Sisterhood - Temptation Ch. 48

Starting out on the slow leftward curve of the tunnel, she slowed. The lingering ache in her leg was awkward, and she was wary of stumbling a second time in the dimness. Ahead was the starker electric lighting of the dressing room, reflected off the damp stone.

When she stepped out into the space of the dressing room, she stopped. She was standing at the end of the room opposite to where she had stood some minutes earlier, just before entering the amphitheater. The difference was for a moment disorienting. She looked along the shallow semicircle of dressing tables, noting that they were in the same state as before, as far as she remembered it.

Curiously, the first detail that penetrated her churning thoughts was a black bra, hanging over the back of the nearest chair. She walked over and took it in her hand, feeling the silk of the fabric, slightly creased, used. The cups were large and loose, underscored by a thick band of elastic. Katharina felt sure it was Emmie's, and smiled to herself. Emmie who was now with the Seven Sisters, preparing for the rite of offering. The secret ceremony that Vera would not witness.

There was a sound from the far end of the chamber. Voices, not quite talking, but mumbling, sharing the wordless laughter of affiliation. Katharina stepped swiftly to one side behind the first dressing table as she watched several Sisterhood girls file through, in cloaks and short dresses. She thought she recognized the bright blonde hair and loud nasal laugh of Friederike, a fellow novice girl she vaguely knew. The group of girls passed through, entering from the opposite tunnel and moving on under the curtain of the archway that led back into the testing chamber.

Katharina waited. Ivy had already been many paces ahead, even before Katharina had fallen. If Ivy had wanted earnestly to escape her, as it had seemed, then she would be out of reach now, on her way back through the North Wing to the house. Katharina nursed still a hope, a suspicion, that Ivy's flight was at least in part a melodrama, an impulsive indecision. For her own peace, to calm the despondent confusion that her thoughts were settling into, Katharina needed to see Ivy once more alone, talk to her. After all the other omissions Katharina felt she had committed, she did not want to miss this one final slim chance. The chance that Ivy had not returned directly to the house but had hidden herself here in the dressing chamber or nearby, waiting and sullen, expecting to be pursued. Otherwise Katharina would have to wait until they were both back in the house among the others. That felt too long, time for them to both harden and lose sight of whatever impulse had still fueled their last kiss.

What Katharina found she ached to know, more even than to touch Ivy again, was why if Ivy wanted to leave the Sisterhood she hadn't at least asked Katharina to come with her. It hurt a little to consider the possible answers.

Katharina crept around the rear of the dressing tables. She was unsure why she moved so quietly. The chamber was suddenly still after the voices of the other girls had faded away. She moved past the first few tables, towards the two doors in the center of the rear wall. Browsing idly, trying to let her thoughts clear, she saw at the edge of one of the tables a distinctive thick oval flask, the one from which Anna had earlier doused herself in perfume. The position of the flask, stood upright precariously near the edge of the table, nagged at her sense of order and she reached out to push it safely back away from the edge. Then she swiped her fingertip across the spray top and lifted her hand to her face to rub her fingers together and inhale. Anna's scent. Floral, bitter.

She looked across at the two doors. Both were open and the rooms beyond seemed to be dimly lit. On the left nearest to her was the room in which she and Lena had dressed themselves, before Lena's mysterious appointment, where Katharina had felt the caress of Lena's lips and her tongue, and had thrust herself into Lena's face. On the right was the room in which Mari had earlier been bound to a bedpost, and in which Katharina had tortured her, first under Anna's guidance and later alone. Katharina smiled again as her imagination lingered on the memory. It was a curious comfort, to review everything she had accomplished that evening. It offered the prospect of a safe inner retreat. Even if so much else had suddenly gone wrong and derailed her, her late arrival to coven, the rejection, she still had the experience of this day as something for her, to keep.

There was a sound, a voice. Not loud, but clear and abrupt. It was a sniff. The very distinctive faintly-voiced sniff of someone who was upset, either on the edge of tears or recovering after having already cried. A sudden flush of hope carried Katharina forward as she hurried to the first door. She looked into the empty space of the room where earlier she had helped Lena dress. The tall free-standing mirror was still poised in the middle of the carpet, and a tube of lipstick still stood on the dressing table where Lena had prepared herself. The room seemed empty. Katharina leaned her head in to be sure, looked around the doorframe. There was nobody.

