I'm so glad that y'all liked the last chapter! I loved reading the mixed reactions. That means I'm doing something right :)

Thank you all so, so much for the reviews. I write because I love the characters and their little world and I'm glad you love them too.

I figure I owe you guys a quick update after the dry spell before the last chapter and the cliffhanger. Confrontations are the most fun to write, so I got it done fast just for you guys :)

Enjoy!

"Please don't tell Duncan," Emily pleaded while wringing her hands. She deliberately faced away from the table of women to conceal as much of her desperation as possible.

With his arms tucked tightly across his chest, Toby asked with surprise, "You haven't told him? How long has this been going on between the two of you?"

"That doesn't matter," Emily sighed shaking her head. She wouldn't dream of admitting to him that she had wanted Alison since she spotted her at a meeting a few months ago. From Alison's interactions with acquaintances in AA, Emily realized that the blonde had shed her needlessly bitchy attitude and her addiction to cutting people down for her own amusement. The Alison she saw squirming in her chair when someone shared an experience that hit too close to home was the Alison that Emily had crushed on in high school and the woman she was falling for now.

"Of course it matters," Toby countered. "Did she cheat on him with you?"

"No way! She wouldn't do that to him," Emily quickly defended her girlfriend before she added, "And neither would I."

Skeptically, the man pried, "But now you're dating her and he has no idea? Isn't he your friend?" He scratched at his beardless chin and recalled, "He's called me a couple of times and mentioned that he's talked to you about the breakup."

Emily paced as she scoffed at her own deception, "Yeah. I have. I've talked to him about his ex fiancé whom I am currently dating." She roughly massaged her temples with her fingers, "This breaks multiple rules of the bro code, but—"

"Did you just say 'bro code'?" a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Toby's mouth at the absurdity of the reference.

"Yeah. A couple of rules, but mostly the dating exes guidelines." She shot him a look that could only be interpreted as a shock at his ignorance of or disrespect for the bro code. "You can only sleep with or date someone the other bro has slept with or dated if there are no residual feelings." She threw back her head and groaned, "God. We wouldn't have this problem if he was gay."

"Or if you were straight."

"Eww no," Emily wagged her head. "Girls are fucking awesome. I mean, c'mon," she raised an eyebrow. "Boobs."

Although Toby chuckled at her levity, he pointed out, "You definitely broke that rule."

Not wishing to dwell on the indiscretion that haunted her everyday, she begged, "Just please don't tell him. I need to do it… or Alison does… or both of us do."

"You realize that you're asking me to lie to him—to my friend?"

"Yes," she gritted her teeth at the situation seeming to spin out of control, "He just really needs to hear this from me or Alison."

The man asked, "Are you going to tell him soon?"

"As soon as he gets back from his drunken hibernation." She snorted as she reminded him, "You can't hide anything in Rosewood."

He conceded with a sigh, "Fine. I won't say anything." When Emily smiled thankfully, he commented, "He really loves her, you know."

She shook off his words with a grimace, "No offense, but we don't know each other well enough for you to guilt trip me about this. I'm doing a fantastic job of that all by myself." Instead of poking holes in Emily's self righteous claim, Toby remained silent and Emily asked, "Spencer never told you about Alison and I?"

"She's good at keeping secrets," he informed flatly. "The high school version of your girlfriend is responsible for that."

"Emily!" Alison called out from over her shoulder in an unmistakably irritated tone.

"Christ," Emily grumbled as Toby tucked his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and skulked away clearly wanting to put as much distance between himself and the impending lovers' quarrel.

"Come on," Alison growled as she stormed past her girlfriend and her fingers latched onto Emily's right wrist. She dragged her to a back corner of the yard with a small dark stained wooden bench surrounded by a manicured flowerbed and shaded by a canopy of two wide trees.

When the blonde released Emily from her clutches, Emily collapsed onto the bench with her head in her hands and grumbled, "God. I can't believe Toby saw us. I'm so fucked."

Standing a few yards away from the sulking woman, Alison snorted with disdain, "Yeah. You really are."

