Page 13 of A Convenient Ring to Claim Her

“I was trying not to wake you.”

He twisted the knob and the jets rumbled to life. He entered the tub without invitation, but it was built for two, vaguely heart-shaped so his elbow brushed hers as they settled in their seats facing the view of the falls.

“You’re always careful to give me my beauty sleep. Why is that?”

Why did she run away before he opened his eyes? So she could put herself back together before she had to face him again. Today, that would have entailed getting dressed and hiring a car. This tub had been too inviting to resist so here she was, trying to pull her defenses in place while naked next to him.

It wasn’t working.

“You always fall asleep. What am I supposed to do? Lie there like a good girl, waiting for you to wake up and notice me again?”

“I notice you,” he chided. “Always.”

He was doing it now. She felt his gaze on the side of her face like winter sunshine, but only sipped her wine, refusing to look at him.

“Why does it bother you that I said that?”

“It doesn’t.”

He sighed to the ceiling and splayed his arms across the rim as he sank an inch lower in the water, fingertips close enough to her shoulder to make her skin tingle.

She knew that sigh, though. He thought she was being stroppy and she was.

“Being noticed isn’t good,” she blurted. “It means you’re different. When you’re singled out, you’re vulnerable. It makes you the prey for hyenas that run you down and rip you apart.”

She felt his surprise and the uncomfortable heat of his full attention again.

“Do you genuinely feel threatened when I say you look nice?”

“Do you realize you’re looking at me like I’m some kind of weirdo for feeling that way? I wasn’t a pretty kid. I was gangly and wore glasses and my clothes never fit. I was called ‘matchstick’ because of my hair and ‘bucky’ because of my overbite. Yes. I feel threatened when you comment on my appearance. I’d rather you didn’t.”

“I didn’t know that.” He didn’t say anything else while, outside, thirty-one hundred tons of water pooled above the falls before plummeting into the mist.

Just as she started to think,Oh, God, I never should have told him what a freak I am, he spoke again.

“I don’t ever want to make you feel threatened, Quinn.” His voice was low, but she didn’t think that disturbing rumble in his tone was from the jets rolling against his back. “I can’t help being suspicious of Remy, but I won’t resort to violence. Not toward him and never, ever toward you.”

It was something she had already believed in her heart, but hearing it aloud brought emotive tears to her eyes. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe because any promises he made her wouldn’t be put to the test of time. They didn’t have a future, not really. Not beyond a few more trysts like this one, and those would only come about if she was lucky.

She didn’t tell him what she suspected, though—that Eden wasn’t simply catching a lift with Remy. Quinn had a hunch Eden would be drawn further into Remy’s life and would pull away from both of them. The sliver of space and time that Eden created, the one that allowed Quinn and Micah’s worlds to overlap, would disappear. There had been something inevitable between Eden and Remy the first time they had laid eyes on each other. Quinn had sensed it and felt threatened by it. That’s how she knew it was real.

“Will you help me understand why you hate him so much? Or at least explain why your mom won’t let you help Eden?” This day of upheaval and disaster wouldn’t have happened if Eden hadn’t been so convinced that Hunter was her only means of saving her father’s company.

Micah’s expression twisted with distaste. He stole her wine and took a healthy gulp, keeping her glass.

“My father’s family—myfamily—” his lip curled again “—were very hostile to my mother when she married him. I can’t blame her for resenting them. My grandparents are gone, but I remember them as cold and disapproving. My aunt is very entrenched in the highest social circles and made it very difficult for my mother to make any connections. My father knew how to be charming when he wanted something, but he was a bully.”

“Toward your mother?” Quinn asked, thinking of something Eden had told her earlier today. Eden didn’t know whether Micah’s father had been abusive, but she suspected he had been.

Micah held the glass near his mouth, profile hardening. “My mother has never said outright that he physically hurt her, but he certainly wasn’t a kind man, especially after she left him.”

It hurt to think of Lucille being treated so badly. Quinn had great fondness for her. As for Micah...

Her heart felt as though it were peeled raw as she asked, “Did he hurt you?”

“I caught a backhand now and again, but he didn’t beat me, if that’s what you’re asking.” His gaze went into the glass that he held tilted toward his tense mouth. “I mostly lived with my grandparents when I wasn’t at boarding school so I honestly didn’t see him that much. I only ever saw him resort to real violence once. Against Remy Sylvain and his father.”

“What?” She sat up and twisted to face him. “When?”

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