Sinless (Deadly Omen Book 1)

by Jenica Saren

  When all she did was smirk at me, I realized my slip up. Not my guys. Just guys. That I live with. And am kinda friends with. Just guys.

  Mhmm... My inner self rolled her eyes at me before strutting away and flipping her hair sarcastically at me. How did one even flip their hair sarcastically?

  I groaned and rolled over to my side, facing away from the hell-window. I couldn't even remember if there were curtains to draw, but I sure as shit wasn't getting my ass up to close them if there were any to even close in the first place. Just as I was about fade back out again, my phone rang, causing my to jump out of my skin.

  Had I really gone so long without checking my phone? I remembered before my impromptu move, my phone was practically attached to my face. I never went more than an hour without it, and that was excruciating. But here I was, a week later, and I hadn't so much as used it to set an alarm. The realization had my mind spinning. My basic bitch status was on the line.

  Well, actually, it was a name that I had never wanted to see again, not in a trillion years.

  I picked up the phone and slammed it to my ear under the covers, accidentally smacking myself in the jaw with it. Apparently extended lifespan didn't mean pain resistant. "What the fuck do you want, Mercedes?" I snapped, my teeth grinding together so hard I could have sworn I heard a crunch.

  "Ria, OMG, I'm so glad to hear your voice. You haven't been on Insta like, at all. I was starting to think something terrible happened to you!" If I hadn't already seen the kind of snake she really was, I would have thought that I had heard genuine concern in my ex-bff's voice.

  "I said, what the fuck do you want?" I repeated, wishing for the first time in my life that I could strangle someone through the phone. I heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs and hoped to everything that existed that it was one of the bigger guys, so I could get a few angry punches in and not hurt anyone. Seriously. It was either a Sin thing, or they worked their asses off for those bodies.

  A strangled sound came through from the other end of the call. "Can't I call to make sure my BFF is okay? I've missed you, boo boo!" She whined.

  Someone opened my door and I took a small peek out from under my blanket cave. Gatlin was standing there, watching me with a mixture of amusement and confusion. "What?" He mouthed.

  I made a sour face at him and indicated the phone, which only served to confuse him more. Not for the first time, I wished that I could just up and teleport so I could strangle the homewrecking bitch on the other end of the call and be back in time for breakfast.

  As fury rose up inside me, I watched as Gatlin's face morphed into an expression of alarm. "Ria!" He shouted, and as he reached for me, I felt a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach, like heavy stones were being dropped on me, one by one.

  Suddenly, the sensation was gone, and I felt like I could breathe. Except, I was laying on my side on hardwood floors, with Gatlin sprawled beside me. "Uh," I whispered. "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." I looked around at the familiar room, remembering all the times I had spent the night in it just watching movies and gossiping as if the world were about to end.

  I heard a shrieking sound and scrambled to stand up. I saw Mercedes sitting on her bed, knees pulled up to her chest, phone sitting limply in her hand, and makeup running down her face with her tears.

  "For fuck's sake, shut the hell up, you cow!" I roared at her, not really feeling in a chit-chatty mood. Realizing I'd gotten my wish, I lunged at my former friend, claws out and ready to go in for the kill.

  A strong, heavily muscled arm wrapped around my waist and held me back, and I practically howled at Gatlin's attempt to contain me. "Ria, calm the fuck down."

  I whipped my head around so fast that it nearly gave me whiplash and I stared straight into his gorgeous silver eyes. "No!" I shouted. "That bitch ruined my life! She betrayed me! She stole him from me!" I tried not to burst into tears, but I hadn't really realized how much pain and hurt I had been carrying ever since everything went down. I didn't even remember giving myself time to grieve the loss of my relationship or giving myself permission to just have a good cry.

  I never gave myself the smallest chance to heal.

  "I didn't steal him!" Mercede's cried from across the room, where she was now cowering in a corner. "He said he loved me! It was me he wanted all along and you read all of the signals wrong! You trapped him!" It was so hard to hear those words coming out of her mouth, knowing that even she didn't believe what she was saying. She was red in the face and looking worse than I had ever seen her.

