Page 1 of A Convenient Ring to Claim Her

PROLOGUE

HEWOULDNEVERforgive her for this.

That knowledge stabbed into Quinn Harper’s belly like a blade as she announced, “Micah and I have been having an affair. It’s been going on for years.”

Birdsong ceased and the fragrance of the flowers that surrounded the gazebo turned sour. Quinn was aware of soft gasps of surprise next to her, but all she saw was Micah.

Micah Gould, a man she loved to hate and hated to l—lustafter. That’s definitely all it was, she stressed to herself. She was not a self-destructive person who set herself up for heartbreak. It was lust with a side of long-term friendly acquaintanceship. Best friend’s brother with benefits.

Micah didn’t move. He had arrived the way he always did, with the energy of a gathering thunderstorm, wearing one of his bespoke suits without a wrinkle or fleck of lint upon it.

He must have traveled with urgency to arrive in Gibraltar at this moment, but if he was tired or distressed, he didn’t show it. He was superhuman that way, always impeccably turned out, clean-shaven and crisp. His short, dark brown hair was only notable because it was thick and absent of a single gray strand. His features were more rugged than handsome and rarely betrayed what he was thinking or feeling.

His expression didn’t need to change for Quinn to know he was livid, though. His whole body condensed the way concrete solidified in the unrelenting sun. The way water compressed into a glacier. The way carbon crystalized under pressure to become the hardest substance in the world—a beautiful, icy diamond that could cut through anything.

“Why are you doing this? Now? Like this?” His voice was calm. Too calm. Deadly as a quiet pool that hid riptides and piranhas and bloodthirsty monsters.

“Like this” was in front of his half sister, Eden, who was Quinn’s closest friend. And Eden’s groom, Remy, Micah’s longtime enemy. And Remy’s sister, a very innocent Yasmine, still in shock.

The three stood in silence around Quinn, reeling at what she had just revealed.

Quinn was doing this for Micah, not that he knew it. Perhaps he would never fully understand why she was doing this. The layers of secrets were so thick around her, Quinn could hardly breathe beneath their suffocating weight, but deep in the heart of those secrets was a truth so painful, she had to stop Micah from forcing its exposure. He wasn’t ready to hear it. It had the potential to destroy him.

If he was forced to realize that Remy’s sister—half sister!—was also his own, that he shared a father with Yasmine... If he had to face that devastating reality as Eden married Remy, it might cause Micah to sever the few tenuous threads of family he had, leaving him even more isolated than he made himself.

Someday his father’s darkest actions might come to light, but not today. Not when emotions were already fevered and knife-sharp. That ugliness would not besmirch Eden’s wedding day. Herrealwedding day. Quinn refused to let that happen to her very best friend.

Micah looked ready to cause mass destruction if Eden didn’t walk away from her elopement with Remy, but the vows had been spoken. If Quinn didn’t draw his ire, his feud with Remy would escalate to include Eden and become something that couldn’t be repaired.

Quinn calculated all of that in the few seconds following his sudden appearance. She threw herself forward in sacrifice, drawing all the cold loathing Micah aimed at Remy onto herself.

“It was completely consensual,” Quinn assured everyone. “I’m not accusing him of anything but appalling double standards. Your sister is allowed to marry whoever she wants.” She directed that last statement at Micah. Eden had been pining for Remy for five years. Surely he could see what a lost cause it was to try to stop them?

Micah stared so hard at Quinn, she felt her soul being shredded by the force of it, as though his gaze blasted golf-ball-sized hailstones through her. She had to fight shrinking into herself under that hostile glare.

Then Micah dismissed her in a cold blink that was the cruelest thing he could have ever done to her.

“Are you coming with me or not?” he asked Eden.

“I can’t. We’re married. I love him.”

“He’s convinced you of that, has he?” Micah rocked on his heels. His contempt for that particular emotion was thick in his tone. “You can all go to hell, then.” He pivoted and walked away.

Quinn watched him retreat, feeling as though her very life force was pulled from her body, trying to stay with him even as he cast her off like a sticky spiderweb that only disgusted him. She swayed where she stood, hollow as an empty shell.

CHAPTER ONE

One week ago, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada

SOMEHOW,QUINNWASN’Tsurprised her maid-of-honor duties included delivering the message that the wedding was off and throwing a change of clothes into a shoulder bag for a fleeing bride. Eden had been very tepid on her groom, stubbornly pursuing marriage for business reasons despite the fact that she was obviously in love with someone else.

When Eden had announced she was marrying Hunter Waverly, Quinn had expressed her concerns, but Eden was her best friend. Ultimately, Quinn supported her. That’s what best friends did.

If only Eden had been the one to come to her senses today and cancel of her own accord. No, the wedding march had started when a gray-haired grizzly of a man had charged across the lawn and accused the groom of making a baby with his daughter.

The baby in question had been in the arms of its mother right behind him. That poor woman had been mortified, but the kitten was very much out of the bag. The music was paused, conversations were conducted behind closed doors, and Eden had been thrown over.

Now she was gone.

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