Page 52 of The Lovers
“Why?” Quinn goaded him. “Why does my liking him bother you?”
“Because you are smitten with him, and the feeling seems to be mutual.”
Gabe set down his cup and sprang to his feet, unable to remain immobile any longer. He paced in front of the fireplace for a moment before rounding on Quinn, who was watching him over the rim of her mug. “Quinn, I broke things off with Eve as soon as I heard that you and Luke had split up. I wanted my chance. I’ve loved you since the day you tripped over that boulder and fell into my arms at the dig. I wanted to ask you out right there and then, but I hesitated, afraid that my behavior would appear unprofessional. That moment of hesitation cost me dearly. By the end of the dig, you were with Luke, and the rest, as they say, is history. Quinn, I’m not going to let another chance slip away. I want us to be together, and I’ll be damned if I let Rhys Morgan swoop in and take you away from me.”
“He can’t take me away from you because I’m not yours,” Quinn spat out. “I don’t belong to anyone. Not even to the man I thought I loved for eight years. Did you know, Gabe? Did you know that he left me for someone else?”
Seeing Gabe’s expression told her everything she needed to know, and she felt fury well up inside her. She wanted to hurt Luke, but Luke was gone, and Gabe was right there, ready to take the punishment.
“How could you?” she cried. “You call yourself my friend. You say that you care about me, but you stood by and allowed me to be lied to and humiliated, and you said nothing.”
“I didn’t want to be the one to hurt you,” Gabe replied, desperate for understanding. “It wasn’t my place, Quinn, and I thought he’d be man enough to tell you the truth himself.”
“But he wasn’t, and I spent the past few months agonizing over what I’d done wrong and why Luke just walked out on me without so much as a word of explanation. You could have spared me that hurt, but you kept silent and watched me suffer. I had to hear it from Monica Fielding, of all people.”
“Monica told you?” Gabe asked, clearly surprised. He never quite understood the depth of Monica’s animosity toward Quinn, having never been a target of her displeasure himself.
Quinn nodded. She couldn’t recall the conversation with Monica without feeling physically ill. She’d stopped by the institute over the weekend to collect some papers from her office and thought she’d check outThe Diary of Samuel Pepysfrom the institute library. She’d read it before, of course, but thought that it might be helpful in painting a more comprehensive picture of life during the plague for Rhys. Quinn was just coming out of her office when she saw Monica Fielding striding down the corridor, a stack of papers under her arm.
“Quinn,” she exclaimed, her mouth stretching into her customary sneer. They had been friends once, a very long time ago, but professional jealousy got in the way of that, and Monica had never forgiven Quinn for outshining her in archeological circles. Unlike Quinn, Monica was a born gladiator. Everything became a fight to the death rather than just friendly competition. Quinn’s recent success was just another nail in the coffin for Monica, who’d failed to publish anything noteworthy in several years.
“Monica,” Quinn countered. “What are you doing here on a Saturday?” Monica was the last person Quinn wanted to talk to at the moment, but it seemed rude to just push past her, so she resigned herself to chatting for a few minutes.
“I have a ton of papers to mark, and I simply can’t concentrate at home. Mark can’t go for five whole minutes without distracting me in some way, pleasant ways though they might be,” she said with a smug smile, reminding Quinn that she was happily married. “Sorry to hear about you and Luke,” Monica went on hurriedly, seeing that Quinn had no desire to continue the conversation. “I do hope you’re all right, darling. Must have been quite a shock after all these years to find yourself single again.”
“I’m fine. Really,” Quinn replied. It seemed nothing stayed private for long.
“And so you should be. It’ll never last between them, you mark my words. He’ll come crawling back,” Monica said, putting on a false show of support, her eyes searching Quinn’s to see if she knew about the affair. “Although she’s a fetching little thing, I’ll give her that, even for an American. Father as rich as Croesus. Owns a string of car dealerships on the East Coast.”
