A Scandalous Marriage

But it wasn’t her problem if none of her girls wanted to marry him. She charged her male clients five thousand dollars up front, whether they found a wife at Wives Wanted, or not.

For his money, Mr Stone would be matched and introduced to five very attractive and intelligent women who fitted his criteria the best, and vice versa. After that, it was up to him.

But he’d have to show a bit more charm on a date than he was currently showing if he wanted a wife. Just being sexy was not enough for her once-bitten, twice-shy girls.

Still, that wasn’t her problem.

‘Since you own a computer software company, Mike,’ she said matter-of-factly, ‘you’ll be familiar with the type of program I use to match up my clients. It’s quite basic, really. Mine, however, does have a security check built in, which validates that my clients are exactly who they say they are. I presume you have no objection to that?’

‘Nope.’

‘Good. Let’s get started, then. Your full name.’

‘Mike Stone.’

‘No, your full name,’ she said, a touch of exasperation creeping into her voice. ‘The name that’s on your birth certificate and driving licence.’

‘Mike Stone.’

Natalie gritted her teeth. ‘Not Michael?’

‘Just Mike.’

‘Fine. Your address and phone number, please? Mobile as well.’

She typed them in as he rattled them off, thinking to herself that his address of an apartment in Glebe could be good news or bad news. Glebe had become a trendy suburb of late. Its proximity to the inner city and Sydney University was highly valued. But some parts of it were still a bit dumpy.

‘Your work address?’

‘I work from home.’

Oh-oh. Now that was definitely bad news. Okay, so there were some small businesses that were quite successful. But not too many.

‘Age,’ she said.

‘Thirty-four.’

Now her eyebrows lifted. She’d thought him older. There was a wealth of life’s experience within those eyes.

‘I’ll be thirty-five in December,’ he added. ‘December the fifteenth.’

‘So you’re a Sagittarius,’ she said as she tapped in that information.

‘I don’t believe in crap like that.’

‘Really.’ She should have known. Brandon had said something very similar when she’d claimed the stars deemed them a reasonable match. She was a Virgo, which wasn’t a bad match with a Scorpio.

But Natalie wished she’d taken notice of the part that said Scorpio was the sign of dark secrets.

‘Marital status?’ she went on.

‘What?’

‘Have you ever been married?’

‘Nope.’

‘Lots of my clients have been,’ she remarked.

‘Not me, sweetheart.’

Natalie stiffened before shooting him a wintry glance. ‘My name is Natalie,’ she said in a voice that would have cut frozen butter. ‘Not sweetheart.’

His black eyes glittered for a moment, as though her correction amused him. ‘My mistake. Sorry.’

She could see he wasn’t. Not at all. But at least she’d made her stand. She couldn’t bear men who called women generic names liked sweetheart and honey. It was condescending and demeaning.

‘Well, nothing has come back to say that you’re not who you say you are,’ she told him after a few seconds’ wait. Neither was there a warning that he’d ever been arrested, or in prison. ‘Now on to your physical description. I can see for myself that your hair is dark brown and very short, and that your eyes are black.’

‘They’re not black. They’re dark brown. They just look black because they’re deeply set.’

Deeply set and infuriatingly sexy.

‘Right,’ she said. ‘Height?’

‘Six four. Six five, maybe.’

‘What’s that in centimetres?’

‘Lord knows.’

‘Never mind. I’ll put six five. I’m five ten and you’re a good bit taller than me.’

For weight/bodytype, she typed in ‘fit and muscly’. She wasn’t the only female in the world who liked well-built men.

‘Do you smoke?’

‘Nope.’

‘Do you drink?’

He laughed. ‘Do ducks swim?’

‘How much do you drink?’

‘Depends.’

‘On what?’