  "Oh really?" I drawled, my tone dripping with as much sarcasm as I could possibly pour into it. My inner self was standing in my mind, hands on her hips and fueling my pettiness. "And I read the signs wrong when he got on one knee and asked me, Ria Will Grimm, to be his 'until the end of time'?"

  I saw her face fall, a little of the fight leaving her. She was in complete denial and it made me sick to my stomach. As pissed and hurt as I was by her betrayal, I still felt as though she deserved a little less of the blame. When I looked back on everything, all the signs pointed toward my former fiance being a master manipulator. What guy would decide to move in with his girlfriend when he had a perfectly posh penthouse all to himself?

  "I didn't know that we were name twins, Merc!" I fake-gushed, smiling too sweetly to even pretend that I was trying to be nice.

  She shook her head at me and the rage boiled some more. "He loved me." She insisted, hell bent on believing his end of the story. What the fuck ever, though.

  She made her bed, and she was going to have to lie in it - just like she was lying to herself.

  "You're disgusting, you know that?" I told her without even a tiny sliver of kindness or emotion of any kind in my voice. "I pity you. I'm so sorry that you never found the love you deserved."

  She turned about six different shades of red in the span of about five seconds and I almost wanted to laugh. "Pity me?" She screeched, looking as deranged and broken as she sounded, her hair falling in front of her angelic face looked like it hadn't even been brushed in weeks. "You're all alone too! Don't act like you're any better than I am!" Her eyes were wide and wild, and I was actually worried for a second that she was going to snap and hurt herself.

  I leveled a hard, determined gaze on her and watched her puff up. "I'm not alone. I'll never be alone, not like you." I told her, keeping my voice steady.

  As she moved to open her mouth, obviously to argue with me once more, I turned and softly pressed my lips against Gatlin's, feeling him stiffen as he was caught completely unaware. After a moment, he seemed to thaw, and wrapped another arm around me, massaging little circles into the small of my back.

  "Take me home, please?" I whispered against his lips. He nodded once and tightened his hold on me. As I felt the stone-dropping feeling begin once again, I turned to look at Mercedes one last time. I watched as the tears fell rapidly down her cheeks and her eyes seemed to plead with me. I felt nothing but sorrow for her, for the horrible weight on her conscience that she would have carry with her for the rest of her life.

  26

  Ria

  My eyes were closed during the whole heavy, stones-in-my-belly feeling, and once I felt it dissipating I slowly inched my eyes open, shocked to find myself standing back in my room. I turned to Gatlin and was even more surprised my the look of barely restrained fury that shadowed his beautiful features.

  I bowed my head sheepishly. "So, uh... I'm guessing that's a Sin thing?" I asked, trying to keep my tone conversational despite how utterly terrifying my Angel looked at that very moment. He nodded once, brusquely in response. "And, uh, I'm guessing I shouldn't have been able to do that?" He gave just one shake of his head and I tried to decipher whether that meant, no, you shouldn't have or no, should have. Words were so much simpler when they were actually, you know, spoken.

  "Are you mad at me?" I asked in a hushed tone, more than a little frightened at what his answer might be.

  He stayed silent and brood
ing like that for a long time, making me freak out a little on the inside. He was totally pissed, but the question was more of why he was upset. I mean, I hadn't exactly done anything on purpose. I just sort of wanted to strangle the bitch who destroyed the life that I had built for myself. The entire bubble that I had been living in for so long, that kept me safe and protected from my terrifying past and my uncertain future, she had destroyed in five minutes flat.

  It was unnerving. I supposed that if it was so easily destroyed in the first place, it probably was as reliable and sustainable as I had hoped. Though amazing, my existence was flawed and rather lonely. If I didn't convince myself that everything was exactly what I had wanted, then how would I be able to justify all the hardships and trials that I'd had to go through in order to get there?

  But then, not all great things are perfect. Looking over at my dark angel, still seething just below the surface, I realized that the best and most perfect things in life are all flawed in some beautiful sort of way.

