Saturday Evening
Kate stopped by Lou's house for dinner but more than anything for a little bit of company. Another Saturday spent alone and mindlessly wandering around Atlanta had been enough to make her want to pull her hair out.
Lou had baked a chicken and cauliflower pie which looked and smelled delicious as it sat neatly on her plate by a pile of creamy mash and baby carrots. She had taken one bite before Lou wasted no time in his usual manner of praying. For the past several days she had been trying to avoid his questions but she knew it was going to happen eventually. It hadn't taken him long to pick up on the tension that had began lingering thick and silent between herself and Mr Dixon.
"What in heaven's name has happened with you and Daryl? You were thick as thieves and now you're barely looking at him."
She chased the hot pie down with a sip of water, "nothing."
"Bollocks."
Kate raised one eyebrow at Lou who never usually cursed then she cleared her throat and skewered a carrot.
"I don't understand. You like him. He likes you. Its pretty basic stuff lass."
"Lou," she rolled her eyes and sighed, "can we not do this? I'm leaving next sunday so there's really nothing to discuss."
"Leaving doesn't mean it has to end."
She let her cutlery fall from her hands with a clatter on the hardwood table. Suddenly she didn't feel like eating, "I told you I wasn't ready for any of this and you kept forcing him in my path."
He slowly wiped the side of his mouth with a napkin while he stared at her like she was an insolent child, "what's wrong with meeting someone who you can get along with?"
She thought about the 4th of July. Charlene's constant prattle about farming, babies, Georgia and marriage. She'd thought the redhead had been talking about her own life until she had realised she was talking about her life, her future. "Daryl wants more than I can give."
Lou shifted in his seat, his head shaking, his face getting red in the way in did when he was annoyed, "I just don't understand you girl! What's so flipping wrong with being happy?"
"Fucking hell Lou!" she stood, her chair scraping with a loud groan along the wooden boards. Why couldn't he let it drop? Why was everyone so intent on fixing her up? She didn't want fixing. All she had ever wanted was to be left alone. "Maybe I don't want to be happy. I can't be happy, not without Harry. You think it's just a game, a fun pastime for you to tease me with all your incessant fucking meddling! I've had enough!"
"You're getting hysterical," Lou scolded.
"You know I fucking resent that word." Kate grabbed her cotton trench coat and pulled it over her arms before storming out of the kitchen and grabbing her bag off the little bench in the hall.
"You shouldn't drive when you're angry lass," Lou urged as he stepped outside.
She swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat, "I'm fine and I haven't even got the car."
"Let me call you a cab."
"Stop trying to look after me," Kate huffed, flicking her hair from underneath her coat. "Why do you all do that? I'm not bloody useless."
"You need looking after more than you know girl. Sometimes you really are a senseless little fool. Now go on, run off into the dark and please yourself. I'm too old for all this." He slammed the front door, the knocker added a loud clang to the bang and Kate wanted to scream. Sometimes she drove herself crazy.
She slumped down onto the step and put her head between her knees while she waited for the rage to subside enough that she could stand back up, ring the doorbell and behave like a lady rather than a banshee.
"I'm sorry Lou," she said when the door opened.
The corner of his mouth worked its way to a wry smile, "I know you are lass."
She dropped her bag to the floor and held him, "you know I love you right?"
"I know lass," he patted her head, ruffling her hair enough to make her a little crazy but she didn't stop him, "shall I call you a cab?"
She pressed a kiss to Lou's cheek, "I'll be alright. I quite fancy a walk."
"I promise I'll stop my meddling… It was just nice to see you smiling again… and I mean the real smiles, the ones that light up your face when you think no one's looking."
She hardly knew what to say to that except "goodnight."
By the time she walked home it was only 9.30 but she head upstairs anyway. Removed her makeup, washed her face, took a shower and pulled on a nightdress before climbing into bed and flicking on the bedside lamp. She pulled open the bottom drawer of the bedside table and pulled out a book. It had been hers when she was a little girl, a christmas present from a teacher. On the inside cover was her name written as best she could at age 6 and a half. Under that was Harry's name written as best he could at age five and three quarters.
She remembered trying to tell Harry what halves and quarters were then she remembered other things. Catching tadpoles at the reservoir, Harry's first nativity where he played a sheep, the million little stories that were all recorded in her head. She liked to go over them, remember them, but they were fading. She couldn't remember what colour the net had been that they used for the tadpoles and she couldn't remember all the names of Harry's school friends.
'Where the Wild Things Are' was a favourite book between herself and Harry.
She closed the book, her fingers running along the front cover, a lump forming in her throat as it occurred to her that Harry would have liked Daryl. He would have liked Fort Dixon, the farm, the horses. But she would have never met Daryl if Harry had been alive.
