A/N: Hello Lovely Readers. I hope you are enjoying the story. So Emma continues to follow Killian's rules and things are progressing. He may not be so happy that his advice is working.

Chapter 6: The Ugly Truth

Ruby came rushing into her office first thing in the morning. She looked disheveled and it didn't appear that she slept well. "Emma, I'm so sorry about not warning you about the dinner with corporate. I didn't get Robin's message until it was too late. I left a little early yesterday to go meet Victor for dinner. I hope you aren't angry"

She looked up from behind her pages and smiled. "It's no problem. Don't worry about it."

"You – You're not freaking out?"

"Oh, no it all worked out great. "

"Really? I was so worried you would be angry with me. I know how you like to have things planned and prepared for big meetings like that."

"Ruby, it was wonderful. Graham came along with me. He was amazing. He got along with everyone and when he walked me to my door he kissed me again. It was magical." She sighed when she thought about it again.

"Oh thank god. I mean I'm so glad to hear things are going so well with you."

"Yeah, Are you ok? No offense but you look awful. Did your date go ok?"

"Yes, my date went very well. We are going to see each other tomorrow night for dinner at his place. He is going to cook for me."

"That's great Ruby. I'm so glad you like him. He did have 9 out of 10 qualities on my checklist which in my book makes him worthy of an awesome person like you. He better treat you right."

Her phone ringing brought them back to reality. "Hello Emma Swan."

"Hi Emma, its Graham. I was wondering if you would like to go out with me on Saturday?"

"Saturday? Let me check my calendar. Hold on." She pressed the hold button and bounced up and down in her chair. "He wants to me to go out with him again on Saturday."

"Why are you checking? Don't leave the man hanging!"

"I need to let it get to 30 seconds, you know let him sweat it out a bit. I don't want to seem to eager."

"30 seconds?"

"Yeah, it's something Killian taught me."

Ruby looked towards the door and back at her with a confused expression on her face."What?"

She composed herself and pressed the hold button.

"Graham? Saturday works perfectly for me. I'm game for whatever you want to do."

"Ok, I'll see you at noon".

"Bye."

"bye."

"Killian taught you to leave the man of your dreams on hold and you listened to him?"

"Well he's been giving me some tips about how men think."

"I see. Is that what that masturbation discussion was all about that I walked into?"

"Eew no, gross Ruby. That was a question for his segment. He's provided me with some advice as to what men are thinking and so far he's been right about everything. If I didn't take his advice it would have been a Tap Water situation all over again, actually much worse. "

"So now you're saying you actually like Killian?"

She smiled brightly."Let's just say he's growing on me."

"OK, clearly something has been in your Tap Water."

"Oh Ruby, look I can handle things if you want to run home and pull yourself together. You look like you could use a little break."

"HaHa very funny but I will take you up on your offer smart ass. Here is the show schedule. I'll be back soon. Now that I know you aren't in the fetal position in the closet I will take my time getting ready."

"Thanks Ruby. You're a good friend."

As Ruby was leaving Killian came in. Ruby turned around and looked at her with an accusing eye.

"What?" she mouthed.

He pulled out the chair in front of her desk and sat down."Swan, I trust your evening went well after you left?"

She smiled brightly."Yes, Graham was wonderful. He just called me and invited me out on Saturday."

"I told you he liked you. What was that all about with Ruby when I came in?"

"Oh, I took you advice. When he called to ask me for the date I put him on hold for 30 seconds and waited to give him an answer instead of saying yes right away."

"So you are starting to believe I know what I'm talking about then?"

"Maybe, I'll admit that you do seem to be right often."

He leaned back and raised his eyebrow. "So you seemed to enjoy the panties."

Emma felt the blush creeping up over her cheeks. "Yes, my bean thanks you."

He thought about the look on her face the previous night and licked his lips. " You see, I'll win you over yet Swan."

She looked over and saw him smiling. "Yeah Yeah, now get back to work. It's show time in 30 minutes."

