It seems people like this one - although the commentators are the usual crew. Anyway I was convinced to expand this into another chapter…..soon. I hope you enjoy this as the pace picks up a little. Oh and if you pick up on the reference, leave it in your comment ;-D
Tommy woke with a start. He had slept only fitfully and his watch seemed stuck around six o'clock. It had been ten minutes to the hour last time he looked and now it was only five minutes past. He climbed into his shower and let the cool water run over his head. The friction between them was driving him insane. He would have to talk to Barbara today; no excuses, no prevarication, just an honest declaration of how he felt. Even if she laughed at him at least he would have said it and then he could pick up the pieces of his shattered heart and get on with life. Tommy slammed his fist into the wall and the pain shot up his arm. Stop being stop melodramatic! Do you really believe she feels nothing?
He and Barbara had returned to the hotel in silence and neither had been interested in dinner. As they walked up the stairs Barbara had tripped and fallen against him. His arm had been around her in a flash and their cheeks had brushed as he picked her up. When they stood they were both as red as beetroots and could not look at each other. Normally if something like that happened they would simply laugh but with the events in his lounge, everything had changed.
At her door he had paused hoping she might invite him in but she had simply smiled and thanked him for an 'interesting day'. He was tempted to kiss her but he did not want their first kiss to be in the corridor of a hotel. He waited too long and she said goodnight and closed the door leaving him alone. He had gone to bed frustrated and confused with the feel of her skin still burning on his face.
Barbara had dallied at her door as long as she dared hoping that Tommy might ask to come in and talk. He had been unusually awkward but she was not sure what he wanted to say. She feared it would be 'sorry Barbara but I think you have misunderstood'. She could not bear that thought after the promise of the day and so in the absence of any positive signs she had wished him a good night. She made a bargain with herself that she would indulge her unspoken desires tonight but wake up in the morning with a clear head and clean mind. She needed to stop thinking about him as anything more than her friend and partner but not yet, not tonight.
The bath had been relaxing. She had not had one in years and there was a mystical quality to it, made more special by knowing Tommy had organised it. As she ran the slippery soap over her fair skin she wondered if he might be sitting in his room thinking about what she was doing. The prospect of him daydreaming about her excited her in ways she did not even like to admit. She lay back with her eyes closed and sank into the steamy water up to her neck. She sighed heavily as she ran through again and again everything that had happened; every look and every touch. She wanted to believe he loved her as she loved him but she knew he could never feel that way about someone like her. Even lust would do. She valued what they had too much to ruin it with some foolish night of passion but if they did what a night it would be! Her experience was limited and her ideas about how she would make love to Tommy came largely from reading but that did not make her yearning to run her hands over his body any less real. She closed her eyes and saw his body from the photograph. He was hot, that was a given, and it did not matter if he would like the word or not! Oh how she would have liked to see him like that! She sighed again and ran her hands over her body imagining they were Tommy's.
As he lay naked between the sheets he wanted to feel her beside him. He had tried to sleep but images of her lying in the bath wafted through his head just as he was on the verge of slumber. They were arousing and disturbing. Should he really think about Barbara like that? Twice he had thrown on his jeans and approached her door. He had waited, summoning up the courage to knock. The first time the light had been on and he could hear her splashing about in the tub. He smiled but the thought was too overwhelming and he retreated to his room knowing that if she answered he would not be able to stop at talking to her. The second time had been after midnight and there had been no light in her room. He had knocked softly twice but she did not answer. A rotund woman in her sixties sauntered up the hall. Her stale, fiery breath from too much gin advanced in front of her ill-fitting red dress and her eyes darted across his naked torso. She licked her lips and that was enough; Tommy fled back to his room and the sanctuary of his bed where he buried his head under his pillow in the vain attempt to get Barbara out of his head. How did so much change in one day? And why couldn't I say anything?
Havers had been unable to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes he was there, bare-chested in front of the tent. In her mind he was smiling at her. She wanted to reach out and touch him and for her hands to evoke the same feeling she had experienced on the cliff. She wanted her lips to excite him. She wanted her...Two soft raps on her door brought her out of her reveries. She straightened her pyjamas and went to the door knowing it would be him. Nerves and excitement surged through her in equal measure and she knew she was shaking. She paused then swung open the door to find no one there. Crestfallen she looked in the corridor. At the end was a fat old lady in a tight red dress who turned and waved. Barbara shut the door and tumbled back into bed trying hard to stifle the tears that were forming. You're a fool Barbara!
Breakfast was a quick coffee and a nervous glance at each other before they were out the door and into his car with a local sergeant, Bob Smithers. Talking would have to wait but somehow in the daylight it seemed less urgent that she discuss yesterday with him. Maybe it will go away and we can just pretend nothing happened. Winston had a lead on a likely location for William Wallace and they rushed to the address to find he had moved out three days before. Wallace had cleaned out over a hundred thousand pounds from Hannon's account and they were desperate to find him before he murdered anyone else. Tommy ran his hand through his hair in frustration and Barbara fought to control the thoughts it conjured. Not again! Clean mind, pure thoughts!
