This is completely ridiculous. Beth slammed her locker door shut with some vehemence. Drawing curious looks from Sally and Mel.
"What's up?" Mel came over.
"Nothing." Beth hitched a shoulder in irritation, acutely aware that Mel had a look in her eyes which said that she didn't believe her for a minute. "It's Christmas..." Beth spun round, a wide smile on her face, "So who do you want to kiss under the mistletoe?"
Side-tracked, Mel thought about it. "Ben?"
"Oi!" Sally grinned "Hands off..." , "Oi!"
Mel's grin was ear to ear. "Nate and Beth... Nate and Beth."
Beth blushed "I like him."
Mel smirked "Nate then..." with a sly sideways glance at Beth.
Beth feigned outrage, "Oi!"
"Dare you to kiss him under the mistletoe then!"
"When?" Beth wasn't sure she particularly liked where this was going, but to try and back down now would be bad.
"Now seems like a good time." said Mel peering through the canteen door "he's just there." She stabbed a finger.
Beth chanced a glance, and Nate was indeed standing there. Just inside the door, under the rather ratty piece of mistletoe that some lovelorn pc had hung up hopefully.
She took a deep breath, better now than later, a golden opportunity. And prove that she'd put the other nonsense out of her head.
Mel and Sally were watching; she took another deep breath for luck, swung through the door, stepped up, flung her arms around his neck and their lips met. It was a split second before she realised that Nate had moved, and the man she was now kissing with some fervour was Stuart Turner.
Stuart's hands were on her waist, as their lips met, Beth was conscious of a feeling of belonging which simply shouldn't have been there. Confused, she took a step back. For a very long moment she gazed up into his face. "Sorry!" she mumbled.
He nodded, once, quite curtly, dismissing her. Beth would have felt rather hurt at that, but for the brief flash of something very different in the sombre dark eyes that were watching her.
Beth went bright pink and dived out of the door, acutely aware that Nate, Roger and Ben had witnessed the kiss and her confused departure. Oh god... Sally and Mel were in fits of laughter. Beth smiled weakly. She had let herself in for that one.
# # # # #
Just when Beth thought it couldn't get worse, briefing was upon them. Sergeant Stone assigning duties. "Mel, Beth, Nate and Roger..." Stone looked up from his clipboard. "Assist DS Turner with Operation Badger."
Beth looked up, Stone's face wasn't giving anything away, but she could swear he'd heard about her passionate kiss with Stuart under the mistletoe.
Shit... passionate? That wasn't passion... She closed her eyes for a second, she could still feel the pressure of Stuart's lips on hers. He was startled, sure, but he had responded to her. If she thought about it, her body could still remember being held in his arms. She put her hand up to touch her cheek, remembering the feel of muscular shoulder beneath the softness of his tank top; the curious feeling of disappointment when she realised that he had carried her to the waiting ambulance, and she hadn't been sufficiently awake to savour it, the other feeling of disappointment when she had to hand his jacket back. Why a pair of dark eyes were suddenly haunting her dreams, and not Nate's blue ones.
Now she was going to be working with Stuart. This seemed like a very bad idea indeed. She should be steering well clear until her mind had given up on this foolishness.
# # # # #
Fate was playing tricks on him, Stuart Turner decided. Everything he did, a certain PC Beth Green appeared in front of him like a small genie out of her bottle. Her plunge into the icy water at the factory site had started it all. He'd fished her out, wrapped her in his dry jacket and carried her back to where they were originally trapped. He sat down with Beth in his arms and waited for rescue.
The minute he sat down, he realised his tactical error. She was very nice to hold, her head heavy against his shoulder, and when she started to cuddle closer, all he could think of was that he wanted to protect her. To have and to hold.... whoa... where the hell did that one come from? Beth was almost young enough to be his daughter for god's sake! He liked polite, intelligent ladies with degrees, a few years older than himself, and he went for petite blondes in a big way, not young guileless innocents with big blue eyes who made him feel....
He slammed the door hard on that thought. She was too young, and not his type. He liked his bachelor lifestyle, his flat impressed the ladies, he didn't need the complications of a relationship with a young girl who would want it all...