Molly sat cross-legged on a bed in the swanky Hotel Bristol trying to not to smile. She was supposed to be finishing an email to Qaseem but watching an indignant Charles wear out the hotel room carpet, phone in hand, trying to book another flight and reschedule a meeting was shed loads more entertaining.

"What? Yes, I'll hold."

He jabbed at the speaker and muzak outraged the tense silence.

"Christ!" he fumed glaring out of the window at the sun bleached city of Bristol below. "How the fuck am I supposed to get anything changed when Cecile's jacking off?"

Molly suppressed a laugh: "What's jacking off? It sounds obscene!"

Charles whirled round: "Jacking off? It means pulling a sickie."

Molly took a sip of the white wine they'd ordered and giggled. "Hmm, a bit of slang I've never heard of! It must have come from some upper class perve."

Charles snorted: "Our school master used to tell us we were jack-offs if we didn't turn up to class."

"Well there you go then. Public school. No wonder I haven't heard it."

He grinned, his anger temporarily forgotten: "You might be the Cockney queen of rhyming slang but I can teach you plenty about public school profanity!"

She was just about to reply when the muzak ended and Brains spoke. "Charles? Cecile's not here. It looks like she's left for the day. "

"Aren't you scheduled to be on a plane right now?" Brains wondered aloud.

Molly was sure she could detect a trace of amusement in her mate's voice.

"I've rebooked for tomorrow's red eye."

There was a silence and then Brains asked just a shade too innocently: "Something delay you at the airport Boss?"

"I've got some last minute family business to deal with," Charles shot back.

"Family? Ah I see."

Charles frowned at Brains' ironic tone. Molly tried hard not to giggle. He had balls that Brains, and plenty of them.

At Charles' silence Brains spoke up again: "Then how can I help you Boss?" He was obviously struggling not to snigger.

"I need to reschedule a 10 o clock with Kate. She's on leave today. Can you let her know when she comes in tomorrow please?"

"Right boss. Anything else?" His voice was almost back to normal.

"Yes. Stop bloody sniggering and email me the latest draft of the Burundi plan please?"

"Sure..." It was obvious from his strangled tone that Brains had lost it completely. "I'll do that right...," another snort "now."

"Thanks. Tomorrow Brains." Charles hung up before Brains could make any more sly comments.

"What the hell is up with him?" Charles wondered as he came over to sit on the bed.

Molly's phone beeped. She looked down at a new message. 'Enjoy... Brains x'. She showed Charles the message and told him about their call.

"Well, you can bloody text him back to tell him we intend to enjoy ourselves," he answered as he took a sip from her glass and leaned over to kiss her. She tasted wine on his lips.

"But first, let's talk."

Molly felt instantly troubled, gripped with a sense of unease. She dreaded the idea of having to rake over the past.

Charles settled next to her on the bed and pulled his T Shirt off. "Even with the window open it's as hot as hell in here." He filled up her glass. "Christ we're going to need a few drinks to get us through this." He held the glass to her lips for her to take a sip and then drained the remainder.

"Right Dawes." He was getting down to business: "I've heard all sorts of stuff about you from Candy, Kinders and Qaseem. Now I want to hear it from you – the person who should have told me in the first place.

"Qaseem? Bleeding hell!"

"Why are you upset?" he asked softly as he refilled her glass. "If he'd never told me, we wouldn't be sitting here."

"Point taken," she conceded. "But that means you already knew at Bosherston. Why didn't you say anything?"

"I wanted to hear it from you," he said quietly, "So why didn't you tell me?"

Oh God, it was going to be difficult. "Originally, because I was afraid. I believed Candy when she said she'd humiliate us and destroy our careers. She was bloody wrong and it wasn't fair, and of course I didn't want an investigation. But it was also the year of hell for you. You'd got divorced, left the army and had been badly wounded. How much more could anyone take?"

"Being abandoned by their girlfriend, apparently," he observed acidly.

