A/N.

Norman once said of Daryl Dixon, "I'm kind of playing him as if he's a virgin, to be honest." He also said "I don't ever want to play that character that grabs the girl and has my way with her. That's just not who that character is," and "If Daryl falls in love with you, he's gonna love you the rest of his life." I guess no one knows Daryl like Norman.

With these quotes in mind...and also believing that while Norman was referring to a sexual virgin, he wasn't JUST referring to that...a strange little idea came to me...:-D

While it's great to read Daryl as a domineering, confident, sexual predator sometimes...in reality I think Norman's Daryl is probably a very lonely, shy, insecure man that craves the affection he was never given as a child...and so I thought it would be different to explore that side of him.

Anyhow, this story was a one shot that got out of hand, so will now be 5 chapters. For reference it's set around season three, when team family were living safely at the prison.

This story has lots of rambling thoughts and feelings, and delves deep into the inner workings of Mr Dixon's brain! But it also has lots of sweet and fluffy moments...and obviously tons of M rated material, as is usual with me! ;-)

If you have time, please follow and review. It's always lovely to hear that someone somewhere is reading what I write! I promise I won't be bothering you with any more excessively long author's notes from here on in, just excessively long chapters :-P

Love E xxx

The Cabin In The Woods

Chapter One - Embarrassment

The frozen woodland surrounding him was filled with strange and unsettling noises. As Daryl's hardened body continued to pin his girl against the rough log siding of the cabin they were leant against, he suddenly realised those strange and unsettling noises were coming from him. Foreign but somehow exhilarating noises that were coming from his own body; rapid heavy breaths, the wet slurps of his tongue and lips as they slipped and slid haphazardly over Beth's, the quickened pulsing of blood in his ears, and the low guttural groans that he couldn't help but elicit as Beth moaned her need for him against his mouth.

It was a heady mix of arousal that felt as intoxicating as it did different… to be doing something so new and exciting with his beautiful Beth in a place he usually only came to for solitude.

The late afternoon air was damp, their warm breath quickly turning to white fog as they panted and huffed into the stillness around them. It was early January and every tree surrounding them was gnarled and bare, remnants of the latest snowfall covered the hardened muddy earth below them and icicles clung to the eaves of the cabin and branches alike. Winter was here and the icy cool wind nipped at their bare flesh painfully, but Daryl knew the fire burning through his veins right now was enough to keep him warm, it was enough to set even the dead lifeless woods ablaze. He felt truly alive… like a hundred thousand volts of electricity were coursing through every single sinew of his body until he thought he would explode from the thrill of it.

Daryl knew this was it. Right here, right now was the point he couldn't return from without breaking her heart…and he could never do that. He wasn't going to reject her and hurt her feelings because he was a spineless coward and a total loser. So Daryl reasoned he had to either tell Beth the truth, or blag his way through what was about to happen between them. And it was about to happen, one way or another. Of that he had no doubt.

Somehow, the archer had managed to successfully swerve Beth's advances over the past weeks without it seeming suspicious to her, but he knew Beth was clever, sharp, and that there was absolutely zero chance that his stupid ass could come up with a believable excuse to not give her what she wanted this time.

For more weeks than he could remember they'd done nothing except steal kisses while no one was looking and hold each other as they lay together talking in the still of the night; the only alone time they could get in a prison filled to bursting with prying eyes and ears. As much as Daryl wanted to be with Beth in that way, he would always stop her hands from wandering too far south. He would always make sure his mind was focused on something other than the beautiful young blonde who was sliding her tongue around the interior of his mouth so gently that he thought his dick or heart or both might erupt as they throbbed painfully inside their cages.

Beth would know he was hiding something if he stopped her this time, because what normal man with eyes in his head would ever give Beth Greene the brush off? Daryl was straight out of reasons why they shouldn't have sex.

