Sinless (Deadly Omen Book 1) Read online

  I waved my hand dismissively. "Think whatever you want." I said, not willing to admit defeat. "What are you making?"

  Eyeing her spread of foods, I would think grilled cheese, but this looked more like a bread and cheese buffet.

  She turned an excited grin on me as she said, "grilled cheese, duh." Sure, like it was totally obvious with what appeared to be eight or nine different kinds of cheese, weirdly shiny looking bread, and an array of seasonings and fresh herbs.

  "What kind grilled cheese?" I asked suspiciously.

  She started cackling like the witch from Hansel and Gretel, making me feel like she was about to shove me in a cage to fatten me up before she baked me into a pie. Joke was on her though, because I didn't fatten up. Perks of being near-perfect.

  "A special recipe from yours truly. I'm a pretty fantastic cook, you know." She bragged while continuing to prep the food.

  I snorted. "Actually, I didn't know, seeing as I've only known you two days and hardly know a thing about you."

  She glared at me like my honesty was some sort of cruel joke. "Well, now you know." She said with a sniff. "And my last name is Edmont, so now you know something else, too." She smirked.

  Ugh. I was really starting to despise that word.

  "Good to know." I answered flatly, daring her to take my seemingly uninterested demeanor as bait. I would say absolutely nothing else, I'd just let her fret over why I didn't seem over the moon at learning more about her.

  I was actually really and truly excited to learn more because it made me feel like one of the gang, and that was a damn cool feeling.

  Did making out with a town citizen count as me becoming one of the group? If so, I was solid as a rock. A regular townie.

  I watched as she continued on in her grilled cheese making task, her face dropping into a concentrated frown, inch by tiny inch.

  I was trying really fucking hard not to laugh, okay? When someone falls into such a simply set trap, it's probably one of the most pleasing things in the world. Well, for sadists like me, I guess.

  I needed some serious help.

  Her face was about to break, I just knew it. No one's face could go into a deeper frown for any longer than she had held this one. Maybe she was onto me.

  Ridiculous. Of course she wasn’t onto me. I was a skilled, mastermind manipulator. Hell, I manipulated the mastermind manipulators. I was that good.

  She wasn't gonna crack. She was just gonna stew in her own curiosity forever. Maybe she just needed a little push, and it just so happened that I had the perfect push as a failsafe.

  All it took was a small feigned yawn, and she snapped like a rubber band stretched too far. "You know, if you didn't care, that's all you had to say." She chided, wielding her spatula like a magic wand that could smite me where I stood. Her eyes were wide and wild, her hair hanging in her eyes so that she looked like a sea witch or The Grudge.

  I snickered, not even bothering to hide my mirth. "I really do care. I just wanted to see your face." I grinned at her. "Really, I'd love to get to know you better since I think we're almost friends or something." I added with a wink, folding my hands under my chin as though I was the poster child for heaven's greatest.

  She just glared at me in response, possibly contemplating my very untimely and ultimately hideous demise. “You’re impossible.” She groaned, wiping a hand over her face as though I was seriously draining her mental capacity for the day. Maybe I was? It could be my superpower. In the books, every new person in weird towns had a superpower, so maybe mine was draining people.

  I gave her my cheekiest of grins. “I looove you.” I told her sweetly.

  She rolled her eyes and started grumbling under her breath as she returned to her melted cheese sandwiches.

  “I’m sorry, what was that?” I practically cooed at her, like she was an adorable toddler learning to speak a full and coherent sentence for the very first time.

  “I said,” she grumbled louder. “I love you, too. Newbie.”

  My grin took on a growth spurt of Cheshire proportions. “I won’t be a newbie forever, you know. I’ll be a regular member of small town society in no time at all.” I spread my arms wide for a nice dramatic presence.

  She went quiet and bent her head over her suddenly very focus-consuming task. Uh-oh.

  “Drea, honey?” I coaxed gently. I got up from my place at the breakfast bar and walked around to my new friend. “What’s wrong?”

