Author's Notes:

1) I do not own either of the characters used in this story, they are the property of ITV and Emmerdale. I am simply toying with them because I have a habit of playing with things that don't belong to me.

2) This is purely my imagining of what occurred between Cain and Harriet in between their conversation outside the shop and the vestry scene a couple of weeks ago.

3) Massive thank you to my friend Lauren, who read this over for me first, and assured it wasn't rubbish before I posted it.

This is also dedicated to all my Charriet friends over on Twitter, especially Chlo, whose fic makes me so very happy :D

x

The Fires Of Desire

"Sorry Cain," she tells him before turning and walking away, thus closing down the conversation.

He has no real clue why she's apologising and it saddens him to hear it; if anyone should be apologising in their partnership, it's him, and he knows it. Cain knows that he's got a lot of making up to do where Harriet is concerned but he can see that now is not the right time to be making a start. Her quick retreat once the conversation had died away suggests to him that at that moment, she does not want to be in his company. Harriet's still angry, and rightly so, about being kept in the dark about the events that occurred in the aftermath of her stabbing. Cain's grateful that she's still on his side and he realises that he needs to give her some time to get her head around the latest developments, or he might jeopardise what they have together, and that's the last thing he wants.

Cain glances at her retreating back and his gaze is soon drawn to her backside, he can't help wondering whether she has any idea that he's still watching her. He smiles as he remembers with a great deal of fondness the time he casually mentioned her backside at the beginning of one of their conversations; one that quickly went from fun and flirty to solemn and serious in one sentence. A week hadn't even passed since and now, the distance between them is as apparent to Cain as measurements laid out in front of him. He hates that she's being so off with him but he knows he deserves it so for now, he's happy to leave her to it. She'll get over her anger in her own time.

There's no way back for himself and Moira, Cain knows that and he needs to move on. He needs to look to the future; a future that he hopes will include Harriet. He never dreamt he'd ever fall for a woman of the cloth, but Harriet isn't your typical vicar; there's an edge to her, she's attractive and also a bit rock 'n' roll too. She doesn't always play by the rules either, she's kept him out of trouble enough times already. There's still something between them, Cain can feel it; he just needs to bide his time, Harriet'll calm down eventually…

Cain's promise to wait for Harriet to come around lasts all of an hour and a half. By the end of that ninety minutes, he's going stir-crazy, he can't stop thinking about her and what his actions have potentially done to them, he hates it.

The garage is also quiet for a Wednesday and it's not helping Cain's brooding mood at all. He had hoped that work would provide him with the distraction he needed, but it wasn't living up to expectations at all.

Cain's had enough, he can't stand it any longer; he needs to know where he stands, and where their relationship stands in the face of all this. He tells Dan he's got some errands to run and leaves him in charge for the rest of the day; Dan's surprised by his sudden disappearing act but it's Cain Dingle, he's not the sort of man you argue with, so he leaves it.

Cain arrives at St Mary's and pauses outside as he works out how to approach the situation. He has two options; he can walk through the main door and confront her directly, or he could sneak in through the vestry door and wait for her to come to him. Being the local bad boy means that Cain's used to confrontations but he doesn't want a confrontation with Harriet, he just wants them to talk and resolve their differences. During the course of their relationship, he's become so accustomed to sneaking out of the vestry after one of their passionate encounters, why not sneak in for a change?

He sneaks around the back of the church and finds the vestry door; to Cain's relief, it's unlocked. He feels that if Harriet had wanted to completely shut herself off from him, she'd have made sure it was locked. He opens the door, inch by precious inch, not wanting to alert anyone inside to his appearance, especially not Harriet, not just yet anyway. Once he's inside, Cain closes the door just as quietly as he opened it and looks around; there's no sign of Harriet, but he knows she's here; he doesn't know how he knows it, he just does.

Cain hears a soft humming coming from somewhere beyond the curtain; it's Harriet, and she's alone, much to Cain's delight. The humming starts to come closer and stops altogether when the vestry curtain is pulled back. "Cain," Harriet exhales as her gaze settles upon the man she's already risked so much for, "what are you doing here?" she asks him, she doesn't really need to hear the answer; she's no fool, she knows why he's here.

"I think we need to talk about what's happened," he tells her as he tries to keep the faint note of desperation out of his voice.

"I don't think we do," Harriet replies, dismissing his notion straightaway, "I think I heard all I needed to about that little incident from Finn and Ross."

