Hard Line - A Bodyguard Romance #1007672

Maren Cole's apartment is broken into three days before her investigation into Meridian Defense Solutions is set to publish. A voicemail threatens her and her mother. Her editor pulls the story and calls Ashford Security, who sends Eli Voss — ex-Delta Force, precise, controlled — to relocate her to a rural Maryland safe house.

In the farmhouse, forced into proximity with a woman who treats his security protocols as suggestions, Eli discovers keeping Maren alive is the easy part. Keeping his distance is the problem. She reads him her story. He reads her Meridian file. They negotiate a source meeting that produces the evidence to make the story unassailable.

The threat escalates — they relocate to a cabin in the Appalachian foothills. One bedroom. Twelve inches of mattress between them. The story publishes. Meridian files an injunction. The source goes public. The injunction is denied. The threat resolves.

HEA: Eli leaves Ashford, starts his own firm. The dining table goes in Maren's apartment. Their apartment. Six months later, Maren wins the Polk Award and mentions a dining table in her acceptance speech.