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Ellie panted as she climbed the stairs leading to Hardy’s house on the cliffside. Even that close to the sea the air was stuffy and stale, lacking its usual salty breeze. The few wispy hairs that had escaped her messy ponytail were clinging to her sweaty skin despite it being early morning. Beneath her, the beach was already crowded. Dots of bright colours - beach towels, sun hats and parasols - stood out like colourful flowers in a field of amber. Ellie envied the beachgoers. Her own work suit was sticking uncomfortably to her sweaty, overheated skin - what she would not give to exchange it for a light flowing sarong. She had always been able to cope well in summer or felt unbothered by the blazing sunshine, if equipped with enough sunscreen, but this heatwave was on another scale. Every city around the country seemed to report new records on a daily basis, with temperatures easily scratching 35 degrees in daytime and barely dropping beneath 25 even at night. Even Ellie with her natural affinity to summer and sunshine yearned for the dome of hot sultry air to lift.
Yet, pressing as Ellie's need for a reprieve from the heat felt, another matter was towering over it. The nagging question of why Hardy had not shown up for work so far. It was a few minutes to eight. Under normal circumstances he would have been sitting at his desk when she arrived, scowling at some report or other and in dire need of a cup of tea. That morning his office had been empty when she got in after Fred’s school run and it had remained so.
She was not too worried about him. He had a working pacemaker and she knew that he was in good shape. Without a partner or any other close affiliates, Hardy had put her down as his emergency contact not too long ago and even opened up about his health, giving Ellie a fairly good idea about his physical state.
It must be Daisy, she decided as she pushed on, ignoring the sweat that trickled uncomfortably down her back beneath the blouse she wore. His daughter was the only reason Ellie could think of for him to stay away from work, but even then, she would have expected him to call or text. Knob.
Grinding her teeth Ellie pushed herself up the last few steps and raised one hand to ring the bell when the door was pulled open and the teenager, she had just worried about all but tumbled straight into her arms, a piece of toast between her teeth.
“Ellie! What’re you- Oh! Is Dad not at work yet?” Daisy stared at her, having moved the toast from the corner of her mouth to her right hand so she could talk. “Shit! We had a power cut. I assumed he’d be at the station already. Can you wake him? I’m late!”
Putting her meagre breakfast back between her teeth, Daisy rushed down the steps taking two and three at a time. Ellie was left to stare after her, her head still spinning from receiving so much information in such a short span of time.
Power cut. Asleep.
Right.
Glancing back at the front door she saw that it was still ajar and stepped inside. The kitchen held every sign of a very hasty breakfast with the clock on the microwave blinking rhythmically. Other than that, the house was ominously silent.
“Hardy?” Ellie tentatively called out as she cast a hesitant look up the stairs. She almost willed to hear the rushing of the shower, letting her know that Alec was awake and going through a rushed morning routine, but there was no sound. She hesitantly climbed the stairs, one hand on the banister and her jaw set in determination to do as Daisy had asked, but once Ellie reached the top of the stairs, any bravado seemed to have remained on the ground floor.
Not even a floorboard creaked under her footsteps or a breeze made the roof groan. Yet, Ellie could almost feel Hardy’s presence echoing in the stillness around her as her eyes came to rest on the one door to the one room, she had never set foot in or laid eyes upon. His bedroom.
As she stared at it, the door seemed to grow in size until it seemed to take up the whole wall and nearly dwarfed Ellie’s determination.
“Oh don’t be stupid.” Annoyed, Ellie huffed at herself and resolutely opened the door to Alec’s bedroom before she could think of a reason not to.
Oh shit.
Ellie’s mouth seemed to dry out in a matter of moments. Her heart rate spiked and all blood dropped into her legs, making her sway, before it all rushed to her head where it coloured her face a deep crimson.
Hardy, Alec, was lying diagonally in the middle of his bed with one arm resting beneath his head and his face half-smothered by the pillow. His hair was mussed up, a nest of dark silky tufts standing up at every possible angle and one scruffy cheek visible with dark lashes rimming a firmly shut eye.
He was stark naked.
Ellie’s fingers twitched on the handle, but she did not close the door again.
Hardy was lying on his front and her eyes automatically trailed over the rest of him that was visible. She had not taken him as the type to sleep in the nude. Still flushed right up to the roots of her hair, her eyes roamed his skin from the width of his shoulders along the length of his back.
He looked very fine without his customary attire, she had to say. Even in his sleep and deeply relaxed she could see an outline of muscles beneath the skin, hiding a lithe strength. Ellie’s gaze moved lower without her consciously deciding to, right down to his narrow waist before she glimpsed a firm and well-formed butt.
