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Chapter 7 (X) - A Dip in Winter's Warmth

It was close to two weeks after the town's Christmas lighting ceremony and I was sitting in my living room watching the weather channel. They were talking about an incoming blizzard that had been wreaking havoc across the country for the last few days and would be hitting this area soon. Looking outside, I was thankful that I had already done my grocery shopping for the week and could easily last a while if the need arises. It was a little after four in the afternoon and the sky outside my living room window looked bleaker than usual. Granted it was around the time of year where the days were short and the winter solstice was just around the corner in a few days. With that in mind, it was hard to tell that it was still supposed to be daytime with the heavy storm coming .

I ended up getting off the couch and went over to the bay window to observe the outside weather as the reporters continued on tv. My mind was wandering as I watched the large flakes of snow come down, adding another layer to the already deep drifts. I do remember being in a few blizzards when I was growing up, so this sort of thing wasn't anything new to me but it has been a while since I've encountered so much snow.

I was dragged out of my thoughts when I heard the doorbell ring. Confused and certainly not expecting company with this weather, I went to the door and found Amber standing there when I opened the door.

“Hi Frost."

“Amber, hey." I said, a bit surprised to see the snow leopard standing there. “What brings you here?"

“Uhm…" She fidgeted a little. A shy act that I haven't really seen her do before. “I wanted to come over and spend some time with you if that's alright?"

“Of course." I answered as I stepped back to let her in. “You're always welcome here." She smiled as she stepped through the door and thankfully, the roof prevented most of the falling snow from congregating on her. Although I swear that every time I look, the flakes are coming down harder and faster. “Man, it's getting nastier by the minute it seems."

“Yeah, it was somewhat decent when I first left home, but got worse as I came closer to here."

“Well, there is a storm blowing in." I mentioned as I took her coat and hung it in the hallway. “I'm honestly more surprised to see that someone went out in it."

“Err… yeah…" She said a bit sheepishly.

I led her to the living room and offered her a seat, which she took on the sofa. I noticed some disappointment when I sat in one of the arm chairs that was on the side. “So…" I started again. “What really brings you out here on a day like today? It's not the kind of weather that you would want to jump into a car and drive around in."

“Well, uhm…" Amber started to fidget with her hands as she stumbled over her words. “You see… Well… The thing is…" She kept trying to speak, to convey what was on her mind but she continued to flounder. Finally, she let out a frustrated growl and stood up. “Gods… You know what? Forget it, just forget it! I can't…" She started to stomp her way back to the front door in frustration only for me to stand up myself and block her way.

“Amber, what is going on?" I asked, concerned and confused with how she's been acting in the past few minutes. “You're acting rather strange right now. At least, I think that you are." Amber looked away towards the floor. “I've never seen you behave like this in the short time that I've known you."

“Frost… I…" She looked up and even though her face was stoic, I could see a variety of emotions flashing in her eyes, ranging from sadness to anger and… Something else that I wasn't sure about. “I'm sorry, I can't… Just forget it…" She finally blurted out as she pushed past me. A bit stunned and confused, I followed her back to the foyer as she grabbed her coat and quickly put it on.

“Amber, wait." I said as I approached her. “What is wrong Amber? This isn't like you. Tell me, what is wrong?"

“I…" She turned to me, looking into my eyes. I could see that there was some kind of mental conflict going on. It started to look like she was about to open up to me when something else pushed her to do the opposite. “No… This is stupid, I shouldn't have come…"

“What is stupid?" I asked. “Amber, talk to me."

She gave me an apologetic look before turning to the door and opening it to make her exit. However, she hesitated once she stepped outside and looked up. In the few minutes that we were inside, the storm picked up in ferocity and was coming down hard. The car that Amber came in was both buried under a thick layer of snow and was barely visible in the heavy maelstrom that the storm was creating. It was those big, heavy flakes that were coming down rather thick that would make travel difficult on their own, but once you factor in the winds that were kicking up drifting snow. If one was lucky, visibility was maybe twenty to fifty yards.

“Come back inside Amber." I said as I placed my hand on her shoulder, fighting back the natural impulse to shiver in the blowing cold. With much less hesitation than she had been showing, I was able to guide the snow leopard back inside and we soon found ourselves back in my living room. Amber was quiet while I went to the kitchen and made us some hot cocoa, watching the flames that I had going in the living room's fireplace. I think that we both silently accepted the fact that we were stuck here together until the storm passed over and the town was able to dig ourselves out.

