Harlequin Presents January 2015 Box Set 3 of 4(31)
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‘You can’t give me the house,’ Dee told Billie squarely. ‘I’m not going to live off you. I can afford to pay rent.’
Billie was reluctant to hurt her cousin’s feelings by pointing out that once she was married to Gio she would have little use for the rental payment. Dee was fiercely independent and had learned young that she had to be that way. The few times she had depended on others, Dee had been let down.
‘Are you hoping to sell the shop as a going concern?’ Dee asked.
‘It’s as much my baby as Theo is,’ Billie admitted. ‘I really don’t want to part with it at all.’
Dee looked at her anxiously and then, biting her lower lip, leant forward. ‘Would you let me try to run it for a three-month trial period?’ she asked hesitantly. ‘I picked up quite a bit from you when I was helping you set it up and as long as I used a bookkeeper I think I could manage.’
Billie studied the blonde woman in surprise, never having suspected that her cousin had a yen to work in the shop. ‘I had no idea you would be interested.’
‘Well, I am interested, always have been to be honest...but I knew you couldn’t afford a full-time employee, so there wasn’t much point mentioning it.’
The two women talked at length and an agreement was reached. Billie was smiling by the end of their discussion, happy to think of Dee taking over her business, much preferring that to the option of selling.
‘If you’re willing to go to Greece, you must really trust Gio,’ Dee remarked.
‘He’s always been straight with me, even when I didn’t want to hear what he had to say,’ Billie pointed out wryly. ‘If he’s prepared to marry me for Theo’s benefit, I’m prepared to trust him.’
‘You’ve got far too big a heart, Billie. Don’t let him hurt you again,’ Dee warned her worriedly.
It was a piece of advice that Billie wished she could take to heart after she returned to the hotel and discovered that Gio had checked out to fly back to London ‘to work’. Not that she was fooled by the piece of fiction in the brief note he left for her. She had annoyed Gio and he had turned his back on her and walked away. She was familiar with the withdrawal of approval and presence that always followed such demonstrations of independent action. Once long ago she had insisted on attending a tutorial interview while he was staying at the apartment. He had been irritated that she should want to go out and leave him, even if it was only for a couple of hours. By the time she had got back, he had returned to Greece. Lesson learned, she had thought then, sick with disappointment and resolving never to mention the need to go anywhere else again. This time around, however, Billie was exasperated and furious that he had removed her from the comfort of home and familiarity and marooned her in a luxury hotel with a nanny and a four-strong set of bodyguards to watch over her and Theo.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LEANDROS CONISTIS VERY NEARLY dropped his drink. ‘You’re getting married again?’ he repeated like a well-trained parrot to the male who had so recently told him he would never remarry.
Gio dealt his best friend a forbidding look that dared irreverent comment. ‘Ne...yes.’
‘Do I know the lady?’ Leandros enquired somewhat stiffly.
‘You met her briefly on one occasion,’ Gio divulged grudgingly. ‘Her name’s Billie...’
Leandros knocked what remained of his drink down in one suicidal gulp because he knew in that same moment that Canaletto’s name would never ever cross his lips again. ‘I didn’t realise...Billie was still a feature in your life. Have your family met her?’ he asked.
Gio compressed his wide sensual mouth. ‘No.’
‘And when is this wedding at which you wish me to act as your best man to take place?’
‘Tomorrow.’ Gio threw in the necessary details of place and time in a demonstration of spectacular cool.
Leandros studied the date on his watch face, astonished that it wasn’t the first of April and an April fool’s joke because Gio, who was as a rule extremely conservative and never imprudent, had literally stunned him speechless. ‘It seems...er...very sudden,’ he commented cautiously.
‘Ne...yes,’ Gio conceded.
‘Very...er hasty.’ Leandros was gradually becoming more daring.
‘Not hasty enough,’ Gio told him drily. ‘My son is fifteen months old.’
* * *
‘Oh, Billie, you look amazing.’ Dee sighed as she stepped back from tying the laces at the back of Billie’s wedding gown.
Billie stared at her reflection in the cheval mirror and blinked several times at the still-unfamiliar furnishings of the opulent bedroom. Gio had taken a plush city apartment for her and Theo to stay in. She still couldn’t quite believe that she was marrying Gio, indeed she kept on expecting some movie cameraman to show up and shout, ‘Cut!’ before things went any further. After all, in an hour’s time she was going to marry a man she wasn’t even speaking to. How’s that for stupidity? she asked herself ruefully.