by Lynne Graham
At that moment, Nicky gave a chuckle of satisfaction. His big brown eyes looked up to his mother for approval and she told him what a beautiful boy he was. Anatalya, having firmly placed herself in Billie’s support camp, arrived with the day’s newspapers. While the housekeeper bent down to give Nicky her attention, Billie spread the papers across the dining table.
‘You shouldn’t look at them,’ Hilary warned her in the tone of a woman who knew her advice would be ignored. ‘They twist the truth and print lies, and it upsets you.’
‘I’m not upset and I won’t get upset,’ Billie vowed, only for the blood to drain from her features while she studied the latest photo of Alexei. There was no chance that what she was looking at was a lie, she reflected wretchedly. If only it had been. With a stunning lack of discretion for a married man, Alexei was seated at a fashionable pavement café on an elegant Parisian boulevard with a very beautiful blonde companion, a woman whom Billie had never expected to see in his company any more. ‘Alexei’s meeting up with Calisto again!’ she cried strickenly before she could think better of that revealing outburst.
‘I don’t believe you,’ Hilary breathed in disbelief, only to stare in dismay at the newspaper pages that her niece spread across her lap.
‘I told you that you should have chased after him when he left the yacht,’ Lauren sniped, staring over her sister’s shoulder, unmoved by that shocking photo. It was obvious that her cynical expectations of her son-in-law had just been fully vindicated. ‘Never let an angry man go if you want him back. Left to their own devices, they get up to all sorts of mischief!’
Billie was incapable of response. Just then, looking at Calisto with Alexei in Paris and thinking of them being together, she was living her every nightmare come true. Who had contacted whom first? Who had made that crucial first move? After being disillusioned by Billie, had Alexei turned straight back to the glamorous Greek divorcee for consolation? Was he already thinking that breaking off his relationship with Calisto had been a mistake?
A smart rata-tat-tat on the rarely used front door of her home made Billie jerk in surprise. ‘Who on earth is that?’ she muttered.
‘I’ll go and see.’ Hilary was already out of her seat, keen to bury any further discussion about Alexei and Calisto Bethune in Paris. A minute later, however, Billie’s attractive blonde aunt stuck her head back round the door and asked Billie to join her.
Billie was taken aback to find a trio of men standing in her hallway. Two of them were known to her and their appearance dismayed her a good deal: Baccus Klonis, the head of Alexei’s legal team, and his second-in-command. Her face coloured with embarrassment. The third man was the doctor entrusted with the task of taking a DNA swab from the mouth of Nicky. Billie was stunned by their arrival without prior notice and the clear expectation that she would agree to the testing being carried out. While Hilary moved ahead of her to shepherd Anatalya, Lauren and the dog into the small seating area off the kitchen, Billie showed her visitors into the spacious lounge.
‘Did Alexei ask you to do this?’ she prompted tautly.
‘Naturally I’m following Mr Drakos’ instructions,’ Baccus informed her with scrupulous politeness.
Billie felt as if she had just been slapped in the face and her cheeks reddened afresh. Even though Alexei might appear to be wandering without purpose around Europe he had still contrived to consult his lawyers and it cut her even deeper to learn that he had instructed them to have their baby son DNA tested in spite of the fact that he knew that Billie was against it. A tense silence settled while Billie considered her options. Of course she could withhold her consent to the test. Possibly Alexei even expected her to refuse and he would undoubtedly consider a negative response as yet more evidence that she was lying. It might be humiliating to agree to her son being tested, Billie conceded angrily, but at least it would prove his identity. That at least would force Alexei to accept that their intimate encounter had actually happened somewhere other than in her imagination.
The doctor explained the simple procedure. Billie scooped up Nicky. A swab was taken from inside her child’s mouth. Although it was accomplished in seconds and without causing her child the slightest annoyance or discomfort, the whole scene felt unreal to Billie and very much like a nasty invasion of their privacy. Had she and Alexei truly reached such an impasse that he had to treat her like this? And communicate with her only through his legal representatives? She watched the men leave and shivered as Hilary came up behind her and squeezed her taut shoulder in a quiet gesture of support and understanding.
