The Divine Creek Ranch Collection, Volume 1 [Book 1 - Divine Grace, Book 2 - Her Gentle Giant, Book 3 - Heavenly Angel] (Siren Everlasting Collection)

by Heather Rainier

  Grace lived a life of utter happiness with her three men, and Teresa had never questioned the rightness of it because of what Grace had gone through to find that happiness. She could admit to a spark of curiosity over what it would be like, and she knew about the unique family Angel was a part of.

  But she’d met Joaquin less than twenty-four hours ago. She had no business thinking about him as anything other than a possible future brother-in-law down the road.

  This attraction for him was the newness of his arrival, with some hormones thrown in for kicks and giggles. The fact that she was even daring to stare at his body appalled her. That was not like her at all. She turned her full attention on Angel, feeling inexplicably blue. Casting her eyes down, she smiled at the contents of the first box. She looked up at him, an eyebrow arched.

  “Rosemary took you shopping, didn’t she?” She smiled up at him, thinking what a generous man he was.

  “Yes, she did point me in the right direction. She said you liked that top. I agreed with Rosemary that it would look pretty on you.”

  “I love it. Thank you, Angel. You spoil me.” She tilted her lips up to him as he leaned in for a kiss.

  “I’m only just getting started, darling,” he drawled as he handed her another box. He smiled at her gasp as she opened the long, rectangular-shaped velvet box.

  “Angel, this is lovely.” She touched the shimmering onyx facets on the teardrop necklace and earrings with her fingertip. “Just lovely. Will you help me put it on?” she asked excitedly as she removed the pieces from the box and handed him the necklace. He stood and clasped the necklace as she lifted her long hair from her shoulders. Then she put on the earrings. “How does it look?”

  “It’s a pale shadow compared to the one who wears it.”

  “You are such a sweet-talker.” She hugged him and kissed his chin.

  “You’ve met my dads. You know where I get it from.”

  “Thank you. You must have spent a fortune on it.” She touched the stones that rested at the base of her throat.

  “To see you look so radiant and happy, it was well worth the cost.”

  Teresa wondered if he would still think that if he knew what her earlier thoughts had been about. The guilt gripping her heart twisted a little further.

  He handed her another box, which contained a spa gift set from Madeleine’s Day Spa.

  “I love gardenias!”

  He smiled. “Grace told me you would like this.”

  “Thank you, Angel. I don’t know what to say. I feel like you’ve showered us both with so many gifts.” She gestured out to Michael in the yard, still running happily, the fringe on his chaps flapping in the cool breeze. His little straw cowboy hat bobbed on his dark head as Joaquin chased him. Her hands caressed the glittering stones at her throat. She felt so unworthy of this man.

  Angel’s fingertips lifted her chin, and she looked up into his loving eyes. “There’s one more.” He reached into his jacket pocket. He took her hand in his and kissed her knuckles before placing a little square box in her hands. His eyes never left hers as he spoke to her.

  “Everything in my life that is good, you make even better just by being here.” He rose from the glider and got down on one knee as the tears brimming in her eyes overflowed in a sudden flood.

  “Marry me, Teresa. I promise I’ll devote myself to loving you, caring for you, and protecting you and Michael.” He lifted her hands, which still held the unopened box, and kissed them again. Her heart burst with love for him, and she cupped his cheek with one hand and kissed him tenderly.

  “Yes, Angel. I’ll marry you. I want to be your wife, and I want you to be the man who helps me raise Michael into the man he is supposed to become.”

  He kissed her cheek and wrapped his arms around her, brushing his lips over her throat. Her body quivered at the sensation, which reminded her, as her husband, he would do much more. “I can picture you coming down the aisle to me in a white wedding dress.”

  “You’re very romantic.” She would have thought most men would want to go to the courthouse and get it over with as soon as possible. “We could have the wedding here. Maybe Grace could help me.”

