by Unknown
She had said, I love you…jerk.
And somehow, by doing it, she had made it more real, made the words more heartbreakingly precious. At that moment, Leandro knew what started as a pretense was now the truth. He did love her, and he wouldn’t know how he would survive if she left him.
Chapter Fourteen
“You can’t be serious.” Bobby muttered the words between her lips while she tried to keep her smile. A professional photographer was taking their picture, which would be on the front cover of Sports Illustrated.
Leandro had been dead set against the shoot, but when she found out from Aunt Samantha that it could be used to help boost the Greek public’s confidence in him, Bobby knew she would do whatever it took to get Leandro to agree to the shoot.
Personally, she didn’t get what was wrong with it. All the photographer wanted was for her to have her hair loose while she wore her glasses, a frilly long-sleeved shirt, and a skirt that was well below her knees. Of course, the fact that she had to sit on his lap while he was astride his bike was a little suggestive, but Bobby told herself it was necessary. It was Sports Illustrated, and the more copies sold meant more people in Greece would find out that Leandro Christopoulos was a changed man.
Or at least she hoped that was how it would work out…if they ever did finish the shoot. And that meant she had to convince Leandro not to beat the director into a bloody pulp.
“He’s been looking at you the wrong way,” Leandro said tightly to his one-week-old girlfriend.
“Keep smiling, Leandro,” Mick was saying.
He bared his teeth, hoping the other man would get the message. If Mick ordered him around one more time, that was it. He was going to smack him down.
But Mick did get the message and said hastily, “That’s great.” He returned his attention to Bobby, who was undeniably one of the sexiest women he had ever captured on camera. There was something so incredibly sensual about her, and the fact that she was covered up like a damn nun only made her seem sexier.
“You need to bend forward more and hold the throttle.”
“Don’t,” Leandro gritted.
Bobby ignored it. “Like this?” She held on to the throttle, bending forward, not realizing that it made the scooped neckline of her frilly blouse move lower and reveal more of her ample breasts.
But Leandro realized it, and he stiffened.
Mick forgot all about being careful, his attention zeroing in on the flesh peeking out of Bobby’s blouse. He licked his lips. “Umm, yes, but I think you should…” He moved forward like an entranced zombie.
Leandro struggled to keep an even tone as he whispered to Bobby, “I’m not wearing my glasses, so I can’t see that well. Could you check the crowd and see if any of the other club members are here?”
“Okay.” Bobby looked away and searched the crowd for Leandro’s biker friends.
Mick reached their side. He opened his mouth to speak to Bobby but a wheeze of pain escaped him instead when Leandro Christopoulos suddenly gripped his fingers and crushed them in his hands.
“I’m going to give you only one fair warning, bastard. You do not look at Bobby the wrong way after this. You do not talk to her after this. Whatever you have to say, you tell me. Because if I catch you doing anything you shouldn’t be doing to another man’s woman, it’s your balls I’m going to crush next with a fucking hammer. Do you understand me?”
“Ne,” Mick gasped out.
“I see Kellion and Helios and a few others,” Bobby was saying. She looked at Leandro and was surprised to find that it was the director he had been speaking Greek to. “You’re also Greek?”
Mick mumbled incoherently and put as much distance as he could between him and the couple the moment Leandro released him.
Leandro explained smoothly, “Everyone in the crew is Greek. The family is well known for only working with Greek media.”
“Ah.” She adjusted her position on his lap and froze when something nudged against her. Her head snapped towards him, her gaze incredulous. “Please don’t tell me you’re---”
He said bluntly, “That’s why I wanted you to look for the others. They should take over now before I fuck you in public.”
She could tell Leandro wasn’t joking. “But I don’t think we’re even halfway done!”
Leandro glanced at the director. “Are we done, Mick? The other members of the club are already here.”
Mick’s head bobbed. “Yes sir, we’re done.”
Leandro raised a brow at Bobby. “Satisfied?”
She answered simply, “Where do we have sex?”
He cursed her in Greek even as his entire body shuddered at the way she never hid her desire for him. She was so damn true, so damn real, that each day they spent together, his guilt weighed more heavily on him.
“We’re going,” Leandro said roughly even though his touch was gentle as he scooped her off his lap and lowered her to the ground. After that, he dragged her out of the studio as swiftly as he could while he made a call to his driver.
She blushed when she heard his words. “Not the car again!”
“It’s the only safe and private place we can fuck.”
“But your driver will know---”
“I’ll tell him to park somewhere and leave us be.”
She was still undecided.
He stopped walking. “Do you want to fuck or not?”
When he put it that way…
Bobby muttered, “You know I want to fuck. Kópanos.”
By the time they walked past the studio’s exit doors, Leandro’s driver was already there. “Drive us to the nearest park and leave us there. Keep the engine running. I’ll call you when I need you to drive us again.”
“Yes, sir.”
Leandro opened the passenger door. “In.”
She quickly got in.
When he followed her inside, it was to see that Bobby was already busy wriggling out of her panties. Leandro groaned. “Bobby, dammit.”
