Claimed by the Sicilian Tycoon (Criminal Seduction #3)(8)

“I find that hard to believe,” he said softly. “Lady in red fits quite nicely.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Original.”

“Apt,” he said, nodding at Mitch as he passed across their drinks. “But if lady in red does not work, how about Lyra instead? Close enough, I suppose.”

So he knew her name. That was fast. Faster than she’d anticipated in fact. Seemed Andros was full of surprises, but no matter. Hadn’t Lyra known from the first that she’d have to work off the cuff? Run with the changes and be flexible in her approach? “You got that from where?”


He shrugged, the movement classically Sicilian. “From the register.”

“Ah.”

He smiled, making her stomach flip, and nudged her drink across. “Miss Lyra Matthews recommended by Mr. Andros Casstellini.”

“I like that.”

“The fact I apparently recommended you?”

Lyra leaned back ever so slightly, purposefully maximizing her seated position. Her tiny hint of cleavage was on show now, and just as she’d planned, Andros’ eyes flicked down to that shadowy area. His eyes only lingered for a moment but it was enough, and when they came back to hers she knew without a doubt that he wanted her.

Just like she wanted him.

Game, set, and match.

“Our names together,” she said softly. “Has a nice ring to it don’t you think?”

He was surprised by that. By her bluntness, maybe? He raised an eyebrow, and shot her a look that said plenty. A moment later he spoke. Lyra he was sure his accent had thickened. “I think you should tell me how on earth I recommended someone, and then seemed to forget that I had.”

“You don’t want to know that, Andros.”

“I don’t?”

One finger on his sleeve, one slight tap, and she pulled back. Their first physical contact. She wanted more already. “No. It will be far too easy for you if you find out all my secrets so quickly. A girl has to have a little mystery doesn’t she?”

“I think you have plenty of mystery, Rossa.”

“I’m sure we both do.”

Their gazes held. His mouth tightened, and his eyes darkened. She wondered if he was hard already. He had to be surely. His big dick—it would so be big—pulsing in his pants. Her fingers flexed as she imagined taking it out of those pants and running her nails along it. A moment later and he’d run his fingers along her arousal and then they’d…

Lyra inhaled shakily. She couldn’t afford to think along those lines yet, because it wasn’t game, set, and match already. She’d moved her first pawn was all, and he’d moved two. There was a long way to go before she brought her queen into play.

Keep your head in the game!

“Dinner, I think,” she said after a moment, reaching out, and picking up her little clutch purse. It didn’t escape her notice that her hands were a mite shaky. “I’m hungry.”

“And by dinner do you mean the two of us?” he asked.

She smiled, her heart thudding. Stay cool. Make him work. “I don’t know, Andros. I planned to get something to eat, but if you’re asking if you can come along then by all means.”

He reached out, wrapping his fingers around her wrist. They were warm, strong, and the contact made her feel ever so slightly off balance. She looked up and met his gaze. His eyes were narrowed, his mouth a hard line. He wasn’t happy, she realized in a flash. The fact that she knew who he was, that she’d done something to the register, that she was playing him, and making him play with her…he did not like it.

But then she’d factored that into her behavior. Andros Casstellini was a man who controlled everything around him. In order to put him in the position she wanted, she had to tilt him off balance. It was the only way this plan of hers was going to work.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice low and harsh.

She looked him square in the eye, not giving an inch. “You know exactly what.”

Silence held between them for a moment, and Lyra felt her chest tighten. Would he take the bait? Had she pushed and played enough? Finally he spoke, and when he did the tightness eased, replaced instead by a tingling excitement.

“We’ll go to Junction Twenty,” he said. “It is not far from here. Get your coat.”





Chapter Four



Andros couldn’t remember the last time he’d let a woman pick him up. Not since he was very young, surely. He’d learned early that he liked to be in control of his relationships, to be the one making the decisions and pushing the buttons, but tonight? He scowled as he settled into his seat. Tonight he had let himself get picked up, because what else could this be? There was no doubt in his mind exactly what the lady in red was after.

“I’ve never been here before.”

He looked across the table to where Lyra was making herself comfortable. She’d placed her small bag on the table, twitched her napkin a little, and was now smiling up at him. She’d smiled in the car too, sat next to him as they were driven to the restaurant, a secret little smile playing around her lips the entire time.

He’d wanted to question her immediately. To ask her what the hell she was up to, only there was no need, was there? He knew, she knew, and it almost had a surreal feel to it. So he’d sat, just looking at her, the tension in the car rising every second. She’d carried on smiling, like she wasn’t as aware of it as him, like it wasn’t wrapping its tendrils around them both.