Finding Her Way in a Storm Ch. 13-21

"I wanted that blonde Amazon bitch to know that she wasn't touching my date. Kaia is the only woman that I intend to share you with," Lisa responded with a bit of fire.

Kaia could tell that she meant what she said, too, and that pleased her. What's more, Kaia could see that it pleased Skyler as well, and she thought that was a great sign.

When they were recovered, Lisa took her turn with the strapon, fucking Kaia in an alternating series of short jabs and long strokes. As she did, Skyler rode her face in reverse cowgirl. She could tell from the sounds above her just seconds before she came that the two women she loved were kissing, and something about that just felt so apropos.

Kaia set her alarm for seven-thirty PM once they'd finally exhausted their desire. She laid back against her pillow and sighed as Skyler and Lisa snuggled into her arms, their naked and warm bodies feeling perfect against hers.

She told them that she loved them and felt her heart quicken as they both returned her admonition. Seconds later, they were asleep. And though she wasn't tired, Kaia enjoyed every second of holding them both, reveling in the thought that she never wanted to leave that spot.

Chapter Twenty One

May came and went, followed by an increasingly hot June that had Kaia mentioning several times that she was thankful for splurging on the larger air unit and the fact that she'd chosen to go heavier on the R-factor of her home's insulation than what was suggested.

For Skyler, she felt as if they all fell into a comfortable pattern. Skyler did take a summer day job working for a retailer at the mall. She was only scheduled during the week, leaving her weekends open for the women in her life.

She spent nearly every night with Lisa either at her house or Skyler over at the dark-headed beauty's bungalow. Sometimes Becka joined them for dinner and a movie. Lisa and Skyler would feign looking displeased as Becka held Macey and used creative language interspersed with medical and biblical terminology to describe her most recent sexual liaisons. The couple wouldn't be able to keep up the front for long, eventually breaking down into gales of laughter.

And after more than a month of being together continually, that was what Skyler had readily come to accept, that they were a couple. There was no doubt that her life would now seem like so much less without Lisa and Macey present in it.

Every Friday night was date night with the pair getting something to eat and doing some kind of activity. Sometimes they caught a movie or went bowling. Others they spent with friends of Skyler's from high school who hadn't yet left for college.

On those occasions, there were always lots of questions. Particularly once Skyler inevitably disclosed that she and Kaia were still together.

Those questions became looks of near awe once they found out that Lisa, was in fact, Kaia's former fiance. Even girls that had clearly disliked Skyler back in high school now seemed to hold her up as some kind of sexual pioneer to be admired.

Of course, it didn't hurt that they now knew they didn't have to worry about her stealing their boyfriends.

On Saturday nights, without fail, Macey stayed with Kaia. No longer did the former Marine require that Bree Ann be present, though Mimi Bree, as Bree Ann was now calling herself, would stay anyway for about an hour after dropping the little girl off.

Kaia had begun to look forward to those occasions. She'd even used money that she'd earned from her job to purchase Macey a running stroller. After Bree Ann was gone, Kaia and Macey would hit the sidewalk for a long run that seemed almost as pleasing to the baby as it was satisfying to Kaia.

For Lisa and Skyler, Saturday nights were spent together alone at the bungalow. They usually picked a romantic favorite or drama to watch while they ate food they'd ordered-in. By ten o'clock every night, they were always in bed, though sleep seldom came until nearer midnight or later.

And Sunday's? That didn't change either. Church services and lunch with Skyler's parents were always followed by the three of them escaping to Kaia's for an afternoon and early evening of wild and impassioned lesbian sex.

For Kaia, things had settled down as well. During the week, she spent her days finishing up the interior of the house. First had come painting all of the trim work, followed by priming every room in the house. She'd then had Bree Ann and Jon over to help her pick out colors for the various rooms. They'd both suggested she stick with neutral colors since the plan was to sell the place. Bree Ann had picked out a lovely shade of ivory from the sample book with a high gloss off-white for the trim.

Jon had been impressed with the work she'd done both inside and out. His lone input was that Kaia should consider updating the barbecue area and perhaps re-stain the fence. Both, he said, would go a long way towards getting her a quick offer.

