Bought: One Bride(2)

Richard laughed. "Yes, I know, but it's my bloody bank now and I'd like  to keep it that way. I'll give you the proper market value. What would  that be? Six million?"

"Probably." Reece sighed. "Very well. Six million."

"Look, it's not as though I can't afford it," Richard pointed out. "I  made a packet out of the house at Palm Beach I bought." And which he'd  sold a week after Joanna's funeral.

Richard didn't add that in the eighteen months since Joanna's death,  he'd also tripled his personal fortune in the stock market. Amazing what  profits could be made when you were uncaring of the risks you were  taking.                       
       
           



       

He could retire right now on his portfolio of property and shares.

But of course he wouldn't. He enjoyed the cut and thrust of the  financial world; enjoyed the power of his new position, and the prestige  that went with it.

Richard wondered momentarily what Joanna would have made of his success,  if she'd still been alive. She would have liked the money, and the  social life his new job required of him. But would it have kept her  solely in his bed?

Richard doubted it. Any woman who took a lover within two years of her marriage had to be unfaithful by nature.

If it hadn't been for the autopsy report, he would never have known the  awful truth about the woman he loved. He'd questioned the coroner at  length about the age of the child Joanna had been carrying when the car  accident had claimed her life, but he'd been told there was no mistake.  Six weeks, give or take a few days.

Richard had been overseas on business for over a month surrounding the time of conception.

The child was not his.

Richard's hand closed even more tightly around the keys. He'd wanted a  child with her so much. But Joanna had kept putting him off, saying she  wasn't ready for dirty nappies and sleepless nights.

The thing that tormented him the most-now that he could bear to think  about it-was the way she'd greeted him when he'd returned home that last  time. As if she'd truly loved him. As if she'd missed him so much. She  hadn't been able to get enough of him in bed, when all the while she'd  been carrying another man's child.

Clearly, she'd been going to pass the baby off as his.

What kind of woman could do that?

Richard had buried both of them with a broken heart, then buried himself in his career.

They said time healed everything. Perhaps so. But Richard knew his life  would never be the same, post-Joanna. He could never fall in love again  for starters. That part of him had died with her.

But he didn't want to continue living alone.

And he still wanted a child.

It was definitely time to move on. Time to find himself a new wife, the  way Reece had found Alanna after his fiancée had dumped him.

"You have that look on your face," Reece said, breaking the silence in the bedroom.

"What look is that?"

"The one you get when you're about to ask me endless questions, usually on the new project I've just come to you with."

The corner of Richard's mouth twitched. "You're a remarkably intuitive  man. I do have some questions for you. And, yes, it's about a project of  yours. But not a new one. One you completed last year. Shall we go out  onto the terrace and sit down?"

"I've never known you to be so mysterious," he said as he followed  Richard through the sliding glass doors out into the sunshine.

Richard pulled out one of the chairs of the nearest outdoor setting and  sat down. There were several arrangements dotted around the various  terraces. This was made in cream aluminium, with a glass-topped table  and pale blue, all-weather cushions on the chairs.

Richard waited till Reece was settled opposite him before he spoke.

"I've decided I want to get married again," he began.

"But that's great!" his friend proclaimed. "I didn't realise you were seeing someone."

"I'm not. But I hope to be soon, once you put me in touch with the woman who runs Wives Wanted."

Reece's mouth dropped open before snapping shut again. "But you didn't approve when I told you about that."

"I was surprised, that's all." A reasonable reaction, in Richard's  opinion. Reece was not the sort of man one would ever imagine using an  introduction agency. His confession to his best man and groomsman just  before his wedding last year that he'd found his beautiful new bride via  an internet website had come as a shock.

The agency was called Wives Wanted, its aim being to match professional  men with the kind of women lots of them wanted to marry, especially  those of the "once bitten, twice shy" brigade. Apparently, its database  was chock-full of attractive women who were only interested in one  career. Marriage. Women whose priority was not necessarily romantic  love, but security and commitment.

A lot of them had had previous marriages, or relationships, that had  failed to deliver what they wanted in life. Some were currently career  girls, but were prepared to relegate their careers to the back seat, for  the right man.

"It was Mike who didn't approve," Richard pointed out. "But don't forget, he hadn't met Alanna at that stage."

Thankfully, Richard had stopped Mike from repeating to Reece at the  reception that he thought all women who put themselves out like that  were nothing but cold-blooded gold-diggers, looking for a gravy train to  ride. He'd voiced that opinion to Richard, however. More than once.                       
       
           



       

But no one who got to know Reece's wife would believe such a thing of her.

Richard had initially been stunned when Reece had confessed that he'd  found his lovely Alanna through this agency. He'd presumed Reece had met  her socially. After all, he had a very active social life. A man of his  looks and position could have had his pick of women.

When Richard had asked him outright at the wedding reception why he'd  gone to an introduction agency, Reece's reply had been very to the  point, and extremely pragmatic.

"It was a question of time. I wanted a wife and a family, but I didn't  want to be bothered with a traditional courtship. Far too lengthy a  process. Whenever I want a property with certain requirements, I get my  PA to narrow the field down for me before I look personally. I  approached finding a wife the same way. I gave Wives Wanted a list of my  requirements and they selected several suitable candidates for me to  view via the internet. I chose three who appealed to me. I only had to  date each one once and I knew straight away which girl I would marry."

Richard recalled naïvely asking Reece if it was a case of love at first sight, at which Mike had laughed.

"Reece isn't interested in love any more," Mike had drily informed him.  "Not after that other bitch did the dirty on him. Isn't that right,  Reece?"

Reece had confirmed that love certainly hadn't come into the equation,  on either side, although he claimed he wouldn't have married Alanna  without some sexual chemistry between them.

Some sexual chemistry?

Richard still considered this a rather outrageous understatement. He'd  had several opportunities to observe Reece and Alanna together, both  before and after their wedding. To his eyes, the sexual chemistry  between them was quite electric, especially on Reece's part.

Richard had noted at a recent dinner party he'd attended at the  Diamonds' place that Reece had spent an inordinate amount of time  watching his beautiful wife talking to the male guest sitting next to  her.

Admittedly, Alanna had looked extra stunning that night in a clinging  white satin gown that made the most of her physical assets. There hadn't  been a man sitting at that table who hadn't found his eyes coming back  to her all the time, himself included.

Richard thought it was just as well that ethereal-looking blondes with  porcelain skin, pale green eyes and tall, willowy figures didn't overly  stir his male hormones. He preferred the more earthy kind of women, with  stronger colouring and lush bodies.

Joanna had had black hair, black eyes and a voluptuous figure.

Not that Richard wanted to marry some clone of Joanna. Hell, no. He  wanted the second Mrs Richard Crawford to be as far removed from the  first as a woman could be. In personality and character, that was.  Physically, he'd always been attracted to brunettes with curves. He  knew, when he eventually studied the Wives Wanted database, he wouldn't  be selecting any skinny blondes.

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Reece asked him.

"Absolutely."

"I presume you're not looking for love, then."

"You presume correctly."

"You want a marriage of convenience. Like mine."

"Yes."

Reece frowned. "I'm not sure you're cut out for a relationship like that, Rich. You're a bit of a romantic at heart."