Taking a Chance

Chapter 24

Gabrielle stayed the night at Daryl's with them making love several more times. The last time was just before she needed to go home to Atlanta. They were tangled in the bed sheets not quite ready to let go of each other.

"Can I ask you a question?" Gabrielle asked Daryl as her index finger traced an imaginary pattern on his chest.

"Shoot," he told her. He had nothing to hide.

"What happened to your back?" Her eyes met his surprised ones.

He had nothing to hide, except that. "You sure you want to know, Princess?" They had spent time together in Las Vegas, an entire weekend at her place and only now she was curious about his back?

She shook her head yes. Gabrielle had noticed his back in Vegas but did not want to say anything to him. That was supposed to have been just a hook up to remember him by and she was not ready to get personal. Now she was. Besides the two tattoos he had back there, there were multiple lines of scars, some crisscrossed and some just straight lines. Something horrible must have happened to have caused that.

"Not much to tell, 'cept my old man would take his drunk anger out on Merle first, but then he left and I was the only one left. I was fourteen when he did that to me. I missed two weeks of school because of it. When the fucker sobered up and saw what he did, he didn't touch me for months. Then the drinking got bad again, but I was getting bigger. We fought, but he never dared whip me again. I had a few black eyes and broken ribs, until one day when I was sixteen I beat his sorry drunk ass into the ground and that's when I went to live with Rick's family. I never saw him again."

Daryl hated telling or even thinking about that time in his life. He had been called a worthless stupid son of a bitch more times than he could remember. After a while, you just start to believe it and it took most of his adult life to even start to realize he wasn't a nothing or a nobody, that he deserve more in life than what he was getting. That was another reason he split from his brother.

Of all the reasons Daryl could have told her of why his back was filled with scars, that they came from his father had not even entered her mind. That was absolutely horrible. Her heart went out to him, but she knew that the last thing he wanted from her was pity. Not Daryl. No way.

"Did he ever go to jail for abusing you?" she asked. They were lying on his bed facing each other. Gabrielle's hand was caressing his back the whole time. The hard raised skin from the scars slid under her fingers.

"Nope. Mr. G apparently threatened him with the cops if he didn't sign his rights away as a parent. The bastard signed me away thank fuckin' God. Heard he died about five years ago, so he's nuthin' but a fuckin' bad memory now."

"Good!" she told him her voice holding a bit of an edge to it. "I'm glad he's dead. Fucking coward!"

Daryl smiled at Gabrielle and pulled her against him. His Princess had spirit, that's for sure. "It happened a long time ago. I've put it behind me. Most of the time I forget they are back there," he told her. He never forgot they were there. Never, He just needed her to think so, so they could stop talking about it.

He knew the one thing he could do that would get her to change the topic. His fingers drifted to her upper thigh and slowly made their way so they were teasing her sex. "Do we have time for once more before you go?" he asked. The sexy smile he gave her changed her no to a yes.

"Not really....Oh God...well maybe just...once more...God Daryl don't stop," she moaned as his fingers pleasured her. They made time for another round of sex as they simply could not get enough of each other.