Author's Note: There's one more chapter after this that I'll upload tomorrow. There's only so much messing around with formatting I can handle at once.

Regina answered the door still dressed in her work clothes. Emma drank in the sight of her. She was wearing a white button-down with a tailored pin-stripe vest and black pants, and Emma was suddenly very taken with the idea of peeling those layers away slowly. She was pretty sure this was her favourite outfit of Regina's. Although there was the burgundy silk blouse that brought out her skin-tone beautifully. And the cream silk that gave the slightest peek at the lace concealed beneath it. Ooh, and that grey dress that showed her legs off to perfection. Okay, so pretty much anything that Regina wore was her favourite, because she looked perfect in everything.

Emma was disturbed from her reverie as the subject of her thoughts arched a brow sardonically at her, and asked her if she was planning to stand on the doorstep all night.

Emma stepped inside, closing the door behind her. "How'd the big meeting go today?"

"The board came around to my way of thinking. Eventually." Her mouth quirked up slightly at the edges.

Emma snorted. "Of course they did. Bet they folded like a cheap lawn chair."

Regina gave her a brilliant smile. "Indeed. It was rather satisfying."

Emma felt a twinge of arousal low in her abdomen. There was just something so satisfying about the way Regina said certain words. She was pretty sure that she could listen to her read the dictionary out loud and she'd find it impossibly sexy, though.

She brought a hand up to Regina's face, tucking her hair back behind her ear, before tracing Regina's lips with her thumb. "I missed you. It's been far too long since I've seen you."

Regina rolled her eyes. "It's been two days. Hardly an eternity."

"Well it felt like that to me."

Regina sighed. "Alright. I'll admit that I missed you too."

Emma grinned. "Was that so hard to say?"

Emma leaned in and replaced her thumb with her lips, the contact light at first, but quickly deepening as Regina responded. She pressed Regina back against the wall, one hand cupping her cheek, the other tracing patterns up and down the small of her back.

Kissing Regina was pretty much the most awesome thing ever, as far as Emma was concerned. She loved losing herself in soft, full lips, she loved Regina's clever tongue and teeth that teased her just the right amount, she loved the satisfied little sounds that Regina made.

Emma tilted her head to kiss her way down the side of Regina's neck. Regina took that opportunity to speak. "I need to put dinner in the oven."

Emma continued to trail kisses down the column of Regina's throat. "Mmm. Dinner can wait. I'm not hungry for food."

Emma pulled back slightly, and started to undo the top button on Regina's waistcoat. "Have I mentioned how insanely hot you look today? If you'd told me that I needed to restructure something, I wouldn't have even tried to argue. I would have been way too distracted."

Regina chuckled throatily. "You really are too sweet, dear."

They made their way to Regina's bedroom, slowly, stopping every couple of feet to continue kissing. Emma shot Enrique a look as they passed him in the hall. Not tonight, buddy. Please.

Emma kneeled on the bed, between Regina's legs and worked her way down the buttons of Regina's shirt. Regina took the opportunity to run her hands up and down Emma's torso, through the thin material of her tank top, featherlight touches against her ribs, the swell of her breasts, occasionally teasing her nipples. By the time she reached the last two buttons of Regina's shirt, Emma could barely think straight and her hands shook clumsily as she tried to work those last obstacles.

She'd just started to push Regina's shirt off her shoulders, when Enrique started crying at the door. Emma tried to ignore him for a moment, hoping he'd go away, but Regina brought her hands up to still Emma's, before getting up to open the door. Emma groaned. This was the sixth time that Enrique had managed to bring a premature end to proceedings, not that she was counting or anything.

Emma was pretty sure she was going to need a month of cold showers. After Enrique had managed to thoroughly kill the mood once again, they'd had dinner together. Regina had an early meeting out of town the following morning, so Emma had left shortly after dinner. She walked into the house and was greeted with shrieks from Ruby and Mary Margaret. "EMMA! We have tequila and Ryan Gosling movies."

Mary Margaret stared at her creepily, and for a moment Emma wondered if her housemate was genuinely unhinged. "Join us, Emma. Join us now."

