"So you just, like, go to work every morning and then come back every evening?" Mary asked curiously.

Matthew smirked as he looked up from his book. "Yes, I know it's a difficult concept to grasp." Mary seemed oddly intrigued by his life as an accountant.

"Doesn't it get boring? Doing the same thing every day?" Mary asked, sitting down in one of the armchairs to put her heels on. It was Friday night and the pair were due to make an appearance at Visage, a brand new, swanky club in Mayfair. It was more of a celebrity haunt than a spot for politicians' children, but it was the sort of place Mary would usually frequent anyway, so the PR teams thought it would an ideal place for Matthew and Mary to be seen and inject some glamour into the political sphere.

"Sometimes, I suppose." Matthew shrugged. "It helps knowing that most adults in the country have a similar routine. How on Earth are you going to walk in those?" He eyed her sky-high stilettos warily.

"They're not so bad. I've had years of practice, Matthew." Mary stood up and waltzed around the living room in front of him to demonstrate her skill. Matthew laughed, and she noticed uneasily that she derived some form of pleasure from making him laugh.

"You're very talented. I'm sorry I doubted you." Matthew replied. "So are you all ready to go?" He asked, closing the book and setting it down. After realising how long it took Mary to get ready, he'd left a book at her old house which he read whenever he went to pick her up for one of their dates.

"Yep, let me just grab my phone." Mary made her way to the kitchen where she'd left it. There was one missed call from her father. It had been a while since he'd called her, especially since he became Prime Minister. She frowned gently as she called him back.

"Hello, darling." Her father's voice greeted her.

"Hi, Dad. Did you call earlier?"

"I did, but it wasn't anything important. I just wanted to see how you were getting on. Nigel tells me you and Matthew are going out again this evening."

"Yeah, we are." Mary replied. "Everything's going fine."

"Matthew's not being inappropriate with you, is he?" Robert's fatherly concern made itself known.

Mary swallowed nervously. Rubbing his hands all over her bottom and French kissing her wasn't exactly 'appropriate', but Mary wasn't about to divulge those details to her father. Besides, she hadn't exactly discouraged that behaviour... "Not at all." She said as nonchalantly as she could.

"Good, good. It would be remiss of me not to ask." Robert laughed lightly. "There are many men who would seek to take advantage, but Matthew seemed like a nice chap when I met him. It's too bad he's on the other side." He laughed again.

"I thought we were all on the same side now?" Mary teased.

"For now, yes. I know you're a careful girl but I want you to bear in mind that this is only a temporary measure - this 'Brangelina' business, or whatever it's called. Once it's all over, we can find you a more suitable man, someone who shares our background and values." Robert made what he thought was an appealing promise.

"Great." Mary replied drily, but her lack of sincerity escaped the notice of her busy father.

"Anyway, I must be going, have fun tonight, darling! I'll speak to you soon."

"Bye, Dad." Mary hung up. A deep sigh. He hadn't told her anything she didn't know already, but it still felt rather disappointing to be told that Matthew was completely off limits.

"How do you manage to make even the simplest task last an absolute age?" Matthew's bemused voice called as he approached the kitchen to see what was taking her so long.

"I'm sorry, we don't all have punctuality drilled into our brains from doing a 9-to-5 everyday." Mary retorted, fetching her handbag.

"A 9-to-5 would do you some good. Although you would be awful for the first few months at least." Matthew teased, knowing she wouldn't take offence.

"Well, it's a good thing I'll never have to do one, isn't it?" Mary led the way to the front door.

"I wouldn't be so sure – you'll need a back-up plan for when the wrinkles and grey hair appear." Matthew cajoled, grabbing his jacket as he walked behind her.

"Shut up." Mary bit back, stepping outside where the cab was waiting for them.

...

Mary felt her phone vibrate in her clutch. Pulling it out, she saw she'd received a message from Nigel.

"Make sure you two are seen dancing together."

