by Lynne Graham
Billie fell still, her anxious green eyes flying to the set of Calisto’s petulant face. ‘How can I help?’
‘By keeping your distance from Alexei. For such a plain little thing, you’re very good at attracting attention to yourself. You’re far too familiar with Alexei and I won’t tolerate you flirting with him right under my nose—’
Rigid with resentment, Billie lifted her chin. ‘I don’t behave like that. Now if you don’t mind, I have to find my aunt—’
‘I do mind. How dare you walk away from me when I haven’t finished speaking to you?’ Calisto launched at her an octave higher and several notches louder in volume. Billie decided that flight would be wiser than an argument with her employer’s enraged partner.
‘Hilary and her son are out on deck with McGregor, Billie. Go and join her. Thank you for your assistance today,’ Alexei interposed from behind Calisto, his lean, strong face grim. ‘I will deal with this.’
Relieved by his intervention, even though she feared that it would win her Calisto’s undying hatred, Billie did as she was told. Behind her she heard Calisto raise her voice again and breathed in deep. If only Alexei hadn’t made that gesture with the wrap! But Alexei was like that, prone to little random acts of thoughtfulness that people didn’t expect from so rich and powerful a man. There had been nothing remotely intimate or flirtatious in his behaviour. A little old lady could just as easily have been the recipient of his consideration. Billie pressed clammy hands to her hot cheeks. No, indeed, Calisto had misunderstood what she saw. When Alexei got truly intimate with a woman, he crossed boundaries with the speed, power and high visibility of a champion racehorse.
Hilary looked unusually distracted when they finally got back to the house after the bonfires and the firework display on the beach. Billie reclaimed Nicky and urged her aunt to put her feet up for what little remained of the evening.
‘I’m fine…I do like Stuart,’ the blonde woman confided.
‘Stuart?’ Billie hadn’t a clue who the other woman was referring to.
‘Stuart McGregor, the captain of Alexei’s yacht. He’s a lovely man, quiet but very well read,’ Hilary declared.
‘I don’t know him very well,’ Billie admitted. ‘The yacht crew don’t mix much with Alexei’s other employees, but I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.’
When Billie started work the next morning at the villa, she was surprised to discover that Alexei had already flown to New York.
‘Did Calisto accompany him?’ Billie asked the housekeeper.
‘No. She flew back to Athens last night.’ Anatalya came closer and lowered her voice. ‘I think Mr Alexei has broken up with her. I heard her shouting and when she left she took everything she owned with her.’
‘Probably just a tiff,’ Billie suggested, less prone to jumping to conclusions than the older woman. ‘They’ve been together for almost a year now.’
But Anatalya was right on target: the gossip columns and the celebrity magazines confirmed that the relationship was over later that week. On the cover of one glossy journal there was a photo of Alexei and Calisto together with a jagged line like lightning separating them. Alexei had refused to comment when asked why, but Calisto had given a couple of interviews and implied that Alexei’s reputation and party lifestyle had given her pause for thought.
At the start of the following week, Alexei phoned Billie and told her that he needed her to fly over to his English country house. He was staging an important business meeting there and he wanted Billie to ensure that all the arrangements flowed smoothly.
‘We knew you’d have to travel. It’s part of your job,’ Hilary reminded her niece as Billie held her baby son close and wondered anxiously how long she would be away from him. Secrecy was all very well, she began to appreciate, but there were definite drawbacks. Had Alexei known that she was a mother he would never have expected her to leave her child for days on end.
‘When he left you behind here on the island, you worried that your role was being reduced,’ Hilary added. ‘So, you can’t complain now.’
Billie breathed in the sweet familiar scent of her baby and hugged him, loving the weight and feel of his little trusting body in her arms. ‘I just don’t want to leave him.’
‘You can phone every hour of the day and I’ll put him on the webcam,’ her aunt promised sympathetically.
