the apartment and was perplexed to find it stripped of everything she owned. Where was her stuff? It meant she couldn’t change out of the jeans she had gone home in, even had she wanted to.
And why would she want to? she asked herself irritably. Pleasing Xan by wearing the clothes he had bought for her shouldn’t be on her to-do list. In fact the sooner he got tired of her, she told herself, the better it would be for both of them. A trip to Greece in his company wasn’t likely to change anything between them and they had nothing whatsoever in common beyond the fact that they had both been born human.
SHORTLY AFTER NINE, Elvi was wafted away from the apartment to Xan’s penthouse.
There was nothing comfortable about that experience, primarily because Xan wasn’t at the penthouse to greet her. Dmitri informed her with positive cheerfulness that his employer was attending a bankers’ dinner at a private club, and left her to wander alone around the most amazing living space Elvi had ever seen.
It astonished her that here was only one massive bedroom, because her mother had never mentioned that fact, or that there was a gym. Of course, he had to make the effort to keep fit when he was in a desk job, she reasoned while a flood of spontaneous images of Xan’s lean, muscular physique filled her memory to overflowing. Her face burned up and she registered that she had changed, he had changed her, whether she liked it or not.
The living area was all space and contemporary furniture, the bedroom simply empty by comparison until she peeked into the closets her mother had mentioned and discovered the marvels of Xan’s need to classify everything into a category, and it made her wonder why he was that way. Her clothing was also to be discovered in a closet, but it hadn’t been colour-coded. There was only one en-suite bathroom, and it contained a magnificent sunken bath that called to Elvi much like a siren’s song after the day she had endured. Evidently Xan enjoyed a puritanical bathing experience because there were no perfumed lotions and nothing that made bubbles, but she sank into the warm depths of the water regardless, only then appreciating how very tired she was.
All that fretting about her first experience of sex had taken it out of her, not to mention the awkward aftermath when Xan had treated her much like a stranger to whom he had to be polite, she reflected wearily. In a minute she would get out of the bath and climb into the only bed available.
* * *
Taking his security team by surprise, Xan left the official dinner early. It felt very odd to him to picture someone waiting for him at the penthouse and he suppressed the observation, exasperated by the unusual thoughts interfering with his normally disciplined state of mind. He stalked into his bedroom, spotted a little pile of clothes on the floor and frowned. Well, she was here but where?
He walked round the entire apartment before deciding that she had to be in the bathroom and only then noticed that the door was slightly ajar. He pushed it quietly wide and saw her fast asleep in his bath and sunk low enough in the water for it to be dangerous. Jawline clenching, he reached for a large towel before reaching for her. She wakened, startled and apparently stricken to find herself in his arms, bright blue eyes filled with alarm. ‘What? Where?’ she framed in dismay.
‘You fell asleep,’ he told her as her torrent of hair dripped everywhere as if she were a mermaid dragged suddenly from the sea.
‘What are you doing with me?’
‘I was putting you in bed—’
‘But I can’t go to bed with wet hair!’ she gasped.
Mouth compressing, Xan set her down again. ‘Just wrap it in a towel and go to bed,’ he urged.
‘Have you any idea what it would look like in the morning if I did that?’ Elvi exclaimed in receipt of that ill-advised male suggestion.
‘Does it matter?’ Xan traded from the doorway.
Elvi huffed and knotted the overly large towel round her ribcage to prevent it from falling and exposing her even more. Having found her naked in the bath, he had already seen it all anyway, she reminded herself ruefully. She dug into her toiletries bag for a comb and met his brilliant dark eyes in the mirror. ‘I’ll dry it,’ she muttered unevenly, disconcerted by the reality that he was still standing there.
‘Don’t fall asleep in the bath again. It’s dangerous—’
‘I’m not elderly or infirm. First taste of water I got would’ve wakened me!’ Elvi told him with spirit. ‘Tell me, do you always imagine the worst possible consequences from every event?’
‘Pretty much.’ Xan was studying her, noting the porcelain fairness of her skin below the lights, remembering how soft she had felt under him, the little sounds she had made, the dreamy look on her face when she climaxed. Hunger throbbed through him like a powerful drug, seriously disturbing him.
‘Thought so,’ Elvi confided cheerfully, finished combing and reaching for the dryer on the wall.
‘There’s something we have to discuss,’ Xan told her tautly then.
‘And what’s that?’ Elvi pressed, her hand falling back from the dryer.
‘I failed to use a condom with you today—’
‘What?’ Elvi gasped in disbelief as she twisted around to look directly at him, heavy wet strands of hair snaking across her bare shoulders. ‘You mean...we had unprotected sex?’
Lean, strong features set hard, Xan jerked his chin in confirmation.
‘Are you crazy?’ Elvi framed in horror. ‘Why didn’t you—?’
‘I lost control... I forgot. I made a mistake. It’s that simple,’ Xan interposed in a tone of curt finality. ‘Obviously I’m furious with myself, but I have regular health checks and there is no danger of—’
‘But what if you’ve got me pregnant?’ Elvi interrupted, her anxiety on that score overpowering her usual need to avoid any kind of intimate discussion.
‘I think there is very little danger of that after one sexual encounter,’ Xan informed her with impressive confidence, and some of her tension drained away because his unwavering assurance did have a soothing effect on her. ‘It’s most unlikely. I apologise, though, for causing the scare.’
‘No, I should’ve thought about the risk too,’ Elvi muttered uncomfortably, striving to be reasonable. ‘I should’ve checked but I didn’t even think about that...er...aspect.’
In the bedroom, Xan undressed for a shower, automatically putting everything in its designated space. Busy drying her mane of hair, Elvi didn’t appear to notice him entering or leaving the shower and he slid into bed first, achingly aroused and knowing there was no possibility of relief. With a groan he turned over and punched a pillow, catching sight of her rustling through a drawer, emptying half of it in pursuit of what she wanted and then piling what remained back in and actually forcing the drawer closed on it. He tried to imagine living with that kind of disorder and almost shuddered, while covertly watching below his cloaking lashes as she crossed the room clad in the pyjamas from hell, which covered her from head and toe. She switched out the light on the far side of the bed and clambered in.
The bedding smelt vaguely of Xan, Elvi conceded sleepily, and it was an oddly comforting scent. She refused to lie awake fretting about the possibility of an unplanned pregnancy, dimly deciding that Xan probably knew the odds better than her. If it happened, that would be time enough to worry, she told herself. There was no advantage to agonising in advance, and in any case she would have the confirmation one way or another within a very short time.
He had given her something more to think about than the reality that she was sharing a bed with a man for the first time ever overnight, while she hoped he had got the message via the pyjamas that she was unavailable for anything more entertaining than sleep. Of course