Chapter 4

MARIAH

“Oh, my God, Elizabeth. I have a date with him tonight!” Mariah screamed at her friend as she shut the office door behind her and jumped up and down.

Mariah couldn’t help being excited that she was going to spend some one on one time with River. His body was amazing, and the way he looked at her made every single part of her body long to be with him. Mariah couldn’t remember a man ever making her feel so out of control in such a short period of time. Certainly, it had to mean something that she and River had such intense physical attraction. Mariah had to find out if there was anything more between them.

“I thought you were trying to land him as a client.”

“You don’t understand. He’s so gorgeous. I couldn’t even talk. I tripped and fell right into his lap when you pushed me into the room. My face was literally only inches away from his manly organ.”

Mariah put her hands to her face, tossing it around while she made a funny noise. She couldn’t contain herself. Although she hadn’t really known who River was when Elizabeth had first said his full name, Mariah knew exactly who he was after she walked in and saw him face to face. His face was on a lot of celebrity news shows because he liked to date models and actresses constantly.

River was a bachelor that all the women chased after. Mariah remembered seeing a story on the news about him and some model running off to Africa together just the previous year. He was tall, probably a bit over six feet. His broad shoulders and shaggy light brown hair were on every tabloid cover around when he was dating someone. In Portland, he was not talked about as much because he was considered a businessman, and the local newspaper liked to cover legitimate business only. So even when they did talk about his company, they always had a professional photo of River in a suit and tie.

Mariah couldn’t believe she hadn’t put everything together to figure out who he was. She had read stories about him and did know who he was. She just didn’t expect that he was going to end up right in front of her in her public relations company. And she surely didn’t think she would ever end up with her face in his lap.

“So tell me what happened. How did you go from signing him as a client to going on a date with him?” Elizabeth asked.

Elizabeth looked at Mariah skeptically as she sat back in her chair. Elizabeth was always the one who tried to get Mariah to go out on dates with guys, but Mariah always refused the men she offered. It was an ongoing joke between the two women that Mariah was going to be the hottest spinster woman in town by the time she was fifty. Guys wanted Mariah, but she just never wanted any of them. She preferred to concentrate her time on work and proving herself to her father and everyone else in the firm.

“Well, it’s not a date. It’s a business dinner. He wouldn’t tell me what was going on, that he needed a PR firm, and he didn’t seem to want to talk in front of my father. So he’s picking me up at eight o’clock, and we are going to dinner.”

Mariah rambled on as she finally sat down and tried to catch her breath. It was all so overwhelming. This was the kind of client she had dreamed of working with when she decided to become a public relations specialist. Mariah hoped she would be able to prove herself and maybe even start to land some other big named clients.

There was a knock at the door. It was loud and firm and caused both Mariah and Elizabeth to instantly stop laughing and turn toward the door. It had to be her father. Mariah cringed at what he was going to say about River asking to work with her.

“So you got your way. Let’s not mess this up,” Mariah’s father said as he stood in the doorway.

“I’ll do a good job, Daddy.”

“Elizabeth, you take the lead with River Anders and come to me if you two need anything. He’s a big fish, and I don’t want to hear about either of you fawning all over him. Keep it professional, or I’ll take you off the job.”

With that, Bill Waves turned and left the office. Elizabeth and Mariah stared at each other as they waited for him to get far enough down the hall so they could safely talk.

“He’s such a jerk sometimes,” Mariah said as she relaxed her posture.

“He’s right, though. River Anders is a huge name. It could mean a lot of great publicity for the firm. We need to do right by him. Do you want me to come to the business dinner tonight?” Elizabeth asked as she raised one eyebrow.

Both Elizabeth and Mariah knew they were walking a fine line between business and flirting with this guy. But Mariah wasn’t about to allow Elizabeth to come to dinner with her that night. It was the perfect chance for her to take charge and prove she could handle a client on her own. She had the skills to handle a project, and she knew it, Mariah wasn’t going to let anyone take him away from her.

