The Vintage Cinema Club

by Jane Linfoot

  Then his hand was feathering under the soft gathers of her dress, and she was pushing herself towards him as his hand slid up between her thighs, slipping his fingers into the warmth between her legs. She gave a sharp cry as his fingers found her clit, and leaned into him, groaning as her hip hit the bulge of his dick, straining against his jeans.

  She gave a moan as he tugged away, but it was only to peel off his shirt. Then a moment later her back thudded against the ground, and he landed beside her in the long grass of the field edge.

  ‘Okay?’ He bundled his shirt under her head, and smiled down at her.

  A twig pricking the back of her knees, grass sticking in her hair, and Xander’s body, hot and heavy, half on her, half off her.

  ‘Are we okay here, will anyone come?’

  He gave a low laugh. ‘With any luck, only us.’

  Then as she laughed back at him, he crashed his mouth onto hers again, and tumbled her into another amazing kiss. By the time she remembered to breathe again, his fingers were pushing up into her, and she was hot and wet and dying, as, without taking his mouth off hers, he jerked and unzipped his jeans, then pulled off her panties with one swift tug. Her snatched breath of surprise, descended into a low, satisfying moan of recognition as he moved against her, and she bent her knees, aching to have him inside her. One fleeting thought of a condom, pushed away. Thank Luce she was on the pill. One thrust later he was there.

  This was fast, furious, desperate lust. She tugged on his hair, writhing against him now, and he was taking her with him every inch of the way. Savage, deep. Closing her eyes tightly, the deep blue of the sky above blurred and disappeared, and all she knew was the greatest need she had ever had, and she heard her own cries far away, as the roar of a distant tidal wave came thundering to sweep her away. And then all hell broke loose, and it was all too late, and her whole body exploded.

  * * * *

  ‘God, I’m sorry about the condom. Didn’t even have one.’ Xander smacked his hand to his forehead, as he zipped up, then dragged her body tight against his. ‘Weeks of pent up lust. I’ve wanted this on an hourly basis, ever since the last time.’ He tried to push away the thought that now they’d done it, all he wanted was to do it again.

  Her whisper tickled his skin, where her face was tucked in the crook of his neck. ‘It’s okay, I didn’t want to stop either. I’m on the pill, so it’s all good.’

  Xander kissed her forehead. ‘I’m guessing you can tell I didn’t plan this…but I’d really like to carry on…maybe somewhere less prickly.’ He peeled away the grass seeds from her cheek one by one. ‘But I don’t want to force you into anything. Or make you decide too quickly. There’s definitely no pressure…but having said that, there’s a very private corner beyond the pool, which would be way more comfortable than here.’ Maybe it was unfair to ask her, while she was still basking in the afterglow.

  Despite the heat Izzy snuggled into him. ‘I’ll have a think.’

  Her breathing, regular against his chest, went on for five minutes. Five minutes had to be enough time. He decided to press her. ‘And?’

  ‘You know I don’t do relationships, or one night stands, or casual sex…’ She tapped his chest ominously.

  ‘I know all of that.’ He shifted his shoulder, stiffening now, under the weight of her head, and sent a silent prayer to the god, of whatever that list of hers hadn’t covered. ‘I was thinking more of what we were talking about yesterday? All that grab the moment, and go for it stuff.’ He watched her bite her lip. ‘I just think we should.’

  ‘I’m guessing grab the moment, and go for it kind of overwrites all the other rules?’ Her lips twitched into a smile. ‘I’ll think of it as a kind of “one off” prize for all the hard work we’ve put in.’

  If she hadn’t been lying on his arm he’d have punched the air.

  ‘That’s good by me.’ He’d go with whatever she said, and now might be a good time to slip in where he stood in all this. ‘I’ve got to go to America for a while soon, that’s why I can’t promise anything much in the way of a relationship, like I said before.’

