She glanced back to me, "What kind of man even apologizes for looking at a woman the way you were at me anyway? You're so different from any man that I've ever met before!"
"Looking and imagining can be as significant as touching. Both of them have been forbidden to me until now. It's hard to stop from indulging when I look at your beauty and know what I know will eventually come to pass between us."
She moved her head to the side gazing at me as if puzzled by something, "You're saying that you think to even look at a woman you're not married to is a sin?"
I nodded, "Jesus laid it out very clearly that we are accountable for the thoughts of our minds as much as we are the actions which we commit with our hands. He even went as far to say that to hate someone was the same as if to murder them."
"I have a question. You don't have to answer it if you don't want to."
"Ask away." I said obligingly.
"You've never been with a woman physically before have you?"
"No."
"What about thinking?"
"I've failed there many times most notably with you. You really get to me. Overwhelm would be a better word for it." I admitted honestly.
Maria looked down blushing as she said, "I have another question."
Laughing I said, "Go ahead."
She looked up and gestured between us, "Are we……." She trailed off looking uncomfortable.
"Married?" I said filling in for her.
She nodded.
"The act of marriage as seen in the eyes of man has varied through the years in terms of its form of ceremony. I only regard what the Holy Scripture has to say of it. In the beginning of creation man was formed and that man was given a woman as a helpmate and lifelong companion. I am a man after Adam and God has given me you. Quite simply put you are my woman and I will have relation with no other than you, as it is good for man to have but one wife. You will bear my name, even as you bear my children and your affection will be towards me. I will care for you, protect you, and love you all the days of my life, even as Christ loves and cares for the church. Does that answer your question?"
"Yes." Maria said sounding shaken.
"Shall we then?" I said indicating the open road ahead of us with a flourish of one hand.
We started walking again and somewhat startled I felt her hand slip into mine. I glanced down at our joined hands and then over to Maria who said, "I think I'm going to rather enjoy being your woman."