#2017 snippets

Here’s a snippet from a CSBB work in progress for you to enjoy!

Killian stared for a moment, his jaw slack. “That’s my shirt,” he commented, “and my pants. Care to explain yourself?” The clothes were entirely too big for her, and she was more likely to trip than anything else. “Come here.”

Emma gave him a confused look, but complied without argument. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked.

“You’re fine,” he said, trying not to laugh. “Why don’t I just…” He wasn’t sure how to say it without upsetting her. “The pants are a bit long,” he suggested.

“Should I change?”

“I’ve got it,” he said. He knelt down and ran his hands down her leg. She didn’t say anything, but he could feel her tensing up. Before she could back away, Killian started rolling up the cuff of the pants. “Relax,” he admonished gently when she jerked her leg, almost kneeing him in the face. Bloody hell, he thought exasperatedly, he was only trying to keep her from hurting herself.

“Killian…” she warned as he began to work on the next cuff.

He heard her breath hitch when his fingers brushed against her calf. Her skin felt unbelievably soft under the rough pads of his fingers. For a moment, he allowed his mind to wander in a less than gentlemanly direction. “Something wrong, princess?” he asked, hoping she didn’t hear the catch in his voice.

“We’re going to starve if you don’t-” she stammered when he started tracing nonsense into her skin. “I mean… we… Killian!” When he chuckled, she threatened to kick him. “Food,” she reminded him, “remember?”

Here’s a snippet from a CSBB work in progress for you to enjoy!

“Your boy could have much worse habits.” And it’s true: Henry could be addicted to video games. Or rather, more addicted. She’s just lucky that he enjoys imagining the story rather than watching it play out on a screen. “Killian was rotten when we were growing up.”

That piques her interest. “Really?” she asks in disbelief. “How so?”

“Oh, you know,” Liam leads. “Boys will be boys and such.”

“Nuh uh.” Setting the equipment between her feet to steady the shot, Emma looks up at Liam, pulling the hood of her slicker forward. “You and I both know that I don’t stand for that logic. And you wouldn’t bring up the topic if you didn’t want to share a story.”

Grinning wide, Liam claps her on the shoulder. “Have I told you how much I enjoy your company, Emma?”

She shrugs. “Not today you haven’t,” she concedes. “But get to the point.”

Liam crosses his arms over his chest, leaning his head forward so his hood properly shielded him from the rain. “Killian was probably 12 when this happened. After our mother died and father left us, I had to take on the role of parent and brother. But Killian just lashed out. He wouldn’t come home at night.” He rolls his shoulders back and straightens up a bit. “I still, to this day, don’t know where he ran off to sleep at night. But when I could wrangle him home, he spent the entire night downstairs in the living room.” Liam paused in the middle of his story to glance at Emma out of the corner of his eye. “Watching I Love Lucy reruns.”

“No!” Emma gasps, to which Liam nods, his smile growing wider by the second.

“I would come down every couple of nights to make sure he was still there and there he was.” His words are tinged with laughter now, as Emma’s sure that he’s seeing preteen Killian, wide-eyed and half asleep on their couch, in his mind’s eye. “I asked him about it once and he yelled and stormed off and didn’t come home for three days. His teacher eventually sent him home because he was rank.”

Here’s a snippet from a CSBB work in progress for you to enjoy!

She was about to say something when her phone rang.

“Really?” she groaned. Now was really not the time! She saw that it was her father and sighed.

“I have to get this”, she said apologetically. “If I don’t, my dad will probably come looking for me. He still doesn’t like you.”

Killian shuddered. “Better tell him you’re alright. I’d like to keep all my bits in place.”

“Emma!” David said when she answered the phone. “I thought you weren’t going to pick up! Where are you?”

“I’m with Killian.”

“No details, please”, he quickly interrupted, his voice sounding somewhat tortured. “I think that might already be too much. Look, we have kind of a situation here. How fast can you come to the docks?”

Emma frowned. “The docks? Now?”

“Yes, now. When will you be here?”

“I don’t know, twenty minutes?”

“Make it ten, if you can.”

“I’ll try.”

Emma hung up, getting out of bed.

“What is it?” Killian asked.

