A/N Many thanks to angelicedg, angie b and bluecrush611 for giving me such great feedback and encouragement. It really helps as I write the final few chapters… while waiting patiently for my issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine to arrive. I can't get enough of the Rickyl bromance and that one behind-the-scenes shot with their hands on each other's ass is just priceless! You will be getting another taste of the bromance before the end of this story but for now – here's some straight up romance for you to enjoy…
An easterly wind cools the warm September evening as the setting sun casts long shadows across the pavement of Alexandria's quiet streets. After gathering the clothes and personal toiletries that they had collected over the last month while living behind these walls, Rick Grimes and his children move into their new house.
The prickly needles of the small juniper trees flanking the porch steps sway lightly in the breeze, offering a coniferous greeting as Kate holds the front door open, her bright smile warming the night as she welcomes them home.
Swinging his duffel bag over his shoulder, Carl follows Joshua up the stairs to the second floor, his smile nearly as wide as the one plastered on the younger boy's face. They settle into the room with the bunk beds as Kate stands in the doorway of the Redskins room, bouncing Judy on her hip to the tune of 'Dancing In The Dark' as they watch Rick set up another playpen for the little one.
When the moon hangs high from its heavenly chain and the board games are cleaned up and put away for another night, Kate stands at her dresser in her pink sleep shirt and black underwear, brushing her long hair into a loose ponytail. She lays the brush on the bureau and secures her hair with a rubberband as Rick enters the bedroom behind her. In the light of a small bedside lamp, she watches his reflection in the mirror as he closes and locks the door, then turns to her with a look of exhausted defeat clouding his cerulean eyes.
Wearing dark gray sweatpants and nothing else, he comes up behind her and rests his whiskered jaw against her shoulder as his arms fold across her belly, pulling her back against his hard body as their eyes meet in the mirror.
"She's finally down?" Kate asks rhetorically, knowing he wouldn't be here if Judith wasn't finally asleep. "Poor thing. Hopefully those teeth will break through soon."
"Yeah, for all our sakes. Come here." With a strong hand on her hip, Rick turns her to face him and she laces her arms across his broad shoulders as he buries his face in her neck. "Are you sorry you invited us to move in?" he asks against her jaw as he wraps his arms tightly around her back.
"Absolutely not. I knew what I was getting myself into." She tilts her head to find his mouth for a quick kiss as her fingers thread through his dark hair. "Having you in my bed all night without having to say goodbye before the crack of dawn? Mmmm… it's going to be so nice to wake up with you tomorrow."
He squeezes her fervently. "Yes, it is. And what do you plan on doing with me in the meantime?" he asks suggestively, clutching her ass and pressing his growing arousal against her midsection.
"Oh, I think maybe I'll start here and work my way down." She presses her lips to the stubble at the corner of his mouth as she traces light circles around his nipple with her fingertips.
"Mmm…, I like that idea."
Kissing the base of his throat, her fingers close in and gently twist the small nub until it pebbles tightly. Moving downward, she presses her lips to the small pale circle of puckered skin near his left nipple before flicking her tongue over the tight bud while continuing to twist the other one.
"Mmmm…"
"That feel good?" she croons softly against his chest.
"Yeah."
"Want me to go lower?"
"Oh yeah."
She leans over to kiss his upper belly as her finger plays with his navel. "Here?"
"Lower," he moans, caressing the back of her neck.
Crouching lower, she glides her tongue over his abdomen to reach another circle of furrowed skin at his hip, slightly redder with recent healing. She presses her lips reverently to its surface. After swallowing a small lump in her throat, she gets down to her knees and dips her tongue into his navel while her hands rest on the soft material of the sweatpants covering his hips. "Here?" she teases.
"Here," he groans, nearly growling as he takes her hand and moves it to cover his hard-on.
"Ahhh, there." She closes her fist around his length through the loose pants and moves languidly up and down along his shaft while pressing wet kisses to his belly.
"Oh yeah."
Releasing him a few moments later, she slips her fingertips into the waistline of his pants and slides them down over his long legs until he steps out of them. She traces her hands back up his calves, over the backs of his thighs and the curve of his ass until she reaches the hem of his boxer briefs. With her cheek just centimeters from his arousal, she drags his shorts down to free his steely erection.
Circling the base of his shaft with her thumb and forefinger, she fondles the weight of his sac with her remaining fingers as her tongue skates faintly over the smooth bulb of his impressive cock, eliciting a deep moan from his chest. She blows cool air against his sensitive skin before the tip of her tongue probes the small hole in the center. Taking him between her lips, she glides down over his thickness until he is nearly hitting the back of her throat.
"Nnnn, fuck yeah." He pulls the rubberband from her hair, releasing the long, dark tresses to cascade over his fingers as his large hands cradle her head. "Christ, that feels good."
"Mmmm," she purrs against his shaft as her hand follows the path of her mouth as she takes him in again and again, twisting and squeezing slightly every time she reaches the ridge.
Moving her hand down, she massages his nuts again, rolling the marble-like organs inside his tightening sac. Steadying her hand, she presses her palm up against his balls as one long finger rubs over his perineum. His cock twitches inside her mouth and his hands tighten around her head in the millisecond it takes for the oddly pleasurable sensation to travel the nerve path from his nuts to his knuckles.
"Christ, what are you doing to me?"
"Playing," she says, gliding her tongue along his length and pressing down on the small rough patch of skin behind his balls once again.
"Fuck," he groans as her touch sends another jolt of electricity throughout his body.
"Do you like it?" she asks, caressing the spot lightly.
"No. Yeah. Fuck, I don't know."
She presses down again with the pad of her finger and his whole body jerks in response.
