KYLE: A Mafia Romance (The Callahans Book 4) Page 12

  I kissed her, trying to slow down, trying to remember to savor every second of this moment, as I reached between our bodies and undid my slacks. She stiffened a little as I brushed my hand against her, a little stutter coming into her kiss. But then she relaxed again, her hands sliding over my sides, encouraging me with these little rotating touches.

  I thought I’d never get out of those pants. But then I was…and I pressed myself against her, rubbing my head against her lips, placing just the slightest bit of pressure against her clit. She moaned softly, but I could see a little fear in her eyes.

  “Don’t hurt me.”

  “I’ll try not to.”

  There was no doubt in my mind at that moment that she’d never been here before. The night of our wedding—I don’t know what happened, but we didn’t do this. I have no idea how we didn’t when she was lying there naked beside me, but it was obvious that this was her first time. She stiffened again as I pressed myself against her, slowly encouraging her to open to me. She bit her bottom lip as the pressure increased, her eyes wide as she watched me. But then I was inside and I couldn’t hold back. I was so beyond having control, so beyond everything. I needed her.

  She cried out, her fingers biting into my sides. I tried to move slowly, tried to find a rhythm that wouldn’t hurt her too much. She lay like a stone at first, her head turned to the side. But then I pressed my hands under her ass and pulled her up against me, encouraging her to join in the movements, encouraging her to find what made her feel as good as I was feeling in that moment. And, after a few beats, she seemed to catch on to why this was so deeply desired by most healthy adults.

  When she began to respond to me on her own, when she bent her knees and pressed her feet against the mattress so that she could rise up to meet me, I was gone. I knew somewhere in the back of my head that I should be gentle, but I couldn’t remember for the life of me why. I pounded against her, thrusting so hard that I might have broken her hips. But she kept up with me, the soft moans coming from between her full lips the perfect soundtrack to the perfect pleasure.

  And then her moans were no longer moans, but little screams. I was right there with her, burying my mouth against the pillows to hold in the screams that wanted to slip from my own throat. I filled her like I’d never filled another woman, held her as the waves seemed to continue for days, weeks, even years. It was a long time before I started to slide back into reality, before I found myself holding a shaking puddle of a woman.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry. I tried to be gentle.”

  “Is it always that good?”

  I looked at her and realized she wasn’t hurt. She was a little dazed, her eyes a little bright with a touch of passion-induced insanity. But she wasn’t hurt.

  I kissed her roughly, relief rushing through me.

  “You’re fucking amazing!”

  She smiled. “Yeah?”

  I brushed the hair out of her face. “You drive me out of my mind. I don’t think I’m going to survive this relationship.”

  She just giggled softly, her lips pressed to my throat. She might have thought I was joking.

  I wasn’t.

  Chapter 18

  Amelia

  I couldn’t stop thinking about what Brian had said. Was it possible that my mom had lied to my dad? But why would she do that? The whole divorce was because dad thought she had cheated on him. If she didn’t, then…what secret could she be hiding?

  I didn’t understand. But there was something about Brian Callahan that made me want to believe him. Maybe it was his relationship with Kyle. Maybe I was falling in love and that made me want to offer the benefit of the doubt to everyone.

  I needed to talk to my dad. I needed to know the truth about what happened the night she told him it was over.

  “What are you over here thinking so hard about?” Kyle asked, sliding up behind me.

  I started to roll onto my back, but he caught me and pushed me back onto my side.

  “Stay like that,” he whispered as he started to kiss my shoulder. He peppered the back of my neck, my spine, with the softest of kisses. At the same time, he pressed his naked body against me. I could feel his arousal…and it ignited a fire deep inside of me.

  “Are you ever satisfied?”

  “Not with you.”

  He pulled my jaw back so that he could kiss me. It was an awkward angle, but I loved his kisses so I probably would have contorted my body in almost any direction in order to accept one. He slid inside of me and my body just seemed to melt all around him, the deep soreness that I’d been enjoying earlier becoming something different, something full of promise. He continued to kiss my shoulder as he slipped his hand around my waist and tugged me closer, his fingers slipping up between my breasts, his thumb brushing my nipple before his hand slid downward, his fingertip seeking out that little nub that had the power to drive me directly over the edge.

  He moved slowly, his breath washing over my skin. I pressed myself back into him, closed my eyes and let the sensations his touch ignited roll all over my body. Just twelve hours ago I had no idea how incredible this could be. I was even afraid of it, to a certain degree. But now? I was with him. I didn’t think I would ever truly be satisfied. I’d always want more.

  I wanted to get lost in this. I wanted to always lie in this bed with him, to always feel him inside of me. I wanted to not have to deal with the world that existed outside of these four walls. But even as ecstasy rolled over me, even as I slowly cascaded back down to earth, I knew reality would always be there waiting for us when the pleasure was over.

  “Do you really have to go out today?” I asked, as he climbed off the bed and headed for the bathroom.

  “I’m afraid so. Jack’s been trying to get a meeting with some important people and it looks like it might go down in a few days.”