  “We’ll talk to her tonight and see what she thinks. My mother is going to be beside herself.” He paused and chuckled. “You haven’t even seen your rings yet. You may not like it and decide you don’t want to marry a bum like me.”

  “I doubt you could ever be a bum. I already know you have excellent taste in jewelry.” She touched the necklace she wore again and thought of the locket he’d given her for her birthday. She opened the box, gasping at the beautiful diamond engagement ring and wedding band that were nestled in the box. The engagement ring had a large, square-cut diamond with two smaller diamonds on either side, set into a wide, polished platinum band. The narrow wedding band was studded across its top with smaller diamonds. “It’s simply beautiful.”

  “You’ve made me a very happy man.” His voice hitched with emotion as he looked into her brimming eyes. He lifted the engagement ring from the little box and slipped it on the ring finger of her right hand. They were startled from their cozy little bubble by cheering from the backyard and Michael screeching.

  “She said yes! She said yes! Angel’s gonna be my Daddy! Yeah! My Daddy!” he yelled at the top of his lungs as Joaquin cheered along with him. He lifted the happy boy to his shoulders and trotted up to the porch. Teresa smiled up at them happily, noting the genuine warmth in Joaquin’s eyes for her without a trace of envy. He squatted down and let Michael off his shoulders so he could hug his mommy then his daddy-to-be.

  Joaquin leaned down to her, and she was disquieted by the way her heart leapt in her chest as he came near. She could feel his body heat as he kissed her cheek. His scent was clean like soap and his own masculine essence combined. His kiss, pressed up against her upper cheekbone, did not feel like a brotherly peck. It felt like the caress of a lover. It sent a shot of shameful desire straight through her core. Heat tingled in her cheeks and she gave herself a mental kick to not read anything into that sensation quivering inside of her. It was the excitement of Christmas and becoming engaged. She was in overdrive. Yeah, maybe overdrive to have him kiss her again. She looked up in time to see Angel nod slightly at Joaquin.

  Joaquin said, “Michael told me he’s hungry and wants to try using the potty like a big boy. I’m going to fix him a snack and help the little dude out if he needs it. You two stay out here. You probably have a lot to talk about and want to be alone for a while. Don’t worry about us. Right, Michael?” He held out his palm to Michael as he walked to the back door, and Michael slapped it with his open palm.

  “Yeah,” Michael nodded casually, pulling up his britches, “we got this,” and stepped over the threshold as Joaquin opened the door for him.

  She nodded and watched silently as Joaquin smiled at her again then closed the door behind them. Angel returned to his seat beside her.

  He stroked her knuckles. “I’ve been watching you, beautiful.” Her heart hammered with unease. “I can see that you’re feeling… conflicted.”

  She ducked her head, and a hitching sigh escaped her lips. He’d noticed her reaction to Joaquin. She was now his wife-to-be. Was he about to lay the law down?

  As if he sensed her sudden nervousness, Angel tilted her chin with a fingertip so she had to look into his eyes. His gentle gaze chased the fear away that had leapt in her heart. He was a totally different sort of man from any other she’d ever known. He caressed her chin with the pad of his fingertip. “You feel something stirring between you and Joaquin. Like there’s an attraction there?”

  Her eyelids slipped closed, no longer able to gaze at his handsome, loving face. Pain stung her chest, and tears flooded her eyes as she nodded. A hitching sob escaped her, and Angel quickly took her in his arms and held her tight as another sob came and shushed her before he continued. “Now, now. None of that on our happy day. The last thing I am is upset with you. You haven’t done a t
hing wrong. What you feel doesn’t upset me, although you probably think it does. Do you feel as if you are being disloyal to me?”

  He cupped her cheek in his palm and waited until she looked up. She shook her head negatively because her love and loyalty to him were without question. Then she nodded because her attraction to Joaquin was undeniable, and given time, she knew she would feel as loyal to Joaquin. He was kind to her, but that budding loyalty was driven by the way he treated her son and the easy way he had with him. It put her at ease with him as much as any particular kindness he paid her.

