Safe With You

Eight hours of tension, fear, and anger had knotted deep in Beth’s belly, but it was slowly being replaced by something good--the kind of fiery desire that burned away the bad and left only the good. 

Beth Greene threw her head back and gazed at the sky as she rocked against her lover, Daryl Dixon. Sweat slicked her skin. Gentle breezes cooled her as she bounced on him, her fingers entwined with his for balance as she looked at the stars through a break in the trees. He was a match for her in every way: long enough to go as deep as she needed, and thick enough to satisfy her as a lover. He also knew how to give her what she needed, when she needed it. She knew he had fears about how to satisfy her. Not physically, but emotionally. His fears were groundless. He understood her like no one else did, and likewise on her part. 

Right now, after having been at the mercy of violent strangers all day, what Beth needed was to be in control, so control was what Daryl gave her. She felt her body on the verge of release and she began to thrust faster, harder. She squeezed her eyes shut as she struggled to reach the climax that wiped all thought from her mind. Guttural growls of need ground their way from her throat until, finally, that delicious explosion lit fire in her belly. Waves of pleasure radiated through her and she slowly ground to a stop, sated.

In that moment she relinquished control. She let him, without protest, take what he needed from her. He put her onto her back and, once again, she stared up at the sky as Daryl rested his head beside hers and began to pound into her. She wrapped her legs loosely around him and reached out towards the fireflies that blinked cheerfully above her. Daryl whimpered now as he neared climax, a lilting sound that erupted with each harsh thrust into her until he pulled out of her and then spilled his seed onto her belly. 

Something cracked in the woods nearby. Neither of them moved to see if it was a walker, or the last surviving member of a gang of five kidnappers who’d snatched Beth eight hours earlier. Daryl had not only hunted them down, but he’d killed all of them except for one, who’d escaped with a knife wound to his leg courtesy of Beth. After a few moments of rest it turned out to be neither a walker nor a human, but a harmless squirrel.

Daryl’s eyes were upon her, an insistent question she’d tried to answer, but he didn’t believe. 

“They planned to gang rape me. They didn’t actually do it,” Beth said, for the third time.

“They never touched you?”

“They didn’t. They planned to, but they didn’t. You killed them, Daryl. They’re not a threat anymore.”

“Just…the thought of them…”

She took his hand, entwined her fingers through his, and felt him relax. “The two here at the camp were waiting until the other three got back.”

“One of them was a woman. She was going to take part in it too,” he said. “I never killed a woman. Not a live one, anyway.”

“I would have killed her.”

“I want to spare you killing people as long as I can,” he said. 

She softened inside at that. He cared so much for her. She cared for him, too.

“I saw some fires when the kidnappers were bringing me here. They said there’s a big settlement four miles west of here. They were kicked out of it for being troublemakers,” Beth told him.

Daryl nodded. “I saw those fires too. I even saw a sign pointing to something called Sanctuary 1. I heard the noise from the building they're doing. It’ll be surrounded by walkers. Don’t know what those people are thinking, using heavy equipment like that.”

“I’m thinking they’ve got walls.”

They gazed into one another's eyes. It was settled without a word being spoken in debate.

 

“We leave at first light,” he said, and followed her into the tent, where she had a change of clothes.

“I want first watch,” she said. “I want to enjoy the night for awhile, alone, now that I’m safe.”

“You still feel safe with me, after I let you get kidnapped?”

She kissed him lightly in a gesture of love and trust, and then began dressing. When she was clothed, she crawled toward the tent exit. She looked back at him, once, and offered him a reassuring smile. 

“I’m always safe with you, Daryl Dixon.”