Page 44 of A Convenient Ring to Claim Her

“Before you make a crack about getting your minerals...” Had she gone pale? An uncharacteristic jab of self-doubt shot through him. “I propose we marry.”

She closed the box with a snap and set it aside, hand shaking. “Would you pour me a coffee, please?”

Wow. He genuinely felt like he’d been kicked in the face.

He poured, brain going numb. He nodded as the housekeeper peeked in. Seconds later, she brought in the serving dishes filled with a ham and potato hash, eggs in mustard sauce, and an oven-baked pancake sprinkled with powdered sugar and fresh fruit.

“Is that your answer?” he asked when his housekeeper had retreated.

“You already know my answer, Micah. I don’t believe in marriage.”

“Marriage isn’t like Santa Claus. It’s not something made up by—”

“The church?” she cut in crisply.

“It’s a commitment, not a human rights violation. I won’t keep you from having a career, if that’s what you’re afraid of. Finish your doctorate. I’ll support you in every way I can.”

“Then what? You’ll move to Canada so I can work there?”

He had never seen her as a naive person. “Brace yourself for a hard truth, Quinn. As admirable as it is that you want to bring about change in government policy, that’s not where true power lies. Use me. Use my wealth and position to get the results you want.”

Dismay and conflict flexed through her expression. “Become part of what’s most wrong in this world? Is that why you want to marry me? To keep me from challenging the order that benefits you so much?”

“No,” he said flatly, biting back a curse. “It’s not that complicated. I want to marry you so I can wake up next to you every morning.” Most mornings it was a very pleasant start to his day.

“That is not what you want,” she returned hotly, voice turning strident with anxiety. “I know that your aunt is after you to marry and secure the family legacy. Eden told me that ages ago. I’m not going to give you babies, Micah.Ever.”

“I didn’t ask you to.” He tried not to shorten his tone, but rejection was not something he suffered often. It stung, especially from her. Like this. She wasn’t even considering it. “Although I am compelled to point out there are arrangements like surrogacy.”

“It’s not just about carrying a pregnancy.”

“What then? Because I would love to understand your aversion. I would think someone without family would want to make one of her own.”

She flashed him a look, one brimming with umbrage at not being understood before her brow flinched. She looked past him, mouth briefly working to find words.

“I do think about children sometimes, but I can’t get past...” She stabbed a bite of egg, but left it on her fork, staring at it sickly. “What if I die? Then I’ve left a child to navigate this world alone, the same as I’ve had to.”

His heart flipped over. “Don’t say that. You’re healthy.”

“I was hit by a bicycle. It could have been a car. Life is tenuous.”

“Nevertheless, Eden would—”

“I would never ask her to raise my child,” she cut in with aversion. “She wants to start her own family with Remy.”

“Exactly. She’s not afraid of whatmighthappen. She’s getting on with the business of living.”

“And good for her! But they have a wide network of people who would race in to take their baby if something happened to them. I don’t have that, Micah. Even if I adopted a child, I would still be running a risk of leaving them with nothing and no one.”

“What about me? I have family.”

“The family who persecuted your mother into abandoning you? The people who already think I’m not good enough for you? The ones who ostracized you when you misbuttoned your shirt? Those are the people you want raising your child?”

He pressed his lips together, not answering, but she was right. He wouldn’t want his child raised by anyone with the last name Gould. Maybe not even himself. Micah viewed his role in this family as a gatekeeper who stopped them from spiraling back into the avarice that had been his father’s trademark, but he was always on guard against selfish behaviors of his own.

As for his mother, as much as she would want to raise his child, the stark truth was that she was aging and still grieving the loss of Eden’s father. Micah wasn’t inclined to write off Eden as quickly as Quinn did, but his sisterwouldbe having her own children soon. And, as much as Eden’s father had welcomed Micah as if he was his own son, the knowledge that Micah wasn’t really part of his mother’s second family had always been blindingly obvious to him.

“I’m sorry if staying here with you has led you to think I would want this,” Quinn said shakily. “I’ll—”

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