THREE weeks later, the news of the tragic accident came in a devastating phone call. Helios, the head of Alexei's security team, phoned Billie. It was the middle of the night and she was half stupid with sleep when she answered. He repeated the details slowly and with great sorrow. After a stunned pause, she asked him why he had not rung Alexei direct.
'You know him well. You are a woman—you will break the news better,' Helios opined heavily. 'It is a terrible thing.'
'I'll go and speak to him.' Finger-combing her hair off her brow with a shaking hand, Billie got out of bed and pulled on the wrap lying on the chair. She did not dare wait to wash and brush up because time was of the essence. She literally ran down the passageway to his bedroom and knocked loudly on the door before opening it.
The light went on by the bed, Alexei lurching up against the pillows, black hair spiky and tousled, a heavy shadow of stubble obscuring his jaw line, while a tangle of black chest hair rioted across his superb masculine torso. She suspected that he wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing.
'What's up?' he asked thickly.
'Helios phoned. Your parents…'
'My parents…what?' Alexei rasped at her as if some sixth sense had already kicked in to forewarn him that she had bad news to break.
'They were involved in a motorway pile-up. They're in hospital in Athens. It's very serious,' she told him carefully.
She watched his bright eyes darken and the sudden spread of pallor below his bronzed skin now pulling taut with tension across his high cheekbones. He thrust back the bedding in a violent movement. 'Are they alive?'
Hastily she spun away and turned her back to him before he could cross the room naked in front of her. 'Just. There are no details yet. I'll contact your pilot—'
'Make the arrangements,' Alexei bit out.
'Do you want me to come with you?' she prompted.
'Of course, I bloody well want you to come!' Alexei launched back at her rawly.
Tears of shock and compassion ready to overflow from her eyes, Billie sped back to her room, tore off her night gear and yanked out a business suit to wear. It was only forty-eight hours since they had arrived at the chateau Alexei owned in the South of France. While Alexei toured the vines and the state-of-the-art winery he had created and enjoyed long technical discussions with the vintner he had hired, she had relaxed from formality and worn cropped linen trousers and a casual T-shirt to wander around the lavender-edged borders in the idyllic garden that thrummed with visiting bees and humming birds. Just hours earlier that combination of sunshine and scented flowers had struck her as the purest taste of heaven but now those feelings were being utterly swept away…
Alexei was unusually quiet during the flight, his dark mood weighting the atmosphere. There was a mention of the accident on the news but no names were released. Somehow word of the high-profile victims had escaped, however, for the hospital was already under siege by the press when they arrived. For the first time ever, though, a path through the crush of paparazzi that led all the way to the entrance cleared in front of Alexei. In the foyer they were greeted by the chief administrator and a doctor who answered Alexei's questions about Constantine and Natasha's conditions. Alexei's mother had sustained a serious head injury and was on life support. Constantine had already had emergency surgery and remained very weak. The prognosis was not good for either of them.
Reluctant to intrude, Billie hung back as it slowly sank in that Alexei's mother was in a coma from which she was unlikely to recover. She was shocked by the sight of the vivacious older woman lying so still in her hospital bed. After sitting by Natasha and talking to her for a while in an effort to revive her, Alexei hurried on to his father's bedside. Constantine roused and gripped his son's hand and words were exchanged but within the hour the old man suffered a massive heart attack and passed away. Mid-morning, Alexei was present when his mother's life support was switched off. Billie's heart bled for him but he remained fully in control. They left the hospital by a back entrance and drove out to a private airfield to board a helicopter. His mobile phone was ringing incessantly by then. He answered the first few calls from relatives, explained what had happened and then he gave the phone to Billie to look after. By the time they landed back on Speros, he was grey with grief and exhaustion.
The household staff, some of whom were openly crying, awaited Alexei's arrival in the hall of the villa. Alexei talked to all of them. By then, Billie was fielding calls from chief executives and lawyers, wanting to know what was going to happen in a hundred different areas. She told them all that they had to wait. Alexei needed peace in which to grieve and while he wandered round the huge rambling villa like a lost soul Billie made the funeral arrangements.
The following few days were very stressful. Great-aunts, great-uncles, aunts, uncles and cousins travelled from all over the world to the island, packing out the villa just when Alexei would have preferred time alone. Television channels were running documentaries based on old grainy newsreel coverage of Constantine's life and various marriages. The media was responding with a similar slew of articles. Although the funeral was to be strictly private and for family and close friends only, several of Alexei's former lovers arrived uninvited. It was Billie's job to send them packing again and after being treated to a fit of hysterics by Brigitte, a French singer, that left her ears ringing, she was desperate to escape the hothouse feel of the villa and went off to visit her mother for a couple of hours.
After the Dean episode the previous year, Lauren had spent quite a few weeks in London staying with her sister, Hilary. Once off the island, Lauren's relationship with the toy boy had disintegrated fast. She had phoned her daughter several times to say sorry and although Billie fully believed that she had forgiven Lauren she now saw less of her mother and avoided her altogether when she had a man in tow.
'I had a walk up to see how that fancy new house of yours was coming on,' Lauren told her. 'It's going to be quite something—no wonder the locals are talking!'
Billie tried and failed to resist her curiosity. 'What about?'
'What do you think? We all see the fancy women in Alexei's life in the newspapers and the magazines, but you're the only one to get a building site within walking distance of the Drakos villa. Everyone knows you work very closely with Alexei and enjoy a lot of privileges—naturally some people think that you're earning the extras on your back!' Lauren supplied with a crudity that made her daughter grit her teeth together.
'It's not like that between us.'
'But not for want of you wishing,' Lauren needled, casting a shrewd eye at Billie's pink cheeks. 'I'm not so stupid that I haven't noticed how you feel about him.'