Chapter 2

The first time it had happened, Sandra had genuinely thought that going to Gerry's to have a drink and vent would be enough but the moment he opened the door, looking friendly, welcoming and very sexy, her self control had snapped and she'd pinned him against the wall and kissed him hard. The pent-up frustration and anger from the case had boiled over into passion and she had ended up tied to the bed whilst Gerry drove her wild. Her climax had been so intense that for the first time in her life Sandra had screamed.
Afterwards, Gerry had seemed to understand that she didn't want to talk about it and they had dozed off in each others arms.
The next morning, Sandra had thought that Gerry would interrogate her but he didn't. As far as she could tell, he appeared to believe that she had come to him because she knew that he wouldn't judge her.
Nor did he say anything at work. Even when Jack commented on the bite on his neck, asking,
'Good night, was it?'
All Gerry said was,
'Bloody marvellous, thanks.'
Sandra briefly wondered what Jack would say if he knew how many love bites she had hidden under her clothes. Shaking her head, she chivvied them back to work.

The second time she came, Gerry had handcuffs ready and she knew that he'd realised what she really wanted. But when she nervously met his gaze, all she saw was desire and understanding. And with the pretence gone it was even better.

Whenever the frustration with a case became too much, she would go to his house and he would take control. The sex went from amazing to absolutely mind-blowing and Sandra found herself craving it. She would dig through the files on her desk until she found one with virtually nothing to go on and she would choose it as their next case so that she would have an excuse to go round.

Deep down, Sandra knew that they should talk about it but she was terrified so instead she pretended that everything was normal. At first she had worried that Gerry would take advantage at work but he was his usual infuriating, talented and friendly self and when he overstepped the mark and she had to give him a bollocking his reaction was completely normal (an attempt at injured disbelief that would have got him an Oscar if he was an actor).

When the case of the murdered five-year-old boy landed on her desk she nearly put it to the bottom of the pile but the instincts that had led to her meteoric rise through the ranks had made her read the file. As she had read, a sinking feeling in her gut had told her that this was going to be a bad one but the obvious mistakes made by the original investigating team meant that she could never have lived with herself if she'd put it aside.
The case had been even worse than she'd feared as one body turned into two then five and then ten getting more recent all the time. They had all become haunted by it but Gerry had visibly suffered, calling Paula two or three times a day to check that Gerry Junior was all right and making Paula promise not to let him play outside alone. Gerry's normal cheery nature had completely vanished, replaced by an obsessed and angry man. Strickland had tried to take the case away but Sandra had convinced him to assign them some officers temporarily instead, knowing that they needed to find the murderer to give themselves closure. It was Brian, himself outraged by the thought of all those parents losing their children, who found the pattern and identified the killer. When Gerry recognised him as one of the men who had helped search for the boy who had gone missing from Amelia's primary school, Sandra had nearly let Gerry kill him, only stopped by the knowledge of what would happen to Gerry in prison. Instead, she'd sent him home and ruthlessly interrogated the murderer, breaking him in record time. Then she had carefully prepared a detailed and completely damning case for Internal Investigations and given it to Robert Strickland, who had grimly promised to deliver it directly to the head of Internal Investigations to make sure that no one could tip DCI Jenkins off.

Afterwards, all she wanted to do was make sure that Gerry was all right. When he pushed her away when she kissed him, Sandra was surprised until she realised that he'd misunderstood. They'd cuddled up in Gerry's bed and talked for a long time before Gerry had gently kissed her. He had worshipped her body, making her feel beautiful and when he'd flipped them so that she was on top, the look on his face had sent her careering towards her orgasm. Being in control was familiar to Sandra (men always seemed to think that she wanted to be on top) but the pleasure that soared through her body was much more intense than usual and she knew then that she wanted this all the time.

When Gerry started talking about their friendship, Sandra immediately started to worry. What if he didn't think that they could do this and still be friends? Her relief on hearing that he wanted more was immediately followed by panic. What if Gerry asked her to marry him? She would say yes and their relationship would start to falter straight away. She didn't agree with her mother that she was incapable of truly loving someone (the way she felt about Gerry proved that) but Sandra knew that she was commitment phobic. When Gerry suggested friends with benefits she found herself practically gibbering with relief. To cover her happiness with the idea, she ran through a long list of things that Gerry wasn't allowed to do. Gerry happily made flippant remarks, teasing her, and she found herself smiling back, feeling the happiest that she had been for a long time.

No, Gerry wasn't in love with her but she knew him and if she couldn't convince him that fun, and occasionally kinky, sex with her wasn't better than having to go out on the pull then her name wasn't Sandra Pullman.

And the best part of friends with benefits was that he never needed to know that she was in love with him.