Divine Embrace

"Hey again."

Ángel turned to his left to find Linda standing behind a kitchen island with two steaming cups of tea in her hands. "Hey," he said, looking at the floorboards. He raised his slender shoulders and grabbed them with his arms crossed in an awkward attempt at shielding his revealed skin from view.

"Well, don't be so stiff!" the woman bubbled, gesturing towards the kitchen island's bar stools on the opposite side of where she was standing. "Have a seat!"

"Okay..." Ángel mumbled. He walked towards her as she stood there expectantly, every step making it seem like he was gravitating harder into her soft embrace. It was a good thing that there was a kitchen island between them, otherwise he might very well have mindlessly face-planted into her chest. Instead he sat down on one of the padded stools and had a steaming cup of tea placed in front of him.

"I wasn't sure what you would like, so I went with the fruity kind," Linda said. After taking a sip of her own, she set her cup down on the countertop and leaned against it with crossed arms.

Ángel blushed, feeling Linda's intense gaze on him. "T-that's fine..." he stammered, diving into his cup of tea to divert his attention. Taking a long, careful sip of the warm and fruity drink, he glanced back up at her, expecting a conversation to be initiated at any moment... but all she offered him was a smile.

Why was she not saying anything? Was she a robot? She still hadn't given herself much of an introduction beyond her first name, let alone uttered a single word about getting Ángel back home. He wasn't much for small-talk, but he would take anything he could get at this point. Besides, wasn't it the host's job to make sure that their guest wasn't feeling uncomfortable?

"... So do you live out here all year long or what?" he asked without sounding too forced, his eyes traveling around the house interior. It was a nice place for sure, but far from what he was used to. Certainly not a place where he would want to live, being a city boy who relied heavily on modern forms of entertainment. Linda's electronic devices seemed limited to the kitchen. There was most likely not even a TV in the building, let alone a computer or PlayStation.

Linda sighed. "Hm?"God, he was so cute. Wait, what did he say?Oh, those puffy little lips of his. Something about her living room?Oh, those dark irises between those slightly narrowed eyelids. That hair flowing so beautifully into a little ponytail, black and shiny like oil against his scalp. That warm, flawless complexion. Oh...

Ángel stared at her absent-minded smile, unsure if he was being purposefully ignored or not. "I asked if you live here all year long?"

"... Oh, sorry," Linda finally said after another few seconds of silence. "Got a bit lost in thought. Yes. I live here. All year long. Yes."

"Alone?"

Linda sighed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "Yeah... Haven't really had much of a chance to find that special someone yet. But I'm used to it at this point."

So she was single... Single and likely frustrated. A beauty like her definitely had some lucky bastard out there waiting to be hers, but Ángel couldn't help but imagine himself being the one to erase that sullen look of loneliness on her face. Perhaps it wasn't too unreasonable to think that he would get that opportunity. That is, if she was desperate enough to be okay with a girly boy like him.

Catching his mind slipping again, Ángel took a big gulp of tea that scorched his throat and chest, and in doing so burned away his sudden tingles. What was he thinking? His top priority was getting the hell out of this snow-buried wasteland, not to fall in love with some oddball living alone in the woods.

"You drive out here by car?" he asked, trying to steer the conversation in the right direction.

"Yeah. What, you didn't think I used a tractor or something, did you?" Linda smiled once again, taking a sip of tea as she waited for a playful answer to her playful question.

Ángel cleared his throat. "No, I was just wondering if you could... you know, give me a ride back home? When it suits you, of course..."

"Oh..." Well, that much was expected, to be fair. It stung a little bit that he would ask her that so soon, but of course he would want to return home. Why would a young boy like him want to stay out here, with some random old lady whose excitement was surely twisting her demeanor into something awkward and erratic? Then again, whether he wanted to or not was irrelevant in this case. "Well, you see, we might have a bit of a problem when it comes to that..."

"What?"

Without a word, the blonde made her way to the front door where the kitchen and living room met. She cast a glance through the round little window in the door, confirming from the view of snow upon snow that going out would be pretty much impossible. But hey, why not give Ángel a proper demonstration of just how bad it was?

