Changing Beauty (Book 2) (The Deadly Beauties Live On)

by C. M. Owens

  Perfectly tanned, amazingly sculpted, and he owns a face that can haunt dreams. So not fair.

  “Like what you see, sweet girl?” he drawls, reminding me that I’m drooling.

  Words and stuff…

  My eyes snap up to see him displaying amusement, his lips curving in a wry grin as he tosses a grape in his mouth.

  “Um… I… Uh… My water is everywhere,” I stammer like a fool.

  His amusement stays put, but it’s crowded slightly by confusion. “You do look a little… wet… And you need help?” he asks, trying to decipher my disastrous attempt at an explanation, but he seems so damn cheeky about it.

  “The pipe… we can’t get it back together,” I prattle on.

  His eyebrows cock up, and he chuckles lightly while leisurely taking a sip of coffee, certainly not making any hasty moves to help.

  “Well, good for you I’ve learned a thing or two about plumbing,” he says idly. “And I wouldn’t mind helping with your… wet pipes.”

  His devilish grin and double entendre has my face burning red, but then he steps out from behind the kitchen island, and I fall—literally, I fall. My ass slams down to the ground as the breath leaves my lips, and I gawk at him.

  He’s naked. Oh my damn, he’s really naked. Or I’m having a really, really good hallucination.

  “Where… you’re… I… uh…”

  He snickers while continuing to walk toward me, and I can’t help but notice that his muscles aren’t the only hard things on his body. Oh. My. Wow. He’s turned on? How? Why?

  He’s really unnaturally perfect. It’s hard to even notice the array of animal tattoos on his chest and stomach anymore because my eyes are… Well, they’re trained on one thing because I’m a pervert who is acting like I’ve never seen a man naked before.

  To be fair, I’ve never seen a man that looks like him naked before.

  “I went for a run. I had just gotten back when you showed up,” he says without shame, grabbing a pair of jeans from the sofa when he reaches the living room.

  Without an ounce of modesty, he tugs his jeans on right in front of me, and I continue being a total pervert, unable to look away. Did he really bypass underwear?

  Once his ungodly perfect body is partially clad by the very lucky jeans, I continue staring at his covered crotch. So pathetic. Am I seriously licking my lips?

  “Should we go check out this pipe problem you have?” he asks, a mocking lilt to his voice.

  Swallowing hard, I give up on talking and nod.

  He snickers while bending forward and grabbing the sides of my arms gently. He’s touching me. Great. I’ll never breathe again. Apparently breathing rights went away with speaking rights.

  With barely any exerted effort, he pulls me up from the ground. Then, to make things all the more embarrassing, he thumbs my chin before saying, “So damn sweet.”

  Freaking eh. My legs won’t work now.

  He turns and walks out, and I stagger and sway behind him on my rubbery legs. He really should come with a warning label.

  “You okay?” he asks, clearly still mocking me with that damn cheeky grin of his.

  “Fine,” I snap, ignoring the heat in my cheeks when he snickers again.

  He opens my front door for me, and ushers me into my home, but as soon as he hears the high pitch squeal from the kitchen, he’s racing by me. Oh no. My floors are absolutely covered in water. There’s no telling how much damage is being done.

  “Oh shit,” he says on a long breath, at the same time Jenny looks up and sees him and says, “Oh damn,” very breathily.

  I really don’t like the way she’s looking at him right now.

  “You really do have a pipe problem,” he says more to himself than to me.

  He thought I was lying? Why would I make that up?

  He kneels, and Jenny sighs dreamily as she watches with unveiled lust. His muscles flex as he angles his body and ducks under the cabinet. I watch—mostly because I can’t look away—as he twists the stubborn metal bolt thingy while holding the bottom pieces of the pipe together.

  “That’s not normal, is it?” I ask, trying to focus on the problem and not his bare upper half or bare feet. Really? Even his feet are sexy? “All the water, I mean,” I add, only drowning in my rambling state.

  “Not quite this much,” he says casually, twisting the pipe again, and suddenly the unlicensed fountain stops.

