Hard Mercy

As we made our way through the wilderness I made sure to point out landmarks by which to go by and being ever the one to pay attention to detail Pastor notated them down on a scrap of paper. The more I thought about it the more sense it made to have the children at the home-stead and I said as much to him.

He nodded, "The time is coming for that I fear, but not yet."

His reasoning didn't make sense to me, but I left it unquestioned. Robbie came out barking and looking truly ferocious and some part of me relaxed at the sight of him and his familiar bark.

"Relax boy, he's a friend." I said.

Robbie sniffed suspiciously, but relented with his aggression to allow Pastor Joseph to accompany me across the yard and into the house. I went ahead of Pastor into the bedroom and it was a good thing because her hand touched the gun lying on the sheet at the sight of another man with me.

I was about to speak up and gesture for her to know that he was a friend, when with surprise, I heard the same foreign-language the girl spoke rattle fluently from off of my friend's lips. The girl visibly relaxed at whatever Pas-tor had said to her.

Pastor glanced to me and smiling, he said, "Perhaps you could give us some privacy."

"Yeah, sure." I said awkwardly, as I backed my way out of the room and closed the door. Feeling lost I sat down at the kitchen table for a moment before it occurred to me how bad I stank of the smell of sweat.

I glanced at the closed door and listened to the quite rapid sound of foreign voices from within for a moment. The conversation didn't show any signs of letting up and so I made off to get clean.

An hour later feeling much better and dressed in fresh clothes I reentered the kitchen. I'd even taken the time to shave.

The door was still closed and I debated about what to do. I went to the stove and went about reheating the left-over broth from this morning.

The door opened and I glanced up to see Pastor. He saw the broth in my hand and said, "Ahhh good! She's starving take it into her and then come back out and we'll have a chat."

I glanced at him oddly, but did as ordered. Stepping into the room with the broth the girl's eyes were quick to rise to mine and hold me with their usual mesmerizing grip.

I handed the broth off to her awkwardly, as her eyes seemed to gaze upon me with a heightened fervency than before. She thanked me again and I nodded as I made my way back out of the room. Just what had they been talking about for over an hour?

Pastor gestured to the table he was sitting down at and dutifully I sat down. Gazing at me speculatively, he asked, "What are you going to do Adam?"

I glanced to the bedroom. Glancing back, I said, "I was hoping you could help me with that. Once she's better she'll be able to travel, but is there any way you can convince her not to wear that face covering of hers? She really doesn't look all that Middle Eastern at all being more Asian looking than anything. I think she could make it if she ditches the Muslim garb."

Pastor was shaking his head back and forth and was giving me a look that said I didn't get it.

"What?" I asked defensively, not caring for his way of looking at me at all.

"Adam, do you seriously think the best thing for that young woman in there is to be turned out onto the open road as soon as she can walk? Muslim or no Muslim a woman on her own like that doesn't stand a chance. Think of what you would be sentencing her to Adam!"

"Hey look here Pastor I did my part and risked my life to save her when nobody else would have, except for maybe you. What more do you want from me?"

"Well, for starters, you could marry her." Pastor said matter-of-factly without even blinking an eye.

I felt myself go hot all over and the urge to protest such a notion rose sharply within me, "But...

"But what?" Pastor interjected with just as passionately as I was in the moment.

"She's a Muslim!"

"So?" Pastor responded back with evenly.

"Well, I thought you weren't supposed to be an unequally yoked and whatnot with an unbeliever." I said floundering about for something to say.

"The Scripture does frown upon it, but in the end Scripture does not forbid it so I see nothing wrong with suggesting it to you. This is a unique situation. If she walks out that door, she's dead Adam and you know it. Being an unbeliever as she is tell me what that means."

My mind went instantly to the faceless people I had buried yesterday.

"That's right, it's not a good outcome. Have you be-come so hard that you can't see to make the situation work out for someone else other than yourself?"

"That's hitting below the belt a bit Pastor." I cautioned.

"I know that, but what is it going to take to open your eyes, Adam? Through that door lies a young lady whose life is in your hands. Now tell me why you went to the effort of saving her only to deliver her up to her execution tomorrow?"