‘It had to be done,’ her aunt said quietly. ‘When Alexei realises that that little boy is his, everything is sure to change for the better.’
It was typical of Hilary to cherish an optimistic outlook. Billie was less confident. Was Alexei ready to be a father? She didn’t think so. Would he begin to understand why she had behaved as she had? Or was she to be for ever condemned as a disgusting liar by a guy who had never had to adjust his black and white take on ethics for anyone’s benefit?
‘I think I’ll go for a walk on the beach—’
‘I’ll put Nicky down for his nap,’ Hilary cut in, well aware that her niece was eager to escape listening to what her mother would have to say about the DNA testing Nicky had just undergone.
A slender elegant figure in cropped brown trousers and a gold T-shirt, Billie paused at the roadside to allow a car to drive past. She gave a weak smile when the car stopped and Damon Marios lowered the window to greet her. ‘I was just about to call on you—’
‘I’m going down to the beach.’
With a nod as if she had issued an invitation, Damon parked his car on the broad verge and got out to join her.
‘I don’t think that us being seen together is likely to do either of us any good,’ Billie remarked, secretly squirming with the anxiety over her marriage, which was urging her to exercise a rare kind of extreme caution. But when Alexei was being seen out and about with Calisto, what was she worrying about?
Damon cupped her elbow to steady her as she stumbled on her descent of the sloping ground that led down to the beach. ‘Well, don’t worry on my behalf. I’m getting a divorce…’
Billie turned dismayed eyes on him. ‘But I thought you and Ilona were back together again.’
Damon released a rueful laugh. ‘Yes, we were, but only briefly. I’m afraid the reconciliation didn’t work out. Two years ago, Ilona fell for a colleague at work and had an affair and now that she’s finally prepared to come clean on that score with her family and mine, we are both free to move on.’
Taken aback by that frank explanation, Billie spun and rested a sympathetic hand on his sleeve. ‘I had no idea, Damon…I’m truly sorry.’
‘It’s most sad for our daughters. They don’t understand why their mother is now bringing another man into their lives,’ Damon replied heavily as he reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers. ‘Ilona and I tried really hard to make a go of our marriage for their sake but we failed.’
Billie squeezed his arm. ‘How are your family taking it?’
Damon rolled his eyes and grimaced. ‘Like it’s the end of the world, like nobody ever got a divorce before; like Ilona has suddenly become the most wicked woman on Speros.’
‘I thought that was me!’
‘Your husband’s reputation goes before him. Everyone suspects Alexei of double-dealing.’
‘In this case they would be wrong.’
‘But not if the rumour that your aunt’s child is in fact yours is actually true,’ Damon chipped in, curious dark eyes settling on her flushed face.
‘That is true,’ Billie confirmed, since she had insisted that that deception was dropped the day after her wedding when she travelled back to the island alone. She could see that Damon was dying to ask who Nicky’s father was and that only good manners were restraining him, but she dropped the subject. She had no intention of sharing her innermost secrets with the son of one of the biggest gossips in th
e village.
Forty-eight hours later, having stayed in London long enough to secure the purchase of several oil super-tankers at a fantastic price, Alexei flew home. The sun was going down over the island of his birth in a blaze of fire on the horizon. Full of all the splintering energy and impatience that characterised him, he sprang out of the helicopter and strode towards the villa whose many windows were reflecting the vivid skies. Most of his staff greeted him in the front hall. His keen gaze narrowed, for the one person he had expected to see was nowhere to be seen. He strolled down to the master suite to check out his suspicions and glanced into the dressing room. Thirty seconds later, he summoned Helios, his head of security, and asked a question. The answer he received infuriated him.
Billie was alone in her house when Alexei arrived. He walked straight through the back door, noting and disapproving of the fact that it was unlocked as it facilitated his entry. ‘Billie?’ he called out, frowning at the silence.
