Pairing: Emma and August

Rating: strong M for much sexytimes and language

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Once Upon a Time

A/N: The chapter with the smut.

Emma swung the door open to find August waiting alone. She sighed in relief.

"Where'd the hens go?"

August snorted and pushed back from the wall to offer her his elbow, which she quickly tucked her arm through, mostly for fear of tripping on the slightly uneven stone floor she wasn't quite used to just yet. "I sent them away. Figured you wouldn't want them clucking at you."

"What would I do without you?" She smiled up at him out of the corner of her eye and they began to wander slowly through the maze of corridors. After getting lost a few times and laughing with every wrong turn as they tried to find their way back, they finally arrived at the main staircase.

Emma hesitated at the top step. She knew it wasn't a huge deal in the long run, and even realized that everyone else would be looking as silly and dolled up as she did, but her stomach still lurched when she saw the small crowd forming at the base of the stairs turn their attention to her. She looked up at August whose warm smile calmed her immediately and clutched him as they made their way down the steps, greeting familiar faces as they approached.

"Princess Emma Swan and Mister August W. Booth!" The footman announced unexpectedly, causing Emma to nearly fall off the bottom step. August chuckled as he caught her, his hand sliding across her back and over the seam of her bodice. Emma nearly moaned aloud at the memory of his hands working to get her free not long before. This was going to be a difficult few hours, but she knew it would be worth it in the end.

After righting herself, they made their way through the crowd and found her parents by the castle entrance.

"Wait, where's Henry?" Emma realized that amidst the drama, she hadn't seen her son all day.

"I know I just saw him around here somewhere…" The pair searched the crowd in vain and nearly gave up right just as Emma spotted him on the other side of the foyer. The boy caught his mother's eye immediately and ran to her, catching her in a tight hug.

"Mom! You look amazing!"

"Thanks, kid, so do you."

He was dressed, quite superfluously, in a shiny suit similar to her father and August, but in an adorable miniature version. Emma found herself unable to stop smiling at the sight of him, and was suddenly glad she'd decided to attend the ball, if only for this reason.

"I missed you today."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I missed you, too." Emma knelt and put her hands on his shoulders. "How about tomorrow we spend the whole day together? Just the two of us."

"Sounds good, mom." He hugged her again and then bid her goodbye. Emma watched as he disappeared through the crowd to find the other kids and secretly wished she could just spend the rest of the party hanging out with them.

Emma nearly tripped and fell again as the footman bellowed an announced that the feast was about to begin. They filed into the great hall with the rest of the guests and took their places at the head table next to her parents.

The feast was long and boring. Between shoveling food into her mouth and listening to speeches, Emma tried to occupy herself by seeing how far she could slide her hand up August's thigh before he tried to discreetly stop her.

At one point he leaned over to whisper: "I hope you realize how hard you're making it for me to remain fully clothed right now."

"I do," she replied with a wicked grin as her hand moved dangerously close to his crotch.

"Jesus, Emma…"

She removed her hand and tried to stifle a laugh as August shifted uncomfortably and took a deep breath.

After guests were dismissed to the grand ballroom and the band began to play something old and foreign, Emma stood with her arms crossed at the back of the room, watching fondly as her parents glided effortlessly across the floor.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were actually enjoying this." August snuck up beside her, sneaking an arm around her waist.

She tried to hold back a smirk and leaned up to speak softly into his ear. "If we slip out now, I'm sure no one will notice."

"How about just one dance before we go?" He pulled her body flush with his and started swaying with the biggest shit-eating grin plastered across his face that she'd ever seen. Feigning disgust, she allowed him to lead her ostentatiously across the floor and bump (seemingly on purpose) into the other couples who actually knew what they were doing. By the time they reached the doorway on the opposite side, Emma had to suppress her giggles and snorts, trying not to draw more attention than August's exaggerated dance moves already had.

Pulling him by the neck, she led him out into the corridor and kissed him firmly.

"Will you please come upstairs and ravage the hell out of me, now?"

"Hmmm…" August pretended to think for a long moment. "I think I can manage that."

They practically raced each other back to their bedchamber, only getting lost once or twice and laughed the entire way. August pressed Emma against the heavy oak door to smother her with kisses while he fumbled with the door latch. When they made it inside, their awkward dance continued, kicking off their shoes as they went.

"Now, where was I?" August backed her against the bed and forced her into a sitting position, then knelt in front of her. He ran his hands down the smooth silk of her dress, then slipped them underneath the hems of her petticoats and flipped them over his head. Emma could feel his mouth pressing kisses up the insides of her stocking-covered legs while his hands roamed up over her thighs, lightly brushing the bare skin above the line where her stockings ended, setting her nerves on fire.

The heat in her belly intensified when his mouth finally joined his hands and he placed kisses over the fabric of the modern underwear she'd commissioned a seamstress to make.

"August…" she moaned, wishing she could see his face and weave her fingers through his hair. "I thought you said you were going to cut this dress off and fuck me?"

"That was right after you'd gotten me all worked up." The vibrations of his voice against her core sent a ripple of pleasure through her spine and she cursed. "Now I'm afraid you'll just have to wait until I'm ready. But that doesn't mean I can't do other things for you until then."

