Lina did not knock. The door was unlocked, just as she expected, and she stepped inside with a quiet confidence that had long since settled into her bones. Betty was there, waiting in the dim amber glow of the softly humming lamps, watching her. Always watching.
Lina exhaled slowly, letting the tension of the outside world peel away like a veil slipping from her shoulders. There was no preamble, no hesitation. Her dress pooled at her feet, a silken ghost discarded without ceremony. She was naked before Betty had the chance to blink.
Betty, perched on the edge of her bed, did not react beyond the slow, deliberate tilt of her head, her sharp, analytical eyes tracing every line of Lina's exposed form. Lina felt it like a caress, the way Betty studied her, absorbing the way the low light made her skin seem luminous, how her freckles became a constellation scattered across pale flesh.
"I want to try this," Lina murmured, stepping closer. Her voice was low, reverent, thick with something Betty recognized but did not yet name.
Betty's lips barely parted before Lina was straddling her lap, pressing against her with a kind of hunger that made Betty's breath stutter in her throat. She had done this before--once, twice--before realizing it was not for her. But for Lina, she would try again.
Lina guided her down onto the bed, their limbs weaving together like figures in an Escher painting, lines blurring, breath mingling. She felt fevered, weightless, caught in the undertow of something vast and inescapable.
And then, it happened.
A sharp inhale, the shift of a universe, the perfect alignment of stars and skin. Their bodies met--not just the slick, insistent press of heat, but something deeper, something more than flesh. The moment their centers connected, Lina's mouth fell open, a silent gasp swallowed by the space between them.
Betty's fingers dug into Lina's hips, unprepared for the sensation, unprepared for the way it felt right this time, for the way Lina's softness folded into her, for the undeniable truth of it. The friction was slow, deliberate, a gliding dance of silk and fire, of whispered exhales and stifled cries.