Contract Marriage With My Billionaire Boss (Venus and Aaron) novel Chapter 148

Chapter 148

VENUS

The day of the launch should have felt like a coronation. Instead, the suite was heavy with tension.

61

Sabine stood behind me, fussing with pins and fabric, her jaw tight, her movements sharper than usual. She hadn’t said a word about him all morning, but I knew her too well. Sabine Sinclair silent was Sabine Sinclair angry and angry Sabine could move mountains, or burn them to ash.

I tilted my head toward the mirror, studying her reflection. “Are you going to tell me what happened between you and Connor, or should I bribe Gianna for gossip later?”

Her hands stilled on my waist. The silence stretched, thick and telling. Then she exhaled through her nose, sharp and impatient. “It’s nothing.”

I arched a brow. “Nothing? You’ve been stabbing this zipper like it personally ruined your life.”

Sabine muttered something under her breath, then clipped out, “He tried to tell me not to work tonight.”

That startled me. “Not to work? Sabine, this is your night.”

Her eyes flicked up in the mirror, blazing. “Exactly. But apparently, according to my dear Connor Hawthorne, I should’ve been sleeping, eating, relaxing. As though I’m some fainting little thing who can’t handle the pressure. I just felt a little dizzy yesterday and passed out.”

Ah. There it was. The sore spot.

“Let me guess,” I said carefully, “he meant well, and you took it as an insult. You fainted Sabine, Ofcourse he’s worried.”

Sabine’s lips curved in a humorless smile. “He called me fragile, Venus. Fragile.” She practically spat the word. “Like I haven’t fought tooth and nail for every inch of this. Like I’m porcelain instead of steel.”

“You fainted Sabine, his reaction is valid.”

“Now, you’re taking his side?” She frowned. Nerves were obviously contributing to her mood today.

I winced, I could see Connor’s mistake so clearly. He wasn’t doubting her, he was loving her. Protecting her in the only way he knew how. But with Sabine, words had to be chosen like weapons, and he’d brought the wrong blade.

“Do you think he won’t come?” I asked gently.

She shrugged, but her eyes flickered, betraying the sting. “Maybe he’ll decide I’m too fragile to stand by tonight.”

I turned in the chair despite the tug of fabric and the sharp jab of a pin. “He’ll come. Connor’s stubborn, and he believes in you too much to stay away. You know that.”

20:34 Wed, Jan 14

Chapter 148

Sabine studied me, eyes sharp, then rolled them, as though admitting even a fraction of softness was unbearable. “God, you sound like him. I should be worried.”

I grinned. “You should.”

Her sigh softened, and she reached for the final piece-the gown.

It took all my strength not to gasp when she lifted it from its hanger.

61

Lilac silk, so pale it almost looked like moonlight, cascaded like liquid down the form. The bodice hugged close, sculpted with delicate beadwork that shimmered with every tilt of the light, tiny iridescent crystals sewn in swirling constellations across the fabric, as though someone had bottled the night sky and poured it onto the dress. The neckline dipped in a daring plunge, balanced by gossamer-thin straps that glistened like threads of starlight.

But the back…the back was what stole my breath. It dipped low, scandalously low, every curve bared until the beadwork swept in again, crossing like silver vines, tracing lines down to the hollow of my spine before spilling into the skirt. The skirt itself was slit high, one leg exposed in a whisper of sin, the train flowing long and dramatic behind me like a trail of violet smoke.

It wasn’t just a dress. It was a weapon.

I slipped into it with Sabine’s help, the fabric cool against my skin, molding to me as though it had been waiting all along. When I turned to the mirror, I froze.

I wasn’t Venus the broken girl, Venus the survivor, Venus the shadow of scandal.

I was Venus reborn.

Sabine stepped back, folding her arms with a smug tilt of her chin. “There. Now you look like mine.”

I bit my lip, eyes stinging. “It’s perfect.”

Her smirk softened into something warmer. “It’s you.”

Getting Aaron to the venue without me had been a battle worthy of myth.

He’d paced the suite that morning like a caged predator, every inch of him on edge, his patience fraying with each hour. Gerald still out there had him wound tighter than steel wire, and the idea of me traveling separately had nearly torn him in two.

But I wanted him to see me in this dress for the first time there, under the lights, when it mattered. Not in a hotel mirror. Not rushed. There.

So, I begged. I bartered. I promised to text him every ten minutes without fail.

In the end, he gave me a look so sharp it could have cut glass, then barked orders to his guards. Five of them stayed glued to me the moment he walked out the door, his parting words still echoing in my ears:

20:34 Wed, Jan 14

Chapter 148

“If one of them blinks wrong, I’ll bury you all.”

61

Gianna breezed into the suite just as Sabine finished fastening the last clasp.

“Look at you two,” she said, sweeping us both into her arms with effortless warmth. Travel had sun-kissed her skin, left her hair loose and wild, her presence as grounding as ever. “I disappear for a few months and when I come back, my best friend’s about to steal the city’s breath and Sabine is running an empire. Typical Sinclair chaos.”

I hugged her tightly, heart swelling. “You’re just in time.”

“And thank God for that,” Gianna said, stepping back to take me in properly. Her eyes widened. “Venus….you look lethal. Aaron’s going to combust.”

I flushed scarlet. Sabine smirked.

“Good,” she said. “That was the point.”

AD