Author's notes: Thanks for the reviews! I can't get rid of the feeling that you are trying to push me into writing a mermaid story but actually I have absolutely no idea about how. So for now I leave that fishy thing (LOL) to your imagination and you have to content yourself with a walk on the green ;-)

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Sportif (II) - chapter 2

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Side by side they walked towards the tiny white orbs on the fairway. For a short while they stayed silent. While Tommy hummed the melody of the Beatles song Baby you can drive my car Barbara read the information leaflet for herself. It showed maps of each hole and gave a little instruction for those who never had played golf or even seen the sports equioment before. Each club is composed of a shaft with a lance on the top end and a club head on the bottom. Suddenly she blushed because she found herself thinking of something completely different. Get a grip, good girl, it's not that urgent, is it?! And he sees nothing but his good friend and colleague in you. Absolutely. Nothing. More.

She was shaken out of her thoughts when Tommy asked her how on earth it had come that she had continued this, like she named it, posh english sport.

Barbara told him that in her youth which was "looong, looong ago -"

"Bollocks..." he murmured.

"...okay, which is only looong ago... I've played with that former friend... boyfriend... bloody bloke." She shook her head, briefly lost in some memory. "Ah, well... It was a nice sport - still is! Not too much action, in the fresh air, could even be played solitary. I just have tried to go on with it after he... broke up with me."

Tommy shot her a quick glance and saw in the expression of her face that for her it was not an easy break-up with still bad memories. What an idiot! he thought and from that point on waited for the chance to leisurely put an arm around her shoulders.

"Not easy because even when you've bought used irons and woods you have to pay for this and that - balls, tees, club membership - I've quit that after a short time..." She rolled her eyes and Tommy nodded understandingly. "Eventually I've found a golf course where you could play without a membership to the club but still it was a bit too expensive for my income and then sometimes I had saved up enough money to play some rounds but had no time. Dad... mother... you know it." Her smile was kind of apologetic. "My job!" she added.

"Still a nice hobby." Tommy interjected.

"Yah, right, but then there came the times when I had all the time in the world but had spent all my money on a nursing home, a mortgage, a bloody car..."

"I remember. What about this... stupid boyfriend who... has left you? There's your golf ball."

"He stayed in that club, made a career there as a professional trainer." Barbara searched for the right stand. "And had turned into a really posh snob... A high society arsehole!" she snorted while getting ready to make her second stroke.

Tommy laughed. "Seems to me you have a natural allurement to such types." He grinned and wriggled his eyebrows making it clear that he was referring to himself.

Barbara blushed. "Bollocks..." she objected and stroked her ball with a heavy drive. "You're no arsehole."

Tommy managed to do an equal drive. It was hard since Barbara had taken off her thin grey sweat jacket and now only had been in a sleeveless shirt. It was getting warmer. While talking and waiting for her to finish her stroke he had watched her. She had swung through the air two times before she had stepped closer and hit the ball. Her breasts had been lined out under her T-shirt in the moment when she had stood still after her stroke and had watched where the ball flew, her club still in the air, oblivious to his dreamy eyes. It was almost like she had watched him previously without him noticing.

"Perfect..." he had mumbled and quickly had diverted his eyes in the direction of the putting area where her ball had landed. He dearly had hoped that Barbara would not see his blushing face. For his liking he definitely recognised too much of the beautiful woman that she was. He thought that this was not good for their working relationship or for their wonderful friendship. And probably Barbara did not answer his lately discovered deep feelings for her.

"Thank you, Sir."

While they were walking to the area cut down to a few millimetres of grass they actually talked about the oh so interesting topic of the weather. Barbara's thoughts were diverted again away from the game when Tommy crouched down to study the last yards between his ball and the hole. She just had eyes for his not too badly shaped bottom. Her eyes innocently went into the sky when he got up again turning to her and stating that this might be quite a distance but it was plain and even and so it would be an easy thing.

In fact the first hole was an all easy one. Both made their second stroke from the fairway onto the putting green and both rolled their balls into the hole with one putt so in the end both scored Par.

Barbara had placed her ball a few feet further away from the hole than Tommy and in the end it almost did not hit it with her first stroke. That was when she already knew he would win. And she thought that if he would be getting the pleasure of putting her onto the dunking stool and probably sending her into the water himself, she would be giving herself the pleasure of rewarding him for his victory with a kiss. That's a good idea! It would appear totally innocent when she would simply congratulate him and then raise herself onto tip toes and then he would politely bend down a bit - because he never would make the situation embarrassing by giving her the runaround - and meet her halfway and then she would give him a brief kiss. On his lips. They would be soft and firm and of course she only would give him a very brief kiss. Only to congratulate him on the victory. And maybe he would answer that innocent kiss. And maybe... Barbara sighed by that prospect.

While she had taken her time with focused putting he had taken out his reading glasses and the notepad to write down their scores. First he had read the instructions how to fill in that form and after putting Barbara had some time to watch him. She loved the view of him with his reading glasses, looking so intellectual, so warm, so... distinguished. And she had to admit to herself that she especially loved that. Actually she found that he looked sexy with those specs so now she was standing still and adored this view until Tommy finally felt her eyes on himself.