It took her another week, but by the time her girlfriends showed up that next Sunday morning, the interior was completed. Kaia and Bree Ann had even taken Macey and gone shopping that Saturday night for new accents to go with the wall color. Decorative pillows for the couch and bedrooms, Wall hangings and prints, and even a new rug to go over the refinished hardwood floors in the master bedroom and front family room.

Everyone raved about the new look, and Kaia knew that she was close to placing the house on the market. Listing agents had even started stopping by to give her their cards and opinions of all she'd done.

Kaia just set the cards aside, not ready to put the house up for sale yet.

Her job was the perfect distraction from her loneliness and excessive energy. She worked every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday night and Saturday during the day. When she wasn't working on the house or at her job, Kaia was usually running or spending time with Macey.

Her only night off was usually spent with an unusual compatriot in Becka. The two unlikely friends would often go and see a movie or just hang around at Kaia's getting stoned and cooking out. Though the former Marine, whose tastes in life were simple, found Becka to be pompous and magniloquent, she also enjoyed her company. Her mixture of youth and trampy nature entertained Kaia, as did her sense of humor.

Becka would always start their "dates" by informing Kaia that no matter how bad the cocoa-skinned beauty wanted it, she would not allow Kaia to eat her pussy.

Typically once she was well lit, those restrictions disappeared. Becka would begin regularly flashing her chest and lower extremities at Kaia. Once, after they'd shared several joints and Becka had consumed most of a bottle of wine, the brazen tart had even stripped off all her clothes on the back patio and stretched out in a lounger. She drunkenly claimed to be working on her all over tan, but the sun had gone down below the rear treeline nearly a full hour before.

When the teenage boy next door had come out to walk his dog, Kaia had thought his eyes might pop out of his head.

June became July, and it unbelievably got hotter. With all the trees present, the humidity seemed to hover in the high-range even on clear days.

Their regular routine continued except for one weekend when Macey ran a fever and had a nasty cold. Like most children when sick, she craved her mother's attention, practically clinging to Lisa every moment.

Wanting to give the baby time to get better, Skyler stayed away while Lisa spent the weekend caring for her child. She spent that Friday night running around with Becka and Saturday night with her parents.

Skyler was surprised by how much she missed Lisa and the baby.

As usual, she spent her Sunday with Kaia, the two of them making love alone like in the past. Laying there afterward, they both called Lisa and told her how much they'd missed her. Neither of them was doing it just to be polite either.

Still, Skyler couldn't wholly quantify her feelings for Lisa. She was pretty sure that she was in love with the stunningly beautiful brunette but felt she needed to be positive before telling Lisa and Kaia. Skyler did share her feelings with her mother, who seemed pleased but didn't push her either way.

The other thing always on Skyler's mind was school. She'd put off attending for at least another semester to figure things out in her personal life. She had decided on a major, though. Skyler had always been interested in art and was considered talented by many people but didn't want to waste money on a degree she'd struggle to earn a living with. Lisa had encouraged her to send off to nearby schools for a list of all their majors. The two had then sat down and gone through them, with Skyler finally getting excited by the prospect of earning a Marketing and Fine Arts degree.

September had finally rolled around, and the weather had changed again, but not for the better. Hurricane season in the gulf had hit in full force, with three early-season storms already making landfall. Each of them brought prolonged strong thunderstorms and heavy rain. In between the frequent heavy rains, the air was hot and muggy.

Kaia had finished sanding and staining the fence in late July. She'd begun work on the construction of a stone covered barbecue. The former Marine had only gotten the block laid before the bad weather had consistently stalled her progress. Since then, she hadn't had a day dry enough to work on the stone, although she did get the chance to get the grill insert anchored in place one morning.

That weekend was a nearly constant deluge of rain that led to flooding in some lower-lying parts of the county. And already, weather forecasters were talking about another tropical storm in the south Atlantic that was busily barrelling its way north as it gained strength. It's projected track had it strengthening into an intense hurricane and making landfall by sometime midweek.

