“Is she all right?”

The question was asked with an expressionless voice, but Samantha was not fooled. Her nephew cared more than he wanted to let on, and the fact that he was hiding it was very interesting.

“She’s in my room changing.” She was deliberately vague.

Leandro’s lips tightened. “But did she seem okay?” It was possible that he had allowed himself to be carried away a little too much earlier, he admitted to himself reluctantly. But in his defense, it had truly not been deliberate in any way. He had not sought to make her embarrassed, and yet somehow it happened anyway.

Samantha asked, “Why don’t you check on her?”

Leandro shrugged. He would prefer to be dead than admit to anyone he did not want to risk being alone with Roberta Granger again. She angered him so easily, and yet she just as easily aroused him. It did not make sense how a girl like her could make him feel so much when she clearly thought he was a first-class asshole.

“Have you changed your mind about her then?” This was from Derek, which had his mother looking at him with interest and his cousin scowling.

He dug his hands into his pants’ pockets. “Yes. I’ve changed my mind about her,” he said finally. No matter how much he lusted after the waspish woman, Leandro knew that the smartest thing to do was to leave things be.

Yesterday’s kiss had been phenomenal, but tonight’s kiss had been…revealing.

It told him one simple truth: Roberta Granger was the type of girl who would only sleep with a guy she thought herself in love with. If he made her his fake girlfriend, it would only end with pain, and there would be nothing fake about it.

“People will draw the wrong conclusions if you don’t go after her,” Samantha said quietly. She knew she was being unfair, deliberately making her nephew feel guilty about his actions. But she told herself the ends justified the means. It was clear that Leandro and Bobby had a connection, and it was just as clear that Leandro – for whatever reason – was determined not to do anything about it.

I hope you can find him a girl who will make him realize that one doesn’t have to be perfect to be loved, Elena Christopoulos had told Samantha in her call last night. Leandro has been badly shaken by his father’s heart attack, and he blames himself for it. He hasn’t told me anything but I know he is going to do something drastic, something that he thinks a perfect son would do.

If there was someone least perfect for Leandro, then that would be the outspoken and snarky Roberta, Samantha thought. And that was what perversely made the girl perfect for him at the same time.

“She’ll get over it.”

“Some other girls may, but Bobby won’t.”

Derek’s words had Leandro looking at his cousin sharply.

“I’m not in a position to say anything, but she had a rather bad time of it in high school. It’s made her more vulnerable than she seems to…gossip.”

“It has to do with a boy, doesn’t it?”

Derek didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. Leandro was already walking away.

* * *

Leandro knocked on the door several times, and when no one answered, he tried the knob and found it unlocked. His lips tightened in irritation. What kind of idiot left her hotel door unlocked? Didn’t the stupid girl realize how dangerous that was? This might be a first-class hotel, but anything could still happen.

“Roberta?”

The name sounded strange on his lips. It did not sit well on him to call a woman by a man’s name, and somehow Roberta simply didn’t suit her. He tried again. “Bobby?” His blood leapt the moment he spoke it out loud, as if recognizing the passionate girl behind the name.

And yet there was still no answer.

With a frown, he crossed the living room and tried the first door that he reached, which was again unlocked. It turned out to be a bedroom, but it was also unoccupied. He frowned. Where the hell was she? Had she left?

He heard the sound of another door opening and he looked up.

Bobby was coming out of the bathroom.

Naked.

Leandro sucked his breath in, and the sound, though barely audible, made Bobby look up sharply, her face whitening when she realized that she was not alone. One full second passed before she seemed to realize the worst thing about her situation, and she let out a dismayed cry. “Get out!” Her hands flew in a panic over her, trying to cover everything but failing.

Leandro couldn’t stop staring.

She was…beautiful.

Her body was…perfect.

It was a woman’s body, the kind that he thought he could only dream of. Countless women had been to his bed, but none of them had been this gloriously curvy, the sight of her leaving Leandro completely aroused.

He had come here determined to make things right with her and then get out of her life for good. He had been determined not to make her his fake girlfriend, knowing she would not be suitable for it. But this –

This beautiful body…

It was irresistible.

And all thoughts of common sense flew out of his brain.

When she made a move to go back to the bathroom, he made a move, too, and he was a lot faster than she was.

In a moment, he had her locked in his arms.

She started to struggle. Hard.

His hold on her arms only tightened, her struggles somehow only making him more aroused. He had never forced a woman to bed – had never had any reason to. But right now, there was nothing he wanted more than to dominate Roberta Granger, to make her realize that he was a man and that he was strong enough to overpower her.

“Stop struggling,” he gritted out.

“Then let go of me!”

“The more you struggle, the more you make me want to take you!”

She froze, but her eyes shot fire at him.

He looked down at her – all the way to her breasts, her gloriously naked and abundantly full breasts. They were so deliciously shapely and round that he wondered if they would fit his hands. The thought that it wouldn’t had him swallowing, his lust threatening to get rid of what little of his self-control he had been able to hold on to.

Such beautiful breasts…and the sight of them had him fighting even harder for control.

A hungry look had touched his face, and when Bobby realized what he was staring at, she couldn’t help stiffening.

It was a bad move.

She knew it the moment she did it, but by then it was too late.

Her breasts, with its pointed rosy tips, brushed against his chest when she straightened, and the contact had both of them reacting like they were hit by a bolt of lightning.

A growl escaped the man holding her captive.

She stiffened again, something about that sound reminding Bobby that this man was more dangerous than any other man she knew. She was so out of his league it was terrifyingly ridiculous, and yet here she was, naked in his arms.

This time, she wasn’t too proud to beg. It was the only way to save herself, to keep her life from changing. She knew that without him saying a word, the knowledge more intuitive than experiential. “Please let me go---” she cried out, the sound a mixture of stunned disbelief and excruciating pleasure as he bent his head down, his hands moving down to clasp her waist tightly as his hot mouth closed over one pink tightly drawn nipple.

Oh God.

This couldn’t be happening.

She tried to hang on to her sanity, her hands moving up to press against his shoulders. She wanted to push him away but she couldn’t. “Please---”

She stopped.

He had started to suck.

He. Was. Sucking. On. Her. Nipple.

Sucking.

Hard.

Her eyes closed. Her head fell back. Her lips parted in a silent moan.

It was too much.

Someone knocked furiously on the door. “Leandro, you have an urgent call. It is your mother.”