“He did what?” Bobby shot out of her seat, unable to believe that Leandro would do something so underhanded just to get her to talk to him. Last night had been horrible. She had spent countless hours trying to convince herself she had done the right thing and she could survive the loss of Leandro again.

Nessa’s head bobbed. “It’s true, Bobby. I received the call straight from his P.A. They’re holding a press conference as we speak. It’s on television.”

“But that’s crazy.” She looked at F. “He can’t really pull out at this late notice?”

“It’s his company, darling.” F didn’t know what exactly took place between the two, but one look at Bobby’s face was enough to let him know that something did happen – and it was enough to drive the two crazy. First it was Bobby, suddenly becoming engaged to Sabastian Gabris. Sure, he was one of the most eligible catches, but so was Leandro Christopoulos.

As for Leandro, well, if suddenly cancelling a major fundraiser a few hours before it was slated to start wasn’t crazy, well what was?

Bobby started to pace. “But that would put him in breach of contract.”

“And you think he can’t afford to pay the penalty?”

She gritted her teeth. Maybe he was bluffing. But what if he wasn’t? The kids downstairs were beyond excited, all of them having been briefed about what awaited them at the lab. If she told them the event was canceled, what would happen then?

They would be crushed and heartbroken, and they might never believe that people cared about their place in society.

She looked at Nessa. “What does he want?”

Nessa’s eyes widened. “How did you know he wants something in return?”

“What did he want, Nessa?” she repeated flatly.

“A meeting with you before the race.”

* * *

The box inside his pocket felt heavier than it should, hotter, too, and any moment now Leandro half-believed that it would burn a hole out of its confinement. Every member of the club had not been able to look at him as he joined them earlier at the locker room, where Helios had chosen to hold his pre-race talk.

Everyone had known he wanted Bobby back, and everyone now thought he had lost her to Sabastian Gabris.

Too bad they thought wrong, he thought fiercely. No matter what happened in the past, he and Bobby were destined to be together. He had to make her believe that, had to make her get past her fears to see that pain wasn’t the only thing he could bring into her life. He could bring her joy, too – the kind that only someone who loved her more than life could give.

His head jerked up when he heard the door open. Bobby stepped inside, looking pale but pretty in a black knitted dress. He was about to speak when Bobby held the door open and Sabastian Gabris followed her inside.

Ah.

Pain threatened to consume Leandro, but he firmly pushed it away. This simply meant that Bobby wanted her pound of flesh. He had done her wrong so many times in the past. He would not begrudge her this.

“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. “Marry me, 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…

Leandro inhaled.

For one moment, he thought she would take the ring.

Then her hands urged his fingers to close over the ring.

And he knew it had been all planned. That she had wanted him to believe he had a chance just so she could take that chance away and crush his heart with it.

He snatched his hand from her hold, and throwing the ring away, he slammed out of the room. He was done. He was just fucking done.

The silence Leandro’s departure left behind him was heavy with tension. And guilt, Bobby thought numbly. She knew that what she had done was cruel and unforgivable, but it had to be done. Leandro had to accept that they were not for each other.

She choked on a sob.

“You’re free now,” Sabastian said flatly. “Does your freedom please you?”

She couldn’t answer.

He watched Bobby struggle to hold back her sobs, but every time she did, her shoulders would shake harder as more tears fell from her eyes. He had been completely against pretending they were engaged but he knew that if he had not agreed to it, Bobby would have been desperate enough to find someone else to play along with her. And that wouldn’t do. There were already too many fake roles in Bobby and Leandro’s love affair. One more player added to the mix might have ruined it for good.

When Bobby started to cry, no longer trying to hold her sobs back, Sabastian said quietly, “You can’t eliminate fear by running away from it, moro mou. You’re just enlarging your cage when you do. If you want to get rid of your fears, you have to face it head on.”

“I almost died back then. I wanted to die. I was in so much pain there were times I just wanted to end my life because I loved him so much.”

“But you didn’t. If you could refuse the urge in the past, you can refuse it again.” He took her hand and gently pulled his ring from her finger. “You need to stop hiding, Bobby. Leandro hurt you in the past…and now you’ve hurt him back. It has to stop here if you really love him.” He paused, giving it time for the words to sink in. “Do you love him, Bobby? Do you have the courage to love him?”

For a long moment, Bobby didn’t speak.

And then she was pulling away to bend down, picking up Leandro’s ring from the floor.

She started to run.