It gets better every time they have sex and Karina doesn't get it.
Winter seems to know exactly what it is that Karina's craving at any moment. And if she doesn't, she's eager to find out and follow Karina's instructions.
They can't wait for Ms Narae and Karina's father to finally leave for their trip. Being quiet is an actual problem for Winter. Ms Narae already commented on strange noises coming from Karina's room.
"Do you sleep okay, dear?" she asks her one time at breakfast, concern clear on her face. Karina gives her a blank look, trying to quell the unease in her stomach.
Winter shoots her a glance and she's not smirking. Her eyes are alert and she notes a hint of fear flashing through them.
"The reason I'm asking," Ms Narae clearly isn't patient enough to wait for her to speak. "I passed by your room last night when I went to get water. It sounded like you were having a nightmare. You were groaning and moving in your sleep?"
Karina feels her face grow hot and Winter's face is finally lit up by a tiny grin. "I, yes," she stutters, "I do have nightmares, sometimes. It's okay. It's the stress."
Thankfully, Ms Narae isn't invested in her wellbeing past simple curiously so she drops it, only promising to bring some herbal medication for Karina to sleep better. She doesn't.
When the parents finally depart after exchanging goodbyes and seeing them to the cab, Winter practically drags Karina to her father's study and lets her bend her over his desk. She's reveling in her own long moans and Karina can't help but smile at her cries of pleasure. Winter clearly missed being loud.
If Karina's being honest, she's missed Winter being loud too.
She still quirks her brow at the blonde after they are done, watching as she tugs her thong up those toned legs.
"Did that make you feel better?" They both know she's not talking about sex. She's talking about the place they fucked in. She imagines Winter longed for sweetness of rebellious revenge and wonders if she got it.
Winter shrugs. "No." She gives Karina a lingering kiss then. "But it wasn't supposed to."
She's hard to figure out at times.
They spend a blissfully loud week together. Karina still grumbles at Winter's music and the way she insists on trampling up the stairs like a pack of young, easily excited elephants. But now she doesn't mind Winter's screams since she's the one to cause them. Winter rewards her, of course.
Her back is tender and raw from Winter's display of appreciation but it's worth it. Or so she thinks, until Saturday when she hisses as she puts her fencing clothes on and Seulgi sternly tells her to limit her bedroom activities until after the Karina tournament. "I'm happy you managed to find a girl who is willing to put up with you," she tells a gaping Karina after her Saturday practice and her tone suggests she actually couldn't care less if Karina died wifeless and childless, surrounded only by seven cats, "but you need to focus. I've been young and in love once too. And let me tell you something," she gestures for Karina to step closer. "It's not more important than the tournament. Nothing is. Stop thinking about your girl and sleep in your own bed for the next month."
Karina is so astonished she forgets about professional boundaries. "How did you-"
"Your tank top does a very bad job at hiding the scratches," Seulgi tells her and the way her jaw twitches lets Karina know she's just as uncomfortable as her. But there is something exhilarating in knowing someone saw the marks Winter left on her. Saw the result of them having sex.
The whole 'in love' part is conveniently ignored. She's not about to explain to her coach that she and Winter are simply step sisters with benefits and she can't be in love with a person who thinks the nutritional value of hot pockets is higher than that of any vegetable.
She comes home and grabs a surprised Winter from the couch, hoisting her up and having her on the counter. Winter leaves crescents in her shoulders and she traces them in her room in front of the mirror, feeling strangely content and mildly aroused at having the visual proof of fucking her.
She gets so used to Winter constantly being there when she needs her that it actually takes an effort to stop. But midterms are just around the corner and Winter is a distraction - a beautiful, incredible distraction that Karina is hungry for. But a distraction nonetheless.
"I won't be available the next two weeks," she lets Winter know over dinner. The blonde tilts her head to the side, confused. Karina tries to ignore the impeccable curve of her neck.
"Are you going somewhere?"
"No. It's midterms."
A look of understanding crosses Winter's face. "Right," she nods. "Valedictorian stuff."
"Actually, regular student stuff," Karina feels the need to correct her but Winter simply arches her eyebrow and Karina gives up. "Anyway. I just thought you should know. Our, uh, arrangement... I won't be able to, um..."
Winter interrupts her, fed up with her mumbling. "I got it," she says. "I'll find someone else to fuck while you're studying for the brighter future."
"I thought you already had someone else," Karina says. "Several someones."
Winter blinks. "Why?" she asks. "You're always there."
