A/N: Long chapter today! Enjoy!
A Few Days in Paris Chapter 10
Sara blushed when she opened the three neatly wrapped packages and Grissom opened his box of cookies, quickly passing them around as distraction. When Sara started to say something, Catherine waved a hand. "No need, Sara. What I've learned explains a lot!" She whispered, "I figured out long ago you two had a few secrets—I learned one of them today!"
The new dresses were carefully hung on padded hangers. "I wish I could wear my dress tomorrow," Annie sighed as her fingers curled around the fabric.
She was the only child still awake. Sara knew punishment of her sister caused more distress in Annie than it did for Ava and her restlessness was the result of missing her sister.
"Maybe we should go to dinner tomorrow night when we return—or go eat crepes or dessert in a nice restaurant. That way you could wear your dress." Sara said as she tucked the child into her bed.
"I miss Ava," the child sadly said as she looked at the bed where her sister had been sleeping, replaced now by her older sister.
"Annie, we are not punishing you, you know that. Ava has to learn not to wander away from us."
"I know." Her blue eyes blinked away tears. "She really doesn't mean to—she just does things without thinking."
Sara kissed her daughter, tucking the covers around her. Before having these two, she would have been skeptical of stories of an invisible bond between twins, but no longer. Annie lived with the consciousness of both girls, especially when it came to awareness of guilt.
"I love you, Annie." Sara comment brought a smile to her daughter's face. "Can you sleep?" The child nodded and curled into her pillow. Sara sat by her side for long minutes torn between rare thoughts of having her children so close together yet knowing if she had not done so, she would have not have had all of them. When Annie's eyes closed and her breathing became the soft, regular breaths of sleep, Sara kissed her again before leaving the bedroom.
Grissom's feet were supported on a foot stool in front of his chair; Catherine was stretched across the sofa and made an effort to move when Sara appeared. Grissom crooked a finger for her to join him in the chair.
"Stay there, Catherine. Your day has been much more dramatic than ours." Sara said as she picked up the wine bottle and topped glasses already in hands. She wedged into Grissom's chair, saying, "I do not know what else to do about Ava—she doesn't think. We take away privileges, we punish her…" Sara pointed to the other bedroom. "All that does is complicate life for Annie!" She swallowed wine and lay her head against Grissom's shoulder who turned to kiss her.
"Suggestions?" Grissom asked.
"No," Catherine chuckled. "I'm so happy Lindsay is an adult! She severely tested my parenting abilities—but, look at her now. She turned out fine. Ava will be the same—all of them will. They are good, sweet children." She took a sip of wine. "Actually, I think there's a strong genetic connection here." She leaned back against the sofa and laughed. "It does seem I remember a certain person in this room who would wander off—just leave us stranded, marooned—as he chased some…" Her laughed turned to giggles; her hand went to her mouth as she laughed.
Sara's laughter joined Catherine's. "I had forgotten! Now, I know where her wandering 'gene' comes from."
Grissom did not smile but snorted and huffed a few times. "Have no idea what either of you find so funny!"
~~Once bedroom doors closed, showers were taken in tiny bathrooms barely large enough for one, but shared by two who craved the other's touch. Desire was easily aroused with just a look and a small folded piece of cloth that brought quiet giggles to both.
"I did not want to hear how my underwear became a topic of their conversation!"
Grissom chuckled, "I think we have not been discrete enough, dear."
Grissom told her about his day, a version made entertaining for her amusement, and correctly told as truthful for most of it. He was halfway through the narrative when she stepped from the bathroom wearing nothing but a short tank top and the new red panties.
"Oh, God, did Catherine really buy those?"
"Your daughters picked them out, as I understand the story." She turned her back to him. "Do you think the size is right?"
As she turned, she crossed her ankles, one hand rested on her waist, and she grinned.
"Come here," he whispered and closed his eyes, a smile played across his lips. Sara's mouth came down on his smile; they greeted each other with a soft, tender kiss. When Grissom thought the kiss was ending, her mouth lingered, began to play, tease, and tempt him with her lips, tongue, and teeth. He opened his eyes to two warm brown ones looking into his.
