‘That doesn’t mean that he couldn’t also be a fraudster on the make,’ Alexei proclaimed with crushing cynicism. ‘I’ll have him thoroughly checked out before you see him again.’
Quietly convinced that her father was exactly who and what he purported to be, Billie made no comment. It struck her as deeply sad that she had had to look to Alexei’s anger to find solace in the idea that he cared about what happened to her. Had their relationship always been so one-sided, so empty? Then he did not reciprocate her feelings, nor had he ever pretended to. She sipped her cold drink to moisten her dry mouth. ‘Please don’t let’s talk about what I was doing in Paris,’ she urged him in hasty appeal.
‘How can I ignore what you did? What the hell were you thinking of when you went there?’ Alexei responded with censorious golden eyes. ‘You’re my wife. I expect you to behave with dignity. That does not mean confronting Calisto in one of our homes and accusing her of having an affair with me.’
Her face burning at that rebuke, Billie lifted her chin. ‘I wasn’t sure that you still regarded me as your wife. Most of our conversations since our wedding have ended with you walking out or talking about us being over as a couple…’
Golden eyes gleaming, Alexei loosed a harsh laugh of challenge. ‘You make me sound so unreasonable. Nobody would credit that you spent more than a year lying to me and then produced my son like a rabbit out of a magician’s hat the same day that I married you!’
Having paled at that accurate if acerbic summing-up of her sins, Billie swallowed hard. She registered that in his eyes she was never going to live down her past and concentrated on what mattered most to her at that moment. ‘I’m still entitled to ask you what’s going on between you and Calisto.’
‘Nothing sexually.’ Alexei’s wide sensual mouth took on a sardonic twist. ‘It’s business now. Her father died during our relationship and in his will he placed me in charge of her inheritance. As she was one of three children the legacy was not particularly large. But when I parted from Calisto it was on poor terms and it was easier for me to ignore the responsibility her father had given me. While I was doing that, she got into considerable debt.’
‘Debt?’ Billie leant forward to question in unabashed surprise at that statement. ‘I thought Calisto was a wealthy woman in her own right.’
‘So did she, but she didn’t get a big divorce settlement because of the pre-nuptial agreement she signed with Bethune,’ Alexei informed her wryly. ‘And as the wife and then the girlfriend of two very rich men there was never any need for her to watch her expenditure. But once she was living on her own income, she quickly got into trouble.’
‘And because of this, she’s now living in your town house in Paris?’ Billie had already worked out the direction his cool explanation was going in and she was not overly impressed by it. So, poor Calisto had finally been forced to live as an independent woman and settle her own bills! She could see that such an obligation would have been uncomfortable for Alexei in the aftermath of a broken relationship, but she did not accept the need for him to have got involved again with Calisto on such a very personal basis. He could easily have brought in an accountant or lawyer to take charge of the Greek woman’s financial affairs and have kept Calisto at arm’s length.
‘If I had done my duty by Calisto as her late father expected of me, her finances would never have got in such a mess,’ Alexei reasoned as if his involvement and sense of guilt were the most natural and understandable reactions in the world. ‘As she’s currently working for a Parisian fashion house, it made sense for her to use my property as a base and reduce her outgoings.’
Billie wondered why he hadn’t just settled his ex-fiancée’s debts in compensation for his neglect of her affairs. Billie could not help thinking about the amount of very private information about their marriage that Calisto had apparently had full access to and she reckoned that she was only receiving part of the truth from her volatile husband. Alexei and his former lover were clearly on very close terms again. It was possible that that intimacy had not yet stretched to accommodate a renewed sexual relationship, but it could only be a matter of time until it did. Perhaps Calisto was also being given a second chance to prove herself and Alexei was biding his time before reaching any firm decision about his future plans. After all, he had dived at uncharacteristic speed into their marriage and what had that gained him? A son she’d dragged like a rabbit out of a magician’s hat?
‘You shouldn’t have gone anywhere near Calisto,’ Alexei breathed grimly, his hard gaze cutting into her like a laser beam. ‘Today, when you subjected her to a jealous scene, you embarrassed me. I expect more from you than that kind of gutter behaviour.’
While inwardly cringing at that rebuke, Billie perfectly understood how Calisto had delivered her into Alexei’s hands, gift-wrapped and tagged, and as a jealous vengeful witch. Calisto must have got onto the phone within minutes of Billie’s departure to get her version of events in first. Alexei believed she had gone to fight over him with another woman and, as she had never really known how she planned to tackle Calisto or indeed what she would say to her, she could not have come up with a more dignified explanation for her visit.
Alexei surveyed her steadily, lush black lashes screening his gaze to the hot gleaming gold of a hunting animal, while his dark accented drawl took on a husky deep note that shimmied down her sensitive spine like a caress. ‘Before today, I would never have dreamt that you would act in such a primitive way, moraki mou. I’ve always admired your restraint and intelligence.’
‘Well, it just goes to show that you never really know anyone,’ Billie quipped unevenly, marvelling at the stunning beauty and power of his eyes and feeling her treacherous body quicken in a physical response as natural to her in his presence as the feel of her own skin. Her nipples peaking into straining buds, she wondered whether she should shout at him for calling her ‘primitive’ or revel in his evident fascination because something equally basic in him clearly liked the idea of her fighting for him. And nothing had ever illustrated for her so clearly the innate dichotomy of Alexei Drakos the man, censuring her behaviour while reserving the right to sexually savour it.
Billie closed her eyes tight on temptation. And he was the ultimate temptation for her and always had been. But the time for that kind of behaviour was past, she told herself firmly, crushing the inner quivers of desire that would have destroyed her self-respect had she let them linger. Unlike him she refused to take refuge in sex when their relationship was falling apart and she could not accept his current intimacy with Calisto Bethune either.
Maybe he hadn’t yet got back into bed with his ex-fiancée but that did not make his betrayal of their marriage any easier to bear. He had shared their secrets and evidently even discussed who would get custody of their son. She could not forgive him for that disloyalty. He had been right on one score though. Until she had spoken to Calisto, Billie would have fought for their marriage with whatever weapons came to hand. But loving Alexei was no longer enough and she had made some terrible mistakes, she acknowledged painfully. Now, however, she felt alienated and on the brink of being discarded, a humiliating sensation that did not sit well with her pride. It was really time for her to look out for her own interests and those of her son and prepare for a future that did not include Alexei. Furthermore, rather than wait to be pushed she was discovering that she would very much prefer to jump.
‘Billie…’ Alexei murmured thickly.
‘No, don’t look at me that way, don’t talk to me that way either,’ she told him tautly. ‘It’s no longer appropriate.’
Alexei frowned at her evasive eyes and cool intonation, the sensual heat dying out of his intent gaze. ‘What are you talking about?’
Billie breathed in deep. ‘Marrying you without telling you about Nicky was a huge mistake,’ she admitted heavily, lifting her head to study her husband with pained eyes. ‘But fortunately we don’t have to live with that mistake for ever.’
Alexei had fallen very still. ‘Meaning?’
‘You were right. We should get a divorce,’ she extended flatly, pinning her tremulous lip line firm as she voiced that ground-breaking decision.
‘I only entertained that idea before I knew we had a child!’ Alexei raked back at her with disdainful force. ‘Now that I do know, a divorce is out of the question.’
‘But we’re not working out as a couple.’
‘And whose fault is that?’ Alexei raked back at her.
‘It’s not all my fault,’ Billie told him, green eyes flaming back at him like highly polished jewels. ‘Your renewed intimacy with Calisto—’
‘There is no intimacy!?
? Alexei broke in angrily.