A/N: For you. By way of an apology for all the angst. (Now with fewer typos.)

"Stop fidgeting!"

"I'm bored."

"You are a detective superintendent. You're supposed to be setting a good example!"

"I know. And I'm still bored."

Gill shot her friend another disapproving look, but she could say no more. Their fourth speaker of the day, having answered another inane question from the Gold commander in the front row, had returned to his lecture and the room had fallen quiet once again.

She tried to keep track of his point despite the monotonous drone of his voice but she knew she was fighting a losing battle. Beside her Julie Dodson was slumped down in her chair, well beyond the stage of even feigning interest. As Gill watched, she began disassembling her pen.

The speaker turned his back as he discussed a slide.

"Is this what you were like in school?" Gill hissed as quietly as she could. "Is this why you never went on to have a proper job?"

Julie shot her a withering look.

"No," she said firmly. "My teachers were better worth looking at."

"I thought you said you were taught be nuns in a convent school."

"I was," Julie whispered back. "Oh, young Sister Aloysius," she sighed dramatically.

Gill stifled a giggle, which made the chief inspector in front of her turn around. She hastily covered with a cough, then glared at Julie again.

Julie just smirked looking more like a delinquent schoolgirl than ever.

By the time the lecture and questions finally ground to a halt the constituent parts of Julie's complimentary ACPO conference-pack pen were arranged in a neat line from spring to casing across her desk. As soon as the coffee break was announced she sprang to her feet, swept everything into her handbag, and beat a hasty path to the door.

Gill caught up to her in the corridor outside the ladies' loos.

"Oy! What is wrong with you? Can you not behave yourself for a couple of hours?"

"Oh come on, Gill! Has anyone on that last panel said a single thing you didn't already know?"

"I dunno. I can't hear them over the sound of you thinking death threats at them."

Julie smiled. "You picked up on that? You must be psychic."

Gill didn't even dignify that with a remark.

"Come on. Let's go get a coffee."

But Julie shook her head. "Oh Gill, let's not. We'll just have to talk to every boring sod in that room, and pretend like we had a clue what that last paper was even about."

"I knew you weren't listening! Fine, what do you propose we do instead?"

Julie arched an eyebrow and gave a quick, stealthy glance up and down the empty corridor. Before Gill could register what was happening, Julie had pulled open the door of the disabled loo and yanked her inside, locking it behind them.

Gill found herself backed into a corner, Julie leaning over her with arms braced on the handrails on the door and wall, boxing her in.

"Want to know what I really got up to in convent school?"

"Oh my God, no," Gill protested. "Not in here! We're not-"

But Julie cut her off with a deep kiss.

Despite herself, Gill melted into it. Kissing Julie was still a relatively new perk of their relationship. She wondered if it would eventually stop making the whole world spin. She softened her lips and opened her mouth to Julie's probing tongue. Her hands found there way to Julie's hair as she returned the kiss with equal fervour.

After a few false attempts that turned into new kisses, they eventually broke apart. Gill felt that she could be utterly won over to Julie's point of view on anything if she'd only keep kissing her like that. A brief dark thought intruded into the hazy glow of her thoughts.

"Please tell me you never did that with Sister Aloysious!"

Julie's delighted laugh brought her back to her senses. God, what if somebody heard them?

"Come on! I want coffee before I go back in. You don't have to talk to anybody, I promise."

"I'm not going back in there," said Julie. She stepped in closer and ran her fingers down the buttons of Gill's blouse, letting the back of her hand brush against her breast.

"Stop it," Gill admonished. "We're not doing this."

Julie immediately stepped away and allowed Gill her personal space and a clear line to the door, as Gill had known she would. The instinctive respect for her boundaries was as wonderful a quality in Julie as a lover as it had always been in Julie as a colleague.

"We're not doing this here right now," she qualified. However unwilling she was to risk professional standards for a quickie in the loos, she didn't want Julie to think she regretted the previous occasion on which they'd made love. She had high hopes for tonight.