A thin stretch of the light blue broke up her line of sight, making it seem like his modesty got tangled up in the sheets but not much else, before the lean but muscular thighs and calves ended in two bare feet almost hanging off the edge of the bed.
Ellie blinked before she sucked a gulp of air inside her lungs, the sound overly loud in the room. Suddenly Alec twitched and his eyes shot open, staring at Ellie for a split-second before he made an odd squeaking sound in the back of his throat and scrambled to sit up and bunched the duvet up across his nether regions.
“Miller! Are you out of your head?” he barked and Ellie shrunk back as if hit by a whip. She squeezed her eyes shut, put a hand over them to be sure and stumbled backwards from the room and down the stairs, mercifully without breaking her neck.
Down in the kitchen she leant against the counter, her fingers shaking and body temperature high enough to make her think she had developed a fever. Ellie’s heart was racing and sweat trickled down her neck and down the valley between her breasts that had much less to do with the tropical temperatures outside than she would ever admit.
Grabbing a glass, Ellie filled it with some cold water from the tap, her hands shaking so hard she nearly spilled half of it before managing to gulp it down. Over the ringing in her ears, she only belatedly noticed the sound of water drifting down from upstairs, letting her know Hardy had most likely got over his shock and was taking a shower.
Once more, Ellie squeezed her eyes shut as she tried not to imagine him wet and sprayed with water or lathered with soap. She drank another glass of water more slowly, but stayed rooted to the spot next to the sink, her back firmly to the door as she fought to get her heartrate back into a somewhat normal range.
It took about ten minutes until Ellie heard footsteps on the stairs and, bracing herself for the inevitable bollocking, turned around. Hardy stood in the doorway, armoured in his suit complete with jacket, tie and even the top button done up as if he was making sure she did not glimpse a single inch of skin she had no business seeing.
He took a stance opposite her, effectively blocking Ellie’s route of escape and waited with arms crossed tightly over his chest. A sign of annoyance or defensiveness, she could not tell which. Maybe both.
When silence mounted between them like storm clouds on the horizon, thickening the air, Ellie finally bowed her head.
“Sorry.” She spoke to the floor tiles at first, then defiantly raised her head when he did not acknowledge her apology. He was not the first naked man she had seen - though it had been a while - and to be frank, they all looked more or less the same anatomically, even though she had to admit he was noticeably more handsome than a lot of others. Not that she would tell him that.
“What were you thinking, Miller?” Alec exploded, by no means pacified by her one-word-remorse.
“You overslept! Daisy told me to wake you. She was late for school!” Ellie hotly retorted. She had had the best intentions, even if their execution could have been better.
“Aye, did she tell you to barge into my bedroom as well?”
“I did not think!”
“Clearly.”
His answer was sharp and scathing and it hurt, fanning Ellie’s usual defiance. She would not let him put it all on her. “Why were you sleeping naked, for God’s sake?”
“How’s that my fault or your business? It’s my bedroom. Ever heard of privacy?”
“I said I’m sorry! You weren’t at work, I came to see if everything’s okay, Daisy nearly barrelled into me at the door, telling me you had a power cut and she was late for school. She had assumed you’d left for the station before the power went out, so you didn’t know. It was only when she saw me that she deduced you had overslept as well,” Ellie went off, throwing her arms up in exasperation. “What more am I supposed to say?”
“What if I’d turned over?” Alec whined, sounding like a kicked dog.
“I don’t know! You didn’t. I didn’t see anything. Gosh, stop being such a twat about it. Nothing I haven’t seen before. I mean, not on you, obviously, but…” Ellie shut her mouth as Alec made another growling noise in the back of his throat and she realised she had probably said too much again already. It was a bad habit of hers to start babbling when embarrassed.
She looked down again, concentrating on any details visible on the kitchen floor. A few breadcrumbs, most likely scattered by Daisy’s hasty breakfast, a pencil rolled almost all the way under a cupboard. It was almost the same pale blue colour as Alec’s bedsheets, Ellie thought and fought two new spots of red appearing on her cheeks.
Alec’s jaw was working painful overtime as he ground his teeth together, trying not to dwell on Miller’s complete disregard of his privacy or thoughts of what she might or might not have seen. Beneath his collar he still felt flushed, remembering the state she had found him in, but really, he was not the one to blame. It had been another one of these tropical nights and he had been unable to fall asleep until the small hours, tossing and turning in his room where even the wide-open window granted no relief from the heat of the day. He was not built for this weather, but colder climates.
Trying to find some rest he had gradually shed every single item of clothing and wrestled his body on top of the sheets until he finally fell into an exhausted doze that left him sleeping for much longer than he usually would - until Miller appeared.
The lines between what was professional behaviour and what was friendly had been smudged between them for years, but this was on another scale. On top of that Alec was a very private person. He was not bashful or a prude, but years of building walls around himself had left their mark in more ways than one. Also, friends or not, Miller was his subordinate and there was a long list of complications that had started unravelling in his mind.
