Chapter Fifty Eight

How can one man create SO much laundry?  

Rachel shook her head in amazement as she carried another mountain of wet towels downstairs to the laundry room. It was obvious Jon was used to hotels and room service as he never used the same towel twice and in all the months they’d been together, she didn’t think he’d ever hung one up.  On a good day, he threw it into the bathtub, but usually it was just left on the floor – where it would remain until she picked it up.

And yet…he’ll wear the same dirty jeans day after day.

With the laundry under control, it was back to the kitchen to resume holiday baking where she found Jon pouring coffee for them both.  “Thanks,” was her terse acknowledgment of him and his predictable peace offering.

“Does that mean you’ll give me a little kiss now?”  Jon’s overly exaggerated pucker was returned with only a peck that noticeably lacked Rachel’s usual enthusiasm for his kisses.  He sat his mug on the counter and palmed the small of her back while roughened fingertips teased along the waist of her jeans.  “Hey…How long are you gonna give me the cold shoulder?”

“I’m not giving you the cold shoulder, Jon.”  Rachel shrugged her shoulders and sidestepped him to  reach for the bowl of apples she was using in one of her Thanksgiving pies.   “We had a disagreement.   I’ll get over it and so will you, I assume. Let’s not talk it to death.”

“Fine.  We’ll drop it.”  His hand slipped lower on her jeans and he kissed the corner of her mouth before switching the subject.  “Val said she sent you security clearance information for the Inauguration.  I know you’re not a big Obama supporter, but it is history in the making.  I appreciate you coming, and I think you’ll actually enjoy it.”

It was true, she wasn’t an Obama supporter, but Jon had been invited to attend and perform at the function and Rachel knew it was something he was proud of.

“I told you that I would support the things you’re involved in. I know it’s an important event and an honor for you to have been invited. I’m excited to go with you.”

“Good! I’m glad you’re coming. Val is sending you an itinerary with dress code information. And….I asked her to get a credit card for you so you don’t have to pick up the tab for all these appearances you get stuck with because of me.”

“You don’t need to do that…”

There was a brief pause where the only sound was that of Jon’s heavy sigh followed by a shake of his head.  “Honey…could this be one of those things we don’t have to talk to death?  Maybe you could just go with the flow on this one, huh?”

They’d been at odds enough for one day and Rachel decided it wouldn’t kill her to let him have his way.  She wouldn’t be relinquishing her ovaries in bypassing a discussion that would assert her ability to take care of her own shopping needs – financial or otherwise.  And…his lips did look awfully kissable.

She stepped into him as she ran her hands up his chest until her fingers could burrow into the hair at the back of his neck.  “I hope it has a high limit, stud.  After your obnoxious behavior today I’m not feeling very frugal.”

“Spend all you want….just so long as you don’t cut me off in the bedroom.”

His crooked grin nearly melted her panties right there and then, and the remaining icicles hanging from her heart dissipated in a puff of steam. Rachel found his bottom lip irresistible as she let her tongue dance lightly along it’s curve.  “Pfft!  I’m not cutting my OWN nose off….”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The evening had been spent with Rachel’s family dining at yet another of the local wineries that boasted a menu any New York chef would find impressive. Jon spent most of his time talking with the men, while the sisters and their mother were neck-deep in baby talk over the newest member of the family.  Robin’s first grandchild, Hunter, was the infant of honor this time around and he had charmed Rachel at first whiff.  Her nose was embedded in the top of his head every time she got near him-she couldn’t get enough of the ‘baby smell’.   

Jon had taken advantage of the rare opportunity to study Rachel, realizing it was probably the closest to a mother role as he was ever likely to see her.  She was a natural with a baby, he’d give her that.  When her great-nephew had fussed, she had cooed him into a calm, sleeping angel without any effort at all. It also didn’t escape him that she was exquisite with a baby in her arms, and the visual stirred something deep inside him.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t paternal longing, but rather selfish guilt.  Starting over with diapers, bottles, car seats and strollers just wasn’t of interest to him.

