Divine Grace (14 page)

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She looked at them as they shook their heads. She reached out and laid her palm against Adam’s cheek. “Why, if I am willing to do that, would you not agree? I know this is painful for you.”

“Today and tonight are all about you, Grace,” Adam explained, turning his lips into her palm to kiss it. “We want you to see what it could be like if you let us take care of you. If you let us love you. Believe me, if you accept us, there will be plenty of give and take among us, but tonight is about us giving to you and you taking for a change.”

“We need to let Gracie sit up and take a little break,” Ethan said, helping Adam with her skirt. She gratefully accepted their help because her legs had turned to jelly. “How do you feel?”

She looked at the three of them, one at a time, enjoying the humming sensation that still rang through her body. Their vulnerability showed in their hopeful eyes, and she knew she was theirs.

I want to be theirs. Completely.

In turn, she put her hands on their cheeks or their chins, reaching out to kiss them one at a time, sweet, gentle kisses not meant to entice them further but to thank them.

“I have never been loved like that before in my whole life,” she started to say. Her chin wobbled, but she willed it to stop. “And if loving you and giving myself to the three of you is anything like what I just experienced in your hands, then I’m
yours
, all of me.”

They beamed at her, hugging her all at once.

Ethan picked up the G-string he’d laid on the table earlier and said,

“Let’s take our girl dancing. What do you say, guys?”

They nodded.

“What about you and Ethan, Jack? I feel bad for leaving you unsatisfied.” She knew that all three of them must be very uncomfortable.

Maybe they’d rather return to the privacy of one of their homes. “Is dancing what you wanted to do?”

Jack cocked an eyebrow at her and smiled a crooked grin. “Evening’s not over yet, darlin’.”

She giggled softly.

The evening was definitely not over. Hell yeah!
Carpe diem
, y’all.

Feeling playful, Grace pulled her skirt up a little higher and raised a foot, carefully inserting it through the opening Ethan’s hands made in the G-

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string. Hitching the skirt a still higher, she raised the other foot and leaned back slightly to insert that high heel through the other string, giving all three of them a perfect little peep show of what lay between her thighs. She grinned when their mouths all popped open, a little slack in the jaws.

She stood up then, the three of them before her, and waited as Ethan slowly eased the G-string back up her thighs. The strings were hooked over his thumbs, so when he slid it over her ass and hips, it was as if he was caressing her with his open palms. Once he had it in place for her, she adjusted it and gave a little wiggle before dropping her skirt into place. They knelt there mutely as she completed that little maneuver, looking like they were about to drool. It did a girl’s heart good to experience that kind of power at least once.

She reached for her evening bag and then smiled at them as they rose to their feet. Jack held out a hand to her as Adam and Ethan opened the heavy drapes and led the way out. Jack and Grace followed behind them.

“Do I look all right?” she asked. She only had the small mirror in her evening bag to go by and didn’t want to walk back into public looking like she’d just had a roll in the hay.

“You look beautiful, Grace, but the ladies’ room is right here if you’d like to stop in for a second while we pay the bill.” He gestured to a door down a short hallway.

She made use of the facilities and fluffed her hair a little. The three of them waited for her outside the hallway, Jack once more taking her hand as the others led the way. Tessa wished them a good evening, smiled, and nodded to Grace.

The sun had set while they’d been in the restaurant, and though she heard more thunder, it still hadn’t rained. Lightning danced behind the clouds, making them appear red in some places. She paused in the dark parking lot to watch. Storms had always spooked her a little, but she loved to watch lightning. When it flashed brightly again, she could see how tall the thunderheads had built up. There was dangerous potential in that storm, but it was glorious to watch from a distance. Ethan helped her into the back seat before climbing in with her while Adam took the front seat.

Grace found it interesting and oddly comforting the way they orchestrated their positions in relation to her. She was glad they didn’t discuss who got to sit where in front of her, much the same way they didn’t
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discuss the fact that Adam was the first of them to be intimate with her, even if it was only oral sex. She didn’t want to hear them work out those details and appreciated the way things seemed to happen naturally between them.

