Breaking the Rules: A Billionaire Romance

by Sarah J. Brooks

  Deeper and deeper he thrust as his body felt Mariah’s tightening around him. With little warning, Mariah released a huge scream of delight and pushed her fingers deep into River’s back as she tightened in pleasure.

  “Oh … fuck … yes …” Mariah moaned.

  With her moan of delight, River finally released himself to feel the total pleasure of the moment. Quickly, he thrust fervently and deeply until he came to his ultimate conclusion with one final deep thrusting effort.

  The moment was surreal to River as he lowered his body in exhaustion and lay next to Mariah. He had been with young women before, but he hadn’t wanted to be with any of those women as much as he wanted Mariah. The electricity between them surely had to die down after they had experienced such an eventful night. River couldn’t help hoping he would wake up in the morning and feel like he had finished with Mariah. He certainly didn’t want to feel the need that had been bothering him since they had met.

  Mariah turned over and let her head rest on River’s chest as she tried to catch her breath from all of the excitement. River wanted to get up and shower; he wanted to leave Mariah there to sleep or even let her go home. But there was one huge problem; he couldn’t physically move his body away from her. River felt such an intense need to be there with Mariah that he finally closed his eyes and fell asleep with Mariah in his arms.

  The night passed quickly, much quicker than River could have fathomed. They had fallen asleep in each other’s arms and when his phone woke him up, Mariah was still curled up on his chest.

  He moved quickly to slide out from under Mariah and grab his phone from his pants pocket on the floor. It was still early, and the sun hadn’t risen yet, which meant there had to be some sort of emergency if he was getting a call that early. River was very strict with his friends and co-workers that no one should call him before 7 a.m.

  “Hello,” River said as he answered the call from an unknown caller.

  “When the governor announces, I will release the information I have about your son,” the caller said and then hung up.

  River continued to hold the phone to his ear as his foggy morning brain tried to take in everything that the caller had just said. The look on his face must have scared Mariah because she sprang upright in the bed and watched River intently as she waited to know what was going on.

  “Who was it? Is everything OK?”

  River wanted to tell Mariah everything that was going on, but he didn’t know if it was even necessary. Mariah was already working to minimize the media issues; what would be different if she knew that he had been getting weird phone calls?

  “Nothing,” River said as he hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket.

  As he climbed back into bed with Mariah, she couldn’t let it just go. There was no way that phone call had been nothing, and River knew he couldn’t hide it from her.

  “Tell me, River,” she said as she looked straight into River’s eyes.

  “It was a man; he said he would release the information about my son when the governor announces he is running for president.”

  Mariah looked shocked as River pulled one of the blankets around her and jumped out of bed. She quickly went to the living room, grabbed her cell phone from her purse and dialed a number. River hurried behind her and stood in the hallway as he watched her make a call.

  “Elizabeth, there is a man who has information. He called River and said he would release the information when the governor announces. What should we do?”

  Mariah listened while Elizabeth spoke, and River took the time to slip into some clothes. He could hear Mariah and Elizabeth talking from his room, but he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

  “I know, but there is someone,” Mariah said to Elizabeth. “Okay, I’ll see you in a little bit.”

  River watched as Mariah took down some notes and then turned back to River. She looked so professional and in control, much more so than River had imagined Mariah was going to be. He didn’t know why he had underestimated her abilities so much, but it was obvious she was good at her job.

  “I’m sorry, I’ve made things more difficult haven’t I?” River said as he made his way across the room toward Mariah.

  “You need to be honest with me, River. This isn’t a game. One wrong move, and this guy will release whatever he has on you. But remember, it might not even be the truth. I’ve worked with my father on a lot of cases, and sometimes people think they know the truth and instead come up with a crazy and outlandish story. The problem is, even an outlandish story with a tiny bit of truth can cause a domino effect.”

  “I know. What can I do?”

  “First, you can kiss me,” Mariah said as she pressed herself up against River and wrapped the blanket around both of them. “Then, let me get dressed, and I need to head to the office. You let me know if you get any more phone calls. Is that a deal?”

  River didn’t like the idea of sitting around and waiting for Mariah. He was a doer, and that meant that he needed a plan and had to keep moving forward. There was no way River was going to just sit around and wait for this person to release whatever it was he thought he had on River.

  “I have plenty of work to do,” River lied.

  He had no intention of doing any of his normal work. River was going to find out who it was that had called him and get to the bottom of things right away. He had enough money to pay someone to trace a call or track down whoever this mysterious person was. But River didn’t want to share his plans with Mariah for fear that she would tell him to stand down. Certainly going after the guy who had this secret was probably not his best plan, but River couldn’t just sit back and wait for something bad to happen.

  “You can keep an eye on the tabloids and news stations to see if they have any stories about the governor announcing his candidacy. Certainly, they have to be talking about it by now. Use your resources and find someone on his campaign that we can use as an insider if we have to. Will that work?” Mariah asked as she started to get dressed.