  “Remember, meeting my parents at the hospital? You know that our dads are brothers. Eleazar met and fell in love with my mother first. Being very close to his brothers, he could tell when they met her that they fell in love with her also. Loving all three of them, he proposed the unique arrangement. Joaquin told me he laid eyes on you and knew he loved you, standing there in the doorway last night. I could see it happening for myself. He could sense last night that you were uneasy. The last thing he wants is for you to be uncomfortable around him. I have no problem with the attraction Joaquin obviously feels for you, neither do I take offense that you feel the same way.

  “It’s my right to tell him to back off, as his elder. But I confess that I’ve always wondered what it would be like to raise a family and love a wife with the brother I’ve always been so close to. He hopes you’ll permit him to spend time with you, to allow you to get to know him. He tells me that what he feels for you is completely different from a passing physical attraction. He’s never put down roots anywhere, but he’s seriously considering making Divine his permanent home. If you allow him into your heart, he would make a lifelong commitment to you and Michael.”

  He paused a moment and studied her face, she assumed to see how well she was handling everything he’d told her so far. “It might help you to talk with Grace about this. She probably experienced a lot of the same feelings after meeting Ethan and Adam. She could give you insight that she’s been keeping to herself, not wanting to shock you. You know there’s not a thing those men wouldn’t do for her if she asked.” Teresa smiled and nodded at that thought. Those men were unquestionably devoted to Grace. What must that be like?

  Angel’s eyes twinkled as he said, “It would be the same for you with both of us. You’d have two men to help with Michael and two men to protect you and provide for you.” His lips brushed her cheekbone and kissed her temple before murmuring, “Two men to love you.” A soft shudder rippled through her as the mental image of both of these handsome men holding her and loving her together swam through her mind. Her core throbbed at his words and his touch.

  She was relieved, and she told him as much. “I could not understand why I would feel that way toward your brother when I love you so much. Especially given my past and the way I was raised. I looked in his eyes and…” She left the thought incomplete because she had no words to describe what happened. It still warred within her. Her love and loyalty were supposed to belong exclusively to Angel. But Joaquin was like a powerful magnet to her steel.

  “I placed no implied boundary between you and Joaquin. I told him a little about you on the phone yesterday, including that I was planning to propose. That would have been the time to warn him off if that was how I felt. If he thought that I was not willing to share, he would have ignored any attraction he felt and declared you off limits. We were not raised by men who were jealous of each other. Eleazar allowed Mom to get to know his brothers and to consider them as possible suitors. It worked out well for them, most of the time, anyway.” The last he added with a chuckle.

  “Most of the time?”

  “My mom is a firecracker, as you can imagine.”

  It helped to know that Angel was still the one in the driver’s seat where the relationship was concerned. It also helped to know that Joaquin would have done the right thing if sharing wasn’t an option for Angel and would still do the right thing if she wouldn’t consider him.

  “If Joaquin had known you would not…share me, he would not have allowed himself to be attracted to me? And it’s all right with you? What if he tries to kiss me?”

  “I haven’t released him to do that. I wanted to talk to you first, sweetheart. He wouldn’t make any move toward you until you told me you would consider him and I had given him the right to touch you. You wouldn’t have to leave my arms if I sensed you wanted to go to him. I would release you to him. Remember I grew up watching my mom interact lovingly with three husbands. From my point of view, it would seem weird if you didn’t kiss him or if you felt guilty for kissing him in front of me.”

  Teresa trusted Angel implicitly and knew she needed some answers to put her growing concerns at ease.

  “What about…sex? How would that work? Would I have to switch off who I slept with?” How was she going to keep all that straight? His hands still held hers, and he rubbed her palms to reassure her but allowed her to finish.

  “I have no experience, Angel. Are you sure I could even handle it? How can I please you both when I’m not used to pleasing one?” As she grew increasingly agitated, he lifted her easily into his lap. She rested her head against his strong shoulder and felt safe as he rubbed a hand up and down her spine.

