Claimed by the Sicilian Tycoon (Criminal Seduction #3)(9)

A few moments later and they had arrived. Cool air had flooded them both, clearing the tension a little, giving him a moment to think.

It had not helped at all.

“It’s very pretty,” she added. “Very intimate.”

Intimate. Andros shifted in his seat. The way her mouth formed the word, the sound of it leaving those lips…

He shifted some more, his heart beating a little faster than it had been. She was so f*cking beautiful. He was almost a little baffled by it, and that worried him. He’d had many beautiful women over the years, and yet none came close to her.

He looked carefully at her face, trying to work out what it was in particular that had him throwing caution to the winds—ditching meetings to have dinner with her, ignoring the fact, for the moment at least, that she’d somehow done something to Club Belmont’s register, that she had clearly gone to great lengths to ensure he noticed her. Oh, she wasn’t the first. He was a very rich man, and women lusted after him constantly. Arriving at his office naked, pretending to trip in front of him and twisting their ankle, one had even jumped out in front of his car.

But her.

He leaned back in his chair, and narrowed his eyes. Her skin was tanned, unlike so many red heads, but still he could see a slight dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She wore no makeup but some sort of shiny lip-gloss on her plump lips. Her nose was slightly upturned giving her a stubborn look, and her eyes were blue. Nothing special about them, not even the ridiculously long lashes framing them. Add it all up and it shouldn’t have worked—but it did. Her beauty was sensational. Her hair was a glorious copper color, and there was so much of it. Tendrils fell and teased her shoulders, one curling along her collarbone.

Andros swallowed, and shifted in his seat again.

“You’re staring at me,” she said softly.

“I am.”

“Why?”

“You have to ask?”

She smiled, before shrugging one delicate shoulder. “I guess not.”

“I imagine many men stare at you often,” he said, the idea of that making Andros clench his fists, though he had no f*cking idea why. “Wherever you go their eyes follow you.”

“They do,” she agreed. “It becomes quite annoying after a while.”

“And yet with me?”

Another shrug. “I don’t mind. You can stare at me as often as you want.”

“Because you arranged it so I would.”

A little dimple appeared on her cheek. Andros found himself abruptly fascinated by it.

“I like arranging things how I want them,” she said, drawing his attention back to the conversation at hand.

“I bet you do.”

“Something we have in common I think.”

He narrowed his eyes, not liking the way she was leading the conversation, and deciding immediately to put a stop to it. “I suspect we have a lot in common, in some very specific areas I imagine.”

“No doubt,” she said, laughing softly, before giving him a smile he could only call sultry. It made his breath catch. Made his head spin ever so slightly.

He opened his mouth to reply, probably to say something blunt and demanding, but a waiter arrived—saving him from himself—and Andros ordered drinks for them, as well as some starters. The interaction gave him a moment to think, just like the cool air flooding the car, and he gritted his teeth. Wondering how he was going to deal with this situation.

Deal with her.

She was just so f*cking sexy.

“Is this your favorite place to eat?” she asked once the waiter left.

Andros sighed. So she wanted to play it like that? To pretend this was a normal little dinner? Question was whether or not to let her? A man of little patience, a man used to getting his own way, ordinarily Andros would have pushed her until she told him exactly what she wanted. Not because he didn’t know, but because he wanted to hear it straight from her pretty little lips. Then they could get the hell on with it.

He shuddered inwardly as he imagined burying himself between her golden thighs. He desired her intensely, and he could tell already that he would enjoy himself. She would too. He’d make sure of that.

When was the last time he’d bedded a woman? Andros searched his memory, frowning slightly as he did so. It had been a while, mainly because of how busy he had been. Then too was the fact that so few women let him chase. They offered, he took, before long he was bored.

Lyra was not going to be that way. He knew that already. She was going to make him work, and with that thought, he felt excitement tingle all over his body, coupled with anticipation deep in his gut.

“I come here quite often,” he said, decision made.

“Because it is in central London?”


“Because the food is amazing.”

“I’m hungry.”

“Then we shall eat.”

The service at Junction Twenty was exceptional and it did not take long before the waiter brought their starters. Andros barely noticed what he was eating. He couldn’t take his eyes off Lyra. She ate with gusto, using her fingers often, something that many of the other diners would frown upon, he suspected, and yet Andros did not. Her actions reminded him—oddly—of family dinners from when he was very little.

He watched her lips working, her fingers tracing over those lips, into her mouth, and worried that his erection was going to become a permanent painful state.