Chapter 1

RIVER

“Slow it down a little babe,” River said to the hot blonde who had her mouth moving up and down his shaft.

She listened to his demand and obliged by slowing down her movements. He didn’t know her name, and he really didn’t want to know her name. River didn’t come to the Black Kitty Lounge in search of a wife or even a date; he came there because he knew, with just a few hundred dollars, he could get a woman to do whatever he pleased.

Of course, the Black Kitty Lounge would never admit that their girls were so easily swayed into providing services for their clients. But River Anders knew that any of the girls working would easily fall to her knees with his enticement.

A regular girlfriend was just too much chaos for River. They were emotionally draining and often left him open to scandal. It was ironic that to avoid a big scandal he was visiting a strip club. But in the three years, he had gone there, the owner and his girls had proven never to know who he was. Or at least, they pretended very convincingly.

To River, it was nothing more than simplifying the dating process. He would spend much more money on winning over a girl through the dating process. In the end, a woman he dated was not typically very honest and went to the press to brag about dating River. Dating was expensive and took up way too much time for River to be bothered with it, most of the time. Occasionally he would come across a woman that seemed worth his energy to date and the tabloids were all over it. After their first date, River would see stories saying his girlfriend and him were getting married.

The problem typically arose when the girl he was dating actually wanted to get married. River didn’t want that. He didn’t want to be tied down to a woman who complained about everything and wanted all of his money. To River, it was simpler to just have one-night stands and occasionally stop into the Black Kitty Lounge to have some fun.

Sure, the public knew who River was; there was no way they couldn’t. Time magazine had voted him the sexiest billionaire last year, and the media couldn’t get enough of him. It didn’t help that he was often seen out partying with big name celebrities and making out with well-known models. River didn’t lead a private life, and he was alright with that, well mostly alright with it. As long as his life never caused pain or trouble for the ones he loved, then he was perfectly fine with the media talking about him.

“How’s that?” the blonde said in a soft, seductive voice as she looked up at him.

“Perfect.”

He watched her intently as she moved up and down his throbbing member. It was particularly enjoyable to watch a woman with her mouth around him. There were only a couple other sex acts that River enjoyed as much as oral sex.

Sometimes when he came to the club, he would find a girl that was especially delightful, and he would keep her around for a bit. It was easier to have a girl from the club by his side than it was to have a real girlfriend. The girls from the club knew the score, they knew if they treated River right, he would take care of them. There were no mind games; there was no wishing that he would marry them or that kind of craziness. When River kept a girl from the club around, it was the perfect combination of one-night stand and relationship.

“Is there anything else I can do to make you happy?” the cute blonde asked him.

“No. Not tonight.”

River let her finish and then handed her a few more hundreds just for her good work. His phone continued to ring, and River needed to get away and call his assistant back. Visiting Atlanta was always one of his favorite places because of the Black Kitty Lounge. But he was there for work and needed to be ready for a meeting first thing in the morning.

He made his way out of the club's back entrance and to his awaiting ride. Luckily, River had surrounded himself with people that knew how to keep secrets and how to keep his best interest in mind at all times. Stan was one of those people in River’s life.

River had met Stan about three years before. Stan had been assigned to be his driver when River, after drinking too much, had gotten himself into a fight at a local bar. Stan appeared out of nowhere and got River out of the situation and back to his hotel before the police arrived. From that moment on, River didn’t let anyone else drive him when he was in Atlanta.

“Yes, April,” River said as he finally answered his phone.

“Did you decide which public relations firm you want to use?” April said with a great deal of urgency.

“April, it’s two o’clock in the morning. I thought someone was dead, or at least on life support. You’ve called over twenty times tonight.”

“River, I don’t have to tell you what a disaster this could all be for you and for the person you’re protecting. We need a solid firm we can trust so we can get ahead of this. You need to pick someone tonight. I need to know your decision by the time I walk into the office in the morning.”

April Winters wasn’t just River’s assistant. She had pretty much graduated to running every aspect of River’s life. Without April around, River knew his life would be in utter disarray. She had been hired over ten years before, and their relationship had evolved to a place where he truly trusted her with his deepest secrets. April and her husband and children had become part of River’s family, and he would always take care of her. She was paid very well for her assistant duties, and River typically listened to her when she had something important to say.

In this particular instance, River knew she was right. A mistake he had made over ten years before was about to blow up in the media, and he needed to keep it protected. If not for his own sake, River needed to protect the other parties involved.

As he got back to his hotel room, River started to flip through the stack of public relations firms and the material they had provided him. It was all perfectly worded and full of bullshit. He couldn’t tell if these firms were going to be able to help him or not just by looking at their fancy brochures. He needed to talk to them.

On a whim, River dialed one of the numbers. It was to a firm that he had seen on television before when he was back home in Oregon, and he remembered a pretty young blonde spokeswoman who had been in their commercial. They also had her in their brochure so naturally River wanted to call them first.

“Hello, this is Public Waves, how can I help you,” a young woman answered.

