Claimed by the Sicilian Tycoon (25 page)

“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,
fuck 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 fucking
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 fucking
fool, Lyra. Giving you space, trying to work through my own fucked 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 fucking 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.”

Andros
led her over to the chairs, and Lyra fell into one with a sigh. Her back ached
from standing in the same position and she wanted nothing more than to rest her
head against Andros’ chest and close her eyes. Maybe that was actually a
possibility now? The thought both thrilled and terrified her in equal measure.

“We
needed money,” she began. “For
The Point
.
It’s a—”

“I
know what it is,” he interrupted. “I read up on it while I was away. I kept
tabs on you all the months, Lyra.”

“Why?”

“Because
I missed you,” he said simply.

Her
breath caught in her throat. Stupid tears threatened. “But you didn’t come
back.”

“I
wasn’t ready,” he said. “No, that is wrong. I was, but I did not know it. I was
too angry, too insecure, too fucked up. The thought that you were with me
simply because you needed to be ate at me. I could not deal with it.”

He
shook his head and Lyra’s heart flipped. She could see how much the confession
had cost him and hurried to speak. “We needed money,” she said. “And we all had
a mission to get it. Pen was supposed to rob Seb’s safe and get the money to
buy the building. Of course that didn’t work out because he caught her in the
act, literally, and…well…he sort of kept her prisoner. Anyway they married in
the end so it all worked out.”

“And
Rachel?” he asked.

“She
was supposed to pick Dominic’s pocket,” Lyra replied. “
After
tying him knots. The plan was to get a key to his safe. But
they ended up falling in love and he also asked her to marry him. There was
some drama after that but it worked out, too. Carmen is so beautiful.”

“The
bambino?”

“Yes.”

“And
you, Lyra?” he asked. “What was your mission?”

“I
think mine was supposed to be like Rachel’s,” Lyra admitted. “To make you burn
and then rob you blind, but—” she added when he inhaled sharply, “—the moment I
saw your picture—we had a whole bunch of them, potential marks—I knew exactly
what I was going to do.”

“And
that was?”

She
shrugged. “I wanted you. The moment I looked into your eyes in that picture I
wanted you so bad. And I thought, why not, why couldn’t I have something for me
for once? All my life has been about looking after other people—and I have
never minded,” she added quickly. “And of course I would get my portion of the
money for
The Point
, but I could have
you for a little while, too. I wanted that so much.”

“And
if it had been another man?” he asked. “One of the other marks?”

“I
would have just robbed him,” Lyra said. “It was only with you that I concocted
the mistress idea. You were only ever the one I wanted, Andros. Those weeks
with you were the best of my entire life.”

The
moment the words left her lips he pulled her close. And for once it wasn’t a
caress or
 
a hug filled with desire. It
throbbed with something else entirely, another emotion that made Lyra ache just
to think of it.

“I
have been an idiot,” he said, placing a finger under her chin and lifting her
eyes to his.

“Yes.”

“You
were always mine.”

“Yes.”

“And
I was always yours.”

Their
gazes held, the truth right there for them both to see, and it made perfect
sense, obvious sense that they then spoke at the exact same moment, and both
said the exact same words. Words that had been denied for far too long.

“I
love you.”

Epilogue

The
decision on where to spend New Year’s Eve was one that the sisters had
discussed at length. Would it be a big fat Greek party at Penny and
Sebastian’s, an Italian job in the townhouse Rachel and Dominic had recently
purchased, or a Sicilian affair with Lyra and Andros in Grosvenor Square? Back
and forth they went, considering, and the men stayed well out of it.

“We
have no say in the matter anyway,” Sebastian had said just before Christmas
over whisky and cards. “So, eh, why bother?”

“Agreed,”
Dominic had muttered. “I will leave Rachel
mia
to work it all out.”

“And
I do not argue with Lyra,” Andros said. “Not out of the bedroom at least.”

The
men laughed and Dominic dealt the next hand. They were on their way to becoming
fast friends the three of them, since the sisters would stand for nothing less.

It
was Boxing Day that the decision was made. The family sat around a large table,
the entire family. Not just the sisters and their husbands, but various mothers,
fathers, uncles, aunts, cousins, and children. Voices babbled in Greek and
Italian, and of course English. Babies, especially Carmen, made their wishes
known loudly, and small children ran around Sebastian’s dining room shrieking
at the top of their lungs.

“So,
New Year’s Eve,” Lyra said, her head resting against the broad chest of her
fiancée. “What’s the plan?”

“Dominic
and Rachel hosted Christmas,” Sebastian said. “We, Boxing Day, so I believe it
is your turn, Andros.”

“Happily,”
the Sicilian said. “Lyra and I can put something together.”

Penny
pulled a face. “Rachel only got Christmas because she was too lazy to go
anywhere with Carmen.”

Rachel
stuck her tongue out. “If you had to drag as much stuff around you’d stay put,
too.”

Penny
laughed. “Carmen has her own room here. She has absolutely everything she could
possibly need upstairs, and, Rach, you have a freaking driver. Ryan goes
everywhere with you. You were just being lazy.”

“I
can be lazy if I want,” Rachel replied, rocking a sleepy Carmen against her
breast. “I was very recently pregnant, and I had a horrific labor.”

“There
was
the unmentionable issue,” Lyra
agreed.

Rachel
flushed bright red. “We promised we would never mention that ever again.”

“Which
is why I said unmentionable,” Lyra replied.

“You
wait till you’re both in labor. I’m going to record it,” Rachel threatened.
“Then play it back every Christmas for the whole family.”

The
sisters laughed, their husbands joining in. Carmen gave a little mew, and a
moment later Dominic’s frighteningly glamorous mom swooped in and lifted her
from Rachel’s aching arms. She said something in Italian and Rachel nodded
happily.

“So
we were thinking….” Penny said, lifting a random niece or nephew onto her lap.

Her
husband nodded. “Go on.”

“There
are plenty of places we can go.”

“Indeed.”

“But
really there’s only one place we should go,” Rachel interjected.

“And
that would be?” Dominic asked.

“You
really have to ask?” Lyra said.

The
husbands looked at one another, each confused until a moment later understanding
dawned. A look passed between them. The look said quite clearly that they had
no chance of changing the sisters’ minds, so why even bother?

“You
don’t mean?” Andros began and the sisters laughed.

“Of
course we do.”

****