Page 70 of Abdominal Snowman

Soren caught her against him without breaking a sweat. As the snow settled around them, they were chest to chest in the freezing cold. Their breaths mingled together, puffs of steam intertwining.

“How far are we from the destination?” Sage asked, kind of wishing they were closer to a bed just then.

“About another thirty minutes.”

Sage sighed dramatically and spun around Soren, following the path with slow, exaggerated steps.

“Oh, that’s such a long hike. I wonder if I can make such a trip and take my boyfriend’s massive cock later—”

She heard three pounding steps before she was scooped off her feet and coddled in her snowman’s arms.

Her laugh echoed in the forest around them, and for a split second, she realized she hadn’t heard the sound in a while.

“Soren! Put me down,” she protested between giggles.

“Sorry, can’t. See, I have this super horny princess that I have to take care of. Her feet mustn’t touch the ground.”

Eventually, she wiggled her way out of his arms, and by that, she meant she wrapped her legs around his waist until Soren had to stop halfway there and press her up against a tree. Their tongues dueled and their breaths clouded around them until she was gasping for more.

When she breathed out a plea, he smirked against her lips and pulled back. She got another peck, then two before he grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the tree, back on the main path.

“Wha—”

“We’re almost there,” he insisted, and glanced back at her with a devious smile.

And with the warmth stirring inside her, she gripped his hand tighter and followed him.

Along the way, her fingers itched for her camera, and she finally let go of his hand to pull it out. While she walked ahead, Soren followed slower, keeping his distance and holding her camera bag—at his insistence—as she captured what she could. Birds that stood out against white covered branches, the tiniest paw prints in the snow. He helped her when it got steep, and when he gave her one last pull over some ice-slicked rocks, she gasped.

They stood on a rocky ledge, rows and rows of snow-covered trees leading to the valley below. Berrysburg was a glittering paradise, the sunlight shining off the snow spattered roofs and roads as small dots of people meandered lazily along the streets.

“Whoa,” she breathed, her breath fogging in front of her.

“Yeah, it’s… something else.” Soren took off his toboggan—she would die on this hill—and fluffed up his hair. She didn’t know when he’d shifted to change it back to white, but she loved it best natural. He took a lungful of the crisp mountain air. “I come here to clear my head, especially this time of the year. During summer, the tourists flock here for their perfect Instagram pictures, but no one ever comes up in the wintertime.”

“I thought it seemed a little… slippery on the way up, for a popular spot, you know.”

“Yeah.”

It was silent as Sage lifted her camera, looking through the viewfinder and pressing the shutter button with awe.

“You know, I’m surprised you don’t hate this place,” she said softly.

She felt Soren’s head snap in her direction. “Why’s that?”

“From what you told me, this is what attracted Tobin in the first place.” Crudely, she wondered why none of the abominables—the guys with ice powers—thought to ruin Outlook Peak. If tourists couldn’t get up here, it wouldn’t be a good tourist spot, would it? Then Tobin wouldn’t be able to profit off of it.

Soren nodded and stared off into the distance. “I suppose that’s true, and I get what you mean. But this is nature. It was here before us and it will be here long after we are gone, even abominables. Nature isn’t to blame for humanity’s greed. Plus… isn’t it beautiful?”

Sage pulled her gaze from the ant-sized town of Berrysburg to the man beside her. He was right. Why should something so beautiful be destroyed to stop another’s greed? Wasn’t that greed in and of itself?

“Yeah, it is,” she finally answered.

Soren let her play with her lens out, taking as many pictures of Berrysburg as she wanted from as many angles as he could help her reach.

Higher?

Higher she went.