Sophie lifted a brow. "We're family. Maybe we just saw you and wanted to say hello?"
Resigned, Kyle paid for his coffee and ordered a long black for Sophie, a latte for Francesca. "I repeat, what do you want?"
Sophie gave him a serene look. "Mom rang. We know you're engaged to Eva-we want to know why. You know we love you, Kyle. We also love Eva. Just answer our questions and we'll let you go."
Kyle paid for the coffees and joined Sophie and Francesca, who had commandeered a corner table. "Maybe we fell in love."
Neither of the twins showed a flicker of interest in his reply. Resigning himself to a longer conversation, Kyle sat back and worked on his poker face.
Their coffee arrived. After the waitress had gone, Francesca leaned forward and gave him a friendly smile. "You kissed Eva on the beach approximately eleven years ago, since then, nothing." She made a slitting motion across her throat. "Niente."
Kyle didn't allow his sister's Italian theatrics to do what they were designed to do-lure him into a discussion about his love life so they could really mess with his head. He had no idea how the twins had found out that piece of information, since he hadn't told anyone, including his mother. To his certain knowledge, the only people who had known had been Mario, who was now dead, and Eva. "Since I know you're not psychic, so you couldn't have spoken to Mario, I'm guessing you talked to Eva."
Sophie set her coffee down. "She rang me first thing. She needs a dress."
Kyle pinched his nose. The phone had obviously been running red hot.
A dress. That did not sound like a registry office wedding. "And since you supply a lot of Eva's brides, she called you."
"It's good business. I recommend Eva's wedding planning. She recommends my dresses. It's a marriage made in heaven," Sophie said smoothly, "while this one, clearly, is not."
Francesca put her coffee down with a snap. "We know Eva needs a husband to get her inheritance."
The hum of conversation in the café abruptly dropped. Heads began to swivel. Kyle's jaw compressed. "Eva told you that?"
Francesca blushed. "Not exactly. I saw Mario's will on your coffee table in your apartment one day. I couldn't help wondering why you even had a copy, so-"
"You read a confidential document."
Francesca's brows jerked together. "Maybe you shouldn't have left it out where just anyone could read it."
Kyle could have pointed out that his apartment wasn't exactly a public area, but he recognized a blind ally when he saw one. A little desperately he tried to recall the original thread of the conversation. "The reason I'm marrying Eva is private and, uh, personal."
A hot flash of just how private and personal they had gotten last night momentarily distracted him. He dragged at his tie, which suddenly felt a little tight, then realized his mistake when Sophie noticed the faint red mark on the side of his neck.
Sophie blinked. "You're sleeping with her. That changes things."
Francesca stared at him as if he'd just grown horns. "You're Eva's legal trustee and you're sleeping with her? Aside from being sleazy, isn't that against the law?"
Kyle kept a firm grip on his temper. "I'm not responsible for Eva. I'm a trustee of her adoptive father's will, that's an entirely different thing-"
Francesca gave him a horrified look. "Then she's pregnant."
"She can't be pregnant." Although the thought hit him like a hammer blow, despite Eva's confidence that she couldn't be.
He took a mouthful of coffee, which he suddenly needed. Although, Eva had not seemed to be worried about the possibility of a pregnancy, so he assumed that, like a lot of women, she was on the pill or had taken some other precaution.
Another thought hit him out of the blue as the strange dichotomy of making love with a sophisticated woman who had been at turns fiery and passionate then oddly awkward and uncertain registered. He had assumed the reason Eva had been awkward and uncertain was that she hadn't made love for a very long time.
Either that, or she was a virgin.
He drew a long breath and let it out slowly. He knew that Eva had never had a live-in lover; that was common family knowledge. They had all assumed it was because Mario was so old-fashioned and that Eva, out of respect for her adoptive father, was preserving an outward show of chastity. It had never occurred to any of them, least of all, Kyle, that she had been doing exactly what it appeared; keeping herself for marriage.
Although, technically, she hadn't saved herself for her wedding night.
"So this is going to be a real marriage?" Sophie picked up her bag, which she'd placed on the floor.
Kyle frowned as Sophie extracted her phone and made a call, speaking in the kind of low, flat voice that could have been lifted straight out of some B-grade thriller. Apparently, something was green, not red, the 10-33 was over but in general it all still qualified as Alpha Charlie Foxtrot.
Kyle recognized code when he heard it, even if it was a crazy mix of the standard radio language used by the military for decades and the 10 Code that was in popular use by police and emergency services. At a strong guess she was relaying information to their mom, who had spent time volunteering for the local ambulance service as one of their call operators. "If you hand the phone to me, I can speak to Mom direct."
Sophie's gave him a faintly irritated look. "No need. She'll be in Auckland by this afternoon. You can talk to her at my apartment, since both you and Eva are invited to dinner at my place tonight. There's a lot to decide in a short time frame."
"Not that much, since the wedding is in twelve day's time."
Francesca gave him a pitying look. "You're marrying a wedding planner. They're Type As. And you know, Eva, she's like a double A."
Sophie set her cup down. "That means perfectionist. Aggressive. Even if you got married in a registry office, which will never happen because I know what the dress is going to be, it would be the most perfect registry office wedding imaginable. But, like I said, it's not a registry office, so you should brace yourself."
Kyle groaned inwardly. When he'd left Eva that morning, he'd been relieved that he'd gotten her to agree to the marriage. His concern had been to get the marriage done quickly and quietly. He thought he'd managed to convey that to Eva, but something must have gotten lost in translation, because now all hell was breaking loose.
But now he could see he had made a big mistake in not factoring in the impact this would have on his family. Mistakenly, he had assumed that his mother, who had been pressurizing him to think about marriage again and find someone "nice," would be happy that he had finally decided to step back into relationship waters again.
The certainty that Eva had been a virgin when they had made love hit him anew. The anomaly of Eva choosing to give herself to him after years of celibacy and before they had even agreed to a marriage pointed to only one clear answer.
She wanted him just as badly as he wanted her.
An odd tension dissipated at the thought. At the same time, Kyle was aware that hell would probably freeze over before Eva would admit feeling anything at all for him. But then Mario had given him the distinct impression that Eva had suffered a lot of emotional difficulties as a child. He had assumed there was abuse in her past and had done what Mario requested and left her alone. He hadn't pried into Eva's history, but now that they were getting married, he resolved to find out exactly what had gone wrong.
A part of him was fiercely glad that Eva hadn't slept around, that she had waited and given herself to him. But he was aware that he would have to step carefully. He was cool, logical and disciplined. Eva was gorgeous and passionate, like rich, decadent chocolate, meant to be enjoyed in small, ruthlessly measured doses.
Francesca waved a hand in front of his face to attract his attention. "Just tell us one thing. Is Eva pressuring you to marry her?"
"No." The reason he wanted to marry Eva was cut and dried: it was the most efficient way of keeping her away from other men.
Sophie gave him a considering look. "But this is a marriage of convenience, right?"
Kyle decided there was no point prevaricating, since the twins had clearly made up their minds that it was. "Yes."
Sophie stared at him with her spooky eyes, the ones that interrogation officers would kill for and which sucked the truth out of you whether you wanted to tell or not. Clearly, she had just sucked something significant out of his brain, because she exchanged a look with Francesca. "Is there something wrong with a marriage of convenience?"