AN: Here you go, another chapter!
I hope you enjoy! Please don't forget to let me know what you think!
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Carol moved herself to gently sit on Daryl's lap. She ran her fingers through his hair—cropped short since she'd convinced him to let her get at it with some scissors. He'd trusted her, too, to trim his beard up with the same scissors. Close to her like this, she could practically feel his fear, and it made her heart beat fast in her chest. She had her own fear, too, but it didn't feel important in the face of his.
She felt like he needed her to be real soft with him, and she wanted to be real soft with him.
"Am I too heavy for you?" She asked. Daryl shook his head. She knew she wasn't too heavy for him. She knew he moved her around with ease when there was some call for it. Moving here, he hadn't wanted her to get her feet wet—sure that standing in the very same ice water he stood in to forward rivers and streams would harm her where it didn't him. He would carry her and their belongings over in multiple trips just to keep her feet dry. "You can put your arms about me, if you want to do such a thing."
Daryl nodded. She watched him struggle to swallow like bones from their fish were hung in his throat. He delicately put his arms around her to hold her in his lap. She smiled at him. Being free to study him—to really study him—she found a great many things she liked about his face. It was a face that had grown synonymous with comfort over the past few months. It was a face that looked at her tenderly, and it was a face that had offered her more and more smiles as their time together had worn on.
Carol leaned close, ignoring the thundering of her heart, and pressed her lips gently to Daryl's. She could feel the bristling hair of his short-shorn beard and mustache. She could feel the slight scratch of his chapped lips. She reminded herself that she might touch a little grease to his lips later to help heal them.
She wanted to care for him and to tend to him. She wanted to make him feel good in every way that she could think of to do so. She tried to convey that in the kiss, and the desire ran through her body. She parted her lips, breathing against his as she practically whined out her desire to be something he might find pleasing.
The sound, perhaps, stirred something up inside of him—something primal. One mate calling out to another. His hands found the tops of her arms and he squeezed hard. He kneaded her muscles. She bit her lip, realizing that her savage was, perhaps, not entirely mislabeling himself. Unexpectedly, she found that only made her desire him more.
When she opened her eyes, she found him staring at her. His expression was mostly unreadable, but the lust there, the want, would have been obvious to anyone. The hunger was unmistakable.
"You like it?" Carol asked.
He hummed at her. He nodded his head. He didn't let up on his hold on her arms until she moved one and he seemed to realize that he was holding her—it had been instinct. Carol realized that much of this would be driven, likely, by instinct.
"You want to be my mate?" Carol asked.
"Yeah…" Daryl said, his voice seeming to stick a little in his throat.
"You never mated a woman before?" Carol asked, holding his eyes with her own. She felt a fluttery thrill at the thought that he was looking at her like he was—like he could eat her up despite the big supper that she'd seen him finish. Ed had taken her many times to his bed, and he'd done what he pleased with her, despite whether or not she felt for him the way he felt for her at any given time, but he had never looked at her like Daryl was looking at her.
Carol had never felt desired before—not like she felt desired now. She felt powerful, too. Daryl had given her that power. He didn't seem to mind letting her wield it—and she knew he gave it to her, because he could overpower her in every way imaginable. She appreciated that he chose to give her what he did. She liked the feel of it.
"Told you I ain't," Daryl said, his voice steady.
Carol gave him her best reassuring smile. She nodded her head gently.
"Then—you need to know that whatever you feel? Whatever you want? It's OK. You can have it. That's part of mating. I'ma get up now, but it's only to come out of what I'm wearing. You gotta come out of what you're wearing, too, OK? For the mating. OK?"
Carol backed off of Daryl after he nodded his understanding. He copied her. She unbuttoned her shirt, and he unbuttoned his. She worked her way out of her pants, and he did the same. He sat, slightly drawn into himself, and clearly unsure of what might be to come. He waited for her to give him direction.
