Scarred Soldier, Heartthrob Bodyguard

Julian Mitchell came home from eight years of black-ops combat to a nightmare. His mother was dead and buried. His sister Ruby lay in a hospital bed, her kidneys failing. The hospital had a match, but surgery cost a million dollars, and Julian had a week to find it.

The answer came in the form of Gianna Palmer, a CEO heiress with a sharp tongue and no patience for the bodyguard her father just hired. She offered Julian six million to walk away. He stayed. Every attempt she made to shake him only proved he wouldn't budge—not because he wanted to impress her, but because Ruby was running out of time.

Danger arrived faster than trust. A parking lot ambush. A bomb with a live timer. Luke Watson, a rich kid with a bruised ego and a powerful father, kept coming, and Julian kept putting himself in the way. At the same time, Gianna's best friend Hailey found herself drawn to the quiet soldier who never talked about himself.

Gianna's walls came down in inches. She went from locking him out to letting him stand guard inside her home. Somewhere in the grind of round-the-clock protection, the dynamic stopped feeling like a contract. When Ruby's surgery finally succeeded and the threats were neutralized, Julian didn't leave. The scars he'd spent years hiding—on his body and beneath the surface—no longer needed to be hidden. He'd found more than a paycheck. He'd found home.