This one is for reader Willofthewisp, who wanted to see Emma teach Hook how to drive...
"There's an opening over there - drive over there!" Hook pointed off toward the shoulder of the road. "Over there!"
"I can't! That's the shoulder." Emma said, trying to keep a lid on her temper.
They were visiting, taking a vacation across the country, and right now, they were stuck in traffic. She was starting to miss their daughter and the Enchanted Forest already, but when the bean harvest came to fruition, open travel became a reality and she couldn't resist bringing Hook back for a tour, especially when Meriel's grandparents were more than happy to spoil the hell out of her.
Today she and Hook were somewhere along the beltway outside of Washington, D.C., and they'd been sitting in their rented SUV dealing with traffic for over an hour. Hook was good and done with it, not really understanding the point of a driving vacation when you weren't, in fact, driving.
"We should have chartered a ship," He said. "Isn't this place along the water?
"It's on the Potomac River, but you can't just hire a boat and sail off into the sunset around here. It doesn't work that way. Besides, we head down to DisneyWorld after this, and then across to the other side of the country. A ship wouldn't take us far in the middle of Albuquerque."
"Well, this is bloody useless. There's a break right there." He grabbed the wheel with his Hook, attempting to turn it and maneuver the car around a large tractor-trailer. Emma smacked his arm.
"What are you doing! You're going to get us arrested! Or killed!"
"You need to learn how to properly captain a vessel like this, love. Perhaps you're out of practice."
"Are you criticizing my driving?" She said, incredulously. "Really?"
He crossed his arms, slamming back into his seat. He gave her a baleful glance and said nothing.
"Fine." She said, her eyes scanning the road ahead. There was an exit less than a quarter of a mile ahead, and within a few minutes they had nudged up enough that she could go off the ramp.
"Finally!" He exclaimed. "We're moving faster than we could walk. And we could have been doing it sooner if I'd have had the wheel."
Emma's jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed. She drove on through the smaller Maryland suburb, her eyes scanning the rows of businesses and office buildings until she found what she was looking for.
It was perfect. A local high school, with a very large parking lot. With it being close to ten o'clock at night, there wasn't a soul in sight. She turned at the next light, pulling into the lot and putting the car in park.
"All right! Time to put your money where your mouth is." She opened the door and stepped out of the car, gesturing grandly. "Come on. Show me how it's done."
"Gladly," He said, arching his brow. He got out, slamming his door behind him as Emma walked around to the passenger side. Just as she was about to climb in, her eyes beheld a wonderful sight. Oh, this was going to be good. The school had a driving course - probably for it's Driver's Ed classes - she could see it painted into the far end of the parking lot, complete with directional lines, curves to maneuver, and mock parking spaces. Yes!
"You're getting off easy since this is a rental and an automatic," Emma said. "You'd never be able to handle a stick."
"I can confirm that you are indeed an expert at handling a 'stick', love." He said with a sly wink and an unrepentant grin. "But a wheel is a wheel and I can captain whatever you want to put me in."
"Should we make it a bet?"
"What's the wager?" He asked with interest.
"I'm betting you can't properly navigate the entire driving course - and parallel park at the end - without straying out of the lines or knocking over a single orange traffic cone." She crossed her arms, giving him a smug look.
He stroked his beard thoughtfully. "And if I do? What do I win?"
"Name your price."
He gave her a look of devious intent. "Oooh. I'll have to think on that one, love. I assure you, it will be quite...satisfactory."
She gave him an eyeroll. "You haven't asked what I get when you lose. And you will."
"I'm all yours, love. Do what you will with me." He swept her a mocking bow.
"You can't say another word - not one - about my driving for the rest of the trip. Deal?"
He lowered his brows, glowering at her. "We have an accord," He said, begrudgingly. "Now in the interest of fair play, you have to give me a short period to master this machine, and a minor amount of instruction."
"Uh-huh," She said with a sugary smile. They climbed in the car, and she spent five minutes going over the ignition, gas and brake pedals, gears, lights, speedometer, and the basics of parallel parking. Then he spent another five driving it in slow, then accelerating circles and figure eights around the parking lot, practicing parking and pulling out, with Emma smirking and tsk-ing every time he jerked the wheel too sharply or hit the brakes too hard. It was annoying the hell out of him, too.
He screeched to a stop just at the edge of the training course, as instructed. Emma looked over at him with an evil smile. "You're going down, Hook." She rubbed her hands together. "Oh yeah. You are going down."
His eyes brightened and the way he looked at her made her breath stop for a moment. "Are you saying what I think you're saying, love?"
