AN: Sorry for the absence of chapter 22, circumstances prevented it from being written and posted on schedule.
"This was nice," Alex murmured, leaning her head against Emily's shoulder as they walked arm in arm away from the theatre where they'd just finished watching The Nutcracker.
"The ballet?" Emily asked. She nuzzled the top of Alex's head, dropped a kiss there.
Alex rolled her eyes, though she did so fondly. "No, silly. Having a date night. A real date night."
"Well, it's still early..." Emily pointed out, "And I'm not ready to go home yet. What do you suggest we do?"
Alex pulled back just enough to look Emily in the eye, a mischievous glint in her gaze.
"What?" Emily asked, smirk matching Alex's own, but wanting her to say the actual words.
Cheeks pinking slightly, Alex leaned in to whisper in her ear, "I'm not wearing any panties..." She pulled back, fixing her with a raised brow, waiting to see if she'd take the bait.
Brows darting up her forehead, Emily drawled, "Is that so?"
She nodded, cocked her head slightly, waiting for Emily to act on the promise of mischief hanging heavy in the air between them.
Without warning, Emily pulled Alex flush against her body and into a searing kiss. Her hands wandered down to cup her ass, as if to check whether she was telling the truth. Alex let out a little squeak of surprise, causing Emily to chuckle against her lips. Pulling back, she husked, "And what is it you were hoping might happen tonight, that you decided to forgo underwear?"
"You know, I didn't think I'd have to work this hard to convince you to eat me out in the backseat of your father's car..." Alex said dryly.
Emily laughed harder at that. "God, you're fucking filthy, Alex Miller..." she growled beside her ear, "And I fucking love it." She grabbed her hand and tugged sharply, practically dragging her towards the parking lot where she proceeded to press Alex up against the door and once again kissed her hungrily.
Slinging her arms around Emily's neck, Alex hooked a leg around her hip, drawing her impossibly close, as if she couldn't get enough of her.
"Are you really this horny?" Emily teased, tangling her fingers in her hair and tugging gently so as to expose her neck so she could trail kisses and gentle nips down the column of her throat.
She whined softly, which Emily took to mean confirmation.
"I gave you three orgasms last night..." Emily pointed out.
"Two," Alex retorted, "The third one was very rudely interrupted by a fussy baby..."
She laughed. "Fair point," she conceded.
"Now, shut up and kiss me or I'll be forced to take matters into my own hands..." Alex ordered.
Leaning in so her lips were ghosting over Alex's, Emily whispered, "Get in the car..." The command was laden with implication and they both knew Alex loved it when she was just a little bossy (though most of the time, Emily was rather whipped), so she was quick to obey, climbing into the backseat and putting on a little show of dragging the hemline of her dress higher and higher up her thigh.
In the next moment, Emily had pounced on her, fingers slipping beneath her dress to slip around in the wetness between her legs. "You're fucking soaked, Alex..." she husked, "You've been waiting all night for me to ravage you, haven't you?"
She shrugged, smirked.
Emily offered her fingers to Alex for her to suck the arousal off them. When she was satisfied, Emily then proceeded to gently push her to lie back across the bench seat, then trailed kisses down her body as she spread her legs to settle between them.
"Hurry," Alex whined, knowing that they had a rather limited window in which to make this happen before someone would inevitably wander by and get suspicious of the fogged up windows...
Understanding perfectly, Emily wasted no time teasing her and set straight to work, trailing her tongue through Alex's soaked cunt.
"How was the ballet?" Damon asked the next morning as he shuffled into the kitchen to turn on the coffee maker.
"It was lovely," Emily said diplomatically between bites of toast as she did her best to read the paper with Noelle strapped to her chest and doing her best to run interference.
Damon raised a brow, a knowing expression on his face...not that Emily could see it. After a few moments of silence, he said, "I'm glad you're back..."
Emily looked up, shot him a curious expression.
He explained, "Alex wasn't the same without you. You could tell that she didn't feel whole without you by her side..."
"Really?" She wasn't sure why she was so surprised by the news, having heard as much from Alex herself, but she was surprised that it was that apparent to others as well...
He seemed surprised by her surprise. "Alex has always been extremely independent – don't get me wrong – even when she was a baby. But when she was with you, I saw sides of her I've never seen. I saw her let her guard down and be more genuine, more authentic. She wasn't trying to be what she thought people needed her to be, she was just being herself."
A beat.
"And," he continued, "From what I've seen, I think the same is true of you... I think the two of you are made for each other in a way I don't often see. I knew it was only a matter of time before you made your way back to each other."
Emily felt her cheeks pink slightly with embarrassment. "Oh, well... Thanks," she mumbled, not entirely certain what to say in the face of such raw honesty from her father-in-law.
He nodded. Another moment of silence followed. Then, he patted her shoulder and, in a quiet voice added, "Just don't tell your father what you did in his car last night."
"What!?" Emily squeaked in surprise. "How... How did you..."
He just winked, mimed zipping his lips, then turned and wandered back to the coffee machine without further explanation.