as they gazed into each other's eyes. The Queen decided to take the lead, pulling him down with her where she had laid out her cloak as a blanket.

He followed. As he trailed kisses from her neck down, his hands moved up her body, tugging the dress up with it. She shivered at the contact as his hands met the waist of her underwear. Before removing the garment, the shepherd moved upward, his own face hovering above that of the woman beneath him. "I love you," he breathed against her lips.

Regina smiled in a way she only did when she was with David. It was a completely genuine smile, far from the ones she formed when in the palace with the King. For the first time since her marriage, she could truly show herself. She got to be Regina Mills, not Queen Regina.

"I love you, too," she husked, leaning up and placing a tender kiss on his lips.

He smiled against her lips before pulling away and sliding her underwear down her legs, placing kisses down her body as he did so. She squirmed beneath his touch before sitting up and pulling him back into a bruising kiss as she untucked his shirt fully and pulled it over his head, craving the feeling of his skin on hers.

She indicated for him to roll over, and he complied, lying on his back as she straddled his body and ground herself against him. David reached his hands up and tugged the dress over her head, revealing her naked body to him. Regina could feel him harden even further under her. Sitting up, he trailed kisses between her breasts until he reached her nipple, flicking his tongue over it before closing his lips around it as he toyed with the other with his thumb and forefinger.

Regina reached between them and began to unfasten his pants as he returned to kiss her lips passionately, his fingers tangling in long, brown locks as he pulled her closer. Lifting his hips, he let her remove the garment. Having moved herself to take his pants off, Regina straddled him again and aligned herself with his member.

Regina sank onto him slowly, both of them groaning with pleasure as she enveloped him in her wet heat. She began to move up and down, simultaneously rocking her hips as she did, creating a delicious friction that had her rapidly approaching a climax. She held him against her, neither one wanting to sacrifice even a bit of contact. Their lips came together as her walls tightened around him, muffling the cry she let come out. And as she clenched around him, he let himself go within her as their kisses became lazier.

Erratic breathing slowed as they remained holding each other, the Queen's face buried in the neck of her lover. He leaned down and placed a tender kiss to her bare shoulder And felt her shiver against him. "Cold?" He asked softly.

"No."

"Regina."

She smiled wider. He knew her too well. "I just want to stay like this forever," she whispered.

"Me too," he replied.

But unfortunately they both knew that soon enough, Regina would have to return to her life as Queen, a life she never wanted for herself but was condemned to nonetheless. That reality was with them, but they sat there, embracing each other as though it wasn't. As if when they pulled away, they wouldn't be leaving each other again. She wouldn't be Queen and he her lost love. Just Regina and David.