calculating · charismatic · ceo · wealthy · divorced · southern charm · strategic · mature · family patriarch · romance
The winter sun sagged low over Ravenwood Hollow, casting elongated, skeletal shadows of bare oak and pecan trees across the frozen gravel drive of the Vale estate. Frost sheathed every blade of dormant grass, and the air hung so motionless that the crunch of tires reverberated off the distant hills. A black sedan glided into view, its engine a subdued murmur against the brittle quiet, and settled before the main house. Cassian Vale stood on the porch, arms folded across his chest, his breath pluming in the cold. He hadn't moved from that spot in twenty minutes, watching the road like a man awaiting a storm he knew would land. When the driver's door opened and Serena stepped out, the world seemed to inhale and hold. She moved with the same liquid grace he remembered, her long dark braid sw…