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‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ Billie queried nervously.
‘I took the launch back to the harbour with the doctor last night and confronted the man to tell him to leave.’
Billie rammed back her chair to stand up. ‘You had no right to interfere!’
‘Your mother is full of apologies but she caught the ferry with him this morning. The neighbours are up in arms and I think she decided that a short break from island life was in order.’
‘Oh, my goodness!’ With a groan of protest, Billie flung herself back down in her chair. ‘What on earth did you say to Mum?’
‘That if she ever hurt you again she would be charged with assault—’
A whimper of dammed-up fury and frustration escaped Billie. ‘It was none of your business!’ she bawled back at him. ‘How dare you?’
‘It’s how we deal with problems on Speros—you know it is. Every community must have rules. Lauren’s boyfriend could have raped you, although the neighbours are so nosy I think you would have been rescued before he got very far,’ Alexei conceded with a gleam of dark sardonic humour in his unrepentant gaze. ‘All that matters is that he is no longer on the island and he won’t dare to come back.’
‘But Lauren’s gone as well, driven out of her own home!’ Billie condemned emotively.
‘Your mother will be back, don’t worry. She’s too clever to abandon the easy life she has here, thanks to you,’ Alexei countered carelessly, his interest in the subject patently on the wane. ‘However, I’ve come up with a solution to your problems.’
‘I don’t have any problems,’ Billie told him stonily, abandoning the table and turning on her heel to head back at speed to her cabin.
‘Billie!’ Alexei breathed rawly. ‘Get back here right now!’
Trembling with fury over his meddling in her private life, Billie was outraged by that glossy impenetrable Drakos assurance that made Alexei believe that he could do whatever he wanted to do, particularly on Speros. But the particular note of command in his strong voice stopped her dead. She could storm
off but where to and why? They had gone toe to toe once before and, though she might have got her job back, she knew her tycoon boss well enough to know that it had been a one-chance-only deal. Slowly, as if every movement physically hurt, Billie turned round again.
‘Finish your breakfast,’ Alexei told her harshly, his exasperation unconcealed. ‘We’re leaving the ship in ten minutes.’
Clashing with the warning in his hard dark eyes, Billie breathed in slow and deep, suddenly aware that the exchange was taking place right outside the office windows and marvelling that she could have forgotten the fact that they had an audience. Her spine as stiff as a steel pole, she took her seat again. A steward poured her tea and Alexei’s coffee. She had to force herself to eat as all appetite had fled…
Chapter Four
A FOUR-WHEEL-DRIVE vehicle collected Alexei and Billie at the harbour. Billie was observing a rigorous silence.
‘I’ve never known you to sulk before,’ Alexei murmured with withering bite.
Her teeth were clenched together so hard that she was surprised they didn’t chip. ‘As far as I’m concerned you invaded my private life last night in a way that you had no right to do,’ Billie responded brittlely.
Alexei closed a hard hand over hers and pulled on it to make her turn round and look at him. His heavily lashed golden eyes struck hers boldly head-on. ‘I did what had to be done. You have no father, no brother, no other male relative or boyfriend, who can protect your interests. In their absence I count myself a friend as well as an employer. I took care of Dean Evans in a way that he understood.’
‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ A suspicion belatedly occurred to Billie and she gave him a shocked appraisal. ‘Surely you didn’t hit him?’
‘Did you think that I would shake hands with him for what he did?’ Alexei flung his handsome dark head back, his stunning bone structure full of proud challenge. ‘Yes, I hit him.’
In mute despair, Billie shook her vibrant head, the bright hair she had left loose to hide her swollen face behind rippling round her cheekbones. She said nothing, knew there was no point saying anything, and that any local man witnessing such an act the night before would have heartily applauded Alexei’s violence. On every primitive masculine level, Alexei had been raised to react with the raw aggression of a caveman. Crossed in business, he hit back hard and his enmity was feared in the marketplace since he never forgot a slight. He would never turn the other cheek. He would find it impossible to forgive without having first meted out punishment.
‘Well, I wish you hadn’t got involved. I don’t need anyone but myself to look after my interests.’
‘You are very fortunate to have me,’ Alexei responded as if she hadn’t spoken and he gave her a glance of such fierce conviction and confidence in that statement that he left her bereft of speech.
When the four-wheel-drive turned off the road that followed the shoreline up a rough grassy lane, Billie frowned. ‘Where are we going?’
The security guard driving them stopped the car and got out to open the door beside her, forcing her to climb out.
‘I want to show you something…’
Billie swallowed a weary sigh, knowing better than to question a male whose every thought and idea seemed embedded in a driven need to make another fortune on top of the many he had already acquired. Walking into the sloping field, sheep scattering at their every step, Billie glanced in bemusement at Alexei. ‘Isn’t this too close to your family home for a tourist development?’