Emily raised her head and asked, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

The blonde's eyes widened and she thrust a finger into her own chest as she blurted, "What's wrong with me?!" She shook her head in disbelief, crossed her arms and shouted as her polished fingernails dug into her arms. "I just found out that you've been talking to Duncan and listening to him say god knows what about me. And—" her voice screeched when Emily tried to interrupt, "you lied about your car. Also, Hanna is being a complete bitch to me. I can take a fucking joke, but you should have heard her when you left. She was counting the number of blonde 'Alison's that you've slept with."

"That's purely coincidental! And I don't even know the answer to that. It can't be more than two or—"

"Then," Alison again shouted over Emily, "You told me to 'just stay here' like I'm your child."

Without a hint of remorse, Emily tossed up a hand and replied, "Umm. I don't know where you want me to start."

"Don't worry," Alison sneered as she paced with the heels of her nude colored shoes digging into the lawn, "We'll get around to all of it."

"Well," the brunette disagreed with one of Alison's claims. "I didn't technically lie about the—"

"Don't you dare!"

"Dare what?" Emily asked returning her girlfriend's hostile look.

"Get all dodgy and use the word 'technically'."

The brunette snorted in frustration, "You're accusing me of lying." She tapped her fingers as she counted the grievances, "reminding me of how shitty I am to Duncan, blaming me for Hanna being a bitch and—"

"Who said I care about how shitty you are to Duncan?" Alison threw up her hands.

"Well then let's talk about how you don't care—"

The blonde jerked her hands flat in front of her chest stopping her girlfriend, "Don't get off on a tangent and throw this back at me."

Emily jumped to her feet and yelled, "I'm pissed right now! There's going to be a lot of tangents!"

Neither of the women advanced but Alison ordered, "You can't act like this."

Emily stomped a few paces away from the bench and the blonde as she asked, "Are you just going to tell me what to do this whole time?"

Exasperated, Alison replied to Emily's back, "A whole lot of shit just happened in the past few minutes and all you're doing is getting defensive and insisting that you're pissed. I'm furious, but you're dealing with a shit ton of other things."

The brunette didn't turn around as she retorted, "Yeah, a shit ton of being pissed."

"God!" Alison grunted. "I'm not one of those strippers or whoever that you can take home and then blow off."

Emily whirled around at the disturbing claim and replied, "Alison. Why would you think that? Have I made you think that?"

Barely affected by her girlfriend's concern, the blonde blustered with crossed arms, "You can't ignore all of your bullshit until I'm out of your house or you're alone or with Hanna. You're bottling up your feelings and expecting me to believe that you're just pissed." When Emily's head drooped, Alison's voice lost its razor sharp edge, "I'm not going to pry everything out of you especially when I'm too angry to think."

Emily's right hand clawed at the back of her neck. Of course Alison was right. Being angry was the perfect deflection when she didn't want to deal with the actual issue. After a long sigh, her hand fell to her side and she admitted that first thing that came to mind, "Fine. I'm irritated with Hanna."

Alison agreed, "That makes two of us."

"She's always snarky, but she's gone beyond that. She's so used to protecting me from every little thing that might upset me." She admitted with a shrug, "She's sometimes a bitch about it."

Confused by Emily's explanation, Alison asked, "What does that have to do with me? Is she protecting you from me?"

"From us," Emily clarified inching toward her girlfriend as if she might frighten off a bird, "From the whole situation. She's probably trying to tell a raunchy enough story or reveal some stupid secret that will make you run for the hills. This isn't the first time that she's done it."

Nodding in understanding, the blonde added, "Then you won't have to tell Duncan about us because there won't be an us."

Now only a few feet away, Emily concluded, "And I won't have to deal with hurting him. I don't do well with that—hurting people."

Finally acknowledging her girlfriend's proximity, Alison dropped her arms and her guard and said, "Em, she's not protecting you anymore. She's making you out to be a heartless serial seducer while she's being a complete asshole to me. Like I said, I can take a joke, but this is…" She instinctively flinched when Emily extended a hand to comfort her and jumped backward. "You're letting her do it."

Emily gulped at the rejection and clasped her hands together awkwardly, "I know, but she's telling you the truth. I did everything she said and I'm not ashamed of anything I've done in the past."

"You shouldn't be," the blonde hurriedly replied not wanting Emily to think she disapproved in any way, "but she's trying to use it against us. You just admitted that."

