Red River Blue
Chapter 22
It was still bright outside the prison but the light inside her cell was dim. Having the curtains pulled shut blocked the small amount of light that came filtering in through the high windows that lined one wall of the cellblock. Carol hated wasting batteries, but as she tried to read the pages of her book she found herself squinting over them even with her silly looking reading glasses perched on her face. They were pink and sparkly, something Michonne picked up for her the last time she was out looking for the man formerly known as the governor.
Finally Carol gave up trying to read in the dim light and decided to preserve what little good vision she had left, flipping the switch on the tiny camping lantern she kept next to her bed. She turned back a few pages, rereading the part of the story she had already read but not absorbed. The book was something River loaned her with a wink and a sexy shimmy of her shoulders. The woman read nothing but trashy romance novels, most of which were dog eared on the pages that contained graphically descriptions of sex acts. Carol had seen River's older daughter pick one up the other day and thumb through it. After a few pages, Harley hurled the book back down onto River's bed in disgust, mumbling about how the book was nothing but a bunch of nasty humping.
The book Carol was reading now was so much better than the other ones River had loaned her. Some of the pages were still dog eared, but unlike some of the other books she had borrowed, in this one there was actually a compelling story leading up to the act of lovemaking. The story took place during the ice age, which Carol had decided was a lot like living in the apocalypse. The characters hunted for food, fought beasts of all manner, and met strangers during their journey that were sometimes friendly and sometimes not. The main characters in the book were a pair of brothers that were on an adventure and a young woman that had been banished from her people and was fighting to survive alone in a valley.
As Carol read, it was usually easy for her to immerse herself in the story, imagining herself as the girl and Daryl as one of the brothers. But today she couldn't seem to concentrate on the printed words. She was rereading the same page now for the third time. All she could see was Daryl up on that ladder. The way the muscles in his shoulders bunched up when he reached his arms above his head. This led her to thinking about all the little moments between them that she knew she was making out to be more than what they were. How he put his hand on the small of her back when she was handing him his breakfast. Or offered her his hand to help her down from a high step.
Carol threw the book down next to her on the bed and scrubbed at her face with her hands, ordering herself to stop thinking about Daryl. She wiggled her hips, sliding down lower on the bed, ignoring the almost painful throb between her legs. Her shirt rucked up as she slid down, exposing the flat of her stomach. She still had the stretch marks from when she had carried Sophia, but the little poof of extra fat that used hover above her pubic hair was gone. The tiny roll of fat that Ed used to grab at as he insulted her, calling her a ugly fat slob. She didn't miss it. Or him. They were all leaner and stronger now. With harder muscles and less fat. Even her.
She rubbed her hand over her stomach, letting one finger dip inside the waistband of her pants. Closing her eyes, she gave up on fighting the images that she knew were going to creep into her mind whether she wanted them to or not. The prime perverted thought of the day of course being how good Daryl's ass looked up on that ladder and how much better it would look without a thick layer of denim covering it. And what it might feel like to grip it with her hands, digging her nails into the firm rounds of flesh as he pushed inside her.
Her hand dipped down inside her pants, fingers caressing through the soft patch of hair above her opening. And of course someone chose that particular moment to bang on the bars of her cell. Two loud metal clangs.
"Carol, you in there?"
Carol swore under her breath, knowing that the voice belonged to Daryl and also knowing that since it was him, her curtain was about to be yanked open without him waiting for permission to enter her room. None of the Dixons had any manners. Carol yanked her hand from her pants and tried to pull her shirt down while pulling her horrible granny glasses off her face at the same time. She was in mid motion when the curtain was unceremoniously thrust open.
"Dammit Daryl," she cursed, "I mighta been naked in here." Daryl shrugged, hiding a smirk. It was unusual to see Carol so flustered. Her clothes were all rumpled up and her face was beet red. His smirk disappeared and he sucked in his bottom lip to chew at it as he thought about what she might have been doing in bed that would make her so embarrassed to have him walk in on her.
"But ya ain't neekid," he said, pointing out the obvious. An unwelcome thought floated into his mind before could stop it. That it was too bad she wasn't naked, because he wouldn't have minded getting a peek at that. Daryl stopped chewing on his lip and replaced it with his thumb, chewing at the skin around his nail. He decided he really ought to make an effort to stop thinking like a pervert around Carol.
"You wanta come on and watch the singin'?," Daryl asked, quickly deciding he ought to stop staring at the woman in front of him and say what he came to say. River sent him up here to fetch Carol and that's what he intended to do. Carol was up from her bed now, smoothing out the last few wrinkles in her shirt. Her face was still flushed, but she had regained control over her facial expressions.
"I'm going to get some water," Carol said, pushing past him out of her cell, "I'll meet you down there." She had to get away from Daryl. Looking at him standing there in the doorway of her cell, chewing at his thumb. Carol didn't know if his close proximity to her was driving her crazy or if it was something else, but she had the sudden urge to tell Daryl exactly what she had been getting ready to do before he had yanked her curtain open. And that conversation would only end one way, with her being totally humilitated.
Daryl shifted his thumb, chewing at the other side of it. He watched Carol hurry off with even more curiosity than he had before. He glanced into her room, hoping to get a clue as to what sort of business she had been up to before he had interrupted her. The little camping lantern next to her bed was on. And there was a well worn paperback book lying open on her rumpled bed. Daryl knew he really shouldn't be going inside her room and touching her things. He glanced up and down the cellblock to make sure no one was watching and then darted inside against his better judgement, snatching up the book.
There was a picture of a horse on the front of the book. Boring. At the sight of that he almost tossed the book back and left. But then he noticed a few pages had the corners folded down, marking a spot. He flipped the book open to one of the marked pages and read a few lines. It took him a moment to register what he was reading. This book was nothing but porn. There were no pictures, but he knew porn when he saw it. Daryl started to laugh. He had no idea that people even made books like this, or he would have taken up reading a long time ago.
He laughed and little more before he suddenly made the connection in his mind. Carol's flustered appearance when he opened her curtain. How red her face was. She had been in here, reading her some porn and probably getting ready to rub one out. The mental image of that was almost as shocking as it was sexy. He supposed everyone masturbated. It was a normal human function. But he had never really thought about Carol doing it. Not before today anyway.
"I thought you were coming in to get Carol?," River asked. Daryl startled. He was so deep into his thoughts he hadn't heard her approach. She poked in and turned the book in his hands so she could see the cover. "That's a good one," she informed him, "If you want to borrow it when Carol's done I got all the good parts dog eared." Daryl smiled and tossed the book back where he had found it. His body reacted to River's close presence, the male part of him calming down and slowly coming back under his control. He tossed his arm around her shoulders and let River lead him out of Carol's cell and down the steps towards the outside door.