There was a lot of noise in the background, and River suddenly realized that it was now past three o’clock in the morning on the east coast. He was surprised that anyone actually answered the phone at Public Waves so late in the evening. It was certainly after business hours, even by Portland, Oregon time as well.

“You work twenty-four hours a day there?” he asked.

“This is our urgent call line. Are you a client? Do you need something done right away?”

River paused and nodded his head in agreement, although he didn’t actually answer her. It was pretty damn cool that this PR firm had someone who would answer their phone at all hours of the night. He didn’t know how financially practical that business model was, but he liked it.

The noise in the background had started to quiet down, and River laughed as he pictured the young woman out at a club or something. She was probably desperately trying to find a quiet spot so she could actually have a conversation with River. He paused to give her some time before he continued with his questions.

“Are you at a dance club? Bar? Strip club?” River said.

“What? No. I mean …What do you need? Can I help you?” the woman said, starting to get flustered.

“It seems odd that you would be in charge of answering the urgent call line, but you would be at a dance club,” River continued.

He liked how out of control the young woman seemed as he asked her questions. Perhaps she was just a secretary or some girl that got stuck answering the phone, but it was enormously entertaining to mess with her. Giving people a hard time was just one of the things River prided himself on.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” the woman said.

“I didn’t give it to you.”

“Is this a prank call? Do you actually need something or can I get back to my dance club dancing.”

River smiled at the attitude the woman gave back to him. She certainly had fire in her, he liked that. The honesty was also a refreshing thing for River; he suspected most people would have stuck with the lie that they weren’t out in a club at all.

“Let me ask you something, hypothetically, of course. If a billionaire had a secret to keep, but the media was going to find out any minute, would you be able to help him?”

“Me personally, or my company?”

River smiled at her continued honesty.

“Either one is fine with me.”

“Yes, at Public Waves, we have friends throughout the media. We can work with them to squash a story, and if that doesn’t work, we can get ahead of it and help you prevent a major hit to your brand.”

“Did you just think that up right now or were you trained to say that?”

The woman paused for what seemed like a very long time. River wasn’t about to jump in and save her, though. He wanted to know how she would respond when put under pressure. Obviously, if she worked at the company, they had done some sort of training with the woman. But he was curious to know how she would respond to a tricky question like the one he had asked.

“My training gave me the knowledge I needed to answer your question. Now, do you have an emergency that needs to be taken care of tonight, or would you like to come into the office in the morning.”

“I’m in Atlanta right now. I don’t have an emergency this second, but I would like to meet in the morning.”

“But you said you were in Atlanta. You do know we are in Portland, Oregon, don’t you?”

“Yes, I’ll be there at eleven o’clock tomorrow, and I’d like to meet with you to discuss hiring you.”

“You can’t hire me,” the woman said as she giggled quietly.

River could hear some women in the background, and he couldn’t help wondering what this woman looked like. She was a party girl that went out on a Tuesday night, yet she was responsible enough that she still brought her on-call phone with her and answered it.

“Why not?”

“I don’t take on new clients. But I can set up a meeting for you and will make sure one of the owners is there to meet with you. Can I have your name and number, please?”

Her voice was so angelic, yet she demanded his attention with each word she spoke. River wasn’t quite sure what it was about the woman that drove him so crazy, but he liked it a lot, and he wanted to be in the same room with her. Preferably naked in the same room with her.

“What’s your name?” River asked in response.

The woman on the other end of the phone laughed, and then she covered the phone and told her friends to be quiet. She sounded like she was having fun, wherever she was at for the night. River actually felt a slight bit of guilt for ruining the poor girl's evening.

“My name is Mariah.”

“OK Mariah, here’s the deal. Put my name down as River in your books, and you can put this number as my callback digits. I’ll be there tomorrow at eleven o’clock, and I expect you to attend the meeting.”

“Are you always this much of a jerk?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t work directly with clients. I can’t just show up to a meeting that I'm not supposed to be at. I’ll give your information to the owner, and he will meet you tomorrow at eleven o’clock.”

“And you will be at the meeting.”

“Seriously dude, what is with you? I just said I don’t go to these kinds of meetings.”

“Well, you need to come to this one. I won’t take no for an answer.”

The phone went silent, and River continued to wait patiently for her response. He had learned over the years that patience was one of the biggest keys to getting what you wanted in business. If you made a request and then sat silently while you waited for them to answer, ninety percent of the time, things would go your way.

“I’ll see what I can do,” the woman finally conceded.

River smiled and hung up the phone. Life was about to get pretty difficult for River, and he needed a public relations team that could keep up with him. His company, Fresh Food Deliver or FFD, had made a huge splash in major cities across the country. River was on track to streamline meal production and hopefully get a home delivery service up and running to every house in America.

But there was one big problem looming over River’s head. This secret could tarnish his image and ruin his company’s new food launch. The threat needed to be neutralized, and River wasn’t going to let his loved ones get hurt in the process.