Page 8 of Sin & Secrets

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. The Italian mafia doesn’t run in particularly large circles. “A family I know?”

Something flickers across Mia’s stony expression, but it’s gone before I can pull it apart.

“She moved to Ohio when she was eight. She doesn’t know about the Guild.”

Cas begins her next song, and it’s all I can do to hum non-committedly in response to Mia’s words as my entire attention is captivated once more.

She must be some kind of siren. The way everything else seems to fade around me has my instincts raging for me to stay alert. But I’m completely helpless.

She might sound like an angel and look like the gods themselves had crafted her to be the living embodiment of desire, but those lips, forming perfect ohs and ahs around the melody…were as sinful as the devil.

What I wouldn’t give to trail my tongue across her bottom lip, and hear the sounds she made when I took it between my teeth. Would she sing for me then? Could I make her gasp out my name between the notes of her pleasure?

Then, all of a sudden, her song ends. Everything around me comes back into sharp focus, and I find myself having to reposition myself in my seat.

I turn to see that Mia is back behind the bar, so I take the opportunity to flag down her assistant manager, Terry.

“Sir?” He practically bows as he approaches the VIP table. I absently wonder if I could persuade him to give Mia a few lessons in grace and decorum.

“Please invite Miss Cassandra to my table after her performance.”

“Of course, sir.”

The next twenty minutes are complete agony. It takes everything within me to maintain a cool facade to conceal the rampantly salacious thoughts running through my mind.

I tell myself it’s Danny’s fault. We’d broken up again after the incident with Carmine Bellini over a week ago. Despite her constant nagging and clinginess, she’d always been willing to take the edge off most of my darker desires.

Now they are running rampant, projecting onto this poor woman who’d done nothing but appear before me as temptation incarnate. Perhaps Mia was right after all.

“Sir?”

I turn as casually as I can to see that Terry has returned to my table. The woman who will surely be my undoing is standing nervously behind him.

“Miss Cassandra for you, sir.”

Cas steps forward, fingers playing with the cuffs of her jacket. “I hope you enjoyed the show tonight.”

Her voice is quieter than I expected. Her confidence from when she was on stage is clearly waning now that she is out of the spotlight. But it doesn’t stop the pining ache in my chest.

“Miss Cassandra, please, join me for a drink.” I indicate to the seat across from me before turning back to Terry. “She’ll have a glass of champagne.”

“Make that a whiskey,” she corrects as she nods to my own glass. “My father always said it was rude not to drink that same thing as your host.”

“Smart man.”

Cas finally takes her seat as Terry retreats back to the bar. Now that we are face to face, I find myself captivated by her beauty. Her thick, dark hair matches her olive skin perfectly and it cascades down over her shoulders in effortless waves. But it’s her unusually bright hazel eyes that render me speechless.

She shifts awkwardly under my intense gaze. “You wanted to see me?”

“I wanted to congratulate you in person. It’s been a while since theCandelabrahas displayed such talent.”

A beautiful flush appears across her cheeks, and the sight goes straight to my cock. If such a small amount of praise had this effect on her…

“I’m not sure my colleagues would agree with you,” she counters.

“A diplomatic response.”

“Self-preservation is in my best interest. I quite enjoy having my hair attached to my head.”

---