Carol Ross - Keeping Her Close

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 ROSSlives 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.comand via Facebook at Facebook.com/carolrossauthor; Twitter, @_carolross; and Instagram, @carolross__.

Also By Carol Ross

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A Heartwarming Thanksgiving

“Autumn at Jasper Lake”

A Family Like Hannah’s

If Not for a Bee

A Case for Forgiveness

Mountains Apart

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The Rancher’s Twins

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Keeping Her Close

Carol Ross

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 HarperCollins Publishers 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.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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“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,

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

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Introduction

Dear Reader

Dedication

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

“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.