Chapter Thirty One

“Uhoh……”

Jon groaned inwardly when he spotted a familiar figure making their way toward the bar where he stood with Rachel. When she looked up at his warning, he shot her an apologetic smile before murmuring;

“Incoming. Two o’clock.”

Stiffening Rachel’s fingers involuntarily tightened around her glass as she immediately understood Jon’s quiet warning. There was one of his previous conquests on the radar.

“Your two o’clock or mine?”

“Mine.”

Before she could even respond, an overly enthusiastic female voice trilled from behind her.

“Jon darling! How are you?”

When Rachel turned to face the incoming hurricane of honeysuckle sweet perfume she was met with a familiar looking blonde and tanned woman who honed in on Jon with all the accuracy of a heat seeking missile.

“Honey it’s been ages since I’ve seen you! Where have you been keeping yourself?”

Smiling Jon reached an arm around the woman to kiss her cheek in greeting. “Hey Beth – great to see you!” Extricating himself discretely from the arms she had slipped around his waist he motioned to Rachel standing quietly by his side. 

“Let me introduce you to Rachel Braden.”

At the mention of the woman’s name, Rachel gasped in genuine awe – the familiar face finally identified. Clasping one hand over her chest she extended the other to shake the older woman’s hand.

“Oh my goodness! Elizabeth Williams! No introduction is necessary Jon!” 

Gently swatting away Jon’s hand she glanced at him reproachfully. An amused grin creased the dimples of his cheeks, his sparkling eyes silently laughing at her charade. This should be interesting….

Gushing Rachel kept a hold of the former supermodel’s delicately manicured hand, covering it with her own in warm affection. 

“When I was a little girl I wanted to grow up to be just like you! You were on the cover of every magazine my mother ever subscribed to! Goodness me it really is a thrill to meet you Ms Williams!”

Momentarily taken aback at Rachel’s subtle dig at their age difference, the other woman smiled graciously and arched a subtly botoxed brow while firmly retrieving her hand from Rachel’s fawning clasp.

“Please call me Elizabeth – that’s very kind – thank you.”

Undeterred Rachel carried on with the compliments, her face a picture of complete innocence.

“When I was in 2^nd grade I had pictures of you on my wall – you were the classic beauty that all the girls in my school used to look up to! And then you were in those music videos with Joel Williams and he sang about how perfect you were? And about how he didn’t want to change you at all…..”

Sighing Rachel looked sympathetically at her. “I was heartbroken when the two of you divorced….I just so wanted the fairy tale ending for you guys!”

Elizabeth’s pleasant demeanour threatened to diminish until Rachel smoothly rushed to reassure her.

“But you’re as beautiful now as you were thirty years ago – you’ll have to share your secrets with me!”

“No secret Rachel, I do take care of my skin, eat healthily, drink lots of water….you know all the usual things. But the real secret……” Glancing around to make sure nobody was listening in, she leaned closer to whisper dramatically. “…..is lots of great sex!”

With a superior flick of her glossed blonde mane she tinkled a high pitched giggle and winked knowingly at Jon; “If there’s something better baby, well they haven’t found it yet!”

Jon suppressed a cringe at her unbelievably cheesy play on words all the while silently wondering what had ever possessed him to have once upon a time hooked up regularly with the melodramatic model. She may have aged gracefully with looks that took years off her but she made it all the clearer that Rachel was in a class of her own. And it was a class that he firmly wanted to attend.

Rachel, seemingly oblivious to the woman’s intended dig grinned delightedly at her.

“Then sign me up if great sex is the key to me looking as good as you do when I’m your age!”

That comment was finally too much for Jon and he snorted into his wine glass, quickly taking a sip to disguise the chuckle shaking his shoulders. Elizabeth, clearly disgusted that Rachel was using every chance to use the age advantage against her and that there was nothing she could do about it pursed her lips in a tight smile.

“Well…..thank you again – it was nice meeting you.” Turning to Jon in one last obvious attempt to slight Rachel, she fluttered her long eyelashes coyly at him.

“Jon – we’ll get together soon?”

Doing his best to keep a straight face as he felt Rachel’s fingers creep under his shirt from behind the bar, Jon nodded with a casual inquiry. “Will you be at Perelman’s party tomorrow?”

