“I wanted to talk to him!” She pushed past the overbearing demons and pointed directly in Ash’s face.
He froze. They all froze.
“Him?” said Bel.
“Uh, yeah.” She glanced between their incredulous faces. “Is that a problem?”
“Oh, no, it’s not a problem at all!” Meph looked delighted.
“Go ahead. He’s friendly.” Raum pushed her forward.
“Um, right, and does he speak?”
“Yeah,” Ash croaked. He was still speechless. The woman was talking to him, looking right at him.
Bel took the hint and steered everyone away, leaving Asmodeus with the violinist.
“Hey,” Eva said. Or rather, shouted over Kyle’s painfully loud trap beats. God, she hated trap. Why did Kyle always have to follow her set and kill the vibe?
“Hey.”
She was glad they’d started the conversation in English since her French wasn’t fluent, but in this case, it wasn’t helping her feel any less awkward. “I saw you. From the stage.”
The stranger’s eyes widened in astonishment. “You did?”
“Yeah. Watching my set.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.” Why was that so hard for him to believe?
He said nothing more, so she added, “Nobody else was listening. You know, big nightclub, lots of drunk people, not a big surprise. But I saw you watching, and I wanted to say thanks. It’s nice to have a real audience occasionally, you know?”
It had taken all the lady balls she had and more to approach this guy, and his disbelief was making it so much harder.
“I loved it,” he said, and she relaxed considerably.
“You did?”
“I haven’t heard anyone play the violin like that in two hundred years.”
“Uh, what?” She laughed.
“I mean...” Indigo-blue eyes shifted around. “In a really long time.”
“Right. Well, thanks.”
“I don’t usually like electronic music. I haven’t developed an ear for the mechanical sound of it. But yours... It was a perfect blend of new and old.”
“I— Wow, thanks.” He was a bit weird, but he gave great compliments. “A blend of new and old. You know, that’s exactly what I’m going for.”
“You’re achieving it.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at him.
He smiled back. Holy hell, he was so attractive it burned her retinas.
She wanted to say that appreciation for her one and only attentive audience member was the only reason she’d approached him, but it wasn’t. She’d approached him because her one and only attentive audience member also happened to be the most drop-dead gorgeous man she had ever seen. Ever. It was almost surreal. Like she was looking at something that shouldn’t exist on Earth.