  “You make it sound like I need something to keep me occupied.” River laughed.

  Mariah was exactly right; River did need something to keep him occupied, and Mariah’s plan sounded great. Of course, he was going to have to add some additional things of his own, but River really did like how Mariah thought.

  “Call me around lunchtime, and we can go over what we have so far. I don’t want this thing getting legs. If there is anything that seems out of the ordinary, call me right away. And keep in touch with Kimberly if you can, she will likely have the best information well in advance of the public.”

  “Of course.”

  “By the way, has Kimberly received any phone calls?” Mariah asked.

  “Not that I know of, just me.”

  “That’s good, maybe they are just after you and not her. The story might be spun to make you look bad and her look good if that’s possible. At least, it won’t affect your son as much then.”

  “That would be great. Let’s hope that is what they are trying to do. Whoever it is that knows something certainly wants me to be the casualty. I just don’t want my company to also suffer; my employees haven’t done a thing to deserve an attack on their job safety.”

  River hated that his past was threatening the stability of his new product release and inevitably the stability of his whole organization. He employed thousands of people, and any major dysfunction in his company was bound to change the stability of their jobs.

  “Call me later,” Mariah said as she made her way toward the door.

  River ran after her and grabbed her arm gently to keep her from leaving. He wanted to say something but couldn’t quite figure out how to word it. There was a huge feeling of gratitude toward Mariah and her whole company for being there to try and fend off the media attack. River wasn’t used to showing his appreciation for people, but he needed to tell Mariah.

  “Thank you, Mariah. Thank you for helping save my company.”

  �
��It’s my job,” she said as she stopped long enough to give River a kiss on the cheek. “Now stay out of trouble so I don’t have to work any harder than I already am.”

  Chapter 12

  MARIAH

  She had slept with him. Mariah couldn’t get the smile off of her face as she walked out to her car. Nothing about the situation was normal, and she knew right away that she wasn’t going to be able to resist him again. The attraction Mariah felt toward River was powerful; it made her feel out of control, but it also scared the hell out of her.

  As she drove back to work, Mariah did her best to shake off the huge smile that still crossed her face. She couldn’t just show up to work smiling like a maniac. Even though she was normally very happy, the kind of smile that she had at that moment wasn’t anything she had shown up to work with in the past.

  “You’re wearing the same clothes!” Elizabeth exclaimed as she saw Mariah in the parking garage to their office.

  “Shhh, you don’t need to advertise it to the world,” Mariah quietly said as she held a finger up to her mouth.

  Mariah knew there was no way to keep the events of the previous night away from Elizabeth, but she certainly wasn’t going to have the rest of the office finding out, even if there were other people in the office who had slept together. Mariah was the boss’ daughter, and she knew her father would kill her if he found out what had happened. He wouldn’t care at all if there were other people in the office doing it; the only thing that would matter was that Mariah wasn’t setting a good example for the rest of the employees.

  Elizabeth didn’t think that Mariah’s father would really fire her. But despite the fact that she was on all their media information, Mariah wouldn’t put it past her father to set an example out of her. He sometimes did things that she didn’t think made sense at all, simply to make sure people understood his point.

  “We can talk about it later. I need to tell you something I found out,” Elizabeth started to say as the pair made their way to their offices. “The governor is going to announce for sure, we, at least, know this much by now. Did River have any idea who it was that called him?”

  “No, he had no idea. But I’m pretty sure he received another call before, and that was what spooked him. He wouldn’t admit to it, but his face looked like I had struck it when I mentioned the possibility of something freaking him out enough to hire our firm.”

  Elizabeth walked with Mariah into her office and took control of Mariah’s desk. It was a bigger office and bigger desk than Elizabeth had, and she liked to sit there and drive Mariah crazy when they worked on accounts together.

  “I still don’t think the story is as bad as Kimberly and River think it is. People have illegitimate children all the time,” Elizabeth commented as she logged into the computer.

  “Well, Kimberly was married. I think that’s a big deal in a presidential race. Plus, look at the company River is trying to do business with for his new product roll out. Wholesome Foods isn’t going to think twice about dropping River once they hear this news.”

  Mariah knew that Elizabeth was just trying to minimize the situation. But Mariah had a horrible feeling about everything. She felt that the story was going to come out, and it was going to destroy River and his company. There was no way Mariah wanted to be any part of destroying River’s company that he had built up all by himself over the years. She had to figure out how to stop the news from being released.

  A text came in from River, and it instantly made Mariah smile. She couldn’t help it; there was still an afterglow from her evening of fun with him, and just seeing his name pop up on her phone made her giddy.

  “Oh, yeah, you got laid last night,” Elizabeth said as she watched Mariah look at the text message.

  “He said he heard from Kimberly, the press conference is going to be tomorrow. We need to get ready. How the hell are we going to stop this?” Mariah jumped up and started pacing.

