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“Gabris.” He nodded in acknowledgment towards the other Greek.
Gabris returned it with a similar nod, his face expressionless. He was dressed in a suit once more, and Leandro absently wondered what had caused the change. In the past, he had been like Leandro and the rest of the guys at the club, dressed mostly in shirts and jeans because anything else would have been ridiculous when working on bikes.
He looked at Bobby again, and unable to help it, his gaze fell on her hand. The ring was still there, and the box inside his pocket felt even heavier. “Bobby.” He had wanted his voice to sound neutral and even, but it came out hoarse. Suddenly, he felt...adrift, the sight of another man’s ring on her finger making Leandro feel like he was hanging on the edge of a cliff and he was waiting for Bobby to pull him back...or push him over.
Bobby did not miss the look of pain that crossed Leandro’s handsome face when he caught sight of Sabastian’s engagement ring. She had hurt him. She hadn’t been really sure she could, but now she saw she had. It should have pleased her, but it didn’t.
“What do you want to talk about?” She was proud that her voice remained flat and toneless, but when she saw that same flicker of unspeakable pain in his eyes, she wanted to cry out. It was as if her voice alone had told Leandro she was indifferent to his pain.
Inhale, exhale.
You’re a strong woman, Bobby.
You can do this.
You don’t need him to live.
Leandro searched her face desperately for any sign that she loved him, that it was only because she was hurting that Bobby was doing this. But there was none. Again, terror over losing her for good threatened to choke him but he shook himself free from its hold.
He would fight for her till the very end. As long as there was a chance for her to love him back, he would not stop.
“I want to talk about Erica Norwood.”
Nothing on her face changed.
He stiffened, the terror becoming stronger but still he continued doggedly. “I think you misunderstood. You might have seen her send me a message. Maybe you’ve seen the number of times I called her. I wasn’t cheating on you.”
He paused.
The old Bobby would have protested that last part, would have said something like he couldn’t have possibly cheated on her when they weren’t together.
But the coldly silent Bobby in front of him didn’t even blink at the words.
Her indifference made him draw a sharp breath, but still he forged on. “I managed to persuade her to tie up with your foundation to sponsor a similar program like our club did. She’s going to open her doors to deaf female students who would like to apply as summer interns.” When she still didn’t speak, he said fiercely, “That’s it. That’s completely it, Bobby. I didn’t cheat on you and I would never want to cheat on you.”
It fucking killed him to speak the next words in front of an audience – and especially when that one-person audience was made up of Sabastian Gabris – but Leandro spoke anyway. “I love you. I will always love you, Bobby Granger, so can you please stop hurting me and come back to my side?”
The pain in Leandro’s voice almost made Bobby break down, but she held on to her control ruthlessly, telling her that it didn’t matter if the business about Erica Norwood was nothing like she had feared. It didn’t matter either that Leandro had told Bobby he loved her in front of Sabastian, the man she was engaged to. It didn’t matter that he was practically begging her to come back to his life.
Love just wouldn’t work between the two of them.
He was not in her league, and she was too scarred, too frightened, too everything that he was not for her to take a chance on their love again.
“I can’t.”
Her rejection pierced him like a dagger to his heart, and he asked hoarsely, “Is it because he proposed to you first?” He took out the box from his pocket. He opened it, took the ring out – and his heart along with it – and offered both to her. “Marryme, Bobby.” Leandro took a step towards her, his hand outstretched, his life hers for the taking. “I know I messed up everything for us in the past, but I can make it right. I love you, Bobby, and you love me.”
The diamond ring Leandro offered to her blazed brightly, promising a dazzling kind of hope that she so badly wanted to believe in. But fears from the past kept her from reaching for it. “No.”
The way her voice shook gave him hope. He took another step forward. “Stop being scared, Bobby. Let me prove it to you – you’ll be happy with me.”
In that moment, she knew that he would never stop coming after her, not for as long as he believed that there was a chance for the two of them to be together again. And she was tempted – God, she was so tempted to be with him again, but she knew it wasn’t right. He made her feel so desperately needy. For a year, she had steeled herself against him and yet in just one night, Leandro had managed to destroy all her defenses. She had gone crazy with the pain and jealousy that one text message from another girl had created.
Blindly, she reached for Sabastian’s hand and after a second, Sabastian’s hand engulfed hers. “Sabastian was right to make me go to you. He thought I needed closure before I could accept his proposal. And he was right. The other day...it was a good way for us to be free of the pain and have a good ending to our relationship.”
Leandro was pale by the time she finished speaking. “You don’t mean that.”
She swallowed. Ignoring the pain in his eyes, she forced herself to say, “I mean it. I’m sorry, Leandro, but that’s all it can ever be. A beautiful goodbye.” She made herself step forward. Her hand covered his hand...
