Chapter 10 #2
“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.”
Of course she didn’t know that. They were basically strangers.
She glanced at her champagne glass, which she’d almost finished in double-quick time. She’d sipped it nervously, and it had gone straight to her head.
But that wasn’t why she felt as though she were on a merry-go-round that had spun out of control.
It was the realisation that there was so much she didn’t know about Roman, even when on some level, she felt as though she understood every single cell of his body.
She closed her eyes against a rocking feeling, but Tia must have misunderstood, because she took Kate’s glass and refilled it.
“But I wanted to hear about you,” Tia persisted. “You’re from Australia?”
Kate nodded once.
“And what brings you to our little corner of the world?”
She could feel Roman’s gaze on her, wondered if it was some kind of test? But Tia seemed genuine enough in her interest. “Just a desire to travel,” she said with a shrug, not able to meet Roman’s gaze. “It felt about time I got out and saw somewhere new.”
“Do you like it?”
Kate relaxed her pose without meaning to, back into the sofa, and Roman’s arm was right there, a hard edge to the soft cushions, so all of a sudden, his presence was enveloping her completely, even when they weren’t touching.
Somehow, she could feel his breathing, feel the vibrations in the air as he exhaled, and it made her body vibrate in an answering rhythm.
She swallowed, tried to blot out her awareness of him, without success.
“I think New York is incredible,” she said, finally, trying to salvage the conversation.
Tia was watchful, eyes on Kate. “Where are you from? What state?”
“Have you been to Australia?” Kate deflected easily, sipping her drink.
“A few times.”
“So you know it?”
“A little.”
“And do you like it?”
Tia’s lips quirked, as though she realised Kate was diverting the conversation. It was a skill most people didn’t notice—they liked to speak about themselves, given the opportunity, so Kate created that opportunity. It usually worked, but she had the sense Tia saw right through her.
“I think Australia is incredible,” Tia repeated Kate’s phrasing exactly and Kate was aware of Roman stiffening at her side, his whole body tightening. She sipped her drink.
“Where did you go?”
“Mostly the east. Sydney, Melbourne, Byron.”
“Ah.”
“You don’t approve?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Where are you from, Kate?”
Kate opened her mouth to answer—after all, it was no secret—but then, whether by accident or design, Roman’s fingers were brushing her shoulder, his touch so light that it could have been just because he was shifting position, or it could have been that he needed to feel some sort of contact with her, after the morning they’d shared.
It skittled her senses so she had to let out a shuddering breath before she could answer.
“The west of Brisbane.”
Tia tilted her head to the side. “I’ve never been there.”
“No, I’m not surprised. It’s not really on the tourist trail.”
“Should I go?”
Kate thought of the regional hub she’d grown up in, and felt only coldness.
An ache in the pit of her stomach. It wasn’t the fault of the town, though, so much as her experiences.
She could see that objectively, it was a pretty enough place.
“If you can stand long, hot, humid summers,” she said. “But there’s not a lot to do.”
Tia curled her feet up under herself elegantly, reminding Kate of a cat, slim and lithe, managing somehow to not spill a sip of her champagne. She seemed so comfortable here, so at home.
“So what did you do, growing up?”
It was Kate’s turn to stiffen, her spine suddenly as straight as though steel had been poured down it. She didn’t like to think about her childhood; that was something she and Roman had in common.
“I studied,” she said, after a beat, because that was true. “I was determined to get good enough grades to go to uni. I wanted to get into law.”