  There’s no way he just did that with his bare hands.

  He backs out from under the sink, a cocky grin playing on his lips, and he winks at me. His body is soaked, including his hair, and he looks like he’s dripping sex. So. Not. Fair.

  He runs a hand through his wet hair, and Jenny leans back against the wall to admire him as he stands back up. Yep. She’s sighing. And drooling.

  “All fixed, sweet girl. Now what’s my reward for being so neighborly?”

  He grabs a towel from the dry side of the counter, and starts wiping his face down. My entire body is on fire now that my sink isn’t hosing me down.

  “How… how did you do that?” I ask instead of answering him. “We both pulled on that wrench and the bolt didn’t budge.”

  He smirks. The cocky blonde Adonis smirks.

  “Firstly,” he says, picking up the large wrench, “this is called a channel lock—not a wrench. Secondly, the bolt is actually a slip nut, and it just needed a little elbow grease. These pipes are outdated and metal, and you have crooked joints. You might want to look into updating your plumbing. This house is old.”

  He tosses the towel to the counter, and he slowly struts toward me.

  “How can we ever repay you?” Jenny says suggestively, not hiding the fact she’s wearing a soaking wet, white tank top and no bra as she very aggressively thrusts herself between us.

  Thad doesn’t move his eyes from mine as he walks around her. “You coming to the party?” he asks me.

  “I am,” Jenny chimes in from behind, but he doesn’t acknowledge her. Instead, he continues staring expectantly at me.

  “I wasn’t planning on it,” I finally manage to say through strain.

  “If I get someone over here to take care of this mess, will you?” he asks, his lips still curled in that cocky grin.

  “Um…” I look around at the disaster zone that has been flooded. My feet are almost covered in the standing water. “We’re sort of tight on funds. We can do this ourselves.”

  His grin only grows. “I have friends that can handle something like this in no time. It won’t cost anything—well, nothing besides your attendance at my friends’ party. And if you don’t get this done quickly, it’ll mess up your floors. They can take care of that, too.”

  I start chewing on my bottom lip as I nervously consider his offer.

  “O…kay. I’ll go.”

  That wicked smile grows, and he leans over, putting his lips directly beside my ear. I prepare myself for whatever seductive line he has in store. “Wear something dry,” he jokes, leaning back upright to rake his eyes over my soaked black shorts and red T-shirt.

  At least I have on a bra.

  “Okay,” I whisper, though I don’t know why. He wasn’t being serious.

  “Good,” he says casually, not sounding breathless and faint like me.

  He’s really too good at this whole making-me-a-puddle thing.

  “And I’ll be there,” Jenny repeats.

  Much to my childish inner delight, Thad ignores her once again. He’s definitely gaining points for that. If he was such a player, wouldn’t he be taking the easy-to-get girl? Maybe I judged him wrong.

  He bends over to nip my ear, and I suck in a sharp breath while swaying.

  “Get lost while I take care of this,” he says, leaning back up and motioning to the mess of water that Captain Jack Sparrow could navigate his ship through.

  He winks at me, and I study him, angling my head back so that I can fully appreciate all of his amazing features. He really is a work of art. But why is he so persist
ent with me?

  “Can I ask you why you’re doing all this?” I ask, proud that my voice has finally returned to normal.

  His smile quirks up, and he tilts his head. “I would have thought it’d be obvious by now. I’ve never been accused of being subtle.”

  He bends, moving his lips too close to mine, and I reflexively take a step back. Instead of acting insulted, he seems to grin bigger, a challenge in his eyes.

  “I’ll wear you down, sweet girl. Then I’ll make you desperate to tarnish that halo.”

  No halo to tarnish.

  He winks again, backing away, and strutting out my door. “I’ll be back in an hour. It’ll be hard for my friends to work with you here. Just leave the door unlocked,” he says without turning around, and I finally take a breath.

  Definitely not subtle. And I really like that.

  Jenny is scowling at me when I finally acknowledge her again, and she rolls her eyes.

