Читать книгу The Pact: A Mischief Erotica Collection - Justine Elyot - Страница 5

‘I want you to promise me two things.’

Alice finished her tea and set the cup down. ‘Anything, Lili. You know you don’t even need to ask.’

The old lady smiled, her wrinkled face not diminishing the beauty she had clearly once possessed. There was still something of a youthful sparkle in her eyes. Alice often found it hard to believe that her great-grandmother was nearly a century old. She looked twenty years younger at least.

‘First thing,’ Lili said. ‘You must promise me that you’ll make the most of your inheritance.’

Alice winced. ‘Oh Lili, I don’t like to think about that. I don’t want to imagine you not being here and I don’t care if you leave me anything at all.’

Lili held up one graceful, pale hand and continued as though she hadn’t been interrupted. ‘You must use it as it was intended to be used. Promise me.’

‘Very well, I promise.’

‘And the second thing. I want the world to remember me as I was. Don’t let me be forgotten.’

Alice wilted with relief. ‘Please! I bore everyone rigid with stories about you and your days in Hollywood. I post pictures and clips of your old movies on Facebook and Twitter all the time. There’s no way you’ll ever be forgotten.’

Lili was smiling, a funny, cryptic little smile. ‘That’s good,’ she said. For a moment it seemed like she wanted to add something else, but then she just patted Alice’s hand. ‘I knew I could trust you. You’re a good girl. I know you’ll keep your word.’

There was something in the gravity of Lili’s tone that puzzled Alice. She narrowed her eyes. ‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’

Lili shook her head. ‘Nothing that won’t ultimately delight you,’ she said. ‘You may be surprised, but I know you’ll understand. Now, how about another cup of tea?’

Alice was desperately curious to know what the big secret was, but it was clear that was to be the last word on the subject. She knew any further questions would only earn her a knowing smile, but no more information. Not that it mattered; she’d made a promise and she would keep it.

Whatever it was.

‘Well, I guess that’s all of it,’ Alice said, looking around at the scattering of crates and boxes. All afternoon she’d helped the executor, a dark-eyed, dark-haired man named Jake Harmon, sort through her great-grandmother’s belongings, first finding and then boxing up the things Lili had wanted to go to charities, and the things going to distant relatives. The house itself had been bequeathed to Alice.

‘OK,’ Jake said, his voice tinged with sadness. ‘I’ll tell the movers they can take it away tomorrow.’

Alice nodded and wandered back into the hallway, where a procession of glamorous photographs of Lili hung. Black and white stills of her at the height of her youth and beauty. Here she was in a line of dancing girls with finger waves and high-kicking legs. Here she was in the arms of some silent-movie hero. Here she was in her first talkie, as a black-veiled femme fatale, smiling sexily as she clasped a revolver in one gloved and bejewelled hand.

Remember me as I was.

Alice would make sure of it. But why had Lili been so cryptic about it? And how was Alice supposed to ‘make the most of’ the house if Lili was no longer in it? Now it was just a collection of empty rooms, each one haunted by memories.

‘You’re really going to miss her, aren’t you?’

Alice scrubbed away a tear as Jake appeared behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. All day they’d been in close contact, stumbling over each other and getting in each other’s way as they cleared the house – Alice’s house, she reminded herself – of the things Lili had left to others. It wasn’t much, but it had still been hard work. Jake’s presence had been a welcome distraction, though, and Alice had found herself inexplicably drawn to him. Of course it could simply be that he was exactly her type – lean and toned, dark and broodingly handsome, with vintage good looks. She could almost imagine Lili had hand-picked him for just that reason.

‘Lili was my best friend,’ Alice told him. ‘She was my hero.’

Jake gazed at the photos on the wall, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. ‘You look like her, you know.’

‘I wish!’

‘I’m serious.’ He took one down – a classic 20s glamour shot – and held it up to Alice’s face to compare the two. ‘See? I was right. Change the hair and make-up and you could be her.’

Alice snatched the photo away and looked into the eyes of a Lili her own age. Jake was right. The resemblance was striking. How had she never noticed it before? She felt intensely flattered.

‘So she was an actress?’

‘Yeah. A proper Old Hollywood star. Mostly silent films, but a few talkies later on in the 30s and 40s.’

‘Lili Wessex. Hmm. How come I’ve never heard of her?’