"I'm sorry," Emily hung her head. "I really am."

"I know," Alison answered quietly and lightly grazed Emily's clenched hands.

Relieved the brunette looked up, "I'll talk to her."

When she tried to grab Alison by the fingers to pull her close, Alison once again recoiled. Hanna's attitude was the least of their worries and the sudden reminder plunged her right back into the irritation that had momentarily subsided. "No. We're far from done."

As Alison retreated a few steps, Emily huffed, "Besides pissed, what are you feeling?"

Perturbed by what she interpreted to be Emily deflecting, Alison snipped, "Like you need to tell me what you're feeling.

The brunette closed her eyes to conceal her eye roll before she trudged back to the bench and sank down onto the wood in defeat. They were right back where they started, Emily on defense and Alison on offense. She offered reluctantly, "I feel guilty."

"I can't imagine why." Alison responded sarcastically.

Instead of snapping at her girlfriend's tone, Emily said blandly, "Duncan has called me many, many times whining about your breakup."

"Really, Em? 'Whining'? That's how you'd describe it?," Alison barked at the flippant choice of word.

Joining in on the passive aggressiveness, Emily said, "I can't use 'whining'? Should I use balling his eyes out or drinking himself into a stupor because he's hurt?"

"What does he say?" Alison snarled.

"It's not worth repeating," the brunette waved off the inquiry.

The blonde cackled with sarcasm at the response, "So you're telling me that on multiple occasions you've listened to my ex fiancé say things that are 'not worth repeating' about me—your girlfriend?"

Emily threw back, "I'm not going to cut him off and say 'excuse me dude, that's my girlfriend so I'm gonna to need you to use nicer words. Thanks, man. I appreciate it.'."

Completely befuddled by Emily's rejection of what Alison deemed the most obvious course of action, Alison shouted, "That's exactly what you should say!"

"I can't tell him that over the phone!"

"Then don't pick up the phone!" Alison screeched flabbergasted at Emily's dangerously callous responses.

"I owe him!" Emily insisted as she slammed her hands onto her thighs. "I fucked him over when Maya died. I can't watch him spiral like I did."

"Well, I can't deal with knowing that he's bashing me and you're just listening!" Alison yelled wondering how Emily could be so oblivious to her feelings.

"It's not like I agree with anything he says. I just have to suck it up!" the brunette countered now gripping the edge of the bench to keep from flying off of it in a rage. "He's just angry. I've heard way worse things thrown at me." In the past, she had been smothered by harsh and debilitating actions that spurred on her alcoholism. When she was attacked without the comfort of alcohol, she'd learned to shrug off verbal harassment. Most of the time, she treated words as just sounds leaving the mouth, which made her immune to certain insults being tossed at herself and other people, in this case, Alison.

"So you're okay with him saying those things about me?"

"No, but he's just blowing off steam."

"It doesn't matter!" the blonde's hand shot upward in irritation glaring at her stubborn and seemingly insensitive girlfriend.

"I need to be there for him!"

"Well, you can't," Alison's words crashed to the ground infuriating Emily even more. "You seriously think you can be with me while you lie to him, not tell me about talking to him, and let him vent about how much of a cunt that I am? I would never let anyone say that about you."

"Is that an ultimatum?" Emily challenged boldly.

Shocked by Emily's interpretation and blatant refusal to actively listen instead of passively hearing her, Alison said, "No! Is that what it sounds like to you?"

Emily shrugged, "It sounds like you're telling me once again what to do."

"I'm just telling you the truth that you clearly don't want to hear."

"Why weren't you this mad about it when I got off the phone with him?" Emily snapped. "What the hell changed?"

Alison snorted as she rolled her eyes, "Because I try to avoid making scenes at tables. Do you want me to make scenes at tables? Or would you like me to just ignore everything that's happening?" Her hands pumped in front of her chest as she yelled, "What do you want from me?"

"I'm fucking up everything!" Emily finally lost it and admitted with frustration, disappointment and misplaced hope. "I just want everyone to be fucking happy! I want to be happy! Why is this so goddamn hard?" She raked her hands through her hair, "I just want to be forgiven, for this shit with Duncan and for ripping Maya out of this world."

