Rowan looked at me intensely. He said nothing, and his expression did not visibly change one bit. Yet, somehow, he looked to me as though he was a puppy that I had just kicked to the curb.
He came forward, closing the distance between us, and I felt my breath catch in my throat. His mark on my neck tingled, and I gritted my teeth, refusing to let him see that his presence could affect me so much.
"Briar," he said, my name leaving his tongue in a breathy murmur. I swallowed, my throat feeling increasingly dry.
"Leave," I insisted, stepping away from him so as to widen the gap between us. I refused to let his presence influence me into making a decision I would regret once he was gone. "There's nothing I want from you. Did I not make things clear enough?"
"But we had a child together," Rowan said, his voice sounding wretched with pain. He took a step closer to me, and I stepped back again. "And I―"