"Look," Gill offered. "Let's go back in for the next panel and skip the plenary to get settled in at the hotel."

Julie was biting her lip to keep from laughing. Gill suddenly suspected that Julie had always had every intention of going back inside, and none at all of seriously misbehaving.

"You're impossible!"

"You're adorable."

"Come on!"

"You go first. I'll hang on 'til we're sure the coast is clear."

To Gill's chagrin, Julie was a model delegate at the next panel. She listened with every appearance of rapt attention to a mind-numbing brace of lectures on target community outlay initiatives. Or something. She even asked follow-up questions at the end, which the speaker answered with more animation and enthusiasm than she'd mustered throughout the talk.

"That wasn't too bad," Julie announced as they left the conference hall. Lunch break and the plenary left them with two clear hours to find and settle into the hotel in which they would be spending the night.

"Did your teachers always have to bribe you to work in school then?"

"I know when a reward's worth it."

Gill looked over expecting to catch a lascivious smile. The look of tenderness she surprised on Julie's face caught her off guard. It was gone in an instant as Julie met Gill's eye. Then the predatory grin came out. But Gill knew she hadn't imagined that first look. She found her own heart was beating a little more quickly.

The conference hotel was a nice one, and their room comfortable with twin queen beds. Julie tossed her overnight bag onto the bed on the left. After a moment's thought, Gill did too, dropping her sports bag next to Julie's.

Before Julie could say a word, Gill tugged her towards the other bed and planted a soft kiss against the side of her mouth. They still had an hour and a half before they'd have to think of heading back.

Julie returned the kiss passionately and Gill bit back a whimper. She was seriously going to have to work on not getting so turned on by what Julie could do with just her mouth. And then, of course, she started to think about the other things Julie had done with her mouth the night they'd spent together and now there was definitely no chance they were going to make the plenary lecture.

"You sure?" Julie asked.

By way of reply, Gill pushed Julie's jacket from her shoulders and set to work on her shirt. Julie made similarly short work of Gill's own clothes. They paused, half-undressed, to enjoy one another. Julie was down to just her bra and work trousers, their waist band riding low on her long lean torso. Gill allowed herself a moment to drink in the view. It was still an education to her just how attractive she found Julie's body. She promised herself that she was going to learn with perfect intimacy every soft curve and every strong muscle. For the moment she contented herself with running her hands along the plane of her stomach and placing light kisses along the curves of her breasts.

Julie sighed with pleasure. Her hands went to Gill's waist and she freed her of her skirt and let it fall to the floor. Another unhurried kiss while Julie's hands traced patterns up and down Gill's back before unsnapping her bra and slipping it from her. It was Julie's turn to stare. For a moment Gill felt self-conscious, but it was hard to remain so in the face of Julie's undisguised expression of desire.

"Christ, you're beautiful," Julie said softly, and Gill found she believed her.

"C'mere, sit down."

Gill perched at the edge of the bed as requested. She expected Julie to come and sit beside her. A thrill of anticipation ran through her when instead Julie knelt on the ground in front of her, a hand on each of Gill's knees.

At first Gill braced herself with both hands on either side of her on the bed. Her nails dug into the hotel counterpane as Julie's clever hands cupped her breasts, circling and then brushing her nipples with her thumbs. When Julie replaced one of her hands with her mouth and tongue, Gill relinquished hold of the bedspread entirely. She cradled Julie's head to her breast, stroking her hands through her messy blonde hair and relying upon her lover's strong arms about her waist to keep her from falling backwards on the bed as she squirmed in pleasure.

In a matter of minutes Gill was wet with anticipation. She heard herself whimper – actually whimper – in delight as Julie kissed a trail down her stomach and came to rest hovering just above her thighs. Responding to Julie's touch she allowed her legs to be spread further apart. And the next whimper was really more of a moan when Julie's hot mouth began to nuzzle her through the cloth of her underwear.

"More," she pleaded.

