Chapter Sixteen

'Is everything okay?' Emma asked as Regina led her through the house and into her office. 'You're acting kind of weird.'

'I'm fine, dear,' Regina said, offering her a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. It made Emma wince. 'Can I get you a drink?'

'Um. Sure.'

Regina shut the door behind them and glided across the office to fill up two tumblers with scotch. Sitting herself down in what she now thought of as her seat in that room, Emma could only watch her.

Regina eventually sat down on the couch opposite and held one of the glasses out. Emma took it from her, but their fingers didn't brush. For a lack of anything else to do with her hands, she found herself sipping at her drink: it was a taste that would forever remind her of Regina, and yet tonight she couldn't bring herself to enjoy it. It was suddenly bitter in her mouth. There was a knot forming inside her chest, tightening with every cool look that Regina threw her way, until it felt like her heart was a clenched fist that was trying to break through her ribcage.

She replaced the glass on the coffee table with a crack. Regina didn't react to the sound.

'Regina, why am I here?' she blurted out.

Regina's expression never changed. 'I wanted to talk to you.'

'Okay,' Emma responded, raising her eyebrows. 'That's fine. But, so far, you're not doing very much talking.'

Regina smiled then. A real, genuine Regina smile that made Emma's stomach quiver in a very different way.

'That's because I'm not really sure what I want to say.'

'Okay,' Emma said. 'Did you… have a topic in mind?'

'Yes, Emma, I did manage that much.'

'Go ahead then.' Emma leaned back, her leather jacket creaking as she folded her arms over. 'Hit me.'

Regina nodded. She suddenly looked uncomfortable – it was another expression that didn't suit her. Emma wanted so badly to leap up and wrap her arms around her, but she forced herself to remain seated. She knew that Regina was rehearsing her lines in her head, getting the delivery exactly right so that she wouldn't make a mistake. The perfect politician. If Emma interrupted, it would only delay everything.

'Emma,' Regina finally said, letting the word be carried by a heavy exhalation of breath. 'I've been thinking… about us. About you, and about me.'

Emma flinched. 'Okay… what about us?'

'About our situation. I'm just a bit… concerned.'

Emma couldn't help the shake in her voice when she next spoke. 'Did I do something wrong? Is this about August?'

'What?' Regina blinked, then shook her head. 'No. Of course not. Nothing's changed and I told you, I don't care in the slightest about that man. No – I'm concerned about us. Just us.'

'Well. Okay,' Emma said slowly. 'Care to elaborate?'

Finally, Regina's marble politician mask slipped from her face. Beneath it she looked exhausted and, most disconcertingly, slightly guilty. Emma frowned.

'What do you think we're doing, Miss Swan?' she asked.

'You mean, together?'

'Yes. What do you see me as? Your friend? Your… crush? Your latest challenge?'

Emma raised one eyebrow but chose not to respond to this last comment. 'Honestly, Regina? I have no idea.'

'None whatsoever?'

'No.' Emma smiled slightly, reaching back out for her drink. 'I know that I should be able to put some kind of label on it. But… I don't know. It seems way too complicated to try and define it like that. I just see you as someone who I'm spending time with. Someone who I find really, annoyingly attractive. Someone who is freaking me out right now because she's acting like something's really wrong but I don't know what it is.'

'Nothing's wrong, Emma,' Regina sighed, blushing a little at the compliment that she had just been handed so easily. Like, to Emma, it was the truest and therefore the simplest thing in the world. 'I promise. Like I said – I've just been thinking. Because I've been trying to put a label on it… and I found that I couldn't.'

'Does it really need one?'

'I'm not sure,' Regina admitted. 'Perhaps not. But I'm used to everything having a label. I'm a bit too high-maintenance to just kick it freestyle.'

Emma grinned at this. Then she took a deep breath. 'Regina… look. If you want to call us something, then that's fine by me. I don't mind. But, here's the thing: I don't need a label, because I just know. I mean… I know that you're making me happy. I like to listen to you calling me an idiot, and when you're not showing up at my office or scaring the shit out of Mary Margaret by appearing unannounced outside our front door, then that day's just a little bit less interesting. I know that, ever since the whole Moe thing happened… you make me feel safe. It's like you're the one who rescued me. You make me excited and nervous all at once, you make me laugh even when I really don't want to, and you make me happy because I know that I'm somehow making you happy. And you haven't been happy in a long time. And it makes me happy that I'm changing that, and I… I'm rambling. I don't… I just don't really think there's a label that we can put on that. Do you?'

Regina's expression had softened, her eyebrows curving upwards as her face broke into a sad smile. 'No. Perhaps not.'

Emma leaned forwards against her knees. 'But if you feel differently… if this is something else to you. Then, I don't know. Maybe—'

'No,' Regina interrupted, vehemently shaking her head. 'No, Emma, I don't feel differently. Please stop panicking. I'm just overthinking things.'

'So why am I here?' Emma asked, her head tilting to one side. 'If you're not having second thoughts… what's wrong?'

'I've just been thinking…' Regina paused to clear her throat, her gaze falling to the coffee table between them. 'I've just been wondering how sensible this all is. That's all.'

Emma blinked. 'Sensible,' she repeated slowly.

