Page 369 of Not Over You

She scanned the page.

Quinlan lives in Manhattan where his company headquarters are located. A fiercely private man, Quinlan is unmarried with no known offspring. He is in a relationship with Brienne Forrester, a criminal defense lawyer originally from Upstate New York. The couple maintain separate residences.

An arrow pierced her chest, and she clutched her blouse, taking several deep breaths until the pain wore off. So she was his girlfriend. He was in a relationship. He was happy.

She snapped the laptop lid closed and tossed it into the space beside her.

The time had come to bury the memories of Zane Quinlan for good.

CHAPTER 7

“What a night.” Brie balanced on the hall table and kicked off her shoes. They thudded against the baseboards, and she left them there, padding into her living room where she collapsed onto the couch with a groan.

Zane followed her, the emptiness in his stomach that’d taken up residence since he’d left the restaurant growing with every passing second. Could the woman who’d caught his attention have been Lori? Was she living in New York? Was she happy? Was her companion also her husband?

Was he the same man she’d left him for?

He rubbed knuckles over his sternum. Pain he assumed he’d left behind all those years ago roared back with a vengeance, ghosts he thought he’d long since put to bed reappearing without permission.

It wasn’t Lori. It couldn’t have been her. There were plenty of women in New York with blonde hair and a slim build. Hell, for all he knew she might be a brunette now, or a redhead. She could have—

“Zane?”

He blinked and refocused on his girlfriend who smiled up at him and patted the spare seat beside her.

“Ready for your birthday gift?”

His stomach dropped. Sex. The very last thing on his mind. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. Hurting Brie by rejecting her was the very last thing he wanted to do, but he couldn’t force what he didn’t feel.

“Do you mind if we take a rain check?”

He braced himself.

“Oh, thank god.” Her head flopped against the couch. “I have a ton of work to do. I take a few hours off and my emails explode.” She reached for her phone. “You remember that case I told you about? The one with the father who thinks he can buy his son out of trouble?” She didn’t wait for a response. “Well, he’s sent me about ten emails in the last hour, freaking out about something or other, and if I leave it until morning to deal, I’ll find him camped outside my office, and I can do without the hassle. You can stay over if you like, but do you mind sleeping on the couch? I need to sprawl.”

He blinked several times. Wow. Hadn’t expected that. Far from being hurt at his rejection, she couldn’t wait to get rid of him.

“I think I’m gonna take off.” He thumbed toward the door. “Busy day tomorrow.”

“Oh, if you’re sure.” She managed to put her phone down long enough to stand and peck him on the cheek. “Call me tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” His voice rasped, and he cleared his throat. “I will.”

She saw him to the door. He’d barely stepped outside when she closed it behind him. He scratched his cheek, shaking his head in despair. Jesus Christ. What a fucking night.

Spots of rain dotted his face, the looming fall bringing with it inclement weather. Zane raised the collar on his jacket and made a dash for his car. The heavens opened as he dove inside, the rain pelting the roof and the windshield. He started the engine and, leaving the artistic district of Dumbo behind, turned the car toward the Brooklyn Bridge and back toward Manhattan.

As he drove, his mind turned to his relationship, such that it was. He understood how all-consuming Brie’s job was and what her career meant to her. Hell, he felt the same about his company, but he knew where to draw the line. He understood that time away from the daily grind was important, that balance was the key to happiness. Brie, though, seemed to have a very different idea, and every day they drifted further and further apart. Was she even aware of the shift in their relationship these last few months?

He stopped at a set of traffic lights and closed his eyes, but instead of imagining Brie, it was Lori who filled his thoughts. Seeing that stranger who reminded him of his first love had fucked with his mind. It was ridiculous. Months went by without him thinking of her too much, and yet one sighting of someone with the same color hair and build as her had tipped him off balance.

The honk of a horn jerked him back to the present, and he held up a hand in apology, then pressed the gas pedal. The car lurched forward, the wipers going double time to clear the deluge from the windshield. Headlights blinded him, cutting through the rain as he made his way across the bridge to his home in lower Manhattan. By the time he drove into the underground garage at his apartment building, the clock had ticked over into another day.

A couple were waiting for the elevator. It arrived as Zane approached. The giggling twosome stumbled inside, their hands all over each other. Zane entered and pressed the button for the twenty-seventh floor, then turned his back to give them some privacy. Not that they seemed to care either way.

When was the last time he’d been unable to keep his hands off Brie, or she him? However hard he searched, nothing came to mind. He wasn’t sure they’d ever been so desperate to get inside each other that they’d dry-humped against the back wall of an elevator. Brie was the epitome of a professional woman with an eye on smashing through every glass ceiling in existence. Reputation in her field was everything, and giving in to one’s baser instincts while in public might land her in hot water with some judge or other.

She was a brilliant lawyer with lofty ambitions. A wonderful person with a kind heart, and he loved her. He did. But was their kind of love enough?

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