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He cocked a brow. “My stables are—”

“No, no.” Emily let out a huff of laughter. “Not that. The part about you marrying me.”

“Oh, that.” He cleared his throat and tugged on his perfectly tied cravat. “Due to the situation that we’ve found ourselves in, I find it prudent that we marry.”

She shook her head, trying to dispel all the thoughts that tumbled one after the other in her mind. “When I came to you, you said that would never happen. You humiliated me and cursed me.”

A light twitch of his lips was, perhaps, an indication of his remorse or displeasure. She didn’t know which. “I did not curse you. I simply didn’t take into consideration all the variables.”

“Yesterday, you said you never wanted to see me again.”

He swallowed. “I was in my cups.”

“And you’re not now?” She raised a brow.

“Am I to understand you’re refusing my offer?”

Emily crossed her arms over her chest. “I believe I haven’t heard an offer as of yet.”

The duke let out a little huff of laughter before mirroring her position. “Fine. Here it is. We shall marry. But you’re not to interfere with my life.”

She was to marry this drunkard and reprobate—the man who ruined her life and smeared her name—and not make any noise? Emily felt her blood boil. She didn’t usually get riled up easily, but lately, she couldn’t contain her emotions. “I can’t promise that.”

“What do you mean you can’t promise that?” The duke looked sincerely baffled.

“You want me to promise to sit idly by while you continue your debauchery and not say a word. Well, that is just not who I am. If I think you’re making a mistake or doing something wrong, I shall have my say. I am the eldest sibling in my household, I can’t just—”

He cut her off with a sharp gesture of his hand. “I don’t care. I am saving you from ruination and—”

“Saving me?” Emily fisted her hands by her side so she wouldn’t try to strangle the arrogant man. “You’re the reason I am ruined!”

“Listen here, pet—”

“I am not your pet.”

“I came here to offer you a deal. I don’t have to marry you. You have no choice but to marry me.”

She took a deep breath trying to calm herself. He was right, and she knew it. Without him, she was ruined. But she could not promise something she would not be able to deliver. If he continued his scandalous ways, it could hurt her sisters’ chances of advantageous matches and they were one of the main reasons she even wanted to get married.

Besides, something had changed. Despite what he might have wanted her to believe, he wasn’t here out of the goodness of his heart. She knew him enough to know that he needed this marriage for his own selfish reasons. The question was, how much? “I promise to not intervene in the aspects of your life that do not involve me.”

He blinked. “As far as the concessions go, this isn’t the best one.”

She raised her chin, her teeth chattering lightly. “This is the best I can do.”

He took a couple of steps forward, which in this tiny room brought them almost toe to toe. “I do not want you meddling in my affairs. After we marry, you will be conveyed to my estate in Ireland, and you are not to come to England unless I call upon you.”

The gall! Emily shook her head. “I can’t agree to that.”

The duke raised his eyes heavenward. “I’m sorry, are you just used to disagreeing all the time?”

“I have two sisters who will soon need to be introduced into society, to marry,” Emily insisted. She needed to make him understand. “And a little brother who needs to learn how to run his estate once he reaches his majority. They are the only reason I am even entertaining the idea of marrying you.” There was a glimmer of something in the duke’s eyes akin to curiosity and something else, something Emily did not dare identify. She plowed on, “If I were alone, I would rather be ruined than shackled to a person I do not love—do not know—or as is the case between us, a person I do not particularly like. But when you ruined me, you ruined the future of my siblings, too. And if I am to marry, I need to correct their standing in society. I need to make certain they can have advantageous marriages. I need to find my brother a tutor. And for that, I need to be a part of society. I shall need to sponsor them onto the marriage mart. I need to buy them new gowns, and slippers, and—”

“With my money, I presume?” His face hardened once more.

“With whatever allowance you allocate me.” She swallowed. “I am not going to empty your coffers if that’s your worry. But I need to be in London during the social season. And—”

“Fine.” He cut her off with an abrupt gesture. “You can do whatever you want. I shall allocate you a generous allowance. Generous by your standards, anyway,” he said as he looked around the room with a grimace of distaste. “And then you shall leave me the hell alone.”