  I took just a couple of steps forward, completely invading his personal space by about negative four inches, and wrapped my arms around his hard, broad torso. Even standing at a normal height as I was, he was quite a bit taller than me, so my head didn't even quite reach his chin. Was being that tall even possible?

  "I'm so sorry." I whispered against the fabric of his plain white t-shirt. His entire body tensed, and seconds later he grabbed my shoulders and pushed me away so that he could properly face me. He looked shell-shocked, scared almost.

  "Why the fuck are you sorry?" He puzzled. "I just can't believe what I just saw - what I heard." He looked at me sadly, his brow furrowing as if the words eluded him.

  "What you went through..." He trailed off, looking more troubled than I had ever seen any person. "I would have killed him if I knew. No one, especially someone as incredible as you, should be treated that way."

  And he was back to being pissed, but at least I understood now. If only he understood that my disastrous relationship and its heartbreaking end wasn't even close to the worst thing that had happened to me in my life. Sure, it hurt, but I was strong enough that I wouldn't continue to let it affect me forever. Nothing could affect me that badly anymore.

  Not even being nearly kidnapped by a zombie-preacher, which sounded like a really bad movie, if I was being honest. I wasn't really stuck on that little detail, per se, but I was definitely still taking my time wrapping my pretty little head around the surrealness of it.

  I shook my head as I looked up at Gatlin, his face, his warm hands on my shoulders, his mere presence, all keeping me grounded and centered. "He's a tiny part of my long past now. He can't hurt me anymore." I took a deep breath as I smiled shyly at him. "I have all of you in my life now. And as much as Eliam's shifts in mood confuse me, I'm positive he wouldn't let that monster of a man within ten feet of me again, if only to protect his... Uh, pride?" I ended on a really bad, unintentional joke and felt like burying my face in my hands. So smooth.

  Gatlin's face softened ever-so-slightly, and it warmed my heart. "I know we are a lot to handle, but I swear that we would never try to hurt you. I swear it on my immeasurably long life." He said reverently, squeezing my shoulders a little.

  I nodded at him at the same time my stomach growled and I grimaced. "Uh, can we pretend that didn't happen?" I joked.

  He stepped into my now non-existent bubble and slid his hands slowly to my hips. "You mean, like this didn't happen?" He growled, his face just centimeters away from my. His hot breath and intoxicating scent washed over me, making me tremble a little.

  I started to ask him what exactly "didn't happen", but his lips were already crushed against mine, stealing away my breath and my thoughts. Oh, that. I wrapped my arms over his shoulders and all but fastened myself to him, trying to get as close as possible to his unreasonably warm body.

  Just when I thought he was about to pull away, I latched onto the little hair that I was able to reach and yanked until his mouth was back to mine, and it seemed that he got the message loud and clear. He moved his hands just under my ass and lifted me up, startling me, but not even attempting to pry me off of him.

  He laid me gently on the edge of my bed, deepening our kiss with the new angle, gravity working perfectly in our favour. Our tongues tangled together, dancing in a way that only our bodies knew how to, and every little touch sent little shocks of electricity through me, making me dizzy in the best kind of way.

  I tugged at his shirt and shivered pleasurably, even when he broke the kiss just long enough to pull it over his head. I dug my nails into his shoulders and nipped his bottom lip, which caused him to jerk a little and grind down, once, against me. I moaned against his lips and he swallowed the sound as he adjusted himself between my legs. He pulled away slightly, his eyes dark with desire and need.

  "You're not wearing any underwear." He groaned. The sound made me squirm, feeling heat pooling lower and lower inside me and unable to hold out much longer. I needed him. I needed his touch, his warmth, his stability and strength; I needed it all like I needed the air in my lungs.

  I made an animalistic, strangled sounded in the back of my throat. "What's you're point? Get over here, like now." I hissed, dragging him back to me.

  He nearly drove me insane when he pulled back from me, leaving me writhing in arousal. I was feeling so over-stimulated, just from our kissing and gentle touching, that I almost jumped out of my skin with joy when he made quick work of his jeans and tossed them aside. When his boxers came next, I swear I almost cried out with joy.