Molly faltered. The calm logic of his reply spoken without any emotion was devastating. "I'm sorry. I know what I did was wrong. It seemed the right thing to do at the time." She looked down at her hands and saw Smurf's ring gleaming in the sunlight: "I made a bloody mistake. I've never regretted anything else so much ever since."

Charles followed the direction of her gaze and frowned. That bloody ring seemed to gloat at him. Why the hell didn't she take it off? Trying to contain his anger was going to be a lot harder than he'd realised: "Maybe you had a reason? I don't know. I don't want to bloody well argue about it. I want to sort it out. It matters to us."

Molly was still looking down so he added: "Why don't you start by telling me about you and Smurf?"

Molly blinked. His words made sense, but he was obviously irritated. Why did she always feel defensive with him?

"We met in Purbright. I was getting trashed with some RAMC mates when he hit on me. He'd been to a match and was well tanked. One thing led to another and we... shagged that night..."

Charles' eyebrows rose as Molly skidded over the details of that night but he said nothing. He always knew there had been something between them. Drunken sex was about as meaningless as it could get. But he shook his head in disbelief when she recounted the excruciating moment Smurf had declared – from his hospital bed in Bastian – that he was coming back to her at the FOB. What the fuck had Smurf been thinking of?

Charles was also unimpressed to hear of the private's blundering attempts to browbeat Molly into a relationship; pestering her with cups of tea on the roof of the shitter; lurking frequently in the medic's tent; not to mention his cringing attempts to hug her and hold her hand; and his crude assumptions during their R none of which Charles had known anything about.

"Trouble is," he acknowledged: "Smurf might have been a bloody pest but he was needy. He was always looking for attention and compliments. He needed reassurance. I think he'd always felt inferior to Geraint."

"Geraint's death was part of it," she agreed. "But Smurf was also giving. It was my first tour. He listened when I was anxious, covered me when I was targeted on patrol, and rescued me when my family squabbles derailed my R&R. He helped me make sense of my first tour, from the fear filled first days when I couldn't cut it, to the end when we were fragged and fucked up about the future. In that sense, he really was a mate."

She looked directly at him. "You couldn't really have helped me with those things, you were my Boss. It was easier to tell you I loved you," she smiled, "than it was to admit how scared I was, cos I was worried you'd have kicked me straight home."

He sat up indignantly: "I had a good reputation for listening to my men when they came to me. Although thinking about it, they had better timing than you."

Molly cringed remembering the tense moment she'd blurted out her feelings for him as he was sweeping the road for IEDs. But she wasn't going to give up her ground. "Boss, you started that tour determined to give me the bloody hardest time."

"That's because you'd missed six months of training with the rest of 2-section," he shot back. "You damn well needed to harden up and join the team if you were going to survive in Helmand. Face it Dawes. You were a crow."

"Yeah, I was," she admitted. "But I did think that bloody comment about my stilettos was a bit shit."

He grinned: "It was bloody unfair of me. But you pissed me off by turning up late and when you appeared one look at your gorgeous legs and I knew I was up shit's creek without a paddle."

"I'm sorry." He pulled her down on the bed and kissed her gently.

"You fancied me then?" Molly was surprised.

"Yes. Damn it! He growled as his finger curled round a strand of her hair. "You had me tied up in knots. Don't bloody remind me. It was hell."

"Really?"

"Yes. Those bloody shorts of yours were almost my undoing. You had me, and practically every man in the FOB drooling every time you wore them. Thankfully you didn't wear them that often. If you had, I'd have had to court martial them and send them back to Brize Norton in disgrace for endangering the mission."

His wicked smile was devastating.

"You're just exaggerating about everyone drooling."

"Well, I suppose Fingers might not have appreciated the view," he conceded.

"You knew about Fingers?"

"Of course. I made it my business to know my men. In fact, I often wondered whether there was something between him and Captain Azizi."