At Eastbourne Police Station they painstakingly trawled through mug shots of criminals looking for a match to the photo they had secured from York. It was a futile and boring exercise and Tommy was looking for an excuse to get Barbara alone. The tension between them was palpable and they needed to sort things out before it affected their working relationship as well. The trouble was he had no idea what to say that would not sound trite or conceited. Finally at lunchtime they had some privacy. "Barbara, about yesterday," he started," I think we should talk."
"Yeah, I know. It's just that…"
Tommy's phone rang. It was Winston so he put up his hand to stop Barbara and slid his thumb across the screen to answer. Five minutes later they were deep in conversation with Smithers. There was a gala fund-raising event to be held that evening at the Eastbourne Bandstand and it was likely that Wallace would be scouting it for his next victim.
"No!" Barbara protested when Smithers made his suggestion, "I don't want to dress up and be bait."
"I'll be there too, in the crowd, we only need him to make contact then we can arrest him. You won't even need to leave the area." Tommy's point made sense to her but she did not want to dress up and pretend to be the lonely, unloved woman that she was already. The last few days had been unsettling enough without having that rubbed in her face.
Smithers was an old-style policeman who had no trouble asserting his opinions. "You're not too bad a looker and if he thinks you've got money you might interest him, especially if you go all out with the right clothes and some make-up. You look like you're gawky and vulnerable around men; that should reel him in."
Barbara shot him a look that would have melted a glacier but it was Tommy who answered first. "Sergeant Havers is NOT 'gawky and vulnerable around men' and she is exceedingly attractive. I think it's a good idea but if she is not comfortable she doesn't have to do it." Smithers raised his eyebrows and smirked. Barbara knew he was thinking that the poncy DI was getting his end away with his sergeant or some other equally crass phrase.
Lynley was looking directly at her and she could see he had been sincere. She liked his protectiveness. Once it had seemed suffocating but now it was just a part of their relationship and she knew she would defend him with the same vigour. Her face had flushed though when he had said 'exceedingly attractive' and she had seen that was equally as genuine. "Alright, I'll do it but I'll need something to wear."
"The theme is 'Black and Gold' so something long and black. There's a store in town that will have something. I can send you down there with one of the WPC's if you like," Smithers offered.
Lynley and Havers both winced at the anachronism. The prefix of 'women' had been gone since the end of the last century. Barbara could see that Tommy was about to lecture Smithers about his chauvinism but she frowned at him. There was no point with people like that. "Thanks, that'd be good."
Barbara did not see Tommy again until they were back at the hotel and he knocked on her door to check details for the evening. He had a suit bag over his arm and a flustered look on his face. "I had to buy a suit. I couldn't get mine down from London in time. Did you find a dress?"
"Yeah, it's pretty simple but I think it might do the trick. I think Smithers will approve." Barbara did not care what the odious old sergeant thought but she was hoping Tommy would like it. It was not what she would normally have chosen but with the mood of yesterday she had seen it and decided to test out his feelings once and for all. He was probably only attracted to her because of the way she had responded to his photo. Men and their egos. She would settle for that or lust or any other excuse. One night of feeling his body wrapped around hers would suffice. It would give her memories instead of fantasies that would sustain her over the years. Then we can go back to being friends.
"To hell with Smithers!" Tommy replied vehemently, "as long as we can find Wallace then I'll be happy." It was a lie. Lynley wanted to catch Wallace but he also wanted to see Barbara in her dress. He knew it would be modest and simple like the one she had worn to his party but he had thought about almost nothing else all day. He hoped that Wallace would not be there so that he would be able to dance with her and hold her close. Maybe then he would be able to kiss her. He wanted to do that now but he knew where that would lead, or he hoped he did, and they still had a murderer to apprehend.
"Sir?"
"Oh sorry, what? My mind was elsewhere."
"I said it would take me about half an hour to get ready."
"That's not very long," he replied absent-mindedly forgetting that Havers was not a typical woman.
"Long enough," she replied tartly, "I'm not…"
"Cleopatra, yes I know," he said interrupting her.
She smiled at him and they laughed. It was the first time since yesterday that they had been relaxed enough with each other to share a joke. "Remind me to tell you about my bath sometime," she said huskily as she turned and went into her room closing the door in his face. Tommy groaned and hurried to his room. A cold shower was very much in order.
Thirty minutes later Tommy stood nervously at her door. He straightened his tie and shrugged his shoulders so that his coat sat evenly. He coughed softly to clear his throat then knocked firmly on the grey painted door.
