City Of Sin: A Mafia & MC Romance Collection

by K. J. Dahlen

  “I brought you an espresso too with the pie.” She smiles as she puts them on the table.

  “Thanks, Leah.”

  She nods her head as if she’s waiting for me to say something else.

  “Well, you’ve taken me out of the bad mood that I was in before I saw your face.”

  “Is that why you come in more often now?” She turns away shy, as if she said something she shouldn’t have said.

  I find it interesting that she’s noticed I’ve started coming on Monday’s too. I wonder what else she’s noticed, but I find myself picking up the fork and closing my eyes for a second. Just long enough to think of my tongue on her pussy and for some reason I don’t taste the pie with her citric smell, my tongue licks the fork and when I open my eyes again. She’s watching me.

  Fuck!

  I could take her on the table right now. I turn to face her. Watch her composure and wonder if that’s the reason, she’s hanging around my table. Giving me subtle gifts as if she knows the type of thing I like to eat.

  “This tastes even better than last time.”

  Fucking sweet!

  “That’s because I made it myself.”

  I wipe my mouth and lay the paper towel on the table. “Do you do that for all your customers?”

  She shakes her head. “Not for all of them. Just the ones that like apple pie.”

  She’s fucking toying with me and just as quickly as she was by my side; she leaves again.

  Leah’s an unwelcome distraction, but I can’t remember the last time I fucked let alone had a tease as hot as her trying to get inside my pants. I could easily have her on all fours sucking me from dusk to dawn. Her alluring lips makes my cock twitch every time she speaks. “I like apple pie and coffee. What do you like?”

  She bends down and whispers, “Drinking.”

  She’s fucking flirting with me. I peer over the side and see her ass is sticking out and I realize I have the wrong view.

  Fuck!

  “Well, what time do you finish here?”

  She smiles. “In an hour.” Then she stands up.

  Fuck, I was just about to move and see what she has under that short skirt. A few of her buttons are undone too. She fucking wants me just as much as I want her. That’s for sure. But I’ll fuck the drinking and just get down to business. I could suck her fucking pussy which will be dripping wet before I’ve even put my fat cock inside of it. “I’ll wait here.”

  She puts her hands up to her chest. “For what?”

  “For you to finish to take you out for a drink.”

  She giggles. “I never said that I need to drink with someone. I just like drinking, if it’s alone.” Then she leaves the bill on my table and walks away.

  I watch her like a hawk, all the time thinking about what my PI said. He said that she came from Denver and moved here around four months ago. Just before I came to the diner and spotted her. Maybe it was a little after that. Either way, there was nothing that stuck out, but I could tell she was toying with me. I don’t get fobbed off that easily. I know what I want, and top of my list is the five-foot-eight inches waitress that works in this seventies diner. I’m too old to play games, but if that’s what she wants to do, then I’ll play—but only to win.

  5

  Leah

  My shift’s over, and it’s time to go home and chill with Olivia. I strip off in the back room like my uniform’s burning hot as I feel pleased with myself. Everything’s going in the right direction, and I can’t wait to take it off as soon as possible.

  Olivia is laughing as I stand in my underwear and take my time putting on my shirt and pants. “My, my something or rather someone’s put a smile on your face.”

  I shake my head trying to get rid of what happened earlier with Marco. I know that he’s ready to take me and it’s all just a question of time. It was the way he was eating the apple pie. He was sucking on his fork so slowly, and for a second, I lost myself. I was thinking of him as a customer flirting with me, but he has no idea what’s going through my mind, destruction and not mine…only his. He may be over a decade older and could do things boys my age could only dream about, but that’s not why I started working here, and I need to focus on my plan. He may think he’s older and wise, but he’ll have no idea what’s hit him after I’m done with him. I’ve come too far to turn back now.

  “Stop looking at me like that. I just want to go out. Maybe we could check out the new club you keep talking about?”

