Claimed by the Sicilian Tycoon(63)
Too many months had passed.
What if he’d waited too long?
He shook the thought off as soon as it formed. Lyra was his, whether she knew it or not, and he was ready now. Dios, he’d probably been ready from the beginning and just hadn’t known it.
A black haired woman came into view, trailing an olive skinned man behind her. She looked vaguely familiar and Andros eyed her carefully.
“Where are they?” she demanded.
He looked behind him to see who she was talking to but realized it was he. “They?” he asked.
“Rachel and Lyra,” she snapped.
“I am not sure, I—”
“For fuck’s sake.” She ran off down the corridor, her lean legs eating up the distance. It was then that Andros realized why she looked familiar. Her air reminded him of Lyra. That same fire. The same glare.
“The other sister,” he said slowly.
“Penny. My wife.”
Andros turned to see the olive skinned man sit down next to him. He too looked familiar, and Andros narrowed his eyes.
“I’m Sebastian Demetrious, Penny’s husband,” the other man said, holding out a hand. “And you must be Andros. We’ve never met, but I know of you.”
“And I you,” Andros replied, realizing that he had. There were not that many billionaires based in the UK after all.
“So you’re the Sicilian,” Sebastian said with a laugh.
“I am.”
“We’ve been wondering when you might turn up,” he added.
“We being?”
“Myself, Dominic, Penny, Rachel.” He reeled the names off and shook his head. “Lyra has been a nightmare to deal with,” he added. “Stubborn. Penny was giving strong consideration to flying to the States and dragging you back here. Probably would have if Rachel’s due date was not so close.”#p#分页标题#e#
“I don’t—”
“She’s missed you,” Sebastian said simply. “We are all aware of it.”
Andros’ heart thudded at those words, and despite himself, and the fact he barely knew Sebastian, he couldn’t help asking the question pounding in his brain. “She has?”
Sebastian nodded. “We did not know how you felt about her,” he said slowly. “Which was why I advised Penny to hold off until we did know more. But,” he shrugged. “You have followed her here to the hospital I assume, at least from the words I could hear Lyra shouting down the phone to my wife, and so that says plenty.”
“She’s mine,” Andros stated. “That is all you need to know.”
Sebastian grinned. “There is no escaping those women when they have their claws in. You are aware that I met Penny when she broke into my home and lifted a quarter of a mil from my safe?”
Andros started. “Excuse me?”
Sebastian laughed. “Yes, I held her hostage until I could work out what to do with her She tied me in fucking knots. In the end, it was simpler to just marry her and be done with it. How else was I going to get any peace from myself? And I believe Rachel pickpocketed Dominic just as he asked her to marry him. We were all concerned how that was going to turn out, but Lyra fixed it.”
“The sisters are thieves?” Andros asked, his mind reeling. That had not been in his research.
“More like…devious angelos,” Sebastian said. “They needed the money for The Point. It’s a sanctuary for vulnerable teens, like they all were.”
The Point. Andros closed his eyes as everything clicked into place. Her sisters. Her actions. The first conversation they’d ever had. The books she’d mentioned. Flashes of Fire. Who knew exactly where those pieces would be now? Not in Lyra’s possession, that was for sure.
“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.