CHAPTER 6

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REGINA POV

no no no no nonononononononono. SERIOUSLY!?

This can't be happening. I am helpless to the onslaught of old buried memories that are resurfacing because of that fucking tattoo.

It was so nice, so comfortable, so safe and then he had to roll up his god damned sleeves.

I feel tears starting to slip from my eyes and it's strange to me to react like this because of a person I barely know. it's because he's your supposed soulmate you idiot….

I roll my eyes, of course I would have that thought bouncing around in my mind. After all these years it seems some of Tinkerbell's prophecy still rang true.

But her soulmate? Do I even have a soul still? I can't linger on it.

I open my eyes to gather in my surroundings, not knowing really where I'd transported myself. All I was thinking at the time was 'away'.

I'm still in the forest but where, I really wasn't quite sure. I know I have to make my way beack to Robin's house eventually, but now I am dreading to see his face agian.

What must he think of me? We were having a moment, even I was aware of that. And I single handedly ruined it with my stupid soulmate stigma.

Urghhhh, this is why I don't drink I chastise myself. I still feel a little buzzed when I decide to 'poof' myself back to the cabin hoping he isn't back yet and I can pretend to be asleep when he does.

I think about what lead up to my great escape and I have to admit to myself, I liked where it was going.

Now that I am back in the cabin with the fire crackling brightly, I gather a couple of blankets and snuggle in to fall asleep.

If I hadn't seen that tattoo, I probably would've kissed him. And just hours after his son had gone missing.

I am horrible. A seriously horrible messed up woman. What was I thinking?

I groan inwardly. But then again he looked like he wanted it too.

His eyes were on me in that way. That way that men sometimes eyed me that always brought a teasing smile out of me.

I remembered how it felt to have his arms linked with mine and the closeness of his body and the smell of the outdoors so fresh and overwhelming to my senses.

I shivered a bit at the thought. He was so warm, he somehow felt so safe. He was safer and more comfortable to be with and talk with than any other person I had ever met.

I mean he was still an arrogant thief sometimes and he definitely ticked me off to no end, but there was still something about him. Something that was pulling me in. A gravity I could not escape.

I hear the door creak open and I shut my eyes tightly. I lay perfectly still and hope he just follows suit and goes to sleep himself.

I don't hear movement for a long while and it worries me, maybe it was just my imagination.

Then I hear soft footfalls coming toward me. shit I've been outed.

Then it takes all of me not to gasp at the feeling of his lips on my forehead. Soft, gentle, carressing and oh so tender, it makes me quiver involuntarily.

I am frozen, unable to think unable to move nothing, he has floored me. He pulls my blanket furth up my body and tucks me into more snug.

"Goodnight Regina" I hear him whisper.

I dared not breathe. All I focus on is the crackle of the fire and the rustling of blankets as robin unassumingly fell asleep.

…..

I wake up sore, that is my first feeling. The second is that I am altogether much too warm.

I try to move and realize with immense fright that there is something or more importantly someone who is impeding my range of motion.

My eyes shoot open and my first reaction is to check to see if Snow and David are awake. I see them entangled with each other out like lights. I breathe a temporary sigh of relief.

I try hard not to hyperventilate, but he wrapped so tight around me I don't know what to do.

I twist my neck to look at his face to check to see if he is still asleep himself. When I do I realize that that was a very very bad decision.

I was laying mostly flat on my back with Robin having wrapped a large muscled leg over mine and his arm over my torso while his face rested in the crook of my neck.

By turning my face his lips ended up just millimeters from mine and with every exhale I felt my lips tingle and my body tighten and coil.

bad, bad regina, bad. I scold.

I decide that I will pretend to be asleep like last night and hope that he wakes up soon adn disentangles himself.

I begin to turn my head away when I feel him stir. I freeze and pray that my eyelids don't betray me.

I can tell the moment he reaches consciousness, he freezes just like I had done.

Then he succeeds in doing the next thing to drive me crazy.

He is nuzzling his face in the crook of my neck and it takes all of me to not respond in kind and arch right into him.

I feel his arm grip tighter on my waist and pull me closer to him if that was even possible. Then I feel him press a kiss to the dip in my collarbone and then it happens.

my body betrays me as I whimper.

He freezes. "Regina?" he speaks softly at the base of my neck, ghosting his lips up and down the column of my neck.

I keep my eyes shut, and don't move for all he know I sleep whimper. That's a thing right?

I keep position for a few more seconds and then he chuckles and I feel the vibrations go straight through me.

I slowly and finally feel him disentangle himself from me and get up. I keep quiet longer, trying to process what had just happened.

He was very bold this one, I had to give him credit there. But at the same time I hardly knew him. What gave him the right to think he could touch my body that way?

because he feels it too dumb dumb.

and there it was, maybe it was as simple as pure attraction. We both felt an unexplainable pull on one another.

I listened to him as he threw a few more logs on the fire and the bright and sparky crack of the fire as it roared back to life.

I figured it would be safe to wake up for real again in a couple of minutes.

a while later after I had dozed off again, I heard the soft murmur of Snow and David in the corner and proceeded to sit up myself.

"Ahh so she is alive" I hear Robin remark.

I roll my eyes.

"Sorry, some of us don't usually get up at the crack of dawn usually". I retort.

He grins broadly and I can't help but return it. He is such a mensch.

I shift my gaze to Snow who is looking at me with lifted brows and a self satisfying grin that I had always despised.

I glare a big 'mind your own business' look in her direction and hope Robin doesn't catch it.

We talk and talk and talk all morning trying to figure out what the best course of action we should take for Roland's sake, but we aren't seeming to agree on anything.

I can tell he's getting upset. I can see it in his eyes so I suggest a break. He gives me a thanking glance and walks out the doors without another sound.

It seems that's becoming a theme with him.

"We should give him some space" I tell snow as I see her make to go after him.

She nods and tilts her head.

"oh shut up" I bite.

She just smiles and I turn away. If I hadn't promised Henry….

After about an hour, I go outside looking for him and find him behind the cottage with his bow in hand shooting arrows at a target on a tree about 50 feet away.

"dealing with your anger constructively I see" He turns his head and I can see he is not in the mood for even little jokes.

"Have you ever shot one? It can be very… therapeutic" He chews out.

"You know what I actually haven't, not a lot of that going on in the palace gates when I was young" I retort, and that wins me a little upturn of his lips.

"Well your majesty it is your lucky day, come here" he motions for me to come to him.

I walk slowly toward him, now clad in what I assume is one of his wife's old dresses and I realize that this must be really hard for him to see Snow and I using her things.

He hands me the bow and a single arrow. I hold each item in my hands. I look to him for instruction.

"You'll want to stand perpendicular to the tree, and first off attach the arrow to the string" he states very matter-o-factly.

I can tell he is trying not to laugh at me.

"Ok now what?" I say after I've done it.

"Now, pull back on the arrow with your dominant hand, it should rest just under your lips" he says.

I attempt to do what he asks and in the midst I find him behind me his chest pressing up against my back, his hands adjusting my grip and stance.

For the second time today I felt frozen to his touch.

"Now take a deep breath and as you let it out, release it" he murmurs in my ear and I just barely register what he says.

Right before I let go he whispers, "I knew you were awake".

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