AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think!

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Daryl's head was buzzing. He stared at Carol a moment, trying to figure out if he was having some sort of waking dream. She stared back at him, and he saw the expression of concern start to drift over her features.

"I'm sorry," Daryl said, "but I ain't sure that I'm all the way awake yet an' my head is kinda fuckin' fuzzy. Did you just…are you sayin' that you wanna have sex with me?"

Carol looked like her feet had suddenly been riveted to the floor and, on top of that, she looked like she was suddenly struggling to breathe.

"I didn't mean to insult you or anything," she said. "It's just…I know you're not seeing anyone else right now and I know that you…"

Daryl stood up before she could spiral out of control because, for once, it looked like she might. It looked like, if she were able to get her feet to move out of their now permanent spots, she might simply run away and she might never stop.

He caught her shoulders and held them tight against the possibility of her running away.

"Insult me? I just—wanna know for sure if that's what you're askin'," Daryl said. "Because—I'm not always the fastest person when I just woke up and…I haven't been up too long."

Carol nodded her head.

"If you want to," she offered quietly.

"Do you want to, though?" Daryl asked. "You look kinda—unsure about it." She looked like she might pass out. The color had drained entirely from her face. There was very little that Daryl wanted more than to have sex with Carol, but he absolutely didn't want to do it if she wasn't happy with the idea of it. "If you don't want to, you don't owe me nothin', OK? I don't want you to think that I was expectin' you to…to do nothin' that you don't wanna do. As friends or—or whatever, OK? I don't want you thinkin' that I expect you to do nothin'."

A little color washed back into her face and Carol pulled against Daryl's hold on her arms enough to come toward him. He immediately knew that she was seeking a kiss and he granted her that. The kiss wasn't the soft kind that she usually looked for. It felt more like a request for Daryl to kiss her the way that he wanted. Knowing that she expected his kiss, though, and knowing that there might actually be more to come, terrified Daryl a little. He pushed through it to kiss her. And once he started kissing her, he let his senses simply take over.

There was at least one part of him that was very interested in Carol's offer, and Carol seemed to already know that. While they kissed, Carol fumbled with the button on Daryl's jeans and, before long, she slipped her hand inside them and let her fingers find their way into the thin boxer shorts that Daryl was wearing.

He broke the kiss and pulled away from her almost as soon as she touched him.

"I'm sorry!" She barked, like she'd been burned. She immediately turned red in the face and Daryl was pretty sure that she realized she was loud enough for her voice to have carried. Daryl could only hope that T-Dog was either out of the house or had the common sense and common courtesy to let himself out. "I thought you wanted to."

Daryl laughed to himself.

"I guess since your hand was on my dick you know I want to," Daryl said.

"I didn't mean to overstep any boundaries," Carol said. "I just thought…"

Daryl held his hands up to stop her. It was clear that she'd misread his stepping away.

"I ain't bothered you did what'cha did," he said. "Hell—if we gonna do this, I gotta say I'm kinda hopin' you gonna touch my dick. Truth is, though, that if you get to doin' that too much? The show's gonna be over 'fore it starts."

Carol nodded her understanding.

"What do you want?" She asked. She walked around him and went back to the bed. She sat down on her side of the bed. Daryl followed her and sat down beside her.

"I don't want to overstep no boundaries, either," he offered.

"I don't think there are any," Carol said. "Not off the top of my head. Not if you want to, but—you don't have to do anything." She breathed out like she was trying to slow her own self down. Daryl simply waited her out. She nodded to herself like she was ready to begin again, and she did begin again. "But if there are…if…if there's anything that I realize is a boundary or you realize is a boundary, then…I guess we'll just say it."

Daryl nodded his understanding. He was torn between the internal feeling of wanting to be sick from the nerves his gut was churning out and wanting to be happy enough to consider if he was actually capable of clicking his heels like some sort of black and white movie character. Carol had seen him mostly without clothes, and she'd already wrapped her long fingers around his dick. He figured he'd be the one to introduce the idea of ridding clothes. He stood up and quickly shucked out of his pants and boxers.

