by Jackie Black
“I was wondering if you’d care to come out with me for a bite to eat,” Sonny found himself saying when he hadn’t been wondering any such thing at all. He was immediately annoyed at having voiced the invitation spontaneously, another indication of the lack of control this woman provoked in him.
But then Sonny realized that if the Vixen did agree to come out with him, she would surely have to take off all that makeup as well as the hideous lavender wig she was wearing, in which case he would be able to see what she really looked like. And maybe she wore all that makeup because her natural appearance left a lot to be desired, he thought hopefully, in which case he might be able to get her off his mind once and for all.
Lissa was stumped for a reply for a second and thoroughly annoyed at how much she would have liked to take Sonny Strotherton up on his invitation. Then an idea popped into her head she thought might just work to convince Sonny tp retract this particular invitation as well as any future ones he might have been thinking of extending. She didn’t consider it exactly fair that in order to preserve her identity she had to deprive herself of the chance to get to know this strikingly handsome man better, but she had given up expecting life to be fair when she’d lost her father. Besides, she reminded herself glumly, even if she could have accepted the invitation, there was no time in her life right now, and wouldn’t be for a long time to come, to get involved with any man.
“Why, sweetie, what a lovely idea!” she gushed and batted her eyes at Sonny, certain he wasn’t the sort of man to react favorably to such an approach. “And if this were another night, I’d say ‘yes’ like that!” She snapped her fingers and winked at him. “In fact,” she added with as close as she knew how to come to a female leer, “if I hadn’t already promised the owner of this club a little personal attention to pay him back for giving us a gig here tonight, I’d not only come out with you for dinner, I’d take you back to my hotel with me for the same sort of personal attention I have to give another man as a payoff . . . only with you, it would be a case of pure pleasure.”
Lissa put her hands on her hips, spread her legs, thrust her breasts provocatively at Sonny and caught her bottom lip between her teeth while she gazed into his eyes with a smoldering expression she hardly had to fake, much to her disgust.
Sonny wondered if the Vixen often had to pay with personal favors to gain opportunities for her group to perform, a situation that filled him with pity for her . . . until he realized she didn’t seem to mind the situation all that much. It made him sick. The lovely violet eyes he remembered from the last time he’d met this woman, the gentleness she had displayed then, were forgotten as he looked at the lust in her eyes and the brazen display she was making of her body.
Lissa saw the disgust and contempt come into Sonny’s clear blue eyes and had to fight to maintain the role she had deliberately chosen with the objective of obtaining exactly such a reaction from him. But it wasn’t easy to have him view her so negatively. In fact, it hurt so much, she had to use the burst of anger that abruptly filled her at finding herself in such a position as energy to complete the task she’d set herself.
“Maybe another time, sweetie, hmm?” she cooed at Sonny as she raised a hand to fiddle with a strand of the lavender wig and started walking toward him in an exaggeratedly sexy way. “My group is going out of town tomorrow, but why don’t you keep track of us, and sometime when we’re in this area again, you just send me another of those cute little notes, and I’ll be sure and make time for you.”
Sonny held his ground when Lissa stopped only a breath away from him, though his first reaction was to move away from her before she could reach out and touch him.
Lissa saw what he was thinking in his eyes, and suddenly her anger burgeoned into something closer to rage. Even if she was everything she’d made him believe she was, what right did he have to hold her in such contempt? she wondered bitterly. Was he so lily white and pure that he felt her touch would contaminate him?
Acting with complete spontaneity, Lissa moved before Sonny could stop her, grasping his handsome face between her hands and coming up on tiptoe to fasten her mouth to his with a strength Sonny was powerless to counteract for a moment.
A bare few seconds after her mouth met Sonny’s, however, Lissa realized her mistake and tried to break away just as suddenly as she’d initiated the kiss. Her anger gone, her eyes wide, she was abruptly aware that this was not a man she could play such a game with and win. His mouth on hers had instigated a sensation as violent as an electric shock and as tempting as obtaining paradise on earth.
Sonny’s initial reaction to Lissa’s touch was repulsion, but as he put his hands on her hips to push her away, he felt the heat of her body beneath the silk, which made him pause for an instant. His eyes were open and when Lissa’s eyes opened wide in shock at what she was feeling, he saw again the lovely shade of violet, the intelligence behind the beauty, and a vulnerability that erased from his mind the role she had just played for him'as though it had never happened.
As Lissa began to pull away, Sonny acted as spontaneously as she had in kissing him in the first place and quickly stopped her. Sliding his arms around her waist, he quickly pulled her hard against his body and simultaneously opened his mouth over hers in an invasive kiss that sent another thrilling shock through Lissa. Desperately, she fought to counteract the eruption of passion inside her, but it was as though Sonny didn’t even feel her hands pushing against his shoulders, and before another moment had gone by, Lissa couldn’t concentrate on what she should be doing anymore. She was too intently involved in heeding the call of senses she had never suspected any man could ignite with such devastating passion.