Alison flinched at the last comment wondering who Emily specifically needed forgiveness from because of Maya. Emily swallowed before continuing, "I want us to fall in love like normal ass people without alcoholism and death and cars and complicated ex situations." The blonde sank down onto Emily's left as she concluded, "You and I can be happy and Duncan can… I don't want to hurt anyone. I've done enough of that."

Not bothered by the sudden disappearance of her anger, the blonde brushed Emily's hair over her shoulder to reveal the conflicted woman's face, "I had no idea that you're big on happy endings."

Still upset, the brunette kept her gaze forward and said, "Neither did I." She settled her hand on Alison's right thigh. "It must be you."

While her hand tucked over Emily's, the blonde asked wanting to completely clear the air, "The car?"

Shaking her head, Emily glanced up, "I didn't mean to lie to you about that. I don't go around admitting that I have my dead almost-fiancé's engagement gift sitting in my garage."

Hesitantly, Alison prompted, "The money."

Emily flung her arms across her chest and refused, "I've said enough. We're not going there."

"Yes we are," the blonde insisted quietly but firmly. The deception had to stop.

"How do you want this thing to go between us, Ali?" Emily shrugged. "Simple and slow like a regular relationship? Or complicated and dramatic—"

"And honest!" the blonde clamped her hands onto Emily's cheeks and begged, "Just be honest with me. You don't have to hide behind—"

"Behind what?" Emily yanked Alison's hands away, "My sarcasm? My borderline bitchiness? My stupid stories? This isn't a facade, Alison; it's who I am."

Alison gripped both of the brunette's hands and stressed, "You're scared, Emily!" When Emily's pupils dilated at what sounded like an accusation, the blonde stammered quickly, "And that's okay. This whole thing scares me shitless sometimes." The brunette relaxed and Alison continued, "Em, I love your sarcasm, bitchiness, stupid stories, all of your damn comic books and the beautiful vulnerable side of you."

When Emily tried to drop her head, Alison coaxed, "No, look at me." With a great deal of effort, Emily locked her eyes onto Alison's. "I wouldn't change anything about you. You're hiding behind a pile of half truths because you're scared." Emily nervously held her breath as Alison stroked her cheek, "You are absolutely terrified that you'll fall in love with me, I'll find out all of your secrets too soon and I'll freak out and leave you." Finally exhaling, Emily forced herself to sit still as her girlfriend unmasked her, "You acted so confident when you convinced me to give us a try and you probably were at the time. Now you're just desperately trying to control what I can and can't know about you."

Emily couldn't remember the last time she felt this exposed. The sight of Alison's eyes in front of her and the feeling of a hand on her cheek didn't even register as a swarm of inner dialogue washed over her. This rattled her even more than crying in Alison's arms and recounting the painful memory of Maya's death. Alison had finally put her finger on Emily's most guarded asset. Although Emily had torn down her emotional walls and began dealing with her guilt about Maya, she still latched onto a tiny thread of control. She'd carefully concocted ways to conceal things about herself until she deemed Alison "ready to know". She could fall for Alison and Alison could fall for her, but her secrets could only be divulged when she felt confident that Alison wouldn't judge her or run away screaming. She cringed thinking of a particular situation Alison knew nothing about. The ring, the car, the money… they didn't even come close. She shuddered remembering that she almost told Alison the night Hanna stormed into her house demanding to know about Jeremy's phone call.

Instead of dwelling on a fact in her life that terrified her the most, she mused, "I just want to go on dates, watch bad movies on the couch, throw popcorn in your face and only argue about whether cats are better than dogs or whether Superman is better than Batman or whether chocolate ice cream is better than strawberry."

With a tiny smile, Alison replied as her hands returned to Emily's, "I can answer those really fast: dogs, I don't care, and chocolate." When Emily chuckled, Alison played with Emily's fingers and said slowly, "I want that for us too, but I can't do this if you keep hiding and lying to me." She swallowed, "So please stop, because I need this to work."