  “You’re only on the menu until he realizes you’re as boring as they come.”

  She turns on a heel and storms toward her room. Apparently she’s not as happy as I am about Thad’s obvious intentions. That’s the first time she’s ever been mean to me.

  Chapter 4

  THAD

  “You really could wear a shirt on occasion,” Gage says as he walks into Alyssa’s old house—Roslyn’s current home.

  I smirk over at him, glancing down at my modest attire—jeans and boots. Good enough.

  “Roslyn will be back soon, and I’m going to make sure she gets another eyeful.”

  I waggle my eyebrows, and he groans while sloshing through the small flood in the house.

  “How the hell did this happen?” he asks, taking in the standing mess.

  “The roommate tried to play plumber for something she dropped, but the water flow was ridiculous. Any chance there’s some residual magic here that Alyssa’s spells left behind? Something this bad could have only been caused by something less mortal.”

  He studies the house for a minute, closing his eyes. Finally, he opens his eyes again and shrugs. “There’s some residual magic. I guess Alyssa didn’t clean it up as well as she thought.”

  I motion around the house. “You gonna help me out?”

  In less than a few seconds, the water is gone; the floors are clean, appearing freshly refurnished; and any damage the water might have done is gone.

  “This is the easy stuff,” he says, offering me a lazy, proud grin, as I inspect the house. But he starts studying me. “What’s going on with you and this chick?”

  My smile returns. “Nothing yet. She’s playing hard to get. But I’m me. I’ll win her over.”

  He snorts out a laugh while leaning against the counter. “It’s been a while since I was in this house.”

  “Yeah,” I say, my grin turning taunting. “The last time was when you were trying to get into Alyssa’s pants. Now you’re staying in her sister’s.”

  He narrows his eyes at me, and I laugh. I love pissing him off.

  “Real funny.” He shifts his attention to the old sofa Alyssa left behind years ago. Thanks to magic, it still looks brand new. “My view on life was distorted then. Kimber has changed pretty much everything I thought I knew. Alyssa and I were good, but Kimber and I are epic.”

  Ah, hell. Is he really grinning and talking about girly shit? At least he’s not walking around in a depressing stupor.

  “So what’s the deal with this girl you’re having me clean house for?” he asks.

  “Roslyn Porter is her name.”

  He stares expectantly. “And what’s her story?”

  Shrugging, I explain, “Orphaned at infancy, parents unknown or presumed dead, and put into the system shortly after due to no other family members being available. She bounced around homes, ran away numerous times, fell off the grid between eighteen and twenty after finally getting out of the system, and now she’s in college full time. Despite her erratic living situation, she managed to maintain great grades all through school, and she has always had a job until the past two years.

  “She doesn’t have any social media going on, her phone rarely gets used, she doesn’t have any bank accounts… I assume that’s because she has always been sort of isolated, and it’s made her not too trusting. This house is the first permanent investment she’s ever made.

  “Her medical records prove she suffered abuse as a child, which is probably her reasons for her running away. You’d think she’d be a little less sweet, given her past. I guess that’s what has me so intrigued. She acts unjaded even though she’s faced a tough world. It means she’s pretty damn strong.”

  Gage tilts his head, studying me like I’m a freak of nature or fucked up science experiment, and I shift uncomfortably. I don’t like that damn look in his eyes right now. And why the fucking hell did I just tell him all that?

  “You’re cyber stalking her? I was just asking if she was into you, and I was curious about how into her you are. Apparently I’ve found my answer.”

  I scowl at him. “You did that, didn’t you? You made me have fucking diarrhea of the mouth or some shit.”

  His eyebrows cock up, and his knowing smile grows. “I don’t have that sort of spell. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been seducing another girl for information back when I was dating Alyssa—which got me dumped. Sounds like you just needed someone to talk to, buddy.”

  The immature, mocking lilt to his voice isn’t the norm for him. Jackass dark user.