That's how Karina learns Winter hadn't been sleeping with anyone but her ever since that night, and the knowledge makes her feel weird. The knowledge that now Winter will be screwing someone else again makes her stomach flip. She tells herself she's concerned about her health. Who knows what type of people Winter sleeps with. Her heart skips a beat at the thought. She ignores it.
-
She's peacefully taking a break from studying in the living room, headphones on and a book in her hand, when she sees a boy Winter brought home tumbling down the stairs. Huh, she thinks. That was fast. The boy doesn't spare her a glance as he storms out, slamming the door as he does. Karina scowls. Whatever Winter did to him, the door isn't at fault.
Or whatever he did to Winter, she thinks and stands up without realizing it. She's about to climb the stairs when Winter comes out of her room. She too doesn't even look at Karina as she brushes past her, wearing only a robe and a scowl. The blonde heads straight to the kitchen and Karina has no choice but to follow.
"Trouble in paradise?" she asks, leaning against the doorpost and watching Winter rummage through the cabinets. The blonde finally gives her a quick glance, seemingly only now realizing she's standing there.
"What?" She sounds irritated. "I don't even know his name."
"So you're finally seeing the error of your ways and coping like a stable adult would?" she teases, watching as Winter finally finds what she was looking for. A whiskey bottle stashed in an empty Captain Crunch box. Smart. Neither Karina nor her father would ever touch that box with a ten-foot pole.
Winter rolls her eyes as she unscrews the cap. "We're seventeen," she reminds Karina. "We are supposed to make fucked up choices and not deal with them the right way. You keep forgetting that."
Karina grabs the bottle Winter's about to tip in her mouth. This is alarming. She's seen Winter come home wasted and she's seen her high as a kite, but she's never seen her about to chug whiskey straight from the bottle. In the house, alone, without her friends and loud frat party bass reverberating through her chest. It looks like Winter's progressing from social drinking to quiet alcoholism and that just won't do.
Winter makes a disgruntled noise of protest but Karina still wrestles the bottle out of her head and carefully screws the cap back on. "I'm not forgetting that," she says. "And I'm eighteen."
The blonde scoffs. "Since when?"
"Since last week."
Winter looks taken aback by her admission. "Oh." She watches as Winter frowns slightly, blinking. "Why didn't you... I mean, I didn't know it was your birthday last week."
Karina feels like she has to explain. "It's not that big of a deal," she says. "I don't care about my birthday. I don't have time to celebrate." It doesn't convince Winter whose frown deepens. So she continues. "I bought myself a gift and everything. Celebration is... taxing." It is. She's not lying when she says it isn't a big deal. She doesn't get what it is about birthdays that has people so excited. It's just a day. A day when she has a permission to buy whatever she wants for herself, within the reasonable limit, of course - if 1500 dollars can be considered reasonable to blow in one day. She sends the money to The Trevor Project every year and treats herself to a 20-dollar ice cream and her father pretends he's proud of her.
Winter gives her a long look and Karina smiles inwardly when it inevitably falls to her lips. She holds her breath as the blonde slowly leans closer to her. Winter smells like sex and something uniquely her. Something Karina misses, she realizes.
Her eyes are about to flutter closed when the bottle is snatched from her hand. She scowls as Winter smirks at her, holding it proudly.
"Well," she says. "If you find it 'taxing' to celebrate, I'll do it for you." She tips the bottle mockingly. "Cheers."
Karina merely watches her. Notes the flush of her cheeks, the frustrated quirk of her eyebrows, the labored breathing, and something clicks and falls in place.
Winter looks ready to kill when Karina takes the bottle for the second time, but whatever it is she was about to say gets muffled by Karina's lips on hers. She holds the blonde in place, gripping her waist, and it's only a second before Winter kisses back, letting out a throaty groan when Karina parts her legs with her thigh, grinding up into her.
When they break the kiss, Winter's even more flushed and disoriented, clutching the front of Karina's shirt in her fists.
"What..." She shakes her head, letting blonde hair fall on her face. Karina brushes them away for her. "What was that?"
Karina's lips stretch in a half-smirk. "He didn't make you come, did he?" She doesn't need the blonde to answer the question. Winter's noises, more frustrated than horny, the boy storming out, the sudden need for alcohol - really, Karina should've realized this sooner. She leans in again, meeting Winter's tongue with her own and swallowing her desperate moans. It's an urgent kiss, almost rushed, but that doesn't make it any less hot.