'Yes. I have to wonder if we're... thinking ahead.'

'Regina,' Emma said, frowning. 'Jesus. This isn't a business transaction, you know: this is a relationship. And, as far as I'm aware, no relationship is "sensible". They're messy and dangerous and scary as shit. They're supposed to be. It's meant to be terrifying and endless – it's like falling with your feet on the ground. That's the whole point of them.'

Regina sighed. 'But, Emma. I think that we need to consider the potential for… for how easily this could go wrong.'

'I know,' Emma said simply. 'I've already been thinking about it.'

Regina blinked. 'You have?'

'Yeah. About the absolute apocalypse that would probably happen. How neither of us would recover. How the whole town would probably go up in flames.'

'And about… Henry,' Regina added quietly. She watched as Emma blinked.

'Ah,' she said resignedly, her body slumping backwards against the couch. 'So that's what this is about.'

Regina sighed, leaning forwards. 'Emma… listen. Henry desperately wants us to be friends. We had another conversation about it this evening – he's ecstatic that we actually seem to be getting along now. So if we keep this up and we manage to keep him from getting hurt, then that's wonderful. But… if it doesn't end well – which, let's face it, seems like the far more likely outcome – Emma, I can't begin to imagine how badly that would hurt him. He needs us to get along. What he doesn't need is for us to be secretly fooling around behind everybody's backs, only to then split up and go right back to hating one another again. I don't think he'd be able to recover from that any more than we would be able to. I'm just thinking… maybe we need to try and be responsible about this. Maybe we should try and... calm things down a bit.'

Emma would have frowned, or snapped at her that she was being stupid, or even stormed out of the house entirely with tears scratching at her eyes. Something stopped her, however: it was the look on Regina's face. The look that told her that every word that she had just said had tasted poisonous to her. She may have believed what she was saying – but that didn't meant that she agreed with it. In fact, she looked so dangerously close to tears that Emma couldn't help but sigh.

'That's all true, Regina. I'm not going to argue with that,' she admitted, smiling weakly. 'But, the problem is… you can't just calm down feelings. They don't work that way. I do want to be friends with you – I promise you, I do. But I also really, really want to kiss you right now. And that's not something that I can just turn off for the sake of one day being able to take our son to Taco Bell without getting into a screaming match in middle of the parking lot.'

'We are not taking Henry to Taco Bell, Miss Swan.'

'Really?' Emma raised an eyebrow. 'That's the part of that sentence that you're choosing to focus on?'

When Regina only sighed in response, Emma found herself getting to her feet and walking around to the other side of the coffee table. Regina didn't react when the blonde sat down next to her, barely leaving an inch of space between their thighs.

'If I can help it,' Emma said softly, not reaching out to touch her but desperately wanting to, 'I really will try not to hurt you. I'll do everything that I can to keep you safe. But, Regina… I can't promise that something isn't going to go wrong. Neither of us can. We're a pair of basket cases with serious anger issues and, the chances are, something's going to explode at some point. But you're right: as long as we can promise each other to keep Henry out of it… then maybe we can come out of it okay.'

'Keeping him out of it seems unlikely, Miss Swan,' Regina muttered, her eyes fixed on where her fingers were tangling together in her lap. 'He's rather perceptive, as you know. He's not going to stay in the dark for very long.'

'Then maybe he'll be happy about it?'

'Or maybe he'll be even more confused about this than I am,' Regina choked out. Emma realised with a wince that she was close to tears. 'Emma, I've never spoken to him about any of this… about love, or about women, or about how two women can…'

Her sentence wisped off into nothing. Emma sighed.

'He's a good kid, Regina,' she said quietly, reaching out to take hold of Regina's fidgeting fingers beneath her own. 'You raised him that way. Besides, if a kid can believe in real-life fairy tales then he can certainly believe in two women being together. It's hardly ridiculous in comparison.'

Regina almost laughed. Eventually her dark eyes, glossy with tears, turned to look at where Emma was watching her. She could see white teeth anxiously nibbling at a sharply downturned bottom lip.

'Why are you so calm about this?' she asked.

Emma snorted. 'I'm not. I'm terrified.'

'You don't look terrified.'

'That's because this relationship only has room for so much crazy at one time,' she said. 'You're still helping me to get through the Moe thing. I want to help you get through this.'

'Through what?'

'This,' Emma said, leaning forwards. 'This panic. This feeling that everything's going to go wrong because everything always goes wrong. Because, you know, it might not – we might battle through it. There's always that chance.'

'With the rest of the town sticking their eager little noses in?' Regina scoffed. 'I highly doubt it.'

'Luckily, then, I have absolutely no intention of telling anyone else,' Emma said. Regina blinked.

'You don't?'

'No,' Emma said firmly.

Regina couldn't suppress the sigh of relief that escaped from her lips. 'Thank goodness for that.'

'Oh. Ashamed of me, are you, Madame Mayor?' Emma asked with a hint of a smirk.

'No,' Regina shook her head. She sighed as she admitted, 'I'm ashamed of me.'

It took a moment for Emma to register that it was still the mayor sat beside her once she'd realised just how small she looked then. She did look ashamed: she also look dejected, and utterly hopeless. Like she knew that happiness was just in her reach, but she was too afraid to raise her hand to it.

