'I have things to do.'
'Come here...I want to show you some properties,' Edward urged.
Bella moved reluctantly forward, one hand clutching the towel to her lest it slips. She was wasting her time with modesty, Edward thought helplessly. It only made him want to rip it off her more. 'Properties?' she questioned, dry-mouthed.
Edward sank down on the sofa he had abandoned and swung out the laptop he had been using. 'I've been looking for somewhere suitable for you to live.'
'But I'm here...er...I thought...'
'This is a company apartment, used by my father and my brother as well. It's serviced, convenient for me,' Edward explained. 'Until now I haven't spent enough time in London to warrant the purchase of separate accommodation.'
'And that's changing?' Bella took a seat uneasily by his side and the faint but awesomely familiar scent of him ailed her nostrils, an intoxicating hint of sandalwood and citrus fruit with a foundation note of warm, musky masculinity. Below the towel, her beaded into straining points, and warmth pooled in her pelvis.
'Obviously, it will. If my child's going to be here, I will be too,' Edward countered carelessly as if that truth was so obvious he shouldn't have to say it out loud. 'But fortunately, I do own quite a few investment properties here and I've made up a small selection of the ones that are currently available for you.'
Bella was frowning in bewilderment. 'For...me?'
'You're homeless. My most basic responsibility should be ensuring that you have a comfortable and secure base.'
'I wasn't homeless until you persuaded me to move out of Matt's spare room,' Bella said shortly, disliking the label as much as his take-charge attitude that suggested she was a problem to be tackled and solved. 'And I assumed I was staying here.'
'You need your own space.'
No, Edward wanted his space back, Bella suspected. Just then she recalled that he hadn't still been in bed with her the morning after their first night together on the yacht either. 'You should've left me where I was.'
'I'm not going to argue about this with you. It's futile,' Edward spelled out, flipping up the first of three luxury properties, chosen for proximity to her university campus.
Her lungs inflated while she listened to his spiel and watched the screen flip up properties that only someone wealthy could have afforded to rent. Her hands curled into fists and her soft mouth flattened over grinding teeth long before he reached the end of his running commentary and turned the laptop over to her for further perusal. It was the last straw. Bella sprang up and settled the laptop squarely back down on the coffee table. 'Thanks but no, thanks,' she said curtly.
Edward leaped up, his shirt flying back from his corrugated abdomen, his unsnapped waistband giving her a glimpse of the little black furrow of silky hair that arrowed down to his crotch. As she remembered how intimate she had been with him the night before the bottom seemed to fall out of her stomach and she felt positively ill with mortification.
'What the hell is that supposed to mean? That's my baby you're carrying and from now on until the finish line you're both my responsibility!' Edward shot back at her impatiently.
'No, I'm my own responsibility and I don't need a domineering, controlling man telling me what to do!' Bella flared instantly back at him, light green eyes glittering with the blistering anger she had been holding back. 'I understand that you want to stand by me to show me that you're a good guy but you're handing out very mixed messages and I prefer to know exactly where I stand.'
One look at her and Edward wanted her so badly at that moment that he physically hurt her. Her passion called out to him on the deepest level of his psyche even though he had deliberately avoided that kind of passion all his life. She was having an emotional meltdown and that was all right, only to be expected, he told himself soothingly. 'If you were to stay with me, we'd end up in bed again and that's not a good idea when you don't yet know what your plans are.'
YOU ARE READING
GREEK HUSBAND
Romance'This was more than a little push,' Bella censured. 'I don't know why you're doing it either. You can't want me as a wife that much.' 'Why not?' 'I'm just ordinary.' 'I don't see you that way, meli mou,' Edward countered. 'I see you as different, as...