Julie sat back on her heels just long enough to pull Gill's underwear from her entirely. Through rather lust hazed eyes Gill saw the look of near-feline self-satisfaction on Julie's face and silently vowed to return the sentiment.

Then Julie's mouth was between her legs again and nothing in the world existed but the sensation of her lips and tongue driving Gill to distraction. She was vaguely aware of strong hands on her thighs, and then of the counterpane, silky against her back. But none of that mattered compared to the pleasure of contact. Julie's tongue moved over her, now soft, laving her swollen flesh, now hard, slipping inside her or curling over her clit.

"More," Gill gasped again.

Julie obliged with her fingers. Gill felt them inside her, sliding and filling her. She thrust against Julie's hand until between them they had set a rhythm that she knew would satisfy her. All the while, Julie's tongue worked against her, sending short throbbing pulses of pleasure through her body.

Gill knew she was nearing release. Julie seemed to sense it too. Keeping the rhythm steady with her fingers she pressed more firmly against Gill with her tongue and lips, increasing the friction as Gill moved against her. It was as much as Gill could take. Her climax rushed over her making her shake from head down to her toes as they curled in the carpet. Julie kept up her ministrations through the aftershocks until Gill collapsed back perfectly sated upon the bed. She lay there for a moment to regain her breath and wait for her vision to clear.

Sitting back up once she'd regrouped, Gill saw that Julie was still kneeling watching her. And still clad in bra and trousers.

"Come here," Gill ordered, slipping backwards to make room. Julie rose languidly. Did she practice that sway of her hips to be some kind of lesbian catnip, Gill wondered, or had nature just genetically programmed her to be insanely attractive to Gill in particular?

Julie climbed onto the bed beside her and kissed her hard.

"You know, I'm pretty sure we talked about this the last time," Gill said archly, "you're wearing way too many clothes."

"Apologies," Julie said with a low chuckle. Between them they rectified the problem in seconds and soon Gill had Julie entirely at her mercy lying naked beneath her.

Gill lay flush on top of her lover. Balanced on her fore-arms at either side of Julie's head she was free to comb her fingers through the soft hair fanned out on the pillow, and to pepper kisses across her jaw and neck.

After one last kiss to Julie's throat she let herself stretch out until her breasts pressed against Julie's.

"Oh, Gill..."

She shifted her weight, settling her body more comfortably against Julie's taller form. She straddled one of Julie's long legs. Then, with a twist of her hip she thrust her upper thigh hard against her lover. She heard Julie groan with pleasure. She moved against her again. Julie's hands reached for her waist, turning her slightly against her (which unexpectedly sent a new shock through Gill). She placed her own hand beneath Julie's hip to help her brace herself until she found the sweetest point of friction. Once she was satisfied that their rhythm was bringing Julie pleasure, Gill returned part of her attention to her breasts. She kissed, sucked and nipped at her flushed skin as Julie writhed beneath her.

Julie's movements became more erratic. Gill felt her shift to reach between them with one hand so that she could satisfy Gill again, too. Gill shook her head.

"No. I just want to watch you."

True to her word she kept her eyes trained on Julie's as she dropped a final soft kiss between her breasts. They held eye contact until a final thrust of Gill's hip pushed Julie over the edge. Her eyes shut tight as she gasped out her pleasure in half-formed terms of endearment. Gill took advantage of the opportunity to gaze over Julie's whole body as she came, watching the flexing of her muscles and the involuntary movements of her hands and feet.

As Julie's breathing gradually began to turn to normal, Gill moved to wrestle the blankets from the bottom of the bed and pulled them over them both, snuggling close to Julie's side.

They lay there for a while just enjoying the afterglow. Eventually, Gill spoke again:

"Am I wrong or are we really good at that?"

"We are really, really good at that," Julie confirmed.

"Well I guess we should keep on doing it, shouldn't we?"

They lay a little longer wrapped warmly in each other's arms. In a few minutes they would need to get up, wash, dress, and return to the joys of conference duty. But for a few more stolen moments they could be entirely content.