'You don't want to let yourself be happy,' Emma said slowly. It wasn't a question. '…why?'

'Maybe I don't deserve it.'

'Well, that's bullshit,' Emma said, raising one eyebrow. 'Come on, Regina – look at me. Look at the state of me. I don't love, and I don't trust, and I don't let other people into my life: that's always been my thing. Keeping people out is the one thing that I've always been good at. And yet I'm trying to pull you in right now – I'm trying to let us both be happy for once. Do you really want to let some inexplicable inferiority complex and some panicked notion of how messy this could get ruin that?'

'No,' Regina sighed. 'Emma. I don't want to push you out. I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to be realistic – I'm trying to be sensible.'

'Well, stop it. I hate it,' Emma said simply. 'Look at me, Regina – look at me.'

When she did, Emma could have cried over how sorry she looked.

'Right now,' Emma lowered her voice, reaching out to tuck a strand of dark hair behind the mayor's ear, 'do you want to kiss me?'

Regina bit at her bottom lip, saying nothing.

'Regina. Please answer me.'

A strangled moan came from her throat as she forced herself to respond. 'You know that I do.'

'Then why are you stopping yourself?'

'Because it's not a good idea.'

'Right,' Emma rolled her eyes, trailing her fingers down the side of Regina's face. 'You know what else isn't a good idea? Terrorising everyone in town when you're having a bad day. Not letting Henry eat any candy ever. Pushing feelings down because you're too scared of facing them. But you still do every single one of those on a daily basis and they don't seem to bother you at all.'

When Regina only frowned in response, Emma sighed. She closed her eyes for a moment.

'The worst is over, Regina – you've already let me in. It's too late to do anything about it now. I know about all of this crap that you put yourself through and I know that I'm probably going to get hurt. But I also know that there's a small chance that I might not. And that's enough to make me want to kiss you even in spite of what a crazy, malicious bitch I know that you can be.'

Regina couldn't help but laugh. 'You're really not much of a smooth talker, are you?'

She melted at the crinkle that formed on one side of Emma's nose when she smirked in response. 'No. But you still want to kiss me though, don't you?'

'Absolutely not.'

'I don't believe you,' Emma said, tilting her head to one side. Regina leaned towards her.

'That's always been your problem, dear,' she murmured. Her eyes had fallen to the sharp downturn of Emma's mouth and she couldn't drag them away again. 'You're too self-assured.'

'And you're too obsessive.'

'You wear terrible clothes,' Regina said, trailing a finger down the offensive leather in question.

Emma leaned forwards, her breath tickling against the shell of Regina's ear. 'And yet you still stare at me in them when you think I'm not looking.'

Regina raised an eyebrow. 'Like you don't do the same.'

'All the time,' Emma said without hesitation.

'And you're not subtle about it.'

'Nope.'

'So can you blame me for not trusting you?'

'Not at all. I'm utterly incompetent.'

'You said it, dear.'

Emma pulled back from Regina's ear, smirking.

'So you still don't want to kiss me?'

'Absolutely not.'

'So if I tried to kiss you now,' Emma asked quietly, her gaze level, 'you'd stop me?'

There was a beat. And then, 'Absolutely not.'

Emma fell against Regina with such ferocity that the brunette was forced down into the sofa, her head just about landing on a cushion as Emma pressed her body on top of her. The blonde's lips were moving heatedly on her own before she had even closed her eyes.

Messy curls were falling down and tickling against Regina's forehead as Emma eased her mouth open with her tongue, letting it delve inside as furiously as she dared. A slow, drawn-out moan filled the air around them, but neither woman could have said which of them it had come from. Regina was too busy pushing her hands up the sides of Emma's body, reaching the usual armour of red leather and tearing it away from her. It fell to the floor beside them, followed by two black stilettos and a pair of heavy boots, with a thud that could barely be heard over the sound of Emma gasping into Regina's mouth.

Straddling the mayor's waist, Emma began to kiss her way down her exposed, pulsing throat until she reached the dip of cleavage that had been tormenting her for months. She brought her hands up to Regina's breasts, massaging them until they were pushed firmly together, and let the sudden channel between them become the newest bed for the hundred hungry kisses that she was pressing upon her. Regina groaned, her head rolling backwards and her back arching slightly beneath Emma's body. Her hands trailed up taut thighs, stopping only when they reached the slight outwards curve of the blonde's hips. She kept her eyes closed, feeling Emma's tongue beginning to graze against the rounded flesh of her left breast, before her fingers started to crawl further upwards. They found the hem of Emma's shirt and teased it away, her nails scratching at the first dent of her ribcage. She heard a sharp intake of breath from above her and finally reopened her eyes: Emma was hovering above her, her own eyes open and wild and desperately watching her. As soon as she met Regina's gaze she tumbled forwards once more, her lips seeking the brunette's and forcing them open, feeling those same nails digging deeper into the curve of her waist and moaning out loud as they did so.

Burying her face in the sheriff's neck, dragging her teeth across a furiously throbbing pulse point, Regina muttered against her skin, 'Quiet, dear. Do you want Henry to come down and find us?'

