Author's note
So first off, I am very sorry. But work has been INSANE! So by the time I get time to write all I have wanted to do is crash.
As always I want to thank LASF for being awesome! As a reader and as a person in her personal life. Kudos to you for ruling at life.
This whole chapter is in Daryl POV. And yes it is a short chapter...but it's fucking HOT. .. if I do say so myself. :)

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When I wake all

up in the morning Amber is still there, and that still amazes me every morning, that she is.
Every day I expect her to wake up, look at me and think "what the hell was I thinking".
She is a college educated woman, who was going places in the world before all of this.
And me, like I told Beth, I was no one, nothing, going nowhere.
I love the way she looks in the morning, it was great while we were on the road, waking up to her asleep on my chest.
And now, seeing her mass of wavy locks spilling over her face as she sleep in this cloud of white sheet…well it damn near takes my breath away.
Even if she is snoring a little.
Since Amber sleeps on her stomach, Soter, Who she brought in after we fed him and the other two in the early am, has curled into the space by her neck and is sound asleep.
It's a peaceful sight, and one I never thought I would get to have. Not even in my old life.
Her and I would never have even crossed paths before, so as Bob would have said, that was the good from the bad.
I am more grateful for the sleeping woman laying next to me that for any other person, and she is right, I am doing this for her.
I would do anything for her.
including letting her sleep.

She sleeps harder than I do, and after we went back to the bedroom late last night, we made love again, slow and hazy with sleep. And now she has the look of a well satisfied woman.
So I slide out of bed slowly, being ever so careful not to wake her.
I dress as quietly as I can, and even wait to put on my shoes until I am on the patio. I want to get an early start to working on the bike in Aaron's garage before it gets too hot in there.
I can tell the fall is on its way, but inside a garage, its still going to get warm.
"You know, in all the time I have known you. I don't think I have ever seen your feet" Carol says as she walks over to where I am sitting on the steps.
"Got all ten toes" I answer as she sits next to me and wraps her arms around her knees.
"I'm proud of you" she says not looking at me.
"huh?"
"You heard me. I am proud of you. It takes a special kind of courage to love someone in this world. I should know."
"Who you in love with?"
"I loved Lizzy, Mika, Sophia. And you ."
I bite my lip while I think of what to say to that.
"Never been like this before"
"Well, Amber is a good person to be in love with. You two seem to understand each other. And I have seen a real change in you."
"Thought you said I already was different"
"You still are. Just now you seem… more"
"More?"
"You have something now, love. It's the one thing everyone wants. And it changes everyone who finds it. "
"Yeah… I turned into a real wuss for her." I mumble finishing tying my shoe.
"Nah. Changing how you have for Amber, letting her in, being open and vulnerable. I know that is harder and scarier for you than taking on a whole herd of walkers alone. But you've done it" Carol says with wide approving eyes.
"And I am very proud of you for that." She tells me as she kisses my forehead.
All I can do is mumble "Means s'lot Carol"
"Well, I have to go make breakfast" she beams at me with that annoying fake smile she has perfected since getting here.
"You still look ridiculous" I call after her.
The Garage on Aaron's house is open when I get there. They must have heard me because shortly after I get there Aaron comes out to tell me good morning and Eric is right behind him, offering me a cup of coffee.
"I wasn't sure how you take it, so I left it black. But there are cream and sugar in the kitchen"
"Uhhhh… well I normally take it however I can have it. But cream sounds good" I tell him and the slight man scurries off to the kitchen.
"So, is there anything I can help you with with this thing?"
"Nah, I should be able to get er' ready to run in bout a week. Maybe less"
"Well as soon as you are ready to leave, we can. I know you may want to spend some extra time before we do with your group"
"Yeah"
As Eric comes back in and hands me the lightened coffee, Aaron rubs his neck nervously. He has to have seen the interchanges with Lucas and I, and I am sure he has an idea that I am less than pleased with him. So I think his nervousness is probably due to the fact that, I assume, he was the one to tell him about me being the new recruiter.
"oh stop being a coward and tell him already. Its like he is going to bite your hand off" Eric tells Aaron exasperatedly.

