Page 5 of A Convenient Ring to Claim Her

Micah snorted. “Someone says the world is ending. No one believes him.”

“Exactly.” When their amused gazes locked, she felt something inside her click.

“You should stay another week.” He glanced to Eden, breaking the brief spell. “I’m returning to Vienna, but you could come. There are some excellent museums there.”

“You could take us to the opera.” Eden smiled slyly.

“I could buy you tickets to the opera,” Micah corrected, clearly not a fan. He glanced back at Quinn.

Longing had squeezed her, both for the culture and the time with Eden and the chance to see more of Micah.

“That sounds fun, but I have to get back and start my summer job. They’re holding it for me.”

“Do you need help paying for school? Let me arrange it,” Micah urged. “You’re clearly not someone planning to drink her way through freshman year.”

“I’m not. You’re right.” Her chest had filled with the hive of bees that arrived when she was presented with charity. “But no, thanks. I have a scholarship and my dorm fee is included. The summer job is my mad money.” If “mad money” included groceries and the cheapest phone plan she could find. “Also, my foster family is being really good to me. They don’t have to support me anymore, now that I’m eighteen, but they said I could stay in my room rent-free until I leave in September. I’ll go back and help in their garden and with the other kids.”

She caught a look that flashed between Eden and Micah, one she feared was pity-related, but Eden said brightly, “Then we’ll finally be together for good. We’ll tear that campusup.”

“Oh, yes. I expect our study parties to become legendary,” Quinn drawled. “We might live on the edge and put raisins in our cookies.”

Quinn had thought she wouldn’t see Micah again, but he always visited Toronto when it was Eden’s or their mother’s birthday. They had begun including her on those occasions and Micah had personally asked her if she planned to come to Paris with Eden when they finished their first year of university.

“She can run up my credit card all she wants, but I refuse to hold her purse while she sends someone on the hunt for a shorter sleeve. You’ll spare me that, I hope?”

“Spareme,” Eden urged. “He’s the worst to shop with. Also, you could finally see the Louvre,” she coaxed.

“And the Catacombs?” It was Micah she really wanted to see. Quinn had yet to line up her summer job, but she was too tempted to be sensible. She had agreed to go.

The day they arrived in Paris five years ago, Micah had said to Quinn, “You turned nineteen, too. Put some things on my accounts for yourself.”

Quinn had a very complicated relationship with accepting generosity. Coming away with Eden at Micah’s expense bothered her, but if she hadn’t accepted, Eden would have brought someone else, so Quinn managed to justify it to herself. Buying clothes on Micah’s card felt wrong, but Eden would have added outfits for her anyway, so Quinn decided she should at least pick some she liked.

She stuck to simple coordinates that she could wear for school or a job interview, but the quality and tailoring made her feel very grown-up and sophisticated. Secretly, they made her feel as though she belonged in his world.

On their second-to-last night in Paris, Eden took to her room after dinner, fussing over how to do her hair for the nightclub. Quinn had preferred to use the hour to pre-read material for a summer class she was taking online.

She wasn’t expecting Micah. He’d told them he had commitments that evening and they’d already eaten dinner alone, but he had suddenly appeared in the lounge where Quinn was curled on the sofa.

“We thought you were out tonight.” She tried to pretend her heart hadn’t leaped into her throat.

“I thought you two were going out. I’m only here to change into my tux.” His attention flickered from her throat to her bare, pedicured toes and back.

Quinn might have made a different clothing choice if she had known he would see her. Her new silk pedal-pushers and striped sleeveless top were smart, but unremarkable. Certainly not sexy, but that glance of his caused a pleasant, squiggling sensation to invade her stomach. Her breath shortened with excitement. Her cheeks stung and she felt both vulnerable and powerful as she held his gaze.

Micah’s dark brown eyes were always impossible to read, but she thought she detected heat there. Banked, because he always kept himself behind an invisible wall, but she suspected it would be a conflagration if he ever let it loose.

“Where is Eden?” His voice sounded deeper than usual.

“In her room. Why?” Quinn was riding a wave of sudden confidence in her femininity. “Are you afraid to be alone with me?”

“Of course not. You’re a child.” His response was whip-fast and stung like the devil.

Considering she had been raised in a series of foster homes without a childhood to speak of, it was a particularly harsh comment. Quinn had been earning money since she was old enough to babysit. Now that she’d turned nineteen, she supported herself, working around her heavy course load so she could eat. She had been adulting as long as she could remember.

His pithy dismissal cut so deep, however, she regressed into a juvenile retort.

“Good thing theboyswe’re meeting at the nightclub are more my age than yours, then.” She rose and sent him a look of disinterest as she slipped into her heeled sandals.

---