Then she heard again the moist sniffing sound, a little sob. Its source this time was clearer, from the neighboring room. Katharina tried to imagine what Ivy's voice might sound like when she wept. She could not recall having heard it before. She had seen Ivy upset, but Ivy's upsets were most often expressed as anger or sourness. Nonetheless, when Katharina rounded the door frame and entered the bedchamber, she had prepared herself so surely to encounter Ivy that she physically startled when she saw somebody else instead.

At first Katharina did not recognize the girl standing with her back to the door, one arm leaned against the corner post of the bed. She saw only that it was definitely not Ivy. The hair was a lighter brown, and longer, not Ivy's straight glossy bob. And there was no black t-shirt, but instead a silky, shoulder-strapped dress in pale yellow, covering the girl's slim figure down to the tops of her thighs. It was only when Katharina saw the thick green robe draped over the girl's arm that recognition dawned.

"Miriam?" Katharina spoke hesitantly, "Um, Miss Miriam."

Miriam's shoulders twisted quickly round, surprised. Katharina offered a hesitant smile and lifted her hand in a gesture of apology. She saw herself now as intruding. Irritated with herself, she regretted having addressed Miriam as 'Miss'. Though it was something she did often, and reflexively, with senior girls, it felt wrong here, given the awkward intimacy of the situation.

"Oh," Miriam's sorrowful expression quickly shifted, dissembling itself in a self-piteous giggle. She touched the tips of her fingers to the corners of her eyes, dabbing, "Katharina. Sorry. Maybe you wanted to use this room?"

"Use it?" Katharina frowned.

"No, no, sorry," Miriam's apologetic laughter gurgled moist in her throat, "Of course not. Sorry, you want to get back to the house and rest probably."

"Um, I suppose so. No, I just heard somebody in here and well..." Katharina stood still, two paces into the room, not quite within arm's reach of Miriam, "I guess I was just checking that you're okay."

Miriam continued to dab at her eyes, squinting at the tips of her fingers as she examined them. She pulled her face into a wavering smile, "Ugh, yes. I suppose I am. Thank you. You are kind."

"You're... preparing for the rite?" Katharina nodded at the far wall behind the bed, in the direction of the amphitheater.

Miriam sighed. She examined Katharina's face and waited some moments before speaking, seeming to be on the edge of replying, "They are up there, getting the girls ready."

"Is there, um, much to...? I mean, do you need to hurry? I didn't mean to interrupt," Katharina shifted subtly, as if to stand aside and leave Miriam a path to the doorway.

Miriam looked into Katharina's eyes, then she moved, but not quite in the direction of the doorway. Her single hesitant step took her towards where Katharina stood, brought them just close enough that they could touch if they were both to reach out. Katharina found herself lifting her arms, holding them outstretched and open. She watched Miriam make a nervous stumble into her embrace and then felt the special aching comfort of contact with another girl's body.

Katharina smiled over Miriam's shoulder, unseen, as their arms wrapped and they held tight. She had read Miriam's need for comfort correctly, and taken the right gamble in offering an embrace. Amid her disappointments it was a reassurance to feel her abilities affirmed, and to get something right. She felt a pang of compassion for the older girl, but she found that there was also another thought that drove her, one that felt less flattering. Miriam was preparing for the rite of offering, and in a roundabout way being close to her now felt to Katharina like a tantalizing closeness to the rite itself.

Katharina felt a gentle movement in her arms, Miriam's body twisting free. She relaxed her grip, and the press of their bodies eased, but Miriam held herself still against Katharina's front, one arm around her.

"Sorry, these things are actually really heavy," Miriam tittered nervously. She held out her other arm, over which was still draped her dark green robe, and slung the robe down over the footboard of the bed, "I hate having to wear it."

Katharina paused. She could sense that the crest of the impulse had passed, and that she and Miriam both were becoming aware of themselves, standing still with their bodies held together.

Katharina reached out to take a fold of the cloak in her hand. It was very thick. The surface was velvety, but with occasional patches of roughness where it had worn. "Oh. Yes," she mumbled, "I imagine it's quite a burden."

Miriam sighed. She withdrew her arm from around Katharina's body and stepped back, "Yes. I do it for... the others, really."