"So the other night after you and Amber left, Lucas was asking about what you were doing here and I blurted it out without even thinking that you probably needed to tell your group first. So…Sorry if that might cause some issues"
I pick up a wrench and tell him
"Already has. But it's worked out now. Amber was pissed…so I gave her a puppy" I say jokingly.

"I can imagine." Eric chimes in "I have had time to get used to Aaron being out there. And I STILL don't like it."
"Did you really give her a puppy?" Aaron asks skeptically
"Yeah, was gonna anyway. But figured, since she was mad at me. It might help."
"Why don't you ever get me a puppy when I am mad?" Eric asks
"Never occurred to me" Aaron answers.
"We're good now. Jus' don't like him nose'n round Amber" I mumble as I set out the parts I am going to need.
"It gets like a lonely hearts club here sometimes" Eric says walking back into the house.
"I'm real sorry about that Daryl." Aaron apologizes again.
"S'ok. You didn't mean no harm by it."
"Lucas is just lonely, like Eric said. After Amber shoots him down enough times. he will get the point."

"Yeah" I grumble out as I clean the wrench.
"What's bothering you?"
I shrug my shoulders, implying that I don't know what, or if, anything is bothering me.
I don't feel like telling him that the idea of Lucas anywhere near Amber makes me feel like I have ants under my skin.
I don't doubt that she loves me, she doesn't say what she doesn't mean. Its one of the many ways we are alike.
But imaginary Merle has been whispering in my head about Lucas.
He is better fer you than her. Smarter. You know you're gonna die out there one day little brother. And then that sweet ass of a woman you been bed'n down with is gonna run ta him for comfort and ferget you inside a week. Its bound ta happen, sooner or later.
Even dead my brother is an asshole.
"She loves you, you know." Comes from Aaron. Then he gives a sigh and walks away telling me "I will ask Eric to keep an eye on her while we are out"
And somehow the idea of that makes me feel better. I don't know Eric well, but I am sure that he is the kind of person that believes in the "Love conquers all" stuff.
Maybe having him keep an eye on Amber, would be good. I think he would keep her positive and with me being out on the road for stretches at a time…that is something that she is going to need.
"I'd like that. She would manage fine, but I like tha idea of her havin someone who's in her shoes, ta talk ta"
Aaron just nods his head and tells me "Just, yell at me, if you need anything."
After he leaves I get lost in the task at hand of putting the bike together. And before I know it, it has to be well past lunch.
I am so engrossed in what I am doing that it's only the sight of a sandwich being slid infront of me that breaks my concentration.
"I would have been here sooner but SOMEONE left this morning without telling me that all of our clothes had been moved into the new house. So I had to tip toe over to the other house wrapped in a sheet"
Amber smiles as she tells me.
I can't help but laugh a little at the idea of Amber walking into the house, in nothing more than a toga, only to find all her cloths gone.
"Sorry 'bout that. I didn't wanna wake ya. Didn't think about that 'fore I left."
"I think I almost gave Eugene a heart attack when I came in the door."
"feeennnngggh" I snort. "Least he woulda died happy"
"Nah, that would be when I tripped and lost my grip on the sheet"
I can literally feel my face blanche and my eyes widen, as I take a bite of the sandwich and swallow it whole, to ask her.
"Really?"
Her peal of laughter says that she is kidding, but immensely enjoyed my discomfort.
"Jerk" I mumble
"Oh, your face makes it worth it. It is sweet though that you moved our things over to a room of our own"
"Sweet?" I mock as I chomp away on the last of the sandwich.
"well, you're sweet to me."
She is right, I am "sweet" to her. Even if I will never admit that to anyone else. Even admitting it to myself makes my face burn with embarrassment.
"S'good Sandwich"
"Well, you know it's what her women do after sex. Make sandwiches" Amber grins at me as I nearly choke on that last bite.
"Tryin' ta kill me woman?" I say after I recover.
"Nah, I need you alive to take me on a bike ride before you leave"
"That tha only reason?" I raise my brows at her
"Well…" she teases as she leans over on the table and props her chin in her hand. "There is that and the sex"
"Mrrrrgggghhhh" I grumble as I take in the eyeful she is deliberately giving me, by leaning over the work table with that low cut shirt.

"Well, I gotta go feed the pups now." She says perkily as she whips around and walks out of the garage, fully aware of the "uncomfortable" position she is leaving me in.
Had we not been in someone else's house, I would have devoured her right there on the work table.
But I was, and I did have a job to finish, so it would have to wait till later.