‘She never really got the break she deserved. She always claimed it’s because she wasn’t much of an actress, but I’ve seen loads of her films and she’s fantastic. Every bit as good as Louise Brooks or Greta Garbo or any of the big stars of the time.’

They were both silent for a while as they admired the photos. Alice stole a look at Jake when he didn’t know he was being watched. He really was attractive. She hadn’t had a boyfriend in two years and she supposed it was loneliness that made her venture a suggestion. ‘Would you like to watch one of her films? With me?’

Jake smiled as though he’d been wishing, but not daring to hope, that Alice would ask. ‘I’d love that,’ he said.

‘She left me the house, and that includes my favourite room.’

Jake looked intrigued and Alice was happy to be able to play the cryptic one for a change. She took him by the hand and led him to a door at the end of the corridor. His face was a picture as she unlocked and opened it to show him a tiny private cinema, complete with antique projector. A shelf of film canisters lined the back wall.

‘This is amazing,’ Jake said, looking genuinely excited. ‘Do you know, I’ve only ever seen one silent movie in my life.’

‘Which one?’

‘Phantom of the Opera, with Lon Chaney.’

‘Oh, Lili loved him! She got to work with him once. She said he was a real gentleman. But he never went out. Apparently he hated the whole Hollywood lifestyle and … what’s that?’

Jake turned to see what she was looking at and shrugged. ‘I have no idea. I’ve never been in here, remember?’

Sitting in front of the curtained screen was a large cardboard box. There was no writing on the outside, but an envelope was taped to the top. Alice’s name was written there, in Lili’s hand.

‘That’s funny,’ Alice said. She removed the envelope and fingered the flowery lettering.

Jake smiled. ‘Well, aren’t you going to open it?’

She tore the envelope open and withdrew a sheet of paper.

‘Dearest Alice,’ she read aloud, ‘this is the Real Me. This is my true legacy. Remember your promise.’

She raised her eyes from the note to stare at Jake in bewilderment. But only for a moment. Then she was tearing open the box.

‘What the hell …?’

It was filled with film cans.

‘“My true legacy”,’ Jake echoed. ‘Are they lost films?’

‘They must be. She made me promise to … we made a sort of pact and … I just can’t believe this.’

Alice picked up one of the canisters and read the faded label, scrawled in old-fashioned handwriting. ‘Good-Time Girl. I’ve never heard of it, but then I’m no expert on silent films.’

She put it aside and took out another. Then another. The canisters were smaller than the ones on the back wall. ‘Deleted scenes?’ she wondered aloud. ‘Or maybe they’re just shorts.’

Jake read out the titles. ‘A Choice Bit of Calico. Bootleg Betty. What the Chambermaid Saw.’

Alice shook her head in disbelief. ‘Why didn’t she ever show me these? She must have known I’d want to see them.’

‘Well, she obviously wants you to see them now. Let’s put one on.’

Alice picked up the topmost can and carefully removed the film reel. She threaded it through the projector and turned it on.

She and Jake made themselves comfortable in the plush cinema chairs as the grainy film stuttered into life on the screen. After some spots and pops and scratches, a jittery title card came up: ‘WHAT THE CHAMBERMAID SAW’.

An elegant couple strolled along a street with vintage cars moving silently in the background. An intertitle introduced them as Mr and Mrs Pinkering. Their movements seemed comically speeded up and Alice giggled in anticipation of some Chaplinesque pratfall. But a clumsy splice made the film jump directly to the pair’s bedroom, where they began to undress.

It looked like the work of an amateur, but the director clearly had artistic aspirations, as the camera panned back and through a dark tunnel that revealed itself to be a keyhole. The classic voyeur’s point of view. The couple were now in their underclothes and Alice was surprised at just how much of Mrs Pinkering was on display. Her nipples were clearly visible beneath her thin shift.

Then the shot cut to the spying chambermaid and Alice gasped in delight at the familiar face. ‘It’s Lili!’

Then she gasped again as she realised what the chambermaid was doing. One hand had vanished beneath her short, frilly skirt and the camera zoomed in to show it moving deep inside her vintage bloomers. Alice blushed to the roots of her hair as the realisation of Lili’s secret hit her like a bomb.

‘Oh, my God,’ she whispered.

Jake looked just as shocked. He had slid down in his seat and was doing his best to stifle a grin. When Alice met his eyes, they both burst into helpless laughter.

‘I guess that would explain why she wasn’t welcome in mainstream Hollywood,’ Jake said.