  She taps her face as she lets her blonde hair loose as if it’s been in a cage all day and she’s dying for it to be free. “Or you could go out there and see your customer at table six.”

  I laugh thinking she must have noticed that I spent a little too much time at his table and if it were anyone else then I would have walked away. Let alone, undone a few buttons and bent down so he could get a good eye of my cleavage. “I don’t know what you mean?”

  She comes closer, “Everyone saw you. Even Mom noticed, and she said that if you stretch any further onto his table, then the whole diner could see your—”

  I put my hand up thinking that she didn’t need to say another word. I knew exactly where this conversation was heading and it would start and end with the whole diner seeing my panties. “Are you going to be beating me up about the customer or are you going to agree for us to go out? Besides, it’s Friday night, our time to party.”

  She looks concerned as she comes up to me. “But you told my mom earlier that you’ve been using all your money to send back home. You even wanted an advance on next week’s wage. How comes now you want to go out? Where did you get the money from?”

  Fuck!

  A lie I’d forgotten about and hate myself for saying it in the first place. When Marco walked in, I lost all senses. The idea that he’s asked me out means only one thing…he’s interested and so far, everything’s going to plan. Apart from one little detail, Olivia and her family. I never meant for them to be caught up in the web of lies. Maybe I’m selfish? I knew what they were like because unlike the rest of the New Yorkers, they reminded me of Townsville, the small town I’d lived in my whole life. The one that I left to come to work as a waitress at the moment I bumped into Olivia in the Black Bar, and we got talking. She offered me a job; I was low on cash. From that moment onwards, we sparked a friendship, one that I need, to stop myself from going insane. At times, I do that when I’m here, but now I feel as if everything’s working out, but I’m living this lie. To someone who’s been good to me.

  “Yeah, but then my cousin said that he would help out. So, it’s not so bad at the moment. Sorry, I should have told you,” I say as I start to dress. I don’t want her to see that I’m biting my lip and hiding behind this lie.

  Another one, they seem to draw out of my body so naturally. Before I arrived, I’d been working on a plan to bring him down. I’d gone to different cities such as LA, Chicago, trying to figure out how to appeal to the rich and the powerful. They’re all the same regardless of the city. They think they can use and get whatever they want all the time. No one offered me a hand, let alone a place to stay. I’m sure that once I tell Olivia the truth, the reason that I’m here, she’ll understand. I’m positive she would do the same for her family. Who wouldn’t want to stop what happened to us from happening to others?

  The likes of Marco Raco should pay for things like that and boy, oh boy, am I going to make him pay.

  “Sure, sounds like a plan. I was going to say that I’ll pay for tonight. I didn’t mean to make you feel guilty. Look I need to go before Mom sacks me. Catch you later,” Olivia says as she runs to the front.

  I wave and sigh as I slump down on the chair. I don’t feel like getting ready as quickly as I did a few minutes ago. I may be enhancing my skills about lying, but I’m not feeling good about it. Not one bit.

  6

  Leah

  I walk home slowly, not feeling the need to get on the subway or even the bus. I don’t feel the buzz that I had a few minutes
ago. Earlier I was on top of the world feeling as if I’d made a breakthrough. Now, I’m back to feeling as if I’m the traitor.

  My phone rings, and it’s Hayley, my little sister. I hope she has something good to say to take me out of the mood I’m in at the moment.

  “Hey sis,” I answer my cell. It’s been nearly two weeks since we’ve spoken, maybe I’m getting obsessive about Marco, and I should let everything take its course. I worked every single day this week, hoping he’d come back in and he only managed to do that today.

  “Leah. How have you been?”

  I’m just about to answer, when she blurts out, “Mom’s sick again.”

  Crap!

  It’s as if the lie I told Olivia has come true and I didn’t even think that it was a lie at the time. “What’s happened?”

  She sighs. “She doesn’t get out of bed sometimes when I go to school. She just lies there with her eyes wide open. One day I thought she was dead, I was so scared Leah, I couldn’t even get to school.” Her voice sounds as if she’s trembling as if she’s trying to hold back the tears.

