A Contract with the mafia king

Valentina Hart never expected one professional assignment to change her life.

At twenty-one, she is determined to build her event-design business through hard work and determination. She has no interest in wealthy men, complicated relationships, or the dangerous world of powerful families.

Then she meets Lorenzo Blackwood.

At twenty-nine, Lorenzo is a billionaire businessman and the ruthless head of a powerful criminal organisation. Cold, calculating, and accustomed to getting whatever he wants, he has little patience for people who challenge his authority.

Valentina is one of the few people who does not seem intimidated by him.

Their paths cross again at a charity gala organised by Valentina's company. But what should have been a successful evening turns into a public scandal when someone deliberately exposes photographs suggesting an intimate relationship between them.

The incident is not an accident. Someone has chosen Valentina as a way to get to Lorenzo.

As the scandal threatens her reputation and business, Lorenzo makes an unexpected proposal.

A marriage contract.

For Lorenzo, the arrangement offers a way to control the damage, protect his interests, and keep Valentina close enough to prevent others from using her against him.

For Valentina, the proposal presents an opportunity to protect everything she has worked to build, but marrying a man like Lorenzo means entering a world where power, danger, and control are never far away.

The agreement is simple: a marriage without expectations of love, with clear conditions and an agreed end.

But living under the same roof with a man who rarely reveals his emotions proves more complicated than either of them expects.

Lorenzo believes he can control every part of the arrangement.

Valentina has no intention of allowing him to control her.

And neither is prepared for what happens when a marriage that began as a contract starts becoming something neither of them can walk away from.