Maybe it was best just to ignore the whole thing. It was awkward enough already, without them having to talk any more about it. Miller had practically seen him stark naked. The last person who had, had been Tess, ages ago when they had still been married. Not exactly a point in his book in regards to his personal life and another thing which added a layer to his mortification. Definitely not something Miller needed to know about.
“Hardy,” Miller began, but he shook his head with a tightly clenched jaw.
“We’ve got work to do. Late enough as it is.” He turned on his heel and stalked from the room without bothering to check if she followed, the effect of a grand exit lessened when he had to wait at the door for Ellie to pass so he could lock up.
They rode back to CID in what would have been an icy silence, but with outside temperatures already soaring close to 30 degrees, it was stifling more than anything. Alec ignored Ellie, sitting angled away from her in the passenger seat and staring at the mostly empty streets.
Anyone who had some sense left, stayed indoors and out of the sun - except for the tourists who flocked to the beach in search of salvation, many of whom would return looking like freshly cooked lobsters in the evening. Heat distorted the air, the beach as well as any paved surface functioning as a baking tray. It would be no surprise if some idiot started frying eggs along the stone esplanade and set something on fire while doing so, creating unnecessary work for emergency services. Half the country was officially in drought, with hosepipe bans in effect all across Wessex and its neighbouring counties and yet Uniform were running themselves ragged scolding people who kept watering their rosebushes, lawns or even had the absurd idea of washing their car in the driveway.
Alec gnashed his teeth, realising that most of his irritation stemmed from his continued annoyance at Miller for disregarding his privacy and not people’s lack of sense in general. The latter was hardly news. He hoped Broadchurch’s inhabitants would at least refrain from any idiocy for the day. He did not fancy leaving his office again and certainly did not feel inclined to attend a shout with Miller anytime soon.
In a way he was glad it had not been Daisy who woke him up and found him sleeping naked. She would probably have thought it ‘gross’ and ‘weird’ and he would have talked himself into a corner and made a perfectly innocent situation awkward. Having Miller find him was almost preferable, even if it meant she was staring at him weirdly now.
The air inside CID was stale, a musty bouquet of different perfumes and deodorants underlaid with the sour smell of sweat, old coffee and ozone from the photocopier in the corner. It had been recycled by the building’s ventilation system so many times there was hardly any oxygen left in it, but opening a window to air the room was out of the question with temperatures like the inside of a kiln. Forecasts had predicted the heatwave to break over the next few days, but so far the perfect azure sky outside seemed to mock that prognosis.
Ellie sat behind her desk, holding the glass of water she was drinking instead of her usual cuppa up to her jugular in the vain hope it might help to cool her down. Temperatures inside must be as bad as outside, she thought as another bead of sweat trickled down the back of her neck.
She had pinned her hair up that morning but a few strands had already escaped and were clinging to her sweaty skin. All around her everyone looked a bit bedraggled thanks to the relentless heat of the last couple of days. Most of her male colleagues had chosen short-sleeved shirts and wore their ties a little looser than usual.
Hardy was the only one who had shown up in a full suit, but even he had bowed to the climate by now. Ellie could see him inside his office, bent over some kind of report or other. His suit jacket was hung up on the back of his chair, his shirt sleeves were rolled up and she could just make out that the top button on his shirt had been undone as well. A small fan he had unearthed from God knew where - most likely a remnant of one of his predecessors - was whirring like an oversized midge, the small current of air barely enough to ruffle the top of his hair but sending a high-pitched buzz out into the bullpen that made the hair on Ellie’s arms stand up in discomfort.
She would not ask him to turn it off, though. Whenever she blinked, the image of how she found him that morning appeared before her mind’s eye and it was doing nothing to cool her down. That Hardy was fit was not exactly news. His tight suits showed off his physique for all to see and Ellie had certainly enjoyed the odd lingering glance. But seeing him stripped of his customary layers certainly added a whole new ‘layer’ to her appreciation - or took away several, to stay with the imagery.
The day dragged on as if time itself had been slowed by the unrelenting hot spell and stopped entirely inside the walls of CID. Computers buzzed tiredly, their fans working overtime and adding more heat to the room. Minutes trickled by like the sweat beading on Ellie’s brow and running down the side of her face to seep into the collar of her blouse while the small shards of light that crept through the french blinds marked the passing of time and unchanging weather.
Outside the station the sun was still beating down without mercy. Inside Hardy wuntil they crashed through Alec’s bedroom door as still sulking. Ellie could see him stubbornly working through a stack of files on his desk, pen poised over some report or other. She imagined him stabbing the paper so hard the indentations bled through several pages as he worked the frustration out of his system.
