Sisterhood - Temptation Ch. 15

Aria skipped forward, holding out both hands. She laughed again, "You're very sweet. So, what are you going to do to me?"

"Do to you?" Katharina laughed, taken aback.

"Do with me, I meant," Aria took Katharina's hands in hers. She blinked her eyes at Katharina and her tongue slid out between her teeth in endearing gesture of playful affection, "Slip of the tongue."

"Right, well..." Katharina stood there, holding Aria's hands. Her fingers were short and soft, warm and still slightly clammy from the dance.

"Come on," Aria let go with one hand and pulled Katharina gently forward with the other, "Let's go somewhere."

"Okay. If you like," Katharina was still somewhat unsure of the nature of Miriam's request. She wondered whether perhaps she was trying to find in it some intent or subtext that was not there.

They crossed the bar, between the tables, and Aria talked as she led, "I like dancing. But I actually have door duty soon, at the North Wing. Miriam probably forgot about that. But you can come with me for a bit if you like."

Katharina made an extra skip of a step to shorten the distance between them, "Come with you to the North Wing?"

Aria stopped once they were outside the bar alcove, where the crowd thickened with girls waiting at the edges of the dance. "No. That's too far. Besides, you've got to find a date, haven't you? A proper one. I meant you can just accompany me part of the way there, you know, to keep me entertained."

Katharina tensed her feet to walk on her toes as they skirted the edge of the dance. She looked out across the busy whirl of moving heads, scanning for Ivy. But Ivy wasn't especially tall. Katharina spied several bobs of silken brown hair that might have been Ivy's. Then she recalled how Ivy's hair had darkened to black when wet. She reached up to clutch a lock of her own hair and ran it between her fingers. Dry. Ivy's would be, too, by now.

"Mari has door duty as well," said Aria, "Though she's not famous for being on time. She might be along soon, or she might not."

"Oh. Right," Katharina pulled her gaze away from the crowd, "But you like to be punctual, then? You're a good girl?"

Aria looked back and grinned at her, "Yes. And no."

Katharina laughed quietly, the sound lost beneath the loud chatter of the hall. She noticed then that Aria had a particular manner that she found very pleasing. She couldn't recall the girl's cheerful smile having broken at all since first seeing her. And each time Aria spoke, she blinked her eyes and chuckled, punctuating her utterances with an unobtrusive, pleasant laughter. It reminded Katharina a little of Mari's cutesy demeanor, but with less affectation, and without the oddly unsettling edge to Mari's gaze, the flashes of wickedness.

"Anyway," Aria continued, "There's a bit of time. We'll go by a different route, and I'll show you something. As a little thank you for looking after me."

"Well, thanks. But I haven't really done anything for-" Katharina grinned, "Or to you, yet."

Aria squeezed Katharina's hand and smiled her sweet blinking smile again, "You're very sweet. No, you haven't, yet. Come. This way."

They reached a corner of the crowd, where a broad bunch of girls was gathered around one side of the final pillar. Ahead, the straight edges of the hall curled round into the wide semicircle of the apse, where only a few scattered couples stood talking. Katharina looked up to the grand crescent of high windows that ringed the dome of the apse. Against the dark of late evening beyond, the clear glass showed the fragmented reflection of the lights and shapes of the dance.

Aria tugged Katharina forward. She nodded, drawing Katharina's attention to a small curtained archway at the base of the dome, to their right. They crossed the space, and Katharina met briefly the glances of some of the girls standing around them. Then they were at the archway, in front of the curtain. Aria hooked it to one side with her hand and ushered Katharina through.

Beyond, the low space of a tunnel swept immediately down and to one side. Katharina felt shallow descending steps beneath her feet. She looked back to see Aria smiling and nodding ahead, then she began to walk. The curtain fell back into place behind Aria and the sounds and the light of the hall diminished. Katharina made her way down a spiral staircase, with Aria following. At first the near darkness made Katharina unsure of her step. But her eyes adjusted and as they did so she became aware of a light from below that glowed up and around the curve of the staircase, tinting a faint yellow onto stone walls.

They did not have to descend more than a few minutes before reaching the end of the staircase and the source of the light from below. It was electric lighting. Katharina could see the lamps on the opposite wall of the chamber into which the staircase led. Their brightness was muted by shades made perhaps of translucent ceramic or a more modern material like fiberglass. Katharina took in the low arched ceiling of the chamber and the stone flags of the floor. She could not see much else of it because right in front of where she stood was a gate made of iron rails, which prevented her from peering further out of the short tunnel at the foot of the staircase.