She heard a smothered giggle from somewhere above her. And then two hands were back on her chest, carefully placed thumbs grazing against nipples that were already fighting against the fabric of her dress. Regina moaned, biting down harder on Emma's neck until she heard her gasp. She allowed her fingers to slip down her body for a moment, seeking out the bottom of her shirt once more and pulling it sharply upwards. Emma immediately leaned back, away from the woman lying beneath her, meeting Regina's hands at her waist and pulling the fabric over her head. She watched as two dark eyes crawled up her body, from the impossibly tight dark blue jeans to the perfectly toned stomach, up to the black bra that was barely covering a straining, panting chest. It took every ounce of strength that Regina possessed for her to tear her eyes away from that sight, meeting Emma's gaze once more and smiling slightly.

'Why have you stopped kissing me?' she asked in a low voice. Emma immediately fell forwards, her fingers slipping around the mayor's wrists and pinning them by the sides of her head as her lips once more found their way against those that were perfectly pursed beneath her.

Regina could feel Emma's hips beginning to roll against hers, and it was agony. Her dress was slowly riding upwards, exposing her sheer black panties to the rough fabric of Emma's jeans, and every time that Emma unconsciously let her body rock forwards the friction against her burning core was too much to withstand. With every inch that Emma moved, Regina heard herself moaning louder. Even as Emma smothered her with her lips, with her tongue, even with her hands, the sound of her strangled sighing reverberated throughout the room, and eventually Emma forced herself to pull away from her.

'Do you want Henry to come down and find us?' she demanded, slipping her hands down Regina's body until they were firmly gripping her about the waist. Regina was breathing heavily, her dark eyes wide and wild, and she could only shake her head in response. Words no longer came to her. When Emma smirked slightly, digging in her nails through the fabric of her dress, she made a sound that almost sounded like a growl and reached up, gripping Emma by the back of her neck and tugging her so fiercely forwards that she couldn't catch her breath before perfect, red-painted lips were moving against her own.

The hem of her dressed moved further upwards as Emma's hips continued to roll, and finally she looked down to find that the Regina's toned thighs were fully exposed to her. She shifted backwards slightly, moving away from Regina's hips so that she was only straddling her legs, and began to drag her nails up the perfect olive skin that was waiting for her. Her fingers left blazing white trails behind them. Regina sucked her breath in further with every inch that they climbed. Emma's usually laser-sharp eyes had turned dark, pinned onto the exposed flesh of the mayor's legs and the sheer black fabric of the panties that waited just above them. After a few moments Regina shifted herself up onto her elbows, biting down on her bottom lip.

Emma finally forced herself to raise her gaze, meeting the eye of the woman who was watching her expectantly.

'Do you…' Emma said, swallowing. Her fingers never left Regina's thighs. 'Do you still want to take this slowly?'

Regina considered the question for a moment. Panic was already hurtling through her like lightening – like their relationship was a timebomb and Emma's fingers and lips and teeth and tongue were the absolute key to setting it off.

We have to be patient, she said. Not out loud, but to herself. Because out loud she simply heard herself sigh, her eyes fluttering shut.

'If you dare take your hands off of me,' she murmured, her arms shaking beneath her. 'I'll make you sorry that you were born.'

Emma responded the only way that she knew how to – by sliding back down onto the mayor's body, cupping one hand around the back of her head while the other found its way back over her breast. She could feel a furiously thundering heartbeat beneath her fingers as she kissed her, dragging her tongue across bared teeth, feeling swollen lips smiling before they began to gasp once more.

Tugging Regina upwards into a sitting position, Emma found the zipper at the back of her dress and slid it downwards; the tips of her fingers skimming over the bumps of Regina's spine as they worked their way down to the small of her back. In one quick movement, Regina's dress was pulled over her head. She was left leaning back on her hands, Emma sat atop her thighs with her green eyes glossing over at the sight of the perfect, devastating, heaving breasts beneath a black lacy bra. She reached forwards and unhooked it in a second. Regina felt her arms being snatched out from beneath her as Emma pushed her back onto the couch, her hand running over a stiff nipple and teasing it between a pinching thumb and forefinger. Regina groaned, the air catching in the back of her throat as she felt her head roll backwards once more. When Emma's fingers were replaced with her lips, her hips bucked upwards of their own accord.

Emma ran her tongue over that nub of flesh, moaning from deep within her chest, and felt her whole body beginning to melt against Regina's. Because dragging her tongue over Regina's skin was like tasting caramel: impossibly sweet and just slightly salty, and absolutely impossible to stop. Emma moved her mouth towards the centre of Regina's chest and dug her teeth into the rounded flesh of her breast, tasting it in the same way that she would devour chocolate. She quickly realised that the frustrated groan humming from the brunette's throat was infinitely more addictive.

Her thigh slipped between Regina's legs, the grating fabric of her jeans pressing directly against the brunette's aching core, and smirked when she heard Regina crying out.

'…do you want me to stop?' she asked, her voice low with the challenge, as she sat up once more. Regina just blinked up at her for a moment, letting herself catch her breath as her fingers tapped out a nervous rhythm against Emma's thighs. And then, before the sheriff could register the movement, she was being shoved backwards and off of Regina entirely. Pinning her down into the sofa with her surprisingly strong arms, Regina glared down at her.

