Chapter 3

RIVER

“Just the woman I wanted to meet,” River said as he looked intently at the young blonde.

She was the one he had wanted to meet with in the first place, and he had been horribly disappointed when the company owner said she was too busy to attend the meeting.

“River Anders, this is my daughter Mariah. I believe you two talked on the phone last night.”

“Oh, yes. She was delightfully kind to me.”

“So River. Tell us what you need from us. What’s going on?” Mr. Waves said.

River wasn’t paying attention to Mr. Waves, though. His eyes were fixated on Mariah. She was more beautiful than he had imagined on the phone. Her picture in the brochure he had certainly didn’t do her justice. Her long blonde hair was draped down her shoulders. She wore an elegant blue dress that matched her brilliant blue eyes. River felt his chest tighten at the idea he was going to have to share his problems and this beautiful creature would hear all about them.

“Mr. Anders, how can we help you today?” Rudy asked.

Rudy nudged Mariah to talk to him since he was already so fixated on her.

“River, Mr. Anders, you came to us for a reason. How can we help you?” Mariah asked.

He hadn’t been happy when Rudy and Mr. Waves had introduced themselves at the beginning of the meeting, having hoped he would get to meet the beautiful woman he had talked to on the phone. But as she sat across from him, River was at a standstill. He wanted to ask her out, not divulge his deepest secret to her. His mind was fuzzy as he thought about the best route to take.

“Mr. Waves. I’m looked for a team to help me become more likable with female entrepreneurs,” River said with a straight face.

“Mr. Anders, I’ve seen the magazines. I think the female fan base for you is already huge. I’m not sure I know what you are looking for.”

River turned his attention to the head of Public Waves, William Waves. William, or Bill, was well known for his steady head in the face of controversy, and River had read all about some big scandals that he had helped celebrities with. But Bill Waves didn’t seem to understand the new age of social media.

“It’s not enough to have women lusting after me. I have businesses, and I need to be taken seriously. I’ve made some mistakes with the women in my life and one, in particular, is close to being revealed. It threatens to undercut my whole business.”

River didn’t want to give away too much information about what was going on in his life until he signed on with the company. But he was really interested in a public relations firm that could help him get through the disaster on its way and help him keep his business from getting ridiculed. He needed good PR if he was going to get the best deal when he sold out to Amazon.

“What did you do?” Mariah burst out and asked.

Rudy and Bill both turned to her in shock at her boldness, but River liked it. He wanted someone who was going to be blunt with him. That didn’t necessarily mean he was willing to tell them all the dirt yet.

“My company is built on family values and authentic relationships. Yes, people see me out with women sometimes, and they see me going to parties. But I’ve never been caught in a cheating scandal. I’m just young and enjoying casual dating.”

“You’re not really that young.”

“Mariah!” her father yelled as he reached over to her. “Be quiet or you’ll need to leave.”

“It’s alright, Mr. Anders. Your daughter is right. And that’s part of why I’m here. I am trying to sell my company to Amazon and still have a few months before everything is finalized. I need to make sure my clean public image stays clean until then. It could mean the difference in millions of dollars.”

“Why wouldn’t it be a clean image? What did you do?” Mariah asked, continuing to defy her father’s request to be quiet.

“I have a past, and when business deals as big as this one start getting into the media, that past tends to want to be seen.”

“Mr. Anders, I’d be happy to handle your case myself. We can go through the specifics and develop a plan that will protect you as you move forward with your buyout.”

River liked Bill Waves, but he wanted someone who could be honest with him. Not just suck up to him. The elder Waves associate seemed to be giving River the same line he had probably given a dozen clients before.

“Are you free to work with me?” River said as he looked at Mariah.

His stare was intense, and he wasn’t about to look away. He wanted Mariah, and he wasn’t going to accept no for an answer. He didn’t just want her because she was young and beautiful; he wanted her because she was honest. Honesty and trustworthiness seemed to go hand in hand, and that was what River wanted.

“Sure, I can work with you. But I’m new. We should have someone a little more experienced as well.”

“Mr. Waves, I’ll sign with your firm, but only if Mariah is on my case. I need brutal honesty. She is young enough to understand the trends right now and obviously smart enough to deal with this case. Is it a deal?”

Mr. Waves seemed annoyed that River had requested Mariah. She wasn’t his best employee, and he didn’t want to showcase subpar work. But River didn’t care if she knew everything there was to know about public relations, he just needed someone hungry enough to work on his case 24/7 to ensure his life and that of his loved ones weren’t ruined by the secret from his past that was about to come out.

“I think we can make it work, Mr. Anders, when would you like to get started?”

“Right now. But I would like to talk with Mariah alone first. If that is alright with you?”

Mr. Waves looked at Mariah and then back to Mr. Anders. He kept his cool, but River could tell that he wasn’t happy at all. Mr. Waves looked like he wanted to yell at someone, but he was professional enough to keep his emotions in check.

“Sure, I’ll have the contract drawn up.”

The two men stepped out of the room and left Mariah and River to discuss his needs for a PR firm.

River couldn’t help smiling at Mariah when he finally got her alone in the room with him. She was still bright red with embarrassment from tripping earlier, but her professional wall was up and on full display. She had been pretty tough on him during the initial conversation, and he just wanted to make sure they were going to be able to work together alright.

“So you think you can handle me?” River asked, instantly reverting to his normal charismatic self.

