Claimed by the Sicilian Tycoon (Criminal Seduction #3)(52)

She glared. “What happened in the car will never happen again.”

He shrugged. “Of course it will. It is only a matter of time.”

“We’re done. Stay away from me. Do not come near me again.”

“Do not be so dramatic,” he said.

“I mean it. Jesus Christ, Andros, I mean it,” she screeched. “Listen to the f*cking words.”

“Lyra…” He paused, narrowed his eyes, and moved forward. Her hands were clenched tight, her face flushed, and it seemed almost like… “Are you…are you crying?” he whispered.

She dashed a hand across her eyes. “Of course I’m not crying! I don’t cry.”

“Lyra—”

“You’re no good for me,” she spluttered. “You were never any good for me and I should have known that right at the start. These f*cking missions were all a complete screw up in the end.”

“Missions?” he asked, jumping on the oddness of the word. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t even get that,” she cried. “You don’t get any of it. Why did I think you would? How could I ever have been so stupid?”

“I get that we fit,” he said carefully, the sight of her tears making everything turn on its head. Leave her to stew, make her ache? How could he think that way when the woman who meant so much to him was falling apart in front of his eyes? What was f*cking wrong with him?

How could he fix it all?

“Fit?” She laughed, the sound harsh. “We are so far from fitting. We’re…we’re just wrong. This,” She waved a hand between them. “It’s just sex. Sex and more sex and it is no good.”

“It has always been good. It works,” he insisted.

“But nothing else does. I can’t be your plaything anymore, Andros. I can’t.”

“You want more. I will give you more,” he said. “If that is what you need I will give you more.”

Another dash of her hand across her face, her lips quivering. Andros wanted to step forward and pull her into his arms, make her feel better. But he had no idea where to even start! No idea what giving more even entailed.

“You know,” she said softly, after a moment. “I don’t think I do want more.”


“But—”

“Let’s just draw a line. Draw it here and now and be done with it.”

Silence fell and held. Andros could practically hear his own heart thumping in his chest. Thumping far too quickly. “Then you want this to be the end?” he asked, the words not fitting right in his mouth. “Truly.”

She nodded. “I do. I have to.”

Then she smoothed down her dress, walked forward, and stood up on her tiptoes. A moment later and a light kiss was placed on his lips. The pressure was negligible, almost nonexistent, and yet Andros felt like it was the hardest kiss she had ever given him. His stomach knotted, his chest thumped, and he felt like something heavy had settled on him.

How had it gone wrong so quickly?

Why wasn’t it working out like he assumed?

How was he supposed to fix it?

“Don’t do this, Lyra,” he said. “Don’t.”

But she shook her head, and those tears that she insisted were not tears, sparkled on her eyelids. “No choice,” she whispered. “No choice. Not anymore. You take care of yourself, Andros. Be happy.”

And then before he could speak, before he could do a single thing, Lyra was gone.





Chapter Twenty-Eight



Three months later



“You really need to eat something else, Ly,” Rachel said. “You’re skin and bones these days and it’s making me feel like a whale.”

Lyra looked up from her drink, and caught the eye of her sister. They were sitting in a chic little café by Parliament, eating lunch and enjoying the spring air. Penny was due to join them any moment, but was running late. Hardly a surprise. She had recently begun work on the Bristol Point, the second of their centers for vulnerable teens, the first of many, the sisters knew. With two of the three sisters married to extremely rich men they had no issues with funding, it was just about time now, time to do all the work needed, and finding the right staff to help them with that work. After all, though Lyra had plenty of time on her hands, Penny and Rachel did not. Penny’s Greek kept her busy, and Rachel was about ready to burst. Free time was soon to be a thing of the past for her.

“I’m not really hungry,” Lyra said, prodding her burger.

“You’re too skinny,” Rachel moaned. “I swear, Ly, if you were a foot taller you could totally be a model.”

“Hardly, and besides, you just think I look skinny because you’re so fat,” Lyra said. “Chubb, chubb, chubb.”

Rachel laughed and reached out to swat her sister on the arm. Luckily Lyra was sitting close to her or she wouldn’t have been able to manage it. She was huge, the baby due any day now. In fact this was to be their last lunch, the three sisters together, before Rachel popped the little one out and everything changed.

“I am perfectly goddess like,” Rachel corrected. “At least that’s what Dominic says.”

“Of course Dom says that,” Lyra agreed, thinking of her brother in law. After a shaky start they were now firm friends. In fact Lyra got on very well with both her brothers in law. How could she not when they made her sisters so happy? “He thinks every single thing you do is perfect in every possible way,” she added.