"Ali, don't," Emily quickly replied hoping to quell the doubt in her girlfriend's mind. While this was exactly what she feared—losing Alison—she never thought it would be her deceitfulness crafted with good intentions that threatened their relationship. "You never have to beg me to make this work." She stared at the adorable dimple on the blonde's chin before her gaze flitted upward to questioning blue eyes. "You're right. I'm scared." She sighed, "but I'll tell you about the money."

She tucked her arm behind Alison's head and draped her hand over her left shoulder. "Come here," she mumbled shifting Alison's hips and pulling the blonde against her with Alison's head settled a little below her shoulder and her arms wrapped tightly around Alison's torso.

The blonde couldn't help but chuckle as she commented on the position, "I feel like you're about to tell me a story."

Alison caressed Emily's fingers while Emily kissed the top of her head and answered, "I'll be sure to tell you one next time, one that doesn't end in me half naked in a strip club."

"Go ahead," the blonde prompted pecking Emily on the arm. Feeling Alison relaxing into her sent a beautifully reassuring tingling sensation ricocheting inside Emily's chest, up and down her arms and legs and bursting with warmth into her cheeks.

Before she could decide on a specific way to order the facts, Emily began, "Maya left me everything that she had. She locked up half of it in a living trust, a little in liquid assets and the rest of it in stocks. She was big on investing." Emily smiled as Alison hugged her arms tighter across her chest. She couldn't possibly explain the sense of safety blanketing her in those moments. Although the explanation of Maya's money might not unsettle Alison or anyone else, it was one of the most uncomfortable things for Emily to talk about. Her guilt compounded just thinking about it. "It was old family money from her grandparents that she received when she turned eighteen. At that point, she and her parents had a major falling out because they are fucking nuts so she went through a ton of legal bullshit to make sure they couldn't ever get to it."

As Emily spoke, Alison sighed in her arms, just sighed. Not with shock or anger, but just passively sighed. Randomly, Emily realized how much she missed cuddling. Other than the multitude of pleasurable sensations during sex, this might be one of her favorite feelings. "She didn't spend that much in college. Honestly, she spent most of it on me, well us, and alcohol." Emily gulped as she dove into details, "Like Hanna said, her will for everything not in the trust was specific on a few points. She obviously made it assuming she and I would be together. Her lawyer said she amended it a couple of weeks before she died." She cleared her throat, "It's not worth going into what she set aside in the trust versus her instructions in the will so first off, any money I owed in student loans or any kind of debt disappeared. Poof!" she snapped two fingers, "Gone, just like that. Then there was money for two years worth of rent for any apartment, or mortgage on a house or wherever I might have been living when she died.

"And I shit you not she had money specifically for comic books. She always joked she'd buy me the most expensive one I could find." She chuckled playing with her girlfriend's fingers, "She also set aside a crap ton of money for a donation to an art gallery in Philly. She knew I hated art. I'm sure she laughed hysterically when she had that written into her will." She plunged forward before she realized what she was going to say next, "The living trust focused mostly on kids—money for private schools, music camps, sports camps, cars, vacations overseas, college tuitions—shit." She shook her head, "I can't go into this."

Alison pushed out of Emily's embrace, turned and assured her, "Em, you don't have to say anymore."

In a tone of disgust, Emily blurted, "3.6 million dollars. She left me 3.6 million dollars with it multiplying everyday because of all the investments." She scoffed at the insanity, "She died in a car accident that was basically my fault and I got 3.6 million dollars. I mean seriously… what the hell? How is that possible?"

"Emily…" the blonde hated seeing the guilt in Emily's eyes and hearing her blame herself.

"What did I do with it?" the brunette continued with a sarcastic laugh, "I paid off the loans, got an apartment and threw money at the art gallery, just like she wanted and then," repulsed by her past actions, Emily snorted, "I took a fucking trip to Paris and dicked around for two months. It's hilarious that I'm giving Duncan shit for doing the same damn thing." She didn't feel the need to mention that her vacation was fraught with many 'romantic' encounters. "Then I bought a bunch of comic books and tried to drink myself to death."

"Babe," Alison quickly replied, "You were grieving. I probably would have done the same thing."

"At least I didn't spend even a fraction of it or fuck with any of the investments. Do you know how hard it is to spend that much money if you're not buying yachts or planes or mansions?"

