KYLE: A Mafia Romance (The Callahans Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

tux would be better than jeans.
    I dropped them back onto the table and turned, searching her face for some clue as to why I would suddenly have a personality change after having dinner with her. She was pretty and everything, but I’d been with prettier women without a word of marriage falling from my lips.
    “My brothers wouldn’t believe this even if I texted every one of these photographs to them. They’d laugh their fucking asses off, but they wouldn’t believe it.”
    Her face reddened. “Could you watch the language?”
    My eyebrows rose. “You married a man you hardly know, but you don’t like my language?”
    “It’s a little harsh.”
    I laughed again. “This is going to be so much fun. You’re acting like my mother.”
    “Would that be Abigail or the other one?”
    The laughter immediately disappeared. I never talked about my biological mother. How would she know…?
    I walked back to the table and settled slowly in my chair.
    “Tell me what the f …hell is going on here, please.”
    She just shrugged. “I don’t know. We had a good time. You made promises. We got married. That’s all there is to it.”
    “What did I promise you?”
    She shook her head, her eyes falling to the top of the table. And that’s when I knew I was in real trouble.

              Chapter 3
     
    Amelia
    The food arrived and Kyle busied himself arranging it on the table. I got the impression that he didn’t really care where any of it went, he was just trying to buy time to think things through. He was confused. Frustrated. I couldn’t really blame him.
    I wondered what I would have done if the shoe was on the other foot. Would I have gone running out of the room, accusing him of things that he never did? Or would I have been patient enough to try to get the true story?
    I had to commend him for his patience.
    “Let’s start at the beginning,” he said as he took his seat again.
    The food—it smelled absolutely heavenly!—wafting between us. I helped myself to a couple of pancakes and some bacon strips because I simply couldn’t resist. I hadn’t eaten much last night and almost nothing at all before that. And these…there was nothing in my refrigerator back at my tiny apartment that could compare to this stuff! The cooks here were top notch. The Callahans didn’t spare a nickel on that part of the hotel and casino, that’s for sure.
    “What time did you get here last night?”
    I shrugged. “A little before eleven.”
    He sat back, watching me as if I was some street urchin he’d taken in from off the streets. And maybe I looked that way despite the expensive cocktail dress I’d had hidden in the back of my closet for just such an occasion—though I don’t think seducing some unsuspecting man into marriage was really the occasion I was thinking about. I had my mind more on a nice dinner in a nice restaurant, like the ones my parents used to take me to.
    “And I was here alone?”
    “Yes.” I glanced at him. He wasn’t eating, just watching me tuck into those pancakes. I licked a little syrup from my fingers and set down my fork, glancing longingly at the sweet rolls. “You were here, dressed in those jeans and that shirt, waiting with a glass of wine your hand.”
    “I let you in?”
    “Mickey did. He was just leaving as I arrived.”
    “Why was Mickey here?”
    “Don’t know.” I took the chance and grabbed a sweet roll, loving the soft texture as I bit into it. “He didn’t really say.”
    “Then what?”
    I took another bite, then answered him as politely as I could with the sweet roll in my mouth. “You poured me a glass of wine and invited me to join you for dinner. We talked a little as we ate, but it was a little awkward at first. Then you invited me to the couch and we warmed up to each other.”
    “Warmed up how?”
    I took another bite of the roll, realizing that I was coming to a point where I had to tread carefully. “You asked me about my life. I asked you about