Somewhere in the middle of obsessing Jo sensed that the crowd in the Vancouver International Airport arrivals hall had thinned. The room was noticeably quieter. She stuck her head out from behind the pillar and scanned the room.

Where is he? He should be...

Her heart recognized her lover before she did. It jammed upwards into her throat, causing her to stumble as she stepped away from her hiding place. Only then did her brain register that her French lover was real, and standing in the middle of the room, looking abstractedly around him.

He was wearing a dark wool sports jacket over a pale shirt. Jeans. Loafers. He hadn't shaved and his dark hair was longer than she remembered, and rumpled. He looked amazing, her body told her with a spike of adrenaline.

But he wasn't alone. A stylish blonde with a trolley of luggage stood beside him, talking, searching for something in her over-sized purse. She found what she was looking for--a business card, it seemed--and thrust it at a bewildered-looking Luc.

Jo could hear the woman's words, now. "If your friend doesn't show up, give me a call. I'll be in town for the week." Batting her lashes she smiled up at him as he fidgeted with his laptop bag. He didn't seem to know what to do with her card.

Automatically, Jo snapped into action and charged towards them, stopping a few inches short of Luc. He and the blonde turned to look at her. The woman's face showed fear, Jo smugly noted. Luc's showed nothing.

Nothing!

Jo stared into his beautiful dark blue eyes. She saw no love there. She saw no longing. But she didn't detect any fury, either, and without thinking she grabbed the lapels of his jacket and roughly jerked him towards her in a clumsy embrace. Her face burrowed into his chest, and she breathed in the scent that had the power to pull her right back into the cult's grip. The power to destroy her world all over again.

It was exactly where she wanted to be.