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There had been other news that hadn’t made him quite as happy. He was still digesting it. His mother Mae had just gotten engaged to Olivia’s father, Jack. Although his younger sister Sadie had hinted of a budding relationship between the two of them over the last few years, Hunter had always scoffed at the idea of a romance between his mother and Jack. He couldn't imagine his mother ever loving another man as thoroughly as she'd loved his father. Her recent engagement had proved him wrong, showing him very clearly that his mother was now committed to another man.

He wondered what Olivia thought of this late in life relationships between their folks. Olivia. The thought of her came to him like the sweet smell of honeysuckle on a spring night. Sweet, naive Olivia, who had offered to come with him on the day he left Savannah. She had practically been on her knees begging him.

He'd wanted to bring her along with him badly. Hunter had ached to take her in his arms and tell her that he loved her. He'd been tempted to hold her close and forget all the reasons he was running away. In that moment he'd wanted to be with Olivia more than he'd ever wanted anything in his life. It had taken every ounce of self-preservation to ignore the wild pulsing of his heart.

He'd known without a doubt that if he'd told Olivia he loved her, if he'd allowed himself that one pure moment of abandon, he would never be able to leave town and make his mark in the world. And leaving had been his destiny, from the moment he'd been old enough to understand that all roads in town led to Jack Renault and his almighty empire.

Olivia hadn’t taken his rejection lightly, though he had given in to his desire and planted a tender kiss on her lips, the memory of which had kept him warm on many a cold night. Although they'd kissed dozens of times before, this kiss was different from all the others. It had been a magical kiss, filled with all their unspoken feelings. She'd enjoyed it as much as he had, he remembered. She'd leaned into him, burrowing herself against his chest. He'd brought an abrupt stop to the kiss after he'd been struck with the realization that the kiss could go on forever and he'd happily die that way. He couldn't allow himself any distractions from his ultimate goal – leaving Savannah behind in his rear view mirror.

If he lived to be one hundred, he would never forget the way Olivia had pummeled him with her fists and cursed him for all she was worth. “Go! Run away! But don’t think for one minute I’ll be sitting around waiting for you, Hunter Rawlings!”

It had been so long ago, and yet he remembered every moment of their last meeting. It was indelibly imprinted on his soul. For some inexplicable reason, he now found himself on an isolated country road leading to Riverbend, the Renaults’ estate. The road was parallel to the Savannah River, which wound its way all the way to the Appalachian Mountains. Hunter had driven here on auto pilot, his impulses leading him to this destination rather than his brain.

In his mind there was nothing that symbolized achievement more than the Renault mansion. It stood like a beacon of light in the darkness, a pristine symbol of everything that was shiny and golden in this town. As a child he'd believed that there couldn’t be a finer home than Riverbend in the entire world, and if you were lucky enough to sleep under its roof you were destined to lead a charmed life.

Was Olivia leading a charmed life? he wondered. Was she still the fairytale princess come to life? Sweet. Mesmerizing. Stunning beyond measure.

Hunter gazed at the house, nostalgia creeping into his veins as the massive white colonial style structure leapt out to greet him. He stopped dead in his tracks. The Renault mansion didn’t look the same to him. Not by a longshot! It didn’t look quite as humongous as he’d believed it to be. After all these years, it looked worse for wear. As a man of immeasurable wealth, Hunter immediately noticed the chipped paint, the weathered roof and the subtle signs of neglect. Although he knew Jack Renault’s fortune had dwindled considerably in the last few years, it was still a shock to his system to see Riverbend in all its faded glory. What had he expected? he chided himself. It wasn’t as if time had stood still in the years since he'd left. Life had rolled on.

He swung one of his long legs over the side of the motorcycle and stood up, pausing to stretch out all the kinks in his lean physique. He hadn’t stopped for food or a bathroom break since he hit a dingy roadside diner in Virginia, and his stomach was growling for some of Mama’s down home cooking. Collard greens, fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, peach cobbler – his mouth was salivating at the mere thought of his welcome home meal.

Hunter ambled over to the spot where Jack Renault had caught him red-handed with his delectable Virginia ham, surprising himself by remembering the exact location. His lips twisted wryly as he recalled the vast range of emotions he'd felt in that one moment in time. Shame. Fear. Embarrassment. To this day, Hunter couldn’t stand the smell or taste of ham. The memories of that night came flooding back to him all at once, as strong and potent as if he had pilfered the Renaults’ ham yesterday rather than sixteen years earlier.

He smirked at the memory of who he used to be – the hungry, resentful, pint-sized know it all who'd raged at the world and stolen a ham to sustain his family. In some ways he was still that little kid on the inside – hungry, hard-headed and determined to rule the world. Although he h

adn't made good on his promise to own Savannah, he'd recently taken major steps to make an indelible mark, a move that would cause shock waves to reverberate through town. And when it was all said and done, the gnawing hole in his gut would be filled up by the culmination of a childhood dream. One day soon, he vowed, his journey would come full circle.