I didn't have an answer for that and so I looked away and remained silent.

Mumbling, I said, "She's dead if they find out that she's here."

"Not necessarily." Pastor commented before adding, "It's clear that she's of Asian origin and her language only testifies of that. You're in a unique situation here that might just be able to pull off a homerun if an investigation were ever to be launched. You're a farmer and lots of farmers, some even in this area, in the past got mail order Asian brides as women can be hard to come by who are willing to share a lonely existence out here apart from society's former allures. You don't volunteer any information about yourself and for all purposes no one would suspect a thing for you being the lone wolf that you are to have a mail-order bride."

He painted a convincing picture, but he was leaving something out.

"Even if I did marry her, she wouldn't marry me Pas-tor. I'm a Christian!"

Pastor sat back in his chair and said, "Actually, Adam she has agreed to do just that. Not only that, but she's agreed to give up practicing her Muslim faith as not to endanger you."

I swallowed figuratively, as I felt a noose tightening about my throat.

"You have a great opportunity here to witness your faith to her. As it is you've made quite the positive impression on her already."

"I have?" I asked doubtfully.

"You have. Now is not the time to lose being a wit-ness for a soul contemplating the way it should go in life. Matters of the spirit put aside there are other things to be considered." Giving me a direct look, then he said, "She's quite pretty isn't she. High time you had some help around here, and if I may be so bold as to say a bit of sexual release. You remind me of a powder keg, Ad-am. You keep getting twisted tighter and tighter and if you're not careful you might just blow up one day soon and as you're my friend I don't want that to happen. She needs to stay here, but again as your friend I can't let you stay together and potentially risk you to the temptation that she represents and thus make you sin against God. No, you need to see the facts and the fact is I think she'll be good for you. How about it, Adam?"

I turned my gaze away to the floor for a long moment before nodding my head in defeat to what he had pro-posed. Pastor stood up and putting a hand to my shoulder, he said, "You haven't made a mistake Adam. I'm sure of it."

"That makes one of us anyway." I said morosely, as he headed off back to the bedroom.

A couple of minutes later to my surprise, he reappeared with her. I wasn't quite prepared for the sight of her in blue jeans and a tank top T-shirt.

His arm around her, supporting her he helped her sit down in his chair. Glancing at me he said, "Her name is JaLin. Now I think we had better get started with this."

Before I knew it, he was quoting marriage vows out by heart first for me in English and then in the dialect of her Asiatic language. Before too long I realized with some astonishment that I was a married man.

"Well, that finishes it now. You can kiss after I'm gone. I really need to be headed back."

Numbly I nodded and getting up I awkwardly made for the bedroom. Coming back from it, I extended out the handgun that I had given to JaLin earlier to Pastor and said, "In case things should happen."

He nodded thoughtfully as he stowed it out of sight in a pocket and said in a way that had a deeper reflected meaning to it than just the surface context of the words, "Thank you Adam."

Stepping forward, he patted me hard on the back and then he was out the door and headed for town as fast as his feet could carry him back to his chief most priority in life. I admired him more than all other men I had ever encountered in life, but this time he had really handed me a situation.

Slowly my eyes left him to come to rest upon my wife's gaze. There was no doubt about it, she was a beautiful woman and dressed as she was now in a raggy T-shirt and a pair of tight blue jeans there was little left to argue against in terms of the erotic allure that she possessed as uniquely her own.

Coming unglued I rubbed at my stomach and asked, "Hungry?"

She nodded in a way that said she was starving and it was a look that I would never deny anyone anything let alone my own wife. Turning I went to a cupboard and proceeded to pick out some of my carefully hoarded cans of food.

Feeding her full with something of quality was suddenly very important to me. I went about opening cans only to realize that I was half starved for food myself.

Truly though I was far more hungry for her than for food and now she was mine. I could do anything I wanted with her and it would be all right.

Closing my eyes against the sudden upsurge of all the fantasies engendered by my mind in relation to her I whispered, "God help me!"

"I already have."

