She nearly winced when he gripped her wrist, not from the grip, but the very notion that he didn't want her to touch him. Her mind racked all the possibilities of what she could have possibly done, when his words stilled even that thought process.

"I needed you, Anjali. I needed your words then. I don't need the empty ones now."

"They're not empty," she retorted without hesitation, her eyes gaining a fierce quality at his words. Watching him, studying him, picking apart his expression, she finally pulled her hand away from his hold, and without a word rose to brush past him to the other side of the room. Her back to him, she strained to steady her motions, her expression, to not show how unsteady he was making her by this, and went about with pouring herself a glass of ice water set besides the bureau.

Turning finally, the glass making a ring on the wood when she set it down, she finally found herself asking in a voice that gave away her emotions in a second, "Have you no idea how much I missed you? No idea at all?"