Mountain Magic

"So", Cat began matter-of-factly, "you own this cabin." Jesse nodded, meanwhile holding her numb fingers out to the warm blaze in the fireplace. "And I have paid very good money to stay here for the next week. We definitely have a problem". As she said this, Cat was smiling at Jesse, obviously trying to find humor in the situation. Her smile was really pretty. "I suppose the thing to do would be to call the rental office in the morning and see about getting me moved into some other cabin in the area. " Jesse agreed, again just nodding. "And, seeing as how it's The Blizzard of Armageddon outside, we are obviously going to have to share tonight, right?" Cat smiled again, showing by her manner that she was okay with the situation.

"I suppose so", Jesse replied, smiling back at Cat. "For tonight, I think we're stuck here together. We'll call Rural in the morning. There are a lot of other nice cabins and such around here. I mean, I hate to kick you out and all, but it really is my cabin..."

"Oh, no please," Cat said. "I understand. It is what it is. Though I expect a hefty discount on my next cabin!" Cat smiled again, and Jesse noticed how her smile changed her face from merely pretty to stunning. "I'll go and get my stuff out of the bedroom. You should at least get to sleep in your own bed". As she said this, Cat began to turn towards the bedroom door.

"No, no", Jesse said. Cat turned back to her with a questioning look. "Really, it's okay. If you're already all set up and everything....I mean, look: it's really late, I'm completely bushed. I'll just crash here on the sofa; it's no big deal at all. Really. I insist."

Jesse wasn't really sure why she was giving up her bed. She wanted that bed, immensely. And she really was tired, and that damn sofa was a back's nightmare. But it just seemed like the nice, chivalrous thing to do. Sometimes Jesse cursed her innate unselfishness.

Cat smiled again. "Are you sure?" she asked. Jesse took one look at Cat's radiant smile, and nodded. "I'm positive".

"Okay then", Cat said. "If you're sure...I guess I'll go back to bed then". Their eyes met for a moment, and once again Jesse found herself glued to the blue gaze. Cat smiled at Jesse, a warm friendly smile, then walked across the room to the bedroom door. "Goodnight, Jesse", she called.

"Nite Cat", Jesse said. "And thanks for not shooting me!"

Cat's sexy laugh followed Jesse down into sleep that night.

Jesse woke at the crack of dawn, groggy from the few hours of sleep she had gotten. And it wasn't even good sleep at that. Besides the uncomfortable sofa that left knots in her back and shoulders, Jesse had been plagued by frustrating sexual dreams involving her erstwhile roommate. The dreams, on top of the long dry spell she'd been going through pushed Jesse into a state of frustration that she was not very familiar with.

Quietly and slowly, Jesse let her hand slide down inside her pajama pants. Over the past few months, Jesse had gotten to be a pro at relieving her own sexual needs. She closed her eyes and rubbed her clit in little fast circles. Usually during a session of masturbation, Jesse's mind was mostly empty, just concentrating on the sensations of her body. But this morning, she found herself thinking of Cat in those tiny little shorts. The little fantasy developed quickly, Jesse seeing Cat in her minds' eye, watching as her ass became more and more exposed as the little brunette bent over, calling Jesse's name over her shoulder, those blue eyes full of lust and seduction. The orgasm hit quickly, and Jesse bit her lip, trying not to make a sound as she came fast and hard. When the throbbing in her pussy had slowed to a manageable level, Jesse felt the utter relaxation that only comes upon sexual release. Even the little knots in her back were better, and Jesse let herself drift back off to sleep.

It was a couple of hours later, judging by the light streaming in the windows, when Jesse woke again to the sound of the shower turning on in the bathroom. Obviously, Cat was awake. Jesse sat up on the sofa, cursing the knots and aches that were in her back muscles again. She stood up and stretched, moaning with the pleasure and pain of it.

Jesse made her way into the kitchen, which was really just the living room area separated by a high bar top counter. In fact, the whole cabin was laid out as one large open room, with the exception of the bedroom. From the kitchen, Jesse could see the entryway, the living room, as well as the loft area where a pool table and a dartboard were kept.

Jesse made a cup of coffee, and walked out of the kitchen, straight through the living room onto to the back deck, stepping into her shoes as she walked past them by the sofa. On the back deck, Jesse looked around and her breath caught in her throat.