It was well over a year since Billie had visited Hazlehurst Manor in Kent. Although she had planned to hire a car at the airport, Alexei had sent a vehicle to pick her up. From the instant the car turned up the long stately driveway to the imposing Georgian pile, her eyes were anxiously scanning from left to right for maintenance issues that would require attention. But the verges were neat, the parkland picturesque and what she could see of the manicured hedges suggested that the gardens were just as well groomed. She was greeted by the manor’s highly efficient housekeeper and taken straight off for a tour.
A suite on the ground floor, complete with a facility for tea and coffee, had already been set up as a conference centre. The bedrooms were as well prepared for occupation as any in an exclusive hotel. Billie was impressed and said so—on the accommodation front there was nothing left for her to do. Alexei arrived in a helicopter late the following morning while Billie was going over some estimates for renovations to the kitchen quarters. He strode into the office where she was working, his black hair blown back from his lean bronzed features, an unexpected smile tilting his passionate and wilful mouth. It lightened the often forbidding aspect that had long characterised the Drakos reputation in the business world.
‘For the first time, I feel you’re back where you belong…ensuring everything runs like clockwork.’ Alexei studied her closely, wishing her vibrant hair were loose instead of tightly confined and mentally reclothing her in garments more appealing than the black pinstripe skirt suit she wore. He would like those little fingernails painted too. His sense of anticipation spiked, his body reacting with hot sexuality to the concept of Billie’s lush little body clad in silk and lace lingerie, and for the first time there was no guilt, no sense that such thoughts, images and reactions were inappropriate where she was concerned. And why was that so? His intentions were wholly honourable for possibly the first time in his life.
Dry-mouthed at the full spectacular masculine effect of Alexei Drakos up close, Billie scrambled upright, her heart drumming out a disturbing tattoo behind her breastbone. ‘Everything was done before I arrived. The housekeeper here is a gem.’
His beautiful smile broadened, showing a flash of strong white teeth. ‘Generous to others as well. You have many sterling qualities, Billie. My guests arrive this afternoon and I would like you to act as my hostess while they’re here.’
Billie inclined her bright head in acknowledgement.
‘But as I imagine you didn’t pack for that eventuality I ordered some clothes for you.’
Her green eyes widened. ‘You ordered clothes for me?’ she queried in surprise.
‘I don’t want you running round dressed in a business suit for the next forty-eight hours, moraki mou.’
In receipt of the full stunning burn of his dark golden eyes welded to her, Billie tensed as sexual awareness prickled over her entire skin surface and made heat lick in private places. ‘I thought we had agreed that you wouldn’t call me something like that…’
Alexei laughed out loud. It occurred to her that for a man whose recent romance had gone down in flames of invasive publicity he was in a remarkably good mood. ‘No, you objected, but I made no such agreement. I’ll call you what I like.’
That arrogant assurance was vintage Drakos and ironically eased Billie’s tension a little, since up until that instant he had been behaving in an unfamiliar manner. With the experience of long acquaintance guiding her, she moved on to more business-orientated matters. ‘I’ve been going over the figures for the proposed renovations here and I’ll have to discuss the budget with you before I can establish—’
‘No, no work
for the moment. Go and put on one of the new outfits and join me for lunch,’ Alexei instructed, determined to lift their relationship right out of the usual business mode.
‘But your guests won’t arrive until later.’
‘Is there some particular reason why you need to argue with me today?’ Alexei enquired in a drawl as smooth and acerbic as a diamond cutter.
Billie parted her lips and then closed them again. It annoyed her that she didn’t know why he was behaving as he was. Buying her clothes, for example: what was that all about? Years ago, when he had helped equip her for her new job with him, he had known she didn’t have the money to purchase smart suits and there had been good reason for his generosity. But why now, all of a sudden, should it matter to him what she wore? Was he suggesting that she was dressing badly again? Trying to smarten her up? Embarrassment claimed her until she went up to her room where she discovered that a staggering array of designer clothes awaited her attention. Not one of those outfits impressed her as being suitable for work wear. The collection of lingerie took her very much aback as it was far too intimate a purchase for him to have made on her behalf. She assumed he had instructed some personal shopper and that the lingerie was a mistake.