  Pacing was the way Mariah dealt with things. She needed to be moving to clear her mind, and her mind had to be clear for her to figure out the situation they were in.

  Somehow they needed to find the person who had called River and stop them from releasing whatever information it was that they were threatening him with. The problem was going to be figuring out what the anonymous person had to gain from the news being leaked. There had to be a benefit for the caller.

  “Why do you think this guy is threatening River? Maybe a past business deal gone bad? Perhaps someone who wants money? We need to figure out what it is the person wants, and then we can narrow down our possible suspects.”

  “Elizabeth, it’s not that easy. If we knew what they wanted, we would just give it to them,” Mariah muttered under her breath as she continued to pace.

  “Hear me out, Mariah. We know this caller wants to embarrass River. What exactly did they say?”

  “Basically, he said he would release information about River’s son after the governor announces his run.”

  Elizabeth seemed baffled by what Mariah had just told her. She sat back and waited for Mariah to elaborate, but there wasn’t anything else she could add to the story; that was all that River had said the man told him.

  “So what did he want?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think he asked for anything.”

  Mariah started to see how absurd it was that this person had called River at all. They basically called him to warn him but didn’t offer him any way to keep the information from getting out. Usually, a caller would ask for money or some other item to keep quiet. It was much scarier when the person didn’t have any requests. It was also much harder to figure out what the true driving force was behind the caller.

  Elizabeth and Mariah were on the same page by that point. They knew they had to figure out the real driving force.

  “If they weren’t asking for some sort of monetary amount from River, I think it has to be someone close to him or Kimberly who is angry with them,” Elizabeth said as she made some notes.

  “Like an ex-boyfriend or something like that?”

  “Maybe, or even an ex-girlfriend of River’s who hired a man to make the phone calls. This is too personal; the person has to know River at least and possibly both of them. How else would they know the child was a son?” Elizabeth raised her eyebrow.

  “You’re right! If the caller only knew they had a child together, they wouldn’t know the gender. This person knew they had a boy. And you’re right, it has to be personal, or they would have definitely asked for money from River.”

  The two women sat in silence as they both wrote down possibilities for who it could be. The person making the threat was hurt, they had to have been hurt when the governor originally ran for office; why did they wait? There were still so many unanswered questions that Mariah had. She couldn’t imagine someone being so upset with River that they were willing to ruin the life of a child.

  “We still have no idea who it is; do we?” Elizabeth laughed.

  “Nope.” Mariah joined in with the laughter.

  The two women knew they had to figure things out before the press conference, otherwise they were going to be in real trouble. If River’s secret were released to the press at the news conference, it would be likely that they would check the facts before any news station went public with the story, but it wasn’t a guarantee. Some news stations didn’t care if the story was true or not; they just wanted to be the first people to break a story.

  “We need to talk with Kimberly, alone. Don’t you think?”

  “No, I think we need to talk with River again.”

  “Of course, you do, that’s just because you boned him and think he’s the best thing since sliced bread now.”

  Mariah couldn’t help laughing at Elizabeth’s analogy. But she didn’t want to talk with River because of what happened the previous night; she wanted to find out who hated him. Obviously, River hadn’t come out and said there were people that didn’t like him in his past, but it was bec
oming abundantly clear that was exactly the type of person they needed to be looking for.

  “I’ll talk with River; you talk with Kimberly. Does that sound like a deal?” Mariah asked as she started to text River back.

  “Sounds like I got the bum deal.”

  “I don’t care who I talk to. Do you want to talk with River?” Mariah offered.

  “No, no, I’m teasing. I’m fine talking to Kimberly.”

  Mariah text River and asked him to come to her office to work through some questions. It was going to be a little uncomfortable because Mariah needed to delve more into River’s past than he was probably used to, but she was convinced that his past was where the secret would come unraveled.

  “I’ll talk to you when I’m done. Thanks for the help on this case Elizabeth; I couldn’t have done all this without you.”

  “You owe me big! I get the next rich single client that walks through the door.”

  “Deal.”

  As Mariah waited for River to arrive at the office, she started to research his company. Perhaps there was a competitor who didn’t like River and who had done some research on him or followed him. She needed to make herself useful so reading the local financial news on River seemed like a good place to start.

  It appeared that River made a lot of enemies in the business world. He often bought small companies when they were in crisis and ended up firing off much of the staff. Mariah could only imagine how many of those people hated River. But did they hate him and know his secrets? That was the big question. Someone could hate him all they wanted, but if they didn’t know his secrets, then it didn’t really matter for the moment.

  There was one company that stood out even more than the others, though. Rolled Oat Life was a small company that River took over. Initially, the press was great for the two companies. The CEO of Rolled Oat Life was in many pictures with River, and they both seemed very happy, but then after the sale, things went wrong. River bought out the CEO’s contract and relieved him of his duties. Originally, he filed a suit against River but later withdrew it. Mariah wasn’t sure if there was anything more there than a financial story, but she wrote his name down and took some notes to discuss with River later.