She rolled her eyes to herself. This was ridiculous. Well, part of her thought it was ridiculous. The other part was grateful to Nigel for giving her an excuse to be close to Matthew again, as they'd been apart for twenty minutes or so. He was currently chatting to a blonde girl at the bar, who had walked over to him as he'd been waiting to buy Mary and himself drinks. She watched as they spoke animatedly, Matthew smiling as he chatted and making the girl laugh. Mary realised that they'd never spoken like that. Their encounters were always filled with wry jibes at each other and debates, not so much with light-hearted banter or pleasant conversations. It was just wasn't in Mary's nature to be delightful or fun, someone to have a laugh with while chatting at the bar. She could flirt, undoubtedly, but her approach was more reserved and slow-paced. An approach that not many twenty-first century men had the patience for, she'd come to learn.

Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, she walked over to where Matthew was. The girl was now standing very close to him, making Mary more determined to get her dance with him. It was comforting in a way to know that Matthew had to pay attention to her, so she had no reason to fear his dismissal or him throwing her over for the blonde girl or any of the other women who were eyeing him up from a distance.

"Hey - did you manage to get our drinks?" She asked, pushing her way between them.

"Oh hey," Matthew smiled upon seeing her, "Sorry, I was just chatting to Alice here and got distracted."

"Nice to meet you." Alice said to Mary, with an insincerity that Mary immediately recognised. It was the insincerity of a girl who was out to tempt someone else's boyfriend.

With a cursory, wan smile to the girl, Mary turned back to Matthew. "It doesn't matter - let's dance." She held his hand and pulled him towards the dancefloor, hearing him offer a quick apology to the girl for leaving so hurriedly. They found a spot to dance in the middle of the crowd, just barely. The lack of space meant they had to stand very close together. "Nigel said we should be seen dancing." Mary explained, not wanting him to think that this was all her idea, in case he misconstrued her intentions.

He smiled at her amusedly. "It's alright, Mary. I wouldn't mind if you actually wanted to dance. We're at a club." He wanted her to loosen up a bit. He was sure she had it in her - he'd seen pictures and video clips of her at various parties with other socialites and, while she always remained dignified, she definitely knew how to enjoy herself if she wanted to. Tonight, for some reason, she'd been subdued and a little stiff. He wasn't a huge fan of partying, but they were there together in a fancy club and he felt they ought to make the most of it - they were young and should have a little fun. He rested his hands on her hips as they began to sway to the music, their bodies almost pressing against each other.

Mary cursed inwardly. The club and the mass of people around them had made her warm enough as it was, but now Matthew's proximity and his touch were making her even more heated. He kissed her, and then again, his tongue just grazing her top lip. Mary gulped. If she'd wanted to, she could have dry-humped him in the middle of the dancefloor without anyone batting an eyelid because it was so crowded, and it could have all been in the name of Operation Brangelina. She knew he was only kissing her out of duty, but all the same it was invoking feelings in her that she didn't like. At the moment, it was just physical attraction, a crush, but there was no way she could let that develop into anything more lustful. The idea of them trying to date in real life was laughable and simply out of the question, as the Prime Minister himself had reminded her a couple of hours earlier.

Matthew settled his hands lower on her hips and moved his lips to her neck, where he began placing wet kisses. Mary involuntarily clutched at his shoulder. This was too much. Between the heat, the music pumping through her, the crowd writhing around her, the feel of Matthew's mouth moving along her skin and his firm body against hers, she was beginning to feel delirious. This was very dangerous territory. If she didn't check herself then she was at risk of doing something stupid.

She let go of his shoulder and pushed at his chest. He stepped back a little, looking up at her questioningly. "Sorry, I don't have to kiss you, I just thought-" he began.

Mary shook her head, "No, it's-" She hesitated, not knowing what exactly she wanted to say. "Look, I need to go."

"OK, I'll get a cab." Matthew said, frowning in confusion at her behaviour.

"No, I need to go on my own. You stay here." Mary said hastily, looking for a gap through which she could squeeze herself through the crowd and escape. "I'm sorry, I'll see you later." She called over her shoulder, leaving him behind.

...

Popping her sunglasses on top of her head, Mary skipped up the steps to her house. After last night, she'd woken up early to go to the gym to work out the tension that she'd been feeling. It had helped - after a few hours of deep sleep and an hour hitting a punch-bag at the gym, she felt much better about her Matthew-related problem. He was a handsome young man, intelligent and gentlemanly, and she was being made to kiss and caress him on a regular basis. So of course her body would betray her and tell her that she had feelings for him. It would happen to any woman in her situation! It would happen if she was with any other man who ticked the same boxes! It didn't mean anything. Her mind knew better than to believe what her hormones were insisting was the case.

