Chapter 2

~

“Oh fuck, here they come,” Wendy sounded slightly panicked as she quickly dropped from her elbows to her back.

“Wen, what the fuck are you worried about? They’re just guys for Christ’s sake,” Marie replied. “You sound like some stupid junior high twit.”

“Yeah, just ignore them.” Nicki’s smirk was evidence that she intended to do anything but.

“Well…. Hel-LO, Ladies.”

Kim raised her head at the silky, bluesy voice. It held a friendly, playful note. Propping herself up on her crossed arms she squinted through her sunglasses at the dark-haired man with the sparkling smile.

Without bothering to look at their visitors Carmen raised her right hand, middle finger extended and toward the sky. “Fuck off.” She continued to recline on her back, eyes closed, otherwise ignoring the men.

Her order was met with a husky chuckle, this time from The Watcher. “Nice to meet you too.”

Kim’s gaze shifted to the shorter of the two men. Like his friend, he was taut and tan and carried himself with calm self-assuredness. Since he was standing just a few feet in front of her, Kim was practically eyeball-to-kneecap with The Watcher. She let her gaze slip up his lean leg to where the frayed strings of his denim cutoffs mingled with the soft, thick fur blanketing his muscular thigh. Jesus, those things were almost as short as the Daisy Dukes in her beach bag.

“We saw you over there by the dune, staring at us,” Marie challenged.

“Yeah, you think we sent you some kinda invitation or somethin’?” Suzanne chimed in, rolling to her side and propping herself up on one elbow to give the men a long stare.

“Sorry, Darlin’,” the Dark One answered. “My friend here was just waiting for me to catch up. You can’t blame the guy for taking in the scenery.”

“Like what you see?” Nicki raised herself up from her belly onto her forearms and gave the men a coy smirk. She pressed her upper arms inward, squeezing her barely-concealed breasts together.

“Sure do, Darlin’,” the Dark One drawled, his gaze dropping obviously to her chest. “In fact, we have a little proposition for you girls.”

“I just bet you do.” Carmen had lowered her hand but her retort made her opinion of the men and their intentions quite clear.

Carmen’s response caused the corners of Jon’s mouth to twitch upward. These girls were exactly what he was looking for. His gaze traveled to the brunette closest to him. Though her eyes were shielded by sunglasses he could tell from the slight tilt of her head that she was studying him curiously.

“How would you girls like to be on the cover of a record?” Jon asked calmly, still looking at the brunette.

His query was met with snorts of laughter. “Yeah, RIGHT.” Suzanne chortled. “You ain’t got a better line than that?”

“Yeah,” Marie rolled her eyes and popped her gum. “You wanna take our picture, huh? Lemme guess: back at your place? Clothes optional?” Her pink lips curled into a sneer as she fluttered a hand at Jon. “Puh-LEASE.”

“What do you mean?” Nicki loudly interrupted her friends’ derision. “A record?”

Richie grinned. He had pegged the blonde the second he saw her. She was the show-off. “A real rock-and-roll record,” he replied enthusiastically. “Our new record.”

“You mean, like… model for it?” Nicki completely missed the Dark One’s boast. “ ‘Cause I’ve done some modeling, in the City.”

“You have, huh?” Richie’s grin widened as his gaze traveled lower, into the recesses of Nicki’s considerable cleavage. In his mind he could see her tight, nude body stretched across a skin magazine fold-out.

“Our band just finished recording a new album.” The Watcher spoke again, finally pulling his gaze away from the brunette. “We need some girls for a photo shoot for the cover art.” His voice was calm and confident, as if the deal had already been sealed.

“Sure. And just where is this ‘photo shoot’?” Carmen finally took the bait, rolling onto her stomach and fixing the men with a doubtful stare. “I don’t see any cameras.”

“Across the street,” Jon replied evenly. “If you go back over there...” He tipped his head toward the dune. “You’ll see the photographer setting up in the driveway of that red brick apartment building. Next to the sports cars.”

“And what do you want us to do?” Nicki asked eagerly. She pushed herself up to kneel on her towel, purposely posing for evaluation. “Lay across the cars or something?”

“Any Putz can set up a camera in a driveway,” Carmen argued before either man could respond to Nicki’s question. “How do we know you’re really in a band, and not just some Schmucks who want to take jiggle-pics of us?”

“Yeah, can you prove it?” Marie echoed.

The Watcher let out a little growl, so soft only Kim heard it. The sound rumbled through her senses, sparking a feminine reaction in her core. When he turned his head to look at his buddy, Kim saw the man’s angular jaw and the thick honey-and-caramel ponytail at the nape of his neck. Damn, he really looked familiar. And that voice…

“We could sing something for you,” Richie suggested. “One of our hits.” He continued to grin at the flirty blonde. Richie could see she was chomping at the bit to play; maybe she could convince her friends to come along.

“You have hits?” Suzanne replied doubtfully. “From where?”

“From the radio.” Richie elbowed Jon in the side. “Hey Man, these ladies think we’re blowin’ sunshine up their backsides. Show ‘em who you are.”

The Watcher dropped his chin to his chest and shook his head slowly, a little smile creeping to his pouty lips. Damn, these chicks were really gonna make him work for it. But then again, he wanted Attitude…

“I know who you are.”

Jon’s gaze flicked back to the brunette at her quiet statement. His smile morphed to a smirk as he regarded her. “Do you?”