She watched him, but her face showed no disapproval.

Then he came back to her and tugged at the gown she was wearing. Her breathing was audibly heavy, but she didn't ask him to stop. Instead, she helped him remove the garment.

Daryl had caught a glimpse of her breasts before. He'd memorized the perfect peaks of her nipples. Her breasts were larger now. They were heavier and he assumed that their change came from their natural preparation to feed the baby she was growing. When he'd seen her breasts before, he'd never really imagined that he'd be given permission to touch them and, more than that, to do whatever she didn't tell him was off limits.

Daryl kissed her again. This time, Carol went where he directed her and she laid back against the pillow. He trailed his kiss down to her chin and he nibbled his way down her neck until he reached the little valley between her collarbones. Her skin was slightly salty and she was every bit as delicious as he'd imagined she'd be. He flattened his tongue against the skin of that little valley and trailed it back up her throat. She squirmed a little, but it wasn't as though she was really trying to run from him.

He worked his way down to the breasts that he'd meticulously recorded in his memory and he dared to take one of her nipples into his mouth. He rubbed it with his flattened tongue and teased it with the tip of his tongue before catching it between his tongue and the roof of his mouth to suck at it.

The sound of pleasure that escaped Carol was enough to make Daryl have to stop what he was doing and regain control of himself. He looked at her. He wasn't entirely sure that there was pleasure on her face. It may have been pain. She didn't ask him to stop. Instead, she caught his face in her hands and she pulled him to her. She kissed him. She kissed him until he was pulling away from her to breathe and she was panting from having deprived herself of oxygen.

When the kiss was done, Daryl returned to the other breast and he tasted the nipple to see if it felt different than the other. He tried, desperately, to remember the texture of it against his tongue in case the day may never come again when she was feeling so generous toward him.

People had needs, after all, like she'd said, but needs could easily be filled by others who were more suited to such a thing.

The permission to touch extended, from what he could tell, as far as he wanted it to extend. She would tell him if he was doing wrong. She would tell him if she wanted him to stop.

He pressed his lips, first, to her belly. He had failed to have the talk with himself that he'd intended to have about the fact that he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to feel aroused by Carol's condition. It might not have done any good, anyway, to have that talk to himself. He mostly felt like, no matter how much he asked it to behave, his dick had a mind of its own. It refused to be held down when something caught its attention—and everything about Carol caught its attention.

"Shit…" Daryl moaned when Carol made another of the soft kitten-type sounds of pleasure. He pressed his palms flat on either side of her belly, and he pressed his face to her belly and kissed it again. As he did, he felt the familiar movement beneath her skin. He looked at Carol, his heart thundering in his chest.

She was pink faced and looked caught somewhere between pain and surprise. She came back into herself, though, once he'd stopped.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"I think she's awake," Daryl offered.

"She is," Carol said.

Daryl's stomach twisted.

"So, is this OK?" He asked.

The part of him that he was absolutely trying to ignore for the moment—because if he didn't ignore his dick as much as possible, the party would be over by now—wanted to throw a fit because Daryl's brain, practically wheezing and dizzy from what felt like a lack of blood, oxygen, and common sense, was starting to suggest that they stop what they were doing out of respect for Carol and her child.

Instead of shoving him off, though, Carol smiled to herself.

He welcomed that smile. It was the first he'd seen all morning that was so genuine.

"It's fine," Carol said. "She's fine. She won't get hurt or—even inconvenienced."

"Not even if I…when we're havin' sex, I don't want to hurt her," Daryl said.

Carol shook her head. She laughed to herself. She reached for Daryl and sat up as best she could from the position in which he practically had her pinned. He came to her to lessen her struggle and she kissed him. This time it was soft, but it was sincere. He closed his eyes. He loved the way she used her lips to gently catch his bottom lip. She smiled at him, again, when the kiss broke.

"She's protected," Carol promised him. "You would have to really, really hurt me to hurt her. And—you're not going to do that."

