Spiced Molasses

Chapter 28

Daryl and Beth made a good team. Maybe he hadn't noticed because his head had usually been turning with so many other thoughts and feelings but he was noticing now. They both had almost entirely different skills sets but when they were combined, when they were working together, it was seamless. They barely needed to talk about anything now; it was just an effortless understanding of what was needed and what the other person would be doing.

Beth was patient with an eye for detail. She was smart too. Far smarter than he had realised. Daryl couldn't help but remember all those difficult lessons he had attended during training. The hour long study sessions with Dale just to prove that he belonged there. Beth would have breezed through that with no worries. She noticed anomalies and drew connections faster than Daryl could. He was good with the what, she was good with the how.

When they working it was almost easy to forget. It was simple to slip into that professional mind set and maintain that distance they'd agreed upon. When they were working.

When their brains weren't completely consumed with the mission, so to speak, it was a struggle. A week ago Beth had been making dinner and had managed to smear a little pasta sauce on the curve of her jaw. If anything it was endearing but it made it almost impossible for Daryl to merely point it out to her and not to use his mouth to remove all traces of anything that might mar her perfect skin.

No, what had been building between them for so long wasn't forgotten. It was buried and Daryl could only hope it was deep enough that it wouldn't interfere. He wasn't an idiot; he hadn't expected those feelings to disappear overnight. He had, however, thought they'd be able to follow the rules they'd set. After all the terms been agreed to by both sides as in their best interests.

That had turned out to be a load of bullshit. It was more or less carrying on the way it had before just with an even larger dose of denial.

It ranged from the fleetingly innocent, like Beth leaning into him a little too long when he taught her how to aim a gun or Daryl brushing her fingers when he took an assessed file from her, to the downright blatant middle finger to their own conventions.

Just last night they'd been at the bar and it had been packed for a Saturday night. The nervous energy of the last couple of weeks had to be spent and the joint was practically writhing with excesses. People were even drunk enough to dance. Neither Daryl or Beth had consumed any alcohol but they were doing a pretty good approximation of being inebriated, casting wicked and knowing grins at each other when it was safe to do so.

It was a write off in terms of information; Beth kept getting stolen away by Candy for conversations about the Dixon brothers, sex and shoes, but good for reinforcing Beth as part of the scenery. That was until Mitch decided to make a pass at Beth. It wasn't as aggressive as his last one and Daryl hadn't even known about it until Beth told him.

Daryl's first instinct was to slug the man in the face until he was struck with a better idea. That anger still singing in his veins, he had yanked Beth to him, sinking his fingers into that soft, long hair and brought his mouth to hers. He ignored the whistles and cat calls that would have normally separated them, pulling her to him quite thoroughly. Her fingers fisted in the front of his shirt as she returned the kiss with equal passion.

When he finally could pull away his world was reeling. Daryl had met her eyes in that dingy, too loud bar and said, "That was just to get Mitch off your back." Lied to her face.

Didn't matter any because she lied right back. "It was the only way of dealing with it."

Neither of them believed the other but neither called it out. That was the new game they were playing. Pushing to see how much they could get away with, testing the heat to see what they could stand before they got burnt.