"Emily, stop," Alison turned and tossed her leg over Emily's knees. When she settled into the brunette's lap, she tipped up the woman's chin and whispered, "Please don't do this to yourself." As both hands slid underneath Emily's hair to the back of her head, she leaned in and tried to flood her kiss with reassurance and love, or something akin to love. Urgently needing what Alison offered, Emily sighed into her girlfriend's mouth as all ten fingers clutched onto the back of Alison's dress.

Sensing her girlfriend's desperation, Alison allowed Emily's lips and tongue to search every centimeter of her lips and mouth. After a couple minutes of faint moans with their fervent kisses, the brunette's grip relaxed and her fingers gently massaged Alison's spine rather than clinging to her for dear life.

When the brunette's lips wandered down to Alison's chin, the blonde said, "This was supposed to be me being mad at you."

Knowing she owed Alison far more than what she'd already said, Emily whispered, "I shouldn't let Duncan say those things." She kissed her way up her jaw to Alison's right ear, "I'm so sorry." She pressed her lips on the blonde's forehead, "I've just had to ignore a lot of shitty things people have said in the past two years, but you're not me. I can't ignore what people say about you."

When Emily tapped her lips against Alison's nose, the blonde said, "It's oka—"

The brunette leaned back shaking her head, "No, it's not. You know it's not."

Alison responded with a smile and pulled Emily's face back to hers. It hurt knowing Emily didn't defend her against Duncan and even attempted to justify her inaction when they argued a few minutes ago. However, she knew what sincerity looked and felt like. Emily's slow, deliberate kiss left no room for doubt. This beautiful brunette was completely out of her element and tripped over every obstacle they came upon, but she continually jumped to her feet, dusted herself off and moved forward.

When their lips parted for air, Emily muttered, "You are none of the things that he said. I know that." She begged her with their lips brushing against each other, "Please forgive me?"

Alison wasn't an idiot. Based on their disagreements so far, this relationship would be far from easy, but she'd never been so sure of anything in her life. "Since you're asking so nicely… yes." Pleased with the answer, Emily trailed down Alison's neck as the blonde craned her neck backward.

Aside from the occasional sharp inhale from Alison when teeth scraped against the skin on her neck or shoulder, Alison sat silently in her girlfriend's arms. Emily apologized for every unkind word and thanked the blonde for her understanding with the undivided and intimate attention to the blonde's shoulders, neck and face. When she finally stopped and rested her forehead against Alison's, the blonde asked, "Do you feel better?"

"Do you?" Emily asked more seriously.

"I do now."

"Em, we need to talk!" a peeved Hanna demanded standing only a few feet away from the couple.

The brunette grumbled and replied, "Han, now isn't—"

"No!" Alison wriggled off of Emily's lap, hopped to her feet and stared down Emily's determined friend, "You and I need to talk."

"Bitch got claws," Hanna smirked.

"Hanna, stop," Emily chided. "Don't—"

"I've got this," Alison interrupted crossing her arms. After clearing her throat, she said wearing the tiny sarcastic smile that used to grace her face everyday in high school, "Look. I don't mind if you're snarky with me. I need that in my life." Her left hand jutted out from her overlapped arms as she pointed and demanded. "But you need to back the fuck off. You were the one who called me over to Emily's house the night that she broke down. You were the one who warned me about her triggers. You don't get to parade her past in front of me and expect me to run. None of that shit scares me and you sure as hell don't scare me."

Hanna advanced with an accusatory finger flung forward, "You're the reason she's lying to Duncan! Do you know how much that kills her?! You don't know her like I do. Just because her confidence and sarcasm isn't an act doesn't change the fact that she's one of the most caring people I've ever met. She's kind and sweet and fucking breakable." The blonde actually had to choke back a hint of tears. Just like Emily, she often covered her vulnerabilities with anger and bitchiness.

Sensing the emotional tension, Alison lowered her voice, "I'm trying to understand her and we're going to deal with all of this."

Hanna crossed her arms and shrugged, "Would you even believe me if I said that I'm trying to protect you too. Em isn't strong like you, Alison. She falls right back into the bottle if she freaks out enough and I'm not there to stop her." Emily cringed but didn't interrupt. "You're an alcoholic and sobriety isn't a joke. You shouldn't have to deal with Emily's…"

"I believe you," Alison admitted. "But you should have just told me instead of making me think that Emily is going to fuck anyone she thinks is shiny."