Cain shakes his head towards her, he's not giving up that easily, "you haven't heard my side of the story," he points out to her.

Harriet laughs, "that's not going to make it any better," she shoots back.

"Maybe it won't, but I think you need to hear it, I know I'm a bit of a hot-headed moron at times..."

Harriet smirks, she's not going to disagree there, "you said it," she interrupts.

"...but there's more to me than that and deep down, you know that,"

Harriet sighs to herself and steps inside the vestry to join Cain; she pulls the curtain closed behind them to afford the two of them a little bit of privacy. She settles herself upon her desk and looks up towards him, "you've got five minutes," she tells him.

Cain hates the fact that she's put a metaphorical clock upon him and he now feels under pressure to explain himself to her. He hasn't really given any thought to what he'd say once he was face-to-face with Harriet, now he's having to think fast to cover that up. Cain had never been one for sharing his feelings and innermost thoughts, but that was going to have to change now if he was going to win Harriet over. "I thought I'd lost you," he finally admitted to her.

Harriet folds her arms defiantly against her chest at his words, "I wasn't yours to lose at the time though, was I?" she responds, "you were the one that put a stop to us, remember?"

"I know, I know," Cain tells her, he doesn't need to be reminded of that fact and he pauses briefly before carrying on, "I wanted you to be mine, and I couldn't help wondering whether I'd have a chance to make things right, again."

"That still doesn't explain why you went after Ross,"

"I'm getting there," Cain snaps at her, he instantly regrets it when he sees her flinch. "Finn had been sat beside you at the hospital, saying how sorry he was that this had happened, and I figured Ross was somehow involved too," he carries on with his explanation, "when you crashed, I thought you were going to die, and the red mist just descended. All I wanted from Ross were the dealer's names, but he kept maintaining that he had no idea who they were. He wound me up something rotten about us too, and I lost it; but, I put a stop to it as soon as I knew you were going to be OK."

Harriet sighs to herself as he finishes his explanation, "I'm not sure I can do this anymore," she admits to him, "I can't carry this on if you're going to keep secrets from me."

"I knew you'd react like this when you found out," Cain tells her, he wishes he hadn't told her now but then he reminds himself that she was the one who wanted honesty, so his guilt is now assuaged.

"How else did you expect me to react?" Harriet shoots back at him, "did you really think that I'd be OK with what you did?"

"Of course not, I just thought that a little part of you might understand why I did it, at least,"

She's silent for a few moments, "I do...sort of," Harriet admits to him, "I meant what I said earlier, I'm still on your side," she adds as a reminder, "I'm just not going to sit here and condone what you did.

Cain looks towards her; it seems as though their conversation has reached a stalemate, "thank you, again," he tells her softly but sincerely.

Harriet nods in his direction, "Maybe you should leave," she tells him, "I don't there's anything more we can say to each other right now."

Cain senses that she's softened slightly towards him but her anger is still getting the best of her and he can only see one way to get around that. He needs to find the fire within her that ignites whenever they're together. He nods in her direction before turning and preparing to make his getaway through the vestry door.

Harriet watches as he approaches the door, she hadn't expected him to give up so easily. She'd expected him to stick around, to fight for a resolution. The vestry door is opened ajar and she makes a late dart across the floor to close the door before he steps through it, she succeeds.

She shuts the door once more, and Cain's eyes widen in surprise as she turns the key, locking them both inside the vestry. Harriet's gaze meets Cain's, he's the first to break the silence, "but you said..." he starts but his voice tails off as a finger to his lips stops him in his tracks.

"Forget about what I said," she tells him.

He smiles at her, he can see the fires of desire in her eyes and from that, he knows what's coming next, and so does she. They're in the House of God but at that moment, neither of them really care. Their need and desperation for each is so acute that they can't keep a lid on it for much longer; it needs to be satisfied, here and now.

It takes barely ten seconds for Cain's lips to come crashing down onto Harriet's, and she's quick to respond to his advance upon her. Her hands cradle his jawline as her lips part against his; she groans against him as his tongue strokes over hers, the sound spurs Cain on to up the ante.