Daryl shook his head.

"No," he said. "I don't want to hurt you."

Carol kissed him again. She sighed into his mouth. Where he held her, he could feel her muscles relaxing. She'd been somewhat tense before, but it felt like every muscle in her body softened.

When he pulled away, Daryl continued his journey downward—retracing a few of his previous steps with his tongue and lips—but Carol caught him as he trailed kisses over the skin of her belly, working his way downward.

"Don't," she breathed out.

"Don't what?" Daryl asked.

Carol suddenly seemed upset by something, and Daryl was sorry for whatever he'd done. He'd only been where he'd already been before, but apparently, he'd crossed a boundary of some sort.

Carol reached and pushed at her panties. Seeing that she was trying to remove them, Daryl caught them and quickly slid them down her legs. He dropped them to the floor and, immediately, he forgot what she'd said. He forgot that he was trying to figure out what she didn't want him to do. The only thing he could do was stare at her.

Whatever control he'd had over his dick started to go out of the window. If he had ever thought her breasts were perfect—that her nipples were perfect—her pussy was amazing and it was open to him. It was available to him. It was on offer to him. He had never actually tasted pussy before. He'd never wanted to. But he wanted to taste hers more than he'd ever wanted to taste anything in his life.

Before he could dive in, though, and test the textures of her skin and her juices—before he could suck on those lips as surely as he'd sucked on any others that she possessed, Carol caught his face and pulled him up so that he would look at her.

"Please…don't…" she stammered.

For a split second, Daryl felt like he'd been kneed in the gut. He didn't question her, though, and he didn't beg permission to just be allowed enough time to save up memories for his own personal use later—later when she was no longer interested in things like this. Instead, he came to her and kissed her again.

"You're done?" He asked, breathing into her ear.

She moved to sit up a little from where he was pinning her, and her fingers sought him out again.

"Come on," she said. "You can do—whatever you need to do. You won't hurt her and…I'll enjoy it."

She was doing her best to guide him into her, but he knew he'd never make it blind. He pulled away from her and rearranged her body, but he was pretty sure that they weren't going to make a comfortable connection. Her belly wasn't huge, but it was going to limit their closeness a little.

"What's the best way to…?" Daryl asked. He didn't have to finish. Carol rolled away from him and onto her side.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Can you…? Is this OK?"

Daryl nodded at her. He could work with anything. He wasn't very good at sex in general, and she'd soon find that out, but maybe she'd forgive him if she thought he was simply limited by the position.

She was warm and wet and welcoming. He chose a position where he could, at least, still kiss the side of her face and somewhat keep an eye on how she was reacting. She closed her eyes as he entered her and he stopped a moment, hoping that he wasn't doing something wrong. The way she looked at him when she opened her eyes, though, told him that she might think his stopping was the something that he did wrong.

Though he'd been limiting his dick throughout the experience, he finally let it have free reign. If any part of him would know best what to do in the moment, that would be the one to follow. She felt so good, though, and he felt like he'd waited so long to feel her, that it hardly lasted as long as he wanted it to last. He got the sinking feeling, too, that she hadn't come.

Daryl had wanted her to come, but he'd hardly given her time.

And she had seemed reluctant to give him too much contact with her pussy—even though he wasn't sure why it was off limits except when they were having sex—so he didn't push to touch her and try to coax an orgasm out of her. When he'd come, he'd dropped down behind her and kissed her shoulder. He'd let his hand trail over her belly and he'd dared to let it trail upward so that his fingers could rub the nipples that, at least, he'd been allowed to suck.

The euphoria of sex, which he might have hoped would last for hours, was quickly replaced by a certain melancholy when Carol pulled away from him and went to the bathroom, excusing herself with the declaration that she really had to pee and she'd be right back.

Daryl wondered if she'd ever really come back to him again or if the need, as she'd called it, would simply have passed.

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AN: I just want to thank everyone for their kind words yesterday. I really appreciate your support more than you know! It keeps me going in a lot of ways!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Let me know what you think!