She would not apologise again. She had done so and if he wanted to be a twat about it, she would let him stew and ignore it. It was only ever one of two things with him - push his buttons until they had it out in a battle of wills and volumes or let the other marinate in their irritation until one of them gave up and carefully skulked back, often bearing a cup of tea.
Ellie did not see tea anywhere, nor did she want to in this weather and she certainly would not be the one making a cuppa this time. She had woken Hardy up just in time to get to work before anyone thought much of it and covered his back. The wake up call in itself might not have been ideal, but really, he was being a little childish about the whole affair. Shaking her head Ellie got up to refill her water bottle yet again and threw another surreptitious glance inside the DI’s office. Even through the glass she could see the fine beads of sweat on his temple and in the hollow bit right at the base of his throat where he had loosened his tie and undone another button. The pale blue cotton of his shirt was sticking to the skin of his chest and Ellie unconsciously wet her lips as she imagined the salty taste of his skin, then quickly shook her head to rid herself of that ridiculous thought. Maybe she was experiencing the first signs of heatstroke.
Ellie slunk back to her desk and pulled another file towards her. The only positive aspect of the heatwave was that CID was experiencing a slump in their usual workload which meant Ellie had the less joyous task of catching up with the mass of paperwork that never seemed to cease.
The end of a shift brought a short flutter of activity to CID as many of Ellie’s colleagues packed up and left for the day so they could head home or even down to the beach or pier where it would not be cooler, but temperatures would be easier to bear with an ice cream cone in hand. Before long it was only her and Hardy left in CID, but Ellie would rather stay and complete a few more bits and pieces than go home. Tom and Fred were not there, whisked away for a beach adventure in Torquay with Lucy and Ollie and only her father remained home, claiming he was ‘too old for all that nonsense’.
Silence stretched, the rustling of paper and the faint whirr of Hardy’s derelict fan the only sound on the whole floor. Ellie propped her arm up on the table, supporting her head with one hand as she continued going over a report from nearly two weeks back, making sure all boxes were ticked for it to be followed up by CPS.
The sound of the lift broke her focus and Ellie turned her head to see Bob Daniels stride into CID. Working the front desk Bob rarely came upstairs and when he did, it was rarely good news. She got up to meet him halfway, but Hardy still beat her to it.
“Bob, what’s up? Something happened?” Ellie began, while Hardy greeted him with a curt “Daniels” and a nod that doubled as a request to speak up.
“Just had a call. Torchlight’s been reported at the lido. Someone also mentioned loud voices. Looks like a break-in, but Uniform’s short-staffed with so many on holiday and the only patrol’s almost all the way to Poole,” he said, literally cap in hand as he watched Hardy.
“Right. Miller.” Hardy nodded in her general direction, then strode back into his office to get his jacket and walk out again, leaving Ellie to scramble after him. Since she had been the one picking him up that morning, it was a given she was going to drive and by the time Ellie arrived at her car he was already waiting by the passenger door, drumming his fingers on the roof and avoiding her gaze. Ellie rolled her eyes when he could not see, then got behind the wheel.
It was only a short way to go, but the cramped space in the car was entirely too close to Miller for Alec’s liking. He could feel her sneaking glances at him whenever she thought he was not paying attention, much like she had done in CID but less covert now they were in such close proximity again.
“Eyes front, Miller,” he barked as soon as they turned onto the High Street and her head immediately turned back to face straight ahead in such an obvious way, Alec almost felt his muscles cramp up in sympathy. He can feel her needling inquisitiveness like a change in the air even before the question tumbles from her lips in a rush.
“Why were you sleeping naked?”
“For God’s sake,” Alec exploded. Why could Miller not simply let something rest and spare them both? In her world every question needed an answer, even the ones no one should be asking. “It was hot!” he shot back without thinking.
“It certainly was.”
Her reply was low, a thoughtless murmur but Alec heard and stopped breathing as a jolt zinged down his spine. “Pardon?”
“We had 27 degrees last night, Hardy!” Ellie shot back. A perfectly reasonable answer that did not tally with the sudden bloom of red on her cheeks, visible every time they passed a street lamp. He swallowed, deciding not to say anything else for the moment.
“Oh. Aye.”
The car park closest to the lido was also the car park directly below Hardy’s home on the cliffside and Ellie’s skin prickled with an odd combination of embarrassment and thrill. She cut the engine but remained sitting in the car for a moment longer to get her bearings.
The sky had changed from its bright blue colour to a shade of concentrated lapis blue. A single beam of torchlight cut across the sky behind the fence around the lido and Ellie furrowed her brow. She would have liked to remain seated for a moment and get a better idea of what they were dealing with, but Hardy, impatient as usual, was already getting out of the car, leaving Ellie no chance but to follow.