She pushed down the door handle and tried pulling the door open, only to find that it was frozen in place. With an annoyed grumble, she proceeded to shove the sole of her foot against the wall and made a new attempt, this time with considerably more force. With that the door cracked open, almost sending Linda tumbling onto her back, but she managed to stabilize herself at the last second.

With the door wide open and the northern winds blowing straight into her home, she turned to Ángel. "Well, as you can see, we're probably not going anywhere anytime soon."

Ángel felt his heart drop. He had already gotten a good look outside from the bedroom window, but seeing it from this angle was different. Just outside the door was a good four feet wall of snow that would have required days to shovel through all the way to the garage. And even then, a car couldn't possibly get through the rest of it all the way to a sufficiently plowed road.

"Hope you don't have anyone waiting for you," Linda said and swung the door shut. "Do you live with anyone? Parents? A girlfriend?"Finally she got the chance to ask him! And in a way that wasn't forced or creepy as well!

"Thankfully I don't..."

Linda's face lit up, and had Ángel been looking straight at her he would no doubt have noticed. "Do you work?" she continued. "Or go to school?"

"Yeah, that's gonna be a problem," Ángel mumbled, scratching his chin. "I'm a college freshman."

"Well, I'll be damned..."

"Hold on, where's my phone?" said Ángel and began twisting around in his seat, searching for it in the kitchen and living room. "I didn't drop it, right?"

"Next to the fridge," Linda said, pointing towards where it laid on the kitchen counter. "But it's dead. Dunno if the cold broke it or if it's out of battery, but I don't have an Android charger lying around."

Ángel let out a little mutter. "What about you? You must have a phone, right?"

"Well, yeah... But I, uh... I'm not getting any reception right now. P-probably because of all the snow! I mean, the reception out here is always bad. Barely even one bar. But now it's at zero. Constantly."Oh my God, Linda, just shut up already!

"Oh, that's just great..." Ángel said, his soft facial features turning into a childish pout.

"I do actually have a snowmobile in my garage that we could use. But it would take days to shovel our way there."

"You have a snowmobile? What for?"

Linda smiled with excitement. "Come with me and I'll show you."

Curious, Ángel followed her back to the corridor from whence he came into the living room, specifically to the door on the left of the room he had slept in. Linda opened it and held it open for him, and what he stepped into was something quite different from the rest of the building. On the opposite side of the room was another door, leading to the little clearing outside. To his left was a long, metallic worktop, a sink integrated into it, and the wall above it adorned with an ominous set of knives and cleavers.

There was yet another door to the right, one made of steel, and just as Ángel was about to start pondering over where it led, Linda walked up to it and opened it with a click. The air in the room instantly seemed to lower a few degrees, but this time not from the post-blizzard winds that had blown in through the front entrance moments ago. Only when his host flicked a switch that lit up the interior beyond the door did Ángel understand. It was a huge, walk-in freezer, filled with various animal limbs, cuts of meat, and whole, small game, all of which hung from large hooks.

"This right here," said Linda and tapped one of the racks that the pieces hung from, eliciting a metallic rattle. "This is the fruit of my labor. I keep filling up the damn freezer quicker than I can use the meat."

Ángel remained outside the freezer, the cold air reminding him of his near-death experience, but was instilled with awe nonetheless. "You hunted these?"

"Sure did, hun. All those antlers hanging on my walls? My trophies, every single one."

"Wow..."

"Well, don't get too impressed now," Linda said, almost with a hint of sorrow in her voice. "Because truth be told, it's the only thing I'm good for."

Ángel was immediately taken aback from hearing those words come out of Linda's mouth. From the moment they met she had seemed full of nothing but joy, and this was a surprising shift in her tone. Perhaps it was silly to think that she didn't have her own problems and worries, but her radiating beauty made it hard to view her like that. Nevertheless, sorrow was not something that suited her.

"That's not true," Ángel said. "You saved my life and instantly made me feel welcome in your home. That has to count for something. Such kindness is rare these days." To his own great surprise his words came out without any hesitation, in a moment of disregard for the more odd qualities of the huntress' behavior. He had seized the perfect opportunity to ease the last bit of lingering tension between them, and it's not like he was lying to her. Furthermore, seeing Linda's rosy cheeks blush an even deeper color as a smile spread across her face in response was enough to make it worth it. Even though Ángel wasn't prepared for what happened next...

