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Keeping Her Close
Carol Ross
Hired to protect her… …unable to resist her The job sounds simple: teach a businessman’s daughter how to stay safe. But former navy SEAL turned bodyguard Kyle Frasier has a personal motive, too. Harper Jansen is his late best friend’s fiancée. Loyalty demands he protect her, not that Harper looks in need of rescuing. In fact, it’s Kyle who needs help—balancing duty with his desire to build a life with the one woman he shouldn’t want…
Hired to protect her
…unable to resist her
The job sounds simple: teach a businessman’s daughter how to stay safe. But former navy SEAL turned bodyguard Kyle Frasier has a personal motive, too. Harper Jansen is his late best friend’s fiancée. Loyalty demands he protect her, not that Harper looks in need of rescuing. In fact, it’s Kyle who needs help—balancing duty with his desire to build a life with the one woman he shouldn’t want…
CAROL ROSS lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two dogs. She is a graduate of Washington State University. When not writing, or thinking about writing, she enjoys reading, running, hiking, skiing, traveling and making plans for the next adventure to subject her sometimes reluctant but always fun-loving family to. Carol can be contacted at carolrossauthor.com (http://carolrossauthor.com) and via Facebook at Facebook.com/carolrossauthor (http://Facebook.com/carolrossauthor); Twitter, @_carolross (https://twitter.com/_CarolRoss); and Instagram, @carolross__ (https://www.instagram.com/carolross__/).
Also By Carol Ross (#u496a3028-99e2-5614-9042-5decaba74d2b)
Summer at the Shore
Christmas at the Cove
Seasons of Alaska
In the Doctor’s Arms
Bachelor Remedy
A Heartwarming Thanksgiving
“Autumn at Jasper Lake”
A Family Like Hannah’s
If Not for a Bee
A Case for Forgiveness
Mountains Apart
Return of the Blackwell Brothers
The Rancher’s Twins
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
Keeping Her Close
Carol Ross
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09896-0
KEEPING HER CLOSE
© 2019 Carol Ross
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Note to Readers (#u496a3028-99e2-5614-9042-5decaba74d2b)
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Text to speech
“Kyle, you are so…good, honorable, kind.”
Like a jab to the chest, that was the wake-up
call he needed. He wished he was good, honorable and kind, or at least wasn’t carrying this secret around with him. Because he wanted to be all of those things for her—and he was beginning to believe they could be perfect together.
Cupping her face, he smoothed a thumb across her cheekbone. “I want you to know that I didn’t arrange all this because I expect anything from you.”
Harper gave him a contented smile that had him wanting to kiss her all over again. “I know. I believe you. And that’s huge for me. I, um…”
Forcing the words past the painful guilt building inside his chest, he said, “Harper, you can tell me anything. I hope you know that.”
“I think I do. I, um, I have…trust issues. The details of which I wish I could share with you. But I can’t. At least…not yet.”
Dear Reader (#u496a3028-99e2-5614-9042-5decaba74d2b),
I don’t know about you, but I think trust is one of the most vital yet elusive feelings in the entire playbook of human emotions. Trust is difficult to define, yet you know when it’s there. And it’s essential in order to have a genuine connection with someone. But once it’s lost, can you get it back again?
Harper Jansen has a lot of reasons not to trust people. But her new security consultant, Kyle Frasier, seems to be the most trustworthy man she’s ever met. Soon she finds herself trusting him with not only her safety but also her heart. The problem is, he’s also her deceased fiancé’s best friend.
Kyle wants to keep Harper safe, but also learn the truth about his best friend’s death. Except things get complicated when he finds himself falling for Harper. Can he somehow get to the truth and keep her trust?
Thank you so much for letting me know how my stories have touched you and who you want to read about next. I love hearing from you! For contact info and a complete list of my books, please visit my website: carolrossauthor.com.
All my best,
Carol
For Dan.
Wow. What a year. Like Harper says to Kyle, if I didn’t already love you I definitely would now. Thank you. You really are the best.
