Covet Not (14 page)

She
had gasped, but her legs were still relaxed, so he began to fuck her earnestly.
He almost forgot he'd wanted to work her ass as well.

So
he did. Maybe he shouldn't have for their first time, but maybe it would make
things easier later when he needed something a bit different than she could
normally provide. Then it wouldn't be so weird. Because he could pretend
sometimes if he needed to.

Because
he would need to.

He
wouldn't think about it now. He thrust into her harder and faster, feeling how
much she opened up for him, and he was so fucking turned on, but he didn't want
to come just yet. He pressed his forehead to hers again. “Your body was made
for mine...do you feel how perfectly I fit inside you?” He pushed his finger in
as far as it would go, and fucked her roughly with it. Until he could fit his
dick in there if he'd wanted. He could just pull out and push right in, and he
could empty deep inside her ass. So fucking deep inside her while she gripped
him like she was unable to turn him loose.

“Fuck!”
This poor girl. She was going to be so much trouble for him. He was going to
ruin her. He removed his finger and grabbed his cock quickly, and he couldn't
prevent the complete mess he made of her nightgown. He pressed his forehead to
her collarbone to catch his breath. He wasn't sure if this was mortification he
was feeling, and he didn't know if it was from the mess, or the fantasies about
fucking her ass.

Clara
wasn't sure what to think. Was she supposed to enjoy it? Her mama was rather
clear she wouldn't. She was also pretty clear her husband might like some
things that were unorthodox, but it was best to just let him do what he needed
to do. Life would be easier. She really didn't pay attention to what her mama
said anyway.

A
couple of things stood out clearly for her. She
had
enjoyed it. Even the
parts she was horribly embarrassed about. The other was what Jude had said.
“Did you mean it?”

“Of
course,” he said against her, then smiled. “Wait. Which part?”

“That
my body was made for yours?”

“Yes,
I meant it.”

He did mean it. He
would try to always remember he meant it. When he ached to be filled by a
stranger's cock, he would remember
her
body was made for his. He would
believe in God earnestly if his burden was removed. And at that very moment, he
felt like God was listening.

El Paso hadn't
changed much since the secession. A fence was fortified, and the people of
Ciudad Juarez laughed. It didn't stop maquiladoras from taking over El Paso,
nor businesses acting as agents for placing Mexican help all over Texas.

A
good number of politicians wanted to let El Paso go, as it was just so far from
the rest of civilized Texas. However, greedy heads prevailed, and convinced
those in office the majority of Texas' manufacturing came from there. It was a
lie, but not for long.

With
business regulations abolished before the ink was even dry on a brand new Texas
Constitution, factories were built even before the upgrades on the fence.

The
dirty secret of El Paso was when migrant workers came to Texas and they
disappeared, there was a lack of recourse. The epidemic feminicidio was still
an issue, yet the numbers were useless. Texas simply never paid for the
resources to find these women, and the brutalized women that were found,
returned to Mexico as ash. If the families were fortunate, those ashes would
come with a letter of identification if she had worked for an agency. They
required photographs of their employees, so Texans had access to as much
applicant information as possible.

Sophia
Hildegard's sister, Selene, had worked through an agency. At least, that's what
Sophia assumed as it was the easiest way in. She hadn't heard from Selene in
months. Coming to Texas had been adolescent rebellion, and Sophia hadn't
fathomed she would ever go to such a despicable place just to punish their
father.

Klaus
Hildegard was a shrewd business man. When Sophia's mother died nineteen years
ago, he moved Sophia and her brothers to Mexico City from Germany.

Her
passion and livelihood was working in business law for her father. She was well
versed in legal matters all over the world, particularly countries Klaus
Hildegard needed loopholes in order to legally do business. It wasn't ethical a
good deal of the time, taking advantage of countries whose legalese included
vagaries allowing him to get very rich, but she made sure it was legal. It led
Sophia to live a very comfortable life.

Mexico
City was the hub of the Americas since Texas had closed its borders.
Businessmen and women who hadn't wanted exclusivity, nor the blatant
discrimination, flocked to Mexico. Women professionals weren't excluded at
first, but were clearly sexualized and low-balled at every turn, forcing them
out.

Mexico
became the China for the West, because PR Firms were very good at convincing
the people of capitalist societies that worker conditions were better.
Productive and efficient.