We still eat together in the living room of the first house we were in. Tonight is Amber's night to cook, and she made a simple fish soup.
Greens, potatoes, spices and fish in hearty stock. It's simple food, a soup that you would make over a camp fire, a meal we would have enjoyed before we came to Alexandria.
The salty flavor rolls around in my mouth, and it reminds me of the salty taste of Amber's skin when we are alone in bed together.
Only she could make a soup "sexy", I think as I try to shake the desire from my mind.
After we all eat, Carl puts on a DVD that turns out to be that lame remake of Godzilla. I am scribbling down parts I am going to need, that I haven't found yet in Aaron's garage, for the bike. I sit on the sofa doing this, and Amber sits cross legged on the floor next to my knees, feeding Soter.
Carl feeds the black one, who he has named Brutus. And Rosita claimed the brown one, though the name "BEANER" I think must have come from Abraham.
As I look around at everyone, everyone either trying to be relaxed, genuinely relaxed or just failing at it all miserably, a mix of contentment and sheer panic cause my stomach to pitch and roll.
I feel like I can't breathe, like I need to grab Amber, my bow and tell everyone to run. I know I can't do that, and I know that there really isn't anything to fear here, so, instead. I stop writing and inch my right hand forward, slowly so no one will look my way and notice how my breathing has become a little frantic. I slide my fingers past my knees, into the mass of dark waves there, wrap a lock around my finger and stoke the silky strands, almost like I have seen Gabriel do with his rosary. And like that does for him, this calms me down. She is here, they are here, I am here, and for now…we are safe.
I don't know if it's my hand in her hair, or just because she knows me so well, but Amber bends her elbow to lay her hand on the knee that is exposed by the hole in my jeans, and runs her thumb across the bumps of my knee cap.

It's a comforting little thing, and that she does it in a way that doesn't bring attention to me, which she knows I don't want right, makes the panicked feeling dissipate and the contented feeling swell.
"It's ok" she says, not looking at me. But I notice that Soter is asleep, so I know her words are nor for him.
They are for me.
I let out the breath I had been holding and run my finger across the sensitive flesh behind her ear, she shudders, and I smile as I go back to my list.

Serves her right for that little stunt earlier.

After the movie ends the living room begins to dwindle in occupants. Most of us wander off to our own rooms, Michonne goes to hers with a book, Carl with comic books and Brutus, Eugene and Tara stay up to play cards, and Carol goes to put Judith down for bed.
Rick had made the call, after I moved Amber's and my stuff into the other house that that house would be where the couples stayed.
So for now it housed Abraham, Rosita, Glen, Maggie and Amber and I.
Glen and Maggie had left halfway through the movie, not that that was surprising. Those two are like rabbits.
Its Abraham's turn to wash the dishes, so he lingers in the kitchen and gets teased by Rosita.
"Why don't we go watch TV at our house" Amber says taking my hand.
It still seems weird to me to have my own house, even if I am currently sharing it with two other couples.
But like I have said before, Amber is my home.
In "Our" house Amber puts Soter in his box and starts a dvd of Big Bang Theory, we are on disk two now, and covers up herself and I with a blanker. The weather has turned chilly at night, and we all seem to agree to leave the windows open, sleeping out of doors is a hard habit to break.
I didn't think I would like this show. I really do.
"I love this show!" Rosita says when she comes in
"well come watch it with us" Amber tells her and Abraham from her place at my side.
They sit and are soon engrossed in the show. I have to admit that watching anything with Abraham is a show in, and of, itself. His bawdy comments and roaring laughter adds to the series.

Somewhere in the middle of the third episode, I feel Amber shift and, very deliberately, run her hand across the fly of my jeans.
Looking down through the stray hair in my eyes, I see a slight smirk on her face and she stares into the screen.
The slow, steady, firm back and forth motions of her hands, has me thinking that it's time for me to fain sleepiness and give this woman what she wants…
But, then, she grips the tab of my fly and tugs,….
Shit!
I think to myself as I can feeling my breathing deepen at just the idea of it.
I take a drink from the glass on the end table, to mask my state.

