#Spotlight on The Protector Series by Megan Hart

Dangerous Promise 
(The Protector #1)
by Megan Hart
Kindle Edition, 255 pages
Published January 2nd 2018 by Swerve
ASINB076BCXW12

A female bodyguard with enhanced abilities. A billionaire playboy committed to destroying people like her. A romance they didn’t expect…

Dive into the first book in the fantastic new Protector series set in the near future from New York Times bestselling author Megan Hart!

Nina Bronson used to be all human -- until the experimental surgeries and internal technology that saved her life and enhanced her as a soldier also forced her to leave the army for private service. Now she and her peers are facing slow, painful deaths unless their technology is upgraded, and the one man keeping those upgrades illegal and unavailable is an obnoxious billionaire. A man too gorgeous for his own good.

A man she’s supposed to guard with her life.

Ewan Donahue is the public voice speaking out against the enhancement procedures of injured soldiers. But when his lobbying leads to death threats, he needs someone to protect him around the clock. He doesn’t want to rely on an enhanced soldier—Nina’s tech goes against everything he stands for. But he really doesn’t want her to be beautiful like she is. Doesn’t want her to suffer like she will.

Doesn’t want to succumb to the searing desire he feels for her.

As a series of attacks on his life send them to a remote cabin, their close proximity brings them together in ways they never imagined. They know they must prevent the need simmering between them, resist each other at all costs. But when tensions are high and danger is close, passion burns hottest of all…

AMAZON | B&N 

Excerpt: Dangerous Promise by Megan Hart

“I am to be with you at all times,” Nina said. “I made that clear when I arrived. Nothing about that has changed. Nothing about that will change as long as I am employed as your protector. I signed a contract. You signed a contract. There really shouldn’t be anything to argue about.”

Donahue had balked at her moving a cot into his bedroom. She’d explained that her role as protector meant she needed to be there even when he slept, perhaps especially at night when he was likely to be more vulnerable to attacks. Yes, even in his own home where he had installed hundreds of thousands of credits’ worth of security systems, one of which now included her. He’d finally allowed the cot, begrudgingly, but now he was hollering about her following him into the bathroom.

Donahue spoke with his hands. Big hands. Strong. Expressive. The habit would’ve been charming on a man she wasn’t already inclined to dislike.

“This is ridiculous!” His hands painted the picture of his dismay in the air. When he turned to face her, he caught her staring at his fingers. He curled them into fists at his sides.

Tension sprouted between them that had nothing to do with his lean body or that handsome face. His aggression was a trigger, putting her body and senses on alert. Ready to fight, defend. Protect. Of course, she was supposed to be protecting him, not fighting him, but fortunately for Ewan Donahue, Nina had not only learned to control her reactions, but there were some triggers she simply could no longer respond to. He could try to push her into anger to get a rise out of her, if that was his thing, but it wasn’t going to work.

It hadn’t always been that way. In the first days of her recovery, she’d broken her knuckles throwing punches. Broken other people worse than that. If Donahue knew how brutal Nina was capable of being, he might not be moving so menacingly close to her, she thought, her expression indifferently bland Her body was ready but controlled. You never knew with men like him. He might get off on the idea of pushing her to the limit.

“I understand, Mr. Donahue. You want your privacy. You’re used to autonomy.”

And telling other people what to do, not being told yourself.

Nina continued, “What you need to understand is that you’ve had a total of fifty-seven confirmed, serious death threats made in the past three and a half weeks. Previously, you’ve had three actual attempts on your life. Two of your former bodyguards were killed protecting you—”

“Enough.” Donahue flinched, his cheeks flushing the faintest hint of red. A brush of heat came off him, subtle but definite. “Yes. I know. I feel like shit about it, thanks so much for reminding me I’m the reason two good men are dead.”

She bit her tongue for a moment before answering, more gently this time. Leona Smart, the owner of Protect Corps and Nina’s direct supervisor, insisted all of her employees take courses in sensitivity training. Nina had never been very good at it, although she tried. “I understand how hard that must have been, Mr. Donahue. Believe me, I do.”

“How could you possibly?” He stalked from one end of the room to the other, pivoting on a bare heel to stare at her.

She’d read his files and knew he had no martial arts or military training or anything like that. Even so, the man moved like a predator, some kind of big cat, all sleek muscles and rolling gait. She wouldn’t have been surprised to see him snarl. Her heart tried to thump a little faster at what it would be like if he did, indeed, come at her physically. He couldn’t beat her, but he might be an interesting challenge.