They were alone and safe, or as safe as they could be nowadays. They had found a cosy little cabin that Beth had been excitedly clearing out and making more comfortable ready for this exact moment, and they had time… plenty of time due to Beth lying through her teeth to both Maggie and Rick as she'd told them she would be gone all day hunting. She'd told them she needed Daryl with her to help skin, butcher and haul back the stag she'd seen living nearby to the prison, and was planning on killing. She told them the prison needed it to see them through the rest of the winter and that she'd be gone as long as it took, so they shouldn't worry… she'd be safe with Daryl.

It was also no secret Daryl had been teaching Beth how to hunt and track over the last few months, so Beth knew it wouldn't seem odd to anyone that she would take him with her this time. But they'd only ever been gone a couple of hours at most before, not a whole day… or if Beth got her way, a whole day and night.

Daryl knew he had no way out this time. Not that he wanted a way out. Beth Greene and her tight, fit, beautiful, perfect body had been all he could think about for months now…he'd been beating off like some damn horny teenager every chance he'd got merely thinking about doing things to it…to her.

Only that right there was the problem.

'Doing things'. He'd never 'done things' before, not with anyone, and now here he was, in his mid-thirties and a pathetic clueless virgin too embarrassed to do anything about it. Daryl wasn't stupid, he knew he was already way out of his league by hooking up with someone like Beth, and the thought she might leave him for someone better when she found out he wasn't the man she thought he was, terrified him. These last month's had been the happiest of his life and he knew he couldn't go back to being the empty sad loner he'd been before.

Daryl had never much liked himself; what he was, what he represented, where he'd come from, or the fact he'd never done anything meaningful with his life. He'd also never liked to be touched, at all… by anyone, no exceptions, and he didn't like people in his personal space. It wasn't that he'd wanted to feel that way, not when he'd seen how other people interacted and how happy letting someone close made them…but he couldn't help it. It'd always just been that way, he'd never known anything different and he thought he never would.

That was until sweet and innocent Beth Greene had entered his life, changing everything irrevocably and turning his miserable life on its head. He'd let her into his space, maybe closer than he should have, and now, well he wasn't quite sure he could go on living if she ever left it. He liked himself a little better too, just for the fact Beth could see something in him that neither he nor anyone else ever had. She made him happy and she gave him hope. She treated him like he was worth something and said such nice things to him. Daryl wasn't sure they were true, but Beth believed them, and seeing her happy made him happy too.

From the first time Beth had touched him, Daryl decided he needed everything she was offering, and although he'd never been in love before…he somehow knew he was now…that the burning in his heart and soul was because he was deeply and madly in love with Beth Greene.

The first time her lips had brushed hesitantly over his, half expecting him to push her away, but doing it anyway, the first time her fingers had threaded through his, squeezing them gently and encouragingly, Daryl realised it wasn't being touched he didn't like, but the people and the way in which they'd touched him. Hard emotionless touches from Merle, painful harsh beatings from his father, rough drunken hugs from his mother, and a few grasping and desperate advances from cheap girls.

But with Beth, his sweet soft Beth, it was different. So different that he couldn't reconcile how touch from one person could be so completely different to that from another. When her skin connected to his it felt like an angel was brushing its warm soft feathered wings over his flesh. She was gentle and loving and careful and nothing like anything he'd ever experienced before. He could hardly handle the exquisite sensations she sent coursing through his neglected, scarred and affection starved body.

Beth Greene had made him feel alive for the first time in his life.

But as much as he wanted to hold onto those feelings, Daryl didn't know how the hell to respond. He didn't know how to be with Beth without hurting her or embarrassing himself, he was no good with words and he was no good with touching. Mostly though he couldn't shake the ingrained fear of being laughed at in the same mocking and nasty way his father used to laugh at him as he tormented and beat him for being useless and worthless and stupid. For being exactly what he was...a pathetic loser that no one, not even his own family, would ever love or want.

