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Billie tilted her chin. ‘She’ll have to because I need you to agree to this career break.’
‘I’ll consider it.’ Alexei’s rich dark drawl carried more than a touch of ice. ‘But why don’t you consider basing yourself in my London headquarters for eight months instead? That would be a more sensible option and it would still give you a change of scene and new colleagues.’
Unprepared for that very reasonable suggestion, Billie stiffened in dismay. ‘I would really rather have a complete break from my current employment.’
Alexei made her wait for a week for a final answer. She had thought she might have to remind him and her nerves suffered while she waited; if he refused she would have to hand in her resi
gnation. He called her into his office shortly before he was due to fly out to Paris for the weekend. She entered the room, stiff-backed as she tried to shrink inside her jacket, lest the fabric fall revealingly against the small swelling mound of her stomach.
‘I’m not in agreement with this career break as you call it,’ Alexei informed her without hesitation, his dark golden eyes grim and cool. ‘It’ll be a nuisance, but you’ve worked well for me for some years now and I am conscious of that. When do you want to go on leave?’
‘At the end of the month,’ she told him, weak with relief but taut with guilt at the tangle of deception that she was embarking on.
But she could not see a choice. Although an engagement had yet to be announced, Calisto was already said to be consulting wedding planners. Billie could only hope that the marriage would take place before her return. The passage of time, she told herself urgently, would cure her of sleepless nights and the erotic longings that embarrassed the hell out of her.
She wasn’t herself any more. It was as if Alexei had picked her up and shaken her so that nothing inside her was in the right place any more. She was at the mercy of her hormones, of passionate crying jags and, sometimes, wild crazy thoughts and hopes. Distance would cure her, give her the chance to get over him, she told herself fiercely, because if she was planning to return to work for Alexei, she needed to grow a tougher skin.
‘You and my sister are thick as thieves at present,’ Lauren remarked when her daughter came to say her goodbyes, her burgeoning tummy carefully concealed below a loose T-shirt and a canvas jacket. ‘When are you planning to tell me what’s really going on?’
Billie ducked the question and gave Lauren a guilty hug, wondering how she would ever face telling the truth to her mother, who was sure to have some very cutting comments to make when the time came. But all that really mattered to her at that moment was that, step by step, her plan was working…
Eight months later, as she’d promised, Billie made her return to Speros. She stood on the ferry with Hilary and Nikolos, who had become known as Nicky within days of his birth. She pointed out landmarks on the island to Hilary, who was glowing with enthusiasm by her side. With her short blonde hair tousling in the breeze, her aunt’s brown eyes were alight with curiosity and excitement.
‘So that’s your house…my new home,’ Hilary breathed, straining to see the small dwelling to the right of the vast Drakos compound. ‘And that massive yacht out there is Sea Queen? I had no idea the yacht was as big as a cruise liner.’
‘You’ll be able to come on aboard and tour the yacht on St George’s Day,’ Billie commented. ‘The whole island takes a holiday for the festival of Agios Georgios and although it’s the celebration of the saint that the village church is dedicated to, there’s also a lot of fun with bonfires on the beach and loads of food and drink.’
‘I’m looking forward to it. I remember you talking about it a couple of years ago,’ Hilary admitted. ‘Isn’t it typical that Nicky has finally fallen asleep?’
Billie gave her infant son a rueful look. That was Hilary’s polite way of saying that Nicky had been a little horror for most of the journey from London, evidently disliking the changes in his usual routine. He had cried for most of the flight and had refused to settle in between times. Offers of bottles, changes and cuddles had made no impression on his general dissatisfaction with life.
‘I can’t wait to see my house. The photos Damon emailed only whet my appetite.’ Billie’s arm was aching and she shifted Nicky to her other shoulder, where he continued to doze, his little breathy snuffles sounding in her ear. He was a surprisingly heavy bundle for a baby of only three months old. She stroked his back, wondering how she would bear working for hours away from him every day but knowing that, like millions of other working mothers, she had no choice.
Lauren greeted them at the harbour and made a beeline for the baby, who was now in Hilary’s arms. ‘So this is my…nephew,’ she exclaimed, and it seemed to her daughter that there was a deliberate hesitation over that designation. ‘My goodness, he looks older than three months and he’s rather Mediterranean in his colouring, isn’t he? I wonder who he got all that black hair from—’
‘Don’t exaggerate, Lauren. He’s not a baby werewolf.’ Hilary reclaimed the sleepy baby from her sister and clambered after Billie into the village taxi.
‘What colour are his eyes?’
‘Brown.’ Billie avoided the hard stare her mother was subjecting her to from the front passenger seat.
Mercifully the new house took over as the topic of conversation. Billie had had furniture and household effects ready in storage before she even left the island and Lauren and Alexei’s housekeeper, Anatalya, had worked together to find a place for everything. The two women had done a great job, but Billie realised that the furnishings looked sparse, particularly when the wood and tiled floors and white walls were bare of any adornment.
‘It’s so light and bright!’ Hilary carolled, walking out onto the terrace where Billie was already admiring the wonderful panoramic view of the bay. ‘It’s amazing, a fabulous house and so spacious. Should we put Nicky down for a nap?’
‘You’re his mother, darling. Surely that should be your decision,’ Lauren interposed with suggestive bite.
‘He’s the most beautiful baby!’ Anatalya exclaimed in admiration, bridging the awkward moment between the three women related by blood.
Nicky was settled in his nursery where a musical mobile was switched on for his entertainment. He watched it with wide unblinking dark eyes and then his little face creased and he began to grizzle and complain.
‘I think the mobile is irritating him,’ Hilary opined.
Billie switched it off.
‘So the baby rules the roost,’ Lauren remarked from the doorway. ‘Is it, by any chance…a Drakos baby?’
‘Shush!’ Billie hissed at her mother in shock. ‘Don’t even breathe an insinuation like that!’
