The Billionaire's Demand

Nero's Sneak Attack

Nero grinned at his father who had been staring at the opened little black box for a minute now. Valerio was taking it in, he looked like he couldn't believe his own eyes. Nero reached for the box and closed it, wanting his father to focus.

"You think she'll like it?"

Valerio met Nero's gaze, "You bought her a ring?"

Nero shook the box, "Yeah, obviously. So what do you think?"

Valerio took a seat on the one-seat Hannah usually sat in whenever she paid his office a visit. It was fascinating to Nero how his family claimed his office. Valerio always sat on the couch closer by the door while Hannah always sat right in front of him. Today, however, Valerio sat in Hannah's chair to take a closer look at the ring Nero had bought for his fiancée.

"You bought her a ring." Valerio repeated, causing Nero to frown.

"Dad, you had enough coffee for today." Nero placed the closed box back on his desk and took a seat in the one-seat beside his father, "Hannah and I are getting married next week, I wanted her to have a ring. It's no good, is it?"

Nero never had self-esteem issues, he was always confident about everything he did, even when his actions were questionable. Valerio caused him to lose his confidence though, at this moment he doubted his plan entirely.

"It's a beautiful ring!" Valerio told him, suddenly behaving like his usual overdramatic self again, "Seeing that ring made me realize how things have changed between the two of you. I'm glad, Nero. I'm so glad you two are getting along."

Nero grinned, "She is going to be my wife and the mother of my child, I should cherish her."

Valerio pointed at him, "You need to do more than that." Valerio reached out to him and patted him rather roughly on the shoulder, "At least once a day you need to remind that girl she is beautiful and you care about her."

Nero made a face, confused as to why his father was patting his shoulder and giving him rather embarrassing advice like that. He told Hannah he thought she was beautiful, he gave her the biggest compliment ever when they had their best date ever.

"Why do you say that?" Nero asked, gently pushing his father's hand away from his shoulder.

"Hannah feels inferior to the women around you. You need to remind her that she is more important to you."

"Dad, Hannah knows how I feel about her."

Valerio sighed, "Even so she is still a sensitive girl. She might be confident about your relationship today, tomorrow she might feel differently. They say actions are louder than words, but that's not always true. Sometimes people need to actually hear the words being said by the person they care about."

Nero got to his feet and walked around his desk, taking a seat in his chair again, "Got it." Nero told his father, "I'll keep that in mind." He focused back on his laptop screen and scanned through his mailbox, "So what are your plans for today?" Nero asked as he started to type up an email.

"You're not kicking me out?" Valerio sounded more shocked than when he questioned Nero about the ring he bought for Hannah.

"Why should I do that?" Nero asked, "I thought we were catching up."

Valerio took a deep breath and started his rent, "We catch up every morning." Nero felt his father's eyes piercing his face, but he didn't glance away from his laptop screen, "Hannah has taken our dinner dates, but since it's her I'm okay with it. The point is when you're working you usually kick me out because you need to concentrate. I get it and I feel proud that my son takes his job so seriously, but at the same time it makes me sad because I just want to spend more time with you."