Heart Racer (5 page)

Bobby told herself she wouldn’t take the bait. That she was going to take the higher ground—

“I suppose I should have expected you to be this childish—”

Higher ground could go to hell.

She whirled around, ready to snap at him for daring to call
her
childish while he had acted like the world’s greatest jerk. But once again, no words left her lips, all of them trapped in her throat as Leandro Christopoulos bent down and covered her mouth with his.

His kiss was both sweet and sinful, tender and passionate, and most shockingly of all, the kiss bore the taste of…
regret.

In spite of the way his kiss ruthlessly demolished her self-control and left her drugged with desire, a part of Bobby reeled at the realization. This kiss was his way of saying sorry – without losing his pride. How utterly unfair…and wondrously devious.
 

Samantha looked at the pair fondly. Derek had warned her not to interfere, but she had disregarded his advice. He had given her the same warning with Jaike when they had been having problems, but look at how nicely she had solved those problems for them.
Matchmaking was her calling
, she thought happily, and soon she would have some really good news to share with dear Elena.

But for now, it was time for a quick retreat.

She cleared her throat. “Children, I know you must have missed each other dreadfully, but I think you need a private place to exchange this, err, kind of greeting.”

Leandro forced himself to stop kissing Bobby. She had a deliciously dazed look on her face, the kind of expression that only one who had been kissed senseless could have. It was enough to have his cock hard and fully erect, forcing Leandro to let her go far enough to have some distance between his cock and her tempting body.

He murmured to his aunt, “That’s a very good idea. I think it’s better if we have dinner at my place instead.”

The distance allowed Bobby’s mind to gradually function again and by the time she realized exactly what Samantha had suggested and her nephew had decided, it was again too late, with Leandro efficiently whisking her out of the restaurant and sliding her into his car.

She told him right away, “I don’t want to go with you.”

“Too late. You’re locked in here with me.”

Bobby gaped at the way he just said the words so implacably. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? I
don’t
want to go with you. I don’t even want to spend a moment with you—”

“But even while not wanting all that, you somehow want to kiss me?”

She turned red, but managed to throw back, “What can I say? I’m as indiscriminate as you are when it comes to kissing.”

Indiscriminate?
 

“Explain what you mean by being indiscriminate.”

“Oh, poor boy. You don’t have many big words in your vocabulary, is that it?”

“I’m not in the mood for games, Bobby. Tell me what you meant!” He clenched and unclenched his fists, doing his best to fight the urge to shake the answers out of her.
Dio.
If she meant what he thought she meant, then blood would be shed.

It did not matter that he and Bobby did not owe each other anything. It did not matter that he had acted like a hard-partying bachelor during the past two weeks. All he knew was he did not intend to share Bobby with anyone else. Bobby was
his.

She couldn’t believe how he was acting. Did he really think she would let him get away with acting like he was her owner after everything he had been doing in his homeland? Did he actually think what happened in Athens stayed in freaking Athens?

Her teeth gnashed together as memories of the past two weeks assaulted her. Oh, if only she could smack him. He was such a jerk. He had kissed her twice, seen her naked, and sucked on her – on her – on
that,
and then he disappeared without so much as a warning or even a darn text. If not for the newspapers, she wouldn’t even have known where he was!

“You’re crazy. You’re absolutely crazy, and you know why I think that?” She didn’t wait for him to answer, so intent on getting all her pent-up emotions off her chest. “You’re
crazy
to think that after I saw you partying with a different girl each night, you really think I’m going to let you back into my life again?”

She shook her head furiously. “Maybe you’re used to dating girls who swallow everything you have to say. Maybe you think I’m so ugly and fat that I’d be pathetically grateful for your attention. But I’m
not.
I’m
not
that kind of girl. I may be stupidly attracted to you and I can’t think whenever you’re kissing me, but it doesn’t mean a thing. I think you’re
shit
!”

He knew she hadn’t said anything that did not deserve to be said, but Leandro was not used to such a dressing down and his own temper rose in his defense. “Be careful with your words,” he snapped.

Bobby glared at him. “Shit, shit, shit!”

His jaw hardened. “You’re so damn childish. I’m trying to apologize—”

“And you think an apology is going to cut it?”

“It should when I tell you that I did it to save my father’s career!”

His roar made her blink, and his words, when they eventually sank in, made Bobby pale.

Seeing her confusion, he said tightly, “My father has been in the hospital for some weeks now, and when Aunt Samantha knocked on the door that night, it was because I had a call from my mother telling me that I had to go back home. My father had another heart attack, a lot worse this time, and for a while we did not know if he would survive or not.”

She said shakily, “I’m sorry.”

“He was conscious enough at the start to tell us that he did not want anyone outside the family to know of his condition. We needed a distraction, so that was when I decided to be the decoy.”

“That explains all those photographs of you every night.” She had indeed wondered why there were a lot more photos than usual in the past two weeks, and all of them had been startlingly clear, like he had been practically photographed up close.