She gasped as she felt the underwear ripped and extracted from her body. "Hey, jerk, I paid a lot of money—"

The condemnation remained unfinished as his mouth returned unshielded to her flesh before using his fingers to spread her open and she lay back, hands immediately twisting in the quilt. He ran his tongue up through her folds, flicking her sensitive bud when he reached the crest, sending Emma into a fit of whimpers and moans. No other partner had been able to drive her this wild with the slightest touch, and that thought alone sometimes made her wet long before any foreplay had even begun.

Before continuing, he positioned her legs up on his shoulders and brought his hands around the top of her thighs. His mouth returned to lavish her aching center, teasing her opening with his tongue before working his way back up to her swollen clit. She was so far gone that as his mouth clamped down, she came immediately, clenching her thighs around his head and lifting her hips up into his face. He lapped up the juices that flowed freely from her and hummed against the oversensitive flesh until her legs relaxed.

Sitting up, she leaned down and pulled the layers of fabric up and cupped his face, sweeping her lips over his before kissing him fully, not caring that she could taste herself on his mouth.

His hands snaked up around her back and began to untie the bodice strings once again, and Emma moaned into his mouth as they loosened, needing relief from the confinement. August's hands were precise and nimble, and he took his time to pull her free, driving her wild with anticipation.

When Emma felt that the bodice was loose enough, she slid the sleeves down and lifted her hips to allow August to pull the dress off. He discarded it and looked back at her bewilderedly. "How many damn layers did they put you in?"

"I don't even know!" Emma laughed and took notice of the way his eyes focused on her lacy corset. "Why don't you start taking them off of me and we can count?"

She scooted back on the bed and laid along its length, while August crawled over her and began to work on the rest of her clothes, unbuttoning and removing the gold petticoat along with the pain cotton one underneath. Her thigh-high stockings came next and all that remained was the corset that August couldn't take his eyes off of.

"I think it's time you lost some clothes now." She smiled eagerly and reached up to unbutton his tailcoat, which he quickly shrugged to the floor, then pulled the undershirt over his head. His eyes never left the corset as he took over his disrobing. Emma held back the grin forming at the fact that he was obviously dumbfounded and incredibly turned on by it. And if she couldn't tell just by the speed at which his clothes hit the floor, now he'd slid up against her, his hardened length pressing against her hip through the thin cotton drawers that remained.

Attacking her neck and the crest of her breasts with his mouth, August's hands raked up and down the corset possessively. Emma brought her legs up around his waist in hopes that he would get the hint to hurry along their lovemaking, but his focus remained on that damn article of clothing. She panted and moaned against the crown of his head and felt the heat between her legs grow, suddenly requiring the skin contact her corset maliciously prevented.

Finally feeling the need to take matters into her own hands, she rolled him off of her and sat up straddling his hips in one fluid motion. "So you like the corset, huh?"

August nodded wide-eyed and breathless. Emma grabbed his hands as they reached up to touch it again and pinned them back on the bed, leaning over him.

"But I bet you'd like it a lot more if it wasn't on me." She leaned down to kiss him, nipping his bottom lip as she pushed back up and began to unlatch the front hooks. August leaned back on his elbows and watched intently as each clasp came undone, revealing another fraction of creamy skin.

After the corset was flung to the ground, Emma allowed him to roam his hands over her ribs and breasts, fingers tracing the angry red lines left imprinted in her skin by the boning.

She grew anxious again by his unhurried movements and scooted down to yank his drawers impatiently off. Taking him in her hand, she stroked him slowly until he groaned and pressed his head back against the bed. She leaned down to take him into her mouth, teasing his head with a light swirl of her tongue. He wasn't the only one capable of driving his partner wild.

"Fuck, Emma…"

Sitting up, she continued to slowly pump him as she spoke. "Think you're ready yet?"

August nodded as she poised herself over him and sank down with a sigh, allowing him to fill her completely. She worked up a slow but steady rhythm until he regained his bearings from the corset incident, and grabbed her by the hips to flip her on her back.

She cried out as he thrust hard into her, finally receiving what she'd craved all day. The nail marks she made in his back were deep enough to draw blood, but he never seemed to mind when they got rough, often inflicting his own sex injuries in response. Right now he was biting her shoulder, then licking and kissing the teeth marks he left as the speed of his hips increased.

Emma sensed herself coming undone for the second time, feeling her slick muscles begin to clench around August and pull him over the edge with her. She gasped loudly, arching her back towards him as her orgasm ripped through her body, bucking her hips into his as she rode out the aftershocks and dug her nails deeper into his flesh.

August groaned after his final solid thrusts and collapsed on top of her, rolling to the side after a moment and pulled her body back against his.

"Are you glad we waited now?"

"Not really," he spoke softly into her ear, "But I do have to admit that I'm glad I don't have to get dressed now. It'll make round two much easier."

"Very true," Emma agreed with a laugh. "And I guess it's good you didn't actually cut the dress off. I don't think my mother would have been very pleased when I gave it back to her."

"No, she wouldn't," August chuckled and stroked his hand along the length of her bare body. "I do have one request, though, if it's not too much to ask."

"Of course, anything." Emma turned to face him and placed a hand on his cheek. "What is it?"

"Keep the corset."