She scooted into the middle so she could be next to Ethan. As Jack pulled out of the parking lot, Ethan laid his arm on the back of the seat around her shoulders. She felt so warm and happy curled into his embrace.

She could faintly smell his cologne and his own clean scent as she laid her head against him.

“I didn’t tell y’all how handsome you look in your dark suits and cowboy hats, did I?”

“Thank you, darlin,’” Jack said as he caught her gaze in the rearview mirror. “We dressed up to make you happy. I’m glad we pleased you.”

“You all look yummy.”

“Same goes for you, baby.” Adam looked back at her with a tender smile and reached out to caress her knee.

She reached out and covered his warm hand with hers for a second before reaching to place it on Ethan’s solid chest.

She leaned her head back to whisper in his ear, “Thanks for answering all my questions and being honest, Ethan, and for the little things you did like blowing out some of those candles. I was nervous about y’all seeing me like that. You helped make it beautiful.”

“You’re welcome, Gracie. You were stunning tonight. I confess I can’t wait for a chance to taste you, to see you come undone like that for me and know that you trust me. I love you.” He slid his hand along her jawline, kissing her tenderly. His tongue swept against hers, and the passion of their kiss increased. He placed his gentle, callused hand over the gold necklace and her pounding heart. “Your heart is safe with me, Grace.”

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Ethan felt energized and excited as he sat in the backseat with Grace.

During the drive back to town, he thought back to the moment she’d come in Adam’s embrace, his lips on her pussy, his tongue dragging on her clit.

Ethan looked up at her face at the moment when it happened. Her head had been thrown back, her sweet lips parted with her faltering, gasping breaths as she climaxed, her hair falling back over Jack’s coat sleeve in golden waves. Pleasuring her was going to be just exactly that—pure pleasure.

He couldn’t believe she was there in his arms right now. So soft and warm, smelling sweetly of her shampoo and the orange and cream massage oil they used on her earlier. They really had come to a turning point in their relationship and then celebrated it with true intent. He looked forward to dancing with her. Any time he spent pressed up against her was time well spent.

* * * *

Adam looked back at Ethan holding Grace in his arms as they sped down the state highway. Ethan looked so content with Grace quietly curled up beside him. She was really something. She stirred feelings in Adam’s heart that he’d always thought were silliness—thoughts of wanting to protect her and defend her against any who would harm her. A primitive part of him acknowledged that he could and would kill to protect her. He’d wanted to kill Owen on that deep primitive level because he had struck her.

Adam had felt the murderous urge well up in him when the back of Owen’s hand had made contact with Grace’s precious cheek.

He was happy they had ordered her ring today even though they’d had no indicator she would accept their proposal. After talking to her and having the chance to pleasure her, he was very hopeful. He loved her so much his
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soul overflowed with it. He remembered the taste of her, and her scent still filled his nostrils. He was engulfed with desire for her all over again. Her taste was sweet, warm, and womanly. He felt happy for his brothers that maybe soon they would know that same luxury and feel the same pleasure of reveling in her like that.

He adored Grace and felt only gratitude toward Jack and Ethan for allowing him to know her intimately first. It felt right to see her in his brothers’ arms, and he was happy they would soon know that same pleasure with her.

* * * *

Grace shivered lightly as Ethan stroked the back of her neck with gentle fingertips, noting that they were nearing Divine again, and wished the ride were just a few minutes longer. She would sit still for Ethan’s petting all night.

Jack looked in the rearview mirror at them and asked, “The Dancing Pony, Ethan? Or would y’all rather go somewhere less crowded?”

“The choice should be Grace’s, I think. Don’t y’all?” At their nods, Ethan turned to Grace. “Everyone knows us at The Dancing Pony. Are you okay with being seen with the three of us together?” Ethan asked.

She wondered how they would handle situations like this out in public.

If they were open about their feelings for her, people would talk.

“Are you okay with being seen with me?” she asked.

“Well, of course we are,” Ethan replied easily. “We’re proud to be out with you.”

“I know we aren’t going to get warm approval from everyone in there or in town in the future, for that matter. I’m not that naïve. But if I act like a lady and y’all do your best to act like gentlemen,
at least in there,
” she added with a smirk, “then what can they say about us? The only opinions that matter are yours. I’d be proud to walk in your club with you, Ethan, and you, too, Adam and Jack.”