As a teenager Daryl had been painfully shy and withdrawn… mostly because of that same abuse and control his father had always enjoyed wielding over him, so even if a girl he liked did look twice at him, he would unwittingly scare her off with his surly, awkward and unapproachable manner, clueless as to how he should behave. Then as he reached his twenties and he still hadn't found a girl willing to persevere and break through his shy awkward exterior, he became too self-conscious to even try. He knew he would end up being mocked for the pathetic loser he was… and he was far too scared Merle would find out he was still a virgin and make his life a living hell. He also knew Merle would drag him to one of the brothels that he himself frequented, and Daryl couldn't handle the shame of some stranger looking at him, touching him, and pitying him. He didn't want to be reminded of the sad pathetic case he was, and he didn't want to be pawed by some pox-ridden skank that was only doing it because she was being paid…he just longed to be normal and have what other people had.

Someone who would love him unconditionally, and accept him for who he was.

Then along came someone who did. Beth didn't have a mean or cruel bone in her body, and he knew deep down that Beth wouldn't care or judge him whatever he told her anyway. But knowing that didn't make him feel any less of a loser. It didn't cancel out the years of being told over and over he was a nothing and a nobody, and it didn't make him feel any less useless that at his age he had no idea if he could even please a woman in that way. Not when he had the prettiest girl in the world moulding her soft womanly curves around him like she was right now, expecting him to show her a good time, to show her the skills and tricks he'd learned over the years. Because the only thing he'd learned over the years was how to beat off quickly and quietly, and to orgasm without making a sound, in fear of every person left in the world hearing him.

Then Daryl's mind drifted to the fact Beth might not be a virgin herself, which just made the whole situation worse, much worse. The fact Beth would have to show him what to do, would be comparing him to whatever guy or guys she'd been with before was just mortifying. Because he knew he wouldn't be as good as them, and it would be just one more embarrassing failure in a long line of embarrassing failures.

As that thought swirled in his head, Beth nipped at Daryl's lower lip, sucking it into her warm moist mouth and breaking him from his quandary and the self-pitying panic that had set in. Beth giggled as she released his lip with a wet pop, scraping her nails around the nape of his neck and breathing heavily through her now swollen pink lips, her warm breath escaping as white fog into the freezing atmosphere.

"Can we go inside now? I want you, so bad, Mr Dixon. I want you…inside," Beth gasped, her sweet smile failing to disguise the dirty undertone of her innocent words. Her eyes opened wide and her smile grew bigger as she sunk her teeth into her lower lip in that unknowingly sexy way that made his heart gallop out of his chest. As her gaze held him captive he noticed how her eyes glistened like huge sapphires, shimmering under the beam of low winter sunlight streaming through the naked branches above them.

Of course Beth's flirtatious words weren't lost on Daryl, even in his distracted state they made his mouth go dry and his groin swell almost painfully at the thought of being inside her.

Daryl cleared his throat, unsure if his tongue would even move in its current dry state. "We don't gotta. We can wait. That ain't all I want from ya, Beth." As much as Daryl wanted to take her inside and bury himself inside her beautiful willing body, a small part of him was hoping she'd changed her mind about wanting to do it right now. Give him just a little bit more time to gather the courage to tell her. Because he knew he had to tell her… there was no other way.

"Uuhhh…okay, what's wrong? Of course I know that's not all you want from me. I think that ship sailed a long time ago, don't you?" Beth asked, rolling her eyes in mock exasperation as the archer stared at her, mesmerized at how her flawless porcelain skin glowed almost white in the fading light.

She really was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen, why she wanted to be with his ugly scarred ass he would never know, but he'd passed the point of even trying to understand her anymore. She was Beth, always loving and kind and happy. Always beautiful and hopeful and encouraging. She was his girl and he'd finally had to accept that for some reason, she did want him… and he only hoped he'd never do anything that would give her cause to change her mind, because Daryl knew he needed her too badly to lose her now. He wanted her like he'd never wanted anything before. She was his beautiful baby girl, the only good and pure thing he'd ever had in his whole life, and the only thing he'd ever truly loved. Although he hadn't yet found the courage to tell her that either.