Back home, their evening followed its typical routine – Jon took care of business calls while Rachel soaked in the tub.  If he was quick, he could be off the phone and join her before she finished her bath which meant he’d be able to witness her body-moisturizing ritual that he was so obsessed with.  

Propped against the doorway,  Jon now saw Rachel in a whole new light and it wasn’t the candles surrounding her bubble-laden tub.  He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but the trip to California had thrown him face to face with babies at every turn.  Everywhere they went it seemed there was a diaper bag, a bottle or a bald little person being passed around the room.  Tonight had been no exception.  

With her hair pinned up to keep it out of the water, the tendon along Rachel’s neck was accentuated and Jon had an insatiable desire to lick the moisture running down it.  

Or maybe you just want to get close enough to her to forget what a selfish ass you really are.

“Think there’s room in there for me?” Approaching the oversized tub with a hopeful grin, Jon sat two glasses of chilled wine on the edge and tugged his sweater over his head, tossing it into the closet across the room.

“I think I can squeeze you in.”  

Was it attraction or affection he saw when Rachel turned her head and softly responded to him?  

Love or lust?   

As he unfastened the button at the waist of his jeans, discarding them alongside the sweater, Jon was aware something had quietly changed between them.  And, settling into the hot, sudsy water with Rachel comfortably between his legs, he knew it was a good change. The intimacy of a disagreement, coupled with the absolute certainty it wasn’t a relationship-ending event, had deepened and strengthened his love for her.  

“You look beautiful tonight. I think you’ve missed your family more than you’d like to let on….you come alive when you’re with them.”

“Funny….THEY think I come alive when I’m with YOU.  I believe my sister called it a ‘glow’.”

“Hmm…is that a fact?”  Unable to resist the taunting tendon another minute, the tip of his tongue traced it to her earlobe and winding his arms around her waist, he pulled her even closer to his chest.  “You do have a little pink going on in your cheeks….it’s kinda like the flush you get when you’re turned on.”

One wet arm emerged from the bubbly water and back around Jon’s neck as Rachel cocked her head to one side and narrowed her eyes with a shameless smirk at his hard on that was becoming increasingly evident beneath the foamy water.

“And since I’m perpetually turned on these days…”

“Hmmf….tell me about it.”  

It was true. Jon was in a near-constant state of arousal. The first few months he’d written it off to the newness of the relationship, but now he attributed it to some weird chemistry they shared both in and out of the bedroom.  It was almost like they had their own unspoken language sometimes.  They could communicate with each other through the slightest of touches, or an exchanged look across the room.   

“Are you gonna be ready to go home tomorrow night?”

“I think so, yeah. I mean, I’ll miss my family, but we’ll be back here in a few weeks for Christmas and I’m looking forward to that. Baby Hunter’s first Christmas…I bet I won’t even recognize him by then – you  know how much they change at this stage.”

His hand stroking her breast wasn’t intended to be anything sexual, he was just touching her.   “So, did you get your baby fix?”

“What do you mean?”

“Once you got your hands on that kid you didn’t want to put him down.  Just wondering if you’ve gotten the baby thing out of your system?”

“Worried I’m going to want you to knock me up, sweetie?”

“Nuh uh.  Even those boobs aren’t getting me on board for babies.  Been there, done that.”

“I dunno….you like my boobs an awful lot.”

“Mmm…. S’true….I do like ‘em.  And I want ‘em all for myself.”   Jon was now absently tracing circles along the side of her breast already thinking toward the Bongiovi holiday schedule.   “After tomorrow night my kids will be with me and these perfect boobs will be off limits for four whole days.”

“Wait…four days?  Don’t you mean three days?”

“No.  When I take the kids back Sunday afternoon we’re decorating their Christmas tree so I’m staying in the City….”  The nuzzle into Rachel’s neck was meant to be playful and enticing.   “Wanna  meet me at the apartment that night for a booty call?”

