A/N Thank you so much for those wonderful reviews – especially Tilly and my dear Bluecrush! You can't imagine how much they mean to me! I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much (With Rick at his sexy best - I have a feeling you will!). Let me know what you think...

Chapter Thirty-five

The creak of the well-worn steps welcomes Erin as Rick leads her onto the porch of the cabin. He lets go of her hand to reach beneath the welcome mat and comes up with a key.

Watching him push the door open, she peers around his shoulder, eager for her first glimpse of the interior. Waiting for him to step inside or step to the side, she is surprised when he turns around and lifts her in his arms like a bride. Holding onto his shoulders, she leans into his neck as he carries her across the threshold, feeling like the most cherished woman in the world.

A couple of long strides and he stops in the center of the open floor plan. "So here's the tour."

The interior surprises her greatly. The exterior logs are worn with time and weather from nature's relentless caress and the roof looks like it has seen more bandages than a hockey team, but the inside gleams through a thin layer of dust. Despite its neat and tidy appearance with framed paintings of colorful lake scenes, the place is very masculine.

To the right, long windows on either side of a stone mantel admit a nice amount of sunlight to brighten the many shades of warm browns that make up the walls, floor and furniture. A cozy-looking couch with plaid earth-tones sits with two chestnut rockers in front of the large fireplace. Another wide window above a countertop on the far wall highlights a rustic oak table with four chairs in a small kitchen area.

Rick turns in a slow arc for her to see everything. "Den… kitchen… back door… stairs to the loft – there's a small bed for up there for Carl," he says and she looks up to the top of the narrow staircase where a wooden railing stretches from wall to wall, overlooking the den below. More sunlight spills over the railing so she assumes there are more windows up there, just below the thick rafters of the high ceiling.

"The bathroom is through there." He motions with his chin toward a door set in the wall to the immediate left of the front entrance. "And this is my bedroom," he says, carrying her through an opened doorway next to the bathroom.

The room is sparse but homey with a small dresser and one nightstand holding a stack of books waiting to be read. Two windows look out to a small slice of the lake where Erin sees a couple of orange kayaks resting on the bank. She can imagine Rick and Carl having a wonderful time out on the lake on warm summer days. "You have a lovely place here, honey," she says as he lays her down on a russet and red bedspread.

"Thank you." His mouth covers her smile as his palm covers her breast.

She loops a leg over his thigh to pull him toward her center. In the midst of a soft groan, a fierce growl from her empty belly stills the hand slipping beneath her tank top.

"Jeez," he laughs, drawing back from the kiss. "I guess I ought to feed you before that thing in there attacks me."

"I am pretty hungry but I can wait." She lifts her mouth to his again but he pulls back after just a brief touch.

"I can wait too." He pulls her up from the bed as her stomach cheers with another loud rumble. "Come on, Red. Let's see if there's anything in the kitchen before we grab your pack from the car."

Erin follows him into the kitchen and leans on the end of the rectangular table while Rick opens one cabinet after another. Beyond his shoulders she spots an assortment of canned soups, ramen noodles, two bags of chips, one box of cereal and the standard condiments for a barbeque. She watches him pull everything out and line it up on the counter. Then after a quick glance at her with a slight gleam of mischief, he reaches to the top shelf and pulls down a small white and tan container with a dark brown pump on top. It looks like some kind of soap dispenser.

"Have you ever tried this?" he asks, turning back to her. "My mom brought it down once and forgot it. Carl got in the habit of putting it on his ice cream." He holds it up and she reads 'Barista Cafe Caramel Flavored Latte Foam'.

"No, I've never even heard of it. Is it good?"

"It is actually. Try it," he says softly, gazing at her mouth and lifting the bottle to her lips.

