Page 14 of A Convenient Ring to Claim Her

Micah swallowed a gulp of wine. “I was twelve. I had finally talked my father into letting me live in Canada with my mother, or so I thought. I started school and joined the basketball team, since that’s what all the cool kids did. Remy and I were on opposing teams in a tournament. We had an altercation, as boys do. My father attacked him in retaliation. His father waded in to stop it. They bloodied each other’s lips and were kicked out. My father took me directly back to Europe. I resented the hell out of the Sylvains for causing me to be sent back to exile.”

“That wasn’t Remy’s fault. It sounds as though it was your father’s.”

“Agreed. But why the hell would Remy target my sister if he wasn’t still holding a grudge, years later?” He swung a piercing look at her.

“Because he’s attracted to her! I know she’s your sister, but she’s very appealing, Micah. Men hit on her all the time. They always have.”

He only drained the glass and set it aside. “You asked why my mother won’t let me underwrite Bellamy Home and Garden. It’s because of that. In a thousand ways, my father hurt her beyond her capacity to forgive. He married her when she became pregnant with me, but his parents thought she had done it intentionally to trap him. Their cruelty drove her back to Canada. He refused to grant her custody and gave her minimal access. When she finally had me in her house, he took me away again. She happily cooks for me and occasionally allows me to buy her dinner, but she absolutely will not allow me to pollute the life she made with Eden and Oscar with my father’s money.”

“That’s hard,” Quinn murmured. “You should tell Eden. She thinks your mother is being proud, but I get it. Lucille wants to keep ownership of the life she’s built. If she lets you step in, it becomes someone else’s accomplishment. His.”

“BH&G is not hers, though. It’s Eden’s now. If she makes the decision to accept my help, that will be her own good sense that bails out the company. At least, that’s what I’ve been trying to convince her to see.”

Quinn’s phone pinged on the shelf where she’d left it. She picked it up and read the text Eden had just sent.

“Don’t shoot the messenger, but Eden isn’t going to Toronto. They’re in Remy’s helicopter, on their way to Montreal.” They were heading to Martinique from there, but she didn’t get a chance to say so.

“They’reflying? Damn him!” The water sloshed as Micah stood. Water sluiced off his powerful, naked form and splashed across the tiles as he left the tub.

As much as Quinn would have loved to pretend she was an A-list celebrity on vacation, she was practical enough—and tight-fisted enough—to dry off and go back to the vineyard with Micah.

She didn’t linger, though. She packed the rest of Eden’s things along with her own and drove to Eden’s apartment in Toronto. Eden had offered it to Quinn for the next two weeks, since her plan had been to go on honeymoon with Hunter, then sell this apartment and move into a house with him.

Eden would need it for herself now, Quinn imagined, but at least she had a roof over her head while she searched for a place of her own. Until the semester ended, she’d been living on campus as a dorm adviser, which discounted her rent, making it possible to live on her anemic salary as a teaching assistant while she completed her master’s. Most summers she went back to PEI to work and save up for the next year since housing was usually cheaper there, but with Eden’s wedding taking up her focus, she had yet to make any decisions about where she would live or work.

To her surprise, Micah turned up the next morning, after dropping Lucille at her home in the suburbs. “Eden told our mother she’s taking ‘me’ time in the Caribbean.”

“She texted me the same. I asked if she wanted company,” Quinn joked, but Micah was back to oozing resentment.

“I’m sure she has company. Sylvain has homes in both Haiti and Martinique.”

“What are you going to do, Raging Bull? Charge down there and tell two consenting adults they’re not allowed to have sex?”

“Are they having sex?”

“I don’t know! It’s none of my business and it’s not yours, either.”

“Why can’t you see my side of it?” he demanded.

“You are knee-deep in hypocrisy, Micah. Would you stop having sex with me if Eden told you to?”

His expression darkened with what she interpreted as dismay. Her heart lurched.

“I’m not going to tell her. Don’t worry.” She put up a halting palm. “All I’m saying is that sex happens and it’sjustsex. Let it happen so she can move on.” She really ought to learn to take her own advice.

“Fine, but if she contacts you, I want to hear about it.” He started toward the door.

“What, no goodbye kiss?” she asked facetiously.

He spun around and strode back toward her with such purpose, she stumbled backward and came up against the kitchen island.

Then she was inside the eye of the hurricane. His strong arms surrounded her, dragging her into the storm. His mouth devoured hers, wiping her thoughts clean as he laid claim to her entire being. To her body, with his firm hands running over her, thorough and hungry as he mapped each subtle dip and curve. To her soul, pulling it from her body so she felt empty when he abruptly ended the kiss and stared deeply into her eyes. Into her heart.

“One of these days, we need to make a decision.”

He walked out while she stood there, dazed, fingertips pressed to her sizzling lips.

CHAPTER FOUR

---