‘Nobody is going to take my son away from me!’ Billie shot back shakily and, whirling on her heel, she sped back to the front door because she recognised that the confrontation had gone beyond the stage where she could hold her own. She had also learned what she would rather not have known: Calisto knew way too much about Alexei and Billie’s marriage, and about Nicky, whose very existence and paternity Billie had fondly imagined was still a secret known to only a precious few off the island of Speros.
Indeed the level of Calisto’s information told Billie first and foremost that the gorgeous blonde enjoyed Alexei’s complete trust. Clearly, Alexei had returned to his former lover as soon as he’d become disillusioned with his marriage, Billie registered sickly. He had to be sleeping with the Greek fashion model again.
Jealousy and despair assailed Billie in a dizzy wave. He had already discussed Nicky with Calisto, yet he had only found out that Nicky was his son early the day before. That Calisto should already know so much was uniquely revealing and her assurance in speaking as though she was to be Alexei’s next wife was even more menacing.
As Billie walked with a down-bent head along the pavement to hide the tears spattering her cheeks in the fading light of evening a man straightened from the railings he had been leaning against and signalled the driver of the car parked further down the road. ‘Kyria Drakos?’
Billie was shocked to recognise that it was Helios, the head of Alexei’s security team, standing in her path. ‘Helios?’ she queried with a frown of surprise.
‘Your husband asked me to collect you and convey you to the airport,’ the older man told her with a caution that warned her that Helios was well aware of her obstinacy over her personal security at Hazlehurst earlier that morning and of Alexei’s anger at her behaviour.
In a daze after her upsetting encounter with Calisto and truly appalled by the suspicion that Alexei might already be aware that she had tackled his former girlfriend, Billie climbed into the waiting limousine. While the luxurious vehicle struggled through the traffic she wondered how on earth her movements had been tracked all the way to her destination in Paris. She laid her mobile phone on the seat beside her and waited for Alexei to ring her with a heart sinking like a stone but it stayed mercifully silent. Her heart was hammering with nervous stress, her skin clammy with perspiration.
Had Alexei and Calisto already discussed future living arrangements for Nicky? It had sounded to her very much as though they had and her courage was failing her in the face of such a cruel, unfeeling threat to her love for her child. She felt sick and scared, while she inexorably recalled all the many times that she had stood back and watched while Alexei utilised every ruthless, clever and unemotional Drakos gene to come out on top. He was remorseless, determined to win every battle.
Helios took her to a private room at the airport and plied her tirelessly with magazines and refreshments as if he sensed her growing feeling of terror at her predicament. How could she be scared of Alexei? But she had never crossed him before to such an extent. It shook her that he had had her tracked down and retrieved like a wayward child even though she was in a foreign country. But in truth her own behaviour shook her even more. In one catastrophic move in facing up to Calisto she had fallen off the straight, narrow and sensible path she usually followed. But she had needed to know about Calisto, had needed to know that there were genuine grounds for her self-humiliating suspicions. She freshened up in the cloakroom, studying the pale drawn triangle of her face and seeing only Calisto’s glowing physical beauty superimposed over her own. There was no contest; never had been and never would be.
Helios told her when it was time to board her flight home. ‘Where is Alexei?’ she could not help asking, for she had spent over an hour in that silent room, flinching every time she heard footsteps in the passage outside.
‘Already on board,’ the older man confirmed.
Shivering a little in the cool of late evening, Billie mounted the steps to the private jet and looked straight past the assembled flight crew greeting her to see Alexei seated with his laptop at a desk. The instant he saw her he lifted his arrogant dark head and vaulted upright. Blazing golden eyes struck hers and she almost reeled back from the force of the corrosive anger he was struggling to contain while they still had an audience. Walking down the aisle between the cream leather seating towards him felt as dangerous and daunting as walking a pirate’s plank above shark-infested seas.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE thrumming power of the jet as it took off sent vibrations rippling through Billie’s taut slender length. As soon as they were airborne the crew served drinks and snacks, after which Alexei dismissed them. As the tension in the atmosphere took on an explosive edge, Billie gnawed at the soft underside of her lip until she could no longer bear the silence.
‘What were you doing in Paris today?’ she demanded thinly.
‘The Drakos foundation was staging a charitable lunch,’ Alexei answered, referring to the global charity set up by his father. ‘I had a speech to make.’
She had a vague recollection of the luncheon benefit and compressed her lips. ‘How did you know where I was?’ she asked tautly.
‘Helios only tracked you down when you arrived at the airport for your flight out to Paris.’ Alexei’s cool, controlled diction unnerved her and merely increased her wariness. ‘So where did you go in London beforehand and who were you meeting? You were very keen to ensure that there were no witnesses.’
Billie turned her head and finally focused on him. ‘I didn’t want you to know that I was planning a trip to Paris as well,’ she admitted baldly. ‘I had no other motive and no reason to hide where I was going or what I was doing. Actually, I had my first meeting in London with my father over lunch today—’
That announcement certainly did grab Alexei’s attention and his expressive brows drew together. ‘Your father?’ he exclaimed in disbelief. ‘But I thought you had no idea who he was!’
Billie dug into her bag to retrieve the letter Desmond had written and leant across the aisle to pass it to Alexei.
His bold bronzed profile set hard while he scanned the comparatively brief communication. ‘And until now you never even thought to mention this man’s approach to me?’ he ground out.
Billie reddened, for he sounded so astonished that she could have neglected to share the contents of that letter with him sooner. ‘There was so much else going on between us at the time—’
‘But you still just went ahead and arranged to meet this guy, taking him on trust?’ Alexei thundered in interruption, springing upright to stare down at her in frank disbelief. ‘You didn’t even have a background check
done on him! Have you any idea what a risk you took?’
‘There was no risk,’ Billie disclaimed. ‘Desmond is a perfectly ordinary middle-aged businessman.’
‘But this letter could have been a con trick to lure you into a vulnerable position.’ His striking cheekbones prominent below his dark skin, golden eyes blistering, Alexei slowly shook his handsome head in angry wonderment. ‘You could’ve been kidnapped, robbed, anything!’ he spelt out angrily.
‘Don’t be so melodramatic—’
‘Don’t be so stupid,’ Alexei retaliated with icy bite. ‘You’re part of my world now and worth more money as my wife than most people could earn in a lifetime. People maim and kill others for a great deal less. Round-the-clock protection is a necessary precaution to ensure your safety.’
A good deal paler than she had been after receiving that graphic warning, Billie nodded acceptance of his concern, which did ironically have the side effect of briefly lifting her mood. Alexei could be so cold and unemotional that it was good to know he cared enough to worry about her well-being to this extent. ‘I promise that I won’t be so trusting with anyone again, but my father is a very agreeable man.’