She was Lady Mary Crawley, and she had a queue of eligible men who would love to date her. The vast majority of them would for some reason never actually ask her out, but she could work on that. Matthew was just a favour for her father, nothing more.

This epiphany had arrived just in time, as immediately after her shower in the gym she'd received a frantic text message from Nigel reading: "URGENT MEETING AT YOUR OLD HOUSE. BE THERE ASAP."

Mary supposed the emergency was that one unfavourable photo had leaked to the internet, amidst the dozens of photos of her and Matthew coupled up, and Nigel classified this as a catastrophe that necessitated a full board meeting.

"Mary! Finally." Nigel called as she walked in the room. Eric, Jacob and Nicholas - who was still doing work experience as his father's assistant - were in the room. "Where's Matthew?"

"I don't know, Nigel." Mary replied calmly. "I'm not his keeper."

"Clearly not." Eric scoffed. Mary looked at him with a frown.

"What's going on?" She asked, noticing the tension in the faces of the PR team. Even Jacob, who was usually the most rational and laid-back of the spin doctors, was tapping his foot on the floor at a worryingly rapid pace.

"You don't know?" Eric asked incredulously. Mary shook her head.

To her right, Nicholas started laughing. "Matthew shagged some blonde woman last night!"

"What?" Mary exclaimed. Then it dawned on her - Alice, that bitch at the bar. She would have tried it on with him again after Mary left and they must have been photographed together, sparking rumours. "Oh, that."

"I thought you didn't know about it?" Jacob asked.

Mary waved her hand dismissively. "Some girl at the club last night was trying to chat him up. I left early and she must have made her move again and then told everyone they'd spent the night together. How desperate." She said, feeling inexplicably angry that someone would claim Matthew as theirs, even for one night.

"I'm afraid it's not just her word that we're contending with, Mary." Eric said impatiently. "If it was, don't you think we'd be able to handle that? We're not amateurs, you know."

"Matthew's neighbour spilled the beans." Nicholas interjected excitedly, apparently thrilled by this saucy development. "He lives next door. He could hear them through the wall, and he presumed Matthew must have brought you back. He snuck out to take a photo of you leaving but instead got a picture of some fit blonde bird leaving his flat at 3am."

A sinking feeling settled in Mary's gut. Matthew had slept with someone else?

"Cheeky devil, I wouldn't have thought Matthew had it in him. She looks fit." Nicholas reiterated. "The neighbour said they were going at it for ages-"

"Nicholas, please." Nigel silenced his teenage son. He turned to a rather pale-looking Mary. "The point is, this neighbour has now sold the picture to the Daily Mail and it's on the front page of the hard copy and the main story on their website." He tossed a print edition towards Mary. She picked it up to examine the large colour photo on the front page. Sure enough, there was Matthew, stood in the doorway to his flat, with Alice a little ahead of him as she left. His hair was mussed and he appeared to be topless, although his body wasn't in full view. The headline ran: "FRACTURE IN THE COALITION? MYSTERY BLONDE IN ONE-NIGHT STAND SHOCKER."

"I'm sure there's an explanation." She said with more confidence than she felt. Matthew wouldn't be so stupid, would he? He was a sensible man. Not the type to have one-night stands. Or so she'd thought. It dawned on her that she didn't actually know Matthew very well at all. Even so, he certainly seemed too intelligent to bed another woman while he was supposed to be in a high-profile relationship.

"We hope so, too." Nigel sighed. "Ah, here he is."

Mary spun around to see Matthew enter the room, looking more than a little worse for wear.

"Matthew, mate - well done." Nicholas said reverently, standing up to greet him as if receiving the Pope.

To Mary's disgust, Matthew smirked a little bit at this, although he didn't respond. Was he proud of what he'd done?! He didn't meet her eyes, so he couldn't see the daggers that she was throwing at him.

"Before you say anything-" Matthew held his hands up as he saw all three PR men open their mouths at once. "I'm sorry - I know I was an idiot and I shouldn't have done it."

The three older men let out a collective sigh of resignation. They'd all been hoping that there'd be some rationale behind the neighbour's account and the photograph that didn't involve sex.