Carol came back to him and kissed him. Once again, she felt compelled to close her eyes—to experience the kiss entirely. She tried to transfer her feelings to him, and maybe it worked. He seemed to relax a little. He moved around, opening himself up to her, and found his knees. He leaned toward her, deepening the kiss and begging for more.
There was no question if he wanted her. Carol knew enough about men from her husband to understand Daryl's desire. She touched him. She ran her hand over him. He hissed and backed away from her.
"What the hell you doin' to me?" He asked.
Carol was almost struck to laugh, but she didn't dare.
"Do you know anything about mating, Daryl?" Carol asked. "You ever—seen anyone mate? Or anything?"
"Of course I have," Daryl said.
Carol decided not to press him over what he might have seen. Carol was pretty good at reading men's feelings. She'd had to be to read Ed and to guess what might be coming. She could sense that Daryl was a little hot about the question—even if it was embarrassment and being so open that made him mad.
Daryl was a great deal better endowed than her husband, but Carol decided not to bring that up with him just now. He might not appreciate any mention of Ed at the moment.
"Sit back, Daryl," Carol said. "Back like we were."
Daryl obeyed, his frustration coloring his cheeks. Carol used his shoulders for leverage to balance herself, and she balanced over him. She bit her lip, doing her best to prepare herself for the adjustment her body would have to make to accept him fully inside her.
"You gotta go—inside me," Carol said. "That's how it works, you know."
Whether or not he knew that before, he accepted it as truth. He held to Carol's hips, and he allowed her to guide him. As soon as she felt him pressing into her, and her body opening up to accept him, he thrust upward—driven by instinct or something else. Her breath caught, and he pulled her tight against him with his fingers digging into her hips. He thrust again, even as he asked her if she was OK.
Ed had never asked her if she was OK. She found that the question took away, in its own way, the sensation of unpleasantness she felt from the cramping deep in her belly.
"You gotta go with your instinct now," Carol said. "You gotta do what feels good. That's how you mate me."
Daryl didn't seem to need much coaxing at the moment. Carol braced herself with her hands on his shoulders. He moved, changing his position and hers slightly. Apparently, one thing that Daryl knew well was how to follow his instinct, especially once he'd been given permission to do so.
Carol wrapped around him, and she held on. She simply handed herself over to him for the time being. She accepted everything he wanted to give her, and she gave him all that he wanted to take.
She felt when his body had finally given all that it had to give to her. She felt the warmth deep inside her. She felt his release. She collapsed into him a moment as he held her against him in his lap. She lifted her head and found his face. She kissed him as he slipped free from her body. He kissed her back around panting attempts to draw enough breath.
As they both relaxed, Carol closed her eyes and curled against Daryl, resting her head on his shoulder. His arms around her felt strong and warm in contrast to the cool of the air. She could have slept there, just like that, forever.
He hugged her back. He held tightly to her. The roughness of his chin scrubbing against her skin was more soothing than it ought to be.
"Wasn't right," he said, breaking the silence after a while. "Was it?"
Carol straightened up, still sitting across him, and caught his face in her hands. She frowned at him because he was frowning at her.
"What?" She asked.
"Wasn't right," he said. "What I done. Was it?"
"What do you mean it wasn't right?" Carol asked.
"I didn't mate you right," Daryl said. "Not really. Not properly."
Carol laughed quietly.
"I don't know about you, but…I feel…very properly mated," Carol said.
Daryl touched her face. His fingertips were rough, and they scratched at her skin, but she felt the intended tenderness behind the touch. He shook his head.
"I can't do it right. I didn't do it right—that ain't how a single thing does it. Rabbits and…squirrels. Beavers. I seen 'em mate, and I didn't do it right."
Carol smiled at him. She touched his lip.
"There's a good number of ways for mating," she said. "When it's people that are doing it? There's a good number of ways for mating. You and me both can be down or…or we can be up. There's all kinds of ways that we can be mating. And—even the mating besides, there's ways that I can please you that are just for pleasing you. I can show you all of those—if you want. We got time for all kinds of mating."