“I think so.” As soon as she saw that crooked little smile something in her brain clicked. Kim had been a part-time barmaid in the Jersey Shore clubs for several years now, and she had seen a lot of bands come and go. The man before her was definitely a musician, but she hadn’t seen him around in awhile. Now she realized why. He had been off playing his music around the world.

“It’s hard to tell when I can’t see your face,” Kim added, second-guessing herself just a tiny bit.

Jon stared at Kim for a long moment before slowly raising his hand. He slid the mirrored aviators from his face, dropping his chin so the brim of his ball cap shielded his eyes from the sun’s glare. He continued to look at the brunette, searching her expression for a reaction.

“Who is he?” Wendy asked, breaking the brief silence.

Kim’s gaze locked with The Watcher’s ice-blue stare. A little electric charge shot through her as she confirmed her identification. Those eyes were unforgettable. Kim suddenly felt uncomfortable, like he was reading her mind, daring her to reveal some secret. She quickly averted her gaze.

“He used to play at some of the clubs.” Kim turned to look at her friends. “With a couple different bands. He played our prom a couple years ago too, I think.” Kim looked back to The Watcher. “John, right?”

Jon nodded silently, his smirk remaining.

“Oh My GOD!” Nicki’s recognition bubbled out in a loud gasp. “Shit! You’re Bon Jovi!”

“In the flesh, Darlin’.” Richie raised a hand to slide his Wayfarers to the tip of his nose. His chocolate eyes sparkled merrily as he peered at Nicki over the top of the frames.

“Oh My God, you’re RIGHT!” Wendy sat up, gaping at the two men. “I saw you guys open for ZZ Top at The Garden!”

Jon chuckled. “Yeah. That was us.” His mood was quickly improving, his hangover misery diminishing somewhat as he realized he may be able to get this photo shoot over with today after all. Being recognized by a half-dozen bikini-clad girls didn’t hurt either.

“No shit,” Carmen breathed quietly. She recognized him now, too. But she still wasn’t sure whether these guys were being up-front about their proposition. “If you’re such a big-time rock band now, how come you don’t already have models for this so-called photo shoot?”

Marie nodded along with Carmen’s question. “Yeah. I remember when you made that video on the Boardwalk last year. Suzanne and I were in the crowd for the concert scenes.” She looked at her friend, then back at Jon and Richie. “But all the girls in the rest of the video were models or actresses or something.”

“That’s right,” Jon agreed with a little nod. “But this ain’t a video. And I want authentic Jersey Girls for this shoot. Not some New York wannabe actresses who have never spent a day down the shore.”

His candor seemed to surprise them. Jon waited patiently as the girls looked at each other, silently asking with their exchanged glances if they should trust this minor local celebrity. Jon heard Richie chuckle softly beside him but he didn’t react.

Nicki was the first one to speak. “Well Honey, it’s your lucky day,” she purred. “I’m an authentic Jersey Girl AND a model.”

“Christ, Nicki, give it a rest,” Carmen muttered, rolling her eyes. “You posed for a couple J.C. Penney ads. It ain’t like you were in Vogue.”

“That was a real modeling job!” Nicki protested. “And I was in that car calendar!”

“That’s true, she was,” Wendy agreed. “She sat on the hood of a car, wearing bikini. She’s obviously qualified.” Her sarcasm was thinly-veiled.

Richie chortled at the girls’ catty remarks to their boastful friend. “Sounds to me like you’re qualified,” he flirted. Again his eyes traveled over her ample chest. Nicki noticed and gave him another coy smile.

“Listen, we’re not looking for any of that studio posing shit,” Jon interrupted the banter. “Here’s what we want. The record is called ‘Slippery When Wet.’ Our art guy came up with a concept of girls washing sports cars. You know, wet, soapy, slippery…”

“Basically you wanna use T & A to sell your record,” Suzanne interrupted, getting straight to the point.

“Bingo.” Jon appreciated her directness. “Specifically, we wanna use your T & A.”

“And you can make a little money doing it,” Richie added. “We have a professional photographer, and you’ll get paid scale for your time.”

“What’s scale?” Wendy asked. She didn’t really care; this sounded like fun. But a little cash wouldn’t hurt, either.

“It’s the basic pay rate for models who aren’t under contract.” Nicki answered for Jon. “It’s usually negotiated based on the type of job, but in this case I’m sure there is a scale rate for recording industry shoots.”

Jon’s eyebrows arched in surprise at the blonde’s precise description. Maybe there was more to that one than a nice rack and an easy lay. “Yeah.” He couldn’t explain it any better.

“Probably a hundred bucks for a couple hours?” Nicki asked, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at Jon.

“I don’t know. Mark will take care of all that.” Jon stared back at the blonde for a long moment before looking around at her friends. “So, whaddya say, girls? Wanna help us out?”

“Sounds fun,” Wendy agreed. “I’m in.”

“Me too,” Suzanne added. “I got nothin’ better to do today.” Marie and Carmen also nodded their assent.

“Excellent!” Richie grinned. “Well, since Jonny here couldn’t be bothered to introduce me, I’m Richie. And your names are?” He looked around at the group as each of the five volunteers introduced herself in turn.

Jon’s gaze turned back to the quiet brunette. “How about you…?” Again her eyes met his through her shades, and he thought he saw her cheeks flush slightly. He felt a little twitch in his groin as she smiled shyly.

“Kimberly.” Her voice was soft and even. “Sure.”