The heat had not diminished. Temperatures must still be above thirty, Ellie thought as she followed him towards where the light had been. Instead of scorching them from above, it now seeped out of the surfaces around them, the gravel and flagstones, giving off all the warmth they had absorbed during the day. The air tasted dry and stale, dusty like baked clay and Ellie’s tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. She idly wished she had brought her water bottle with her.
“There’s someone inside,” Hardy, being taller than her, was leaning against the privacy fence put up around the area as he tried to peer inside. He was stating the obvious. She could clearly hear the splashing sounds of what sounded like several people and drunk laughter. Ellie caught Hardy’s eye for a moment and jerked her head towards the right. Back in her days there had been a hidden door built in one of the panels as an entry for maintenance. Ellie hoped it might still be there.
It was. Ellie’s fingers found the hidden latch and, grinning to herself, she opened it and swung it backwards. The pool, which should have been dark and deserted, was rippling with waves and splashes that seemed to be caused by a couple of people swimming and jumping from the opposite end. For a moment Ellie and Hardy simply stood and watched hidden in the shadows, making sure they did not miss one of the culprits, before stepping forward and turning on their torches.
“Alright, fun’s over! Get out of the water!” Hardy called across the pool and shone his light directly at a young man who stood at the edge, ready to dive in. Finding himself in the spotlight so unexpectedly, he swiftly crossed his hands in front of his nether regions to cover up his nudity. Ellie flushed and looked away, ignoring a side glance from Hardy.
Instead, she focused her attention on her own beam of light which had landed on another young man, possibly in his early twenties with blonde curls dripping with water. His shocked face morphed into a wide grin as he paddled towards the edge of the pool and leant up on it, showing off a toned hairless chest.
“Alright there?” he grinned in what he probably thought was flirtatious, then pushed himself off from the edge again and tread water about a yard from it. “Fancy a swim?” he laughed and pushed his curls back from his forehead, showing them a perfect biceps. Ellie shook her head, momentarily thrown as she mentally compared his figure to the image of a sleeping Hardy in her head. The latter did not do badly in comparison.
“No.” Ellie shook herself, then repeated more clearly. “You need to get out now. You’re trespassing. The pool’s closed.”
A wolf whistle followed her announcement the other youth swam over, his black hair cropped short.
“Oi, I like a bossy woman. Sure you don’t wanna join us? The water’s lovely. Really cools you down.” He flashed a cheeky grin at Ellie, who felt a little out of her depth and momentarily closed her eyes to pull herself together. She usually had no problem handling raucous youths, but her day had seen a few naked men too many to keep a clear head and it showed.
“My name’s DS Ellie Miller, Wessex Police. You need to get out of the water right now,” she repeated in a firm voice, causing the drunk men to whistle again.
“Ellie - sweet name,” the curly-haired one called, while the other tilted his head like a puppy.
“Will you turn around then, Ellie? You see, I’m a bit shy.” He winked at her, but before Ellie could open her mouth for a retort, Hardy stepped in.
“Cut the crap,” he called, his accent thickening with every syllable. “You lads get out of the water right now and piss off before I make you. You have three minutes to get lost or we’ll take you down to the station with us to take your details and put you in a cell overnight - with or without your pants on. How’d ye like tha’?” He yelled, then added. “And I don’t care if yer shy, laddie. Didnae look like there was a lot to brag about in the first place.”
Ellie stared. She had never heard Hardy talk like that and her mind immediately drifted back to the sneak peek she had had of him that morning. This shout was testing her self-control like no other. Heat had made it fray around the edges.
Pulling herself together, Ellie noticed Hardy’s approach with the two men obviously worked as the one addressed put up his hands in surrender and nodded towards his companion. They swam to the shore and heaved themselves up on the edge with Hardy’s torch being reflected on their naked backsides as they scrambled to pick up their clothes left on the lawn. Holding the piles of garments close to their chests, Hardy had the decency to avert his beam as they swiftly pulled up their pants.
“See that ye only come back during opening hours, aye?” he called, waited for both men to nod, then jerked his head in the vague direction from where he and Ellie had entered the lido through the still open fence panel. Both young men, half-dressed in pants and t-shirts, the rest of their things still cradled in their arms, then slunk towards the exit with bowed heads followed by Hardy. Ellie made up the rear, casting her torch over the area one last time to make sure they had not missed another member of that impromptu pool party before closing the exit behind herself.
By the time Ellie had securely closed the gate again, there was no trace of the two culprits except for the shapes of two bikes speeding down the road on a slightly wobbling course. The streetlights illuminated them intermittently for a few yards before they swerved round away from the High Street and were gone.
