Night Whispers - Leslie Kelly [19]
Kelsey closed her eyes as she whispered to Mitch. She knew Amanda was straining to hear what was said, and dropped her voice even lower. “There are nights when I want to cry at the beauty of the sensation. It seems a shame to have such an erotic experience when I’m totally…alone.”
Mitch had been leaning closer and closer as Kelsey spoke, wanting to catch every word. The images she evoked mesmerized him. He couldn’t have moved if someone told him his pants were on fire. All he could do was stand, helpless, woven in the seductive spell of her whisper.
“Well, have a wonderful evening, you two,” Kelsey said loudly. “It was lovely meeting you, Amanda.”
Mitch watched the bounce of her shining hair, and the swish of her robe as Kelsey moved to the door for her grand exit. Suddenly he realized her every word had been calculated to drive him wild. Little brat!
Even as he tried to push the seductive images from his mind, Mitch acknowledged what a great performance she’d delivered. Kelsey Logan had always been a heck of a performer. Unable to resist, Mitch brought his hands up and slowly began to applaud.
Kelsey had her hand on the knob when she heard Mitch clap. Glancing over her shoulder uncertainly, she caught Amanda’s gaze. The blonde laughed nervously. Kelsey wished the floor could open up and swallow her whole.
Rushing out the door, she hurried upstairs to her apartment, cursing Mitch and his friend every step of the way. They were laughing at her. Well, she figured, she probably deserved it. What a fool she’d been! Slamming her door behind her, she leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.
It had been all she could do to present a careless facade and walk away from Mitch, when what she’d really wanted to do was touch him with her hands the way she touched him with her words. Intimately. Seductively. Erotically.
“This is crazy,” she said aloud.
And it was crazy. Her joke had backfired. Even if her seductive words had affected Mitch, it couldn’t compare with what uttering them had cost her. All she could picture were Mitch’s strong hands, his beautiful mouth and his firm, lean body. She felt achy and hot, and parts of her body tingled with anticipation she knew was not going to be fulfilled.
“Cool it, Kelsey,” she muttered, shrugging off her robe as she started running her bath. She’d stopped fantasizing about Mitch years ago. It had been bad enough when she was fifteen and he was off at college and she’d imagined him putting his arm around her, or, heavens above, actually kissing her! Now that she was an adult, she knew exactly why her body tingled and ached and why she felt warm in her most feminine places. She couldn’t allow herself to have those types of dreams about Mitch. Because if she did, she might never be able to stop.
As she lay in the huge bubble-filled tub, Kelsey tried hard to shake off the erotic images dancing around her brain. When she closed her eyes, she could practically see Mitch’s hands reaching to stroke her beneath the silky water. She could nearly feel his lips trailing kisses on her throat. She could imagine her fingers dancing over his supple chest, curling in the dark crisp hairs, teasing him and urging him on.
She tried naming the fifty states, tried reciting the Gettysburg Address, but nothing would drive Mitch out of her head.
Finally, she just stopped trying and gave in to an absolutely delicious fantasy. By the time she got out of the tub it was very late, her body was all pruney and the water was chilled. But when she caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror, Kelsey wasn’t a bit surprised to see the smile lingering on her lips.
4
“TO MITCH WYMORE, who’s successfully escaped a nine-to-five job. It’s good to have you back, buddy.”
Mitch smiled at his old college friend, Paul, who’d just made the toast, and raised his own glass. “Thanks, man,” he said, then sipped his beer.
They sat in a crowded, trendy little bar near the harbor. It was a yuppie place, with lots of ferns, round unscarred tables