Sisterhood - Temptation Ch. 43

Katharina pulled the door closed and crossed the back space of the dressing room, sidled between two of the dressing tables and headed quickly for the curtain that sealed the space off from the testing chamber. She lifted one edge of the curtain and peeped through, saw no movement. Then she slipped past and stood again at one end of the long gangway between the two opposing rows of beds.

She set off towards the central break where the archway to the bar space was located. She found as she moved that she fell without thinking into a brisk trot. With her legs held poised and tiptoed on the high-heeled shoes, a swifter stride seemed natural. She looked down at her body as she walked. Her legs looked a little longer, in a way that she found quite pleasing. It reminded her of how some senior girls looked, Anna in particular.

Katharina saw too her dick protruding in front of her, still slightly swollen and stiff from the excitement of Lena's parting touch, and swaying somewhat awkwardly from side to side with each step. The bright red imprint of Lena's lips showed clearly on her pale skin, the little ridges of a smooching pout identifiable in the alternating thick lines of lipstick. Even when she looked up again to survey the beds as she passed, Katharina felt the presence of the lip marks as a prickle of awareness on her skin, the visceral memory of touch.

Then she recalled the lipstick on her own mouth too. She realized she had not looked at herself in a mirror before leaving the dressing room. She had asked for a darker color, but then had not seen the result. Slightly perturbed at the prospect of entering the busy bar space without a clear impression of her own appearance, she slowed her walk and cast around for a mirror. But of course there were no mirrors in the testing chamber. She knew that already.

The opposing archways approached at the halfway point of the chamber, and Katharina dithered. She could return quickly to one of the dressing tables in the empty antechamber. But she had been hurrying to the bar, or so it felt like. Unable for a brief moment to recall the reason for her sense of urgency, she lifted her hand and contemplated the folded square of paper she held. Lena's request.

Katharina turned to the curtain at her left. She saw the light and felt the clamor of the bar beyond. The clink of glasses and babble of laughter flowed in and over the quiet of the testing chamber. Resolved, she pursed and smacked her lips, fancied she could feel the matte of color on them, then swept the curtain aside and walked through.

There was a lull in the nearby chatter as Katharina entered. A few heads turned at the tables closest to where she stood. The lull briefly deepened and then became an abortive cheer when several girls raised their arms or their glasses and called out. The cheer spread out and faltered as more girls turned and sought the focus of the call, joined in, then saw Katharina and either turned away or fell to giggling, stopping their mouths with their hands as they hunched and exchanged uncertain glances with their companions.

Katharina pulled her attention away from the faces still looking up at her and looked out over their heads across the bar space. She scanned the further tables and then the array of turned backs at the bar, aware she was having to make an effort to appear unfazed. She thought about how best to react to the bout of applause and quiet laughter that had greeted her, wondered what it signified even. It did not strike her as the malicious laughter of ridicule, which she knew well enough. Rather it seemed the girls had expected to greet a new dmurrhisi guest emerging from the chamber, a custom of which Katharina was vaguely aware, and had then been laughing primarily at the incongruity of their own mistake and only partly at the peculiarity of Katharina's appearance. Perhaps not all of them could even see the lipstick marks on her lower body.

Katharina felt the best response should be to laugh back or even make some bolder acknowledgment such as blowing kisses or winking. But by the time she had thought it over, she could feel the blotchy heat of a blush had risen already to her face and neck, and the initiative had passed. Seeing a few faces still turned her way, she scrunched her lips pensively, still looking out across the seating area, then let one side of her mouth twist into what felt like the same cool smirk she had seen Lena make before.

She took her first few steps between the tables that stood between her and the bar, slowly, not sure yet where she was heading. The crowd had thinned a lot since she had first passed through with Vera. The time for coven gathering was probably getting close, maybe an hour away or less now. Katharina noticed that there were only very few senior girls among those seated. The first few tables that she passed were occupied by other novices, some of whom she recognized. As she reached the center of the space she passed some tables that were unoccupied, and the groups seated around the rest were smaller, mostly the ka'ini and some unaccompanied dmurrhisi guests.