Deep down, Mariah also really wanted to spend the evening with River all to herself. He made her body tingle with excitement, and she liked that. He wasn’t immature like most of the men she met. Although, he did seem pretty hard headed. There was something about him that drew her in, and she couldn’t wait to spend some alone time with him later that evening.

“Come over and help me get dressed again. I need to look professional, though. No sexy dresses. I have to keep things on the rails so we can focus on his PR problem. He still didn’t say exactly what was going on.”

“I’ll come over right after work. I bet it’s some woman who he slept with or something like that. She’s probably trying to extort him for money. It should be easy enough to handle. As long as there isn’t a baby involved.”

The girls laughed at the idea. River Anders certainly didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would make a good father. He was in a different city almost every day. He had a different woman on his arm every other day. He wasn’t really fatherly material.

“Does he have a girlfriend?” Mariah asked as she thought about her dinner with him that night.

“He never has a girlfriend. He just goes on dates. It’s saved his image, though. If you are only dating people and never in a relationship, there’s no worry about cheating. I don’t remember ever hearing about any regular woman in his life.”

Mariah nodded. River really didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would ever settle down. Which meant that she normally wouldn’t like a guy like him, but when she was close to him, Mariah couldn’t think about anything else except River and the possibility of having his hands on her body.

Her thoughts weren’t PG rated either. Mariah thought about River’s hands running up and down her naked body while he explored every inch of her. She couldn’t stop herself from imagining what his face would look like as he perched atop her and made her scream with desire. Nothing about River Anders was boring to Mariah, and she knew sex with him wouldn’t be boring either.

“Okay, come over at six and help me out. I have no idea what I’m supposed to wear to a business dinner with a guy like him.”

“Just go naked, he’ll agree to whatever you tell him too,” Elizabeth said as both girls burst into laughter.

Throughout the day, Mariah found herself reliving the morning. She felt so out of control in the room with River. It was so hard to think straight with him looking at her, so hard to come up with the right things to say. She had to do better at the dinner that evening. Mariah didn’t want to be seen as the ditzy girl who didn’t know what she was doing. She wanted to be professional and wow River with her knowledge and skills.

Being a business professional was often hard for Mariah, even in her own office. Her bright blonde hair and cute figure made her the target of people often. But Mariah had proved everyone wrong over the last year at her father’s office, and she was going to prove them wrong again with River Anders’s case. Mariah was going to make a statement about her abilities and kick some ass with his case.

It didn’t matter that she found him incredibly attractive. It didn’t matter that his sexy eyes drilled into her and made her wet at the thought of him. Mariah had to be professional, calm, and in control that night. She couldn’t let her attraction for River get in the way of the work she needed to do. By doing a good job on this case, Mariah was setting herself up for a future of lots of work and clients. She was also going to show her father that she wasn’t a little girl anymore and could handle a full workload in the office.

She spent her afternoon googling River and reading all sorts of stories about him. He seemed to have a perfectly balanced professional and personal persona. The tabloids covered him out with the hottest new Victoria Secret models, and the newspapers covered his incredibly fast growth as a company. There weren’t many stories that appeared to chastise him at all for the life he led, just business stories that talked about how stern he was. Sure, he dated a lot of women, but it always appeared very casual. So far, Mariah hadn’t found anything that was too concerning to her about his life.

By the time Mariah arrived back home, she was exhausted. After her night of drinking and getting up early for work, she certainly didn’t plan on spending very much time at dinner with River. She would go and talk with him, make him feel comfortable, and finally hear from River about what the secret was he needed protection from.

Mariah had taken some notes about River’s public image as well as his personal one. She wasn’t sure what he wanted to hire her firm for yet, but she wanted to be as prepared as possible. She folded the notes up and placed them in her clutch purse along with a pen so she could write down additional notes at the dinner.

When Elizabeth arrived shortly before six o’clock with a bottle of vodka, Mariah originally declined. She already felt so out of control when River was around, and the last thing she wanted was alcohol in her system.