She rolled over onto her back and leant her head on a pillow. "Now you're telling me something I don't know! Fingers and Captain Azizi..." she wondered whether there was any truth to it.

He nudged her: "Anyway, back to Smurf."

"He thought he could persuade me into loving him." She cupped her head in her hands. "And he was bloody good at talking me into things. He had that Welsh gift of the blab..."

"Gab?" he offered.

"Gab? Yeah. That's it. I'd was laughing at one of his jokes one minute, and the next he was talking about putting me in a red dress and taking me to Vegas and before I could get out of that, he'd tied me up in knots with a bleeding marriage proposal – even though there was nothing romantic between us, ever. There were so many times I wanted to say no, but it was impossible to let him down or hurt him when our friendship had been built up around protecting each other from pain."

"I found it pissing hard to say an outright no. I always thought I could wriggle out of something more easily given a bit of time. I dunno, I guess its what my mum did every time dad came blundering home from work demanding she'd give him the rent money for the pub. Never worked of course. That's why mum's never got any money and dad's not got a job."

"And that's why I ended up with Smurf's ring round my neck, kissing you in that bunker before we went out on that bridge."

"Don't blame yourself," he said quietly. "There isn't a day when I don't wish I hadn't interrupted you and Smurf in that bloody back room."

She touched his fingers with the tips of her own: "Really?"

"Yes," he bit back looking down at their hands. "We were all tense, waiting for Badrai and I knew Smurf wanted to propose to you. Lads do funny things in these strained, expectant moments before a mission." He frowned: "Me too. Normally I'd be sweating bullets, choked that it would all go wrong, my men would get injured or die. But that day all I could think about was that I'd fucked up. Smurf was going to ask you to marry him and you were so pissed with me, you'd say 'yes'."

"Eventually I couldn't wait out next door any longer. I lost my cool! So I came in, angry with him for trying it on and even more furious with myself for not being able to let it go and focus on the mission. And when it all went wrong, all I could think was that I deserved to be shot because I'd put my interests before Smurf's and lost his trust. I'd sabotaged the team I'd spent so long building up. I couldn't do anything but blame myself."

"Guilt" Molly admitted weaving her fingers through his. "Guilt's one of the reasons I gave up on us because I couldn't get away that day. At first I thought I could hack it but after Smurf died I couldn't deal with the idea that the shooting might have contributed to his death. And there was no one I could talk to about it, because if I did, the truth would tumble out. You know, Candy killed us off, but we were already dying by then, we just didn't know it."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to burden you with my troubles."

"They weren't just your troubles." His hand fell back motionless onto the bed. It seemed to part them. "I was going through the same thing?"

"I didn't notice you telling me! Molly objected."

There was a silence as they realised they were getting nowhere.

"Does it all matter so much, now?" Charles asked, quietly.

"Smurf's death will always matter. But I've given up wondering if I was – we were – responsible. It was caused by a bleed in his head. That's the luck of the game."

"We're in the hands of the Gods, Dawes."

"And I never regretted, for one second, you coming into that room or the moment you kissed me. In the last three years I've never found anyone I loved, or wanted to be with, as much as you."

"Really," Charles rolled over. He looked absurdly happy.

"Yes," she gave him a brilliant smile. "I mean most men are total wankers. I dunno how you avoided becoming one of them."

"Oh, thanks," he started to laugh. "So I'm just a halfway wanker am I?

Molly nodded feigning resignation.

"Perhaps you haven't looked hard enough for 'a good'un'," he said, recalling her Nan's cockney.

"Believe me," she giggled, "I've had a pretty good look around."

"I bloody bet you have. How many of your other COs have you compromised Dawes?"

"None, after you, thanks. It's too bleeding complicated."

He grinned: "You preferred shagging squaddies then?"

"No – I gave up on them a long time ago. I went out with an army doctor."

The laughter died out his face: "Who?" he demanded.

She couldn't bear the rebuke in his eyes. She felt like she'd betrayed him: "Jonathan Stifnel. He was a captain stationed in Africa at the same time as me but with a different unit. It was him who encouraged me to complete my education and study medicine."

