Things are going to escalate! (Picture: ITV)

There’s a bit of a romantic merry-go-round coming up in Emmerdale soon as work colleagues Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) and Wendy Posner (Susan Cookson) get into some frisky role-playing after discovering a mutual love for crime fiction writing.

Meanwhile Wendy’s partner Bob Hope (Tony Audenshaw) is back at the B&B realising that he’s developing feelings for his own work colleague, Bernice Blackstock (Samantha Giles). Complex!

Samantha Giles told us how a charged moment develops between her character and Bob while they’re testing out wines for the B&B.

‘They’re trying out wines because they’re having so many bad reviews for the B&B and everyone’s saying the wine’s shit and it’s disgusting,’ Samantha explained. ‘So Bob takes it into his own hands and gets a load of wine and persuades her under duress, “Right, we’re going to try these wines.” And of course she doesn’t want to do the spitting into a bucket thing, she just starts drinking it.

‘So they get a bit tipsy and they’re opening their hearts to each other and he leans towards her as if he’s going to kiss her but he tops her glass up and nothing happens.’

If that doesn’t sound terribly racy so far, Samantha revealed there was more to come, but it ends in embarrassment for poor Bernice.

‘In the next scene they start talking about looking for the right person and then she goes towards him thinking it’ll be a moment to kiss and he pulls away very abruptly and she’s left with egg on her face, really.’

Obviously wine is involved in this scene but, according to Samantha, Bernice is starting to have real romantic feelings towards her business partner and it’s not just the effect of the alcohol.

‘I think she does have genuine feelings for him,’ she confirmed.’ ‘I think she’s worked out how she feels from them working together and spending more time together, so I think she has developed some genuine feelings. She does develop feelings quite quickly for people because she’s quite lonely, I think, but I think they’re genuine for Bob.

‘He’s very different to any man she’s gone for before, I suppose,’ she continued.

‘She’s been single for quite a while and I think that maybe her needs have changed a little bit, about what sort of man she’s looking for. She’s quite often gone for younger men, hasn’t she? Men that are very on the surface, conventionally good-looking, I suppose, or dynamic. I think what she’s found maybe with Bob has just been a much more slow burn, cementing their friendship and getting to know him a bit more and working out how they work together.

Bob and Bernice recently bought the B&B, which is easy for us to say (Picture: ITV)

‘He does irritate her and obviously she must irritate him, but it’s a different kind of foundation and I think that’s what she’s enjoyed. It feels more safe and secure, but she’s also realised to her surprise that there is an attraction, a physical attraction as well.’

But does Bob feel the same? In upcoming episodes we’ll see him battling with his conscience as he feels guilty about the near-kiss with Bernice behind Wendy’s back. He realises that he also has feelings for Bernice but tries to ignore it because of Wendy. What he doesn’t know, of course, is that Wendy has done far more than almost kiss Liam…

More: Trending

It’s a complicated situation and it’s anybody’s guess how it’ll all play out but one thing that Samantha Giles is certain of is that she’s very much enjoying playing these scenes with Bob and Wendy.

‘I’m enjoying it more than I’ve enjoyed it for a long time,’ she enthused. ‘That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed it, but it just gives it a little extra spark.’

MORE : Emmerdale’s Charley Webb reunites with co-stars to celebrate two decades of friendship

MORE : Emmerdale spoilers: Big twist as murder story confirmed for Liam

It’s getting hot in the B&B and no, Bernice hasn’t left the oven on.