Page 66 of Saved By the Billionaire

“It’s no problem,” he said. “As for your visa, you’ve been granted a temporary extension while your case is reviewed.”

Kate sat up straighter. “That sounds…I don’t know. Like I still might get thrown out at any minute?”

“Not before I work out what’s happening with your father,” Garrett assured her. “The immigration courts are backed up right now, it’ll take at least a month before someone gets to your case. Given your situation, it’s the best we could arrange. Even Roman’s name can only do so much with this sort of thing.”

“Yeah, of course,” Kate said, but Roman’s gut twisted sharply. He felt it again, then. The sense of Kate, stepping onto a plane, flying away from him. He knew she came from the west of Brisbane, that she’d moved to Brisbane for university, and that was it. At the end of all this, he would have no way of contacting her, short of asking Garrett for her details, which he refused to do. “I really appreciate it.” She stood then and Roman’s air whooshed out of him at the sight of her body, her breasts, her hips, her. Everything about her was so achingly…right.

He ignored the word.

Ignored the feeling, turned to Garrett. “Anything else?”

He wanted to be alone with Kate again. Needed to be alone.

“No, all good. I’ll be in touch shortly.”

Roman nodded once, wondering what the leads were, knowing that he would ordinarily have pushed for that information. But nothing was ordinary about this situation. Once Garrett had left, he turned to face Kate. “That sounds like good news?”

She lifted one shoulder. “We’ll see.”

Guarded and cautious. He understood that. He’d recognised this trait in her before, an aversion to optimism, and he understood it well.

“I mean, the fact I can be here longer is good,” she said, frowning slightly.

He ignored the way his whole body reverberated in agreement. “How long do you think you’ll stay?”

“I have no idea. Long enough to find something definitive out about my father? And I wouldn’t mind doing some touristy stuff,” she added, a weak smile on her face.

“Like what?” he asked, because it was easier to focus on that than anything heavier—like her departure.

“Oh gosh, I’ve hardly done anything,” she admitted. “I mean, I’ve walked the streets, but I’ve been so in my head, and stressed, I hardly appreciated the buildings. I want to see the Library, and Carrie Bradshaw’s front step, and the Friends building, and I’d love to see a Broadway show—I don’t care which—even if I’m up in the nosebleed seats with an obstructed view,” she said, smiling in a way that pulled at every single piece of his stitching. He sipped his wine. She kept listing tourist sights, but Roman had stopped listening. His eyes were on her lips and in the back of his mind, he was trying to work out just quite how he’d live, knowing they were on the other side of the world to him, and always would be.

“What’s this?” Kate asked, the next evening, when Roman walked into her bedroom holding a large, good quality paper bag.

“Have a look.” He placed the bag down at her side and Kate reached in to remove, first, a tissue paper wrapped piece of clothing. She sent him a look of confusion as she unstuck the boutique’s branding and peeled back the paper to reveal an incredibly beautiful dress, a dark green with lacy cap sleeves and then a silk body.

“It’s…beautiful,” she answered, honestly, holding the fabric up to herself and imagining how glorious it would be to wear.

“Keep going.”

She threw him another quizzical glance but did as he said, her fingers finding a box now—shoe size. She opened the lid and saw a beautiful pair of heels with a red leather sole, the brand famous the world over. “Roman,” she hissed. “What’s happened?”

“Keep going,” he insisted.

Her fingers trembled a little now as they dipped back into the bag, this time, removing a smaller box, black velvet, with Cartier written across the top in silver writing. She’d never really been given anything before. Maybe by her mum, as a little girl, but she couldn’t really remember that. Not in any of her foster homes. Her birthday had become a date to dread, because her memories were so antithetical, compared to most people’s. It wasn’t her birthday, but that didn’t matter. Roman had bought these things for her, even though she knew she couldn’t accept such a generous gift as jewellery.

“I can’t,” she said reluctantly, handing it towards him without opening it.

“You can,” he insisted, crossing his hands over his chest.

Kate shook her head, confusion bubbling through her. She didn’t need to live in this rarefied world to know that whatever was in the box would have cost more than her airfare to America.

She opened it with fingers that shook slightly and gasped at the sight of a pair of earrings—a teardrop emerald in the centre of a circle of sparkling white diamonds. They were the perfect match to the dress. “Roman,” she whispered, staring up at him. “No way.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Kate,” he said, sternly, reminding her of the man she’d first met, who’d ordered rather than asked. He’d softened a little, in the last week. He was still Roman, but he’d allowed her more and more to be his equal in every way. But in this moment, there was no argument. “Either you keep them, or I throw them in the bin. It’s your call.”