Alice nodded. She was shocked, certainly, but not offended. That her great-grandmother had been a vintage porn star was perfectly in keeping with the woman’s feisty personality.

The film was really getting interesting now. Mrs Pinkering was pointing at the camera, at the keyhole, and there was a campy reaction shot of the naughty chambermaid as the door was flung open by Mr Pinkering. In case his outrage was in question, a helpful intertitle appeared: ‘BAD GIRL!’

The man dragged the protesting maid inside and it was obvious what was about to happen. Alice squirmed in her seat. Part of her desperately wanted to shut off the film and finish watching it – and all the others – later, by herself. But she glanced sidelong at her companion, who looked every bit as aroused as he was fascinated, and decided it would be more fun to watch it with an audience.

‘PLEASE, SIR! MADAM! I AM SORRY!’

But Mr Pinkering wasn’t having any of it. He pulled the protesting girl over his knee and began to spank her. Lili kicked and struggled so much that Mrs Pinkering felt obliged to take hold of her wrists and hold her still.

The embarrassment was exquisite. Alice had never felt such powerful empathy with a film character in her life. That was her own flesh and blood up there, her closest and most beloved relative. It was as though a part of Alice herself was on-screen.

The camera zoomed in to show Lili’s wriggling bottom as her angry master flipped up her skirt and pulled her bloomers down to her knees. It was clear from the darker colouring of Lili’s cheeks that there was no fakery, and Alice suspected that her kicks and cries were every bit as real.

‘OWW! OH! SIR, PLEASE!’ Lili yelped and pleaded in histrionic capitals while the action continued in silence. Alice’s mind provided the soundtrack. She winced in sympathy with every slap and smack, and her own bottom began to tingle as Lili’s grew redder and redder. Well, darker grey anyway.

When Alice didn’t think she – or Lili – could take any more, the spanking stopped. Now Mr Pinkering was stroking the maid’s poor punished bottom, cooing to her in silly intertitles. His rubbing became more lascivious as Lili wriggled about on his knee. Mrs Pinkering was soon joining in, and then the kinky couple had their naughty maid on the bed and were undressing her completely.

Alice pressed her hands against her burning face as she watched her great-grandmother stripped naked. She was beautiful, with a body to match. She raised her long dancer’s legs in the air and parted them to reveal her sex, thatched with pale hair that she must have dyed to match the hair on her head. The camera pushed in for a good view of her pussy as the Pinkerings caressed and stroked her. Mrs Pinkering kissed the dewy little slit, flicking her tongue over Lili’s clit while Mr Pinkering played with her breasts, pinching and teasing her nipples into erect peaks.

The title writer had stopped intruding now that there was no need to explain the plot or elucidate dialogue. Alice didn’t need any help to imagine Lili’s moans and gasps as both master and mistress toyed with her. Lili was astonishingly flexible, a talent they exploited fully, putting her in a variety of different positions while they sucked and fucked her. Alice had inherited some of that flexibility, but nowhere near as much as she’d have liked once she saw its full potential in Lili.

Her panties were soaked by the time the reel clattered to a halt and the loose end of the filmstrip whipped against the projector. She hurriedly went to turn it off. Her hands shook as she removed it and placed it carefully back in its canister. She was still blushing so hard she didn’t think she could face her guest. He hadn’t said a word since the real action had begun.

‘Well,’ she said at last, just to say something. Anything.

Jake got unsteadily to his feet and Alice couldn’t help but notice the bulge in his trousers. He cleared his throat and met her eyes with a sheepish grin. ‘That was … quite something.’

Alice could only nod. Silence spooled out between them like a dropped reel of film. When they finally spoke, they did so in unison.

‘Would you like to—’

‘Maybe we could—’

Alice laughed. ‘You first.’

He smiled. ‘I was going to suggest a double bill.’

Alice returned his smile, relieved and excited. ‘So was I. It was Lili’s final wish, after all. Make the most of my inheritance. That’s what she made me promise. She said not to let her be forgotten.’

‘I can guarantee I’ll never forget that,’ Jake said.

‘Me either.’

They both looked back at the open box, a treasure trove of secret delights.

One by one, they took out all the film cans. There were 47 in all. Alice’s heart swelled with pride at the body of work, at Lili’s obvious pride in preserving them. These probably weren’t even all she had made. Surely other people – directors, producers, actors, collectors – must have some as well. Maybe there was even a preservation society for films like Lili’s.