Quinn felt a wave of nausea as Monica’s words sank in. Monica was the proverbial snake in the grass, but she was a historian and had great respect for facts. She wouldn’t stoop toinventing an affair, not even for the momentary satisfaction of wounding Quinn. If she said that Luke left Quinn for another woman, then she knew so for certain, and that meant that everyone else at the institute knew as well.
“You did know, didn’t you?” Monica inquired with a sad smile. “I do hope I haven’t let the cat out of the bag, but Luke had been squiring that little hussy around town for months. He wasn’t exactly what’d you call discreet. I figured someone must have told you by now.” She meant Gabe, and Quinn felt as if she might actually be sick. Had Gabe known? Quinn couldn’t imagine that Monica wouldn’t have mentioned it to Gabe in passing even if he hadn’t. Monica was delighting in this. Quinn might be better known in academic circles, but her personal life was in shambles, and Monica was thrilled.
“If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate. Nothing raises the sprits like a night out with friends. Us girls need to stick together,” Monica purred.
“Yes, thank you, Monica. A night out with friends would be just the thing. I’ll call a few and see if they’re available,” Quinn replied and walked away, leaving Monica smiling stupidly.
She’d confide in Monica when hell froze over, and maybe not even then. Quinn strode down the corridor and out the front door, forgetting her plan to stop by the library. She needed to get out of the building and away from Monica, whose eyes bored into Quinn’s back as she walked away. Quinn had pushed the feelings of hurt and betrayal to the back of her mind, unable to cope with the knowledge that Luke had not only left her but had been carrying on behind her back for months. And now all that hurt came pouring out, having found its mark in Gabe.
“I was waiting for the right time,” Gabe exclaimed, his gaze pleading with her as he ran a hand through his hair, making it stand on end.
“And you think this is it?” Quinn cried as unbidden tears spilled down her cheeks.
Quinn sank down on the sofa and picked up a cushion, holding it against her body as if protecting herself from an attack. She wanted to run and hide in a place where she felt safe and knew whom she could trust. She thought she’d trusted Gabe, but he lied to her just as Luke had and was now using her pain to serve his own ends. Quinn’s hurt bubbled over, startling Gabe with the intensity of her anger.
“Get out, Gabe,” she exclaimed. “Just leave. I can’t deal with this right now. You might have loved me all this time, but that didn’t stop you from being with other women. Did you tell them you loved them? Did you make promises to them just as Luke made promises to me? I gave him my love and my trust, and he threw them back in my face. How do I know that you won’t do the same once you’ve tired of me? And then I will lose not only my closest friend but possibly the job I love, because working with you after that might prove impossible,” Quinn cried.
“Is that what you really think of me?” Gabe asked, his voice dangerously low. “You think that once I’ve shagged you I’ll get sick of you and move on? You think you’ll just be another notch on my belt?”
“I don’t know what I think. I thought I loved Luke. I thought he was going to propose to me when I returned from Jerusalem. More the fool me, because he clearly never planned his future around me. I also believed that you were my friend, but you clearly had an agenda of your own all along, and now that Luke’s out of the picture, you expect me to fall into your arms and fulfill whatever fantasy you’ve created of us being together. Don’t you dare put this kind of pressure on me,” Quinn exclaimed as she threw aside the cushion and leaped off the sofa, staring down a stunned Gabe. “I don’t owe you my love, and I’m a big girl. I candecide whom I want to be with, and if that happens to be Rhys, who incidentally has shown no interest in me, then it will be Rhys. Now, I’ll say good night.”
Gabe opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. He looked so stricken that Quinn wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, but she could see that she had wounded him deeply. He’d bared his soul to her, and she threw it on the floor and stomped on it.
“Gabe, I’m sorry,” she muttered.
“It’s fine. I’ll see myself out. Thank you for your honesty, Quinn. I won’t be troubling you again.”
“Gabe!” she cried, but Gabe had already grabbed his jacket off the hook and strode out the door into the rain, slamming the door behind him with soul-crushing finality.