'No,' she said simply, reaching beneath Emma's arching back to unhook her bra and tossing it onto the floor beside them. 'Never. Don't you dare.'

As Emma watched her she reached down between them, cupping her hand against the blonde's core. Even through her pants Regina could feel the desperate heat coming from her, and she couldn't help but smirk. After unbuttoning and unzipping the jeans with two flicks of her hand, she replaced the heel of her palm where it had been moments before. Her tongue darted out over her bright, bared teeth as she leaned forwards, pressing her weight against the base of her hand. Emma immediately moaned, her hips arching forwards to meet the pressure.

Regina pulled away again at once, swooping forwards to kiss the frustrated groan straight out of Emma's mouth. She let her own hips roll against the sheriff's, not applying enough force to satisfy the boiling ache between Emma's legs but just enough to add to her already immense discomfort. When Emma bucked forwards, Regina lifted her body just out of reach. She continued to kiss the blonde woman, her fingers tangling through matted curls, tormenting her with her refusal to cooperate until finally she heard what sounded like a whimper coming from Emma's throat.

Her dark eyes snapped open to find Emma trembling beneath her, her breasts heaving upwards as she tried to control herself.

'Regina,' she hissed. She tried to push herself up onto her elbows, but Regina promptly forced her back down again. 'Regina. I'm going to fucking explode if you don't touch me properly.'

She moaned when she felt hot breath tickling against the shell of her ear. 'Well. We wouldn't want that, now would we?'

And yet Regina still neglected to touch the aching spot between her legs. Using the tip of her tongue she teased Emma's earlobe into her mouth, nibbling on it while she continued to pull her hips out of reach of Emma's own bucking body.

'Regina,' Emma snapped, sounded so frustrated that she might start crying at any moment. 'I fucking swear. I'm going to lose my mind. I can't—'

'Did you not think,' Regina interrupted, her voice a low hum deep in Emma's ear, 'that that might be exactly what I had in mind?'

Emma could only blink. And then suddenly a cool hand slipped down the front of her jeans, dragging a hard line against her throbbing core.

She threw her head back and moaned, Regina's fingers grinding against her clit for a split second before they disappeared again. When Regina immediately returned to sucking on her earlobe she nearly choked.

'Regina,' she whispered. She already didn't care how desperate she sounded. 'Regina, please.'

'Please, what?' Regina muttered into her ear before her lips began to work away at the pulsing skin below her jaw. Emma made one last desperate attempt to grind her hips up against Regina's; to seek some tiny, pathetic gratification – but the brunette saw it coming. She pulled her whole body away, pinning Emma's arms and legs down with her own limbs, her black panties infuriatingly far away from the triangle of red fabric that was exposed through Emma's undone pants.

'Regina…' Emma muttered, trying to sound like she was full of warning. It came out as a whimper.

'Please, what?' Regina repeated, lowering her body for one delicious moment as if she was going to roll her hips fully against the woman lying beneath her. She pulled away at the last second, and Emma threw her head backwards. Tears of frustration began to scratch at her closed eyes.

'Please, Regina,' she forced out through gritted teeth. 'Please touch me.'

'Where?'

'Everywhere.'

She felt fingers wiggling against her pinned wrists. 'Like here?'

'Regina, I swear to God, I'm going to fucking scream in a minute.'

'Not just yet, you're not,' Regina replied. 'Tell me where you want me to touch you.'

'You know where.'

'I do. But I want to hear you say it.'

'If this is just some exercise in humiliation then you can just forget it. I'm not begging you.'

'Aren't you?' Regina said in a low voice. She released Emma's leg from beneath her own and suddenly ground her knee against the space between her trembling thighs. The sound that came from Emma's mouth almost resembled a sob. 'Because it certainly sounds like you are.'

'Regina,' Emma gasped out, wiggling her hips to try and get more contact against the hard surface of her knee. 'I'm serious.'

'So am I, dear.' Regina pressed her knee forwards again, feeling Emma's arms shaking beneath her hands as she tried and failed to pull herself free. 'I will do whatever you want me to. Anything. But first – tell me where you want me to touch you.'

'Regina—'

'Now.'

In the beat of silence that followed Emma forced her eyes open again, looking up at the wicked smile that was tugging at the corners of Regina's mouth. She saw the challenge there. She knew that she was winning: she knew that Emma would give in soon.

Emma gritted her teeth together. 'I want you to fuck me.'

'That's not what I asked.'

'What do—'

'Where do you want me to touch you, Miss Swan?'

Emma inhaled sharply as Regina suddenly dipped her chest downwards, her flawless rear curving upwards into the air as her bare breasts slid against Emma's own.

'There,' Emma moaned. Regina repeated the action, letting their nipples graze together. Emma pulled more fiercely against her grip, trying to wriggle free from beneath her.

'Like this?' Regina asked, leaning forwards until the tip of her nose was touching Emma's. Emma nodded, unable to form words. She could feel the perfect spheres of Regina's breasts rolling against her own, and even though it was nowhere close to what she wanted her to be doing at that moment, it felt perfect. Both of the women were slightly sticky with sweat and their bodies slid effortlessly against one another. Emma looked back up into Regina's dark eyes and she felt like she was swimming in her. She was surrounded by her and her whole body was on fire with it.