It was a relief to see that a great many of the girls around her were also naked or wearing very little clothing. A few stood out because they were draped in the ceremonial robes of the Sisterhood or wrapped in towels, but otherwise Katharina found her eyes drifting across a broad space of soft, bare skin. Despite the clamor of attractive bare bodies around her, she could tell without looking down that the stiffness of arousal had abated, cooled by her rush of nerves and by the awkward feeling of being stared at. Some girls looked up as she walked by, and she turned her head briefly to exchange smiles of acknowledgment with those fellow novices she recognized.

As before, the view to the bar was partly obscured by a row of bare backs, girls waiting to claim a drink, or standing in idle conversation. But here too the crowd had thinned considerably since earlier in the evening. The bar counter, and behind it the bank of old flecked mirrors and shelves of drinks bottles, was visible through several broad gaps in the file of bodies. Katharina slipped between the shoulders of two couples standing some meters apart, and clapped her hands to the bar top, claiming a space.

It was a relief to have the solidity of the tall counter in front of her. She felt the imagined attention of the crowd behind her on her back, but that troubled her less. She fancied that in her heeled shoes the backs of her legs might even look quite appealing. She lifted herself a little onto the tips of her toes and flexed the muscles of her thighs and her backside.

"Goth girlfriend. I like it. Cute," Katharina's introspection was broken by a voice, soft, but very nearby.

She turned and saw Louise's wispy, bright blonde ponytail just beyond the further edge of the counter, where Louise seemed to be bending to arrange something beneath.

"Oh hi," Katharina called out.

Louise straightened up and the imposing height of her torso rose above the counter, naked, just as Katharina had seen her last. Louise set her hands and then her elbows on the counter top, nudged aside a few empty glasses and then leaned over to lay her big bust in the space that she had cleared. She sighed, snuggling her chest from side to side, "So you got a makeover."

Katharina watched Louise's breasts bulge outward as their weight was laid down on the counter. She looked up at Louise's self-satisfied smile and then over her shoulder at the mirrors that lined the back wall. Beside a row of empty glass bottles she found a patch of bare mirror and saw herself. She lifted her hands to her head to part her hair and fluff it up from where it clung slightly damp to the sides of her head.

"Oh. Yeah," Katharina stared at herself. Her lips appeared at first a striking matte black, but then as she pursed and twisted them left and right she saw the deep purple. Her pout looked plumper and fuller. The dark outlines of her eyes and mouth against her pale skin blanched out her other features and made her expression look more vivid and stylized, like that of a painting.

"So, what can I get-" Louise began, before her voice broke abruptly into a hoarse grunt.

Katharina frowned and turned her attention back to the bar counter, where she saw Louise's front teeth digging into her lip as she bit down on a groan.

"Sorry, what can-" Louise seemed to gather her breath, but was cut off again, this time by a loud, clean slap. Unmistakably the sound of something striking bare skin. Louise's body jolted forward and she groaned, mouth open, "Uhh, yeh. Sorry, one moment. She's just... very good at this."

Katharina heard the slapping sound again, and this time saw the hand raised from somewhere behind Louise's legs. It came down hard on Louise's backside and a sharp ripple of movement shook the layer of softness along the flank of Louise's broad body. The hand lifted again for a third slap, then another. Katharina peered over the counter and saw the partly obscured figure of a smaller, thinner girl kneeling close behind Louise. Of the girl's head only a short tousle of dyed red-brown hair was visible, her face buried between Louise's thighs and squirming against her in slow circles.

"It's been a busy night," another voice interrupted with a high-pitched giggle, "Let me get you something."

Katharina turned quickly away from watching Louise's bare behind and looked up at another of the ka'ini bar staff. Tall, topless and small-chested, with thick, frizzy light brown hair. Katharina had seen the girl serving earlier in the Great Hall, but could not recall her name.

"Oh, I'll... maybe I just need a drink of water," Katharina reached for a jug she saw sitting on a metal tray with several glasses.

"Tonic water, right?" the frizzy-haired girl squinted at her.

"Oh, well, thanks. Yes," Katharina replied.

Kathrin. That was her name, Katharina recalled suddenly. One of Marianne's girls.

