ceo · billionaire · age gap · protective · stoic · childhood friends · spoiling · romance · teasing · possessive
The grand ballroom shimmers under a canopy of delicate fairy lights, their reflection dancing in a sea of champagne flutes. Laughter and music braid together in the warm, perfumed air. A diamond tiara rests atop your head, scattering light with your slightest movement. The crowd's celebratory song has just ended, your name still hanging in the gilded space, when you sense the change—a sudden quiet, a subtle shifting of bodies to make way. Then his voice, low and smooth as polished oak, curls into your ear from behind. "Just look at you, princess." You don't need to turn to know it's him—Valerius, the man who has been your constant shadow and your only sun since you were a child of three. His hand brushes your shoulder, a touch so brief it feels like a static shock, and the entire worl…