Four-Not him!

PRINCESS

"We fly out in two days, you have the photoshoot with Gabriel for the new perfume on Monday." Rachel types away on her laptop.

I scroll through my I* feed and take a selfie for my daily update. "I haven't seen Gabriel in a while, ask if he's available for lunch on Sunday."

The tabloids have been speculating for months if Gabriel and I are dating. He's hot and single, and I use him exclusively when launching a new product. But we're just friends, I told him a long time ago I'm not interested in more.

"On it." Rachel types some more before shutting off the laptop. "We're to meet your father in a few minutes."

Today is the day I'm meeting my future husband. I've been bugging my father for months to find out who he's chosen, but he's been tight-lipped about it. Of course if won't be anyone in the entertainment industry. I know the man he chose would be in business. I just hope it's not someone who's too old.

Rachel gets up from the couch and looks through the window towards the main house. "Oh god, they're here."

I'm nervous, but damn if I will show it. "Who is it?"

"Do you really wanna know?" Rachel looks at me with excitement in her eyes.

Even after everything that happened to her, she still has romantic bones in her body. I'm the opposite, I won't be marrying for love.

My marriage will be an arranged one, and I don't have a problem with that. I know my father carefully chose my husband-to-be based on credentials, someone who will take our family business over with a firm hand.

Power births power.

"Is he ugly?" I pull a face.

"Definitely not!" Rachel blushes. "Do you wanna have a look?"

Do I wanna have a look? No. It might seem weird to others that I'd leave the fate of my future in my father's hands, but this is the life I'm used to. I trust my father implicitly to make decisions that is not only best for me, but for my whole family.

I'm to take over the reins of what he's built along with a man who he deems suitable and I will honor my family like they've always honored me.

If people knew who my real family was, I would not be so loved by millions across the globe, but my father turned nothing into everything, he has helped people in poverty all over the world to improve their lives and he doesn't even take credit for it. Nobody knows he is the mastermind behind hundreds of campaigns helping erase hunger in developing countries and yes, he may be wealthy beyond words, but he has always shared that wealth without wanting or needing recognition.

I will continue that legacy, even though I don't even share his last name and if I have to get married to someone I don't know to continue the smoke screen, then that is what I will do.

"You go out first." I tell Rachel as I rise from the daybed I've been spending my morning on.

I comb the tangles out of my hair with my fingers. If the guy's not ugly, it would sure be a bonus. We're probably going to have kids in the future, so that would be advantageous.

I steel myself before I exit the pool house. This will just be another role that I play. This marriage will be a binding one, I know that, the only way out will be death. Too many things will be put on the line for it to simply end in divorce.

I notice the guy is tall, which is a plus. Papa definitely thought that one through. He looks fit, too, but as I get closer and make out the face of who the guy is, I almost turn right around and take the first flight out of Mexico.

Mason Rossi, aka Silk, stands next to my father with a champagne flute in his one hand, looking like he owns the entire universe.

I know exactly who he is. They call him the Prince of sin, he owns casinos, nightclubs and resorts all over the US, some businesses that he inherited from his father but most of them that he built from the ground up.

He's known as a great businessman, but he's also known as a panty-chaser and that doesn't sit well with me. 

I'm a practicing Catholic, meaning I kept myself pure until marriage. Not all-white pure, but I haven't had any penetrating sex with a man because that would go against my religion and I never wanted to over-complicate my life, because I didn't know who I would end up marrying. 

Now I'm just supposed to marry a guy who has slept with the entire East Coast? I don't think so! 

"No Papa!" I exclaim, ignoring the shocked face of Mason "Silk" Rossi. 

"No?" My father's face falls and I hate to disappoint him, but I think he could've done a better job. 

"No!" I reiterate, folding my arms across my chest. "I don't like him." 

"Ditto." The idiot has the nerve to say, drinking languidly from his glass. 

"Kids." My father holds his hands up. "Please Princess, mr.Rossi has graciously accepted the offer to marry you and take over from me." 

"Indeed I have not." Silk smiles at me, his eyes roaming over my chest. Maybe I should just slap him right now to get that infuriating grin from his face. 

Luizs always get what they want, and if we don't get it easily, we will make a way to make it happen anyways. I get the impression that Mason Rossi isn't easily persuaded, so my father had to pull out the stops to have him standing here. 

"He is a dirty man!" I point towards him and he looks down at his impeccable suit to look for the dirt, but I'm not talking about the physical kind. "He is promiscuous!" 

"Promiscuous!" He bursts out laughing. "Who the hell still uses that word? I am a man who enjoys sex, that makes me human I believe." 

"Would you both please calm down." Papa says placatingly. "Princess, I have already spoken to Mason about his previous ways, I can assure you from here on out, you will be the only woman in his life. Right, Silk?" 

"Right." Silk replies automatically, but he hardly sounds convincing to me. 

"See?" Papa smile reassuringly at me. "Now, can we all sit down and discuss the narrative for the coming months, mmh? We have to make the world believe you are madly in love, so that when the marriage is announced, it won't be too shocking." 

I can feel Silk's gaze burning on the side of my face and I'm grateful to Rachel when she hands me a cover-up so I don't feel so exposed. 

I've graced the covers of magazines, posted myself in swimsuits more revealing than the one I'm wearing, but his gaze makes me feel more naked than I've ever felt. And I'm supposed to pretend that I'm in love with someone that I have no respect for. 

I certainly don't plan on making anything easy for him. 

We take a seat under the canopy next to the pool, the table already decked out in canapes and champagne. Maybe if I get drunk I can get used to the idea of being married to him. 

The guy is handsome for sure, and he's Italian, they know how to dress. But if he thought I was going to be some pliant little wife he can control, he has another thing coming for him.