There was just no denying the trap that had been sprung expertly upon me and I gave in and stopped resisting it on the spot. Turning I pointed to the cans on the counter and tentatively she pointed to the can of peaches.

She had a sweet tooth it would seem. I delivered the can and a fork to her.

My hand was moving away when her slim but strong fingers curled around it briefly. I glanced up and the look I saw in her eyes needed no explanation. She was grateful for everything.

Nodding my head I said, "My pleasure." I turned away and back to the other cans as my heart beat funny in my chest.

I went about making the fire in the stove so I could warm up the chicken noodle soup for her, but all the time my mind dwelt upon that look she'd given me. That look had promised everything and increasingly I realized when it came to her that I wanted everything.

Chapter Four

Horizon

The days passed by and I found a lot to be both en-joyed in them and frustrated by them.

It was so good not to be alone. JaLin had somehow become a fixture of my life already and it certainly was a direct result of her efforts to do so.

She cooked for me. She mended my clothes. The house was always clean and she even helped me with the garden plots.

I'd never met a harder working woman. I respected her on an entirely new level other than just being a survivor.

Communication remained difficult, but we managed. I did have a problem though.

The desire to have her was driving me crazy, but how did you tell someone who couldn't even understand your language that the time to take your clothes off had come? I found myself reluctant to do so as sexual pleasure aside, I hadn't had such a companionable good time with someone since... ever. I didn't want to ruin that.

I especially didn't want her smiles to go away, but the desire to thrust deeply inside her and be one with her remained as a steady ache that was never far from my ever waking moment and that haunted me every night in my dreams. I just didn't know about how to go about getting what I wanted.

She was in many ways still a stranger and yet I trusted her implicitly. I looked up from the Bible passage I had been reading and saw her gazing at me from the kitchen.

She smiled at me and feeling irresistibly drawn I got up out of the chair and laid the Bible down. I gazed at it for a moment and then at her.

She'd gone back to washing dishes and slowly I approached her with intent. I'd waited long enough and yet I still didn't want to scare her.

I made enough noise to let her know I was coming. I stopped just behind her so close that we were almost touching.

Her hands had stilled in the water and with commitment to the moment I slid my hands down her sides to settle them about her tiny waist. She was a little thing, but beautiful in her proportions. Oh, so very beautiful!

I ached for her and to that end, I pulled her back to me, enough so she could feel just how much I wanted her. There was nothing stopping me from everything I wanted, but I wanted input from her.

Leaning down I pressed my face into the side of her neck and kissed her where her neck and shoulder met. I felt her shiver appreciably when I did that and the desire to have her doubled.

I'd been no saint in my earlier life, but since becoming a Christian six years ago I'd not had a woman and now the desire to have this woman, who was mine threatened to overwhelm me with the intense desire of it. Fighting hard to maintain order I focused on breathing evenly.

Gently guiding her to move off to the side a little I then lifted her up and turned her to sit on the countertop to the side of the sink. Her legs went to either side of me as I stepped in close.

I wanted her, but I wanted a consensus and not just a dictatorship on my part. She was breathing heavy and her face reflected nervousness for what was going down.

Sitting on the countertop she was at an even height for me now. Her eyes were on me and raising my hands, I framed her oriental face gently and held it poised for my kiss.

Her plush lips gave under mine and I belligerently swept my tongue into her warm mouth. I was losing control and as the sweet taste of her mouth registered to me I lost it completely.

I held her head still for my domineering invasion of her. I'd meant to be gentle, but instead I felt overcome by the need she inspired in me.

Tentatively at first and then resolutely I felt her hands slide around my back and then up to my shoulders. She in no way pushed away from me, instead her touch was a shy caress.

I pulled back, breathing heavy. She was too and then incredibly she smiled.

My shaft swelled even harder to be free of my pants and the strength of my desire for her was apparent. She glanced away from my pants with a blush to then tuck a strand of black ebony hair behind one of her perfect ears.

I didn't know where to go from here other than that we both needed a lot less clothing and that I needed to be in her. My eyes scanned down her torso to land upon her surprisingly curvy hips, only to lock upon the crotch of her jeans.

