by Marian Tee
That being the kiss that had shockingly kept him awake at night. When Leandro had finally fallen asleep, it was only to dream of him kissing her – and not just her lips this time.
Leandro’s lips tightened at the thought. Why the hell did he keep thinking about her? She was nothing – nothing – like his type. He liked his women tall, stunning, sexy, and above all things, he wanted his women to know that his word was law. Was that too fucking much to ask?
An usherette led them to the front row, and she took off the labels that indicated where their seats were.
“Please let me know if there is anything else you need,” she said warmly as she handed the Christopoulos men their copies of the program. Wait until the girls found out about this, she thought excitedly to herself. She had no hopes with Derek Christopoulos – only someone living under a rock would not know about how much he loved his fiancée. But the other Christopoulos was a different matter altogether.
Leandro Christopoulos was so deliciously manly. It was hard to accept the fact that he was indeed only twenty-one years old and still in his last year of college.
The invitation in the girl’s eyes was blatant, but Leandro simply nodded. “Thank you.” His days of one-minute stands were over – it had been the moment he found out that his wild antics had severely endangered his father’s life.
When they were left alone, Derek remarked, “I’m surprise you didn’t take her up on her offer.”
“It might get back to my father. The only girl I’m going to fuck while I’m here is my girlfriend.”
Derek sighed. “You’re insane.”
“No. Unfortunately, I’m not. I’m desperate.”
“Your father never asked you to---”
“His standings in the poll suffered because of me, and the quickest way to redeem myself in the public’s eyes is to let them know I have changed. No more underground races, no more women, no mor everything except whatever it is good guys do.” Leandro flipped the program over so he could see the awardees listed at the back in gold engraved letters. “This – whoever this is that won first place – this is the kind of girl I need.”
“Then you’re in for a disappointment. She is good friends with my mother, and what I know of her through Mother tells me that she is not going to agree to be your girlfriend.”
Leandro shrugged, not affected by Derek’s warning. He was not a good man, and he did not profess to know everything. But one thing he did know was women, and he knew enough that he could make them cry out in sexual release with a few flicks of his fingers. He knew where to bite, where to kiss, where not to touch to have them panting his name.
“She will say yes.”
An hour later, the ceremony had finally reached its end and the awardees were being called in front. Leandro straightened in his seat, impatiently waiting to see the one he had decided to make his girlfriend. He hoped she was nice enough to look at but even if she was not his type, it would not sway him from the path he had chosen to take.
“Ladies and gentlemen," Derek’s mother Samantha Christopoulos announced proudly, “I present to you our Young Philanthropist of the Year, Ms. Roberta Granger.”
A petite woman ascended the stage, dressed simply in a white blouse and slacks while the other awardees were dressed in sparkling dresses and high heels – everything that a philanthropist did not look like. More and more he was convinced that he had made the right choice.
She even wore glasses, Leandro thought with approval.
The girl reached Samantha’s side and took the trophy from the older woman, their conversation too low for the microphone to pick up. She turned to face the crowd.
Fuck.
He said it again, this time aloud, and Derek looked at him sharply.
“What is it?” Derek asked.
Leandro said grimly, “You asked me a while ago what her name is. Well, I know now.” He nodded towards the stage. “Roberta Granger.”
It took a moment for Derek to react, and then he grinned. “Good luck, Leandro. You will need it. Badly.”
Chapter Three
“There’s a young man I want you to meet,” Samantha Christopoulos confided to her excitedly.
So that was why the older woman was holding on to her arm so tightly, Bobby realized with a grimace. Even so, she tried to pull away. The hold tightened. Bobby sighed. “You know I adore you, Aunt Sam, but this has to stop. I’m not looking for a boyfriend.”
“You should.”
“Does my mom know you’re encouraging me to hook up?”
Samantha looked offended. “Of course!”
It was Bobby’s turn to be offended. “She does?”
“Oh, come on, don’t be mad at her. You know we’re both just worried about you.” Samantha squeezed the younger girl’s arm affectionately. “The problem with you is that you let the past affect you too much.”
Bobby shrugged.
“You didn’t use to be so lacking in self-confidence,” Samantha chided.
“I’m not lacking in self-confidence,” Bobby protested. “I do workshops all the time, public talks---”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it. You used to have more confidence in yourself as a woman.”
“Aunt Sam, I am confident as a woman. I’m just not as blind as I was in the past about who I really am.” Now, she understood perfectly that she was not the kind most men considered attractive. She was too pale, too curvy, and too smart for her own good.
She unconsciously straightened at the thought, as if preparing herself for the disdain of other people. She didn’t care about what others thought, Bobby told herself. What she cared most about was her charity and making sure the children who depended on her would be taken care of for the rest of their lives.
Bobby tried to pull away again, hoping she could take the older woman by surprise, but Samantha was still clinging to her tightly. “Aunt Sam, really?”
Samantha suddenly looked frail, but her voice was strong when she told Bobby, “If you leave me, everyone’s going to think you cruelly abandoned an old woman like me to party.”
