His skin was lightly tanned, and his hair...Whoa, his hair. It was jet black and dead straight, and it hung like a silky curtain to his freaking hips, with a few shorter strands falling over his face. A face that was... godlike. Perfect, sculpted cheekbones drew the eyes to a mouth that was made for pleasure, and his deep blue eyes were so bright she’d seen them all the way across the club.
She could stare at his face all day. She could compose symphonies about his face. It was incredible, it was—
Embarrassing as hell how she was gawking at him.
“I’m Eva.”
“Asmodeus.”
She choked. “Asmodeus? That’s your actual name?”
He nodded.
“Isn’t that like... a demon name?”
“It is.”
“So your parents named you after a demon? What, were you a really bad child or something?” She laughed weakly, but it died at the blank look on his face.
“You can call me Ash. It’s short for Ashmedai, another one of my names.”
How many names did he have? “Um, okay, Ash it is.”
He smiled a little, and it nearly blinded her. “And you’re Eva.”
“That’s me. Short for Evangeline.”
“Evangeline. I like that.”
“Thanks. Eva is my artist name too. All caps though, to make it more eye-catching.”
“You should get a banner for when you play.”
“You’re right. That’s a great idea.”
“Subconscious suggestions work. Repeatedly show someone an image of something, and it will become familiar, whether or not they consciously recognize it. It’s a simple way to make humans more impressionable.”
Humans?“Uh, yeah. You’re right.”
Ash shook his head like he couldn’t believe he was talking about the power of subconscious suggestion. That made two of them. “Never mind. I don’t usually— My brothers are the social ones.”
“Those guys you were with that tried to hit on me?”
He winced. “They’re going a little crazy since tonight is a bit of a celebration for us.”
“A celebration of what?”
“Escaping a bad situation. Starting over. Hopefully,” he added, scanning the club suspiciously.
He was definitely weird, but she was oddly charmed by it. And his unspeakable hotness didn’t hurt either. “Well, congrats. Why aren’t you partying with them?”
“I’m not into their kind of partying, but we have to stick together now that we’re on Ear— that we’re out. For safety.”
“Tight family, then.” Except, they couldn’t really be his brothers by blood, considering their drastically different appearances. But that was too personal to ask. In fact, she’d been practically drilling the poor guy with questions. He obviously wasn’t social, and here she was grilling him on his personal life.Way to go, Eva. Score one for Team Awkward As Shit.
“You listen to a lot of music?” she asked, and Team Awkward scored again.
Surprisingly, he shook his head. “I try to, but I don’t often get the chance.”