The air was unbearable still, dense and prickly as it settled over Ellie like a heavy blanket. There was no sound. No bird called or cricket chirped in the hedge or grass around them. It felt comforting and uneasy all at once.
Ellie’s shoulders dropped and she shook her head. It was a good thing the men had still been sober enough to respond to reason and a slightly off-the-book approach by Hardy. Things could have turned sour easily enough with alcohol or drugs involved. She had seen it before.
Next to her, Hardy exhaled noisily and some of the tension he had so forcefully clung to left his body with the outbreath. All of a sudden he seemed looser, less on guard than he had been all day. The heat had worn down his stubbornness eventually, too.
“That one fancied you, Miller,” He remarked dryly and Ellie’s shoulders tensed briefly as if she had momentarily forgotten he existed. She stood a little straighter before making an effort to relax again.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I probably know his mother,” she deadpanned mildly horrified. Hardy scoffed, then turned back to the panel in the fence that had hid their way in.
“How’d you know that was there?” he wondered, looking her over as if the answer was hidden anywhere on her person for him to see.
“They weren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to go skinny-dipping at the lido. The trick is not to get caught,” she replied ambiguously as Hardy’s mouth twitched into a grin. The lingering heat in the air was making Ellie bold and before she could stop herself, she placed her hand on the wooden fence again. “Fancy it?”
The air around them had become so dense and prickly, Ellie felt like she was almost suffocating and her whole body was coated in a fine film of sweat. She would be lying if she denied being jealous of the, though short-lived, relief those lads had found. The sea was treacherous after nightfall. This conversation with Hardy seemed so too.
“No.” He took off his tie and shoved it into his jacket’s pocket, acting contrary to his statement. Ellie’s eyes fixed on the hollow point of his throat again as if magically drawn to that square inch of naked skin she glimpsed between the pale blue cotton of his shirt.
“Time to call it a day,” he stated, his voice carrying the weight and exhaustion of another day in stifling heat, both inside and out the station.
As if on cue a heavy gust of wind blew across them, the hedges bending under the force. It brought a layer of dust with it that seemed to fuse with Ellie’s sweaty skin on impact while making her feel as if a blowdryer was aimed at her.
A loud rumble sounded in the air like the growl of the earth itself complaining about the heat. The hair at the back of Ellie’s neck stood up in alarm and she glanced in the direction of the sea. Even in the darkness she could see how the sky had changed. Formerly a monotone canvas of deep cobalt blue it was now rippled with specks of darker shades, almost purple in some spots. A storm was brewing on the horizon and it was approaching fast.
Ellie opened her mouth to say as much when a bolt of lightning split the sky in half out above the water. The brightness blinded her momentarily and Ellie flinched. At the same time water started cascading down as if a tap had been opened above their heads.
Within seconds they were drenched. Rivulets of rain started running across the parched earth between their feet, joining to larger streams that swiftly grew in size. The ground was too dry to absorb moisture and the rain gushed right over it, carrying small twigs and pebbles with it. Ellie’s hair was already plastered to her face and when she looked down she saw the water pool around her shoes, already a few inches high. Ellie stepped out of its path but there was no escaping. Lightning flashed again, momentarily painting the world a blinding white.
When Ellie’s eyes adjusted again, she saw Hardy standing directly opposite her and flinched.
“Come on,” he called, his voice carried away by the wind. “Out of the rain.”
Dripping wet and feeling a chill creep down her spine below her clothes, Ellie nodded and rushed towards her vehicle at the other end of the car park. Hardy, turned towards the opposite direction, stopped.
“Miller, where are you going?” He shook his head, water dripping down his face as if he stood under the spray of a shower. His hair looked almost black in the darkness, soaked and clinging to his forehead.
Ellie gestured vaguely toward her car, but he jerked his head to cut her off.
“Don’t be stupid. You’ll ruin the seats. Dry off at mine,” he offered. Ellie felt torn. His house stood like a beacon up ahead, nestled against the hillside, its white colour a stark contrast to the sky in uproar behind it.
“Come on.”
Ellie shivered. Her teeth chattered from the crass change in temperature and she took a step forward. Hardy’s home was just a few yards ahead, promising shelter and a shower, a change of clothes. Her house was across town with no knowledge of how the roads would be by then. The lowest point on High Street, just behind the marina where she needed to pass, could be flooded already, cutting her off from the rest of town. She followed Hardy.
“Get inside.”
Rain battered Hardy’s little house on the cliffs as he held the door open against the force of wind to let Ellie pass before him. The door fell shut as soon as he was through, the sound of rain and wind like gunfire hitting the glass of his patio doors. Water dripped off Ellie, her clothes weighed down with it and she felt a puddle forming beneath her feet before she saw it.