She opens her mouth and lets the edge of her tongue rest on her bottom lip, and then watches his eyes grow dark with desire. He squirts a small amount of cream onto her tongue and then descends upon it before she can take it in. With a stealthy sweep, he sucks the majority of it off before she swallows the rest with a fervent chuckle. "Mmmm…, delicious." She leans back and looks into dancing eyes that are becoming even darker with need. She knows that look. She loves that look. She drapes her arms over his shoulders as he places the bottle by her hip. When he descends upon her again, he fills her mouth with a bruising kiss full of intense need as he presses his body against her.

Strong hands grasp the backs of her thighs and she clings to him tightly as her feet leave the floor. He sets her on the hard surface of the table and she pulls him down as she leans back, sinking further and further until her shoulder blades are resting on the wood. He continues to kiss her as his large hand finds its way beneath the hem of her tank top and massages her bosom through the satiny bra. She moans into his mouth and he breaks the kiss, causing her to moan loader.

Leaning back, he slides her shirt over the slope of her breasts and then stands up, towering over her and looking fiercely powerful and incredibly sexy."Take it off."

The authority in his tone sends her flutter into a tailspin as her lower legs dangle from the table. Oh, my. "You're not drunk this time, are you now?" she asks, breathless with her own ferocious need.

"Not at all, so I'm gonna make the most of it." He squints at her with a devilish smirk. "I won't let you take advantage of me this time."

She answers his smirk with a small grin of her own and drags her tongue along the edge of her teeth in a seductive taunt. She feels his hands squeeze her thighs as his jaw visibly hardens.

"Take it off," he repeats softly, his voice gentle with restraint but completely demanding in tone.

She hesitates for a moment, drinking in his sensually savage expression as she rubs the inside of her knees against his hips, the rustling of their denim jeans the only sound in the quiet cabin. Arching her back, she pulls her tank top off and sits up to reach behind her for the clasp of her bra. When his eyes drop to her chest, she drops her hands. As her heart pounds with eager but anxious energy - knowing that he doesn't always appreciate her headstrong nature and their frequent battles of will - she puts a hand to his jaw and lifts his chin until he meets her gaze. "You too," she says with a touch of defiance, slightly nervous and extremely aroused. "Take it off."

When he doesn't move or respond in any way, she thinks he is going to refuse her command. But after a few heated and heavily charged moments, he tilts his head in a gesture of acquiescence and lifts his hands to the top button of his shirt.

She releases a breath and slowly slips out of her bra, watching him as he unbuttons his shirt completely to reveal a lengthy span of his chest and belly.

His eyes never leave hers.

It is all she can do to keep from looking down at his bare skin. She knows he is daring her to fight the same urge he couldn't control a minute ago – the urge that he seems to be combatting easily now as he maintains eye contact while her naked breasts rise and fall before him, higher and deeper with every ragingly ardent heartbeat. But she'll meet his challenge. Even if it kills her. When he slowly leans forward to stop just inches from her mouth, holding himself just out of reach with his eyes so blue and blazing hot - it almost does kill her.

With an inward groan against the flammable moan of her little flutter, she surrenders to him fully and closes the distance between them with a crash of lips, teeth and tongue. She pulls him down to lie over her, clawing at his back, his hair, his shoulders, anywhere and everywhere she can reach as she grinds her groin against the hardness inside his jeans.

"Slow down, baby." He pulls back, chest heaving and arms straining as he holds himself above her.

"Rick..." she breathes, hating the pleading tone that she is helpless to disguise.

"I want to take my time here. And I did promise to feed you first," he says, pushing off the table to stand upright. He reaches for something at her hip. "So here..."

She watches him pump a dollop of the latte foam onto his own tongue and then lean over her again. She parts her lips to accept his offering and sucks the cream into her mouth, holding him there to extend the kiss. He begins to pull away and she moans deeply. "Nnnn…" She locks her ankles behind his back to keep him from retreating again as she strokes his tongue, loving the taste of Rick-flavored cream.

When she finally lets him go, he pushes up on one hand as the other holds the bottle over her breast. "My turn now."