The girl spun round gaily on one leg, her short skirt wafting up about her hips. She reached for a bottle, inspected it, and tipped what was left inside into a tall glass before pivoting back to Katharina, "Here."

"Thanks," Katharina took the glass and lifted it to her mouth. She hesitated as her lower lip touched the glass and seemed to cling to it with a tension so faint she couldn't be sure whether she was merely imagining it. She poured the tonic water carefully through the gap in her lips and swallowed, let the first sting of refreshment hit her.

The bar girl, Kathrin, set her hand on her hip and smiled at Katharina, "It's okay. It's not smudging."

"Oh," Katharina laughed, "Thanks."

She took another deeper swig. She made to look around the room again but found her eyes drawn immediately by the expanse of Louise's bare back beside her, and a flicker of movement. Louise's face was buried in her folded arms, murmuring as she ground her hips, pushing back against the face of the girl kneeling behind her, who now had her hands clasped firmly to Louise's thighs.

"New girl. She's going to be offered. Josephine, I think?" Kathrin nodded at the squirming head pressed into Louise's backside.

"Ah," Katharina hummed in recognition. She saw Josephine's petite figure, the slenderness of the fingers that were digging into Louise's thick legs, and of course the metallic deep red shimmer of her hair.

"Been helping us behind the bar the last couple of hours," Kathrin chuckled, "Very diligent worker."

"Yeah, we've met," Katharina smiled back. She looked around, surveyed again the further half of the room, "So, I was wondering..."

"You want to do that to me?" Kathrin interrupted, "Hmm, I guess I might ask you to remove your lipstick first."

Katharina lifted her hand to her lips instinctively, then held off, "Oh. Right."

"Sorry, I'm fussy," Kathrin set her hands on the bar top. Her smile warmed, "But it does look very cute."

Katharina felt the tip of her dick nudge up insistently against the wall of the bar counter as it rose. She shifted her stance, trying to alleviate the awkward pressure of her burgeoning hardness, and held her gaze deliberately away from the pinkness of Kathrin's bare nipples. "Um, I'm looking for Julie, as it happens. You know, Julie of Coven Seven. You haven't seen her by any chance have you?"

"Oh. Intriguing."

Katharina saw in the narrowing of Kathrin's smile the expectation that she would elaborate, and hesitated. Her fingers fidgeted around the square of paper she held in her hand.

"She's over there," Kathrin tossed her head to one side, indicating the nook at the far end of the bar. She turned away and reached up for a wine bottle, "Corner couch."

"Ah, thanks," Katharina set down her glass and turned to walk away.

She had taken a few paces before she thought to look ahead and search where Kathrin had indicated. Katharina surveyed what she could see of the nook at the far end of the bar, where the light was slightly dimmer, and wavering with the flicker of candles. Two couches were set against the irregular stonework of the walls, at the corner of the room. A third was facing away from her, partly obscured by the end of the tall bar counter, only half of it in view. In front of the couch was a low table covered in a few empty glasses and a chunky candle that had nearly burned out.

At first Katharina saw nobody, and she faltered and turned back, but then could not see Kathrin any more either, her path back to the bar now obscured beyond a row of naked or towel-clad girls who had approached the counter. She caught a glimpse of Louise's leaning torso, still bent over the countertop, then looked away back towards the nook. There was a movement, and Katharina saw then that the couch facing away from her was occupied. One long bare arm was draped across the backrest of the couch, its deep tan skin taut yet soft over the smooth curves of muscle tensing and flexing as an empty hand idly caressed the upholstery of the couch.

Katharina knew that the arm was Julie's. She didn't know Julie any better than any of the other of the Seven Sisters, perhaps even less well than most of them. But there was a particular presence and distinctness to Julie's shape and the way she held herself that Katharina could see even in the movement of her arm. The half outline of Julie's broad shoulders, the muscles that were slight enough so as not to be conspicuous until she flexed them, and the way her golden brown skin glowed in the candlelight of the alcove and melted back and forth between soft and taut as she flexed.

Katharina approached. She recalled the last time she had seen Julie, in the library, before the ball had begun. Or no, she had seen her once again since then, as Julie had made her entrance to the North Wing accompanying a guest. But that had been only a glimpse, their earlier meeting stuck more vividly in Katharina's memory.