Sonny’s long spell of celibacy accelerated the blind hunger that consumed him now. Later, he would also suspect that the Vixen had tapped a dark, deeply hidden side of him every man might have to some degree or another—the desire to have a sexual liaison with a woman so wanton she had none of the inhibitions the average woman might. For while what he had seen in Lissa’s eyes as she recognized the impact their kiss was having on her had chased away his initial revulsion toward her, he was also on some level still reacting to the brazen act she had put on before she had kissed him.
Lissa gasped against his mouth as Sonny’s hands moved with urgent forcefulness to her buttocks and he held her tight against him as he began to grind his hips against hers, heightening the swelling heat in his loins and provoking a conflicting reaction in Lissa’s mind and body. For while the action sent the heat of her passion surging through her veins like a powerful drug, her mind protested the lack of any emotional sensitivity in Sonny which would legitimize his graphic lovemaking.
But Sonny’s kiss erased the protest Lissa’s mind was trying to make. Lissa could only submit as his lips devoured hers and his tongue probed the secrets of her mouth with urgent possessiveness.
There was no question where the lovemaking would have ended if Jay hadn’t rapped on her door and called out, “Get a move on, babe! You know Danny doesn’t like to wait.”
Sonny went still and opened his eyes. As he looked at the heavy black makeup around Lissa’s closed lids, the lavender wig, and the purple lipstick that was now smudged around her mouth, he felt as though he were coming out of a dream ... a nightmare perhaps. His body was still throbbing with a need he couldn’t quickly control, but the rest of him was appalled that he had been making violent love to a woman who was about to pay off this Danny with her body. How many other men had she responded to as wholeheartedly as she’d just responded to his own lovemaking?
Sonny let Lissa go so abruptly, she stumbled backward before catching her balance. And as she straightened, now staring up at him with a dazed look in her large violet eyes, he quickly turned away so as not to be caught again in the trap of that deceptive innocence and vulnerability she could adopt so readily.
He left the dressing room without another word, failing to remember that Frank Mathers was still waiting for him until he was two blocks aw
ay from the club. Then, uttering a sharp curse, he reluctantly retraced his steps, only to find that Frank had somehow managed to snag himself a date with a cocktail waitress while Sonny had been gone. Relieved, Sonny said a quick good night and this time caught a cab at the club’s entrance to take him back to his hotel where he would spend the rest of the night trying to make sense out of what had happened between him and a woman he now wanted no part of.
Meanwhile, Lissa, after numbly going through the motions of removing her makeup and wig and dressing in street clothes, then joining the rest of the Foursome for the ride back to their hotel, lay in her hotel room bed vainly trying to blank her mind against remembering what Dr. Sonny Strotherton’s lovemaking had aroused in her.
Toward dawn, she finally found some peace by concentrating on the fact that regardless of what had happened, it was now over. And if the look on Sonny Strotherton’s face when he’d pushed her away from him was any indication, he would never seek her out after one of the Freaky Foursome’s appearances again.
The only worry that still prevented her from obtaining the rest her body needed was that there was a small chance she would meet Sonny again when she was at last a member of the Boston medical community. But that was so far in the future, if it should occur at all, that Sonny would no doubt be married by then. Lissa had managed to dismiss her worries by the time she had to get up and meet the group for the trip back to Boston.
Only Jay commented on her red-rimmed eyes and general air of exhaustion when they met in the hotel lobby that morning.
“Been up hitting the medical books all night?” he inquired lightly as he raised her chin to peer at her face with amused interest.
Lissa pulled her chin out of his grip and shook her head without meeting his eyes. “I just hate staying in hotels,” she said sourly, which wasn’t really a lie. She did sleep badly on the road.
Jay grimaced and left her alone then, and Lissa determinedly turned her thoughts toward the comforts of home, with an occasional fervent detour toward the hope that Darla Simmons would rescue her soon from a life she was finding even more difficult to tolerate than usual.
Chapter Five
In the middle of the dream he was having, just at the point where he was about to make passionate love to the Vixen, Sonny abruptly came awake, feeling both astonished and confused by the betrayal of his subconscious.
“What the hell?” he muttered groggily. And though it certainly was not the first time in his life he’d had a sexual dream, this time he felt almost embarrassed over it.
Sonny got up, went to the bathroom, drank a glass of water, stared disgruntledly at his stubbled face in the mirror and tried to think logically about what his subconscious was trying to tell him.
“Just because she’s not the type of woman I would want as a mate when awake and in full possession of my faculties, it doesn’t mean she isn’t harmless fantasy material,” he muttered to himself as he set the empty glass down on the cabinet and retraced his steps back to bed.
Youve had enough psychology courses to know that fantasies have no bearing on what a person wants in reality, man, he addressed himself with stubborn perseverance as he lay staring up at the dark ceiling. And maybe you’re hitting male menopause a few years early, he added with self-mocking humor. Or, since you never kicked over the traces when you were younger, maybe you’re going through a stage of delayed adolescence instead of male menopause.
He was wide awake now and unable to get back to sleep, much to his disgust. He’d learned long ago the value to a physician of snatching uninterrupted rest when the opportunity presented itself. But since sleep was impossible for the time being, Sonny continued to mull over his present attachment, even if the attachment was only subconscious, to a woman who was totally outside his experience.
