The race was about to start when Bobby finally managed to push her way past the throng of reporters and VIP fans that had formed in front of the dugout. The bleachers were filled to the rafters, and everyone was cheering wildly for their favorite biker. Behind each biker was his token girl, and Bobby bit her lip hard when she saw it was Erica Norwood standing behind Leandro, once again wearing a bikini even though there was no freaking beach around. Was the girl insane? Maybe she wore jeans to the beach?

Erica was saying something to Leandro with a laugh, and when Leandro looked over his shoulder to answer her, Bobby watched in greater dismay as Erica deliberately bent forward, the new position revealing more of her breasts to Leandro.

Leandro might not have a thing for Erica, but Erica did. And after being such a bitch to him, Bobby knew that she might as well have pushed him into the other girl’s arms.

The thought of having Leandro entering a relationship with Erica – or any other girl for that matter, even if it was on rebound – was too frightening and painful to contemplate. She broke into a run and bumped into Erica from behind as she skidded to a stop.

“Ow!” The other girl whirled around, and upon seeing Bobby, Erica’s face took on an indignant expression. “You!”

Unable to think of a proper way to answer that, Bobby lifted her chin and said, “Me.” Then she snatched the token girl’s sash from Erica.

The sound of Erica’s shrill scream jerked Leandro out of his thoughts, and when he turned to look over his shoulder, he was stunned to see Bobby trying to wrestle the sash from Erica’s hold. What the fuck was she doing? Was this another one of her fucking games to make him pay over and over for hurting her in the past?

Stalking towards the two girls, Leandro easily tore the sash from their hands. “What are you doing here, Bobby?” he snapped without looking at her. He smoothed the yellow silk sash and handed it back to Erica. “Sorry about that.” He wondered furiously what this was all about. Had Bobby forgotten there were cameras all around them?

Erica sniffed. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault she’s a crazy bitch.” She arranged the sash on her body and fluttered her lashes at Leandro. “But I think she scratched me on my shoulder.”

Leandro looked and Bobby, peeking over Leandro’s shoulder, realized with dismay that Erica wasn’t lying. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

Neither Leandro nor Erica seemed to hear her. Erica was looking up at Leandro with fluttering lashes. “Maybe you can kiss it to make it all better?”

Bobby gasped.

Leandro started to move.

Bobby pushed herself between the two. “I can kiss it better!”

Erica immediately jumped away from her. “Eww!”

Leandro’s hands settled over Bobby’s shoulders from behind so he could spin her around. She opened her mouth to explain, but the look of undisguised fury on his face killed whatever she had to say.

“Are you playing another game, mégaira?”

She paled. The way he said it didn’t make the word sound like an endearment.

“You had your game. You made me look like a fool in front of your fiancé---” His gaze jerked towards her hand, and that was when he realized she wasn’t wearing a ring.

“It was a sham,” she whispered. “You had it right from the beginning. I made him pretend we were engaged so I could push you away. I thought it was enough, but then you asked me to marry you still, and I…I was scared. I knew you would never stop and I knew I couldn’t always find the strength to say no to you…” Her voice shook as she made her last admission. “So I thought about what I could do to make you think I didn’t love you anymore…and I did it.”

Her rambling explanation made sense, but it didn’t matter. It couldn’t fucking matter. He was done with this shit. He had paid for his sins, and he wasn’t about to allow her to put him through hoops over and over for something he had already bled a thousand times for.

Leandro looked at Bobby. “You were a nice girl once, mégaira, but today, you were a bitch and I wish you luck in finding someone who could love you.”

The words stung, but she said valiantly, “I already found him. I just need to find a way to convince him to love me again.” She brought her hand up, revealing the ring she had been clutching all this time. His ring. “Maybe you’d like to give it to me again?”

She looked at him, this time openly offering herself to ridicule. She made no attempt to hide the love shining in her eyes even knowing that the cameras of practically every tabloid in the country was trained on them. “I love you, Leandro Christopoulos. You had me so terrified of loving you again that I hurt you needlessly and…and I’m s-sorry.” She wiped the tears away. “I’m willing to do whatever it is to make you forgive me and make you love me again.”

Bobby waited for him to answer, her eyes squeezed shut as she prayed that Leandro would give her another chance. A part of her feared that he would do the same thing she had done to him – make her believe that he was going to give her the ring only to do something else.

It was only when she heard the sound of the whistle – of the flag-waver shouting the countdown and the cheers of the crowd – that she realized he had done something worse because Bobby had not expected it at all.

He had simply left her standing there.

The roar of motorcycle engines coming to life drowned the sound of the dying beat of her heart, and the wet trail of the tears on her cheeks disappeared in the ephemeral fog of engine smoke as the bikers raced away.

He couldn’t have said it better.

He was done with her, and he couldn’t get away from her fast enough.