She tossed him her silk panties and then regretted it afterwards when he brought it to his face and inhaled.
“Don’t do that,” she wailed.
“I like your scent.”
“Kópanos.”
Leandro smirked. “But you love me being a jerk to you.”
“Shut up.”
“Enough talk, Bobby. Come here. I want to fuck…” He groaned when she knelt in front of him. In moments, she had his cock free and then before he knew what was happening, she was swallowing him whole.
“Bobby, dammit…”
She sucked him harder, her mouth working beautifully on him until his cock was straining into her mouth. Her head started to bob and he gripped her hair.
God, how he loved this girl.
How they started didn’t matter, he told himself fiercely. It was how he felt now that was important, and he loved her with all his heart. That was all Bobby had to know.
Bobby protested when Leandro pulled her up, forcing her to release his cock from her mouth. She pouted at him and Leandro groaned, the look on her face making him want to kiss her.
“You’re no longer just a shrew these days. You’re a witch, too, a stubborn and tempestuous witch who wants to kill me.”
She smiled at him, purring, “I just want to hear you groaning my name.”
He growled, “I’ll groan it all right. But first you’ll scream mine.” And that was when he pulled her down, impaling her with his cock.
She screamed his name. And when he laughed, she beat his rock hard shoulders with her fists even as she welcomed each thrust of his cock. She screamed his name repeatedly after that, her head reeling at the way he pounded into her so hard that each thrust had the car rocking.
He kept his eyes on her the whole time, memorizing every little expression that crossed her face as she screamed his name. And when she finally came, she pushed him to find his own shuddering pleasure, too.
“Bobby.” He groaned her name out as promised.
She
collapsed against him, and he shuddered again when he felt Bobby tenderly kissing the side of his neck. It was these little things, the ones that she only allowed him to see when she remained a tough little chick to everyone else, which made Leandro love her even more.
She loved him, and with every little secret she shared only with him, she proved her love over and over again.
He wished he could say the same for himself.
Chapter Fifteen
“Thank God. You finally answered your phone,” Priscilla Strathmore exclaimed in relief.
“I’m sorry. I’ve just been terribly busy the past few days.” Leandro Christopoulos sounded genuinely apologetic but also genuinely distracted.
“I’m sorry if I caught you at a bad time, but you see I’m in this new class…”
Leandro did his best to rein his impatience in. He reminded himself that it was Priscilla who had given him his second chance with Bobby. He should at least attempt to listen to her. The only problem was that she always attended new classes and workshops all the time, and all of them seemed to be a waste of money as far as he was concerned.
“So I just wanted to ask, now that everything seems to be going well with Uncle Orion, is it okay if I clear things up? You see, according to my New Age Spirituality professor, I need to cleanse myself and purify my conscience…”
“Whatever you think is best,” he said, his attention mostly focused on reading the news from back home. He swiped to the next page on his iPad, and more good news awaited him. His father was recovering well according to the news, and his father’s scion – which was Leandro – was doing apparently just as well overseas. Public approval of his relationship with Bobby was at an all-time high. Most times, they thought him undeserving of the Christopoulos name.
“…so I’m glad that you’re totally supportive of my decision. I thought you wouldn’t be, but I’m glad I’m wrong.”
He forced himself to concentrate on his cousin’s words. “Whatever makes you happy, Priscilla.”
When the call ended, Priscilla beamed happily, and her reflection on her bedside mirror beamed back at her. That had gone better than she expected. Now, the next thing she needed to do was to schedule a call with Bobby Granger. That was the last step to clearing her conscience and after that, she would be able to enjoy peaceful nights and look more beautiful every day because of it.
Leandro was about to put his phone away when it vibrated in his hand. He frowned when he saw a message from an unidentified number.
GO TO THIS PLACE SO YOU KNOW WHY I HATE HER GUTS. NOW YOU’LL KNOW WHY YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN BACK TOGETHER WITH THE SLUT.
****
“You’re really back!” Bobby exclaimed as she rushed to go around the table to give her unexpected visitor a hug.
Sean Blackwood smiled at her. “Yes. I’m truly back.” His voice sounded carefully controlled, as was typical for deaf individuals who had mastered the art of lip reading and using it to speak on their own.
They took their seats, and even then she couldn’t stop looking at Sean happily. He looked so gorgeous – so unlike the last time they had seen each other, when he had found out the woman he loved had betrayed him. He was dressed impeccably like always, but he looked even more sophisticated now – certainly more than any fresh graduate of Molecular Physics had the right to be.
Sean had been her first and only sign language teacher, and he had been a very strict one, not communicating with her in any other way but gestures, forcing Bobby to check her sign language dictionary for every word he acted to her.
It had only been when he was truly convinced of her determination to talk to him that he had allowed himself to soften towards her.
“How have you been?” Sean asked with a smile.
She told him everything, even the things that she had tried to keep from him in the past because then he had been too vulnerable. Letting him know about her troubles would have just hurt him even more.
Sean suddenly whitened. “Valerie Martin?”