Charles tensed. He had no idea who this Captain was but he absolutely hated the idea of her with someone else. It was pure pain to ask, but he couldn't stop himself: "What happened?"

"He'd had enough excitement in his life. He wanted to settle down." She added quietly: "He's an emergency consultant in Cheltenham now."

Not bloody far enough away from Bristol, Charles thought darkly. "Did he ask you to settle down with him?"

"Well, yeah. But I'm not ready to settle down yet. I'm still studying. And what about you?"

He felt the ambivalence in her reply and he wondered whether she was repeating the excuse she gave this doctor or whether she really wasn't ready. She had another three years before she finished her medical degree. And then she would want to work. He shifted slightly onto his back, his head on the pillow looking towards the ceiling: "The UN's not good for relationships. It's all travel and long hours. There have been other women... but I never had the time to develop those relationships into anything more serious."

She smiled away the pain she felt at his reply, trying instead to recreate their earlier camaraderie: "As you were bloody kind enough to tell me."

"When?" he was still detached.

"In the guard room in Kabul."

He thought back to the conversation. "How ungallant of me."

She smiled softly: "Yeah! What a prick."

He nodded: "That's a pretty reasonable description of me on that day." He turned his head to look at her: "Now what about you?" He couldn't stop himself from asking but somehow it seemed to matter: "Were you still going out with Dr Stifnel when we 'met' in Kabul?"

Molly interrupted: "No. It was a good relationship, but it didn't last beyond our African posting. And were you with anyone then, in Kabul?"

He shook his head. Relief lightened his chest. They hadn't finished talking yet, but he was damned if he was going to spend the rest of the evening talking about the past. For now he just wanted to get away from it and enjoy his time with Molly. They could come back to Candy later. He leaned down and kissed her collarbone feeling her tremble as his lips touched the thin fabric of her dress.

He looked straight at her: "None of the women came even close."

"Close to what?"

"You," he whispered as he kissed her on the lips and caressed the exposed skin of her breasts.

"So about this red dress then..." Charles dropped a kiss between her breasts.

Molly tensed: "What about it?"

He asked sheepishly: "What was it like?"

"It was short and sleeveless and a bit see through with a beaded neckline and a gaping hole here, I mean, it was a bit like a nightdress, to be honest.

"Mmm," He murmured, as his fingers explored under her dress, investigating the skin of her thigh. He looked up: "A gaping hole here? With his other hand he stroked a smooth line down between her breasts. "Bright red, see-through?"

He leaned down to kiss the spot he had just grazed on her inner thigh. "Was it... sexy?" He smiled straight into her eyes, and she could feel the warm breath of his words on the skin he had just kissed.

She grinned with relief. "You want me to wear it for you! Out of luck mate. It was too trashy for me. I gave it to a friend."

"Pity." He dipped his head between her thighs again and dropped a quick, teasing kiss right on her lips, causing her to moan in pleasure at the feel of his mouth through her dress.

"When we were at the FOB I used to imagine you wearing all this gorgeous sexy stuff underneath your combats. Christ Molly it was almost my undoing!" He paused just for a moment and then added with a grin. "Don't upset me now by telling me you wore sensible pants. I'll be a disappointed man forever!"

"Actually in those days I used to wear G strings in lace, with matching lacy bras," Molly teased, deciding not to mention the granny pants she'd worn on her first tour.

"You're teasing me now Molly Dawes. Tell me more..." He laid his head on her stomach to listen, a knowing smile on his face.

"I loved how the soft feel of the lace contrasted against the rough cotton canvas of my combats on my bottom." It wasn't a total lie. By the second tour she'd cottoned onto the secret joy of sexy briefs under her combats.

He was curious: "What colour?"

She thought for a moment: "My favourite was..."

"White?" he interrupted hopefully.

"Ooh you like the idea of me in white, virginal undies?"