  “What about Steven? Why isn’t he around?”

  “He comes and goes. He leaves a little money and says that there’s no work in town. That he needs to go out and get it. Sometimes I don’t see him for days. Sometimes weeks. I don’t know what to do.”

  We weren’t alone; we had another family, why was Hayley trying to do all this alone. Especially, with her finals coming up.

  “What about Grandma? Aunt Jessica? Uncle Fred? ...”

  The list is endless.

  “They’ve all left, ever since the factory closed down and it was clear that there was no money.”

  I shake my head. “That makes no sense, the factory closed down three years ago. Remember that’s why I never could go to college.”

  She doesn’t say a word, and I have a suspicion that something’s going on. That’s one thing about my family; they have so many secrets that maybe this is the reason I’m getting so used to it. Because it’s something that seems to run in my family and is second nature to them. “Hayley?”

  She blurts out, “Look I didn’t want to tell you this, but the factory only closed down officially two months ago. Before then parts of it were closed down, but not all of it.”

  “Steven lied to me?”

  “I don’t know what he told you. But I just know that Mom’s not well, Leah, and I don’t know what to do.”

  I sigh as I think about the weight that’s on my shoulders. I could send the little money I’ve been saving. I send them some, but then I didn’t realize they needed it so badly until now. I thought I could get away with spending a bit on my hair and make-up, but now I can see that she needs it so bad. It’s the real reason she’s calling, not to tell me to come home, but to send more money. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Great, the quicker, the better. Don’t worry; I’ll look after Mom.” She hangs up before I even have a chance to reply.

  I wonder if she’s telling me the truth. I shake my head at the idea of her lying. She wouldn’t do that, but then again everything I thought was true up until now seems like a deliberate lie.

  I’m about to call her and ask if she’s telling me the truth about Mom. Did she go into depression again? Or is it just Hayley’s way of trying to get money out of me? I need to know because I can’t focus on my plan if my family is hiding something from me. Again.

  The first time was when I graduated, that’s when I found out that my dreams and aspirations were shattered because my college fund had disappeared overnight. Mom and Steven had been using it to keep the factory afloat. They’d hoped that they wouldn’t have to file for bankruptcy or there would be a possibility of them losing the house. This is the story that I’d been told, but parts of me were beginning to wonder what part of it was true if any of it.

  I sigh as I hesitate to put my cell back in my purse. I feel like buying a bottle of wine to drown my sorrows or just going home and waiting a few hours for Olivia to come and then doing the same thing.

  I’m standing debating what to do when I hear a voice behind me.

  “If you keep staring at it, you’ll have to end up buying it,” he says.

  I turn and think that it can’t be him. He left a while ago. Is he following me? Then I decide if he is, then maybe my day’s not going to end up so bad after all. I just have to think of something sexy to say. Or maybe he doesn’t like that? His smile sends me into a trance. His woody scent freezes me in time. I find myself helpless, and I’m only in his company. If I don’t make the next move, then he can walk and my aspirations to get out of the rut would be gone. The one that he created the moment he destroyed not only my world, but my whole family’s too.

  7

  Marco

  She hesitates for a second as if she’s so lost in her thoughts. I could tell by the way she was swinging her hands just a few minutes ago, she wasn’t happy about who she was speaking to on the phone.

  “No, it’s my sister. She’s just…” She sighs. “It doesn’t matter.”

  Just as my PI found, she has one step-sister, Hayley. It seems that everything’s going according to plan. She’s a teenager out in Kansas, no doubt getting into trouble like most teenagers her age. I see a different side to her as she stands in front of me. She doesn’t seem seductive or even as confident as she was only a few hours ago. If anything, the conversation she was having with her step-sister must have touched a nerve.

  “Well, what do you say about instead of just standing outside a window, I can take you shopping, so you don’t have to just look at the clothes, but you can buy them.”