"The crypt," Aria spoke behind her, the same edge of cheerful laughter in her voice even as she whispered.

Katharina knew enough about the history of the house and about church architecture to know that the Great Hall would probably have a crypt. She had even heard it mentioned once, in passing, though she forgot where and by whom. She smiled to herself when she considered again the lighting. It was a curious feature of the house that the presence of an obvious modernity such as visible electrical fittings often signaled a private area. The Sisterhood liked to dazzle its guests with a certain romantic antiquity, and so where possible the public spaces were illuminated by candle or torchlight. This facade tended to be dispensed with in favor of convenience for those areas that only Sisters or the ka'ini would frequent.

"Wow. So..." Katharina wondered, contemplating the gate in front of her. She clasped her hand around one of the bars and tested it discreetly, in case Aria was expecting her simply to push it open. It seemed to be locked in place.

Aria shuffled up beside her, and Katharina stood aside to give her room. Aria peered into the chamber beyond and then bared her teeth and made a quiet hissing sound. Katharina looked through the bars. She heard a low purring from within and then moments later saw its source. Curled up on a patch of the bare stone floor was a cat, with drab brown and beige flecked fur.

Aria crouched. The tight fabric of her white dress bunched up and stretched taut around her stout figure as she lowered herself. She repeated the quiet hissing sound, and the cat's curled tail flicked out to one side. It raised its head, seemed to squint its eyes to look at them, then slowly lifted itself up onto all fours. After a pause, it sidled over towards the gate.

There was a muffled click, and the grate of stone on stone. With her eyes on the cat, Katharina saw briefly at the edge of her vision what looked like a little tremor of movement in the stone floor, where the cat had been lying. The gate swung out open, and the cat approached Aria, who stroked her fingers across the back of its head and down its spine. Aria stood and smiled.

Katharina's eyes narrowed. She looked at Aria, smiling expectantly at her.

"She trusts me," Aria explained, chuckling.

Katharina looked down at the cat, which had begun rubbing its flanks slowly against Aria's bare ankles, weaving between her legs. "She seems to recognize you."

Aria frowned, looked for a moment confused, then she smiled again in realization, "Ah. No, I didn't mean the cat."

Before Katharina could prompt her to elaborate, Aria stepped forward through the open gate. Katharina followed, and walked out into a mostly empty low-ceilinged space. They had entered at one corner of an approximate rectangle. In the center, and again at either end, there were a few raised blocks of stone, maybe tombs.

Aria continued to talk, quietly, musing to herself, "She trusts me, at least."

Katharina felt a silky brush across the bridge of her foot, where her skin was bare above the rim of her flat shoes. She saw the cat stepping over her feet, weaving its body between her legs as it had done to Aria.

Aria laughed, a high-pitched cheerful laugh that echoed against the ceiling. She turned to look at Katharina but seemed still to be talking in part to herself, "And she likes you, it seems."

"She does?" Katharina felt she had an inkling as to the subtext Aria seemed to be teasing her with. But she didn't want to ask about it directly, to appear to be unsubtle or to dispel the fun that Aria seemed to be having with it.

Aria crouched again. As she squatted, her dress rode up over her thick dark thighs as far as the bulge of her backside. She hoisted the cat up in her hands, clutching it about its belly. She held it in front of Katharina, "You want to touch her? Stroke my..." Aria burst into a shrill giggle.

Katharina smiled and arched one eyebrow.

"Sorry," Aria laughed, "I was going to make a stupid joke."

"I would love to pet your cat," Katharina grinned.

Katharina was actually allergic to cats. Not severely, but touching them tended to bring up a flaming, blotchy itch on her skin for some time after. She thought she could already feel it beginning to rise on the bare bridge of her foot, where the cat had brushed her a moment before. Though it was difficult to tell. She suspected that sometimes too she worsened the reaction by scratching at an itch that she only imagined to be there.

She smiled and reached out her hand. She laid it palm-up on the arch of the cat's back and ran her knuckles along the notches of its spine, trying to rub with as little pressure as possible while still conveying some enthusiasm. To her relief, after purring and lashing its tail for a few seconds, the cat squirmed and leaped free of Aria's grip, scampering across the floor to sit on the same patch of stone where it had earlier lain curled up.