  Xander knew he might be twisting the truth here. For a start this was nothing like he’d meant before. The words were maybe the same, but the order was different, which changed their meaning entirely. Before when he’d been running scared, he’d said, no commitment, full stop, and meant it. Whereas “nothing much in the way of a relationship”, in his book, was a hell of a lot more than no relationship at all. Back then he’d been a messed up guy, who’d just spend eight years in hell, and had no reason on earth to expect that hell to end. But somewhere along the line he’d changed. Going head to head with Izzy, day to day, had knocked the sense into him, and knocked the sadness out. When he stopped to think, he felt like a different guy entirely now.

  And then there was the whole America thing. Did he really have to go? Well, maybe he did for a bit, especially the way his project with Astrid was moving forwards. But it might also be just a very convenient get-out clause, because he couldn’t face everything ending up like it had done last time, with Astrid. America – that great big, all encompassing, elastic, safety-net.

  America was one big word. It was easy to say. He tried not to think of the bit about Izzy not being there, and how it would feel, to wake up to every empty day, knowing that he wasn’t going to see her.

  Xander rolled over and buried his face in the nape of her neck. He tried to soak it all in. Toffee waves spilling across the dry grass, the freckled softness of her cheeks, the indefinable sweetness of her smell. As for the “wired and dizzy” he felt whenever Izzy was around, he’d been taking that out of his pocket and examining it almost as often as he had the earrings he’d bought her. And he had the strangest feeling there was more to it than lust. Somehow, finding Izzy was like coming home, for the first time since longer than he could remember.

  ‘We’ve got two days and three more nights before you fly back.’ He gave a low laugh as her leg wriggled against him, and his erection sprung to life again. ‘I suggest we make the most of them. Grab the moment, let’s go for it.’

  64

  Monday Morning, 20th July

  IZZY & XANDER

  Les Cerisiers, France

  In Xander’s bed

  ‘Xander?’

  Izzy was lying on her back, head resting on Xander’s chest, staring up at the beamed ceiling, as the dawn light seeped through the gauze drapes.

  ‘Mmmm…’ He squirmed, and swallowed.

  Despite his regular breathing, she could tell he was still awake, his tanned limbs splayed, muscular and beautiful, across the sheet, after yet another bout of delicious sex. Only her second morning of waking up in his bed, and this time he hadn’t done a runner, and given his contented grunts, he wasn’t having any regrets. Turning over and curling in, her face nestling close against his neck, she dragged in a breath. That was a scent that she knew she would never get tired of, however many mornings she woke up breathing him in. Two short days, then they’d have to move on, but for now, she was trying to concentrate on the moment she was in, and how fabulous it was to be here beside Xander. It seemed totally unreal, and yet at the same time it felt so right, that it was hard to think it could be any other way. She was screwing her courage up in the half light to ask him the question she’d been trying to ask for days. Not that she knew what answer she was expecting, but she was hoping it might help her sort out the issue she was finding impossible to get her head around. If she didn’t do it now, she might never get the chance.

  ‘Do you ever worry about getting ill?’ Her voice came out small and scratchy, three inches below his ear.

  He shifted under her, and screwed his head round to look down at her. Definitely awake then. He took time to consider. ‘Sometimes I worry more than others. It depends.’ The sigh he let out was pensive. Resigned.

  As much as she blocked the illness, and rammed it to the back of her mind, it just kept bouncing right back out, and bobbing around right i
n front of her eyes.

  ‘I hoped you might have some pointers for me.’ She left it deliberately vague. How to blank it would be a start.

  He reached up, tousled his fingers through his hair, and sighed again. ‘At first I used to think about it a lot, but once my mum died, it wasn’t there to see every day. It kicks in quite young in some cases, and it’s easy to get into a mind-set where you’re looking for signs in yourself all the time. Every time you trip over, or drop something, or can’t remember a word, you think you’re starting, but you have to be strong, and get that under control, or it drives you insane. Basically, it’s a total head fuck.’ He dragged down the corners of his mouth.

  ‘I can imagine.’ Except she couldn’t at all. She had the idea she was going to hear a lot of sighs from both of them. It was hard not to sigh about it. It was hard not to cry if you thought of it actually happening to Xander, rather than in the abstract. Since the day they had ice cream sundaes, she’d often woken up with her pillow wet with tears. And yet if it didn’t ever happen at all, think of the energy wasted in worrying. Scrunching up the end of the sheet in her hand, she tried to put herself, in his place, but she didn’t even get half way there.

