A Stormy Greek Marriage (4 page)

‘
You
wanted to protect
me
? ‘Alexei exclaimed harshly, his contempt for that claim unconcealed. ‘Even now in the midst of your attempt to palm off your bastard child on me, you can’t tell me the truth! My proposal of marriage was what motivated your lies and deception—’

‘How could it have been?’ Billie flung back fierily, standing her ground to challenge him. ‘My pretence that Nicky was my aunt’s child began when I first told you that she was pregnant and asked for a career break. And that was months before you even considered marrying me!’

Stumped by that inescapable fact, Alexei studied her with enraged hauteur, his glittering gaze bright against his superb bone structure. ‘You lied to me and you deceived me over a very long period—’

‘But not with any malicious intent!’ Billie rushed to interpose, desperation racking her with a level of fear that did nothing to clarify her state of mind. ‘I admit that I should have told you about Nicky before the wedding but I didn’t have the guts—’

‘Naturally avarice and ambition won out over honesty. Why? Only because you knew there would be no wedding if you told me the truth about yourself.’

‘The very last thing I have ever wanted from you is money!’ Billie launched back at him, angrily objecting to that base accusation. ‘And don’t refer to my son as a bastard ever again. However he was born, whoever he is, I love him and I’m proud of him. If you think so badly of me, how could you make love to me again?’

That emotive demand made Alexei’s jaw square and he sent her a flashing look of scorn. ‘That was just
sex, a primitive urge for physical release, nothing more complex.’

Her face flamed and then slowly paled as his response sank in and trampled her pride into the dust. She wished with all her heart that she had said no, pushed him away, stuck to the business of confession and blame. But what was done was done and she could not change it. In spite of that sophisticated façade, Alexei had a primal streak that ran through him like tempered steel and powered his volatility and his ruthlessness. He was a Drakos through and through. His father, Constantine had not hesitated to divorce the blameless third wife who’d adored him, and replace her with his pregnant mistress. Alexei, it seemed, would be equally quick to discard her now that she had disappointed his expectations.

‘Nicky is your son,’ she swore one last time, desperate to convince him of that crucial fact before he could tear their marriage apart.

‘Nothing can excuse your lies and trickery,’ Alexei drawled in a tone of finality. ‘You cheated your way into our marriage and deserve nothing but my contempt. Naturally I’ll order DNA tests, but only to ensure that you can’t continue to allege that I fathered your baby.’

Humiliated by the threat of such testing being carried out on her child, Billie flung him a seething glance of condemnation. ‘That’s an insult! You’re the only man I’ve ever slept with.’

Alexei rested forbidding dark golden eyes on her. ‘I can’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth and whose fault is that?’

He strode out of the room. Billie lingered in the shadowy office and struggled to cope with her unwieldy
emotions. Their marriage had barely begun and she had wrecked it by keeping secrets from him, a little voice warned inside her aching head. She had lost his trust and it would not be easily regained. He was angry with her, very angry, but she had known he would be, she reminded herself dully. She heard the racket of rotor blades and unfroze to rush over to the desk and snatch up the phone. Captain McGregor informed her that Alexei had filed a flight plan for Monaco and had taken off in the helicopter with his security team. She thanked him for the information and replaced the receiver with a trembling hand and a heart racing like an overworked piston.

Alexei had just left her, walking out on her and their marriage. That realisation was a body blow that hit Billie very hard. She felt sick with the pain and trauma of that bold move and knew she had seriously underestimated his reaction to the secrets she had kept. It would be virtually impossible to influence a man who was determined to put an ocean between them. Few brides, however, were abandoned within hours of the wedding and Alexei’s activities never passed under the media radar. The press would pick up the story of his unbride-groomlike behaviour and run with it for weeks.

Tears choking her and stinging her heavy eyes, Billie went back to the opulent stateroom in order to get dressed. It might not be dawn yet but the wedding night was well and truly over. She would take the motor launch back to Speros and go home to look after Nicky. What else could she do? Her presence on
Sea Queen
had driven Alexei off his beloved yacht.

Was this it? Was their marriage over as well? Over even before it got past the beginning? She tried and
failed to imagine Alexei giving her a second chance. Why would he do that when he had never loved her? Without love, what hold did she have over him? She had screwed up so badly that she hated herself at that moment. It seemed just then that keeping quiet about her pregnancy had cost her any hope of a happy future

D
URING
the longest two weeks of her life, Billie followed Alexei’s every move across the globe, for the pursuit of the paparazzi ensured that everything he did was reported in the tabloid press.

So, Billie got to know that Alexei stayed up two nights in succession at a Monaco casino gaming with a bunch of male friends. Then, after he went out to a fashionable nightclub in London she lay awake wondering whether, even though he had arrived and left alone, he had been with other women inside? Or indeed if at some more discreet location a woman had waited patiently for his visit. For the sake of her own sanity she tried not to read any more of the humiliating articles that speculated about the state and nature of the Drakos marriage.

All too many gossip columnists decided that Alexei had married his PA only because he would retain his sexual freedom with a wife who would appreciate her good fortune in marrying him too much to make unreasonable demands; a practical wife who didn’t expect her gorgeous predatory tycoon to become as domesticated as a tabby cat. And, as another columnist quipped, Alexei Drakos was not the sort of guy likely to welcome
rules. Alexei had always done what he wanted when he wanted without apology.

Old Drakos history was also dredged up, with Constantine’s worst womanising exploits, even while married, spicily presented to entertain the readers even more. Billie felt doubly humiliated when far from flattering wedding photos of her, evidently taken with one of their guest’s phones, appeared in print. Looking mousey and squat as she did in those horrible snaps she had felt that she was being shown up as the bride any self-respecting Greek tycoon and modern-day sexsymbol would desert.

‘I just can’t believe the way you’re behaving!’ Lauren snapped with angry irritation, studying her daughter, who was playing with her son and Skye, the puppy. ‘What were you thinking of when you moved back into this stupid little house? You’re a Drakos now, you belong at the big swanky mansion next door! Of course people are talking when you’re trying to act like the marriage never happened.’

Billie prevented the little black terrier from sinking her teeth into one of Nicky’s toys, setting the item aside to be washed. ‘I have no intention of moving Nicky into Alexei’s house until he acknowledges that he is his son—’

‘Oh, don’t be more stupid than you can help!’ Lauren hissed, her attractive face unattractively lined by her annoyance. As her shrill voice rose in volume the puppy fled behind the sofa. ‘Leave the brat here with us and take possession of what’s yours. You have the right to live in that villa—you’re Alexei’s wife!’

Billie glanced coolly at her mother. ‘Don’t call my son a brat!’

‘You know I didn’t mean it nastily,’ her mother argued. ‘After all, Nicky—bless his little heart—is your golden goose. I mean, good grief, getting yourself pregnant was the only thing you did right! Alexei can do and say what he likes, but at the end of the day you will still be the mother of his son and heir and nothing can change that!’

‘That kind of offensive talk isn’t helping anyone, Lauren,’ Hilary interposed, sending her a sister a reproachful look while she soothed and petted the puppy who had crept over to her feet. ‘Billie is more interested in saving her marriage than in making a profit. I think she’s right to stay here rather than up at the villa, particularly while Alexei believes that Nicky is not his child.’

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 the 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 pearlgrey 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.