  I’m not going to start talking about my motherfucking feelings with him like a couple of chicks. I can’t help it the girl has a story that has me intrigued. I can’t help it that she got under my skin that first night at the bar. But I can help how much I divulge.

  “Any word on what we’re looking for?” I ask him, shifting the topic before we skip to painting nails and braiding hair.

  He shakes his head, his serious face returning. “Some of the bodies are mauled, some of them are just drained—which definitely points to blood drinkers.” He pauses to eye me, and I shrug. I don’t drain anyone dry—anymore. “And there are numerous reports of missing immortals from this area, by the way,” he adds.

  Always something.

  “Don’t we have enough shit to worry about?” I ask rhetorically.

  Gage glances out the window, and he smirks before backing away, staying out of view of the front door. “Probably should put a tack in this conversation. Your girl is back.”

  My smile returns just as… her stupid and annoying roommate walks in.

  “Wrong girl,” I mumble under my breath, and he chokes back a laugh.

  “There you are,” the roommate says, batting her lashes as she tosses her red hair over her shoulder, smiling wickedly at me. “I was hoping you’d still be here.”

  “She’s your type,” Gage says under his breath, keeping his voice low enough for only me to hear.

  “Dick,” I retort, shifting my attention back to… what was her name?

  My brain only stores important information.

  “Where’s Roslyn?” I ask, casually reminding her that I’m not here for any other reason.

  Her eye-roll is enough to announce her jealousy. “I don’t know. We split up.”

  She takes a few saucy steps toward me, and Gage smothers a laugh with a cough while moving farther into the kitchen, staying as out of view as he can.

  “You know Roslyn is all blushing and shy, right? The wildest she ever gets is ice cream on a school night.”

  Which is something I steer very clear of. Usually. But something about the dark-haired beauty has me entranced, and I’m sure as hell going to explore what it is.

  “I happen to love ice cream,” I quip, prompting Gage to laugh loudly this time.

  I grin when she scowls, making it obvious she’s used to getting her way, and she moves in farther to view the dark user with all his piercings and exposed tats on his arms.

  “Hi,” she says, her smile quickly reforming. “I’m Jenny. And
I’m very single.”

  She thrusts her hand out toward him, but Gage’s humor dies into smugness. “Gage,” he says curtly, ignoring her proffered hand. “And I’m not single at all.”

  Her frown forms instantly just as Roslyn walks in. That’s more like it.

  “Oh,” she says, her eyes wide. “You’re still shirtless… I mean, you’re still here.”

  Fucking sweet.

  “Yep,” I say, grinning bigger when her cheeks heat with a flattering shade of pink.

  In barely a whisper that immortals can hear, Gage says, “Way too sweet for you.”

  Sweet is becoming my new favorite flavor.

  I look over to see he has covered his mouth with his hand so that neither girl would see his lips moving.

  “Did you hear something?” Roslyn asks, tilting her head.

  Apparently he didn’t whisper that as quietly as I thought.

  “Your water is gone,” I say to distract her. “Which means you owe me a date at the party. Take the sidewalk all the way to the lake beach. Don’t cut through the woods. It’ll be the house with all the people.”

  I wink at her, moving toward her in a way that has her lip quivering. Damn, I’m good.

  She looks up to meet my eyes when I crowd her space, and a smile blooms across her lips that I wasn’t expecting. In fact, it catches me by complete surprise, and I almost kiss her lips just to see how that smile feels.

  “You did all this that quick? We’ve only been gone a couple of hours.”

  It would probably freak her out if she knew it took less than a minute for Gage to do it.

  “My friend brought a crew. You’ve already missed them. Now, about that date. I can come pick you up if you prefer.”

  Her smile broadens beautifully, and she looks away bashfully. She’s pretty fucking cute right now. Most hot chicks aren’t cute.

  Her nearly-black hair stops just past her shoulders, hanging loose and straight. Her eyes are almost violet, which is definitely all the more appealing. In her jean, cut-off shorts and loose shirt that hangs off one shoulder, she looks good enough to eat—literally. I wouldn’t mind a small taste of her.