"Oh, aren't you just the cutest little thing!" Linda exclaimed, lunging at the small boy with her arms stretched out. Once again, she shamelessly pressed his face against her bosom in a tight hug, albeit this time with a turtleneck sweater in the way.

The only parts of Ángel that weren't enveloped from the neck up were the very top of his head and his ponytail sticking out past Linda's breasts. Whether he was receiving some sort of reward or a genuine expression of happiness was unclear, but the details hardly mattered. Linda was happy, and so was he. And her hugs were something to truly cherish, seeing as they let him sniff as much of her sweet aroma as he wanted to.

But after a good ten seconds had passed and Linda showed no signs of letting go, Ángel spoke up. "So... about that snowmobile..." he mumbled, his voice reverberating within the soft, female flesh that surrounded him. As much as he enjoyed the hug, he had to show restraint. He couldn't have Linda suspect him of having lecherous thoughts, and that his sweet talk was all for the sake of sating his male instincts.

"Oh, right!" Linda said, letting the boy go. She had pushed her luck on that one, that was for damn sure. "So anyway... Sometimes during winter I'll go out hunting with the snowmobile. Don't always wanna just wander out in the deep snow, you know."

"Yeah."

Linda closed the freezer. She eyed Ángel for but a moment, but it was enough for her to notice how he had backed up against the door to the hallway as if preparing to flee the sudden chill in the room. That's when she had an idea.

"Well, this room is where I bring my haul," she went on. A shameful wave of heat hit her cheeks as she walked up to the door leading outside. She hoped -- prayed -- that it would not be frozen in place like her front door. And with a decisive pull of the handle, her prayer was answered. There was a hint of resistance, but the door opened wide without too much effort, and though the wall of snow outside wasn't nearly as big as the one in the front of the house, the wind blew in even harsher on this side.Perfect. "Through this door, specifically. Then I bring it to that table and butcher it. And I'll admit, this entire room is a bit over the top, but I figured I might as well be as effective as possible if I'm gonna live out here."

Ángel nodded frantically, assaulted by freezing winds that Linda seemed unfazed by. "Yeah, yeah, that's... cool." He wasn't sure why the door needed to be open for Linda to visualize things, but perhaps that was to be expected from a woman who was absent-minded enough to almost suffocate him with her chest.

"Aw, it's really not all that," Linda said, inspecting Ángel's mannerisms. Not only was he shivering by now, but he had wrapped his little arms around his chest as well. Did he not dare ask Linda to close the door? How adorable. But enough was enough, and finally she closed it, the temperature in the room already near-freezing. "Speaking of cool... Do you need to heat up a bit?"

"Yeah, it got a bit cold in here... Maybe I should take a nap or something."

A devious smile spread across Linda's face. "I've got something better in mind..."

----------

Dousing himself in a lukewarm stream of groundwater pumped from beneath the isolated cabin, Ángel couldn't even begin to shake his many worries. His wrecked car, his absence from college, not knowing how long he would be stuck in the middle of the woods... Worst of all was the possibility of his family attempting to reach him now that he had no way of contacting anyone in the civilized world. The last thing he needed was for them to worry about his well-being more than he did.

Like Linda had suggested, perhaps spending some time in a sauna was exactly what he needed, both physically and mentally. But while a sauna was pretty much to be expected in a lodge like this, the bathroom connected to it looked quite out of place. All the other rooms were fancy, but still rustic and old-fashioned. What surrounded Ángel where he stood and showered, on the other hand, was pure luxury. The tiled walls were a warm beige that stood out against the crude, dark wood of the sauna door, as did the sink and shower lined with gold, the intricate array of spotlights in the ceiling, and the goddamnjacuzzi in one of the corners. It didn't exactly make him feel at home, seeing as he was a boy of humble origins, but it did ease the anxiety of being trapped in a cabin out in the middle of nowhere.

Ángel turned off the shower and tied his loosened hair back into a ponytail to keep it from sticking to his face. He grabbed his towel, his lithe, bronze body gleaming with moisture, then pitter-pattered to the sauna, eager to expose himself to the type of heat he was made for. Linda had taken the time to prepare everything beforehand, so the moment he opened the wooden door, a hot mist immediately washed over him. He didn't hesitate for a second to enter, already smiling from ear to ear as his wet skin tingled all over.