Having no desire to return to their contentious conversation of the morning, Rachel paused to collect her thoughts before giving in to the varied retorts the green-eyed monster in her head was flinging at her.   “I’m not the girl you call for a roll in the hay after you’ve played family with your ex-wife and kids, Jon.” Her response was delivered in a calm tone and she hoped it would be received as such.

“That’s not what I meant-you know that.  And I don’t ‘play family’ with Dorothea-We share kids, ya know.”

“Yeah.  I know.”

“Is that a hint of jealousy I hear, little girl?”  

Turning as much as was possible in the tub, Rachel gazed into the blue eyes that left millions of women breathless, herself among them, and ran her fingernail down the damp chest hair.  She didn’t want this to get blown out of proportion and she didn’t think she was ‘jealous’.  Something about Jon spending so much time with Dorothea just felt… wrong.

“You still celebrate your ex-wife’s birthday with her, you go to dinner with her every chance you get, you’re decorating her Christmas tree with her… while I’m just the gal you wanna have a booty call with when you’re finished with all that with her.  Is it unreasonable if I that rubs me the wrong way? ”

“Oh, honey, c’mon.  I do all those things for the benefit of my children, especially Jake and Romeo. They’re so young they won’t have the memories of their family intact – their parents together – like Steph and Jesse have.

The finger attached to the fingernail that had previously been scraping the front of Jon’s chest was now absently circling his pronounced nipple.   “I wouldn’t love you if you were the kind of guy who wasn’t active with his kids.  It’s just… the whole Christmas tree thing…it was always such an intimate, special thing for my family.  I guess it stung a little bit that you’d do that with your ex-wife.”

Pulling her back to lean against his chest, Jon never let up on his soothing fingertip massage that was as smooth as his voice. “You and I can still decorate a tree at your house….how’s that?  We’ll even go cut one if you want to…. okay?”

“I’m being selfish and silly.   I know it’s for your kids.  I guess I’m going to have to get used to dealing with an ex-wife.”  Rachel felt a little ashamed for being cranky about Jon decorating a freaking Christmas tree with his kids – which only happened to be at his ex-wife’s house. If things had been different, she was certain she wouldn’t like a new woman interfering with Nick’s efforts to remain active in their children’s lives.  What was wrong with her?  “You’re right…we’ll do a tree at my house together.  I’m sorry…something just hit me wrong.  It’s wonderful that you both make such an effort for your kids.”

Suddenly she felt tired, anxious to crawl into bed and sleep off whatever negative virus she’d infected herself with.  Reaching for a towel, she was drawn back by Jon’s gentle tug on her wrist.  

“Hey…c’mere.  I don’t like the way the mood shifted here.  Stay with me…”  Jon reached around her waist, cupping one breast in the process.   “Weren’t you just taunting me with those boobs you know I like so much?”

It was one of those moments when she really would like to just go to bed, but the ensuing battle was more than Rachel wanted to deal with.  If she claimed she was tired after having been so obviously interested in his earlier sexual overtures, he would know she still felt odd about the time he was spending with Dorothea.  They were celebrating the Thanksgiving holidays the next couple of days and she didn’t want anything to spoil that.  

Seriously?  You’re complaining about having to have sex with Jon Bon Jovi?

The irony wasn’t lost on her.  This was the same man she couldn’t keep her hands off of on any given day.  And he wanted to do things to her body that would make a sailor blush.

Time and time again.

There was something about those callouses on his fingers, and when he slipped them between her legs her desire to just go to sleep was forgotten.  She settled back into his chest, maneuvering just enough to allow him access to all his favorite places.   

When he brought her earlobe into his mouth and gave her nipple a little pinch with the hand that wasn’t burying itself elsewhere, she sighed softly, “What AM I gonna do with you?”

“Anything you want.”