"You've made things exceedingly difficult for us now, Matthew. Exceedingly difficult." Eric said huffily. "We won't go into the exact reasons behind what you did - that's your business - but we need to figure out how to spin this so it doesn't seem like you've just cheated on the Prime Minister's daughter."

"I'm thinking: masseuse." Nigel said. "She visited you to give you a massage for an injury that you sustained while playing sport. You play rugby, don't you?"

"Er, I haven't played in about two years..." Matthew replied. "But I do play badminton every Sunday and go for runs every now and then, if that helps." He offered weakly.

"That might work." Jacob said. "Or it could be an old rugby injury that flared up again while you were dancing last night, and you had to call an emergency masseuse!" He said enthusiastically.

"Do you have to dial 999 for that?" Nicholas quipped, falling silent as his father gave him a stern look.

"Yes, yes, we can spin this." Nigel said, pacing and stroking his chin in deep thought. "In the meantime, we need to deal with this neighbour, destroy his credibility. Do you know anything about him, Matthew? Is he involved in anything dodgy?"

"You're not going to try to blackmail him, are you?" Matthew asked with concern. He was slightly dumbfounded by the strong reaction that his spontaneous little escapade had evoked.

"No, but we need to come up with some dirt on him, pronto." Eric said. "We can't let this story spiral any further."

"Why don't you have a think about what information you can give us, and in the meantime we'll look at the possibility of getting an injunction so that he doesn't say anything else." Nigel said to Matthew. "And we'll try to track down this Alice woman so that she doesn't say anything either. We'll probably need to pay her off. I'm guessing you didn't get her phone number, or address or anything like that? Surname, even?"

Matthew cleared his throat awkwardly, the colour rising in his cheeks. "Erm, no." He said quietly. Nigel nodded in acknowledgement.

"We've all been there, mate." Jacob winked at Matthew as the PR men left the room, Nigel dragging his son away before he could quiz Matthew about the precise events of the night before.

Matthew and Mary were left in the room alone. Matthew was forced to finally look at her, having avoided her gaze thus far, and he was met with quite possibly the stoniest expression he'd ever seen.

"I don't need to hear it from you too, Mary." Matthew said wearily, taking a seat and pre-empting her outburst. "I've already had a bollocking from my parents at 6am. Do you know how embarrassing it is to have your mother yell at you for sleeping with someone after seeing a picture of you with them in a national newspaper?"

Mary remained silent, her jaw set tightly as she busied herself with neatening up the pile of newspapers that Nigel and co had bought that morning.

"Look, I am really sorry." Matthew said, presuming she was so angry because he was damaging the Coalition's already fragile reputation. After all, she'd been reticent to act upon the Cosgrove/McDonald discovery for that very reason. "But these guys know what they're doing," he said, referring to the PR team, "they've covered up worse stories in their time. It'll blow over."

Still, Mary remained quiet. "Why did you do it?" She asked eventually, her eyes still angry.

Matthew shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The truth was, he didn't quite know why he'd done it. All he remembered was being thoroughly confused when Mary left him alone in the club. Up until that point, he'd thought they'd been making progress. They'd been getting along better, and had even teamed up to investigate the potential Cosgrove affair. Plus, she'd seemed to be increasingly receptive to his attentions, even to the point where she'd seemed to be enjoying them. He hadn't expected anything to really happen between them, given that they had nothing in common, but he thought they could at least enjoy each other's company and learn to laugh at the circumstances they'd found themselves in. He'd even thought that they might be able to enjoy the more intimate aspect of their fake relationship, in a kind of no-strings-attached way.

Her odd behaviour at the club had therefore thrown him. She'd put her guard up again, and seemed to be acting strictly under Nigel's orders with no desire to engage with him otherwise - she'd only come up to him at the bar because Nigel had told her to dance with him, for instance. When he'd started kissing her on the dancefloor, it had half been for the purposes of Operation Brangelina, and half just for the hell of it. They were young, unattached, and he was pretty sure they were both attracted to each other, so why not dabble in a bit of harmless kissing? That had been his thought process, until Mary had pushed him away and abruptly left. That had, for want of a better term, pissed him off. If there was one thing he didn't like, it was mixed signals - he much preferred to be honest and straightforward. He felt that Mary had been messing him around and he didn't like it one bit.

