LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter One

      Three months later...

      Noah downshifted and maneuvered onto the road leading to the Wickham Falls Bed and Breakfast. He’d completed the renderings for the homes, surrounded by age-old trees that he planned to build in the valley. The drawings included the retention of much of the natural plant life to blend harmoniously with the existing landscape.

      He’d managed to keep busy since his last trip to the coal-mining region with a project in DC. It was the first time WDG had put up luxury condos in the capital city, and most of the units in the twelve-story high-rise were sold before completion. It had taken supreme willpower for Noah not to take a side trip to Wickham Falls with the hope that he would run into Viviana. There was something about her that made him less confident than he normally was around women. Even though he’d wanted to ask Giles about her, he’d decided it was best he not let his cousin know that his interest in Viviana Remington went beyond business.

      Noah was definitely not a novice when it came to interacting with women.

      Whether subtle or bold, he knew with a single glance whether or not to approach a woman to let her know that he was interested in her, but that hadn’t happened with Viviana. She’d met his eyes and then ignored him as if he did not exist. To say she had deflated his confidence was an understatement.

      He had been tempted to ask Giles’s wife, Mya, about Viviana because she had grown up in Wickham Falls but then changed his mind once he realized he would have to return to wait for the town board to approve his building application. And when he’d informed Giles that he was coming to Wickham Falls for an extended stay, Giles had invited him to stay with him, his wife and toddler daughter, but Noah declined the invitation, preferring instead to live at the bed-and-breakfast to get to know Viviana better.

      Again, Noah was overwhelmed with the natural splendor of the Mountain State. There were tree-covered mountains, lush valleys waterfalls, as well as rapids, lakes, rivers and primordial forest, which was nirvana for hunters and fishermen. He didn’t hunt, but he did fish. There was nothing more exciting to Noah than fishing off the side of a boat and catching dinner.

      Viviana had said she’d needed to sell the land to make repairs to her home, and as Noah drove up the path leading to the magnificent mansion, his practiced eye immediately saw the changes. The house sported a new coat of paint; the black shutters framing tall energy-saving windows were also new. When he’d first come to the home that the locals called The Falls House, he recognized the design was modeled on architecture found in Barbados. He’d seen many island antebellum homes that were built on raised basements to catch the breeze, but it was odd to see the style in West Virginia where heat and humidity did not equal those areas farther south.

      He slowed to less than five miles an hour when he saw a tall, slender man with a long, snow-white ponytail come out of the house with Viviana. With wide eyes, Noah stared at her as she embraced the man before he got into a late-model, gray pickup and started the engine. Maneuvering over to the side of the road, he let the man drive past him. Their eyes had met for a millisecond, yet it was long enough for Noah to surmise he was Viviana’s father. There was something about the man’s features that called to mind her brother Leland.

      * * *

      Viviana smiled when she saw Noah emerge from the racy silver sports car with New York plates. Her first impression of him having looked like a surfer was shattered completely with his transformation. The blond hair was fashionably barbered with a side part and heavy waves brushed off his forehead. She knew in a single glance that his charcoal-gray slacks had not come off a rack and his stark white shirt with a monogram on the left French cuff was also custom-made.

      She had recommended Noah talk to her brother about how much he wanted for the sale of the land, and once Leland disclosed the amount Viviana hadn’t been able to say anything for several minutes. The Wainwright Developers Group had paid them more than three times the prevailing rate for land in a region where many people lived at or below the poverty line. Leland did not disclose the details of the negotiations between him, Giles, and Noah, and told her to use the money to make repairs and upgrade the house.

      She smiled and extended her hand with Noah’s approach. He had called her the day before to inform her he had finished the blueprints for the homes he planned to build in the valley and would stay until the town council approved his prospectus.

      “Welcome back to The Falls.”

      Ignoring the proffered hand, Noah leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”

      Viviana’s eyes caressed his face, finding him even more attractive than when she’d first seen him. She normally didn’t attribute the word beautiful to a man, but Noah was just that. “If you’d come earlier I would have introduced you to my father.”

      Noah’s eyes caressed her face. “Is he coming back?”

      “No. He just drove down from Philadelphia to spend a few days with me. My father is a professional artist who has just been commissioned to paint a mural for the lobby of a major bank’s headquarters.”

      “That’s impressive.”

      She smiled. “I agree. As an architect I’m certain the two of you would’ve had a lot talk about when it comes to shapes and colors.” Mya Wainwright had disclosed, during Noah’s visit, that he was an architect and her husband an engineer and that they talked incessantly about buying, selling, designing and erecting buildings. “Please come in, and I’ll show you to the suite I’ve assigned to you.”

      Noah hesitated. “If it’s all right with you, I’d rather stay in one of the guesthouses. I need the privacy to conduct business with my home office and potential clients. Will that be a problem?” he added when her jaw dropped.

      “Oh no,” Viviana said quickly. When Noah alerted her about his arrival, she’d assigned him the largest suite of the five she had set aside for guests. “I have a vacancy in the second guesthouse. A writer, who insists on anonymity and is only known by his popular pseudonym, has taken up residence in the first one for the next two months while he claims he’s writing the sequel to one of his blockbuster novels.”

      “If

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