733 Getting stranded in a snowstorm with my billionaire boss was never supposed to change my life. But when I woke up wrapped in his arms after three years of pretending we felt nothing for each other, one perfect night threatened to destroy everything we had worked so hard to protect.

Dawn broke over the Manhattan skyline in brilliant streaks of rose gold and amber.

I woke up with my head resting on Nolan's bare chest, the steady, rhythmic beat of his heart soothing my soul. His arm was wrapped securely around my waist, his fingers tracing lazy circles on my lower back.

"Good morning, partner," Nolan murmured, his voice husky with sleep as he kissed the crown of my head.

"Partner?" I teased, looking up at him through my eyelashes. "Is that a promotion, Mr. Rivers?"

"It's a permanent title," Nolan smiled, his eyes shining with a deep, peaceful joy I had never seen in him before. "As of 6:00 AM, my personal legal team finalized the registration of Vane & Rivers Capital. You hold fifty percent voting equity."

I sat up instantly, pulling the sheet to my chest, staring at him in shock. "Nolan! What did you do?!"

Nolan leaned back against the headboard, entirely unbothered, a cocky, gorgeous grin playing on his lips.

"While you were sleeping so peacefully," Nolan explained, "I transferred my personal liquidity—about eight hundred million dollars in private assets—into our new private investment firm. We don't need Rivers Meridian's board, Maya. We are going to execute a counter-buyout of Rivers Meridian stock the moment the market opens."

I stared at him, my mind quickly calculating the financial math. "If Vanguard shorts the stock, driving the price down to thirty dollars a share... Vane & Rivers Capital can buy fifty-one percent of the circulating public shares using your private liquid funds!"

"And who is the Chief Forensic Director of Vane & Rivers Capital?" Nolan asked, sitting up and wrapping his arms around my waist from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder.

"Me," I whispered, my heart soaring.

"Exactly," Nolan kissed my cheek. "Which means when we walk into the annual shareholders' meeting at 10:00 AM today, you won't be walking in as my assistant. You will be walking in as the primary institutional shareholder who holds Graham Morrison's financial execution order."

"Wait," I suddenly remembered something, scrambling out of bed. "I need my computer! Julian Vance's encrypted ledger!"

"Maya, you're naked—" Nolan laughed, reaching for me.

"No time for romance, CEO!" I giggled, grabbing my tablet from the nightstand and jumping back under the sheets. "Look at this! I cracked the secondary encryption key at 3:00 AM before we went to bed."

I pulled up a complex web of international bank transfers.

"Julian Vance didn't just put Northstar Advisory into the Zurich contract," I pointed to the screen, my eyes flashing with professional fire. "He used Rivers Meridian's employee pension fund as collateral to secure the Vanguard short-position loan!"

Nolan’s smile vanished, replaced by an expression of absolute, terrifying fury.

"He gambled our workers' pensions?" Nolan asked, his voice dropping into deathly quiet.

"Yes," I nodded. "If the stock crashes, four thousand workers lose their retirement savings, and Vanguard pockets the profit. It's not just corporate fraud, Nolan. It's federal grand larceny."