Chapter 8 - The Waiting Years
"Why?" Nora asked, her voice barely more than a whisper against the night air. "If you felt this way... why did you wait until tonight? Why let Celeste say those things before you stepped in?"
Elias looked down at his hands—hands that had built an empire, signed billion-dollar deals, and fought off corporate predators—and saw them trembling slightly.
"Because I was afraid," Elias admitted flatly.
Nora blinked in utter disbelief. "You? Afraid?"
"Yes," Elias said, looking up at her with a quiet, devastating vulnerability. "For fifteen years, every person who came into my life wanted a piece of Vescari Global. They wanted invitations, they wanted investments, they wanted my name. I learned to keep everyone at a distance because it was the only way to stay safe."
He reached out, taking both of her hands into his broad palms, squeezing them gently.
"When you walked into my study three weeks ago," he continued, "and told me I had a feelings problem, I realized something terrifying."
"What?" Nora breathed.
"You didn't want anything from me," Elias whispered. "You didn't care about my money. You didn't care about my title. You looked at me like I was just a man. And for the first time in my life, I wanted to be just a man—for you."
He paused, his voice turning thick with emotion.
"I waited because I was terrified that if I reached out to you—if I told you what you were beginning to mean to me—you would run away. You would think I was just another arrogant billionaire trying to buy something he couldn't have."
Nora stared at him, her heart overflowing with a feeling so deep, so sudden, and so complete that tears pricked the corners of her eyes.
May you like
"Elias..." she choked out softly.
"I waited," Elias said, his thumb wiping away a single tear from her cheek, "until I was sure that I could offer you something real. Not my money, Nora. My heart."