“I can’t get drunk. I have to be focused. I have to be professional.”

“That’s the point. You get all nervous or angry when you’re doing business. We are just going to take a shot or two and get you loosened up for your dinner. Do you know what you want to wear yet?”

The girls each took one shot of the vodka, and Elizabeth poured an additional one for Mariah to take before she left for her dinner.

“I didn’t bother picking anything; I knew you would just make me change my mind,” Mariah laughed.

It was true, though. Mariah liked to dress comfortably, and Elizabeth always made her change into more form-fitting clothing. Like for work that morning, it was Elizabeth that insisted on the tight-fitting blue dress and her hair down; Mariah would have been happy to have gone to work in her usual business pants suit.

“Okay, let’s see what you have here,” Elizabeth said as she dove into Mariah’s closet.

She threw out items that were potential prospects for the evening. A pair of form-fitting slacks, a pencil skirt, a black A-line dress. None of them were at all what Mariah would have chosen. She liked to dress conservatively, especially when it came to work events. It was hard enough for guys to take her seriously because of her blonde hair, she didn’t want to give them another reason.

“A turtleneck,” Mariah said with a smirk. “Find me a turtleneck to wear.”

“Um, no. You have a banging body like that, and you want to wear a turtleneck. That’s ridiculous.”

“It’s what I want to wear. I’ll wear a skirt with it if that makes me look cooler.”

As Mariah climbed into the final outfit that she and Elizabeth had agreed on, she actually felt sexier than she had in the tiny dress she wore to the dance club the other night. Her turtleneck was black and form fitting; it showed off all her curves. She paired it with a red pencil skirt that was also form fitting. It was a good compromise Mariah thought and very professional.

She swept her hair up into her usual bun, but Elizabeth quickly came and pulled it back down.

“You can’t wear your hair like that, it makes you look old.”

“He’s old. It’s fine.”

“No. I don’t care how old he is. I’m so over you and your bun hair. At least, wear it down for tonight. Please.”

Elizabeth knew that Mariah was a pushover, and she quickly went to work styling her hair so Mariah could wear it down. Mariah’s platinum blonde hair against the dark black turtleneck was a beautiful contrast. Even though Elizabeth would have preferred that Mariah had worn something a little more exciting.

Mariah was going out with River Anders, one of the most eligible bachelors in the state, probably even the country. It made Elizabeth sick that Mariah didn’t want to sex it up a bit and flirt with the guy. But she understood that getting River on board with their company was also a really big deal.

By the time River arrived, Elizabeth had hidden herself in the back bedroom and was trying to peek out the door to get a glimpse of him. It was impossible to see too much of what was going on, but she could hear them talking when he came in.

“Thanks for texting me directions; I never would have found this place,” River said as he stood in the doorway. “Shall we get going?”

“Yes, that would be great. Just one quick second.”

Mariah ran back into her kitchen and downed the large shot of vodka that had been left on the counter for her by Elizabeth. The warm liquid shot through her body, and she instantly felt more confident and less shy. She was ready to take on River Anders and any public relations mess he had going on.

She followed him out the door and down to a waiting SUV that was in front of her apartment complex. Mariah hadn’t been prepared for him to have a driver. She had never been on a date with someone who was rich enough to have another person drive them around.

It’s not a date!

She corrected herself as she climbed into the back seat of the leather clad vehicle. But as much as she told herself it wasn’t a date, Mariah couldn’t stop looking at River and imagining that it was a date. He was absolutely delicious, and she had to stop her mind from thinking about all the naughty things she wanted to do with him.

Mariah wasn’t used to being so attracted to the guys she worked with. Most of the men in her office were either really young and immature or old like her father. River seemed to be the perfect combination. He was old enough to be successful, but not so old that he had lost all appeal to Mariah.

She crossed her legs and leaned toward him; this was about to be one hell of a dinner meeting.