A forbidden college basketball romance full of secrets, scandal, and the kind of chemistry that ruins every rule.

Mara Ellis has spent three years chasing the kind of story that could launch her journalism career. She’s smart, relentless, and absolutely done writing fluff pieces about dining hall menus and parking permits. When an anonymous email lands in her inbox—twenty‑six pages of financial disclosures, shell companies, and eleven highlighted names—she knows she’s finally found it.

The problem? One of those names belongs to the one person she swore she’d never get close to again.

Jace Calloway. Ashworth University’s golden boy. Team captain. Campus celebrity. The athlete who once laughed at her in a press conference, sent her breadsticks as a joke, and made a habit of remembering her coffee order even though they’d never actually shared one.

He’s also the player whose career could implode if Mara publishes what she’s found.

Determined to expose the truth, Mara walks into the athletics complex with a folder full of evidence and a recorder in her bag—only to find Jace waiting for her like he already knows what she’s uncovered. And he has a counteroffer she never expected:

“You want the truth? Fine. But it doesn’t point where you think it does.”

Against every instinct she has, Mara agrees to meet him. Against every rule he’s lived by, Jace lets her in.

What starts as an uneasy alliance becomes something far more dangerous: late‑night strategy sessions, stolen moments under the concourse lights, and a connection neither of them can ignore. As the investigation deepens, so does the risk—because someone is manipulating the narrative, burying evidence, and using Jace’s family history as a blueprint for a scandal that could destroy them both.

Mara wants the story. Jace wants the truth. But the closer they get to uncovering who built the scheme, the harder it becomes to pretend they’re not breaking every rule they set.

He was supposed to be the story. She became the secret.

With campus politics, hidden agendas, unresolved family wounds, and a romance that sparks from page one, The Rival’s Rule delivers a slow‑burn, high‑tension love story set against the backdrop of college basketball and investigative journalism. Perfect for fans of forbidden chemistry, dual POV, morally grey athletes, and heroines who refuse to back down.

If you love: ✔ rivals‑to‑lovers tension ✔ forbidden romance ✔ sports romance with real stakes ✔ investigative twists ✔ characters who challenge each other ✔ secrets that refuse to stay buried

…this book will keep you up all night.

The truth has a cost. So does falling for the person standing in the middle of it.