“Yes. Why? Do you know her?” She was alarmed when Sean paled even more at her confirmation. “What is it?” She gestured as she spoke, feeling like Sean was so disturbed right now he might not be able to read her lips properly.
“It’s because of me,” he said grimly. “I am the one she thinks you stole away.”
“You?”
“She must have seen us together all the time and because no one knows about us…” His hands moved, a sign that Bobby knew was roughly equivalent to ‘goddamn motherfucking shit’.
Bobby agreed silently. No wonder Valerie hated her. She gestured to him, Don’t blame yourself. She played around. You didn’t. She just thinks you did.
I should have told her about you.
She should have asked first---
“Hello, mégaira.”
Bobby jerked. Leandro?
She looked up and there he was, still dressed in his leather jacket and dirty pair of jeans and causing a commotion everywhere. Most didn’t seem to realize that it was Leandro Christopoulos in their midst, their disdainful expressions telling Bobby that they were all going to request management to throw Leandro out.
Bobby hastily got to her feet, not wanting Leandro to be involved in any kind of newsworthy incident that could hurt his father’s chances. “You’re causing a commotion, kópanos.”
Leandro stiffened. This time, the Greek term did not sound like an endearment. This time, it did sound like exactly what it meant – a jerk. Or better yet, an arrogant jerk, a stupid asshole for swallowing Bobby’s every word as truth.
Bobby’s smile started to waver when Leandro only looked at her, his stormy blue eyes cold. “L-Leandro?”
“Congratulations,” he said bitterly. “We’ve both successfully fooled each other.”
She shook her head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
He gritted out, “Who is he? Can you tell me that at least?”
“Lower your voice. People are looking---”
One of the waiters approached them. “Ms. Granger, is this man bothering---Mr. Christopoulos!” The waiter’s exclamation had shock rippling through the engrossed crowd as they realized that this was no quarrel between an heiress and biker scum. It was something far more delicious.
“I don’t give a fuck what they hear. What’s there to be ashamed about? We both played each other for a fool---”
His words finally sunk in. “Y-you played me for a fool?”
Leandro laughed hollowly. “Are you fucking serious? You have the gall to look hurt when I’ve just caught you with another man? Valerie---” He saw both Bobby and her unknown date stiffen at the name and he said coldly, “Yes. It was Valerie who told me that I’ve an unfaithful bitch for a girlfriend.”
“And you?” she asked hoarsely. “H-have you been unfaithful to me, too?”
“You really think you have right to---”
“Answer the question!” she screamed.
He shouted back, “No. I wasn’t unfaithful. I just never loved you in the first place.”
She stumbled back at his words, and she would have fallen if not for the other man being there to catch her.
“Don’t touch her,” Leandro lashed out before he could stop himself, but the words didn’t even seem to register, the other man’s every moment speaking of fierce protectiveness towards Bobby.
Bobby didn’t want to cry. She hadn’t even shed a tear when Blaine had dumped her so publicly in high school but oh God, this…she really had thought it was real. “I’m going to answer you now,” she whispered. “Sean is deaf.”
His heart almost shattered at what that meant. That was why she felt so close to deaf children then. “So you built a foundation for him?”
“Yes,” she agreed tonelessly. “Because I love my half-brother that much.”
No.
How could he have gotten it so wrong?
By the time Leandro got past the painful shock of how fucking mistaken he had been, Bobby and
her half-brother were out of the restaurant. “Bobby?” He ran out, his heart beating furiously. He had to make her understand that he had just been so out of his mind with jealousy that he had leapt to the wrong conclusions.
He needed to make her understand---
Leandro skidded to a stop when he saw Bobby standing at the curb while her brother took the keys to his car from the valet.
He said hoarsely, “Bobby.”
She turned to him, and that was when Leandro saw she was holding her phone.
Bobby said dully, “I just received a message from Priscilla – your cousin. She’s been trying to call me but since she couldn’t get to me, she thought she could text me everything about what you did. She’s so very sorry, you see.”
The phone dropped from her fingers, as if Bobby was too weak to hold on to it.
And Leandro’s heart dropped with it, knowing that there was a good chance his heart wouldn’t ever recover from seeing the pain that he had caused Bobby.
DRIVEN BY LOVE
(PART TWO)
Prologue
“O Theos na ton anapafsi.”
May God rest his soul, and the hundreds of invited guests murmured them over and over to the family of the deceased. Their soft voices echoed throughout the hallowed halls of the church, their tones painfully bleak.
Tyler shifted uncomfortably on his feet and pulled on his collar. He knew he should be thankful, being one of the lucky few who had been selected to cover the first death anniversary of Greece’s most beloved public official. But if Tyler was honest, he would rather be covering the opening of the 10 millionth hotdog stand in Central Park. Memorial services depressed the hell out of him, and this one was fast proving to be one of the most depressing.
Everyone inside the church had grim looks on their faces. If he didn’t know better, he’d have assumed Orion Christopoulos had just died yesterday instead of a year ago. Had Orion Christopoulos really that been great, Tyler wondered. Since his job only required him to follow society gossip, Tyler had no idea at all about politics, much less news that had to do with governments outside America.