  Expecting him to resume our activities, sans clothes, I was completely taken by surprise when he began pressing delicate little kisses on the inside of my leg, starting at my ankles and working his way higher and higher. When he got to my inner thigh, my core clenched so hard that I trembled from the incredible ache.

  "Gat." I gasped as I writhed from the sudden jolt of pleasure that I received at the feeling of his mouth so close, but so far.

  He froze just shy of the target and peeked up at me, his eyes wide and filled with wonder. "You called me Gat." He said in awe. I only shrugged in response. What was the big deal? His brothers called him Gat, and we were, uh, pretty well acquainted by this point. Well, he was pretty damn acquainted with my mouth.

  "That's your name." I teased.

  His eyes were burning hole into me, intense and smoldering. "I don't know why that's so hot coming out of your mouth." He murmured as he pushed up my nightshirt pressed another tender kiss on my hip bone. "But fuck, it is." He pushed my shirt up higher and I almost growled at him like a rabid dog. It wasn't fair to tease me the way he was and he damn well fucking knew it.

  I opened my mouth to tell him to get a move on with that hard-on, but before I could speak, the soft fabric of my shirt was being tugged up and over my head. Gatlin stared at me like he had never seen me before, almost lovingly.

  He dipped his head and my breath hitched, my thoughts spiraling in ecstasy when his hot mouth closed over one of my nipples. He caught the other between his fingers and I bucked my hips up toward him, the stimulation alone causing my eager body to react before I even knew what to tell it.

  Moaning softly, I arched my back, pressing myself into his touch with a fervor that seemed to entice him, only driving him further. I felt the ball of want and need inside of me coiling, waiting to explode, and I didn't want it this way. I wanted him inside me, sharing in our blissful connection. "Please." I panted, overwhelmed by the scorchingly hot sensations that were consuming me, body and soul, and needing the harmony of the two of us becoming one.

  His luminous silver eyes met mine as I silently pleaded with him. Finally, adjusting his position between my legs, he leaned over me and guided himself to my opening. He rubbed his length against my wetness and I made a soft noise of both pleasure and impatience.

  Finally, he eased inside of me, filling me with his length and making me gasp at the sensation. He looked to me as if to ask if I was alright and I nodde
d encouragingly. Once he started moving, it was like I could see fireworks behind my eyelids as they fluttered shut. He withdrew almost completely and then thrust inside me once more, this time harder, making me see stars even as my eyes flew open.

  Pretty quickly, we found a steady rhythm between the two of us, a silent cadence that our bodies moved in tandem to. It was obvious all too soon that I wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer and I scraped my nails down his back, feeling a sick sort of pleasure at the fact that I had marked him as my own, if only temporarily. Our eyes met and I knew that he could feel the same need for release.

  As if on cue, I felt myself clench and I called his name as I felt my pleasure spill out of me, finding my release. The action elicited an almost predatory growl from low in his chest that reverbrated around and inside me. Quivering in the aftershocks of our climax, we collapsed in a tangle of limbs, slick with our own sweat and the evidence of our...Courtship? Coitus? Lovemaking? Son of a fuck.

  I glanced over at Gatlin to maybe catch a glimpse of what was going on in that handsome head of his and he looked nothing but completely blissful. And a little cocky, but he had just bagged himself a stripper in bed - though, I was almost positive that in his very long lifetime, it wasn't the first time.

  He caught me staring and I felt the heat creeping up my cheeks. Oops.

  "So, uh," I mumbled, really wishing that I was as good with words as I was with walking in heels for ten plus hours at a time. "Breakfast?" As if it had been waiting for that one magic word, my stomach grumbled loudly, making Gatlin laugh as he sat up. He looked every bit the role of the carefree, light, beautiful angel with that smile lighting up his face. If he looked that way every time he had sex, I was totally willing to take one for the team - no compensation necessary.

  Gatlin stood and began pulling his discarded clothes back on, dressing slowly enough for me to just sit back and enjoy the show. I swore silently and then thanked the heavens that he had been blessed with an ass straight out of a romance novel. I mean, damn. When he had finished dressing, he turned to me and raised his eyebrows as if expecting something. Oh shit, clothes.