She wasn't worth the hassle, he'd decided. She might be beautiful, but she was a socialite, and as spoilt and stuck-up as you'd expect. If she didn't want to enjoy his company, then that was up to her. Besides, they only had a limited amount of time to spend together - a couple more weeks, at most.

This new thought process had been bolstered by a few drinks that he'd bought himself at the bar. While he was on his third vodka and Coke, Alice had returned. She was very pretty and easy to talk to, Matthew had noted. It didn't feel like a struggle just to get a friendly word out of her, and she openly showed her interest in him. When she'd kissed him, therefore, he hadn't backed away. Why would he? He wasn't really in a relationship, so he wouldn't be cheating on anyone. Mary certainly didn't seem like she'd give two hoots if he spent the night with someone else. In his slightly inebriated state, he saw no reason why he should pass up the opportunity of enjoying himself just because the media thought he was going out with some posh woman who happened to be the Prime Minister's daughter. Screw her, he'd thought.

It was only when Alice left his apartment later that night, by which point he had completely sobered up, that he realised the ramifications of his actions. His father, the government, the entire plan that they'd concocted and worked at over the last fortnight. For that, he was truly sorry. But he had, in a sense, been perfectly entitled to do what he did, and for that he wasn't going to apologise. Especially not to Mary.

"I did it for the same reason that lots of people take someone home with them." He said evasively, with a shrug that only served to infuriate Mary more.

"Matthew - you had sex with someone while we're supposed to be in a relationship!" She exclaimed.

"I know that!" Matthew exclaimed back. "We're not in a relationship, though, are we?"

"No, I know." Mary said defensively. She didn't want it to seem like she was hurt that he had been with someone else, but it was difficult to conceal when it was so fresh. Part of her anger was her frustration with herself for being so bothered by it in the first place. "That's not why I'm angry."

"Then why are you angry?" Matthew said impatiently.

"Because you've put everything at risk! The Coalition is still rocky and we were the only thing helping to boost public opinion, and now-"

"I've already apologised for that." Matthew interrupted. "And I'll do whatever I can to help repair the damage I've caused. What else do you want me to do?"

Mary merely shook her head, her hands continuing to fidget with the newspapers on the table in front of her. "You're an idiot."

This riled Matthew up. Who she was to judge him? "Thanks very much for that, Mary, that's really helpful." He stood up, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Yes, I agree that I'm an idiot. Does that make you feel better? Why are you so angry about this? It's not like you could give a damn about my life. I'm within my rights to sleep with as many women as I want to."

"Do you do this a lot? Pick up random women at clubs and take them home?" Mary wasn't sure what possessed her to ask this, given that it wasn't relevant, but she wanted to know and the adrenaline prevented her from filtering it out before she spoke.

Matthew stared at her incredulously - this was none of her business! "So what if I do? I'm single, and if I'm out somewhere and an attractive woman wants to sleep with me then, yes, sometimes I do indulge myself." This was a little misleading - Matthew had only ever had a couple of one-night stands, and on neither occasion did he wake up feeling fulfilled. He much preferred being in a relationship, or at least dating someone, before being that intimate. Still, he wasn't going to divulge all of this to Mary, not when she was being so judgmental.

"You're disgusting." Mary replied. She was vaguely aware that she was being harsh on him - he wasn't any different to the majority of men their age and he hadn't actually wronged anyone - but she was hurt that he would kiss her on the dancefloor (even if it was only out of duty) and then move onto another woman as soon as she left.

This woman was unbelievable. "I'm 'disgusting', am I? Look, Mary, I'm sorry that you never get any action, but if you stopped being so stuck up your own arse then maybe men would approach you and you'd understand what I'm saying." He blurted out, recalling his conversation with Edith and using it as ammunition against Mary. It was only when he saw the thinly-concealed hurt in Mary's expression that he regretted having said it.

"You're a bastard." She said to him, before picking up her bag and leaving.

A/N: sorry! I know you were all happy to see things progress between Matthew and Mary, but I wanted to throw a spanner in the works, just to keep things interesting. I hope it didn't seem too OOC for Matthew, but I figured he's a twenty-first century man so he's more likely than not to do something like this at least once in his life! Let me know your thoughts xxx