She twitches slightly when the foam hits her nipple, and then trembles when his mouth devours it. He moves to her other peak for the same treatment, licking the cream and stroking her flesh with warm lips and a hot tongue.

"Yummy," he murmurs as she pants heavily beneath him.

She grips the edge of the table when he slowly unzips her jeans and fills her belly button. He sips from the tiny crater and she releases a breathy hiccup; a sound caught somewhere between a moan and a giggle. She squirms with anticipation as he leisurely removes her clothes, taking his time and driving her mad as she aches for him, one thought echoing repeatedly in her mind; Take it off!

Lying bare before him, the sunlight streaks across her breasts and highlights his hair with gold as he laps up the creamy arrow he'd painted from her navel to the tip of her opening. She weaves her fingers into his hair as she arches against the hard plane beneath her.

A calloused hand spreads her knees and she feels another touch of fluff on her inner thigh followed by the caress of soft lips. Then two oblong arcs grace either side of her opening and she smiles at the heart he just drew. He licks it away, tantalizingly slow and painfully steady. "God baby, please." He spreads her folds and she feels something only slightly more solid than a puff of air against her most sensitive flesh. It's a strange sensation but it is quickly forgotten when his tongue slips inside. "Oh, yeah."

Round and round he circles her nubbin, stroking her clit as he holds her knees wide. "Delicious," he murmurs as he delves deeper.

A minute later a thick finger replaces his tongue, moving deep within her core as his mouth returns to her nub. "Oh, God," she groans as her flutter twirls inside a tornado of endorphins, spiraling toward her release as he steers her toward oblivion.

"Come on, baby. Come for me now, sweetheart."

With one hand knotted in his hair and the other gripping the edge of the table, a million butterfly wings take flight in her lower belly. "Nnnnn…" Her heart pounds furiously and her toes tingle madly as they dangle limply toward the floor.

He stands between her thighs, looking incredibly sexy with his dark hair spiked in wavy tufts from her clenched fingers and his lips glistening with her moisture. She watches him push aside the hem of his open shirt and unfasten his jeans – moving much faster than he had when taking hers off. He shoves them down out of the way, just far enough.

Her head is spinning and her legs are trembling as he lifts her ankles and places each one carefully, reverently, upon his broad shoulders. A heady whimper bubbles up from her throat as the tip of his erection teases her enflamed entrance.

"I love you, Red."

"I love you back," she says in a pool of quivering sensation. "Al-Ways!" she cries as he suddenly drives deep with a desperation on his face that says he needs to be there; right there, right now, all the way home.

He thrusts hard and fast as his hands grip her hips, digging his fingers into her skin as he moves in and out of her body in a rush of passionate grunts.

When he slows to a smoother stride, sinking into her in a deliciously slow dance, she feels every exquisite inch of him caressing her walls as the angle gives him access to her innermost nerves.

Clinging to the edge of the table behind her head, she opens her eyes and sees that his lids are lowered but not closed completely. He is focused on their connection, watching his body fuse with hers as she receives him again and again. His open mouth and the faint sneer of carnal hunger in his expression does wondrous things to her flutter. Watching him as he watches them become one is the most beautifully erotic thing she's ever seen.

She tilts her pelvis to take him even deeper and is rewarded with a groan that she feels from the barrel of his chest to the tender spot beneath her navel. Her flutter echoes his spirit and shouts from the rafters when he closes his eyes and thrusts fast and hard once again. Yes!

It isn't long before he holds himself deeply inside her after one powerful lunge, groaning her name and crushing his center to hers as his body shudders and shivers beneath her ankles. Her legs slip from his shoulders as he leans forward to collapse on top of her, his heaving chest wheezing for air. Wrapping her arms around his back and locking her feet behind him, she lifts her hips and grinds her bones against his, surfing the crest of her second orgasm as his wondrous tide crashes into her shoreline.

