Something So Right

This prompt follows the "Counting Stars" song by One Republic (one of my fave songs anyway!). I decided to continue yesterday's story "A Destiny Chosen" to make it easier to follow. Hope you like! As usual, I own absolutely nothing.

I feel something so right doing the wrong thing

I feel something so wrong doing the right thing

Could've lied could've lied could've lied

Everything that drowns me makes me wanna fly.

Daryl knew it was probably wrong what he was doing with Beth. He figured their paths might never have crossed if the world hadn't gone to shit. Figured even more that he was probably on the fast track to hell for falling for an 18 year old woman. He was damn near 37 years old, definitely old enough to be her daddy. The thought just fucked with his mind anytime he let himself go there; so he didn't for the most part. He thought about her father though and figured he had to have been at least seventy when he died. If Beth was 18 and his math was right, Hershel must have been a hell of a lot older than her mama, so maybe that's why the age difference never seemed to bother her. It didn't seem to bother Maggie either. Hell he guessed the only person it seemed to bother was himself. And when his thoughts went that direction, he told himself to stop being such a pansy-assed little bitch and just go with it. He'd already confessed how he felt after all. There was no way he was going to back out now. He didn't think he could back out even if he tried. He was in too deep to turn back now.

It was just that it felt so right being with Beth, even though it should be wrong. There were a million reasons he shouldn't be with her; that he should insist she find someone her own age. But there was only one that helped him decide it was all okay; the fact that he loved her more than he loved to breathe. Because Daryl figured if Beth ever died, and it wasn't fucking happening on his watch, once the breath left her lungs he would have no need to ever inhale again. He hoped like hell if that ever happened, he'd just go too, because this shithole world wasn't worth a damn living in without Beth in it.

Whenever he was having an attack of conscience and got wrapped up too much in his own head about whether or not he should 'be' with Beth, he drew on the fact that no one else thought it strange, so he couldn't either. It really wasn't the age difference at all when he thought about it. It was that she was so pure, so damned good. So damn beautiful that he knew exactly where all the poets and authors got the phrase "ethereal beauty" from. They must have seen into the future and known that Beth Greene was going to inhabit the earth as a near celestial body. Yes, she was too good for someone like him. Even though she kept telling him that he was, it was going to take a hell of a long time for him to believe it, if he ever did at all.

Just like now, her lying in his arms and hearing her easy breathing, he could turn his head and look down at her, watching her sleeping form and marvel at how her lashes fluttered against her cheeks as she slumbered on, unaware of him watching her. He hoped he didn't seem like a creep or anything, but it made him feel better knowing she was okay. He breathed easier when she was within arm's reach. Ever since she had gotten back to them, he hadn't let her out of his sight for more than a few minutes. Even when she went to the bathroom, she dragged him with her. They had done it when they were alone for such a long time, it had become second nature. Their separation had done nothing to diminish their familiarity with one another. Daryl was glad of that.

In his mind, he had rehearsed it a thousand times how he would approach her. Running to her and pulling her into his arms was the one fantasy he always went to. Then she would look up at him and ask him if he missed her. He'd tell her "hell yes, I missed you!" and then he'd kiss her. He'd imagined it so many times, how soft her lips would be, how she would taste. He imagined she might taste something like the strawberries her hair always smelled like. He leaned down a little and inhaled deeply, smiling when he caught the faint berry whiff, just as he expected. She shifted a little and he held his breath, not wanting to wake her. But when it all came down to it, it hadn't gone down anything like it did in his head. Sure he'd hugged her, but when it came down to kissing her, he chickened out.

"You gonna watch me sleep all night or are you gonna get some shut-eye yourself?" she opened one eye to peer up at him and he saw the corners of her lips turned up in a smirk.