Of course it is then that Amber reaches down the front of my jeans to spread the precum across the rapidly hardening head of my dick.
I nearly choke on the water!
"Strong water there man" Abraham mocks.
"Yeah man" I choke out as Amber sniggers at me.
"Well since you disturbed me, I will tidy up here before we go to bed" Amber says sweetly, as she carefully extracts herself from under the cover.
She smiles wickedly at me, knowing that she has left my fly unzipped, my dick hardening and me….unable to stand up for a good ten minutes.
She walks over to the tv, bends at the waist and rearranges some of the cases there, she makes sure to not be in the way of the Abraham and Rosita's view, while still giving me a nice prospect of her wide round ass.
And that damned penguin tattoo… that I have no idea why…but gets me going.
Maybe because in private I have taking to calling her "My Penguin".
Next she comes to the coffee table that sits in front of me and bends to grab the books she left there…and then I want to say, be damned with it and stand up, march her into the bedroom and break the fucking bed.
But in reality … there is no way I am going to do that. And she knows it.
Which is why she deliberately lets me have a sweeping view down her lose shirt, letting me see that her breasts are free of the confines of her bra, and her nipples are already hard.
She gives me a crooked smile and her eyes glint from under her lashes.
All I want to do is calm down, but the sight of her naked flesh is only making me harder. So I reach for a sofa pillow and give her a glare that says I am going to take this out on her ass later.
This just makes her laugh, and thus, makes her tits sway and giggle.
FUCK
"What?" Rosita asks
"I just can't believe I brought home books from the school." She lies
"Ahhh"
"Well, I am headed to bed" this little tease says as she reached past me, to where her hoodie rests on the back of the sofa, right next to my head.
She kisses, then nips the shell of my ear and says
"G'night" with a smile and all I can do is grip the pillow tighter.
It takes a whole other episode to calm down enough to where I can stand. And by then…I am raging internally.
Not angry, ok maybe a little angry that she got me riled up and left me, a little annoyed that she nearly embarrassed me, and more than a little aroused at her teasing.
Amber is the only woman I have ever wanted for myself, and while I know she is mine, and I am her's. Right now… I want to claim her and show to her who it is that is the one in control of her body, as much as she just proved she controls mine.
I don't tell Rosita and Abraham goodnight, I don't say anything at all, I just get up and walk out of the living room.

Inside our room there is only the table lamp on, casting a orange-ish red light across the ample curves of the woman who looks asleep in the bed, bare shoulders peaking out above the sheets and long hair covering her face.
I strip my clothes off quickly and without trying to be quiet

I know damned well she isn't asleep.

I crawl up the bed and growl in her ear

"I know damned well you ain't 'sleep" I say gripping her face, and turning it to look at me
"I was waiting for you"
"Well ya got me now. And yer gonna get it for that stunt" I tell her without taking my eyes from her.
"Yeah?" she asks defiantly. "What are you going to do? Punish me?"
she asks me in that throaty voice that drives me wild and make my cock twitch.
"No" I tell her and see disappointment skitter across her eyes. And that is when it dawns on me, she wanted this. Wants me riled up, hot blooded and aggressive.
Well, far be it from me to deny her.
I skim my lips against her ear and deliberately growl out
"But I am going to make you beg"