Driving out of the narrow dirt road with enough ruts to challenge the suspension of a champion monster truck, the thick cover of trees gives way to a paved road stretched out below a sea of dusky blue, sweeping waves of fuzzy pink clouds swimming across the horizon. Rick turns left onto the quiet street and steers the Honda north, riding along the edge of the vast meadow that he's rolled past so many times before, but never with his soul so buoyantly fulfilled; every blade of grass seems perfectly placed, crisply defined under the rose-tinted sky. With Erin at his side he is filled with a deep-seated peacefulness that tells him he is exactly where he is supposed to be.

Once again Mr. Springsteen rides shotgun as she sings along – softly thank God – to a hard-hitting song about a man's desperate will to prove himself to his lover, all night long, for the fate of their love. Listening to the words, Rick quickly empathizes with the prolific songwriter and the story he tells.

Everybody's got a hunger, a hunger they can't resist,
There's so much that you want, you deserve much more than this,
But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn't that be nice,
But this ain't no dream we're living through tonight,
Girl, you want it, you take it, you pay the price…

Curled up in her seat, Erin is facing him with her knees tucked under her chin as her mouth moves faintly to the heartfelt lyrics of the compelling tune. He can see her eyes growing heavier and heavier with every yawn that she tries to sing through and he smiles at the woman who owns his heart. Despite her nails-on-the-chalkboard vocal prowess, she is everything to him. He reaches for her hand and brings it up to his mouth, pressing his lips to her knuckles.

"You overwhelm me," she says sleepily with the most peaceful expression on her face.

He grins at her tenderly, thinking of the afternoon they'd just spent wrapped up in each other's arms followed by one last quickie before hitting the road. "The feeling is mutual, Red."

She closes her eyes as the song comes to an end and he turns down the volume to let her sleep - and to keep her from waking with the temptation of singing again. He loves her more than life itself but he will do everything in his power to prevent her from performing another painful serenade. He can think of several ways to keep her lovely mouth occupied. His cock twitches in his jeans and he shifts in his seat to alleviate the pressure as he quickly glances back at her with a filthy guilty conscience. He groans inwardly at his lack of self control where she is concerned. But the truth is, he would love to spend more time at the cabin alone with her, honorable ethics be damned.

Maybe they will come back someday. If Savannah doesn't work out, he'll bring their whole group back to Woodland. It's remote enough with plenty of fish and wildlife in the area to sustain them. They would just need to add onto the cabin itself before the frigid months of winter rolled around again.

Selfishly he'd like to keep the place secret, a private sanctuary for just the two of them. He could hunt and fish all morning to keep her fed, and then make love to her every afternoon. He'd even let her make a meal out of him sometime, licking sweet somethings off of his most sensitive parts. His cock twitches again and he has to swallow another groan. Jesus, will I ever get enough of her? One thing is for sure; if they ever make it back, he will never look at that table the same way again. After years of meals and countless conversations in the small kitchen, he will never be able to sit at that table without wanting to throw her across it. The bedroom had also become their own little pocket of heaven as they'd snuggled together and talked the afternoon away. He will cherish the memory for the rest of his life.

Turning into the parking lot of the motel an hour later, bright orange streaks flourish the blue-black sky just above the silhouette of hills and trees to the west. In the waning shades of twilight, Rick sees their group assembled in front of Daryl's pickup truck. They must have just returned themselves. He pulls the Element next to the Winnebago and scans the faces of his friends. He is relieved to see Glenn and T-Dog, who had gone on a siphoning campaign through a strip of car dealerships over in Forsythe, and Morgan who is standing at the bumper of Daryl's truck. But searching the faces standing before Morgan, he doesn't see the hunter anywhere. Or Michonne. He just sees deep concern in the expressions of every face in the parking lot.

"What's going on?" Erin says softly, matching his thoughts exactly.

"I don't know," he murmurs as he shifts into park with an uneasy hand. He turns the ignition key off and his adrenaline kicks in when he sees Merle swing his left arm angrily at Morgan's head. "Shit!" Rick jumps out of the car with his belly following two seconds behind.