Driven by Love (12 page)

The thought of having Leandro entering a relationship with Erica – or any other girl for that matter, even if it was on rebound – was too frightening and painful to contemplate. She broke into a run and bumped into Erica from behind as she skidded to a stop.

“Ow!” The other girl whirled around, and upon seeing Bobby, Erica’s face took on an indignant expression. “You!”

Unable to think of a proper way to answer that, Bobby lifted her chin and said, “Me.” Then she snatched the token girl’s sash from Erica.

The sound of Erica’s shrill scream jerked Leandro out of his thoughts, and when he turned to look over his shoulder, he was stunned to see Bobby trying to wrestle the sash from Erica’s hold. What the fuck was she doing? Was this another one of her fucking games to make him pay over and over for hurting her in the past?

Stalking towards the two girls, Leandro easily tore the sash from their hands. “What are you doing here, Bobby?” he snapped without looking at her. He smoothed the yellow silk sash and handed it back to Erica. “Sorry about that.” He wondered furiously what this was all about. Had Bobby forgotten there were cameras all around them?

Erica sniffed. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault she’s a crazy bitch.” She arranged the sash on her body and fluttered her lashes at Leandro. “But I think she scratched me on my shoulder.”

Leandro looked and Bobby, peeking over Leandro’s shoulder, realized with dismay that Erica wasn’t lying. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

Neither Leandro nor Erica seemed to hear her. Erica was looking up at Leandro with fluttering lashes. “Maybe you can kiss it to make it all better?”

Bobby gasped.
 

Leandro started to move.

Bobby pushed herself between the two. “I can kiss it better!”

Erica immediately jumped away from her. “Eww!”

Leandro’s hands settled over Bobby’s shoulders from behind so he could spin her around. She opened her mouth to explain, but the look of undisguised fury on his face killed whatever she had to say.

“Are you playing another game,
mégaira
?”

She paled. The way he said it didn’t make the word sound like an endearment.

“You had your game. You made me look like a fool in front of your fiancé—” His gaze jerked towards her hand, and that was when he realized she wasn’t wearing a ring.

“It was a sham,” she whispered. “You had it right from the beginning. I made him pretend we were engaged so I could push you away. I thought it was enough, but then you asked me to marry you still, and I…I was scared. I knew you would never stop and I knew I couldn’t always find the strength to say no to you…” Her voice shook as she made her last admission. “So I thought about what I could do to make you think I didn’t love you anymore…and I did it.”

Her rambling explanation made sense, but it didn’t matter. It couldn’t fucking matter. He was done with this shit. He had paid for his sins, and he wasn’t about to allow her to put him through hoops over and over for something he had already bled a thousand times for.

Leandro looked at Bobby. “You were a nice girl once, mégaira, but today, you were a bitch and I wish you luck in finding someone who could love you.”

The words stung, but she said valiantly, “I already found him. I just need to find a way to convince him to love me again.” She brought her hand up, revealing the ring she had been clutching all this time.
His ring.
“Maybe you’d like to give it to me again?”

She looked at him, this time openly offering herself to ridicule. She made no attempt to hide the love shining in her eyes even knowing that the cameras of practically every tabloid in the country was trained on them. “I love you, Leandro Christopoulos. You had me so terrified of loving you again that I hurt you needlessly and…and I’m s-sorry.” She wiped the tears away. “I’m willing to do whatever it is to make you forgive me and make you love me again.”

Bobby waited for him to answer, her eyes squeezed shut as she prayed that Leandro would give her another chance. A part of her feared that he would do the same thing she had done to him – make her believe that he was going to give her the ring only to do something else.

It was only when she heard the sound of the whistle – of the flag-waver shouting the countdown and the cheers of the crowd – that she realized he had done something worse because Bobby had not expected it at all.

He had simply left her standing there.

The roar of motorcycle engines coming to life drowned the sound of the dying beat of her heart, and the wet trail of the tears on her cheeks disappeared in the ephemeral fog of engine smoke as the bikers raced away.

He couldn’t have said it better.
 

He was done with her, and he couldn’t get away from her fast enough.
 

Chapter Fourteen

As Leandro raced to the front, easily beating the competition, he couldn’t help glancing at his bike’s mirror to see what Bobby was doing.
 

What he saw almost caused him to lose control, his heart squeezing at the sight of Bobby still standing there when all the other token girls had left. She was alone, and she was showing no signs of leaving.

He forced himself to look back at the course, telling himself his life would be less of a mess with Bobby gone from his life. It wouldn’t exactly be happy, wouldn’t exactly be exciting, but at least it wouldn’t be filled with goddamn hurt, no more nights when he couldn’t sleep because his mind was filled with thoughts of Bobby, wondering if his greatest fear would happen.

That Bobby would stop loving him for good.

He tightened his hold on the grips of his bike, telling himself that although he was making his worst fear come true, it was meant to be.

Leandro made a sharp turn to the left, staying at the innermost track. His bike leaned dangerously close to the ground, but he held his balance easily. When the curve ended, he slowly inched his bike back to an upright position.

