The Prospective Wife

‘During my formative years everyone—nannies, parents, schoolteachers—they were all constantly telling me how good it was for me. Naturally I developed a loathing for the stuff which lasts to this day.’

‘So you want a woman who is bad for you?’

‘You’re missing the point, Joe. I don’t want one someone thinks I should want.’

That was what you get for eavesdropping! Kat had never been likened to cabbage before—she’d have remembered.

She wouldn’t have been human if she hadn’t allowed her mind to dwell on the pleasant picture of Matt Devlin a helpless victim of her irresistible charms. It would have been petty to dwell for too long on the image of his despair when she rejected him.

His antagonism made perfect sense now. No wonder he was acting like a real pain in the posterior if he thought his mother had sent her here to land a husband! This was an embarrassing mistake she could easily correct.

Her upbeat expression as she walked into the room didn’t even hint that she cared about the cabbage thing.

‘You’ve got it all wrong. I don’t want to marry you… For heaven’s sake, I don’t even like you!’

CHAPTER TWO

THERE was a startled pause during which Kat prayed for the ground to open up and swallow her. It didn’t, and she was left wondering why she’d imagined for a second that matters would be improved by telling a man she couldn’t stand the sight of him!

‘That must be a weight off your mind, Matt.’ Joe’s voice quivered ever so slightly.

Straight from the heart! The muscles of Matt’s throat worked overtime as he fought back unexpected laughter… Watching her face fall as she realised what she’d just said struck him as one of the funniest things he’d seen in ages… But then, if his nearest and dearest were to be believed, he had a particularly warped sense of humour.

‘I have to tell you there are some serious flaws in your seduction technique, Miss Wray.’ The gibe was delivered in a manner that suggested he was generously offering her advice.

He didn’t normally get a kick out of seeing people grovel, but there were exceptions…! No man, no matter how secure he was, liked being told a beautiful woman didn’t fancy him. He speculated—in a lazy, objective kind of way—how hard it would be to make her change her mind. Rejection didn’t occur to Matt.

Kat’s cheeks grew hotter as she squirmed under his malicious scrutiny… So she’d put both feet in it. It wasn’t very charitable of him to labour the fact…and enjoy it so much!

‘If you automatically assume every woman you meet is out to seduce you, perhaps you need the services of a good psychologist, not a physio!’ Go on, Kat, you tell him; it’s not as if you need the job, is it?

Matt met her defiant glare with a thoughtful expression. So, no grovelling.

She braced herself, pretty sure he was going to say something blighting, and pretty sure she deserved it, but when those heavy lids lifted he just stared… Kat had never personally encountered a stare quite like this. She found she could readily visualise innocent men confessing to heinous crimes if forced to endure that expressionless intensity for too long! She was glad that the only thing she was guilty of was clumsiness!

‘It’s not personal or anything.’

His sardonic stare underlined the stupidity of her stilted announcement.

‘I mean, I’m sure you’re a very nice person…underneath…’ Underneath being a dyed-in-the-wool misogynist, that was.

Was this meant to soothe his bruised ego…? Nobody as far as Matt could recall had ever called him ‘nice’ before as if they meant it, let alone as if they didn’t mean it!

The dangerous glitter in his eyes made Kat feel even more flustered. She decided it might be a good time to change tack.

‘I suppose you think it’s odd that Drusilla didn’t tell you about me… Actually,’ she conceded truthfully, ‘I do too.’

‘I’m sure she had her reasons.’

Kat tried to ignore the nasty knowing note in his voice and racked her brains for a reasonable explanation to account for Drusilla Devlin’s strange behaviour in dropping her in it like this.

‘She was probably worried you wouldn’t want me,’ she mused half to herself.

That had a nice self-effacing note to it. A cynical smile twisted his lips as Matt’s eyes slowly travelled the length of her curvaceous figure; this wasn’t a woman who lay awake at nights worrying about rejection.

Kat continued her meandering explanation, oblivious to his cynical observations.

‘I really needed the job you see.’ It was probably way too late to remember that.

Now there was a statement that just begged a question, and if he asked it he’d have laid money on her being able to produce a first-class sob story… Ironically, he was half inclined to believe it might even be true! If this was acting, it was Oscar-class stuff.

‘Simple philanthropy rarely covers my mother’s behaviour…’

‘It’s true,’ Kat fired back, angry on Drusilla’s behalf. ‘Your mother was being kind to me, offering me the job…not that I’m not very well qualified.’ She frowned fiercely and divided her glare that said she was willing to defend her credentials between both men. ‘You see, she went to school with my mum and she knew I was in a bit of a fix…moneywise…’ An uncomfortable flush mounted her smooth cheeks as she hastily skipped over this subject.

‘I can’t help but feel it might have been simpler all round if she’d just given you the money, not foisted you on me.’

Kat’s eyes widened in indignation. ‘I don’t take charity!’

‘A girl with principles,’ he drawled.

‘You find that funny?’ she snapped from between clenched teeth.

‘I find it commendable,’ he replied with such patent insincerity that Kat felt like hitting him over the head with one of his crutches. She didn’t normally have such violent inclinations, but he was an extremely trying man.

‘I’m more than capable of working for my money…’

‘And is this…project paying very well?’

This was one nasty insinuation too many, as far as Kat was concerned. ‘Let’s just say that I’d need to be getting an awful lot more if the job description included trying to get romantic with you! I don’t mean to be rude—’

‘You do surprise me—’

‘—but you did ask,’ she finished defiantly. ‘And I don’t know why you’re acting so offended. Nobody’s suggested you’re stupid and avaricious enough to agree to marry someone if you were paid enough!’

‘I don’t think my mother paid you.’

He didn’t add that the prospect of being his wife would be financial inducement enough for a lot of women… Maybe not this woman…? Definitely not this woman! It had been some time since he’d met a starry-eyed idealist, which no doubt accounted for the fact it had taken him so long to recognise this one. In his opinion, idealism was a dangerously unpredictable trait.

Her brows shot up in elaborate surprise. ‘You think I’d do it for free?’ she flung back childishly.

For the first time she glimpsed a flicker of genuine humour in his electric blue eyes.

‘I think she was relying on propinquity and my natural charm to do the job,’ he responded drily. He smiled and provided her with a brief but dazzling flash of that charm. ‘You look dubious…but, you see, mothers,’ he explained gravely, ‘are notoriously blind when it comes to their off-spring.’

‘I didn’t mean to be—’

Matt waved aside her protest with a faint movement of his long tapering fingers. ‘Personal…I know. For someone who is keen on professional detachment, you cram in more insults per minute than anyone else I’ve ever met.’