“Crisis”, she said while picking up her clothes from the floor.

Killian groaned.

“After eight bloody months! I thought we were done with this!”

He rolled out of bed, too, grabbing his pants.

“I know, but this is Storybrooke!” Emma shouted from the kitchen where she found her blouse.

Here’s a snippet from a CSBB work in progress for you to enjoy!

A man doesn't live as long as Killian Jones has done without knowing danger when he finds it. “David,” he hisses giving the other man's shoulder a shake. “David where do you keep your sword?” David’s only answer is to make a sound like a wood saw and tighten his grip on the rum bottle. “Never mind. I'll improvise.” He hefts the iron poker from the fireplace, and stalks around the table to prod David with the blunt end. “Wake up, mate!” David starts awake, peering at Killian through bleary eyes. “What - what's going on? Why are you still here?” “Had to pay my respects to my host didn't I?” hisses Killian. “But believe me, mate, I'm the least of your worries.” “You're right about that,” David says, wincing. “What the he'll was in that rum?” “Cats piss, mostly likely,” Killian mutters. “Now - listen.” David screws up his face in concentration, then shakes his head sharply, grimacing at the sensation. “I can't hear anything.” “No.” Killian adjusts his grip on the poker. “And isn't that just a touch peculiar?” “I don't know what you -” David doesn't finish his sentence, barely has time to draw breath, before the door falls onwards in a shower of splinters, the unholy racket followed immediately by two large, brutish looking men that makes Killian’s heart sink to somewhere in the region of his toes. “Killian Jones,” the first bellows, the sound reverberating through the small space. “You are under arrest for piracy on the orders of his most regal majesty King Eric!” “Am I now?” Killian says, rocking back on his heels as he calculates the distance between the men and the door. “Good old Eric, he doesn't give up does he.” “You're wanted by the King?” David hisses, aghast. Killian shrugs. “I'm wanted by everyone, mate.” He tests the weight of the poker, and offers the men a small bow. “Well gentlemen, shall we?”

Here’s a snippet from a CSBB work in progress for you to enjoy!

Emma hissed lightly as she stepped into the hot spring.  Taking her time to adjust to the heat of the water, Emma slowly crept further into the pond.  The water only came to her stomach at its deepest point, so she kneeled down in order to fully submerge her upper half.  She moaned when the hot water came up and over her breasts.

From the corner of her eye, Emma saw Hook shift on his stone seat and she realized that she must have been louder than she had thought or intended to be.  Regardless, she couldn’t help vocalizing her pleasure as she shifted herself to the edge of the pond and allowed warmth of the rocks to sooth the tension in the muscles of her shoulders. 

“If you are doing that a purpose, lass, I beg that you stop.  Or I may need to find private place of my own,” Hook called to her, his legs shifting again.

“Why go off alone when you could just as easily join me?”

Emma’s words hung in the air between them.

After a minute, Hook replied, “That would be unwise, love, but I thank you for the invitation.”

Taken slightly aback, Emma rose from the pond and carefully walked across the shore until she was behind Hook.  His breath hitched when she laid a hand on his shoulders.  The muscles were tense, nearly as hard as the stone he sat on.

“Why, Captain, would that be unwise?  We have already spent one night together.  Why deny yourself another day?” She asked, pulling lightly at his shoulder to get him to turn around.

Hook denied her physical request and continued to stare resolutely ahead of him as he spoke.

“Because your offer is not made with pure intentions, lass.”

“You’re right.  I have the most decidedly impure of intentions,” Emma whispered in his ear, before biting lightly at the lobe.

Her actions caused Hook to jump from his seat, muttering a few choice words about the powers of a siren.  He turned to face her, but quickly closed his eyes when he caught sight of her nudity.

“Really?” She asked, incredulous.

“Play fair, love, please.” Hook removed his greatcoat and held it out to her on his hook.

Rolling her eyes as his dramatics, Emma grabbed the coat and quickly donned it.  “Better?” She asked.

Opening only one eye at first, Hook released a sigh of relief when he saw that she was no longer naked.  Though by the ways his eyes slowly assessed her, she wasn’t sure the coat was doing much to calm his obvious desire. 