As Miriam stepped away and the front of her body came exposed to the air, Katharina felt a patch of damp where her dressing gown now clung to the top of her thigh and a corner of her stomach. She looked down instinctively, and brushed her fingertips across the fabric, found it slick with a slightly viscous fluid. Realizing, she looked swiftly away and tried to dissemble, making a show of idly smoothing down the sides of the gown, but she caught Miriam's gaze aimed directly at the patch of dampness.

"Oh Katharina, I'm so sorry," Miriam exclaimed, lifting her hand to her mouth and cutting off a shrill giggle, "How embarrassing!"

Katharina saw Miriam's dick, slim and upright, the short hem of her yellow dress lifted and draped over it. It was rising still, with a little twitching tremor that was carried in a shimmering ripple through the fabric of the dress.

"Oh, no no, it's okay," Katharina bit on her lip, not quite stifling a little burst of laughter.

"You just..." Miriam looked up at her, eyes wide with a sort of wistful longing, "... are very beautiful."

"It's totally fine, don't worry," Katharina smiled, swiping her fingers again across the small patch of moisture. It felt curiously different from what she expected. She knew well the feeling of a girl's cum, and this was smoother, more uniform, did not cling quite as much.

"Oh it's not..." Miriam giggled out loud, "I didn't..." she looked down and took hold of her own dick, touching her thumb to the tip, examining, "Or well, perhaps I did. A bit. But it's not that. It's oil."

"Oil?" Katharina swept the palm of her hand over her dressing gown to gather a little of the fluid, felt its smooth glide. She lifted her hand to her face and sniffed. It was very lightly scented. Just on the edge of perceptibility through the pervasive hot damp of the North Wing, was a perfume like fresh wood. Clean, natural.

"We, um, anoint ourselves," Miriam cast her eyes down, lowered her voice, "Before the ceremony. Or at least some of the others do it too. For, you know, smoothness. So that the girls do not get too sore."

"Ah," Katharina noticed then the way that not only the tip but all of the shaft of Miriam's dick shone with the glossiness of oil, reflecting the light of the chamber as a hazy sheen. Again carried by impulse, watching her hand move even as the act occurred to her, she reached out and took a gentle hold of it. She stroked her clasped fingers upward to the tip, then down, pushing aside the hem of Miriam's dress until the edge of her fist sat against the little ridge of softness at the bottom of Miriam's stomach. The skin of Miriam's dick was hot, and it pulsed with stiffness. Though coated thinly, the oil was slippery, and tickled at the palm of Katharina's hand with the smoothness of the stroke. "Well, that is considerate of you," she whispered.

"Ahh, Katharina," Miriam's body shuddered. She set her hand on Katharina's arm and Katharina thought for a moment that she was going to pull it away, but then Miriam's grip simply tightened and held her in place.

"Is it okay?" Katharina made a second careful stroke, felt Miriam throb hard, "You have to leave, don't you? For the rite."

Miriam's shoulders shook, not a shudder of excitement this time but different, limper, as if she were sobbing again. A curious shrill whimper sounded in her throat and she pressed her hips up against Katharina's stroking fist, "I... I do."

Katharina let go of Miriam's dick and slowly stood aside, "Sorry. Of course. Please go."

Miriam's hand clutched tighter to Katharina's arm, pulling her closer again, "I do. But I don't want to."

Katharina looked at the bed, at the thick folds of Miriam's green robe draped over the footboard. She thought of the few times she had conversed with Miriam, and then also of Miriam's girl Aria, "You didn't want to be one of the Seven Sisters. It's a chore for you, isn't it?"

Miriam nodded, and sniffed. She let go of Katharina's arm, "I do it. For..."

What had sounded to Katharina tantalizingly like a confession, a clue of some sort to the nature of Miriam's unhappiness, was left unfinished as Miriam's voice grew quieter and faded into a sigh. Unsure whether it was appropriate to embrace Miriam again given her discomfort, and aware that she might be delaying Miriam's arrival at the rite, Katharina turned away and gathered the robe hanging at the end of the bed, meaning to help Miriam put it on. But as she turned she felt two slender arms wrap around her shoulders from behind and hug her with surprising strength.

"It's okay," Katharina whispered the first soothing platitude that occurred to her. She set one hand on Miriam's arm and wriggled her shoulders a little to rearrange her breasts where they had been trapped awkwardly against her body under Miriam's hug. Miriam's grip loosened, but Katharina held firm, clasping Miriam's arms to herself. "It's okay," she repeated.

