by Leslie Kelly
The man took a few steps back, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste. “What is she, your sister or somethin’?”
Mitch shook his head, then looked around at the stares he was receiving. Paul gaped at him, as well, but Mitch couldn’t begin to explain. How did he possibly explain about Kelsey? Hey, folks, Lady Love’s living in my house, sleeping right above my head, as a matter of fact, and you know the funny thing? She likes to eat peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches with sliced bananas. And hey, get this, she once put my underwear in the freezer!
Mitch shook his head quickly, not quite believing he’d had the urge to punch out a loudmouthed drunk in a bar. He hadn’t thrown a punch at anyone since he was in high school. When he thought about it, he remembered that Kelsey had been responsible for that fight, too! She’d told Mitch that she was secretly sneaking out to meet an eighteen-year-old, and Mitch had pounded the guy after gym class one day. The little brat had admitted she’d lied only after he’d been suspended from school for a week.
Shaking his head, Mitch grabbed a ten out of his pocket and tossed it onto the table. “I’ve gotta go. Beer’s on me. Thanks for the invite. I’ll see you soon.”
Outside, Mitch hurried to his car and jumped in. He cursed as he slammed the steering wheel with his palm, then took a few deep breaths. Before starting the engine, he thought about how close he’d come to violence. Kelsey pushed all his buttons, even when she wasn’t in the damned room! His hands were shaking, and since he hadn’t finished half of his first drink, he knew it wasn’t the beer. It was anger.
“HELLO AGAIN, BALTIMORE. Thanks for sticking with me. This is Lady Love on WAJO, and you’re listening to Night Whispers. Tonight, we’re talking about sensuality versus sexuality.”
Kelsey paused, giving her listeners a chance to turn up the volume or curl up together on a sofa or pour a glass of wine. Or, perhaps, just roll up the car window to cut down on outside noise.
“Something can be amazingly sensuous, can give you immense pleasure, and have absolutely nothing to do with sex. And, unfortunately, many people go through their lifetimes having sex, feeling moments of physical pleasure, but never really experiencing the truly sensuous,” she purred, drawing out each word to lend an intimate atmosphere.
Kelsey saw Brian waving and gesturing to the phone lines, and noticed that the switchboard was already lit up like Las Vegas. She wouldn’t start airing calls for a while yet, but people were amazingly patient, sometimes waiting a half hour for a chance to get on the air. Brian busily screened them, getting names and a few words about what they’d like to say.
“The first step in understanding how sensuality can enhance sexuality,” Kelsey continued, “is to understand and appreciate what is truly sensuous. To me, the most sensuous texture is human skin.”
Brian gave her a quick grin.
“Rubbing lotion on my legs, letting it be absorbed, feeling my flesh grow more pliant, is incredibly sensuous. Not sexual. Now, let someone else rub lotion and knead and stroke my limbs…well, I’m getting a little ahead of myself,” she said with a throaty chuckle.
Intentionally, of course. She tried all the time to jump ahead of the audience, get their minds working overtime wondering where she was going, then she’d go right back to where she’d been, teasing them, building up the momentum. It wasn’t what she said that was so provocative, it was what she hinted at, and what the audience filled in with their own minds.
“Let’s talk about scents. Smells are incredibly evocative. A certain perfume can take you back to another time, and another place, and bring memories flooding into your mind. For me, the smell of lavender always brings with it sweet, warm memories of my grandmother. Closing my eyes and deeply inhaling the scent of gardenias makes me think of lying in a garden, with the sun beating down on me. It gives me a great deal of pleasure.”
Kelsey smiled, remembering for a moment the afternoon when Mitch had found her lying in the backyard. She’d been feeling just such pleasures at that point, enjoying the warmth, and the sounds of the birds, and the smell of the earth she’d been digging.
“And speaking of lying in a garden,” she continued, “imagine, if you would, how soft grass can feel against your skin on a warm spring day. It tickles a little, it cushions your body, and, if you concentrate, you’d swear you can feel each blade pressing into you. The smell of flowers inundates you, and the sun warms you. You open your eyes to the bright blue, cloudless sky, and you hear cicadas singing in the distance. That is sensuous.
