by Lynne Graham
‘We have to talk,’ Alexei delivered as soon as Kasma had headed back indoors with her charge.
Billie viewed his tall, powerful figure with pained eyes. ‘You didn’t need to steal him to make me understand how much he meant to you as well. You could just have told me.’
His hard jaw line clenched as if her candid reference to his obvious attachment to Nicky had embarrassed him. ‘You weren’t willing to listen.’
Billie didn’t want to plunge them back into an argument by referring to all that had passed between them since their wedding. She had done wrong but so had he. Yet he was still the guy that she loved with all her heart, she acknowledged unhappily. No matter how angry or frustrated he made her, she never lost sight of what he meant to her. ‘I was very shocked that you just took Nicky’s passport and whisked him away from me,’ she admitted tautly. ‘What would you have done had I called in the police?’
Alexei froze, his lean powerful face washing clean of expression, his eyes glittering dark as night in the shade of the tree. ‘I would have informed them that I have legal custody of my son.’
Her smooth brow indented. ‘What the heck are you talking about?’
The blankness of his features was put to flight as he bit out a rare curse in Greek before saying, ‘You didn’t read the pre-nuptial agreement, did you? I couldn’t credit you would be that trusting, but obviously you were…’
Billie leapt upright, all her attention locked to him. ‘Why? What was in the agreement?’
‘If you gave me a child you signed away all rights over that child to me.’
Billie stared back at him in disbelief, her flush in the heat of the day fading to be replaced by pallor. ‘That’s not possible.’
‘Billie….’ Alexei spread fluid brown hands in instinctive appeal to her natural intelligence ‘…when you only hire the very cleverest lawyers in the world, anything you want is possible.’
CHAPTER NINE
FOR the longest period of her life, Billie stared at Alexi in horror. ‘But you didn’t even know we had a child when we got married.’
‘But I hoped there would be one eventually and, after my father’s various costly excursions into matrimony, my legal team naturally sought to protect me against every possible threat in the future. If we break up, I retain custody of our children.’
Her legs wobbling, Billie slowly sank down on the bench again. ‘I would never have knowingly signed such a contract. It’s immoral. I trusted you and you cheated me…’
‘There was no deception. You signed the document without reading it,’ he pointed out drily. ‘How wise was that?’
‘You actually thought that I would be willing to give up all rights over my own children just to marry you?’
Alexei shook his dark head with wry amusement. ‘You know better than that. There are women in this world who would give their last pint of their blood to marry me.’
‘Possibly not if they’re sitting where I’m sitting,’ Billie tacked on helplessly. ‘Do you honestly think that something like that would stand up in court?’
‘I don’t want to take you to court. I don’t want to remove my son from your care. I don’t want a divorce either,’ he completed with measured emphasis.
Billie got up again on knees that felt shaky. ‘I wish I had never slept with you and never had your child. But my worst mistake was marrying you.’
‘I’m grateful that you did all those things. I don’t want to turn the clock back. I would very much like to remember the night our son was conceived—’ Alexei sent her a gleaming glance of rampant curiosity that made her bridle ‘—but in the absence of that, I am delighted and proud to have a son.’
And he didn’t want a divorce. Now she was beginning to wonder if she did either. In a divorce he might well exercise the legal right to take charge of their son and what would that do to her? Would he win if she fought him in a court? Was that a risk she was prepared to take? If she lost the right to be the primary carer of the child that she loved, what would her freedom be worth to her then? Her blood was already chilling in her veins at the very idea of such deprivation.
‘You’re blackmailing me,’ she condemned in disgust.
‘I want you to give our marriage a chance.’ Alexei held her angry gaze with level cool and considerable force of will. ‘That’s why I took Nicky and why I brought you out here to join us. I was playing for bigger stakes than making some stupid point!’
‘I don’t like being manipulated and intimidated into doing what you want. I don’t think the end justifies the means,’ Billie argued forcefully. ‘Do you want to know what you’ve really achieved? You’ve made me appreciate that I couldn’t bear to stay married to someone like you!’
As Billie attempted to walk past him Alexei closed a hand like a steel cuff to her arm and held her back. ‘I won’t let you go.’
‘I’m not giving you a choice!’ she blazed back up at him, wrenching her arm violently free of his hold.
‘What the hell has come over you?’ Alexei bit out, staring down at her with hard questioning eyes. ‘I’m willing to fight for you and our marriage. How is that blackmail? How is that something to be ashamed of? What’s right and what’s wrong doesn’t come into this. You and Nikolos are my family now and I’m not going to lose you!’
Family. It was a word with very deep and important connotations for Billie. She had had an unhappy childhood and a difficult adolescence with a mother who was incapable of putting her child’s needs before her own. She had grown up envying schoolmates with two parents, longing to be a part of family rituals like birthday parties and lunches when their whole families, young and old alike, would get together. She had always blithely assumed that some day she would create that family backdrop to nourish her own children’s need for love, support and security. Now as an adult she was learning that life was not so simple and that being part of a family demanded personal sacrifices. Did she stay married to a man who didn’t love her? Did she walk in eyes wide open and settle for that kind of marriage because it was the best she was likely to get and because she loved him?
