Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56653 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56653 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
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.