Just what the Mafia Princess ordered

Chapter 4 - You kissed me first

AJ’s POV

I had never played in front of a crowd, let alone sung, and it took a fair amount of liquid courage to get me on that stage, but once the music started, it was like I was meant to be there. When I was getting ready, I scanned the crowd from the stage and caught the eye of a blonde goddess in red. She stuck out like a sore thumb but in a good way. She was maybe 5’8, slightly taller with the four-inch stilettos she was wearing. Her straight blonde just brushed her shoulders across the material of her one-of-a-kind outfit. Her doe brown eyes bore into mine, and I felt the urge to hop off the stage to meet her, but the night was young. For now, I settled with admiring her from afar.

Her outfit hugged all her curves, and I knew that she worked out just by looking at her. Nobody had a body like hers without working for it. I couldn’t help but imagine what she would look like outside of her clothes, her body pinned beneath mine. But I didn’t have too much time to fantasize about that for long. I was up on that stage for a reason, and I was going to do what I came up here to do. If only to shut Theo up.

While I was playing, I couldn’t help but keep an eye on the girl, especially when her friends dragged her onto the dance floor. That girl had some moves, and she was definitely not from around here, that’s for sure.

When I was finished, I rushed off stage, still coming down from the adrenaline high I got from the performance. It was better than any drug I had ever tried. Don’t judge me; I was in college at the time where experimentation was expected. Theo was clapping hard as I reached our table, two chicks sitting next to him, watching me while I grabbed my drink and downed it. The redhead whispered something in Theo’s ear, and the blonde was eying me up and down like I was her next meal. Normally, I would happily play along, but she was just like all the other girls and tonight, I saw something different. I needed something different.

I left Theo to entertain the two girls on his own, with the excuse that I needed another drink, and went off searching for the mysterious woman in red. Thankfully, she hadn’t gone too far and was at the bar when I arrived. Guess I wasn’t lying to those girls after all. I stared at her, admiring the curves of her body better than I could from up on that stage. God, she was gorgeous. I could tell by looking at her and how she carried herself flagging down the bartender that she wouldn’t respond to cute pick-up lines. She had the bartender eating out of her hand, so I decided to go down the truth route and ask her if she could use her pull with the bartender to order me a drink and go through the standard introductions. Cici, the name rolled off her tongue in such a sweet tone, and her eyes had me memorized.

I was a little surprised when the bartender brought over two whiskeys. The way she was dressed, I half expected a cosmo or whatever was the popular fruity drink right now. Still, when she lifted her glass to her plump lips, wrapping around the rim, I knew she was definitely not like any girl I had met.

“So what brings a girl like you to a place like this?” I quizzed, grabbing my glass and taking a sip, the amber liquid going down smoothly. She had ordered the good stuff.

CiCi raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at me, “And what kind of girl am I?”

“By how you’re dressed, I would say New Yorker.” I guessed, “but you’re throwing off some LA vibes too.”

“Good guess.” She advised, “Born in New York, just finished college in LA. Friends and I are here for one final trip together before we all go our separate ways. What about you? Your designer shirt and jeans don’t exactly scream Myrtle Beach.”

“You got me.” I confirmed, “I flew in from Chicago with my cousin before I go home and start a new job.”

“musician?”Cici asked.

I shook my head, “no, that’s just a hobby.”

“So, if this is a hobby, what’s your job?” When I hesitated to answer, she downed the rest of her drink, “Okay, no personal facts. Are we going to continue this little flirtation here, or should we continue this on the dance floor?”

It was hard dodging questions about what my family did for a living. It wasn’t exactly something most people could handle. There wasn’t anything illegal that happened in Chicago that my family didn’t have a part in. Most of the time, I told them I was in sales, which was technically correct, but these girls never lasted for more than a night, so I didn’t feel so bad lying to them. There was something about this one. I didn’t want to lie.

Smirking, I followed her lead, downing my own drink and grabbing her hand. “Let’s go.”

When we got to the dance floor, a bunch of other people were dancing, but as far as I was concerned, it was just the two of us. I wasn’t much for dancing, so I was grateful when Cici took the lead. She was confident, that was for sure. She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling her body close to mine so that when she started to move along with the music, I had no choice but to move along with her. The s****l tension was so thick that you could have cut it with a knife. She let go of me, spinning around, pressing her ass against me, and placing my hands on her hips.

The longer we danced, the stronger the urge grew to throw her over my shoulder and find a back room to have my way with her. I wanted to know what she looked like without her clothes, what she tasted like. If it was anything like the way she smelled, I bet it was amazing. My pants were getting exceptionally tight from the way we were together, so much so that I felt like I was a teenage boy again, so inexperienced that I was going to c*m in my pants.

