But he did need it. And as she drifted toward him, he filled his eyes with her. He allowed his heart to fill with the old love, his loins to fill with the old lust, his mind to fill with the precious memories.

Hausen said, "Herr Hood?"

Hausen's voice seemed muffled and soft, as though it were coming from a hole far, far below him.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm not sure," Hood replied. His own voice seemed to be coming from that hole.

Hood didn't take his eyes off Nancy. She didn't wave, she didn't speak. She didn't look away and she didn't break her poised, sensual stride.

"It's Nancy," Hood finally told his companion.

"How did she find you here?" Hansen wondered aloud.

The woman arrived. Hood couldn't even imagine what he looked like to her. He was shocked, open-mouthed, teary, his head moving slowly from side to side. Hood was no silver knight, he was sure of that.

There was a vague look of amusement on Nancy's face-- the right side of her mouth was pulled up slightly-- but it changed quickly to that wide, knee-weakening smile he knew so well.

"Hello," she said quietly.

The voice had matured, along with the face. There were lines to the sides of the blue eyes, on her once-smooth forehead, along the upper lip-- that beautifully curved upper lip, which rested on a slightly bee-stung lower lip. But they were not detracting, those lines. To the contrary. Hood found them almost unbearably sexy. They said that she had lived, loved, fought, survived, and was still vital and unbowed and alive.

She also looked fitter than she had ever been. Her five-foot-six-inch body looked sculpted, and Hood could imagine her having gotten into aerobics or jogging or swimming. Gotten into it and throttled it, made it do exactly what she wanted to her body. She had that kind of discipline, that kind of will.

Obviously, he thought with a flash of bitterness. She was able to walk out on me.

Nancy was no longer wearing the cherry-red lipstick he remembered so well. She had on a calmer watermelon color. She was also wearing a hint of sky-blue eye shadow-- that was new-- and small diamond earrings. He fought a nearly losing battle to put his arms around her, to crush her to him from cheek to thighs.

He settled for: "Hello, Nancy." It seemed an inadequate thing to say after all this time, though it beat the epithets and accusations which came to mind. And as one who had been martyred by love, he found the saintly minimalism of it appealing.

Nancy's eyes shifted to Hood's right. She offered Hausen her hand.

"Nancy Jo Bosworth," she said to Hausen.

"Richard Hausen," he said.

"I know," she replied. "I recognized you."