He got up from her desk and walked to the door glancing back once before leaving her office. She had a beautiful glow about her today. He just wanted to make sure since it was his partially his fault that the incident occurred with the vibrating panties, although he didn't know she would actually wear them. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of satisfaction at the fact that he actually gave her pleasure and he never even touched her. He walked away grinning at that thought.

Graham arrived at her door at exactly noon. She was dressed comfortably yet stylish wearing one of the outfits that Killian helped her pick out. She figured body hugging jeans and a nice red blouse that showed just the right amount of cleavage would do the trick.

He took her hand and pressed a kiss to the back."Emma, you look lovely."

She smiled as she looked him over from head to toe. Not a hair out of place or a wrinkle to be seen. "Thank you, so do you."

He held up a picnic basket to show her he was prepared."So, I've planned a picnic for us."

God he was so thoughtful. She smiled brightly. "Sounds wonderful."

"Now I just need your guidance in finding a nice place."

"I know the perfect place. Let's go."

He had a convertible car and put the top down since it was such an amazing day. He drove them to a little secluded area near the lake in Storybrooke. It was a quiet setting that she loved to go to when she needed time to think. It would certainly do for a romantic picnic. He really was perfect in just about every way.

He kept looking at her and smiling as they drove to the park. When they got there he hopped out quickly and opened her door helping her out. He had a blanket in the back that he laid down on the ground in front of the rushing water.

"What can I do?"

"Can you help unpack the basket?"

"Sure."

She handed him the wine and pulled little wrapped packages out of the basket. He smiled and opened each one. It appeared that Graham was a big fan of caviar. He brought 3 different types, some crackers, a few different types of cheese and some red grapes.

She felt her stomach turning at the thought of having to eat the caviar and cheese but she remembered what Killian said and she wasn't going to criticize. She also didn't want to tell Graham that she was lactose intolerant just yet. There is nothing romantic about flatulence or discussing it. She thought about it in a very positive way, he did take the time to make this basket and this scene was too romantic to think otherwise.

He handed her a glass of wine. "Tell me what you think? It's from an amazing little vineyard I found last month."

She took a little sip and it was a pleasant bouquet. "Mmm, this is good."

She watched as he spread some caviar on one of the crackers. "Here you must try this, it's amazing."

He held the offending cracker to her lips for her to bite it. She decided to suck it up and took a bite. It was as disgusting as she remembered. As soon as he looked away for a moment she turned around and spit it out behind her in a napkin. She took a big gulp of her wine to get rid of the taste and pretended to be eating it when he turned back.

"mmm, that is so good."

"I'm glad you liked it. It's my favorite. I love caviar."

Emma giggled and then took a sip of her wine hoping that he didn't want her to try anymore.

"Did you know that the fish that create this caviar swim upstream to lay the eggs?"

She laughed heartily. "Oh really, how interesting."

Ugh, she hated caviar, let alone wanting to know where it came from but rule number two she needed to be interested and laugh at everything he said. She picked up the grapes and ate a couple hoping that he wouldn't notice she was ignoring both the cheese and caviar.

"So how are things going at work? Do you like the hospital?"

"Great, I'm really getting settled. I have a wonderful set of clients. I helped a lady who was having so much pain get relief yesterday. That is one of the true rewards of what I do. I love helping people."

He popped another cracker in his mouth and smiled at his perfection. He almost didn't seem real he was so perfect. "That sounds amazing. I'm sure that your patients appreciate your attention to detail."

"Oh they do. More caviar? How about some cheese?"

"I'm going to stick with the grapes for a bit. I don't want to mix the flavors and they are delicious." She picked up one of them pressed it to her lips and sucked lightly on it. She could feel his eyes on her as she sucked the grape.

"O-Ok. More for me then."

She could tell it affected him and she also managed to avoid eating anymore cheese or caviar. Score one for Killian again. They spent about an hour talking comfortably about their lives and how they ended up in Storybrooke. He lay back and put his head on her lap, she drew lazy circles in his hair while he talked. He had the perfect tone to his voice. She could see how he would have an amazing bedside manner. She wasn't really listening to the words most of the time just listening to his voice.

