Chapter 5

"Hey baby." The husky voice mumbled in her ear as dark arms wrapped around her waist.

"Hey." She replied, leaning back into the embrace.

"Good day?" Doug asked, kissing her neck from behind.

"Meh." She answered vaguely, pulling out of the hug. In actual fact she had had a good day. She had been working with Sara and Nick, and – with their fight long since forgotten now – she and Sara had spent most of the night ganging up on Nicky.

And apart from that, she had caught a nice glimpse of Sara's ass as she bent over the layout table.

But she was hardly going to tell any of that to Doug.

So instead she ambled over to the kitchen table and sat down with her coffee.

"Everything alright?" He asked, sitting next to her.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" She asked with a frown.

"I don't know, you just seem ... distracted." He said, taking her hand. She pulled it back, completely missing the look of confused hurt that flashed through his eyes. She always missed it.

"Just, tough case I guess." She lied. It had actually been a relatively straight forward case tonight.

"Ah." He nodded. He heard that a lot from his girlfriend now. It seemed every case she had was a tough case.

They had been 'dating' for a couple of weeks now, although it was a strange relationship to say the least. Doug had been warned by Nancy that her sister could get clingy sometimes, but he found quite the opposite. If anything, she seemed disinterested in the relationship.

Occasionally she would display sudden bouts of neediness, but the rest of the time she seemed to be keeping him at arm's length.

And the bedroom was a whole different ball game. Sometimes she was like a demon on heat, and others she seemed almost bored.

He was very confused. However, he was not one to give up easily.

x x x x x

She knew that she shouldn't, but she was. She was using Doug to get over her crush on Sara.

And it was failing miserably.

Sure, she tried to convince herself that she was over it, and it didn't mean anything, but then she would see Sara again, and all it took was one Sidle smile to melt her resolve.

"Cath?" He called her back to reality again.

"Huh?" She asked, oh so eloquently. "Sorry, you were saying?"

"I was asking of you'd like to go out somewhere for dinner tonight, since you're off?"

"Sorry, it's a school night." She pointed out.

"Okay, I'll cook for you then." He offered, not one to be disheartened easily. Not seeing much choice, Cath agreed.

x x x x x

Catherine had never been more grateful to Lindsey than tonight. If not for the little girl's constant chattering then they would have been eating in silence.

Doug had a pretty good rapport with Lindsey, but sometimes he seemed a bit impatient with her childish ramblings.

Catherine was in her own little world for most of the meal, and left Lindsey to do the talking.

After dinner, she sent her daughter upstairs to do her homework, and began cleaning the dishes.

"Hey, leave that. Let's go relax for a bit." Doug said, tugging her arm lightly.

"No, it's okay. I may as well do them now." She insisted.

"Cath, come on. Leave it." He grinned, successfully tugging her away from the sink into the lounge.

In the living room they collapsed onto the couch together. There was little conversation between them, but the quiet was companionable enough. Cath settled into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. She could feel his hands beginning to roam across her stomach, playing with the bottom of her shirt teasingly.

"Maybe we could move this upstairs." He whispered seductively. She smiled up at him, raising an eyebrow. Taking that as a yes, he tugged her up by the hand and practically dragged her upstairs.

She did have to admit; in the bedroom they had chemistry. And normally that would be enough for her, but recently she had lost her interest in sex.

And tonight was no different: she was fine and initially thought she had gotten over whatever was wrong with her, and then all of a sudden something seemed to change.

It was like her body stopped reacting to his touches. Normally she would be on fire right now, but instead his touches just felt rough and unfamiliar against her skin. Not that he seemed to notice her discomfort.

She closed her eyes and through no control of her own, the image of Sara changing in the locker room drifted into her mind. She focused on that; memorising the slender figure, the gentle curves, that tattoo. She had forgotten all about that. She wondered what it was.

Catherine had never been a big fan of tattoos, but she found something decidedly sexy about the thought of Sara having one. Perhaps more than one. She wanted to find out for herself.

As the feral part of her mind started mentally undressing Sara, her body began to react to Doug's course touch.

It wasn't what she needed, but it would do for now.