The Way

Chapter Twenty-Three

A/N: NSFW! Just a heads up, I generally am not good at writing these sorts of moments. Also, this chapter is short because it was supposed to be part of the previous chapter. Enjoy!

Regina Mills thought her heart would burst at the sensation of Emma Swan pressing her to the queen-size bed and settling atop her, the tip of her long ponytail spilling onto the mattress as she lowered her head and kissed her. Regina felt her eyes close against her will. Not even her dreams had dared to venture to this sort of an outcome to her relationship with Emma...affection, attraction, and lust, perhaps, but never something as intimate as this. She sighed as the blonde's slim fingers worked at the buttons of her blouse, slipping them through their respective holes one by one until the front of the blouse fell open to reveal the dark camisole below. Regina opened her eyes and sat up just long enough to shrug the blouse from her shoulders and then Emma's lips were teasing the skin in the hollow of her collarbone while her left palm pushed Regina—not especially gently—back into the mattress.

Regina's own hands dipped beneath the fabric of Emma's tee shirt to dig her nails absently into the flesh on either side of her spine which earned her a soft, pleasured grunt and a well-timed nip of the younger woman's teeth on her neck. Gasping at the surprise of the bite, Regina forced herself upright and then made short work of Emma's tee. Emma reciprocated, though with a bit more fervor. Both their tops now lay in a crumpled heap on the floor, but when Emma's hand befell the front clasp of Regina's brassiere, she paused and let their eyes connect.

The moment lasted just a touch too long and Regina's stomach twisted in apprehension. Had Emma changed her mind? Had she done something wrong?

Regina's voice was small and fearful as she whispered Emma's name.

Seeming startled, the Sheriff's eyes widened, but when she finally spoke her tone seemed not apprehensive, only uncertain.

"Are you sure this is what you want Regina?"

Relief flooded through the brunette's tense body and she nearly laughed aloud at the rhetoric of the question.

"Emma..." she breathed, smiling and pulling Emma into another kiss, "And here I was believing the idiot gene had skipped your generation."

Smiling against her lips, Emma enveloped Regina in an embrace and returned the kiss with a passion the brown haired woman was unsure she'd ever experienced from any lover before. Then again, Emma wasn't just any lover. She was the woman with whom she shared a deep history, with whom she shared a son, and with whom she shared a once-broken heart.

Regina felt cold air against her chest as Emma's fingers released the clasp of her laced black bra, felt a rush of heat fill her cheeks and a sudden urge to either conceal herself, flee the scene, or a combination of the two. Instead of giving in to her anxious, fearful desire to remove herself from such a vulnerable position, Regina reached her own hands behind Emma's back and unclasped the blonde's bra as well. Her eyes raked over the perfect form of Emma's breasts, the way they rose and fell in time to her quickened breaths, the few beads of sweat that snaked down between them in the ever-rising heat. Carefully, as though she thought the woman made of glass, Regina trailed her fingers down that line of symmetry until she reached her naval and then looked up to gaze into blue eyes that were now almost entirely blackened by dilated pupils. With a start, she realized those eyes were not fixed on hers, but on a point in the vicinity of her collar. She flinched away when Emma's hands reached for that very point.

"What is that?" Emma asked softly at seeing Regina's reaction, her hand falling back to her side for the moment. "What happened to you?"

Abruptly self conscious, Regina covered the scar at the base of her neck with her palm.

"A betrayal," she said sharply, her eyes downcast and her mood soured. She started to pull the blankets up around her and leave the bed, but Emma's hand on her shoulder stopped her. In her touch Regina felt the questions the woman wouldn't speak. She sighed, and then elaborated. "One of my first...experiences...with another man following my husband's death...he told me that he loved me, convinced me, even, and then when it mattered most...when I bore everything to him, he tried to do away with me. He caught me by the neck, but when that failed, he drew my own blade from beneath the mattress and tried to finish the job that way."

Regina watched as unfamiliar emotions flickered behind Emma's now shadowy eyes, unable to determine what she was thinking following the queen's disclosure, but knowing that the shame she felt came across loud and clear. Another moment passed and then Emma was moving toward her again on the mattress, using her fingers to turn Regina's face toward her, while her other hand slowly moved back toward the scar. Regina's eyes flickered down to her hand, the motion instinctive, but when Emma kissed her again she lost herself. A warm palm fell over the ancient wound and the strange glow of mingling white and purple enveloped them again, just as it had earlier in the night.

This time, instead of causing pain in her chest, Regina's heart felt soft and warm. She sighed in spite of herself, shivering as the blonde's fingertips stroked the scar from one end to the other and back again.

"I swear to you, Regina Mills," Emma Swan breathed as their foreheads lay against one another, "that your days of being treated as anything less than a queen are over. These hands will touch you with warmth or they will not touch you at all."

Regina gave a single, wretched sob and then twisted Emma so that she was laying back on the mattress again with the brunette atop her. The once-queen kissed her, deeply, delighted by the eagerness she felt in her Sheriff's return of the gesture. Slim fingers and their manicured nails made quick work of the blonde's jeans, unzipping them and hurriedly tugging them and tossing them to the floor. She didn't even hesitate when it came next to removing the decorative underwear, and Emma removed her socks on her own. Feeling the heat rising in her abdomen, Regina pressed her lips against the milky white skin of the Savior's naval, suckling and nipping gently as her fingers tracked along the inside of stong thighs and then, at long last, traced the outermost edges of Emma's center.

The gasp of surprise and longing was not lost to the brunette, and she felt her breath quicken at the sight of Emma Swan's head pushing back into the pillow, the end of her ponytail splayed out around her. Regina smiled and chuckled lowly, seductively, when the blonde's head lifted just enough to briefly connect their eyes. The older woman's fingertips moved inward, teasingly, and she supressed a shiver at the warm wetness already present there.

"My, my, Miss Swan," she cooed softly, grinning, "it would seem you're more interested in this happening than I had previously thought."

"As if I could be interested in anything else when you're around!" Emma snapped back in frustration, and though she seemed rather shocked at her own admission judging by her widened eyes, Regina only smiled and moved up to brush their lips together again. Then, at the same time, she pressed two fingers into the blazing heat of Emma's core, bringing about a soft moan as the woman arched her back in pleasure. The fallen queen reveled in the sensation of Emma's body around her, wanting nothing more than to take her, but she forced herself to be patient, removing herself and then moving inside again, repeating, while her thumb worked magic of its own just above. Soon she had Emma Swan writhing on the mattress, hermattress, her fingers pulling and twisting the fabric of the sheets into knots; soon she had Emma Swan whimpering, practically begging for the satisfaction of her release; soon she felt the younger woman beneath her stiffen and then, finally, she heard her gasp and cry out softly into the night.

Regina held her hand in place for another few moments as the quivering around her fingers calmed and then crawled upward a bit to wrap her arms around the woman who held half her heart. Emma mashed their mouths together and quickly took charge of the situation, flipping Regina onto her back and straddling her until she was able to unclasp the blasted dress pants and remove them.

"You're overdressed," she smirked as she stripped Regina of her lace panties and the thin dress socks. The older woman shuddered as Emma's right hand slipped lower. Warm lips took to Regina's breast while lithe fingers moved through the folds of her center, the feeling like nothing she had ever experienced before and, as Emma sank her fingers inside, Regina Mills bent like a bow to her will.