Emma tried to make her way to her bedroom, but Ruby jumped up from the patch of floor in front of the sofa and dragged her back in to the lounge room. "Come on Emma. We've both been single for months. We need to live vicariously through the stories of your sexual exploits. Come get drunk with us and tell us all the nasty, filthy details."

Mary Margaret blushed. "Or even just the PG-rated version."

Emma flopped gracelessly onto the sofa. She sighed. "There pretty much is only a PG-rated version. Every time things start to escalate, the damn cat comes and stares at us and it creeps me out. Or, if we're in her bedroom, he starts meowing and scratching at the door and throwing himself at it. And Regina just stops things every time and opens the door. He's even done it over here a couple of times. It's uncanny how he seems to know exactly when I'm about to unhook her bra."

Ruby frowned for a moment before letting her face go blank. She experimentally licked the side of her hand before swiping it across her hairline. "Okay, so I'm a cat. I like doing cat things like sleeping and climbing trees and playing with ribbon. I'm a cat, and suddenly my two favourite humans are in the same place at the same time and that makes me happy. I'm a purry, content cat, safe, warm and secure. But then, my two favourite humans are shutting me out. I'm unhappy. I'm depressed. I feel like I'm not wanted anymore. So I keep trying to get their attention. I don't want them to forget about me."

Emma sighed. "I hate it when you go all method on us, but I can't dispute your logic. But surely Regina would just ignore him if she was into it. I just want to know if I should be worried. I mean, is this normal? We've been seeing each other for six weeks and I've barely even made it to second base. I feel like I'm back in high school. I've don't think I've ever waited this long to sleep with someone.

Ruby smirked at her. "That's cos you're a super stud. Emma Swan walks into a room and all the ladies immediately are bereft of their panties."

Mary Margaret looked pensive. "Maybe she's just not ready."

Emma frowned. "How long do you normally wait to sleep with someone?"

Ruby grinned. "Oh, I always sleep with them on the first date. How else would I know whether or not I should agree to a second date?" Mary Margaret looked shocked. "Kidding! Seriously, it depends. Sometimes the chemistry's there, and everything just falls into place and you know that no matter what, you'll be falling into bed with them eventually, so why delay the inevitable. Others, it takes a bit longer to know for sure. But you also don't want to wait too long, get emotionally invested and then find out they're bad in bed."

"I don't really have that much experience, having been with David most of the time since we were thirteen, but I slept with Victor after our second date."

Ruby whooped with excitement. "Oh, you shameless hussy! I would never have guessed. I thought you were just having tea parties and playing checkers."

Emma poured herself a shot of tequila and downed it with a grimace. "Maybe she's just not that into me. I just can't get her out of my head, so maybe I'm coming on too strong, seeing interest that isn't there."

Ruby shook her head. "No way. She's definitely into you."

Emma poured herself another shot. "I love spending time with her, being with her. But I also think I'm about to die of sexual frustration."

Ruby grinned. "I did notice that you've been going through batteries like crazy the last few weeks."

Emma leaned back, and her head hit the wall with a thump. "I think I'm about to burn out the motor in my vibrator, and it's not even remotely helping."

Mary Margaret looked at her pointedly. "Well it's certainly not helping my sleep. We share a wall, you know."

"So do you think that there are different standards for gay women and straight women around when it's normal to sleep with someone? I think Regina's mostly been involved with men before, so maybe I'm just not used to the rules that she plays by."

Mary Margaret frowned. "Well, neither Ruby or I can really speak with any authority about what the rules are between two women, but it's usually the done thing to wait at least three dates before sleeping with a guy. I think it's kind of a safety thing."

Ruby poured herself a shot. "Don't make assumptions, M&M. I once had my own stroll on the Sapphic side of the street, you know. My very own Katy Perry moment."

"Ruby, I don't think kissing practice when we were ten counts."

Emma snorted. "You guys did that? I didn't think that was really a thing."

"Ruby told me that she'd learned all she could from Theodore Bear, and that she needed a real human subject to practise on. I, being the wonderful friend that I am, agreed."

Ruby grinned. "Don't pretend that I'm the only one who benefited from it. But okay, twice, if I count you Mary Margaret."

