Divinely Ruined

By Diane Alberts

He might make her fall from grace...

Rebecca's life sucked before she became an angel. Crappy apartment, awful jobs, abusive boyfriends—it was no wonder she jumped at the chance to escape it all and become a real live angel. The problem is Rebecca's not very angelic, and she'll have to do more to earn her wings than end her love affair with the word f—er, frick.

Especially when she's assigned to save single father Tony Weis, whose less-than-pure thoughts wreak hell on a telepathic angel's nerves. It's all Rebecca can do to keep her hands off him...but when she loses her memory injuring herself to save Tony's daughter, now it's Tony's turn to be her angel and care for her. But will Tony's devotion tempt her from her angelic path, even if it means being human again?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Apr 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781622669202

Book preview

He might make her fall from grace...

Rebecca’s life sucked before she became an angel. Crappy apartment, awful jobs, abusive boyfriends–it was no wonder she jumped at the chance to escape it all and become a real live angel. The problem is Rebecca’s not very angelic, and she’ll have to do more to earn her wings than end her love affair with the word f—er, frick.

Especially when she’s assigned to save single father Tony Weis, whose less-than-pure thoughts wreak hell on a telepathic angel’s nerves. It’s all Rebecca can do to keep her hands off him…but when she loses her memory injuring herself to save Tony’s daughter, now it’s Tony’s turn to be her angel and care for her. But will Tony’s devotion tempt her from her angelic path, even if it means being human again?

Previously released on Entangled’s Ever After imprint — April 2012

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Diane Alberts...

Try Me

Love Me

Play Me

Take Me

Shillings Agency series

Temporarily Yours

Stealing His Heart

Seducing the Princess

Taking What’s His

Beauty and the Boss

Faking It

Falling for the Groomsman

Kiss Me at Midnight

On One Condition

Discover more Entangled Select Otherworld titles…

The Reaper’s Kiss

Angel Lover

Atrophy

Wings of Redemption

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Diane Alberts. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Previously released on Entangled’s Ever After imprint — April 2012

Entangled Publishing, LLC

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Suite 109

Fort Collins, CO 80525

Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

Select Otherworld is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

Edited by Adrien-Luc Sanders

Cover design by Louisa Maggio

Cover art from Shutterstock

ISBN 978-1-62266-920-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition April 2012

This one goes to my beta readers and critique partners. Without you, my manuscripts would be filled with holes, bad grammar, and errors.

Thank you Angie Marshall, Rachel Harris, and Deb Moran. You’re all the best.

Chapter One

Angel Rule #1: Never lie to your assignment.

From the moment Rebecca set out to become an angel, she’d known she wasn’t the ideal candidate. She cursed. She coveted. She thought highly uncharitable thoughts—and those uncharitable thoughts often led to losing her temper.

Just like she had this morning.

It wasn’t her fault. The assistant kitchen angel wouldn’t give her any apple pie. Rebecca would swear until she turned blue in the face that the wench deliberately skipped over her—and Rebecca really, really liked apple pie. But she’d made herself cool off, and even apologize…until the brat had stuck her tongue out.

That was when the hair-pulling had started.

Like that wretch would ever earn her wings, either. Hmph.

Rebecca rubbed at the bite-mark the stupid brat had left on her forearm, and leaned against a telephone pole. Across the street, a U-Haul truck sat before a modestly sized house. Boxes strewed across the sidewalk. A little girl sat on the steps, clutching a doll in her arms. Her eyes were grave, and her chestnut hair gleamed in the sunlight. She was beautiful, Rebecca thought. As beautiful as the child Rebecca would never have.

She pushed those thoughts away. Her training—a strenuous ten-hour daily lecture combined with good old hands-on experience—warned her against dwelling on her mortal life, or the personal sacrifices she’d made to answer a higher calling. She’d tried, especially after the Archangel of New Recruit Training, Her Holiness and Eminence Miss Sally of the Disapproving Stare, had held her back an extra year.

Most aspiring angels were allowed contact with humans after the mandatory twelve-month training program. It had taken Rebecca two and a half years of endless book studies and lectures on why slouching was bad for her shoulders before Sally even considered letting her accept a case on Earth—and now here she was.

She believed she just might be stalling.

No, there was no might about it. Rebecca tore herself from her pensive thoughts and looked away from the child. She wasn’t here for the girl.

She was here for one Anthony Richard Weis, single father of four-year-old Miranda and a man sorely in danger of losing his soul.

