‘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.
‘I know what’s necessary,’ Alexei asserted, settling a large domineering hand over hers where it rested on the seat. ‘Whether you like it or not, you’re at risk now as my wife and I want to know that you’re safe, regardless of where you are.’
The presence of Helios and the driver made Billie restrain her snort of disagreement as she could not imagine what possible harm could come to her on Speros. Anatalya already had the front door open wide, and the housekeeper’s eyes shone with satisfaction when she saw Billie inside the vehicle. Alexei scooped Billie out and strolled up the front steps into his home as if it were an everyday event to walk in carrying a wife clad in a dressing gown. He had always had that kind of ultimate cool, even as a boy, she recalled, and a sharp little pain stabbed through her as she thought of all that she stood to lose if their marriage broke down. Oddly enough, until that moment it had not occurred to her how deeply embedded Alexei was within even her life memories. Pausing only to instruct Anatalya to have Billie’s clothes removed from her home and ask when dinner would be ready, Alexei took Billie into the master bedroom suite.
Billie sucked in a steadying breath as Alexei set her down on the carpet. ‘We can’t just act like these past two weeks never happened.’
Alexei swung round, his keen dark gaze grim. ‘For the moment, why not? Of course, you could cut a lot of the **** out of this by just telling me the truth now. I would rate you higher for that than if you force me to drag the truth out of you after the DNA-test results.’
With a rueful sigh, Billie sank down on the side of the stylish big bed. ‘It would have been easier if you had just left me where I was for now. Why did you insist on bringing me back here tonight?’
Doffing his jacket and wrenching off his tie, Alexei sent her a darkling glance of warning as though she had strayed into a conversational no-go area. Muscles rippling through the fine silk of his shirt, he bent to remove his shoes. ‘I want a shower before dinner…’
Billie tried to avoid the temptation of watching him undress, but she learned that she hungered for even that small intimacy. Black hair tousled, strong jaw shadowed by blue-black stubble, he was stripping off his clothes without a hint of self-consciousness. ‘I’ve nothing to wear here,’ she pointed out. ‘I left half my clothes on Sea Queen.’
Alexei laughed. ‘I would be quite happy for you to dine with me naked.’
‘It’s not going to happen.’ Billie knotted her hands together and watched him lift the house phone by the bed to issue a command and then discard his shirt and shoes. Every lithe movement of his lean bronzed body mesmerised her: he was utterly gorgeous. A knock sounded on the door and he strode over to answer it and accept the garment bag and boxes he was handed. He dumped them on the bed.
‘That’s the clothing problem solved,’ he said with distinct satisfaction.
‘These are for me?’ Astonished, Billie unzipped the garment bag and pulled out a flamboyant, strappy scarlet dress. ‘You bought this for me? But when?’
‘I saw it in a window in Paris. You wear drab colours. I thought that I would enjoy seeing you in something bright for a change.’
Once again, Alexei had contrived to confound her expectations. He might have met up with Calisto in Paris, but while he’d been there he had also contrived to go shopping on his wife’s behalf. She pulled open the other packages and her complexion warmed when she saw the zingy red lingerie and high heels, which carried a much more sexual message.
‘Those items were pure self-indulgence,’ Alexei agreed without a shade of remorse.
‘Why did you bring me back here?’ Billie pressed uneasily, utterly disconcerted by his unpredictable behaviour.
His ebony brows drew together. ‘That’s a silly question. You’re my wife. Until I decide otherwise, this is where you belong, yineka mou.’
He was a Drakos and possessive of what was his. But he was talking as though she were a prized car or some other item that he owned and he would keep her close…until I decide otherwise. Those words of cold warning sent a cold shiver down her sensitive spine and she was no longer so certain that staying at the villa with him was the right thing to do. ‘I felt more comfortable in my own home,’ she told him tautly.
‘Sleeping alone? Get over yourself!’ Alexei quipped with daunting disbelief, striding like a bronzed naked statue brought to life into one of the twin en suite bathrooms.
She remembered that picture of him with Calisto in Paris and discovered that she didn’t want to ask him about that just at that moment. Not right now when everything felt so fragile and uncertain between them that she feared the wrong word or query might lead to a quarrel that could end their marriage for good. Her lies, her silence when she should have spoken up, had already put them on that dangerous slippery slope. Living in separate houses would not mend their differences and get them back together again, she recognised ruefully.
Even so she was walking on eggshells and could hardly bear the knowledge that to see Nicky she would have to leave the villa. It had proved a relief rather than a sacrifice to end the pretence that Hilary was Nicky’s mother and, after all, she’d had only two weeks to luxuriate in the joy of being a full-time mum again for the first time since she had left London after her son’s birth. And even though that fortnight had been a strain because of the situation between her and Alexei, Billie had adored having the comfort of her child within reach at all times.
Before Alexei was even out of the shower, two maids arrived with suitcases from her home. While they got busy in the dressing room, Billie went into the other bathroom with the outfit Alexei had bought for her. Thirty minutes later, she was ready for dinner and far from happy with her appearance. The scarlet dress was much more revealing than what she usually wore, cut away at the bust to make the most of what she had and very short, showing off her legs to well past mid-thigh. She checked her reflection, her brow furrowing while she wondered if the dress was a gift with a sting like a scorpion. Was this how Alexei saw her now? As a sexually provocative and available woman? As yet another in a long line of women prepared to wear whatever he bought and behave however he wanted if it pleased him?
Alexei watched Billie walk into the dining room with keen attention. He shifted an authoritative hand to make her twirl for his appraisal and his brilliant gaze shimmered gold because he very much liked what he saw: Billie, as he had always wanted to dress her for his own private enjoyment, no longer the efficient office machine in her crisp buttoned-up blouses and low sensible pumps. Scarlet looked amazing against her porcelain redhead’s skin and the cut of the dress enhanced the curves of her ripe rounded breasts and slender thighs. The reaction at his groin was instantaneous and he suppressed a groan as his trousers tightened. In that moment, he knew exactly why he had come home to reclaim his deceitful bride. Lust that powerful had an appetite and a drive all of its own.
The chef had put on a spread worthy of a banquet for the reunited couple. Nervous as a cat on hot bricks, Billie wondered how on earth she could match Alexei’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge that anything was wrong between them. But, in fact, conversation flowed freely as Alexei told her about his latest deal and the changes he had decided to make in the command structure at his London headquarters. Intrigued, Billie asked eager questions, made a couple of suggestions and was duly impressed by the deal he had cut on the super-tankers.
A couple of delicious mouthfuls into the dessert she was savouring, Billie discovered that Alexei’s gaze was positively welded to her. ‘What?’ she prompted, her face warming.
‘You’re a very sensual woman, mali mou.’
Lashes veiling her gaze, Billie shook her head in instinctive disagreement. ‘I don’t think so.’
Brilliant golden eyes glittering, Alexei sprang upright. ‘But you just don’t see yourself the way I do.’ He reached down to tug her up out of her seat and bent his handsome dark head to kiss her.