Emma and Mary Margaret both looked at Ruby, shouting questions over each other. "Who? When? Why have you never told us about this before?"

Ruby had a faraway look in her eyes. "Do you remember Belle French?"

Mary Margaret frowned. "Oh, the Australian girl, right? Ancient history major?"

"Mmm… that's her. We had a couple of classes together in sophomore year, and started hanging out a lot when you and David had just got back together. This one evening, just before midterms, we had this sweet little interlude in the library stacks. I came upon her trying to reach a book on a high shelf and got it down for her. She just looked up at me with those big blue eyes, and the softest, sweetest smile and then we kissed. She smelled amazing, like vanilla and old books."

Mary Margaret practically swooned. "Oh my, that is so romantic. What happened next?"

Ruby sighed. "Nothing. I heard on the grapevine that she was involved with Dean Gold, and I valued my hide a little too much to even consider muscling in on his territory. We kind of stopped hanging out and I mooned over her from a distance for a little while, and then I met Billy and spent the next few months getting over her in the most enjoyable way possible."

Emma peered at her in bemusement, as if the puddle she'd stepped in had actually turned out to be a foot deep. "I always thought you were 100 percent straight."

"I guess I'm 99 percent straight. I've never had even the slightest inclination towards women before or since then. There was just something about her though… she kind of feels like the one who got away."

Mary Margaret looked like she was about to cry. "That's so tragic. Have you spoken to her since then?"

"No. She transferred schools at the end of sophomore year. I heard later the Dean got a position at another school and he pulled some strings to get her a spot there."

Emma had a brilliant idea, or at least the kind of idea that sounds brilliant after a third of a bottle of tequila. "We should totally Facebook stalk her."

Mary Margaret clapped her hands excitedly. "I'll get my laptop."

Ruby pouted at them both. "I'm so not drunk enough for this." She picked up the now empty bottle of tequila, tilting it until one last drop hit her tongue. "You need to fetch me more to drink if we're going to do this."

A couple of days later, Emma came home from the library to find her housemates drinking wine. They were well on their way to finishing a second bottle, and things were getting pretty rowdy.

"Emma! EMMA! We made you a picture book to help explain things to Enrique." Mary Margaret was jumping up and down on the sofa, waving her wine glass around excitedly.

Emma sighed. "Don't you have a doctorate to work on, M&M?"

Mary Margaret sighed. "Yeah. But this chapter has really been kicking my behind. I needed a break."

Emma frowned as Ruby handed her the "book". It was a few sheets of A4 copy paper folded in half, with a semi-circular red wine stain on the front, and a badly drawn picture that could have been a cat or a frog or possibly an elephant. She read the title out loud. "Enrique has two mommies: An educational adventure for curious felines."

Ruby grinned. "The alternative title was: "How to tell your cat there's only room for two pussies in this bed. Mary Margaret vetoed it though."

Emma groaned. "You guys are the worst." She flicked through the book. "Oh my God! You drew pornographic stick figure versions of Regina and me? What are we even supposed to be doing in this picture? I'm pretty sure that's not even anatomically possible. And why are my boobs so small?" Emma had so many questions, and she was pretty sure that none of the answers would make any sense while she was sober.

She collapsed into an armchair. "You guys better have left some wine for me."

Two more bottles of wine later, they'd cooked up a crazy scheme involving Ruby and Mary Margaret kidnapping Enrique and holding him hostage, while Emma completed the final stages of (as Ruby called it) Operation Swan Muff-dive.

If that was the best that they could come up with, Emma was pretty sure that she was doomed to a very short life characterised by extreme sexual frustration.

Emma watched as Regina poured the wine, wondering how to broach the topic that was weighing on her mind.

Regina looked at her and smiled softly as she handed Emma a glass. "You're quiet tonight." She took a seat at the other end of the sofa.

"Yeah. Just got a bit on my mind at the moment." Emma swirled the wine in her glass, before taking a sip. God that was good. There were definitely benefits associated with dating someone with a real job, not least of which was drinking wine that wasn't straight out of the bargain bin.

"Do you want to tell me about it, dear? Maybe I can help."