A gruff voice rumbled from inside the U-Haul, echoing throughout the cavernous space. Well. He had a mouth on him, didn’t he? The tips of Rebecca’s ears heated, but she lifted her chin, wiped her sweaty hands on her skirt, and crossed the street to the truck.

She could do this. All she had to do was make sure Anthony remained on sound moral footing. In the course of three years, Anthony had lost his job, his house, and the mother of his child—and would soon commit a murder. Her job consisted of stepping into his life and persuading him to take the higher ground. Or in this case, not to kill anyone.

Easy enough, right?

Except that Rebecca had never really succeeded at much in life, unless there was an award for sucking the most. Her life before Sally had been a miserable failure. She couldn’t fail again. She had this situation under control, and she would succeed.

Why, then, was she so nervous?

Maybe because her entire life depended on this mission. Her future as an angel. A purpose that would finally make her life mean something.

She couldn’t panic now.

She’d been chosen by God as one of the elite few humans given the opportunity to become an angel. A real, honest-to-goodness, ever-serene angel.

She just had to get Tony to believe in God, and in her. And work on that serenity thing. Then, maybe she’d be the person she’d always wanted to be. Maybe she’d no longer be a failure. Maybe she’d no longer be alone.

Maybe, just maybe…she’d finally be whole.

…

Tony threw the box into the stack in the back of the truck. It tumbled back down. The packing tape, which he’d only haphazardly slapped on in the first place, snapped. Mismatched dishware spilled across the floor. Two plates shattered. Tony snarled, swore, and climbed into the truck to pick up the pieces. He was in no mood for this.

He was rarely in the mood for anything except Miranda—but these days, no one would be surprised by that. Jane had walked out on him. She hadn’t even stuck around for the divorce. Instead she’d left him with overwhelming daycare expenses, a never-ending stream of diapers, and the stress that came with finding affordable housing on a single father’s income. A plumber’s paycheck only went so far, especially when he missed out on doubling his hourly rate for those lucrative on-call jobs.

He’d only become a plumber when his father passed away. He’d been an accountant before. Lucrative, but with brutal hours. But when Mike Weis left him the family business, it was either sell off a company his father had spent a lifetime building, or take over his legacy. Jane had said she was on board. She’d obviously lied. Once they’d moved into the suburbs to be closer to his father’s established client base, she’d acted like every minute there was torture. Who knew a white picket fence and a homeowner’s association were the equivalent of waterboarding at Guantanamo.

Once she left him, the three a.m. house calls were no longer an option, unless it was a wake-up call to feed a fussy baby. Late night feedings had turned into late night nightmares and under-the-bed monster inspections, but it didn’t change that Miranda still needed him. Then again, he needed his baby girl, too.

She was the only good thing he had left.

Tony sighed, set the fragments of porcelain down, and ran his fingers through his hair. He really should be able to let this go. It had been over three years now, and Miranda was still a joy, no matter the difficulties of raising her alone. It was too hot to be stressing himself out, anyway. He was practically giving off heat waves like molten blacktop, and sweat was a gritty extra layer between his shirt and his skin. He needed an ice cream break—or a beer.

Ice cream. Miranda loved ice cream, and right now he needed to watch her face brighten and her eyes light up. Needed her laughter, and those tiny arms around his neck to remind him why he worked so hard. He climbed out of the truck and started toward the porch.

He only made it two steps.

Two steps, before he stopped and stared at the woman at the foot of the ramp.

She cocked her head to the side and watched him with eyes as blue as the summer sky above. Her shockingly bright red hair cascaded to her hips, and clung to the damp film on ivory shoulders just beginning to dew with sweat. The faint sheen of perspiration made her seem to glow in the sun. A small splotch of freckles splayed across her nose.

She was impossibly beautiful.

Which meant he had sunstroke, and this was a hallucination.

Tony ground his fists against his eyes—but when he looked again, she was still there. She was real. Very real, and watching him as if waiting for him to say something.

He cleared his throat. Can I help you?

She smiled. The ironic little twist of her lips roused an answering twist in his gut, tight and hot. He shoved it down with zero remorse. Women like her were nothing but trouble. They used their looks to get what they wanted, then abandoned men after they’d used them up and sucked them dry. Heartless, every last one of them.

The woman faltered, looking at him strangely, before her smile returned. I’m looking for Anthony Weis. Are you him, by any chance?

Tony shrugged. She probably needed a plumber. She was a bit late. Yeah, but I’m out of business. You’ll have to find someone else. I’m moving.