All the titles were intriguing, but some of the slang expressions were downright mystifying.

‘What the hell is a “bearcat”?’ Alice said, squinting at the handwriting on a peeling label. ‘Or a “floorflusher” for that matter?’

Jake shook his head with a laugh. ‘I’m sure they’d have been just as confused by our terms. Hey, I like the look of this one: Molls and Dolls.’

Alice had to laugh. Guys hadn’t changed in a hundred years. ‘Sounds good,’ she said, taking the canister from him. She threaded the film through the projector and they resumed their seats as it began.

Two flappers laden with shopping bags and hatboxes were giggling outside a shop window displaying Roaring Twenties fashions. The blonde was Lili. She didn’t really have the boyish figure for the fringed dress and ropes of pearls she wore. Her breasts were rather larger than most women’s of the period. But, of course, the audience for these particular films wouldn’t have been too concerned with how fashionable the actresses looked wearing clothes. From what Alice had seen of her naked, Lili would still be a hit today.

Suddenly, an old car screeched to a silent halt on the street behind them. The girls threw up their hands in fright, dropping their parcels as two pinstriped figures emerged from the car, holding tommy guns. They were both women. An intertitle popped up. ‘YOU TWO! IN THE CAR!’

The flappers obeyed and there was a lovely close-up of them huddling together on the back seat before a dissolve relocated the action to a swanky hotel room. The kidnap victims were gagged and tied to chairs while the molls stripped out of what were presumably their gangster boyfriends’ pinstriped suits. Underneath, each wore a silk chemise and what looked like a cross between a girdle and a garter belt. The camera panned up their black-stockinged legs and over their bodies while they contrived sexy poses, chatting to each other and taunting their captives.

Alice couldn’t help but laugh. ‘I could almost have believed it was a normal film until now.’

Jake agreed, then added, ‘There’s something quite sexy about period underwear, don’t you think?’

‘Yeah. It looks so constricting, like a corset, but it’s actually showing off everything it’s pretending to conceal.’ She stopped short of confessing that she’d always wanted to wear something like it.

Lili and her friend struggled against the ropes, pleading with their eyes. But the molls showed no pity. The taller one, a leggy brunette, crossed to a cupboard and took out what looked like a riding crop. She smiled cruelly at the girls as she slapped it against her palm.

‘NO ONE DOUBLE-CROSSES US!’

Alice felt her face turn scarlet as the flavour of the action became clear. She was beginning to sense a theme in Lili’s pictures, a theme she’d often explored in her own fantasies, but never revealed to a living soul. The film was putting all her secret desires on-screen.

Then the camera iris closed itself, trapping Lili inside a diminishing circle until the screen was black. When the iris opened again, both girls were untied and crouching on the floor, clinging to each other. The director was clearly a leg man, as the low shot favoured the molls’ thighs, calves and feet as they walked back and forth and circled their prey.

Then the tall brunette grabbed Lili and dragged her over by the bed while the other moll took Lili’s friend into an adjoining room. Lili clasped her hands and beseeched her captor, ‘PLEASE, NO!’

But the other woman was merciless. She threw back her head with a theatrical laugh and then proceeded to strip her prisoner, slowly and sensually, making a show of exposing her charms to the camera. The director lingered on shots of her legs, before focusing on what was between them.

A glance over at Jake confirmed that he was enjoying the sight and Alice felt herself grow even wetter at the thought of his arousal.

On the screen, the dominatrix towered over Lili, who crouched naked on the floor. She kissed and stroked the other woman’s feet and legs, peering up at her and batting her eyes, like a pet trying desperately to please its owner. But the cruel woman wasn’t satisfied with Lili’s efforts and soon she hauled Lili to her feet and pushed her face-down on the bed.

Alice gave a little cry as the first stroke of the riding crop landed on Lili’s bottom, then covered her face in embarrassment. The only sound was the rattle of the projector, but she could easily imagine the sounds the punished Lili would be making. They would be the same sounds she had fantasised about making herself.

Just as in the other film, the action was clearly not faked. Soon Lili’s bottom was peppered with darker marks from the riding crop, but she made no attempt to avoid the whipping. Quite the contrary; she was writhing lasciviously and making such a display of herself that no one could possibly doubt she was loving every minute of her ‘torture’. The action was interspersed with unnecessary dialogue, all of it cheesy and silly, but none of it could dispel the unquestionably erotic atmosphere.

