A convenient ring to cla.., p.1
A Convenient Ring to Claim Her, page 1
“You should expect more from me. We should expect more from each other.”
“Like what?” A panicked sensation fluttered into her chest.
“I don’t know.” Only the tick in his cheek suggested this was a more uncomfortable conversation than he was letting on. “But I was serious when I left Toronto, that we need to make a decision.”
“You did.” She was unable to keep the crack from her voice. “I revealed we were having an affair and you walked away cold turkey.” That still hurt. So much. Not a word. Over.
He turned another inscrutable expression on her. “Yet here I am, not gone anymore. Am I?”
“Don’t.” She scowled at her plate. “I don’t want to fall into a trap where we’re both feeling a sense of loss over Eden’s marriage to Remy so we glom on to each other, convincing ourselves there’s more between us than there is. I was never going to upend my life for you, Micah. I have plans. And what could you possibly want from me besides sex?”
“I don’t know. You?” he suggested.
Four Weddings and a Baby
You are cordially invited to...the scandal of the wedding season!
In a shocking turn of events, the marriage of billionaire Hunter Waverly, aka the groom, was halted today when it was revealed he has a secret baby with a local waitress! Their one night clearly wasn’t enough...but will this be a real-life Cinderella story?
And the drama doesn’t stop there. Our sources say humiliated bride Eden decided to take matters—or should we say, the diamond ring—into her own hands and eloped with best man, Remy Sylvain! Well, those two have always had a special connection since that night in Paris...
Meanwhile, maid of honor Quinn is rumored to have been whisked away by Eden’s brother, Micah. And the groom’s sister, Vienna? Let’s just say, she has the biggest secret of all...
It’s never a dull moment at a billion-dollar society wedding!
Don’t miss Hunter and Amelia’s story in
Cinderella’s Secret Baby
Read Remy and Eden’s story in
Wedding Night with the Wrong Billionaire
Discover Micah and Quinn’s story in
A Convenient Ring to Claim Her
All available now!
And look out for the final installment,
Vienna and Jasper’s story
Coming soon!
Dani Collins
A Convenient Ring to Claim Her
Canadian Dani Collins knew in high school that she wanted to write romance for a living. Twenty-five years later, after marrying her high school sweetheart, having two kids with him, working at several generic office jobs and submitting countless manuscripts, she got The Call. Her first Harlequin novel won the Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best First in Series from RT Book Reviews. She now works in her own office, writing romance.
Books by Dani Collins
Harlequin Presents
Her Impossible Baby Bombshell
One Snowbound New Year’s Night
Innocent in Her Enemy’s Bed
Four Weddings and a Baby
Cinderella’s Secret Baby
Wedding Night with the Wrong Billionaire
Jet-Set Billionaires
Cinderella for the Miami Playboy
Signed, Sealed...Seduced
Ways to Ruin a Royal Reputation
The Secret Sisters
Married for One Reason Only
Manhattan’s Most Scandalous Reunion
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
To my husband, Doug, whose shoulder trouble inspired poor Quinn’s injury. Thanks for doing such dedicated research for me on this one, darling. I love you.
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM THE HOUSEKEEPER’S INVITATION TO ITALY BY CATHY WILLIAMS
PROLOGUE
HE WOULD NEVER forgive 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—lust after. 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. Her real wedding 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, QUINN WASN’T surprised 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
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.
Conspicuously, she had run away with the best man, Remy Sylvain, which didn’t really surprise Quinn, either.
The part where Eden had inadvertently stolen Quinn’s car keys was a nuisance, but Quinn wouldn’t hold it against her. As rotten days went, Eden was winning first prize. Quinn would accept whatever collateral damage blew onto her.
She peeled off her bridesmaid dress and the shapewear beneath, then yanked on a drop-waist sundress. She spared a few minutes to wash off her makeup, hating the feel of cover-up more than she disliked her freckles. She liberally applied moisturizer and sunscreen and left her red-gold hair in its updo, but grabbed a hairbrush so she could pull the pins and brush it out in the rideshare car.
As she picked up the notification on her phone that her driver was minutes away, she added an apple to her bag along with a bottle of water and a protein bar. Eden had her own purse and phone, but might want her silk sleep bonnet and that pricy moisturizer she liked so much. Quinn threw those into her bag, drained a warm mimosa, double-checked for her own wallet and phone, then kicked into her sandals.
Outside, the parking lot was busy as a colony of ants on a barrel of syrup. Between astonished vineyard staff, shocked wedding guests and the sleazy paparazzi who had trespassed onto the grounds, word was out that the much-anticipated Bellamy-Waverly wedding had collapsed. The groom had left with the mother of his infant daughter. The bride had fled with the best man—not that that was common knowledge yet. Quinn was hoping to forestall that by meeting Eden in Niagara Falls.
“Where are you going?” Micah asked behind her shoulder.
Quinn jolted, not so much startled by his catching her as reacting the way she always did to Eden’s older half brother. It was an infuriating mixture of joy and apprehension. A flood of yearning and a reflexive tension and a need to self-protect. It was sexual desire and abject annoyance because Micah Gould was too much. Too tall, too confident, too masculine and too bossy and so superior. He was far too capable of tying her in knots without any effort. The sound of his name tightened her abdomen. His breath on her neck made her skin feel hot.