“Um … well … if by handle you, you mean to keep your mug from being shown all over the media, then yes.”

“Can you handle dealing with me on a daily basis?” River asked as he tried to get Mariah to make eye contact with him again.

“Sure,” she said, looking down at her notes in front of her.

River got up from his spot at the conference table and walked around to sit next to Mariah. She looked so nervous. She didn’t look like she was going to be able to handle her own publicity let alone handle his huge case. The intimacy of being alone with him really appeared to have Mariah nervous.

River smiled at the thought that he made such a beautiful young woman nervous. It was a feeling of power that he loved.

As he sat down, Mariah looked up at him briefly and then back down toward her hands. She was nervous, he could tell. But he really wanted to make things work with her. He wanted a new perspective, and if she could handle the job, he wanted her.

“I’m going to need you to look at me if we are going to work together,” River said, sitting next to Mariah.

He turned his chair to face hers and then spun her so their knees were touching. She continued to look down at her hands. River wasn’t sure his gut was right. She had appeared to be so confident and full of energy before, but now when left alone with him, Mariah turned into a shy schoolgirl.

“I’m very good. You just make me nervous,” she said as she looked up at him briefly.

“Why?”

“Why do you make me nervous?”

“Yes, when your father was here, you didn’t have any problem with talking to me.”

River gently touched Mariah’s chin and pressed it up to force her to look at him again. He knew she couldn’t be this shy; she had been very vocal on the phone and in front of her father. He just needed to know that she could be honest with him and tell him exactly what had to happen to keep his reputation.

“I can do the job. I promise I can do it better than any of these guys,” Mariah said as her bright blue eyes focused in on River.

His body tingled with excitement as she looked at him. Mariah grabbed his hand and pulled it away from her chin. She held onto it for just a couple seconds, but it was long enough for River to feel the enormous sexual energy between them. There was no denying she was a beautiful girl, but River needed to keep his hands to himself. At the moment, he was in need of a public relations agent, not a fling.

“Have you ever handled a jackass like me before?” River said as he smiled at her and pulled his hands away.

Mariah couldn’t help giggling at the idea that River was a jackass. He had seemed like maybe he was, but at that moment, she couldn’t come up with anything else to say in response to him.

“Yes, I’ve dealt with difficult people before.”

“How about social media? Are you familiar with all the apps and news that operate in that medium?”

“Of course.”

“If you could pick one person to work with us on this, who would it be? Do you like that Rudy kid?”

“My friend Elizabeth. She’s been here longer than both Rudy and me. She would be the best lead for your project. But what is it? Is someone going to try and make you look bad before your merger?”

River was impressed that Mariah appeared to finally have worked through a little of her shyness. She still couldn’t stand to look at River for more than two seconds before she looked back to her hands. But at least, she was actually talking.

“How about I take you to dinner tonight, and we can discuss what’s going on?”

“That doesn’t seem very professional,” Mariah said, suddenly totally serious.

River had to laugh a little. For a woman who had been partying until the wee hours of the morning on a Tuesday night, it seemed odd that she would think a business dinner was unprofessional.

“People go to business dinners all the time. It’s very professional. You can even wear a turtleneck if you’d like. Although, that dress is absolutely stunning.”

He had to wonder if she had dressed that way just to meet him that day or if she normally dressed so damn sexy. It seemed like a good way to get clients, there was no way a male client would say no to a smoking hot blonde in a tight dress like she had on.

“You have to stop looking at me like that,” Mariah said quietly.

“Why?”

“I can’t think straight when you look at me like that.”

River smiled and then grabbed onto Mariah’s hands again. Her fingers lay in his hand, and she looked up at him briefly. She seemed surprised by his touch, but he couldn’t let go of her. His whole body felt on fire with her next to him, and at that moment, he would have made any promise necessary to get her to work with him.

“I can’t stop looking at you. But I can promise to be appropriate and to listen to your advice.”

“No funny business. I’m a professional and here to provide you a service. That is it.”

Mariah looked at him, and he knew he was going to have to tell her the first big lie of their business relationship. There was no way he was going to be able to behave himself around her, he knew that for sure. But he still wanted to work with her. He still wanted her to be his public relations liaison.

“No problem. I don’t have a problem at all with keeping things professional between us.”

River released her hands and pushed his chair back away from her. He was desperate for a PR firm, and if he didn’t pick someone, his assistant April would. So he wanted control over the situation.

“So dinner, tonight at eight o’clock?”

“Sure, but we are going to have to actually discuss what is going on with you. I can’t give you good PR advice if you don’t tell me what’s about to happen.”

“I promise. At dinner tonight, I will tell you everything you need to know to manage the situation. Write down your number, and I’ll text you to get your address.”

River got up and made his way to the conference room door as he continued to eye Mariah. Her petite frame sat stiffly in her chair, and River couldn’t wait for the opportunity to loosen her up a little. She certainly wasn’t the girl he thought he was going to meet that day, but Mariah was much more interesting than he could have imagined.

He looked forward to working with her and hoped she would be able to save his business deal. It didn’t hurt that Mariah was smoking hot, and River couldn’t help but hope that he’d convince her to have some fun on the side. A little fun mixed with work would be perfect.

As River left Public Waves, he sent a message to his assistant to relate the news that he had hired a firm. Hopefully, she could finally rest knowing they would be ready when River’s past came tumbling down on top of them.