by Lori Wilde
With vivid clarity, she recalled the abject relief when the nurse had come back to tell her the pregnancy test was negative. She didn’t have to make a decision about having an abortion.
And from that day forward, Callie had always used two methods of birth control. The pill and condoms.
Except for the first night she and Luke had made love.
And now she was five days late.
There was a home pregnancy test kit in her purse. She’d bought it that morning. She’d almost taken it but had decided to wait until after the banquet, after she’d made her announcement. Until she and Luke were alone together.
She was terrified. Scared to death.
Was she pregnant with Luke’s baby?
“LET HER SLEEP, LUKE. She’s exhausted.”
“I need to see her.” He was standing outside Callie’s hotel room, Molly Anne blocking his way. His belongings were in the hallway at her feet.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Your things.”
“I can see that. Why are they out here?”
“The tour is over. There’s no reason for you to hang around. Go back to New York. Go back to your life.”
“Not without seeing Callie first.”
“She’s sick.”
“I just want to say goodbye.”
“And what? You want to tell her you’ve fallen in love with her?”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve seen the way you look at her. But believe me, she doesn’t feel the same way about you. Don’t embarrass yourself. Don’t make her have to break your heart to your face.”
He clenched his jaw, fisted his hands. Molly Anne had a point but he still had to tell Callie how he felt, even if he did end up getting hurt big-time.
“I need to see her.”
“She’s just not the forever kind, Luke. Callie belongs to the public. She’s a star. And even if she did have feelings for you, how could you take her away from all that?”
“I wouldn’t want her to stop doing what she loves, but I have to tell her how I feel.”
“If you really love her, Luke, then you’ll do what’s best for her. You’ll go away and leave her alone.”
“WHERE’S LUKE?” Callie asked sleepily when Molly Anne came back into the hotel room. She must have dozed off. She felt pretty woozy after drinking some hot tea Molly Anne had ordered for her from room service to settle her stomach. She almost felt as if she’d been drugged with Valium.
“He’s gone back to New York.”
“What?” Callie came up off the bed too fast and her head spun. She had to sit on the edge a moment and let her mind clear. “Why did Luke leave?”
Molly Anne shrugged. “Bryson’s behind bars. I canceled the last two book signings. His job was over.”
“He left without saying goodbye?”
Molly nodded. “Men. Your Momma is right. Harleys, the lot of them.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. His things are all still…” Callie looked around the room and saw that Luke’s things were gone.
“He asked me to pack them up while you were sleeping. He didn’t want to wake you. He thought it would be easier this way.”
But that made no sense. Callie blinked. Her head felt stuffed with cotton. She was having a hard time thinking. “This is awful.”
“Honey, he’s just a man, another will be along shortly,” Molly Anne soothed.
“No. You don’t understand. I think I might be pregnant,” Callie confessed.
“What?” Molly Anne stared at her as if she’d just announced she was having a sex-change operation.
Callie nodded.
“It’s Luke’s?”
“Of course.”
“How could this happen? Aren’t you on the pill?”
“I accidentally skipped one.”
“How could you forget to take a pill?” Molly Anne shouted. “God, Callie, didn’t that scare in high school teach you anything?”
“The tour was hectic. I just forgot. It was only one time. Besides, you’re not my mother. I won’t ask you to baby-sit. Don’t come unhinged.”
“But you’re the Midnight Ryder. You can’t be pregnant. This is going to be a publicity nightmare,” Molly Anne ranted. “The hippest sex guru in the country, the one woman who is supposed to know how to take care of herself in bed gets knocked up. Lovely. The show will be ruined.”
Callie cleared her throat. Now obviously wasn’t the time to break the news that she was quitting the show anyway. Even if she wasn’t pregnant. She’d had enough.
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting? We don’t even know for sure that I am pregnant. But I’ve got a home pregnancy kit in my purse.”
Molly Anne brightened at that. “Well what are you waiting for? Get in the bathroom and pee on that stick. Let’s find out if we have something to freak out about or not.”
“I wanted to wait for Luke,” Callie said and to her shock, her bottom lip started trembling.
