Chapter Eight
Healing Touch
Asia lay on the bed listening to the heavy footfalls lead away and then up the stairs to an upper level. Truly there was more to work with him than she had at first thought, if he could have the heart to listen to her, as he had and walk away from his impassioned desire to have her. She had never thought this would work, but now it had and she had her own part of the bargain to live up to now.
She slipped off the bed and onto her knees. What did she say? Thank you that I’m not being raped right now didn’t quite seem to fit.
“Thank you for moving a mountain for me Lord that I couldn’t even begin to move by myself!” Yes, that was a better more inclusive way of putting it.
“Now what?” She said out loud poised on her knees thinking.
“Lord show me some way that I can fulfill a need of his other than having sex with him.” It was kind of embarrassing to even bring the word “sex” up in a conversation with God, but then since He had been the one to create it He must know what it was all about then.
John had kept his end of the bargain, which meant one day not so very long from now she would have to as well. Her cheeks flushed red. She might be doing a lot of praying about sex soon enough. She’d promised a lot and she knew next to nothing.
She didn’t see John the rest of the day and well into the next, which is when she grew concerned. Cautiously she made her way throughout the floor in search of him. She made a few grisly discoveries of rotted corpses, but that was it. She made her way up to the next floor really hoping that he wasn’t going to bite her head off or worse for disturbing him, but in a way she had signed herself into the position of caring for him from now on.
She found him in a plush looking business office. It was a corner office, which once had no doubt offered a beautiful view of the city. The view now was much less so.
John was sitting in a chair facing out at the city. Something didn’t seem right about him.
I heard her come in and I traced her movements across the carpet. She was standing in front of me now.
“John are you sick?”
I started to shake my head, but that hurt too much.
“Headache…… Bad one…… The pills aren’t working.” I said softly in a cryptic fashion, as it hurt even to talk.
Sometimes I thought it would be best to just put a bullet in my brain then continue on dealing with this handicap. No one would miss me anyway. My eyes were glued shut, as the light only made the pain worse. This was a bad one.
Her cool hand touched my sweaty forehead and then it was gone. She could so do me in right now. Anybody could. I was so helpless a kitten could’ve scratched me to death. I hated this helplessness!
I heard her pick up the bottle of pills. “John there’s stuff in these pills that going to eat your liver and kidneys up!”
“Like you care!” I whispered back in sarcasm.
“I do care!”
“Since when?”
“Since I made it my business to care for you John.”
I heard the bottle of pills set down and then she was kneeling down in front of me. What was she doing?
I cracked one eye open, but the light seared my eyeball and I reclosed it quickly. She picked my slack hand up and then her fingers began to press and move on it. It wasn’t just a hand massage. She was doing something else in the process of the massage.
“What’s this called?” I asked curious.
“Reflexology.”
“And you know how to do this how?”
“My father had a lot of health problems, when he got older. I tried to help him out as best as I could.”
That fit with everything I knew about her. She was the type of person always willing to help someone else. She was helping me of all people!
My eyelids cracked open less painfully and I glanced down and saw her wrists. “I’m sorry!”
She glanced up from my hand, “For what?”
I touched the black and blue discoloration of one wrist.
She shrugged, “They’ll fade.”
This woman amazed me. I’d never met anyone like her, but that wasn’t entirely true. There was someone she reminded me of. She’d switched to my other hand at some point.
“You take all this religious stuff seriously don’t you?”
She nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I believe my Lord for what He’s done in my life, even as I am a witness to His continued working.”
“You’re just like my brother.” I muttered out disgustedly. “I suppose you’re going to try to save me from all my wicked evil ways?” I added.
“Yes.” She responded without any hesitation.
Time went by; as I felt the headache gradually release its hold on me.
She spoke into the silence, “I don’t think you’re evil. Perhaps wicked, but then we’re all guilty of that.”
“I have a hard time thinking of you as being wicked; you’re such a little saint!” I said truthfully.
“Does that bother you?”
“I’m getting used to it.” I said again truthfully.
Her hands left off the relaxing massage of my hands and I almost groaned in despair at the absence of her healing touch. My eyes flew open, as I felt her unlacing my boot.
“You don’t have to do that!” I said, even as I wished that she would.
Her eyes had a soft intrinsic quality to them, “Sit back and let me care for you.”
I shook my head, “Why are you doing this for me?”
“Because I want to.”
“But why?”
She looked at me earnestly, as if seeking for the right words, “Because you’re my man now and I like taking away your pain.”