When they were done with the picnic and she'd had her fill of grapes she took him on a little walk to her favorite spot near the waterfall. He held her hand along the way as they trailed through the brush. It was a little more grown in then she remembered but still beautiful.

"I wish I had a machete."

Emma laughed hysterically at his comment although she wished she had a machete too. They finally reached the waterfall. "So this is my favorite spot."

"Emma, this is amazing. Who knew that Storybrooke had such beauty." He was looking at her and pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"Thanks. I love it here."

They walked across the stones in the creek to reach the other side and stood by the rushing water of the falls. He looked down into her eyes and she could feel the electricity between them. He reached down and gently lifted her chin to kiss her. She closed her eyes waiting for contact when suddenly his phone started going off. He pulled back and she opened her eyes, feeling a pit of frustration grow in her stomach. She looked over to see him staring at his phone.

He gave her a slight smile. "I'm sorry I've got to take this."

"Sure, no problem."

She was standing in the most beautiful setting that she could think of about to be kissed and he takes a phone call. She blinked her eyes and walked back across the rocks to sit down on her favorite bench. She was trying really hard to keep the rules but she couldn't help but feel slighted.

She repeated the rule like a mantra and took deep cleansing breaths."No criticizing. No criticizing. No criticizing."

This was really where she came by herself anyway when she needed to get away from her controlled life and think. She worked so much that she didn't really know Storybrooke as well as she thought so when he asked her this was the first place she could think of taking him. She started to think about the fact that it had been 11 months since she'd been with someone intimately. She looked over to see Graham on the phone. He was the perfect specimen but was that enough.

He flipped his phone closed and walked back over the rocks. "Emma, I'm really sorry but I have to get to the hospital. There was a major accident and they are calling in a lot of the doctors."

"Sure, that's no problem."

She helped him collect their things and pack up the car to return home. He had the top down on his convertible and her hair was flowing in the wind as they drove. She looked to him and smiled. He put his hand on top over hers and squeezed. They walked through the square silently and she started towards her door when she felt him pull her back.

He had an apologetic look on his face. "Hey Rain check?"

She smiled. "Ok."

He pulled her forward and closed his lips over hers giving her a chaste soft kiss. He pulled back slowly and smiled. "I'll call you later ok?"

"Ok."

She touched her lips as she entered her condo. The tingle was still there and she smiled. How could she compete with accident victims, of course he had to leave her. His work was important. He did ask to see her again so things still seemed to be on track.

The next day she was backstage talking to Ruby about her date. She told her about the caviar and that he'd been called into work. She couldn't help but be a little disappointed but the kiss at the end made up for it.

"Emma, it sounds like he really likes you."

"You think so?"

"Yes, clearly he wanted to make amends and he did take the time to plan the picnic in the first place."

Out of the corner of her eye she became distracted when she noticed Killian was preparing for his next segment. There was a woman wearing a skimpy half tank top, high cut frayed jean shorts and cowboy boots painting him with something. He was laughing at whatever she was saying.

"What's that all about?"

"Oh, it's the edible body painting segment. That's Babs. She is going to be his assistant for the segment. I think it involves her painting on the stuff and licking it off."

She rolled her eyes at the thought."Great, just great."

"Emma, look."

She turned around to see her PA bringing in a bouquet of red and white roses.

"Oh my god."

"Look there's a card." said Ruby.

I'm so sorry to run out on you yesterday. I hope we can do it again soon. Graham.

She bounced up and down hugging the flowers closely."They're from Graham."

"That's great. See at least he is sorry."

She held the flowers to her nose and took in the scent. They were beautiful. "Yeah, I guess this makes up for it."

"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Killian noticed that Emma looked a bit down today when she came into the office. Maybe things weren't going as well with Graham as she thought. He would have to check in with her later to see how her progress was going.