The kitchen was tidy, the living area empty. A black fluffy puppy peered out from behind a sofa at him, uttered a tiny tentative little bark and then hurriedly disappeared again, duty evidently done. Alexei’s attention dwelt briefly on the basket of colourful toys and arrowed away again. Hearing music playing, he glanced into a bedroom and then noted the triangle of light showing to the side of the bathroom door, which had been left ajar.
Billie was enjoying a rare moment of self-indulgence and relaxation in the bath. Hilary had taken Nicky down to the village to see Lauren. She had not heard Alexei arrive because of the music and when the door opened she gasped in dismay and sat up in a sudden movement, water sloshing noisily round her. When Alexei appeared she was thunderstruck because he was the very last person she had expected to see.
Alexei focused on Billie in her sea of bubbles. Her creamy skin was wet and slick, the rounded globes of her rosy-tipped breasts invitingly pert and moist. His reaction to her was instantaneous; his body, which had been infuriatingly indifferent to the presence of other women, stirred into a rampant erection. Her generous pink mouth fell open on his name and, looking at the soft pink cushiony proportions of her lips, he knew for the first time in days exactly what he wanted and marvelled at the strength of his craving.
‘Alexei…’ Billie whispered unevenly, her bright head falling back and her green eyes widening to take in his tall muscular length with a sense of disbelief. His pearl-grey Italian suit had the sheen of silk and it hugged his broad shoulders, lean hips and long powerful thighs with the fidelity of the most expensive tailoring. Brilliant dark golden eyes gleaming from below the ebony screen of his luxuriant lashes, he looked spectacular enough to take her breath away.
‘What the hell are you doing in here?’ Alexei demanded in a wrathful undertone. ‘Do you realise that I was able to just walk into this house? I could have been anyone…’
‘You’re probably the only person I know on the island who wouldn’t bother to knock on the door and wait for an invitation,’ Billie contradicted without hesitation.
‘Where’s your brain? I could have been a bloody paparazzo! Don’t you realise how aggressive the press are now? You’re not safe here without security. Get out of the bath,’ he instructed her, extending a towel. ‘I’m taking you home.’
‘This is my home,’ Billie protested, sitting firm and resolutely resisting a modest urge to cover her bare breasts, which she knew would provoke his scorn.
Alexei dealt her a splintering appraisal, his tough jaw line clenching at her defiance. ‘You’re my wife—you don’t belong here any more.’
‘You told me I was a disgusting liar and you walked out on our wedding night,’ Billie reminded him tightly. ‘I don’t feel like your wife any more.’
‘I’ve got the perfect cure for that.’ Alexei strode forward and sank his hands below her arms. Before she could even work out what he was doing he had scooped her wet, resisting body out of the bath, set her down and enveloped her most efficiently in the folds of the towel.
‘Stop it!’ Billie shouted at him full throttle, trying to clumsily slap away his hands at the same time as she kept hold of the towel.
‘If I walk out of here without you, I’m not coming back, yineka mou,’ Alexei swore between clenched white teeth.
Billie froze as if an avalanche had suddenly engulfed her, stopping her in her tracks and depriving her lungs of oxygen. ‘You can’t threaten me like that!’
‘It’s not a threat, it’s the truth,’ Alexei countered harshly. ‘Either you’re with me, or you’re not. I won’t play games.’
In mute frustration, she watched him tug her wrap from the hook on the back of the door and extend it to her. He had the subtlety of an army tank on a battlefield. He had walked out on her and she longed to take a rebellious stance and defy his warning. But life just wasn’t that simple, she acknowledged, digging damp arms into the sleeves of the wrap while letting her towel drop to her feet. She didn’t know how to behave with him now, but he knew so well how to cut through all the aggravation to what really mattered. And what really mattered now was that she cared about him and loved him with all her heart, she reflected painfully. In his defence he was trying to bridge the gulf between them and their living in two separate houses would scupper any attempt to achieve that end.
