Claimed by the Sicilian Tycoon (Criminal Seduction #3)(56)

“This was why she needed money,” he whispered to himself. “The parting gift.”

Sebastian clasped him on the shoulder. “Which we have plenty of, my friend. But it is more than that now. It’s two out of three, and about time the set was completed, don’t you think?”

“What do you mean?” Andros demanded, barely able to take it all in.

Sebastian grinned again. “Time to man up and take your woman. Christ knows she’s never going to let anyone else do so, and I’m not sure how much more of her bad mood we can all take.”

“Lyra—”

“Is yours, my friend,” Sebastian said. “As Penny is mine, and Rachel is Dominic’s. You need only to claim her.”

And Andros nodded slowly because had he not spent the last few weeks thinking that very thing? The time had come. Waiting and considering was no longer an option.

Time to man up.

Time to claim his woman at last.





Chapter Thirty



Who knew it would take so freaking long for a baby to be born? Sixteen hours almost to the moment when Rachel had her very first pain, Lyra and Penny staggered out of the birthing room and into the corridor. They were both exhausted, both bleary eyed, and both utterly enchanted.

Their niece, Carmen Lyra Penny Rimeria, was born, and she was captivating. Dominic and Rachel were busy cooing over the little bundle, and the sisters had both agreed it was time they had some privacy. Each would have left sooner if Rachel had allowed it, but she was determined her sisters would stay close to hand. And so they had, crowded around the birthing bed, and to give him his due, Dominic had not said a single word. Indeed, at times Lyra thought he had seemed pleased for the backup.

Sebastian had stuck his head around the door once. After spotting him, Rachel had screeched at him to, f*ck off, and he’d done so with a grin. Their family, Lyra thought, and felt her heart squeeze a little. Soon enough Penny would be in the same position and she and Rachel would crowd around her bed.

But not you, Lyra’s mind whispered. Not you.

She swallowed unsteadily as she walked into the waiting room, her heart squeezing some more, as Penny fell into her husband’s arms, the love between the two of them so obvious for anyone to see. They would head home together arm in arm, and Rachel and Dominic would be here, exactly the same. And she? Lyra swayed a little on the spot. She would continue to be alone.

Lonely, she admitted, despite the love of the family.

That thought made her throat tight, and maybe it wouldn’t be so painful if she hadn’t seen Andros earlier. If she could just get a few years between them, a decade even, perhaps then it would start to heal a little. You wish.

Throat burning, Lyra stepped forward. She would head back to The Point she decided, where no one could see how much it f*cking hurt. Where she could busy herself with the problems of others.

“They make an interesting couple.”

Lyra swiveled so hard she felt dizzy. Her eyes latched onto Andros, sat on one of the hard waiting chairs, his feet resting on the spare opposite him. For one moment she blinked, wondering if exhaustion was messing with her mind, but a second later and he was still there.

Andros. Her Sicilian. The man she loved.

How? Why? What did it mean? The questions tumbled through her mind and she took a shaky step forward.

“Andros,” she breathed. “What?”

“I followed you here,” he said. “Did you really think I would let you get away so easily?”

“I—”

“No.” He stood. “Ignore that, because I have let you haven’t I? I’ve been a f*cking fool, Lyra. Giving you space, trying to work through my own f*cked up feelings, and all the while I should have been here with you. We should have been busy working on our own baby.”

She shook her head. Unable to comprehend his words. Dear God, it couldn’t be, could it? Not after all these months? Not after all the tears and the curses. Not after the hope that had refused to go away. The fantasy that it might just all work out in the end.

“Andros,” she whispered. “What the hell are you saying?”

He walked forward, taking her into his arms, just as Sebastian had taken Penny. “That I am ready for more,” he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. “That I always was and I just did not know.”

“More being…?” she asked, her stomach clenching.

“More being us,” he said, lifting her heavy hair from her head and smoothing it behind her. “I fooled myself, Rossa. I told myself that I wanted you so much because of the lust. The desire overrode everything and when it started to turn into something else I got scared. I couldn’t handle it. I was insanely jealous that night at Club Belmont. Seeing all those other men lusting after you, seeing you with that bartender. You are so f*cking beautiful.”


“You had no need to be jealous,” Lyra whispered. “There was never any need.”

“But any of those men could have been me,” he said, and Lyra could feel the tension in him as he spoke. “You wanted a protector and it could easily have been them as it was me.”

“No,” she said. “You don’t get it. When we started this, my sisters and I…oh, Christ I’ll have to tell you the whole story won’t I?”

“That might be a good idea.”