  “Are you really asking if I would make love to you while Joaquin was in bed with us?” Angel asked bluntly. At her nod, he continued. “A lot of that depends on you. If you allowed us to love you together, you might find that you’d prefer it to two separate beds. Our first priority would be making you happy.

  “You’ve always been very modest around me, but I want you to know how it would be so you won’t get the wrong idea. Your men would introduce you to a whole new world, beautiful. When we make love to you together, we would show you how many ways a man can bring a woman pleasure.”

  She tried to picture what he was talking about, and the more the image of the three of them together entered her mind, the more it intrigued her. “When you say you would make love to me together, what exactly do you mean? I don’t know anything and Grace and I have never gotten into detail…about…you know.” She knew her cheeks were bright red.

  “And you see that as a problem, don’t you, sweetheart?” He squeezed her reassuringly. “It would be our pleasure to teach you how to make love to us. That’s not something to be embarrassed about or ashamed of.”

  Angel shifted subtly in his seat and cleared his throat. As he moved, she could feel the hard erection against her hip. He’d never once nudged her to touch that part of him, and it had been months they’d been dating. Her cheeks grew hotter as she hoped sometime soon she could touch him there. Hot moisture rushed to her core in response to that thought. She wished she knew what to do for him.

  “When you say both of you loving me together, how does that work, exactly?”

  “What I’m talking about right now is both of us being in the same bed with you. We’d kiss you, stroke you, and make love to you, one at a time. There are other possibilities that we can try down the road but only if you are willing and have a desire to…be more adventurous.”

  As he spoke, she felt his erection grow even larger and harder. Her curiosity grew along with it, and for once, feelings of trepidation didn’t follow, just a desire to be with him in a more intimate setting to explore what he talked about. She liked the idea of them kissing her and stroking her. The thought of them making love to her while they were all together in bed made her feel naughty, which she found she enjoyed just a bit.

  “I’ll answer any question you have, even if you think it’s a dumb question. You can also ask Grace how things work.” He became thoughtful for a second, and there was a twinkle in his eyes as he looked into hers. “Let me put it this way, if you ask her and she tells you about something you’d like to try, I can guarantee we’ll be willing to try it with you. There’s just one stipulation, which I’m sure you will agree with.”

  “What’s that?”

  “They are a foursome, a ménage à quatre. We would be a
ménage à trois, a threesome. We would never welcome a fourth party into our relationship with you.”

  “Oh! So what you mean is I don’t need to worry about another of your brothers showing up and falling in love with me?”

  Angel laughed out loud and hugged her. “No! Luka and Matthias are much too busy sowing wild oats. Besides that, they are only in their early twenties. Sweetheart, if you’re asking all these questions, can I assume you’re going to give this idea some thought?”

  “Yes, I think I will consider it, but I have more questions.”

  “What would you like to know?”

  Teresa brought up the other issue that concerned her. “From time to time, the men have felt the need to defend Grace’s honor. I deal with the public like she does. I’m not a person who is good with quick comebacks or deflecting the questions of others. People can be so mean, especially when they feel self-righteous.”

  Angel nodded. “People will always have opinions, but I take encouragement from Jack and the guys. They keep their marital status with Grace a private issue but don’t try to hide it like it’s a secret. If you’d like to keep working, we’d do as Grace does and only acknowledge one spouse and allow the public to draw their own conclusions. We’ll always be respectful in how we treat you publicly.”

  His brows drew together thoughtfully as he pressed on to the real issue. “We’d take a dim view of anyone insulting you, and protecting you would always be our top priority. Keep in mind that Jack, Ethan, and Adam would also be very protective of you, the same as I would be toward Grace, or any of her female friends. It would not be just me and Joaquin looking out for you.”

  “Thank you. I’ve never thought of it that way, but it’s nice to know all of you care that much about us.”

  “So, I can tell Joaquin you would be willing to consider him?” Angel sounded formal asking that question.