This wins me a gasped moan from her perfect mouth before I fuse mine to hers, thrusting my tongue into her mouth and dealing her the most forceful kiss I have ever given.
As I maneuver myself on top of her, Amber threads her fingers into my hair, and I have to fight the desire to make her mine soft and slow like I normally do.
But she has stoked up a forceful fire in me, and I am going to carry it out to its end.
Snatching her hands from my head I entrap her wrists above her head and inflict a rough love bite to her neck. There is a loud whimper, then I feel her knees tighten around my hips
"You wanted it rough, so that's how its gonna be" I advise her, as more of a command than just a sentence.
Her big brown eyes are wide, her large titts heaving, and all she can do is nod at me as I take in the sight of her in this submissive position.
I have to admit that this is more of a turn on than I thought it would be.
As I have said, before Amber sex was just a function. But now I am learning things I never had the guts or inclination to try before.
The trail of bruises I left just a few nights back are just beginning to fade, so knowing that the skin there is still going to be tender, I set in bringing them to life again, down her neck, chest and end at her nipples with a unwarned nip of the hard peak there.
She whines and bucks her heated core against my painfully hard dick and it takes all the control I have left not to burry myself balls deep in her.
Instead I groan and make my way south, pausing for the briefest of seconds to tell her,
"Eyes on me, and no touchin'"
before I devour her sopping wet center like an animal would its prey… intently and with complete fierceness.
I don't bother kissing her thighs, or trailing my fingers over her kneecaps. No, I eat her greedily without asking.
One hand is buried knuckle deep inside her, while the other I use to stoke my angry cock.
Looking up from my meal, I see Amber has obeyed my command to watch me, and when her eyes meet mine, then clamp shut as she arches off the bed further, her voice ricocheting off the walls. Then there is a violent twitch of her body, followed by a flood of sweet, hot arousal in my mouth.
I should let her rest, or at least let her catch her breath, but I don't.
I keep at her flushed and sensitive flesh, consuming her like a starving man, until she shudders around my fingers again and tries to push my head a way
"Daryl…please… it's too… I'm too. "
But I am having none of it.
I pull away, put a hand on either hip and turn her over, then pull her up to where she is on her hands and knees in front of me.
I plunge in balls deep, making her scream in a way that makes me loose it for a moment and snap my hips into her hard three times before I still, groaning out.
"FUUUCK." And taking a deep breath.
I switch to a slow teasing pace, as much to calm myself back down, as to frustrate Amber.
Which is obviously working, because her head in sagging forward and she is whimpering every time I push home.
As I reach for and pinch a nipple I can see the gooseflesh break out all over her body as she finally gives in
"oh fuck! Please! Daryl please!" she begs me finally, pressing back onto my cock wantonly.
I lean forwards slowly, cover her back with my front, and growl in her ear..
"Please what? Tell me whatcha want Darlin'" I coax her
"oooohhh oh please, please fuck me Daryl. Please."
Pulling away from her back, I dig my fingers into the soft flesh there as I snap my hips across her lovely ass, watching as the skin giggles with each thrust.
"oh oh oooohhh yeeeaaahh. Fuck! Mmmmm … oh Amber…ooooh" is the only intelligent things I can manage to say as I run one free hand up her sagging spine to her dropped head, and give into my desire to seize a handful of her hair and pull.
I surprise myself at how hot I find this, but Amber surprised me more when she all but screams at me
"oh yes… yes yes…Daryl, harder, please harder" and as she yells I can feel the walls of her already tight pussy clamp around me harder.
"That's it girl, cum for me." I encourage her as the sounds of slapping flesh, the banging of the headboard, groans and moans fill the room so loudly I am sure the whole house must hear us. But I don't care.
When she cums with me deep inside her, I tumble over the edge with her, so taking back by the pleasure that I am breathless and can only hold on to her waist, face pressed to her back, as I twitch and gulp for air while I empty myself inside her.
Since the windows are open, it only takes a few moments for the cool are to hit the sweat on my skin and give me a chill.

I reluctantly pull out and away from Amber, she makes a griping sound until I pull the covers up and over us. Gathering her into my arms I heave a contented sight as the sleep begins to creep into the corners of my eyes.
But then I replay the whole thing in my head and I worry for just a moment that I may have hurt her.
Craning my neck I look at Amber's face. She looks content…but I have to ask anyway.

"Ya ok?"
"hmmmmm?"
"Didn't hurt ya did i?" I ask gnawing on my lip and tracing soft patterns on her shoulder.
"No, not at all. I loved it." She assures me and then gives me a tired giggle "Actually that was the best sex I have ever had. "
And just like that, the still unfamiliar feelings of pride and love rush into me again.
"Really?" I ask…shocked.
"It was amazing. I should tease you more often"
"I thought it was just that good fer me."
"Nope. With you every time is better" she says as she snuggles into my side.
"It's pretty damned amazin' fer me too." I admit.
"mmmmm…now go to sleep." She tells me
"kay"
"Love you" she says as she kisses my bare chest.
"Me too" I tell her and bury my face in her hair and breath in the scent of her raspberry shampoo.
As I drift off, I decide that tomorrow we will hunt together. That I will put off working on the bike for a day, and spend it with Amber.
Spending everyday with her is how I would gladly spend every day. But for now, I will be happy to spend this, and as many more nights as I can, with her until I have to go.