Filling his lungs with a deep breath of warm air as soon as the door had closed, he went on to cover the lower bench with his towel and sat down. What he noticed immediately was that while it was hot, it wasn'tcrazy hot. That little shock that often came with a sudden, drastic change in temperature never hit him, and rather than feeling as though he would only be able to handle it for so long, it almost felt like a temperature fit for a nap. Perhaps Linda had kept it lower for his sake, what with him being a frail little thing who had just narrowly escaped death. And Ángel would not have it any other way.

Resting his arms on the upper bench, he threw his head back and closed his eyes, imagining that the moist air sticking to his skin radiated off a beach along the Pacific Ocean. He could almost smell the salty sea water and feel the scorching grains of sand under his feet, but in reality there was nothing more than the scent of burning wood and the feeling of warm ceramic tiles. Cozy in its own right, but no beach.

A bittersweet feeling washed over him. Some part of him had longed for a chance to escape the harsh climate he had chosen to live in, and to some extent the sauna provided just that, albeit temporarily. But it also served as a sample of what he was missing out on; what his distant family in South America was enjoying every day. Perhaps they sometimes wished for colder days, but surely their situation must have been preferable?

The line between reverie and dream blurred as the minutes passed, but Ángel's bliss was cut short by a sudden knock on the door. He bolted up in alarm, sweat running along the curves of his feminine shape, and his eyelids forced wide open. Though his brain had barely even registered the significance of the sound he just heard, the sliver of light being cast into the dim sauna from the door had him acting quickly. Grabbing each end of the towel he was sitting on, he folded it together over his lap, covering up his slim thighs and tiny manhood between them.

The sauna was soon filled with the bright light from the bathroom, but with a silhouette appearing in the center of the doorframe. A silhouette of a woman... A woman of impressive height, and a wide chest and hips...

Ángel gulped as his eyes were treated to a sight equally as breathtaking as it was distressing. With a much too small towel holding them up, the same heavy tits that had devoured his head twice were close to spilling out in full view. And on the other end of the towel were a pair of hips and buttocks so wide that the tight fabric seemed about to slip up to rest on top of them, and thus reveal a part of this woman's body that had damn near become something sacred in Ángel's mind. A wet sheen covered her skin, suggesting that she, just like Ángel, had taken a shower before entering. He must have been too busy daydreaming to hear it.

"Enjoying yourself?" Linda asked, smiling wide.

Ángel redirected his eyes to hers. "W-why are you here?!" The childish panic was evident in his shrill voice, like something you would hear from a locker room full of girls who had been walked in on while undressing. All that was missing was an exaggerated"eek!"

Linda stepped into the sauna and closed the door behind her. "I figured you'd like some company? What are you getting so flustered over?"

"W-we can't!" Ángel stammered.

"Why not?"

Her carefree bewilderment was baffling. "Because... you're a woman! And I'm a... man!"

Not quite, cutie, Linda thought.And that's why you're perfect. "Why would that matter, silly? It's tradition for men and women to use the sauna together as a way to show comfort with each other."

"But... I'm not comfortable with it!" Ángel said, squirming in his seat.

"Well, then it's high time we fix that!" Linda replied without hesitation, sitting her giant, towel-covered ass on the wooden seating a mere foot away from Ángel. To display the comfort she wished to impose on him, she casually draped her arms over the upper bench, her left one directly behind Ángel's head. As much as she would have liked to have him rest against it, he seemed to actively avoid her, awkwardly leaning away with the back of his head turned to her. Such a timid little thing...

A deafening silence crept in, and while Linda suspected Ángel to find it insufferable, she certainly enjoyed it. She traced his backside with her eyes, from his slender shoulders and neck, above which his black ponytail hung heavy with water, to his narrow waist and hips. What he clearly didn't realize was that the towel he had folded over himself offered little cover to his backside, allowing Linda the perfect view from her angle. Biting her lip, she stared at the cleft at the top of his brown little bubble butt, tempted to lean over to get a top view of his cheeks. She wasn't foolish enough to actually attempt that... But just barely.