Apparently, the blizzard had raged all night long. From this cabin deck, perched on top of a mountain, Jesse could see for miles, over several valleys and smaller hills, almost to the edge of the mountain range. And the damn snow covered everything. Even now, there were still some thick wet flakes drifting down. The entire landscape was covered with several feet of white shit. Jesse started to curse under her breath, knowing there was no way in hell she was leaving this cabin for the next several days at least.

As Jesse sipped her steaming coffee, she enjoyed the sensation of the cold brisk air across her skin. She walked around the deck which had been protected from the snow by the deep roofline and overhang above it. She looked out again at the winter wonderland before her. She took a deep breath and let it out forcefully, accepting whatever was to be. At least if she was going to be snowed in, she would be stuck here in this beautiful place, and not her tiny apartment in the city.

Jesse frowned, realizing that she would not be stuck here alone, but with a total stranger. As this thought crossed her mind, she turned unconsciously toward the bedroom of the cabin, thinking of Cat. Jesse caught her breath once again, and tried unsuccessfully to pry her eyes away from the scene before her.

The deck side of the cabin was all windows. There were sliding glass doors leading from the living room and the bedroom out onto the deck, but the floor to ceiling windows ran the whole length of the side of the cabin. Jesse had a straight view into the master bedroom.

The bedroom itself was a good sized room, but had zero privacy inside the room proper. There were no walls separating the bathing area from the bed area, with the exception of a short divider that blocked the view of the toilet. But the large double-occupancy tub and shower combo were almost part of the bedroom, and had no walls or doors or curtains to block it in.

Due to the large elegant size of the tub, and the placement of the showerhead, no shower curtain was necessary. Jesse had designed this cabin herself, and she loved the idea of showering in the open, with the wild rugged mountains visible. It was sort of like showering outside. It was one of the things that Jesse had splurged on when building the cabin. And now, due to her splurging, Jesse was getting a show.

Cat was in the shower. And unaware of Jesse's presence out on the deck. Jesse watched, mesmerized by the soapy water sluicing down Cat's naked body. Cat had her eyes closed and her head arched back, obviously enjoying the hot water as a small smile played across her mouth. She ran her hands down from her dark hair, down her sides, across her stomach, up over her large breasts, then back up into her hair again. Cat continued to stand under the spray, stroking her body and innocently driving Jesse mad with desire. After her fantasy episode this morning, seeing the real thing was almost too much to take. Jesse wanted nothing more than to step through the door into the room and join that luscious woman in the shower. Really put a smile on her face. Jesse knew she should turn away, but found herself unable to stop looking.

Cat turned away, revealing her tight round ass to Jesse's view, and grabbing a shower loofah lifted one leg up onto the rim. She bent over slightly to rub the soap into her legs and between them, and the backside view of Cat's ass and her perfectly shaved and bare lips catapulted Jesse towards the door. Jesse's hand was on the door when she came to her senses and whirled away in the other direction.

What the fuck am I thinking?! She screamed at herself. She must be really bad off if watching a woman shower could take over her brain like that. Jesse did not know this woman, knew nothing about her. Absolutely no way was there going to be anything sexual between them. Jesse rationalized her feelings away, deciding that she was just sexually frustrated and ready to fuck anything that looked good and had a heartbeat. Though to be honest with herself, Jesse had to admit that she was very attracted to Cat.

Jesse had her emotions under strict control and was sitting at the kitchen bar by the time Cat emerged from the bedroom, looking fresh and clean and smelling of lilacs. The scent of warm clean skin and flowers insidiously found its way up Jesse's nose as Cat came around the bar and took the seat next to her. Jesse firmly turned her mind to the matter at hand.

"Good morning", she said to Cat, handing the brunette a cup of coffee.

"Morning", Cat replied. "Mmmm...Thanks. Did you sleep okay last night?".

Jesse shrugged. "Well enough I suppose. But I'm afraid we have a problem".

Cat made a grimace, and then grinned. "I bet I can guess what it is. I can see out the window just fine!"

Jesse almost choked on her coffee, thinking that Cat was making a reference to her earlier Peeping Tom episode. But then Jesse realized that Cat was of course talking about the snow. Cat looked at Jesse questioningly, concerned as Jesse coughed and hacked up the hot beverage.

"Sorry, wrong pipe", Jesse rasped out. She cleared her throat a couple of times, wiping the tears from her eyes. "The snow, that's right", Jesse replied evenly. "We surely can't get out of here anytime today, and probably not tomorrow either. You and I are going to have to hunker down here together until some of this snow goes away. Might be a few days."

