But in the dark of the night, Bella was facing an unsettling truth: she was beginning to fall in love with Edward, hopelessly, deeply in love with a male who had never uttered a word of interest relating to any connection with her more meaningful than sex. A male, moreover, who had virtually blackmailed her into marrying him and who, while declaring respect for fidelity, had still been rampantly unfaithful to his fiancée.
'I CAN'T HELP being curious to know what you know about my father,' Bella admitted stiffly to her uncle on the drive to the registered office.
Declan Donovan studied his niece in surprise. 'Virtually nothing, I'm afraid. Your mother refused to talk about him. Initially, she said she was getting married but when that failed to transpire Keira had a huge row with our parents and cut us all off. I think she felt she'd lost face with everybody and it hurt her pride.'
'So, you never met him?'
'No, they had a bad breakup and after that, we lost track of your mother for years.' The older man shook his head with unhidden regret. 'Keira was a troubled woman, Bella. I never understood her. Luckily she still had my address in her personal effects when she died, so the social worker was able to get in touch with me to tell me about you.'
Bella flushed and looked away, wishing she had asked those same questions years sooner. But she had been too proud to ask about the father who had deserted her and her mother. 'It's not important,' she said with forced casualness.
'It's only natural that you would be thinking of your parents on your wedding day,' her uncle completed gruffly and patted her hand.
Edward stared as Bella entered the room and he wasn't the only one. Their few guests copied him, their expressions ranging from admiration to awe and disbelief. Anatole, however, dealt his son an appreciative nod as if the stunning appearance of his son's bride had set the seal on his approval. But then Anatole, Edward acknowledged wryly, had never wanted his son to marry Marina and had instead talked a lot of nonsense about Edward needing to seek a soul mate rather than a practical life partner.
Her wedding dress was the color of bronze with a metallic gleam, a long simple column that flattered Bella's curves and small stature. In her vibrant hair, which was swept up to show off her slim white throat, she wore only a tawny-colored exotic hothouse bloom. The pulse beating at Edward's groin flared into disturbing activity, lust flaring when he least welcomed it. A primal surge of desire ailed him as her pale sea-glass eyes collided anxiously with his. She looked incredibly sexy and disturbingly vulnerable.
'Money definitely talks, doesn't it?' Bella's cousin, Jenna, remarked sourly. 'That dress transforms you. It's not very bridal though.'
Bella pasted a smile to her tense lips, determined not to react. It had not escaped her attention that her aunt and her cousin resented the reality that Bella was becoming the wife of a very wealthy man. In any case, Bella's attention had already strayed to Edward, tall and dark and devastatingly handsome in a dark designer suit. Her heart hammered, and her tummy flipped. She moaned in her breath, striving to stay calm as he strode across the room, his irresistible smile slashing his beautiful shapely mouth.
'You look stunning,' Edward told her with a dark deep husky edge to his resonant drawl that sent a responsive shiver traveling down her spinal cord. 'Let me introduce you to my father, Anatole.'
'And your brother, Bastien,' the older man slotted in hurriedly as a tall dark male with coldly amused dark eyes strolled up and disconcerted Bella by leaning down to kiss her on both cheeks in Continental fashion.
'Enough, Bastien!' Edward grated, startling Bella with that eruption even more.
'Was I trespassing?' Bastien quipped, devilment dancing in his mocking gaze. 'Edward never did like to share his toys.'
Edward planted an impatient hand on Bella's spine and spun her away from the other man. 'Some day soon I'll knock his teeth down his throat!' he swore in a raw undertone.
Upset that Bastien had described her as one of Edward's 'toys', Bella flushed and murmured with quiet good sense, 'Shaking hands would have been a little formal when I'm about to join the family.'
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...