'Regina, I need you to fuck me. Please.'

'Tell me where.'

'Regina—'

'Tell me where.'

'Jesus Christ,' Emma hissed through her teeth, thrusting her head forwards to capture the mayor's mouth in a biting kiss that was so fierce it almost hurt. 'My pussy, Regina. My clit. I'm soaking wet and I'm close to screaming and I will fucking die if you don't touch me there. So please – please – put me out of my misery and—'

She was cut off by Regina returning her possessive kiss, taking hold of Emma's bottom lip between her front teeth and tugging on it. Emma didn't register that her arms had been released until suddenly a hand was snaking down the front of her panties, finding its way along her slit until it reached the aching, throbbing bundle of nerves that was waiting at the top.

'Oh, Jesus,' she groaned, feeling Regina's fingers curling around it. The pads of two fingers started to circle, around and around that tiny nub of flesh that was sending electricity through Emma's bones, quickly dissolving her sighs into aching, longing moans. She slipped her arms around Regina's neck, burying her face beneath the curtain of dark hair and biting down on the hot skin that she found waiting for her there. Regina hissed in pleasure, putting more weight onto the palm of her hand, and began to grind it more furiously against Emma's hot, throbbing centre.

'Fuck,' Emma whimpered, bringing her knees up and wrapping her legs around the backs of Regina's thighs. 'Oh, god, Regina, fuck.'

Regina slowed the movement of her fingers down for just a moment, watching as Emma's eyes snapped back open, shining with desperation.

'Don't stop,' she muttered. Regina kissed her once more before she responded.

'Those pants need to come off, dear,' she murmured against her lips, tugging her hand free of the constraining fabric and beginning to tease the jeans away from Emma's hips. Emma suddenly snapped to attention, arching her back so that the rest of the denim could be eased away from her body. The moment that she was lying in nothing but her red panties, she watched the dark flush of colour that rose in Regina's cheeks.

'Much better,' she said quietly. She began to slide her body down along the couch, settling herself between Emma's slightly shaking legs and hooking her forefingers through the thin fabric waiting before her. As Emma felt it beginning to edge downwards, she felt herself reach out a hand to clutch at Regina's.

'You're sure about this?' she asked, propping herself up onto her elbows. Regina glanced up and took in her heaving chest, her swollen mouth, her flushed skin. She raised one eyebrow as high as it would go.

'Stop talking,' was all that she said. And then the red fabric had disappeared, and the pressure on Emma's clit rushed back to her.

The moment that Regina's tongue grazed against her, her body collapsed backwards against the arm of the sofa. Hands grasped hold of either one of her thighs and pushed them upwards, giving Regina a clearer view of the unfamiliar but utterly agonising prize before her. She languidly drew her tongue up Emma's slit a second time, letting the very tip of her tongue linger slightly as it reached the top. She felt Emma's toes curl against her elbows. A low moan erupted from somewhere ahead of her and she smirked into the warmth of Emma's skin.

As she began to circle her tongue around Emma's clit, Regina couldn't help but think about just how much she wasn't thinking. Really, she had no clue what she was doing – no one had ever touched her like this before, and so part of her was terrified that she was making all the wrong decisions. But then a hand found its way up into her hair, a mess of fingers and nails curling into a fist that tugged her closer, and she knew that, somehow, she was doing this right. Her heart skipped at the thought, and she pressed her tongue more firmly against the point of Emma's body that made her hips grind forwards, her eyes roll backwards, and her breath escape from her lips in one long, drawn-out sigh of ecstasy.

Regina reached up then, one of her fingers seeking out Emma's opening and slowly pushing its way inside. Emma immediately groaned, biting down on her bottom lip. Regina felt the grip on her hair tighten and she pushed further forwards, beginning to purse her lips around Emma's clit and suck gently enough on it that it wouldn't startle her if she didn't like it. The noise that then came from Emma's mouth, however, closely verged on being a cry – her knees suddenly clamped down against the sides of Regina's head, and the boiling feeling that was rolling within her stomach only deepened. Her breath kept catching in her furiously pounding chest and, when a second finger found its way inside of her, she knew that she wasn't far from the edge. She bucked her hips forwards once more, wrenching Regina's mouth closer to her and feeling the brunette's tongue beginning to work more furiously as the muscles surrounding it constricted and quivered beneath her touch.

'Oh fuck,' she moaned, pressing her free hand against her closed eyes, the heat that was radiating from her skin nearly burning her fingers. 'Fuck. Regina… don't stop. Please don't stop.'

Regina responded by digging the nails of her left hand into the skin of Emma's hip, sucking on her clit and gently grazing her teeth over it until the blonde's moans escalated into desperate, bursting cries. When her body began to tremble, Regina held her as firmly as she could. Her fingers continued to slide inside of her, dragging again and again against her fiercely clenching muscles, pulling Emma blindly to the edge of a cliff that was so high up into the clouds that the thin air nearly suffocated her. Her eyes were screwed shut, and she couldn't breathe. Her heart pounded against the inside of her chest, blood rushing around her body like a river, and when she felt her body finally begin to seize under the weight of the orgasm that was shaking her she knew that she was drowning in it. She was drowning in Regina.