  “It’s dangerous, isn’t it? This stuff you do?”

  He paused in the doorway, his naked back more masculine than anything I think I’d ever seen. I wanted to crawl out of bed and run my hands over it, feel the power in his muscles thrumming just below the surface.

  “Walking out the front door is dangerous, Amelia. What I do…it’s the family business. It’s what we all do.”

  “But you have a choice.”

  He turned and my breath caught in my throat at the view.

  “Come shower with me.”

  I didn’t have to be asked twice. I climbed out of bed and joined him, once again lost in his touch.

  Reality could wait a little while longer.

  ***

  There was a new text message when I found my phone in a kitchen drawer downstairs. Colin had put it there, I suppose, and I’d never thought to ask for it back. I could have. I saw him following me yesterday when I was walking through the mall. I even slowed down a few times when I was weaving through traffic in the SUV Kyle let me use so that Colin could keep up.

  He was probably outside the door now, waiting to see what I would do with my day.

  The text was from an unknown number, but I knew it was from the mechanical voiced man who’d convinced me to marry Kyle in the first place. I didn’t know if I should thank the guy, or resent him for whatever scam he was playing on my husband.

  Watch your back, the message read. If you don’t keep Kyle Callahan distracted enough, you could find yourself without the money you need to save your father.

  I frowned. I couldn’t imagine how much more distracted I could make Kyle. He’d been quite reluctant to get dressed this morning, let alone leave. But maybe he was paying more attention to something outside of the house. I couldn’t control that, could I?

  I had to tell Kyle about all this. I had to make this right. If I didn’t tell him, and he learned about it on his own…he would hate me forever. And that was the last thing I wanted right now.

  But how do you tell your husband of less than a week that you married him only because someone else wanted it, because someone else gave him some sort
of drug that made him susceptible to suggestion? How could I tell him that our wedding was a sham because I knew he was under the influence of some drug and that he wouldn’t remember it the next day?

  I couldn’t even be sure that the way he looked at me, the way he touched me, wasn’t some remnant of the drug playing tricks with his head.

  I began to pace the living room, wondering if I was sitting on a time bomb. What would Kyle do when he learned the truth?

  “Daddy,” I said into the phone a few minutes later, listening to him breath heavily on the other end of the line. “I miss you.”

  “Darlin’, I miss you, too.”

  “They say you’re feeling better.”

  “A little.”

  I stared out the window, imaging my father staring out the window of his little apartment, hooked up to the oxygen machine that helped him breathe. He’d had asthma all his life, but two heart attacks had taken their toll on his fragile lungs, making it nearly impossible for him to breathe on his own. He needed a medication that cost thousands per dose just to keep his lungs lubricated enough to continue to function. Without it, he would likely die within days.

  It was my mom’s legacy. At least, that’s how I’d thought of it until now.

  “Something’s bothering you,” he said. “Tell me about it.”

  “I’ve done something I’m afraid I’ll regret.”

  “What’s that?”

  I closed my eyes. “I just want to make things right, Daddy. I want you to be okay.”

  “I’ve lived my life, Amelia. I had the love of my life, and I’ve built my own company. I’ve done all the things I ever wanted to do. Now it’s your turn.”

  Tears began to run down my cheeks. “Can I ask you something about you and Mom?”

  “Anything.”

  “Did you believe her when she told you she cheated on you with Brian Callahan?”

  My father was quiet for so long that I began to worry that he’d fallen asleep or fallen from his chair. But then he cleared his throat a few times.

  “I did at the time,” he said, his voice noticeably weaker than before. “When she told me, I wanted to kill them both. But then…I knew your mother better than I will ever know myself. I knew she had her reasons for doing what she did.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She was done with our life together. Had been for a while. Maybe Brian Callahan was real, maybe he wasn’t. But she was out the door either way.”

  “But don’t you resent her for that? If she’d stayed—?”

  “Things might have been different if she’d stayed. But they might have been the same, too.”

  “Daddy—?”

  “I’m not a perfect man, Amelia. It’s about time you realize that.”

  “Did you know? Did you know so many people would get hurt with that scheme you were running?”

  Again there was a long silence. And that told me all I needed to know.

  My father wasn’t the man I thought he was. And that realization was like an ice block melting all over me. The burden I’d been carrying around was gone, but the weight of it, the chill, was still with me.

  Chapter 19

  Kyle

  “Do you think it’s odd that Kevin is very clearly into Brianna?”

  Killian laughed. I just looked down at my fries, trying not to be the one to answer that question. Ian tossed a crumpled up napkin at me, but even that didn’t make me address his question.

  “I’m not the only one to notice it, right? I mean, he’s always touching her and they’re always slipping off alone whenever we have a party or whatever.”

  “It’s about as weird as me marrying Stacy,” Killian said.

  “That’s weird, bro,” I said, nudging him with my elbow.

  Killian laughed again. “The two of you sure worry about appropriate behavior quite a bit for two guys who’ve probably been with most of the women in Boston.”

  “Like you didn’t get around when you were single,” Ian said.

