Page 48 of Saved By the Billionaire

Tia relaxed visibly, smiled, her lipstick utterly flawless, as though she’d just applied it. Well, at least she probably hadn’t been kissing Roman before the lift arrived.

Kate sat up straighter, pushing the thought from her mind.

“We’re cut from the same cloth,” Tia shrugged, her eyes following Roman across the spacious lounge. Kate felt the moment he connected with the sofa, because he chose the seat right beside hers, one long arm stretched along the back of the seat behind her, so that if she relaxed back, they’d be touching.

She sat up straighter.

“I understand you’re very good at what you do,” Kate said, simply to make conversation.

“And what do you think that is?”

“Real estate,” Kate responded. “You sell properties.”

“No,” Tia tilted her head to the side, still studying Kate as though she were a book. “I let people accept their dreams.”

Kate almost choked on her champagne. “I’m sorry?”

“I show them the fantasy then tell them why they deserve it. I match people to the property they never thought they could have—and rattle the keys right in their faces.”

“For a small price,” Roman’s voice growled from right beside Kate. Her insides trembled, desire flooding her, a need to press back into him, to feel his body mould to hers. Her breath came in a quick rush of air, then another, so she felt almost as though she’d run a marathon.

Kate glanced back at him. “Small being a relative number?”

His eyes probed hers. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, and she hated that. “Isn’t everything relative?”

“No.”

He arched a thick dark brow.

“A million dollars is a lot of money.”

“More to you than me.”

She sipped her champagne to stop from responding straight away.

“You might think it would take you the better part of a lifetime to save a million dollars,” he pointed out. “I could lose it tomorrow and not notice.”

She shook her head, disbelief igniting inside her. “How can you speak so casually about that level of wealth? It’s…it’s…”

“Obscene?” Tia provided, so Kate jerked her gaze back to the other woman, who was watching them over the rim of her champagne, the hint of a mischievous smile on her face.

“It’s not my place to say,” Kate muttered. “Roman has been very generous to me.”

He reached out and put a hand on her wrist, so a thousand sparks ignited in her blood and she couldn’t help but turn to face him, her pulse racing. “That doesn’t mean you can’t speak your mind.”

Her lips tugged to the side. Wasn’t that the problem? Neither of them wanted to speak their minds, to say what they were thinking. They wanted to keep a safe distance, to make this somehow sensible and rational, when in reality, it was the exact opposite. They’d been dancing around each other for almost a week now.

“Well, yeah, then, it’s kind of obscene. The world is groaning under the weight of poverty and there are people in this city with apartments that cost—well—what would this place cost, Tia?”

“Off the top of my head?”

“Leave it,” Roman said.

“I thought you wanted us to speak our minds?” Kate pushed.

Tia laughed softly. “A lot,” she said, apparently not drunk enough to avoid placating Roman and defusing the situation. “But a fraction of his wealth. And as for the world’s hungry? No one does more for them than Roman.”

Kate frowned. “I didn’t know that.”