Bronzed eyes shimmering like polished metal, Alexei set his even white teeth together.
Billie sensed his brooding dark fury and watched his long brown fingers tighten to show the white of bone round the glass in his hand. He was a Drakos, an Alpha male with a very powerful personality, and he was outraged that she should talk of divorcing him when he blamed her for the disintegration of their marriage. She understood that, she understood that perfectly, but she was fed up of eating humble pie, turning the other cheek and staying quiet when she wanted to demand answers and felt she deserved more understanding. As yet she could not even imagine a life without Alexei in it, but in time she would get stronger and she would get over him…oh, yes, she would! She had more than enough strength and resolve and courage, she told herself fiercely.
A barrage of paparazzi awaited them at Heathrow Airport. Cameras flashed to catch the first sight of Alexei Drakos together with his English-born wife since a single official wedding photo had been released. Questions were shouted and, certain someone had asked her about her child, Billie shied away, wondering if Nicky’s existence had now become public knowledge. Alexei stopped dead so suddenly that she almost tripped over him.
‘I have a son,’ he announced with considerable pride and satisfaction. ‘His name is Nikolos.’
And with that Alexei turned to close an arm round Billie and herd her onward out of the airport. ‘You might have warned me that you were planning to do that!’ she exclaimed.
‘It had to be done,’ Alexei fielded without a shade of apology. ‘I will not tolerate speculation about my son’s paternity when a simple acknowledgement from me will protect both you and him from spurious rumours.’
So, now everyone would think that Nicky was the reason why Alexei had married her. He had laid bare the fact to the world that she had conceived his son before he had even got together with Calisto Bethune.
His relations would be shocked, but then they were very well used to being shocked by Alexei and would probably honour him for marrying the mother of his firstborn son, just as his father had once done a generation ago. Billie asked herself why she should still be so sensitive to those facts when she had already reached the decision that their relationship had no future. Obviously she needed to grow a much tougher skin.
‘We’ll fly back to the island tomorrow,’ Alexei told her smoothly as she slid into the waiting limousine.
Billie turned startled eyes on him and he closed a hand over hers. ‘No…’ she began.
‘You can’t run out on our marriage after three weeks,’ Alexei drawled with a soft sure sibilance that filled her with disquiet.
‘Why shouldn’t I?’ Billie dealt him a defiant glance and snatched her hand free of his. Sometimes she thought she had spent half her life waiting for Alexei to return after he had walked away from her. As an employee madly in love with her boss, she had been defenceless. Even when pregnant with his baby she had contrived to be powerless because she had not stood up for her rights. She had been too sensitive, too proud to face her fear of being a burden and an embarrassment to him. But her days of martyrdom and victimhood were now at an end. This time around she would do what was right for her and what suited Alexei wasn’t going to influence her, she promised herself, having stoked up her anger with him to a fine burning heat.
‘As for me running out on our marriage, you didn’t even last the length of our wedding night,’ Billie completed in provocative addition.
‘That is past. We’re not children. Indeed, we have a child to consider. We have to work this out,’ Alexei informed her grittily.
‘I’ve already worked out what is best for me and I’m not going back to live on your island, to stay in your house to be surrounded by your people!’ Billie rounded on him to respond with ferocious resolve.
‘What has got into you?’ Alexei bit out with a roughened edge of incredulity in his dark deep accented voice.
Staring out of the windows at the dark lamp-lit streets of the city and the ever-present surge of traffic, Billie dropped her head to study the hands she had linked together on her lap. ‘I’m thinking of me for a change, not of you.’
‘Try thinking about our son instead. He would be more relevant.’
‘No, don’t you dare try that maternal guilt trip on me!’ Billie flared back at him in furious rebuttal, her small face stiff with resentment. ‘You seduced me, you got me pregnant, then you conveniently lost your memory. I did the best I could for my child in a rotten situation and I don’t owe anyone anything, least of all you!’
Bemused by the positive violence of her response, Alexei studied her fixedly, his bold bronzed profile taut, his piercing gaze assessing her hectically flushed face. ‘Forget about me. I’m actually asking you to put the needs of our son first.’
Billie flung up a hand in a silencing motion, angry that he could dare to attack her on that front. ‘I’ve made enough sacrifices and I’m not in the mood to make any more!’ she warned him.
‘You’re being totally irrational. Only today you flew over to Paris to confront Calisto—that’s not the behaviour of a woman who wants a divorce.’
Billie glued her lips together in a mutinous line. As far as she was concerned taking part in any further discussion concerning Calisto would be humiliating for her and she had no intention of going there.
‘I want a divorce,’ she repeated steadily. ‘I want my life back and my new life will naturally be here in England.’
‘Is that a fact?’ Alexei interposed with a scantily leashed savagery of tone that made her turn back to stare at him.
‘Well, why would I want to live on Speros any longer? At least I can get a job here,’ she pointed out squarely.
‘You’re talking about taking my child away from me as if it means nothing,’ Alexei condemned in an aggressive undertone.
‘But we can’t stay married just for Nicky’s sake,’ Billie protested helplessly. ‘I want more, I need more than some empty charade of a relationship. I’m not prepared to spend the rest of my life paying for the mistake I made on the night of the funeral.’
‘If you live in England, I will see very little of our son. I consider my role in his life to be as important as yours. You’re being unreasonable and unfair. Nikolos needs both of us.’
Billie could hear his continuing surprise at the way she was behaving and she wondered why he expected her to be reasonable when he had been so very judgemental and inflexible since she had fallen off her pedestal with a crash on their wedding night. Right at that moment, after enduring all the stresses and strains of an inordinately long and eventful d
ay, she was at the end of her tether. She was too tired to argue with him, for he would keep up the pressure and refuse to quit until he wore her opinions down and she knew that she could not afford to allow that to happen this time around.
It would be a ghastly joke to divorce Alexei and end up living as his ex-wife on the island of Speros. What life would she have there? Once again she would be living on the edge of his life, watching him with Calisto or some other woman, and for the sake of her sanity she just couldn’t do that any more! A fresh start far away from Alexei and his influence was what she needed, not a rehash of the past when constant exposure to him had enslaved her and ruined her for any other man. So as far as where she lived was concerned she was fully convinced that she had no choice but to be unreasonable as he called it.
A huge weariness that encompassed Billie’s entire body was gaining on her steadily. She let her heavy eyelids slide shut and thought longingly of having Nicky in her arms again. The love of her child would surely fill the giant black hole where her heart used to be. Without Alexei around to upset and distract her, she would be able to concentrate on being a mother. That thought was the very last thought she would later remember.
Billie woke up slowly the next morning. It was just after eight and a twinge of guilt assailed her because Kasma would already have given Nicky his morning feed. The pillow beside hers was pristine and untouched and she knew that once again she had slept alone. Alexei had put her to bed in her unexciting white cotton underwear. She wondered with a sudden savage pain if he had smiled when he saw what she wore underneath her clothes and recalled her warning on that wedding night that had gone so terribly wrong. No, Alexei had probably not been any more in the mood to smile the night before than she had been, she acknowledged unhappily, sliding out of bed and heading into the bathroom for a quick shower.