  “Sure I did. But that was years ago, when I was young and the idea of commitment seemed to be a shadow in the far off distance. But it’s not that far off, is it, Kyle?”

  “Don’t drag me into this conversation.”

  “Tell me you and Amelia aren’t seriously making a go of it.” Ian sounded almost desperate. “Tell me that it’s some sort of elaborate joke, or something.”

  It bothered me a little, how close to the truth he was. I knew someone set me up. I knew that my entire wedding night was some sort of act that someone perpetrated on me for reasons I didn’t understand. But I wasn’t going to tell him that. I couldn’t even fully admit it to myself.

  “I think we’re going to make a go of it.”

  Killian shook his head slowly. “Never thought I’d see the day. But when I saw you with her last night…”

  “She’s a sweet girl,” Ian conceded. “But every night for the rest of your life? Are you really sure you can do that?”

  “Just wait until you meet the right girl.”

  Ian shook his head. “Never going to happen.”

  We left the restaurant a few minutes later, each of us going different directions. Killian was headed to the office. Ian had calls to make. And I was running errands for Jack.

  I climbed into the SUV and called Colin.

  “She still in the loft?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “She goes anywhere, you let me know.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  I started the SUV and headed down the street, my thoughts a wild jumble that I almost couldn’t separate into comprehensible bits. Last night was…it was incredible. But it also exposed a glaring lie that I’d suspected but never really allowed myself to believe…until now.

  Amelia was a virgin until last night. Yet, she was sleeping naked in my bed the morning after our wedding. Why would she be in my bed, naked, unless someone told her to do it in order to convince me our marriage was real?

  Was our marriage real? Were we legally wed, or was it all just a farce to make me, what? Why would someone do this? Why would someone want me to marry a beautiful woman and bring her back to Boston with me? Was she some sort of plant? Was she here to do something? To steal something? Had whoever was behind this assumed I would leave her in Vegas, thus hurting Pops’ reputation more? What was the main motivation here?

  It just didn’t make sense. I ran down every avenue, trying to figure out each potential motivation. But I couldn’t. None of them made sense.

  The worst thing that would happen here was that we’d publicly divorce and it would be a small ding on Pops’ struggling reputation.

  The best? I’d fall in love with her and keep her at my side for the rest of my life.

  What was the benefit to some outside party?

  It seriously didn’t make sense.

  Who would set me up? It was obvious that Mickey was involved. That was the last memory of that night I had, him standing in my suite. Whatever they gave me—and I fully believed someone had slipped me something—it wiped every memory of that night like water on a chalkboard. It wasn’t coming back.

  So Mickey was involved. Who else? I didn’t want to believe that Amelia knew, but I couldn’t deny that it would be nearly impossible to pull off such a scheme without the bride being aware of it. She had to have known some. But how much did she know? And was she still working to some end, or had her motivations changed?

  I wanted to believe her motives had changed. I wanted to believe that she had feelings for me. Last night was the most intense night of intimacy I’d ever spent with anyone. How could that have not been real?

  It just…none of it made sense.

  And I wasn’t sure I wanted it to.

  ***

  I walked into Jack’s office a little before six that evening, my errands complete. Pops was there. They were sharing a couple of containers of Chinese food, talking about something that ended the moment they caught sight of me.

  “We go
t a meeting with Carmine Rossi.”

  That caught me by surprise. Carmine was Jack’s equal with the Italian mob.

  “When did that happen?”

  Pops shrugged. “We had to make a few promises and he had to make a few. But we got the final agreement this afternoon.”

  “That’s great!”

  Jack glanced at my father, then at me. “It’s just the beginning, Kyle. It’s going to take some time to work this thing out. Territory disputes, they’re not easy. Each side wants as much as possible. They won’t want to go back to the status quo.”

  “And they’ll want some sort of guarantee,” Pops added.

  “Like what? Money? Part of the gun trade?”

  Jack shook his head. “We don’t know yet.”

  “But this is a step in the right direction?”

  “It is.” Jack pushed his food aside and stood, coming to clap me on the shoulder. “Did you deal with our little problem today?”

  “I did.” I held up a wad of money, payment from a couple of loan sharks who hadn’t been paying their tribute to Jack because of the territory dispute. But I made it clear to them that the Irish were still in charge.

  “Great.” Jack took the money. “We have our first meet with Carmine tomorrow evening. Make sure you’re well rested.”

  “You’re taking Kyle?” Pops asked.

  “I think we’ll need all the protection we can get. Don’t you?”

  “Of course.” Pops looked me over for a long minute. “But Killian’s got his kid and Kyle just got married.”

  “And Sean ran off with my girl. We can’t run our business by whose unattached and who’d rather be at home with their spouse.”

  “I’m fine with going, Pops.”

  Jack clapped me on the shoulder again. “See? Just because he’s got that pretty peach waiting for him at home, Kyle’s still ready and willing. I knew he would be.”

  “I’m sure Killian is, too.”

  Pops studied me for a long minute. “Alright. I’ll call the boys and we’ll be ready.”

  But I could see that Pops wasn’t thrilled with the situation.