3: Roan's Mansion

Before Nova could take back her words, Roan had already picked her up, striding across the foyer with ease. "I suppose I'll just have to take you to mine."

Nova gaped at this, completely blindsided by this offer and the entire situation, she had never encountered Roan Reyes before so why was he paying so much attention to her? She didn't have anything to say to that, it wasn't like she could walk on her own or like she even had a place to go to so she let him carry her outside the building.

Nova still couldn't believe what was happening even when a bodyguard opened the passenger side of Roan's car so he could gently place her in the car, the bodyguard bowing to her before closing the door. She caught a glimpse of herself in the side mirror before he did and she realized that she had already broken her most important rule.

She didn't look put together at all!

Her hair was falling out of her ponytail, her makeup was smudged from crying and one of her heels' straps was broken. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong!

But through all that, what she couldn't understand was why Roan Reyes, a multi-billionaire was treating her so nicely, she had nothing to offer him. When he started to drive off, the realization that she was actually in his car, being driven to his home sank in - What was she thinking?!

She could have just called her best and only friend Stella to pick her up, instead of getting tangled up with the Billionaire CEO even more than she already had. She should speak up and tell him that he could just drop her on the side of the road and she would figure herself out but she was afraid that if she tried to speak, she would end up crying.

The car ride was silent but it was somehow not tense, Roan gave her some space, playing something that had a lot of soulful piano to fill up the space so that she wouldn't be required to speak. Nova spent the entire car ride trying not to have a panic attack, her day had started normally enough and now it had gone off the rails.

She tried not to gape when Roan helped her out of his sleek car to the sight of a magnificent mansion, failing spectacularly if Roan's chuckle was any indication.

"Unfortunately, I'll have to carry you in," He offered, not sounding in the least bit disappointed.

Nova had enough self-awareness to try and protest, it had to be against some rule to have such an important person like Roan attend to a nobody like her. "I can manage to walk in on my own," She lied bald-faced, "I've already troubled you enough."

Roan just smiled slightly at her words, picking her up without warning which made Nova's eyes widen in surprise, her hands holding onto his shoulders for support.

"I'm not complaining, am I?" He asked in amusement.

It was very easy for Roan to make her speechless, as a matter of fact, everything he did robbed her of speech and that was because he always did the unpredictable, like offering to take her to his home and then doing just that.

Being carried into Roan's mansion was like entering the interior of a castle, it was rather difficult to pay attention to the interior design with Roan so close to her. He walked across the foyer to an elegant lounge behind the stairs, complete with an authentic fireplace and warm themes.

Nova managed to sit primly when he placed her on an ottoman, looking very tense. Now that she was here, what next?

"Is there anything you need?" Roan offered, "You can stay as long as you like and every room is open to you," He informed her, "There's a button in every room that calls a maid if you need anything."

Nova listened intently, knowing fully well that she wouldn't move from her current position unless it was to leave. She truly appreciated Roan's effort but what she needed the most right then was a little privacy.

"Thank you, R-Roan," She stumbled over his name, cheeks dusted a faint red. "But could I have some privacy? A spare guest room is more than enough." She asked carefully.

Roan didn't seem affected by her request, pointing to a door just a little distance away. "There's a little room in there, I'll come check on you in a bit." He added, striding off while glancing at his phone with a slight frown.

It was only then that Nova realized that Roan probably ditched work just to bring her here and was possibly ignoring so much just to talk to her, someone like him was definitely very busy. But why?

She waited until his assured footsteps faded away, reaching down to take off her broken heels so she could quietly hide inside the room. Roan had said he would return to check up on her but she doubted it, he was simply too busy for the likes of her, and she didn't even mind at all.

She gingerly tried the door handle, feeling small in the large house only to be stunned speechless at the size of the room, Roan had referred to it as little but it was far from that. If this was little then what was classified as big to him? Actually, she could see why, he literally lived in a mansion of this size, it shouldn't really come as a surprise to her.

Nova was just relieved to have somewhere private to herself, she had so much to unpack. She hadn't been able to properly process the consequences of Levi's words because she had bumped into Roan but now she could.

She took out her phone, relieved that she had chosen to put it in the hidden pocket of her dress instead of taking a bag because she would have probably dropped that too. Stella was already on speed dial even though she hardly called anyone else apart from Levi and Stella.