Doctor Sabrina DeLane gently rested the back of her hand on a feverish brow.  She moved it to an equally warm neck and shook her head.  

With an ease borne of years of practice, she grasped her patient's wrist within her fingers and felt for a pulse.  As she counted the rhythmic beats against the second hand of her watch, it was easy for anyone to see that this came naturally to her.

"Well?"

Sabrina gently lowered the wrist she held.  Her face was somber and she sighed deeply.  "You are one horny bitch."

"Sabrina!" the other women assembled around the table cried.

"What?"  Her wide-eyed look of innocence left them all laughing.  "There's not a woman here who doesn't qualify as well."

Dara jerked her wrist from Sabrina's grasp.  "I'm not *horny*," she delicately uttered the word.  "Just because I miss my man doesn't mean-"

"She's right, Dara," Faith agreed.  "Why deny it?"  She hastened to qualify her assertion.  "About all of us, I mean.  Hadn't you noticed that everything we said took our minds to the gutter?"

Keesha sat quietly and tried to remain in the background.  Being in the company of the four older women was daunting enough.  But after several drinks and a loosening of inhibitions, Keesha was, well, in shock.  There was no topic considered taboo among them.  She didn't know if she was ready for that kind of openness.  Not yet.

"I think we've overwhelmed our guest," Ellen observed.  She noted Keesha's dazed expression and was a little amused.

Sabrina gave a sly smile.  "Keesha just needs some time to adjust."

"Well," Dara said, ever the fair-minded one, "our conversation has gotten a little spicy."

Sabrina caught Keesha's eye.  "I'm sure it's nothing she hasn't heard before.  Or done, if those cries emanating from my nephew's suite are any indicator."

Keesha's gasp could be heard across the restaurant.  Four sets of guards turned toward the table of women before relaxing and returning to their careful observation of the restaurant.

"I want to die," Keesha mumbled, dropping her head in embarrassment.

 Sabrina, Faith and Ellen all looked at each other before bursting into raucous laughter.  Keesha's head flew up and she stared at them in confusion.  Faith said between laughs, "Sabrina was just baiting you.  And you fell for it."

 Keesha knew that she was out of her league with the four women surrounding her.  Nonetheless, she felt honored to be included in their midst.

 "You've got a Cassadine man, Keesha," Faith smiled a secretive little smile.  "Getting a little noisy is part of the package."

 "Ooh, you go gurl!" Ellen and Sabrina hooted.

  "And Dara's a singer.  So you know she must cut loose when things get a little...heated with her guy," Sabrina teased.

 Dara made a face.  "Well, you're just nasty.  So I know your man must have to stuff something in your mouth, Sabrina."

 "Why yes, he does..." Her comment sent the women once more into gales of laughter.

 As one the guards rose from their posts.  A handsome, exquisitely tailored gentleman strode quietly up to the table where the women sat still engaged in their discussion.  For a moment he simply stood and appreciated the abundance of beauty there before him.  "Sabrina," he said, bringing the conversation at the table to a complete stop.

 He was used to such a thing happening.  But this felt different.  Why, he wondered, did he get the feeling that his ears should be burning?

 "Good evening, Ladies," he intoned, nodding at their greetings.  "Sabrina, should I wait for you?"

 "No, dearest," she struggled to keep a straight face.  "I'm going to stay here a while longer.  Girl talk, you know."

 The bemused man nodded and turned to walk away.  As he moved out of hearing distance, the sound of their laughter rang once more through the room.  He shook his head.  "Be afraid," he murmured, thinking of the other men associated with the assemblage of women behind him.  "Be very afraid."