Alexei surveyed her grimly as she settled back down on the bench, turning her face away from him and returning to studying the view.
‘I feel like the real you is locked up inside, somewhere I can’t reach you,’ he admitted in a roughened undertone.
‘It’s only because I’m not behaving like an employee any longer,’ Billie murmured ruefully. ‘I’m standing up to you and you don’t like it.’
‘You always stood up to me,’ Alexei contradicted.
Her mobile phone was buzzing like an angry wasp in her pocket and with a look of apology in Alexei’s direction she pulled it out and moved away a few steps to answer it. It was Hilary, but her aunt was so upset and talking so fast that Billie had to beg her to calm down and talk more clearly. ‘Mum’s…where?’ Billie pressed in dismay. ‘Doing what?’
‘It’s too late, Billie. I’m upset on your behalf but there’s nothing you can do. Lauren signed a contract, took the money and is now living it up in a London hotel. I don’t know when the article will be published. And I think Lauren handed over photos of Nicky as well,’ Hilary revealed unhappily. ‘I’m so sorry. If I had had the slightest idea of what your mother was planning to do, I would’ve tried to dissuade her, but the first I knew of what she was up to was when she called me from London to boast about how rich and famous she was going to be!’
‘What’s wrong?’ Alexei demanded, alerted by the consternation on Billie’s face and the growing anger.
‘This is not your problem, Hilary. Which hotel is she in?’ Finally, Billie finished the call and turned back to Alexei. ‘You’re not going to believe what Mum’s done—she’s talked about us to some British Sunday newspaper and they’ve paid her a fortune for it. She’s even given them private photographs of Nicky!’ she exclaimed furiously.
‘It was an accident waiting to happen.’ Alexei shrugged a broad shoulder. ‘I did conside
r paying her to keep quiet about us but I knew you would be annoyed if I intervened with that kind of an offer.’
‘Why on earth should she be bribed to keep quiet? How could my mother sell pictures of her own grandson?’ Billie gasped strickenly.
Alexei was a good deal less surprised by Lauren’s perfidy than Billie was. Over the years several lovers, acquaintances and even minor relatives of his own had profited from selling stories about him and his family to the tabloid press. He had long appreciated that Lauren Foster would be vulnerable to such an approach.
‘I’ll have to go back to London to see her!’ Billie announced, so angry with her scheming parent that she was trembling with the force of her feelings. Lauren’s efforts to prevent her sister from finding out what she was planning to do proved that Billie’s mother had known perfectly well that she was doing something very wrong.
‘It won’t change anything. If she signed a contract, what’s done is done,’ Alexei pronounced. ‘Leave Nicky here. The press could well be lying in wait for you to visit.’
‘Why aren’t you furious?’ Billie demanded with incomprehension.
‘I’ve always had to live with media intrusion. That’s why I like the privacy laws here in France. The paparazzi have to follow the rules here.’
Almost grateful to have to deal with a problem that did not relate to her marriage and its uncertain future, Billie went back into the house to change. It was ironic to discover that she didn’t want to leave France or her son. Nevertheless, she did feel an overriding need to confront her mother because all too often in the past she had turned a blind eye to Lauren’s greed and dishonesty for the sake of peace.
‘I don’t think you should do this,’ Alexei told her bluntly before she got into the SUV to head back to the airport. I should come with you.’
The thought of Alexei standing by listening, while Lauren brandished her unashamedly rapacious take on how to live life and make a profit, only made Billie cringe. ‘No, of course you shouldn’t. I’ll fly back here tomorrow,’ she promised abruptly and watched the sardonic tightening of his handsome mouth ease into a more relaxed line.
In the limo that wafted her through the London streets that evening towards the hotel where her mother was staying, Billie was rigid with tension. Clearly feeling flush after the money she had earned from selling the story to the newspaper, her mother was staying in a plush suite. When she opened the door to Billie, her tangled blonde hair and the skimpy purple dress she wore, not to mention her unsteady gait, made it clear that she had been drinking heavily.
‘Even when we were kids, Hilary could never wait to tell tales on me,’ Lauren complained sulkily. ‘I suppose you’re here to read the Riot Act.’
‘No, it’s a little more basic than that. All my life I tried not to be too much of a burden to you and since I started earning, I’ve always been generous with money as well,’ Billie said quietly. ‘So why is it that the minute you get the chance, you stick a knife in my back?’
Lauren pulled a face. ‘You’re such a goody-goody, Billie. There’s nothing of me in you, not in your looks, not in your nature either. How could you ever understand what it feels like to be me? I’ve had a lousy life because I had you when I was too young to know any better. Most men don’t want a woman with another man’s kid.’
‘I don’t recall that holding you back much,’ Billie responded drily, refusing to listen to the self-pitying emotional blackmail that had been coming her way since she was very young. ‘You had loads of boyfriends when I was a child but you never seemed to want to hang onto one in those days because I think you always thought there might be someone better round the next corner.’
‘That was a damned sight healthier than falling drearily in love with my boss and spending years pining for him while living like a vestal virgin!’ Lauren sneered at her daughter.