Contents
Cover (#ufe0f46ba-1398-502a-8f73-400c120c94ee)
Back Cover Text (#ucd4ad124-6a7f-5514-8fe8-0d69a24a057e)
About the Author (#u5dca53a3-26c4-5ef1-a555-f143aa28c5e3)
Booklist (#u4d0a01e9-07e1-5ad6-9ae4-057e04946a93)
Title Page (#ud3260e8e-7b0a-5a85-92b9-e332dfa9a8d8)
Copyright (#u4b987697-efcf-54c8-802f-5965f03a67f8)
Note to Readers
Introduction (#ucec8f9dd-eae2-5df3-a8c4-c8fd63666afb)
Dear Reader (#u2f200fcc-b11a-532e-bf21-8d628778b197)
Dedication (#uf2c5937c-47d4-539f-9bd7-03bfe29a6072)
PROLOGUE (#ud9b50c54-3d87-5331-b21c-d30ae5d3a904)
CHAPTER ONE (#ue85ec328-8cd7-57a4-9fc2-45b51ebc8d5f)
CHAPTER TWO (#uadfcf862-1f98-55be-a0eb-6172f1033e49)
CHAPTER THREE (#u182e2cef-0023-5442-95f5-00b64a6522d5)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ub2dc83d1-f140-599c-9d3f-01188c5e885d)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#u496a3028-99e2-5614-9042-5decaba74d2b)
“SAVE THE SALMON! Don’t dam our dams! Don’t dam our salmon! Dam the salmon! Dam you, Bellaire!”
Clearly, the dam was a hot-button issue, Kyle Frasier thought with not a small dose of amusement. He found the chants funny partly because it was so difficult to distinguish the protesters from the supporters and partly because he knew the man they were shouting at, Dr. David Bellaire. He also knew that Dr. Bellaire tolerated the attention because it was good for business and the environment, the two things, after his daughter, Harper, that he was most passionate about. The fact that he’d successfully merged the two seemingly incompatible aspects into one highly profitable business was considered genius to some and unforgivable to others.
There’d been a group of reporters already milling around the Bellaire Building when Kyle had arrived an hour ago and headed upstairs to Dahlia International for his interview. On the way inside, he’d dodged people holding signs bearing similar slogans to the ones they were shouting. Through the tall windows fronting the lobby, he could see that the crowd had swelled exponentially since then, and now that the controversial scientist and billionaire businessman himself had entered the building a frenzied tension electrified the air.
Dr. Bellaire was the owner and CEO of Bellaire Environmental Solutions & Technology, or BEST, as it was more commonly called. Bellaire owned the entire Seattle skyscraper with the company’s headquarters comprising the top seven floors right above Dahlia International. The doctor’s recent provocative statements about hydroelectricity and the health of native salmon runs had managed to rile both sides of the environmental debate. He insisted dams and salmon could successfully coexist. BEST was working on a solution, some details of which they would be revealing soon. As far as Kyle could tell, neither faction could grasp the concept of a harmonious coexistence, both sides perhaps too distracted by their well-meaning devotion to their respective causes to truly consider the possibility.
Under different, less chaotic circumstances Kyle would approach the doctor and say hello, but it was going to be enough of a challenge to navigate through the mass of people and get to the exit as it was. Last year, Kyle’s best friend and former navy SEAL teammate, Owen, had introduced Kyle to Dr. Bellaire. Kyle would never have believed that four months later Owen would be dead.
The memories of Owen were still impossibly sharp and painful, like a knife slicing at his heart. At the time, Owen had been alive and well and so full of life and optimism that Kyle had been a little envious, even wondering if he’d made the right call by remaining in the military while Owen returned to civilian life. His friend had spent nearly three years working for Dahlia, one of the most respected military contractors in the world, where he enjoyed an exciting, high-paying job. He’d been walking on air after meeting Harper, the “love of his life,” who also happened to be the daughter of Dr. Bellaire.
At Dr. Bellaire’s invitation, Owen had brought Kyle here for a visit to BEST where the doctor had taken them on a tour of his labs and then treated them to lunch. Not long after, the three men had met again in Amsterdam while Kyle was on leave. Dr. Bellaire had been in the Netherlands on business and Owen between assignments. They’d had dinner together and then spent the evening touring the city. Kyle had found the brilliant scientist charismatic, witty and refreshingly down-to-earth. He understood why people were so fascinated with the man.
In his pocket, Kyle felt his phone vibrate. A glance at the display showed it was his friend Josh Avery. Another former SEAL and close friend, Josh now worked for Dahlia, too. Kyle had texted Josh after the interview to let him know they’d offered him a job. Stepping away from the elevators, Kyle moved toward an adjacent window out of the traffic flow. In the middle of the lobby, near a life-size metal-and-glass sculpture—ironically of a school of salmon leaping a waterfall—he watched Dr. Bellaire turn and face the crowd. A man in a suit announced that Dr. Bellaire would accept a few questions from the press.