Hardy stepped past her and flicked on a light on the small side board by the door. It basked them in a dim, but comforting orange light. Too intimate considering what had transpired between them just hours ago. A shiver moved through Ellie again as she felt the enclosed space of his hallway crowding her. She wanted to move away, step past Hardy into the living room or better yet hide herself behind the door of his bathroom, but when she looked up, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Hardy’s eyes were fixated on her front, the pupils slightly wider than they should be considering the lighting of the room. Every other part of him seemed frozen, only his eyes moved as if they followed the path of raindrops down the side of her face and length of her neck before they were caught by the collar of her blouse.
Ellie looked down. She had chosen a white shirt for work that morning, reasoning that a lighter colour would be preferable in the summer heat. The rain had turned it see-through and made it cling to her like a second skin. There was nothing left to imagination, she realised. Her bra, a very pale shade of blue, was clearly visible beneath and her nipples had hardened thanks to the cold, protruding through the material. It was where Hardy’s eyes were locked on.
Alec swallowed hard and tried to look away as some small part of his brain screamed at him that his behaviour was unsavoury, but the larger part was paralysed with rapt fascination. Underneath the chill his soaked clothes had caused, heat was travelling up his spine and lodging itself somewhere deep within him. He had noticed Miller looking at him all day as they worked, all across the way from her desk in the bullpen through the glass panes into his office as if her eyes could see right through the layers of his jacket and shirt. It had made him feel exposed and irritated in a way he could not explain. Not embarrassment entirely, just unease at the sudden shift in the atmosphere between them.
“Hardy.” Her warm breath washed over his face and he looked up. There was barely two feet between them. He could almost see the goosebumps erupting on Ellie’s skin beneath her blouse. Had he stepped closer?
With great effort Alec looked back up into her face only to see that strange desire he felt tugging behind his navel mirrored in her eyes. Around them the rain was a steady noise, the pattering of it against the roof of his house making the world feel smaller somehow. Nothing existed beyond the walls separating them from the deluge outside.
They stood opposite each other, both soaked to the bone, goosebumps covering their skin beneath the clothes and yet the shivers that coursed through their bodies had nothing to do with cold. Both moved at the same time, colliding like the sea crested on the sand down at the beach. Their first kiss was messy, open mouths with teeth clashing and heads not sure which way to tilt, but it lasted just a second before they found a way to make it work.
Alec’s nose brushed along Ellie’s jaw and he caught her bottom lip between his teeth, coaxing her to look up and move closer in his embrace. Ellie’s hands went to his cheek, brushing against the stubble of his beard before moving between them to tug on the buttons of his shirt. One of Alec’s hands pulled Ellie’s blouse from her trousers, the wet material stubborn and hard to grasp between numb fingers.
Still kissing, they walked backwards until Alec hit the wall, leaving a damp patch in the vague shape of him on the wallpaper as evidence of their passion. With his shirt completely undone, Ellie pulled it out of his trousers to uncover a slim chest spattered with a little bit of hair that shaped into a thin line running across the middle of his stomach down to his navel. It fell to the floor in a damp heap, her blouse following behind and marking the trail that led them both up to his bedroom.
They stumbled backwards from the hallway to the living room, where Alec nearly collided with the standard lamp by the door before turning them round so it was Ellie walking backwards up the stairs. Being a step or two above him, brought them to the same level and Alec made good use of it by moving his lips along her neck and down her throat until he shoved the collar of her blouse away with his nose to nibble at the spot where her neck joined her shoulder. Ellie gasped and her fingers returned from his shoulders to his hair, tugging at the strands. Alec felt his knees almost buckle beneath him at that. His hair was his weak spot; pulling it especially.
There was no pause for breath, no time to think or reconsider as they stumbled up the stairs, impatiently undressing as they went. Clothes littered the floor and stairs, uncovering bare skin that warmed quickly through heated touches and caresses. Alec’s bedroom door slammed against the wall as they stumbled through it, fully wrapped up in each other and the storm of passion that had taken control.
When Ellie’s legs hit the back of his mattress, Alec sank down to his knees in front of her to peel her wet trousers off her legs. As soon as she had stepped out of them, she sank back against the duvet, still rumpled from Hardy’s abrupt awakening in the morning. Goosebumps covered her whole body, but Ellie was no longer feeling cold. She watched with rapt fascination how Hardy pulled his remaining clothes off, adding them to her own things on the floor before he joined Ellie on the bed.
The sheets beneath them became clammy from their wet hair and damp skin, but neither cared or noticed. Cold fingers explored heated skin, hushed whispers were the only words exchanged as lips collided and drew sounds of pleasure from each other. Ellie gasped and closed her eyes as Alec’s lips kissed a path down her body. Her hands tangled in his hair and she felt shivers running down his spine as her nails scraped along his scalp, though he tried not to let her see how much it affected them at first.
