Midsomer Murders Valentines Special
A Night For Lovers
by elfin
Joyce brushed her hand over her husband's shoulders as he drifted to
sleep. She closed her eyes. It had been a wonderful
day.
Tom had woken her with breakfast in bed and a dozen red roses. A
beautiful card had awaited her downstairs along with a box of her
favourite chocolates and two tickets for 'Much Ado About Nothing' at
The Globe theatre in London.
He'd then whisked her off to Blenheim Palace, somewhere she'd been
trying to drag him to for a couple of years. He'd feigned
interest in the history and magnificence of the place, as well as the
butterfly collection, and bought her lunch in the restaurant.
When they'd arrived home again he'd made her a thick hot chocolate and
proceeded to allow her a couple of hours in front of the television
while he'd prepared dinner, serving it up in the dining room with
candles and a bottle of her favourite wine.
All in all, a perfect day.
Which may have been why she was so suspicious.
Not once had he mentioned work, or anything connected to work.
Including Gavin Troy, whose name had been cropping up more and more
lately. He'd only had one glass of wine with dinner which in
itself was unusual. And he'd been completely focused on her,
hanging on her every word, laughing at her every joke. She had to
admit that he had been very genuine. Just not his usual self.
But all her suspicions appeared to be unfounded as he started to snore
softly beside her.
The phone woke them both about an hour later. She glanced at the
alarm clock as Tom reached for the handset beside the bed. 23:22.
'Still Valentines Day.' The thought popped into her head unbidden
as her husband hung up the phone and got out of bed - careful not to
lift the covers from his wife and let in the chilly night air.
"Your loyal sergeant?" Joyce asked as innocently as she could.
But Tom shook his head. "My loyal Duty Officer. My loyal
sergeant's probably curled up in bed with some blonde bombshell."
'I doubt it,' but she didn't voice the thought, just watched Tom in the
dim light pulling on a pair of jeans and a dark sweater.
"Will you disturb him?"
He shook his head. "No, I'll let Gavin off his time." He
bent to kiss her. "Sorry, Love, I have to go."
"See you later."
"Yeah."
She watched and heard the door click shut and smiled into the
darkness. "Got you, Tom Barnaby," she murmured to herself.
~
Tom pulled the Rover up to the curb and killed the engine. He
hated lying to his wife but on this one occasion he'd needed to.
He wanted to keep a promise he'd made just over eleven months ago.
Locking the car, he walked up to the front door of the end terrace
house and knocked quietly.
A couple of seconds ticked by. Tom gazed at the single doorstep
and tried to slow his racing pulse.
Then the door swung open and Tom laughed.
Gavin stood just inside his home, feet bare, wearing tight faded jeans
and a blue shirt, untucked, over a white T-shirt. In his teeth he
held a long-stemmed red rose.
"Am I disturbing your dinner?"
"Phna phna."
He stepped back, letting Tom in before pushing the door to and locking
it. Then he turned and the rose was taken from his mouth to be
replaced by a long-awaited kiss.
They undressed one another without a word, mouths otherwise
occupied. Tom indulged himself with the perfect body
offered to him; touching, tasting every inch of smooth skin. He
teased the soft hairs in the centre of Gavin's chest and suckled on the
dark, hard nipples.
Gavin's wondering hand soon found Tom's aching cock, wrapping around
him tightly while his other hand grazed the sensitive skin behind his
balls.
Tom's mouth finally reached its goal and he swallowed around the
weeping head of Gavin's erection, delighting in the wonderful, guttural
sounds he tore from his lover's throat.
But before he could finish, Gavin moved away carefully, turning over,
offering Tom a small plastic tube of lubricant as at the same time he
parted his legs and offered him something they'd never shared in their
year as lovers.
"Gavin...."
"Please."
"Are you sure?"
"Completely."
Tom lay the length of Gavin's body, cock buried deep inside the
clenching hot channel, fingers linked bruisingly tight. He kissed
and nipped the back of Gavin's neck, tasting the salty sweat, tracing
trails along his shoulders with the tip of his tongue.
And all the time he moved in and out of this beloved body, making love
to Gavin as he'd wanted to for so long.