Mistake or otherwise, however, Billie was intrigued by the exquisite undergarments and finally succumbed to the temptation of seeing herself garbed in pastel-blue silk lingerie of the most frivolous and revealing kind. She picked a devastatingly simple royal-blue dress with a draped neckline and a short-sleeved jacket from a famous designer and put them on, posing in high strappy heels and barely recognising her reflection. She let her hair down, ran a comb through the thick tangle of coppery red strands that tumbled round her face and smiled. So this was how feeling you looked your best felt! She knew she should take the outfit off, go back downstairs and tell him that she could not possibly accept a virtual new wardrobe from him. Shamingly, however, and her cheeks reddened at this awareness, she badly wanted him to see her clad in her fine feathers first.
Alexei’s black-lashed gaze whipped over Billie’s slender elegant figure with considerable satisfaction when she reappeared. ‘You don’t look like my PA any more.’
‘And that’s not right,’ Billie pointed out earnestly.
‘It is if you’re in line for a promotion…a major kind of promotion,’ Alexei framed with teasing precision. ‘I’ve thought a lot about you since I ditched Calisto and I have reached a fascinating conclusion. You’re the shining example of the sort of woman I want to marry.’
Her eyes wide with bemusement at that far-reaching statement, Billie breathed weakly, ‘I suppose I should say thanks for the compliment.’
‘I know you inside out. You know and understand me,’ Alexei asserted with formidable cool as he guided her into the dining room with a light hand resting to her spine. ‘You have all the qualities I admire: honesty, self-respect, courage and kindness. The people who surround me like and respect you as well.’
‘I just work for you. You’re making me uncomfortable,’ Billie reproved, shaking out her napkin and taking a seat opposite him with two high spots of colour burnishing her cheeks.
‘Don’t tell fibs,’ Alexei derided. ‘There’s a strong sexual attraction between us and there always has been.’
Her face felt so hot that she honestly feared her skin was on fire. ‘I don’t understand what all this is about or why you’re talking to me like this—’
‘Then don’t interrupt, and listen,’ Alexei cut in with withering bite. ‘I’m not a romantic man. I never have been. I never will be. Calisto was a major mistake and I’m grateful to have appreciated that fact before I put a wedding ring on her finger. But that fiasco did make me think about what’s important in a life partnership, what I want from a woman and what that woman might expect from me.’
‘Well, that’s very sensible but just at present I imagine you’re feeling rather anti-women and not thinking quite as clearly as you believe you are.’
His lean, darkly handsome face tensed and darkened, his eyes narrowing with hauteur. ‘That’s where you’re wrong. I have never been so sure of a decision before. To be frank, I don’t spend much time thinking about my relationships with women.’
‘I know,’ Billie agreed feelingly, thinking of some of the appalling mismatches that had featured in his past love life.
‘You know the worst I’m capable of.’
Billie wondered why he was talking to her in such an unusually intimate vein and her brow stayed indented in a frown. She was tense and uneasy.
‘Let me have my say first,’ Alexei urged her as if he perfectly understood her bewilderment. ‘I’m bored of casual sex.’
‘Well, it took you a long time to get to that point, but that you did get there finally is in your favour,’ Billie informed him cheerfully to cover up her embarrassment at that blunt admission.
‘If you don’t keep quiet for five minutes, I may well strangle you!’ Alexei groaned in exasperation. ‘Right now, I’m ready to settle down and get married and you are the only woman I can see in that role. I want to marry you.’
Billie froze in shock and stared at him, unable to believe that he could mean what he had just said. The silence that followed came down like a crushing weight on her nerves.
‘I have more faith in you than in any woman I’ve ever met and our relationship is not based purely on sex, or on your love of my wealth. I’m convinced that the talents that have made you a dependable and trustworthy employee will make you an even better wife,’ he concluded grimly. ‘So, I’m asking you the question I never got as far as asking Calisto…Will you be my wife?’
‘You can’t ask me that only a week after you’ve broken up with another woman!’ Billie suddenly launched at him in helpless condemnation. ‘You’re on the rebound. You don’t know what you’re doing!’