It took her a second to find a word. "No. No! I meant you're going to lose. The bet. You're going to lose the bet." She climbed out of the car, then walked around to his side and leaned in the window. "One time around the course, no going out of the lines, and then parallel park into that space over there," She pointed, "Without knocking any cones over."
He looked up at her through the window appraisingly. "I'm going to win the bet. And when I do, love, I'm going to make you beg." He hit the gas, and he was off, leaving Emma staring after him, wide-eyed.
Oh, shit. He meant that.
And to make it worse, he was owning that course. His tires were not a single inch out of line and he was taking the curves at demon speed. He flew around the track in no time at all and then she watched with her mouth hanging slack as he executed a perfect reverse-entry and parallel parked with extreme precision between all four cones on his first try.
Dammit.
She walked around the back of the car, carefully nudging a traffic cone with her foot as she passed by. She leaned down into his window. "Are you ready to get out and let me drive now?"
"Not bloody likely. I think I've proven I can drive, and probably better than you."
"I'm afraid not," Emma said with mock sympathy. "You knocked one of the orange cones."
"The hell I did!" He threw the door open, and Emma had to jump back as he stormed out of the car and examined the cone, which was definitely resting over the line. He pointed down at it in outrage.
"You cheated!"
Emma shifted her weight from one leg to the other. "Oh, please."
"You did! Those cones weren't touched. You moved it!"
She raised her eyebrows. "Seriously?"
He started advancing on her slowly, backing her up into the car. "You're not denying it."
"We need to get back on the road," She said, trying to inch away from him sideways. He slammed his hand down on the car, stopping her.
"I won," He said menacingly. "And you cheated."
"I don't remember seeing you use your turn signal when you switched lanes before that last turn..." She mumbled.
"There are consequences for trying to cheat a pirate, love." He leaned in, pressing his body into her as he lowered his mouth to hover just above hers. "And I will have my vengeance." She made an abortive move to get away but he was entirely too fast, claiming her mouth as he pinned her to the car. His hand slid down, cupping her breast and pushing it up as he ground his hips against her.
"Are you...crazy..." She panted. "We can't do this here."
"Oh, we most definitely can, love. The seat folds down." He kissed her again, then moved his lips to her neck, making her fingers dig into his upper arms at the sensation. "I've managed in tighter spots, " He murmured, pushing and pulling her around to the back of the car. He popped the back hatch, yanked out their two suitcases, and had the seat down an instant before dragging her inside and slamming the door shut.
"There now," He said, pushing her onto her back. "It's time to pay for your villainous ways."
For a man with one hand, he could remove clothing faster than anyone she'd ever seen in her life. In no time at all he had them both naked and he was lowering himself on top of her. She arched up into him and he gave a low chuckle.
"You're making it too easy, Swan."
"Will you - " She squirmed, pushing against him. "I've got something sticking in my back," She complained. "I think it's a book or something."
He reached under her, pulling the book out and tossing it over her head. "No one ever said vengeance was painless, love."
He pushed into her, chuckling again in a really smug way when her body really did make it all too easy for him. Within minutes he had her moaning so loudly she was afraid the passing traffic would hear her. His hips kept a relentless rhythm, pushing her to the brink and then backing off as he tormented her with his hand and his mouth. She was about to rip his hair out by the roots with her fingers when he paused yet again.
"Now then, love..." He circled his hips slowly. "Who's the better driver, hmmm?"
"Wh-what?" She looked at him a little wildly, her hair in complete disarray around her.
"Who's...the better...driver...?" He asked again, punctuating his words with deep, torturous movement.
"Oh, God. Please...Killian..."
He grinned down at her, but didn't stop his movements. "I told you I'd have you begging." He reached down, lifting one of her legs into the bend of his arm as he pushed her harder, quickening his pace.
"Tell me," He gritted out. "I can do this all night, love, you know I can."
Dammit, she did. "You are. You're the better driver." She gasped out, as she detonated around him, yanking his head back as a loud moan ripped from her throat. He followed her with a deep, guttural sound as he slammed into her, pinning her down and grinding himself out on her. It took several minutes before either one of them could form words.
"Ow!" Emma said. "You're on my hair."
"No, I think that's the handle for the seat, love." He carefully disentangled her hair, smoothing it back off her face. He dropped a light kiss on her lips. "It's about time we christened this vessel properly."
Emma laid there, slack-limbed, trying her best to get her breath back.
"You are never going to let me forget this, are you?"
"Not bloody likely, love."