"Oh Katharina," Miriam mumbled. One hand crept up to Katharina's neck and pulled back the dressing gown, exposing her shoulder to Miriam's moist kisses.

Katharina could feel that Miriam was hard still. Miriam was a little shorter, and her dick nestled upright in the cleft of Katharina's buttocks, wrapped in a fold of the thin silk of the dressing gown. Katharina let go of Miriam's arm and reached down to the side of her hip, gathering the gown in her fingers. She tugged it carefully upward in a few scrunches of her fist, until it rode up between their bodies and over her backside, exposing her, their bodies pressed together.

"Katharina, Katharina," Miriam whispered, pressing her mouth tighter to Katharina's shoulder, her teeth against Katharina's skin, her jaw tense and trembling as if poised to gnaw at her.

Katharina pushed her hips back to nuzzle at Miriam's dick, press herself more firmly against it. As she wriggled, she carefully shrugged away her dressing gown and pulled it out from behind her back, casting it onto the floor.

She felt Miriam throb against her, then hug her tight again and begin to slowly grind, rubbing herself in the cleft of Katharina's behind. Her breathing grew louder as her movements quickened, the tip of her dick just nudging over the ridge of Katharina's tailbone at the apex of each movement. The oil on Miriam's dick was slick but warm, and the smoothness of the strokes on Katharina's skin sent a tickle of satisfaction up her spine. Miriam's arms locked tighter and her hands moved across Katharina's body, stroking over her stomach and then up to her chest, gripping and kneading her breasts as Miriam began to grunt and gasp.

Katharina felt her body flush with warmth. She watched her own dick rising, jerking upwards in little pulses, swaying freely in the empty space in front of her. Miriam's touch, her firm hold from behind, and her kisses, were surprisingly aggressive and desperate. Katharina found she took great pleasure in being handled with a little roughness, Miriam's fingers digging into her breasts, her hug pressing down on her lungs and squeezing little groans of breath from her throat.

Beneath the heat of simple arousal, Katharina felt a ringing tremor in her limbs, a different kind of excitement, more like trepidation. It came over her just as an idea began to settle on her, as if her gut had anticipated her thoughts by a splitsecond and was readying her for something she was about to decide even if she did not yet know it. Katharina shied away from the thought for a moment, afraid to articulate to herself what had just crossed her mind. But then she felt her hesitancy swept away by a rush of nervous exhilaration.

Steadying herself against Miriam's squirming, Katharina leaned out and planted her hands on the footboard of the bed. She had to turn slightly to position herself, and for a moment Miriam stumbled and let go of her, but Katharina reached quickly behind herself and found Miriam's hand. She guided it back up to her chest then stuck her rear out, nuzzling until she found Miriam's dick again.

Miriam squeezed Katharina's breast, more gently and more affectionately than she had before. Then she let go of Katharina once more, and seemed to stand straight and pause. There was a fumble and the faintest swish of fabric and then Katharina craned her neck round to see Miriam pulling off her yellow dress over her head. Miriam's upper body, her arms and shoulders and her slim chest, were dotted with dark brown freckles. Miriam's cheeks and her ears were flushed red. She looked at Katharina, coy, and turned away.

Katharina too looked away. There was a moment of breathy quiet. Then a movement and Katharina felt something warm and silky against her shoulder, Miriam's discarded dress.

"Will you wear this?" Miriam said quietly, "For me?"

Katharina took the dress in her hand. Nodding silently, she stood up. She felt sure that if she spoke her reply, her voice would betray the rush of exultant excitement that was sweeping through her. Though oblique, Miriam's request could only be confirmation of what Katharina had suspected. She bunched the dress into a ring, lifted her arms, and let it fall over her body, pulling it hurriedly into place. She was taller than Miriam, and the hem reached only to her hips.

Katharina felt clearly the hard pulsing of Miriam's dick nuzzled against her backside. She spread her legs to lower herself. She hesitated, "Is this also what you would like?"

There was a sound a little like a reply, a quiet groan of affirmation, Miriam's breath slowly leaving her throat. She set her hands on Katharina's hips, trembling, and leaned forward.

Katharina clapped her hands to the footboard of the bed and gripped it through the thickness of Miriam's green cloak. She held the cloak bunched in one hand, concerned it might fall to the floor. She leaned more of her weight forward as Miriam began to rub against her again, pushing at her from behind.