I am SO SORRY that it took me so long to update. It may or may not have taken me a while to get over the MSF. But the Bethyl ship lives on, and so do I. I hope you guys like this chapter! It's sort of extra long to make up for my absence :)
Chapter Nine
Once upon a time, there was a girl. Her name was…Bella. And she had blonde hair, and blue eyes. She was just fifteen years old, walking home from school one day, when she heard a scream. She knew the voice was coming from a boy, but she didn't recognize it. And she knew from the way his voice kept cracking and punching out that he was in pain. A lot of it.
She trotted faster, then ran towards what she thought was the source, rounding the corner of an old abandoned barn and freezing in her tracks when she spotted them. There was a boy huddled on the ground, still screaming for help, while three men kicked him, and laughed.
There was a pitchfork leaned up against the barn, and Bella didn't really think much before she grabbed it. She hollered at the top of her lungs, and charged at them. It was a stupid thing to do, but she didn't have a phone to call for help, and she couldn't, couldn't, just leave him there. Luckily for her, the shock of that small little girl charging forward with a weapon in hand was enough to send those three men packing. They took off in the opposite direction, jumping into some idling car. Then they were gone.
"Oh my god, are you alright?!"
The boy groaned lowly, rolling himself onto his back and panting hard. He had dirty blonde hair that fell over his eyes and she recognized a fair amount of blood seeping through his clothing. She reached out to touch him and he jerked away, frightened.
"I'm sorry!" she immediately amended, "I just want to help, okay? Please let me help you."
Slowly, he sat himself up, watching Bella carefully. "I'm…okay," he rasped, "Thank you."
"I don't have a phone. But my house is another mile east, I can go call for help—"
"No!" the boy interrupted her, "Please, no cops. No hospitals. I just need to get home."
"But, the blood…" Bella whispered, staring down at his jeans. He followed her gaze.
"It's old," he eventually muttered, "Had me for a while. Drove me out here to get rid of me. I just need to get home."
It was only then that Bella realized just what the boy was insinuating. Between the placement of the blood on his clothes, and the viciousness of those men…they had him, the boy had said. She sat back on her knees next to him, trying not to cry.
"Can you walk?" she asked him, and he nodded.
"With some help, yeah."
"Okay. My farm's not too far from here. We can walk there together. I'll get my Daddy's truck and I'll take you wherever you need to go. The rest of my family won't be home until tonight, anyways. They'll never notice it was gone."
The boy regarded her for a moment, "You don't have to. I could just…hitchhike. Or walk. I could…"
"No, you couldn't. And there isn't a chance in hell I'd let you, okay?"
He bit at his lip contemplatively, then asked her one more question, "What's your name?"
"Bella," she replied with a small smile. "Am I allowed to ask yours?"
"Jesse," he murmured, gazing at her with an open, but unreadable expression.
"You just went charging at three dudes beating the shit out of a kid?" Daryl abruptly interrupted.
"Bella did," Beth reminded him playfully.
He cocked an eyebrow at her. "And I'm supposed to believe the chick with blonde hair and blue eyes ain't you?"
"It's a story, remember? Now be quiet and let me finish."
Daryl settled back against the pillows, watching Beth fixedly.
The walk back to Bella's farm wasn't easy. She'd had less than a mile to go, but with Jesse's limping, it took them nearly an hour. She ran inside once they arrived, leaving a quick note for her Daddy explaining her absence, then grabbed the car keys off the mantle.
Jesse hissed in pain when he slid into the passenger side of the car, and Bella regarded him for a beat before asking, "Maybe it would be easier if you were laying on your side? You could put your head in my lap. I mean, if you want. You must be tired."
She could tell Jesse was wary of her suggestion. But for whatever the reason, probably the pain and exhaustion, he slowly lowered himself to his side, and rested his head on her lap. He mumbled out some directions, an apartment building a few miles outside of town, and then he was out like a light.
Once they arrived, she roused him gently, and they worked together to get up the stairs to apartment 5A. He'd left a key under the mat, and finally, she got him inside and over to the couch.
"Thank you," he let out in a huff of breath when he had settled down, "Thank you."
