I'm so sorry to interrupt,' another quiet familiar voice intervened and Hilary stepped into view in the living area, her face flushed with discomfiture. 'But you needed to know that you weren't alone any more. I'll take care
of Nicky, Billie. You don't need to worry about him.'
Alexei thanked her aunt with grave courtesy and Billie flung a questioning glance at the older woman, wondering why she was encouraging Alexei in his callous conviction that the obstacle of Nicky's very existence could be neatly set aside. And then it dawned on her that, within a few days at most, her son's paternity would no longer be in doubt. 'I don't want to leave him,' she admitted shakily.
'You and Alexei should have time alone as a couple. There's no harm in that,' Hilary murmured soothingly as if the situation were the most natural thing in the world.
Alexei directed Billie towards the back door as if the last definitive word had been spoken and was now etched in stone.
'I'm in my bare feet!' Billie objected jerkily.
'You don't need shoes!' Alexei countered, unwilling to countenance spending even five more minutes in what felt like the enemy camp. He bent down and swept her up off her feet into his arms.
'Please put me down,' Billie urged between compressed lips while her aunt opened the door to smooth the progress of their departure.
Wearing a beaming smile, Helios stepped out of the huge black SUV outside to flip open the passenger door in readiness. Alexei stowed Billie into the rear seat and climbed in beside her. She gritted her teeth, horribly conscious of the reality that she was wearing neither make-up nor proper clothes. Impervious to any sense of awkwardness, however, Alexei made use of the brief drive to instruct Helios to organise a separate security team to watch over his wife.
'That's really not necessary,' Billie argued as the SUV swung up the driveway to the villa's imposing entrance.
'I know what's necessary,' Alexei asserted, settling a large domineering hand over hers where it rested on the seat. 'Whether you like it or not, you're at risk now as my wife and I want to know that you're safe, regardless of where you are.'
The presence of Helios and the driver made Billie restrain her snort of disagreement as she could not imagine what possible harm could come to her on Speros. Anatalya already had the front door open wide, and the housekeeper's eyes shone with satisfaction when she saw Billie inside the vehicle. Alexei scooped Billie out and strolled up the front steps into his home as if it were an everyday event to walk in carrying a wife clad in a dressing gown. He had always had that kind of ultimate cool, even as a boy, she recalled, and a sharp little pain stabbed through her as she thought of all that she stood to lose if their marriage broke down. Oddly enough, until that moment it had not occurred to her how deeply embedded Alexei was within even her life memories. Pausing only to instruct Anatalya to have Billie's clothes removed from her home and ask when dinner would be ready, Alexei took Billie into the master bedroom suite.
Billie sucked in a steadying breath as Alexei set her down on the carpet. 'We can't just act like these past two weeks never happened.'
Alexei swung round, his keen dark gaze grim. 'For the moment, why not? Of course, you could cut a lot of the **** out of this by just telling me the truth now. I would rate you higher for that than if you force me to drag the truth out of you after the DNA-test results.'