‘I didn’t hear a car,’ Billie commented.
‘I walked over from the villa,’ Alexei fielded, eyes framed by dark-as-midnight lashes skimming over her blushing face. ‘Sorry if I interrupted something.’
‘You didn’t,’ Billie countered flatly, tugging her skirt down to her knees and reaching defiantly for another sandwich.
The two men walked round the house while Billie sat outside in the shade, fed up with both of them as she listened to snatches of their revealing dialogue. Damon was so deferential around Alexei that he set her teeth on edge and Alexei had no business declaring that a larger terrace was a necessity, rather than an extravagant extra. And what was Damon playing at? Why did men always refuse to take no for an answer? How many times did she have to tell him that she wasn’t interested now in dating him?
Alexei reappeared and asked her for the keys of the car she had driven over, which did after all belong to him. ‘Come back with me. I have some calls for you to make.’
Ignoring Damon’s look of disappointment, Billie scrambled up and smoothed down her skirt. Red-hot temper made her hands tremble a little. It was not that she wanted to stay and risk encouraging Damon, it was resentment at being smoothly manipulated into doing what Alexei wanted her to do.
‘You’re about to overstep the boundaries again,’ she warned Alexei fiercely as she climbed into the hot car with him.
‘He’s not the guy for you. A bloody picnic on a building site…’ he breathed with incredulous derision. ‘How cool is that?’
‘If I listened to you, I’d never get a guy! Every time one comes near me, you interfere and stick a spoke in the wheels. I’d like to know how you justify that when I’m not even allowed to call a doctor if you hurt yourself!’ Billie launched back at him in an angry hail of words that she shot at him like bullets.
‘You can trust me to put your interests first,’ he drawled with unblemished assurance, his bold bronzed profile relaxed. ‘Damon will most probably end up returning to his wife and children. Don’t get caught up in their drama.’
‘Working for you I’ve got enough drama of my own!’ Billie bawled back at him, turning up the air conditioning with an impatient hand, ignoring it when he winced at the furious rush of icy air directed at him. ‘You have no right to interfere. I’m an adult entitled to make my own mistakes. Stay out of my private life!’
And she sat there thinking how ridiculous it was for her to argue with him when she was carrying his child, to be able to shout but not to tell him the truth. But he would pity her if he knew the truth and he would feel very guilty. She knew him well enough to make that forecast and although her heart ached inside her like an open wound she was painfully aware that neither his pity nor his guilt, and certainly not his money, would provide her with the smallest comfort…
Chapter Eight
IN THE weeks that followed, Billie began to gather unwelcome information about Calisto Bethune, a woman she had never met who, it seemed, had a way of making her mark wherever she went. Calisto trod on toes without fear, she hurt and insulted with constant criticism, she demanded and screamed abuse if she didn’t get what she wanted fast enough. Sooner or later, all staff complaints about Calisto ended up on Billie’s desk. It seemed to her that every employee who came into too close contact with the gorgeous blonde whom Alexei was planning to marry hated her.
‘If you’re not prepared to make an official complaint, there’s nothing I can do,’ Billie told a sobbing stewardess from the yacht. ‘Mrs Bethune is Alexei’s partner. You’ll have to get used to her ways.’
‘She’s so rude. I’m not her slave! If she speaks to me like that one more time, I’m quitting!’
‘You could make this complaint official,’ Billie pointed out for the third time.
The stewardess grimaced. ‘I don’t want anything on paper…you know Mr Drakos has promised my brother a job when he finishes school. I wouldn’t want to take the risk of offending him.’
Billie suppressed a sigh, for she had heard it all before too many times. Nobody ever wanted to annoy Alexei. Everyone wanted to stay on the right side of him. It meant that he sailed through life on a sea as smooth and flat as glass, protected from the ripples and storms that lesser mortals endured.
The chef on Sea Queen had already quit after a volley of censure from Calisto over a meal she had disliked. One of Alexei’s most choice and favoured employees, the chef had long had secret offers from others keen to poach his renowned skills. When Alexei professed surprise that Billie had not contrived to dissuade his chef from leaving his employ, Billie decided to be more honest.
‘Your girlfriend offended him. I tried to persuade him to stay but he wouldn’t change his mind.’
‘Calisto is very forthright.’
‘The chef isn’t the only one of your employees with a problem with that,’ Billie dared.
Every inch an arrogant Drakos in his bearing, Alexei lifted a questioning ebony brow. ‘Are you saying that there have been complaints?’
‘Nothing official, but some employees are finding her manner hard to handle.’
Alexei compressed his wide sensual mouth into a forbidding line. ‘Then they’ll have to learn to be less sensitive. I won’t tolerate disrespect towards her.’
‘Of course not,’ Billie declared, inwardly castigating herself for not having the gumption to warn him that Calisto was a demon with staff and that few would long withstand her vicious temper and verbal abuse. No doubt when people began to leave he would get the message, but there was no way that Billie could bring herself to be more frank right now.
‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.
‘Me?’ Billie questioned in surprise. ‘Why are you asking me that?’
A