Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 369

Chapter 369

Marcus’ POV

“Aphrodite?” I repeated, moving toward her slowly when she didn’t answer my first question.

She stood frozen in the middle of the room, her face completely pale, staring at the floor where her phone had smmed against the marble. Her hands were visibly shaking, and she looked like she was in total shock, like she’d seen a ghost.

I dropped the towel without thinking and pulled on a pair of shorts lying on the bed, my mind already shifting into protection mode. Something was very wrong. Aphrodite wasn’t someone who rattled easily. I’d learned that over the last few days. For her to look like this, whatever she’d seen on that phone was serious.

“What happened?” I asked again, gently touching her arm.

She just shook her head, still staring at the broken device on the floor. I picked up the phone carefully and noticed that despite the fall, the screen still worked, though cracks spider-webbed across it.

The messages were still open.

I started scrolling through the photos, my jaw tightening with every image. It was us. Everywhere. From the moment we arrived at the airport to intimate moments I had thought were completely private. Someone had been following us, photographing us, documenting every second of our week.

“What is this?” I murmured, more to myself than to her. “Who the hell is watching us?”

I kept scrolling, a growing fury building in my chest. This wasn’t just an invasion of privacy. It was something far more sinister. The photos were too professional, too carefully composed, clearly taken by someone with resources and a very specific motive.

When I reached the second-to-last image, I stopped. It was the two of us on the deck the night before, a moment that should’ve belonged only to us, captured through a long lens like we were animals in a zoo.

But it was the last photo that made my blood run cold.

It was me. From behind. Completely unaware. Probably taken today during our outing. And there was a red laser dot perfectly centered on the back of my head, the scope of a long-range weapon.

Beneath the image was a message that made my hand clench into a fist. [Tomorrow, when you return, a wedding will be waiting for you.]

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered through my teeth, a violent mix of rage and protective instinct surging through me.

It was a direct threat. Not just against Aphrodite, but against me. Whoever was behind this wasn’t just blackmailing. They were willing to kill to get what they wanted.

“Who are these people?” I asked, turning to face her. “Who’s threatening you?”

She finally looked up at me, and what I saw shattered something in my chest. Pure fear. Raw vulnerability. And something dangerously close to desperation.

“I don’t know,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “It could be my father trying to scare me into going back… or it

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could be Dominic.”

“Your ex-fiancé?” The anger inside me sharpened instantly. How did that man still have this much power over her?

“They both want me to go back and get married,” she continued, running her hands through her hair in a nervous gesture. “They both need… that family arrangement. Without the wedding, everything they planned

Is apart.”

I felt a stab of irritation mixed with worry. Even here after everything we had shared, her past still found a way to reach us, to contaminate the present, to threaten the fragile bubble we were living in.

“And what do you want?” I asked, keeping my voice steady despite the storm raging inside me.

She froze, as if the question had caught her completely off guard. She thought for a long moment and when she finally answered, there was a bitterness in her voice that cut deep.

“Well, clearly I don’t want them using that gun.”

The resigned way she said it made something snap inside me. As if she’d already given up. As if she’d already accepted that she had no choice.

“You don’t need to worry about me,” I said, my voice growing firmer. “I know how to protect myself. And I know how to protect you.”

She shook her head hard, panic flashing in her eyes.

“No, you don’t understand,” she said quickly. “My ex-fiancé is involved in illegal things. I don’t know how deep it goes, but someone who has the resources for this is mixed up in something huge. Something dangerous.”

The fear in her voice was real. Raw. And suddenly I understood that this wasn’t just about blackmail or family pressure. There were layers here I didn’t fully grasp. Connections to a world far more dangerous than I’d imagined.

I watched Aphrodite start pacing back and forth across the room, spiraling. Her breathing sped up, her hands shook, and she began speaking more to herself than to me.

“I need to go back,” she murmured, her voice distant. “I need to get married. That’s what they want. That’s what stops…” Her eyes flicked to the phone again. “That’s what stops this from happening.”

“No,” I said immediately, my voice harsher than I meant it to be.

But she kept going, as if she hadn’t heard me.

“It’s their plan. It’s always been their plan. I can’t escape it. Even running to the other side of the world, they found me. They…” Her voice broke. “They’ll get what they want no matter what.”

No,” I repeated, more firmly this time.

She stopped pacing and looked at me, confusion and desperation tangled across her face.

“How can you say that? You saw the photos. You saw the threat. They’re not bluffing, Apollo. They will. I need to get married!”

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“You can’t get married if you’re already married,” I interrupted.

For a moment, the room went completely silent. Aphrodite stared at me as if I’d spoken in another language.

“What?” she whispered.

I took a deep breath, knowing exactly how insane this was about to sound. But looking at her vulnerable, terified, ready to sacrifice herself to protect everyone else, including me… I knew there was no other choice. If they wanted a wedding, they would have to deal with the fact that she would already have my last name. I would take their board and flip it against them.

“Marry me, Aphrodite.”

日

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