  She didn’t even look up at me, but she did poke the poor grilled cheese with the spatula. She didn’t seem sad exactly, more upset. But we were fine, right? What even happened?

  When she finally peeked up at me through her mess of bushy hair, she looked hurt. Why would she be hurt? What did I do? “What if you don’t like it here?” She asked quietly, avoiding eye contact again.

  I was actually stunned, as though someone had actually hit me in the face with an actual frying pan – which I’m sure hurt like hell. “Drea?” I whispered to her, placing my hand on her back. Jesus, this girl was petite as they came. I felt like she might break from the small contact alone.

  But she didn’t break, she just glanced at me sideways, unblinking. “I don’t really have friends.” She whispered back, as though the air in the room was tangible and fragile.

  I smiled sadly back at her and rubbed small circles into her spine. “I know, honey.” Wow, I was already really attached. Weird. “I don’t have any plans on going anywhere any time soon, if at all. I like it here. It’s cozy and friendly…”

  She gave me a small smile and nodded once.

  “And you’re here. You’re my friend and I wouldn’t just abandon you if I did want to leave.” I gave her a very pointed look. Stern, almost. I think. I just wanted to make her understand, because she was so sensitive and lonely, and I honestly cared a lot. “If I wanted to leave, I’d ask you to come with me. Then if you said no, I’d chloroform you and stuff you in my trunk with lotion and a bucket.”

  That did her in.

  She was doubling over, clutching the spatula to her midsection as she howled with laughter. Little tears were springing up in her eyes, and mine weren’t exactly desert-dry.

  “Seriously, I like it here so far. I haven’t really gotten the chance to explore or meet many people, but I plan on staying based on what I know so far.” I told her.

  She started to right herself, wiping her eyes clean, when her head caught the handle of the pan she was cooking with. The pan nearly flipped over on her head, and I knew that superhuman speed was doubtless not one of my superpowers.

  And then the pan was gone, suspended above the stovetop in a neatly manicured male hand.

  I swear my heart was drilling its way into my throat as I clutched my chest and waited for the breath to return to my lungs.

  “What have I said about horsing about in the kitchen? You almost went and got yourself scalded, love.” Eliam chided gently, setting the pan on a back burner.

  Drea stood completely and brushed her hair from her face before turning to her saviour with a thoroughly guilty demeanor. “Sorry, E. I didn’t mean to, Ria’s just a real stand up act.” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder at me and I rolled my eyes.

  Sure, blame the pariah. I thought to myself.

  Eliam seemed to feel the same way, as he arched a damn near perfect brow and slowly – painfully slowly – slid his gaze to my own. “I’m sure she is.” He drawled. He turned back to Drea and tilted her chin up with his index finger. “Be more careful, love. Kel would have the head of the person,” he shot his gaze to me again, “who let you get hurt.”

  “Duly noted.” I muttered as he stalked from the room, not a farewell in sight.

  Drea snickered as she turned off the burners and started hunting around for plates. “Don’t mind E, he’s harmless.” She told me a little too gleefully.

  That was a lie. He was about as far from harmless as they came, I’m sure, what with the whole threatened exile and nasty attitude. I hadn’t even mentioned
that I took off my clothes for money yet and I was already a leper in the eyes of the great Eliam. Yay me. So yeah, I was suddenly super positive that Eliam wasn’t in the running for the world’s biggest asshole, but was actual warmer, fuzzier, and more loving than a teddy bear. Not.

  I just shrugged my shoulders in response to avoid any kind of potential argument over my sour roommate. Drea directed me back to my stool and placed the cheesiest of grilled cheeses before me, dramatically licking her lips as though she wasn’t already holding her own cholesterol sandwich.

  “Dig in!” She insisted.

  I took a big bite – and I mean a really big bite, because I don’t do anything by halves as well as just being overall a food lover. And holy fucking gods above and below, this was most definitely the best grilled cheese I’d ever had in my entire life. It was gooey and soft, but not sticky, and with so many conflicting flavours that it should have been disgusting. Not disgusting, by the way. In case I wasn’t clear.

