GREEK HUSBAND

Chapter 38

Bella realized why she was being temporarily promoted to family status and almost laughed. 'Della, Edward hasn't ever mentioned either you or Declan.'

Unimpressed, Della curled her lip. 'We looked after you when you were a child, Bella. Now I expect you to look after us and ensure that there is no reason for Edward Zikos to sack your uncle from his job or withdraw business from my legal firm. After all, it's your fault that I was brusque with him... I know I offended him but he arrived in the middle of a family crisis... Make sure he understands that.'

Bella was astonished by the entire tenor of the conversation. Della was scared that her comfortable life was under threat. Only genuine anxiety on that score would have persuaded the older woman to meet up with her despised niece and ask her for help to smooth over any offense caused. Bella thought it best not to mention that she was currently at serious odds with Edward herself, having called him a lying, cheating scumbag without integrity.

'I'll check out the situation for you and, if necessary, explain things,' Bella promised to bring the uncomfortable meeting to an end. 'But I really don't think you have anything to worry about.'

'Bella, you have about as much idea as to how the very wealthy expect to be treated as a farm animal!' her aunt told her with raw-edged impatience.

Back at the hotel, Bella ordered a meal from room service and lay on the bed, pondering that strange encounter. She believed that her aunt was panicking without good cause. But hadn't she already discovered that she did not know Edward as well as she had assumed? It was not a situation she could ignore, was it? Edward could well be the vengeful type when people crossed him. Della had probably been very rude to him: Della in a temper didn't hold back. As Bella thrust her tray away, she lifted her phone, her conscience twanging. She couldn't simply ignore her aunt's fears simply because she herself did not want to speak to Edward.

'Bella...' Edward growled down the phone like a grizzly bear, apparently not in any better a mood than when she had last seen him.

'I need to talk to you,' Bella advanced stiffly.

'I'll be with you in an hour.' At the other end of the phone, Edward smiled with a strong sense of satisfaction. Clearly, Bella had calmed down and finally seen sense. Nobody was perfect. He had made one mistake. And she needed him, of course, she did; he was the father of her baby...

An hour later, a knock sounded on the door and Bella used the peephole, recognizing one of Edward's bodyguards before opening the door. 'Yes?'

'The boss is on the top floor waiting for you,' she was told.

Bella grabbed her key card and followed the man into the lift. Of course, if Edward owned the place he would have an office or something in the building, she guessed. She breathed in slow and deep at the thought of seeing Edward again. She could handle it; she could handle him without letting herself down. Couldn't she? She had never been one of those girls who was a pushover for a good-looking, smooth-tongued male, although to be honest, she reasoned, she had met none before Edward, which meant that Edward kind of reigned supreme in her imagination as the ultimate player.

She smoothed damp palms down over the denim skirt she had teamed with a green T-shirt. Dressing up for him? That suspicion was a joke when she recalled how Marina had looked, all glossy and glitzy with wonderfully smooth straight hair and amazing make-up. No bad fairy had cursed Marina at birth with red curly hair and freckles, not to mention that would have suited someone much taller.

She walked into a beautifully decorated large room. It had a bed like hers but there the similarity ended because it was much more of a five-star suite. Edward was by the window, broad, straight shoulders taut with a tension she could feel, and in spite of her inner strictures, her heart leaped even before he swung round to face her.

'Bella...' he said and his dark deep drawl shimmied down her spine with the potent sexual charisma that was so much a part of him.

Edward felt a hard-on kick in as he focused momentarily on the swell of Bella's high, full below the thin top, and the slender perfection of the thighs he hadn't had a good look at since they first met. Diavelos, he loved her body, he really, really loved her body. It just did it for him every time the way no other woman's ever had. He looked and he simply wanted to touch, taste, and take.

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