Daryl was startled awake and pushed the body off of him. He was reaching for his crossbow before he realized who was there. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Hush," Beth whispered. "You'll wake the others." She scrambled to her feet and stepped toward him.
"What's going on," Daryl whispered, too. "What are you doing here?"
"I want you." She sat down on the cot beside him.
Daryl was sure that he hadn't heard her right. "What?"
"I want you, Daryl. I think about you all the time, especially at night. I think about you touching me."
He was shocked. "Uh, listen kid—"
Beth interrupted him. "I'm not a kid. I'm eighteen now. Today was my birthday, not that anybody remembered. Can't blame them with everything that's been going on, but I've been keeping track, counting down the days."
"Oh. Well, uh, Happy Birthday then." Daryl wondered if he was having some kind of bizarre dream.
"Thanks. So, I'm an adult now, just like you."
"Congratulations. Now you need to go back to your own bed and let me get some sleep." She was sitting way too close to him, and he needed her to leave.
"I want you to make me a woman," Beth whispered in his ear and put her hand on his knee.
What had gotten into the girl? She had been sweet and demure, but now she was aggressively trying to seduce him. He pushed her hand away. "You have to go. If your dad finds you here…"
"He won't. Don't worry, everybody's asleep."
"You still have to go," Daryl said.
"Please," Beth pleaded. "I don't want to die a virgin."
"Why me?" He was asking himself the question aloud, but she answered him.
"When you went away, I thought I'd lost you, too. With Jimmy I waited, because I thought we'd have more time. Even after everything started, I was waiting for the perfect time. I never felt ready. But with you, it's different. I feel ready, and I can hardly wait, I want you so much."
Daryl would have been less nervous if he had been surrounded by walkers. "I'm too old for you."
"There's nobody else. I've thought about it, and I would still want you even if there were guys my age here. I've never been this attracted to anyone before."
"I'm sorry, but I can't do what you're asking me to." Please let her leave now, he thought.
"Then give me a kiss." Beth touched his arm.
"A kiss?"
"For my birthday. It's the only present I want."
He should just throw her out. "Then you'll leave?"
"Yes, but it has to be a real kiss on the lips, not a peck on the cheek."
Why was he negotiating with her? "Okay, but that's it. Just one kiss."
Beth leaned toward him, and he decided to stop arguing and get it over with. She was young, and her lips were so soft. Once the kiss began, he didn't want it to end. It had been a long time since he had been with a woman. That part of him had remained dormant with the fight for survival, but now he came alive with desire. He deepened the kiss as she responded to him. It took him a minute to realize where her hand was. He stifled a moan and broke away from their kiss.
"You have to go."
"No," Beth said. "You want me, too. I could feel it."
"We had a deal. Now get out of here."
"Let me stay just a little longer. I promise I'll behave. I had a nightmare, and I don't want to go back to sleep. I feel safer with you. Please? It's my birthday."
"Okay, but keep your hands to yourself." He allowed her to lie beside him on the cot as he made room for her by rolling onto his side with his back against the wall. Despite what she had said, she was soon asleep. He didn't have the heart to wake her and make her go back to her own cell.
He wasn't going to get anymore sleep tonight anyway. She had been just a kid to him until she had put these thoughts in his head. I think about you touching me, she had said. Now, as she snuggled against him with her feminine curves, it was all he could think about.
"Aw, hell," Daryl muttered.
He heard Merle laugh quietly in the next cell, and he knew that his brother had heard the whole thing. Glad you're amused by my predicament, he thought, directing his frustration toward him. Merle would never let him forget this—as if he could.