The model’s eyes lit up, mistakenly taking his question as a coded hook up date. Lips curled in a seductive smile, she leaned in close to brush his cheek with a soft kiss.

“Of course – I’ll see you there.”

“Oooh is that where we’re going tomorrow baby?” Almost childlike Rachel blinked up at Jon, her emerald eyes brimming with innocence.

Nodding he fought to keep the smirk on his face from widening – she was something else!

“Elizabeth, perhaps I could trouble you for a photo at tomorrow’s party? My sister will just flip when I tell her I’ve met you!”

Finally accepting defeat, Elizabeth threw Jon a regretful glance before nodding in agreement.

“Certainly, I’d be happy to……..enjoy the rest of the evening………both of you.”

With one final flick of her blonde tresses, she excused herself and sashayed away into the crowd leaving Jon to gaze down at Rachel in amusement.

“You just took evil to a whole new level! You know she wants to slit her wrists now, right?”

Taking a demure sip from her club soda, Rachel shook her head sweetly;

“I’m sure I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about!”

“You just cut her heart out…” Completely amused, Jon pulled her close, his fingers sliding against the smooth silk of her back. “…and you did it with such an innocent smile on your face! You really are a bad girl!”

Enjoying the feel of his arms around her, Rachel leaned her weight back and winked up at him.

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat Jon – no need to be trashy about it when you can get the same job done the Southern way.”

Smirking Jon arched his brows, “And that was the ‘Southern way’?”

“Mmmhmm……..see Jersey girls will say ‘Fuck you.” Southern girls will say ‘Well, bless your heart!” It means exactly the same thing and every woman knows it. That nice woman is now completely aware that I’ve marked my territory so to speak!”

With a shake of his head, Jon grinned widely. “You are such a bitch! I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t have any liquor!” Ignoring the conversing crowd around them, he dropped his head to nuzzle back the hair behind her ear. “So I’m your territory huh?”

“Yep – all mine! And being that I’m the baby in my family – I don’t share well!”

Unable to resist taking a quick nip at the soft skin of her neck, Jon teased her mercilessly.

“Aw baby that’s a shame……I thought I might take her home with us – you know? Have us a little threesome?”

The wet heat of his breath just below her hairline was enough to make Rachel shiver in anticipation. She silently cursed the fact that they were in a room full of people, the only thing stopping her from wrapping her body around him.

“She’ll be sorely disappointed if you do……there won’t be enough of you left to help with her coat once I get done with you tonight……”

“Promises, promises baby.” Tugging gently on the edge of her earlobe, Jon reluctantly released it from between his teeth and straightened himself up. “Let’s see if I can wrap this up and take you home so you can be more specific about all the things you’re gonna do to me.”

“Good idea…” Slipping her hand into his Rachel prepared to step forward away from the bar and into the throng of people. “Otherwise I might just have to make a scene…..”

After another hour of working their way through the posse of guests, countless introductions and posing for the odd photograph here and there, Jon finally pulled his phone out to send a text to his driver.

“C’mon baby, let’s get outta here.” Guiding her in front of him they wandered past the last few clusters of people, smiling and nodding as they made good their getaway.

“I’m gonna do unthinkable things when I get you behind closed doors…..” Standing in the shadows of the relatively quiet garage area at the side of the mansion, Jon wrapped his arms around Rachel’s waist and pulled her close to his hips, grinding his crotch into the soft curve of her butt. While mingling with the other guests had been a fortunate distraction, he couldn’t wait much longer to get his girl home and slide that slinky blouse off her shoulders. Three days without any action had been too long – far too long.

Twisting her head back to gaze up at him, Rachel groaned lightly and wickedly squeezed her hand in between their bodies to sneakily brush the hardening bulge below his belt only just resisting the urge to let him have his wicked way with her right there on the pavement.

“Bring your ‘A’ game rock star – you’re gonna need it!”

Laughing together they reluctantly pulled apart as their car swung up the driveway and rolled to a stop in front of them. Still smirking Jon held the back door open for her to slide in and with a happy sigh ducked his head to follow her inside, the darkened windows finally allowing them some privacy on the short ride home. Unbeknownst to either of them, a series of shuttered clicks were firing rapidly from the camouflage of the dense shrubbery surrounding the property - each click preserving every single move they had made.