Page 67 of The Lovers (Echoes from the Past #1)

FIFTY-ONE

The room was aglow with the crimson haze from the dying fire and the golden light of candles that had burned down to shapeless stubs.

The hotel had grown quiet, the patrons having retired to their rooms and gone to bed.

The clock at a nearby church struck the midnight hour, but Quinn and Gabe were still awake, savoring their last night away.

They hadn’t done much more than make love, eat, sleep, and take a couple of walks, but it had been exactly what they needed, and neither one was looking forward to returning to real life and the news that Monday morning would bring.

Quinn lay in the crook of Gabe’s arm, her hair spilling over his chest and her legs intertwined with his.

She felt wonderfully content, but she couldn’t help but be aware of a restlessness in Gabe.

He’d been wonderfully happy for the past two days, but now that the end of their getaway was drawing near, something was eating away at him, and Quinn meant to find out what it was, but she loathed the idea of tarnishing the idyll of this moment.

Perhaps he’d tell her on the drive back, but Gabe couldn’t wait.

He carefully untangled himself from Quinn and sat up, looking down at her with an expression that instantly jolted her out of her somnolent state.

“Why?” he asked, his gaze intent on Quinn’s face.

“Why did you choose him? Surely you knew how I felt about you,” he said.

The anguish in his voice nearly broke Quinn’s heart.

She’d given herself to him body and soul, but he still couldn’t forget the hurt that she’d caused him all those years ago.

He needed closure before he could move forward .

Quinn sat up and covered her breasts with the duvet. She could make something up to pacify Gabe, but she intended to tell him the truth. He deserved that much, and truth be told, she’d asked herself the same question ever since finding out the truth of why Luke left her.

“I didn’t know how you felt, but I suspected,” she replied truthfully.

“Gabe, I was twenty-two, and a young twenty-two at that. I’d never had a relationship that lasted longer than a couple of weeks.

Luke was easygoing and fun. He made me feel light and carefree, whereas you…

” Quinn shook her head in wonder at the way Gabe made her feel even back then.

“You had an intensity simmering in you that would have burned me to cinders. Your love would have been all-consuming, all-demanding. You frightened me, Gabe, and I instinctively knew that I wasn’t ready for you.

I wasn’t emotionally mature enough to be your equal, so it would have never worked between us, not then. ”

“And now? I can’t lose you again,” he said. “I won’t recover.”

Quinn reached out and took his hand, smiling up at him. No one who knew Gabriel Russell would believe that the strong, competent, urbane man they were acquainted with could be this vulnerable in the face of love.

“Gabe, I’m a grown woman now, and I knew what I agreed to when I came away with you.

I would never toy with you, knowing how you feel about me.

See, what attracted me to Luke is what ultimately drove us apart.

I know you, Gabe. You are not a player, you’re a man who sets his heart on a woman and loves her until the end.

You want to possess and protect, worship and be adored in return.

I’m ready for you now, if you’ll have me. ”

Gabe’s mouth stretched into a joyous smile, his eyes sparkling with relief.

He leaned forward and kissed Quinn gently.

This moment wasn’t about sex, it was about something much deeper than that.

The past was now behind them, and the future stretched ahead with infinite promise.

Quinn took Gabe’s face in her hands and kissed him back.

“Yours,” she whispered. “Forever yours.”