I gripped her hips tightly, unsure whether I wanted to push her away or pull her as close to me as possible. In my head, I was thinking about everything but the feeling of her body against mine. I thought about cars, my favorite sports teams, and my favorite bands. I even started singing the lyrics to any song I could think of, and thankfully it did the trick. After two songs, we searched for a table as I needed time to cool off and alcohol, lots and lots of alcohol.

Theo was still entertaining the two girls at our table, and her friends still seemed to be enjoying the dance floor, which I was grateful for, so we found a little booth in a dark corner with a bottle of whiskey to share to avoid having to repeatedly make trips to the bar.

I couldn’t stop looking at her, how her eyes seemed to light up every time she smiled and laughed, how her pouty lips wrapped around the edge of her glass, how she sat in the booth without caring about anyone else and ignoring everyone around her like it was just the two of us.

After we emptied another glass, I knew I had to think of something soon before we were both too intoxicated to go through with what was inevitably going to happen. Well, what I hoped was going to happen tonight. As I stared down at the glass, inspiration struck.

“Wanna play a game?” I queried, a playful look in my eyes as I pulled a few quarters out of my pocket, “We play a game of quarters, and when you get it in the glass, you get to ask the other person a question. Anything you wanna know, and they have to answer truthfully no matter what.”

She chuckled, “Sure, but no last names or other identifiable facts. We just remain CiCi and AJ for the night.”

“Deal”, I promised, dropping the coins on the table between us next to the glass as I relished hearing my name rolling off her tongue, “Ladies first.”

CiCi picked up a quarter, rolling it between and taking aim before bouncing it on the table and watching it clink into the glass. “I was the queen of this game in college. So I’m going to start with an easy one. Favorite food?”

“Pizza.” I answered quickly, “Hands down. There is this little bistro back home that makes the best deep-dish pizza in the city.”

She screwed her nose up a little and smirked, “I don’t think we can be friends. The only decent pizza comes from New York.”

“We can save the pizza debate for another time, and I don’t want to just be your friend.” I replied, shooting my own quarter into the glass, “How many tattoos do you have, and what’s your favorite?”

“What makes you think I have tattoos?” CiCi challenged, but I just answered by raising my eyebrow at her. She sighed in defeat, “I have four, and it’s going to sound silly, but I have the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland on my hip, dressed like Harry Potter, and before you laugh, I grew up with my parents reading those books to me, they were their favorites, and it just reminds me of a time when things were much simpler.”

I nodded, not saying a word, as I pushed the next quarter towards her, which she got instantly into the glass. We went back and forth for hours, and I learned a lot about her. She was a business major just like me, had one brother, and her favorite ice cream was cookies and cream with hot fudge. With all of these questions, we avoided the serious ones. I didn’t know her age, last name, where in New York she lived, how long she was staying, not even her phone number, which was one thing I desperately wanted. Although our questions weren’t personal, they got heated. I asked her about her first kiss, and she countered with the age I lost my virginity. They continued to get more intense.

Her friends and my cousin checked in every now and then but left us pretty much to our own devices, but I could tell the night was starting to wind down. The crowd was beginning to thin, I could see the house band starting to pack up, and it was my turn to play, so it was now or never. Once my quarter found its spot in the glass amongst the others.

Taking a deep breath, I stared her in the eyes. “I am all out of questions but one. Your place or mine?”

The corners of her mouth twitched like she was fighting a smile as she rested her arms on the table between us, leaning forward and giving me a good view of her cleavage, “And what makes you think that this thing is going beyond this bar? Maybe you’re too cocky for your own good.”

I stood up, moving to her side of the table, resting one hand on the table and one hand on the booth behind her as I leaned down until my face was only inches from her neck, and I saw her shiver as my warm breath tickled her neck. She turned until she was facing me.

“Make your decision, and I will show you just how cocky I can be,” I promised her before closing the gap between us and kissing her perfectly shaped lips.

It wasn’t a long kiss, there was no tongue, but it was enough to leave her wanting more. I knew I was fighting the urge to take her in this booth because I definitely wanted more, but I controlled myself.

“Fine.” CiCi advised caving, “But just remember, no matter how this ends, you kissed me first, so you started it. Let’s go back to your place. Less company there.”

Oh, I definitely knew I had started it, and I was sure as hell going to finish it. Leo had already left with his companions for the night, and I knew he was heading to their hotel, so we would have the whole place to ourselves. Just me, her and her moans.