Emma came to a decision. She needed to know the score sooner rather than later, before she was in too deep. She smiled wryly to herself. Be realistic, Emma, you're already in way over your head.

"This is kind of kind of hard to say…"

Regina frowned. "Should I be worried about what you're going to say next?"

Emma shook her head. "No. Honestly, I'm more worried about what you're going to say." Emma drew in a deep breath. Okay, here goes nothing…

"Are you actually attracted to me? Like do you want me the way I want you, because when I'm around you, touching you, being close to you is all I can think about, but you seem to be holding back. And then anytime we're together, your cat interrupts, and suddenly you can't get away from me fast enough. I just want to know if I'm being paranoid, or if you're just not that into me. It's okay if you're not; I just need to know."

Regina pressed her lips together, and her eyes were suddenly suspiciously bright. "It's just been me and Enrique for a long time, and I'm not used to sharing my life with someone else. And Enrique is kind of a link to the past for me. My father got him for me shortly after my husband died, and Enrique was like a lifeline. He pulled me out of the darkest place I've ever been, a small joy in a world that I was sure could only bring me pain. And then my father died a couple of years later, and once again Enrique was my lifeline. I've never really learned to let go of that."

Emma wanted to slap herself. So inconsiderate, so selfish. She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to look at Regina for a moment."I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed."

"Emma. Look at me. You had every right to ask. And you're right, I have in some ways been using Enrique as an excuse. The truth is, I haven't been involved with a woman since college, and we were both horribly inexperienced."

Regina shifted closer to her on the sofa and put a hand on her knee. "And I am so intensely attracted to you that every time you touch me I turn into a nervous wreck. I don't want to mess this up."

Emma carefully placed her wine glass on the coffee table and then turned back to face Regina. She took Regina's hands in her own and kissed each knuckle in turn, and then the palms of her hands.

"Believe me, Regina, there is absolutely no way you could mess this up. We could lie in bed and you could read me Vogon poetry and I'd still think it was the most amazing thing ever."

Regina laughed, and Emma grinned at her in relief.

"Vogon poetry? Now I am rather worried that you might have a kinky side that I'm not ready for."

Emma kissed her softly. "We'll do this at your pace. And I promise, I usually don't introduce Vogon poetry until I've been seeing someone for at least a year."

Later, after dinner, they retired to Regina's bedroom once again. And this time, when Enrique commenced his customary protest, Regina turned the music up. Emma smiled as she kissed her way down Regina's torso, mapping the curves and planes of smooth skin, storing away the sounds that Regina made as she explored each new frontier.

And as Emma curled her fingers inside Regina, Emma was pretty sure that she needed to see this sight of Regina with her head thrown back, eyes half-closed, biting her lower lip, at least once a day. Preferably more often. Regina Mills was the kind of woman that inspired poets to write sonnets dedicated to the perfection of the curve of her throat, and artists spent years mixing just the right colour to capture the vibrancy of her eyes. Emma wasn't a poet or an artist, but Regina kind of made her want to be.

She idly wondered about the feasibility of putting Enrique into boarding school, as Regina lay gasping beside her. What about in Switzerland. Did they have boarding schools for cats?

Emma was taken by surprise as Regina suddenly straddled her and commenced a languid exploration of her body, and she stopped thinking completely as Regina teased climax after climax out of her with her clever tongue.

Emma slumped to the bed, boneless. "Oh my God. That was absolutely amazing, babe."

Regina's grin in response, as she crawled back up the bed, could only be described as predatory. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself dear, because if you call me babe again, that is likely to be your last memory of this life."

Emma laughed. "Okay, so not babe. What about Pookie? Buttercup? Muffin? Honeybun? Sweetpea? Mon petit chou? Sugartits?"

Emma laughed even harder as Regina smacked her on the butt. "Okay. Mistress then. Definitely Mistress."

Regina rolled her eyes and pulled the covers up over them both. "What am I going to do with you?"

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that whatever it is, I'll like it."

Emma curled up against Regina's back, a lazy arm slung over her waist. She kissed the junction of Regina's neck and shoulder and decided that this was quite possibly the most perfect moment of her life so far.