She looked back down at my foot, as her fingers began what they had done to my hands. What was wrong with her? Who did things like this for someone else? Who forgave like this?
She was close to perfection in a way I’d never thought possible and I totally didn’t deserve her or her attention. My hands gripped into fists at a sudden truth. She deserved a far better man than me, but I was never going to let her go!
Asia let her hands go about the pressure point procedures, as her mind dwelt elsewhere. God had answered her prayers yet again in the form of her being able to do something for her captor. John was different now, more even natured. Why was that? She was full of questions and she had a pretty good idea of how she was going to get answers to them.
She’d never imagined herself with someone like him. She’d thought it would be with some bookish like-minded individual she met within her own field of expertise. She certainly hadn’t been expecting anything like this man of elemental passion that would completely have fit in with the barbaric savagery of the 300 Spartan warriors at the battle of Thermopylae. He still frightened her, but the more leaves she was turning over were exciting her now too.
She was done. She got up to her feet and met his gaze for the first time in a long time. She had a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach, as she took in the intense level of gratitude directed toward her that she saw in his eyes.
“Is your headache all gone now?” She asked.
He nodded.
She picked up the bottle of pills, “Don’t take these anymore. When you have a headache just come to me.” She tossed the pill bottle away into a corner of the room.
“I’ll do that.” He responded softly. He started to bend down to put his socks and boots back on, but she stopped him with a hand to the shoulder.
He met her gaze, “I’m not through with you yet John. Take your shirt off and lay face down on the floor.”
“Why?” He asked somewhat defensively.
“Because I’m going to give you a massage honey.”
He blinked a couple of times, but complied without further words.
Gingerly Asia sat down on the rise between the small of John’s back and the corded strength of his buttocks. He instantly tensed up and she wondered for the thousandth time, if she was making a mistake. This was by far the most intimate she had ever personally contacted with anyone before.
She started to massage the corded plain of his back and the sharply tensed body beneath her began to relax slowly. She’d already learned one very important thing about John, earlier when she’d been working his pressure points. John absolutely adored physical touch. She could tell it in so many ways. The ways his breathing changed, the way he relaxed, the way he moved toward her touch.
She’d found a way to love him physically without being intimate with him, but in a way it was extremely intimate. She started to dig for the answers she wanted, as she felt him relax deeper and deeper beneath her touch.
“You must work out crazy to get so defined, as you are, with your muscles?” She asked softly.
“I wish.” He responded softly.
Asia paused for a moment and glanced at the back of his head, now that was an odd answer, she thought to herself. “You don’t work out?” She asked pressing further.
“Other than work no.” He affirmed.
That didn’t seem possible to Asia, as her fingers glided over the well defined muscles that he was made of.
“You must have a ton of testosterone then.” She said half jokingly.
His response didn’t match her joking tone in its flat finality of statement, “I do.”
Asia stopped for a moment as she sensed a story. “Why is that John?” She asked softly, as she dug her knuckles into his lower back. All of a sudden he was a tensed bundle of nerves and she watched muscles ripple all over his back and shoulders.
“I’m sorry! Did I hurt you?” Asia asked concerned.
“No, just memories.” He gritted out into the carpet.
Feeling on the edge of pushing him too far Asia asked, “Memories of what?” Silence greeted her and she worked hard at trying to relax his tensed up back.
He continued in silence for a moment and then he began to talk, “I was taken from my parents, as a little boy, along with my older brother and little sister. We were gifted you could say. Our captors did tests on us, all kinds of tests. Government funded tests I might add. My older brother managed to escape, but I got hung up in the barbwire. I made him go on without me. In the years that followed they did more testing and made changes to me. I managed to escape later and here I am today.”
Asia stared at his back; he made a horrible story sound matter of fact somehow.
He craned his head around to stare at her curiously, “Are you crying?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
“It must’ve been terrible to go through all that as a boy!”
He put his head back on the floor, “Yeah, well, I’m over it now.”
‘Yeah right!’ Asia thought to herself. She scooted off to the side and began to kneed the cheeks of his bottom. This was very intimate and she could feel her face flush hot with blood, but thankfully he didn’t look back around.
“What changes did they make to you?”
“They genetically tuned up some systems, mostly hormones. They were trying to make a more elite soldier. They stopped the research, when it became clear that the test subjects, while strong and intelligent, lacked the consistent ability to obey orders or stay controlled.”
“The changes, do they give you the headaches?”
