I realised that I had reached the age of twenty-one without knowing who I was or where I was going. Events of the previous few days had unexpectedly begun to slide open the stubborn and weighty doors of my heart and confront me with questions that were as strong, demanding and mysterious as Veronica. In a matter of days I had somehow allowed a woman I barely knew to move into my mind and exercise control over it, albeit a delicious control.
I was romantically, as well as sexually, inexperienced. My two previous relationships had been short, although neither had been particularly sweet. My mother had been unimpressed when I introduced her to my suitors and, although both were intelligent, stable young men who I suppose many girls of my age would have been delighted to be involved with romantically, under the surface I never felt comfortable with either of them. That said, I had never consciously felt attracted to other women either, which made my experiences of the previous days that much more perplexing.
Veronica had obviously awoken something which had lain dormant within me; feelings, attractions and, yes, lusts. It felt like the start of something; it felt like beginnings. It was, however, more than just lust, I knew, although the power of that feeling and the urges it produced could not be denied. I felt as though my life had somehow suddenly and dramatically been switched on and I began to wonder what might happen if I allowed myself simply to become abandoned to the push and pull of the wave. I was immediately met with the consuming thought that ‘allowing myself’ no longer felt like an alternative. It felt as though I was now committed to being led to whatever destination awaited. I knew my life was changing, but it felt like there was plenty of room for change.
My mind drifted back on the easy evening breeze to events of earlier that day. As it did so, I saw her face again, painting itself onto the soft canvas of my mind. My heart suddenly began to beat that little bit faster. Between my legs I felt a delicious tingling and the exciting warmth that was beginning to become more and more familiar to me. In my heart, it felt as much like love as anything I had ever known. I sighed, however, as I realised the chances of me growing inside her heart were probably as likely as recapturing the imaginary butterflies I had just released into the rusty evening sky.
Brighton’s ‘old town’ is an elaborate labyrinth of quaint alleys and weaving passageways, delicately scented by the subtle hint of herbs and freshly roasted coffee, where the romantic and the curious can spend hours believing that time has drifted to sleep and is held deeply within the soft confines of a Regency dream. Veronica had told me to meet her there the following morning at eleven o’clock, at a small but exclusive boutique called “ Amelie’s ”. It had the kind of discreet, understated frontage you could easily be forgiven for meandering carelessly past without necessarily noticing, seduced by the idyllic surroundings and the almost irresistible lure of the rustic, intimate coffee shop next door. The refreshed sun was rising strongly in an ice-blue, cloudless sky as I arrived at the boutique. I glanced down at my watch. It was one minute to eleven.
I heard the shy tinkle of shop bells as I pushed the door open and entered the boutique. Amelie’s was the kind of place which catered for a certain kind of woman with a certain kind of financial status: in short, a woman like Veronica Hamilton. It was patronised almost exclusively by professional women who wanted to dress with powerful sophistication. I closed the door and walked down a couple of shallow steps, breathing in the alluring fragrance of exclusive women’s clothing and extortionate price labels. Everything about Amelie’s oozed class and exclusivity. From the rear of the shop I could hear a seductive click of heels on the hardwood floor growing louder.
The wearer of the heels emerged from the rear of the shop. She was a mature woman who I estimated was probably in her mid forties, with long, strawberry blonde hair tied tight back in an efficient ponytail. She was immaculately presented in a navy blue pencil skirt and sober white blouse. The clicks had been produced by a pair of elegant navy blue shoes with slim, slightly intimidating heels.
“Good morning, madam,” she said. Her voice exuded professionally courteous efficiency. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Good morning,” I replied. “That’s very kind, but I’m actually supposed to be meeting somebody here.” Her lips, faint with the suggestion of red lipstick, broke into a polite smile.
“Is it Miss Richardson?” she asked. I nodded. “I am very pleased to meet you. My name is Sophie, and I will be looking after you this morning. Miss Hamilton has already arrived and is waiting for you in the back. Would you follow me, please?”
Sophie went to the boutique door, flipped over the rather antiquated-looking sign which hung on it, so that it now read ‘Closed’. She then began to lead me purposefully through the shop towards the rear, her authoritative heels again generating a percussive, empty wooden echo. I could not help but feel more than faintly confused about why I was there, but I was slowly learning to allow all thought to simply abandon my mind and ‘ride with the tide’ where Veronica was concerned.
The back of the boutique was rather narrower than the more open area at the entrance, where strategically placed racks and rails of quality women’s clothing greeted the customers, although I had little doubt Sophie would refer to them as clients. However, it curiously felt slightly less claustrophobic and more intimate. Veronica seemed lost in concentration as she swished through a rail of clothing, the combined price of which would probably have been enough to purchase a thoroughbred racehorse or two.
