Chapter 6

The Estate, Friday night

They were a few minutes late turning off the main road through the gates of the Rodion estate. The property was tucked way back in the rural hills west of Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley and north of Malibu. According to the documents Jude perused that week, they’d owned it since the fifties. Why they picked such a remote location back then, he couldn’t figure. LA of that era, especially the coast wasn’t nearly as built up as it was now.

The driveway wound through an orange grove before emptying out in front of the sprawling mansion. The two story building was built like an elongated ‘H’, with the back half extending farther than the front, to bracket a glass-protected pool. The fat crossbar portion of the ‘H’ squashed the front part with a magnificent balcony overlooking the circular arrival area, which had a round fountain with a topless, well-endowed mermaid spraying water in the center.

The drive was filled with cars. Some were expensive, but others were more middle-class. A group of smokers occupied the balcony above, talking and laughing and puffing out a cloud of cigarette and cigar smoke. When Jude pulled up, the mansion’s towering front doors cracked, spilling light out invitingly. A man’s silhouette filled the opening.

“Wow, I didn’t realize we were coming to a party.” Jude muttered. “Good thing you decided to wear that.”

Lauren was decked out in a mid-thigh-length, black cocktail dress. Its neckline showed a hint of cleavage, and the stiletto heels she rocked put her eyes only an inch or two below Jude’s. The risqué black lingerie he knew she wore underneath had nearly derailed their departure from home. One look at her amazing ass in the T-back panties before she got dressed, and his hands wanted to grope her body all over. She had to smack them away, so she could pull on the skintight outfit. When he asked why she was dressed to the nines, her answer floored him.

“Honey, there’s no way they don’t know we have that tape.” She reasoned, “So how we present ourselves will tell them something. If you wear the open-necked shirt with your three-piece, and I’m in this, they’ll know what our reaction was without you even saying anything.”

Their reaction had been to spend the week boffing like bunnies. Immediately after dinner each evening, Lauren or Jude would grab the other and drag them upstairs. The teens were left to put themselves to bed without parental oversight, a state of affairs they’d quickly noticed. And probably taken advantage of, but Jude and Lauren were too busy seeing which one could fuck the other unconscious first to care. Lauren teased him with how slutty she would act, when (not ‘if’ any longer) they actually went through with wife-swapping. Jude responded by plundering all three of her holes, and riding her tits to multiple orgasms per night.

Both agreed that the candle Clara gave them really made the sex stench which permeated their bedroom remain soft and arousing, without becoming stale or pungent. The thing was little more than a puddle of wax at this point. Lauren finally blew it out that morning, before spending the day getting her beauty on.

So when Jude walked into the bedroom after work to find her sporting the skimpy, sheer bra and panties, with her hair cut in a different but familiar style and died back to her natural brown, his already-oversexed dick took over the task of directing his actions.

Though his hand got a slap, her smile told him she appreciated his attention. His fingers caught her own, and brought them up to regard between them. French-style nails adorned the tips; he raised a silent eyebrow and her grin turned impish.

“How do I look?” She flirted.

“You ... you look like...” He stammered, unsure if he could say it aloud.

“A certain mental fantasy you have?” She winked. “Believe me now?”

His dick certainly did! She’d even done her makeup like Rebecca, which was closer to a pinup style than Lauren’s usual look. His hands itched to throw her onto the bed and ravish her. If his wife was going to embrace his teenage fantasy, he’d certainly demonstrate that it worked like a charm!

But when he took a step forward, she put a finger on his chest. “Now, now, we have a dinner engagement to get to. Don’t want to be late; you said they’re the firm’s most important clients. Put on the suit I laid out for you.”

With her typical aplomb, she’d arranged everything. Even went so far as to drop the kids off at his parents’ place right after school. All he had to do was get showered and dressed, then spend an hour waiting for her to finish before they could leave.

And now they were here, only twenty or so minutes after eight. From the number of people already inside, he doubted their arrival would even be noted. Music and voices washed over them as he exited the Porsche 911 ‘Turbo’ he’d purchased after making partner, to ask whoever was at the door where to park.

Ashe, in the flesh, somehow appeared at the passenger side door. The man was even larger in person than he’d appeared on the videotape. And the coat-with-tails ensemble Ashe wore made Jude wonder if he’d underdressed after all.

“Park wherever you like,” his gravelly voice advised politely, while he helped Lauren out of the vehicle. “Just avoid blocking anyone. It’s a downer to get pulled away, right when things get ... interesting. When you return here, Lily will escort you inside.”

“Uh, okay, thank you.” Jude stammered. To his mind, ‘interesting’ had all sorts of sexual connotations, which Ashe most definitely hadn’t intended. Not possible, right?