He looked at her in surprise. "Thought you were asleep. 'M sorry. Go back to sleep. I'll settle down in a bit. Can't sleep just yet." It was all he said. He didn't want to tell her he couldn't sleep because all he could do was think about her. He'd lost a lot of sleep in the couple weeks she had been back. When he did, it was restless slumber and he usually woke up aroused as hell. He'd had to get up abruptly a couple times, muttering over his shoulder that he needed to take a piss. It had become downright embarrassing him behaving like a 15 year old boy, but god help him, she did things to him he didn't think were possible anymore.

It wasn't that he was a virgin or anything, though he suspected she was. They hadn't really talked about it yet. They hadn't done much more than kiss, both of them afraid of taking it to the next level and yet enjoying each moment as it happened.

"What's on your mind?" Beth propped herself up on her elbows and turned so she was facing him, her free hand going to his arm and tracing her fingers up his biceps lazily. This was what he liked. This quiet time, just the two of them. They were in the back hallway of the house they had camped out in for the night. It was the only place relatively private and everyone seemed to respect that they needed their time together.

He gazed at her and he was reminded of that time in the funeral parlor that night. When she had asked him another question that he had finally answered. He knew he wasn't going to take as long to answer this one as he did then. He would never waste time with her again. It was too risky a thing.

"Was thinking 'bout us." Daryl propped himself up, mirroring her position and moved his hand to rest on her hip. He loved that he could do that. That he could touch her and she didn't mind. She smiled up at him as he lightly grazed his thumb over her hip just over that small patch of skin that was exposed, her tank top having ridden up in her sleep. He became mesmerized with the alabaster white of her skin and his fingers skimmed a little higher, exposing a couple more inches. He looked up at her then, gauging her reaction to him taking things a little further and her eyes were watching him carefully. Her lips parted just a bit as he skimmed his fingers even higher and he leaned in then, bringing his lips to hers, tentative at first and then claiming them fully as she responded beneath him.

She brought her hand up to his chest and pulled at the lapel of his shirt and pulled him toward her. He growled against her mouth, feeling her warmth against him and he just needed to feel more of her. He angled his mouth over hers again and teased her lower lip with the tip of his tongue and she caught his signal and opened her mouth under hers, allowing his tongue to slip between her lips into her mouth. She tasted like the peaches that they had for dinner. He had become so sick of peaches since the world had gone to shit, but tasting them on Beth's lips was the most delicious thing he had ever had. He skimmed his fingers under her shirt and felt her breath catch and he stopped for a moment and felt her wiggle beneath him. He smiled against her mouth as she became impatient with him and he skimmed his fingers higher, higher then until he was just beneath one perfect rounded breast and he took a deep breath, telling himself that this was right. Their love was right.

Beth seemed to sense his reticence and brought her hand up between them, grasping his wrist in her tiny delicate hand and moving his hand right over her breast and palming the back of his hand and squeezing. He groaned loudly into her mouth and felt himself go harder at her not so subtle hint that she wanted him to touch her there.

Beth moved her hand down away from his hand, traveling lower and lower until she reached button of his jeans. She broke the kiss then and pulled back to look at him bravely. She was no longer smirking. She wasn't smiling. She was….Beth Greene was turned on. Looking at her blown pupils wasn't the only clue. Her lips were parted slightly, her breath coming out in little puffs as he kneaded her breast and skimmed his thumb over her nipple. He nodded at her quickly before lowering his mouth to her neck and kissing along her jaw and lower to her neck, lower still to the neckline of her shirt and then before he knew it he was tugging her shirt up to expose one perfect breast and he looked up at her again and found that she was watching him, her bottom lip tucked prettily between her teeth and he had a thought that he wanted to nip her lower lip himself. She nodded at him slightly and he descended his mouth on her breast, laving his tongue over her nipple and suckling gently, kneading what wouldn't fit into his mouth. He sucked and licked and nipped, knowing he would never tire of her tiny little gasps and moans of pleasure. He trailed his tongue along the flesh between her breasts until he reached the other one, gently pushing the other side of her tank top up and licking and sucking the other breast and squeezing them both. He moved back up her body to swallow the moan he had just elicited and she fumbled with his button again.

