Her hand hovered over the doorknob. She had excused herself and left after the silence stretched out into minutes. She had hurried out of the room, closing herself in her bedroom. She took a long hot shower and prepared for bed as turmoil churned in her stomach. She had needed to escape the frozen silence that had followed her last statement. She could hear the men quietly talking in the other room as she leaned her head against the door. She bit her lip again and gathered her courage. She didn’t want to be alone any more. She wanted to be held. She wanted to be loved. For once in her many lives, she wanted to know what it was like to be a woman. What Sergei had shown her on the metal bird had awoken something inside her. She felt hot and achy. She wanted more and if it meant asking, she wasn’t above that. She fingered the beautiful sheer white robe that covered the silk and lace gown underneath it. “You can do this,”