  She raises an eyebrow, and even the words may surprise her, but not as much as they’re shocking me. It’s as if I’m having an out of body experience and I see my body in front of me, but the words coming out are from some guy that’s soft. No way is he fucking me. And as for that smile, shit, I just need to wipe it off my face. It’s fucking creepy because I don’t do nice. No fucking way.

  She shrugs. “Don’t you have anything better to do than take a girl shopping?”

  My cock twitches as if it can read my mind. It knows I want to say, ‘Yes, fucking!’ But it refrains me from talking, and that stupid fucking smile takes over my mind one more time. “You look like a girl who needs something to smile about.”

  The way I’m fucking doing right now.

  Her lips tremble and then she slowly bites her bottom lip as if she’s thinking twice about it. I know she’s not going to say no. The pants and the shirt she’s wearing nicely sculpt her body. But they’re not labeled and certainly not designer gear. She knows if I’m offering to take her shopping then I’m not taking her to TJ-Max. Far from it, as her eyes quickly dart to the limo.

  “What do you want me to do? Get down on my knees and beg?”

  She quickly shakes her head. “No, you’re nice to me, and I’m still upset about my family.”

  I chuckle. “I can relate to that. Mine drives me mad at the best of times.”

  They’re the last people I want to talk about, especially today. After the week I’ve had, trying to get them out of my mind. Once in a while, they would pop in there and then I would feel down. As if my life was coming to a fucking end. Just like Maria’s did the day she tried to leave. I vowed that I’d put the past behind me. I wouldn’t think about it anymore. That’s why I left that fucking life… to get away from it. Not to spend my days going over and over it again.

  This is the first of a new day.

  I’ll stop going to the clubs. Start trying to connect with women and maybe one day go back down the road of marriage. Not to someone like Leah, but she’s the type of girl that could get me back on the road. The one I’ve been avoiding for too long. She could help me forget about the past and move on for once. That’s all it takes. One to make me move on from the shadow that’s cast a dark spell over me.

  I know Leah can do it, but I’ll need to tread carefully. She doesn’t know what she’s
agreed to by just coming out with me.

  “It’s very kind of you, but I don’t even know your name?”

  I nod as I think about the fact that she’s so astute for a girl that comes from a small town. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought she knew my name by now. There’s something about the way she said it that makes me think otherwise. “You can call me Beast.”

  She shakes her head. “Why? Like Beauty and the Beast?”

  I nod.

  She laughs. “You are a charmer.”

  I touch the tip of her nose. “Nothing like Beast at first, but he soon changed his mind.”

  She doesn’t agree. “More like Bella made him see the error of his ways.”

  I know Leah isn’t going to do that, but she’s helped me in ways that I’ve failed myself. “Do you think that you can make me see the error of my ways?” I hold up my arm for her to loop her hand around it.

  “I could do that, Marco. But the question is… are you willing to try?”

  I could tell there’s a double meaning in her statement. Not only did she confirm that she does know my name, but she also confirmed she knows something about me. The question is what?

  Leah’s screaming like a little kid as she picks up her bags and her eyes are green with envy. “Everything in here’s expensive. I mean they have no price tags in the store.”

  I point to her. “That’s because if you need to know the price…”

  “You shouldn’t be in the store. I know you told me the first and second time,” she says as she greedily grabs the bags and tries to put them all on the empty seat next to her.

  The shopping trip was more fun than I’d expected and a bit more frustrating. I wanted to take her so badly when she wore the white dress. She looked a picture of innocence that’s so hard to explain and even more difficult to forget. There was a part of me that wondered if she knew the effect she has on people. Even the shop assistants were mesmerized by her beauty. From her long legs and her infectious eyes which are blue in one shade and green in another. It’s as if everything about her changes when she goes from happy to sad. When she put on a casual outfit as opposed to a formal one. There’s no situation that she can’t fit into and like a new toy. One that I could play with all weekend long. I couldn’t let her go.