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She hadn’t meant to, she really hadn’t but she had been looking for some of the students that had wandered off from the main camp, assuming that they had made their way down the lake which was supposed to be out of bounds.
As she’d made her way down to the water, she heard splashing and she was about to shout when she saw the top of the person's head and realised it wasn’t a student, the person in the lake was decidedly adult… and male.
She quickly ducked behind a tree she didn’t want to be discovered spying on a random man, her heart was hammering as she tried to work out who the heck it could be.
She knew Anthony and Kate were up at the main site yelling at one another after the game of rounders had ended with them both in mud, Posy was with Hugh overseeing the after dinner dishes. She had seen Benedict about 30 minutes before she’d done the number count for Professor Danbury, she’d flirted with him and he’d basically ran away from her ignoring her attempts.
She knew it was wrong. She really did but if it was Benedict it would be the only chance she got to see him naked, and it was a chance she really didn’t want to pass up.
So she peered around the tree, crouching down so he couldn’t see her and she took her chance…
~*~
Benedict hated that he’d run from Sophie, he’d had a crush on her since the day she’d arrived at Mayfair High as the new Food Technology teacher. She was funny and stunningly beautiful and they had loads in common but he’d seen relationships between colleagues go sour and there was no way he wanted to risk his friendship with her.
He wanted nothing more than to have his way with her, to push her up against a tree and do unspeakable things to her and that was why he’d run from her. She’d stood there smiling, making some sort of innuendo towards him and he’d seen straight down her top and he’d felt a stirring in his pants and he knew he had to get out of there before he did something he’d owe her a million apologies for.
And in front of the students no less and there was no way he could do that. It was bad enough that his brother was nearly dry humping Kate in front of the students.
So as he’d left, he’d made sure he had nothing that needed to be done and he’d headed straight down to the lake, the cold cold lake to have a swim and pull himself together before they had the evening rounds together.
He knew the students were busy doing the post dinner dishes and tidying up after the evening game of rounders and he also knew they were not allowed near the lake so he’d assumed it would be safe to strip down to nothing, plunge into the water and stay there until his cock was no longer a risk of causing him to embarrass himself in front of the students.
The water felt good as he swam around, diving down and resurfacing with a gasp and running his hands through his hair when he felt it.
A strange sensation crept over him, it was like a tingle that went through his entire body all the way down to his toes and given how cold he was, it was strange.
It was almost like he was being watched.
He turned around “who is there?” he asked the shore.
He didn’t expect anyone to reply and he couldn’t see anyone, but somehow he knew…
“Sophie?” he asked “Sophie Baek?? Is that you?”
Sophie squeaked and went to run away.
“Don’t you dare! If you run I will chase after you and as i am stronger and taller I will catch you! And I may have to tackle you to the floor” he yelled.
Sophie froze and as she stood up Benedict saw her dark hair appearing from behind a tree “You wouldn’t dare, the students would see you”
“Try me…” he said “get out from behind the tree and wait for me, it will take a moment for me to redress”
“I… no”
“Sophie…” he sighed “just do as I say”
Sophie grumbled but did as he asked, her face was bright red and her cheeks felt like they could burst into flames.
She turned her back and she heard Benedict making a big noise getting out of the water and honestly she just wanted to run away back to the tent, hide for the rest of the school trip because this was the most embarrassing thing ever.
Being caught spying on the man she’d been fantasising about for the better part of a year was not how she’d planned to spend her evening.
“You can turn around now” Benedict said, his clothes back on but obvious damp patches showing that he’d just dressed.
Sophie was almost afraid to do so. He had just the sort of perverse sense of humour that would compel him to tell her around before he'd dressed.
But she decided to trust him, not, she was forced to admit, that she had much choice in the matter, as whilst the thought of being tackled by a naked Benedict wasn’t unpleasant she would rather not be it because she’d been caught spying on him, so she turned around.
Much to her relief and, if she was to be honest with herself, a fair bit of disappointment, he was quite decently dressed. “Why didn’t you just let me run back to camp?” she asked, her cheeks completely red in the face now.
“I wanted you here,” he said simply.
“But why?” she persisted, he clearly had no interest in her after she’d been flirting with him for months.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Punishment, perhaps, for spying on me.”
“I wasn’t—” Sophie’s denial was automatic, but she cut herself off halfway through, because of course she’d been spying on him.
“Smart girl,” he murmured. She scowled at him. She would have liked to have said something utterly droll and witty, but she had a feeling that anything emerging from her mouth just then would have been quite the opposite, so she held her tongue. Better to be a silent fool than a talkative one.
“It’s very bad form to spy on one’s colleague,” he said, planting his hands on his hips and somehow managing to look both authoritative and relaxed at the same time.
“It was an accident, Arthur Hasbly disappeared and I thought he was down here” she grumbled.
“Oh, I believe you but Arthur asked permission to go to the tree house, he went with Lady Danbury as chaperone,” he said. “But back to the matter at hand… even if you didn’t intend to spy on me, the fact remains that when the opportunity arose, you took it.”
“Do you blame me?” Sophie asked deciding she might as well make a joke out of it.
He grinned. “Not at all. I would have done precisely the same thing.” Her mouth fell open in shock at his admission . “Oh, don’t pretend to be offended,” he said.
“i’m not offended.” Sophie said quietly.
He leaned a bit closer. “To tell the truth, I’m quite flattered.”
“It was academic curiosity,” she ground out. “I assure you.”
His smile grew sly. “So you’re telling me that you would have spied upon any naked man you’d come across?”
“Of course not!”
“See… flattered” he grinned, “if you wanted to see me naked though, all you had to do was ask…”
Sophie snorted derisively.
“What was that for?” he frowned
“Nothing” Sophie said with a huff as she turned and started to walk away “i’ve practically begged you for months” she said quietly under her voice.
“Wait… what? Months…?” Benedict asked, he’d followed her and heard her grumble so turned her around to face him.
Sophie felt her face getting redder than she thought was even possible “it… nothing”
“Clearly it’s not nothing” he said “you said you've practically begged me for months… begged me for what?” he asked taking in her face and seeing the way she was staring at her feet, the bright red colour of her cheeks “wait… you… you’ve been flirting with me but… but… but…” he stammered as Sophie shifted her feet and gave a weak nod.
“You’ve got a boyfriend….?”
Sophie’s face flew up to look at him incredulously. “What… who told you that?”
“I… no one… i saw you kissing Hugh on the cheek… so assumed…” he said
“He’s Posy’s boyfriend… he’d given me a lift to work as my stupid car broke down” Sophie said shaking her head.
“Oh…”
“Is that… is that why you’ve… avoided me…? I thought you were interested in me for ages but I was… just…”
Benedict decided not to say anything and just grabbed Sophie’s arm, pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
“I… you… you kissed me…” Sophie said after they pulled apart breathing hard.
“I did… I've wanted to do that since the moment I met you… I stepped back because I thought you were dating someone… but if you’re not…” Benedict said putting a hand on her face and caressing her “maybe after this trip I can take you to dinner?”
“I would like that,” she smiled and Benedict beamed and leaned down and kissed her again.
“Come on, we better get back before Lady D comes looking for us” Benedict said, linking his hand with hers.
As they walked hand in hand toward the camp, the laughter and chaos of the students fading behind them, Sophie realised that what had begun as a chance encounter by the lake had transformed into the start of something exhilaratingly new, and she couldn’t help but feel that this was just the beginning of their story.