Sonny knew his daughter, and perhaps other people as well, considered him a complete square . . and with good reason. He couldn’t remember a time growing up when he’d felt the need to rebel seriously against the authority of his parents. Instead, knowing at a young age that he wanted to be a physician, he had concentrated intensely on his studies, though he did go out for football, baseball, and basketball and had been reasonably competent at all three sports.
He had also dated as much as his peers, and though he hadn’t come out of high school a virgin, neither had he dedicated himself to scoring with every girl he took out, as most of his male friends seemed to have done, and some still did. Frank Mathers, for example, though in his mid-thirties, still seemed stuck in that frenzied adolescent quest for ever new and better sexual partners.
College hadn’t been that much different. He had met Caroline, a doctor’s daughter who understood his goals, during his junior year at Harvard, and they had gone steady until graduation, then married before Sonny entered medical school. Since Sonny had genuinely loved and respected Caroline and their relationship had been reasonably fulfilling, it had never entered his head to cheat on her, in spite of the opportunities that steadily came his way. But even if he and his wife hadn’t been so compatible, he doubted he would have sought excitement elsewhere. It just wasn’t his style. It wasn’t honorable.
His style and his honor hadn’t changed much since losing his wife and growing older either, though his long-term celibacy was beginning to take its toll. He was going to take his vacation in the Caribbean soon, without Maggie, and with every intention of doing something about easing his problem.
So maybe simple physical need had contributed to his making mad, passionate love to a violet-eyed harpy in his sleep, but it didn’t exactly explain why his subconscious had chosen such an unsuitable companion . . . unless that kiss he and the Vixen had exchanged had gotten to him more than he’d realized.
Frowning, Sonny mentally relived his previous encounters with the Vixen, ending with a recapitulation of the kiss in her dressing room and the memory of it had stirred him again.
“Okay,” he muttered irritably to himself. “So there’s something about her that calls to the animal in you. So what? You can’t help your dreams, damn it, so stop stewing over them and let your subconscious do whatever the hell it likes!”
With that conclusion, Sonny pounded his pillow with a fist, settled himself comfortably, and finally managed to sleep again. He was somewhat sheepishly relieved, however, when upon waking the next morning, he couldn’t remember any more dreams.
The ringing of the telephone brought Elizabeth groggily awake, and she fumbled the receiver off the hook and muttered a sleepy, “Hello.” “Miss Farrell? Lissa?” a vaguely familiar feminine voice came over the line.
“Mmm.” Elizabeth made a confirming noise.
“This is Darla Simmons,” the voice replied.
Elizabeth was blank for a moment, then abruptly opened her eyes as her mind settled on who Darla Simmons was and what she might mean to Elizabeth’s future.
“Darla!” she exclaimed as she pushed herself upright into a sitting position. “How are you?”
“Not so good,” Darla replied in a dryly weary tone. “Is your offer about the singing job still open?”
Elizabeth’s heart abruptly leapt with excited joy, but something in Darla’s voice made her answer carefully.
“Of course, it’s open,” she said with only a trace of the eagerness she was feeling, “but is there something wrong, Darla? You sound terrible.”
“Oh, it’s just that . . . But never mind,” Darla said heavily. “It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with.”
“Maybe not,” Elizabeth answered gently, “but I’m willing to listen if you need to talk.”
Darla hesitated, then said, with a shrug in her voice, “Well, I guess it’s only fair that you know why I’m accepting your offer. I’m doing it for the money, Lissa. My mother’s ill. She needs an operation, and she doesn’t have any medical insurance. Besides, there’s some controversy over whether the operation is necessary. So she needs my help.”
“Oh, Darla, I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said sincerely
. Then, unable to suppress her medical curiosity, she asked, “What’s wrong with her, Darla? And who’s treating her?”
“She has fibroid tumors in her uterus,” Darla explained. “They’re benign, but they’re causing her a great deal of pain and bleeding.” “Then there shouldn’t be any doubt that she needs the operation,” Elizabeth commented.
“You wouldn’t think so, but my mother is caught between one doctor who says she should have it and another who says she doesn’t need it that there’s no way she can get approved for financial help, and aside from the physical pain, she’s emotionally upset. She doesn’t know who to believe.”
Elizabeth grimaced. “It sounds like she needs a third opinion,” she suggested.
“Fat chance,” Darla sighed. “She can’t afford it.”
“Where is your mother, Darla?” Elizabeth asked thoughtfully. “Wichita, Kansas,” Darla answered.
“Well, I’ve got contacts in the medical community, remember?” Elizabeth said in a soothing tone. “Let me see if I can find the name of a good gynecologist in Wichita who will be willing to wait for the money.”
“Would you really do that?” Darla asked hopefully. “I mean, I’d really appreciate it, but I don’t want you to have to go to a lot of trouble for someone you don’t even know.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Elizabeth said with cheerful firmness. She would have done the same for anyone, but it especially delighted her to be able to help Darla, who was the answer to a prayer. “Now,” she added, changing the subject, “where are you, and how soon can you come to Boston?”
“I’m in New York City,” Darla said, sounding relieved. “And I can be in Boston this afternoon.”