Sometimes a deal with the devil is better than no deal at all.

-Laurence Hill

I had been thinking it over last night and I am not sure if this is the time to discuss it with the duke. I peeked at him quickly before I settled my gaze back to my plate. We were having our breakfast on his terrace near the pool overlooking the picturesque scenery of Amalfi.

This place is really breathtaking.

"What is it?" His Excellency asked, sipping his coffee while reading the newspaper without looking at me.

I cleared my throat. I'm not sure if he would laugh at my bargain but I decided it was worth the effort. "Your Excellency—"

"Call me Lucca."

"Lucca..." I tested his name on my lips and I liked it. "I have a proposition for you."

He raised a dark eyebrow and stared at me. "Sounds naughty. Let's hear it."

The devil was making fun of me again. I took a deep breath and stared at the gleaming silver-eyes. I can do this, I guaranteed myself. All I need to do is say the words which I haven't asked a living soul before. "Will you marry me?"

Naked shock was noticeable in his eyes and suddenly, I wanted to laugh. Obviously, no woman had ever proposed to him before. His face was priceless.

"What..."

"Before you refused me," I interrupted him. "Please, hear me out."

"By all means," he replied, closing the broadsheets he'd been reading and giving me his full attention. "Let me hear your proposition of marriage."

Abruptly, I felt nervous, but I decided it's the best to be honest with him. "I have been thinking last night if I wanted retribution from Paolo and Sabrina all I need is a powerful man to help me achieve it."

"So, you think that man is me?"

I nodded "Yes. You're a powerful and wealthy duke. You have broad connections and I need the likes of you if I want to destroy them both."

He appeared to be thinking this matter seriously. I cannot blame him for it was not easy to help a woman to avenge the people who hurt her. "What can I possibly get from this union?"

I knew he would get on that part. Thank God I already knew what to offer him that he couldn't possibly refuse. "If you agreed to my plan and married me, I will give you the Rostov International Hotels."

He sat up on his chair as if a poker stick was inserted to his spine. "You can't possibly be serious?"

"I am." I told him honestly "If you help me destroy Paolo Ranaldi and Sabrina Hunter, I will give you my family's hotel after our divorce."

"You're really going to give a complete stranger your family's billion-dollar hotel empire for revenge?" He asked indecorously, as if I wasn't insane. "Is that how bad you want your retribution for those people?"

"Yes." He couldn't understand the pain I'd suffered because of them. I bet he was the one who usually ended his affairs to women. "Few weeks from now, is my twenty-fifth birthday and I will have the sole rights to my family's hotels."

"Need I remind you that the world thought you probably died in the sea by now? How can you be sure that you still have the powers over your family's business weeks from now?"

I fixed my gaze on him and explained. "Because they can't do anything until they find my body—which they won't ever. And most importantly, everything stays the way they are, Mama—my stepmother, I mean, will still act as the president of the company until I was declared dead. They can't announce me dead if they don't find my body."

I could see that he's weighing things inside his head right now. "You thought this matter very hard last night, didn't you?"

I smiled thinly. I knew I was making progress here. "Don't worry after they'd been totally ruined, I'll seek divorce and hand you over the ownership of the hotels."

"Are you saying...?"

It seems he finally comprehends. "Of course. I'm offering you a marriage of convenience."

The last thing I expected when I woke up this morning was a proposal of marriage from the woman, I'd saved two nights ago. But here I am considering her proposal against my better judgment.

Dio. But who the hell would not consider her tempting offer when she was practically handling you the well-known hotel empire around the world? To make the offer even sweeter, she was just after a marriage of convenience. I knew its already past time that I should marry and produce an heir my mother was hinting not so subtle about it.

When the Rostov International Hotels are added to my company's portfolios, I would be one of the powerful men in Europe and America.

But there still something nagging me—about the fact that she was just remote in explaining things on how they should be.

I wanted to shake off her cool façade.

"There are still some subjects that you forgot to discuss, tesoro."

Her delicate eyebrows frowned. "What are those?"

"The fact that do you intend for me to remain faithful to you throughout our marriage?"

A pretty blushed colored her pale cheeks. Good, I was making progress in penetrating her guard. "I never said we'll have a normal marriage, sir. Ours would be platonic—occasional kisses and affection in public if necessary, but nothing in private. You can take a mistress if you want, all I could ask is for you to be discreet in conducting affairs."

My eyebrows rose upward. "You mean to say that I can't even bed my own wife?"

Blush colored her cheeks even more. Amazing, I thought with satisfaction. That a woman can still go red like her. "Yes."

I don't think so. Even now those tempting legs I've seen on her first morning here were hidden from that hideous dull skirt. I spent my time at night imagining them wrapped around my waist as I entered her while staring at the violet fields in her eyes. "Ah, but I don't think so, gioiello mio."

Alarm entered her violet eyes. "What do you mean?"

I grabbed her hand and kissed her palm. "Why will I take a mistress if I have a wife to satisfy me?"

She snatched her hand back, lighting fast. Looking away from me. "I will not satisfy you."

"But you will," I told her bluntly. "Soon you will mine."

"I will never be yours," she replied stubbornly and the red stain still on her pale cheeks.

You are going to be mine, Tatiana. The moment I found you on the sea you're destined to share my bed. I didn't say it out loud as she might have heard my thoughts because she gaped at me in shock.

Definitely, I agreed with the dark thoughts in my head. I've already lost my appetite for breakfast. Nothing is more appealing than taking her to my bed right now.