GREEK HUSBAND

Chapter 41

'Choice is a very much overrated gift,' Edward declared, pouring himself a cup of fragrant coffee with a steady hand, determined not to react in any way to her capitulation. 'People don't always make the right choice. Sometimes they need a little push in the relevant direction.'

'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 special.'

'Edward, you just blackmailed me into marrying you. Ditch the flattery!' Bella said very drily. 'And I may be saying yes but there would have to be certain conditions attached.'

Edward tensed again and flung back his arrogant head, shapely mouth flattening back into a tough line. 'Such as?'

'As the term hasn't started yet, I'm considering taking a year out while all this is going on but I would want to return to my studies in London next year. You would have to support that.'

'Naturally, I would support that arrangement,' Edward erted, the tension locking his lean bronzed features into tautness evaporating.

Bella went pink and gathered her strength. 'And it would have to be a platonic marriage.'

Edward went rigid again and studied her with incredulous dark eyes as if she were insane. 'You can't be serious?'

'Of course, I'm serious. We don't have to be intimate to be married and raise a child together.'

His dark golden gaze rested on her resolute face. 'I'm afraid you do if you're married to me. I refuse to look outside my marriage for sex. That would degrade both of us and I couldn't live with it. I have strong views on fidelity,' he completed with finality.

Bella groaned out loud, not having expected him to be quite so set against what would in effect have been a marriage only on paper. 'I really did think that that would be the sensible option.'

'No, it would be a recipe for disaster.' Edward stared at her with his black-lashed dark eyes glittering like stars in a lean, angular face that was so handsome it made the breath trip in her tight throat. 'And I speak from experience. My father was persistently unfaithful to my mother and their unhappiness poisoned life for both them and their children.'

'My goodness...' Taken aback by that unexpectedly frank admission, Bella regrouped as she finished eating. 'But it wouldn't be quite so personal with us. For a start, we're not in love with each other or anything like that.'

'But I still want you, Bella, as a man wants a woman,' Edward delivered with savage candor. 'I won't pretend otherwise. I want a normal marriage with all that that entails, not some unnatural agreement that increases the odds of divorce. I also want to be there for our child as he or she grows up.'

'You've made your point,' Bella conceded grudgingly, willing to admit that she had not thought through the consequences of a platonic marriage. It had been naïve to assume that Edward might be willing to live without sex while the alternative of her having to turn a blind eye while Edward sought sexual consolation elsewhere was even less appealing to her. But how could he say that he had strong views on fidelity after what he had done to Marina?

As she pushed her plate away and stood up, her curiosity still fully engaged in the mystery of Edward's thought processes, Edward stood up as well.

'So, we're getting married in forty-eight hours?' Edward mused huskily, resting a hand on her arm.

'I think that's a yes.' Still striving to keep her distance, Bella tried to gently detach her arm from his hold but she didn't act fast enough because his other arm just closed around her spine to entrap her slim body against his lean, powerful frame. He was hard...everywhere. Hard-packed with muscle, tense, and...fully erect. Her face burned in the split second before his mouth came crashing down on hers, nibbling, biting, tasting in a carnal ault on her senses that absolutely no other man could have contrived. Her head fell back and her mouth opened, treacherous excitement lighting her up like a shower of fireworks inside. It was so incredibly sexy. In a mindless moment, she was convinced it was the the sexiest kiss ever.