Night Whispers - Leslie Kelly [21]
Kelsey bowed her head as she formed her thoughts. She always planned her topics in advance, but often her words were spontaneous.
“All are sensuous. Anything that invades our senses, anything we see or smell, touch, hear or taste, that brings us pleasure, that invigorates our soul, is sensuous.”
Kelsey paused for a moment, a purposeful hesitation. Her audience was half-hooked already. She just had to bring them home.
“Now let’s talk about sexuality,” she continued. There, that was the rest of the lure. They were listening now. She could feel it. Brian gave her a thumbs-up from his side of the glass-enclosed booth, and she continued with a soft smile.
“Some people think they mean the same thing. But they don’t. Tonight we’re going to discuss how they differ.”
Kelsey cued the music that led into a cluster of commercials.
“Stick with me. We’ll be back in a few minutes. I’ll start taking your calls later in the hour. Until then, please come back and spend some time alone with me, Lady Love, on WAJO. I’ll be waiting for you,” she said in a breathy voice.
Kelsey leaned back in her chair. Brian was mimicking applause, and she grinned back. It was going to be an interesting night.
MITCH COULDN’T SPEAK. He sat, in shock, knowing but not caring that he probably looked like an utter fool, with his mouth hanging open. Had that really been Kelsey? Of course it had. He’d recognize that voice anywhere. And she had come right out and told him she was working the ten-to-two shift. No wonder she hadn’t wanted to talk more about her job.
“She got to you, didn’t she?” Paul said with a knowing grin. “Did I tell you, or what?”
Mitch just nodded.
Around the bar, voices picked back up, and he caught snatches of conversation from other tables, most of it about Kelsey…Lady Love. There seemed to be universal approval and interest.
“Is she always like this?” Mitch finally asked.
“Uh-hmm, but it gets better. That was just her introduction.”
Mitch frowned. Glancing around at the grins of most of the male patrons, he knew Kelsey had already all but seduced half the men in the place. Exactly how far would she go on this show?
“Is this X-rated, or what?” he asked, not really knowing if he wanted the answer.
“No, man, it’s not like that. She never gets raunchy, and I guess she’s got her callers on a time delay, because none of them do, either. Sometimes people try to steer the conversation, but she never goes for that. She’s classy, but, oh, so sexy.”
Mitch should have been relieved, but he wasn’t. So what if she wasn’t exactly pornographic? She was on the radio broadcasting to thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, about intimacy and sex as if she were an expert on the subject. He hadn’t figured she was a virgin, but he’d never considered her a sex expert, either. Hell, as far as he knew, Kelsey had never even had a serious relationship.
“I’d love to see what she looks like,” Paul said, “but she could be a sixty-year-old grandmother.”
A man staggering by must have heard Paul’s comment, because he paused at their table, saying, “No, I heard she’s a babe. A friend of mine parked outside the radio station one night and watched her come out. He says she’s as hot as she sounds.”
Oh, great. As Mitch had feared, Kelsey’s show attracted psychos who were lying in wait for her outside the station in the middle of the night. What on earth was she thinking? Kelsey had always been free spirited, but she’d never been stupid.
The obviously drunk man leaned toward Paul and Mitch and leered. “I’m goin’ down there myself one o’ these nights. Gonna give Lady Love some real interestin’ topics…give that lady lots to talk about.”
Standing immediately, Mitch kicked his chair back and grabbed the drunk by the front of his shirt. He yanked the other man’s face toward his, smelling the reek of too many beers. “You better watch your filthy mouth.”
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,