“Now,” Kelsey continued, “add your lover lying there next to you, and sensuous becomes sensual…and, perhaps, sexual.”
MITCH TRIED NOT TO TURN ON the radio as he drove home. He resisted for about ninety seconds, then flicked it on and punched the dial to Kelsey’s station. She spoke of sensuous things, and with every word, all he could think was that her voice and her words were the most sensuous things he’d ever experienced. Picturing Kelsey, knowing she was saying those words, having those thoughts and those desires, was incredibly erotic.
And incredibly frustrating.
Mitch listened the whole way home. She didn’t speak all the time, breaking to play a very melodic love song, speak to one or two callers and air some commercials. But in between she continued weaving the spell of seduction that reached out through his car speakers and held him enthralled. Her entire topic tonight was on the sensuous. But she never even touched on the sensuality of a beautiful woman talking about pleasures and fulfillment, and what words and subtle nuances in a voice could do to a man.
When he reached home, Mitch hesitated before switching off the car. Leaning back in his seat, he closed his eyes, listening, savoring what she said.
“So, my friends, let me just take one more moment before we go to this next brief interruption, and make a suggestion. The next time you and your love are in an intimate moment, remember to pamper your senses. Savor the textures, and the smells, and the lovely sights. Don’t rush through the sensual, savor it. This is Lady Love, and I’ll be back with more music, perhaps a little poetry and more of your calls right after these messages.”
Mitch turned the key and sat in the car in the darkness for a few moments. Lady Love. If he didn’t know who she was, he would probably have been one of the idiots parking outside the station to get a glimpse of her. She’d seduced him, totally and completely, and at this moment, to use Paul’s expression, he ached for her.
What in the name of heaven was he going to do? The most erotic, exciting woman in Baltimore lived right in his home. She slept and moved and ate and fantasized right over his head. Men all over the city were listening to her, imagining being with her, speculating on what she looked like and whether they had a chance with her.
No one but Mitch knew the woman of their dreams was Kelsey Logan, the bane of his childhood and the cause of his recent sleepless nights. Little Kelsey of the freckles and braids, his pseudo little sister.
“Hell!”
“NIGHT, BRIAN. THANKS FOR walking me out,” Kelsey said as she inserted the key into the door of her car. Someone always walked her out at night. In fact, everybody left the building in pairs after dark. As Mitch had said, the station wasn’t in the best part of town. But, so far, she’d never had any trouble.
“No problem, Kelsey. By the way, tonight’s show was fantastic. You had ’em eating right out of your hand.”
“I think we’re going to have to do this topic again, soon,” she said. “I was amazed at how into it some of those callers got.”
Brian blew her a kiss as she waved and drove away. Kelsey knew a lot of the success of Night Whispers was due to Brian’s hard work. She still thanked her lucky stars that Mafia Don hadn’t protested too loudly when she’d coaxed Brian into following her to her new time slot. Don was one of those macho guys whose masculinity was threatened around gay men, though he’d never admit it.
She arrived home within twenty minutes and let herself into the brownstone. Locking the door behind her,
Kelsey felt her way to the oak-trimmed banister. It wasn’t pitch-black in the house, but the high arched window over the front door did not let in much light from the outside streetlamp.
When a shadow on the bottom of the stairs moved, she let out a small scream. Strong hands grabbed her shoulders, and a voice said, “It’s me, Kelsey.”
Kelsey drew a shaking hand to her heart. “Mitch, what are you doing? You scared the living daylights out of me! Why are you lurking at the bottom of the stairs in the middle of the night?”
“I couldn’t sleep.” His voice was steady, emotionless.
Kelsey’s breathing gradually returned to normal, though adrenaline still made her pulse race. She could feel Mitch, could sense him. The hairs on her body stood up with a life of their own in an almost electric reaction to his nearness. But her eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness, and she could barely see him.
“I was up listening to the most interesting radio program until two o’clock,” he said after a moment’s hesitation.
