She had used the bell but nobody had answered and she had let herself in with her pass key, moving quietly round the silent apartment before knocking on the bedroom door.
‘Where’s the nurse?’ she had asked straight away.
Even more badly in need of a shave and still flat on the pillows, Gio had given her a wry look. ‘She tried to get into bed with me... I told her to leave.’
Thoroughly disconcerted by that bald admission, Billie had surveyed him wide-eyed, recognising the level of his primal male attraction even in sickness. He was gorgeous. Just looking at him had made butterflies take flight in her tummy.
‘For that reason, I hope you don’t mind that I arranged for you to take care of me because you haven’t demonstrated any desire to get into bed with me—’
Billie had reddened to the roots of her hair. ‘Of course not...how did you arrange it?’
‘Do you mind?’
‘What would taking care of you entail?’ Billie had prompted suspiciously. ‘I’m no nurse—’
‘I haven’t eaten since breakfast yesterday,’ Gio had confided, stunning lustrous dark eyes locking onto hers in clear search of sympathy. ‘Food would be very welcome.’
She had felt sorry for him, had even contrived to feel guilty that she hadn’t offered him a meal the day before. And after all, taking care of the sick was pretty much all Billie had done from the age of eleven right up until her grandmother had passed away. For the following three days, Billie had done what came naturally without fuss or fanfare. She had looked after Gio, shopping for him, cooking meals, changing the bed, passing out his medication and arguing with him every time he prematurely announced that he was well enough to get out of bed because his state of exhaustion was still etched in his pallor and sunken eyes. Indeed she had established an amazingly easy camaraderie with Gio Letsos that took no note whatsoever of their divergent status in life and she had laughed out loud when he had announced that he would take her out to dinner as a thank you as soon as he was stronger.
‘What age are you?’ he had suddenly demanded, staring at her. ‘I don’t date teenagers.’
And the minute that Billie had appreciated that the dinner suggestion could actually be described as a date, she had lied without shame to fulfil the conditions of acceptance because any kind of a date with a male like Gio had struck her as a dream come true.
As the images of the past receded, Billie swallowed hard, shaken up by those recollections and her own innocence, for in those days she had very definitely viewed Gio as a knight on a white horse. He had seemed so perfect to her, so very considerate and courteous. Well, she conceded painfully, she knew how well that belief had turned out... Gio could say the most dreadful things in the politest way without even raising his voice. He could graciously open the door for you while saying something that flayed the skin from your bones and ripped your heart to shreds. His superb manners and self-control had only added another layer of pain to the end game because he was clever enough to voice intolerable expectations in an acceptable, seemingly civilised way.
* * *
That same day the head of Gio’s security, Damon Kitzakis, came to see him after dinner. Wearing a rare air of discomfiture for a man who was generally very relaxed with his employer, Damon hovered and took his time about speaking up.
‘Something worrying you?’ Gio encouraged with a frown.
‘As you instructed, Stavros has been keeping an eye on Miss Smith and in the course of doing that he got chatting to one of her neighbours,’ Damon volunteered stiffly. ‘Quite accidentally he picked up something you probably already know about...of course, but—’
Gio was steadily becoming very still behind the desk, his broad shoulders taut. ‘What is this something?’
‘Miss Smith has a child.’
Gio shot him a startled look. ‘The woman she lives with has kids.’
Damon winced. ‘Apparently when...Miss Smith moved in when she was pregnant. The youngest kid...the baby...is hers.’
Suddenly something was buzzing in Gio’s head, interfering with his ability to think clearly. He blinked rapidly, fighting to clear his thoughts. Billie had a baby, another man’s child. There had been another man. Theos, he should never have approached her in advance of seeing the background report he had yet to receive from Henley. This was his reward for his ridiculous impatience, he reflected grimly. The least she could have done was tell him, he thought then with the dull, unfeeling anger of shock.
Pallor framed his mouth as he compressed his lips hard and phoned Joe Henley. Yes, there was a child, the older man confirmed without hesitation, but he hadn’t yet got hold of a copy of the birth certificate and couldn’t offer any further details until he did.
Why the hell hadn’t Billie just told him that she was a mother? After all, she had had the perfect excuse for not resuming their relationship, so why hadn’t she used it? Surely she would have guessed that he would no longer want her with a kid in tow? Gio sprang upright. His anger, cold from sheer shock, was heading towards sizzling temperatures very fast indeed because Billie had achieved a feat few people lived to boast about: she had made Gio feel foolish. He would never have gone to bed with her again had he known she had a child. Was Billie playing some silly waiting game, planning to entrap him with the lure of sex before admitting that she now had a kid?
* * *
Billie sank into a deep bath and whisked her fingers through the bubbles coating the surface of the water. It was treat night, when she spoiled herself with her favourite things. The children were in bed fast asleep. The kitchen was clean. She would curl up on the sofa and watch a romantic movie and have some chocolate. Even if she no longer quite believed in true love or the staying power of romance she could still enjoy the fantasy, she acknowledged ruefully.
The doorbell went when she was drying herself. And she grimaced, hurriedly reaching for her robe and tying the sash tight round her waist as she sped barefoot down the stairs, keen to prevent her caller from pressing the bell again and disturbing the children. Jade was a light sleeper and once she was up she would be up and there would be no prospect of peace and tranquillity. No, then it would be cartoons and endless chatter until Jade got sleepy again.
Billie yanked open the door and stiffened in dismay. It was Gio, shorn of his usual business suit, wearing black jeans and a leather jacket. She dragged her attention from the rare sight of him in casual clothing up to his lean, hard-boned face. Dark eyes glittered like golden fireworks at her and colour surged up in a hot wave over her cheeks because all she could think about at that instant was the thrusting potency of him over and in her and the earth-shattering pleasure that had followed.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you had a child?’ Gio demanded in a raw undertone.
Billie jerked and lost colour even faster than she had gained it at the recollection of how they had spent the afternoon. She pushed the door wider, immediately recognising that this was not a conversation she could keep outdoors. ‘You’d better come in.’
‘You’re damned right I’m coming in,’ Gio all but snarled at her, striding past her and thrusting open the sitting-room door with all the annoying assurance of a regular and more welcome visitor.
He knew. Oh, dear heaven, he knew, and that was why he was furious, Billie assumed in consternation.
Gio swung round from the window, all fluid grace and driving aggression, stunning eyes blistering over her as if she had deeply offended him in some way. ‘I’d never have touched you if I’d known you’d had some other man’s child!’
Some other man’s child. The worst of the tension holding Billie uncannily still evaporated as she realised that by some mysterious good fortune her secret was still a secret. Evidently it had not even occurred to Gio that her child might be his, but she was