"Well, at least we'll have company!" Cat quipped, turning a big blinding smile on the redhead.

Jesse grinned and nodded, admiring how sturdily Cat seemed to be taking the news, and was almost jealous of Cat's apparent ability to find the positive in the situation. Seriously, the woman had been intruded on, feared a rape, nearly shot a stranger, was being kicked out of her expensive cabin retreat, and now faced an indeterminate amount of time stuck in said cabin with a sexually frustrated lesbian that wanted to rip her clothes off. It was really just too much! Jesse burst out laughing.

"Uh, Jesse, are you all right?" Cat asked. She was looking at Jesse like maybe the redhead had gone round the bend.

Jesse hooted a bit more, giggling at the absurdity of it all. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, sorry. Just this whole situation struck me as fucking hilarious." Jesse tried in vain to get control of herself. She looked up and caught Cat's eye, and something passed between them; acknowledgment of the humor and absurdity of life's little foibles, and suddenly they were both laughing like lunatics.

Every time one of them managed to get it under control, they would look askance at the other and it would send them both into renewed fits of hilarity. Cat would say "You should've seen your face!!" while making a gun shaped hand and pointing it at Jesse. Jesse would said "Surprise! You have company!" Soon, Jesse was kneeling on the floor, holding her stomach while tears streamed down her face. Cat was lying on her back on the floor, shaking her head back and forth while screaming with laughter.

It was a long while before they had both settled down enough to even talk intelligibly again.

"Wooooo, okay...." Jesse began. "First thing...we need supplies. I'm assuming you have more groceries and things with you, yes?" Cat nodded. "Good. I have some groceries in my truck, but I won't be able to carry it all back up here by myself in the snow. Can you help me?"

"Absolutely", Cat said. "Just let me go get my boots on. How far away is your truck, Jesse?"

"About a half-mile. It'll be easy to get to; since it's down hill, but coming back up will be a bitch."

Cat paused, looking thoughtful. "Would it help if we had a sled to haul the stuff back up the hill?"

"Cat, you're brilliant", Jesse cried. "That'll work perfect! Only..." Jesse bit her lip thoughtfully. "We don't have a sled. I wonder what we could use?"

"We DO have a sled!" Cat cried triumphantly. "There's one in the garage, right next to my car. I guess a previous renter left it here."

"Excellent", Jesse said. "Is there anything else useful in there?"

"I put all the firewood in there as well." Cat replied. "there should be plenty of wood for the next few days, so we won't have to worry about staying warm."

Jesse admired Cat's ability to think ahead. That would go a long way towards helping them out in this crazy situation.

"Okay great", Jesse said. "Let's get dressed and head out to my truck".

It took a while, but soon enough they both had trekked down to Jesse's truck, and back up again, hauling the rest of Jesse's supplies behind them on the sled. On the way down and back, they chatted a bit about themselves, polite chit chat that strangers will do in the getting-to-know-you dance. Jesse learned that Cat was from Virginia, had a college degree in fine arts, had been married and divorced, had no children, and was currently unemployed. Jesse wondered how Cat could afford a week in an expensive secluded cabin, but didn't ask.

Jesse told Cat about herself, starting with the fact that she had grown up on this mountain. Cat had exclaimed about that, telling Jesse how lucky she was. Jesse had agreed, and filled her in on some more of her history with the area. Her old house was no longer standing, as the developers that her parents had sold out to took down the houses and built in a bunch of cabins for the mountain retreat. Jesse had used her savings to buy this side of the mountain, put in her own cabin, and leased it out when she wasn't using it (which was most of the time). She spoke about her job, telling Cat she ran a gallery in the city. Jesse refrained from mentioning the financial difficulties she had had recently, and quickly moved on to other personal items about herself. Jesse told her that she had never been married, but had had a few serious relationships, but was single at the moment. It was at this point that Cat interrupted her with a question.

"Jesse, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm just curious...you're gay, right?" Cat asked quietly.

"Yes, I am. How about you?" Jesse grinned.

"No...no I can't say that I am", Cat replied. "I mean, sure; a friend of mine and I kissed some in high school on a dare. But no, I've never been with a woman. I don't have anything against it, but I myself just never saw the attraction there. I guess I am just more comfortable with a man".