The knot of nerves that had begun to subside and fade from Katharina's awareness as she had grown accustomed to being almost naked in the crowded bar space now resurged, sinking low in her stomach. She gathered her thoughts, looked at the kiss-marked fold of paper in her hand, and then chided herself that she was once again acting without a clear plan or notion of what she was doing. A thought that had been slowly solidifying now rose explicitly as she was confronted with the conclusion of her simple task. Lena's errand was surely of a political nature. That seemed the only way of making sense of it and the way in which Lena had spoken about it. And if so, then it might concern the approaching contest between herself and Vera to which Vera had alluded. And so if Katharina were to fulfill the errand, she would in some small way be working against her own mentor.

She hesitated, now only a few paces from the bench. She saw the dimples in the musculature of Julie's shoulder and a swathe of her bare back above the backrest of the couch. Katharina wondered then at Lena's motive in assigning her a task that she could probably have given to another girl, to Lia for example, or to one of her own students. Katharina was sure that Lena was a subtle thinker, and furthermore that Lena would have credited her with the intelligence to guess that the nature of the errand was political, given how obvious the thought now seemed. So why would she needlessly entrust one of her rival's students with furthering her own cause?

Katharina looked again at the letter. She could open it first and read it herself. She could even just discard it. But either of those felt somehow clumsy, and petty besides. It was such an obvious and crude sabotage that surely Lena would have anticipated it. Perhaps Lena even meant for Katharina to give in to pettiness and deliberately fail to deliver the message or to open it without having been instructed to do so, and that was somehow the course of action that would best further Lena's cause and hinder Vera's. There were too many unknowns. If Katharina opened and read the letter or discarded it, some of the possible consequences were too great to risk. She might have misread the situation entirely and be inadvertently tampering with something vitally important that went beyond Lena's rivalry with Vera. Or even if she succeeded in thwarting Lena, she would be doing so at the cost of going down in Lena's estimation, of revealing herself to be petty and unsporting. Resigned, Katharina realized that Lena probably knew this too.

Katharina resolved that if she were to carry out her assignment then she would do so with a flourish. If by doing so she was furthering Lena's cause then at least she would be winning Lena's trust in the process, which might be a valuable token later. Emboldened, she walked calmly forward until she stood within arm's reach of Julie's bare shoulders. She dithered with the sheet of paper in her hand, looked down at her almost bare body, searching for somewhere to stash the letter so that she might free both her hands. She tried at first to slip it into the crevice of her buttocks and hold it there, then felt very foolish when the paper failed to stay put. She tried instead to slip it under the strap of her flimsy short top, but the material was so light and airy that it did not hold to her skin. She settled then on clasping the edge of the paper between her lips.

Katharina reached out, and startled when she heard Julie's voice. It was masked by a clatter of glasses and bottles from further back along the bar top, but was very distinctive, cheerful and girlish, curiously at odds with the imposing elegance of Julie's tall athletic figure. But it seemed that Julie had not been addressing Katharina and had instead been calling out to one of the bar girls. Katharina continued, and set her hands on Julie's shoulders, at the root of her neck.

There was the briefest flicker of a flinch, Julie's shoulders tightening into an abortive hunch. Then she slackened, exhaled and spoke again, without turning around. "Hello," her voice was drowsy, cheerful.

Realizing she was now holding the paper between her teeth, Katharina leaned forward and responded with a quiet hum that she hoped sounded somewhat like a seductive purr of affection. She clasped her fingers to Julie's skin, felt its warmth, and flexed her grip in a gentle massage, working her way in towards the notches of Julie's neck with her thumbs, then out again across her shoulders.

"Well," Julie hummed, "Very nice. Lucky me. So who is this?"

Katharina stroked her fingers inward again, scratched her nails lightly up along the skin of Julie's neck and under her short tousle of brown hair. The tightness of nerves in Katharina's stomach was melting very quickly into raw arousal. She could feel her dick swelling with heat, throbbing upwards with each pulse of her heartbeat as it thickened and grew heavier.