Miles To Go

Chapter Seventeen

Regina succumbed to the kiss Emma delivered to her before she would reluctantly make herself climb in to her car and drive home. Emma Swan had her fully captivated and she wasn't about to let their night end so soon.

"Are you sure you're okay to drive?"

"Yes."

Regina's voice was unsure. After the two small glasses of generic, cheap wine over dinner and the two beers she'd been talked into drinking afterwards, she was feeling a slight buzz yet knew she was still coherent and just sober enough to make the drive home safely. Somewhat.

"Stay," Emma breathed as they stood outside the front door of the cottage. "Please?"

"With him and her here as well?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does."

"Why?"

"Because you know what happens when we sleep in the same bed, Emma," Regina said gently and she caught the slight curl of Emma's lips as she fought to keep the smirk from slipping out. "Perhaps another time, once your son has gotten used to the idea of us."

"Okay. Will you call me or text me when you get in? Just so I know you didn't like, crash your car into a tree or something?"

"Of course I will."

Regina smiled and leaned in for one last kiss. They had spent over an hour kissing on the couch once Henry was in bed and Ruby had retreated upstairs to give the two of them some privacy and to make sure that if Henry happened to wake up, that he stayed upstairs until Regina was gone. Far too many times they had to still their wandering hands, but it was almost impossible not to want to touch one another.

Cupping Emma's face in her hands, she placed a few small chaste kisses on her lips before stepping back from Emma and dropping her hands to her sides. She still wore her borrowed shirt and despite that her own had likely been dry for hours, she hadn't bothered to change and she liked the feel of the soft cotton shirt against her skin and then there was the fact that it smelled like Emma a little too.

"Good night, Regina."

"Good night," she smiled and Emma flashed her a charming smile in return. She had to will herself to turn and walk down the steps and over to her car and it was hard because all she wanted to do was stay there with Emma.

For most of the drive back into town, Regina had the same smile dancing over her lips, it widening every time she just pictured Emma looking at her exactly the way she used to look at her before. It should've scared her that they'd so easily fallen back together, acting as if no time had passed between them, especially not eleven years, but it didn't matter to her whether it was a day or eleven years that had passed by. She still and always would be in love with Emma Swan and this time she knew there was no way she was ever letting her go. They would make things work when Emma returned to New York City, she was sure of that. It wouldn't be forever either, she was sure of that too.

As she pulled into her driveway, she sat in her car for a few minutes, carefully re-applying her lipstick in case her mother was still awake. It was completely ridiculous to hide the love of her life away and their re-emerging relationship from her mother, but she was absolutely terrified of Cora Mills, knowing exactly what she was capable of doing. Those details, the real ones, she had kept from Emma, nearly slipping up a few times when they had talked about her coming out to her mother.

Emma didn't need to know that her mother had orchestrated the murder of her father's lover just a few years before his death and to this day she hadn't been caught. It was a secret—one of many—that burdened her, but just like everything else when it came to her mother, she pushed it down deep inside and tried to keep her focus on her life, her career, and now love since Emma Swan had come back into her life, completely unexpected and out of nowhere.