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.”
My chuckle seems to surprise us both. “You’ve met Danny then.”
“Hard to miss her.”
“I seem to have managed it this evening,” I muse. “Although I can’t complain. Making your acquaintance seems like a more valuable use of my time.”
Cas stares at me for a moment, clearly mulling something over. “You know, she talks a lot about her boyfriend when she is backstage—the staggeringly handsome Italian billionaire who reserves the VIP table almost every night.”
“Do you agree with her?”
She frowns. “Agree with what?”
“That her ex-boyfriend is staggeringly handsome?” I lean hard on the word “ex” as I speak.
Her tempting mouth drops open, but she’s saved a response by two glasses of whiskey slamming onto the table between us.
“Everything all right here, Cas?” Mia stares at me with murderous intent.
I offer her a shit-eating grin in return. “Miss Cassandra and I were just getting acquainted.”
“I called last orders an hour ago,” she counters.
To her endless list of credits, I add another mark of approval as Cas places a gentle hand on Mia’s arm. “I won’t be too long. Claudio was asking if you had next week’s itinerary yet.”