“Seems like we are stuck together." I said as I handed her the cup of hot cocoa. She flinched slightly when I broke the silence, but she did take the cocoa and nodded with a low “Yeah…" I sat down on the sofa and watched the snow leopard for a moment before she finally decided to join me on the sofa, keeping a slight distance from me. I took a few sips of my drink and noted that Amber was just staring at the beverage in her hands.

“Frost…?"

“Yes?" I said just before taking another sip of cocoa.

“Do you like me?" My immediate response was to choke on the warm liquid that I just put in my mouth. “You don't, do you."

“God…" I finally choked out after a few seconds. “Why is it that kind of question is asked right as someone takes a drink?" I calmed myself after a few seconds of silence so that I could make sure everything was where it should have gone in the first place. “Amber, where did that come from?"

“Just forget I asked." Came her melancholy reply.

“No." I said sternly. Amber tried to sink into the couch, apparently wanting to disappear with what I had just said. “I will not forget what you just said, nor will I simply pretend like everything today didn't happen." She finally looked up at me, a glint of hope in her eyes. “Amber, you came here for a reason and I want you to be honest with me. Why did you come here?"

Amber looked down at her mug and started to fidget with her fingers. Whatever it was, it was not an easy topic to broach. “Uhm… How much biology do you know?"

My eyebrows shot up at the question, I was starting to figure out where this might be going. “Mmm… Basic stuff from junior-senior high school. It's not something I'm very well versed in."

“But you know that a girl goes through… Cycles… Right?"

“Of course." I chuckled as I thought about my childhood. “I grew up with an older sister and a mother so I do have Some idea of where you might be going." I sat my mug down on the coffee table and leaned back into the cushion behind me. “So… When did it start?"

“Yesterday…"

“And… You came to me to relieve your… Itch?" She quickly nodded, a bit awkwardly I might add. It was my turn to start acting shyly and awkwardly. “I… I'm flattered, really I am. But…"

“But…" She repeated, her ears falling to the side and that forlorn look returned as she went back to looking at her drink.

“Always a but…" I muttered to myself as I tried to calm my nerves. “To be honest Amber, we've only known each other for less than a month and while my… father… wasn't the best around, he did teach me a few things that still resonate with me."

“And… that would be?"

“Never make love with a girl unless you are willing to marry her."

“That… Seems to be sound advice."

“Let me ask you this, Amber, would you be willing to marry me?"

“Uhm…" She finally said after a moment of silence. “I… Don't know. Maybe…?"

I just sighed and rolled my eyes at her response. We fell back into a bit of awkward silence as I complicated the situation, unsure of how to proceed. The minutes continued to tick by as we just sat there, our minds going through whatever thoughts were coming up in our heads. After close to a half hour later, Amber meekly broke the silence.

“Uhm... Say Frost,"

“Yes?"

“Would it be too much if I asked for a tour of the house?"

“Why not?" I shrugged as I stood up. “I mean, if I'm being honest I still haven't fully explored the place myself."

Amber gave me a funny look as she stood up. “Really? I would have thought that you've checked everything out by now."

“Well… I just never took the time to venture beyond what I use on a daily basis."

“Uh-huh…" Amber eyed me skeptically at that. “So I'm guessing that you've only been in the living room, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom and bathroom?"

“As well as the utility room and garage." I added.

“Okay…" She said as she looked around. In truth, Amber has been over a few times over the past month but we've only gone as far as the dining room and living room for some simple meals and a movie night or two. So she was at least familiar with the main portion of the house. “What's down the hall?"

“I believe there's two spare bedrooms." I said, then quickly added. “Though I don't think it's a good idea to get you near a bed with me around." Amber wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue at me in response.

“What about down in the basement?"

I shrugged. “I haven't paid much attention to be honest."

Before anything else could be said, Amber walked past me to get to the stairs. As she passed, her long fluffy tail wrapped itself around my leg before teasingly pulling off. When I turned to face her there was a slight, mischievous grin on her face as she glanced my way and descended into the basement. I could only puff out a long breath before following the feline down the stairs. Once down stairs, I found her looking around at the various stuff that was there, including a billiards table. She looked up and gave me another mischievous grin when she noticed that I was at the bottom of the stairs.

“So," Amber started with a hint of playfulness. “You're telling me that you didn't know about any of these things down here?" She indicated the pool table, a home theater system, and what looked to be a wet bar.

“Like I said, I haven't taken the time to…"

“Explore." She finished for me. She continued to look around the room as one of her hands rolled the cue ball around the table.

“Uhm… If you want," I managed to stutter out, very nervous with the frisky feline in my house. “Maybe we can play a game or two."

