Billie was much more tense than Alexei, whose big powerful frame was comparatively relaxed against hers. 'Without?'
'We should have gone back to my room. What part of your cycle are you in?'
Embarrassed by the enquiry and rigid with apprehension, Billie had to think and then they had to count, a pastime that Billie was much better at than Alexei, whose unusually slow mental arithmetic only reminded her that he was very far from being sober. Although she was in the second half of her cycle, he decided that there wasn't much to worry about. Billie was, however, less sanguine, momentarily picturing the horror of conceiving a child by a male who revelled in his freedom and who wouldn't want an illegitimate kid or its mother.
Claiming a hot, driving kiss, Alexei coaxed her out of that pensive mood. He shifted against her, cupping her hips to bring her into contact again with his renewed arousal. Billie was startled, not having realised that he might be ready again so quickly or even that he might want to repeat the experience. 'It was so good I can't wait to do it again,' Alexei told her raggedly, his hands straying to more sensitive places to lessen any reluctance she might be suffering from.
Billie was astonished by how fast he could make her want him again even when she was a little sore. She melted below his urgent kisses. He put her in a different position on her side and made love to her slowly and provocatively, driving her to an even more earth-shattering climax the second time.
'This is crazy,' he acknowledged lazily in the aftermath. 'I'll have to go and get some condoms. I don't want to get you pregnant.'
'We're being very irresponsible,' Billie agreed breathlessly, so limp, weak and mindless after that last wave of pleasure that she could barely speak.
'That's what I like about you, khriso mou,' Alexei husked, brushing aside the dark red damp hair at the nape of her neck to kiss the tender skin there. 'You bring out another side of me, an irresponsible side. I'm different with you.'
The mattress gave as he slid out of bed and she flipped over with anxious eyes. 'Where are you going?'
'The shower, then to my room to take care of the contraception.'
For a couple of minutes, Billie lay on the bed as though she were welded to it. Shock was sinking in fast and filling her with apprehension and doubts. Although she had sworn that she would never be foolish enough to sleep with Alexei, she had just done so. In fact she had taken part in a shameless sexual romp that was indefensible for, while she might love him, he did not love her. What price now her long-held secret belief that she was somehow morally superior in her restraint to her mother? That she was different? More sensible, more steady? Shame drenched her in a tide of drowning regret. As far as Alexei was concerned now, she would just figure as one more in a long line of willing bed partners…
'Billie?' Alexei called, startling her.
'What?'
'Come and join me,' Alexei urged impatiently.
In the shower? In no immediate hurry to extend her sexual education, Billie slid uneasily off the bed and padded into the en suite, snatching up a towel from the doorway and holding it against herself.
'Drop the towel,' Alexei exclaimed, making her jump as he rammed back the glass door to survey her with a raised brow of enquiry.
Her heart was beating frantically fast as her fingers released the towel and he smiled, a slow burning smile that turned her heart inside out. Later she had no recollection of moving forward to join him in that glass cubicle. He soaked her hair and ran the soap over her voluptuous figure with lascivious thoroughness. As he teased her she became less self-conscious and was still giggling when she watched him pull on trousers over his boxers.
Alexei extended a lazy hand. 'Want to come with me? We could spend the rest of the night in my room.'
Thinking of all the women he had entertained there and the household staff who would soon register her presence in their employer's bedroom, Billie shook her head, her amusement killed stone dead in its tracks. It would be like announcing their intimacy and the news would go round the island faster than the speed of light. Lauren would smirk at her as if she had known all along that her daughter was a fool. 'I'll wait here for you.'
'Lazybones,' Alexei mocked, tugging on his shirt and thrusting his feet into his shoes.
Bare-chested, his hair spiky from the shower and with a heavy growth of black stubble on his handsome face, Alexei resembled a very sexy pirate. Her heart pounded as hard as if she were running a marathon. The instant he stepped out of the bedroom into the adjoining reception room that formed part of the guest suite she was gripped by a strong sense of loss. Soon it would be dawn, soon the night would be over—would what they had just shared die along with the night hours? Filled with dismay by that enervating suspicion, Billie scrambled out of bed, pulled on her wrap and went after him.
As she left the bedroom she heard Alexei vent a startled curse in Greek and then there was a noise she didn't recognise, followed by silence. She hurried to the door that opened out onto the pool area and stared in horror at the sight of Alexei lying flat on the concrete, apparently having fallen down several steps. Her handbag lay on its side just outside the door. Oh, dear heaven, he had tripped over it!
'Alexei! Alexei?' she cried, kneeling down beside him and registering that he was unconscious.