He was trying a new edible body paint segment today and they brought in a girl named Babs to practice with him. She was normally the type of girl that he would meet out at a bar, have a little fun with and probably never see again. She seemed to be into him too because every chance she got she was brushing her boobs in his face.

Babs was in the back preparing the chocolate strawberry flavor when he noticed Emma walk in with Ruby. He couldn't see what they were talking about but she appeared to be smiling. She looked very pretty today in a green blouse and tight skinny jeans. She was wearing her hair down at work now too. He was admiring his handiwork when Babs walked back in with the bucket of fresh edible paint.

"Here you go honey." said Babs.

"Thank you lass."

She was standing in front of him with her cleavage in his face again blocking his view of Emma and Ruby. He tried to lean over to see them.

"I'm going to just brush a bit of this on your naughty areas." said Babs giggling.

He grinned. "Well you are going to be painting for a while then."

She handed him a brush. "Here you do me too and if it goes well here then maybe at my place later."

He looked up to catch her winking at him. "Yeah, sure."

He wasn't really paying attention to what she said. He took the brush from her and dipped it into the bucket. Babs was brushing it on his neck and he picked up the brush to apply some to her when he noticed that Emma got flowers. He tried to peek around Babs and ended up brushing her directly in the face.

"Ahhh. You got it in my eye. I gotta run to the ladies room." She walked off in a huff.

"Sorry about that lass!"

He picked up a towel from the bench and started wiping off the edible paint as he walked towards Emma and Ruby. She was hugging the flowers tight to her chest and beaming. "Killian look what Graham sent me."

"Let me take them from you and put them in water before they wilt from your body heat." said Ruby smiling.

"Thank you!"

He raised his eyebrow."Swan, nice flowers. What did you have to do to get those?"

"Nothing. Graham is a perfect gentleman. He wanted to make it up to me because he had to suddenly leave during our date yesterday."

He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest."He left your date?"

"Yes, he got called into the hospital to help with a major accident so we had to cut it short. He has a respectable job you know. Don't worry I followed all of your rules. I didn't complain or criticize once. "

"Well, it looks like they are working. Maybe you can cut me a little slack then yeah?"

She smiled. "Maybe."

He leaned in close. "Would you like to help me apply some of this edible body paint? I'm sure I have a few naughty places that Babs neglected to cover with the brush. Perhaps you could help?"

"Keep dreaming buddy."She swatted him with her papers and walked off.

He couldn't help but watch her walk away. Her arse looked delicious in those jeans he picked out for her. Perhaps she was more right with that statement than she knew.

"Killian are we going to do this or what?"asked Babs.

Gods she had a grating voice but he had to go on with the show and her tits would bring in the ratings. "Coming."

She was scheduled to meet Killian after work at the Rabbit Hole to discuss his segment and sweeps week since it was coming soon. This was their opportunity to show corporate that they were worth keeping and they needed the shows to be winners.

She was walking on air again because Graham called her earlier and invited her to go away with him for the weekend. This would be the first time they had an overnight together and she couldn't wait to finally explore the delicious areas of his body that she got a peek of the first night she met him.

They'd seen each other a few times since their date but only short visits as their work schedules often clashed. They got together for coffee one afternoon and Ruby got to meet him. Ruby wanted to have his children too by the time they left to go back to work. Ruby kept shaking her head, she couldn't believe he was real. Her comment was beautiful and perfect, there must be something wrong. Check his closets.

She kept following the rules Killian gave her and while they had a few steamy make out sessions they hadn't gone all the way. One night they had a close call during a movie night at his apartment but lucky for her his phone went off and he had to run to the hospital. She had to admit that she was having fun but was glad they were taking things slow.

She walked and the Rabbit Hole was actually busy for a week night. She found Killian at the bar waiting for her.

"Hi."

He licked the salt from the peanuts he was eating from his lips and turned his attention to her."Hi. Thought you'd never get here."

She looked amazing. She was wearing a low cut black sweater and tight jeans. She had her hair pulled up into a knot allowing tendrils to fall around her face.

