Almost grateful to have to deal with a problem that did not relate to her marriage and its uncertain future, Billie went back into the house to change. It was ironic to discover that she didn’t want to leave France or her son. Nevertheless, she did feel an overriding need to confront her mother because all too often in the past she had turned a blind eye to Lauren’s greed and dishonesty for the sake of peace.
‘I don’t think you should do this,’ Alexei told her bluntly before she got into the SUV to head back to the airport. I should come with you.’
The thought of Alexei standing by listening, while Lauren brandished her unashamedly rapacious take on how to live life and make a profit, only made Billie cringe. ‘No, of course you shouldn’t. I’ll fly back here tomorrow,’ she promised abruptly and watched the sardonic tightening of his handsome mouth ease into a more relaxed line.
In the limo that wafted her through the London streets that evening towards the hotel where her mother was staying, Billie was rigid with tension. Clearly feeling flush after the money she had earned from selling the story to the newspaper, her mother was staying in a plush suite. When she opened the door to Billie, her tangled blonde hair and the skimpy purple dress she wore, not to mention her unsteady gait, made it clear that she had been drinking heavily.
‘Even when we were kids, Hilary could never wait to tell tales on me,’ Lauren complained sulkily. ‘I suppose you’re here to read the Riot Act.’
‘No, it’s a little more basic than that. All my life I tried not to be too much of a burden to you and since I started earning, I’ve always been generous with money as well,’ Billie said quietly. ‘So why is it that the minute you get the chance, you stick a knife in my back?’
Lauren pulled a face. ‘You’re such a goody-goody, Billie. There’s nothing of me in you, not in your looks, not in your nature either. How could you ever understand what it feels like to be me? I’ve had a lousy life because I had you when I was too young to know any better. Most men don’t want a woman with another man’s kid.’
‘I don’t recall that holding you back much,’ Billie responded drily, refusing to listen to the self-pitying emotional blackmail that had been coming her way since she was very young. ‘You had loads of boyfriends when I was a child but you never seemed to want to hang onto one in those days because I think you always thought there might be someone better round the next corner.’
‘That was a damned sight healthier than falling drearily in love with my boss and spending years pining for him while living like a vestal virgin!’ Lauren sneered at her daughter.
‘Is that a little taste of what you’ve put in this newspaper article?’ Billie demanded fiercely.
‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’ Lauren taunted, throwing her daughter a smug look of superiority. ‘But you’ll have to wait a few weeks to read it like everybody else.’
‘A few weeks…why a few weeks?’ Billie questioned.
Her mother shrugged. ‘How should I know? Maybe they wanted to check all the details out first.’
‘You don’t even care that it was my privacy which you sold, do you? But to make use of photos of Nicky…’
Lauren laughed out loud at that rebuke. ‘He’s a gorgeous baby—you should be proud of him. Anyway, why are you here fussing? Haven’t you got what you always wanted? So why be so mean when it comes to me? After all, you’ve got Alexei Drakos and that ring on your finger and pots and pots of money.’
‘I’ve also got a mother who embarrasses the hell out of me,’ Billie admitted painfully. ‘How could you do this to us? You know how much value Alexei sets on privacy. You know our marriage is…rocky right now. I’m ashamed that you would sell our secrets and not even care how much distress you cause.’
Her mother was too busy topping up her glass of wine to pay much heed to that reproach. She gulped down a couple of mouthfuls and then glared at her daughter, who was watching her. Lauren spluttered angrily, ‘What?’
Billie realised that the older woman didn’t care about what she’d said or about what she had done. She wasn’t feeling guilty and she wasn’t apologising either. Billie lifted her chin, determined not to show weakness or the engrained forgiving spirit that she had always employed with her feckless parent. ‘I don’t want anything more to do with you,’ she declared sickly.
‘Is that Alexei’s order? I wondered how long it would be before he made you cut me out of your life,’ Lauren framed, drunkenly gesticulating with her glass so that drops of wine spattered the pale carpet. ‘But I don’t care…I don’t need any of you. All you’ve ever done is hold me back like deadweight. I want to be free. I want to do as I like without someone always raining on my parade.’
‘Fine.’ Billie walked to the door, shaken and deeply hurt by the older woman’s complete lack of emotion. She loved her mother; she always had. Looking out for Lauren had been a need and a duty etched on her soul even as a child, yet with hindsight she finally had to acknowledge that her mother had never shown her affection and had more often made her feel like a burden whose very existence had prevented Lauren from enjoying the freedom she craved.
In a daze Billie got into the lift and travelled down to the hotel foyer. It was a moment before she recognised Helios, ostensibly browsing tourist brochures at the concierge’s desk, but she was quick to recognise the movement of his head, which sent her away from the front exit towards a side entrance. A limousine, different from the one she had arrived in, was by the kerb. Only as Helios swept open the door for her did she see that Alexei was in the vehicle waiting for her.
‘What on earth are you doing here?’ she gasped in complete surprise, running her attention over him to note that he was still wearing the same suit he had worn earlier and, what was more, in defiance of his usual perfect grooming, was badly in need of a shave. ‘And how did you get here so quickly?’
‘It was a last-minute decision. I came by helicopter—I flew myself,’ he advanced, searching her wan, tight face with an intensity that was unwelcome to her in her fragile emotional state. ‘How was Lauren?’
‘A-awful.’ Billie stammered out that one word and feared that the tears would fall if she tried to say more. ‘Drunk,’ she finally added a minute later in grudging explanation.
Alexei skimmed a reflective knuckle down over the trail of a tear stain on her cheekbone. ‘And she’s a nasty drunk, isn’t she?’
Billie gulped and nodded jerkily, and as she quivered like a tuning fork set on high vibration Alexei closed a comforting arm round her slim body to pull her close. Her eyes overflowed and she buried her wet face in his shoulder, drinking in the wonderfully welcome familiar smell of him, composed of an exclusive designer fragrance, essential masculinity and a unique hin
t of a scent that was simply him. She wanted to cling and sob but she wouldn’t let herself drop her defences to that extent. Yet it meant so much to her that he had made himself available, had somehow understood how traumatic it would be for her to confront her mother. ‘She wasn’t even sorry!’ she gasped strickenly.
‘She needs rehab,’ Alexei told her afresh. ‘But that decision has to come from her to do any good.’
Billie snorted disbelief of that ever happening, although she was beginning to come round to his conviction that her mother did have a serious problem with alcohol. ‘Where’s Nicky?’
‘Still in France. I thought it would be cruel to trail him back to London for the sake of one night,’ Alexei confessed above her head, the dark, sexy timbre of his deep drawl quivering down her taut spinal column. ‘Have you eaten yet?’