"And I," Jesse quipped, "will never be comfortable with a man." Cat chuckled in response.

"No really, you have no idea what you're missing," Jesse said. "But since you're straight and all, I promise not to make you uncomfortable." Jesse replied.

"And all?" Cat laughed. "What the hell does that mean, and all?"

Jesse laughed too. "Yeah okay, that sounded dumb. Ha-ha. What I mean is, please don't think that just because I'm gay that means I'm going to make any moves on you or drool over your body or anything." Jesse flushed a bit, remembering that despite what she was saying now, that was exactly what she had done this morning during Cat's shower.

Cat made a little hurt face. "What, isn't my body drool-worthy?"

Jesse laughed out loud, blushing at the same time. "Um...well, as a matter of fact it is very drool-worthy. You have an excellent body, very sexy. You have just the right curves in all the right places." A slow knowing smile began to cross Cat's face. Jesse realized that she was going too far, and tried to balance that. "But you know, just because I appreciate a fine body doesn't mean I can't control myself or anything...." Jesse let her words drift off, realizing she was making an idiot of herself.

"Would you like a shovel to help you dig that hole?" Cat asked sweetly, giving Jesse a cute little grin.

Jesse laughed. "Evil, evil! You knew what you were doing! I'll get you for that!" Jesse stooped down to pick up a handful of snow. Cat mock-screamed and a short snowball fight ensued, effectively ending the conversation. By the time their energy for the snow fight had dissipated, they were very close to the cabin and began to talk of other things.

They spent a very pleasant day together, talking of this and that. Cat made sandwiches for lunch, while Jesse watched her quick graceful motions in the kitchen. They ate them together while playing card games to pass the time. At one point Jesse thought how strange it was, that though they had just met yesterday under stressful circumstances, today they were hanging out like good friends. It seemed that Cat was a very friendly outgoing person, the type of personality that Jesse gravitated towards. Jesse began to think that perhaps this snow-in wouldn't be so awful. As long as Jesse kept her libido under wraps and Cat didn't bend over in front of her.

As the day passed into evening, they both agreed that they had sat around as much as they could take, and decided after dinner to head up to the loft and shoot some pool together. Jesse made sure to keep the pool table between her and Cat, so Jesse was never in a position to see Cat's ass as the smaller woman bent over to make her shots. Jesse was an accomplished player, and was pleased to find that Cat was competent enough to make the game interesting. They played several games in a camaraderie of trash-talking.

Their conversation turned serious again during a short time out for snacks and a trip to the bathroom. Cat asked Jesse what had brought her to the cabin so late at night, so abruptly, so Jesse had explained the incident with Kate. When Cat asked why the episode was so awful, Jesse spilled the whole story to Cat.

"Kate and I were a pretty hot and heavy item for a long time. About 2 years I guess. But Kate is, well, to put it bluntly a bitch. Everything was always drama, drama, drama with her, and I never wanted to play those games with her. We became this on again, off again relationship, you know? One of those things were you know it's better to not do it, but for some reason you keep on with it?" Cat had nodded knowingly.

"We were together constantly anyways because of work. You see, I run a gallery, and Kate is one the best artists in the city. I showed her work, set up publicity for her, and got a percentage of every work she sold. But Kate was not really capable of keeping work separate from personal business. She constantly was airing our dirty laundry in front of my employees, customers...it got to be embarrassing. When I finally called it off, and I meant it; she went a little crazy." Jesse paused, embarrassed to go on.

"What happened?" Cat asked quietly, the pool game forgotten.

Jesse looked over at Cat, and wondered why she was telling her all of this personal stuff. Jesse wasn't sure, but Cat was very easy to talk to, and seemed to empathize with Jesse's problems. Jesse decided to let it all out.

"Kate decided to go on a personal revenge vendetta against me. But she dragged my business into it as well. She smeared my name in the artistic community, and I have not been able to book another artist of any caliber for the last 6 months. My gallery is on the brink of bankruptcy, and I will probably end up having to sell this cabin and my property here to keep it afloat. Or I could pack it all in, move somewhere else, and start all over...but DAMN I don't want to do that! It was so hard the first time, and I worked my ass off! I'm damn good at what I do, and I reckon Kate was jealous that I might be able to have success without her, I don't know. And now, well now it seems like she's really sorry about it all. But it's too late! God, I don't know what I'm going to do".