“Good morning, Miss Richardson,” Veronica said, continuing to slide the contents of the rail through her hands. I was slightly taken aback in relation to her mode of address, which felt markedly more formal than I had been used to from her.
“Good morning, Miss Hamilton,” I replied. Sophie stood a little distance back from Veronica, and to her side. She looked as though she wanted to say something helpful but was holding back.
“Ah,” said Veronica suddenly, opening up a space between the clothing on the rail and lifting a hanger from it. It was a black, tailored, two-piece pencil skirt suit, with the merest suggestion of a pinstripe. “Let’s try this one, I think, Sophie.”
“An excellent choice, Miss Hamilton,” Sophie replied. From most sales assistants, such a comment may have sounded nauseatingly sycophantic. However Sophie managed to make it sound positively genuine, perhaps because it was.
“Now, Miss Richardson,” Veronica continued, looking at me. “I want you to try it on. Sophie is going to give you all the help you need.”
Sophie pulled back a large, blue velvet curtain which slid back effortlessly and almost silently on the silver track above it, revealing a plush changing room. A full-length mirror covered almost one entire wall of the changing room, which also contained a luxuriously upholstered chair, in a blue as deep and rich as the curtain. There were two brass hooks on the wall facing the full-length mirror. Hanging on one of the hooks I could see a pristine white blouse perched perfectly on a hanger, and on the other a small carrying bag bearing the logo Amelie’s, of the kind the boutique would use to put customer purchases in. Sophie began to put the suit Veronica had chosen onto the brass hook behind the bag and I began to remove my jacket.
“Miss Richardson?” said Veronica, who had now sat down on another comfortable-looking chair just outside the changing room. “I thought I told you that Sophie was going to give you all the help you need.” I stopped what I was doing. Having hung the suit up, Sophie positioned herself in front of me.
“Allow me, Miss Richardson,” said Sophie, maintaining her courteous professional smile. Slowly, she moved her hands onto the lapels of my jacket, moved round to the back and slipped it off my shoulders in one easy movement. She moved back in front of me once more, holding my jacket in her right hand. As I looked at her, I almost sensed an apologetic look in her opaque, blue eyes, before she suddenly threw my jacket out of the changing room. It landed on the floor, a few inches from Veronica’s feet.
As she did so, I caught my breath and felt my face adopt a surprised, ‘what-have-you-just-done’ look. I had only bought the suit a few days earlier, specifically for the starting the job and it had been what I had regarded as an expensive purchase.
“Don’t look so concerned, Miss Richardson,” said Veronica, smiling. “You won’t be needing it again.”
“Shall we continue, Miss Richardson?” asked Sophie. I said nothing and swallowed hard, trying to regain a little visible composure.
Sophie moved her fingers to the buttons of my blouse. One by one she began to unfasten them. Watching her eyes as she did so, for the briefest moment I saw them take in the swell and contour of my breasts, held within the confines of my delicate, black lace bra. Reaching the waistband of my skirt, she stopped for a moment, grabbing each side of my blouse just above it, before pulling it firmly but expertly from within. Her fingers then continued their journey down until each pearl-white button was finally undone. Again, in one move my blouse was slipped from my shoulders before being casually tossed in front of Veronica, still watching a few feet away.
Sophie then turned her attention to my skirt, popping the button with a deft twist of her fingers, sliding the zip down, and easing it over my bottom. As she did so I could feel the still slightly tender memory of what Veronica had done to me two days earlier. My skirt dropped unceremoniously to the floor, and I stepped out of it. Sophie bent down to pick it up. It then received the same disrespectful treatment as the other items of clothing she had removed.
I turned my head momentarily to the left to look at Veronica. She was still sat on the chair with her legs crossed, looking at me intently. Her left elbow was resting on the arm of the chair, and her thumb and forefinger were lightly pulling and teasing at her lower lip. Delicate, flimsy items of black lace may still have been protecting the last of my privacy but in front of Veronica I somehow felt naked and shamelessly exposed. The truth was that at times she seemed to have the ability to make me feel that way, even when fully dressed.
“Sophie,” said Veronica firmly, “do you think the suit I have chosen will fit comfortably?”
Sophie was now stood directly in front of me again. Without saying a word, she moved her hands to the base of my neck, one on each side of it, and slowly began to run her fingertips lightly over my shoulders to the top of my naked arms. As I felt the gentle touch of her fingers against my skin, an exquisite, almost electrical tingling sensation began to radiate from the base of my neck and down my back, causing me to lower my shoulders slightly.