Katharina saw now that one flagstone was smaller than the others and slightly raised. As the cat stepped onto it, the stone sank a tiny fraction. Anticipating, Katharina twisted to look at the iron gate behind her. She watched it swing slowly and noiselessly back into place.

"Your kitty doesn't like being prevented from doing its duty," Katharina giggled. Then she saw Aria's expression turn briefly pensive, and paused. The remark had occurred to her simply as something wry and flirtatious, but after hearing her own words and reviewing them in her memory, she wondered whether perhaps what she had said might have been misconstrued, and she pulled her laughing mouth sharply shut.

Aria pursed her lips and fixed her with a stare. But it was a smiling stare. Her eyes gleamed with the same unfaltering cheerfulness as before. She put her hands behind her back and reached up between her shoulder blades, fumbling. Her eyebrows knotted and her lips tensed in concentration, then she sighed and reached out to Katharina, "Come on, help me out of this."

Katharina let Aria's hands guide hers up the back of her dress, pulling her close. Katharina found the slim zip, concealed under a fold of fabric. She traced her fingers to its top and pulled down on the teardrop of metal that she found, holding the dress in place with her other hand. Two triangular curtains of fabric fell away from Aria's back as the dress parted. When she felt the zip come to an end at the base of Aria's spine, Katharina slid her hands back upwards over Aria's bare back. She felt the contours of a few firm ridges of fat that formed and shifted as Aria leaned to one side and then the other, shrugging the dress off each shoulder.

"You have lovely skin," Katharina murmured. She wasn't sure why she felt compelled to say so, but Aria's bare skin did feel very lovely. It was warm against the palms of her hands, but dry. And though very smooth, it felt robust, tough even. Looking down at the dark tan color of Aria's face, Katharina thought it felt somehow the same way it looked.

Katharina noticed as she spoke that her mouth was almost against Aria's forehead. Her breath blew at the thick forelocks of Aria's black hair. She pursed her lips and kissed it.

Aria tilted her head back and kissed at Katharina's neck and her chin, "Thanks. You're sweet. Come," she stepped back and wriggled her torso free of the dress, then pulled it down over her hips.

Aria's dress dropped to reveal her completely naked body. For a moment, Katharina stood still. She was aware that she was staring, at the same time as being unable to stop herself. The soft light of the chamber set a gold tint along the curves and ridges of Aria's figure. Katharina hadn't ever been especially drawn to big girls, but now she felt a hot surge of stiffness against her swimming briefs as she contemplated Aria's particular beauty. Aria's upper arms were rounded with a slight cushion of softness. An even thicker layer sat about her hips, and each of her thighs looked almost as wide as Katharina's waist. Her breasts, though big, were unremarkable, even fairly petite, in proportion to the stout, prominent stomach they rested on. Though the front of Aria's body shook a little as she stepped out of her dress, her extra weight looked firm, youthful.

"Wow. You're..." Katharina reached out and set her hands on Aria's hips. She felt again the inviting smoothness of the girl's skin.

Aria giggled, "Fat?"

Katharina looked up at Aria's smile, "No! No, you're lovely, is all."

"Come," Aria repeated. She lifted Katharina's hands from her body and turned to lead her towards the end of the chamber.

A few paces away was the row of raised stone blocks that Katharina had noticed when they entered. She saw now that the sides of the blocks were rugged with the remains of reliefs, worn vague and smooth over time. And as she approached the central block, she saw traces of carved writing too. When Aria reached the tombstone she let go of Katharina's hand, turned around to face her, then planted her hands behind her on the top of the stone and with a quick skip and a sharp intake of breath hoisted herself up to sit on it.

Katharina watched Aria's thighs bulge out beneath her as they took her weight. The fact that she was sitting on bare stone made Aria's nakedness all the more striking. Looking at her, something occurred to Katharina, "Isn't that a bit cold? On your, um, behind?"

Aria's smile broadened. Her top teeth bit gently on her lip. She took Katharina's hand again and pressed it to the surface of the stone beside her thigh.