Bobby groaned. “You are so sneaky.”
“Just do this for me please, Bobby. Just be nice to him and don’t let your prejudices show. I promise you’ll have fun with him.”
“I don’t have time to have fun.”
“You do. You just don’t want to.” Samantha nodded and smiled at those who greeted her but didn’t bother to stop for any of them. She had been lucky to get Bobby to cooperate with her this far, and she knew it. If she let her guard down even for a second, Samantha was sure the girl would make a mad dash for the exit.
The afterparty of the award ceremony was doing very well, with twice the number of expected guests turning up. It was no doubt because everyone wanted to have a look at her nephew, Samantha thought fondly. The fact that there was another Christopoulos in their midst – and this one single – had everyone excited, from mothers looking for the perfect match for their daughters to younger girls and sophisticated women hoping for a chance to snag him before the whole country became aware of his presence.
“Unlike Derek, my nephew is 100% Greek.”
“Which makes him a chauvinist.”
“Very protective of the women in general, yes,” she agreed smoothly. “He’s pretty famous in Greece because he has won a lot of races.”
“Horse racing?”
“Err---no. Motorcycles.”
Bobby sighed. “It’s just getting worse, Aunt Sam. You should really just quit before this gets embarrassing for all of us. I’m a nerd and he races bikes. How in the world do you think we’re going to deal together?”
“Like fire meets fire,” a dark voice answered.
Bobby’s jaw dropped at the unexpected response, but before she could figure out who it was, she almost bumped into a wall of rock-hard muscles.
“Leandro!”
It was Samantha’s nephew then?
She looked up, and her jaw slackened even more. �
�You?”
Almost as if on cue, the orchestra playing at the stage started a new song, and Leandro answered by taking her hand and sweeping her into the dance floor.
From behind them, Samantha called out cheerfully, “Enjoy!”
Leandro expected Roberta Granger to try to escape him, and she did. But of course he was ready for her, and his arm simply tightened around her waist. For good measure, he also pulled her close to him, taking her again by surprise. She ended up completely plastered against his body, and as he whirled them around, he looked down at her.
She was spitting mad.
That was…expected, too.
“Try to smile,” he suggested. “Everyone’s looking at us.”
“Let go of me.”
“No.” He whirled them around again.
“I’m serious.”
“I’m just as serious. Before you can make a scene, I’ll be kissing you. Again.”
Her eyes flew back to him in angry disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.” And his cock rose, as if to affirm how serious he was. His body’s instant reaction towards her proximity and the mention of their kiss required Leandro to reluctantly put a little distance between them. This was not the right place and time for Roberta Granger to realize how much she turned him on – for what reason, even Leandro didn’t know.
Looking down on her, the mutinous look on her oval face made Leandro mentally sigh. “I’m sorry for what happened yesterday,” he forced himself to say.
“Really?”
He said impatiently, “Has no one taught you to be gracious when accepting an apology?”
She flushed. He was right in that score, but she didn’t want to admit it. She shot back, “I’d be gracious if I thought you were being sincere.”
It was his turn to flush. “You never know when to shut up.”
Her eyes flashed. “Is that your way of telling me to shut up? Because let me tell you---”
He kissed her.
Again, he had shut her up by kissing her.
This time, she managed to remain conscious enough to try to struggle. Try being the operative word because her efforts were completely wasted. He was so strong that he made it look like she was not refusing his touch at all. He had stopped in the middle of the dance floor, his arms around her like chains made of burning-hot steel.
She opened her mouth to scream, but stupid her, she forgot that was the one thing she should never do.
His tongue went in for the kill.
And that was…the end. Of her sanity.
Now, her reeling senses took over.
The impact of his kiss, his touch, the heat of his presence – it all hit her at once, and she was left silently gasping against his mouth as he deepened his kiss. They were no longer dancing, and she honestly had no idea where they were. All she knew right now was that this second kiss of his was even more mind-blowing, more earth-shattering, and she couldn’t think of anything else except him.
His lips were soft and firm at the same time, demanding and gentle, the way it moved never leaving any doubt in her shaken mind that he was in control.
His tongue was skillful – too skillful, the way it moved inside her mouth, leaving a lasting impression on every inch it tasted and touched. It sought to mate with her tongue, and she was helplessly drawn into this seductive and passionate dance, her tongue following his command, dancing to his tune.
His hands had first been meant to keep her in place, but now it was meant to support her, to keep her from falling, and they both knew it. One hand clasped her neck, fingers digging into the thick length of her hair while his other hand was settled possessively on the curve of her hip, fingers tightening around her flesh as he leaned forward and she bent backward, the kiss never-ending.
Someone cleared her throat. Several times.
“I’m glad you two get along very well, but you are starting to make a scene, children. Do you think you could continue this somewhere more private?”
The words took a while to penetrate her mind.