It was expected that it would be the fourth named Hurricane to make landfall that season. And Hurricane Kappa was already showing deadly potential, according to forecasters.

With the family that Lisa rented from out west to visit the wife's aging mother, Lisa was without access to a storm cellar to shelter in if the weather got bad. The Grace family's house had an interior bathroom downstairs large enough for two people. But beyond that, things got tight.

Kaia's house, though, had what was originally a root cellar with outside access. The former Marine had grown up knowing the potential for strong thunderstorms and tornadoes living on a farm. She'd helped her father dig a storm cellar beneath their house, and they'd used it on more than one occasion. So Kaia knew the importance of having somewhere safe.

One of the first tasks she'd undertaken after moving into the old place was to dig out the ancient root cellar, lowering the floor by another three feet. Kaia had then blocked up the interior walls and coated them with a sealer and waterproof paint. The last thing she'd done was to pour a cement pad. It had allowed her to remove the furnace from the main floor and have it placed down in the cellar. That, in turn, had allowed Kaia to expand the master bathroom.

Kaia had splurged for metal stormproof doors, figuring she could recoup the cost in the sale price later on.

As a result, Kaia had a suitable storm cellar that could comfortably fit up to five adults. She stocked it with five-gallon buckets that contained bottled water, food rations, blankets, and extra clothing.

For that reason, it had been decided that any substantial storm threat would send Lisa and the baby to stay with Kaia.

By Monday, Kappa was already a category two storm, and its projected path had it making landfall in western Mississippi before sweeping up through northern Alabama and extreme north Georgia.

By Tuesday afternoon, that forecast had changed for the worse. Landfall was now expected to hit somewhere around Mobile, Alabama. It's projected track north would take it directly over Skyler's hometown and north through Atlanta.

Kappa was a category three by then and expected to grow stronger. The waters of the Gulf of Mexico were warmer this year than what was typical, according to the seasoned meteorologists reporting on the storm. The gulf's higher temperatures were feeding the strength of the hurricane.

By the time hit land Wednesday afternoon, the eye was centered just east of Mobile, and the storm was a category four. The winds and storm surge were having horrific results and causing catastrophic property damage to the area. A large portion of Mobile's population had fled north, trying to outrun Kappa. Those who'd stayed behind were hit brutally hard. Many of them would be left without power in sweltering heat for up to two weeks.

Atlanta forecasters were predicting the worse. Heavy rains to soak soil that had already been inundated in recent weeks and could hardly absorb more water, was forecast. The root system of larger trees that were already weakened by the looser than usual soil would be more susceptible to strong winds. It could always be the next strong wind that could send one crashing through a home.

Kaia, Lisa, Skyler, and Macey huddled around the television consuming the storm coverage. The area was under a Tornado watch until the early morning hours making for a long day and coming night.

To make matters worse, Kaia had tweaked her previously injured knee while returning from a run the night before. A root from the large oak that sat in her front yard was bulging higher than typical, a sure sign of the weakening soil. Kaia had missed the change in the darkness, tripping and wrenching her knee.

Stubborn as always, she'd iced it and gotten out her old brace but refused to see a doctor until this latest batch of bad weather had passed. She was making do by hobbling around on a crutch, insisting that she was okay. But Skyler and Lisa could both tell that she was in pain.

It was around nine PM that night that Skyler decided to run home. She wanted to get some clean clothes, and the three women had managed to consume Kaia's entire remaining coffee. So Skyler planned to pilfer her mother and father's pantry for more.

The winds were strong, as was the rain, and by the time Skyler had reached her childhood home, she was a sight. Bree Ann followed her up the stairs berating her daughter for being out in such a mess, watching as her daughter quickly packed a bag. The two then went downstairs, where Skyler raced into the kitchen to grab a five-pound bag of gourmet blend coffee. She was just closing the door to the pantry when the power went out, and all hell broke loose.

Before Skyler had managed to reach her parents in the front room, her father's weather-alert radio had begun to sound, and in the distance, the three heard the wails of the town's tornado warning siren begin to howl.