Sara smiled and kissed him again, seizing his lips with greed, setting fire to his blood and in slow, patient play she gave herself to him. She stroked his hair, ran her palm down his chest. He reached for her, framed her head with tender hands, her hair, her neck, her long slim body with hips that fit snuggly against his, drawn into their own world by warmth and fragrance. He caressed her, let himself be drawn to her as he responded to her body, felt its desire and love.
Quietly, they turned their bed into a breathing center of the night. Grissom bent over Sara's face and kissed her, absorbed in awakening desires, as the night cooled and outside light played across the bed. As his hand slipped beneath silky fabric and cupped the smooth swell of her butt, he separated her legs with a gently nudge of his knee. After so long together, neither thought about the natural reactions of one body to the other, but as he entered her, he heard a delicate, velvety gasp against his ear.
Entangled and contented, they lay awake much longer than usual. Grissom had brought a bottle of water from the kitchen which they shared as they talked. The night lights reflected inside the bedroom and caused Sara's skin to glow. As they talked of mundane things, how much food was in the refrigerator, what to take for a day trip to Versailles, his hands could not remain away from her body.
His index finger found the small indention of her navel, and even as she talked, he circled it, lightly drawing some mysterious diagram on her belly. In the middle of making a list, in mid-sentence, he rolled and kissed her belly. When she giggled, he did not stop, but continuing placing lips against her skin, moving his hand between her legs. His thumb stroked her cleft finding warmth and dampness. He felt her stomach move against his lips and her hand moved into his hair.
He lifted his head and saw that Sara had closed her eyes, her lovely long neck stretched back against her pillow. His hand remained where it was but he moved to her neck and placed a kiss in the sweet hollow of her throat. His fingers moved again as his body responded to this warm welcoming center of desire.
"Will I ever get enough of you?" He whispered against her ear. He felt her smile against his cheek as she rolled to him. He had no need for an answer as she opened to him.
~~Bizzy passed a guidebook to her brother. "Versailles—pronounce it 'vehr-sigh' like the French do," pointing to what she was reading. "The powerful court of Louis XIV set the standard of culture for all of Europe and Versailles was the cultural heartbeat of Europe." She turned several pages. "We can go inside the palace then we will ride bikes all over the gardens."
Will had intently studied the small pictures on the pages, and just as seriously asked, "Do we get to see where their heads were chopped off?"
Exasperated with his lack of interest in anything other than bloodletting, Bizzy closed the book. "They were not guillotined at Versailles, Will. The kings lived there—I think that's why they got…" she ran a finger across her neck. "The regular people had no food and the king and queen were eating cake."
Catherine elbowed Sara. "Looks like you have a little anti-monarchy lesson being taught." They were traveling by train sitting across from the two children. Grissom and Annie sat in front of them; Ava and Eli were across the aisle. Several child-size backpacks were at their feet.
"Mom, do I have to go inside the palace?" Will asked.
"Yes. Short tour, just a few rooms. Then we will ride bikes."
"And eat our picnic?" Annie asked, twisting around in her seat.
"See the palace, ride bikes, eat our lunch—that's the plan."
They were among the first in line and, since it was prior to prime tourist season, the courtyard was not nearly as crowded as it would be in a few weeks. The "short" tour ended up a very long walk through twenty rooms of history interesting to four children for the first ten minutes. The organ music in the chapel perked up ears for a few minutes but even Bizzy was ready to move on. The individual audio headphones provided more entertainment than the painted rooms—Catherine kept Will's hand in hers, Grissom held Ava's hand, and Sara kept one hand on Annie. In this one-way tour, getting lost was not an option.
Once Bizzy and Eli noticed the paintings of gods and goddesses on ceilings and walls, they created a game of "guess the god" and realized at some point the rooms were named for Greek gods—Mars, Mercury, Apollo, even Diana—which caused a moment of intense giggles from the two.