Quizzically he looked up and then smiled. "Are you dreaming?"

Yes! "NO!" This was too quick and too loud. "No, Sir, I was just wondering that you could just write down the scores and continue."

Tommy grinned and pushed back the lock of hair that had fallen into his face. Barbara swallowed and briskly turned away.

Holy! This afternoon will be a real challenge. she thought while she was grabbing her golf bag, cursing herself that she had agreed on this match.

On the way to the second teeing area Barbara again took out the information leaflet from the reception.

"Here I have a leaflet from the reception - the rules of golf." She waved the leaflet through the air and laughed. "They not only show the maps but also give instructions how you have to play it. This manual says the game of golf is mainly 'playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules'. The way they express it here in the following text sounds like a really brutal game." Arriving at the teeing ground for the second hole she chuckled and let her golf bag thud to the ground.

"Alright, Miss Havers." she loudly said to herself while preparing. "This is a long course. Full force now! Be brutal! BAAAMMM!"

Tommy laughed. "That's quite some strange language for a golf course. Miss Havers."

"Here in Scotland it's a game for commoners. Your Lordship." Proudly she raised her chin. "And I am a commoner, so I speak like a commoner."

"No, you're just crazy, Barbara, and absolutely not common!" He smiled up to her from where he placed his ball onto the tee. "Very crazy, but that makes you so interesting. Aaah, curse it!" he had made a very lame stroke and his own ball flew only about a hundred yards. He had lacked a bit of concentration with this ball he admitted to himself.

Ignoring his, well, let's say, compliments Barbara shook her head about that failure. "A real stroke, Sir, not some tender stroking." Oh, god, no, Barbara! Not again. Behave and watch your thoughts! And your tongue! "Think of... Hillier in his worst mood!" She should follow her own advice.

He shot her a brief look saying And not about you in my arms!

There was far too much of what she would describe as affection in his eyes though she quickly dismissed it as only in her distracted imagination. Barbara diverted her eyes to the green trying to hide her blush. Her hair streamed in the upcoming wind, her cheeks were rosy - Tommy simply adored her. Fortunately she did not see his hands shaking while she put her hair into her usual messy ponytail before she swung her golf bag onto her shoulder.

Both first strokes went onto the fairway but his second stroke, though hit with force and driven long in order to make good for his lame first one, went into a bunker nearby and not into the putting area where it should have ended.

"Aaaaand..." he had said after he had swung the club and watched the ball flying. "...off into the bunker! Aaah, crumbs!" Damn, I'm too distracted by this woman. He shot a quick glance at Barbara who openly smirked.

"Up for a lazy day at the beach, Sir?" she asked on their way to her own ball.

Tommy mumbled something under his breath and finally added in exact the same moment when she swung her club "Oh, with you in a bikini? And a fishtail? Always a pleasure."

She placed her own next ball into the same bunker. His efforts to distract her obviously had worked well.

"Come along with me to the beach?" he chuckled.

"I'm just trying to be nice and keep the score interesting." She glared at him. He knew he had brought her out of her concentration and now it was his turn to openly grin.

While they trudged across the fairway to the sandy pit Tommy finally got the chance to put an arm around her shoulders though it was just for a few moments before they had to cross a little bridge over a brooklet. Barbara had hoped he would place his arms there again but unfortunately he did not. He did not dare. It had been too pleasurable and he had been able to smell her hair. He almost had kissed her head.

They were talking about his early times with this sport. At Eton they not only practised rowing, they also had offered other sports like fencing, tennis or golf. "But my years of practice are long gone. I was not overly interested in it and so I just played the occasional rounds with business partners."

"And high ranking police officers? Like Webberly?" Barbara asked.

"Gods, no. But indeed Hillier swung the club quite often. I was invited to some of his matches, even when I still was Detective Constable. He had liked to be bathing in the light of the acquaintance of a real noble man, whatever his rank in the Met was." Tommy snorted. "Always such a great fun I couldn't always evade. Especially when I had been a rookie..." They had reached the sand bunker. "Where's my bloody ball? See, you've shoved a mound of sand in its way. That's cheating! Referee!" Grinning he had raised his voice and cried out into the unpeopled nature.

"Oh, shut up, Sir. Hit it!" Barbara laughed. "You'll probably bury mine under the sand with your stroke."

His ball landed in the rough only two yards away from the bunker.

"Your hands don't seem to be in the best position on that club, Sir, may I show what I was taught?" Barbara offered.

You better not touch me. Tommy thought but before he could politely reject it Barbara already was directly behind him, standing very close, almost touching. He instinctively leaned back so his back made a brief contact with her chest. Barbara immediately stepped away again since she also realised that it would not work this way - and that she had not thought before invading his personal space. She never would get rid of his scent for the rest of the day. She cursed herself.

"Nah, it doesn't work this way." she said a bit husky. "You're too tall. You have to go on doing it like you do. Sorry." She quickly turned to her own ball and prepared herself to get it out of the sand trap.

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A/N: Please read and review!