Daryl's sadness seemed to leave him just a little as a spark of something else took over.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"Yeah," Carol said.
"There's ways of pleasin' you, too?" Daryl asked.
Carol smiled at him. She nuzzled her face against his.
"I'm sure we can find some pleasing for me," she said. "If that's what you're wanting. If we're a mated pair, Daryl, we can do all the mating we please. Long as you don't try to turn me loose, OK? I don't wanna be turned loose now that we've done and fully mated."
Daryl pulled back again and frowned at her. The expression made her chest ache, and she caught his face with her hands and moved her body closer against him. His desire hadn't come back yet, but she didn't imagine it would take long before he was hungry for more mating.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"I don't think we done it right," Daryl said. "I don't think we fully mated, like you said. I never seen nothin' else mate like that."
Carol bit her lip. She could sense that this was something she had to handle, especially if she wanted him to realize she didn't want to be turned loose to find something or someone better. He could, very well, start getting the idea that someone down around the town might do a better job of mating her if she didn't soothe his feelings.
Carol reached between them and stroked him. He started to protest, but that didn't last long. The desire took over before long and he couldn't stand it any longer. That was exactly what she wanted. She needed him to feel that desire and to not be able to stand it any longer. As she stroked him, she kissed him. She tasted his want, and it made her want him so much that she could hardly stand it. When she pulled off of his lap, he looked willing to follow her anywhere. He didn't have far to follow her. She pulled her blanket over to make his blanket a bit softer, and she assumed the position that she figured would be most familiar to him when she asked him to bring to mind the act of proper mating.
"We done it right," she said. "But—just to be sure that's all the way proper? You gotta mate me again, Daryl. You know how to do it. You gotta do just what you done before. You gotta put your pecker all the way inside me—like you done before. Your instict's gonna know what to do, then, and it's gonna be OK. It'll be good and proper—all the way done."
With a hand between her legs, she helped him find the right way to seat himself inside her. She touched herself, as she'd often dared to do, in a way that she knew made her feel good. It was sinful, she was sure, but maybe so was mating with Daryl in a cave outside of town. Carol was willing, at this point, to take her chances. This time, in this position, she felt even fuller. She had no need to coax him. He knew what he wanted, and he was just as eager this time as he had been before. Touching herself like she did, and thinking about how full he made her feel, and thinking about how much she desired to please him and how he had expressed a desire to please her, Carol found that she did feel quite pleased. She felt pleased enough that, for a moment, she felt like she was able to leave her body—like she was able to feel nothing more than her pleasure—and she was, with Daryl, safe to leave her body behind and in his hands.
As soon as Daryl left her body, panting and sweaty—and a little shaky—Carol turned around and sought him. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him to her. With both of them resting on their knees on the blanket—and both of them trying to return to breathing as they normally would—Daryl hugged her back. He rested his chin against her neck, and she closed her eyes and smiled to herself.
"I can't be no more completely mated," she said as she laughed quietly to herself. "So—you better accept that I won't be turned loose now, and I mean it."
"You're like the peppermints," Daryl mumbled out.
Carol squeezed him, reluctant to let him go at all, half-wanting to tug him down, just as he was, and pull one blanket over them to sleep like this. She wished the camp didn't need to be cleaned up for the night.
"How am I like peppermints?" She asked.
"I wanted to keep you forever," Daryl said. "Even when I knew I couldn't."
Carol smiled. The muscles in her body felt tired and relaxed.
"I'll stay as long as you'll have me," Carol said. "And then? I'll beg you for a day more."
Daryl pushed her away.
"I don't want you to beg," he said, shaking his head. "Not me. I don't want you to beg me never."
Carol smiled softly at him.
"Then—how about I just ask for what I want?" Daryl nodded his head. "Then—why don't we clean up the camp, Daryl? And then—you can take me to bed and…maybe…if we're not too tired, I can show you another way or two to mate with me?"
"How many ways are there?" Daryl asked.
"I don't know," Carol admitted. "But—I bet we can figure it out."
