This isn't goodbye, Faith. The words skated across her skin and she fought down the urge to look over her shoulder at the tall handsome Scotsman she walked away from.

"Faith, wait!" Sean's voice reached her and she realized she'd moved past him as well.

Without any intention of waiting for him, she kept on up the street and as she rounded the corner Faith broke into a run. She headed toward the one place she knew Sean wouldn't find her, for he didn't know where it was. As she ran to the edge of the rock, she gasped for breath. There was no need for her to clear anything up with Sean, he'd made his bed and he could lie in it. The thing that was concerning her now was her reaction to seeing Rowan Kilgour again. And his words of that she knew why she did what she did.

He's right. You know why you allowed him to offer comfort. She couldn't explain it, it was like when he touched her for the first time in a long time she felt complete. Like he was the other half of her soul.

"That's just crazy," she muttered. "It makes no sense at all why a man I haven't seen since I was a sophomore in high school could have that affect on me."

"If it helps, you have the same affect on me, Faith," a deep voice flowed up from behind her and wrapped her in its sensual softness.

Faith didn't jump, it was as if her body had already known he was there. "Seventeen years is a long time, Rowan."

"I know," he said in a graveled voice. "Trust me, leannan, I am well aware of how long it's been."

Squeezing her eyes tight, Faith wet her lips with her tongue then opened her eyes. She refused to turn around, unsure if this was just another dream or a cruel hoax. "What do you want, Rowan?"

"You know what I want. The same thing I wanted when I first laid eyes upon you. You, Faith. I want you."

He said it with such finality and conviction, for a moment, she almost believed him. "Then why didn't you come get me?"