“I want to see where I came from. It’s a small country,” she said with a careless shrug, “but large enough for us to stay out of each other’s way. If that’s what you want.”

“I want you back.” The words were out before he could stop them. He hissed out a curse, jammed his fisted hands into his pockets. So he’d said it, he thought, humbled himself with the words and the needs. And the hell with it. “I want you back,” he repeated.

“For what?”

“For—” She baffled him. He dragged his hands free to rake them through his hair. “For what do you think? I’ll take my place in the family, and I want you with me.”

“It’s hardly that simple.”

He started to speak, something ill-advised and much too heated, he realized, and pulled himself back. Control might be shaky—in the name of Finn, just look at her—but it was still there. “All right, I hurt you. I’m sorry for it. It was never my intention, and I apologize.”

“Well then, you’re sorry. Let me just jump into your arms.”

He blinked, deeply shocked at the biting tone. “What do you want me to say? I made a mistake—more than one. I don’t like admitting it.”

“You’ll have to, straight out. You took your time deciding if I’d suit you—and your purposes. Once you decided what those purposes would be. When you didn’t know about my bloodline, you considered if you should take me and get out of the duty you weren’t sure you wanted. And when you did know, then it was a matter of deciding if I’d suit you if you did accept it.”

“It wasn’t that black-and-white.” He let out a breath, admitting that sometimes the gray areas didn’t matter. “But yes, more or less. It would have been a big step either way.”

“For me as well,” she tossed back, eyes firing. “But how much did you consider that?”

She whirled away, and had him rushing after her before he’d realized he’d moved. “Don’t go.”

She hadn’t intended to, just to pace off her temper, but the quick desperation in the two words had her turning slowly.

“For pity’s sake, Rowan, don’t leave me again. Do you know what it was for me to come for you that morning and see you were gone? Just gone.” He turned away, scrubbing his hands over his face as he struggled with the pain. “The house empty of you, and still full of you. I was going to go after you, right then and there, drag you back where I wanted you. Where I needed you.”

“But you didn’t.”