The weather statement had already started from the radio stating how people in her hometown should seek shelter immediately. There were reports of a dangerous tornado on the ground on the western edge of town, headed east/northeast at twenty-miles an hour. Skyler heard them mention something about a significant hook-echo signature on the radio but only caught the tail end of what was said. By then, she'd already grabbed her flashlight and supplies and was out the front door.

The young woman would later recall hearing her mother scream out her name, but the sound was quickly drowned out by the powerful winds gusting in her face and slowing her down as she trudged towards Kaia's house and the two women she was in love with.

That thought gave Skyler strength. It was the first time that she'd freely admitted to herself that she was in love with Lisa. Up until then, those thoughts were always preceded by a qualifier. Words like maybe, probably, or I might be, were forever leaving some doubt in Skyler's mind. But she knew now for sure, which made her all the more eager to be with them.

Just a block from Kaia's house, things got much scarier. The wind, which had already been hard to move through, increased significantly with gusts that felt as though they might take Skyler off of her feet. And behind her, somewhere in the darkness, there was a horrifying sound. Skyler knew at once what it was but tried to put her fear behind her as she lurched forward through the high winds trying to stay as low as possible.

Skyler was still a half block away from Kaia's refurbished home when she first began to fear that she might not make it. The lumbering and powerful beast behind her was now closer, too close, and the sounds of trees cracking and power transformers exploding only added to the crescendo of terror.

Across the street and just one house down from Kaia's place, something resembling part of a house suddenly landed on the Robinson home. The older couple who lived there and done so since Skyler was a child, she could only hope they'd been somewhere else in their home.

Just behind her, Skyler heard a tree fall crashing across the sidewalk where she'd been a mere second before. The growling behind her had reached mammoth proportions, and the pressure inside Skyler's ears made her wonder if her head might not explode.

She'd just reached the corner of Kaia's lot when Skyler caught sight of Kaia heading down into the storm cellar. Standing behind her, and holding Macey, was Lisa. She called out to them but wasn't sure Lisa had heard, though the single mother had looked up briefly. Skyler lost sight of her at that moment, though, because she chose that second to discover Kaia's root and was sent face first into a growing mud puddle, her flashlight hitting the ground and going out, plunging the teen into the darkness.

Though she didn't lose consciousness, Skyler did lose hope. The noise was deafening now, almost like laying underneath a passing train. And by that point, Skyler expected that Kaia had barred the inner lock on the steel storm doors.

Skyler closed her eyes and thought of Kaia, she thought of Lisa, and she thought of Macey. She prayed that they and her parents would survive the storm but asked God nothing for herself.

That's when she first felt fingers brusquely grasp her left arm, another hand sinking into her thick auburn tresses. Before she could even open her eyes, Skyler felt herself being lifted up to her feet. The mud and water coating her face made it impossible for Skyler to see clearly, but she could just make out the faint light of a lantern in front of her. So she trudged on next to her savior towards what she hoped would be safety.

They'd just reached the entrance to the storm cellar when a cracking sound behind them warned of danger. Lisa forced Skyler inside and down the steps as she forced close the storm door behind her, throwing the steel bar in place behind it. Just as she did, a crashing noise sounded just outside the house with something banging loudly against the door's steel surface.

Macey was crying loudly somewhere near her as Skyler struggled to clear her vision. When she could see, she took in the sight of a very wet and battered Lisa holding her scared child. To her left, Skyler spotted Kaia unscrewing the plastic lid to a five-gallon-bucket and pulling out a bottle of water and a container of baby wipes. The former Marine then unscrewed another and pulled out a couple of towels and a blanket before turning her attention back towards the other occupants of the shelter.

She rushed first to Lisa, handing her a towel and one of the blankets. Kaia then turned her attention to Skyler, and her eyes told the younger woman all she needed to know about how bad she looked.

Kaia handed her a towel and a bottle of water before opening the wipes and beginning to clean Skyler's mud-covered face. When Skyler could feel the majority of it gone, Kaia handed her the container and said she'd be right back. Skyler resumed wiping at her face as she watched Kaia turn to her supplies.