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“You’redriving me crazy,” Leandro raked back at her. “What do I need to tell you to make you listen to me?”
“Nothing! Nothing will make me believe a word you say anymore! I don’t care about you—-”
“Is that why you screamed when you saw the rope bridge giving out?”
Bobby whitened.
“Is it better for you to see me die? Because just say the word, mégaira,” he grated out, “and I can easily go back and this time I won’t do a thing to stop me from—-”
“NO.” The word was torn out of her. It was too much, the memory of Leandro falling in the sky too vivid and raw to keep her from reacting to the threat in his words. If Leandro had died, if Leandro had died -—
She started to cry, pummeling his chest with her fists. “No!” The word came out as a sob and a scream. “It won’t be better for me, damn you. I wish it was but it won’t!”
Leandro hauled her into his lap, easily restraining her as she tried to pull away. It was a tight fit inside his sports car, and when Bobby realized that there was no way she could squirm away from him, she cried harder and beat his chest again. “I hate you. I hate you so much.”
“I welcome your hatred, mégaira,” he said grimly. “It is better than having you indifferent.”
She cried harder at his words, wishing there was a way to make her deaf to the sincerity in his voice. He sounded like he meant it, but he couldn’t. It was impossible he did. “I hate you.”
“And I love you.”
“Stop saying that!”
His hands cupped her face, forcing him to look at her. “I’llneverstop saying what’s true—-”
Her eyes blazed in hurt accusation, the pain in it so deep it cut him to pieces. Only now was he beginning to see how much he had hurt her that night. Only now was he beginning to understand that such pain was only possible because Bobby had also loved him so much.
“Listen to me,” he said rawly. “Just this once, let me tell you everything.”
She tried to look away, but he wouldn’t let her. “Don’t you ever run out of lies?” Bobby demanded painfully. She was so damn tired of running away from the past, from him and all the stupid lies he had made her believe.
“I’ll never lie to you again,” he grated out. “I swear it on my father’s grave, Bobby. I swear it on the name of Orion Christopoulos. I won’t lie to you again.”
Bobby knew that with those words, she couldn’t doubt him. But her heart veered away from completely believing him. If she made herself believe, then she might as well have invited Leandro to play Russian roulette with her life all over again.
It goddamn hurt for Bobby not to believe in him even after swearing on his father’s name, but Leandro knew her distrust was more than well-deserved. “Bobby, when I first saw you, I thought you were a bitch.”
Her eyes widened, and she choked out, “This is your way of not telling a lie? By insulting me instead?”
“You were a bitch that day, mégaira, and you know it. I just received news of my father’s illness taking a turn for the worse that day. I’m afraid it made me less patient than usual when I found myself confronted by a shrew.”
A warm light entered Leandro’s eyes, and Bobby desperately called on all her defenses to keep herself from being affected by it. Whatever he told her now, it was all about closure – nothing more. It couldn’t be anything else.Please God, please make her strong enough to not let herself fall for him again.
“Then the night of the award ceremony happened and I realized you were the perfect girl to take the role of my girlfriend.” Leandro saw the flash of pain on Bobby’s face, and it slashed his heart. “Yes,” he said harshly, “I picked you to be my girlfriend with no thoughts of how you would feel if you found out I had ulterior motives.”
“When I came back from Greece, I had decided not to pursue you – I learned how badly you were treated when everyone thought I had dumped you, and I thought it would be better if I didn’t mess up your life. But then we kissed again – every damn touch, every damn kiss, every damn moment I spent with you made me realize that I couldn’t let you go. I had to make you mine. When my cousin Priscilla suggested that I pretend...”
“You don’t have to explain that part,” she choked out, wanting to cry again as a rush of humiliation struck her. “You must have been laughing at me, thinking how stupid I was to think you were a different person just because you wore glasses.”
“I never thought that,” Leandro gritted out. “All I thought back then, when you allowed me back into your life, was that I’d fucking ruin my eyesight for real if it meant I’d be able to be with you always. I needed you. I wanted you. And I fell for you—-”
He felt her stiffen and he almost wanted to shake her when he saw the distrust in Bobby’s eyes. “I fell in love with you, Bobby. You were the most amazing girl I had ever met – someone strong and soft, someone who loved so generously I was humbled by it. And God, I was so fucking terrified that one day you’d find out how it all started between us. I knew I had to tell you the truth one day, but I was scared of losing you – of you not believing me...”
“Because there’s nothing to believe—-”
“There’s everything to believe! It’s all here, Bobby!” He snatched her hand and pressed it to his chest so she could feel for herself how fast and hard it was beating, for her to know that every beat was for her. “I went out of my mind with jealousy when I saw you with your half-brother. I know I was stupid to believe Valerie’s lies, but I had never been in love before and seeing you with another man hurt – it goddamn hurt and all I wanted then was to hurt you.”
“By telling me the truth—-”