“I was a soldier,” Nina replied simply. “I saw lots of good people die, and sometimes, it was my fault.”

Donahue went quiet at that. Contemplative. His lightweight pajama bottoms hung low on lean hips, and his sculpted abs flexed when he paced. Donahue had the body of a man who spent a lot of time making sure he looked good. With a small, internal sneer, Nina imagined her own scars on flesh covering muscles, sinews, nerves, and bones she’d worked hard to make strong even before her enhancements. She didn’t have to be pretty. She had to be fierce.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment, surprising her. “I know you were. And I respect the work you did—”

“Good. Many don’t.”

She’d been spit on more than a few times. Catcalled. The Second Cold War had been a lot hotter than the first one, and it had not seen a lot of civilian support. In school she’d learned about the Vietnam War, how the returning soldiers had been castigated and reviled. History did have its way of repeating.

That she could not actually remember most of her time in the army was not something she intended to point out to him. Donahue was already a vocal and public opponent to the enhancement procedures she’d endured to save her life and which had made her the woman she was today. The same woman who could, and would, subdue him in order to save his stubborn, arrogant life a dozen times over, if she had to. She folded her arms across her chest and widened her stance. If he tried to push past her, she would not hesitate to put him down, panther muscles or not. At this point, putting Ewan Donahue in his place would be a pleasure that had nothing to do with how good he looked without his shirt.

He crossed his arms over his naked chest, drawing her attention to the bulging, shifting, and straining muscles of his pecs and biceps. Was he . . . flexing?

Nina was neither impressed nor intimidated by this show, although she had no trouble admiring it. “I thought you had to use the facilities.”

“Look,” he said, his tone conciliatory now. A negotiator. Lobbyist, convincer. “There’s such a thing as personal privacy.”

Nina wasn’t convinced. “I’m fully aware of that, and of course I’m entirely capable of selective sight, which allows me to pixelate whatever it is I’m not supposed to be seeing. It’s pretty convenient.”

“Oh. Right. Selective sight.” Donahue’s lip curled.

“And hearing,” she added with a small smile, even though watching his disgusted reaction stung her in a place she could never seem to shield, no matter how often she was wounded there. It should only matter that he believed she could do the job he’d hired her for, not whatever else he thought about her as a person, but that subtle, invasive sense that Donahue didn’t think of her as a full, real person dug deep.

“In case there’s stuff I’m not supposed to hear. I mean, it’s all recorded in case someone later needs to access it. But I won’t have access to it.” She added that last bit as a dig of her own, to remind him of not only who, exactly, she was, but also what. She wanted to rub it in his face. Her enhancements, what she could do in the pursuit of his safety. She wanted him to hear it and know and . . . well, to see it. To see her.

“Yeah, well, I’m not capable of either of those things,” Donahue said. “If you don’t leave my side even for a second or so, what about when you have to use the facilities?”

Her smile didn’t falter. “I’m sure you’ve read all the materials about the enhancement procedures, Mr. Donahue. So then you know that I’m also capable of maintaining amazing control of all my bodily functions.”

The man actually blushed this time. A rising flush crept up his chest and throat to tinge his cheeks, and she was able to register the slight rise in his body heat. It was surprising, that reaction, but it made him seem no less a predator than he’d appeared before. “I’m aware of the procedures and results, yeah.”

“Then you know I can hold it for a long time,” Nina said smoothly. “But seriously, I’m sure you’re about to burst. So if you’d rather continue to argue with me until you lose control . . .”

“I don’t,” Donahue snapped, “ever. Lose. Control.”

Another of her serene smiles pushed more crimson heat into his cheeks. Nina stepped aside from the bathroom door with a flourish and a small, deliberately obnoxious bow. “Good. Neither do I.”

The Protector Series

Author Bio

Megan Hart writes books. Some of them use a lot of bad words, but most of the other words are okay. She can’t live without music, the internet, or the ocean, but she and soda have achieved an amicable uncoupling. She can’t stand the feeling of corduroy or velvet, and modern art leaves her cold. She writes a little bit of everything from horror to romance, though she’s best known for writing erotic fiction that sometimes makes you cry. Megan is the author of The Protector novels, including Dangerous Promise, Wicked Attraction, and Forbidden Stranger. www.meganhart.com