“Maybe later." She said as she walked away from the table. “Though I do want to make a little wager if I win for an incentive." She said with that mischievous grin of hers. I couldn't help but to laugh nervously at that, figuring what she might have on her mind. Her eyes wandered along the far wall. “Where do those doors lead?"

I looked over to where she indicated and spotted what she was talking about, there were two doors over in the corner. Each was set into different walls at the corner with the one being close to the actual corner while the other was set a little further away so neither door would interfere with each other.

“I don't know." I honestly said. “Maybe one leads outside and the other is a broom closet?"

Both of us went over to where the doors were and we each choose one to open. The door that I picked happened to be the one that opened into a hallway with a set of stairs at the end that led up to a set of cellar doors to the outside, judging by the cold air that was drifting by me. I quickly closed the door to keep the chill out.

“Uhm… Frost?" I turn to see Amber by the open door, looking rather surprised. I came to her side and I was shocked like she was, behind the door she chose was a long hallway that faded into darkness. “Where do you think it leads?" She asked.

I took out my cell phone and turned on its flashlight feature, illuminating the walls closest to us. A quick glance around and I found a light switch on the wall and I flipped the switch, illuminating the long hallway. The lights flickered on within a moment and revealed a tiled hallway that was wide enough where Amber and I could almost walk side by side down the hall. It seemed to stretch on for some distance before ending in what looked like a corner, veering off to our right by the looks of it and continuing on from there. Something else that I noticed was that next to the switch was a device which looked like a motion sensor that you would occasionally see in public restrooms, probably a cost saving measure? I thought it was an odd detail but didn't really pay any heed to it.

“No idea." I finally said after taking everything in. “But there's one way to find out. Shall we?" I extended my hand out to her and she took it as we both entered the hallway.

Like I figured, the mysterious hallway extended some length in front of us and took us a little time to get to the bend. Two things that I noticed as we walked further down the hall was that there was a subtle decline to the floor that I didn't notice back in the basement, then there was the slight feeling of increasing humidity in the air as we approached the bend. It wasn't that much yet, but it was starting to become noticeable. Around the bend it was more hallway, but there was a noticeable room at the end as well as a door close to the end. Amber and I glanced at each other before continuing to the new room. When we finally reached the end, I both was and wasn't surprised to find an indoor pool. In truth, there were quite a few dead giveaways that there was a swimming pool at the end of the hall. The sound of water lapping the edges, the feeling of the humidity with the smell of chlorine in the air, the humming of equipment when we passed by that closed door in the hall.

What was surprising was the design of the room.

The building itself felt large with half the walls looking like they had been carved out of the hillside while the other half were mostly reinforced windows that would probably have a wonderful view outside if it wasn't for the raging blizzard blocking the scenery. The pool took up half the floor, sunken into the ground and followed the contours of the elongated, octagonal room. Built into the one wall was a group of rocks that had a set of steps to the top with a long rock that looks like it could be used as a diving board, as well as a cascading waterfall just below the top of the rock formation. There were also a few reclining lawn chairs situated on the space next to the pool as well as a few tables nearby, though it looked like the furniture hadn't been used in a while.

When I looked over at Amber, she was standing in awe at the combination of natural and created aesthetic of the room. I couldn't blame her though, if I had to guess, she was feeling the same thing as me. One thing that I had to wonder, did my uncle design this, or did he have someone come in and craft this place?

“My… This place, it's almost like it's out of a dream."

“Indeed." Was my somewhat lackluster response, Amber just shook her head at my comment.

“Do you think that it would be safe to swim in?"

“Don't know." I replied. I walked over to the edge of the pool and looked in to find what looked to be clear water from what I could tell. Reaching down, I stuck my hand in and felt the temperate water saturate my fur and thought how it felt relatively clean from what I could tell. If anything, I would guess that the pool was set up much similar to an indoor pool of a school or the likes. “I… Think it's okay?" I said hesitantly as I stood up. “I mean, I'm no expert but the water looks and feels clean."

“Think that there's any logs or information in that maintenance room that we passed?"

“Maybe." I said as I went to do just that. Inside the room I found pretty much what I was expecting, pipes, filters, gauges, and a host of other things that I had no real clue about. Figuring out what I could, most of the indicators were in the green and I did find a maintenance schedule that showed that things were checked out a week or two before I had arrived in Delows Valley.