"Hang on." Barbara was struggling to reach behind her and pull up her zipper. She had hopped around trying to grab the metal end but it eluded her. She had not thought this through when she had purchased the dress as the constable she had taken with her had done it up. Barbara enjoyed the way the dress looked on her and the confidence it gave her. The practicalities of wearing it had been happily ignored. Now she had no choice, Tommy would have to help her.
She opened the door and stopped dead. It was Tommy but she barely recognised him. She started at his feet and ran her eyes up his body admiring his perfectly shined shoes and his jet black suit that seemed cut to emphasise his narrow waist and broad shoulders. It was expensive looking fine wool; it's shade matching exactly with his ebony fine cotton shirt. His tie was of medium width, in line with modern fashion, in a brilliant yellow-gold silk that seemed to swirl in the light. His hair was slicked back in a way that exuded a devilish, bad boy aura. This was not a man to upset. His face bore the usual friendly grin but the black frame gave it a seductive edge. Barbara felt the colour rise across her throat and into her ears but this time it was not embarrassment. If he had dressed to thrill he had succeeded!
Barbara may have been enthralled by the sight of him but Tommy was mesmerised by her. What he had expected to see was nothing like the vision in front of him. He remembered the shy and awkward Barbara who was uncomfortable in a modest black dress and black stockings that had given her the vague appearance of a reluctant nun. Now a year of cold showers would do nothing to quell his yearning for her. Never in his life had he been so completely captivated by a woman. He had never been short of pretty women on his arm but standing before him now Barbara had a confidence and sexiness that beguiled him and awakened a rapacious hunger. He swallowed hard and understood exactly what her expression had meant when she had looked at his photo. He only wished he still hard that lean, chiselled body to satisfy her desires.
"Oh Barbara, gold suits you. You look divine." He could scarcely breathe, let alone speak. The bronzed gold silky gown clung to her body and draped softly to the floor. Narrow straps over her shoulder plunged into a sweeping v-line that ended with a delicate bow just below her breasts which were clearly untamed but beautifully rounded. This was not a dress that left much to his imagination. He was torn between wanting to stare at her in it and wanting to slide it off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor.
She smiled and her face lit up in way that drew his attention to her eyes. He could not recall her wearing makeup before but now her eyes were framed by a subtle black rim that made the green more vivid, like the deep new leaves on a tree in spring. Her lips glowed in brilliant red that highlighted their fullness. They looked soft and inviting and he longed to kiss them. She was looking him up and down and when she unconsciously ran her tongue over them and bit her lip it took all of his self-control to not pick her up and throw her on the bed. He was shocked at his reaction. He loved her for everything else she was but this new erotic persona added a wonderful new dimension to it. Her dangling gold earrings caught the light and drew his eyes to her long smooth neck. He could almost taste her skin as imagined running his tongue down onto the sensitive junction of her neck and shoulder. He dragged his eyes away. Stop it! You have a murderer to catch.
"Would you mind zipping me up?" She turned and he saw that the dress had the same plunging v at the back. The dress was undone and as he leant over he could see the expanse of her flawless back. He stepped in close and pulled the zipper up slowly, gently brushing her skin with his fingers and allowing his hips to nestle against the small of her back. He felt her shiver and smiled. He did not know if she loved him but he could tell she wanted him. But that was not enough. He did not want this to be meaningless, libido-fuelled sex between two lonely friends. There were always women after a night of fun and satisfaction but he wanted to make love to her and have her love him. He wanted her to stay with him forever. He had never thought about how that would work but seeing her standing in that dress he knew she would be a superb Lady Asherton and the thought was strangely freeing. He finished the zipper and placed his hands softly on her shoulders. They stood motionless.
The dress had had the affect she had hoped. Tommy had looked at her the same way she had stared at his photograph. If this doesn't give him the hint I'm not sure what will! Unfortunately Tommy was quick to react to an attractive woman but to actually be that woman gave her a sense of power that inflamed her desire. She felt wanton and sexy and she enjoyed it. She wanted to stay like this forever with his hands on her skin and his breath on her neck but that would not catch Wallace. Maybe when this case was over they could take a few days off and go somewhere with a large bathtub and get this out if their systems.
She moved forward out of his grip and picked up her shoes. "I'm not very good with heels," she said honestly. She stumbled as she tried to put them on and instantly Havers was back and Tommy grinned fondly at her.
"Let me." He moved across and took them from her hand. She sat on the edge of the bed and she knelt down on one knee and slipped them first onto the left foot and then onto the right. He watched her as he ran his hand unhurriedly up her calf and was rewarded with a look that told him she would enjoy more of his touch. "I think we had better go or Smithers will be worried."
He stood and helped her to her feet. Her gait was a little uncertain but as she took a few steps her poise increased. Tommy offered her his arm. "You won't fall Barbara. I'll keep you safe."