Hanna shook her head and replied confidently, "No way. She wouldn't do that to you. She never would."

After a long pause, Emily spoke up thinking the aggression had subsided, "Are you two friends now?"

Smirking, Hanna said, "I like someone who is brave enough to scream in my face."

Alison cocked an eyebrow and pointed out, "I see that happening a lot in our future."

"Fine," Hanna swung out an open hand, "Truce?"

Shaking the extended hand, the other blonde said, "A shaky one."

Satisfied, Hanna backed away and informed, "Oh, but I will be bringing up more of Emily's adventures. They're too good not to share. Someone should seriously write a book: 'The Exploits of a Brunette Alcoholic'."

"I should be really insulted by that," Emily stood up chuckling.

"I'm up for more stories," Alison smiled as Emily's fingers intertwined with hers.

"Great," the brunette complained kicking at the grass, "Sounds super fun for me."

Before turning around to return to the table, Hanna mentioned as the two women lingered by the bench, "Em. I know you're still hungry. You practically threw up everything you ate earlier."

"Go away," Emily urged wanting to say one more thing to her girlfriend. "I won't talk to Duncan again until he gets back to Rosewood. It's a messed up thing for me to do. I need to tell him."

Smiling, Alison draped her arms over Emily's shoulders and replied, "We'll tell him together."

"Okay," Emily said in that sweet tone she rarely used.

"Em?"

"Ali?"

"Nothing that you said changes anything. There's no drama. We're still normal."

Grateful, Emily pecked her girlfriend on the lips before glancing over Alison's shoulder. "I think I owe you." She pulled Alison's arms from around her neck, grabbed the blonde by the waist and shifted Alison to stand between her and the table of women enjoying their food.

"Why are you hiding?" Alison chuckled acknowledging her shield status.

With a devious smile, Emily grabbed her girlfriend's hands and slid them under her own shirt. Alison playfully flicked the barbell on Emily's navel as Emily slowly guided the pale hands up her tan body, she explained, "You asked before why I'm a tiny bit more sensitive than you expected."

Both giddy and extremely aroused, Alison warned, "If you're teasing me, I swear to god you'll be waiting much longer that you want to get in my pants."

When their fingers grazed the edge of Emily's bra, the brunette shook her head and assured her skeptical girlfriend, "Oh, I've wanted to see this reaction since you dragged me into that alley." Before Alison peaked her fingertips beneath the underwire, Emily whispered, "If you misuse your newfound power, I'll make you regret it."

A farfetched yet exciting idea flashed through Alison's mind, but she didn't bother to entertain it and instead raised an eyebrow still thinking Emily was just messing with her. When Emily took a dramatically deep breath and dropped her hands, Alison slowly crept underneath the fabric. Emily trembled as fingers neared her nipples and the blonde gasped in shock as each thumb brushed against two tiny metal balls protruding from either side of Emily's nipples. "Oh my god, Emily!" Alison's gaze snapped upward with blue eyes glazed with surprise and lust. "Are these real?"

The rest of Alison's fingers enclosed around the now hard nubs and the brunette winced and shuddered, "I can't believe Hanna managed not to tell you," she gasped and bit her lip as her girlfriend stared at her roaming hands under Emily's shirt. "I lost a bet and it was either this or my tongue."

Thrilled with Emily's decision, Alison said, "Oh, I like this much better." Her thumbs and index fingers scraped across the balls on the ends of the barbells.

"Fucking hell," the brunette moaned. As Alison's touch softened, Emily joked, "You should be glad I'm not wearing dangling pot leaves anymore. Maya was a fan. I prefer something simple and not drug related."

Barely listening to Emily, Alison's mind ran rampant with a slew of ways to coerce Emily into fulfilling any fantasy she could concoct. "How much trouble will I be in if I abuse my power?"

Emily nudged her girlfriend's head upward, "Two weeks of absolutely nothing."

Alison pinched making Emily's other hand dig into Alison's waist, "It might be worth it."

Bring on the reactions!

One of my reactions while writing... good god Emily has issues, but I still love her.