Regina watched as her upper body arched into the air, kissing her clit again and again as Emma was rocketed over the edge of that cliff. Her head was thrown backwards, the cry tumbling from parted lips that she couldn't seem to suck any air inside of. As her whole body jerked upwards, Regina could feel a hot, sticky wetness flooding across her lips and chin. She slid her tongue back down Emma's centre, earning her another surprised gasp, before dragging some of those surprisingly sweet juices up to coat her still-throbbing clit.

And Emma screamed. Regina almost winced, wondering if Henry would have heard, but then the utter deliciousness of the sound washed over her and she realised that, right then, she simply did not care. Twisting her fingers inside of Emma's body, she lapped the wetness over her clit again and again until a second blinding orgasm shook through Emma's trembling, aching muscles. Her knees were pressed so furiously against the sides of Regina's head that she began to see stars, but she still didn't care. She was slowly letting Emma come down from her high, feeling her body quiver every time that she languidly ran her tongue over the electric bundle of nerves beneath her nose, and eventually the fierceness of the fingers that were tangled amongst her hair began to lessen. When Emma opened her eyes, glossy with tears and exhaustion, she wasn't surprised to find Regina's dark gaze looking back at her.

Regina pulled away from her, slowly sliding her dripping fingers out from her hot core and letting her tongue remove every last drop of those juices from them. Emma watched with wide, unblinking eyes. She didn't care that she was slumped across the couch, her legs still spread and her cheeks furiously red. She watched Regina tasting her like she was a gourmet ice cream, and she moaned once more. The throbbing in her clit may have just about subsided, but the dangerous sparking in her fingers and toes hadn't even begun to lessen.

Regina blinked as Emma slowly slipped off of the couch and onto the carpet, sitting herself on her knees at Regina's hip. She reached up, taking Regina's face in her clammy hands and pulling it downwards until her tongue was sliding between lips that tasted unmistakably of herself. Regina sighed into her mouth, sucking gently on the tongue that was swirling against her own, and realised with a squeezing feeling deep within her stomach that a hand was snaking its way beneath the fabric of her black panties.

'Emma—' she muttered, closing her eyes.

Emma ignored her. 'Your turn.'

'You don't have to—'

'Your turn, Regina,' Emma repeated, grabbing hold of the backs of Regina's thighs and tugging them sharply forwards. Regina found herself slumped against the back of the sofa, her legs suddenly wrapped around Emma's waist.

Before she could say another word, Emma caught her bottom lip between her own teeth and began to nibble on it. A moan erupted from somewhere within Regina's throat. As one of Emma's hands slipped up her trembling body, resting for a moment on her left breast before it continued up towards the pulsing hollow of her throat, Regina felt the other one returning to its position at the front of her panties. The heel of Emma's palm started grinding against the fabric, rolling against her clit so slowly that she could feel her muscles started to ache with anticipation. Regina reached out, tangling her fingers amongst knotted blonde curls, and tugged Emma more fiercely towards her. She kissed her so furiously that Emma found herself yet again lost for words, gasping for air; drowning in the sweet smell and the salty taste that was utterly and entirely Regina.

Emma pulled her body backwards for just a moment, tugging Regina's panties away with her. As they slipped from between her steady fingers and onto the floor at her knees, she couldn't help but notice just how damp they already were.

Those fingers found their way up the centre of Regina's core, causing a gasp to slip from Regina's lips that sucked the air clean out of Emma's chest. She moved her mouth over to Regina's ear, kissing the pulse point that was thundering away just beneath it, and letting two of her fingers slowly slide between the mayor's legs. Regina automatically arched against them, curving her spine forwards until she was filled with the sensation of Emma's prying digits. They curved momentarily upwards, and she whimpered. Then suddenly the pad of Emma's thumb was rubbing a slow, tormenting circle against her throbbing clit, and she found herself clinging onto her back with her nails digging into tensed, hot skin for support.

'Oh god,' she groaned into her ear, grinding her hips forwards against Emma's fingers once more. 'Oh god oh god oh god.'

'Is that good?' Emma murmured, placing her free hand on the small of Regina's back and tugging her closer.

'Harder,' Regina bit out, unable to say anything more. A heat was rising through her whole body and the pressure of it was making every muscle, every nerve in her body, begin to shiver.

'Like that?' Emma purred, jarring her thumb against Regina's clit so firmly that a new wave of wetness spread over her moving fingers.

'Fuck,' Regina groaned, burying her face in the curve of Emma's shoulder. 'Emma. Jesus. Fuck.'

Emma began to roll her hips forwards to match the motion of her fingers, burying them in Regina's pussy as deep as they would go. Regina tightened the grip of her legs around Emma's waist, her nails clawing paths down Emma's back and shoulders that would undoubtedly leave angry red welts behind them. Neither of them cared. Emma returned the favour, grazing the skin at the small of Regina's back with her own nails and feeling the small beads of sweat that were trailing down Regina's spine slicking beneath them.

