A warm sense of acceptance blossomed inside Billie even though she could still not understand how he could have been married to a beauty like Calisto and still deem his infinitely less-beautiful second wife equal to the label ‘incredible’.
‘Are we returning to Letsos tonight?’ she prompted as she let Gio lift her into the helicopter.
‘Yes, although the family own a city apartment if you would prefer to stay there,’ he volunteered.
‘No, I’d miss Theo at breakfast time when he’s all warm and cuddly and glad to see me,’ Billie confided sunnily.
As the helicopter rose in the air Gio leant closer, meshing long fingers into the tumble of her curls. He turned her face up and crushed her mouth under his in a breathtakingly hot kiss and that not only startled her, but also sent hunger crashing greedily through her body.
Billie rested disconcerted eyes on him in the aftermath. His lean, darkly beautiful face was slashed by a brilliant smile and he closed one hand firmly over hers. Wonderment filtered through Billie. There was something wrong but she didn’t know what it was...
CHAPTER NINE
BILLIE WALKED INTO the upmarket art gallery with one hand resting on Gio’s arm. The owner swam up to them wreathed in smiles. Wine was served while they were treated to a personalised tour of the exhibits. Billie was bored but worked hard not to show it, politely absorbing the pretentious descriptions of canvases that looked as though a toddler had thrown paint at them.
‘Do you see anything you like?’ Gio enquired, apparently surprised by his wife’s unresponsive silence.
‘I’m not an art buff. I sort of prefer more traditional paintings,’ she whispered back guiltily, and then she stiffened, staring across the gallery at the unmistakeable figure of Calisto, sheathed in a scarlet minidress and virtually impossible to miss.
‘What the hell...?’ Gio breathed irritably above her head.
‘I’ll deal with this,’ Billie announced, startling him, walking across the marble tiles with her wine glass clasped in one determined hand.
‘How did you know we were going to be here?’ Billie asked Gio’s ex-wife without hesitation.
Calisto’s ice-blue eyes glinted. ‘I have my sources, but aren’t you a little out of your depth in this milieu?’
‘I believe you’re the one out of your depth. Gio isn’t coming back to you,’ Billie responded stiffly. ‘This is a waste of your time.’
‘Oh, I don’t think so. Once I heard the terms of your pre-nup, I knew you would be on your way out almost as soon as you arrived,’ Calisto trilled with a scornful smirk. ‘You signed it without reading it, didn’t you? Silly, silly woman. Remember that when Gio dumps you back in the UK without your precious son!’
Billie refused to react in any way, determined not to give Calisto that much satisfaction. The woman hated her: she could see that. It was there in the dripping malevolence of her gaze and the sneering tone of her voice and Billie was challenged to understand what exactly she had done to incite such intense loathing. Simply marrying Gio? Her custody of Gio’s son? Or was Calisto still in love with Gio and feeling scorned by his rapid remarriage?
Gio strolled up and without a word to even acknowledge his ex-wife walked Billie out of the gallery. ‘Only two people knew we were coming here and one of them is Damon, whom I trust with my life,’ he told her grimly. ‘I’ve already called him. He will deal with the leak and the person concerned will be sacked.’
‘I think that would be best,’ Billie said rather woodenly. ‘And perhaps the lawyer, whom you mentioned is her stepbrother? He seems to have talked out of turn about confidential matters as well.’
Gio frowned, making it obvious that he had not overheard Calisto’s final salvo. ‘What confidential matters?’
Billie shrugged as though she meant something trivial, reluctant to think the worst of Gio, averse to trusting anything that witch, Calisto, had claimed at his expense. She would dig out the pre-nup and check it out for herself or arrange to have it looked over by an independent lawyer. It couldn’t be true; it couldn’t possibly be true, she thought in an agony of fear. After all, if that claim of Calisto’s was true, it would mean that their marriage was an empty charade, never intended to do anything but gain Gio legal custody of Theo and she could not, would not believe that of him!
‘Your ex is a bit of a pyscho,’ Billie remarked tentatively as they settled into the waiting limousine.
‘And probably what I deserved,’ Gio breathed in a raw undertone of stress.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ Billie prompted before they entered the fashionable restaurant.