Chapter 9

For Suzanne and Ara the previous five days had been part of the holiday, the two of them had seen the sights, done some shopping and just relaxed and enjoyed themselves. So perhaps it was not surprising they were excited to get going on the Tuesday morning. Nobody would be around up at Montmartre at 8.20 in the morning but the excitement of the day had infected them already. Andrew had seen neither coat nor shoes yet, the two of them were padding around in their robes. But that the two of them were excited was beyond doubt.

When they finally came out after getting dressed in the bathroom they looked breathtaking. Of course that was influenced by the fact that Andrew knew they were naked under their coats but they looked amazing. Suzanne had a long lightweight trench coat, classic light tan or khaki colour, down to about mid-calf. Her sandals were simple although with a substantial heel. He was later informed these were block heels as trying to wear stilettos on cobblestones would be an ankle-breaker. Andrew could tell that Ara had pushed herself, her coat was above the knee and edging towards mid-thigh. It was a lovely pastel blue colour, belted with big lapels. Her sandals were a neutral cream colour, also with a block heel but only a small heel. When they stood beside each other they looked utterly fantastic.

“Wow. You both look amazing.”

Radiant smiles. They walked over to the dresser and both pulled out their Hermès scarves, tucking them into their coats before they headed out. The first part of the day was all about playing tourist in Paris in the summer. They were at the Eiffel Tower as it opened and did not have to queue too long before ascending in the elevators to the second floor. They waited again and took the separate elevator to the third floor, the one high up at the top of the tower. It was there that they spent their time. They burned through a roll of film taking pictures of each of the two of them in turn before a helpful Swedish tourist took a couple of shots of the three of them together. It was so lovely looking down over Paris that a lot of the excitement eased and the three of them took in the view, just revelling in being together.

“I am glad we waited to do this with you. These are the moments that I want us to spend together.”

Nothing needed to be said in response to Ara’s comment. It was how they all felt. Suzanne giggled.

“I don’t know about you Ara but the breeze is making me very conscious of my state of dress.”

“Think how I feel. Your coat is much longer. I am worried mine is going to catch a cold.”

They all chuckled at the thought of Ara’s poor pussy with the sniffles. Once they had taken in the views, and captured them on film, they queued again and descended first to the second level and then after transferring lifts, back to the ground. There is a lot of queueing involved with the Eiffel Tower.

The light chitchat of the morning slowly petered out as they took the Metro over to Montmartre. Often when you build something up in your mind the reality fails to meet the anticipation. But sitting in the Place du Tertré it was everything that they had teased each other about earlier on the trip. Suzanne and Andrew sat perfectly straight and allowed their artist to work away. Ara though crossed her legs presenting just miles and miles of toned thigh. She sat with her hands demurely in her lap, they all knew it was keeping everything modest, but she gave the appearance of calm. As they had anticipated the three artists worked quickly, their money was made by throughput. And less than an hour after arriving in the square they were done and had three sketches, one of each of them. They stepped away from the artists and Andrew discreetly held Ara as the adrenaline shakes dissipated.

“Suze often uses the phrase crave and dread, now I know what she means. That was exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. I wasn’t even mad at myself for getting turned on. As I sat there I came to realise this is who I am. All these years of parental and societal programming should mean that I shouldn’t get turned on sitting wearing nothing but a coat and heels in a square in Paris. Showing the world a lot of leg. And yet, with the two of you there beside me, it wasn’t that I was reluctantly okay with doing it, I wanted to do it. Andrew had told me to do it and I wanted to please him.”

They let her talk it out, but the worst of the endorphin dump had occurred.

“I don’t know how I am going to be when we get back to the hotel but I am seriously horny already. I can’t imagine how I am going to be after our afternoon shopping.”

She sighed and took a deep breath.

“I really enjoyed that in case you can’t tell.”

Suzanne smiled and Andrew kissed her gently.

“Enough about me. How are you Suze?”

“Wishing that I was wearing a shorter coat to be honest. I am naked under this coat with my plug stuck up my arse and yet I feel relaxed and comfortable. Is that not crazy?”