He swung himself down the ramp to the asphalt and pushed past the woman without another glance. As he strode up the walk, Miranda looked at him with those wide, solemn eyes that made him ache. No one so young should have eyes so old.

Hey, darling, he murmured, and sat on the steps. Miranda smiled and rested her tiny hand on his knee. His heart lurched, and he swallowed hard. She still trusted him so much, even though he’d not only failed to keep his father’s business afloat, but failed to provide for her. He’d failed her, and it was his fault they were now forced to move into a cramped two-bedroom apartment in Dallas.

You hot, Daddy? she asked.

Mmhm. Very. He smiled and leaned closer. She tipped her adorable face up to his. I wish we could find something to help us cool off. He tilted his head, thinking. Something cold, I think. Something…chocolaty. Maybe with sprinkles. If only I could think of the name…

She raised a hand and grinned, practically bouncing. Oh! I know! I know!

He arched a brow. Know what?

Ice cream, Daddy. She giggled, covering her mouth. It’s called ice cream.

He slapped his forehead and rolled his eyes. Now, however did I forget that? I love ice cream more than anyone else.

No you don’t, Daddy. I do! She squeezed his hand, her eyes wide and earnest. We go?

You have to pay the Daddy tax, first. He pointed to his cheek and waited. She laughed and planted a big, wet—very wet—kiss on his jaw. Tony smiled and took her hand. Paid in full. Okay, let’s go.

The excitement in Miranda’s eyes reminded Tony so much of her mother, before things had gone sour. He swallowed back on his bitterness, and the shame that came with it. Shame would inevitably lead to hatred, and he wouldn’t ruin Miranda’s happiness with his ugly mood.

It wasn’t her fault, anyway. Wasn’t her fault that her laughter reminded him how badly her mother had broken his heart. Jane was the primary reason he didn’t trust women. In his opinion, men and women were better off if they stuck to satisfying their mutual needs now and then, and left each other alone the other three hundred and sixty four days of the year. None of this bullshit about relationships.

None of this bullshit about love.

Never again.

Miranda was the only love he needed, and she looked at him right now, nearly squirming with eagerness.

Now, Daddy?

Sure, he said, and stood with her little hand curled in his. Off we go.

Miranda hopped to her feet. Patches of sweat darkened her dress, which stirred sluggishly in the subtle breeze. Tony picked up her wide-brimmed sun hat and plopped

Reviews for Divinely Ruined

[bookwhisperer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Divinely Ruined was a very sweet love story about an Angel and Man lacking faith. When the two cross paths fireworks will erupt. With their scarred past, both will attempt to ignore the obvious evidence of attraction. Determined to earn her wings; Rebecca sets herself in Tony and Miranda’s lives as times passes she will finds herself absorbed into Tony’s family effortlessly. As the days pass she dreads a time when she will no longer be needed. An unexpected turn of events leave her with amnesia, and she must remember who she is and her purpose or is this life what she really wanted all along?~BookWhisperer Reviewer JO~