He grinned: "Virginal is hardly the word that comes to mind, after your, err, enthusiastic performances in the past Dawes."

"What a disappointment I must be!"

"Not to me!" he grinned.

He threaded his fingers through hers and pulled her off the bed and into the bathroom. He placed her in front of the sink and turned her to the big mirror above it. He stood behind her in his combats, the warm skin of his bare chest brushing against her.

"How about these?" He handed her a fancy looking black shopping bag with pink ribbon handles.

She peeked in the bag. Inside was a beautiful set of undies, a pair of briefs in the thinnest white lace and a matching under wired bra with delicate white lace straps.

"Will you wear it?" he breathed as he met her eyes in the mirror.

"They're beautiful," she whispered.

"Like you." He dropped a kiss into the sensitive hollow of her neck.

He unzipped her dress and lifted it over her shoulders. Pulling off her pants she stepped into the white lace briefs and slid them up her thighs. They were a perfect fit. Behind her she could feel Charles harden as he watched her remove her bra and slip the new straps over her shoulders.

"Can you do up the back please?"

He tensed slightly as he fumbled with the catch.

She smiled remembering her Nan's advice: "Don't trust a man too familiar with your undies. He'll have had too much practice taking them off."

Then he'd done it and she stood slightly shy as he drank in the sight of her.

"Perhaps lots of men have given you sexy things to wear."

"Why do you say that?"

"You don't seem surprised. Or did you see me buy them from that little pop up shop at the airport?"

She stretched her arms up and looped them round the back of his neck. "Thank you. No one's ever bought me undies, except my mum and they were yellow with days of the week on them." She giggled.

"Days of the week huh?"

"Yeah, no jokes about 'see you on Tuesday' okay."

"See you on Tuesday?" Charles frowned.

"You don't know do you?" Molly giggled. "Oh, never mind! These are beautiful and they feel amazing – so soft."

"Are they?" Charles smiled as he slipped a finger underneath the lace edge of her pants.

She met his eyes in the mirror as he finger found her sensitive centre and tapped it firmly.

"Do you want me to take them off?" she murmured.

"No," he breathed as he licked the lobe of her ear. "I want to seduce you with them on."

His finger tapped her clit again, starting up a pulse of pleasure between her legs. She leaned against him, capitulating to a delicious thread that was spiralling through her.

Looping his other arm round her waist he drew her close and she felt him hardening through the thick cotton of his combats.

"Open your eyes," he whispered as he dropped a kiss on the side of her neck. "And look at yourself. Look in the mirror."

He watched her eyelids flutter. He saw her focus on the sight of his hand in her pants and he knew from her blissful smile and half closed eyelids that the throbbing beat of his finger was almost intoxicating.

He stroked another finger into her damp opening and her eyes opened wide with shock and pleasure as he grinned back at her. She squirmed as the feeling intensified and twisted round to face him. "Please," she panted: "I want to feel you... this" bewitchingly she traced the outline of his cock with her finger: "inside me."

Somehow she managed to undo his fly. She pulled out his swollen cock and ran her hand along its hard length. "I need it here," she explained pushing it between her legs, sliding the top inside the lace of her pants and nudging it within her lips.

Charles was still for a moment, but the tease of knicker lace and the creamy wetness just inside her lips was his undoing. Unable to bear it any longer, he impatiently pulled her pants down, lifted Molly up onto the edge of the sink and deftly parted her legs. Within seconds his cock was nudging her opening. Molly caught her breath as he slid into her slowly and when he was fully in he wrapped his arms round her and pulled her towards him.

"I love this," he breathed, "the utter... feeling of being inside you... It's... fucking way too... sexy." He laughed on a breath, so aroused he could hardly find the words.

She stretched her arms around his neck and reached up to kiss him, feeling the impassioned beat of his heart against his warm chest, and the answering involuntary twitch of his cock inside her. It was this closeness she relished.

