This is the 2nd story in USA Today bestselling author Carole Mortimer's new contemporary series Knight Security, a spin-off of the "wildly successful", and bestselling Top100, Alpha Series. You first met Lissa and Asher in the novella "Alexandre (Knight Security 0.5)" featured in the Royals & Rogues anthology. "Defying Asher (Knight Security 1)" is their story.

Author's Note: The stories in the Knight Security, Alpha, and Regency Unlaced series have stronger sexual content and language than my other books.

A year ago Lissa spent the night with a man she'd only just met. Not her usual behaviour, but she dared any woman to resist the forceful and predatory Asher Knight. It had been a night of intense and unforgettable pleasure.

The regret came the following morning, and Lissa had walked out on Asher, vowing never to see him again.

But fate has other ideas, and a year later Asher is the only man Lissa trusts to help her.

Asher had never expected to see Lissa Forsythe again, let alone be in need of his protection. He had never forgotten the night they spent together. Or the way Lissa walked out on him the following morning without explanation.

Will the two of them be able to put the past behind them? Or will the intensely passionate night they spent together, and the way they parted, forever remain a painful shadow between them?

When the people Lissa loves start to die, Asher knows he has no choice but to offer her his protection.

But who is going to protect him from the desire that rages out of control every time the two of them are together?