Kelsey flinched. Mitch had heard the show.
“Well, what’d you think?” she replied, forcing a bravado that she didn’t feel into her tired voice.
“I’m sure you know very well what I thought, Kelsey.”
“Gee, you really loved it, huh?”
“No,” he replied in a sarcastic whisper. “I thought the same thing your parents would have thought—this cannot be Kelsey Logan. Kelsey Logan would not get on a public station and talk like some porn movie star.”
She gasped. “That’s out of line, Mitch Wymore. Way out of line, even for you.”
“Is it? That’s what you sounded like. Some kind of self-appointed love goddess bestowing her sexual wisdom on us mortals.”
Kelsey gritted her teeth, determined not to have this argument, even though she’d actually been expecting it. “You know what? I’m not going to have this discussion with you. It’s the middle of the night, and I’m tired,” Kelsey said as she tried to push by him and go up the stairs.
He reached out to grab her arm as she passed. “You’re not going to gloss over this, Kelsey. Does your family have any idea what you’re doing? What do you think they’d say about you becoming some publicity-seeking sex goddess?”
Kelsey stopped with her hand on the banister, turned and, as her eyes were becoming accustomed to the dark, leaned until she was scant inches away from Mitch’s face. “Just who do you think you are? When were you appointed to the Baltimore morality police?”
“Look, Kelsey, you’re attracting the worst kind of attention. There are a lot of wackos out there who would just love to get Lady Love alone and force her to put her body where her mouth is.”
She gritted her teeth, determined to remain calm and not throw a hissy fit on the stairs in the middle of the night. “Back off, Mitch. Your college professor past is showing. God, is there anyone more sanctimonious than a reformed tough guy?”
He didn’t so much as grin. He obviously was not going to be teased out of his anger. “Kelsey, this just is not you.”
“How would you know? You don’t know me. You know nothing about the Kelsey Logan standing here with you right now. You see me as some pigtailed little kid who needs looking after, but you know what? I’m all grown-up, Mitch. And what I do is none of your business.”
Kelsey tried to squeeze past Mitch and move up the stairs, to no avail. He was right in her way, and he wasn’t budging. He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to stand where she was.
“I know enough about you to know that you’ve got a hell of a lot of talent. You could do a lot better than just titillating the public with some sordid little talk show.”
Kelsey drew up a fist and punched against Mitch’s chest. A cinder block might have felt softer against her fist, and she winced as pain shot up her arm. He didn’t flinch.
“You’re wrong. I’m an entertainer, Mitch, a performer. My audience responds to me because they like me.” Kelsey suddenly wanted him to understand in spite of the fact that she really shouldn’t have to explain herself to him. “And I do make them laugh. It’s not always like it was tonight. Sometimes it’s all lighthearted and fun, and I do wacky voices, and it’s very innocent.”
Mitch didn’t release his grip on her shoulders, and she could see through the shadows that his stiff jaw had not relaxed one bit. He would never understand this. She could waste her breath from now until the end of the new millennium, and he’d still disapprove.
“Look, Mitch, you are not my brother, nor my father. You are nothing to me….” Kelsey stammered. “Nothing except my landlord, and the subject of some amusing childhood memories. So mind your own business and let me go!”
Kelsey ended on a shout, and Mitch gritted his teeth to avoid shouting right back. Nothing? He’d watched this stubborn, willful female grow up, had put up with years of abuse, longer years of her schoolgirl crush, and yet he was nothing to her? Her body shook beneath his fingers, her anger as obvious as his own.
Her husky voice echoed in his ears, and the smell of her filled his senses. Her chest heaved with her deep breaths. Her full lips were parted and she looked as if she was about to say something else. Mitch really didn’t want to hear it. He just wanted her to shut up.
He had to kiss her.
Bending swiftly, he captured her open mouth with his own. She moaned, a wild sound from somewhere deep in her throat, and he pressed harder, urging her lips farther apart and sweeping his tongue against hers. She hesitated for not more than a second, then he felt her arms circle his neck as she pulled him hard against her body. Her sweet mouth welcomed him, beckoned him as he tasted her.
