Bella didn't quite know how to react to that unexpectedly personal list of her mistakes. Smiling at him all the time was a dead giveaway of the kind of feelings he didn't want her to have and that she didn't want to reveal. But it was a challenge to hide the simple truth that he made her happy, indeed happier than anyone had ever made her feel in her entire life. Because while he might not love her, he did care and he seemed to find her irresistible. Did she really need more than that from him? All that lovey-dovey stuff and wedding ring proudly worn on male fingers would really just be the icing on the cake, she reasoned: lovely to have but not strictly necessary.
'You won't be getting jumped tonight,' she warned him, her lovely face flushed and self-conscious.
And Edward laughed uproariously as he so often did with Bella, who teased him and came back at him verbally in a way no other woman ever had and who was nothing short of dirty dynamite in his bed. Oh, no, Edward had no complaints on the marriage front. In fact, Edward was delighted with his bride.
He walked her back to the car and noticed a guy on a motorbike twisting his head rather dangerously to get a second look at the figure Bella cut in a pale pink cami top that showed rather more than Edward liked and a clinging white skirt that enhanced her curvy behind and show-stopping legs. His mouth flattened while he wondered when Bella would start looking more pregnant and less curvy and sexy. He could hardly wait for the day. It offended him when other men studied his wife with lascivious intent.
Bella was glad of the breeze that cooled her as they walked into the castle because she was feeling uncomfortably warm. 'I need a shower,' she sighed, starting up the stairs.
'Me too,' Edward husked with a roughened edge to his dark deep drawl.
Bella was moving towards the bathroom when Edward spoke again and in a sudden tone of urgency. 'Bella...your skirt...you're bleeding!'
COLD SHOCK AND dismay filled Bella as she looked down at herself. In the bathroom, she frantically peeled off her clothes.
'You can't have a shower now...you should lie down!' Edward tried to remonstrate with her.
'Don't be silly,' Bella argued shakily. 'If I'm having a miscarriage there's nothing anyone can do to stop it.'
Edward stepped out of the bathroom to call Dr. Silvano and then went back in, battling an angry, aggressive urge to snatch Bella bodily out of the shower and force her to lie down but very much afraid that coming over all caveman would only upset her more. He tried to wrap a huge towel around her when she came out, hovering even when she shouted at him to leave her alone. Bella rebelled by stepping back out of view to take care of necessities but he was still waiting with the towel when she emerged again.
'You're so cold,' he groaned.
'Shock,' she said, teeth chattering while she struggled to make herself face what felt like an impossible challenge and slid her arms into a toweling robe. 'You know one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage during the first trimester and I'm only eight weeks and a bit along...'
'Hush,' Edward incised, bundling her up into his arms and carrying her over to the bed before rattling through drawers in search of the night dress she requested. 'Are you in a lot of pain?'
She winced. 'None...whatsoever.'
'You'll still have to go into hospital. Diavelos...I should've taken you straight there!' Edward breathed, pacing the floor at the end of the bed, rigid with tension and regret.
'No hospital, Edward. I think I'd freak out on a gynae ward surrounded by pregnant women and newborns.'
'You'd be in a private room and don't be so pessimistic,' Edward censured. 'It may not be what you fear.'
Bella said nothing. She lay as still as an upturned statue staring up at the ceiling. Crazy thoughts tormented her. Was this to be her punishment for thinking that she could give her baby up for adoption? Was this her punishment for not properly valuing the gift she had been given? It seemed that Dr. Silvano had been right when he'd expressed the opinion that a mother-to-be suffering from nausea and sores could indicate a more stable pregnancy. Her eyes prickled. It was inconceivable to her that only an hour earlier she and Edward had been laughing and carefree, utterly unaware of what lay ahead.
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...