She'd been so embarrassed to wear these jeans at first and I'd rather gotten the impression that she'd never not worn a skirt in her life before. That said the imagery of her in these tight jeans had been one of the things persistently driving me nuts!

With my fingers shaking, I reached out and fumbling with the button loop I soon had it undone and the jeans unzipped. I glanced up at her as I began pulling them off her.

She hung onto the counter as the tight jeans slid free of her legs. Her eyes were bright, but not with fear. She said something softly and a tremulous smile came out before she leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

That was all I needed and smiling I lifted her. With a little squeal she reacted a bit startled as I slid her down so her back was on the counter along with her head.

I held her gracefully formed legs up in the air against my one shoulder even as with my other hand, I grabbed a hold of her panties and forced them up and off of her legs. I forsook my view of her face as I let myself revel in the view of my wife's most private area as I coasted my hands down her legs until pressing on the back of her thighs I spread her legs wide apart.

Her legs were somewhat resisting of the full exposure of her that I was engineering, but I easily overcame her resistance and then with hunger as I held her down with my big hands at the back of her knees, I lowered my head and licked my tongue up the full length of her very sweet, but tight looking sheath.

She was wet for me already and I feasted on her musky scent by spearing my tongue deeply into the wet slit of her womanhood. She squirmed beneath me, but I went about tasting her all the more as I licked and kissed my way around my playground of newfound delight.

She bucked beneath me as I wetly kissed the swollen bud of her clitoris forward of her sheath and then she cried out with a moaned wail as I began to forcefully manipulate her center of pleasure with my warm tongue. Her fingers speared into my hair, even though I knew I was probably giving her too much stimulation, as to be almost painful and yet her hands did nothing to stop me and her open submission to me inflamed me all the more.

I channeled my approach to bring her pleasure and so I continued by indirectly moving my tongue about her pleasure bud, only to continually bring it back with rhythmic force directly focused upon it. She screamed, clutching hard at my head, but I didn't stop and soon she came again.

I wasn't satisfied though. Removing one of my hands from clasping the back of her thigh I poised my finger at her wet sheath and slid it in as far as it would go.

She bucked hard against my finger and I about came in my pants as she let loose with another orgasmic scream. She was so unbelievably tight about my finger!

Despite the passion of the moment and my almost being overcome I registered the fact of just how tight she was around a single finger of mine. I'd heard that oriental women were smaller, but now I had the proof of it.

I ached all the more to experience the squeezing clasp I felt clamped all about my finger carried out all along my shaft, but just as surely I knew that while taking her would bring me pleasure it would also likely bring her pain. I didn't want that, but I couldn't stop now.

Pulling my finger free of her with a sucking sound that made me groan, I lifted her to be pressed down over the top of my shoulder. Her warm thigh right next to my face was irresistible and I kissed it as I turned to head for the bedroom.

She was mine. Mine!

Lifting my free hand, I placed it over top of the halves of her bottom in a possessive fashion as the full reality of how much fun it was going to be to have her around from this day forward occurred to me in fast-forward relief. She hung over my shoulder unresisting and when I reached the bed I laid her down on it.

She wasn't a virgin, but I had expected that. The question remained though had she'd been raped?

My shirt already gone from me my hands went to un-doing my pants that were about to burst apart at the seems, but all the while my eyes took in the fact of her closing her eyes and the action of her splayed apart legs closing quickly together.

Grimly, I reflected on the truth that she had a bad story of her own to deal with and right now I wasn't helping it. I couldn't help it though.

Reaching down I had to forcefully pull her thighs apart. That accomplished I got one knee in and then I was on the bed between her thighs, but she was a different person.

She was as stiff as a board and her eyes were so tightly shut that I feared she'd bruise her face. I glanced down and the imagery of my huge cock at the ready to plunge into the tightness that she was almost made me do so on the spot.

I so badly wanted to feel just how tight she was and make her stretch to fit all of me, but with a groan I admit-ted that I simply couldn't do it. I let my head fall to rest on the pillow to the side of her head as I held myself still above her.