Richard nodded. ‘Sensible of her.’

‘Could you have one drawn up for us both to sign?’ Mike went on, leaving Natalie trying to look suitably sensible and pragmatic about everything.

‘I can.’

‘The first million is to be paid into her account on the day of our wedding. The second when the partnership becomes a reality.’

‘Fine,’ Richard returned. ‘So when will this wedding be?’

‘Just over a month from today is the earliest it can be,’ Mike said. ‘Isn’t that right, Natalie?’

‘Yes. You need a special licence to make it any earlier. But that might look suspicious.’

Richard began flipping over his desk calendar. ‘Today’s the twenty-eighth of October,’ he said. ‘The third of December is a Saturday.’

‘The third of December it will be, then,’ Mike said.

Richard frowned. ‘That’s cutting it pretty fine. Didn’t you say Helsinger arrives in Sydney on the fourth?’

‘Yep.’

‘When do you have to join him and his wife on the yacht?’

‘From the fifth till the seventh.’

‘Given you’ll only have been married two days by then, you’ll have to act like newly-weds.’

Natalie grimaced. How on earth was she going to endure pretending to be Mike’s blushing bride?

‘Just think of the money,’ Mike said with a glance at her face.

‘Just look like you two did out in Pattie’s office a few minutes ago,’ Richard said drily, ‘and you’ll convince the devil himself that you’re madly in love. Now, are you planning on a church wedding?’

‘No,’ Natalie jumped in. ‘I wouldn’t like that.’ She would not mock God with such a scandalous marriage.

‘A celebrant, then,’ Richard suggested. ‘You could use my penthouse for the ceremony. Holly and I have moved into our new house, but we’ve kept the penthouse as a getaway. It would make a nice setting for a wedding.’

Natalie remembered that when Richard Crawford had signed up with Wives Wanted, his address had been a new swish apartment in East Balmain.

‘You could stay there together till you have to board Helsinger’s yacht,’ Richard offered.

‘We won’t say no to that,’ Mike said. ‘Much better than a hotel where we’d be on show all the time.

Thanks, Rich.’

‘Yes, thank you, Richard,’ Natalie concurred. Much better than staying in some honeymoon suite at a city hotel. That could have been awkward, and seriously embarrassing. Richard’s penthouse was sure to have more than one bedroom.

‘I’ll ring Reece and get the number of that celebrant he and Alanna used,’ Mike went on.

Natalie blinked, then swivelled to face Mike. ‘Are you talking about the Diamonds?’

‘Yep. The one and the same couple you brought together. They’re close friends of mine.’

Natalie could not have been more astounded. ‘Good heavens!’

‘Why so surprised?’

‘They…er…just don’t seem like your type of people.’