She spun around to look at him and that was too much, too. He had changed from his morning suit. He had been tagged to stand in as father of the bride, but now had that European flair that elevated a pair of raw linen trousers with a short-sleeved camel-colored shirt into something out of an Italian designer’s summer catalog. His shirt was some kind of knit that hung lovingly off his muscled shoulders. How did he have the perfect number of fine dark hairs peeking from his unbuttoned collar?
“I’m ready for some peace and quiet,” Quinn said. It wasn’t untrue. The wedding planner would ensure the guests enjoyed dinner and dancing as scheduled, but Quinn was an introvert at the best of times. “I’ll get a room up the road.”
“I told you, if you pack her bag—” his voice was silky and lethal as he poked the overstuffed bag hanging off her shoulder “—I’ll take it to Eden.”
“No need. My rideshare is here.” She could see a driver craning his neck and waved.
“So you are meeting her.”
“Yes. Alone. Not because she was kidnapped—” Micah always assumed the worst where Remy Sylvain was concerned “—but because she doesn’t want to deal with you and your elevated testosterone right now.”
The car stopped. Quinn leaned down to the open window. “Dave?”
“Niagara Falls?” the driver asked.
“Yes, thanks.” She started to open the door, but Micah wrapped his arm around her, pinning her to his side. His size and heat enveloped her as he kept her bent.
She hated how much she loved the feel of his strength as he overpowered her. She could have screamed and elbowed him and made a terrific scene, but he made her weak simply by touching her. She wanted to close her eyes and curl into him and turn her face into his neck. She wanted to kiss his throat and make him groan.
This hold he had on her, both physical and metaphorical, was maddening. It always had been.
“Did you say you’re going to Niagara Falls?”
“Yes,” the oblivious driver replied. “Are you joining—”
“No. Don’t bill her for the trip.” Micah dropped a pair of hundred-dollar bills through the window and straightened, pulling her back so the driver could inch his way out of the lot.
“You don’t have the right to manhandle me simply because—”
“Are you coming with me?” He released her and walked toward a black BMW.
Quinn knew him too well to stand there and shout at his back. She hurried after him and threw herself into the passenger seat, letting out a huff of annoyance as she buckled.
“He left her at a hotel?” Micah neatly backed out of his spot.
“That’s what he said he would do,” Quinn said stiffly.
An hour ago, Quinn had realized Eden was no longer at the vineyard. She had called her and Eden had been in Remy’s car when she picked up. Quinn and Micah had played tug-of-war over Quinn’s phone, Micah performing his overprotective brother act, demanding Remy return Eden to the vineyard. Eden had hung up on them.
A short while ago, Quinn had picked up a text from Eden, telling her she would leave Quinn’s keys with the concierge at a five-star hotel in Niagara Falls. Whether Eden was staying there, with or without Remy, was a mystery to be solved when Quinn arrived.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to meet her?” Micah cut off an SUV and darted onto the main road. He accelerated hard enough she was pressed into her bucket seat.
“Because, in my perfect world, Eden and I will have a good old-fashioned slumber party complete with cheap wine and lots of complaining about men. She just got dumped at the altar, Micah. She doesn’t need you showing up to offer I-told-you-sos.”
“I won’t voice any. I’m the one who gave Sylvain the benefit of the doubt, trusting he wouldn’t sabotage his best friend’s wedding. I should have insisted Hunter choose a different man to stand up for him.”
“As much as I love hearing you admit you’re wrong, you’re giving yourself too much credit. Hunter has a baby with another woman. I don’t see how Remy is at fault for that.”
“He wasn’t shocked when that woman turned up. He must have had something to do with her crashing the wedding.”
“Do you really—” He was so infuriating. “Remy recognized her because he brought Hunter here last summer for a golf weekend. I heard Hunter’s sister, Vienna, tell Eden that.”
“So Sylvain knew who she was.”
“Sure, but are you seriously postulating that Remy arranged this entire thing? That would mean he consulted a psychic last year who predicted that Hunter would meet Eden and decide to propose to her. Then he preemptively took Hunter away weeks prior to that meeting, sabotaged his condoms and somehow forced Hunter to engage in relations with a waitress. You’re right. Remy Sylvain is an evil genius.”
Micah’s look swung toward her with the weight of a broad sword.
“Hunter is the reason this wedding fell apart,” Quinn stated firmly. “Look at the Waverly history. Turning a society wedding into a train wreck is a regular Saturday afternoon for them.” Quinn felt a sting of remorse at besmirching Vienna with that brush. She liked her, but it didn’t make the statement less true. “Eden doesn’t feel it now, but she’s lucky she’s not married to Hunter right now.”
“If you didn’t like him, you should have told me,” Micah said grittily. “Between us, we could have stopped her from taking it this far.”
“I am never going to gang up on your sister with you.” Eden was the most loyal friend Quinn had ever had. She would never betray her, not even for Micah.
