And in any case, Edward might say that he didn't do romance but it was remarkable how often their outings were drenched in romantic views, surroundings, and meals. He had taken her to see a candlelit religious procession in the streets of Lucca one evening and topped it off with dinner in a rooftop restaurant with the stars shimmering far above them. They had enjoyed a picnic below the ancient nut trees that overlooked the vineyards in the valley. With no road noise, no people around, and virtually nothing in view to remind them of the twentieth century, it had been timeless and peaceful and she had dozed off, probably because she had eaten far too much from Josefina's fantastic picnic dishes. There had been sightseeing trips and scenic drives and a couple of casual dinner engagements with friends Edward had, who lived locally.
And then there were the shopping trips and the gifts. Bella tilted her chin, green eyes reflective as she glanced at the gold watch on her wrist and thought about the pearls in her ears and at her throat, not to mention the gorgeous handbag she had foolishly admired in a shop window. Edward was very generous and his giving wasn't soulless or showing off. If he noticed she lacked something like jewelry he provided it without fanfare and so smoothly it was impossible to politely refuse. No, she couldn't fault his intellect, his company, his generosity, or the high-voltage excitement of his sexuality.
Furthermore, after a month of living with Edward round the clock, she could no longer credit the belief that he had blackmailed her into marrying him.
'When you threatened my uncle and aunt's careers, you were bluffing, weren't you?' Bella condemned very drily.
Edward rocked back in his chair, lashes low over gleaming dark eyes. 'I was wondering how long it would take you to work that out.'
Temper hurtled through Bella like a rejuvenating blast of oxygen. 'You mean you wouldn't have done it?'
'Of course, I wouldn't have done it. I'm not an unjust man. Your uncle gave you a home when you needed one and I respect him for that because I doubt very much that he received much support from your aunt.' Edward studied her. 'But from certain things you have let slip quite without meaning to, I think your aunt should be burnt at the stake as a witch...and possibly your cousin with her.'
That cool rundown of her upbringing snuffed out Bella's annoyance as though it had never been and provoked an involuntary laugh from her lips. 'Oh...dear.'
'But in one sense you have done me a favor. Your position in your uncle's family closely resembled Bastien's when my half-brother and I were children and that has enabled me to see that Bastien was often excluded, set apart from my parents and me by his birth and parentage and made to feel like an outsider,' he imparted grimly. 'It was wrong when that was done to you and it must follow that it was equally wrong when it was done to him.'
Bella nodded, impressed by that deduction and his willingness to admit fault on that score. The level of animosity between Edward and his brother had disconcerted her. She suspected they never met without one trying to score points off the other.
'Sadly, that reality won't make me like Bastien but it is why I was ready to allow you to believe that I would blackmail you into marriage. I was prepared to use any weapon you put within my reach,' Edward confessed wryly. 'I could not bear our child to experience the isolation which you and Bastien suffered as children. I don't ever want a child of mine to feel like an outsider. And if you and I hadn't married that is what he or she would have ultimately been.'
'So, I'm supposed to forgive the blackmail threats because your goal was the greater good?' Bella fielded very drily although grudging amusement was tugging at her lips. 'With that kind of reasoning, you could excuse murder, Edward.'
A wolfish grin slashed Edward's darkly handsome face. 'But you like being married to me?'
Bella rested her chin down on the heel of her hand and gave him an enquiring look. 'And why do you assume that?'
'You sing in the shower, you smile at me a lot...you even jump me in bed occasionally,' Edward husked soft and low, dark golden eyes pure burnished gold with wicked amusement and that innate bold asurance that she found so outrageously compelling.
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...