“Yes. I have about, as much testosterone flowing through me, as a boy at the height of puberty does. Sometimes my hormone levels crash and I get the headaches. The way I am causes me a lot of problems. My temper is very short and easily riled. I can be completely unreasoning in my anger. I do stupid things like attacking grizzly bears with nothing but a spear or sword just for the heck of it. It’s hell to be me! I never feel like I’m in control of myself. I crave things.” His voice trailed off.
Asia softly interjected, as she worked the back of one calf muscle, “Sex?”
He nodded and said, “All the time.”
Asia glanced up John’s long form. It just went to show you that you really never knew a person till you walked a mile in their shoes. He wasn’t the big scary monster that she had thought him to be at all. The more she found out about him, the more she understood what she saw on the surface. In some ways she was actually beginning to like him as a person, at least in this present mood that he was in. To like the person that you were in a relationship with, according to her father, was as important as loving the person.
Asia contemplated all that she had just learned. It was a lot. He said he had no control, but control over himself was all she had seen him manifest, ever since she had woken up his captive. Her eyes fell to his powerfully articulate hands that lay beside of him and a daring thought occurred to her.
She wanted those hands on her, but therein lay a hazard. She’d have to see how far she could trust him.
“All done.” She said her breathing picking up a notch.
He rolled over onto his back, “Thank you! I’ve never had someone do that for me before.”
She smiled, “You’re welcome. Now could you do me a favor?” She lay down on her front with her head propped up on her arms. “Want to give me a massage?” She asked trying to keep her voice even, so it didn’t betray how nervous she felt at the prospect of such a thing.
I blinked and then blinked again, as I felt my blood pressure kick up a notch. She lay there watching me with a mysterious smile. My eyes trailed down her and seemed to focus on her pertly rounded bottom.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea.” I said thickly.
“I trust you.” She said softly.
I shook my head, “Well that makes one of us then.”
She turned her head downward and seemed to lay there expectantly awaiting a massage despite what I had said. She was a fool and a merciless torturer all in one.
I rolled over onto my knees beside her. There was no way I was going to straddle her like she had me. I started with her shoulders and neck area. It wasn’t long before I heard a small moan, as I was squeezing her neck firmly in a repetitive fashion. I was glad to make her feel good. She’d given me one of the most pleasurable experiences of my life by first taking away one of the worst headaches I’d ever had and then lavishing me with a massage I hadn’t even had to ask for.
My hands moved to her upper back. She turned her head on her arms to face me and watched me as I worked.
“What does sex do for you other than the pleasurable aspect of it?” She asked.
“Helps take the edge off for a while and I feel more normal.” I responded honestly. Then I added, “I don’t have as many headaches either.”
I glanced at her, “Why do you ask? Are you considering on speeding up our get to know each other plan of yours?”
“I’d still like some more time please before things come to that.” She said softly.
I sighed loudly with drama. Of course she did. She wanted more time by which to torment me. All and all though I didn’t regret going with Option B. She’d already proven to me that it had been the better of the two options. So I would give her more time, because she was worth the wait and she had my respect.
“How long were you on this island of yours?” She asked.
“Five years.”
“How long was it before that you um……..”
“Two years.”
“That’s a long time for a man that suffers like you do.”
“Testily I commented, “Do you really think you have to remind me of that?”
“I’m sorry.”
She didn’t sound sorry though.
“Was she pretty?”
“Yes.”
“Prettier than me?”
“No.”
“What happened to her?”
I met her gaze point blank and said, “I killed her, after I’d raped her for several days.”
Her eyes remained enigmatic in concern to hiding her thoughts from me. She wasn’t shocked like I had expected her to be.
“You’re lying.” She said softly, her gaze never leaving mine.
I looked down to my hands busy at work on her lower back, “What makes you say that?”
“I just know. You shouldn’t lie, it’s a sin.”
Time went by, “What really happened?” She asked.
“I’m not talking about it!” I said roughly.
She turned her head to the other side before asking, “Could you massage my bottom again. It feels really good what you’re doing.”
My hands returned and grimly I acknowledged that her bottom did feel really good.
“You are deliberately messing with me aren’t you?” I said testily.
“Yes.” Was her only response, but I could hear her smile in that single word.
“You’re crazy!” I said shaking my head, as I moved back down to her thighs.
“That makes two of us then.” She responded.
She had me there. Of the two of us I certainly wasn’t the one in control anymore, she was. How had that happened?