Kissing Kelsey was sweet and agonizing and arousing and fulfilling, all at the same time. Mitch moved his hands up her neck and cupped her face, stroking her temples and letting his fingers tangle in her loose hair. He felt her hands press into his back, pulling his body against hers. She fit against him as he’d imagined she would, as if they were made for each other.
Kelsey clung to Mitch like a drowning woman to a life raft. He filled her senses—his smell, the feel of him. In his arms, with his hot mouth on her own, she could admit that when she’d spoken of sensuous pleasures, the most rapturous one she could have imagined was the feel of this man’s kiss.
And then he pulled away.
There was cold where there had been warmth. A chill touched her face and Kelsey shivered. She reached for him, wanting to draw him back, but he jerked away from her touch as if she burned him.
“I’m sorry, that should never have happened,” Mitch insisted. “I was angry, and wanted to shut you up.”
“It’s all right,” Kelsey replied, still adrift in sensation. “You didn’t do anything I haven’t been wanting you to do.”
She smiled at him and raised a shaky finger, intending to trace the outline of his lips. He grabbed her hand, stopping her before she could touch him, and gripped it tightly.
“No, Kelsey, this was a mistake. We were both angry. It won’t happen again.”
He didn’t want her. She bit her lip, watching the self-recrimination cross his features. He already regretted kissing her. She knew he’d been as affected by the kiss as she had, but for some reason, Mitch was not about to admit it.
“I shouldn’t have ambushed you like this.” He raked his hands through his hair in angry, jerky movements. “I should have waited and spoken to you in the morning, when we could both be rational about it. Let’s do that, all right? We’ll talk tomorrow.”
He was talking about the show again, she could tell, and Kelsey’s stomach tightened into a hard knot. “No, Mitch, we won’t talk tomorrow. There’s nothing to talk about.”
“I mean,” he explained, “we’ll talk about the show, not about…well, what just happened.”
“I know exactly what you meant.” Kelsey crossed her arms firmly in front of her chest. “And, as I said, we have nothing further to discuss. It’s none of your business what I do for a living. I am perfectly capable of taking care
of myself. So I’ll thank you to back off.”
“Oh, right,” he said, his voice silky and dangerous. “Like you took care of yourself a minute ago when I kissed you? You didn’t fight too hard, Kelsey. What if I’d been one of Lady Love’s overamorous fans?”
Kelsey narrowed her eyes and leaned forward to whisper, “Then you’d be bent over, talking in a real high-pitched voice right about now.”
A light flicked on upstairs, and Kelsey jerked her head at the sound of footsteps. Fred and Celia’s anxious faces peered over the rail, and she realized they must have woken them with their shouting.
“Is everything all right?” Fred asked.
“Everything’s fine,” Kelsey replied. “Mitch and I were just saying good-night.” She stared coldly at him. “Good night, Mitch.”
Not waiting for his response, Kelsey rushed up the stairs. Her feet hadn’t hit the top step when she heard his door slam shut below. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, and for the life of her she could not make her key fit into the lock.
Kelsey heard Celia’s and Fred’s low voices. She didn’t protest when Celia approached, gently took the keys out of her hand, opened the door and led her inside.
“Thank you,” she said, as Celia steered her toward her own sofa.
“No problem, honey, you look upset. Let me make you some tea to calm you down.”
“I’m all right,” Kelsey insisted, “though I’m about ready to strangle one overbearing anthropologist!”
Celia smoothed back Kelsey’s hair and then handed her a tissue. Fred’s girlfriend looked like a little wren, with an incredibly expressive face dominated by huge brown eyes and a gentle smile. Kelsey could never imagine her raising her voice, much less screeching at a man loud enough to wake the upstairs neighbors in the middle of the night.
“I’m sorry about this, Celia. I can’t believe we woke you up.”
Celia filled a kettle with water and placed it on the stove. “It’s all right. Though I’m sure Fred’s going to turn five shades of red the next time he sees you because you and Mitch now know that I slept over.”