“Love, I would give up the treasure of Atlantis its self to spend another night of passion with you,” Hook said, holding up his hand when she made to approach him.  “But not now, not today.  You are grieving, Swan, and it would not be in good form for me to take advantage.”

Emma’s face must have darkened a little at his words, for Hook quickly tried to clarify himself.

“Not that I could take advantage of you, for you are a woman who can take care of herself.  But, lass,” Hook paused, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck, “People like us, who have experience with death and the taking of life, that sometimes, in the aftermath, we seek to reaffirm our own living status by engaging in…. lively activities.”

Here’s a snippet from a CSBB work in progress for you to enjoy!

Emma stood at the railing of Gold's ostentatious 5th Avenue balcony watching the spectacle unfolding over Central Park. The dinner had been elegant, although that was to be expected with nearly unlimited funds to spend on caterers, wait staff, and decorators. Regina and Gold had spared no expense on the event - including the Christmas Fireworks show at what Emma could have only assumed was at the expense of her company. With the announcement of Robert Gold's impending presidential run earlier in the evening had come a variety of worst case scenarios for Emma to contend with, all of which had chosen that moment to permeate into her brain. Everything from that point on was going to be filled with false promises and false lives. To the rest of the world she would have to project the image of the ultimate loving and supportive spouse.

The idea was suffocating enough before, but now every time she found herself glancing over in Neal's direction, all she could think about was how dull the color of his eyes was, even in the fraction of a second that they reflected the blue flames exploding in the night sky.

She knew what she had signed up for, she knew that this amounted to nothing more than a business transaction, at least for her, and that part she could handle. Perhaps she could grow to care for him in time. But for now, the eyes were all wrong and it felt like a dagger piercing her through the heart when he caught her watching him and winked in her direction.

And that was the moment he took a misinterpreted cue as the perfect time to pull out the diamond ring that had haunted her dreams. The wrong ring, the wrong eyes, the wrong man. But when he got down on his knee in front of everyone, she was helpless to say no.

Here’s a snippet from a CSBB work in progress for you to enjoy!

She couldn’t help watching Hook at the helm.  He looked magnificent, with his long coat flapping behind him, yelling orders she could barely hear.  More lightning flashed and she could see the grin on his face.  The wind was trying to toss the ship about and he kept the ship on course with an effortless turn of the helm.  He truly was a master of the sea.

She had no idea how much time had passed when land appeared off the starboard bow.  Soon, they were close enough that it sheltered them from the wind and the rain no longer stung her face.  Hook ordered the anchor dropped when they reached a small cove.  This was where they would weather the rest of the storm, protected.

Emma sagged against the rail, physically exhausted, but exhilarated.  She stretched out her hands, working out the stiffness caused by the grasp she had on the rigging.

“You alright lass?” Hook approached, a slightly manic grin still on his face.

“That was….” She was at a loss on how to describe the feelings surging through her at that moment.

Hook laughed, pulling on her lifeline to bring her closer, deftly untying the knot that held it around her waist.

“I can help you get out of those wet clothes too, if you’d like,” he said as he brought his hook up and moved the wet hair off her face.

She laughed, incredulous, which made his grin even larger.

“If you are interested, you may wait for me in my cabin.  I’ll be down as soon as the ship is secure.”

Here’s a snippet from a CSBB work in progress for you to enjoy!

Cleo sighed, looking over the notes she’d been taking on her iPad one last time. She didn’t want her “research” to be on the work server, didn’t need anyone to know about her digging into this odd situation with Jones.

And she didn’t want to be right.

She had called in a favor with an acquaintance who worked in network security. A few years ago, she’d shown Anton’s poems to another friend, and he’d succeeded in getting a couple of books of children’s poetry published. It wasn’t terribly lucrative for him, but he was still grateful. So he’d done her a solid and gone through the trouble of breaking into their network, looking through both Killian’s, August’s, and Emma’s emails.

Emma’s had yielded nothing suspicious, just the usual workplace sort of things, even if her exchanges with Jones were trending toward the flirtatious lately. That wasn’t any of her business, but she really hoped nothing too serious was going on. For Emma’s sake.