When the dominatrix had had her fun, she threw aside the crop and produced a length of rope. Alice’s sex throbbed in response and she realised she was squeezing her thighs together to stimulate herself. Jake moved beside her and, for one fearful moment, she thought he was getting up to leave. But he only extended his hand to take her by the arm. Although her limbs felt made of liquid, she managed to get to her feet and cover the tiny distance between them. She stood before him, trembling with both anxiety and lust.

He didn’t make her suffer long. He slid a hand up underneath her skirt and found her panties. His fingers gripped the elastic band and pulled them down to her knees. Once there, they slipped down to her ankles, hobbling her. Next he lifted her skirt and tucked the hem into the waistband. Then he turned her around and sat her on his lap, facing the screen. The intertitles did the work for her, declaring her excitement in writing.

She wilted like a flower, sinking down to straddle the hard, warm length of his cock. She’d been so focused on the movie that she hadn’t even noticed him unfastening his trousers. Now his hands were around her waist and his cock stirred beneath her, growing harder between her inner thighs as they both watched the action on the screen.

Lili was now tied spread-eagled to the bed, where she continued to wriggle and moan as her captor knelt over her. She stroked Lili’s breasts, tickling the nipples into stiffness before lowering her lips to kiss them. She circled each one with her tongue, fluttering it against the hard little buds. Lili tossed her head from side to side and strained against the ropes, but she was held fast.

Beneath her, Jake adjusted himself until he was angling his cock up towards Alice’s sex. She parted her thighs and writhed along with Lili as she manoeuvred herself into position. He was huge, and she cried out as he slid inside her, impaling her. For a long time she sat perfectly still, loving the sensation of being so completely filled.

On the screen, Lili’s captor was stroking the sleek folds of Lili’s sex as a prelude to slipping several fingers inside her.

Alice gasped along with Lili as Jake began to move inside her, thrusting in and out. She had to clutch the arms of the seat to raise herself up for him, grinding her hips and clenching her muscles for maximum stimulation.

The events on the screen began to blur as his thrusts grew more and more passionate. The clattering projector only seemed to intensify the sensations, as though his cock were vibrating inside her, shaking her apart.

He released her waist and his hands crept up under her shirt. She whimpered softly as he pulled it up to expose her breasts, restrained in a soft cotton bra. She’d have definitely worn sexier clothes if she’d known anything like this was going to happen. Not that it mattered in the small darkened cinema. Jake wasn’t interested in her bra anyway, only in what it contained. His fingers found the erect pebbles of her nipples, straining against the thin fabric. She shuddered as he stroked them, the stimulation almost overwhelming. Then he slid his hands inside the cups and pushed the material down to expose her.

Alice arched her back, grinding on his cock as hard as she could, flexing her inner muscles and twisting against him. A powerful climax was coming, for both her and Lili, who had been joined by the others at some point. Now both molls and dolls were having their wicked way with each other. Alice didn’t know where to look any more, so she closed her eyes and let the real sensations consume her. Jake kneaded her breasts as he continued to fuck her, exciting her beyond anything she had ever known.

Her gasps and cries grew frantic and he dropped one hand to her lap, seeking and finding her clit. The touch was like electricity and spasms overtook her as she came. Her own racking orgasm triggered Jake’s and he made primal, animal noises into her back as he exploded inside her.

For several moments, the only sounds were their mutual gasping and panting and the projector’s noisy rattle. Alice opened her eyes. The orgy was still in full swing, which made her feel even further spent. Then, suddenly, the film stopped and froze, and in the split second before Alice realised what was happening, the image on the screen turned reddish brown and began to dissolve in a big, melting blob.

Hurriedly, she scrambled off Jake’s lap and switched the projector off. Her hands were still shaking from the climax and now she was trembling from the near-disaster. She quickly removed the reels and set them aside, frowning down at them. She had quite forgotten the state she was in until she looked back at Jake, who was eyeing her with a smile.

She broke into laughter. ‘Oops,’ she said. ‘I guess it did get a little hot in here.’

‘Mmm,’ he said, crossing to her and gathering her in his arms before she could adjust her clothing to cover herself. ‘Not as hot as it’s going to get.’ Then he squeezed her bottom and gave her a sharp smack that made her yelp.

Alice bit her lip as Lili’s words came back to her.

You must use it as it was intended to be used.

Oh, she had. And she would again. She had no idea if Jake was part of the inheritance as well, but she intended to make the most of him too, one film at a time.