Red November Ch. 01

Katerina wafted her own eyelashes mischievously. "Come on, be fair. Haven't we made you look wonderful? Look at yourself in the mirror again. Don't you look terrific? You know you do. You know you look petite and colourful. What's wrong? What don't you like?"

"My chest."

"Not that again."

"I'm afraid what people will think."

"If the boys ever get a peep at your nipples they'll be thrilled. They'll think you're gorgeous."

"No, not just boys. Other people."

"What other people?"

"Whoever's there."

"Don't be stupid." Svetlana's eyes blazed with heat as she settled down beside him and pressed her mouth onto the hollow of his throat. "Now I will fulfil our bargain. But first you must say that thing I've always wanted you to say."

"You mean..."

"I mean that thing you refused to say on your first morning here."

The nearness of her, the touch of her mouth, the scent she exuded, all played havoc with Konni's senses. As if in a dream he leaned against her. "My name was once Konstantin, but I'm now Konstantina. I'm a man, but I want to be a girl."

With a faint smile of triumph Svetlana embraced him, took him by the chin, turned his face up and kissed him. She began slowly and tenderly, and then putting a hand behind his head, drew him forward and kissed harder. Their teeth met with a click, his mouth was open and a tantalising sweep of her tongue brought forth a trembling response, the scarlet lip rouge on each of their mouths melding together with a sticky kind of adhesion. It was the first time a girl had kissed him like that, on the mouth and with passion. In the monastery-like institution of school in Kharkov he had shared kisses, but there had never been the sweet aroma of flowers there. A complexity of emotions tumbled through him as he tasted her smile. It was not like the kiss he'd shared with Dmitri, hot with anger and desire, yet her mouth seemed familiar and absolutely perfect as it smeared lip rouge against his own.

When Svetlana eased away her lips remaining half open, wet with saliva. She drew a ragged breath, and then slid her hand across Konni's chest, her fingers tracing a velvet path along the ridge of his collarbone until her palms cupped his chest and began to caress, gently kneading while her thumbs fluttered over each taut nipple. With a gasp Konni realised the areolas were more swollen than he had ever known them and his teats had risen up like spikes.

"Feels good?"

"I...ummm."

Her mouth quivered against his earlobe and he felt her teeth nip lightly. "I'll take that to mean yes."

Gauging the mood calmly Katerina put her hand on his knee and carefully caressed his leg and upper thigh before reaching out. The warmth of her cousin's limbs were softer and finer than she'd anticipated. She unbuttoned the waist of his pantaloons whilst he still had no presence of mind to protest, and pulled them down beneath the delicate dip of his belly. Drawing them beyond the silky curve of his thighs, then reached for his penis. He had a beautiful penis, she thought, impeccably shaped and already semi-erect, standing sentinel over a delightful looking scrotum. Her fingers flexed around the half-risen flesh as she leaned over his groin; moving his penis in her hand and making it nod. They both stiffened, Konni and his penis.

He belatedly tried to sit up, but Katerina pushed him back. "Don't be a baby," she scolded. She was like a tigress at that moment and he rocked into Svetlana's arms. Unbidden, his heat and hardness pressing boldly forward as the girl's hand squeezing out little sobs and tortuous plea- choked whimpers from his throat.

He gazed at them with alarm in his big brown eyes. "Svetlana, Katerina... s...stop. I'm...I...can't."

"It's okay, Konni." Svetlana's soft, sweet breath fanned against his ear.

"We want it to happen. We want to see," explained Katerina, marvelling as she detected he swollen sturdy core beneath the pliant silk-like foreskin. She had not done it often before, but she was not a novice. She continued to wrinkle the skin up and down until it rose up as solid as a bone in a velvet envelope.

Eventually Konni's eyelids drooped and fluttered as his mouth eased out a low groan, part relief and all necessary aching need. The girl picked up the pace, hauling energetically enough to expose the pink, epithelial surface of the plum-shaped tip. A moment later the boy climaxed on a ragged sob, heart banging, and breathe clogging his throat as he poured out a rivulet of warm cream over her fingers.

***

In the days that followed the paved yard at the rear of the house became Konni's favoured haunt. Around it stood a clutch of trees, birch, bird cherry and larch, the foliage of their branches interlacing over his head to provide a delightfully natural parasol. There also was where in the summer Lyuba did much of her food preparation. She chopped onions, made bread, peeled potatoes and prepared sausage, always bearing in mind the need to stock up stores of food for the winter. His cousins set the table for meals and scrubbed the little outhouse that Lyuba cleaned in the evenings but which she never cleaned properly, and they also tended the vegetable garden where so much of their food was grown.

There was no such toil for Konni. His aunt had said while smiling sweetly. "Your father was adamant about only one thing. Your true place is with the privileged classes, therefore your time with us will be on a special basis. You will never be asked to perform any menial tasks."

He liked his aunt. He'd always liked her. He didn't know whether it was her easy smile, or the bruised look she couldn't quite hide which let her humanity shine through, but he liked her a lot.