He thrust into her and looked down at their coupling. Then he noticed her breasts, still in their lacy bra, lifted by her arms draped around his neck. He twirled a nipple between his fingers captivated by the way it shaped into a point under his touch: "Beautiful, show me..." he murmured with a smile as he cupped her buttock with his hands and thrust into her again.

Molly leaned back, her bottom secure in his hands and un-looped her shoulder strap to reveal the breast. Securing her position by looping her legs around his waist she discovered she could tighten her muscles around him more firmly. She watched him lean down to lick her exposed nipple and then she tightened feeling the answering lurch of his cock inside her.

"God," he breathed wildly against her nipple. "So damn tight... fucking lovely." He thrust again and waited expectant, as she tensed again and he groaned, enraptured. It was sweet and slow, this thrust and tighten rhythm that threatened to drive him over the edge, until he could no longer take the sultry torture.

He took over with ever strengthening thrusts driving him on till he shuddered uncontrollably into a powerful release, murmuring her name, his lips moving feverishly over her nipple.

Molly waited for him, her hands threading through his hair as his whispers echoed across her hot breast. For a moment he was still and then with his cock still quivering inside, she felt his hand turn on the tap behind her. He scooped cold water from the tap and splashed it on her hot nipples. For a moment the extreme coldness shocked her as drops rolled down from her hardened nipples across her stomach and between her legs.

She gasped. The cool water felt so sexy against her clit. He filled his hands again and they both watched the water drip down her body together:

"Feels good?"

"Chilling... and... sexy," she gasped watching the interest on his face as he scooped up another handful.

This time he emptied it straight onto her lips. The cold shock was delicious and she moaned as his thumb swept over her clit. Within seconds she was on the edge of ecstasy.

"More water?" he demanded, softly as his finger stilled on her clit.

"Oh God... Yes." Icy water dribbled over her lips as she shuddered into orgasm. And then she felt his mouth on hers; wildly kissing her.

For minutes afterwards, they stayed locked together, Molly sitting on the sink, Charles standing in front of her.

"I love you," he whispered.

She opened her eyes: "You do?"

"Yes," he answered lifting a damp lock of her hair out of his face.

"Well we happen to be in luck then," she teased.

He smiled: "Why?"

"Because I'm in totally, desperately, happily in love with you too."

"Head over heels?" he wondered.

"Arse over tit mate," she confirmed.

They laughed on a breath and kissed again.

It was hot in the small bathroom. They were both covered with a fine sheen of sweat and Molly realised she was starving.

"I'm ravenous, can we find something to eat?"

"Let's eat out."

She raised her eyebrows at the innuendo. "Mmm"

"Get into that shower." He grinned and drew a finger down between her lips. "Or I might have to start playing with you again."

"Ooh, multiple orgasms? I'm in for a treat!" giggled Molly as she jumped off the sink and turned on the shower.

He laughed and started washing his cock in the sink. From the shower she watched him dry it on a small hand towel and zip himself back into his combats.

"Dinner without your Adams, huh?"

He glanced over and grinned. "Excite you?"

"Too right!"

"Then join me? He challenged."

She shook her head: "Well for one thing, I'm not going to give up the chance of wearing the new underwear you bought me. And for the other, my dress is a bit too short for that kind of caper."

He just smiled, leaning against the sink watching her wash between her legs: "One of these days Dawes, you could give me the pleasure of playing with yourself... Just for me."

"Will that be an order, Sir?" she asked coquettishly.

He grinned: "You bet."

A/n Another long chapter that has taken a long time to update. Apologies and a big thank you to everyone who reviewed, faved and followed since the last chapter and also to everyone who PMd me - which boosted my flagging morale considerably - thank you. I normally try to reply before loading another chapter, but this time I haven't managed to, so I will do so shortly.

Charles and Molly are discovering a new, naughtier side to each other these days, I hope you enjoyed it. I had some fun writing it! More wickedness to come in the next chapter, which will also be over here, on the fun (smutty, dark) side!