‘Of course I know what I’m doing,’ Alexei fielded in dry exasperation.
Although he was offering Billie what she had most wanted in the world for several years, it was in terms that she found horribly humiliating. In addition, words like ‘dependable’ and ‘trustworthy’ tore her up inside when she recalled the game of deception she had become engaged in over a year earlier—and in which she was still up to her throat. He probably thought he knew the worst of her as well, but he didn’t. Nor was his proposal of marriage of the type that had ever featured in her dreams. He didn’t love her. He was simply fed up dating and, having been disappointed by Calisto, he had decided to settle for a woman he believed he knew inside out. A sensible woman with a good work ethic who knew him well: Billie. It was a very logical decision and very much Alexei who, for all his passion and volatility, was now focusing his remarkably practical and shrewd business brain on the institution of matrimony. Was he choosing her as the low-risk, low-maintenance option in the bridal stakes?
‘You haven’t even explained why you broke up with Calisto yet.’
His aggressive jaw line squared. ‘Nor do I intend to. Why pick over the past? There is no comparison between you and Calisto. Our marriage would have much firmer foundations.’
Of course there could be no comparison between ordinary Billie Foster and the gorgeous model, Calisto Bethune. A shard of bitter anger and pain pierced Billie at his unhesitating candour. Alexei, Billie suspected, thought that there would be no ups and downs with her, that she would be so quiet and eager to please that waves would be non-existent. But he was thinking that way because he wasn’t allowing for the reality that how Billie behaved as an employee would scarcely be the same as she behaved as a wife. It burned a smoking hole in her heart that he should ask her to marry him because he respected her as a person and admired what he saw as her sterling character. How much would he respect her if he knew the truth of what she was capable of? If she told him the truth about Nicky, if she told him she had conceived his child and concealed the birth from him, he would hold her lies against her and he would no longer want to marry her.
‘I don’t want to talk abo
ut this any more,’ Billie announced, planting her hands down on the table surface and forcing her slim body upright in a move that patently took him by surprise. ‘I need to think about this.’
‘Why?’ Alexei thrust his chair back and sprang up. Bronzed eyes gleaming like polished metal, he gazed down into her troubled heart-shaped face and breathed in a raw growling undertone, ‘What’s to think about, moraki mou? I know you’ve always cared about me.’
Sparks of rage lit up inside Billie and fuelled the angry step she took back from the table. So that was the true deal, she reflected in raging pain. She was to supply the love in this sensible marriage of minds—only until now he had been too modest and polite to say so. He might not love her but he had no objection to being loved. At least he would make no objection as long as she made no demands. Indeed, Billie was under few illusions as to the exact nature of the marriage she was being offered: a matter-of-fact partnership based on mutual respect and sexual attraction.
‘It’s a very insulting proposal,’ Billie told him flatly.
‘Insulting?’ Alexei repeated in thunderous disbelief. ‘How have I insulted you?’
‘Just you think about what you’ve said to me and then ask yourself how many women would want to marry you on those terms!’ Billie flung back at him furiously as she stalked out of the room, headed straight to the front door and out into the fresh air.
Her hasty steps only slowing as she reached the concealment of the garden hidden behind manicured hedges, Billie pressed the heel of her hand to the thunderous pounding at her temples and trembled at the force of the emotions she was striving to rein back. A jumble of mortifying phrases were still assailing her and making her cringe. A major kind of promotion. Dependable? Trustworthy? I’m bored of casual sex. No comparison between you and Calisto. She was the safe alternative to his capricious ex-fiancée, as cosy and insipid as hot milk when compared to such a spicy cocktail. Calisto’s high jinks and the memory of his father’s three very costly divorces had made Alexei cautious in the matrimonial stakes. He didn’t want a wife who would rock the boat with emotional outbursts and petulant demands. He wanted a wife who would do as she was told just like an employee, a wife who was grateful enough for her position to let him live his life without interference. No, such a marriage was not the stuff of which dreams were made and it never would be.