“Well," I said as I came back into the pool room. “Everything looks good. Though again, I'm not that knowledgeable with the stuff. So if you want, we could go back to the house and see what we can do for swimwear and towels as I'm sure we can figure something out." I was suddenly blinded by some sort of cloth hitting my face. “What the hell Amber!" Came my muffled rebuke as I worked on getting the offending fabric off. It had unexpectedly wrapped around my head, causing me to fumble with whatever it was that Amber threw at me. It took me a long moment to realize what it was that Amber had thrown at me, in my hands was her blouse that she had been wearing just moments before and threw in my face. It was about then as I was about to pull the shirt off my head that a spicy-sweet smell hit my nose and I could feel a tingling in my loins from the strange, unfamiliar scent. I could only gulp to myself as I finish untangling what Amber

When I pulled the fabric off, my breath caught in my throat at the sight that was before me.

Amber was standing there in nothing but her spotted fur, taking off the last stitch of fabric and tossing it onto a nearby chair with the rest of her clothes. Her fur was almost all white any shades of gray were so light that they almost blended in with the rest of her fur. Her spots looked relatively small on her and weren't as numerous as other snow leopards that I had seen before, it was hard to truly see her back because of her long white hair, but it was still like finding a snow goddess in her bountiful glory.

“Why worry about swimsuits when it's just the two of us?" She said as she sauntered up to me. “We are, after all, two adults."

Unfortunately for me, my mind had gone blank upon seeing her naked form and I was left standing there with my mouth flapping open much as a fish out of water would. I was in such a shock that I did not fully register that she had walked up to me until her lip pressed hungrily into mine and wrapped her arms around me, trapping me in my stupor and her embrace. I could only melt into her kiss, slowly succumbing to the snow leopard's desires and my own natural instincts of lust. I didn't come out of the fog that had gripped me until I had suddenly found myself hitting the water and submerging under the surface. It was enough of a system shock that I was able to get my bearings and launched myself from the pool's floor and quickly surfaced in an eruption of water.

I could hear Amber giggling as I refilled my lungs and expunged what water that had entered my body from the sudden push by the snow leopard. I looked up to see Amber giving me a toothy grin before diving in and joining me in the water. Instead of abruptly coming through the surface like I had, she instead circled around and came up slowly like an aquatic creature stalking its prey. Her head was the only thing that stayed above water as she approached me until she was directly in front of me, then she was nose to nose with me and I could feel her breast pressing against my chest. It was here that I realized that Amber had stripped me of my clothes, a pair of sweatpants and a front zipper hoodie that I typically wore around the house when I had nothing going on. So it was bare fur to bare fur as she pressed her body against mine.

“A little warning would have been nice." I said in mock irritation.

“Aww, are you really going to complain?" She asked as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Besides, it looked like you were enjoying it so much that I couldn't help myself…" She purred as she looked at me with a predatory smile. “Though I wouldn't mind continuing it with you if you want."

I could only shake my head and sigh, but I could see in her eyes that she knew full well that she basically had me cornered and at her mercy. Before I could possibly try and think of a way out of my predicament, those soft lips of Amber's pressed themselves back against mine and I couldn't help but to melt into them again. Perception of my surroundings seemed to fade away with each moment that our muzzles were locked together, it was like kissing heaven and I didn't want to pull away. I could barely detect something else sturing lower on my body, not that it already has been before but now I could feel the additional heat and wet downy fur of my companion. Amber broke away from the kiss and gazed at me with her emerald eyes.

“Is that a pool toy you're sitting on or are you happy to see me?" She teased before twisting one of her legs around my hips, drawing our bodies even closer that I thought they could get. I could feel my man hood brushing along her folds, barely missing entering her forbidden sanctum. She let out a gasp at the missed opportunity but let out a purr at the feeling of the stiffness that was now resting against her. The heat that she was giving off was causing shivers to run down my spine and the more I was near her, the more I felt ready to give into temptation.

In an act of last minute desperation, I sprung forward into her and caught her by surprise. At that moment, our lips touched once again and went for another passionate kiss. However, I didn't stop at that kiss. I had also launched myself forward, pushing her body back and caused her to submerge backwards as I made my bid to free myself from her grasp. The move worked for as soon as her head went under, her grip on me released and I was able to propel myself over her. It took her a moment to realize what had happened and she came back up with a gasp and coughing out the water that she had inadvertently swallowed.

“That was a dirty trick." She commented gruffly. However, I didn't hear her as I was underwater and swimming along the bottom.

Now, I'm no otter who could easily hold my breath for ten or more minutes but I could still hold my breath in water for a good four to five minutes before needing air. This little tidbit gave me enough time to get away from the confused feline and for me to discover a hidden feature of this pool. There was a concealed cove under the diving rock and behind a waterfall at the deep end of the pool.