[darkfaerietales_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: A cute little story of temptation and redemption, full of witty remarks and sexual tension.Opening Sentence: From the moment Rebecca set out to become an angel, she’d known she wasn’t the ideal candidate.The Review:Divinely Ruined is a feel good story with a great happily-ever-after. Not only does it involve an angel with a foul mouth and terrible social skills, but also a man that holds very impure thoughts concerning a very celestial woman. If that wasn’t enough to hook you in, how about we throw in an immortal soul in peril and a little girl’s life hanging in the balance?Rebecca Chance sucks as an angel-in-training. She has temper issues and one hell of a potty mouth. No matter how hard she tries, this angel business is harder than it looks. So when she is finally assigned to help a man save his soul from damnation, all her hopes for a future as an angel hinges on her performance. Can she save Tony from committing murder and therefore save his soul, or will he be her very own fall from Heaven?Anthony “Tony” Weis is a man down on his luck. A single father, now forced to close down his business and leave his home, is a little low on faith these days. So when a gorgeous woman shows up and tells him that she is there to save his soul, he is decidedly unimpressed. Tony is sexy, stubborn, gruff, and only nice to one person in the whole world, his little girl Miranda. Can Tony trust this strange woman enough to let her into his and his daughter’s lives? Can he keep his impure thoughts to himself?But this story would be boring if not for a fatalistic twist: in saving Miranda, Rebecca loses her memory. She cannot remember that she is an angel-in-training or, for that matter, why she is with Tony and Miranda in the first place. Her life hinges on Tony’s help now. Will he do the right thing by Rebecca or will he give into temptation?The feel good part of the story stems around the equal partnership developed between the two main characters. The beginning is about Rebecca saving Tony. The reversal happens, and Tony is in charge of caring for Rebecca. Understandably, there are several obstacles in their way, not including the angel/mortal thing. But when that particular, if not insurmountable, obstacle is taken away, can they work through the rest their problems and find true happiness and love? Though the characters are not well established in terms of background, they do come across as likable. There is no need for extensive background information, even though it would be interesting to explore the angel-in-training program in future books. I especially enjoyed little Miranda’s escapades throughout the story. It puts a wonderful spin on the single father search for love theme.Though the story itself is not a difficult read, it is very much an enjoyable one. I spend much of my time reading long and drawn out serial arcs, several books long, that I find this book a nice cleanser for my reading palate. Another interesting addition that I liked was that each chapter begins with an angel rule that sets its tone. I recommend this story as a nice read on a lazy afternoon if you’re looking for something that will leave you smiling when it is done.Notable Scene:“This isn’t about Miranda at all,” she whispered, mouth dry. “It’s about you.”His fingers curled against her chin. His skin grazed against hers with electric friction. He tipped her chin up.“Maybe it is. You make me happy, Rebecca. I haven’t been happy in a long time. When you’re in the room, I forget to be angry and I just…laugh. That means more to me than years of history or awkward dates to get to know each other. Seeing my little girl happy, too? Means more than even that.” His mouth creased. “But that’s inappropriate, isn’t it?”Her heart slammed rapidly in her chest. She thought it might burst through her ribs and tumble into his hands. He already had a tight grip on it, when she knew it was wrong. Why did he have to say these things? Why did he have to tempt her? And why was it so wrong for her to need this? Rebecca pulled free from his grip and turned her face away, trying to calm her erratic breaths. “You’re confused. That’s all it is. I’m supposed to help you find the path to happiness. You’re confusing that with romantic feelings. I guess this happens to angels a lot.”“You’re not an angel yet.” He leaned down, bowing over her. His lips caressed the air just a breath away from hers. Each exhalation curled over her cheeks, teasing and sensitizing her skin until her knees weakened and her shallow breaths quickened. “How much would you hate me if I kissed you right now?”The Divine Temptations Trilogy:1. Divinely RuinedFTC Advisory: Entangled Publishing graciously provided me with a copy of Divinely Ruined. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. The only payments I receive are hugs and kisses from my little boys.

[alwaysyaatheart · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rebecca Chance has lived a life that has been anything but happy. She has had boyfriends who were abusive, terrible jobs, suffered through the death of family, and she has given up on her dreams. When presented with an opportunity to turn things around, she jumps at. Rebecca is an angel in training, and in the process of trying to earn her wings. Her first assignment is to save Tony Weis' soul, by keeping him from committing murder. Needles to say, Tony is pretty skeptical when this beautiful woman shows up claiming to be an angel and telling him she is there to save him. Did I mention that Rebecca has a problem with her mouth, which doesn't help the situation. Tony lives with his daughter Miranda, and is raising her alone after his wife left him, and he is very bitter with women because of this. Nevertheless, little Miranda is the light of his life and he would do anything for her. Rebecca refuses to fail at her first assignment and proceeds to move in with Tony and Miranda, determined she is going to save his soul. Rebecca is a very beautiful woman, and Tony, well he is pretty hot himself. Rebecca has very hard time keeping her thoughts about Tony pure. On top of that, she can read Tony's thoughts, and his thoughts regarding her are anything but pure, which makes the temptation that much harder. After an incident occurs that causes Rebecca lose her memory, Tony is determined to take care of her. The chemistry between Rebecca and Tony is off the charts, and this time, the situation is reversed with Rebecca pursuing Tony, and Tony trying to keep her pure until she gets her memory back, all the while being afraid of what will happen when she does. What will happen when Rebecca finally has to choose between love and becoming an angel? I really enjoyed this book. It is a great romance with a paranormal twist. This story is so much more than just another angel story. It's a story of woman and man trying to push past the hardships they have been dealt in life, trying to find love, happiness, and acceptance again. The story line is fun and entertaining, with its intense moments, and the romance......well let's just say it gets pretty hot, especially at the end. Divinely Ruined is short, fast-paced, and delightful read and if you love romance, this is a great story to read. Please note that are some adult scenes in this book that are not suitable for younger readers.