Contract Marriage With My Billionaire Boss (Venus and Aaron) novel Chapter 142

Chapter 142

VENUS

61

We ended up at Aaron’s bedroom. It was quiet, too quiet for the weight of what sat between us. The walls were as dark and commanding as the man himself, the charcoal paint swallowing light and leaving only shadows. I was curled against him on his bed, his arm tight around me, his hand lazily threading through my hair as if the act itself kept him tethered to me. Every so often his lips brushed the crown of my head-small, reverent touches that made my chest ache.

I remembered the last time I was in this room, when I kissed him for the first time. That reckless, raw moment when I’d pressed my lips to his and lost myself. The taste of him. The way he lifted me onto his desk like I weighed nothing. The hunger. The crash of it. The way it all ended with a knock at the door, breaking the spell.

Now, there was no hunger. No crashing. Only silence. Only me, buried in him, his warmth seeping into me, and the constant steady comb of his fingers in my hair.

“You’re quiet,” he murmured.

My throat tightened. “I’ve been quiet a lot lately.”

“You’re allowed to be.” His voice was low, deep, wrapping around me. “But you’re also allowed to stop. Whenever you want.”

I shifted, pressing my face into his chest. The fabric of his shirt smelled like him: clean, sharp and warm. My safe place and my undoing. “I need to tell you something.”

His hand stilled in my hair. Just for a moment. Then it resumed, calm and steady, as though telling me: I’m not going anywhere. “I’m listening.”

I pulled back just enough to see his face. His eyes were softer here, in this room. Not softer in color-they were still sharp, silver, cutting-but softer in the way they looked at me. Like he had set his armor down for once. It made it harder, and easier, all at once.

“When I woke up… after the kidnapping.” My voice trembled. He went still again, every muscle tense beneath me. But he didn’t stop me. He didn’t interrupt. So I kept going. “I thought Martha was there. I thought she’d come to save me. That she regretted drugging me” I let out a humorless chuckle “foolish.”

Aaron’s jaw flexed. He didn’t speak.

I swallowed hard. “But she wasn’t saving me. She was the reason I was there. She drugged me. She put me in that room. My own mother.” The word cracked out of me, raw and jagged. “And still, Aaron, even then, some stupid part of me wanted to believe she loved me.”

His eyes burned, fury glinting sharp, but he kept silent, waiting.

“I’ve always loved her. Even when she neglected me. Even when she let Dain do whatever he wanted. Even when I should have walked away. She was my mom. And I thought-” My breath hitched. “I thought if I worked harder, tried harder, she’d love me back.”

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Chapter 142

“Venus,” Aaron said, my name heavy, warning, pained.

I shook my head. “No, let me say this. I need to.”

His lips pressed together, but he nodded once.

“I don’t feel anything for Dain. I never did. He wasn’t my father, not really. He told me that, over and over, and I should’ve believed him. I hated him. I feared him. He was cruel. And when I found out the truth in that file, it almost made sense. Like… oh. Of course he wasn’t my father. Because a father doesn’t look at his daughter the way he did.”

Aaron’s arm tightened around me so fiercely it almost hurt. His hand in my hair trembled. His fury was a living thing in that moment, but he kept it contained, for me.

I leaned into him anyway. “Everything I ever did was for her. For Martha. Every dollar I scraped, every sleepless night, every bruise I swallowed. I didn’t do it for me. I did it for her.”

I closed my eyes and let the memory pull me under. “The night I agreed to your contract… do you know why I changed my mind? Why I came back after rejecting it?”

He frowned slightly, but didn’t speak. He was giving me the floor. Always listening, even when the truth cut him open.

“I went home that day. The apartment was quiet. Dain wasn’t back yet. I thought I had time to breathe. But when I walked into my room… everything was torn apart. My bed flipped, drawers emptied, my things scattered everywhere. My closet ransacked.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “The box was empty, Aaron. All the money I’d saved for Mom’s chemo… gone.”

Aaron’s

eyes went feral, the veins in his neck taut, his jaw locked hard. But he didn’t interrupt.

“I knew who it was. No break-in, no forced entry. Only one other person had a key. Dain.” My throat closed. “He took everything. Months and months of scraping by, starving myself, taking every extra shift, everything. I’d done it for her. And he stole it.”

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, forcing the tears back. “That’s why I came back to you. Not because I wanted your money, not because I wanted your world. Because she needed chemo, and I couldn’t let her die. I couldn’t just… sit and watch.”

Aaron’s eyes glistened. His hand cupped the back of my head now, pulling me tighter to his chest.

“I don’t even think she loved me,” I whispered. “Not really. Maybe she loved the idea of me. Or what I could do for her. But love? Real love? I don’t think she had it in her. And still… I don’t regret any of it. Because I didn’t let her die alone. I tried. I fought. And if I had to do it all over again, I would. Because it brought me here.”

My gaze lifted to his, soft, breaking. “It brought me to you. To Sabine, to Connor, to Rosemary and Silas and Alana and Lucien. To this bed. To this moment. To… feeling something for you that terrifies me.”

His breath caught. His eyes searched mine like they were devouring every word, every tremble, every crack.

“I feel something for you, Aaron,” I whispered. “But I’m scared to name it. I’m scared to say it out loud.

Because if I lose you if I lose this “My voice broke “I don’t think I’d survive it ”

20:33 Wed, Jan 14

Chapter 142

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For a long, terrible moment, silence stretched between us. My heart hammered in my chest. His hand trembled against my check.

Then he leaned down, his lips brushing my temple. His voice was raw, gravel threaded with restraint. “Take your time, Venus. You don’t have to say it. Not until you’re ready. I’ll wait.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks, soaking into his shirt. His arms banded around me like iron, like a shield, like home.

I buried my face into his chest and let myself breathe him in. He didn’t press me. He didn’t push. He just held me, his heartbeat steady beneath my ear.

After a long while, my voice broke the silence again. “Aaron?”

“Hmm?”

I swallowed, my heart thudding. “Can I see him?”

His body stiffened instantly. “Who?”

“Colton.” I whispered the name like it might shatter between us. “Can I see my brother?”

Aaron’s silence was sharp, heavy. His hand in my hair stilled again, his jaw grinding hard enough that I heard his teeth clench. His chest rose and fell beneath me, uneven, jagged.

Finally, his voice came, low and dangerous. “If that’s what you want, Venus.”

I nodded against him, trembling. “Thank you.”

The word was small, fragile. But it was the first step.

And in Aaron’s arms, I finally let myself fall asleep.

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