Exclusive Love (British Billionaires Series) (13 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Considerably relaxed and merry, the atmosphere was buzzing without any hint of the fracas earlier.

‘What was this nervous anxiety business about you seeing us?’ asked Rupert.

‘Nothing, nothing.’

Oscar waved a drunken hand to imply the subject was closed. Imogen and Rupert chanted ‘spill, spill, spill, spill.’ Robert joined in. When Katy entered for the final chorus he admitted defeat.

‘I really, really wanted you to meet my adorable Katy, but I was totally focused on announcing her as my girlfriend. We only sealed the deal last night. While it’s new, it doesn’t mean it’s not real and it doesn’t mean it’s not forever. I was practicing in front of mirror as how I should introduce her and given our similar ages and Katy not even near her mid twenties, all I could obsess on was you two mocking me,’ he said pointing accusatorily at the two siblings.

‘I knew you’d happily point out that at thirty-five I am long past boyhood. I didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of Katy. I stressed so much I didn’t even notice her dress until she hit the deck and the moonlight illuminated her like a silent film star,’ rambled Oscar, pretending to be drunker than he was as an excuse to voice his true feelings.

‘I think I’ve learned more about you in five minutes, than I have in the thirty years I’ve known you,’ laughed Rupert at Oscar’s unexpected emotional blathering.

‘Katy is a girl, so she can be your girlfriend. The intro is fine. It’s Katy that needs to lose sleep over how to introduce you to her parents. At least you’ll have loads in common with them. I bet you’re a lot closer in age to them than you are to Katy,’ taunted Imogen.

‘Exactly what I said,’ agreed Katy.

‘Leave my friend alone. This teasing and bullying is precisely the reason he didn’t want to confide. Don’t make him regret it,’ defended Rupert.

‘I don’t. I don’t regret a thing. I do however regret having to get in touch with your friend to break the bad news,’ he said, pointing at Imogen.

‘Nooooo. You didn’t?’

‘I did. Katy was the first one.’

‘I can’t believe you signed up to Exclusive Love, Oscar Woodruff.’

Katy’s hound dog instincts emerged, even when drunk.

‘What’s Imogen’s friend got to do with Exclusive Love?’

‘She created the site,’ said Rupert, Oscar, Robert and Imogen in unison.

‘Why?’

‘Gap in the market. People connect in respect of their nationality and status. When we first moved here for Rupert to take over the practice, we spent our entire time trying to set Rupert’s friends up with dates. Everyone had the same complaint. The sea of gold diggers made taking dating seriously a near impossibility.’

‘Too true,’ uttered Oscar, supporting the allegation.

‘In hindsight, they knew the type of people Imogen and I socialize with. If we were setting them up with a single woman it would be someone appropriate,’ said Rupert innocently.

‘Define someone appropriate,’ requested Katy, ensuring her tone remained calm and laid back.

‘A woman looking for love, to settle down and share a life; rather than a woman looking for a schmuck with a fat pay check,’ said Imogen.

‘Who came up with the screening process?’

‘It was tough. We both did. Clara knew she already had a unique selling position by only having single British millionaires as her male clients. Whatever abundance of wealth is around, the ratio of female millionaires in America to Clara’s database of British millionaires is miniscule. Coming from money myself.’

‘The lottery of adoption,’ uttered Robert.

‘Coming from money myself,’ she continued, ‘I realized in my position I’d use the site for dating only, not to marry into money.’

‘You’ve no need to concern yourself with that when adopted by billionaires.’

Everyone refused to register Robert’s interjections.

‘I hypothesized that financially, independent women whose income would be substantially greater than the average female American salary, would be more inclined to have genuine reason to use the site. They wouldn’t need the wealth, nor would they see it as a golden ticket to the impossible dream. Chances are they’d respect the man’s position. In addition, women in a strong, financial situation are more likely to be accustomed to the professional demands and social requirements of those surrounding a millionaire.

‘You can’t pretend there isn’t a social gap. This is slumming it for us tonight, but dinner on a yacht by the marina is heaven for other people. If it didn’t have a financial screening process, Exclusive Love would be yet another dating website full of frauds and gold diggers. What we’ve tried to do is extract or diminish the ‘millionaire’ appeal to create a database of sincere women looking for love befitting the needs of the single British millionaire. The male clients have a substantial choice of suitable dates, which means they won’t have to ‘train’ to a socially acceptable standard. It’s why the men pay a monthly subscription.’

‘What is the subscription fee?’

‘$5,000’

‘A year?’ Katy called for clarification.

‘A month,’ said Oscar. ‘Thank god I’ve found you Katy, because tomorrow, I shall have to break the bad news to Clara that I’m out.’

‘Aren’t you putting all your eggs in one basket? Try before you buy and all that,’ interjected Robert.

His careless comment finally caused Rupert, Imogen and Oscar to sit up straight. Rupert was prepared to bawl him out, his hand already on Oscar’s chest to ensure he remained seated while defending Katy. Shrugging, Katy looked skywards, letting the trio know she hadn’t taken it to heart and wasn’t bothered.

‘$60,000 a year is crazy money,’ said Katy.

‘For the women on there, definitely. Hence no subscription fee for them. For a millionaire it’s next to nothing,’ explained Oscar.

