The Warden's Secret Desire

Lena. Sharp, competent, self-reliant to a fault. Grew up poor in a big city, clawed her way into a top consulting firm through sheer intelligence and an inability to quit anything. Colt. Former enforcer for a Sinaloa-adjacent cartel operation - not a foot soldier, something more calculating and worse. Got out three years ago after a job went sideways. He's done terrible things. He knows it. He's not seeking redemption, he's seeking stillness. He was standing on the wrong side of a locked gate when she arrived. He didn't smile. He didn't apologize. He watched her like a problem he hadn't decided to solve yet.Lena Vasquez has fixed broken businesses her whole career. She's never met one that came with a man like Colt Mercer - ex-cartel, built like a warning, and hiding something in the bones of his family's Tennessee distillery that someone dangerous wants back.She's there for six weeks. She's leaving clean.That's the plan.The plan does not survive the storm that knocks out the power. The coffee that appears on her desk every morning before she asks. The formula he writes out by hand at midnight because she asked him to trust her and he does - more than he's trusted anyone in eleven years.It does not survive him.Colt is possessive and morally gray and certain about very few things - but he is certain about her, in the quiet, absolute way of a man who makes decisions once and doesn't take them back. The problem is he's still learning the difference between protecting someone and controlling them. And Lena Vasquez will not be controlled. What he does to protect her will threaten to destroy them. Enemies To Lovers - Slow Burn Romance - Possessive Hero - Protective Alpha - Forced Proximity - Dark Past