“Well, he ain’t coming, honey. He took a hike on you, just like Chip did.”
“But he didn’t know I might be pregnant. I have to tell him.”
“Take the test. Find out first.”
Callie got the kit from her purse and went into the bathroom. “Start timing,” she called to Molly Anne through the door. “Sixty seconds.”
Molly Anne came into the bathroom where Callie was standing at the sink, staring at the plastic dip stick. “Thirty seconds,” she said.
“Read the box to me again. Which is which?”
“If one line turns pink it’s negative. If two turn it’s positive.”
Callie held her breath. One of the lines had started to turn.
“Forty-five seconds,” Molly Anne said. “Fifty. Fifty-five. That’s it. Sixty seconds. What’s it say?”
Callie looked down at the stick and promptly burst into tears.
16
“I DIDN’T WRITE those letters,” Buck Bryson told Luke the next morning from his prison cell in the L.A. county jail.
“No? Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because a real crazy is still out there after her.”
“And you’re not the real crazy?”
“What I did was wrong, desperate. I know that now.” Buck pushed a long strand of wispy gray hair behind an ear. “But I never intended on hurting Callie. I just wanted to scare her. Get her to quit so I could have my job back. I knew I was in trouble. There’d been warnings. My ratings were slipping. Callie’s star was rising.”
“Yeah, yeah, get to the point.”
“I hadn’t even planned on threatening her until I heard about the letters. I thought, hey, I could escalate the whole thing by calling her and people would think it was the guy who’d been writing the letters. But it got out of control. I never meant it to deteriorate the way it did and that’s why I had to talk to you. There’s someone out there who means Callie real harm.”
“How did you find out about the letters?” Luke asked.
“Molly Anne.”
That gave him pause. Bryson might be lying or crazy or both but no harm would come by checking out his story. As he left the jail, he placed a call to Zack.
“Hey, I got an assignment for you.”
“What’s up?”
“Run a background check on Molly Anne Armstrong for me, will you? Something’s not right.”
“WHY ARE YOU STILL CRYING?” Molly Anne asked. “It’s been two days. The test was negative. You’re not pregnant. Now our lives can go on as before. You and me. Together. Forever.”
Callie wiped away the tears trickling down her face. Silly, she knew, mourning for a child that had never been. Until the moment when she’d looked down and seen one solitary pink line she had no idea how much she’d wanted to be pregnant. But her emotions told her two very important things.
One, quitting the shock jock business was definitely what she wanted
and two, she had to find Luke and tell him exactly how much she loved him.
“Molly Anne,” Callie said. “There’s something I must tell you.”
“Well, as long as you’re not pregnant, I don’t care what it is.” Molly Anne was busy packing their suitcases. Their flight back to New York left in two hours.
“I’m quitting KSXX.”
“What?”
“Yes. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Long before this tour actually. I just didn’t realize how unhappy I was until I met Luke.”
“You’re talking crazy,” Molly Anne said. “You’ve made it. You’re at the pinnacle of your career. Why would you want to quit now?”
“Because I am at the pinnacle of my career and I know I don’t want to be fifty years old and still running around trying to shock people. It’s okay for a rebellious teen or a young twenty-something looking to find herself, but I’ll be twenty-nine next month and I’m ready for a new chapter.”
“You can’t do this.” Molly Anne’s nostrils flared.
“I know you’re upset but you’ll find another job. I’m sure you can even stay at KSXX.”
“But I don’t want to stay there without you. We’re a team, you and me. Molly Anne and Callie together forever. Just like in our pact. We signed it in blood, remember?” Molly Anne’s eyes were wild.
“We were kids.”
“I’ve taken care of you all these years. I’ve been behind the scenes pushing and pushing and pushing and now you’re just going to toss me aside.” Molly Anne splayed an irate palm against her chest. “And for what, some…some…man?”
“Did you drug my tea yesterday? Is that why I feel so groggy?”
“It was for your own good. I had to keep you knocked out so I could get rid of Luke.”
“You’re losing it,” Callie said and moved to shoulder past her.
“No!” Molly Anne screamed. “This is simply unacceptable. I love you, dammit. I’ve been here for you. I won’t let you throw me over like this.”