It
was relative, of course. The cost of living in most parts of inland Mexico was
just as affordable as impoverished China, and 'affordable' was a superb
buzzword to convince the capitalists.

With
the construction of modern Mexico, the Capitalist party flourished in the
States, and the Liberals had to emphasize their platform in the wake of
potential foreign business opportunities. The States almost always edged in
favor of Liberal presidents, but those politicians had their own money tied up
in foreign businesses.

The
States had become stagnant, as their interest in science and manufacturing was
all lip service. The economy had small boosts with the passages of federal
marriage equality, and decriminalizing marijuana and prostitution, but these
were all short lived because the States had never truly learned to invest in
revolutionizing their own infrastructure, or educating their citizens to
compete in something besides patriotism. Russia and China had both made it to
Mars, and NASA was never properly reestablished once Texas seceded. It could
never get the funding.

Klaus
Hildegard worked in energy. Wind power was nearly worldwide, but Klaus had
patented something smaller, quieter, and more efficient. It made him obscenely
rich.

It
made him a catch. She and her brothers had a new mommy within the year. A
vibrant local woman called Valentina, who cemented her place in their lives by
giving Klaus the moon. Selene. Another daughter.

Klaus
was besotted with Valentina. He was old enough to be her father, but they
seemed to be happy enough.

Happy
until Valentina ran off with one of Klaus' younger business acquaintances.

Selene
spent a good deal of time in her teens being ignored by both her parents. Their
father could barely look her, as she looked so like her mother, and Klaus
treated her quite different than her siblings.

Everything
Selene requested as a teenage girl was largely denied to her. Clothes, music,
books, and a little spending money was denied by Klaus. He accused her of
trying to manipulate him with her beauty, the way her mother had. Selene wasn't
in a position to understand, and Sophia spent many an evening berating their
father for being so cruel.

Selene
didn't want for anything material, Sophia made sure of that, but the stable
affections of a male figure was denied to her.

Selene
disappeared shortly after her seventeenth birthday, and Sophia couldn't find
her anywhere. Her father hadn't been any help. He figured she was just like her
mother, and apparently her own mother felt the same way. Selene didn't have the
best reputation from school, but she was gone, so whether she was having sex or
not was irrelevant to Sophia.

After
a month or two of continued calls and texts to a dead phone, and emails
remained unopened, Sophia hoped Selene did run off with a man. The alternative
was too horrible to contemplate. She still searched for her, but she'd been
looking in all the wrong places.

Six
months after her disappearance, Selene called Sophia from a McAllen home with
an illegal phone line. She was distressed and had bought some pills at a flea
market to force her period to start. Clandistino.

Sophia
begged Selene to come home. She could fly to Matamoros and be there within the
hour. She could take her to a proper clinic where she wouldn't bleed out on the
street.

Selene
acquiesced to a week from then. She told Sophia her employer in Agnes Oaks was
getting married, and it would be too hard for her to stay. He was the father.
His name was James. It was a common, useless name.

But
Agnes Oaks was a good lead.

Selene
had gone to Texas because she knew her parents would never look for her there.
She hadn't the maturity to foresee her sister's distress. To see the dangers of
being a young woman in a foreign country where women were property.

It
had been four months since Sophia had spoken with her sister. She had flown to
Matamoros that next weekend, but her sister had never contacted her again.
Sophia still waited. It was when she had convinced herself Selene wasn't in a
position to leave. If she had told her James she was with child...

Sophia
didn't think it was a happily ever after for her sister. Certainly if it had
been, Selene would have called her again.

Sophia
would do whatever it took to find her sister, and the only way into Texas as an
expatriate was through El Paso.

Texas
was a bogeyman to any educated woman of the world, but it was a living
breathing monster to its own female citizens. Sophia was sure the reason Selene
went this route, instead of just finding a rich boyfriend locally, was to prove
what a big girl she was. She didn't want to do what her parents had expected.
She was ignorant to the epidemic of women who go missing once they touch Texas
soil.

Sophia
had to have an effective plan. She had to create a new identity. She also
needed an address for her new identity because she didn't want it traced back
to her.

Texas
was something only discussed with derision. It was rumored while their
refineries were still working well, crude oil was running low. Sophia imagined
you couldn't sit on the beach from any point in the state without seeing dozens
of oil platforms.

She
took leave from work, telling her father she wanted to travel a bit, and see
the world without needing to conquer it. He laughed her off easily, quite
preoccupied with current ventures, and told her he would contact her if needed.