  He went on, his voice matter of fact, yet determined. ‘There’s two ways to deal with this. You can either crap yourself, and let it beat you, or you can come out and fight it, in the best way you can. Humans are programmed to be strong, we survive as a species because we’re tough. Think of you, and your Vintage Cinema Club.’

  ‘What?’ Izzy failed to see where that came in.

  Xander’s voice was patient. ‘When The Vintage Cinema Club came under threat, you didn’t wimp out and give up, you came out fighting on all fronts, with every bit of strength you had. What you’ve got is brilliant, and you’re determined it won’t be taken away.’

  ‘Yes, that’s so right.’ The adrenalin rush those few words kick started translated into an immediate urge to leap off the bed.

  He grinned at that. ‘You see it’s not all gloom and doom. The other positive thing I’ve done was to sign up for the main research project, where people who are at risk of the disease get tracked. Once a year I go for an afternoon of tests, and all the data is stored, so they’ll have detailed records of how the disease develops from very early on, if I do have it. It’s a worldwide project, so although the disease is rare, they can collect a lot of information, and compare it. And because of having all their data, the patients on that project will be first in line, if they eventually find drugs to treat it. On that one afternoon, when I go and do all the tests, I think about it. Otherwise, I try my hardest to forget.’

  The vibrations of his voice reverberated through her fingers as they sat lightly on his chest. She couldn’t see his mouth, but she knew it was one straight, teeth clenched line. Izzy had no idea how Xander could be so brave, but she seized on the mention of treatment.

  ‘Are they hopeful they’ll find a cure?’ She forced herself to sound casual, and laid back, rather than desperate and frantic. She had to tell herself it was fine now. Xander was fine. It was a matter of getting her head around the unknowns of the future. It wasn’t even as if she knew she was going to be with him, but she knew she wanted this wonderful guy to grow old, and live the amazing life that was due to him.

  Xander sniffed, and shifted again, pulling a rope of twisted sheet across his thigh. When Xander was so fit and bursting with energy, Izzy found it hard to envisage him being anything other than strong and healthy.

  ‘Different labs are working on it all the time. It’s very complex, but in theory they’re only one molecule away from a treatment. Optimistically, it might happen tomorrow, but there again, it may take decades. You’ve got to hit this thing taking an upbeat view, and imagining the best case scenario, which is not having it at all. There’s no point letting it kill off your life with worry, before it even strikes.’

  ‘Right.’ All so far out of her experience, and yet he spoke about it as if he was chatting about something completely normal. She tried to get as upbeat as him, and got about a tenth of the way there.

  ‘In the meantime, all we can do…’ he nuzzled the top of her head, and gave her a wink. ‘Is to grab every moment.’ He twisted her around, and his mouth, when it traced across hers, was warm, and soft. ‘And I’ve got a very good idea, about how I’m going to do that.’

  Despite the knot of worry gnawing at her inside, Izzy’s lips twisted into a smile. The next second she was hurling herself into another of Xander’s hot chocolate kisses, and suddenly that was all that mattered.

  65

  Tuesday Afternoon, 20th July

  XANDER & IZZY

  On the love swing, Les Cerisiers, France

  Some little flowery bits

  Although it was twelve long days since Izzy had arrived, in some ways her trip had only started for real the afternoon in the hayfield. In which case this was only day three, and having their last day so soon after their first had definitely come too fast. Somehow they’d both been reluctant to acknowledge that “the end” was actually happening. Making “last day” plans had been beyond both of them, even if Izzy had got all the work with the furniture for the cinema finished yesterday. It wasn’t that Xander regretted wasting the days before, because he didn’t. A lot had changed in the nine days between her arrival and them getting together. The woman who’d finally got into bed with him was very different to the person who’d got off the plane. Whether it was Izzy who’d changed, or him, he wasn’t sure, but he was different too.

  ‘Still in your jimjams?’ He couldn’t resist the tease about the skimpy shorts and hardly there cami he loved so much, as he came out into the midday sun. Almost lunchtime, and sex had figured high on the day’s activity list so far, with a hurried breakfast, and now, a quick link up with the outside world.

