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?’
‘I own this plot and I’m not planning a development here personally,’Alexei said drily. ‘ I’m offering it to you to enable you to build a house.’
Her green eyes opened very wide and she stared at him. ‘I couldn’t afford to buy this—’
‘The plot would be a gift. From my point of view it would be convenient to have you living close by.’
‘A gift? For goodness’ sake, what would your family think?’ Billie lifted an arm to indicate the fabulous view of the bay where the turquoise ocean below washed a long crescent of pale sand. ‘A site like this must be worth a fortune!’
‘I could give you a house in the village. Of course it would mean chucking out the existing tenants first.’
‘Don’t even think about it!’ Billie shot back at him in horror.
‘And a village house, even if there was one currently available, wouldn’t address your problems.’
‘For the last time, I don’t have any problems!’
‘You’re too loyal to acknowledge the strife your mother creates for you, and as long as you live in the village you will still be dragged into Lauren’s messy life. But if you have your own home at this end of the island, you will be left in peace,’ Alexei pronounced.
There was a good deal of truth in what he had said and the idea of a private base where she would be far removed from Lauren’s adventurous love life was a huge draw. ‘I couldn’t possibly accept a site from you. Your mother is already suspicious of me.’
Alexei laughed. ‘So what? Live the life you want, not the life other people would lay out for you.’
‘If only life were that simple…’
Alexei closed a strong hand over hers before she could walk away. Glittering golden eyes assailed hers in stubborn challenge. ‘It is you who makes it complicated. I have more wealth than I could spend in a score of lifetimes. You need an independent home outside the village. You can build a house here and pay for it in stages. If you require finance I will give it to you. Your only other option will be to take up permanent residence in one of my family’s guest suites.’
‘But I’m hardly ever here!’ she protested.
‘That situation is about to change radically. My father is feeling his age and I have agreed to assume control of Drakos Shipping. I will be spending much more time on the island and you are my most trusted employee. So, cease this argument right now,’ Alexei advised impatiently. ‘You could make a proper home in this place. You know it makes sense.’
Her slender fingers flexed in the hold of his. His expectant gaze was on her, his domineering will bearing down on her like a powerful weight. She made a last ditch attempt to regain equality. ‘If I accept the site, you will have to accept part ownership of any house that I build. That would be the only fair solution.’
Gazing down at her with deceptively indolent eyes of dark gold, a wicked slanting grin slowly slashed Alexei’s wide sensual mouth. ‘If I were to own a share of your house, it would give my mother sleepless nights!’
‘But it would give me peace. I just couldn’t accept the site as a gift. It’s too valuable,’ Billie told him in an urgent rush. ‘You could explain the situation to her.’
‘It is no business of hers.’Alexei stared down intently into the vivid little face so familiar to him that he could instantly discard any awareness of her bruises. Sincerity shone in her clear green eyes while her coppery hair snaked in bold strands across her cheekbones. No woman had ever fought to come up with a way of accepting a gift from him while returning the value of it. He wondered why money had less of a hold on her than on others of her sex. He wondered why he had never noticed before that she had a soft pink mouth as firm and luscious as a ripe peach. Hunger stirred arousal and a familiar delicious heaviness formed at his groin.
Billie felt the change in atmosphere with every fibre of her being but could no more have stepped away than she could have stopped breathing. His gilded gaze was mesmeric in its power to hold her. Her mouth ran dry, frantic tension holding her fast. The pool of liquid heat forming in her belly was sending an electrifying surge of responsiveness through her entire body, pinching her sensitive nipples taut, creating heat and dampness at the secret heart of her.
Alexei closed his arms round her. Cupping her hips with an intimacy that shocked her, he drew her up against his hard muscular length and kissed her. It was a kiss full of a passionate demand that rocked her where she stood. It was like being hit by lightning as she sizzled like meat under a grill and her knees almost crumpled beneath her weight.
It was Alexei’s strong arms that kept her upright while he lightened the pressure of his intoxicating mouth and teased her reddened lips with tiny provocative caresses. Having reduced all resistance to rubble, he finally went in for the kill, dipping his tongue between her lips in a piercingly sweet invasion of her unbearably sensitive mouth and provoked a series of whimpering shivering gasps from somewhere inside her. It was the very first time she had experienced true sexual hunger and it was a raw need so powerful it rolled through her like thunder, blanking out all thought and control. For those split seconds she was both defenceless and aggressive, clinging to his lean hard physique, angling her head back to enable him, her entire body yearning for much more of the same.
‘Will I be the first?’ Alexei prompted in a roughened undertone.
‘Yes,’ she answered before she retrieved her wits and intelligence came back in a floodtide of anxiety and anger and regret. As she pulled free in response to those promptings the slivering pain of sudden separation from him cut through her as sharply as a knife.
Retaining a controlling grip on her slender hand, Alexei walked her back towards the car.
Billie hauled her fingers free of his. ‘No!’ she protested strickenly. ‘I don’t want this!’
Alexei stilled and sent her a frowning look of incomprehension. ‘What don’t you want?’
‘I