He fell into the routine of sitting outside with a book, as poised and gracious in his seat as any well brought up teenage girl. When he walked he even tried to emulate a dainty tripping gait, and the wearing of skirts, once so obnoxious, slowly became preferable to anything else. Inexorably it seemed he was beginning to enjoy being a young lady.

His impersonation of a girl was impeccable it seemed. No one ever questioned the fact. Not even Dmitri Ranchev. The girls tittered and joked that he was Dmitri's sweetheart, and although he raged against the suggestion, when he had time to think about it he decided he probably was. He often thought about the boy. It was wicked to think of him as gorgeous, but that was the word that constantly sprang to his mind. Dmitri filled his thoughts and his senses. It wasn't love, he assured himself. It was more of an odd sort of admiration. Nevertheless, when they could snatch a moment together during school the boy would put an arm around his slender waist and nuzzle the side of his neck with his lips, which made him feel extremely girlish and caused excitement to dance through his body like sparks shooting along a wire.

One fine evening his aunt found him sitting in the yard holding out his hands and admiring the elegance of his fingers. He looked gorgeous in his white blouse and long black skirt - and the flash of young legs in dark knitted stockings together with the cloud of dark hair that formed a halo around his face. Sometimes she could hardly believe what a beauty he had become. Everyone admired him.

Konni jumped up to greet her. "Auntie would it be awful if I was to ask for a loan of money, like to get some material for a skirt?"

She gave him a mildly sceptical glance. "Svetlana and Katerina have skirts that fit you."

"Yes I know, but I want something of my own for special times."

"What material do you have in mind?"

"I don't know. Something rich. I saw something in one of your old magazines. It was worn by a large woman and looked like tapestry."

"Tapestry?" His aunt sounded doubtful.

"Maybe not that. Tapestry may make me look like a piece of furniture."

Madam Petrovich became suddenly inspired. "Do you mean brocade? I have a lovely brocade skirt, better than anything you can buy in the town. You can have it."

"It wouldn't fit me, aunt."

"I could have it shortened and taken in, and then we could sew on a top of black velvet with some brocade to trim it. What do you think?"

"Cut up your lovely skirt?"

His aunt stroked his hand with affection. Konni was simply spectacular to look at, with his cool, polished, ivory skin and warm brown eyes, and his neatly braided dark hair that made him look fresh, young and rather beguiling. "Pah! What use have I for such things these days? If you're invited to a dance I want you to be the belle of the ball."

A slight flush of guilt coloured his cheeks. "Yes. Well, I'm not really a girl, auntie, but while I keep up this pretence I think I should attempt to appear genuine."

Later that week he went out alone in the evening wearing his new skirt and took the path to the little stone bridge where he'd previously agreed to meet Dmitri Ranchev. He felt no guilt. He was an imposter, someone who wasn't real, and to accommodate his role he'd been dressed like a girl and encouraged to act like a girl, so it should have surprised no one if sometimes he wanted to be a girl. And it wasn't unnatural for girls to have boyfriends.

Even so, his heart thumped when he saw him. There was a hint of arrogance about the postmaster's son and a certain tilt of his head - he'd noticed it from their first meeting. It told him he was clever and strong and not to be taken lightly, but there was humour in him too, and it proved a heady mix. Dmitri's gaze moving up and down Konni's gentle curves. "I don't know if I like seeing you like that?" he said.

Shocked and disappointed Konni pouted. "Oh, why is that?"

"Because every boy in town is going to see what I already know."

"What?" He felt alarmed and a hot flush rose in his cheeks. Had the boy seen through his careful disguise? Did he know his secret?

"Yes, really. Unless they're all blind and numb they'll see the prettiest girl ever put on the Earth."

Konni recovered quickly, dipped his eyes demurely, feeling extraordinarily flattered.

"Stunning! That's the word," exclaimed Dmitri admiringly. "Very elegant." Konni's eyes twinkled and he beamed pleasure. He could never be a porcelain princess. He was made of flesh and bone and had emotions. "I always thought I was rather gangly."

"Never that," protested the boy, taking him by the hand. "Slim, yes. Scrawny, never."

Holding hands and exchanging eloquent sighs they followed the course of the meandering stream below the bridge until it widened into a fen full of reeds and willow that broke the monotony of the wheat fields. A white stork had taken residence there and was pacing carefully through the water, its orange bill jerking left and right as it sought a meal from around its feet.

Dmitri leaned over, his mouth near Konni's ear. "I look at you and see you like I did the first day you came to the school. Damp and hot. Panting." Konni felt his heart miss a couple of beats, and from the way Dimitri moved he suspected his groin was responding to him. Despite that, he smiled, trying one of the sexy mischievous smiles perfected by his cousins.

Dmitri fixed his gaze on him, eyelids at half mast. "Kissy, kissy!" he murmured, putting out his arms. Konni giggled, putting his hand in front of his face like a genuine schoolgirl.

"Well, maybe the kiss can wait." The boy's gaze dropped to Konni's chest and he busied one fingertip, suggestively circling a button on his blouse.