Every time they hurry, the orgasms are shorter but brighter. Karina thinks that's exactly what Winter needs.
"Come on," she mumbles against her lips. "Hop on."
Winter doesn't need to be asked twice as she gets on the counter with Karina's help. Her robe falls open, revealing skin covered in marks that aren't Karina. She gets a sudden urge to ghost over them, to reclaim each and every one of them as her own.
But Winter is twisting and panting and there is no time for that, so Karina falls to her knees and gives Winter's center a wet, dirty kiss, making her cry out. She's not as wet as she usually is, probably because of the earlier irritation. But she's getting there. Karina carefully trails her tongue through her folds, and smiles into her when she feels a gush of wetness oh her chin.
It's not long before Winter begins to squirm.
"Karina," she hears the blonde breathe out. Her hand clutches Karina's shoulder, wrinkling her shirt. Neither care about that right now. "Oh, Karina..."
Spurred by Winter's voice, Karina dives right in, thrusting her tongue as deep as she can. But she's never been particularly good at fucking a girl with her tongue, and when Winter tugs at her hair impatiently and starts rolling her hips in her face, Karina complies, licking up to her clit and sucking on it hard. Winter whimpers and she replaces her tongue with two fingers.
"Oh, God, Karina!"
Winter is almost smothering her as she practically rides her face in time with flicks of Karina's tongue. She works for her pleasure as much as Karina does. Karina doesn't mind. The way Winter's thrusting against her mouth, using it and not caring whether she can breathe, is entrancing.
She rubs Winter's spot forcefully and grins when she feels the blonde freeze, already knowing what that means. She grips Winter's hips beforehand, holding her in place as she begins to buck, riding out her orgasm. Her clit pulsates under Karina's mouth like crazy and she hurriedly thrusts her tongue inside Winter again, moaning at the contractions she feels there. Winter drips down her throat and she swallows all of her, eager to get the last drop.
Winter's clenching slows down and Karina lazily laps at her center. She's perfectly content spending her evening like this, on her knees before Winter, cleaning her up, but the blonde soon pushes at her head, scooting away from her persistent tongue. She doesn't like to be overstimulated, Karina's learned this the second time they were together. Not the hard way, thankfully.
She rises to her feet, slowly trailing wet kisses up Winter's stomach, chest, neck, and finally reaches her lips, sharing her taste with her. She's learned Winter quite likes the way she tastes. That makes two of them, really.
The blonde hums at her taste of herself that she finds on Karina's lips. Then she chuckles, suddenly. "This is illegal," she points out when Karina distances herself to look at her. "I'm a minor, remember?" She brushes her mouth against Karina's in a chaste kiss. "And you're not. How does it feel? Breaking the law?"
Karina has to admit it feels pretty damn good. "Winter," she says, smirking. "In a couple of months, this will be illegal for a whole other reason." The blonde grins at that and she grins back, pressing her lips to the side of Winter's head and inhaling her scent.
Both of them freeze.
This is out of the realm of fuck buddies. Karina knows that. Somehow, the knowledge didn't stop her from doing this.
She clears her throat and steps away from the blonde, helping her get down from the counter. Winter's legs are still wobbly and she staggers into Karina who catches her, helping her stand upright. It all feels awfully familiar.
When Winter grabs her and plants a harsh kiss on her lips, the feeling of deja vu increases tenfold.
"Winter, stop," she breathes, taking a step back and taking the blonde's hands away from her face. Winter's fingers automatically curl around her own and she swallows, squeezing them. There's something in her eyes, something that makes Karina's stomach churn and coil.
She doesn't want to dwell on it.
"You don't have to," she tells the blonde, letting her hands fall to her side.
Winter looks confused. "But I want to."
"Yeah, well, I can't." She glances at her wristwatch. There's still some reading to be done and then she has to go to bed. "It wasn't about me, anyway," she finishes, looking back at the blonde and giving her a reassuring smile. Winter is still frowning. Karina doesn't really know what to say so she busies herself with tying her robe. She gives her a neat bow. When she lifts her eyes to meet Winter's, she's surprised to find her blushing. She wasn't this flushed when Karina was between her legs.
Winter's hand comes up to cover hers, still playing with the bow, and squeezes. Right. She lets go and nods, ready to depart and not ready to decipher whatever it is that's swimming deep in Winter's soft eyes.
"Karina," the blonde calls out when she's almost out of the kitchen, causing her to turn. "Thank you."
She's not sure whether she's talking about the sex or the robe or the not letting her drink, but she nods again and leaves.