"Do you have a first aid kit? If you're still bleeding…"
"You should go, Bella," Jesse interrupted. "You've done enough, already. I can take care of the rest."
"Jesse, you can hardly move. I'm not just going to leave."
He let out a long sigh. "You're real stubborn for a farmer's daughter, ya know that? Look I…I can take care of most of it myself. But there's some cuts on my back…"
"Okay, just tell me what you need," Bella said eagerly.
"I ain't gonna do it in front of you," he scoffed, "Just help me get to the bathroom, alright?"
Bella did as he asked, then waited worriedly on the couch for him to return. A good fifteen minutes later, she heard the shower going, and figured the worst of it must be over. He emerged after some time, a white towel wrapped around his waist. Bella had never seen that much of a man before. And even though Jesse only had three or four years on her, man was the only word that could encompass him.
He winced slightly as he padded his way over to the bed, holding the first aid kit in one hand and keeping his towel up with the other. Jesse's middle was already all shades of black and blue, and his back had several deep gashes, mostly healed but still oozing blood from his scrubbing.
Bella wordlessly went to sit by his side, and didn't wait for permission before beginning to methodically clean and treat his cuts. She remembered a time before when she'd seen wounds like the ones on Jesse's back. She'd been home sick from school, watching her Daddy work, and a man had rolled up with a big trailer behind his car. In the trailer was a horse, and the man said he'd been forcibly removed from an abusive farm, reclaimed by the state. The poor beast had long gashes all over its body, and Bella remembered the man saying it had been whipped with a belt, on and off for years.
Just like the horse, Jesse flinched at every small touch, and didn't seem the least bit comfortable to have Bella sitting behind him like she was. So when she was done, she moved her hands to his shoulders, and began to slowly massage the tension from his body.
That, at least, seemed to work. After a few minutes, she could see from Jesse's posture that he'd finally relaxed. She got up on her knees behind him, intent on working out the kink in his shoulder. But when she looked over his shoulder into his lap, what she saw made them both blush.
"I'm sorry," he immediately muttered, trying to pull away, "Shit, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to—"
"Jesse, wait," Bella demanded, and he turned to look at her, "I'm not mad. See? I'm not. I get it."
"You do? 'Cuz I sure don't. Jesus, you're just a kid, and I'm—"
"You want to feel something good," she whispered, and he stared at her wide-eyed. "It's what you need right now. And that's okay." She scooted closer to him on the bed, slowly reaching to pull the towel away. He let her.
Bella couldn't help but gasp a little when she saw him. But she'd read magazines before, overheard Maggie and her friends talking about this kind of thing. So Bella didn't hesitate to take him in her hand, and stroke him once from root to tip.
But instead of moaning in pleasure, Jesse jerked out of her grasp, letting out a small whimper and mumbling, "I can't. I can't like that."
"But you want to," Bella countered. "I can see you do. So what is it? What do you need?"
He eyed her pleadingly, but said nothing.
"You can tell me," Bella whispered. "Whatever it is, I want to do it."
He shuddered noticeably at her words, then nodded his chin towards his bedside table. "They're in the drawer," he murmured.
She leaned over him and peered inside. On top of an assortment of items that she couldn't begin to identify was one device that stood out among the rest, shiny and well-kept, and sitting upon a satin cloth. Handcuffs.
"Beth?" Daryl interrupted for a second time. "We in his apartment?"
Beth let out a deep sigh. "Yeah. We are."
"Why…why are ya tellin' me all this?"
"Because you've asked me so many times, why I want you the way I do. Why I do the things I do. And this is why. Or at least, this is how it started. Where I learned it all. But Daryl, I didn't love him. Didn't think I did, not even then. And he never touched me. Nothing, not once. So really, you were still my first. For just about everything."
Daryl tried not to twist those words around in his mind. She didn't love him. She didn't love him. She didn't love him. Daryl shook his head to clear it.
"So…ya didn't do nothin' together?"
"Not even a kiss," Beth promised, "I wasn't lying when I said you were the first to see me, the first I let watch me, like that. And I'm still, ya know…a virgin."
She said the last word in a whisper, the first time Beth had seemed the least bit embarrassed when it came to anything sexual.