Sophie then moved her hands slightly under my armpits and began to move them down the sides of my body. As they passed close to my breasts, I felt her thumbs brush lightly against them through the flimsy lace. As they did so, I sensed my nipples respond involuntarily within the confines of my bra. They began to enlarge and grow firm, before pressing insistently against the delicate material. The palms of her hands then continued to follow the undulating contours of my sides, all the way down to my hips and the waistband of my panties.
“I think it will fit Miss Richardson perfectly,” Sophie said, turning to Veronica for a moment. “Would you like me to get her prepared now, Miss Hamilton?”
“Yes you may, Sophie,” Veronica replied.
Sophie reached into the bag that was hanging on one of the brass hooks just above my head, and carefully removed an exquisite black lace suspender belt with six thin, adjustable straps of ribbon that shimmered provocatively. Sophie slipped the suspender belt around my waist and deftly bound me into it with the delicate hook and eye fastenings at the back. The featherlight ribbon straps hung down loosely against the tops of my thighs, the fastenings brushing sensuously against them with the slightest movement of my body.
“Now, would you like to sit down in the chair please, Miss Hamilton?” Sophie said, her hand outstretched, directing me to the chair in the corner of the changing room. I sat down, allowing the rich material of the chair to yield to my body. As I did so, Sophie removed the small bag from the hook.
Sophie then carefully went to her knees in front of me, folding herself into a neat, compact package in front of me.
“You have the most beautiful legs, Miss Richardson,” Sophie said, as she extended her soft, slender fingers around my left ankle. “They really are perfect.”
“Thank you, Sophie,” I replied somewhat weakly, as I felt her fingers begin to caress the contours of my ankle, before allowing her fingertips to slide a little way up the back of my calf and then back to my ankle. Light electricity was once more beginning to cascade down my back from my neck, and as Sophie continued to caress higher up the calf of my leg I once more felt an irresistible tingling and warmth teasing me between my legs.
Sophie’s fingers were now moving freely up and down my lower leg, caressing the skin with a touch that was somehow both firm and gentle at the same time. She took my left foot in her hand and placed it into her lap, leaning forward slightly as her fingers moved ever higher, reaching the back of my knee. It was as her fingers floated and teased behind my knee that I perhaps realised for the very first time that my body had sexually responsive areas that I had never known before. Between my legs I knew my sex was moistening, preparing itself once more.
Gradually, Sophie’s fingers worked up beyond my knee. She spread her slender fingers and began massaging my thigh. Every now and then her elegantly shaped long nails, with their immaculate deep red glossy shine, lightly and provocatively scratched the satin skin of my inner thigh.
“Such beautiful legs,” Sophie purred, looking up into my eyes for a moment. Her own could barely contain the fact that caressing my leg was giving her a pleasure she could barely contain. “I could caress them all day, Miss Richardson.”
“Dress her now, Sophie, please.” Veronica’s firm interruption suddenly pulled Sophie back from the strengthening swell of sensual feelings that she was obviously beginning to lose herself in.
“Yes, of course Miss Hamilton,” she replied deferentially, almost submissively. I could not help but love the way Veronica was somehow able to control those around her so effortlessly, and with so few words. I looked across to where she was still sat and exchanged a brief glance with her. Her eyes looked into mine, and I sensed a wicked, intimate smile within their depths.
Sophie placed her hand into the bag and removed an oblong packet, which she broke open. From within she carefully slid out a pair of gossamer thin black stockings which she proceeded to separate from each other. With obviously practised ease, she took one in her hands and cautiously began to roll the delicate nylon down towards the reinforced toe, taking the utmost care not to ladder the flimsy material.
My left foot was still resting in her lap, my toes pointed upwards. In one smooth move Sophie slipped the stocking over my toe and eased it carefully over my foot, before beginning to stretch the delicate material slowly over my lower leg and up to my knee. I stretched my toes a little against the light web of sheer nylon, which expanded deliciously as I did so.
“Could you stand up for me, please, Miss Richardson?” Sophie asked politely. I smiled and stood up. As I did so, I felt a sudden and unexpected surge of power as I looked down at Sophie kneeling below me. It felt almost as though she were somehow worshiping me, and obediently ready to indulge each and every one of my immediate sensual desires.
Little by little Sophie stretched the fragile, dark material to the top of my thigh, unveiling its delightful and dainty lace top. One by one Sophie’s fingers eased one part of each fastener under the lace before drawing its partner over the top and securing the stocking to it firmly. I felt the straps pull taut against my thigh and cheek of my bottom as she adjusted them, and another wave of sexual pleasure surged between my legs. Sophie then repeated the process with my other leg, smoothing each of the stockings out carefully with her palms and fingers, before looking up at me.