Contemplating the image of Aria sitting naked on the stone in only her flat black shoes, it seemed to Katharina as though she ought to be cold. Underground stone chambers were always cold and damp. But Katharina noticed now just how warm the air in the crypt was. Then she felt it on the stone too. Just before the palm of her hand made contact, she sensed a little of the warmth it was radiating.

"The springs," Aria grinned at her. She cocked her head and looked up, "They run near here too. If you listen very carefully, you can hear the rush of water. It's channeled nearby."

Katharina frowned, straining the near silence. She held still, with Aria's hand still pressing hers to the stone. She wasn't sure whether she could hear anything. Aria's chest was heaving with quiet breaths. There was a background rush of some sorts, but it didn't sound like water, and it seemed to be resonating across the ceiling and walls.

"Too much noise from upstairs," Aria shook her head.

Katharina looked back at Aria, "Well, it makes getting naked a lot more comfortable I guess. Though it's a mixed blessing. I think the springs are also what makes some parts of the building vulnerable to ruin."

"Like in the earthquake, you mean?" Aria's cheerful smile was unflinching.

Katharina was a little surprised, "Yes. The big one. In the eighteenth century. You read about that too?"

"You're a history fan," Aria chuckled.

"Yes. I suppose so," Katharina replied, "I just find it interesting."

Aria leaned forward and burst into a short fit of shrill giggling, "Me too. Let's have sex."

"Okay," Katharina laughed in reply. She shuffled forward to rest herself against the edge of the stone block, between Aria's spread thighs.

When Aria lifted her hand from where it had been holding Katharina's to the stone, Katharina felt a tingling, nagging irritation at the skin of her knuckles and across the back of her hand. Before she could decide whether the sensation was an itch or merely the awareness that there could be an itch, she reached out with her other hand and raked her nails across her skin, scratching hard. She felt a stinging relief as she watched red lines glow up in four rough trails. Then she looked up and saw Aria's concerned expression.

"You okay? Did you hurt yourself?"

"No, no. I'm just a bit allergic," Katharina pulled her hands back and flexed them, "It's no big deal."

Though her smile stayed fixed, Aria frowned, "Allergic... to dmurrhisi?"

"To cats," Katharina chuckled, "And that's not an innuendo. To actual real cats."

"Oh, well. That's a relief," Aria put her hand to her chest, which shook as she laughed again.

Katharina clapped her hands to the tops of Aria's thighs. She slid them slowly up and over the girl's fleshy hips, savoring the sensation of softness and fullness beneath her fingers. Then she slid back down along the sides of Aria's legs to her knees, and pulled them gently apart.

"Of course," Katharina grinned, "I am sort of allergic to dmurrhisi too. They bring me out in terrible hot flushes. And, um, swelling. Especially lovely ones like you."

Aria threw her head back and her loud girlish cackle rang out in echoes across the emptiness of the crypt. "You're such a sweet talker," she sighed.

Katharina smiled again to herself. Flirting and lusty talk usually made her feel a little ridiculous, but Aria's carefree laughter was extremely gratifying..

"Let me kiss you," Katharina said, leaning forwards.

She set her lips on Aria's stomach and kissed. Aria's soft bulk was creased up into a stack of folds that rested on her lap. Aria sighed and leaned back, and as she did so her stomach spread out and slouched across her waist. Katharina continued kissing her, dragging her lips slowly down between Aria's legs.

"That... uh, feels really nice," Stretching out on her back atop the stone block, Aria drew a deep breath. Her body trembled with the same cheerful, tittering laughter with which she punctuated her speech. Only this time it was tinged with the breathiness of quiet gasps of excitement.

Each time Aria giggled or moved, Katharina felt a slow swell of stiffness pulse out into her dick, tightly bound inside her shorts. Then as her chin and then her mouth traced their way over the plump mound of Aria's pussy, Katharina felt the sensation of smooth, hairless skin against her lips.

Not quite knowing what she was doing, Katharina pursed her lips and pressed them between the folds of Aria's pussy in a half-kiss. Most of Katharina's understanding of how to pleasure dmurrhisi girls came from pornography, plus one fairly brief encounter during high school. But she was canny enough to know that most of the pornography she had seen was probably not a particularly good guide to what was actually pleasurable. She was aware of a powerful urge to thrust her face forward and rub her lips firmly back and forth. Aria's skin was so invitingly smooth, and the slight mound of fat that framed her pussy was so soft, that burying her mouth against it just felt like the natural thing to do.