Elga pt 4 Katinka pushed in through what was euphemistically described as 'the security door' (it didn't lock) of the run-down building, automatically side-stepping before the heavy frame could slam back and catch her in the hip. She wrinkled her nose; someone had been pissing in the foyer again. God this place was a dump...
She could leave anytime she wanted to, find somewhere nicer, safer, closer to the university, with light and space aplenty to work. All she had to do was swallow her pride and ask her father to help. Katinka sneered: not bloody likely! Her independence was hard-won and she treasured it. She took perverse pride in living somewhere so mean and cramped; it was what she could afford with her own money."I'm home!" Katinka sang out, slamming the creaky wooden door behind her. "Rani? Y'here?" There was no answer, and to confirm her small lover's absence, there was no recent scent of her, either. Katinka pouted; she had some good news and she'd wanted to share it with Rani as soon as possible. Oh well... She glanced towards the bedsit's single window: it was late afternoon, the light would be failing soon - Rani would undoubtedly be home before dark anyway. Since the bizarrely terrifying encounter a week ago the Hindustani woman had become a little anxious about being alone and outside at night. Thoughtful now, Katinka shrugged out of her denim jacket, slinging it over the back of a scuffed wooden chair. Rani had changed, some of the light had gone out of her... The artist frowned; no, the light hadn't gone, exactly, it had become shaded, shuttered and wary – like Rani herself. The woman's world had altered, irrevocably, and what had once been clear and known was now shaded with darker layers of menace. To her eyes the shadows were deeper and there was more to be seen in them if you cared to look.
Katinka shook herself out of her abstraction. Rani was intelligent and resilient, she'd bounce back once she'd satisfied this initial obsessive need to quantify what had happened to her. It was worrying though, she'd missed a lot of classes this past week, preferring instead to bury herself in the library, poring over texts that argued back and forth about the reality of demons and gods, of any of the so-called mythical entities. Rani seemed to be veering towards the 'physical manifestation of psychic activity' theory at the moment but interestingly, worryingly perhaps, she never expressed any doubt that something had happened, she hadn't imagined it...The night was creeping closer and Katinka was beginning to worry. She was on the point of giving it ten more minutes before she went out looking for Rani when her sharp hearing caught the sound of the ground-floor security door banging shut. A minute later the apartment door opened and Rani hustled in.
"There you are," Katinka beamed, enfolding the small woman in a warm hug. Rani sighed happily and snuggled closer to the artist, wrapping her arms around Katinka's lean waist. The blonde smiled, feeling Rani's tension ease away. It gave her immense joy to be able to give such simple comfort to her lover.
"Would you like to go out for dinner?" Katinka grinned at Rani's enquiring frown, "or shall we order in?"
"That all costs money, 'tink."
"It does, yes." The artist's grin broadened. Rani continued frowning at her for a moment then she chuckled.
"Uncle V sold the painting, didn't he?"
"Yep. So - " Katinka tipped her lover's face upwards and brushed a soft kiss over her lips. "What would you like to do tonight?"
Rani quirked a fine eyebrow.
"How much did you get for it?"
"Enough to cover the rent for several months if need be."
The smaller woman's chocolate-brown eyes widened.
"That's fantastic! But you shouldn't be splashing it about, lover – "
She didn't get any further. Katinka took Rani's plump cheeks between her palms, immobilising her for a deep and compelling kiss, leaving her gasping when she eventually pulled away.
"Don't argue," the artist murmured against her lips, "We deserve a treat and I'm damn well going to treat us."
Rani giggled breathlessly.
"I love it when you're forceful."
"I know." Katinka smirked. "So?"
"Okay, I surrender," a cinnamon-skinned hand slid up underneath the artist's baggy, patched man's jumper to brush lightly over a firm breast. Katinka's violet eyes flared dark and it was Rani's turn to smirk. "Can we stay in? I doubt a restaurant would appreciate me spreading you over a table."
The artist laughed.
"It might improve their custom, who knows?" She pulled Rani close again, stooping to nuzzle her neck. "Wholefood? 'Green Beans' delivers."
"Sounds fine," Rani sighed happily, tipping her head back and exposing her throat for Katinka to explore with gentle nips. She glanced at the grubby clock on the wall and giggled. "Oh dear." Rani trilled in a high-pitched sing-song. "Green Beans won't be open yet. Whatever shall we do to pass the time?"
The artist pulled back slightly and the devilish, knowing little half-smirk she fixed on Rani prompted a shivering thrill of anticipation in the smaller woman...Rani murmured in her sleep, stirring and shifting her sweetly-fragrant warmth closer to Katinka. The artist smiled gently: hopefully her lover was tired enough now to sleep through without dreaming. An unbroken night's sleep would do her the world of good.
Much earlier in the evening, flushed and giggling, the Hindustani woman had dived beneath the bedclothes while dinner was delivered. Their bed was visible from the door and while Rani was comfortable in her skin she wasn't so keen on having a complete stranger view her in all her naked, abandoned, just-fucked glory. Katinka had sighed theatrically as she slid off the bed.
"For god's sake put some clothes on!" Rani hissed, peeking out from underneath the quilt.
"Why?" Katinka smirked.
"Because I don't want anyone else looking at you!" was growled back at her.
"Well if you put it that way..." the artist quickly shrugged into an oversized t-shirt then ambled off to answer the door.
The food had been delicious, filling and thoroughly indulgent, and in the playful atmosphere Rani had blossomed again into something close to the light-hearted soul she'd been.
They'd finished eating and the smaller woman was sprawled contentedly over the bed, happy and relaxed. Katinka ran an appreciative, artist's eye over her lover's sensual form.
"I want to draw you." she said.
"What, now?" Rani blinked.