“Rascal, come back here! You’re soaking wet!” The soft, honeyed voice floated to him from across the yard, immediately causing a handful of goose bumps to pop up on his arms. Hunter’s gut tightened painfully as the familiar voice caressed his senses.

Olivia! Hunter turned towards the sound of her voice, a rush of emotion enveloping him as he watched the one that got away walk back into his life.

“Beauty that radiates from the inside never fades. It just intensifies.” Hunter Rawlings

Chapter Two

All grown up, Olivia was even more beautiful than he could ever have imagined. She was stunning, Hunter noted, with a beautiful face and shapely figure. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a man’s white oxford shirt. Hunter took a moment to soak in Olivia’s beauty. He let out a low whistle as he gaped at Olivia’s heart-shaped face, her high cheekbones and the brown-hazel eyes flecked with gold specks.

Hunter wanted to shout out an Hallelujah to the man upstairs for making sure she had ripened into a beautiful Georgia peach. Her dark hair tumbled about her shoulders, the onyx locks waywardly covering her eyes so that she still had no idea of his presence as she stumbled across the yard, one hand wrapped around the collar of a feisty chocolate lab. Although Rascal couldn’t be any more than a few months old, he was giving Olivia a run for her money as she attempted to rein him in.

He watched in fascination as Olivia brushed the hair from out of her eyes and made eye contact with him for the first time in almost ten years. Her perfect, bow shaped lips opened in surprise, and her beautiful eyes widened in shock as the realization hit her that the black sheep of the Rawlings family had come home.

“Hunter!” Olivia let go of the lab’s collar and came barreling towards him at breakneck speed, surprising him by throwing herself at him like a rocket soaring into orbit. Rascal took that opportunity to scamper away and dash towards a side entrance to the house. Olivia wrapped her arms around his neck and he inhaled her sweet scents – lavender soap with a hint of vanilla and just the slightest touch of peppermint. Hunter inhaled deeply. There was no mistaking the fact that Olivia had blossomed over the last ten years. Her beauty had morphed into utter radiance.

If she only knew how many times he'd reminisced about kissing those ruby lips, he mused, it would make her blush all the way into next week. A rush of disappointment flooded through him as she released her stranglehold on his neck and moved backwards a few steps away from him. Hunter noticed the way her hands shook slightly as she once again smoothed her hair back away from her face. He wondered if Olivia was nervous or if she had pulled away from him for another reason altogether.

“Sorry! I don’t know what came over me,” Olivia said in an apologetic voice. “I didn’t mean to smother you.”

Hunter couldn’t help but grin as he remembered how nice it had felt to be treated to such a warm welcome. Olivia had absolutely nothing to apologize for. He’d enjoyed every moment. “And here I thought you were fixing to punch me in the stomach,” he teased.

“W-Why would I do a thing like that?” she asked with a nervous laugh.

“Maybe 'cause the last time we laid eyes on each other you were spitting mad that I was leaving. If I remember correctly, you called me every name in the book and then some.”

“We were just kids then. A lot has changed since then,” Olivia said calmly as she met his gaze. “I’ve matured.” Hunter reached out and pushed a stray lock of hair away from her face, his fingertips grazing her temple as the silky strands swirled through his fingers. For a moment their eyes locked and he fought against an overwhelming desire to bend his head down and taste her sweet ruby lips, to bask in her honeyed perfection. She tilted her head upwards and stared into his eyes, a flash of awareness sparkling in her eyes. Hunter leaned in towards her, pausing to inhale her perfumed scent as his nose grazed against the nape of her neck, his lips dangerously close to hers as he lifted his head and gazed intently into her eyes. Just one kiss, he told himself.

He shook his head to rid himself of these crazy thoughts. What in the world had come over him? Olivia was a gorgeous woman, one who'd always held a special place in his heart. For Hunter, she was his what if, his might have been. What if he hadn’t left home ten years ago? What if he'd stayed…for Olivia? But he hadn’t! It was important for him to keep that fact in perspective. He'd left Savannah and stayed gone for ten long years. Besides, he reminded himself rationally, if he hadn’t left he wouldn’t be the man he was today – respected, powerful, successful and wealthy beyond his wildest dreams.

He'd come back to this town for one reason and one reason only, he reminded himself. To show the people of Savannah that he'd made something of himself and to create a legacy for the Rawlings family in town. Jax and Callie’s wedding had provided the perfect opportunity for his return to town, and he intended to forge a trail through Savannah like a comet blazing to Earth.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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