Innocent in the Ivory Tower by Lucy Ellis

hair, completely unselfconscious about his nudity.
    Maisy focussed her eyes on a spot across the room and repeated, ‘I need my dress.’
    ‘I heard you.’ He casually wrapped the towel around his lean hips and knotted it. ‘It’s safe to look,
dushka
. Although I’ve got no idea what’s spooked you, Maisy. It’s not as if you haven’t been introduced.’
    She wanted to hit him.
    That did it.
    Maisy stepped up to him and for a moment she fancied he actually looked expectant—as if she was going to launch herself into his arms after everything he had said and done.
    Bastard.
She slapped him as hard as she could across his face. His head jarred slightly to the right and then slowly came around again to stare down at her. Maisy took a backward step.
    He brought a hand slowly up to his jaw and rubbed. ‘Feel better?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘I’ll get your dress.’
    It was all over. She could still feel where he had been inside her and yet it was over, Maisy registered. She couldn’t believe she had hit him. He was cold, arrogant, self-centered, and she was … on the premises and … happy to oblige.
    That was how it was, wasn’t it?
    Yet as the seconds turned into minutes she began to lose her ground. Maria would be with Kostya, as she was every morning. The realisation had stolen up on her even before she’d walked in here, and now it bloomed with full force. She had overreacted. She had been lying in that bed, suddenly feeling alone and self-conscious, terrified of what was to come, what this sudden new intimacy meant, and she had run away rather than face it. Somehow she had convinced herself that if the sexstopped he wouldn’t want her in the bed, and she’d felt too raw to face that so she had jumped out. He might be angry with her now, but that didn’t mean everything was over before it began.
    Alexei had reacted appallingly, but at least he was fetching her dress. Dan hadn’t even given her the taxi fare home.
    A soft gust of bittersweet amusement at her overreaction made her drop her head. She was hopeless at all this men stuff, but she would get better.
    His arms came around her from behind and she was drawn up into a bear hug that turned her insides to mush. ‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered against her ear.
    Maisy turned and burrowed deep into him and hung on. Relief made her limp.
    Alexei rested his chin on the top of her warm head and released a deep sigh. ‘Go and see Kostya.’
    It was, she recognised, a magnanimous gesture. He wasn’t used to making room for other people in his life, yet here he was making space for Kostya, putting his needs first. Maybe accommodating
her
a little.
    I’m being considerate
, thought Alexei, enjoying the results of a clinging Maisy.
I’m attuned to her feelings
. Wasn’t that the current jargon? But something in him regretted having hurt her.
    Maisy reacted predictably for once, turning up her face to be kissed and reassured. He knew the drill. But there was no kiss. That little crease was back between her brows.
    ‘What am I going to tell Maria if she asks where I’ve been?’
    Maria? Who cared about the housekeeper? ‘My sex life is not Maria’s business.’
    The little crease deepened. ‘Not you—me.’
    ‘Maisy, I chased you down to Ravello yesterday. I had dinner with you on the rooftop. Everybody knows.’
    She blushed.
    She blushed—after two hours of lying naked under him and over him.
    But there were certain things she didn’t do, he registered,and when he led her in some directions she did not come with him. It hadn’t mattered—he’d been so caught up in the sheer impact of being with her.
    It was unlikely, but he had to ask.
    ‘Maisy, were you a virgin?’
    ‘I can’t believe you asked me that.’ She tried to wriggle out of his arms, but suddenly Alexei could think of no better way to spend the next five minutes than drilling Maisy for some personal information.
    Women usually spilled their guts on the first encounter—gave him well-edited