However, when they walked into the Hall of Mirrors, everyone stared at this astonishing room in silent awe. The long hall with its seventeen arched mirrors, matched by windows providing a breathtaking view of the gardens, was unlike anything they had imagined. Gold covered everything not glass—Eli quickly counted twenty four gold and crystal candelabras. The adults slowly walked its length while the kids laughed, danced, and played with their reflections just as guests had done for three hundred years.
The mirrored hall and its windows served to remind five children of outside activities and the rest of the tour passed in a whirlwind of canopied beds and paintings of kings, queens, an emperor, and cupids covering walls. Once outside, they stopped at the stone railing and did complete turns to see the palace, the fountains, trees, ponds, and flowers. Will was the first to see the frogs and lizards that surrounded the round fountain and, from the guidebook, Bizzy read the story of Apollo and Diana and Zeus.
"This is the Latona fountain," Eli announced, reading over her shoulder. "The bike rental is there—at Apollo's fountain." The three adults were walking to slow for excited kids. "Can we go ahead, Dad? We'll wait beside the fountain."
Grissom nodded, "Beside the fountain, on the path so we can see you."
The children remained on the walkway running around the pool with its elaborate chariot yet had been able to pick out which bicycle each wanted to ride from the racks behind the rental house by the time the adults arrived. Before renting the bikes, Grissom pulled Ava aside, bent to her level and said:
"Remember our talk about your punishment for leaving Aunt Catherine?" He reminded her. "Today, you will not get your own bike—you will ride behind me in a child's seat."
Tears sprang into her eyes. "Daddy, I'm a big girl—those are for babies." Tears spilled and ran down her cheeks.
"Annie, what did I say yesterday? No crying—this is your punishment—don't ask to ride one of the others; you ride with me." He took his thumb and wiped her face. "Do you understand?"
She nodded and sniffed. Grissom pulled out his handkerchief and wiped her face. His hand went around her shoulders. "You'll have fun; it won't be so bad to ride behind me, will it?"
Ava shook her head, but clung to his hand. "Daddy, am I a bad girl?"
"No, sweetheart, you are a good girl," he chuckled. "Sometimes you are too much like me, and I don't want you to be hurt."
Her blue eyes blinked rapidly. "Daddy, were you hurt?"
"Sometimes—when I did things my mom didn't want me to do."
Finally, bikes were rented, the right size, the right color; Catherine swore it had been twenty years since she had ridden a bike. Grissom offered to rent a golf cart instead, but eventually, everyone was on a bike. Ava made no complaints, even bragged that she was the one who got to ride with her dad, as they pedaled along the paths and walkways of the lavish gardens and through groves, around fountains and statues.
After the extravagant and unrestrained opulence of the palace, the Le Hameau, the Hamlet, of Marie-Antoinette looked like doll houses. The bikes were parked and the kids ran from house to house, imagining themselves as child kings and queens. Along the edge of the path near the 'Temple of Love', they found a shady place for a picnic and pulled out the breads, cheeses, fruits and drinks they had stuffed into backpacks.
The kids ate, giggled, ran around the marble columns and the statue of Cupid, returned to their picnic and their parents before doing it all again.
Catherine stretched out and propped on her elbows. "I never thought five kids would be easier than one—but they entertain each other—most of the time." She rolled to one side. "My butt is going to be sore tomorrow." She massaged her backside.
Grissom chuckled, "Your butt is in fine shape, Catherine." He dodged Sara's elbow as they laughed. "Her butt has always looked good!"
Catherine rolled to her belly. "I am pretty sure I've never had blisters on it!"
After returning the bicycles, Grissom insisted they needed to paddle around on the Grand Canal, and as eight people really needed two boats, he rented three and proudly presented paddles to Catherine and Sara. Catherine passed her paddle to Eli.
"I'm with you, handsome! You can paddle!" She said as Grissom asked who wanted to ride in his boat. For the next hour, they paddled and splashed water and swapped places, while Eli rowed one boat and the other kids learned how to maneuver and paddle.
Late in the day, eight exhausted travelers settled into seats for the return trip to Paris. Two little girls were asleep before the train had traveled a mile.
A/N: A few more adventures before this one ends! Thanks for reading!!