Claimed by the Sicilian Tycoon(39)

“Absolutely,” the assistant said. “What do you need?”

Lyra titled the phone so that Penny could see the list. “Everything on here, please.”

The assistant scanned the document, before shaking her head slightly. “These are all times one hundred and eleven? So…one hundred and eleven of each? Is that right?”

Lyra grinned. “Yes, please.”

The assistant raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything else, which was a relief. How Lyra was going to explain that amount of children’s clothes was a question she didn’t have an answer for. Well, not one she wanted to give, at any rate. Truth was, there were one hundred and eleven under-tens in the care of the state in her borough, and these clothes were for them. Lyra couldn’t wait to pick them out, and get them all delivered.

“We might not have this many in stock,” the assistant warned as they made their way to the baby section.

“I wanted delivery for them all anyway,” Lyra said. She’d learned that the hard way. Only the day before yesterday—when she’d ordered far too many paper pads and pens from a huge stationary shop—she’d had to struggle in a taxi to drop them off to the schools in her area. Delivery seemed the better option, plus she wouldn’t have to personally go give the stuff. Lyra much preferred the anonymous donor approach, especially considering the fact that Andros was the actual donor. Yes, she was happily using the card Andros had given her—the one which didn’t seem to have a limit—to purchase things. Important things. Things that were making a difference.

“Pink and yellow socks okay?” Penny the assistant asked.

“That’s fine. We’ll need some white ones too.”

“Of course.”

They made their way around the store, back and forth, Penny picking up samples of what they would order once at the till, suggesting other bits and bobs which Lyra happily added, despite the fact they were not on the list.

Lyra enjoyed herself hugely, and not just because she loved clothes shopping—especially for others—but because she felt as though she was doing something useful. One of the issues, the only issue, she’d found so far in her relationship with Andros, was how simple it all felt. Being with him, pleasuring him and being pleasured in return. It was all so easy, so satisfying. And last night…she swallowed as Penny passed across a set of vests…he’d been so sweet, so understanding. It was not at all what she’d expected.

“Let’s add those tee shirts on,” she said, passing across a pile of tops that seemed to feature dinosaurs heavily. “And the shorts too?”

They tallied everything up at the till, which took a while. Lyra did not blink at the total—although in truth it made her heart pound in a weak sort of fashion. She wondered what Andros would say when he saw the statement. Likely, he wouldn’t even give it a second look. It would equal two or three dresses in Andros’ world, and he would expect her to buy such things, to spend high amounts of money. Would probably call it an official mistress duty.

She grinned as she wrote down the address for the delivery—the local social services office—and considered her official mistress duties. There didn’t seem to be many beyond shagging him senseless, something Lyra thought she could do constantly without much effort.

“We’ll get this all shipped ASAP,” the assistant said.

Lyra grinned. “Thank you.”

A few minutes later and she was back in the sunshine, feeling happy and pleased. She decided to walk back to the apartment. It was only a half hour at a slow pace and the weather was so lovely. She’d come to enjoy her walks around the area, Lyra realized. It wasn’t something she did very often at home, mainly because it was never too safe to go trotting about the estate on which they lived. Certainly not just for the sake of it, and not for pleasure.

But this? Well, this was different, and she happily stopped off at one of the small markets to buy herself a cheese roll and a bottle of water. She ate them on a park bench, and couldn’t help thinking as she did so, who decided what to put in her grocery shopping list? One of Andros’ assistants, she presumed. Whoever it was, they had good taste. She hadn’t eaten so well in years.

She thought then, unsurprisingly perhaps, of Penny and Rachel. Lyra wished she knew where they were now, and what they were doing with themselves. She’d checked their mail programme—the agreed way to contact one another if anything went wrong with their missions—but hadn’t heard from either. Lyra took that as a good sign. If Penny had been caught stealing from Demetrious she would have been able to arrange an email in prison—they knew plenty of people in there. And Rachel too would easily be able to access a computer. So Lyra had to assume all was well, that they had either completed, or were getting on with their missions.