But my eyes snag on the VIP table directly below the stage. Dressed in a light gray suit and white shirt, which is unbuttoned to reveal the intricate tattoos decorating his chest, he is the most beautiful man I have ever seen.
And when his icy gray eyes light up as he offers me a crooked smile, my entire world collapses around me.
3
ROCCO
“Mia. Who is that?”
The bartender looks up from her tray of perfectly aged single malt to note the angel currently gracing the main stage at theCandelabra.
Mia looks at me with narrowed eyes. “Don’t even think about it.”
I want to laugh and tell her it's far too late for that. The second the woman had walked onto the stage, I had been utterly captivated. How could someone look so lost and yet perfectly belong in the spotlight?
Her tight black dress reveals a dangerous amount of leg, which already has many of the men around me drooling a bit. Yet the vintage leather jacket advocates for her modesty, only allowing us brief glimpses of her surprisingly curvaceous figure.
But all thoughts of deciphering the enigma before more vanished the second she began to sing.
“I haven’t seen her before,” I mutter as I take my drink from Mia’s outstretched hand.
A glance at the fiery redhead makes me aware she’s about two seconds away from throwing it in my face.
“I thought you were here to see Danny,” she replies tightly.
I lean in, matching her glare. “Just because your father is a valuable asset to me doesn’t mean you can talk to me like that.”
“I’m so sorry, Your Royal Highness. Would you like me to spell it out for you? Cas is off-limits. End of story.”
Cas. My mind turns the name over and over again, trying to imagine what it would sound like on my tongue.Miss Cassandra—that’s how she’d been introduced. I wonder if that is her real name, or just a stage name.
“You must be close if you’re already on a nickname basis,” I muse.
“We were childhood friends.”
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.”