"Daryl, what is it? I thought we came here to be alone. So we could be together. I thought you wanted us to…" the blonde's voice trailed off to a whisper as she suddenly realised what his problem was. He didn't want to be alone or take things further… well, not with her anyway. And why would he? She'd always known Daryl Dixon was way out of her league, but she'd been fooling herself otherwise for months.

That would explain his hesitance, his distance, his constant excuses and how tense he became every time her hands tried to wander lower than his waistband. Of course she'd noticed all of those things, but Beth knew Daryl liked to go slowly, he always needed to be sure and in control, so she hadn't questioned him on it, just assumed he would let her know when he was ready.

"Why didn't you say somethin'? Stop me from makin' a fool outta myself by gettin' this place all fixed up… God, how stupid am I?" Beth asked, mumbling the last question to herself more than Daryl. She sounded dejected and she felt so small, her voice shaky as she huffed out a breath and bowed her head to the ground.

"You ain't the stupid one here. You ain't the fool, Beth. I need to explain somethin', but…well you ain't gonna feel the same about me when you know." Daryl took a step back, distancing himself from Beth, getting ready to turn and run, just like he always did when things got awkward and uncomfortable. He supposed that was one thing that would never change.

"Daryl, please. You're scarin' me. There's nothin' you can tell me that's gonna make me change how I feel about you. It's just me. You can tell me anythin' and we can work it out. Please…I wanna help." Beth tried to encourage him as she grabbed Daryl's hand in hers and linked their fingers, making it nearly impossible for him to pull away further as her eyes shone with a steely determination.

Daryl looked up at her, inhaling a deep breath of cold air and exhaling a stream of warm white fog as he tried to explain. Jesus, he'd never wanted a cigarette as badly as he wanted one now. "I ain't sure…I've never…" Daryl stopped, he couldn't say it. It was just too mortifying to admit out loud he was still a virgin at his age.

Beth was looking at him fearfully now though, her huge dark eyes imploring him to put her out of her misery and tell her.

"Go on, Daryl. You can tell me anythin'." Beth encouraged once more, a lump catching in her throat and feeling sick to her stomach as her pulse rushed through her ears.

Daryl glanced at her, feeling an ass at seeing how scared and confused she looked...because of him.

"I ain't never had a woman before." Daryl finally panted it out, feeling a burning blush creeping up from his toes and setting him on fire from the inside out as he looked to the ground and prayed for it to swallow him up and end his shame.

"You mean like a proper girlfriend?" Beth asked hesitantly, confused as to why that would even matter and why it was bothering him so much. Maybe he'd just had a lot of one night stands that he was embarrassed about admitting to. That thought made her stomach churn. Not so much the thought he'd slept with a lot of women, but that she definitely wouldn't measure up. Just as her heart started to pound and her body flush with panic, Daryl's low quiet voice filled the silent woods once more.

"Kinda…yeah, I ain't never had any girlfriends before. But that ain't it…I meant I ain't never even yunno...slept with anyone before...Ever."

"Oh!" was all Beth could manage to mutter as she looked at him and slowly began to gnaw on her bottom lip, trying, but failing to stop the grin that was erupting across her face. A grin of pure relief and happiness.

Daryl couldn't bear the silence, he looked up hesitantly to find her mood changed. She was now beaming at him like he'd just told her there were no more zombies and she could go home. She obviously hadn't heard anything as funny in years.

"Real funny, huh?" Daryl asked. He looked completely heartbroken and mortified as he wriggled to break free of Beth's grip, his eyes cast downwards in hurt and embarrassment once more. But Beth held her ground, holding him steady and forcing the archer to look at her.

"Hey, look at me. I'm smilin' because I'm happy, you idiot. I don't know why you thought I'd care. It doesn't matter, baby." Beth couldn't help but laugh lightly in relief as she squeezed onto his hand, hoping he could see she was telling him the truth. "I think it's romantic...kinda sexy, that you waited so long for me," she added, before her lips grazed softly over his.