Page 40 of Saved By the Billionaire

“To come here. This is where we told ourselves our futures would be made.”

“And they were.”

He nodded abruptly, shutting down the image of what Gracie’s future might have been, if only he’d been able to protect her; if only he’d been less selfish. “Have something to eat, Kate. You must be starving.”

She was hungry, but it was a hunger for information, more than food. Now that he’d started to tell her about his life, she wanted to know more. She wanted to know everything. Only getting stories out of Roman was like drawing blood from a stone. He clearly didn’t want to open up about his past. Could she blame him? She likewise had a tendency to keep things locked up. Maybe that was part of what connected them? She reached out for his hand, lacing their fingers together and staring down at the contrast between his large, tanned hand and hers, smaller, fair-skinned.

“Not everyone gets the fairytale, huh?”

“True.”

“But look at what you’ve done, Roman.” Her voice carried insistence. “Look at what you’ve built.”

He didn’t say anything. She squeezed his hand.

“How did you do this?” She used her head to gesture around the penthouse. “How did you go from the life you’ve described—broke and living in trailer parks—to having this kind of money?”

“I knew what I wanted; I went after it.”

She laughed. She couldn’t help it.

“What?”

“You just…make it sound easy.”

A frown smudged across his face. “For me, in some ways, it was.”

“What does that mean? Why?”

“I set my sights on success, and I refused to fail.” His nostrils flared as he exhaled.

“Come on. That’s simplistic. Everyone wants to be a success in their chosen field.”

“I told you, I refused to fail.”

She rolled her eyes, kept looking at him, probing him until he expelled a long, impatient breath and kept going.

“I read an article about an investor—one of the first crypto guys—and came to New York so I could meet him. I waited around outside his office and as soon as he stepped out for a meeting, I started to talk. I begged for a chance to work with him⁠—”

“You? Begged?”

“I persuaded him,” Roman said, frustration giving way to a grin that was as cocky as all hell. “I knew everything about his portfolio, I’d done a risk analysis on it. He let me travel in the car with him to his meeting, and by the time we arrived, he’d hired me. I worked for him for six months and made him a fortune in that time. He gave me some of it, and that was it. I took that money and turned it into ten times what I had.”

“You’re wired for finance.”

“Yes.” Their eyes met and an electrical charge burst through her. She looked away quickly. “I know what that kind of gift can do to a person.”

She frowned, not understanding. “It’s not a gift we share. My brain isn’t like yours.”

“I mean the starter fund. Money. Let me help you, Kate.”

She forced herself to look back at him.

“Let me give you some money, so you can turn your life around.”

Exasperation flooded her. “That wasn’t a gift, though. It was payment for your work. It was recognition of what you did for him. That’s not the same thing.”

“Isn’t it?”