Chapter 1: The Morning After

They fell asleep like that, with her back pressed against his side, her head pillowed on his arm, his hand lazily stroking her forearm until it slid, bonelessly, to rest on her wrist. The last thing she remembered was turning her hand to catch his fingers, and bending to press a kiss to his palm before surrendering to sleep.

Carol woke to the feeling of Daryl shifting against her, and sat up as cautiously as she could, hoping to let him drift off again, but he made a little grumbling noise behind her and moved to wrap his arms around her waist.

"Where you goin'? I was comfortable." His voice was muffled against her hip, and she peeked under her arm to see one eye glinting up at her.

"Sorry, sleepy, but duty calls." She slipped off the bunk, breaking his embrace, and turned to plant a soft kiss on his lips. He raised his head, chasing her mouth, but she turned away and began hunting for her clothes, smiling as he groaned in frustration.

"Tease." He turned fully onto his back and kicked the sheet off his legs, stretching.

Carol straightened from where she'd bent to retrieve her underwear and pants, and her mouth went dry at the sight of him. "Jesus, Daryl, now who's being the tease?"

He crooked a sly eyebrow at her and ran his hand over his pecs, scratching at the scattering of hair there, then rubbed it over his belly and slipped it down to tug lightly at his half-hard cock. "Li'l Dix here thinks you should come back to bed and let those folks fend for themselves for once."

She snorted and turned away from him, hiding the flush that had arisen in her cheeks, and stepped into her pants, opting for the quickest coverage. Before she could zip them, he lunged forward and caught her by the waistband, dragging her back into his lap and wrapping his arms around her to trap hers against her body. "Ain't lettin' you go that easy." He rubbed his chin and cheek against her back, making her squirm from the rough tickle of his scruff. "Are you gonna play nice, or do I gotta get tough with you?"

Carol wriggled and slapped half-heartedly at his hands, struggling to get free, laughing, "You and what army, Dixon?" He shifted his grip to free one arm and still keep control of her, bringing his hand around to her ribs. She squeaked "oh god please no tickling!" and redoubled her efforts to escape, then collapsed in giggles, panting, "Okay, I give, I give, I'll play nice!"

She could feel him grin against her shoulder blade. "I don't know that I trust you, that was too easy. Now, if I let you go, do you promise not to run away?" She gulped and nodded, giddy, her skin now totally on fire.

His restraining arm loosened and slipped down to hold her easily around the waist, and his knuckles stroked gently over the ribs he'd recently threatened. "So soft…" he crooned, and brought the hand around to the front of her, sliding it into the open fly of her pants, caressing her belly. She felt any remaining urge to flee melt away, and she leaned back into his body, letting her head drop against his shoulder. She could feel the mounting evidence of his own desire beneath her, and abandoned all thought of waiting responsibilities.

He turned his head and ran his tongue up the side of her neck, then took her earlobe between his teeth, nibbling lightly at it as he slid one hand up to cup her breast, catching the nipple between thumb and forefinger, rolling it, making her jerk back against him and moan, "Daryl…" The hand inside her pants quested further, palming her mound before his fingers slipped in to glide over her slippery flesh.

His voice was quiet as he put his lips to her ear, his hand continuing to stroke her so intimately. "I know there's places you gotta be, and we don't have time for a full repeat of last night; you just stay still and let me make you feel good."

His fingers slid inside her, and his palm pressed firmly against her mound, rocking the heel of his hand into her, his hips beneath her mirroring the motion so she could feel his erection against her ass. Carol curled the tops of her feet around behind his calves, keeping herself from sliding further forward as he thrust against her and pulled her back into him at the same time. Her hand came up to cover the fingers that still teased at her nipple, then moved to her other breast to mimic their action. She felt like she was drowning in sensation, pulled in every direction by their fingers and his lips on the back of her neck.

She gasped, "God, I wish we had a mirror so I could watch us…" and he chuckled softly, "Mm, mm, someone's a dirty girl," and abruptly moved his hand to rub his thumb solidly against her clit.

Carol felt the storm of her orgasm gathering low in her belly and arched hard up into his hand, panting, "Jesus, Daryl, I'm going to come…" and she clenched around his fingers as the wave broke, tumbling her over and over, bolts of sensation rocketing through her and curling her toes and leaving her gasping, limp against him as she fought to get her breath.

She looked down to see her fingernails dug into the forearm that held her securely in his lap. "Oh, god! I'm so sorry, Daryl, I think I really gouged you. I didn't mean to, I was just…"

He snickered, and looked at the half-moon cuts her nails had left. "Just marking your territory, maybe? S'okay, I know you didn't do it on purpose. I kinda like that I made you lose your mind like that. Hell, I've had worse damage just walkin' down the hall."

"Not going to be easy to hide it, though, unless you can find a shirt with sleeves that'll cover it." She ran her fingers over the trail she'd left on his skin.

"Don't figure there's any need to hide it, d'you? I mean, it ain't like people aren't gonna know what we been up to."

"And you're okay with that?" she questioned. "I know you don't like it when people want to get into your personal business."

"Yeah, s'okay. Just 'cause they ask don't mean I gotta answer. You either, but it's your call how much you say."

She nodded, thinking, and realized as she shifted in his lap that he was still half-hard underneath her. "That was an incredible way to start the day, Daryl, but I feel a little guilty…"

He put his fingers over her mouth and said, "None of that, now. That was all for you. I can take care of myself, or maybe I'll just suffer through a bit of blue balls and let you take advantage of all that build-up later, y'think?"

She almost blushed to think of what she'd like to do to help take care of that, but only said, "I'm sure we can think of something" and grinned at him. "By the way, I think if you want to minimize the gossip, you might want to wash up a bit before you come down. Your hands are… well, let's just say there's little question about what you've been doing with them."

He smirked and deliberately rubbed his fingers behind his ears and down his chest, saying, "Nah, I like that I'm gonna smell like you all day." He laughed as Carol caught a breath in surprise, her eyes widening at the thought. "It's the finest perfume I know."