Leandro was already halfway done with the course when he found the time to look back.

She was still there.

With a curse, Leandro made a swift 180 degree turn so he could race back to the starting line. The closer he got to Bobby, the louder and faster his heartbeat became, and by the time he parked the bike a few feet away from Bobby, his heartbeat was so loud it had completely drowned out the sound of his motorcycle’s engine.

The crunch of footsteps heading towards her took some time to penetrate the cloud of misery that had enveloped Bobby.
Someone was going to ask her to walk away
, Bobby thought, and her grand gesture of true and undying love would be lost.

A shadow fell over her.

“Bobby.”

Her head shot up.
 

“L-Leandro?” Was it really him?

Slowly, he removed his helmet and it was indeed Leandro’s gorgeous face staring back at her. He loomed over her, so tall and powerful that she had to crane her neck to meet his eyes. “Where’s the ring,
mégaira?
”

She began to cry. Dear God, today proved to be the most embarrassing day of her life. She must have cried an ocean of tears already, she – Bobby Granger, who had always prided herself for being a tough chick.

Bobby raised her hand and showed Leandro his ring.

“Were you waiting for me all this time, mégaira?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you.” She lifted her tear-stained gaze to his. “And because you love me.”

Slowly, he took the ring from her hand. “You believe I love you then?”

“So much,” she told him shakily. “I believe you love me so much that I can take another risk.”
 

And before he knew what she was doing, she had gone down on both knees.

Leandro swore. “Bobby—”

“Will you marry me, Leandro Christopoulos?”

Ah, dammit.
 

His Bobby was just like no other. When she had wanted to prove to him she loved him, she had gone to his room naked even though she was a virgin. And now, to prove that she indeed trusted him and his love, she was now publicly proposing marriage to him.

He bent down, slid the ring on her finger, and swooped her in his arms. “Yes,
mégaira.
I will marry you, and I’ll make sure we marry in a country where there’s no fucking divorce.” As she cried, he kissed her hard. “You won’t get away from me now.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. “I love you so much.”
 

He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I love you so much, mégaira, but don’t think that I will so easily let you get away with the stunt you pulled a while ago.”

****

Reporters jostled against each other as they battled for the best spot to enjoy a clear shot of Leandro Christopoulos and his future wife as they held a press conference to announce their engagement.
 

Leandro spotted a familiar face. “Tyler Jenkins?”

Tyler paled.
Oh no. What had he done again?
He remembered the last time Leandro had looked at him, with a look of such cold rage on his face that Tyler still had nightmares over it. “Y-yes, s-sir?”

“You want to start the round of questions again?”

The crowd grumbled in protest, most of them muttering their complaints about how unfair it was that Leandro was playing favorites.
 

Leandro’s cold gaze slowly swept the crowd. The message in his gaze was clear.
Complain and feel free to be escorted out of the room by my security.

Everyone shut up.

Leandro returned his attention to Tyler. “You were saying, Mr. Jenkins?”

Tyler cleared his throat. “I’d first like to congratulate you and Ms. Granger on your engagement, sir.”

Leandro looked at Bobby.

The look made Bobby want to die.
Payback was hell
, she thought. She took a deep breath. And then she fluttered her lashes at Leandro before looking at the reporter, cooing, “I’m sooooo thrilled to be engaged to Leandro Christopoulos.”

Leandro’s method of making her pay for pretending to be engaged to Sabastian and that little stunt this morning was deviously simple: she had to pretend to be his blushing, bubbly, and empty-headed fiancée – the exact opposite of her real self in other words.

Leandro looked at her meaningfully.
Not enough, mégaira.

Shit.

She let out a big sigh. “I just can’t believe my luck, being the lucky girl to have won over someone as perfect as Leandro.” Gah. She wanted to gag.
 

The crowd of reporters had become silent. Bobby couldn’t blame them. They were probably wondering if it was really Bobby Granger in front of them.

Tyler asked nervously, “What about Mr. Gabris? Wasn’t he engaged to, err, Ms. Granger as well?”

It was Leandro who answered. “The engagement between Sabastian Gabris and Bobby had to be canceled.”

Here it was
, Sabastian thought even though his face remained inscrutable. He knew it had not been completely right to go along with Bobby’s wishes when she had asked him to pretend to be her fiancé, and now it was his turn to pay.

“Why did it have to be canceled?”

Sabastian wondered with the rest of the reporters what excuse Leandro Christopoulos would give.

Leandro had considered lying and saying Sabastian was impotent but then, looking at Tyler, he had another idea.
 

He said solemnly, “Because Bobby here found out that Mr. Sabastian Gabris was gay.”

Bobby gasped.

Sabastian choked.

Before the crowd could react, a loud crash happened on one side of the room, and everyone turned towards that direction. A young woman was gazing at Sabastian Gabris in open-mouthed shock. She was covered head to toe in a shapeless dress, and her eyeglasses were so large they practically swallowed her face.

Sabastian shot to his feet. “Zee-Zee?”

“Y-you’re gay?” The girl shook her head, a dazed look on her face. “Is t-that why you broke our engagement?”