Bachelor's Wife Read Online Free

ruthless look of him, the look that said something had displeased him. It couldn't be just because he had been hoping to find the marriage bureau open and was put out because it wasn't, she found herself thinking—-and then found she was wondering why he had called at a marriage bureau at all. Even with that sour expression on his face he had a certain something, she recognised that in him even if his air of there being little that surprised him made him a man she would have been terrified to date. As if she'd have the chance, she thought, and turned to carry on down the stairs.
    His voice halted her, a pleasant voice she couldn't help thinking. It had a nice ring to it, for all there was a touch of grimness in it.
    'It would appear we're both out of luck.' " She turned, about to put him right in the fewest of words that her visit to the marriage bureau was not for the business of finding herself a mate. But the sharp look that came to him suddenly took the words from her. She felt alarm at the way his stone-hard grey eyes flicked briefly over her before his look became calculating, a look that told her clearly he had thought of something, and that something had some connection with her.
    'How old are you?'
    The question was fired rapidly—so rapidly that she found herself answering, when all her instincts were telling her to run.
    'Eighteen,' she said, and then began to obey her instincts. As she was about to turn away again that cool voice stopped her.
    'You'll do,' he said, just as though, used as he was to making instant decisions, some problem had been solved, and that was an end to it.
    'I'll do?' she queried, beginning to see why he needed her step-aunt's services. He must be some kind of a nut. No girl would willingly tie herself up to him, for all his certain something. 'Do for what?' she found herself asking, while her instinct to be away was becoming urgent.
    He looked at her as though he thought she was being tiresome not to have kept up with him. 'I'll marry you,' he said distinctly.
    'Marry me!' Her green eyes saucer-wide, she just stood and stared at him.
    'Look, I haven't got time for pretence,' he snapped. 'You're here to find a partner, so am I.'
    'I...' she began, then realised belatedly that she should never have turned back, and from somewhere found a coldness alien to her nature. 'No, thank you,' she said primly, and turned to do what she should have done earlier.
     She had descended no more than two stairs when the voice above her, supremely confident, said, 'I'll make it worth your while.' Momentarily she halted, about to throw over her shoulder what he could do with his money. 'I'll give you five thousand pounds to go through a marriage ceremony with me,' he added, and as she heard the amount he was prepared to pay, the words she had been ready to fling at him promptly died in her throat.
    Five thousand pounds! Ralph needed five thousand pounds if, to hear him talk, he wasn't to be dumped in the river in a cement overcoat. Her mouth slightly open, Perry forced herself to turn and face the man who had just proposed that he be her husband, when what she wanted to do was take to her heels and run like fury.
    'I thought that would get you,' the man said cynically.
    'I...' she began, then as it came to her that she must be as mad as him to even think of doing what he was proposing, 'No,' she said firmly, and saw his lips twist in a disbelieving smile. Then he made another of those lightning decisions, making her wonder if he had even heard her refusal.
    'We'll discuss the arrangements over lunch,' she was informed.
    'But...' she began to protest, startled that he seemed to think the whole thing settled.
    He moved, began to descend the stairs, and as he reached her she swallowed and moved too—and to her amazement found she was trotting along beside him on the pavement until they came to a restaurant that seemed to suit him.
    Still feeling slightly stupefied that she didn't seem to be in charge of