They pulled into the parking lot of The Dancing Pony, which was full to overflowing, and parked. She took Ethan’s hand when he offered it to her, climbing from the back seat.

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“You look gorgeous, Gracie,” he said to her and led her to the front door.

Loud music and voices poured out as Adam opened the door. Jack and Adam entered first, Ethan and Grace right behind them. She felt Ethan’s large hand at the base of her spine, just above her ass, and had to smile at the intimacy of it. He did it in a way that was possessive without being improper.

Jack led the way to a table, greeting several friends along the way. A waitress came and took their order as a loud country and western dance song thumped a fast beat. Couples twirled and two-stepped past their table at the edge of the dance floor.

She settled in her seat as Ethan held it for her, laying her evening bag on the table. Ethan put his hand on hers. “Why don’t I lock that in my office so you won’t worry about it since you’re going to be on the dance floor tonight?”

“All right. How did you know I was thinking that?”

“I figured you would wonder what to do with it.” He leaned down and kissed her, and she handed it to him. He made his way through the crowd to his office and was back by the time the waitress brought their drinks.

Grace took a sip of the sangria he ordered for her. That was his thoughtfulness showing again, in remembering that she liked the sweet fruit juice and red wine combination.

A new song came on at a slower, more romantic tempo, and Ethan held out his hand to her. “Dance with me?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

He pulled her gently to him and twirled off to the romantic words of Brad Paisley’s “Then.”

* * * *

Jack sipped from his beer while he and Adam watched Grace look up into Ethan’s eyes and say something softly in his ear. The lights reflected from the mirrored ball overhead glinted in the waves of her pretty blonde hair. Jack remembered the silken feel of it against his lips as he’d listened to her sexy moans when she came earlier. Holding her precious little body as she shook with her climax and the way she moved in his arms was now
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committed to sweet, cherished memory. He remembered, too, the way the warm, sweet flesh of her breast had tasted and the sound of her heart pounding in his ear.

He watched as Ethan smiled down at her and kissed her. They moved well together. Jack was happy that she could dance. He could remember as a kid his mom and sister, Anne, had taught him and told him, “You’ll thank us some day.” He’d complained, saying he wasn’t any good at it. They’d encouraged him, saying that it took practice, like anything else. His mom had to be in heaven looking down on him, saying, “You’re welcome,”

because she’d been right about so many things. She’d certainly been right about Grace. He knew it now. She was the one. They were all sure.

“Are you as smitten by that angel as I am?” Jack rested his chin in his hand as he watched her dance.

Adam sat next to him, so Jack could hear him perfectly, even over the music. “She’s ruined me for all others.”

He could hear his brother’s heart in his voice. “But you’re not complaining, are you?” Jack asked with an indulgent grin.

“Hell no. I’ve been to heaven tonight, and spending a little more time with her is all I want. You need to dance with her next time. You’ve been letting us have a lot of her attention. She needs some of yours, too, but I appreciate it, man, for not going alpha male on us.”

“I want y’all to have her attention right now because you have time to make up for with her. Y’all let me monopolize her time at the funeral. If I hadn’t had her to hold on to, it would have been much harder. She was a comfort to Mom in the last few years, and she was to me that day, too. I want us all to be happy together, loving her.”

“Yeah, but I still ain’t doin’ ya,” Adam said, laughing into his beer.

Jack laughed, too, and slipped his jacket off. When he folded it and hung it over the arm of the tall chair, he could smell the scent of her clinging to it. He sniffed it, smiling.

“I still smell her, too.” Adam’s eyes were focused far away.

“I’ll just bet you do, man,” Jack smirked. “Lucky bastard.”

“You have no idea how lucky, but hopefully soon,” he said quietly as Ethan returned her to her chair when the song ended. They couldn’t have picked a more perfect song, judging by her dreamy eyes.

Jack smiled at her and stroked her shoulder. “You having fun, darlin’?”

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“I am. Will you dance with me, Jack?” she asked as she twined her slender fingers between his big callused ones.

“I’d love to, darlin’.”