"Oh," he replied dumbly.
"Yup," she agreed cheerfully enough. "Oh."
He gnawed awkwardly at his thumb. "How long were ya with him?"
"Just a few months."
"You broke it off?"
"He wanted things I couldn't give him. Wouldn't."
"Sex," Daryl said bluntly.
Beth let out a slow breath. "Yeah. Pretty much." She reached out to intertwine her fingers with Daryl's, moving onto her side so she could look at him properly. "But it was nothing like this, with you."
Daryl nodded thoughtfully, "When we started to…do stuff, was it 'cuz I reminded you of him?"
"Daryl Dixon, I wanted you for a long, long time before I managed to nab you," Beth said with a soft smile. "The way I went about it…well, part of that was from him. He'd been hurt, and he needed it. I thought maybe you'd need the same. I just took my cues from you; tried to figure out what worked."
There was a long pause before Daryl mumbled, "M'glad ya told me."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. S'pose so. Don't much like hearin' about you with another man, but it ain't like I was celibate before you. Can't really complain."
"You were my first in all the ways that matter," Beth reminded him, "The first to see me. The first to touch me." He kissed her knuckles, one at a time.
"Wouldn't mind touchin' you right now," he drawled, with that dangerous glimmer in his eye.
"You're hurt," Beth sternly reminded him.
"Bet it'd make me feel better," he said with a grin.
She smacked him lightly on his forearm. "Typical," she scoffed, but she couldn't hide her wide smile.
Beth let Daryl sleep, finally. She spent the night waking him every couple hours, checking on his head and his back. When she woke up the next morning with a start, Daryl was out of bed, wandering around the apartment in only his jeans.
She crept up behind him, knowing full and well that he'd hear her coming, and snaked her arms carefully around his waist, putting no pressure on the dressings covering his back. "Mornin', Mr. Dixon."
"Mornin' baby," he mumbled sleepily. "Sorry I kept ya up."
"Don't be. I like taking care of you. How's your back?"
"Don't hurt as much today. I heal fast," he said with a shrug.
He was looking inside another one of Jesse's drawers, a drawer Beth knew positively would make the man at her side blush.
"Don't even know what most of this stuff does," he admitted softly. He picked up a white, phallic shaped toy, with two long, malleable tails. "How come he's got one of these? Thought he didn't use this stuff on you."
"He didn't. All these things were for him."
Daryl's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and he examined the object in his hand more closely. "So he uh...he put this…put it…?" Daryl stuttered out, and Beth smiled softly at him.
"It's all very clean, don't worry. And yes, he did. Men have a spot inside that makes it feel good. Toys like these, they press up against it. That's what they're for."
"So you've used all this stuff?"
"Pretty much. Some more than others."
"Did you like it?"
That question took Beth by surprise. For all the things Jesse and she had done together, she'd been entirely focused on his needs. She enjoyed the power he gave her, enjoyed the sounds and faces he'd make. But she hadn't put too much thought into how she felt about the means.
"I liked that he liked it," Beth said finally. "But a lot of these things, I'd never want to use with you."
"Like what?"
"Over there," Beth said, pointing towards a tall cabinet. "Whips. Clamps. I'd be happy if I never saw any of it again. I don't like hurting people. And I could never live with myself if I hurt you."
"We don't gotta do anything like that," Daryl said quickly, "But if there was stuff that ya wanted to…try?"
A slow smile dawned over Beth's face. "Is there anything you want to try?"
"Dunno where to start, to be honest. Can't name half the shit in that drawer. Wouldn't mind being shown, though. If you're offering." He gave her a devious wink, and Beth laughed aloud.
"Daryl Dixon, you're hurt!"
"Hardly," he scoffed, "My back ain't gonna go burstin' open just 'cuz we fooled around a little."
Beth winced, "Thank you for the imagery. But you really want to do this now? Here?"
"Kinda like the idea, actually," Daryl drawled all too casually.
Beth eyed him suspiciously. "Marking your territory?"
"Somethin' like that," he said, taking a step towards her. "Getting to touch you in his apartment. His bed…" Daryl pulled Beth against him by her belt-loops. "You're mine now."