  Drea was still staring at me while I inhaled my masterpiece, waiting for a response as though the aforementioned inhaling wasn’t enough of a sign. “It’s amazing, Drea!” I praised around a mouthful of bread and cheese.

  Her face lit up like the Fourth of July, eyes beaming and smile dazzling. She threw her dainty arms around me and nearly sent my bite down the wrong pipe. “Sorry, sorry!” She apologized, not sounding the least bit apologetic. “I knew you’d love it!” She was in seventh heaven and I was just so glad that I could make her that happy.

  And happy about the copious amounts of cheese that I’m sure would be fueling my bloodstream in no time at all.

  “So, what are your plans for the day?” I asked my marvelous chef of a friend. Sure, it was just grilled cheese, but it was like six star restaurant grilled cheese. And yes, I know that’s not a thing.

  Blotting the crumbs from her mouth, Drea said, “honestly, not much of anything. I like to chill with the guys on my days off.” She shrugged.

  “Do you guys just sit around and watch or play games all day?” I asked.

  Drea had opened her mouth to respond when Beck came in the open entryway.

  “Dude!” He exclaimed, looking a little bit hurt as he stared down the last bite of grilled cheese in my hand. “Where’s mine, Little D?” He was legitimately pouting.

  My friend rolled her eyes as she stood and collected our plates. “You’ve already eaten five times today and the sun’s barely in the sky.” She told him with a pointed look. “You’re gonna get fat, Big B.”

  Beck turned his eyes on my face and winked. “I’ll never be fat.”

  Drea sighed. “I’m not making you food, end of story.” Beck opened his mouth to say something else, but my elfish friend cut him off with her palm facing him. “And no, you’re not gonna starve to death.”

  I was trying really, really hard not to laugh at the little exchange because new people were rarely allowed to have opinions in situations like these, but it was really funny.

  “Drea, wanna go hit up some local small cities later?” I inquired thoughtlessly. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  Stupid brain asking stupid questions without consulting stupid me first.

  However, my friend’s pretty hazel eyes grew the size of dinner plates and she started bobbing her head in a nod that made me wonder how securely her neck was fastened to her actual head. “Sure! What’s the game plan?” She bubbled enthusiastically.

  Oh boy. This was going to get me into a shit tonne of trouble, I just knew it. It was too late to back out, too, because my stupid mouth was in cahoots with my stupid brain. Maybe the truth would get a negative enough reaction that she wouldn’t want to go, but also a positive enough refusal that we would still be friends. It was worth a shot, right?

  I took a deep breath and beamed at her. “Ever been to a strip club before?”

  11

  Ria

  A strip club?" Drea asked for what seemed like the tenth time in a two minute time span.

  Beck was doubled - no, tripled - over laughing, his arms crossed and clutching at his middle while tears streamed from his eyes. The second the words were out of my mouth, my fuzzy-haired, fun-sized friend had dropped her jaw all the way to China, her eyes practically bulging out of her head. The reaction was comical, for sure, but I was sort of at the butt of the joke here, even if Drea was the target.

  I sighed and rubbed my temples to buy myself some time and patience. "Drea, forget it. It was just a suggestion. I had planned on going and thought it would be fun." I told her.

  Her mouth opened and closed for a second or two longer before she managed to find the ability to speak again. "I mean, it was just so... Random! I'd love to go. I mean, I don't know that I'd love to, but I've never been, so it doesn't hurt to see, right?" Oh, the babbling.

  Beck seemed to feel the same way I did about the incessant flow of sounds coming from her because he straightened and stopped laughing as he placed a hand over her mouth. People kept doing that to her, so it has to be some kind of muscle memory or instinct at this point.

  "Little D." Beck said quietly. "It's a bunch of naked chicks. It's your zone, dude."

  Drea gave a quick nod and said something that came out a mumbled jumble of miscellaneous sounds. In short, I had no clue what she just said.

  Beck removed his hand from her mouth cautiously, as though concerned that she might start rambling again. "I was saying," she shot a look at the hunky skater boy, "what if we all go?" She suggested uncertainly.