It caught him unprepared for such a mundane topic, after watching the man do unspeakably filthy things to Jude’s friend Clara (among others) all week. Somehow, he’d made it through each day without acknowledging the tape aloud at work. The paralegal never brought it up either, and he was too inundated with the Rodions’ legal files to spend any professional attention on it. Besides, Clara’s work never suffered, so he left it alone.

“Who’s ‘Lily’?” Jude wondered, as Ashe tucked Lauren’s hand into his elbow.

“Don’t worry, you can’t miss her.” Ashe replied airily as he escorted Lauren toward the door. She turned and blew him a winking kiss with her bright red lips.

“Okay then.” Jude said, nonplussed at being left to his own devices.

Lauren had spent the whole drive lightly tracing his hand with her nails, which kept him in a state of relaxed sensuality. He found a good spot, but it was a short hike back to the manor. One that he took slowly in the warm summer air. It wouldn’t do to arrive soaked in sweat. By that time, Lauren had vanished inside, replaced by a stunning woman who awaited him outside. Whereas Jude’s wife projected a sporty, fun-loving air, this bombshell simply oozed sex from every pore. Her strapless red dress looked painted on and displayed so much skin, and cleavage that he figured the only force holding it up was friction. Her spike-heeled shoes were tall enough that he figured she could take a job as a stilt-walker at a carnival if her current gig didn’t work out.

“Uh, Lily I hope?” He ventured.

Her hourglass figure was killer; with the kind of boobs he’d told Lauren would look ridiculous on his wife. Somehow on this woman, they worked toward a cohesive, crotch-hardening whole instead. He did his level best to look at her face, and not down her dress, but it wasn’t easy. And after an hour, he still couldn’t have told you what color her eyes were. A midnight-dark waterfall fell down her back to swish across her mouth-watering, perfectly heart-shaped ass. If this wasn’t his intended escort, the real Lily was out of luck.

Her smile smoldered, “Jude West, it’s a pleasure to meet you at last.”

He found her hand in his, so he held it up for a kiss. “The pleasure is entirely mine, I can assure you.” He managed to say it without sounding cheesy, or creepy.

He was busy congratulating himself when she slipped around to snake her hand inside his arm and rest her long, fire-engine-red nails on his forearm. “Are you ready for this?” She breathed into his ear.

“Ready for what?” He wondered, as she dragged him up the steps and inside.

Whatever her answer was, the music and din drowned her out. He recognized several of the firm’s staff moving from room to room with what he assumed were dates or spouses. Everyone had a drink in hand, and from the level of merriment, most had been here quite some time. A faint scent, reminiscent of the candle they’d been burning wafted through the air, along with various perfumes. Lily steered him past a few coworkers with a smiling nod, and into a room with a self-service bar.

“Care for a drink?” She asked.

His eyes roamed the selection. As near as he could tell, if it was a high-end liquor of any type, there was at least one bottle of it here.

“What do you recommend?” He returned, curiously.

“Ah,” she reached for a bottle way at the back, “how about some ‘Euphoria’?”

“What’s that?” He inquired, examining the bottle.

“The smoothest, hottest, most amazing liquor you’ll ever drink.” Lily promised as she tipped it to pour a glass. “No ice,” she added when he reached for the bucket’s tongs.

He took the tumbler from her, and swirled it under his nose. Cinnamon without the fire, smoky without the burning, yet filling him with a heat that tingled his fingers and toes. He sipped, then took another, and again. Before he’d held the glass for thirty seconds, it was empty.

Lily grinned at him, “Another?”

“Yes please.” He held out the cup like a kid at a soda fountain.

She refilled it, “Come on, let’s circulate.”

Glass in one hand, and Lily on his other arm, Jude found himself led around the party. He knew many of the guests, and even some spouses (or dates), so he made polite small talk and glad-handed as necessary. He agreed with his grandfather’s axiom that ‘a good captain knows his troops.’ And it wasn’t like he was a stranger to those employed by the firm. The strangest part was that in his decade employed by West & Associates, the only work-related parties they’d ever thrown were the annual Summer Picnic before July 4th, and the Christmas Party, on the first Friday in December. Yet several coworkers spoke as though this was not their first party in this place.

And then he found himself face to face with Alan Rodion, who had a tall, slender, green-eyed beauty on his arm. One Jude had seen a lot of this week. Even fully clothed, Jude found her to be strikingly hot. Like Lily, she wore a red dress and spiked heels. Hers was ... moderately less risqué than the voluptuous vixen’s attached to his arm. Jude found his imagination getting away from him, picturing her performing all manner of dirty, lewd acts.