GREEK HUSBAND

Chapter 62

Her eyes widened at that admission. 'The very first moment?'

'It was like sticking my finger in an electrical socket,' Edward quipped. 'The attraction was instant and very powerful. I had to know you and then I had to have you. When I found myself wanting to hang onto you the morning after our night together, it freaked me out.'

'You did?' Bella was frowning. 'But we were only together one night.'

'One night with a very special woman who made me want much more from her than any woman I'd ever met,' Edward completed huskily. 'Why do you think I was too impatient to wait to hear from you afterward? I was obsessed. I couldn't think of anything but seeing you again. It's a wonder I wasn't boiling bunnies...'

Bella was in shock but hanging onto his every word. 'Can't imagine that...but you said—'

'I said I didn't do love and then you threw me out of that hospital room when I badly needed to be with you and I had to get by without you for a week.'

'During which you suffered some sort of brainstorm?' Bella framed shakily.

'No, it finally hit me that I was very deeply attached to you and that it had just happened, regardless of all my doubts about such feelings.'

Bella finally stood up and approached him. 'Very deeply attached?'

'Hopelessly,' Edward told her with his irresistible smile. 'Somewhere along the way I fell in love with you but I didn't recognize it. I knew I liked you, wanted you close, and needed to look after you. I knew I was jealous of your friendship with Matt and very relieved when you didn't succumb to Bastien's legendary appeal. But I honestly did think that I was feeling all those things because it was natural for me to feel protective towards you when you were pregnant.'

'Easy mistake to make,' Bella told him breathlessly, unknotting his tie, yanking it free of his collar before embarking on his shirt buttons. 'You've just told me you love me and, since I love you too, we should be celebrating.'

'You love me? Even after all the mistakes, I've made?' Edward pressed, stunning dark golden eyes locked to her flushed face and her huge beaming smile.

'Yes. Unlike you,' Bella murmured in unashamed one-upmanship, 'I never expected the man I married to be perfect.'

'But I do think you're perfect,' Edward argued heatedly. 'Absolutely perfect for me. You're beautiful and clever and warm and loving and you will make an absolutely brilliant mother.'

'Tell me more. My ego loves this,' Bella urged, laughing. 'I really should've guessed you loved me when you tracked down my father for me and got him out here. Instead, I was too busy worrying about you dining out with Marina.'

Edward tensed. 'Why on earth would you worry about that?'

'Because you thought she was perfect and you were with her for three years.'

'If she'd been perfect for me I'd still have been with her and my sexual drive would have centered on her,' Edward pointed out levelly. 'And Marina isn't perfect. Not only did she once have a one-night stand with my brother...'

'Bastien?' Bella pressed in surprise.

'Yes. She's also currently having an affair with a married man, although it is not quite as bad as it sounds,' Edward conceded reluctantly. 'His wife has been suffering from early onset dementia for years and is currently in a care home and recognizing neither him nor his children. He's been living in limbo for a long time. You won't ever have to worry about my relationship with Marina. We're good friends and would be even better friends had we just settled for that.'

Bella smiled, accepting his explanation, putting those fears to rest. 'Why didn't you tell me that you were planning to look up my father?'

'I had to check Tony out first. He could have been hostile to an approach from you. He could have hurt your feelings and I couldn't have stood by and let that happen to you,' Edward assured her without apology. 'As it was I met him, liked him, and saw quite a bit of you in him.'