Page 54 of You Belong to Me
He reared up on his elbow so quickly, it was obvious he’d been about to make some provocative statement of his own. She was relieved to know she’d beaten him to it. He wasn’t.
“Am I also supposed to forget you were a virgin?” he demanded.
“Yes.”
An impossibility if he’d ever heard one. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me, Alex? Whatever you might think of me, I am not in the habit of bedding virgins. In fact, I never have, and I don’t appreciate your happening to be the first.”
That statement came out sounding so indignant, she nearly laughed. As redeeming qualities went, this one she considered minuscule, but wished to hell he didn’t have it at all. He shouldn’t care, dammit.
“Why didn’t I tell you? Why did I have to?” she countered. “What made you assume otherwise when I’ve never been married?”
“You’re Russian,” he said without thinking, but realized his mistake immediately. If that wasn’t an insult to get himself shot over, he didn’t know what was, and he quickly amended his words. “That is to say, I’ve been to your Russian court. I found out firsthand how promiscuous you ladies are, including the unwed ones. If there was a virgin there, she was kept well under wraps.”
“Or hidden from you for obvious reasons,” she replied dryly.
Alexandra wished she could be more offended than she was, but in fact, she’d been to the same court and knew just how jaded and licentious some of the aristocrats were.Hiskind of people. He must have felt right at home.
“But of course,” she continued in the samedry tone, “I so reminded you of those court ladies you met, what else were you to think?”
Even in the dim light, she could see the color mounting his cheeks, because he’d just realized his mistake, and it was so obvious an idiot could have seen it. She might carry the title, but when had she ever behaved like a lady or, for that matter, even looked like one?
He didn’t apologize, however. She would have been amazed if he had.
“As I recall,” he said, “you had your chance to correct that impression.”
She remembered the time he was referring to, when he’d asked her what one more lover could mean to her, since she’d already had so many. She also recalled why she hadn’t corrected him. Impressions. She’d wanted all of his impressions of her to be bad, and that was just one more to add to the list. But to be called on the carpet for it now? She certainly didn’t want him thinking that if he’d been wrong about one, he might be wrong about others.
So she said, indifferently, “Why would I bother correcting you? It’s not as if I care what you think of me.” And then to be on the safe side, she lied to put the fault back in his corner. “Besides, I didn’t think youreallybelieved that nonsense about my having lovers.”
She might as well have said that no one could be that stupid. Which was exactly how he was feeling. He’d labeled her before he’d even met her, then forgot to change that opinion once he did meet her. Of course, the label fit now, didn’t it? Thanks to him. And he still didn’t like that fact.
But she wasn’t giving him much chance to express his displeasure, and she went on the attack again. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask, Petroff. What is it you do, besides seduce women?”
The fact that he’d managed to give her such a low opinion of him should have delighted him. So why did he feel like defending himself? He wouldn’t. He would use her own logic, and he told himself that it wasn’t as if he cared what she thought of him.
So he retaliated instead. “I get invited to share their beds without asking for the favor. Care to explain whyyoumade that offer?”
“Not for the reason you’re thinking, you conceited popinjay,” she retorted.
He took it as a good sign that she was resorting to name-calling—though he resented “popinjay” as much as he had resented Tanya’s calling him a peacock. But if she had no answer—that she was willing to own up to—then he hadhisanswer, and he wasn’t going to let her avoid it.
“Well?” he prompted.
“You know exactly why. So stop looking for ulterior motives. There were none.”
“Weren’t there?”
She glared at him now, but just as quickly she shrugged, then sighed. “I was trying to spare you, but if you want it spelled out, by all means you can have it. This kind of cold isnothing to take lightly. People have been known to die from exposure to temperatures like these, and I’m sorry, but you don’t strike me as a hardy individual. Your body seems strong enough, but you court dandies are too used to being pampered by your servants and your luxuries. And dying isn’t how I want to get rid of you.”
That wasnotwhat he was expecting to hear, and it infuriated him that she had a legitimate excuse that sounded too true to be anything but the truth. A pampered court dandy? She’d said it once too often.
“I should have let them have you,” he growled as he got up and stalked to the oven, where his clothes were drying. “I can’t imagine why I didn’t.”
Alexandra sat up to watch him yank his pants on. The sight of those long legs and firm buttocks before they were covered held her breathless for a moment. And for her to be caught like that again, after what had happened, was galling in the extreme.
So the disgust in her voice was very real, if just for herself, when she said, “Don’t worry, Petroff. It will take more than your blundering into a bunch of bandits and getting caught yourself for me to see you in a heroic light. You’re still a despicable lecher as far as I’m concerned.”
He turned to give her a mock bow. “How good of you to say so.”