He nodded.

She was quiet for some time before asking, “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you send word or let me know in some way?”

Leandro didn’t answer, knowing that there was no way he could defend his actions – or the lack of it. The sound of her laugh made him glance at her sharply, and he sucked his breath in at the look of pained knowledge in her brilliant green eyes.

Damn.
He had forgotten that aside from being the snarkiest woman he had ever had the misfortune to meet, Roberta Granger – according to Derek – also happened to be the smartest girl in school.

“You didn’t want to tell me.” She said the words factually because it was, indeed, a fact.
 

“Bobby—”

She shook her head. “Let me make this easy for you. I really thought about this thoroughly the whole time you’ve been…gone
.
” The way she hesitated over the word made Leandro flinch. He knew that she had been about to say something else, something painfully closer to the truth. Had Bobby thought of the days he had been away as the days that he had simply abandoned her?

The thought had his chest constricting, a strange sensation that made it difficult for Leandro to breathe without understanding why. His chest tightened with every second that passed. All he could think of then was how to make Bobby understand.
 

He rasped out, “Bobby—”

The urgent tone in his voice made Bobby shake her head almost wildly. No, no, darn it, no! She was not going to let him seduce her into doing what he wanted again.

“It’s okay,” she told him without meeting his gaze. “I totally get it now. You see, I researched all about you. Aunt Samantha told me that you race bikes, but it really wasn’t clear to me how much of a hotshot biker you are until I saw all those clippings of your victories.”

“Let me explain—”

“And I know about how your father had been against you joining those underground races. And when he learned that you had an accident, it gave him a heart attack, which you blamed yourself for.”

He said tightly after that, “I am to blame.”

“No.” Her voice was very gentle. “You’re not, and I think deep down inside you know that no one in your family blames you for it either. If I had to guess, I think it was a combination of things like old age, stress over the elections, and sure, your racing was a factor too, but it wasn’t the
only
factor.”

“I don’t want to talk about my father.”

“And we won’t talk about him any more after this. Or anything else for that matter.”

His head jerked up at that. “Bobby, dammit, if you could just let me—”

“Let you what? Change my mind? Because we both know you could, but I’m asking you not to. You see, I've had a lot of time to think about this, and here’s what I came up with. You were
so
guilty about your father’s illness that you exiled yourself here, hoping to start anew. But you got bored and you saw me as a challenge.”

“It’s not like that.”

“It is exactly like that, and Leandro—” Her voice caught, having realized that it was her very first time to call him by his name.

The way he was looking at her told Bobby he was just as aware of the fact, and that he, too, found it significant.

The knowledge made her swallow and square her shoulders simultaneously. She had no doubts that Leandro Christopoulos was fiercely intelligent, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before he figured out why the fact that she had called him by his name was very telling.

Well, she did not want to be there when it happened and he realized what a big fake she was.

She said gruffly, “All I’m saying is that I don’t want you to see me as a challenge because I don’t need that kind of complication in my life. You had your fun. Good for you. But can we please leave it at that? I don’t think it’s a good idea we’re in each other’s lives.”

Chapter Seven

“You should have asked me for advice, you know,” Priscilla Strathmore said sagely as she fed herself another forkful of organic salad. She considered Leandro Christopoulos’ tense profile thoughtfully. Her dear second cousin was normally as fun loving as she was, but she supposed one changed after witnessing a parent battle with death.

The thought had her nearly shuddering. She prayed no such drama would occur in her life. She just wasn’t cut out for stuff like that. She preferred her life to be as easy as possible and wasn’t shy at all about admitting it.

Leandro didn’t talk, but she expected that. Like the other children in the clan, Priscilla had spent her childhood summers in Greece and even in those days, Leandro had been very moody. One moment he would be friendly and then something would happen to make him aloof, almost offensively so.

Maybe
, she mused idly,
it was because he was adopted
. His real parentage was no secret. It was pretty hard to keep something like that a secret since Elena had been well past child-bearing age when he had joined the family.

“Are you listening to me?” she asked finally when he still hadn’t said a word. In fact, he had barely said a word the whole time they were in the restaurant.

Leandro made himself look at Priscilla. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“I said,” Priscilla repeated patiently, “you should have come to me to ask for advice.”

This time, his lips quirked. “You know I wouldn’t do that.”

“Why not?”

He said truthfully, “Because you’re a twit – a lovable twit, mind you, but still a twit.”

She giggled.

“See?”

She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I may be sillier than most, but I’m far from being stupid. I have Christopoulos blood running in my veins too, you know.” She wagged her finger at him. “If you really like Roberta Granger—”

Leandro frowned. “Back up a second there. Why are you talking about Bobby?”

“Because I’m going to give you valuable advice about her?”

“I thought you were going to give me advice about Greek politics.”

She was just as incredulous as he was. “Why would I when I don’t even
know
what position Uncle Orion is running for?”