"And what are you going to do with me then?" Beth asked him innocently. A second later, he'd hoisted her up onto the desk, and was fighting to rip her jeans off her body.
"Don't you dare hurt yourself!" Beth half-growled half-giggled, when Daryl dropped to his knees in front of her.
"Ain't gonna get hurt. Desk's the perfect height," he declared with a grin, before pulling her to the edge of the desk and wrenching her legs apart. And for a man who'd only gone down once in his life, he wasn't the least bit hesitant. He lapped at her with the flat of his tongue, alternating between hard and soft and listening for the right sounds. When Beth's thighs trembled around his head, Daryl knew he'd gotten it right.
He held her steady as his tongue twirled around her clit, sending her soaring over the edge with a loud moan of his name. "Oh my god, Daryl," she breathed again, taking in his glistening chin and proud smirk.
Daryl got to his feet, letting out a huff of surprise when Beth pulled him forward to kiss him. He groaned into her mouth, throbbing in his jeans.
"C'mon," he quickly mumbled, jerking her to her feet. "Pick somethin'." He nodded towards the drawer.
"Don't you want to do the picking?" she asked him.
"Nah," he said with a shrug, "I trust you. Wouldn't know what to pick, anyways."
"Well is there anything you don't want?"
"Just pick somethin', Greene," he said with a taunt to his voice.
"Fine. I will. And why don't you take off the rest of your clothes and wait?"
She turned her back to him, smiling when he hurriedly jerked open his fly, and fought to skim out of his clothing. Beth grabbed a careful assortment of items, then held them behind her back when she walked back over to Daryl. He was standing with his back to the wall, clearly trying to hide his attempts to spot what she was holding.
"We've tried something like this before, and it didn't go very well," she began, dropping her findings to the bed and maneuvering Daryl until he was standing against the wall. "So this time we'll talk it through first. You're going to stand for me. And I'm going to tie your hands a little differently than usual. Then, I'm going to make you feel good, but I want you to show restraint. I'm going to get you close, so close to coming that you can't breathe, but I'm not going to let you. Not until you're ready."
Daryl swallowed hard, "Didn't really like that, last time."
"I know. But this time will be different. You'll pick a safe word, so that if you need to stop I'll know right away. And you won't beg. I don't want that, and I know you don't either. But when you hold yourself back, Daryl, it feels so good later. I promise you. So it won't be about me letting you come, so much. You'll decide for yourself. I'll just help you get there. Okay?"
He nodded and pulled her towards him, kissing her once, deeply, before breathing out, "Safe word's Hershel. Alright? Ain't nothin' gonna put us out of the mood faster than that."
Beth giggled and went to tie his arms. There were hooks on the ceiling above their heads, and Beth deftly thread some pliant, soft rope through both, then tied Daryl's wrists in an easy knot. She kicked at the inside of his foot, and he opened his legs wider, standing spread eagle in front of her, and still trying to spot what she had dropped on the bed behind her.
With Daryl's arms above his head, and his legs spread wide enough for his muscles to twitch every so often at the burn, Beth leaned forward and kissed him. Her mouth went to his neck, then trailed slowly down his chest. She licked along the length of his hip bones, sucking at a small piece of skin until she knew it would bruise.
On her knees in front of him, she ran her fingertips up his thighs, smiling when he shivered. Daryl heard the faint click of a cap opening. Then quite suddenly, Beth's mouth was warm and wet around his cock, and a finger was slowly rubbing much further south, slick with lube.
Her tongue swirled around the head, and he bit out a desperate moan, "Fuck, Beth." His cock pulsed, already more than craving the promise of release, and Beth's finger slipped inside.
"Jesus," he breathed, wincing at the barely-there burn. Beth pulled away from him, mouthing along his thigh.
"That alright?" she murmured.
"S'weird," he replied, frowning a little as she probed carefully inside.
All at once, Daryl's body seized up tight as wire around her finger, and he panted, "Ha- fuck, oh fuck."
Beth had found that spot inside, and once she began to massage it slowly, Daryl came alive, hips stuttering forward and back, body wholly unsure of which way to turn for more.