She put the book back in its place and fell down on the bed, nestling her head against the pillow and trying not to think about Daryl but it was impossible not to think of him. For a moment she imagined the future everyone was encouraging her to have on his farm, having his children and she had the overwhelming feeling that it would be a betrayal to Harry. She didn't want to replace him.
Then she sat up, clutching her knees against her chest. She wasn't even sure why she was thinking in so much detail of her future with a man she had known for only 7 weeks except that if it didn't end like Lou suggested it would include a terrifying overhaul of her life and a whole lot of paperwork and as a rule she hated filling in forms. It was easy for Charlene to make all these plans when it was Kate that would have to uproot her life to take a chance on some vague little feeling that had been niggling in the back of her mind.
/
This was the last weekend before Jim's wedding. At some time last week Daryl had met with Jason to arrange Jim's bachelor party. There wasn't time for anything as extravagant as Jason wanted and in the end they had agreed on a night in Atlanta and Daryl had conceded to help pay for a hotel room. He'd never booked or stayed in a hotel room in his entire life and he wasn't too excited at the prospect of his first experience being with a roomful of men and their sweaty asses.
They had picked Jim up from home, blindfolded and hogtied him before throwing him into the back of Daryl's truck and driving to their destination. Daryl helped Jason pull the groom up, cutting the straps that were binding him and dragging him into the bar that Jason had arranged for the bachelor party to meet at. Everyone else was already there as they forced Jim thourgh the door and pulled off the blindfold.
"I said no strippers!" Jim almost cried.
"This is your last chance of freedom!" Jason laughed.
"Don't worry nobody's gonna tell Char," Daryl reassured Jim although he had no assurances that she wouldn't find out. In fact, he was pretty certain she would. Charlene always knew.
"Jesus," Jim relented letting his little brother move him into prime position for a good look at the whole dirty show.
In truth Daryl felt as awkward as Jim was probably feeling. There were tits and ass everywhere and despite the fact that he shared blood with Merle who was the biggest damn pervert he'd ever met he wasn't one to ever really go to strip clubs. Yes, he'd been to them but he'd been so damn high that he could have been having brunch in the whitehouse for all he knew. Sometimes he couldn't believe he'd lived like that for so long. No wonder Kate didn't want anything from him, the idea crossed his mind with a slight stab of pain landing in his chest before he tried to shake it off.
As well as Jim's friends from school, his construction company and the ones he had picked up somewhere in between there was Charlene's cousins Bobby the tattoo artist and Davey the… well Daryl didn't know what Davey did. Then there was Merle, Bo and Harley who had somehow wrangled their way into the group despite the fact that they weren't even friends with the groom, or invited.
All of them squeezed into one corner of the bar that had been specially cordoned off and then the drinking started. Jason handed him a bright blue shot that looked like it should be squirted out of a bottle to clean a toilet with rather than for drinking yet he knew it was just what he needed. He wanted to drink enough that he could forget, at least for one night, that Kate existed. He downed two shots and then made a start on his beer as he took a seat in the bright red vinyl seat. Vinyl and wipeable, the idea made his stomach curl a little as he glanced at a man who was older than his father sitting all alone with a wad of ones just below a honey blonde stripper who looked like she should have been in high school rather than this bar.
Daryl wasn't sure how long he sat on that seat getting more and more drunk and despite his best intentions he was thinking about Kate more and more with every sip. Even with a roomful of fucking strippers all he could think about was her. This was how crazy he had become. He wondered if he'd ever quite get over it as he ordered another drink and caught sight of Merle getting a lapdance from some Spanish looking chick, which wasn't shocking in the slightest since he'd caught his brother up to far more than that on more than one occasion. Those memories had the unfortunate honor of somehow being seared into his brain.
He drank his beer, then he drank another.
"Why ya sittin' 'ere all alone?" Jason slumped down next to him and flicked his hat back on his head, his charming smile running at full tilt.
"Fuck Kate," Daryl groaned. He wanted to fuck her so much. He wanted to fuck her hard. So hard that she'd forget she ever lived in England. He couldn't stop thinking about yesterday when she'd touched his leg, she looked like she wanted to say something, he should have kissed her then and there.
"Have another drink," Jason crooned, his hand squeezing his thigh as he passed him a bottle of beer. "Ya don't need women."
"I love 'er…" he slurred as he clutched his beer in one hand and with the other he took Jason's glass of bourbon and downed it. It fucking hurt and drinking was making it worse.
Jason took the empty glass back and patted his knee again.
"Jesus Christ, I fuckin' hate 'er as well." He'd tried to win her her the good old fashioned way and that had resulted in nothing but a broken heart. He was already in love with her so it probably couldn't get worse than this.
