Page 23 of The Devil and His Goddess

I laughed, nearly choking on the wine I just drank. “Weakness?”

She rolled her eyes as though having to explain what she meant was an inconvenience. “Yes. I mean, here you are. A guy who speaks another language. A guy who is in a supposedly successful band—”

“Wearesuccessful. No ‘supposed’ about it,” I corrected.

She ignored me.

“—and you’re the recent owner of an entire ballet company that you revamped in a very short time period. You’ve lived in all these great places, another indicator of yourwell-offstatus.”

“Keep going,” I encouraged coyly with a wave of my hand.

She shook her head at me, raking those vivid eyes over my seated form. “There’s obviously a weakness you have somewhere. You can’t bethatgreat.”

“You think I’m great?” My smile widened.

“Greatly annoying, yes,” she answered blandly.

I leaned forward, bracing my forearms on the table. I cocked my head and purred, “You can be my weakness.”

She scoffed and leaned back in the booth while crossing her arms. “In your dreams, Peasant.”

Her eyes widened at the slip of the nickname, but hearing it sent an unexpected rush of desire straight to my dick. I hadn’t realized how much I liked hearing her call me that. More than that though, the name meant her walls were starting to crack, letting little pieces of me slip through. Soon enough, I’d have the hurdle decimated, and I’d make her mine in every sense of the word.

I licked my lips, not missing the way her eyes went hazy with lust as they zeroed in on the motion. Maybe it wasn’t too late to cancel our order and get out of here for therealmain course.

Harper suddenly cleared her throat and looked away from me. “So were you a dancer prior to the band and becoming the artistic director?”

Nice change in subject.

“I dabbled,” I answered.

The spanakopita appetizer arrived, and I grabbed a flaky piece of the spinachy, cheesy goodness to deposit on a plate for each of us.

“I’ve studied a lot of different types of dance,” I continued as I handed her the food. “Ballet, both classical and modern versions, was just what I gravitated toward most. Though, I prefer watching it rather than performing it myself.”

Her lips closed around her fork, which was full of the food, and had I not been a demon, I probably would’ve missed the soft moan she let out as she tasted the dish. But Ididhear it, and the sound might as well have been a sin of the sexiest kind. My dick went fully erect beneath the table, and I had to clench my fists tightly to keep from reaching beneath to rub at the hard-on.

“Good?” I asked, hoping she didn’t hear how husky my voice came out.

She nodded hard, thankfully focused on the food and not me. “Delicious! Wow!”

I smiled as pride made my back straighten a bit. Not that I had doubted my choice.

“So,” she started as she grabbed her water, “how did you find Silverlight?”

“My band had to move down here for some personal reasons. Since I attend a lot of ballet shows in my downtime, I looked for the local ballet company, which led to you guys. When I saw and heard how badly the company was struggling, I decided to buy it and make it into what I envision a stellar ballet company to be.”

She finished off her treat as I dug into my own. The taste was fucking perfect, and the flaky treat didn’t last long on my plate.

“I hope this isn’t rude,” Harper hedged with a cautious glance my way. “But I’m not familiar with your band. I really only listen to classical music, ballet, or movie soundtracks. What’s your group called again?”

“Sinners Do It Better.”

She raised a brow with a slight smile tugging at her lips. “Interesting name. What do you do in the group?”

I shrugged. “I do a couple of things, depending on which set we’re doing. Guitar, keyboard, violin, back-up vocals. You know, a variety.”

“You can play violin?” Harper asked, her face suddenly lighting up.

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