And when it did---
Bobby let out a load moan of shock and embarrassment, this time struggling in earnest, forcing Leandro to slowly lift his head and let her go. He at least appeared as dazed as she was, as if he could not believe that they were not somewhere private, with an opportunity to take things further.
She had the strongest urge to slap him for some reason. She knew it was unfair to feel like he had taken advantage of her. He might have had at the start, but in the end she had kissed him back. Even so, she had this strange need to hit him and her hand actually started to move.
His face became dark and a warning glinted in his stormy blue eyes. “Don’t.” He said the word in a low murmur, but there was a lethal tone to it.
Hit me and I will do more than kiss you.
The silent warning made Bobby tremble. With a choked gasp, she whirled away to leave but instead bumped into another person – this time a waiter holding a tray filled with several glasses of wine. They all tumbled down, liquid sloshing past the tray and onto…her.
People around them gasped. Some even dared to laugh. And Bobby could have sworn she heard someone mutter viciously, “Doesn’t she have any shame? She’s provoking him so he'll kiss her again.”
Her eyes squeezed shut in mortification. It was the past all over again.
Chapter Four
“Is she all right?”
The question was asked with an expressionless voice, but Samantha was not fooled. Her nephew cared more than he wanted to let on, and the fact that he was hiding it was very interesting.
“She’s in my room changing.” She was deliberately vague.
Leandro’s lips tightened. “But did she seem okay?” It was possible that he had allowed himself to be carried away a little too much earlier, he admitted to himself reluctantly. But in his defense, it had truly not been deliberate in any way. He had not sought to make her embarrassed, and yet somehow it happened anyway.
Samantha asked, “Why don’t you check on her?”
Leandro shrugged. He would prefer to be dead than admit to anyone he did not want to risk being alone with Roberta Granger again. She angered him so easily, and yet she just as easily aroused him. It did not make sense how a girl like her could make him feel so much when she clearly thought he was a first-class asshole.
“Have you changed your mind about her then?” This was from Derek, which had his mother looking at him with interest and his cousin scowling.
He dug his hands into his pants’ pockets. “Yes. I’ve changed my mind about her,” he said finally. No matter how much he lusted after the waspish woman, Leandro knew that the smartest thing to do was to leave things be.
Yesterday’s kiss had been phenomenal, but tonight’s kiss had been…revealing.
It told him one simple truth: Roberta Granger was the type of girl who would only sleep with a guy she thought herself in love with. If he made her his fake girlfriend, it would only end with pain, and there would be nothing fake about it.
“People will draw the wrong conclusions if you don’t go after her,” Samantha said quietly. She knew she was being unfair, deliberately making her nephew feel guilty about his actions. But she told herself the ends justified the means. It was clear that Leandro and Bobby had a connection, and it was just as clear that Leandro – for whatever reason – was determined not to do anything about it.
I hope you can find him a girl who will make him realize that one doesn’t have to be perfect to be loved, Elena Christopoulos had told Samantha in her call last night. Leandro has been badly shaken by his father’s heart attack, and he blames himself for it. He hasn’t told me anything but I know he is going to do something drastic, something that he thinks a perfect son would do.
If there was someone least perfect for Leandro, then that would be the outspoken and snarky Roberta, Samantha thought. And that was what perversely made the girl perfect for him at the same time.
“She’ll ge
t over it.”
“Some other girls may, but Bobby won’t.”
Derek’s words had Leandro looking at his cousin sharply.
“I’m not in a position to say anything, but she had a rather bad time of it in high school. It’s made her more vulnerable than she seems to…gossip.”
“It has to do with a boy, doesn’t it?”
Derek didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. Leandro was already walking away.
****
Leandro knocked on the door several times, and when no one answered, he tried the knob and found it unlocked. His lips tightened in irritation. What kind of idiot left her hotel door unlocked? Didn’t the stupid girl realize how dangerous that was? This might be a first-class hotel, but anything could still happen.
“Roberta?”
The name sounded strange on his lips. It did not sit well on him to call a woman by a man’s name, and somehow Roberta simply didn’t suit her. He tried again. “Bobby?” His blood leapt the moment he spoke it out loud, as if recognizing the passionate girl behind the name.
And yet there was still no answer.
With a frown, he crossed the living room and tried the first door that he reached, which was again unlocked. It turned out to be a bedroom, but it was also unoccupied. He frowned. Where the hell was she? Had she left?
He heard the sound of another door opening and he looked up.
Bobby was coming out of the bathroom.
Naked.
Leandro sucked his breath in, and the sound, though barely audible, made Bobby look up sharply, her face whitening when she realized that she was not alone. One full second passed before she seemed to realize the worst thing about her situation, and she let out a dismayed cry. “Get out!” Her hands flew in a panic over her, trying to cover everything but failing.
Leandro couldn’t stop staring.
She was…beautiful.
Her body was…perfect.
It was a woman’s body, the kind that he thought he could only dream of. Countless women had been to his bed, but none of them had been this gloriously curvy, the sight of her leaving Leandro completely aroused.
