Chapter 4

Rick strips down completely. He's not on watch tonight so can afford to get naked. And it feels good to slide between clean sheets. He lies on his back with his hands behind his head. He smells himself and thinks he should take a shower but he's just too damn tired. He can hear Carol settling down and very faintly he hears Merle and Michonne laughing together. Their laughter punctuated now and then by a moan or sigh. Rick nearly sighs with them feeling tonight of all nights like a voyeur. It usually doesn't bother him but he usually wasn't lying in bed naked with a woman he wanted lying a few rooms away fully awake herself.

He closes his eyes as he feels his cock begin to move. He lets it grow erect on its own without any touching. He simply listens and thinks, wanting the noises to be Carol responding to his caresses. He reaches a hand under the mattress for his towel thinking he really needs to wash it soon and his fingers grasp nothing. What? He sits up in bed grabbing the mattress to raise it up. The towel is there, not where he puts it though. It's on the other side of the mattress folded into a neat square. And it's clean. Rick sits on the side of the bed holding it in his hands. His hard-on has deflated like a balloon. Beth was on laundry duty today. She'd found his towel. She'd not only found his towel she'd washed it and put it back. He brought it to his face inhaling the clean scent. A frown flitted across his face. It also smelled female. Shaking his head at his own musings Rick put it back in its usual spot before rolling on his side. His urge to come had gone with the discovery of the towel. Beth did not turn him on in the slightest. Feeling frustrated Rick slides into sleep.

Carol wakes him in the morning in his cell with Jude. She lifts her from the cot as Rick wakes up. He scrubs the sleep from his face not remembering as he sits up that he had slept naked. He's about to throw the covers back when he realises he has nothing on under them and stills his hand at his hip leaving himself partly exposed. He looks up to Carol to apologise only to find her staring at his naked hip. Jude is moving in her arms but Carol is not responding. Rick's eyes sharpen as he sees she is breathing fast and her breasts, or at least the one not covered by his daughter has an erect nipple staring at him impudently. Is Carol aroused? He's about to ask her, make some query when Beth and Daryl yelling at each other again interrupt his thoughts. They both glance over out of the cell and the mood is broken. But Rick won't forget it. He resolves to speak to her tonight when they're on watch.

As soon as Carol leaves he is up and dressing. He feels energy moving through him and knows it's because of Carol that he feels this way. The thought she may feel the same way has never entered his mind prior to this morning. Why would she want the man who was responsible for the death of her daughter? Rick decides not to question, to second-guess as he is prone to. Instead he is going to hope he saw what he thinks he did this morning. He'll wait until this evening when they're on watch before he broaches it with her. He needs to let the thought that she may reciprocate settle in his brain. He could be wrong, but if he isn't, well he needs to let the thought settle or he'll fuck what could potentially be something sideways before he knows where he is.

Eating breakfast Rick finds himself beside a pissed off Beth as she stares at the edged weapons that are on the table in front of her with a sharpener. "Daryl is right Beth, you need to learn how to take care of your weapon fully, not just to defend yourself with it." Rick nearly winces at the glare she levels at him, her hair makes her seem even more scary. He remembers her shocking display of temper months ago when she had fought her sister before Daryl had stopped her. He remembers she was beating the living shit out of Maggie until Daryl stopped her. He vaguely wonders if she's going to attack him although he'd only been trying to help.

"Remember what I said Brat." The words tossed at Beth over Daryl's shoulder as he walks past with his crossbow slung over his shoulder. He doesn't even look at Beth as he walks past. Beth turns her murderous gaze on Daryl and Rick breathes a sigh of relief. He feels extremely stupid but he's afraid of her temper. Especially with those knives on the table in front of her. Before she can leave to get dressed Rick needs to thank her.

Clearing his throat he says "I appreciate you doing all of my laundry yesterday Beth," He's going to continue but she levels him with a look that reminds him of Herschel. It is quiet, powerful and intelligent.

"I didn't do the laundry yesterday, Carol took it. She says it's her 'me' time." She is up and away before he can reply. Carol did the laundry? Carol washed his towel and put it back? Suddenly Rick wants to find Carol and talk to her. No not talk to her, he wants her. He wants her now. Before he can do anything Glenn tells him Andrea and Milton are here for their weekly meeting. They alternate weeks. One week they go there, the next week like this one they come here. Rick's lips thin as he realises it's unlikely he'll be able to speak to Carol again today at all. At least until they're on watch tonight. And maybe it's for the best. Fuck knows if he'd keep his head on straight if he went to her now.

Later that evening at dinner he sits with Herschel and Daryl as he mentions the trip with Merle, Michonne and Carol. They agree it'll do the two of them good to get away for a couple of days. In fact Herschel tells him they should deliberately take their time. If they leave tomorrow they don't even have to be back for a week as the meeting took place today. Rick agrees and goes to find Merle and Michonne to see if they're agreeable to leave in the morning. They won't leave too early as they're only going to the town on the first day; that will give he and Carol time to get some sleep after their watch tonight. Rick decides to tell her then that they're leaving in the morning. He heads into his cell to try to get some rest but knows it's useless. He packs a change of clothes for tomorrow, cleans his revolver and the rifle and then it's time for watch. He hadn't seen Carol anywhere that day but he knows she usually makes herself scarce when Woodbury come around, he doesn't know why though. He walks slowly up the stairs to the tower hearing murmuring coming from inside. It's Carol and Beth. Daryl is doing a sweep. He says goodnight to Beth as she leaves and he is then facing Carol.

