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way?”
    Leandro didn’t answer, knowing that there was no way he could defend his actions – or the lack of it. The sound of her laugh made him glance at her sharply, and he sucked his breath in at the look of pained knowledge in her brilliant green eyes.
    Damn. He had forgotten that aside from being the snarkiest woman he had ever had the misfortune to meet, Roberta Granger – according to Derek – also happened to be the smartest girl in school.
    “You didn’t want to tell me.” She said the words factually because it was, indeed, a fact.  
    “Bobby—”
    She shook her head. “Let me make this easy for you. I really thought about this thoroughly the whole time you’ve been…gone . ” The way she hesitated over the word made Leandro flinch. He knew that she had been about to say something else, something painfully closer to the truth. Had Bobby thought of the days he had been away as the days that he had simply abandoned her?
    The thought had his chest constricting, a strange sensation that made it difficult for Leandro to breathe without understanding why. His chest tightened with every second that passed. All he could think of then was how to make Bobby understand.  
    He rasped out, “Bobby—”
    The urgent tone in his voice made Bobby shake her head almost wildly. No, no, darn it, no! She was not going to let him seduce her into doing what he wanted again.
    “It’s okay,” she told him without meeting his gaze. “I totally get it now. You see, I researched all about you. Aunt Samantha told me that you race bikes, but it really wasn’t clear to me how much of a hotshot biker you are until I saw all those clippings of your victories.”
    “Let me explain—”
    “And I know about how your father had been against you joining those underground races. And when he learned that you had an accident, it gave him a heart attack, which you blamed yourself for.”
    He said tightly after that, “I am to blame.”
    “No.” Her voice was very gentle. “You’re not, and I think deep down inside you know that no one in your family blames you for it either. If I had to guess, I think it was a combination of things like old age, stress over the elections, and sure, your racing was a factor too, but it wasn’t the only factor.”
    “I don’t want to talk about my father.”
    “And we won’t talk about him any more after this. Or anything else for that matter.”
    His head jerked up at that. “Bobby, dammit, if you could just let me—”
    “Let you what? Change my mind? Because we both know you could, but I’m asking you not to. You see, I've had a lot of time to think about this, and here’s what I came up with. You were so guilty about your father’s illness that you exiled yourself here, hoping to start anew. But you got bored and you saw me as a challenge.”
    “It’s not like that.”
    “It is exactly like that, and Leandro—” Her voice caught, having realized that it was her very first time to call him by his name.
    The way he was looking at her told Bobby he was just as aware of the fact, and that he, too, found it significant.
    The knowledge made her swallow and square her shoulders simultaneously. She had no doubts that Leandro Christopoulos was fiercely intelligent, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before he figured out why the fact that she had called him by his name was very telling.
    Well, she did not want to be there when it happened and he realized what a big fake she was.
    She said gruffly, “All I’m saying is that I don’t want you to see me as a challenge because I don’t need that kind of complication in my life. You had your fun. Good for you. But can we please leave it at that? I don’t think it’s a good idea we’re in each other’s lives.”

Chapter Seven
     
    “You should have asked me for advice, you know,” Priscilla Strathmore said sagely as she fed herself another forkful of organic salad. She considered Leandro Christopoulos’ tense profile