As Alec peppered kisses along her hips and navel, Ellie pulled Alec back up both out of impatience and because though they had already demolished any professional boundaries previously put in place, there were still some lines he did not get to cross yet.
Alec accepted it without complaint as he joined their tongues in a deep kiss instead, his arms propped up on either side of Ellie’s head. She spread her thighs a little further,drawing his lithe and surprisingly strong body closer into an embrace until they were joined in the most intimate of ways. Everything that followed were gasps and sighs drowned out by the storm still raging outside while inside the cliffside house two people were wrapped up in a storm of their own making.
When it had passed, it was Ellie who first came back to her senses. She pulled the tangled duvet up from the bottom of the bed to cover herself, looking at Alec in the dim light of his bedroom. His face briefly lit up when lightning cracked outside, showing shock that ran deep into his bones. For a while neither moved, their breaths still overly loud in the silent house. Again it was her who moved first as she awkwardly slipped out from underneath the sheets. For a moment she considered keeping hold on the duvet, but it would mean robbing Alec of a coverlet, so she only held on until the very last moment, then quickly made for the bathroom. It was dark anyway and her feeling of self–consciousness came a bit late, considering what had happened.
For a moment, Ellie leant her forearms on the sink and stared at her face in the mirror. Her cheeks were flushed and there was a pale bitemark somewhere below her left collarbone. She also felt sore in all the right places. Sore and sticky, she noticed with a wry sneer. Running the tap, Ellie grabbed one of Hardy’s towels to clean herself before tossing it into the hamper. She shivered. The house was not overly warm, she was tired and stark naked hiding in her boss’s bathroom. Her clothes were strewn all across his house, probably still damp as well. Nothing about this was ideal. Panic closed up Ellie’s throat and for a moment she cast her look towards the window, half-wondering if she could make an escape that way because she had absolutely no idea what to do.
“Ellie?” A knock on the door made her jump and when she looked back, she saw the door open just a crack. Alec’s hand appeared, holding what proved to be a large grey t-shirt. Ellie took it gratefully and pulled it over her head, already feeling marginally better before she noticed the print.
Worst Cop in Britain.
The shirt she had mockingly gifted Hardy after she accidentally discovered when his birthday was; the line a private joke between them. Knowing he had kept it and apparently also wore it, even if just to bed, as proven by how soft it felt and the lingering smell of him, made Ellie smile. It was quite long on her, reaching almost to the middle of her thighs and covering all the important bits. Still without a plan or an idea what to say, but feeling less exposed and vulnerable, Ellie reentered the bedroom.
Hardy was sitting up in his bed, the duvet bunched around his narrow hips, also wearing a t-shirt and, she assumed, pants at the very least. Their eyes met before Ellie quickly averted her gaze to play with the hemline of the shirt.
“Thanks,” she mumbled quietly.
“Aye.” Hardy's voice was rough but it held the same undercurrent of insecurity Ellie felt.
“I… um, I better-” she began almost too low for him to hear, then stopped herself when she thought about having to redress in her wet clothes soaked from the rain. Maybe she should ask Alec for a spare outfit. Some tracksuit bottoms and a jumper or something.
“Daisy’s not home tonight,” he broke her out of her thoughts. “She’s… staying with Chloe.” He did not know why he said it, it had seemed important in his head, coming out of his mouth, it sounded presumptuous, which was daft considering they had just had sex. And yet, asking Ellie to stay in his own clumsy, crooked way felt more intimate than the physical act.
He scooted over in his bed to make more room and could see how his awkward information made sense to Ellie as a blush spread over her cheeks. Her eyes flickered to the window where rain was still running down in silver rivulets against the dark sky. The thunder and lightning seemed to have passed, the tension in the air dissolved much like the tension between them, but the rain persisted.
Alec held his breath, then Ellie took a step in the direction of his bed and he relaxed. He watched her slip back under the duvet and offered her some more of his half, gently pulling it up over her shoulders as she turned on her side to look at him.
“You kept the t-shirt,” she mumbled, a little surprised.
“It was a gift,” Alec replied simply. It still made Ellie smile as she got a little more comfortable and breached some of the distance between them so the duvet easily covered them both.
Silence settled over them and exhaustion pulled at their bodies, dragging them down to succumb to sleep. The day had been long and sleep had eluded them both during the heatwave of the past days. Outside the rain still fell, the patter of it a gentle white noise which hurried sleep along. Just before she let herself be pulled into Morpheus’s realm, Ellie fought to open her eyes again.
“Alec?”
“Hm?”
“I… I don’t regret it. This,” she whispered softly, feeling it important to let him know. Morning would bring all kinds of complications but maybe this small reassurance could lessen some of them.
“No,” came the simple reply. “Neither do I.”
—