  She pushed back the swing seat, and then gave him the pout he’d been hoping for, along with a sniff. ‘I’m catching up on emails, and finishing some little flowery bits to hang on the door latches.’

  She waggled a stuffed heart at him, and readjusted the laptop on her knee. Even though she was sitting in the shade, under the swing seat canopy, the freckles he loved so much were coming out more every day.

  His chest constricted at the mention of emails. He’d just had one through from Astrid he’d rather not have opened. Dinosaur vampires were apparently going down well with the Paris backer. So well, that the major big gun meeting he was heading for tomorrow had been brought forward, and Astrid was shouting, no, pleading for him to get himself up there for this evening. They both knew how massive this was. Pleading didn’t come easy to Astrid, the words simply weren’t in her vocabulary, but she was backing him into an impossible corner here.

  ‘So, what’s new…?’ He snuck in next to Izzy, and closed his teeth on the skin below her ear, nuzzling her neck.

  Izzy clutched at her laptop, as she recovered herself. ‘It’s mainly Dida, saying the experts are all over the pictures from Ollie’s shed, but once they start using doubtful words like provenance, you know the game’s up. So don’t hold your breath over that one, we won’t be millionaires this week.’

  Sad, but only what he’d anticipated. And damn that his stomach dropped on her behalf. He so wanted this to come right for her and the rest of the cinema club.

  She chewed at her lip, and scratched the haystack of hair and ribbons on the top of her head. ‘And the bank have come back too.’ Izzy wrinkled her nose. ‘Dida copied in what they wrote, but it’s hard to decide exactly what they mean.’

  He went in carefully. ‘Definitely not wanting to butt in, and really not trying to take over, but I could take a look…’ He probably had the experience to decipher, but it was up to her.

  ‘Would you?’ The way her face lit up had his heart melting to hot butter. ‘Here…’ She leaned back, and tilted her laptop towards him.

  He dodged his head, to get the light in the right place, and skimmed the sentences.

  ‘There�
��s a lot of hot air here, but basically the first guy is saying no to the loan, but he’s passing the file on to someone else, which means you’re still in with a chance. So all good.’ He’d gloss over his own doubts, if only so she could stay happy for today. As he posted her what he hoped was a suitably optimistic smile, his eyes flicked back to the screen, and as he automatically took in the next line of the email, an iron hand gripped his gut.

  Are you sleeping with the enemy yet? So important to stay close. We owe you big time for all of this ;) ;)

  What the hell?

  Now he’d seen it, he couldn’t let it go.

  ‘What’s the bit at the bottom mean exactly?’ His words shot out, hard and accusing and bitter. ‘The bit about sleeping with the enemy?’

  For a second Izzy’s face went blank, then her eyes went wide.

  ‘Let’s get this clear, the enemy is me isn’t it?’ If someone had thrown a champagne bucket of icy water over his head, he couldn’t have cooled down faster.

  ‘Yes, you were the enemy, but…’ One squeak.

  He rounded on her. ‘Why the enemy?’

  Her face blanched under her tan, and her voice was a squeak. ‘Because we thought you were buying the cinema.’

  One disgusted snort from him was more than that deserved.

  ‘But look at the emoticon, it’s got a winky eye.’ Her voice was shrill and almost indignant, but the flash of fear in her eyes didn’t reflect the jokey tone she was going for.

  Xander was first in line to accuse Izzy of overreacting, and fleetingly, he wondered if he wasn’t doing the same. He spoke through gritted teeth. ‘You’ve got one chance to tell me what this is about…’

  Izzy squirmed. ‘It’s complicated.’

  If she thought she could skim over this by coming on all vulnerable, she could think again. Vulnerable was what he’d fallen for. To think she’d been with him, listening to him, letting him pour his secrets out to her, not to mention screwing him, and all because she wanted to keep tabs on the developer who might buy their building. Although what had he been saying in bed yesterday, about fighting off threats in whatever way was possible. Desperate to save the bloody cinema. It all tied in.