For a split second, Emma pulled her hand away from Regina's throbbing core, almost relishing the shudder of disappointment that reverberated through her body. She pulled back from the trembling woman, forcing a kiss onto her lips just before she looked down at the space between them. Her sticky hand snaked down between her own legs, grazing over her still pulsing clit until it was coated in her own wetness. Then those fingers returned to their new favourite position between Regina's legs, grinding the tips of two fingers against a clit that was sparking and screaming and begging for more and more and more.

When Emma slid down her body until her chin was resting on the edge of the couch, Regina didn't stop her. She allowed her legs to be hooked over the blonde's shoulders and sucked in an agonised breath as that pink, pointed tongue crawled out and found its way to where her fingers had been only seconds before. Regina moaned, and let her body slump backwards against the sofa. It only took a moment before two fingers were back inside her, furiously sliding backwards and forwards as a set of lips and a devastating tongue wreaked their havoc on her throbbing, pleading clit.

She could hear herself crying out. Tears were scratching at her eyes and so she clamped them shut, letting her head roll back against the sofa cushions. Her fingers gripped hold of whatever they could find – the rough couch fabric; the skin of Emma's shoulder; the matted blonde mane of her hair. She dragged her nails over texture after texture, feeling her hips rolling further and further forwards with only one word slipping from between lips that at any moment were about to scream until the whole of Storybrooke woke up.

'Emma,' she panted, her breasts heaving upwards as she felt an unfamiliar wave creeping towards her. 'Emma. Emma.'

When it hit her, her whole body shook like charges were being driven through her muscles. She tensed her thighs against the sides of Emma's face, pulling her closer while simultaneously trying to force her away, feeling the agonising and electrocuting sensation of her tongue continuing to lap away at her clit. When she thought that her orgasm was nearly over, Emma suddenly twisted her fingers and dragged them downwards, sending a whole new wave of tremors crashing over the top of her heard. Gasping for air, Regina's whole body arched forwards as a loud, desperate, uncaring scream was wrenched from her lips. It echoed through the room for minutes after she fell still again; Emma's exhausted but smirking face resting quietly on the flat plain of her stomach.

'I can't…' she heard herself muttering, reaching down to run a hand over the side of Emma's face. 'You lied to me.'

Emma blinked, frowning. 'When?'

'When you said that you never date,' Regina muttered, finally forcing herself to open her eyes. The room was an odd shade of blue around her; the way that the world looked when you closed your eyes against the glaring sunlight.

'That wasn't a lie, Regina.' Emma shifted her body up onto the couch beside her, hooking one of her legs over her lap and allowing her head to rest on Regina's shoulder. Two hands immediately reached up: one looped over her outstretched arm, while the other found its way around her waist and quickly pulled her closer.

'You were,' Regina said, tilting Emma's chin upwards and pressing a kiss onto her pouting lips. 'You've done that before.'

Emma smirked then, her green eyes flashing with what might have been pride. 'It was good then, was it?'

'Like you really need an answer to that,' Regina rolled her eyes. 'Are you going to tell me who the woman was?'

'There's no woman, Regina.'

'Emma, come on—'

'I wanted this to be right,' Emma interrupted, turning away so that she could rest her head back against Regina's clammy shoulder. 'It had to be… everything. So I… you know. Did some research.'

Regina frowned. 'Research?'

'Yes, Regina,' Emma said in a low voice. Regina quickly realised that it was throbbing with embarrassment, and finally understood what exactly she was referring to.

'Oh,' she said. She extended her fingers against Emma's waist and began to trail a delicate line against the curve of her body. 'You… you really…?'

'Yes,' Emma replied, still not looking up at the woman who was holding her. 'I did. And I'm not going to pretend that I didn't enjoy it, because, honestly – some of the stuff out there on the internet is freakishly hot. I might show you some day.'

Regina almost choked. 'I will not—'

'But at least it paid off,' Emma continued, closing her eyes. Her lips were vaguely smiling. 'I mean – I think.'

Regina squeezed her more tightly against her body, pressing a kiss into her mess of blonde curls.

'You might say that.'

Emma pulled away from her, looking up into her hooded gaze with one raised eyebrow. 'I might say that?'

Regina smirked. 'Your head's big enough already, Miss Swan. I don't want to contribute to any sort of hospitalisation should its size increase any further.'

Emma watched her for a moment, a cautious smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. And then she threw herself forward, burying those lips against Regina's and sucking the sarcasm clean out of her mouth.

'You're unbearable,' she muttered against her lips after a moment, her hands reaching up to push Regina's damp hair away from her face.

'That I am,' Regina replied, smiling. It was a genuine smile: there was no challenge there. No irony. 'And yet you can't resist me anyway.'

'And I'm self-assured?' Emma sniggered, kissing her once more. 'Luckily for you, I've always found cockiness kind of attractive. Otherwise you'd be firmly out on your ass by now, Mayor Mills.'

Regina laughed, trailing one finger down the side of Emma's flushed face.

'You'd throw me out?' she asked in a low voice, her gaze slipping down to the various bruises that were blossoming along Emma's pulsing throat. 'Now that's something that I would certainly like to see.'

A/N: All aboard the SMUT TRAIN. I hope you enjoyed! Come and say hi on tumblr, let's make friends - I'm starsthatburn over there too :)