She smiles at him as she usually does. Nothing out of the ordinary in her eyes but he thinks she maybe doesn't keep eye contact with him as long as she normally would. And she is fidgeting which she doesn't do. Rick goes to speak but is interrupted by Daryl coming back. He heads inside and Rick wonders when he is going to claim Beth. But he doesn't wonder long. Tonight he's wondering about himself making a claim. "Turns out I thanked the wrong person for doing my washing yesterday." His words are soft and he says them to the side of her head as she's looking into the distance. He is watching her like the hawk she sometimes thinks he is and he sees her breath pause before she starts breathing again, slightly faster than before.

"It needed washing." It's all she says, noncommittal. He would think if he hadn't seen her this morning that she was just being her usual self. But he remembers that nipple poking at him when he'd nearly flashed her as she'd woken Jude.

Rick is going crazy wondering if he's making the right decision, wondering in Carol does really feel the same way or whether she'd just been like that because he was a man, any man and he'd been naked. No, with his next breath he realises she has seen them all at one point or another in some form of nakedness. It was him being naked in front of her, it had to be. Before he loses his nerve he takes the two steps toward her that he needs to, reaching out and grasping her arm to turn her toward him. She looks at him levelly like she always does. Still running on instinct he slides both hands up her arms, over her shoulders and up her neck until he's clasping her face in his hands. She isn't looking level anymore, she is looking slightly shocked and very eager. He wasn't wrong, she does want him. A knot he hadn't realised he'd had in his chest loosened as her eyes fluttered closed. He leaned his head in. Pausing for an infinitesimal moment, just long enough for her to open her eyes again in puzzlement before he placed his lips on hers as soft as a feather. He stayed like that for the longest time, looking at her looking back at him. Both of them breathing irregularly. Just as he is going to pull away Carol's control breaks, still looking at Rick she puts her arms around him, sliding them into his back pockets, grasping his backside. She then pulls him into her so she can feel all of his hard length along her. She groans into Rick's mouth shutting her eyes as she opens her mouth under his in blatant invitation. Rick accepts on a groan himself as his tongue explodes into Carol's mouth sweeping past hers, exploring every part of her he can reach. She is doing the same to him.

They start a lazy duel with their tongues as she flexes those wonderfully strong hands of hers on his arse. Rick feels his cock grinding against Carol and wants nothing more than to sink it into her as far and as hard as he can. He slides his hands around the back of her neck and down her spine scratching lightly with his nails as he goes causing her to shiver and push her hips further into him. He slides his own hands over her narrow hips before touching her wonderfully shaped backside as he's wanted to do for a long time. He skims his palms over it softly causing a hitch in her breathing before she flexes her hands on his backside in return. Rick slides one hand up her back again while the other strays under her trousers and panties sliding down the crack of her butt. Carol breaks away from kissing him her head falling back on her neck on a groan as her buttock cheeks clench around his finger. Rick smiles at her. She is no longer calm and collected or slyly amused. She is coming apart in his arms so beautifully. He wants nothing more than to lay her down on the floor and take her until they're both spent.

A modicum of sense returns, he knows they cannot. But he also knows he cannot go without her anymore. Now he knows she wants him in return he will stop at nothing to have her. Suddenly he is thankful they're leaving tomorrow, they'll be able to be together without everyone in the place knowing their business from the beginning. But he can't wait until then either. Before he can do anything Carol has slithered out of his arms and is down kneeling on the floor in front of him. "Carol, what…no. I want," His words choke off as she has undone his trousers and taken him into her mouth. He was already hard but she makes him harder, his cock is dripping on her tongue. She laps at him as she keeps just the head in her mouth until she has cleaned his pre-come off and then looking up at him so he can see the moonlight shining over her face, see her lips stretched around his bloated cock and see the desire for him in her eyes. Only when he has seen her like that does she close her own eyes and slowly encase him in her wet mouth.

Rick slides down Carol's throat as if she was swallowing water. He feels like liquid in her throat. Her nose is nestled in his pubic hair, his hands are now grasping her hair keeping her in place, not that she is going anywhere. She hums around him the vibrations causing Rick to shiver in her mouth. No one has done that to him before. And then she swallows. Rick cannot stop himself from coming straight down her throat like a teenager. He is aghast but so very thankful that he's finally with Carol he can't be embarrassed for long. Carol swallows around him again causing him to release into her mouth. Each time she swallows he releases a load of come down her throat. Until she swallows and he simply jerks she does not move in any other way.

Slowly she slides her mouth up and off his cock. Her tongue licks at him all the way making sure she misses none of his come. When she releases his cock from her mouth he groans as he looks at her. Her lips are swollen, wet and pink. The moonlight shining across her face making her whole face glow. Before she can do anything other than smile at him he is kneeling too. Rick mock-frowns at her before putting his hands under her shoulders and pushing her up to her feet. His look is lecherous in the extreme as she smiles down at him wiping a thumb over her bottom lip making sure she has left none of his come behind.