‘Is that a little taste of what you’ve put in this newspaper article?’ Billie demanded fiercely.
‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’ Lauren taunted, throwing her daughter a smug look of superiority. ‘But you’ll have to wait a few weeks to read it like everybody else.’
‘A few weeks…why a few weeks?’ Billie questioned.
Her mother shrugged. ‘How should I know? Maybe they wanted to check all the details out first.’
‘You don’t even care that it was my privacy which you sold, do you? But to make use of photos of Nicky…’
Lauren laughed out loud at that rebuke. ‘He’s a gorgeous baby—you should be proud of him. Anyway, why are you here fussing? Haven’t you got what you always wanted? So why be so mean when it comes to me? After all, you’ve got Alexei Drakos and that ring on your finger and pots and pots of money.’
‘I’ve also got a mother who embarrasses the hell out of me,’ Billie admitted painfully. ‘How could you do this to us? You know how much value Alexei sets on privacy. You know our marriage is…rocky right now. I’m ashamed that you would sell our secrets and not even care how much distress you cause.’
Her mother was too busy topping up her glass of wine to pay much heed to that reproach. She gulped down a couple of mouthfuls and then glared at her daughter, who was watching her. Lauren spluttered angrily, ‘What?’
Billie realised that the older woman didn’t care about what she’d said or about what she had done. She wasn’t feeling guilty and she wasn’t apologising either. Billie lifted her chin, determined not to show weakness or the engrained forgiving spirit that she had always employed with her feckless parent. ‘I don’t want anything more to do with you,’ she declared sickly.
‘Is that Alexei’s order? I wondered how long it would be before he made you cut me out of your life,’ Lauren framed, drunkenly gesticulating with her glass so that drops of wine spattered the pale carpet. ‘But I don’t care…I don’t need any of you. All you’ve ever done is hold me back like deadweight. I want to be free. I want to do as I like without someone always raining on my parade.’
‘Fine.’ Billie walked to the door, shaken and deeply hurt by the older woman’s complete lack of emotion. She loved her mother; she always had. Looking out for Lauren had been a need and a duty etched on her soul even as a child, yet with hindsight she finally had to acknowledge that her mother had never shown her affection and had more often made her feel like a burden whose very existence had prevented Lauren from enjoying the freedom she craved.
In a daze Billie got into the lift and travelled down to the hotel foyer. It was a moment before she recognised Helios, ostensibly browsing tourist brochures at the concierge’s desk, but she was quick to recognise the movement of his head, which sent her away from the front exit towards a side entrance. A limousine, different from the one she had arrived in, was by the kerb. Only as Helios swept open the door for her did she see that Alexei was in the vehicle waiting for her.
‘What on earth are you doing here?’ she gasped in complete surprise, running her attention over him to note that he was still wearing the same suit he had worn earlier and, what was more, in defiance of his usual perfect grooming, was badly in need of a shave. ‘And how did you get here so quickly?’
‘It was a last-minute decision. I came by helicopter—I flew myself,’ he advanced, searching her wan, tight face with an intensity that was unwelcome to her in her fragile emotional state. ‘How was Lauren?’
‘A-awful.’ Billie stammered out that one word and feared that the tears would fall if she tried to say more. ‘Drunk,’ she finally added a minute later in grudging explanation.
Alexei skimmed a reflective knuckle down over the trail of a tear stain on her cheekbone. ‘And she’s a nasty drunk, isn’t she?’
Billie gulped and nodded jerkily, and as she quivered like a tuning fork set on high vibration Alexei closed a comforting arm round her slim body to pull her close. Her eyes overflowed and she buried her wet face in his shoulder, drinking in the wonderfully welcome familiar smell of him, composed of an exclusive designer fragrance, essential masculinity and a unique hin
t of a scent that was simply him. She wanted to cling and sob but she wouldn’t let herself drop her defences to that extent. Yet it meant so much to her that he had made himself available, had somehow understood how traumatic it would be for her to confront her mother. ‘She wasn’t even sorry!’ she gasped strickenly.
‘She needs rehab,’ Alexei told her afresh. ‘But that decision has to come from her to do any good.’
Billie snorted disbelief of that ever happening, although she was beginning to come round to his conviction that her mother did have a serious problem with alcohol. ‘Where’s Nicky?’
‘Still in France. I thought it would be cruel to trail him back to London for the sake of one night,’ Alexei confessed above her head, the dark, sexy timbre of his deep drawl quivering down her taut spinal column. ‘Have you eaten yet?’
‘I’m too tired to feel hungry.’
As she tripped up clumsily over her own feet in the smart hallway of the town house Alexei bent down and scooped her up into his arms. ‘You’re shattered,’ he censured and paused only to speak to the housekeeper about dinner before carrying Billie upstairs.
It was quite a while since she had had cause to go upstairs in the town house. For the long months of his engagement she had regarded the upper floor as Calisto’s territory and she still felt that way now when Alexei took her into the magnificent master bedroom. When she gazed at the big bed, opulently draped in rich purple and olive shades chosen by the Greek woman, she could imagine all too well how good Calisto’s blonde mane of hair, sparkling white smile and long leggy limbs would have looked against such a backdrop.