That’s when Molly Anne pulled the gun from her pocket, and she clearly had no idea how to use the weapon because she waved it wildly around, pointing it first at Callie, then pressing it to her own temple as she sobbed.
Callie had to disarm her before she killed one or both of them. “Take it easy.”
“Don’t tell me to take it easy.”
Think, think. She had to get out of this. Slowly, Callie reached for her purse on the bedside table.
Molly Anne caught her movements and swung the gun at her. “Stay still.”
“I’m just going for some lipstick,” Callie said, trying to sound offhand, her heart thumping erratically.
“What do you need lipstick for? Luke isn’t coming to see you.”
“My lips are dry, okay? I’ve been doing a lot of crying.”
Molly Anne nodded and lowered the gun just a fraction. Callie opened her purse and fumbled for the lipstick.
She eased it out and before Molly Anne knew what hit her, Callie maced her.
Molly Anne howled.
Callie tackled her.
The gun flew from Molly Anne’s grasp. Callie landed heavily on her old friend.
Molly Anne scratched at Callie’s eyes. Callie raised an arm to block the assault. Molly Anne used that brief hesitation to squirm away. Blinking and brawling, she crawled for the gun.
“Callie!” Luke’s voice ripped through the hotel room and in a second he and Zack and hotel security were standing there looking down at them.
Callie had never seen a more beautiful sight.
“MOLLY ANNE WAS THE ONE who wrote those threatening letters,” Luke explained. Zack had departed, too, leaving them to their privacy. “After Buck told me he didn’t write the letters I asked Zack to contact Roger and the NYPD with my suspicions about Molly Anne. I was just terrified I wasn’t going to get here in time before she cracked.”
“But why would she do that?” Callie asked, puzzled. “Why would Molly Anne want to harm me?”
“It was all a publicity stunt. She was so desperate for you to get Bryson’s slot that she thought creating a threat would boost your ratings enough to give you that extra push to send you to the top.”
“She’s always been a master at publicity and the real drive behind my career,” Callie admitted.
“Molly Anne didn’t have the personality for the success she craved, so she lived vicariously through you. Your success was her success.”
“That’s why she freaked out so much when I said I wanted to quit KSXX. I guess in her own twisted way she did care deeply for me.”
“Love can do strange things to people,” he said. “Make them behave in ways they ordinarily never would have.”
“But why did she send those threatening letters to the station? It was almost like she wanted me to quit.”
“Not at all. That was designed to stir controversy in your show, boost the ratings. Remember that guy that called the night I showed up in the studio?”
“Dave from Albany? How could I forget? We had our first fight because of him.” She grinned.
“With the help of the NYPD Roger found out Molly Anne was the one who hired him to threaten you on the air.”
Callie shook her head. “It’s a lot to absorb. You’d think you know a person after eighteen years.”
“Some people you can be acquainted with a lifetime and still never know them,” he said softly. “Others, you know them to their soul the minute you meet them.”
“Is that right?” She tipped her head back, studying him from beneath her eyelashes.
“Yep.”
“And which category do I fall into?”
“I know you don’t really have to ask,” he said, pulling her tight against his chest and forcing her to look at him straight on.
“Oh my,” she whispered.
“And I will go on knowing you into infinity. The reason things didn’t work out for us with other people was because we were meant for each other Callie Ryder.”
“You mean you’re not a Harley?”
He frowned. “I don’t get it.”
She waved a hand. “I’ll tell you some other time. It’s a theory of my mother’s. Basically, she thinks all men will do you wrong, given the chance. I guess I absorbed a lot of her prejudices.”
“But you knew I was different from the start, didn’t you?”
“Look at the ego on you. How do I know you’re different?”
Luke pinned her legs between his, pressed his lips to her ears and whispered, “Because sweetheart, you don’t hear my feet running.”
And she knew then, it was true. With this man, she had nothing to fear. Nothing to fight. Nothing to prove.
At long last, she could be her true self.
And it felt glorious.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1603-1
SHOCKINGLY SENSUAL
Copyright © 2005 by Laurie Vanzura.
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