He decided he needed to change tactics, to stop being a loved up pussy who sat feeling sorry for himself in the corner of a bar and take charge of Miss Uppity.
It was 3AM and he could barely stand as the group poured out of the strip club and began to head towards the hotel but Daryl held back. There was only one place he wanted to spend the night.
"Where ya goin' baby brother?" Merle called.
"I'm goin' to Kate's." Fuck her rules, she wanted it, he wanted it, Daryl was going to give it to her.
"Right now?" Jason smirked.
Daryl gripped the nearest wall before fumbling his zipper to pull out his dick and take a leak. "Right fuckin' now… I ain't gonna let 'er tell me to fuck off again," he zipped himself back in his pants and turned to face the group.
"Imma have to see this," Merle laughed as he pulled his arm over his shoulder, "you lead the way Romeo."
Having Merle and Jason with him might not have been a great idea but he was so damn drunk putting one foot in front of the other was about all he could manage as they ambled along on a walk that took longer than anticipated between all the drunken little powwows where Jason and Merle both tried to tell him what to say but any good advice was lost on him and he was certain that no advice from Merle would be good anyway.
Kate's street was dark and sleep just like the night he'd first kissed her. All the curtains were closed with not a single glow of light in the early hour. At least everything had been quiet until the boys began to thunder along with their drunken laughs and Merle's catcalls.
Daryl bent down and picked up a handful of little rocks. He threw the first one at her window and it hit the sill bouncing back towards him and hitting his shoe. Then he threw the next which tapped the window with a ping as he called her name.
"Ya sure this is 'er house?" Jason said as he threw his own rock.
"I'm pretty fucking sure…" he was out of rocks now, "Kate!"
There was a twitch of her curtain and for a split second he thought he might vomit all down his trousers. Shit, he looked at the other men. This was a fucking terrible idea.
The curtain threw back and there she was standing in the window, her hair all tousled, a tiny little nightdress barely covering her and an extremely irritated look on her face.
"Fuckin' hell," he half groaned. She looked so good. She always looked fucking good. How the hell was he supposed to walk away from her?
She struggled with the sash window before tugging it up and open, her breast practically falling from her nightwear in the motion, a fact which didn't go unnoticed by his dick.
"We've brought ya man!" Merle shouted and Jason gave a wolf whistle which seemed to echo along the street enough to wake even the dead.
Maybe this was a dumb idea, but fuck it. If she was gone in nine days then he might as well go for it. He didn't have anything to lose.
/
Kate could hardly believe her eyes at the sight of Daryl and his drunken idiot sidekicks. She was mortified. She could see curtains twitching across the road and pictured the imminent arrival of flashing lights. "What the hell are you doing here? Go home before you get yourselves arrested."
Daryl lit a cigarette leaning heavily against a street light, "ain't ya gonna let me in?"
"Are you insane? Shut up and go home."
"I don't wanna go home. I wanna see you."
Kate rubbed the sleep from her eyes and felt her sleepiness quickly turning to irritation, "well now you've seen me, so fuck off."
Jason and Merle were bent over laughing so hard they could barely breathe and she decided she fucking hated drunk Daryl.
"I thought ya weren't gonna let Sparky tell ya to fuck off?" Merle said between his chuckling.
"Jesus, woman. You're so fuckin' mean!" Daryl stamped out his cigarette before shrugging off his jacket, "ladders are for pussy's," he announced then he rolled his shoulders and began to climb up a trellis on the side of her house until he was on to the living room bay window, halfway up to her bedroom and looking determined.
His friends urged him on and Kate watched in silent disbelief. What the hell was wrong with him? Had he lost his mind? To her horror Daryl began stretching his arm for a gutter to help him reach her.
"You're going to break your bloody neck and I don't want to have to deal with that at 4am."
"You're real fuckin' merciful," he sniggered as he went for it full force until he was half clambering at her window.
"You're an idiot," Kate reached out to heave him the rest of the way through where he fell to the floor in a pile.
"Goodnight ma'am," Jason saluted from the street, a look of satisfaction on his face.
"Happy fuckin'," Merle threw a condom through the air and it fell short of his target, falling to the ground to places unknown.
Kate flipped them off and slammed her window shut, although she had half a mind to launch Daryl back through it.
She ran her hand through her hair and looked over her shoulder to see him half slumped on the floor. "What on Earth are you thinking?" she kicked his side, rolling him onto his back, his shirt sneaking up his stomach giving her a peek of a the light trail of hair that led below his leather belt.