"Jesus, Kate. Come here." Circling her wrists, he pulls her up to her feet. "I'm gonna have to find a safe place for these hands."
"Too bad you left your handcuffs downstairs." She smiles at him sweetly, all innocent seduction glimmering in her eyes as he holds her wrists together between their bodies.
"So we'll improvise." Rick reaches past her toward the dresser and grabs the black tie that he wears with his uniform. He loops the garment around her wrists several times and secures it with a knot that a sailor would be proud of. "How does that feel?"
"Kinda sexy," she replies softly, wiggling the tips of her fingers against his chest as she bites her lower lip. She watches Rick's eyes grow impossibly dark and an instant later his mouth is covering hers, forcing her to part her lips at the urgency of his tongue. The searing kiss takes her breath away and sends a fluttering spike straight to the crux of her thighs. She begins to lift her arms to embrace his shoulders and immediately remembers the tie when her hands refuse to part. Oh God, what have I done? She moans into his mouth at the heady notion that she is completely at his mercy.
He breaks the kiss with a moan of his own and looks down at her, eyes smoldering with fiery desire. "Are you ready?"
Kate nods her head slowly, breathless from his kiss and from the anticipation of what's to come. "Yes."
Bending down, Rick wraps one arm around her thighs and the other around her back and lifts her up like a bride. He carries her to the bed, rests one knee on the edge and lays her down gently in the center.
Heart dancing wildly in her chest, she watches him lift her hands to his mouth, kissing each knuckle softly before bringing her bound wrists over her head to secure the loose end of the tie to the geometric design of the headboard.
"Okay?" he asks, caressing her jaw with his thumb.
"Yeah. I love you."
He tilts his head with genuine sincerity in his eyes. "I love you too, honey." He leans over and captures her mouth, slipping his tongue inside for a brief dance before dragging his lips over her jaw and down her neck. "I love you so much."
Kate feels his fingers at the hem of her shirt, skimming underneath the soft fabric and sliding over her smooth skin. They glide up her abdomen to caress the rise of her bosom as he continues to pepper kisses along her neck and collarbone. He skates a thumb across her nipple and she arches her back to fill his hand with more flesh. She squirms beneath his ministrations, pulling at the material binding her wrists. "Oh God, I want to touch you."
"Soon enough, baby." Shifting over her body, he spreads her legs with his knee and settles between her thighs, the thin black panties soft against his chest as he pushes her tee shirt up to press his mouth to her flat belly. Leaning up on his elbows, he pushes her shirt farther up, over her chest to expose her bare breasts in the soft lamplight. "God, you're beautiful."
He teases her flesh with light flicks of his tongue and small nibbles with his teeth, with soft strokes of his fingertips and bold caresses with his palms. The pressure of his chest against her groin amplifies his erotic ambush of her breasts and she writhes in agonizing pleasure beneath his touch, desperate to have her hands on him but loving every zesty second of her imprisonment.
When her nerve endings are overwhelmed with stimuli and she is about to beg for mercy in the form of being fucked into tomorrow, he shifts lower on the bed and then her panties are being drawn down her legs and off of her feet. A moment later, two large hands are spreading her wide open, his lips warm on her heated flesh as he works his way from her inner thigh to her velvety pleats with gentle bites and soft licks.
"Oh God, Rick. Please…"
He swipes his tongue along the length of her opening and then focuses on her clit, swirling and sipping the enflamed nubbin as he fits two long fingers into her center. In a matter of seconds, a lightning storm of sensation ignites the neurons coursing through her body and she bites her lip to keep from screaming his name.
With her legs still quivering with aftershocks, he moves up her body and lifts her hips to his erection. In one fluid lunge, he drives deep into her center, filling her completely; mind, body and soul.
She can't help but cry out and he covers her mouth with his, silencing her with the thrust of his tongue as he rattles her soul with the thrust of his cock.
After a few minutes of driving, diving, pulling and plunging, he curses under his breath and slows his pace, drawing out their union. Balancing on his left elbow, he reaches beneath her with his right hand and squeezes her ass, hard.
He slowly pulls her up along his shaft until she locks her ankles around his back.
Holding himself against the deepest part of her, he rubs his thumb over her swollen clit, skimming through the slick heat as she arches her back and digs her heels into his ass, searching for a release that only he can provide.
Climbing the far side of heaven and nearly reaching the summit, she groans when he suddenly removes his thumb and leans back on his knees, pulling out of her midway. With a firm grip on the bedframe behind her, she flexes her thighs and presses her calves against his lower back in an effort to bring him all the way back home.
"Hang on, baby. We're almost there." He leans back and takes hold of her ankles, bringing them forward to rest on his shoulders. Leaning toward her, he places his left hand on the mattress to support his weight as his right hand grips her hip fervently as he begins to thrust once more.
He slams into her again and again and she tries to meet every stroke, but she can't think straight enough to match his rhythm with the deeper angle so she just holds onto the headboard, collecting every loving lunge he gives her with one singular thought in her muddled brain. "Yes!"
"Oh fuck, baby." When her walls clench around him, he lets her legs slip to the side and he falls forward, hugging her to his chest and swallowing her moans as he rides out his own orgasm.
When he finally stops moving against her, she lets go of the headboard and pulls desperately at the restraints. "Honey, please." She hates the whine lacing her voice but she can't help but beg to touch him at this point, feeling as if she would surely go mad if she can't hold him this very second.
Still gasping for breath, he reaches up and quickly unties the length of silky material from her wrists. As soon as her hands are free, they are over his shoulders and digging their blunt nails into his strong back, cherishing the feel of his skin against her fingertips as she floats down from the heavens on a current of immeasurable love.