Andrew had forgotten about the butt plug. But wearing a long coat, carefully buttoned and belted, was relatively tame. He kissed Suzanne as well.

“It just means that you can go shopping for another coat. Maybe you can get a belted jacket and see if it will cover that lovely arse of yours.”

No concern, no worry, just a huge smile.

They found a tourist trap of a local restaurant but fluent French immediately improved the quality of the service and they had a cheap and cheerful lunch, croque monsieur and a glass of wine. After their lunch they strolled round the rest of the little square and picked out a whole bunch of prints of Paris. Their sketches had been slipped between two sheets of cardboard but as they saw more prints they liked Andrew ended up buying a cheap portfolio carrying case from one of the vendors. It was nothing more than a plastic cover with handles over two thicker, much more robust, pieces of cardboard. But it was only a few extra francs and there was no point in spending a bunch of money for the prints and their sketches for them to get creased or crumpled. Finally they were done and Andrew was doing his best art student impression walking down the street with the portfolio.

Again the dichotomy of their lives was evident. The three of them had chatted away, thinking about different prints in different rooms, looking for something that caught the eye of them personally, just engrossed and happy thinking about decorating their home. And then minutes later they were heading down the hill and the whole nature of the trip changed, and Andrew could see the change in Ara and Suzanne as they mentally switched gears.

“I am walking down the hill and every step I take I feel more conscious that I am naked. Even just walking on the cobblestones is making the butt plug do delicious things. Ara is right we are going to be insane when we get back to the hotel.”

Andrew looked over his shoulder, the street was clear behind them, and leaned over and tapped her bum, making sure to catch the plug.

“Andrew! That is not nice. Just when I thought I couldn’t get any hornier. Bad Andrew.”

Suzanne’s smile was so devastating Andrew was glad he had his sunglasses on. Suddenly they were on the boulevard at the heart of Pigalle. They stepped out of the way of the foot traffic and looked around. It was more Hamburg than Amsterdam. Two sides of a wide boulevard with lots of traffic going back and forth on the road. Three blocks on each side of the street, with an air of general seediness to it. A more explicit version of Soho.

There were maybe 20 sex shops over those six blocks. Everything else they steered clear of, not that any of them were particularly enticing. As in Amsterdam on their first pass they tried to wander through them all, find out which ones had an ugly vibe, which seemed more hygienic, not get bogged down in immediately checking everything out in the first store. Several stores they were in and out within two minutes, easy to score off the list. Several others were like the large sex shop in Amsterdam, well lit, matter of fact about what they were selling, just with that vibe of ‘what’s the big deal?’, which suited the three of them perfectly. After they had strolled about for an hour, getting the lay of the land, they returned to the first of the four they wanted to revisit.

The first store was quite small and basic. It was almost entirely videos and toys, there were no clothes, nothing bondage related. But it had been the first store after a run of three sleazy places that seemed clean, antiseptic almost. And it was a good place to start. They browsed the videos for more than half an hour. They were all cluttered in large boxes, there appeared to be no rhyme or reason to them and no attempt at categorisation. So while at first it was fun, having no idea what there was to find, fairly quickly that got old. They did find one or two bondage videos but nothing sufficiently tempting for them to buy. What they did buy was a butt plug for Ara and the strap-on. And both were straightforward and easy. Sealed packaging, a must, and easy to follow diagrams for the strap on. There was a choice of several and after teasing Suzanne with the wider options they found one that seemed perfect. Quite thin, but with lots of fakes veins and ridges down the side. Suzanne looked very excited to go and make the purchase. First, they had to pick out the butt plug for Ara. She ended up picking it out herself, a size up from Suzanne’s and larger than Andrew would have picked for her himself.

“We are not twins.”

Andrew smiled at the need to be the same, yet different, and also the underlying competiveness between them. It brought a smile to his face. So the first store was a mixed success. They ambled along the boulevard to the second store, the largest on the street and the one that resembled the store in Amsterdam the most. As they were walking Andrew discreetly removed the plug from its packaging. He handed it and a small tube of lube to Ara. Her eyebrows shot up.