Daryl chuckled to himself before staggering to his feet and looking at her in a way that made her cheeks flush and erupted a flood of warmth between her legs. He stepped forward until he was pressing her against the wall, his thigh pushing between hers, his hands grasping her shoulders and his breaths blowing in unsteady waves. "I want you," he rasped before kissing her neck, his hands sweeping along her body until one was squeezing her breast.
"Stop," Kate's brain protested despite her body wanting nothing more than to cross the picket line and join the other side.
"Ya don't mean that," Daryl licked along the outside of her ear before nibbling the lobe. One of his hands leaned on the wall next to her head and the other fell from her breast to rest on her hip. He was so close to her. His bottom half was pressed against hers, the sandalwood scent of his cologne was filling her nose and his eyes looked so tantalisingly dark and dangerous they made her heart stop beating. "Let me have ya," he coaxed, his husky voice nothing more than a whisper.
Kate hardly knew how to react, her body was tingling in anticipation but at the same time she couldn't ignore the doubt that was filling her mind. She'd meant what she said when she told him 'nothing more.' Then his lips pushed against hers, and she let him. She let his tongue into her mouth, to brush against hers and she enjoyed it despite herself. She wanted it despite all rational thought.
"Say yes," he groaned as his hand felt its way underneath the short hem of her night dress, caressing along the outside of her thigh, higher and higher until he was squeezing her behind.
Maybe they could have one more night…
His kisses didn't wait for her answer as his thumb pulled down one side of her nightdress, brushing over her nipple before his mouth replaced his calloused touch. He kissed and sucked until she was whimpering, "yes, yes," it was all she could think of now.
Daryl's breaths were heavy, shuddering out of him, curling hot over her skin which was pin pricked and sensitive to every caress. His fingers explored under her dress, discovering there was nothing to stop them from pushing inside and feeling how wet she was for him. She bit back a moan, her hands gripping onto his shoulders for support as he thrust his fingers over and over while his wet kisses trailed along her collarbone and back to her breasts as he ground his pelvis against her leg.
"I want ya so bad," he pulled his fingers from inside her and reached for his belt, quickly pulling the buckle apart and shoving down his jeans just enough so he was springing free and rolling a condom along his length. He pushed Kate even harder to the wall when he entered her, wrapping one of her legs around his waist as she stood on her tiptoes with the other. Her head fell back into the wall as she lost herself in the steady rhythm Daryl was pounding her with. He groaned down her ear taking exactly what he wanted until his body shuddered and he moaned her name, his hand bunching into her hair as he gave three final hard thrusts. He held her still, burying his face into her shoulder as his ragged breaths smoothed and he pulled out, leaving her empty.
Daryl brushed the hair from her face and kissed her softly, nuzzling his nose against hers. His hand stroking gently down her arms before he effortlessly picked her up and carried her to the bed, gently laying her down. He eased his shirt over his head and dropped down to his knees at the edge of the bed, his eyes never leaving hers as he grabbed her legs and pulled her towards him.
Daryl's face nuzzled along her thighs before he threw her legs over his shoulders, gripped her hips and brought her centre to his mouth. He licked her hard and Kate gasped, wriggling from him as the sensation flooded her so fast she could barely take it. But he pulled her back, his hands holding her firm as he lapped and sucked until she needed more of the thrilling rhythm he was playing with his tongue. Her breathing became fast, her hands reached over her head gripping the edge of the mattress as the tingling feeling built to a crescendo. Her hips arched to feel more as she let go, her legs trembling and slumping from his shoulders as she succumbed entirely to his mouth.
He stood, wiping his face with the back of his hand, a small smile prying at his lips then he fell down on the bed besides her, planting his arm across her waist and holding her snug, his chin nestling in her neck. She thought she might say something but barely 30 seconds passed before his soft snores started to blow down her ear.
She turned to face him, her fingers reaching out to brush against the stubble on his jaw then she looked along his body. They were laying the wrong way in the bed, his jeans undone, his shoes still on, his chests slowly heaving with each heavy breath. He was so warm, she stroked her hand along his chest letting the hairs tickle her palm before she placed her hand over his heart and felt the steady beats.
She'd given into desire and despite the sleepy relaxation and the way the butterflies were fluttering happily, she was feeling a little bit shitty. So much for keeping her distance and not trying to mess him around. Although when she made those plans she hadn't foreseen him climbing the side of her house like Spiderman. And she hadn't foreseen how excited that would make her feel.
She bit her lip and began to slowly roll away from him but his hand wrapped around her wrist.
"Stop fightin' it," Daryl murmured still half asleep as he kicked off his shoes and pulled her even closer than before. He wrapped himself around her, kissed the top of her head and made himself more comfortable. She gave in, again. Her willpower would have to wait until morning.
