(18+) The Punishment (Complete)

Ch. 8: Isolated

We made love several times that night. I just couldn't keep my hands off her. She allowed me to taste her. Oh, Sweet Lord, she tasted good! Even with a mixture from the both of us, I never wanted my lips to part from the luscious, little pearl between her legs. It didn't take long before I found the sweet spot deep inside of her too, and I loved to watch her come undone around my fingers. And her mouth was even better. I wasn't especially experienced, but the way she went down on me and the way her tongue swirled around my tip was almost too much. I just couldn't believe how lucky I was!

We wore each other out and fell asleep in each other's arms, completely exhausted. Then we woke up and continued. And even though the fire slowly died, and the cabin gradually got colder, he heat that radiated from our bodies kept us warm until the early morning hours.

I woke up with her legs wrapped around mine and her arm resting on my chest. Her breasts were squeezed between us, and the alluring thought of licking and sucking on them made my morning glory throb proudly. It shouldn't even be possible after all the times we did it last night, but it was like when I first got a taste of her, I just couldn't get enough. And not just on the sexual level. I'd fallen for her. Hard.

I heard her moaning my name in her sleep, and she abruptly turned her head away from me with a frown. Her body twitched a couple of times before she suddenly turned back and hugged me. She was having a nightmare. So, by instinct, my arms wrapped around her even though I knew I couldn't protect her from something that was going on inside her head. Listening to her sobbing and calling my name was devastating. She was sweating and in pain from what I assumed was what happened yesterday, and when she finally woke up, crying in my arms, I cried a little bit too.

"Oh, Michael..." she choked out, and I kissed her forehead and just held her close.

"I'm here, Leah. Shh. I'm here."

"I dreamed of..." she started, but she couldn't find the words. She didn't really need to, either.

"I know, baby. But we're safe now. Thanks to you."

I looked at her with nothing but love, and tried to calm her with my eyes, but her heart was still thundering in her chest. And it took quite a while until she managed to relax and wiped away her tears.

"Thank you for saving my life."

She smiled shyly and bit her bottom lip when she looked up at me, but her eyes looked sad. She knew I couldn't promise not to leave her. She knew I had to return to my old life. I had to go back to being Michael Jackson, the artist. A few weeks ago, I was counting minutes until the day I could leave. But Leah made me lose count, and somewhere along the way I stopped counting all together. And now I would do anything just to get a couple of weeks more together with her.

❄️❄️❄️

We lit up the fireplace again. Leah said we had to do it to show her parents where we were and that we were alive, since they could see the cabin from their house. Then we got dressed and went outside. Our skies were lost in the avalanche together with our backpack, but we waded through the snow to see how bad it was. And it was bad. It almost looked like the whole mountain side had come down. The snow was mixed with soil, broken trees, and enormous stones. We looked at each other, and both of us knew we were incredibly lucky to be alive.

"There's no way we can get passed here," Leah stated and shook her head. "It's too dangerous. And even if it was safe, it would be impossible to get through by foot."

"Is there another way down?" I asked.

"No. The terrain is too steep and dangerous," she sighed. Then she corrected herself. "Or... If we go all the way up to The Goat, we can walk around to the other side. There's an old path that will take us down to the valley. But that trip takes about five hours."

She looked at me with weary eyes, and added:

"By skies."

I nodded thoughtfully.

"And we don't have skies anymore," I finished, and Leah nodded too.

"But what do we do?" I asked, and she sighed heavily and chose not to answer.

"Let's eat. I'm hungry."

And with that she turned and walked back to the cabin, with me following behind. But before I closed the door behind us, I glanced at Leah's house far, far away. It looked like a tiny dot. So close, yet way out of reach. Just like Leah would be when I left in a few days.

Leah was searching the cabinets when I entered the cabin. The way she was slamming the doors and swearing to herself, spoke in loud volumes. She was angry. I wasn't quite sure if she was angry that we were stuck here or if she was angry with me, though. Maybe it was both. But eventually, I chose to approach her and wrapped my arms around her from behind, which was how I got my answer.

She tried to fight me to break free, although both of us knew that if she did a proper attempt there would be no way I could hold her back. Leah was strong, not only in mind but also in physique, and she'd take me down in a heartbeat if she really wanted to. But right now she weakened in fatigue and tried to hide that she was tearing up.

"I need to go home, Leah. You know that. You know I'm not just a regular guy."

She nodded quickly when I spoke to her.

"I have a lot of responsibilities and lots of people are depending on me. I don't know of any other life than that."

She nodded again.

"Until now."

I slowly turned her around to see her face, and it was filled with pain.

"You and your family have shown me a completely new side to life, and you have no idea how much I appreciate that. It's just that... My life is complicated."

She still refused to look at me, but the first beads of tears were already rolling down her cheeks. I hated when she cried. And I absolutely despised that she cried because of me, but it still needed to be said so she didn't think I used her.

"But what's made it more complicated is that I've fallen deeply and madly in love with you, Leah. And I don't know what to do."

She froze. She didn't even breathe. Then she took a few steps back and out of my arms before she lifted her eyes and met mine. She looked completely lost. Paralyzed. Neither of us said anything for a long time. We just kept staring at each other and I could feel her trying to analyze what I just said. Then I got confused when she turned around and continued to search through the cabinets for food. She only found a can of old beans and placed it on the table in front of us with a loud thud.

"You're not lying now, are you? Just to make me feel better?" she asked, and my eyes widened at how she could believe such a thing.

"Of course not!" I exclaimed. Then I made her look directly into my eyes to erase all doubts.

"Ever since we first talked in front of your fireplace, I knew it. There's something about you. A stare in your eyes. Everything I've been looking for, I've seemed to have found in you."

The words made her fiddle with her hair, and I smiled. She was so cute when she did that, and I was about to tell her when she suddenly turned and stared into the empty air, as if she was listening for something.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered. But no matter how hard I tried to concentrate, I could only hear the sizzling and popping from the fireplace.

"Do you hear that?" she exclaimed and suddenly grinned widely. And now I could hear it too. A thin sound of a motor far away. And since the sound got louder for each passing minute, we ran outside to see where the sound came from, and was relieved when we discovered a tiny black dot that was heading towards us. It grew in size, but it was still hard to see what it was, because of the white light from the snow that stung my eyes. But Leah seemed to know already.

"Oh my God, Michael! I think it's Patrick!"

And she was right. Not long after, her big brother parked his snowmobile in front of us and Leah ran up to him, threw her arms around his neck and almost whined with joy. And after tidying the cabin and locking the door, she put the key back to its hiding place, and we were off.

We were saved.