His hands encircle her waist as he spins her around, moving her away from the door. A few seconds later, he hears a soft thud which is followed by a yelp of surprise from Harriet. Cain smiles against her, then releases her. Seconds later, Harriet's hands are clawing at his already-open shirt; she needs the garment gone and he senses her predicament. There's a grumble of discontent from her as he pulls away but as his gaze meets with hers, it's replaced by a gasp as Cain takes off his shirt and drops it to the floor. He steps towards her and sets about beginning to undress her; the shirt is the first item of clothing to go. Cain seizes the opportunity to tease her a little, taking his time to unfasten the shirt buttons until at last, the only button left to undo is the top one behind the dog-collar. At this point, Harriet takes over; she pushes Cain back slightly and her gaze meets his as she pulls the dog-collar free. He's transfixed, it's one of the sexiest things he's seen her do. Wearing the collar gives off the image that Harriet's all innocence and light, like Snow White; take it away, and she's as sexy and devilish as they come. Cain knew she wasn't all innocence and light before he got involved with her, but their past shenanigans have painted her in a whole new light to him, and he loves it.

Cain is soon pulled out of his daydream as Harriet's lips settle upon his jawline, peppering him in kisses. She steps back once she knows she's got his attention; his gaze rakes over her, smirking as he checks out her cleavage. Cain's hands soon reach for her cami top, wanting to pull it over her head, but Harriet stops him; she's drawing the line at getting completely naked in the vestry of her church but he doesn't mind, they'll be plenty of time for that later, or at least he hopes so.

Harriet's hands find the hem of his t-shirt and with Cain's help, the garment is quickly removed and discarded. She bites down upon her bottom lip as she allows herself a few moments to glance over him, to properly appreciate exactly what's in front of her. For the time being, Cain is hers, and she's now come to realise that she'd like it to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

This time, it's Harriet that has to be pulled out of a daydream, Cain makes another move upon her and it jerks her back into the present. Their kiss continues as her hands wander over his torso, and then his tummy before finding the waistband of his trousers. Harriet's deftly quick at undoing and unzipping him and before Cain even knows it, his trousers are pooled at his feet. He pulls away from her once more as he wrestles with his trousers, trying to pull them free. Once they are clear, he straightens himself up and looks down upon her; he glances at her, then at her chest. He smirks as he briefly becomes entranced by the rise and fall created by her laboured breaths. Cain's quick to snap himself out of it and his hands find the fastenings upon her jeans. He's just as quick at undoing and unzipping her, but he needs Harriet's help to clear them; she soon catches on and her jeans are soon added to the ever-growing pile of clothes upon the vestry floor, the place looks a mess but Harriet's too invested in the moment with Cain to really care right now.

The barriers between them now are minimal, easy to be removed so they can finally seal the deal. It's Harriet who makes the first move; her hands find the waistband of Cain's boxers and her fingers soon brush over the front. His strangled gasp in her ear turns her on immensely, but her movement against him was his undoing. Cain wasn't going to be able to wait much longer, he needs her, and fast.

His boxers were quick to be discarded and once they had been, Cain makes another move upon her. This time though, he lifts her up and guides her slender legs around his waist. Harriet gasps out loud, she knows what's coming next, it's what she's been waiting for. He shifts her body slightly against him before angling her against the desk behind her. Her hands are braced against his shoulder while Cain manoeuvres a hand between their bodies; he pushes her knickers to one side before finally taking the plunge. His penetration of her is followed by the most gorgeous of moans; his lips catch hers in a bid to muffle the sound and together, they surge forwards, towards a crescendo, a resolution to the harsh words exchanged the previous afternoon…

The deed is done, and Cain and Harriet are putting themselves back together again, making themselves presentable once more to the outside world.

She watches, transfixed as he pulls his t-shirt back over his head, sighing inwardly as he pulls it down to cover up his torso and tummy. How could the thought of giving this up have even crossed her mind? She has no idea what the future holds for them, but she will do whatever it takes to fight for them.

Cain's gaze falls upon her as he finishes adjusting his t-shirt and he watches as she continues to button up her shirt, her dog-collar clutched in her hand. His gaze keeps darting towards the half-inch of cleavage he can still see, and she's quick to bring him back to the present. "Right, so, next time I say 'Never Again'…" Harriet trails off as she continues to cover herself up.

His hands are braced upon the table in the vestry, against which they had just done the deed, as he prepares himself for what he thinks is coming next. Cain raises his eyebrows at her as he waits for the continuation, "I mean, never again in here," she tells him, finishing off with a cheeky smile.

Cain smirks up at her; it's back, the fire is back, and so are they.