Konni scowled. "Dmitri Ranchev, you're wicked."

The other boy's lips turned up in a grin. "Bad to the bone. Better not forget it. Take off your blouse for me."

Konni's legs wobbled and disturbing sense of anticipation washed through his body as, without even protesting, his hands slid up and started to unbutton the front of his blouse. Shamelessly he worked his fingers inside the garment, hauled up the camisole beneath and revealed bare skin. The intimacy of the exposure stimulated him in an unusual way. His pert, almost non-existent breasts pointed out, and it felt wonderful to show them to Dimitri.

The boy moved towards him and he felt Dmitri's mouth his neck, then lifting to press kisses beneath his ears and down to the base of his throat where a rapid pulse was hammering. Hands spanned his waist, fingers nearly touching. "You're so small," the boy whispered against his skin, "fragile..."

"I'm not fragile." Konni gasped and stood shell-shocked as the villainous, firm hands moved up onto his chest and gently began kneading the small mounds of his chest. His breasts felt odd as he unconsciously thrust them forward. "I'm... I'm... Ohhh... Oh, don't - please -" his mouth opened and then slammed shut, and he gritted his teeth to stop any sound - like a sigh of delight - escaping his mouth as unpredicted sensations assailed his captured flesh.

Dmitri carefully pulled and pushed, the thumbs carefully stroking over pouting nipples. "You still need to grow a bit, but I can tell you're going to have a nice pair eventually." Suddenly his face went down and his lips locked around a hardened pink nipple. He sucked hard and Konni held him there. Fire pulsed through him, spreading under his skin, and he tipped his head and gave a small twist of a smile. "Ohhh! Oh, Dmitri."

When Dmitri raised his head Konni pushed his hair back from his forehead, smiling as it fell right back over his eyes. "You look like a little boy, Dimitri Ranchev. Except for your eyes..." Suddenly he arched against him and he blushed like a rose. "...and some other things."

Konni sighed, hanging onto his shoulders for support. He had no backbone, no means of help for his wobbly legs. And when a languorous warmth stole up from his toes, past his knees and into his thighs. He groaned into Dimitri's mouth, for the effect went straight to his groin. Rarely had he turned so hard so quickly.

Dmitri kissed him deeply, his thumbs constantly strumming over spiking nipples. Konni forgot about talking and about rules and control. He forgot about everything except surrendering into his arms. He couldn't stop Dimitri touching him any more than he could stop breathing. His chest pushed full against his palm, bare and ripe, and he allowed himself to be squeezed and caressed without even thinking about it. Pleasure was accompanied by anxiety because he knew that someone like Dimitri wouldn't be content with just fondling the top half, and allowing him under his skirts would undo all his aunts well intentioned scheming. He would be exposed as a boy in skirts. A mere bourgeois in hiding.

His hand dipped down and discovered the boy's arousal, already firm and ready. He slid his fingers into his open pants and found the hot tower of heat inside, a blind grope amid hot passion, but he could feel the thick shape when he moved the slick skin back and forth. He was not new to pleasing his peers and the joy of Dmitri's moans gave him joy too, encouraging him to go on and on, skimming with his fingers faster and more fervently until the postmasters son sort of hiccupped and let out a long sigh and sent a surge of warm wetness into his hand.

They sat together in the grass afterwards. The sky glowed red with streaks of yellow from the still-visible dipping sun and the light caught the edge of Konni's cheek, outlining it in a colour like that of red gold, making his hair glossy radiant with highlights like spun ruby.

"A glorious sunset, don't you think, Konni? Red sunsets promise a bright tomorrow."

"I hope so. When I was small my old nurse would tell me it may be a warning that the sky is about to fall on our heads." Dmitri gave him a sideways glance of curiosity. It was a thoughtless reminiscence and a dangerous one, for only wealthy families employed nurses for their children.

He crept into the house later. His aunt and Svetlana were in the kitchen with Lyuba, but Katerina saw him arrive and leapt at him like a frog. "Where have you been?"

"Just for a walk. It's a lovely evening."

"Have you been with Dmitri Ranchev?"

He looked straight into her eyes, trying to manage a sort of blameless indignation. "Not necessarily," he replied sheepishly.

"Yes you have, I know it, and he's probably made you all excited."

"Really Katerina, that's..."

His cousin smiled sweetly, like an angel testing sin. "Shush. Go upstairs and take off your pants. I'll come up and see you as soon as I think it safe."

It was humiliating to follow her instructions like a yard-dog, but he knew it wouldn't be long before she was perched on the edge of the bed next to him urging him to roll up the front of his skirt. But his body did have an urgent need for some attention, and Katerina's delicate hands had already proved they were very adept at providing it on several occasions. She enjoyed his little moans and grimaces just like he had enjoyed Dimtri's earlier, although she sometimes gagged him with a handkerchief if she thought he was being too noisy. But she enjoyed doing it. She even caught a heady breath herself when a result suddenly leapt up to cover her fingers.