  Cue Ria's mental freak out.

  All? All of us? Unless she was calling me fat, I'm pretty sure she meant us two girls and the six guys. I mean, it wouldn't be too awkward under normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances or normal guys; they were not only freakishly attractive, but they were my roommates. I was going to look for work, not a good time, and I was totally cool with Drea knowing, but the guys I lived with? Sure, I couldn't see any possible way that this could go wrong. Testosterone and boobs and all.

  I was fumbling for a good, sound reason to decline and change the direction this thing was going in. I wondered how quickly I could possibly contract food poisoning or the black plague. The odds were not in my favour.

  I was literally two nanoseconds away from opening my mouth and blurting the first excuse that came out, brain approval not required, when our beloved pierced pal opened his trap and ruined any chance at escape that may have been previously available to me.

  “Sounds fun.” Beck replied nonchalantly. “Let me get the guys, we know where to find the best spots.” And the dick strode from the room without a backwards glance.

  I could hear him announce the plan to the guys, which was followed by a chorus of raucous cheers. Joy to the fucking world.

  Drea looked positively giddy, so I supposed now was as good a time as any to let her in on my little secret. “Honey, come up to my room with me?” I suggested, gesturing for her to follow me as I made my way from the kitchen and up the stairs.

  We made it all the way to my bedroom and I closed the door so hastily that anyone might think I had just robbed a bank. Which, in short, means that Drea was giving me a bemused look.

  “Okay, so I’m actually going to look for work.” I told her bluntly. Okay, right out there in the open. Always the best course of action.

  She just shrugged and plopped onto my oversized bed. Or maybe it just looked oversized because she was so small? “I get it, not only do waitresses and bartenders make a killing in strip clubs, but the pay in outlying areas is probably so much better than here, yanno?” Oh boy. She didn’t get it.

  “No, I’m a dancer. It’s what I did back home, and I kinda need money before I drain my reserves.” I said it simply, very matter-of-fact. Nothing brings on worse reactions than beating around the bush, trust me.

  And take that with a grain of salt, because Drea’s face turned the alarming colour of fuchsia as she lay there on my bed, silent as a grave.

  “Drea…?” I coaxed.


  She made a little coughing and squeaking sound that I couldn’t properly identify without some kind of special certification. “Uh, well. Explains a lot, I guess.” She commented vaguely.

  Wait, what? My inner self and I happened to think the exact same thing at the exact same time. Explains what? Can you jinx yourself? Probably only if you’re certifiably insane, and I’m pretty positive I was getting damn close.

  “What does it explain?” I queried.

  Drea sat up on her elbows and stared intently at me. “All of,” she gestured to my general personage, “you.” Way to articulate, Andrea. “You’re just like nine kinds of gorgeous, and it just seems like it fits; you have that whole confidence and poise and sexuality thing about you.” She clarified.

  See? I oozed sexuality, just like I said.

  I chortled under my breath. “Glad to know I fit the bill.” I shot back playfully.

  She rolled her eyes at me and stood. “So, what do you need?” She asked, apparently over her little mini-panic attack.

  I shook my head and smiled. “All of my things are in the backseat of my car.” I told her, opening my door to head back downstairs. “Think you’re up for trying something new tonight?” I was mostly teasing, but I also was under the firm belief that anyone who envied a dancer’s confidence should try dancing at least once. It could be liberating and gratifying, or it could be humbling – the experience totally depended on the factors involved and the person.

  The flying squid looking head shake was answer enough, despite her sinful looking grin. Oh, I was totally corrupting her.

  We headed back downstairs to find the guys by the door – yes, including the dreaded Eliam, who wasn’t meeting my eyes – looking snazzy and ready for an evening out. It was only about two in the afternoon, but I had no idea how close the nearest club was and probably wouldn’t until I got somewhere with better cell service.

  “Ready to go?” Beck called out. He wasn’t looking in the direction of the stairs, so he had no idea that we were standing right behind him, which meant there was zero need for outside voices. Rafe smacked him on the shoulder and he turned. “Oh, that was quick.” He amended.