"Yes, now, just as you are." The artist gently rolled a dark nipple between her fingers, grinning when its owner gasped and wriggled. "Well, as you will be in a little while."
Before her lover could object, or even think to reply, Katinka had pushed her over on to her back and was teasing long fingers between her thighs. Rani gasped and rolled her hips to increase the contact.
"... 'tink."
"Patience," Katinka murmured with a smile, lowering her head to lightly graze a prominent nipple with her teeth. Rani quivered and bit back a moan, unsubtly easing her thighs apart.
"... 'tinka, please."
But the artist was in no hurry, working her way slowly down the luscious body, finding and focusing on all the little spots she knew would have Rani squirming. There was a heady kind of power to this, of knowing someone, their body and responses, so well you could play them as you wished. Changeable eyes gleaming, Katinka settled at last between her lover's legs, nipping exquisitely slowly up the inside of a velvet thigh, relishing every quiver, every moan as she edged closer to what Rani was holding out for.
Rani arched off the bed as she came, fingers digging into the artist's shoulders, her eyes squeezed shut. After a moment she slumped back, panting, and smiled muzzily at the blonde. Katinka smirked and moved to kneel beside her lover.
"I'm going to draw you now," she smoothed a lock of shining black silk away from Rani's face.
"Uhuh." The plump and pretty woman's gaze was loving. She rolled onto her side, lazily watching the artist prowl around the bedsit. "Don't sell this one, 'kay?"
"Oh no," Katinka chuckled, "this is all mine..."The artist sat cross-legged at one end of the bed, the sketch pad resting in her lap. She worked quickly, not attempting to analyse what she saw, simply trying to capture the sated, languid look of her lover. Rani lay on her side, head pillowed on an outstretched arm, hair loose and flowing over her shoulder to partially obscure her full breasts. Time became malleable and irrelevant to the artist, as it usually did when she was creating, and Rani had drifted off to sleep before Katinka finished sketching. She blinked awake some time later when the blonde gently shook her shoulder.
"I'm done – would you like to see?"
"Sure." Rani hauled herself upright to peer at the sketchpad Katinka proffered. "Wow." She breathed. "You make me look beautiful."
"Idiot. You are beautiful."
The women smiled at each other then Rani yawned.
"Get into bed," Katinka leaned forward, giving her lover a kiss on the cheek, "I'll clean up."
"If you insist." Rani grinned sleepily, falling back asleep as soon as she'd made herself comfortable.
Katinka swiftly tidied away the debris from dinner then picked up the sketchpad again. She examined critically what she'd drawn. It wasn't perfect, there were definite rough edges in places but the basics, the essence of what she was trying to convey was there. Rani gazed dreamily out at her, a beautiful woman dripping sensuality and a warm, post-sex languor; it was an intimate portrait of someone she cared deeply about. The artist smiled to herself; all in all it wasn't a bad effort. She set aside the sketch-pad, switched off the lamp and eased into bed beside her lover. Rani sighed happily in her sleep, and nestled into the blonde's side...It was very late - or very early, it depended on your perspective – and Katinka was still awake, still with Rani snuggled in close to her. Sleep was proving to be elusive tonight. Katinka shrugged mentally; insomnia was something she'd lived with off and on most of her life, but it didn't matter, sometimes she didn't seem to need all that much sleep.
The artist's thoughts turned to what to do with her little windfall. It was a fair amount, she mused, and there was a lot she could spend it on. Mundane necessities like bills and rent aside, she could do with replacing some of her more threadbare clothes and it'd be good to have a new pair of boots now it was getting colder. There was always art materials to be bought and how long had it been since she'd been on holiday? A real holiday, travelling away rather than simply not going to college? Katinka turned her head to gaze fondly at the woman sleeping beside her: be nice to take Rani somewhere for a break, just the two of them... The artist smiled ruefully in the dark; the money wouldn't be spent on anything so frivolous as a holiday, Rani wouldn't allow that, not without some heavy persuasion. Maybe next time.This wasn't the first piece of art Katinka had sold. Over the years she'd been able to supplement the meagre stipend she got from her parents' – her mother's – estate with very welcome injections of cash from sales of her work. Not huge amounts, naturally, she was talented but not a name yet, but still Uncle Vadim always managed to get a decent price. Katinka smiled, she owed the elderly Russian art-dealer a great debt. He wasn't really her uncle though he was of her blood, a distant relation of her mother's and he'd been her guardian, friend and mentor since she was orphaned at ten years old. It was Vadim who'd found her hiding near the burnt-out ruin of her ancestral home and then – for reasons Katinka hadn't understood for years - spirited the terrified child away, out of Eastern Europe to relative obscurity in England.
Katinka's memories of her previous life were patchy. She knew she was descended from the boyars, the wealthy land-owner class of old Russia, and that she and the man she'd believed to be her father had had servants attending them in their remote mountain domain. The artist had vague memories of a generously proportioned woman – her nanny, perhaps? – whose deep, joyous laugh created ripples over her ample bosom. Katinka had loved being cuddled to that bosom, there'd been warmth and security there, and love. She wished she could remember the woman's name but that along with so many other things had vanished from her conscious recollections. Katinka could vividly recall the man who'd brought her up as his daughter though, a gentle man with sad eyes, very like the woman in the photographs he'd kept prominently displayed, except she was laughter and light while he was sadness in shadows.
Katinka had never known her mother - she'd died giving birth to her - but the artist only had to compare herself to the few remaining photos of the woman to be aware of the resemblance. She didn't dwell on the past too often though, there was nothing for her there. Katinka pressed a light kiss to the top of Rani's head – everything that was important she had right here and now...
© 2004 March 19th Lutra
Onto to Chapter 5
© 2004 WordWrights