After a long time Gavin came, drowning in the twin sensations of his
lover pulsing deep inside him, filling him while his own cock slid
through slick, tight fingers.
For a while neither of them moved. The connection was too great
for either to want to lose.
But Tom finally left the heat of Gavin's body, padding to the bathroom
to fetch a flannel he'd first soaked under the hot tap.
They settled afterwards, Gavin wrapped in Tom's arms and legs, snuggled
around his lover's body, safe in the embrace. He silently chased
away the few fears that had come with offering himself in such a
manner; Tom's murmurs of love and need soothing him as surely as the
fine caresses at his head and back.
"I got you something," Tom told him eventually. "It's in the car."
Gavin smiled against Tom's chest. "I thought we said...."
"Yeah, I know. But Joyce 'says' too and I only fell for that
once." He pressed a kiss to Gavin's hair. "I can go get it."
A single insecurity resurfaced. "Promise you'll come back."
"If I go to the car wearing your dressing gown, I won't have much
choice, will I?" He grinned as Gavin lifted his head and stuck
his tongue out.
Tom wrapped the blue towelling robe tighter around himself when the
cold air hit him. He ran to the car, took the box from the glove
compartment and ran back.
The thick duvet and Gavin's body warmed him up again quickly and he
presented the small box to his lover.
"Happy Valentines Day."
Smiling like a kid at Christmas Gavin opened it and gaped,
open-mouthed, at the quartz watch inside. Dark brown leather
strap with a slim, gold-rimmed face, tiny gold roman numerals and gold
hands. Two perfectly set windows just below the centre told the
date and month.
He was lost for words.
"If you don't like it...."
"It's... it's beautiful." He really was touched. No one had
ever given him anything like it. "Thank you." The phrase
seemed so inadequate.
But Tom only needed the expression on Gavin's face to know that his
gift was more than liked and appreciated. He took the watch from
Gavin's long fingers and turned it over, hoping the delicate engraving
would be readable in the candlelight.
'First Valentines of many.
Yours, T.'
Gavin looked up at him with tears in his eyes.
"Aww," Tom brushed one large hand over his lover's hair, "it wasn't
supposed to upset you."
Shaking his head quickly, Gavin leaned forward and kissed Tom
hard. "Thank you. I love it."
"Good." When Gavin sat back, Tom fastened the leather strap
around his left wrist.
"I got you something too."
"Hey! I thought we said...."
"Yeah, well, my last boyfriend 'said' too, it's why we broke up!"
Gavin was smiling now and Tom chuckled as his younger lover twisted
around and opened a drawer in the small bedside cabinet, taking out
something white and round. He placed it in Tom's palm, a small
but heavy ball wrapped in soft white tissue paper.
Tom turned it in his fingers before unwrapping it carefully, completely
puzzled as to what it could be.
He was caught between its beauty and its humour when he saw what it was.
A solid glass sphere, flawless, but in its centre, somehow etched into
the glass, was a tiny outline of a crumpled mars bar wrapper. He
turned it, trying to work out how the etching had been made but unable
to do so.
"How...?" he asked after a time.
"By laser, apparently. There's a chap in Goodmansland does them
in his workshop. I had no idea what to get you then I remembered
him. Do you like it?"
"Absolutely!" He did. It was perfect. Something so
completely Gavin, a private joke between them that he'd always know and
no one else would ever guess. "I love it." He closed the
space between them again, kissing Gavin once on the mouth. "I
love you."
~
Luckily - or unlucky for one Mr Jake Shire - there was a break in at
his chemist at 11:05 on the night of February 14th. The news was
all around Causton by 10am the following morning.
But Joyce wasn't so easily fooled.
Her husband came home at lunchtime and apologised profusely. She
asked him if he'd eventually ousted Gavin from bed and Tom replied that
he had in the end.
He gave her the details of the burglary but she wasn't really
listening. All she knew was that he was back to referring to his
sergeant as 'Troy', the same as he always had. Except for last
night, when she suspected he'd left their bed to go to him.
But still, all she had were her suspicions and as a coppers wife she
knew she needed more than that; means, motive and most of all evidence.
Why go searching, she thought, when she was still so very happy?
fin
elfin