"Did you get us a table?"

"Let me put my name in with the hostess. I'll be right back."

She watched as the hostess flirted with him of course. It seemed the man couldn't go anywhere without women falling all over him. He was wearing a tight short sleeve light blue body hugging T-shirt that showed off his arms and nicely toned back along with a pair of straight leg dark wash jeans that hugged his ass.

She had to admit that he looked pretty amazing tonight. She shook the thoughts from her mind and noticed him pointing towards her. She smiled and brushed a piece of hair off the side of her face nervously. She hoped he didn't notice her staring.

He sauntered over to her tucking a piece of paper into his pocket."Swan, let's go we have a table."

He turned to the hostess and saluted her as they walked to the back with the waitress. She shook her head in disgust.

"What? I can't help it if they love me?"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. They sat down she pulled the folded napkin from under her plate and placed it on her lap. He was busy sipping his drink and surveying the room. She unpacked her notebook and grabbed a pen. "So, I was thinking with the balloon festival coming during sweeps week we could do a segment about how men are full of hot air."

"No."

"Well we should still do some stuff on location because you're great when you are interacting with people."

"Swan. I'm sorry did you just say I'm great?"

She looked down and away purposely avoiding his gaze."Yeah, you kind of are."

"Hmm, back at you Love."

She looked up and smiled. "Thanks."

"So, tell me this Love. Why hasn't some fancy big city show stolen you away?"

"Oh I much prefer Storybrooke to a big city."

"Come on. You just prefer to be a big fish in a little pond?"

"No, and Storybrooke isn't really a pond. It's more of a lake or even an estuary."

"Ok."

She took a sip of her wine. "And, it's a great place to settle down and raise a family, really good school system, the parks are clean, well maintained and safe. There's also a much lower divorce rate here than anywhere else."

Killian seemed to be looking behind her. Emma turned to see that there was a woman dancing on the bar behind them suggestively.

"Ah, yes well Graham would never be into a woman like that."

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Graham only likes women of quality."

"That's a trait to be admired, not mocked. Man-Whore."

"Man-Whore? Why am I a Man-Whore?"

"I've seen you with the jello twins remember?"

"Saw me what? You saw me introduce them to some network executives? They want to be actresses Love, who am I to kill their dreams."

"mmmhm, such a generous man. Now you are telling me that you didn't sleep with them."

He cocked his head to the side and raised a brow. "Now, I didn't say that."

"Now, that's my point. Men or Man-Whores prefer women in slutty clothes who suck lots of cock."

"Every man wants that. And for your information I only slept with the one that can read."

Emma took a sip of her drink and rolled her eyes.

"Wait a second. Did you just say cock?"

She stared into his eyes and smiled. "Yes, I can say cock. What's wrong with that? You don't own the word. Cock, cock cock coc—k."

"Swan, A week ago you were crying at the thought of a vibrator. Now you're cock this, cock that, cock cock cock."

She smiled at him and took a sip of her drink.

He took a sip from his drink and looked at her. He suddenly had a pit in his stomach. She was looking down at her notebook smiling sipping her drink coyly.

"You slept with Graham didn't you?"

"No, No, we didn't."

"Ok, sure."

"NO, No, we're saving that for this weekend. He's taking me away to a bed and breakfast that he heard about through some of the people he works with."

He blew out a breath as if he were punched in the gut. "Wow… huh… Wow…. Huh." He felt like the air had been knocked out of him and he felt relieved at the same time.

She smiled at him with her eyes gleaming brightly.

He raised his glass. "Here's to overturning assumptions. I'm really a man of discriminating tastes and you're a foul mouth slut."

She laughed and raised her glass against his."Thank you."

They spent the rest of the dinner making small talk and coming up with ideas for the sweeps segments. It didn't matter what they did together he always had fun. He was starting to question his own rules as he carefully watched her writing down ideas in her notebook. When he walked to her to her car after he felt a little empty going home alone.