And then it was his turn to moan into her mouth as she finished unzipping him and put her hand expertly around him. He figured for as much a virgin he thought she was, she wasn't completely innocent. In his experience, it was always the innocent looking farmers that you had to watch out for. She moved her hand up and down, a little awkwardly. Okay, so maybe she wasn't that experienced but Daryl didn't give two goddamns because experienced or not, what she was doing was just fine by him and it felt so damned good he almost let her continue. But when he was edging closer and let's just face it, it wouldn't take much for him. It had been a hell of a long while for him.

Daryl reluctantly broke the kiss and gently pulled her tank top back down where it was supposed to rest and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. From the looks of Beth fluttering her hands up to fix the back of her hair into her perpetual ponytail, he guessed she was having a hard time recovering as well.

He hated to end it but they were in the back hallway of a ramshackle house in the midst of the end of the world. He knew they had to go with what they had for the most part but apocalypse or no, he wasn't going to do this here.

He decided the best route was the direct one. "You ever done any of this 'afore?" Daryl asked her, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

She shrugged, her face still flushed from their make out session. "'I unno?"

He chuckled at her attempt to mock his words of a few weeks ago. "Nah, you gotta tell me. If you want this with us," He looked at her pointedly, smirking just a bit.

"Of course I want this Daryl. Don't you?" He should have been ashamed at himself teasing her like that.

"Relax Greene. 'Course I want this. It's practically all I think about." Daryl didn't know if he was more surprised by his own admission or her reaction to it.

"Really?" Beth sat up then and her voice had gone up an octave.

"Shhhh, you want to wake up everyone else?" Daryl chuckled at her enthusiasm. "Yes really. I love you right? Of course I want to be with you. I just need to know where we stand. So?" He looked at her expectantly.

"Well I did some stuff with Zach. Nothing major. Just some over the clothes stuff mostly," She blushed again and he thought it was cute.

Daryl nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I ain't gonna have your first time bein' in no rundown house with our family on the other side of the wall." He said resolutely.

Beth looked a little defeated then and he felt sorry for it. But just like the peach schnapps, he didn't want her to have half-assed experiences. He wanted her to be able to really enjoy what it was to be with someone in that way. Hell, he wanted himself to be able to enjoy it. He knew he'd never done anything more than a quick roll in the hay. Beth Greene certainly wasn't that.

"It's nice of you to defend my honor and all but I ain't made of glass and I ain't gonna break" She looked up at him, a slight pout on her face and he reached his hands out and cupped her face in his hands, tilting her face up so she would look directly at him.

"Hey, I want this. I want you, Beth." God did he ever. "I just want it to be….good. You deserve that."

She nodded at him, seeming to understand. "We both deserve it." She corrected, smiling softly at him and leaning in to press her lips to his. It was soft and sweet and tender and when they broke apart finally, she leaned back against him and whispered. "I love you Daryl," she yawned then and he smiled.

"Love you too." He answered. "Now get some sleep. Got a big day ahead of us."

She murmured something else but he figured she didn't hear the last part as she had already started drifting off. He pulled her to him and settled her back in.

He could feel himself start to get sleepier now. He was still slightly hard and there was nothing to be done about that he supposed.

He thought back over their conversation and he knew he was probably in way over his head but he didn't care. He was sinking in this ocean full of thoughts filled with Beth and their future together, even if it was only immediate. He was sinking, maybe even drowning and he didn't care. He was flying high, riding the wave of falling in love with sweet Beth Greene. Yes, it felt right. Definitely something so right.

You guys are seriously amazing! This story has gotten so many follows, favorites, reviews and stuff and thangs, it just thrilled my heart. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this southern gal feel special!

Hope I did the prompt justice. I tried to work in a few parts of the song. I had something different in mind, something like Daryl and Beth counting the stars on one of their nights together, but this seemed to fit better, plus it's way hotter right? Lol I've decided to continue the first part of the story into each day as long as it fits the prompt. That way we get the same Beth/Daryl each day of the week. Hope I can keep writing them the whole week. We shall see! Until next time, xoxoxoxo