He’s watching me steadily, a glint of amusement in his deep blue eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so methodically stripped in my life, Charlie. Shame on you. My eyes are up here, not in my crotch.”

“That’s very disturbing.” I consider the thought. “I suppose if that were the case, we’d all walk around naked on our bottom halves.”

“Why?” he asks faintly.

“So we can see. Keep up. Your three-eyed penis wants to have a clear sight of what’s ahead.”

“What’s ahead is a short stay in a mental institution,” he advises me.

I laugh, but it sounds alarmingly dreamy as I lick my lips and look at the trail of dark hair that runs down from his belly button.

He tightens his towel. “Okay, this isn’t awkward at all. Well done, Charlie.”

His voice is heavily sarcastic, and I blink to clear my eyes of my temporary madness, relieved that he’s acting normal. Unlike me, who’s acting as if I haven’t seen a naked man in a century. I think back and wince. Actually, there might not be so much acting involved. And I’ve got a boyfriend who’s not happy about the lack of nudity time.

I dismiss the thought as I realise Misha’s still watching me intently. His eyes have darkened into a deep navy, and his gaze is steady and intense and seems to be concentrated on my abs. I swallow hard, and the nervous clicking sound in my throat seems to bring him round and put an end to our mutual insanity.

“Let’s …” He clears his throat and then gets his words back. “Let’s agree never to do this again.”

“Vote seconded and carried.”

“Aye,” we both say together.

He tilts his head slightly. “Charlie, what is that awful noise coming from your bedroom?”

“Oh, that’ll be my prisoner,” I say cheerfully. “He’s always very vocal in the mornings until I can drug him for the day ahead.”

Misha blinks. “I think I’d prefer that to the reality of the fact that there appears to be Christmas music coming from your room.”

“It’s Jona Lewie and stop whingeing,” I instruct, walking past him and heading down the corridor.

The lounge is a big room made light and airy by the original floor-to-ceiling windows and patio doors leading to a balcony that overlooks the River Thames. The building had been a spice warehouse in Victorian times, and the architects who converted the place into flats kept historical details like the wooden flooring, beams, and the warehouse windows.