A thriller romance in the Daring Heights series gets
under way in Washington D.C. as Josh Chandler works to
counter cyber-terrorism. Keeping the state security files
safe against hackers is a demanding job. In HIGH GROUND his
actions bear poisoned fruit. The hacker escapes the FBI but
a woman is killed. Josh is warned that the hacker could
come after him for revenge.
Cat Duplessis takes her job seriously. She's providing
personal protection to those whose lives are at risk.
Assigned to cover Josh, she's not sure if she's the right
person. Usually she looks after women, the wealthy or wives
of the wealthy. But her boss is Josh's friend, and he
thinks this ex-soldier lady is the right choice. There has
already been one attempted shooting, but there are
potential
threats besides the hacker. Cat is a lady with exotic looks
and her boss suggests that she pretend to be Josh's
girlfriend. But the self-reliant Josh doesn't want a girl
in a dress around him. He was hoping for a male computer
technician, if he has to accept help.
The work Josh does obviously pays well, given his well-
appointed home with Zen garden, and he lifts weights to
keep his body as sharp as his mind. He likes high-tech
gadgetry too. But I feel that all this has isolated him
from genuine women, with his computer screen taking
priority. He's less than a gentleman, and Cat has to work
hard not to take offence. At the same time, close
protection officers usually work in a team of two or three
over twenty-four hours, so I can agree that asking one
person to cover someone every minute is too demanding. And
nobody is available to accompany Josh into public
bathrooms. The role reversal from archetype film 'The
Bodyguard' couldn't be more pronounced but a lot of the
themes will be familiar; Josh has to break from routines,
identify possible threats, travel to a rural location and
do what he's told. This doesn't come easy to him!
While we're early shown that Josh's life is in danger,
there is more drawn-out sexual tension than thriller action
until the plot develops. Aside from some jargon I didn't
see anything new relating to hacking, but for most readers
the adult romance will take precedence anyway. There are
references to and characters from a previous story by
Madelon Smid about mountaineering, and I think I'll have to
put that one on the must-read list. Her hunted protagonists
in HIGH GROUND have plenty to occupy them as they try to
survive and identify the hunters. HIGH GROUND is a gripping
read
featuring characters at the height of their careers, who
need each other more than they know.
When Joshua Chandler identifies the hacker attempting to
infiltrate his security software, he becomes a target for
assassination. A genius, contracted to safeguard
government
secrets, he concludes a lot of people could see him as a
threat. Various government agencies vie to protect him,
but
he prefers to hire his own bodyguard. When he falls in
love
with her, he has only one choice. Catch his assassin, so
he
can focus on winning her.
Catriana Duplessiss, (Cat) hired to protect Josh, remains
professional and distant in order to do her job. An
ex-marine, she’s well trained to keep him safe, but
pretending to be his live-in-lover tests her rule “never
get
involved with a principal”. She’s lost too many loved
ones
to death and refuses to risk her heart again. When her
feelings for Josh affect her ability to do her job, she
insists on being replaced, so he has the best protection
possible. It also allows her to run, but she can’t hide
from
the truth. She’s lost her heart to this brilliant man
whose
death seems imminent.
Both the assassin and Cat elude Josh’s efforts to capture
them. He doesn’t know which is the greater threat losing
his
life or losing his love.
Excerpt
Josh conjectured he’d have trouble sleeping with any near
stranger in the next room. Honesty forced him to
acknowledge Cat caused his insomnia. He’d mentally
conceived the next step in his new design, meditated,
dropped to the floor for a hundred pushups. He’d get
himself a snack and write the algorithm before he lost
it.
The snick of a bullet being chambered froze him mid step.
He inched his hands above his head and turned to face the
sound. If someone shot him, he damn sure wanted to see
the perpetrator face to face.
The pistol remained on him. A graceful hand switched on
the light beside the chair, highlighting a vision he’d
retain forever; if he could regulate his heart rate
before it imploded.
“You’re supposed to protect me, not gun me down in my own
home.” Intrigue flared in a bright arc, filling him with
energy. He stepped closer, fascinated. She’d been
watching over him. My own warrior woman prepared to fight
to the death protecting me.
She shrugged, lowering her weapon. “You could have been
an assassin.”
“No way,” he said with absolute certainty. “My system
would warn us of the slightest attempt at breaking in.”
It surprised him how much he wanted her to believe in his
ability. He continued to close the distance between them.
The gold halo of the lamp shone down on her. He stopped a
few feet away, entranced by the picture she made. She
wore a thin white cotton camisole with bits of ribbon and
lace along the low décolleté. She’d pulled her legs into
the chair, ankles crossed, knees high. The gleaming
columns of satin hid her bottom half. She’d brushed out
the tortured hair style from earlier, leaving a mass of
corkscrew curls brushing her shoulders. The light stroked
the shiny strands with a lover’s touch, picking out every
shade of brown from tawny gold to russet. He gave up on
slowing his heart rate. She reminded him of pictures he’d
seen of Quadroons in the 1800’s, the descendants of
African slaves and their Caucasian masters. White men
prized the earth bound goddesses as concubines prior to
the Civil war. With her high cheekbones, tilted eyes and
full lips, Josh could see why slave traders had scoured
the states to find girls with Cat’s description. His
libido soared with the force of his response to her.
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