‘I see,’ she said after her mouth finally snapped shut. ‘That’s a very…generous…offer.’

Generous and tempting.

‘It’s fair for the amount of work and inconvenience involved. Aside from the bother of going through with a wedding, and making it look the goods, my temporary wife will have to be available to spend a couple of days with me aboard Mr Helsinger’s yacht early in December. He’s coming here to Sydney to pick up this brand-new luxury boat and look me over at the same time.’

Natalie frowned. ‘Yachts don’t have huge bedrooms. If you’re supposed to be newly-weds, you’ll have to share a cabin.’

‘I can see the way your mind is working, Ms Fairlane, but I can promise you there won’t be any hanky-panky. I don’t want to create any problems afterwards. This marriage will not be consummated, so please don’t match me up with any female who might fancy herself a femme fatale, or who might imagine that I will fall in love with her. I won’t,’ he finished up with a flash of steel in his hard, dark eyes. ‘I don’t fall in love and I won’t be staying married.’

‘You don’t have to worry about some poor deluded creature from Wives Wanted trying to seduce you, Mr Stone,’ she said, thinking his name reflected his nature. He was made of stone. ‘I still have no intention of matching you with any of my female clients.’

Natalie would later question why she did what she did next. Was it just for the money, or were there other, darker forces at work?

The money was certainly very tempting. She would be able to pay off her parents’ mortgage and give them a lump sum to help with their retirement. Then, when she got the second million—she didn’t doubt that the ruthlessly ambitious Mike Stone would get his partnership—she could pay off her own mortgage and maybe go on an overseas holiday. She was getting tired of matching other women to men who actually wanted to marry them. It had once given her a kick to see two of her clients happily wed. Lately, however, a measure of envy had been creeping in.

Despite her disastrous relationship with Brandon, Natalie had always believed she would marry one day. And have a family of her own. When she’d started Wives Wanted three years back, she’d still harboured the hope that one day her Mr Right would walk through the door.

But something had happened to her, post-Brandon. She’d become defensive and aggressive where the opposite sex was concerned. The bottom line was she just didn’t trust them.

Men were not attracted to her harder, more cynical persona. She hadn’t had a date, or a single lover, since Brandon.

‘How about me?’ came her curt offer.