Free Driven by Love by Marian Tee Page A

pain of his abandonment. If he had known , he thought with agony. God, if he had only known !
    “I’m so damn sorry, Bobby. I thought that I was only punishing myself when I stayed away from you all this time. I thought you would need the time away from me to heal.” He took her face in his hands, wiping the tears away with his thumbs.
    “That’s the last time I’d ever be stupid enough to unknowingly hurt you, Bobby,” he said fiercely. “I swear to you, from this day on, I’ll hurt myself first, I’ll expose myself first before I ever risk hurting you. Because now I know…”
    There was something in those words that made Bobby catch her breath, something that made her so terrified of what he knew – of what he found out – that made her struggle against his hold.  
    But he was too strong, and his voice, once he started to speak, encompassed her whole world until there was no escape.
    “Now I know, Bobby. Whatever you said or did, now I know the truth.”
    “No,” she whispered. “No, you don’t—”
    The pain he had unintentionally subjected Bobby to last year should have made her despise him with all her heart. But she hadn’t. She couldn’t.
    “You love me, Bobby. For better or for worse, you love me the way I love you, and there’s no stopping it.”

Chapter Ten
     
    Bobby made a dash for it.
    She didn’t care about where she was going or how she would leave his place when she didn’t even have a car or money to pay a cab. All she knew was that she had to leave and escape Leandro before – before –  
    She had to leave before he completely owned her again.
    Bobby kicked him, hard enough to take him by surprise, and Leandro released her with a muttered Greek expletive. It almost felt like déjà vu but she didn’t waste a moment, scrambling past him so she could run towards his front door.
    “Not so fast, mégaira.” Leandro caught her just before she could cross the living room and spun her around with a jerk of his arm.  
    “Let go of me,” Bobby shrieked, and then she shrieked again when she realized that he was quickly unbuttoning her blouse. “What are you doing?” She forgot all about trying to escape as she tried swatting away his deftly moving fingers.
    Leandro didn’t bother answering, his concentration fully focused on the all-important task of getting Bobby naked as soon as possible. They were done talking and raking over old coals. The truth was out now, and it was time to do something they had always had no problem seeing eye to eye on.
    In the next moment, Leandro had managed to capture her wrists and raise it over her head. He swiftly pulled her blouse up and over her arms. Bobby shrieked again as he threw her blouse to the floor. “Have you gone out of your mind?”
    “Out of my mind with need for you, yes.”
    The way his eyes devoured her made Bobby swallow. She hated how her body was suddenly trembling so hard it was as if just the softest touch from Leandro would have her spontaneously combusting. “Let me go,” she demanded between clenched teeth even as moistness flooded the triangle between her legs. God! She just hoped she wasn’t so wet she ended up having a visibly damp spot on her shorts. She would never live that one down if it happened.
    Leandro was forcing her to walk backwards now, not saying a word, and she exclaimed in surprise when her back hit the wall. She caught a look of satisfaction in Leandro’s eyes before he pinned her wrists to the wall with one hand while his other hand ripped her bra free.
    She screamed, and then she screamed again for another reason when Leandro bent his head down and took one nipple fully into his mouth. It was so embarrassing, the way her nipples were already pertly alive, and she bit her lip hard to keep her involuntary moan from escaping. The pleasure of his mouth on her nipple was intense, more beautiful than she remembered, but she would do everything not to let him know—
    “You taste sweeter than I