‘Exclusive Love must be raking it in, Imogen,’ said Robert suggestively.

‘Never mind the company’s finances.’

Turning her back to Robert, Imogen was proud to confirm Robert’s speculation.

‘Clara is raking it in. Trouble is while there are decent blokes out there like Oscar who are considering settling down, there’s a lot of men in and out of America on business wanting no-strings fun with the confidence that the women they’re dating aren’t going to be emotionally demanding or overly clingy when ditched. That’s how a gold digger will behave if she wants to pursue a British millionaire.

‘She’ll dig her claws in and not let go. A financially, independent lady such as myself or Katy would remain a lady and accept the cad for what he is. Oscar falls in love and cancels his subscription. If every British millionaire was as lucky in love, income would be limited without ongoing subscriptions. It’s not public knowledge, but I know Exclusive Love has a number of clients that use it more as a sex website than a dating one. It’s a reliable earner.’

‘Financially speaking then, Clara benefits from men that are essentially playboys. Her main source of income is catering to men’s sex drives and callous disregard for women.’

‘It’s a harsh truth to learn but there’s no money in love,’ said Rupert, patting Katy’s hunched shoulders.

‘Perhaps I’m naïve, but it seems unfair on the women to go through a stringent screening process only to be subject to the whims and fancies of spoiled, selfish, playboy millionaires.’

‘Men are given the opportunity to say on their profile if it’s long term, short term, love or friendship they’re after. Women aren’t going in completely blind,’ reasoned Imogen.

‘But a lot of guys can choose to lie on their profile to attract dates. I’m sure technology isn’t so advanced the website installed a lie detector in the software to alert the administrator as to when a millionaire is typing in a lie about what he’s seeking to trap his prey,’ emphasized Katy.

‘No, but it would’ve been class had it,’ laughed Rupert. ‘I think that not charging a subscription fee to acceptable female clients is how Clara justifies the situation to sleep at night.’

‘Are any of the millionaires fake?’

‘No. They couldn’t possibly be. The stringent financial checks carried out are in place to ensure Exclusive Love delivers what it offers which is British millionaires, or billionaires in Oscar’s case. With Google and the internet, basic research is easy to carry out. Combine research with the financial measures it’s fail safe,’ rationed Imogen.

‘Nothing is fail safe. Online hackers nowadays are superior in skill. Technology becomes outdated as soon as it hits the market,’ said Katy dubiously.

‘There’s no incentive that I can see for a man to want to fake it,’ said Oscar bored with the conversation.

‘That implies only women are gold-diggers. If men know a dating website has rich women on it, it’ll become a cattle market for a man looking to use a woman for money,’ objected Katy.

‘Even if you were a computer and economics genius and did pass the tests to present yourself as a millionaire, you have to pay the subscription a month in advance. $5,000 deducted straight away from your account. If you don’t have it for the second month, your profile is locked. The company won’t lose any money,’ reasoned Imogen.

‘Your friend Clara was lucky to have the Locke-Smythes prepare the legalities of the company and website set up, said Robert drily. ‘I’m sure there’s enough loop holes provided to ensure your friend Clara doesn’t hang herself or a lot of loopholes would increase her chances of hanging herself. I can’t tell for sure, because as you pointed out earlier Imogen, I didn’t receive a higher education like my perfect cousins.’

‘We’re not going back there. Drop it or go,’ warned Rupert.

Robert’s expression suggested he was contemplating the idea.

‘How about women faking to get on the database? I bet there’s loads, scamming and slipping in under the radar to get access to the highest level of society,’ quizzed Katy.

‘Again the financial checks are a strong deterrent. Even an inspired expert gold digger would find it hard to raise funds to pass the screening. There has to be proof the funds exist. Faking a bank statement can’t be done, because the statements are crossed checked directly with the bank to confirm the account balance.’

Katy had to keep from smiling. Her suspicion that unusual account transactions weren’t identified affirmed her theory that only bank balances were checked. The screening wasn’t that tight in respect of keeping out gold-diggers.

‘Do they do basic research on the women as well? Make sure they are the kind of person looking for love?’

‘No. It would take far too many man hours and be a waste of resources. If they have the finances to get the go ahead, the rest is up to them. They have exclusive access to single British millionaires for life and all they had to do was scan over a few documents. It’s fair. You have to prioritize the paying customer.’

‘The women are getting a rough deal. They have to earn a certain amount and jump through high hoops proving financial independence, which somehow demonstrates they can conduct themselves in wealthy social circles but aren’t tempted by the glamour of men. Then Exclusive Love throws these women, seeking their soul mates into a den under the pretense it’ll be full of affectionate meerkats, but once inside they discover a few savage hungry lions hunting,’ said Katy provocatively.

‘That is an accurately observed and exemplary constructed and presented summary of how Exclusive Love operates,’ asserted Oscar.

‘Here, here,’ concurred Rupert. ‘Sadly, however well intentioned, those dating websites are businesses and are profit based. The concept of lonely, strangers finding love on the internet is wonderful, but it doesn’t put food on the table or shoes on your feet. At the end of the day it’s the concept, that your Mr. or Mrs. Right is a click away that drives people to these sites to pay the subscription fees.’