"Beth," he whispered, "Jesus, Beth."
"I think you're ready," she murmured mostly to herself, pulling away from him briefly. She grabbed something off of the bed, and Daryl knew what it was as soon as he saw it. White, relatively thin, and shaped a lot like the one he'd held earlier, with the exception that it clearly contained a motor. He watched her slick it up with lube, then go to kneel again at his feet.
Beth swallowed him down, and any small flicker of fear was immediately extinguished with a grateful moan. She bobbed along his length, tongue tracing the vein that ran underneath, and distracting Daryl just enough to slide the toy slowly inside. He let out a small grunt of discomfort, and his body tensed. But when Beth's mouth continued to glide along his length, the rest of him relaxed into the feeling.
She let it rest against that spot inside of him, allowed his body's natural movements to move it gently. Then Beth sat back on her heels, and looked up at him, licking her lips.
"I'm going to turn it on, now. We can stop whenever you want. Okay?"
And when he nodded quickly, Beth flicked the switch at the bottom of the toy, and Daryl's mouth dropped open into a gasp. She watched his cock twitch and jerk, precum pearling at the tip and dripping down.
"Oh fuck, fuck Beth," he moaned, body grinding forward desperately.
When she took him back in her mouth, his entire body shook at the sensation. She held his balls in one hand, felt them draw up towards his body.
She released him with a slick pop, and Daryl whined at the loss.
"How do you feel?" she asked him, her voice low and breathy.
"Beth…"
"Tell me, I want to hear you," she encouraged him.
Blue eyes darted down to hers, brimming with shocked arousal at the circumstances. His cock twitched and bobbed in the open air, leaking steadily. Beth bent forward and lapped lazily at the head, sucking hard when Daryl keened above her, head dropping back and eyes slamming shut.
"Fuck, Beth, stop- I'm gonna- fuck…" he huffed, hands fisting the ropes that held him in a fight for control. "Jesus, just gimme a second."
He stood panting at the ceiling, every other breath a moan. And Beth waited until those cerulean blue orbs met hers, before again suckling at the reddened head. It was only a minute before he was chanting her name again.
"Baby, I'm gonna…fuck, fuck, I can't," he groaned, entire body jerking forward with need.
Her hands and mouth instantly abandoned him. Daryl watched Beth lick her lips, and reach down between her own thighs.
"Fuck, baby…" he breathed, tone all admiration and need. She touched herself slowly, teasingly, and watched his cock pulse in response. One hand went to his balls, still tight up against his body. She gently pulled downwards, holding them in the palm of her hand when she leaned forward once more to swallow him down.
"Beth, Beth," he whimpered. His legs were shaking, and Beth knew he couldn't take much more. The toy continued to trill away inside, and she could see how every small movement wrecked him, filled him with sensations that were new and intense.
She snaked a hand between his thighs and palmed his ass, pushing him forward. Then she did it again. With two hands guiding his hips, Beth let Daryl fuck her mouth, enjoying the shock on his face when he realized just what she wanted. And it was oh so worth it when the archer threw his head back in a rumbling groan. The toy was jostled with each thrust of his hips. He wasn't going to last.
"Beth, Beth, oh fuck," he moaned, "Gonna cum. Please, baby. Don't stop. God, don't stop."
Abruptly, Daryl's body seized into a moment of bliss. He erupted with a gasp, cock pulsing cum down Beth's throat. Every muscle twitched with the intensity of the moment, and he barely pulled in the air to whimper as his orgasm crashed through his body.
"Oh god," he moaned, as Beth sucked every last dribble of cum from his body. He couldn't stop shaking. "Baby, please…"
She flicked off the switch of the toy, and pulled it gently from him. And in no time at all, Beth was on her feet, untying Daryl's hands and rubbing tenderly at his wrists. She kissed him hard, despite his panting, and waited for him to look her in the eye.
"Was that alright?" she asked him when he'd finally caught his breath. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest.
"One of these days, you're gonna kill me Greene," he murmured, burying his face in his hair.
She let out a light laugh. "Well at least you'll die happy."
And he couldn't exactly argue with that.
