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 pensiv
