Claimed by the Sicilian Tycoon (Criminal Seduction #3)(21)
Chapter Ten
“This place is amazing.”
Andros looked around the large room trying to see exactly what had gotten Lyra so excited. From the moment they’d arrived, she’d skipped around, a smile making her dimple peek out, complimenting pretty much everything she saw. To him the apartment was okay, basic, passable, and certainly he’d lived in far worse, but those memories were distant now. For the last decade, he had surrounded himself with wide spaces. Huge town houses, wide, sweeping villas…and yet, had he not been excited when he walked into the first home he’d lived in with more than one room? Her reaction reminded him a little of how he’d felt back then, all those years ago.
Abruptly he found himself wondering exactly what sort of home Lyra lived in, and how different it was from this apartment.
“Do you like it?” he found himself asking.
She grinned. “What’s not to like? The view is beautiful, the area is gorgeous, and there are actual shops downstairs in the same building.”
“There is also a gym and a swimming pool, though you are the last person who needs to use either of those facilities.”
Lyra laughed. “You don’t think I need to tone up a bit?”
“Are you serious?”
“No. I’m not. I’m aware that my body is pretty much perfect.”
“Not many women can say that.”
She flicked her hair—worn loose around her shoulders—with her hand, and Andros watched as it fell down her shoulders. Last night it had fanned around his face as she rode him to orgasm. God, he wanted more.
“Thing is, Andros,” she said as she walked over to the window and looked out on to the view. “I do nothing to make it that way. I should lie and tell you I diet and exercise constantly, but I don’t. I’ve looked like this since I was in my teens and it doesn’t change.”
“You are beautiful,” he said, because she was. Dressed in one of his shirts that reached down to her mid thighs, she’d clinched it shut with one of his belts, teaming it with her ridiculously high heels. He’d offered to drive by her apartment, pick her up some clothing, but she’d shook her head and said his shirt was fine. He couldn’t help but agree.
“By chance.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t do anything to look like this,” she said. “I didn’t work for it or earn it, it’s just a genetic lottery and I don’t even know who it’s from.”
“What do you mean?”
Lyra shrugged, turning from the window to look him square in the eye. “I never knew my parents, or at least if I did I don’t remember them. My dad walked out on my mom from what I can gather, and my mom dumped me when I was very small. I don’t remember really. I was too young.”
“What happened to her?” Andros asked, intrigued by this small insight into Lyra’s life.
“My mom? I have no idea,” she said. “Only thing I do know is that she was not parental material. I managed to get my hands on my file once, when I was younger, and it said a few things. It was…uncomfortable reading.”
“What of your sister?”
“My sister?”
“You mentioned her yesterday.”
“I did? Well actually, I have two and they are both exquisite. Rachel in particular is heartbreakingly beautiful.”
“I doubt she could come close to you.”
Lyra rolled her eyes. “You’d be surprised.”
“And the other sister?”
“Penny. She is also beautiful, but differently so. She’s all ice and haughtiness. We call her the cat because I swear she could be one in another life.”
“And she let you all go, your mother I mean?” Andros asked, baffled by such a thought. His own family was close knit. He spent a significant amount of time with them, ensured they were all well looked after. His parents, in fact, were currently on a six month tour of Australia, his younger brothers in the States, and he would visit them all fairly soon. “What are your sisters’ ages?” he demanded.
Lyra rubbed her hands up and down her arms, the only indication she’d given so far that she was uncomfortable. Interesting.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she said. “Let’s go in the bedroom and have sex again.”
Her abrupt change of topic did not have the desired effect. Andros stepped forward, intrigued to find out what had shaken her usual flippant demeanor.
“I have meetings in an hour. Tell me instead about these sisters of yours.”
“No more sex?” she pouted. He wanted to bite her lip.
“I satisfied you not long ago.”
“I think you’ll have you work cut out keeping me sated, lover.”
“You are deliberately changing the subject.”
She laughed. “Mystery, remember? Leave it be.”
Andros narrowed his eyes, tempted to push her a bit more, but his cell vibrated, and he really did have to get going. “Someone will arrive today with clothes and such for you, and we will pick up this conversation when I return tonight. I will also satisfy you quite thoroughly then.”
“You arranged that this morning, too? The clothes woman?”
“I did,” he confirmed, though in truth he’d left it in the hands of his assistant, Marjorie, a terrifying woman who ran his office with an efficiency that outpaced even his. She never questioned his requests, and this morning when he’d asked what apartments were on the company’s books, where a personal shopper could be found and so on, she’d simply stated that she would take care of it.