If
he could indeed reach her.

Selene
had called her over a land line hundreds of miles from Agnes Oaks, though data
was inconclusive. That was troubling to Sophia. Land lines had been something
obsolete nearly two-hundred years earlier. When she spoke to an IT professional
about the number left on her caller ID, she was told it was a number sequence
used by the United States hundreds of years ago. He had told her it was
possible it was a mobile number, but even before the secession, cellular phone
numbers had evolved with the eradication of land lines, and gained an
international identifier before their local area code. Trying to find
information on cell towers maintained by Texas Cellular was nearly impossible,
but he was under the impression cellular use wasn't widespread, and their
Internet was capped by usage and content.

Texas
was a veritable black hole. Sophia was a fool to go. It was dangerous. It did
not matter she was rich, worldly, and brilliant. She would be nothing. The men
were savages and would possibly treat her worse than their own wives.

And
if she was honest, she was worried a bit about creature comforts. She imagined
they were fine as Selene was a bigger brat than she was about material
comforts.

Sophia
packed a modest bag and flew to Cuidad Juarez. She kept her phone and charger
well hidden. Once she landed, she took a taxi to a local hotel to check in.
She'd never been to Juarez, and needed to explore her surroundings. She wanted
to see how easy it was to get into El Paso. If she had time, she would check
out the property she bought, but it wasn't a priority.

The
city was dry and dusty, and surprisingly green. The Rio Grande was neither
grand, nor even a proper river. It had been a dry summer, so she tried not to
be too critical.

She
took a taxi to a park near the border. Men and women were bused into El Paso
with a wave of a guard's hand. She wondered if the rest of Texas knew about
this. Those same buses drove back into Mexico, taking its occupants back to
their loved ones. She couldn't believe it. Anyone could get on those buses.

She
would need to board a bus, and maybe she would get lucky. There were a half
dozen agencies available, and if she was fortunate, she would get placed right
away. Hopefully, she would find something close to Agnes Oaks. She had
memorized the cities around the area, looking at digitized street view maps
from a couple hundred years ago, so she would choose another city if she was
forced to.

As
she sat under an umbrella at a taqueria near her hotel, a young boy handed her
a bright yellow advertisement with bold lettering. She dismissed the ad automatically,
but watched the boy. He handed it out to everyone, and there were a few people
who sought him out.

She
looked down at the ad. Yellow Rose Agency. Live and work in the beauty of
Texas. All expenses paid. No experience necessary. Training provided. Grand
opening. Tomorrow.

It
would be a long line, but Sophia would be patient.

“Most
people don't usually care to work so far into Texas,” the man, Mr. Perez, told
Sophia. She'd waited in line six hours for this. She was about to snap. “There
are hundreds of positions in El Paso alone, but those fill up pretty fast.

“I
have several family members in the area, and need the work,” Sophia said,
affecting just a bit of an accent. She'd lived in Mexico long enough. At
twenty-four, she could fake several accents. She found it worked in business.

“Oh!
That's fortunate. Let's get you situated, then. Do you have any experience with
children, or did you just want to keep house? It looks like there is one
position open in Agnes Oaks for keeping house, two in Giddings for keeping
house and children, let's see...one in Fayettesville, this is for taking care
of an elderly couple
‒
”

“I'm
interested in Agnes Oaks.” Sophia had to remember she couldn't be assertive.
She needed to be a little desperate. “If I fit the criteria.” She put her head
down.

“Let
me go back to that one.” Mr. Perez took a few backward swipes on his computer
screen. “Okay. James Agnesson. Widower. Forty-five. All children grown, but
it's a large home on some acreage. He's also looking for a farmhand.” He looked
at Sophia. “It's a very long drive, and it will be a few days before one of our
buses will go out that way.

James.
Common. Useless.
“That's fine. Does he have any other employees?”

“We
don't have that information. Have you heard of him? Could you be related to
someone who works for him? That would be rather lucky.”

“I'm
not sure. He sounds familiar, but I just might want it to.” She didn't have
enough information. Two-hundred years ago the population of Agnes Oaks was only
one-hundred sixteen, so that could slim the chances. “Do you know the current
population of Agnes Oaks?”

“I
don't, but it should be on the city's info page.” A few swipes and a nod. “Less
than a hundred. I imagine all the small towns surrounding might form some sort
of municipality. Though each village would have its own church for worship.”