Billie was quick to agree and stayed only long enough in the bedroom to dress in casual clothes. In the ground-floor office suite, she stepped into the working role she had given up as if she had never been away and although the other staff were now somewhat overawed by her new position as Alexei’s wife she very much enjoyed being kept busy. ‘I miss working,’ she told Alexei when she joined him later for dinner, having finally donned her slinky evening trousers and blue top. Supremely handsome in his dark suit, Alexei surveyed her slight figure and the bright hair flaming round her pale heart-shaped face and his wide sensual mouth compressed. ‘But you’re a mother now.’ ‘Surely I could still work part-time with you?’ Billie prompted, longing for the closeness of that working relationship to be restored. ‘Not when I’m travelling,’ Alexei pointed out drily. And Billie had overlooked that necessity when she’d come up with her proposition. While she was ready to allow her son to be cared for several hours a day, she was not prepared to leave him for several days at a time or to disrupt his routine by taking him travelling round the world with her.