What I found was a cozy space where two or more adults could hide themselves away from prying eyes, if they so choose. The hideaway was deep enough that I was able to swim inside without surfacing and I was even able to stand up and still have everything below my belly button remain submerged. I sighed as I sat on a rock that seemed to be intended to be used as a bench and leaned back against the wall.

“How did I get into this situation again?" I asked myself out loud. It was a couple of moments as I sat there to cool my head before I noticed a change in the ambient noise around me. Glancing back at the entrance, I noticed Amber passing under the waterfall and into the cove. She looked at me for a moment, her expression changing from being glad to have found me to one of guilt. She sat down at the other side of the cove, her gaze in her lap as we sat there with only the water making any sound.

“I… I'm sorry…" She finally broke the silence that had fallen between us. “I don't… I mean I just…" She tried several times to start, but like many others she was having trouble putting her thoughts into words. Till finally, Amber let out a depressed sigh and slumped into the water. “This whole thing was such a huge mistake… I'm sorry Frost. This was such a bad idea from the start. I should have just tried to endure…" She gestured at her hips and belly. “This… At home." She finally huffed out before sinking even deeper into the water. “ I shouldn't have gotten you involved. God… I'm so horrible… I-I very nearly raped you."

“Amber…" I stood up and came over to where she was sitting.

“Frost… I… I understand if you want to never see me after this." She stammered out, not once looking up at me as I sat down next to her.

“Amber, listen." I started in a gentle voice. “It's not that I don't like you or that you did anything (much) wrong. But from my perspective, you are not thinking clearly. Your heat is driving you to act and do things that you normally wouldn't do. It's the same as if you were drunk." I put my hands under her chin and gingerly brought her face around to look at me. “I don't want you to put yourself in a situation where you might regret it later. I do like you and I respect you too much to even think about taking advantage of your situation."

“Y-you like me?"

“That's what I said, wasn't it?" I replied. “I like you and I don't want to see you get hurt, I like you too much to see you do that to yourself. Just like I don't want to see you rushing into something that you or someone else isn't ready for yet."

“Frost I… Thank you." She said as she looked at me.

“You're welcome." I said as I pulled her into a hug.

We spent another hour and a half in the pool, doing the typical swimming and fooling around. Though I did have to stop Amber from getting too frisky again. We dried off after we were done and I had Amber put her clothes back on before walking back through the tunnel into the basement again. I believe her heat was getting to her again because she wanted us to remain in the buff where I had to argue every step of us putting on all of our clothes. Admittedly, she did have a cute pouty face that almost had me relent to her but I managed to keep my composure.

Even though the pool house had a large window section that I could somewhat gauge the strength of the blizzard striking the area, we had largely ignored the outside until we were back in the main house and we were not prepared for how ugly it looked now. If I had thought that the storm earlier when Amber arrived was bad, it's even worse now. Even Amber shivered when she looked out the back window.

It was starting to get late when we were discussing our sleeping arrangements. Mostly me trying to convince the very aroused snow leopard into taking one of the four other bedrooms while she kept trying to get me to agree to her spending the night in the bed that I was going to sleep in. We were discussing the arrangements again when the power went out all of a sudden, leaving us in near darkness as the storm raged outside. Amber made a cute yelp when the power went out, which made me giggle much to her embarrassment. When the power didn't immediately come back on, both of us pulled out our phones and turned on the flashlight apps so we could see.

“Hey Amber," I said thinking quickly. “Think you could go into the spare bedrooms and grab a couple of blankets?"

“Sure, but what are you going to be doing?"

“I'm going to see if I can get the fireplace going to give us some heat for the night." Amber nodded and we each went to do our task.

I was somewhat lucky that there were several cords of wood on the back porch where I only had to grab my jacket and step outside briefly to grab an arm full. At first, I only moved the fire wood into the covered porch to thaw and dry parts of the split logs and brought in some of the dryer pieces for the fireplace tonight. By the time I had a small pile by the fireplace, Amber had not only had a couple of blankets and pillows ready, but also had found a fire starter kit. After some finagling, we got the fire going in the living room and with little else to do, we each curled up in our blankets on the sofa.

“Hey Frost,"

“Yes?"

“Could we… Well, would you mind snuggling up with me? Please?"

“Amber…" I started.

“It's nothing sinister, I promise. It's just that… I'd just want to be held, even if it's for a little bit."

I sighed and said, “Come here." Amber quickly came over and we got comfortable again with her back pressed against my chest and the two of us watching the fire dance before us.