Night Whispers - Leslie Kelly [61]
“SINCE IT’S MY SHOW,” she continued, “I get to go first, all right? And a little later, I’ll open up the phones to you, my faithful listeners.”
Kelsey and Brian had already decided that these calls would need to be screened very carefully. She didn’t want the FCC sanctioning her show because some caller went over the top.
“First of all, I fantasize about being carried. I don’t mean carried away, as in dazzled with romantic gestures, although that would be nice, too. I mean, physically carried. I am all for equal rights, but just once, I want a man to demonstrate that he’s bigger and stronger than I am, sweep me off my feet and carry me away. Of course, it has to be the right man—and the right moment.”
Brian made a gesture from the other side of the booth, then simulated a man wearing nothing but a towel. Kelsey grinned a secretive grin, remembering how Mitch had carried her Saturday night, first to the car, and later straight up the basement stairs into ecstasy.
“In one of my fantasies, this strong man sweeps me in his arms and carries me out of a torrential storm. He kisses me with every step, rain sliding down our faces to our mouths, and his sopping hair brushing my cheek,” she murmured, closing her eyes as the fantasy filled her mind. “The wind drives us toward shelter, and lightning fills the dark sky while thunder crashes all around us. When we reach a secluded cabin, he ever so gently pulls my wet clothing off my quivering body and draws me down to the floor where he warms me with his naked flesh.”
Kelsey drew in a deep breath, silently urging her listeners to stick with her, then slowly released it.
“Gee, it’s a little warm in here tonight,” she said with a throaty laugh. “I think we’ll take a short break and when we come back, I want to hear from you. Call me. Tell me your fantasies. Ladies, listen to our male callers, and gentlemen, perhaps you can get some ideas of what your women want. Don’t leave me now. This is Lady Love on WAJO and I’ll be back in a moment.”
MITCH REMAINED in his living room during the entire show. He refilled his drink once, during a commercial, and turned down the thermostat a little as the room continued to feel warmer and warmer. His eyes growing heavy in the dark, he closed them and lay back to listen to Kelsey.
Her callers were inventive, amusing, some a little silly. Kelsey handled them all with grace and good humor, encouraging and rewarding their creativity but quick to interrupt any caller who tried to get too graphic, or the ones who tried to invent fantasies involving Lady Love. He had to admit she was good at her job. Very good. Throughout the show, Kelsey never lost control. Those who didn’t know Lady Love might think she was just enjoying herself, letting the conversation take her where it might, but Mitch knew her better. He recognized the deliberate pauses, the breathy sighs. Kelsey was polished and professional and seductive as hell.
She read a passage from Lady Chatterley’s Lover, her voice lovingly caressing the torrid words. And then she played a torchy Tina Turner song about a dancer for hire. The two shouldn’t have gone together, but somehow they did.
A lonely-sounding man talked about how much he fantasized meeting someone like his mother, then another spoke of female cops in bikinis. Kelsey helped one woman build on a scenario involving a closed theme park and a certain superhero character, and Mitch laughed until tears came out of his eyes at the story they concocted.
But her own fantasies held him utterly enthralled. She liked strawberries and chocolate. He hadn’t known that about her. She wanted to wake up on a bed of flower petals.