‘This isn’t where you should be,’ Alexei told her, his husky accent roughening his vowel sounds into a sexy growl as he backed her into the corner, wrenched the ties she was fiddling with from her grasp and knotted the sash with deft hands. ‘You’re coming home with me.’
And those words sounded so unexpectedly good to her that tears prickled at the backs of her aching eyes. The past fortnight of stress, gossip-column headlines and wild speculation had drained her strength and awakened her worst fears for the future. He contemplated her down-bent head and tipped up her chin so that he could see her triangular face again. The anxiety in her expressive eyes disturbed him but it didn’t put a lid on the seething desire he was struggling to restrain. He had no idea why he wanted her so much at that moment. He only knew that her absence from his home where he had expected to find her had enraged and unsettled him to a degree that he was deeply uncomfortable with. Half-formed thoughts and jagged responses he didn’t like were travelling through him, giving him an edgy and unfamiliar out-of-control sensation that he despised.
The atmosphere was so thick that Billie could taste it. He was frowning down at her, lean hands settling down on her shoulders with authority, the heat of him burning through the fine fabric of her wrap. She collided with scorching golden eyes and the quickening awareness low in her pelvis made her press her thighs together on the ache stirring between her legs. Uneasy with that piercing arrow of sheer wanton lust, she pulled away from him. ‘I’ll get dressed.’
‘No.’ Alexei closed a hand over her arm, pulling her back. ‘There’s no need. The car’s outside. Someone will come over and pack for you.’
On the threshold of her bedroom, she stilled. ‘What about Nicky?’
Alexei’s big powerful body was resting lightly against hers, but when she posed that particular question he went rigid and his handsome dark visage set hard. ‘He stays here.’
She twisted round, anguished eyes seeking his. ‘I can’t do that. He’s my son, my responsibility.’
‘You can visit…when I’m not around,’ Alexei breathed with a raw note in his rich dark drawl. ‘I’ll cover his every need. He can have round-the-clock nannies, every luxury…’
‘You can’t ask me to choose between you!’ Billie exclaimed wretchedly, suddenly grasping the devil’s bargain he was laying down for her like a cruel gin-trap for the unwary foot.
Remorseless golden eyes struck her disbelieving gaze head-on. ‘That’s the deal for now and it’s your choice.’
‘I’m so sorry to interrupt,’ another quiet familiar voice intervened and Hilary stepped into view in the living area, her face flushed with discomfiture. ‘But you needed to know that you weren’t alone any more. I’ll take care
of Nicky, Billie. You don’t need to worry about him.’
Alexei thanked her aunt with grave courtesy and Billie flung a questioning glance at the older woman, wondering why she was encouraging Alexei in his callous conviction that the obstacle of Nicky’s very existence could be neatly set aside. And then it dawned on her that, within a few days at most, her son’s paternity would no longer be in doubt. ‘I don’t want to leave him,’ she admitted shakily.
‘You and Alexei should have time alone as a couple. There’s no harm in that,’ Hilary murmured soothingly as if the situation were the most natural thing in the world.
Alexei directed Billie towards the back door as if the last definitive word had been spoken and was now etched in stone.
‘I’m in my bare feet!’ Billie objected jerkily.
‘You don’t need shoes!’ Alexei countered, unwilling to countenance spending even five more minutes in what felt like the enemy camp. He bent down and swept her up off her feet into his arms.
‘Please put me down,’ Billie urged between compressed lips while her aunt opened the door to smooth the progress of their departure.
Wearing a beaming smile, Helios stepped out of the huge black SUV outside to flip open the passenger door in readiness. Alexei stowed Billie into the rear seat and climbed in beside her. She gritted her teeth, horribly conscious of the reality that she was wearing neither make-up nor proper clothes. Impervious to any sense of awkwardness, however, Alexei made use of the brief drive to instruct Helios to organise a separate security team to watch over his wife.
‘That’s really not necessary,’ Billie argued as the SUV swung up the driveway to the villa’s imposing entrance.