“If there is a toilet in this place, or a changing area, go and slip this in.”

Suzanne had been teaching her the ‘hiding under her eyelashes while biting her bottom lip’ look. She smiled at his reaction.

“Yes dear.”

He had to laugh. There was no toilet but there was a tiny changing area, just a small space with a curtain across the front but she was in and out in less than a minute. Suzanne and Andrew were waiting for her at the video section.

“We might need to cut our shopping trip short. I can barely think straight anymore.”

As Ara and Suzanne stood side by side looking at the videos Andrew stood behind them and gently tapped between their butt cheeks. Even through their coats they both hissed and tried to stifle a groan. He heard two murmurs of ‘devil’ but no other reaction.

The issue with this store was the quality of the merchandise. They skipped the video section once Ara had returned but the clothes and the bondage gear were just. The first word that came to Andrew’s mind was trashy but cheap is probably fairer. The clothes seemed to be flimsy, easy to rip and the crops and paddles were lower end as well. So this store had a better selection, a much better selection, but was let down by the quality. Disappointed they were about to leave when Ara noticed that they had an extensive collection of bondage videos. Another 40 minutes was spent browsing the whole section, as well as a quicker stroll through the suck and fuck videos. What Andrew did find interesting was that both Suzanne and Ara were drawn to the films set in a dungeon. They spent lots of time looking at the front and back of the videos, studying the little pictures on the box, obviously getting ideas. When they went to the counter to buy a couple they weren’t expecting to be told to save their money. That they were British was obvious and the man at the counter, who looked to be about their age, told them that the French had a different video system than the rest of Europe and that it wouldn’t work in Britain. Andrew remembered a comment that Manon had once made about how they converted the commercials for the tape they sent to him. They took the videos back and looked about seeing if there was anything else that caught their eye. Ara saw something and lifted it off the hook. It had not been obvious at first but Ara found a ball gag. It was a tie between her and Suzanne as to whose eyes widened the most and after that reaction there was no doubt they were going to buy it. They had seen examples on the covers of some of the videos but this was the first one they had seen in any of the stores. With a final thank you to the student behind the counter they returned to street.

The first two stores had been okay but had not fully delivered like the store in Amsterdam. But the third store was the one they were most interested in returning to. The store was predominantly focused on bondage. They knew that they were going to spend the most time in this store and were walking quicker to it. One of the things that struck them when they had put their heads round the door earlier was how friendly the person in the store was. It was only upon their return that they found out that he was the proprietor.

Everything was expensive, high quality but expensive. They spent a long time just browsing thoroughly, they didn’t want to miss anything. It was the first store where Andrew had seen bondage furniture, in this case a simple bench with eyes attached to it to enable someone to be clipped or cuffed in place. It was too low for them, but he was taken with the quality. Suzanne and Ara were engrossed in something near the front of the store so Andrew took his time looking over the piece. Stuck to the bottom of one of the legs was a shipping label and Andrew saw that it had the name and address of the store, but also the manufacturers address. When he saw the address he peeled the label off the bottom of the bench and stuck it in his pocket.

While waiting for Ara and Suzanne that morning Andrew had looked at the route out to Épernay along the A4 AutoRoute. It was where they were heading the following day. As he had looked over the route he remembered the name of one of the towns they would pass, Chateau-Thierry. It was the same town name on the shipping label. He put it out of his mind until later and went to see what had caught the eye of Suzanne and Ara.

They were looking at nipple clamps. Based on how Ara reacted to even gentle stimulation of her nipples he guessed that Suzanne was looking at them for herself. Some of them looked quite benign and it looked like you could increase or decrease the ‘bite’ of them. Others just looked fearsome, sharp metal teeth and a strong spring to hold them in place. Fortunately Suzanne was not looking at that end of the spectrum.

“What do you think?”

“Is it something that you want to try?”